Autumn 2013 | Public lectures and events | Audio and pdf: Recent Episodes
London School of Economics and Political Science
Contributor(s): The Hon Mr Justice Peter Jackson | One of the most senior High Court judges assigned to the Family Division, Peter Jackson will answer your questions sent via Twitter to @LSELaw using #LSEJackson. Peter Jackson is a High Court Judge.
Contributor(s): Professor Sir Christopher Pissarides | The government announced earlier this year that LSE will be one of 12 universities to have the prestigious title of Regius Professor bestowed upon it by The Queen to mark the Diamond Jubilee, with the creation of a new Regius Professor in Economics. A Regius Professorship is a rare privilege, with only two created in the past century; it is regarded as a reflection of the exceptionally high quality of teaching and research at an institution. It is the first Regius Professorship to have been awarded in the field of economics. Christopher Pissarides has been appointed as Regius Professor at LSE. In 2010 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his work with Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen on the analysis of markets with search frictions.
Contributor(s): Natalie Hanman, Lola Okolosie, Tracey Reynolds | The panellists will interrogate current representations of feminism in the media and share interventionist strategies that are already going on or that might be taken up in the future. Natalie Hanman is the editor of Comment is Free at theguardian.com. Lola Okolosie is a writer, teacher and prominent member of Black Feminists. Tracey Reynolds is a reader in social and policy research at London South Bank University.
Contributor(s): Professor Robin Cohen, Professor David Downes, Daphna Golan, Thomas Hammarberg, Professor Harvey Molotch | Stan Cohen was a world class sociologist, criminologist and public intellectual whose insight, analysis, commitment and wit inspired and influenced innumerable students, activists and colleagues. This event honours Stan and reflects on his legacy. Robin Cohen, Stan’s brother, is Emeritus Professor of Development Studies at the University of Oxford. David Downes is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at LSE. Daphna Golan is founding research director of B'Tselem. Thomas Hammarberg is a human rights defender and former Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights. Harvey Molotch is Professor of Sociology and Metropolitan Studies at New York University. Margo Picken is a visiting senior fellow at the LSE Centre for the Study of Human Rights.
Contributor(s): Caroline Criado-Perez | Caroline Criado-Perez is a freelance journalist, broadcaster and feminist campaigner. Co-founder of The Women’s Room, an organisation that campaigns for more women experts in the media, she also started and ran the Keep Women on Banknotes campaign. Caroline is currently completing an MSc in Gender at LSE, where her dissertation is on the representation of women experts in the media. Caroline has appeared in international, national and local media (online, print and broadcast), both as an expert on feminist issues, and as a general media commentator. Caroline has also spoken at schools and conferences, and was featured in the Independent on Sunday’s Happy List 2013.
Contributor(s): Dr Leigh Jenco | Leigh Jenco will explain how the forgotten work of Zhang Shizhao throws light on a dilemma of global importance: how can we act together when no shared space yet exists? Leigh Jenco is Associate Professor of Political Theory at LSE.
Contributor(s): Boris Johnson | The State Of The Union series has seen people from Alex Salmond to Martin McGuiness and Michael Heseltine discuss the future of the United Kingdom and one part within the greater whole. In this event Boris Johnson will discuss the role and future of London within the Union. Boris Johnson was born in June 1964 in New York. His family moved to London when he was five years old. He went to primary school in Camden and was subsequently educated at the European School in Brussels, Ashdown House and then at Eton College. He later read Classics at Balliol College. During his time at Oxford University he became president of the prestigious Oxford Union. After graduating he moved back to London. He joined The Daily Telegraph in 1987 as leader and feature writer. From 1989 to 1994 he was the Telegraph's European Community correspondent and from 1994 to 1999 he served as assistant editor. His association with The Spectator began as political columnist in 1994. In 1999 he became editor of the paper and stayed in this role until December 2005. In 2001 he was elected MP for Henley on Thames. In July 2007, Boris Johnson resigned from his position as shadow education secretary so that he would be free to stand as Conservative candidate for Mayor of London. He resigned as MP for Henley shortly after becoming Mayor of London.
Contributor(s): Nelson Mandela | As Africa stands at a critical stage in its development, Nelson Mandela, the leading figure of the anti-apartheid movement, spoke at the London School of Economics and Political Science about his childhood in Africa and its position in the world. He provides a personal account of Africa's history and details how this can be used progressively to tackle some of the major questions facing the country today. His account includes a special plea that political commentators do not judge Africa on the same basis as they judge the old and advanced industrial countries.
Contributor(s): Professor Risa L Goluboff, Dr Jacco Bomhoff | The United States of America is famous for its system of constitutional review- its Supreme Court of unelected judges who can strike down the laws of Congress. How is this justified? Is it popular? What does the future hold? Risa Goluboff is the Justice Thurgood Marshall Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia, visiting professor in LSE’s Department of Law, and author of The Lost Promise of Civil Rights. Jacco Bomhoff is a lecturer in law at LSE.
Contributor(s): Tan Sri Dr Tony Fernandes | Will the ASEAN Economic Community materialize by 2015 and how will it function in practice? Tan Sri Dr Tony Fernandes will address this question and examine how entrepreneurs could benefit from the 2015 AEC? Tan Sri Dr Tony Fernandes is the founder and group CEO of AirAsia. Tony’s many awards include: Honor of the Commander of the Order of the British Empire, conferred by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 2011 for services to promote commercial and educational links between the UK and Malaysia. In this same year he was named as one of the world's 100 most creative people in business by New York-based business magazine Fast Company, and awarded the inaugural ‘Travel Business Leaders Award’ winner by CNBC.
Contributor(s): Professor Madawi Al-Rasheed, Dr John Chalcraft, Dr Ewan Stein | Three years after the Arab uprisings started in Tunisia, a panel of academics will reflect on the causes and drivers behind these seminal events, how they have transformed countries like Egypt; but also why they have had less impact in other countries, such as Saudi Arabia. Professor Madawi Al-Rasheed is Visiting Professor at the Middle East Centre at LSE and Research Fellow at the Open Society Foundation. She was Professor of Anthropology of Religion at King’s College, London between 1994 and 2013. Previously, she was Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. Dr John Chalcraft works on the history and politics of the modern Middle East with special reference to Egypt, Syria and Lebanon, protest movements, migration, labour history, crafts and guilds, transnationalism, contentious politics, hegemony, and history from below. Dr Ewan Stein is Lecturer at the School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh. Prior to that, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW), University of Edinburgh from 2008-2011. Dr Stein's research interests include political Islam, the role of ideas in foreign policy and international relations, state-society relations and the links between social and normative change in Middle Eastern regional politics.
Contributor(s): Mireya Solis | Trade policy aims to satisfy three key criteria: efficiency, legitimacy and political expediency. As Japan embarks on a trade policy of unprecedented ambition through Free Trade Agreement negotiations with the European Union and participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, it faces acute trade dilemmas. Mireya Solis is the Philip Knight Chair in Japan Studies and senior fellow at the Brookings Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies.
Contributor(s): Sunder Katwala | This lecture will examine attitudes towards immigration, integration and opportunity in Britain today. National identity remains important to many people. Can it be a positive force? Sunder Katwala is director of the identity and integration think-tank British Future, and former general secretary of the Fabian Society.
Contributor(s): Professor Jason McKenzie Alexander | It is often said that openness and transparency are required for liberal democracies. But is this true for openness and transparency of personal information? Jason McKenzie Alexander is professor of philosophy at LSE.
Contributor(s): Brendan Paddy | Is showing a tragic portrait of people in the developing world the only effective strategy to call for action and funding from people in donor countries? Can’t we change the perspective toward victims in crisis? Polis reporter Asuka Kageura gives her response to the Polis Media Agenda Talk by Brendan Paddy, Head of Communications at the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), who was speaking in a personal capacity at LSE.
Contributor(s): Dr Christian Emery | During this talk, Dr Emery will discuss the main findings from his new book: 'US Foreign Policy and the Iranian Revolution: the Cold War Dynamics of Engagement and Strategic Alliance'. In February 1979, a revolution led by a seventy-six year old cleric espousing a relatively obscure interpretation of Shia Islam succeeded in dislodging one of Washington's most powerful allies in the Middle East. Although low-level analysts had long warned of a crisis looming in Iran, Carter's senior foreign policy advisors, distracted by more pressing foreign policy initiatives, had resisted any serious rethinking of US strategy. Dr Emery will examine the nature of the adjustment they were forced to make. He will show that, contrary to the claims of Iran's leaders, US diplomats tried in good faith to build bridges with the new regime. Good faith was not enough, however, and Dr Emery will discuss how Cold War dogma and a range of misperceptions undermined America’s 'new' policy. His talk will then focus on how US policy objectives in Iran were refashioned in light of three major and converging crises: the Iran hostage crisis, the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, and the onset of the Iran-Iraq dynamic. Dr Emery will provide a fresh perspective on the origins of one of the most bitter and enduring confrontations in international relations.
Contributor(s): Mark Goldring | Mark Goldring is chief executive of Oxfam GB and has decades of experience within international development, including as chief executive of VSO and chief executive of Mencap, the UK’s leading disability charity. Mark read law at Oxford and has a Masters in social policy and planning in developing countries from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He was awarded a CBE in 2008 for services to tackling poverty and disadvantage.
Contributor(s): Alex Massouras (artwork), Alexis Milne (artwork), Nikolas Barnes (play), Rob Oldfield (play), Daniel Koczy (paper) | Following the second issue on fakeness (launched November 2012), CCC’s third issue examines the centrality of the idea of Crisis and attempts to uncover its fluid, ambivalent forms within the contemporary sphere. We are not seeking another theorization or a repetition of the apparent manifold state and the concept of crisis. Instead, we would like to talk about the blind spots within the concept. What is expected and not expected of a crisis? What are the current forms of crisis? Can crisis provide a tool for transformation and social change? In which ways does crisis become a trigger for acting in current circumstances? How does it relate to our understanding of creativity and pulsations towards freedom? How might we rethink the multiple and continuous transformative elements of crisis as moments of clarity? Critical Contemporary Culture is an online journal that envisions an alternative cultural-intellectual public space. In our contemporary moment, the combination of theoretical reflection with engaged cultural practice is as important as ever. We want to have a conversation with artists and students about the status of culture because we believe that we all have common interests and a shared culture.
Contributor(s): Dr David Stuckler | The Body Economic puts forward a radical proposition. Austerity, it argues, is seriously bad for your health. We can prevent financial crises from becoming epidemics, but to do so, we must acknowledge what the hard data tells us: that, throughout history, there is a causal link between the strength of a community's health and its social protection systems. Now and for generations to come, our commitment to the building of fairer, more equal societies will determine the health of our body economic. David Stuckler is a Senior Research Leader in Sociology at the University of Oxford. He is co-author with Sanjay Basu of The Body Economic.
