Contributor(s): Dr Guru Madhavan | Our world is filled with pernicious problems. How, for example, did novice pilots learn to fly without taking to the air and risking their lives? How should cities process mountains of waste without polluting the environment? Challenges that tangle personal, public, and planetary aspects―often occurring in health care, infrastructure, business, and policy―are known as wicked problems, and they are not going away anytime soon.

Contributor(s): Professor Lawrence Lessig | In this lecture, Lawrence Lessig will discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on the 2024 American election, and the implications that this will have for democracy in the future.

Contributor(s): Professor Larry Kramer | Join us for the inaugural lecture of LSE President and Vice Chancellor of LSE Larry Kramer in which he will talk about his vision for LSE, the role of the social sciences in a changing world and our place in the 21st Century. Larry Kramer has been President and Vice Chancellor of LSE since April 2024. A constitutional scholar, university administrator, and philanthropic leader, he was previously the President of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Dean of Stanford Law School. Conor Gearty is Professor of Human Rights Law in the LSE Law School. He was Director of LSE’s Centre for the Study of Human Rights (2002-2009) and has been Professor of human rights law at the Law School since 2002. In 2012 he became Director of LSE’s Institute of Public Affairs. He has published widely on terrorism, civil liberties and human rights. Conor is also a barrister and was a founder member of Matrix chambers from where he continues to practise.

Contributor(s): Professor Rebecca Katz | This public event will describe the state of global health security, global governance of disease and the policy epidemiology framework used in the Analysis and Mapping of Policies for Emerging Infectious Diseases project. We will describe the importance of evidence-based decision making for responding to epidemic and pandemic threats and how to translate researcher findings for decision makers.

Contributor(s): Alexandra Chesterfield, Elisabeth Costa, Professor Oliver Hauser, Dr Dario Krpan, Professor Susan Michie, Professor Robert West | Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming various aspects of behavioural science. For example, AI-driven models are being used to predict human behaviour and decision-making, and to design personalized behavioural interventions. AI can also be used to generate artificial research participants on whom behavioural interventions can be tested instead of on humans. AI is creating many new opportunities and challenges in behavioural science, disrupting the discipline to the degree that researchers, practitioners, and any behavioural science enthusiasts are trying to keep up with the new developments and understand how to best navigate the rapidly changing landscape. In this public event, speakers who are associated with pioneering work on AI in relation to behavioural science, as part of their own research or organisational initiatives, will discuss their views on how AI will change and is already changing behavioural science. This will involve touching upon topics such as the implications of AI for behavioural scientists in academia, public, and private sectors, new skills that will be required by behavioural scientists of the future, and impact on behavioural science education.

Contributor(s): Professor Sir John Curtice, Professor Anand Menon, Professor Paula Surridge | Has Labour’s election marked a real turning point?This is a thought-provoking event as we provide an early assessment of the new Labour government’s actions and goals.

Contributor(s): Professor Eric Maskin, Professor Amartya Sen, Dr Suzanne Bloks, Professor Richard Bradley, Rudolf Fara | As authoritarianism and political violence threaten democracies throughout the world at levels not seen since the 1930s, attacks on free and fair elections are rife. Democracy is about choice, and achieving a legitimate democratic system of government relies on making representative social choices. Join us to find out about VoteDemocracy, which is a new global education initiative featuring a comprehensive course on the central role of voting in democracy. In support of the new project, Nobel Laureates Amartya Sen and Eric Maskin address core democratic principles. Professor Sen revisits the foundational ‘rule by the people’ with his talk, Democracy—Why, and Why Not? Professor Maskin offers an electoral prescription in response to his topic, How Should Members of Parliament (and Congress) be Elected?

Contributor(s): Hashi Mohamed, Dr. Aaron Reeves, Professor Lauren Rivera, Dr Faiza Shaheen | In Aaron Reeves and Sam Friedman’s new book, which they launch at this event, they provide a uniquely data-rich analysis of the British elite from the Victorian era to today: who gets in, how they get there, what they like and look like, where they go to school, and what politics they perpetuate.Think of the British elite and familiar caricatures spring to mind. But are today’s power brokers a conservative chumocracy, born to privilege and anointed at Eton and Oxford? Or is a new progressive elite emerging with different values and political instincts? Aaron Reeves and Sam Friedman combed through a trove of data in search of an answer, scrutinizing the profiles, interests, and careers of over 125,000 members of the British elite from the late 1890s to today. At the heart of this meticulously researched study is the historical database of Who’s Who, but the authors also mined genealogical records, examined probate data, and interviewed over 200 leading figures from a wide range of backgrounds and professions to uncover who runs Britain, how they think, and what they want.

Contributor(s): Rory Stewart, Professor James Walters | While religion continues to be perceived as of diminishing significance by many in Western Europe, religious nationalisms are on the rise around the world and the religious dimensions of many conflicts are becoming more pronounced. While the early twenty-first century focused on political Islam, we now see new political formations across all the world’s faith traditions, as well as new faith-based initiatives to engage more constructively with global issues such as conflict and climate change. Rory Stewart – academic, podcaster and former politician – will share his perspectives on why this happening and what can be done about it, in this conversation with James Walters, founding director of LSE Faith Centre, chaired by LSE's Mukulika Banerjee.

Contributor(s): Nils Gilman, Dr Ganga Shreedhar, Professor Karen E Smith | Deadly viruses, climate-changing carbon molecules, and harmful pollutants across the globe are unimpeded by national borders. While the consequences of these flows range across scales, from the planetary to the local, the authority and resources to manage them are concentrated mainly at one level: the nation-state. This profound mismatch between the scale of planetary challenges and the institutions tasked with governing them is leading to cascading systemic failures. Join us for this event featuring Nils Gilman, co-author of a new book, Children of a Modest Star: Planetary Thinking for an Age of Crises. Drawing on intellectual history, political philosophy, and the holistic findings of Earth system science, Children of a Modest Star argues that it is essential to reimagine our governing institutions - we can only thrive if the multi-species ecosystems we inhabit are also flourishing. Using this book as the basis for discussion, our panellists will examine dominant ways of thinking about humanity's relationship to the planet, and explore a new architecture for global governance, to enable the habitability of the Earth for humans and non-humans alike.

Contributor(s): Matt Blakemore, Richard Nesbitt, Carolyn Scott, Reshma Shaikh, Noa Srebrnik | This event will navigate the complexities of AI implementation in the workplace and examine how these technologies are being developed to benefit society while challenging traditional work experiences. The event will feature conversations on the latest advancements, challenges, and ethical considerations in AI development, emphasising reducing bias and supporting diverse communities. Participants can interact with panellists during a Q&A session, fostering a deeper understanding of how AI can drive positive change.

Contributor(s): Ed Conway, Dr Kamala Dawar, David Henderson, James Wallace | We have a growing waste problem, which has been around for some time and is only getting worse. Dumping of sewage is threatening the health of our rivers. Plastics have penetrated deep into the world’s oceans. Leakages from landfills, farming and industry are contaminating our soil and groundwater. Waste pollution harms public health, biodiversity and the environment. To address it, we need new laws and huge investments. There has been much recent controversy in the UK around Sewage in Our Waters. New laws would have to specify who has the responsibility of undertaking the transition and the investments – water companies, producers, consumers or governments? Preventing transboundary waste flows would require international action to plug loopholes in domestic laws and international conventions.

Contributor(s): Professor Luis Garicano, Professor Maisa Rojas Corradi, Professor Catherine Wolfram | Trade and climate change policies have become increasingly interwoven. Subsidies for green industries often provoke tariffs, such as US actions over Chinese solar panels and electric vehicles. The European Union’s Emission Trading System (ETS) has set an increasingly high price on carbon emissions. But if high emission industries like steel, simply relocate and European consumers then buy the imported steel, this “carbon leakage” undermines the original policy. To tackle this problem, the European Union has introduced the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) which seeks to tax such imports to prevent carbon leakage – and to encourage other countries to also introduce carbon taxes. The UK is planning the same. But many countries are unhappy, claiming this is simply disguised protectionism.