Contributor(s): Lord Browne of Madingley | In 1997, Lord Browne broke ranks with the rest of the oil industry and acknowledged the risk posed by the climate change. In this lecture he will reflect on the progress made since that speech, and the prospects for the future. John Browne is a former chief executive of BP.
Contributor(s): Jeremy Scahill | Dirty Wars, winner of the Sundance Film Festival Cinematography award, follows the reporting on a US night raid gone wrong in an Afghan village with journalist Jeremy Scahill discovering a cover-up by an elite military unit. What follows is an international investigation into America's expanding covert wars. The Dirty Wars film screening will be followed by a Q&A with the investigative reporter, screenwriter and producer of the film, Jeremy Scahill. This film is described by Glenn Greenwald, formerly of The Guardian, as '"one of the most important political films of the last 20 years". Jeremy Scahill is an award-winning investigative journalist and author of books, Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield, the basis for this documentary, and the best selling Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. He has previously worked as a producer and correspondent for Democracy Now! And has reported for many newspapers worldwide. He is currently a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute. Dirty Wars opens in cinemas and is available on itunes from 29 November.
Contributor(s): Professor Anoush Ehteshami | The victory of Rouhani represents the defeat of the most peripheral groups in the Iranian political spectrum. In a day, one could say, Ahmadinejad and his supporters arguably lost all of their clout and popular appeal. The support they had amassed during the previous eight years apparently melted away, with no-one in the end making a fuss about the rejection of Ahmadinejad’s candidate for the presidency. This is the first significant development to note – the neoconservative order has been shattered. Secondly, we can also say that this election result provides evidence for seeing the election process, for all its constraints and conditionalities, not as ideological but rather highly circumstantial – perhaps, personal. Public sentiment drove support for Khatami in 1997 and Ahmadinejad in 2005, and played its role in the voters’ support for Rouhani in 2013. The political ground shifted very quickly in all these three elections once the final victor had managed to make a positive impression on the electorate. Thirdly, in this instance, there was another struggle going on: that between the Leader and the urban voters. Thus, fourthly, in supporting Rouhani’s candidacy, the latter wanted to send a strong message to the Leader to the effect that they were against the policies implemented by the previous government which he had so emphatically endorsed. Though himself doubtless an establishment figure, Rouhani nevertheless came to represent an alternative to the order created by the previous Leader-endorsed administration. Thus, when asked about their electoral preferences, many Iranians simply replied that they selected their preferred candidate on the basis of how ‘different’ they were from the incumbent president. What are the implications of this shift in policy terms? Finally, given this context and background, it is fair to ask, what drives President Rouhani’s worldview and what constitutes his foreign policy agenda? What does his election victory tell us about Iran and the where it might be heading?
Contributor(s): Dimitar Bechev, Lawrence Meredith, John Peet, Professor Robert Cooper | Enlargement is widely hailed as the EU’s most successful policy, largely responsible for the successful transition from dictatorship to democracy first in Southern Europe, then in Central and Eastern Europe after the end of the Cold War. Yet forty years after the first enlargement, which saw the UK join the European Community, confidence in the European project seems to be at an all-time low. From enlargement fatigue within the EU to Russian overtures to Eastern European states and the fading prospects of Turkish accession, enlargement faces daunting challenges. In the context of the ongoing economic and political crises in the EU, we may well ask: Is EU Enlargement in crisis? Dimitar Bechev is a senior policy fellow and head of Sofia office of the European Council for Foreign Relations. Robert Cooper is a visiting professor at LSE IDEAS. Lawrence Meredith is head of strategy and policy at the Directorate General for Enlargement at the European Commission. John Peet is Europe editor at The Economist. Before joining The Economist he was a civil servant, working for the Treasury and the Foreign Office from 1976 to 1986.
Contributor(s): Dr Nina Morgan | What role does metaphor have in shaping our emotional lives? Reading texts by Freud and Derrida, this lecture will focus on the emergence of metaphor in times of crisis. Nina Morgan is associate professor of English and interdisciplinary studies at Kennesaw State University.
Contributor(s): Professor Calliope Spanou | The Ombudsman will focus on the establishment 15 years ago of the Ombudsman institution in Greece, highlighting its place and role in the political-administrative system of the country. She will also present current challenges in the context of economic austerity, lack of trust in institutions as well as demands for a new relationship between citizens and the state in Greece. Professor Calliope Spanou is the Greek Ombudsman, and Professor of Administrative Sciences at the University of Athens. Professor Kevin Featherstone is the Eleftherios Venizelos Professor of Contemporary Greek Studies, Professor of European Politics, and Director of the Hellenic Observatory.
Contributor(s): Alec Ross, Professor Michael Cox | Information is transforming what power means and how it operates. Social media, wikileaks, surveillance and big data represent the battleground of a new contest between individuals, corporations and the state that is redefining the structures of power relations. Alec Ross discusses how the information age is changing global politics. Alec Ross is one of America’s leading experts on innovation. He was appointed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Senior Adviser for Innovation, tasked with maximising the potential of technology and innovation in service of America’s diplomatic goals, having previously served as Convener for Technology & Media Policy on Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. He is currently writing a book to be published by Simon & Schuster about the industries and businesses of the future. Professor Michael Cox is Founding Co-Director of LSE IDEAS. He is also Head of the United States Programme, Executive Programme Director and an Academic Management Committee Member.
Contributor(s): Lina Sinjab | In this talk, the BBC's Lina Sinjab will focus on the realities on the ground in Syria and the resilient civil society that is striving to continue amidst the civil war and the Islamic challenges.
Contributor(s): Professor Nick Couldry | Professor Couldry challenges some ‘digital age’ myths about how we gather on social media platforms and the value of ‘big data’, and considers the new forms of agency and injustice emerging alongside them. Nick Couldry is professor of media, communications and social theory and author of Media, Society, World.
Contributor(s): Professor Liu Wei | China has built a relatively well-off society by the end of the 20th century, transforming from a low-income country to a lower-middle-income one. In the first decade of the 21st century, China has further elevated itself to an upper-middle-income country. Based on these achievements, the country sets its new goals for economic development: a sustainable economic growth to double its scale, a high-income economy with a higher per capita GDP, a transformation in the economic structure and an overall modernisation. Since China took its baby-steps toward an upper-middle-income economy in 2010 at a time when the government began to retreat from its growth-stimulating policies against the 2008 financial crisis, new features of China’s economic imbalance have emerged. The country now faces two risks: great pressure from inflation and a lack of demand to drive up the economy. Professor Liu Wei is executive vice president of Peking University in charge of humanities and social sciences, continuous education, sports and technology transfer at the university. He got his bachelor, master and Ph.D. degrees in economics at Peking University. Before the current position, he served as dean of School of Economics, assistant president and vice president of Peking University. He is also the chief editor of the academic journal Economic Science. His research interests include economic theories of socialism in political economics, economic transition theories in institutional economics, industrial structure evolution in development economics, and enterprise ownership. He was appointed as chief expert in the projects “Research on the Development of China’s Market Economy” (2003) and “Research on China’s Monetary Policy and Transmission Mechanism” initiated by the Ministry of Education of China. He was also responsible for the key project “The Trend of China’s Mid-term and Long-term Economic Growth and Structure Changes” (2009) supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China. Professor Liu is also a member of the Theoretical Economics Section of the Disciplinary Appraisal Panels under the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, Vice Chair of the Steering Committee for Economics Teaching of the Ministry of Education of China and Vice Chair of Expert Committee on Discipline Development and Specialty Setup of the Ministry of Education of China. This lecture is available in both English and Chinese.
Contributor(s): Professor Liu Wei | China has built a relatively well-off society by the end of the 20th century, transforming from a low-income country to a lower-middle-income one. In the first decade of the 21st century, China has further elevated itself to an upper-middle-income country. Based on these achievements, the country sets its new goals for economic development: a sustainable economic growth to double its scale, a high-income economy with a higher per capita GDP, a transformation in the economic structure and an overall modernisation. Since China took its baby-steps toward an upper-middle-income economy in 2010 at a time when the government began to retreat from its growth-stimulating policies against the 2008 financial crisis, new features of China’s economic imbalance have emerged. The country now faces two risks: great pressure from inflation and a lack of demand to drive up the economy. Professor Liu Wei is executive vice president of Peking University in charge of humanities and social sciences, continuous education, sports and technology transfer at the university. He got his bachelor, master and Ph.D. degrees in economics at Peking University. Before the current position, he served as dean of School of Economics, assistant president and vice president of Peking University. He is also the chief editor of the academic journal Economic Science. His research interests include economic theories of socialism in political economics, economic transition theories in institutional economics, industrial structure evolution in development economics, and enterprise ownership. He was appointed as chief expert in the projects “Research on the Development of China’s Market Economy” (2003) and “Research on China’s Monetary Policy and Transmission Mechanism” initiated by the Ministry of Education of China. He was also responsible for the key project “The Trend of China’s Mid-term and Long-term Economic Growth and Structure Changes” (2009) supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China. Professor Liu is also a member of the Theoretical Economics Section of the Disciplinary Appraisal Panels under the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, Vice Chair of the Steering Committee for Economics Teaching of the Ministry of Education of China and Vice Chair of Expert Committee on Discipline Development and Specialty Setup of the Ministry of Education of China. This lecture is available in both English and Chinese.
Contributor(s): Professor Damian Chalmers, Professor Sebastien Dullien, Yiannos Papantoniou | The single European market has been a remarkable achievement. Its completion could substantially boost growth- especially in the EU’s struggling economies. Has the euro crisis put paid to these hopes? 'The Europe Question: perspectives from the UK’ initiative aims to bridge the evident gap in understanding and mutual distrust between the UK, its European partners and the EU institutions in Brussels, through a sober and systematic examination of the most fundamental issues surrounding European integration and the UK's place within the European project. This initiative by ECFR, the LSE European Institute and the European Commission Representation in the UK constitutes the next chapter in the well-received ‘Europe at the Crossroads’ initiative. Damian Chalmers is professor of European Union Law at LSE. Sebastian Dullien is senior policy fellow at ECFR and professor of international economics at HTW Berlin. Yiannos Papantoniou was the Greek economy and finance minister from 1994 to 2001.