Contributor(s): Dr Jonathan Leape | Large investments are needed to confront climate change. Current levels are far below what is required. Bridging this investment gap rests on harnessing both public and private climate finance. Yet, accessing and effectively using these funds presents substantial challenges, especially in developing countries. Innovative market solutions could help. Markets can be useful because climate change is a global commons problem and different countries have different abilities to reduce emissions. What is missing is a link between those who wish to and can pay for reducing emissions and those who have opportunities to do so. These challenges are amplified in low and middle income countries which grapple with limited institutional capacity and complex international finance frameworks. Strict eligibility requirements and cumbersome application processes further complicate access to vital financial resources, exacerbating disparities between promised and actual funds disbursed, leaving many communities without necessary support for climate adaptation and mitigation initiatives.

Contributor(s): Professor Esther Duflo, Elizabeth Lewis Channon, Khari Motayne, Professor Sir Christopher Pissarides | While there are always rumours about who might win a Nobel Prize every year, there is no short list for the globally revered academic awards. This means that winning one always comes as a complete surprise. In this episode of LSE iQ, we explore what it’s like to win the prestigious prize and how it changes your life. The Nobel Prizes were established in 1900 at the behest of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish Chemist, Inventor and Industrialist, known in particular for his invention of dynamite. In his will he stated that his fortune was to be used to reward those who have made the most significant contributions to humanity. The prizes would recognise achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. The prize for economics would come much later in 1968. The prizes are awarded in October every year. Sue Windebank and Charlotte Kelloway talk to two Nobel Laureates, Professor Esther Duflo and Sir Christopher Pissarides, as well as to the family of the first black person to win the Nobel Prize in Economics, Sir Arthur Lewis.   Contributors Professor Esther Duflo Elizabeth Lewis Channon Khari Motayne Sir Christopher Pissarides   Research Professor Esther Duflo published papers Sir Christopher Pissarides published papers Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour , Manchester School, by Sir W. Arthur Lewis The theory of economic growth, University Books, by Sir W. Arthur Lewis  

Contributor(s): Professor Susan Athey | Digital interventions are well-suited for social impact applications because they are relatively inexpensive to develop and update, they can be targeted to meet the needs of individuals, and they are highly scalable. This talk will review several recent implementations of digital technology to social impact applications, including childhood literacy, programs to enable career transitions and demonstrate skills, and digital assistants that help workers and service providers be more effective. In each case, a new digital product was developed and evaluated in the field. The evidence shows that the interventions work better for some types of individuals than others, illustrating the importance of targeting interventions where they are most effective.

Contributor(s): Nina Rousille, Camille Landais, Jane Garvey | This episode of LSE iQ explores whether gender pay gap reporting, pay transparency and tackling gender norms can reduce the gender pay gap. On average across the globe, for every pound earned by a man, a woman earns around 80 pence, according to a 2023 report from the United Nations. But despite huge advances in access to education, the labour market, and the introduction of the UK Equality Act of 2010, which guarantees equal pay for men and women doing equal work, those figures have pretty much remained the same for the past two decades. Still, the gender pay gap - the difference between the average earnings of men and women - endures. So, how can we solve it? Anna Bevan talks to broadcaster Jane Garvey about the impact of gender pay gap reporting and what happened to her after the BBC was forced to publish its gender pay gap report. She also speaks to Nina Rousille, the Executive Director of LSE’s Hub for Equal Representation and Assistant Professor of Economics at MIT, about the role of the Ask Gap and pay transparency, and Camille Landais, Professor of Economics at LSE about the Child Penalty.   Research The Role of the Ask Gap in Gender Pay Inequality by Nina Rousille The Child Penalty by Camille Landais, Henrik Kleven and Gabriel Leite-Mariante

Contributor(s): Dimitri Zenghelis, Dr Philipp Rode, Professor Elizabeth Robinson | They will also examine the role climate change has played in the election and if the plans made by the main political parties deliver sufficiently to what the next Government could and should do.

Contributor(s): Professor Wendy Thomson, Professor Andrew Street, Professor Nicholas Barr | They review the stances of each party and how they’ve shaped their campaigns to what the next Government needs to do to address them.

Contributor(s): Professor Andrés Velasco, Dr Mukulika Banerjee, Professor Chris Anderson | In addition to the UK election, our experts weigh in on the future of liberal democracies. 

Contributor(s): Dr Laura Serra, Elinor Goodman, Professor Tim Bale | Our experts provide insight and analysis on the night. 

Contributor(s): Professor Iain Begg, Professor Michael Cox, Professor Stephanie Rickard, Professor Peter Trubowitz | They explore rising global tensions and defence spending to the outcome of the next US election, and the future of our relationship with the EU and potential outcomes of the French elections.

Contributor(s): Professor Sir Tim Besley, Professor Richard Davies, Eshe Nelson | They explore the pressure on public finances (from the likelihood of future tax rises or spending cuts) to each stance the parties have taken and whether they've accounted the coming fiscal challenges, to what the next Government could and should do next.

Contributor(s): Dr Nick Anstead, Professor Helen Margetts, Professor Julie Posetti | They explore the difference between this election in 2024 and previous ones with regard using AI and what the next Government should do (if anything) to protect the democratic process.

Contributor(s): Ruchir Sharma | Sharma says progressive youth are partly right and that capitalism has morphed into “socialism for the very rich.” The broader issue, however, is socialised risk for the poor, the middle class and the rich; government is trying to guarantee that no one ever suffers economic pain by borrowing heavily to prevent recessions, extend recoveries, and generate endless growth. The result is rapidly rising debt and declining competition. 

Contributor(s): Zaneta Sedilikova, Cynthia Hanawalt, Professor Harro van Asselt, Dr Joana Setzer, Catherine Higham | Activist groups and civil society organisations continue to play a pivotal role in leveraging climate litigation to shape climate governance. Central to many of these cases is the use of human rights arguments to hold governments and corporations accountable for inadequate action on climate issues. The report's authors share their insights and discuss with experts on the latest trends in climate change litigation.

Contributor(s): Salman Usmani, Professor Alpa Shah, Ross Holder | Amidst the surge of global authoritarianism, how do we protect the freedom of speech and the freedom of dissent that is crucial for democracy? What is the role of global financial institutions and regimes in the crackdown on dissent in faraway places? What role do international human rights organisations, cultural spaces and educational institutions have in protecting the spaces of democracy globally? 

Contributor(s): Dr Maël Lavenaire, Leah Eryenyu, Professor Neil Cummins | Politics of power and wealth have had a huge impact on the structuring of inequalities across the globe. As the racial and ethnic inequalities that we see today stem from centuries of discrimination and marginalisation, in order to tackle them, we will need to understand how they have been embedded in the very structures of our societies. 

Contributor(s): Dr Grace Lordan | Recently there has been a surge in popular voices in social media stating that DEI is bad for business. There has also been a significant reduction in investment in diversity and inclusion by some of the world’s largest firms.

Contributor(s): Ros Taylor, Dr Laura Gilbert, Rafael Behr | Trust (in media, institutions, politics and democracy) is widely reported to be in decline, but how important is it for a functioning society and why? What’s the relationship between trust and power?

Contributor(s): Professor Naila Kabeer, Phillip Hensher, Monica Ali | How can an author bring out the stories and voices buried in their research to deliver the impact they are hoping for? And how should writers communicate experiences of power and oppression that are not their own? Whether embarking on a creative novel or an academic monograph, an author is faced with choices about the ways in which they tell their stories. 

Contributor(s): Iliana Sarafian, Rita Kahsay, Fatou Bensouda | Global legal frameworks to protect women in conflict have been agreed by all members of the UN Security Council. Yet evidence from around the world shows that violence against women, because they are women, remains very much a part of twenty first century warfare.