Contributor(s): Professor Mike Savage , Professor Bev Skeggs | In his inaugural lecture, Professor Savage will unravel "the paradox of class": that overt class politics and consciousness decline as divisions become more entrenched. He draws on research from the BBC’s Great British Class Survey and the public reaction to its findings. Mike Savage is professor of sociology at LSE. Beverley Skeggs is head of the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths, London. She is soon to be an ESRC professorial fellow working on A Sociology of Value and Values.
Contributor(s): Professor Yongjin Zhang | Is there any significant international thought in antiquity beyond the West? If there is, what insights can it offer? Inspired by Martin Wight’s profound contributions to international relations so steeped in historical and philosophical depth, this lecture explores how order as a pivotal idea of international relations is deliberated in ancient Chinese political thought. It investigates how alternative visions of order in international relations are imagined and the ways in which the moral and political pursuit of order is conducted in the relations among states in Ancient China. In establishing a broad claim that ancient Chinese political and philosophical deliberations are rich in international thought, it will be argued that a Wightian exploration of ancient Chinese thought is integral in our quest for international theory today. Yongjin Zhang is professor of international politics at the University of Bristol and editor of International Orders in the Early Modern World: before the rise of the West.
Contributor(s): Professor Michael Cox | It has become the truism of our age that power is fast ebbing away from a declining West to the East and the "rest". Some indeed predict that the 21st Century will either be Asian or dominated by the so-called BRICs. But how far has this process really gone? Michael Cox is founding co-director of LSE IDEAS and professor of International Relations at LSE.
Contributor(s): Dr Rachel Cooper, Professor Eileen Munro, Professor Emily Simonoff | The classification, identification and treatment of mental illnesses in children raises particular challenges. For example, what are the appropriate criteria for diagnosing children with a mental disorder? How can we avoid the risk of stigmatisation that some children and their families experience? What are the risks of not identifying mental illness in children and how does it impact on their well-being, self-esteem, academic attainment and social development? Is it true that there is an increased tendency towards medicalizing certain behaviours that might once have been seen as normal (if challenging)? To what extent is it possible to predict which children will experience deficits in physical, psychological and social development due to problematic parenting, and what are the implications for public policy decision making? Rachel Cooper is senior lecturer in philosophy at Lancaster University. Eileen Munro is professor of social policy at LSE. Emily Simonoff is professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at King’s College London.
Contributor(s): Professor Roberto Mangabeira Unger | The progressive left lacks the imagination to tackle the fundamental problems of society. Renowned social theorist Roberto Unger calls on fellow progressives in Britain to think beyond current institutional arrangements. Roberto Mangabeira Unger is the Roscoe Pound Professor of Law at Harvard University. He served as a minister in the Brazilian government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from 2007-2009. Jo Fidgen is a presenter and reporter on BBC radio. Previous editions of Analysis have focused on pornography, feminism and the new Swedish model. She studied philosophy at Oxford and political theory at the LSE.
Contributor(s): Professor Roger Brownsword, Dr Sarah Edwards, Dr Sarah Richmond | The continuing development of brain imaging technologies is now bringing into reach the correlation of brain activity with psychological states and traits, such as personality traits, mental health vulnerabilities, (unconscious) preferences and desires, or truthfulness. At the same time, different groups, such as employers, advertisers, health insurers and the government, all have strong interests in the knowledge offered by the neurosciences. How concerned should we be about these developments, and how can we ensure the protection of our privacy and dignity? Roger Brownsword is professor of law at King’s College London. Sarah Edwards is senior lecturer in research ethics and governance in the Centre for Philosophy, Justice and health at University College London. Sarah Richmond is senior lecturer in philosophy at University College London.
Contributor(s): Dr Andrew Blick, Bernard Donoughue, Professor George Jones | Discreet, inconspicuous, prudent... the perfect Prime Ministerial aide should always be in the background, a low-profile figure unknown outside the Westminster bubble. When reality falls short of the ideal – as when Cameron’s head of communications Andy Coulson was arrested in connection with the News of the World phone hacking affair – the impact upon the Prime Minister can be drastic. However, for as long as there has been a Prime Minister, he or she has depended on the help of a cast of supporting actors who have courted acclaim and scandal in equal measure. At Power’s Elbow tells their story for the first time, uncovering the truth behind three centuries’ worth of Prime Ministers and their aides. Its subjects range from the early media-managers and election-fixers of Sir Robert Walpole, to the teams supporting the wartime premierships of David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, to the semi-official ‘Department of the Prime Minister’ established under Tony Blair. Packed with unusual characters, this is a fascinating peek at the power behind the political throne – the history of the most mysterious and misunderstood job in British politics. Andrew Blick is Lecturer in Politics and Contemporary History at the Centre for Political and Constitutional Studies, King’s College London. He has worked as an assistant in the Prime Minister’s Office and has written extensively about British Politics. George Jones has been Emeritus Professor of Government at LSE since 2003 and was Professor of Government between 1976 and 2003. He has written and edited a number of books on British government. Bernard Donoughue was a senior adviser to the Labour governments of 1974-79. He is a businessman and author and was created a life peer in 1985.
Contributor(s): Charles Haswell | Blame for the financial crisis has been firmly placed on bankers. But there were failings in other areas, too, notably in macroeconomic theory and some of the assumptions that underpinned monetary policy and the behaviour of central bankers. As Mark Carney has said, “It is safe to say that most policy-makers didn’t see the crisis coming. In part this was because central banks underappreciated the scale of endogenous liquidity creation in the system.” Macroeconomic theory will need to be fundamentally rewritten – and this should probably have been done before we embarked on root and branch reform of financial regulation. Charles will argue that this time, macroeconomics should not be dominated by Western schools of thought, but should become a project for collaboration between East and West, drawing on the historical lessons learned in both hemispheres. Charles’s initial career was at the British Foreign Office, where he became a China specialist, serving in the British Embassy in Beijing from 1982 – 1986 and 2000 – 2004. Other postings included Ottawa and European security work in Vienna, and London desks included Hong Kong, the Middle East, Head of China Section and Deputy Head of Far East and Pacific Department. From 1998–2000 he was seconded to a predecessor of The City UK, to help restructure the organisation and develop a strategy for promoting UK financial services overseas through British Embassies and High Commissions. In 2000 he returned to the Embassy in Beijing as Director of Trade and Investment for China, managing commercial offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing. In 2004 he joined the Group Strategy function of the Royal Bank of Scotland, where his portfolio included oversight of the Group’s China projects. In 2008 he joined HSBC, and in 2011 established the bank’s Financial Sector Policy Unit, to respond to HSBC’s external challenges and opportunities, which range from regulatory reform to the internationalisation of the RMB. He is also responsible for HSBC’s China Affairs.
Contributor(s): Dr Carrie Friese, Professor Charis Thompson | The natural world is marked by an ever-increasing loss of varied habitats, species extinctions, and new kinds of dilemmas posed by global warming. At the same time, humans are working to actively shape this natural world through contemporary bioscience and biotechnology, as humans seek scientific solutions to environmental crisis. Cloned endangered animals in zoos sit at the apex of these trends. In her new book Carrie Friese argues that cloning technologies significantly affect our conceptualizations of and engagements with wildlife and nature. Carrie Friese is associate professor of sociology at LSE.
Contributor(s): Michael Kumhof | Michael Kumhof will discuss his 2012 paper on the Chicago Plan, a radical reform plan for the banking industry that would eliminate banks’ power to create money. Based on proposals developed by members of the Chicago School in the US in the 1930s, Kumhof’s plan represents the most far-reaching and decisive proposal to eliminate the risks associated with fractional reserve banking. Michael Kumhof is deputy division chief of the Modelling Division at the IMF Research Department.
Contributor(s): Jesse Norman MP | Edmund Burke and Michael Oakeshott are often considered as the intellectual founding fathers of British conservatism. But in fact they disagree on some fundamental issues. What are those issues, and who is right? Jesse Norman is Member of Parliament for Hereford and South Herefordshire. His book Edmund Burke: Politician, Philosopher, Prophet has been recently published to wide acclaim. He was awarded Parliamentarian and Backbencher of the Year in 2012.
Contributor(s): Professor Brendan Simms | If there is a fundamental truth of geopolitics, it is this: whoever controls the core of Europe controls the entire continent, and whoever controls all of Europe potentially dominates the world. Over the past five centuries, a rotating cast of kings and conquerors, presidents and dictators have set their sights on the European heartland, desperate to seize this pivotal area or at least prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. From Charles V and Napoleon to Bismarck and Cromwell, from Hitler and Stalin to Roosevelt, Gorbachev and the achitects of the European Union nearly all the key power players of modern history have staked their titanic visions on this vital swath of land. In Europe, Brendan Simms presents an authoritative account of the past half-millennium of European history, demonstrating how the battle for mastery there has shaped the modern world. Beginning in 1453, when the collapse of the Byzantine Empire laid Europe open to Ottoman incursion and prompted the attempted reform of the Holy Roman Empire, Simms leads readers through the epic struggle for the heart of Europe. Stretching from the Low Countries through Germany and into the North Italian plain, this relatively compact zone has historically been the richest and most productive on earth. For hundreds of years, its crucial strategic importance stoked a seemingly unending series of conflicts, from the English Civil War to the French Revolution to the appalling world wars of the 20th century. But when Europe is in harmony, Simms shows, the entire world benefits—a lesson that current leaders would do well to remember. A bold and compelling work by a renowned scholar, Europe integrates religion, politics, military strategy, and international relations to show how history—and the West itself—was forged in the crucible of Europe. Brendan Simms is professor of the history of international relations at the University of Cambridge.
Contributor(s): Professor George Loewenstein | George Loewenstein is professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his PhD from Yale University in 1985 and has held positions at the University of Chicago, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Russell Sage Foundation and Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin.
Contributor(s): Eve Harris, Lloyd Bradley, Fatima Manji | This week’s Media Agenda Talk was about London’s identity and culture. Three panellists – Author Eve Harris, music critic Lloyd Bradley and Channel 4 Reporter Fatima Manji – presented their unique perspective on the city, stemming from their professional experience and their life as Londoners. Does London have a culture of its own, or should we be speaking of a culture of neighbourhoods? Do its inhabitants identify more as ‘Londoner’ than ‘British’? How accurately does the media represent the capital?
Contributor(s): Dr Ramachandra Guha | The life of Gandhi is one of the most remarkable and potent in the modern era – yet few know what shaped him in his formative years. Renowned historian and public intellectual, Ramachandra Guha, paints a vivid portrait of a man whose ideas were fundamentally shaped before his return to India in 1915. At the dawn of his international reputation, Guha explains how Gandhi was the sometimes unwilling leader in the midst of race and class, living in a world where he could develop the techniques that would undermine, and ultimately destroy, the British Empire. Dr Ramachandra Guha is author of Gandhi before India and was Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2011-2012.
Contributor(s): Joaquín Almunia | The online world is of crucial importance to consumers and businesses. Its role in providing innovation and connectivity means that it can boost productivity and competitiveness across many sectors of the economy. The proper functioning of the internet therefore needs to be safeguarded by making sure that gatekeepers (such as search engines, operating systems, patent holders and network operators) do not abuse their position by preventing competitors from bringing innovative new products to the market. At the same time, there should be sufficient incentives for young companies to gain market share and get returns on their investment, which are often uncertain or short-lived due to the strong dynamics in the online environment. A burning question is why we observe so few European companies among the giants of the internet? Is it due to a different approach to antitrust enforcement? Does national fragmentation make it difficult to reach scale in Europe? Is it a lack of good ideas? Or the limited availability of funding? Joaquín Almunia is Vice-President of the European Commission and European Commissioner for Competition (2010-2014). He graduated in Law and Economics at the University of Deusto (Bilbao) and completed postgraduate studies at L’École Practique des Hautes Études de Paris. Having worked as an economist at the Council Bureau of the Spanish Chambers of Commerce in Brussels, in 1976 he went on to become the Chief economist of the Spanish trade union, UGT. From 1979 to 2004 he served as a Member of the Spanish Parliament, in 1982 becoming Minister of Employment and Social Security, and in 1986, Minister of Public Administration. Joaquín Almunia served as leader of the Parliamentary Party from 1994 to 1997, preceding his appointment as leader of the Spanish Socialist Party from 1997 to 2000. In 2000 he stood as Socialist candidate for Prime Minister. A Member of the European Commission since April 2004 (previously as Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs from 2004 to 2010), he is the author of several books and numerous academic articles and press columns.
Contributor(s): Charles Shamas | In July the European Commission published "guidelines on the eligibility of Israeli entities and their activities in the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967 for grants, prizes and financial instruments funded by the EU from 2014 onwards." This step has been variously described as a 'political earthquake', a sanction targeting Israeli settlements and settlement policies, and a confrontational move to save the two-State solution and the Middle East Peace Process from final collapse. But what precisely is taking place and how did we get here? What are the likely political consequences? The presentation will outline the actual processes that have actually driven EU's production of these guidelines. In this light it will examine the role of the EU as a normative power striving to respect international law and comply with its own law while intensifying EU-Israel relations.
Contributor(s): Professor Ali Mirsepassi | Why the "human sciences" have become the target of a major government crackdown in Iran today. This talk will focus thematically upon a specific conceptual shift. Today’s religious-reformist intellectuals articulating Iran’s contemporary mass movement for democracy draw their vision of change from the social sciences rather than philosophy, reflecting complex underlying conceptual-theoretical and organizational-practical shifts since the long struggle over independence and the future that shaped the twentieth century. In the 1950s a radical intellectual shift had taken place from a discourse of progress and science to a different discourse focusing on issues of authenticity, nativism or anti-Enlightenment. The Iranian reform movement, with its origins in the 2nd of Khordad Front, changed the terms of public discourse from the ideologically closed post-revolutionary worldview grounded in the Heideggerian philosophical concepts Bazghash be khish (return to roots/self) and Gharbzadegi (Westoxication) to an open-ended pragmatic politics dedicated to Weberian principles of asadi (liberty) and jam’eh-e madani (civil society) based on predictability of legal procedure (i.e. constitutionalism, citizenship and human rights) – a significant shift from ontology to pragmatics. Ali Mirsepassi is professor of Middle Eastern studies and sociology and director of the Iranian Studies Initiative at New York University, and Visiting Professor in the Department of Sociology at LSE during MT 2013.
Contributor(s): Lionel Barber | After four successive crisis years, an economic recovery in Europe is within sight. The euro's survival - which was in question as recently as a year ago - appears assured. But the crisis remains chronic, if not fatal. Without further steps - closer economic integration and a banking union - the single currency will be at risk and the eurozone divided between northern creditors and southern debtors. And there are fresh signs that at the very least Greece, and possibly Ireland and Portugal, may need further rescue funds. But a break-up would be the worst option for all, including Germany. Financial Times editor Lionel Barber gives his views on the ongoing Eurozone crisis, the economic and political challenges ahead, and the future of the Euro. Lionel Barber has been editor of the Financial Times since November 2005.
Contributor(s): Michael Palin | The story of the making of Michael Palin’s BBC1 Brazil series, made up of Michael’s own reminiscences, with a slide show of Basil Pao’s accompanying photos. Michael Palin is a comedian, actor, writer and television presenter, one of the creators of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. A self-confessed dromomaniac (travel addict), he has travelled the globe making award-winning television series, books and audios including Around the World in 80 Days and Brazil. Between 2009 and 2012 Michael was President of the Royal Geographical Society.
Contributor(s): Professor Timothy Snyder | Marx and Engels tended to be romantics about East European liberation from imperial rule in the nineteenth century, but the period of nominally Marxist rule in the twentieth is one of oppression. The theorists imagined a revolution that would spread from Germany to the East, yet history brought a revolution that arose in Russia and then spread to the West. What can we say, today, about the theory and the practice? Was Marxism in any sense native to Eastern Europe? Timothy Snyder will discuss. Professor Timothy Snyder is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2013-2014.
Contributor(s): Dr Katie Steele | Who should accept responsibility for, and bear the costs of, climate change? Can climate change be sectioned off as an isolated issue of justice, or is it inextricably entangled with broader concerns of global justice? Katie Steele is senior lecturer in philosophy at LSE.
Contributor(s): Professor Craig Calhoun | Humanitarian emergencies are not simply brute facts, appealing directly to our emotions or our moral sensibilities. They are one of the important ways in which perceptions of human life, sympathy for suffering, and responses to social upheaval have come to be organized in recent decades. Like nations and business corporations, they are creatures of social imaginaries, but no less materially influential for that. They are shaped by a history of changing ideas about the human; moral responsibility for strangers; structures of chance and causality; and the imperative and capacity for effective action, even at a distance. They reflect the context of the modern era generally and more specific features of the era since the 1970s. And they are embedded in a complex institutionalization of responses. First, grasping human suffering as humanitarian emergencies is made possible by a long history of changes in how we – Westerners especially – construct the categories of the human, the emergency, and moral obligation. Second, though they are influenced by both state politics and economic activity, humanitarian emergencies appear as anomalies outside the putatively normal stable functioning of political and economic systems. Third, emergencies and humanitarian sympathies are produced importantly through large-scale media systems, including especially visual media. Fourth, they have commanded attention especially since the 1970s as responses to an era of market-driven globalization and declining faith in political action. Fifth, they have occasioned a new institutional field of response in which NGOs and voluntary action are pivotal (even though states remain crucial funders), and they are shaped by the way such response organizes both what we see and what happens materially on the ground. Sixth, they reflect a view from relatively ‘core’ locations in the modern world-system on seeming chaos in its periphery, a view often linked at once to a managerial orientation, an idea of charity, and the reassurance of grasping suffering and chaos precisely as distant. The specific historical circumstances that gave rise to humanitarian response are changing, and with them this specific project of cosmopolitan care for distant strangers may be undergoing a deep transformation. Professor Calhoun is a world-renowned social scientist whose work connects sociology to culture, communication, politics, philosophy and economics. He took up his post as LSE Director on 1 September 2012, having left the United States where he was University Professor at New York University and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge and President of the Social Science Research Council. Professor Calhoun is an American citizen but has deep connections with the United Kingdom. He took a D Phil in History and Sociology at Oxford University and a Master's in Social Anthropology at Manchester. He co-founded, with Richard Sennett, Professor of Sociology at LSE, the NYLON programme which brings together graduate students from New York and London for co-operative research programmes. He is the author of several books including Nations Matter, Critical Social Theory, Neither Gods Nor Emperors and most recently The Roots of Radicalism (University of Chicago Press, 2012).
Contributor(s): James Astill | James Astill speaks about his new book and his encounters with cricketers, fans, businessmen, bookies, Bollywood stars and slum kids. James Astill is the political editor of The Economist.
Contributor(s): David Mahoney | David Mahoney, Director of Policy Development at Ofcom discusses the role of the regulator and the principles behind its decisions.
Contributor(s): Professor Paul Collier | Mass international migration is a response to extreme global inequality, and immigration has a profound impact on the way we live. Yet our views - and those of our politicians - remain caught between two extremes: popular hostility to migrants and ‘open doors’ insistence by liberal and business elites. Collier takes a balanced look at the possibilities and challenges of migration for societies of origin and host countries, to enable us all, including policy-makers, understand how much migration is best. Paul Collier is Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University and a former director of Development Research at the World Bank. He is the author of, among others, the award-winning The Bottom Billion and The Plundered Planet. This event marks the launch of his new book, Exodus: How Migration Is Changing Our World.
Contributor(s): Professor Richard Dyer | Serial killing is an extremely rare crime which nonetheless may be considered a cultural dominant of our times. Although there are female and non-white serial killers, in cultural representation they are (with one exception which shall be discussed in the talk) highly unusual in the cinemas of Europe. The idea of serial killing sits readily with ideas of masculinity and whiteness. What does this suggest about all three? Richard Dyer is Professor of Film Studies at King's College London. He was an active and influential figure in the English Gay Liberation Front and has authored numerous books on entertainment and representation and the relations between them as well as music and film (including melodrama), Italian cinema (especially in its popular forms) and gay/lesbian/queer cultures. He is a major contributor on the world-stage to contemporary gender, media, culture and film theory.
Contributor(s): Fabrizio Saccomanni | Fabrizio Saccomanni is Italian minister of economy and finance, a position he has held since April 2013. Prior to this he served as a member of the directorate (Governing Board) and director general of the Bank of Italy (from 2 October 2006 to 27 April 2013). He served as vice president for risk management at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development from February 2003 to September 2006. He has a degree in economics from the Bocconi University in Milan and studying postgraduate courses in monetary and international economics at Princeton University (USA).
Contributor(s): Dr Helene Gayle | New approaches to address extreme poverty are emerging that involve greater private sector engagement. Traditional poverty-fighting efforts are being combined with new, innovative business models aiming for social impact—providing long-term economic growth as well as greater social empowerment. Dr Gayle will discuss the variety of ways in which an NGO can engage with a broader range of partners toward improving the lives of poor people around the world. Helene D Gayle is president and CEO of CARE USA, a leading international humanitarian organisation.