Contributor(s): Shirley Rodrigues, Jean-Louis Missika, Ciaran Cuffe, Dr Liam Beiser-McGrath | Cities are widely considered to be progressive bastions against the tide of populism and growth of right-wing movements across Europe. But recent election results show that cities are not immune to the divisive discourses surrounding the green transition. From Berlin to Barcelona to Oslo to London, green policies have developed into a central battleground in local politics, with initiatives such as 15-minute cities, low-traffic neighbourhoods, low emission zones and other attempts to reduce car dependency proving particularly contentious. How can urban leaders design and communicate policies in ways that reconcile concerns for the end of the month and concerns for the end of the world, and enable the transition towards more just and sustainable cities?

Contributor(s): Daria Zakharova, Professor Elli Leadbeater, Professor Jonathan Birch, Sam Beckbessinger | Human beings are part of a vast sentient world full of conscious creatures, and even those of us far away from centres of political power have immense influence over huge numbers of animal lives - influence which we can choose to exercise for good or ill. 

Contributor(s): Sadiqah Musa, Professor Neil Lawrence, Dr Chandrima Ganguly | Who is in charge of the algorithms and models that shape our future? 

Contributor(s): Professor Leslie Vinjamuri, Professor Helen Thompson, Gideon Rachman | Early hopes that Western democracies’ unified response to Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine would break the populist, anti-globalist fever have not been fulfilled. Instead, since the invasion, opponents of the liberal order have made deeper inroads in France, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, and elsewhere. Meanwhile, the possibility persists that Trump may return to the White House in 2025. 

Contributor(s): Professor Giles Atkinson, Dr Matthew Agarwala | Discover how to measure economic progress and sustainability with practical illustrations in this one-hour workshop by leading experts on measuring sustainable development, Giles Atkinson and Matthew Agarwala. Learn what is at the heart of this topic – “Beyond GDP” is easy to say, but what does it actually mean to move beyond Gross Domestic Product as the primary way that nations use to measure economic and social development? Find out how thinking about "nature as capital" is a key step in this journey and why, more generally, focusing on national and planetary wealth is a better guide to economic and social development prospects. Discover which countries and organisations are doing what to go “Beyond GDP” around the world. Begin to be able to distil a picture of whether national economies are sustainable, using a handful of available indicators.

Contributor(s): Sarah O'Connor, Professor Alan Manning, Professor Stephen Machin, Kate Bell | How much power should employers have over their workers’ lives? Most countries recognise that employer power needs to be curbed – with governments setting out legal requirements on minimum pay, maximum working hours and paid leave. And governments also intervene to curb worker power – ruling on trade union recognition, who can strike and under what conditions. But should governments intervene between employer and employee on matters such as sending out-of-hours emails, or on whether to pay bonuses?

Contributor(s): Professor Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, Dr Özge Öner, James Blagden | Recent EU research highlights a clear connection between stagnant growth within some European regions and their support for Eurosceptic parties, also suggesting that the longer the period of stagnation, the stronger the opposition to European integration.

Contributor(s): Professor Gerry Simpson, Dr Joana Setzer, Sir Howard Morrison KC, Professor Larry Kramer | There is a growing expectation for law and courts, whether domestic or international, to be remedies for international problems. Our panel explore the power of law and courts in the face of contemporary international challenges. 

Contributor(s): Professor Paul Collier | Left behind places can be found in prosperous countries — from South Yorkshire, integral to the industrial revolution and now England’s poorest county, to Barranquilla, once Colombia’s portal to the Caribbean and now struggling. More alarmingly, the poorest countries in the world are diverging further from the rest of humanity.

Contributor(s): Dr Nesrin Alrefaai, Professor Matthew Spangler | The new play 'A handful of lentils' by Dr Nesrin Alrefaai and Professor Matthew Spangler, focuses on the interaction between a Syrian refugee and a state official. They discuss how theatre plays a role in addressing life experiences during political upheaval.  

Contributor(s): Kerryn Krige, Dr Jonathan Roberts | You will learn five practical skills to challenge and reshape power dynamics: Understanding social problems Prioritising coproduction with communities and users Considering organisational design Leading systems change Building (and sometimes not building) market-based solutions

Contributor(s): Xiaolu Guo, Professor William A. Callahan, Dr Elena Barabantseva | Elena Barabantseva’s Chinese-Russian Group Wedding (5 min) explores the relations of these two superpowers through the intimate geopolitics of mixed-marriages, and William A. Callahan’s The Nose Knows (15min) traces how Chinese artists and officials have imagined foreigners in terms of their “big noses” both historically and up to the present day. The films challenge stereotypes by showing a multifaceted understanding of the UK and the world, exploring personal experience, foreign policy agendas, and artistic creativity through the eyes of different groups of Chinese people.

Contributor(s): Professor Andrew Murray | Learn the fundamentals of data regulation – how data is gathered and processed, held and stored according to the law Discuss how regulation supports opportunities for data use, and how regulation sets limitations on abuse or misuse of data Explore the latest legal developments including the Data Act and the AI Act Consolidate your understanding with the Q&A

Contributor(s): Professor Tony Travers | Devolution offers an opportunity to reshape where power resides in the UK. But after years of austerity, the impact of the pandemic, and the cost-of-living crisis, can it be made to work for our most deprived communities?

Contributor(s): Dr Bugra Susler, Dr Yolanda Spies, Professor Chris Alden | Now, as emerging global middle powers begin to assert their influence in their respective regions, and on the global stage, diverse perspectives on pressing global issues, spanning international conflicts to climate change, present various visions for the future of the international system. With recent elections in Turkey, and forthcoming voting in South Africa and the Western world (the UK, EU and the US), our panel will delve into the aspirations and perspectives of global middle powers, and will analyse the impact of their rise on the global order.

Contributor(s): Dr Clare Wenham, Professor Ken Shadlen, Dr Ulrich Sedelmeier, Dr Tine Hanrieder | They explore how power, politics and public opinion are affecting the next international pandemic response and preparedness, including the crucial question of access to vaccines and other medicines.

Contributor(s): Danny Sriskandarajah, Sam Richards, Eshe Nelson, Soumaya Keynes | The UK’s economy has waned in recent years – low growth and productivity coupled with rising inflation and poverty. Our panel explore how to respond. 

Contributor(s): Dr Kate Wright, Dr Damian Tambini, Alan Rusbridger | How did the Trump administration capture one of the world’s most important public service news networks, The Voice of America? How did the BBC, an exemplary public service broadcaster, end up being accused of bias towards the privileged and the ruling elites?  

Contributor(s): Dr Angus Wrenn, Professor Gordon Barrass | LSE Language Centre, in collaboration with the LSESU Drama Society, presents an evening of theatre and discussion, featuring Professor Gordon Barrass, a specialist on strategy assessment and perception.

Contributor(s): Dr Luc Schneider | Learn about the fundamental ingredients of any personal or professional decision Explore the evidence around how these ingredients inform the quality of the decision-making process Get actionable tips to implement and improve your own strategic decisions Consolidate your understanding with the Q&A

Contributor(s): Professor Olivier Blanchard | What are the prospects for inflation? Is the level of public debt now dangerous? And will commercial wars between nations blight our future?

Contributor(s): Bill Neely, Professor Sara Hobolt, Dr Mukulika Banerjee, Dr Nick Anstead | This year people around the world are going to the polls. What have been the surprises and takeaways from election results so far, and what is still to come?

Contributor(s): Professor Elizabeth Robinson, Kim Stanley Robinson | Kim Stanley Robinson is the Author of about twenty books, including the internationally bestselling Mars trilogy, and more recently Red Moon, New York 2140 and The Ministry for the Future and explores the political economy needed to cope with existential threats in his writing. 

Contributor(s): Professor Sara Hobolt, Dr Heather Grabbe, Tony Barber | The 2024 European Parliament elections promise to be a pivotal moment for the European Union. Polling suggests Eurosceptic parties could make large gains, fundamentally shifting the balance of power within the Parliament.