Contributor(s): Matthew d'Ancona | The revelatory inside story of Britain's coalition government, that cuts right to the heart of the Lib Dem/Tory struggle, from a renowned political journalist. With exclusive, unprecedented access to all the major senior figures, including David Cameron, George Osborne, Boris Johnson and Nick Clegg, D’Ancona tells the truth behind key relationships, the U-turns, the shifts in policies, the dramatic fights and arguments and the warring within the party. Matthew d'Ancona is the award-winning political columnist for The Sunday Telegraph, a position he has held since 1996. He was deputy editor of that paper before becoming editor of The Spectator in 2006. During his editorship, the magazine enjoyed record circulation and he was named Editor of the Year (Current Affairs) in the 2007 BSME awards. This event marks the launch of his new book, In It Together: the inside story of the coalition government.
Contributor(s): JJ Charlesworth, Mark Rappolt | The art world seems to be going from strength to strength, even in the midst of recession and austerity. Collectors pay record prices at auctions, while commercial galleries set up global branches to meet new markets and museums pursue ambitious expansions plans to cater for a growing audience. But as the art world seems to get ever bigger, is the culture of art itself changing? With public funding being cut and smaller commercial galleries and independent spaces struggling to survive, is contemporary art in danger of becoming more corporate and more spectacular? And with the globalisation of the art world gathering pace, can artists still speak to a broader public, or are they increasingly only addressing a transnational elite of the rich and powerful? Who is art for today, and what can artists hope to achieve? JJ Charlesworth has been writing about contemporary art since he left Goldsmiths College London in 1996, where he did a degree in art. He is Associate Editor for ArtReview and writes regularly on art for magazines such as Art Monthly, Time Out London and the US website Art Agenda. Mark Rappolt is the Editor of ArtReview. His writing has appeared in a number of publications and includes catalogue essays on Slater Bradley, Alex Katz, David Cronenberg and women artists of the 1960s, amongst others. Books include monographs on the architects Greg Lynn and Frank Gehry. He is based in London and Vienna.
Contributor(s): Nazir Afzal, Barbara Hewson, Helen Reece, Professor Jennifer Temkin | Rape is a heinous crime but does it demand special treatment? Do rule of law and fairness pay a price? Helen Reece leads a debate on whether rape is, in some sense, different. Nazir Afzal is chief crown prosecutor for CPS North West. Barbara Hewson is a barrister in Hardwicke Chambers. Helen Reece is reader of Law at LSE. Jennifer Temkin is a professor at City Law School.
Contributor(s): Bruce Katz, Professor Anne Power | Bruce Katz will explain how ground-up innovations at a city level are solving the toughest economic problems in the US, while Anne Power will reflect on the relevance of these developments on UK cities. Bruce Katz is the author of The Metropolitan Revolution, vice president of the Brookings Institution and founding director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program. Anne Power is professor of social policy at LSE.
Contributor(s): Professor Lord Skidelsky, Lord Glasman | Why do we work almost as hard as we did 40 years ago, despite being on average twice as rich? Robert Skidelsky suggests an escape from the work and consumption treadmill. This event marks the paperback publication of Robert and Edward Skidelsky's book How Much Is Enough? Robert Skidelsky is emeritus professor of political economy at the University of Warwick. His three-volume biography of the economist John Maynard Keynes (1983, 1992, 2000) received numerous prizes; he also penned the critically acclaimed Keynes: The Return of the Master. Dr Maurice Glasman is a reader in political theory at London Metropolitan University, author of Unnecessary Suffering and a Labour Peer.
Contributor(s): Justine Roberts | Justine Roberts, Co-Founder and CEO of Mumsnet explains how the website rose to success and the influence of its campaigns.
Contributor(s): Dr Yaron Brook | Capitalism has an undisputed record of wealth generation, yet it has always functioned under a cloud of moral suspicion. Is it time for the world to hear the moral case for laissez-faire capitalism? Yaron Brook is the executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute. He is a columnist at Forbes.com, and his articles have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Investor’s Business Daily, and many other publications. He is a frequent guest on national radio and television programmes and is a co-author of Neoconservatism: An Obituary for an Idea and a contributing author to Winning the Unwinnable War: America’s Self-Crippled Response to Islamic Totalitarianism. Dr. Brook is co-author with ARI fellow Don Watkins of the national best-seller Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government. A former finance professor, he speaks internationally on such topics as the causes of the financial crisis, the morality of capitalism, ending the growth of the state, and U.S. foreign policy. Yaron Brook was born and raised in Israel. He served as a first sergeant in Israeli military intelligence and earned a BSc in civil engineering from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel. In 1987 he moved to the United States, where he received his MBA and PhD in finance from the University of Texas at Austin; he became an American citizen in 2003. For seven years he was an award-winning finance professor at Santa Clara University, and in 1998 he co-founded a financial advisory firm, BH Equity Research, of which he is presently managing director and chairman.
Contributor(s): Adama Samassekou | The Steve Biko Memorial Lecture Europe is an initiative of the South African based Steve Biko Foundation. The 2013 lecture takes place during Black History Month in the United Kingdom. Described as a resuscitative moment, the lecture is an opportunity to explore the inextricable link between the individual and society; to celebrate triumphs over inequality and to examine the importance of identity in the twenty-first century. In keeping with the tradition of Biko, the lecture focuses on issues of culture, identity and social change. Adama Samassékou, a Malian national, will deliver the lecture. He is the founder and former president of the African Academy of Languages- an official organ of the African Union; president of International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences as well as the MAAYA Network, a global body promoting linguistic diversity. He has previously served as president for Mali and Africa as a whole, of the Peoples’ Movement for Human Rights Education, Malian Minister of Education and spokesperson for the Government of Mali. Given that 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Organization of African Unity; his topic for the lecture is "The Social-Cultural Foundation of the 21st Century New Pan-Africanist Consciousness".
Contributor(s): Professor David Spiegelhalter | Whether it’s bicycle helmets or fracking, people often have strong feelings about risks and their control. But, when considering risk, to what extent is it feasible to separate thinking and feeling? David Spiegelhalter is Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk in the Statistical Laboratory, University of Cambridge.
Contributor(s): Professor Michael Storper | The global economy is driven by major cities: the keys to the city are the keys to global development. Michael Storper explains why economists, sociologists and political scientists should take geography seriously. Michael Storper is professor of economic geography at LSE and professor of economic sociology at Sciences Po.
Contributor(s): Professor Howard Glennerster | Richard Titmuss was one of the world’s leading public analysts and philosophers. He was enormously influential in shaping the post-war welfare state and created the discipline that we now call social policy. It is now forty years since he died. What would he have made of the present state of welfare? The present state of social policy? Welfare reformers frequently talk of going back to Beveridge. Should we not think of going back to Titmuss? Howard Glennerster is professor emeritus of social policy at LSE, and began teaching at the School in the Titmuss era.
Contributor(s): Professor Karima Bennoune | From Pakistani peace activists to Tunisian feminists, from Chechen journalists to Algerian victims of terrorism, Karima Bennoune highlights some of the most overlooked and important contemporary human rights struggles. Karima Bennoune is professor of international law and a member of the board of the network of Women Living Under Muslim Laws.
Contributor(s): Dr Bahram Bekhradnia, Rajay Naik, David Willetts MP | The panel will discuss different views about the future of higher education. This event concludes a one-day conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Robbins Report. Bahram Bekhradnia is director of the Higher Education Policy Institute. Rajay Naik is director of Government and External Affairs at the Open University. David Willetts MP is minister for Universities & Science. The conference is supported by the LSE Annual Fund.
Contributor(s): Amanda Farnsworth | Amanda Farnsworth, Head of BBC Visual Journalism gives an overview of the BBC’s work in this field.
Contributor(s): Dr Bahram Bekhradnia, Rajay Naik, David Willetts MP | The panel will discuss different views about the future of higher education. This event concludes a one-day conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Robbins Report. Bahram Bekhradnia is director of the Higher Education Policy Institute. Rajay Naik is director of Government and External Affairs at the Open University. David Willetts MP is minister for Universities & Science. The conference is supported by the LSE Annual Fund.
Contributor(s): Dr Bahram Bekhradnia, Rajay Naik, David Willetts MP | The panel will discuss different views about the future of higher education. This event concludes a one-day conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Robbins Report. Bahram Bekhradnia is director of the Higher Education Policy Institute. Rajay Naik is director of Government and External Affairs at the Open University. David Willetts MP is minister for Universities & Science. The conference is supported by the LSE Annual Fund.
Contributor(s): Dr Bahram Bekhradnia, Rajay Naik, David Willetts MP | The panel will discuss different views about the future of higher education. This event concludes a one-day conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Robbins Report. Bahram Bekhradnia is director of the Higher Education Policy Institute. Rajay Naik is director of Government and External Affairs at the Open University. David Willetts MP is minister for Universities & Science. The conference is supported by the LSE Annual Fund.
Contributor(s): António Horta‐Osório | António will set out his views on why the future of the UK economy and the banking industry are inextricably linked. He will explore the mutual interdependency between a healthy economy and a healthy banking industry, and will explain the steps Lloyds Banking Group has taken on its strategic transformation since António joined as Group chief executive in 2011. António joined the board of Lloyds Banking Group on 17 January 2011 as an executive director and became Group chief executive on 1 March 2011. Previously he was the chief executive of Santander UK plc and executive vice president of Grupo Santander. He was also chairman of Santander Totta until 2011, where he was CEO between 2000‐2006, and prior to that was CEO of Banco Santander Brazil. António started his career at Citibank Portugal where he was head of Capital Markets. At the same time, he was an assistant professor at Universidade Catolica Portuguesa. He then worked for Goldman Sachs in New York and London. In 1993, he joined Grupo Santander as chief executive of Banco Santander de Negócios Portugal. A graduate of management and business administration at Universidade Católica Portuguesa, António has a MBA from INSEAD where he was awarded the Henry Ford II prize – and an AMP from Harvard Business School. He was recently awarded Honorary Doctorates from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Bath. Previously a non executive Director to the Court of the Bank of England, António is currently a non executive of Fundação Champalimaud in Portugal, serves on the CBI President’s Committee and is a governor of the London Business School.
Contributor(s): Professor Roger Owen | Roger Owen will offer a personal history of the emergence of modern Middle Eastern Studies as a distinct multi-disciplinary field within the Area Studies family, focusing mainly on the creation of University Centres in London, Oxford, Harvard, etc. by a set of academic entrepreneurs beginning with Sir Hamilton Gibb.
Contributor(s): Shixiong Ni | Shixiong Ni, professor of international relations, is former Dean of the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University and former director, the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, Shanghai, China. He is now Director of the Shanghai Shixiong Center for International Exchanges (SSCIE). This lecture will focus on China’s transformations and integration into international system to become a responsible country in the world community.
Contributor(s): Professor Susanna Hecht | An expert on tropical development, Professor Susanna Hecht will address the recent dramatic decline in deforestation in Amazonia, why it has occurred, and how likely it is to endure. Susanna Hecht is a professor in the School of Public Affairs and the Institute of the Environment at UCLA.
Contributor(s): Professor Beverley Skeggs | Many theories adopt the metaphors of capital to explore power (e.g. Bourdieu), others propose that capital has subsumed all areas of life. Beverley Skeggs will explore what the optic of the logic of capital reveals and obscures. Beverley Skeggs is Head of the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths, London. She is soon to be an ESRC Professorial Fellow working on A Sociology of Value and Values.
Contributor(s): Professor Andrew Gamble | Why has the global financial crisis not revived the left? Andrew Gamble argues that the policies of the 1980s and 1990s have left social democracy disadvantaged in a period of austerity. To prosper, it must rethink the political economy of capitalism and the nation. Andrew Gamble is head of the Department for Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge. He is the author and editor of several books, including The Progressive Tradition: eighty years of the political quarterly and The Spectre at the Feast: capitalist crisis and the politics of recession.
Contributor(s): Michel Barnier | The single market or "common market" as more frequently referred to in the UK is probably the one bit of the European Union most British politicians seem to agree is a good thing. The UK government's own estimates are that the single market benefits the UK between £31 billion and £92 billion per year, i.e. £1300 and £3500 for each UK household per year. 3.5 million UK jobs are linked to the Single Market, 1 in every 10. British politicians and businesses call regularly for a deeper single market. But what exactly makes up the "single" / "common" / "internal market"? Michel Barnier is the European Commissioner responsible for the Internal Market and Services and will give his views on: how the single market for goods and services actually works, its strengths and weaknesses, the new opportunities and challenges facing the single market in the digital age, but also how recent developments creating a closer economic and monetary union within the Euro area will interact with the wider single market, in particular in for financial services; and on the role for the City and UK in all this. Michel Barnier is the European Commissioner responsible for the Internal Market and Services.
Contributor(s): Professor Jill Peay, Anita Dockley, Dr Tim Exworthy | Prisons are populated by offenders with various forms of mental disorder. How does the law justify this, does their presence undermine the legitimate purposes of imprisonment, and should anything be done? Jill Peay is professor of law at LSE. Anita Dockley is research director for the Howard League for Penal Reform. Tim Exworthy is clinical director and consultant forensic psychiatrist at St Andrew’s Hospital.
Contributor(s): Professor Edmund Phelps | A handful of nations saw exploding wages, teeming employment and an engaged populace from 1820 to 1940, racing ahead of the others until something put a damper on their dynamism. What was that something? And how can these nations get back their mass flourishing? Edmund Phelps is the 2006 Nobel Laureate in Economics and the Director of the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University. His career has been devoted to two intertwined aims: to call into question the preconceptions about education, information and knowledge to which mainstream economics has clung, replacing them with the modern notions necessary to describe the successful operations of a modern economy; and to put "people as we know them", with their imperfect knowledge, understanding and expectations, back into economic models. He is the author of several books the most recent of which is Mass Flourishing: how grassroots innovation created jobs, challenge, and change.
Contributor(s): Paul Danahar | Paul Danahar offers a fascinating and illuminating analysis of the new order in the Middle East following the Arab Spring, and explains what it will mean both for the region and the West in his new book, The New Middle East: the world after the Arab Spring. Paul Danahar was the BBC’s Middle East bureau chief from 2010-2013 and responsible for the organisation’s news coverage of the Arab Spring.
Contributor(s): Professor Timothy Snyder | Why do we have nations at all? And why do we have the nations that we have? Scholarly explanations of the rise of nationalism focus on general factors, whereas national histories treat each group as an exception. Timothy Snyder will consider the cases of brothers from important families who chose different nationalities and led rival national movements. Professor Timothy Snyder is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2013-2014.
Contributor(s): Professor Helga Nowotny | The dominant Western narrative tells of a trajectory from fate to taking destiny into our own hands. This has induced fantasies of control, the capability to shape technology and the depiction of consumer choice as the ultimate expression of individual autonomy. Still, the more choices are available, the more we feel surrounded by uncertainty; similar to the dark energy in the universe. Coping with uncertainty raises questions about the limits of what can be predicted. While unprecedented computational power increases the amount of data and hence complexity, it promises at the same time ever more certainty. Yet the cunning of uncertainty is at work underneath these forays into managing complexity. Science thrives at the cusp of uncertainty and its cunning operates in creative ways. Today, the promises of innovation dominate the political agenda, while downplaying the inherent uncertainty and its forces of creative destruction. In the social world intervention and manipulation cannot be pursued like in an experimental system. The cunning of uncertainty is at work through competition and the strategies to influence its outcome. Innovation cannot be planned, but 'trading zones' offer new spaces for negotiating uncertainty. Finally, what about errors and their propagation, leading to false certainties? If society is to thrive at the cusp of uncertainty, instead of being stifled by it, the openness of the future and the degrees of freedom which uncertainty offers need to be embraced. Helga Nowotny is president of the European Research Council (ERC). She is professor emerita of Social Studies of Science, ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). We would like to thank the Austrian Cultural Forum for their support of this event.
Contributor(s): Sir Thomas Harris, Stephen Perry | China stands at its most critical juncture to date, in its trajectory of economic development and its engagement with the wider world. The weight of responsibility in that management rests ever more heavily on China's new leadership. But what matters to China matters also to the world. Where will China's new leaders take the economy? How does global business best engage with this new China?
Contributor(s): Professor Angus Deaton, Professor Nicholas Stern | The world is a better place than it used to be. People are wealthier and healthier, and live longer lives. Yet the escapes from destitution by so many have left gaping inequalities between people and between nations. In this lecture Angus Deaton (one of the foremost experts on economic development and on poverty) tells the remarkable story of how, starting two hundred and fifty years ago, some parts of the world began to experience sustained progress, opening up gaps and setting the stage for today's hugely unequal world. Deaton takes an in-depth look at the historical and ongoing patterns behind the health and wealth of nations, and he addresses what needs to be done to help those left behind. Angus Deaton is the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Economics Department at Princeton University. His many books include The Analysis of Household Surveys and Economics and Consumer Behavior. He is a past president of the American Economic Association. Nicholas Stern is IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government, the first holder of this position, at the Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines (STICERD), and chair of the Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at LSE.
Contributor(s): Professor Constantine Sandis, Professor Brad Hooker | This dialogue will assess the doctrine that what morality requires can be defined only as what a virtuous person would characteristically feel or do. Constantine Sandis is professor of philosophy at Oxford Brookes University. Brad Hooker is professor of philosophy at the University of Reading.
Contributor(s): Tim Burt | Tim Burt, managing partner at Stockwell Communications, discusses the PR industry and its relationship with media.
Contributor(s): Gavin Hewitt | As populist parties and demagogues trade blows with discredited elites, political legitimacy in Europe seems more fragile than ever. Has the euro crisis dealt it a mortal blow? Gavin Hewitt has been the BBC’s Europe editor since 2009. He is the author of several books, the most recent of which is The Lost Continent. Maurice Fraser is professor of practice in European politics at the LSE European Institute.
Contributor(s): Sir Philip Craven | Since the origins of the Paralympic Games at Stoke Mandeville the key challenge has been putting basic building blocks in place and overcoming issues of prejudice. The Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games was a clear breakthrough as illustrated in various press reports, but the London 2012 Paralympic Games heralded the real coming of age for the movement, full stadiums, magnificent athletic performances, consistent brand values that resonated with the public and true global coverage of the event. Now at the inflection point poised for major growth, Sir Philip Craven the President of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) will pose some critical strategic questions: Should the IPC focus be on building the momentum of the current products or widening the scope of the IPC to encompass a broader inclusion agenda? Are there resources available to do both? Along with this, major organisations and industry thought leaders are now recognising the value of association with the IPC, Sir Philip will discuss the challenge for the IPC to capitalise on this and help build a society in which people with an impairment are fully integrated. This is the exciting opportunity the IPC is faced with, to fully enfranchise on average 10% of each country's population with impairment through stimulating behavioural change of the other 90% and at the same time helping people with an impairment to build inspiration from the great achievements of Paralympians. Sir Philip Craven has been President of the International Paralympic Committee, the global Governing Body of the Paralympic Movement since 2001 and oversaw his sixth Paralympic Games in London last year. During his time as IPC President, the Paralympic Movement has enjoyed significant growth and now boasts over 200 members, including 174 National Paralympic Committees across the globe. The Paralympic Games have also developed rapidly and following London 2012 they are now the third biggest sporting event in the world behind the Olympics and FIFA World Cup. In addition to being the global head of the Paralympic Movement, Bolton born Sir Philip is an IOC Member and a Member of the British Olympic Association's Executive Board. Before becoming President of the IPC, Sir Philip was President of the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation having previously held roles at national and international level within the sport. He is a five-time Paralympian having made his debut in 1972 competing in two sports - swimming and wheelchair basketball. He went on to represent Great Britain at wheelchair basketball at a further four Paralympic Games between 1976 and 1988. During his international wheelchair basketball career Sir Philip won the 1973 world title and two European titles in 1971 and 1974. In 1991 he received an MBE in recognition of his services to wheelchair basketball and in 2005 was knighted for his services to Paralympic Sport. He has also received numerous honorary doctorates and in 2012 was presented with the Sports Industry Awards Lifetime Achievement.
Contributor(s): Dr Javier Solana, Professor Robert Cooper | The EU and the Eurozone have been hit by the strongest crisis in their history. Southern Europe, particularly, has been suffering from its effects. After the happy years of integration at the end of the last century, for some Southern European citizens, the EU has come to feel more like a burden than a blessing. The European project is thus facing stark challenges: economic, social and political. The time has come for resolute action by policymakers and for positive engagement by Europe’s politicians in order to embark on a more constructive path. This public lecture will mark the official launch of the LSE IDEAS Southern Europe International Affairs Programme. Javier Solana is president of ESADE Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics (Barcelona-Madrid). He is also distinguished fellow in foreign policy at Brookings Institution, chairman of the Aspen Institute España, member of the board of the International Crisis Group, and the European Council on Foreign Relations. Robert Cooper is a visiting professor at LSE IDEAS.