Contributor(s): Baroness Beeban Kidron | AI is poised to supercharge its impact on almost every aspect of economic, public and personal life. Tech leaders in Silicon Valley believe that AI poses an existential threat to humanity even as they enter an arms race to be ’the ruler of the world”. This year 50% of the world’s population go to the polls, without a single party offering a vision of how they will ride, contain or regulate the wave of change that AI will bring.

Contributor(s): Professor Jonathan Wolff, Professor Marc Stears, Professor Margaret Levi | Tim Besley, School Professor of Economics and Political Science and Director of the Programme on Cohesive Capitalism chairs our discussion on cohesion and capitalism. 

Contributor(s): Professor Debra Satz, Professor Sir Paul Collier | The first of two events to launch LSE’s new Programme on Cohesive Capitalism, a distinguished panel, chaired by LSE President and Vice Chancellor Larry Kramer.

Contributor(s): Professor Branko Milanovic | The book is a history of how economists across two centuries have thought about inequality, told through portraits of six key figures (François Quesnay, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, Vilfredo Pareto, and Simon Kuznets). “How do you see income distribution in your time, and how and why do you expect it to change?”

Contributor(s): Professor Paul Seabright | Religion in the twenty-first century is alive and well across the world, despite its apparent decline in North America and parts of Europe. Vigorous competition between and within religious movements has led to their accumulating great power and wealth.

Contributor(s): Dr Marc Stears, Tom Baldwin | Some politicians will talk of restoring an English birthright of liberty or the swashbuckling self-confidence to rule the waves. Others will yearn for the old-fashioned morality with which, they claim, England once civilised a savage world. Still will more look inwards to a story of an enchanted island that can stand alone and isolated against the world. But England - written by Tom Baldwin, the best-selling author of Keir Starmer's biography, and Marc Stears, influential think tank head - unravels seven myths that have provided so much ammunition for charlatans or culture warriors from both left and right. 

Contributor(s): Dr Christina Heatherton | She discusses how war, nationalism, and revolutionary nostalgia have confounded the development of an internationalist consciousness. In revisiting the radical theories and visions developed in an earlier era of global solidarity, she considers how we might now imagine otherwise.

Contributor(s): Dr Andrew Bailey | He discusses implications for the future of the Bank’s balance sheet.

Contributor(s): Dr Johannes Mahr, Dr Zafeirios Fountas, Dr Felipe De Brigard, Professor Nicola Clayton | From music to nostalgia, to recall your feelings of specific events is considered unique to humans. Yet other animals also share this function, though not in the same way. 

Contributor(s): Dr. Clive James Nwonka, Ann-Marie Cousins, Daniel De Simone | The panel explore the potential of contemporary investigative journalism practices in uncovering historical institutional failings and intervening in structural racial inequalities.

Contributor(s): Professor Ulises Ali Mejias, Professor Nick Couldry | Every time we click ‘Accept’ on Terms and Conditions, we allow our most personal information to be repackaged by Big Tech companies for their own profit. In this searing, cutting-edge guide, two leading global researchers – and leading proponents of the concept of data colonialism – reveal how history can help us both to understand the emerging future and to fight back.

Contributor(s): Elizabeth Ingleson, John Van Reenen, Ashley Tellis | A shining city on a hill. America the beautiful. The United States has long been mythologised as the land of dreams and opportunity. And since the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s it has been undisputedly the most powerful nation on earth. But is it a fading force? The idea of an America in decline has gained traction in recent years and has, of course, been capitalized on by President Trump. Is America’s ‘greatness’ under threat? In this episode of LSE iQ, a collaboration with the LSE Phelan US Centre's podcast, The Ballpark, Sue Windebank and Chris Gilson speak to LSE’s Elizabeth Ingleson and John Van Reenen and Ashley Tellis from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Contributors Elizabeth Ingleson John Van Reenen Ashley Tellis   Research Made in China: When US-China Interests Converged to Transform Global Trade by Elizabeth Ingleson The Fall of the Labor Share and the Rise of Superstar Firms by David Autor, David Dorn, Lawrence F Katz, Christina Patterson and John Van Reenen, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 2020. Revising U.S. Grand Strategy Toward China by Robert D. Blackwill and Ashley J. Tellis   LSE Phelan United States Centre: https://www.lse.ac.uk/United-States Listen to The Ballpark podcast: https://www.lse.ac.uk/united-states/the-ballpark/Podcasts; LSE Player, Spotify; Soundcloud Related interviews on The Ballpark with guests on this episode Dr Ashley Tellis - The Future of US-China Competition Dr Elizabeth Ingleson - Made in China: When US-China Interests Converged to Transform Global Trade    

Contributor(s): Professor Maria Sobolewska, Dr Elizabeth Simon, Professor Jonathan Hopkin | Is the level of education now becoming a central political cleavage? And is it displacing long-established cleavages like social class?

Contributor(s): Professor Anat R Admati | Professor Anat Admati explores how the banking system can be made safer and healthier, exposing the shortcomings of current policies and revealing how the dominance of banking presents dangers to the rule of law and democracy itself.

Contributor(s): Bee Rowlatt, Professor Conor Gearty, Baroness Chakrabarti | Baroness Chakrabarti's latest book, Human Rights: The Case for the Defence outlines the historic national and international struggles for human rights, from the fall of Babylon to the present day. Her intervention engages both sceptics and supporters and equips believers in the battle of ideas whilst  persuading doubters to think again. For human rights to survive, they must be far better understood by everyone.

Contributor(s): Professor Claudia Goldin | 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics winner, Claudia Goldin delivers the first of two Economica-Coase lectures on US women obtaining legal rights equal to men's ranging from the workplace, marriage, family, social security, criminal justice, credit markets, and other parts of the economy and society, decades after winning the right to vote.

Contributor(s): Professor Esther Duflo, Shweta Banerjee | Head of BRAC International, India, Shweta Banerjee joins the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics, Esther Duflo to examine how funds might be best spent to protect vulnerable populations against the effects of climate change.

Contributor(s): Pablo Hernández de Cos | In the last few years, central banks across the globe have faced a formidable surge in inflation, stemming from a succession of supply and demand shocks. In response, they have embarked on an extraordinarily sharp monetary policy tightening cycle. Governor Hernández de Cos looks at the lessons learned. 

Contributor(s): Dr Lauren Sukin, Professor Jeffrey Legro, Dr Fred Kaplan | Russia’s war in Ukraine, breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, and mounting rivalry between the US and China in East Asia have raised anew concerns about the risks of nuclear war. Is the risk of nuclear war increasing?

Contributor(s): Will Hutton | Will Hutton's new book, This Time No Mistakes explores the errors of the last forty-five years as an attempt to create the utopia of free markets and a minimal state. This event is part of LSE’s free public events programme. Everyone is welcome to join us at our central London campus, or on a live stream from home, to hear from some of the most influential figures in the social sciences. You can also delve into the LSE Events podcast series, our back catalogue of talks from world leaders, sector experts and academic researchers. Find out what’s on: https://www.lse.ac.uk/Events Catch up with the LSE Events podcast: https://www.lse.ac.uk/lse-player/podcast-events

Contributor(s): Isabel Berwick, Dr Grace Lordan | Dr Grace Lordan discusses hybrid work, workplace equality, and today’s evolving workplace with the host of Financial Times’ Working It podcast, Isabel Berwick at the launch of her new book, The Future-Proof Career.

Contributor(s): Professor Michal Feldman | The internet has become a huge computational platform for many heterogeneous, complex markets. These complex markets require the design of fast algorithms that take into account the economic, game theoretic, and computational considerations in a unified way. In this talk, Michal Feldman will discuss some of the challenges and opportunities that arise in this domain, through the lens of approximation.

Contributor(s): Madhumita Murgia | On the surface a British poet, an UberEats courier in Pittsburgh, an Indian doctor, and a Chinese activist in exile have nothing in common. But they are in fact linked by a profound common experience—unexpected encounters with artificial intelligence.

Contributor(s): Priyanka Kotamraju, Professor Tarun Khaitan, Professor Christophe Jaffrelot, Professor Alpa Shah | In her latest book, The Incarcerations. Professor Alpa Shah finds a shocking case of cyber warfare - hacked emails, mobile phones and implantation of electronic evidence used to make the arrests of the 16 human rights defenders (the BK-16). Delving into the lives of the BK-16, The Incarcerations shows how the case is a bellwether for the collapse of democracy and why these events matter to all of us.

Contributor(s): Professor Anna Mahtani | In deciding whether to carry out a particular healthcare policy for example, the process for reaching a decision will almost certainly involve a calculation of credences. Drawing from the Philosophy of Language, Anna Mahtani argues that objects of credence are "opaque". It matters then how the relevant object is described or designated.

Contributor(s): Gary Stevenson, Rebecca Gowland | Whilst studying at LSE, Gary won a competition run by a bank: "The Trading Game". The prize: a golden ticket to a new life, as the youngest trader in the whole city. A place where you could make more money than you'd ever imagined. Where your colleagues are dysfunctional maths geniuses, overfed public schoolboys and borderline psychopaths, yet they start to feel like family. But what happens when winning starts to feel like losing? Would you stick, or quit? Even if it meant risking everything? Gary's book is an outrageous, unvarnished, white-knuckle journey to the dark heart of an intoxicating world - from someone who survived the game and then blew it all wide open.

Contributor(s): Professor Judith Butler | Judith Butler confronts the attacks on gender which have become central to right-wing movements today. Global networks have formed "anti-gender ideology movements" dedicated to circulating a fantasy that gender is a dangerous threat to families, local cultures, civilisation – and even "man" himself. 

Contributor(s): Dr Kate Vredenburgh, Professor Geoffrey Hinton | As artificial intelligence (AI) moves beyond the realm of science fiction, it is already having a profound impact on our economies, societies and politics. Our panel examine its transformative power and disruptive potential. 

Contributor(s): Professor Christopher Coker | For the late Professor Christopher Coker the answer lay in the rise of a new political entity, the civilizational state. In an episode of LSE iQ which explored China’s position in the world in the coming century, Professor Coker talked about this, the potential for war between the United States and China and what that might look like.   Christopher Coker, was Professor of International Relations at LSE for almost four decades, and co-Director of LSE IDEAS, LSE’s foreign policy think tank. He was a scholar of war and warfare. This episode of LSE iQ is a lightly edited version of our 2019 interview recorded before the COVID pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It is dedicated to his memory.     Contributors   Professor Christopher Coker   Research The Rise of the Civilizational State by Christopher Coker   The Improbable War, China, the United States and the Logic of Great Power Conflict by Christopher Coker    

Contributor(s): Professor Myria Georgiou, Dr Matt Mahmoudi, Professor Myria Georgiou, Professor Ayona Datta, Sara Alsherif | Our panel investigates the dynamic workings of technology and power in the city from a transnational and comparative perspective as illustrated in Myria Georgiou’s book, Being Human in Digital Cities. They discuss the the contradictory claims and struggles for the future of digital cities and their humanity.

Contributor(s): Rachel Kyte, Professor Lord Stern | As part of the Lionel Robbins Lecture Series, our panel discuss the growth story for the 21st century: building sustainable, resilient, and equitable development.

Contributor(s): Professor Tali Sharot, Professor Cass R. Sunstein | The authors tackle a great question: why are we so often oblivious to things around us, from pollution and lying to bias and corruption? 

Contributor(s): Professor Cameron Hepburn, Professor Lord Stern | As part of the Lionel Robbins Lecture Series, the second lecture explores structural transformation; policies and institutions.

Contributor(s): Professor Emily Shuckburgh, Professor Lord Stern | As part of the Lionel Robbins Lecture Series, our panel discussed the first theme on a world re-drawn; a world in crisis; a moment in history; the agenda for growth and transformation.

Contributor(s): Humza Yousaf MSP | Humza Yousaf MSP, First Minister of Scotland looks at the relative success of European countries comparable to Scotland, which benefit from an (economic) model grounded in the combination of social solidarity and economic dynamism. With the damage of  Brexit becoming clear, would an independent Scotland in the EU be well-placed to benefit from an economic model and direction different to Westminster’s?

Contributor(s): Professor James Feigenbaum | In this talk, James Feigenbaum shows how the ability to link individuals over time, and between databases, means that new avenues for research have opened up, thus allowing us to track intergenerational mobility, assimilation, discrimination and the returns to education.

Contributor(s): Dr Jason Casellas, Dr Ursula Hackett, Mark Landler, Professor Stephanie Rickard | Jason Casellas is the John G. Winant Visiting Professor in American Government at the University of Oxford affiliated with Balliol College and the Rothermere American Institute.  Ursula Hackett is Reader in Politics at Royal Holloway, University of London, and a British Academy Mid-Career Fellow.  Mark Landler is the London bureau chief of The New York Times. Stephanie J Rickard is Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the Department of Government.

Contributor(s): Professor Scott Barrett | The ocean is governed by a combination of property rights, established in customary law, cooperative agreements, and under treaty law. Professor Scott Barrett looks at what these institutions have achieved and why.

Contributor(s): Dr Tania Burchardt, Professor Neil Lee, Professor Mike Savage | Our panel of speakers will cover a range of topics, such as how we can improve the quality of employment, how to implement a levelling up agenda, and how we can tackle wealth inequality in the UK.

Contributor(s): Cally Beaton | They discuss how comedy can both perpetuate and conceal sexism, while also having the profound ability to reveal and rise above bias and discrimination.

Contributor(s): Marvin Rees OBE | What lessons are there about how to represent, lead and shape a city? How difficult is it to balance short-term priorities with long-term vision and strategy? And what does central government need to learn about public policy and city services from the sharp end? Join us as we host Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol, to address this and more.

Contributor(s): Katie Schmuecker, Professor Mike Savage , Liam Byrne MP | Yet, it doesn’t have to be like this. In his new book The Inequality of Wealth: why it matters and how to fix it, former Treasury Minister, Liam Byrne, explains the fast-accelerating inequality of wealth; warns how it threatens our society, economy, and politics; shows where economics got it wrong – and lays out a path back to common sense, with five practical new ways to rebuild an old ideal: the wealth-owning democracy. Liam Byrne draws on conversations and debates with former prime ministers, presidents and policymakers around the world together with experts at the OECD, World Bank, and IMF to argue that, after twenty years of statistics and slogans, it's time for solutions that aren’t just radical but plausible and achievable as well. 

Contributor(s): Kostas Bakoyannis | It has become vital to draw from the local perspective when tackling global issue. The same is true for many organisations and communities, for whom traditional, top-down approaches do not offer the agility and responsiveness that is essential for effective crisis management in our times. Having served local government for 13 years, from a rural to an urban context and from a small town to a region and a big city, Kostas Bakoyannis shares his experience of bottom-up crisis management including the economic, refugee and COVID-19 crises.

Contributor(s): Sarah Appleton, Nikki Sullivan, Paul Frijters, Helen | Joanna Bale talks to Helen, who found Ozempic ‘life-changing’, Clinical Psychologist Sarah Appleton, and LSE’s Nikki Sullivan & Paul Frijters.

Contributor(s): Stefanos Kasselakis | In Greece, SYRIZA rose dramatically to lead the fight against euro-zone imposed austerity. Yet, it lost badly in two national elections last year and the left is fragmenting. How can the fortunes of the left be restored? What kind of unity is feasible and desirable on the left? How can the left avoid further defeat?

Contributor(s): Tooba Syed, Professor Judith Butler | What might feminist, queer and decolonial forms of resistance teach us about diverse forms of 'anti-gender' backlash? How can we generate political solidarity to counter 'anti-gender' mobilisations across different contexts? Our keynote speakers reflect on political, epistemic and ethical interventions and open up for discussion with the audience.