Contributor(s): Professor Philip Kasinitz, Professor Michael Keith, Rob Berkeley, Tim Finch, Professor Sharon Zukin | Increasingly, a strand of political conservatism depicts migration in terms of depleting assets. This event brings together leading experts to explore more productive avenues for engaging with global urbanisation and migration. Philip Kasinitz is professor of sociology at City University, New York. Michael Keith is director of the Centre of Migration, Policy and Social Change at the University of Oxford. Rob Berkeley is director of the Runnymede Trust. Tim Finch is director of communications at IPPR. Sharon Zukin is professor of sociology at City University, New York; she and Philip Kasinitz lead the Transnational Streets project.
Contributor(s): Dr Heba Raouf Ezzat, Professor Marlies Glasius, Dr Armine Ishkanian | The speakers shall examine the recent pro-democracy and anti-austerity movements which have become sites for political action, resistance, and solidarity. They shall consider the transnational diffusion, local specificities, and the wider impact of protests on political and policy developments. Marlies Glasius is professor of international relations at the Department of Politics, University of Amsterdam. Heba Raouf Ezzat is assistant professor at the Department of Political Science, Cairo University. Armine Ishkanian is lecturer in NGOs and development at the Department of Social Policy, LSE.
Contributor(s): Professor Catherine Merridale | The extraordinary story of one of the most significant, mysterious and emblematic buildings in Russian history – the Kremlin. Part citadel, part holy shrine, the Kremlin has been Russia’s heart for centuries, a metaphor for the eternal state. Catherine Merridale explores its story and the secret world behind the myths. As she discovers, the Kremlin still stars in official fables about government in Russia, and though the stories are romantic - even seductive - we will only understand the true nature of politics when we see them for what they are. Catherine Merridale is the author of Night of Stone: Death and Memory in Russia, which won the Heinemann Prize for Literature and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, as well as Moscow Politics and the Rise of Stalin and Ivan’s War: The Red Army, 1939-1945. Her latest book is Red Fortress: The Secret Heart of Russia’s History.
Contributor(s): David Blunkett MP, Richard Gordon QC, Carol Harlow, Dr Lea Ypi | The UK has no constitution written down in one document. Instead it has laws, conventions, practices, activities scattered all over the place that constitutional lawyers gather together and describe as the UK constitution. In a unique project, LSE's Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) and Department of Law are coming together with the LSE Public Policy Group and LSE Democratic Audit to pioneer the crowdsourcing of a new UK constitution to ask members of the public to participate in, advise on and eventually to draft a new UK constitution. Join an expert panel to have your say on what should be included and to create this important new document. David Blunkett is a British Labour Party politician and the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, having represented Sheffield Brightside from 1987 to 2010. Richard Gordon is a barrister at Brick Court Chambers and is widely recognised as one of the leading silks in Constitutional Law, Administrative and Public Law, and Human Rights/Civil Liberties. Increasingly, he is recommended in judicial review for EU and Competition Law cases. Carol Harlow is emeritus professor of law at LSE. She is Queens Counsel (honoris causa) (1996); Fellow and Council Member of the British Academy (1999, 2004); Fellow of the London School of Economics (2005); Emeritus Member of Society of Legal Scholars (2005). She was awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship in 2002. Dr Lea Ypi is a Lecturer in Political Theory in the Government Department, London School of Economics, and Adjunct Professor in Philosophy at the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University.
Contributor(s): Professor Tim Crane | What does it mean to exist? This lecture will address this question by contrasting things that exist with things that do not. Tim Crane is Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge.
Contributor(s): Professor Mariana Mazzucato | Government spending has a higher multiplier when that spending is 'directed' towards large missions. Whether this was putting 'a man on the moon' in the past, or tackling 'climate change' in the future, such missions require a strong intervention by government, beyond the usual justification tied to 'public goods' and 'externalities' (fixing market failures). The talk will consider the implications of mission oriented investments for understanding the role of the state in the economy, how to develop symbiotic (not parasitic) public-private partnerships, and how to judge the performance of state intervention beyond the crowding out-crowding framework. Mariana Mazzucato is an economist, and holds the RM Phillips Chair in Science and Technology Policy at the University of Sussex (SPRU). Her work focuses on the relationship between financial markets, innovation and economic growth, and is currently funded by the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), the Ford Foundation and the European Commission. Her book The Entrepreneurial State: debunking private vs. public sector myths has been called 'heretical' by Forbes.
Contributor(s): Professor Madawi Al-Rasheed | Professor Al-Rasheed will introduce her new book and discuss the ‘question of women’ in Saudi Arabia in light of the interconnection between state, religion and society.
Contributor(s): Richard Nesbitt | Richard Nesbitt is chief operating officer, CIBC. In this role, he is responsible for the global operations of Wholesale Banking, Technology and Operations, Strategy and Corporate Development, CIBC's International Operations, including CIBC First Caribbean International Bank, and Treasury. Mr Nesbitt joined CIBC in 2008 following his more than 20 years of experience in the securities industry. From 2004 to 2008 he was chief executive officer of TSX Group having joined TSX as president of TSX Markets in 2001. Prior to joining the company in 2001, Mr Nesbitt served as president and chief operating officer of BayStreetDirect Inc., an internet based investment dealer. Before that, Mr Nesbitt was president and chief executive officer of HSBC Securities Canada for three years, after having worked for 10 years at CIBC Wood Gundy. He has also worked with Mobil Oil Canada Ltd for five years and spent two years as a lecturer at the University of Western Ontario, Richard Ivey School of Business. Mr Nesbitt holds a MSc in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics and Political Science, an MBA from the University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management and a BA (Honours) in Business Administration from The University of Western Ontario, Richard Ivey School of Business. Mr Nesbitt is an Advisory Committee member on the Women in Capital Markets Advisory Council, chair of the Finance Committee for Pan Am Games 2015, chair of the Rotman School of Management - Financial Services Advisory Board and a member of the SickKids Foundation Board of Directors and the London School of Economics, North American Advisory Board.
Contributor(s): Dave Trott | In this lecture Dave Trott will explain how to out think the competition, and how to use creativity to get upstream and redefine a problem you can’t solve into one you can. Dave Trott is currently chairman of The Gate London. Part of The Gate worldwide, it has offices in New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Edinburgh and Dublin. As part of the creative team behind ‘Hello Tosh Gotta Toshiba’, ‘Ariston and on and on', the Cadburys Flake ads and many more, Dave’s former agency Gold Greenlees Trott was voted Agency of the Year by Campaign Magazine, and Most Creative Agency in the World by Ad Age in New York. In 2004 he was given the D&AD President’s Award for lifetime achievement in advertising. He is author of Predatory Thinking: a masterclass in outwitting the competition.
Contributor(s): Professor Naila Kabeer | The Millennium Declaration, signed by over 180 world leaders at the start of the new millennium, committed the international community to targeted achievements on a number of goals by 2015. Along with poverty reduction and human development, these goals included gender equality and women's empowerment. Now, as we draw closer to 2015, there have been worldwide consultations on what will replace the MDG agenda. This lecture will focus on the gender politics of this process: the gender text, and sub-text, of the goals themselves, the extent to which gender advocates and activists were involved in the formulation of the goals, how the goals relate to previous gender-related commitments of the international community, including the Beijing Platform for Action and the Vienna Declaration on human rights and what has been achieved so far. It will conclude by examining how feminist organisations are seeking to influence the post-MDG agenda. Naila Kabeer joins the Gender Institute in October 2013 as professor of Gender and Development. Prior to this, Professor Kabeer has been professor of Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and professorial fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex where she worked for many years. She has also worked as a senior research fellow at the Department for International Development, UK between 2009-2010. She was the Kerstin Hesselgren Professor at the University of Goteberg, Sweden in 2004-2005 and senior sabaticant with IDRC Regional Office in South Asia in 2005-2006. Her research interests include gender, poverty, social exclusion, labour markets and livelihoods, social protection and citizenship and much of her research has focused on South Asia. Her publications include Reversed realities: gender hierarchies in development thought, The power to choose: Bangladeshi women and labour supply decision-making in London and Dhaka and, more recently, Gender and social protection in the informal economy. She has carried out extensive training and advisory work with national and international NGOs (including Oxfam, ActionAid, Women for Women International, BRAC, PRADAN and Nijera Kori) as well as for a number of international development agencies (including the UNDP, UNICEF, World Bank, SIDA, NORAD and UN Women). She is currently on advisory editorial committee for the journals Feminist Economics, Development and Change and Gender and Development and she is also on the board of the Feminist Review Trust.
Contributor(s): Christopher Schroeder | The west has one narrative around the Middle East based on political instability and sectarian unrest. In parallel, and little understood, a new generation has come of age in the region, as around the globe, never knowing a world without technology. While these tools of connection, collaboration and innovation have changed the political dynamics on the ground, a second revolution is happening in parallel. Young entrepreneurs are starting companies by the thousands, creating solutions to local and regional problems, and building world-class competitive products and services. They are, in fact, taking control of their economic futures from the bottom up. Schroeder will share the stories of some of these startups, and describe the broader ecosystem challenges and opportunities changing in the Middle East. And he will show that as we move to a world -- within a decade -- of five billion people accessing broadband, the Middle East is a lens into a massive shift we should all be engaging in now.
Contributor(s): Tim Harford | A million readers bought The Undercover Economist to get the lowdown on how economics works on a small scale, in our everyday lives. Since then, economics has become big news. Crises, austerity, riots, bonuses – all are in the headlines all the time. But how does this large-scale economic world really work? What would happen if we cancelled everyone’s debt? How do you create a job? Will the BRIC countries take over the world? Asking - among many other things - what the future holds for the Euro, why the banks are still paying record bonuses and where government borrowing will take us, in The Undercover Economist Strikes Back, Tim Harford returns with his trademark clarity and wit to explain what’s really going on - and what it means for us all. Tim Harford is a senior columnist for the Financial Times and the presenter of Radio 4’s More or Less and Pop-Up Economics With Tim Harford. He was the winner of the Bastiat Prize for economic journalism in 2006, and More or Less was commended for excellence in journalism by the Royal Statistical Society in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Harford lives in Oxford with his wife and three children, and is a visiting fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. His other books include The Undercover Economist, The Logic of Life and Adapt.
Contributor(s): Martin Howe QC, Professor Philip Leach, Caroline Lucas MP, Emily Thornberry MP, Professor Alan Sked | On the 60th anniversary of the entry into force of the European Convention on Human Rights, a panel of politicians and experts consider, what has the ECHR ever done for us? Is it a vital outside check on the way those in power treat the people they govern, or an unwelcome and undemocratic interference in domestic affairs? Is the court an overloaded and inefficient machine, or a victim of its own success? Is the effect to prioritise the rights of the few at the expense of the interests of the many, or the realisation of a post-war commitment to the value of all human beings? What does UK positioning on ECHR membership mean for those outside our borders? In light of senior Conservative members of the UK government canvassing the possibility of the UK leaving the Convention, this ‘Question Time’-style event will give audience members the chance to grill the panel on whether Churchill’s legacy has passed its use-by date or remains just as vital today as it was sixty years ago.