Contributor(s): Dr Keyu Jin | Yet Western economists have long been incorrectly predicting its collapse. Why do they keep getting it wrong? Because, according to Keyu Jin, the Chinese economy that most Westerners picture is an incomplete sketch, based on Western dated assumptions and incomplete information. We need a new understanding of China, one that takes a holistic view of its history and its culture. Professor Jin presents The New China Playbook, a revelatory, clear-eyed, and myth-busting exploration of China’s economy, how it grew to be one of the largest in the world, and what the future may hold.

Contributor(s): Professor Richard Sennett | The Performer explores the relations between performing in art (particularly music), politics and everyday experience. It focuses on the bodily and physical dimensions of performing, rather than on words. Richard Sennett is particularly attuned to the ways in which the rituals of ordinary life are performances. The book draws on history and sociology, and more personally on the author's early career as a professional cellist, as well as on his later work as a city planner and social thinker. It traces the evolution of performing spaces in the city; the emergence of actors, musicians, and dancers as independent artists; the inequality between performer and spectator; the uneasy relations between artistic creation and social and religious ritual; the uses and abuses of acting by politicians. The Janus-faced art of performing is both destructive and civilizing.

Contributor(s): Professor Tania Murray Li | In Southeast Asia, 30 million more people live and work in rural areas today than they did in 1990. Yet rural people are largely absent from public and academic discourse, out of sight and out of mind. One reason for the neglect is the stubbornly persistent transition narrative which suggests that rural populations are anachronistic: they belong to the past, and sooner or later they will move to cities and join the march of progress. Hence it is not worth worrying too much about who they are or how they live, how national and global currents affect them, or how their aspirations and practices shape the course of history. The only question seems to be how to move them more quickly out of agriculture, into jobs, and off the land to free up more space for mining, corporate agriculture or conservation schemes. In this talk Tania Murray Li outlines the main powers and processes at work in transforming rural Southeast Asia and draw on her ethnographic research in Indonesia to illustrate how rural people navigate their ever-changing terrain.

Contributor(s): Lord Harrington, Professor Nigel Driffield, Professor Riccardo Crescenzi, Laura Citron | The recently published Harrington Review of Foreign Direct Investment offers a set of evidence-based and achievable recommendations for the UK to provide a tailored, responsive and comprehensive offer that meets foreign investors’ expectations and factors in the speed of the modern world. This panel discussion pushes the debate on FDI attraction and retention forward and consider how the Harrington Review’s recommendations can be put into practice and what impacts they will have. The panel discusses how best practices from around the world should inform new strategies to link FDI, Global Value Chains and sustainable and inclusive development in the UK and beyond.

Contributor(s): Christian Lindner | The German Finance Minister talks about new realities and strengthening Germany’s competitiveness for the benefit of its economy and its partners.

Contributor(s): Professor Nello Cristianini | Instead, the prevailing form of machine intelligence is the direct result of a series of decisions that we have made over the past decades. These were shortcuts aimed at addressing various technical (and business) problems, and that are now behind many of the current concerns about the impact of this technology on society. A major shortcut was taken with the creation of the very first statistical language models, and we will describe how that step was the first move towards statistical AI, how it challenged previous assumptions, and how it reflected a new mindset that was starting to emerge among AI researchers. When business models, data availability and scientific paradigms became aligned, the current revolution started. Understanding how those technical shortcuts limit the options of regulators will be essential to safely co-exist with the present form of AI.

Contributor(s): Professor Mark R Beissinger, Professor Olga Onuch | In his new book, The Revolutionary City, Mark R. Beissinger provides a new understanding of how revolutions happen and what they might look like in the future. He is joined by Olga Onuch who will discuss the book.  

Contributor(s): Lord Bassam, Sheela Agarwal, Madeleine Bunting | England invented the seaside resort as a place of pleasure and these towns became iconic in the nation's sense of identity for over a century, but for over four decades the rise of package holidays and cheap flights have eroded their economies. This has resulted in a 'salt fringe' of deprivation, low pay, poor health and low educational achievement and the worst social mobility in the country. Despite persistent affection for many of these resorts which still attract millions of visitors, their chronic plight has failed to capture political engagement and investment. How can these resorts, with their wealth of cultural heritage, forge a new future?

Contributor(s): Dr Michael I Kanu, Philippe Carvalho Raposo, Lowri Mai Griffiths, Dr Robert Blasiak, Dr Siva Thambisetty | On 5 March 2023, state parties at the United Nations agreed the text of a new Treaty to cover biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction, in areas also known as the high seas. The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Treaty sets out governance mechanisms for oceans over nearly half the planet’s surface covering marine genetic resources, environmental impact assessments, capacity building and technology transfer and Area Based Management Tools. It has the potential to transform the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity on the oceans beyond national jurisdiction and bring about greater sharing of the wealth of the oceans.

Contributor(s): Professor Madawi Al-Rasheed | Mainly the pervasive sub-national identities that dominated Arabia or the supra-national Islamic identity that the regime promoted to achieve legitimacy. But since the rise of Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman in 2017, a new populist Saudi nationalism is promoted. This lecture traces the shift in Saudi nation-building from the early days of religious nationalism to the current populist trend. It will explain why only recently constructing a Saudi nation became a priority for the leadership after almost a century of creating a state. The new Saudi national narrative inevitably involves selectively remembering and forgetting aspects of the past in order to consolidate a shift in national consciousness about who Saudis are. But while the new nationalism promises to invigorate the nation, the process is accompanied by serious violence against dissenting voices.

Contributor(s): Professor Joseph Heath | Major unanswered questions involve the relationship between biological and sociocultural factors in promoting cooperativeness, as well as the vulnerability of human social systems to stagnation or collapse. We have amassed a great deal of theory regarding these questions, but our scientific knowledge remains fragmented. In recent years, however, a few pieces of the puzzle have begun to be fitted together. In this lecture Joseph Heath discusses two important advances: first, gene-culture coevolutionary theory, which has shed light on a number of fundamental questions about the early emergence of human sociality, and second, recent work on the development of hierarchy and the state, which has made it possible integrate fundamental sociological insights about how complex societies are maintained. He will attempt to show how these advances move us closer to having a unified scientific understanding of human sociality.

Contributor(s): Professor Gargi Bhattacharyya | The framing of racial capitalism can become a way to freeze analysis - as if the same circuit of dispossession and violence continues across time and space and, with the desperate implication, for always. In this talk, Gargi Bhattacharyya considers the changing violences of racial capitalism and considers how can we use this language to identify emerging patterns of racialised dispossession, and what might we then do about it.

Contributor(s): Professor Lea Ypi, Martin Sandbu, Professor Ingrid Robeyns | What we need is a world without decamillionaires – people having more than ten million pounds. That is what the philosopher Ingrid Robeyns from the University of Utrecht argues in her new book, Limitarianism. The Case Against Extreme Wealth. Why would a world without anyone being superrich be better? Because extreme wealth undermines democracy; is incompatible with climate justice; and the money could be used much better elsewhere. Most fundamentally, no-one deserves to have so much money. But do these reasons stand up to scrutiny? Would preventing the accumulation of extreme wealth kill innovation, undermine our freedoms and opportunities to live the lives we lead, and in the end also harm the poor? Is limitarianism viable? Would it require us to abolish capitalism, and if so, what could replace it? And what, if anything, would it require from the overwhelming majority who do not have sizeable wealth? This event puts these ideas to the test in a lively debate with the author of Limitarianism in conversation with LSE's Lea Ypi and Martin Sandbu of the Financial Times.

Contributor(s): Professor Ralph Hertwig | Nudging promises that minor adjustments in choice architecture can influence decisions without altering incentives. However, nudging has also been criticised, including objections to its soft paternalism and its neglect of agency, autonomy, and the longevity of behaviour change. In response to such criticisms— and the proliferation of highly engineered and manipulative, commercial choice architectures—other behavioural policy approaches have been proposed, focusing on empowering citizens to make well-informed decisions. Those approaches are based on a view of human cognitive and motivational capacities that goes beyond the deficit model underlying nudge. In the face of systemic problems such as climate change, pandemics, threats to liberal democracies, and rapid cycles of technological innovations, evidence-informed investments in a competent, informed, and active citizenry seem an essential—though not—sufficient policy approach. This talk outlines recent developments in conceptual and empirical research that aims to empower citizens by boosting their competences.

Contributor(s): Dr Brian Klaas | Brian Klaas explores how our world really works, driven by strange interactions and random events. How much difference does our decision to hit the snooze button make? Did one couple's vacation really change the course of the twentieth century? His new book, Fluke, is a provocative new vision of how our world really works - and why chance determines everything.

Contributor(s): Adam Vaughan, Dr James Painter, Fiona Harvey, Roger Harrabin | This event gathers journalists from various backgrounds to discuss the challenges they face in informing and promoting balanced public discussions about decarbonisation, particularly in the context of looming local and general elections. Media coverage of climate change has long centered on alerting the public about, as well as debating and contesting, the dangers of climate change. Today, history has moved on. The UK public understands this issue is real and urgent; by and large, Britons supports decarbonisation of the economy. Yet, decarbonisation is at once a grand political project – offering the possibility of revamping and redesigning the make-up of infrastructure, technological networks, and land-use, in ways that will increase well-being, health, and possibly the vitality of many local economies – but also a slow process, difficult to understand for the lay person, full of trade offs and uncertainties.

Contributor(s): Professor Manuel Pastor, T.O. Molefe | Traditional economics is built on the assumption of self-interested individuals seeking to maximize personal gain, but that is far from the whole story. Sharing, caring, and a desire to uphold the collective good are also powerful motives. In a world on fire – facing threats to multiracial democracy, tensions from rising economic inequality, and even the existential threat of climate change, can we build an alternative economics based on cooperation? In this lecture Manuel Pastor, joined by T.O. Molefe, will discuss his newest book Solidarity Economics: why mutuality and movements matter. He will introduce the concept of solidarity economics, which is rooted in the idea that equity is key to prosperity and social movements are crucial to the reconfiguration of power in our politics and show how we can use solidarity economics to build a fairer economy that can generate prosperity and preserve the planet.

Contributor(s): Alexander De Croo | Belgium will enter 2024 as the rotating chair of the European Union. As one of the founding fathers of the Union, Belgium presides over the EU for the 13th time. The number might sound unlucky and the challenges ahead are surely daunting. That said, Prime Minister De Croo will talk about the strengths of the Union, its relationship with the United Kingdom, and the ways in which the EU needs to reform to stay in shape.

Contributor(s): Dr Bisher Khasawneh | Bisher Khasawneh (@BisherKhasawneh) is Prime Minister of The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and Minister of Defence, positions he has held since October 2020. He held the position of Minister of State for Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2017 and Minister of State for Legal Affairs 2017-2018. He served as King Abdullah II’s Advisor for Communication and Coordination Affairs from April 2019 to August 17, 2020 and as the King’s Adviser for Policies in the Royal Hashemite Court until he became Prime Minister. He obtained a bachelor's degree in law from the University of Jordan, in addition to a master's degree in International Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science, as well as a Doctorate in Law. David Kershaw is Dean of LSE Law School. He is also a member of the LSE Council, the Governing Body of LSE, and an Associate Tenant at Cornerstone Barristers. He is a former General Editor of the Modern Law Review. He joined LSE in 2006. Prior to joining LSE he was a Lecturer in Law at the University of Warwick between 2003-2006.

Contributor(s): Professor Sam Friedman | More than one in four people in the UK, from solidly middle-class backgrounds, mistakenly think of themselves as working-class. Why is this? In this episode of Extra iQ, a shorter style of the LSE iQ podcast, Sue Windebank speaks to Sam Friedman, a sociologist of class and inequality at LSE to find out more. Sam spoke to the podcast in November 2022 for an episode which asked, ‘How does class define us?’ The whole interview was fantastic but we couldn’t include it all in the original episode. This episode features some more of the thought-provoking content from that interview.   Contributors Sam Friedman   Research Deflecting Privilege: Class Identity and the Intergenerational Self by Sam Friedman, Dave O’Brien and Ian McDonald

Contributor(s): Professor Iván Werning | Previous inflationary episodes have taught us a lot on what causes inflation and what can be done to reduce it. But the world has changed and previous insights may no longer be valid. Iván Werning will discuss how old insights extended with new frameworks can be used to shed light on the recent surge in inflation.

Contributor(s): Mia Amor Mottley, Esther Phillips, Dr Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah | Ms Mottley was elected to the Parliament of Barbados in September 1994 as part of the new Barbados Labour Party Government. Prior to that, she served as one of two Opposition Senators between 1991 and 1994. One of the youngest persons ever to be assigned a ministerial portfolio, Ms. Mottley was appointed Minister of Education, Youth Affairs and Culture from 1994 to 2001. She later served as Attorney General and Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados from 2001 to 2008 and was the first female to hold that position. Ms Mottley is an Attorney-at-law with a degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science, specialising in advocacy. She is also a Barrister of the Bar of England and Wales. In 2002, she became a member of the Local Privy Council. She was also admitted to the Inner Bar, becoming the youngest ever Queens Counsel in Barbados.

Contributor(s): Professor Susan Parnell | Sue Parnell outlines why a new urban disposition, that breaks with geographies, disciplines, and ideologies might be helpful in building new communities of practice to advance a global urban agenda. Creating solutions to the complex problems of cities, like gender inequality, informality, climate resilience or disease prevention, necessitates global not just national and local analysis and intervention. Some progress has been made, for example in the SDGs and other multi-lateral agreements. But there remains a mismatch between the importance of the urban question and the global policy attention it demands. To be effective the global urban agenda must be informed by a broad range of evidence, scientific voices must be appropriately embedded to influence policy, and the urban agenda needs to have universal credibility.

Contributor(s): Lord Wolfson, Professor Paul Cheshire, Dame Kate Barker, Stephen Aldridge | It is 40 years since Paul Cheshire began to investigate the economic effects of our land use planning system and 20 years since Kate Barker published her first review of the impact of planning on housing supply. Their insights have helped us understand what can be done to ensure decent housing for all and boost productivity – but, after three failed attempts at significant planning reform - we are now in a time of economic stagnation and facing a housing affordability crisis that is only becoming more desperate as interest rates rise.

Contributor(s): Professor George Gerapetritis | Climate change, worldwide aggression, migration flows, food crisis and public health emergencies have core common characteristics: they destroy certainties, they produce extraterritorial effects, they are not dealt through deliberative mechanisms. In light of these, we need to revisit the current status and, perhaps, return to the basics. Enhancing democratic institutions and global principled governance, acknowledging the moral value of solidarity and the right to belonging and combating root causes of global challenges, mainly inequalities among people and states. A global alliance is needed towards this goal.

Contributor(s): Professor Kimberly Hutchings | For the past twenty years the idea of human rights as an absolute and universal ethical standard has been subject to a barrage of criticism. Critiques have come from all philosophical and political directions, including communitarian, pragmatist, poststructuralist and decolonial. In this lecture, Kimberly Hutchings explores the critical landscape of human rights thinking today and how we might re-think the concept of human rights in ways that will sustain its power as an ethical discourse into the future.

Contributor(s): Heather Kappes, David McDaid, Molly Taylor | According to the Office for National Statistics, 7.1 per cent of adults in Great Britain - nearly 4 million people - say they 'often or always' feel lonely. Look around you when you’re in a crowded place – a supermarket or an office - 1 in 14 of the people you’re looking at are likely to be lonely, not just sometimes but most of the time. And that’s half a million more people saying that they feel chronically lonely in 2023 than there were in 2020 – suggesting that the pandemic has had some enduring impacts in this respect. Sue Windebank talks to a young person who responded to her own deep feelings of loneliness by campaigning to help others. She hears how people can be influenced to feel more or less lonely – at least for a short time. And she got a surprising insight into which group of people are the loneliest. Sue talks to: Heather Kappes, Associate Professor of Management at LSE; David McDaid Associate Professorial Research Fellow in the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre at LSE; and Molly Taylor, Loneliness Activist, Founder of #AloneNoMore.