Contributor(s): including Camila Batmanghelidjh, Commander Matt Bell, Professor Stephen Briggs, Charlotte Cecil, Professor Leon Feinstein, Frank Field MP, Dr Ernest Gralton, Sharon Hodgson MP, Professor Sandra Jovchelovitch, Professor Corinne May-Chahal | A one day conference to launch LSE research into the model of work used by Kids Company and to discuss what really makes a difference for vulnerable children. Camila Batmanghelidjh CBE is the founder and CEO of Kids Company. She was joined by Professor Sandra Jovchelovitch from the Department of Social Psychology at LSE, as well as senior academics, consultants, and researchers from UCL and elsewhere.
Contributor(s): including Camila Batmanghelidjh, Commander Matt Bell, Professor Stephen Briggs, Charlotte Cecil, Professor Leon Feinstein, Frank Field MP, Dr Ernest Gralton, Sharon Hodgson MP, Professor Sandra Jovchelovitch, Professor Corinne May-Chahal | A one day conference to launch LSE research into the model of work used by Kids Company and to discuss what really makes a difference for vulnerable children. Camila Batmanghelidjh CBE is the founder and CEO of Kids Company. She was joined by Professor Sandra Jovchelovitch from the Department of Social Psychology at LSE, as well as senior academics, consultants, and researchers from UCL and elsewhere.
Contributor(s): including Camila Batmanghelidjh, Commander Matt Bell, Professor Stephen Briggs, Charlotte Cecil, Professor Leon Feinstein, Frank Field MP, Dr Ernest Gralton, Sharon Hodgson MP, Professor Sandra Jovchelovitch, Professor Corinne May-Chahal | A one day conference to launch LSE research into the model of work used by Kids Company and to discuss what really makes a difference for vulnerable children. Camila Batmanghelidjh CBE is the founder and CEO of Kids Company. She was joined by Professor Sandra Jovchelovitch from the Department of Social Psychology at LSE, as well as senior academics, consultants, and researchers from UCL and elsewhere.
Contributor(s): Robin Burgess, Abhijit Banerjee, Dean Karlan and Mushtaque Chowdhury | Robin Burgess, Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Abhijit Banerjee, Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology led a discussion regarding Transforming the Economic Lives of the Ultrapoor. Chaired by Oriana Bandiera (LSE), Burgess and Banerjee were joined by two discussants: Dean Karlan (Yale University) and Mushtaque Chowdhury (BRAC).
Contributor(s): Paul Collier, Antonio Estache, Keith Palmer | Paul Collier (Co-Director, Centre for the Study of African Economies and Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford) will be speaking on the topic of Financing Infrastructure Investment in Africa. Antonio Estache (European Centre for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics) and Keith Palmer (InfraCo and Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund) will act as discussants. Tony Venables (Oxford) will chair the session.
Contributor(s): Trevor Manuel, Professor Francesco Caselli | This public lecture is part of Growth Week 2013 which takes place at LSE from 23-25 September organised by the International Growth Centre. There will be two further public lectures featuring Professor Paul Collier and Professor Abhijit Banerjee. More information about these can be found at Growth Week 2013. Trevor Manuel, current minister in the Presidency and head of the South African National Planning Commission will be speaking on the opening night of Growth Week. Trevor Manuel was the South African minister of finance from 1996-2009 during the presidencies of Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe. He was a member of the ANC's National Executive Committee from 1991 to 2012. Among many international posts, he has chaired the International Monetary Fund's Development Committee, served as special envoy for Development Finance for UN Secretaries-General Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-Moon, and served on the Commission for Africa and the task team on Global Public Goods. In 2011 he became a co-chair of the Transitional Committee of the Green Climate Fund, a UN fund to help poorer nations combat and adapt to climate change. Mr Manuel has received numerous honorary doctorates and awards, being named Africa Finance Minister of the Year in 2007. Francesco Caselli is the Norman Sosnow Professor of Economics at LSE.
Contributor(s): Ertharin Cousin | Conflict and insecurity present a growing challenge to humanitarian agencies as they strive to reach those in need of food assistance. Access is vital if lives are going to be saved and children are to be given the nutritional support they need to thrive. In a world of increasingly complex emergencies, shifting allegiances and fluid frontlines, there is an even greater risk that some communities may be left beyond the reach of the agencies that are there to help. Ertharin Cousin is the executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, the world’s largest humanitarian organisation. Last year, WFP provided food assistance to more than 97 million people in 80 countries. Ertharin is an exceptional advocate for improving the lives of hungry people worldwide, and travels extensively to raise awareness of food insecurity and chronic malnutrition.
Contributor(s): Richard Kozul-Wright, Professor Robert Wade | The Trade and Development Report 2013 contends that to achieve durable and inclusive growth, developing and transition economies will need to move towards a new form of development, away from a focus on net-export advantages which depend on exploiting on global imbalances and towards strengthening domestic demand and expanding regional and South-South economic linkages. Richard Kozul-Wright is a senior UN economist heading the unit on Economic Integration and Cooperation Among Developing Countries in UNCTAD. He was previously in charge of the World Economic and Social Survey in UNDESA, New York. He has worked in New York and Geneva on a number of annual flagship publications including The World Investment Report, The Trade and Development Report, the Report on Economic Development in Africa and The World Economic Situation and Prospects. He holds a Ph.D in economics from the University of Cambridge. He has published extensively on economic issues including, inter alia, in the Economic Journal, the Cambridge Journal of Economics, The Journal of Development Studies, and the Oxford Review of Economic Policy. His latest book is The Resistible Rise of Market Fundamentalism (with Paul Rayment) for Zed Press. He has also edited volumes on Transnational Corporations and the Global Economy (Macmillan), Economic Insecurity and Development (United Nations Press) and Climate Protection and Development (Bloomsbury). He has written more popular pieces on economics and development for the Guardian and other newspapers. Robert Wade is professor of Political Economy and Development in the Department of International Development at LSE. He has worked at the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, 1972-95; the World Bank, 1984-88; the Princeton Woodrow Wilson School 1989/90; MIT Sloan School 1992; and Brown University 1996-2000. He was a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton 1992/93; the Russell Sage Foundation 1997/98; and the Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin 2000/01. He is the author of Irrigation and Politics in South Korea (1982), Village Republics: The Economic Conditions of Collective Action in India (1988, 1994), Governing the Market: Economic Theory and the Role of Government in East Asia's Industrialization (1990, 2003). He won the American Political Science Association's award of Best Book in Political Economy, 1992. Established in 1964, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development promotes the development-friendly integration of developing countries into the world economy. UNCTAD has progressively evolved into an authoritative knowledge-based institution whose work aims to help shape current policy debates and thinking on development, with a particular focus on ensuring that domestic policies and international action are mutually supportive in bringing about sustainable development.
Contributor(s): Felipe Larraín Bascuñán | Since March 2010, Felipe Larraín Bascuñán is the minister of Finance of the Government of President Sebastián Piñera. He has a PhD (1985) and Master of Arts (1983) in Economics from Harvard University, and Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Universidad Católica de Chile (1981). He has been a professor of Economics at Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago, where he previously served as Associate and Assistant Professor. From 1997 to 2002 he was affiliated to Harvard University, first as the Robert F. Kennedy Visiting Professor of Latin American Studies (1997-99), then as Faculty fellow (1999-2002). Since 1985, he has served as economic advisor to several American governments, including Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela. Felipe Larraín has been a consultant on macroeconomic issues to the United Nations, the World Bank, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Inter-American Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He is the editor and author of ten books, including: Macroeconomics in the Global Economy, co-authored with Professor Jeffrey Sachs, (Prentice Hall:New Jersey; Harvester Wheatsheaf: London, 1993), which has been translated into Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
Contributor(s): Philip Coggan | In The Last Vote, Philip Coggan shows how democracy today faces threats that we ignore at our own risk. Amid the turmoil of the financial crisis, high debt levels, and an ever-growing gap between the richest and the rest, it is easy to forget that the ultimate victim could be our democracy itself. Tracing democracy's history and development, from the classical world through the revolution of the Enlightenment and on to today, Coggan revisits the assumptions on which it is founded. What exactly is democracy? Why should we value it? What are its flaws? And could we do any better? The Last Vote is a wake-up call, and an illuminating defence of a system, which, in Churchill's words, is the worst possible form of government, except for all the others. He proposes ideas for change and improvement to the system itself so the next vote we cast will not be the last. Philip Coggan was a Financial Times journalist for over twenty years, and is now the Buttonwood columnist for the Economist. In 2009 he was named Senior Financial Journalist in the Harold Wincott awards and was voted Best Communicator at the Business Journalist of the Year Awards. He is the author of The Money Machine, and Paper Promises, winner of the Spears Business Book of the Year Award and long listed for the Financial Times Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.
Contributor(s): Peter Blair Henry | Thirty years ago, China seemed hopelessly mired in poverty, Mexico triggered the Third World Debt Crisis, and Brazil suffered under hyperinflation. Since then, these and other developing countries have turned themselves around, while First World nations, battered by crises, depend more than ever on sustained growth in emerging markets. In Turnaround, economist Peter Blair Henry argues that the secret to emerging countries’ success (and ours) is discipline—sustained commitment to a pragmatic growth strategy. With the global economy teetering on the brink, the stakes are higher than ever. And because stakes are so high for all nations, we need less polarization and more focus on facts to answer the fundamental question: which policy reforms, implemented under what circumstances, actually increase economic efficiency? Pushing past the tired debates, Henry shows that the stock market’s forecasts of policy impact provide an important complement to traditional measures. Through examples ranging from the drastic income disparity between Barbados and his native Jamaica to the “catch up” economics of China and the taming of inflation in Latin America, Henry shows that in much of the emerging world the policy pendulum now swings toward prudence and self--control. With similar discipline and a dash of humility, he concludes, the First World may yet recover and create long--term prosperity for all its citizens. Peter Blair Henry is the dean of New York University’s Stern School of Business and former professor of International Economics at Stanford University. In 2008, he led Barack Obama’s Presidential Transition Team in its review of international lending agencies such as the IMF and World Bank. A member of the board of the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Kraft Foods Group, Peter received his PhD in economics from MIT and Bachelor’s degrees from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and the University of North Carolina, where he was a Morehead Scholar and a finalist in the 1991 campus--wide slam dunk competition. Born in Jamaica, Peter became a US citizen in 1986.