Contributor(s): Dr Siva Thambisetty, Dr John Siddorn, Ishbel Matheson, Dr Joanna Post, Dr Darian McBain | The blue economy is estimated to be worth over US$1.5 trillion per year globally, providing over 30 million jobs and supplying protein to over three billion people. With new large-scale industrial activities, such as offshore renewable energy as well as the growing interest in ocean mining and marine biotechnology, the oceans have moved to the top of political and economic agendas. This event will bring together leading voices in the field for a discussion on the risks to the health of our oceans and the opportunities in the transition to a sustainable, inclusive, and resilient blue economy. The speakers speaks at first hand about key negotiations, such as the UN High Seas Treaty or the Biodiversity Conference COP15; scientific work in the ocean; the role of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission in bringing hundreds of nations to one table; as well as the challenges, priorities, and opportunities to make the oceans and the blue economy an effective part of a sustainable future.

Contributor(s): Professor Ann Oakley, Professor Chris Renwick, Professor Sally Sheard, Professor John Stewart | Richard Titmuss, the first chair in Social Administration at the London School of Economics and Political Science, died fifty years ago in 1973. From his appointment in 1950 until his death Titmuss established and defined the field of social policy. This event will discuss Titmuss’s critique of the ‘welfare state’, and how his insights have had to evolve in the light of the challenges to, and strategies for, social welfare which have come to predominate since his death. The event brings together authors of published and planned biographies of Richard Titmuss, Brian Abel-Smith, and Peter Townsend, alongside Titmuss’ daughter, renowned academic Ann Oakley.

Contributor(s): Professor Mary S Morgan | While the conventional view is that ideas create policy change and economic change follows on - it is just not that simple. We can see what is involved by looking at major changes - such as the reconstruction of post-war economies, post-colonial economic development planning, or switching from capitalist to socialist systems. Designing such new kinds of worlds required new ways of thinking about how the economic world could work involving imagination and cognitive work, and new kinds of economic measurements and accounting systems to deliver that change. 

Contributor(s): Professor Vimal Ranchhod, Faeza Meyer, Dr Eleni Karagiannaki, Dr Shabna Begum | Wealthy households able to draw on owner occupied housing assets, private pensions, savings and financial investments have prospered. Meanwhile the majority of the populations, even in rich nations – have been exposed to harsh ‘austerity’ policies, and often the need to balance debt obligations. There is increasing evidence that wealth assets play a significant role in allowing social mobility advantages to the children of wealthy households. However, it is not widely appreciated that these developments underscore the intensification of racial wealth divides. Although the historical study of the racialised elements of wealth inequality is widely known, with widely appreciated studies of slavery and imperialism, the contemporary racialisation of wealth inequality needs to be much better known. This event features original research reporting on their findings from the UK, South Africa, and elsewhere.

Contributor(s): Professor Richard Pettigrew, Dr David Jarrett, Nicci Gerrard, Ruth Bright | Many of us will face this important question: over 850,000 people in the UK currently have dementia, and many more will be involved in their care. One of the great strengths of the LSE is its work in decision-theory – but how should we apply decision-theory to those with dementia? How can we figure out the preferences of a person who currently has dementia, whose desires may appear incoherent and ever-shifting? Should we focus on a person’s current desires – or rather on what they ‘would have wanted’ – or indeed what they did want for themselves before dementia took hold? And how should we make room for the needs of carers, and the wider community? To discuss these questions, we bring together a diverse collection of thinkers for a panel-style event, with discussion questions posed by the chair, and regular questions from the audience.

Contributor(s): Lord McFall | He advises caution on radical reform of the Upper House, arguing that incremental change to the process for nomination of peers would strengthen its role as a “forum for civil society” allowing the country to draw on expertise from outside politics.

Contributor(s): Professor Eric Schneider | Children with poor nutrition or who are exposed to high levels of chronic disease grow more slowly than healthy children. Thus, children’s growth is a sensitive metric of how population health has evolved over time. Eric begins by showing how child growth has changed around the world since the nineteenth century and linking changes in child growth to child stunting, children who are too short for their age relative to healthy standards, the most common indicator used to measure malnutrition in LMICs today. Then he discusses the key determinants of poor child growth drawing on historical research and contemporary findings related to the ‘Indian Enigma’, the puzzling fact that Indian children are shorter than sub-Saharan African children today despite India’s lead in many indicators of economic development. Finally, he will consider what lessons historical analysis of child malnutrition has for tackling child stunting today.

Contributor(s): Professor Catherine Boone, Professor Wendy Wolford | For over 100 years, plantations have served as the imagined ideal for agricultural production and labor management in Mozambique. This talk outlines the colonial roots of this desire for the always-elusive plantation and argue that it manifests in contemporary Mozambique in a variety of ways: the global market takes priority over local needs; agricultural researchers rely on external funding that is short-term, motivated by international interests and the search for new varieties rather than land management; and local residents long seen only as plantation labor are separated into ‘emerging’ and ‘poor’ farmers, with research aimed at the former and charity at the latter.

Contributor(s): Daffne Valdes Vargas, Sibila Sotomayor Van Rysseghem, Paula Cometa Stange | This is a timely event. 50 years after the Chilean coup that ushered forth a violent 17-year dictatorship and 5 years after Chile’s widespread democratic protests, known as the estallido social, they will discuss the importance of understanding history for the present and why feminist theory and resistance matters more than ever. They also speak about their book, Set Fear on Fire: the feminist call that set the Americas ablaze, published earlier this year. What role does art and performance have in politics and how does it shape activism around the world? What relevance does Chile’s history have for contemporary politics and society? How has the conceptualisation of human rights changed over time and what rights should we be concerned about safeguarding today? 

Contributor(s): Stephen Timms MP, Professor Kirsten Sehnbruch, Professor James Foster | In the context of a worldwide cost-of-living crisis and likely recession, policy attention will focus increasingly on poverty and employment. In the UK, as elsewhere, those workers employed in low-wage, unstable jobs with poor working conditions are likely to suffer disproportionately in this crisis, thus exacerbating existing inequalities.  It will further discuss the policy implications and applications of this research, especially in the context of potential future disruptions in the labour market such as technological changes, climate change, population ageing and migration. The event will present research from a British Academy Global Professorship on multidimensional quality of employment deprivation.

Contributor(s): Professor Leslie Willcocks, Dr Michael Muthukrishna, Lucy Bailey, Dr Grace Lordan | The job market is in constant flux; industries change or become obsolete and new technologies emerge and disrupt. Never before has this been more salient, with the recent progress of AI. In this public event the panel will explain just how AI is now and will continue to disrupt the labour market.

Contributor(s): Professor Paul Dolan | Paul Dolan introduces his new podcast series, Get Happier, which aims to help you improve your own happiness and the happiness of those around you, at home and at work, without too much effort.  This recording contains strong language. 

Contributor(s): Rachel Reeves MP | In this event, Rachel delves into the untold stories of remarkable women who have historically been sidelined in the economic landscape. As both a woman and an economist, Rachel brings a unique perspective to the challenges faced by women in the field and the broader impact on society. She addresses the barriers these women encountered, highlighting the consequences for us all when their contributions were dismissed. This event is a call to action, inspiring us to work towards an economy that fosters productivity, sustains growth, and creates opportunities for everyone, irrespective of their background.

Contributor(s): Professor Leslie Vinjamuri, Ann Pettifor, Professor Abraham L Newman, Professor Henry Farrell | The panel discusses debates around the weaponisation of the global economy with the sustainability of these tactics, how different major and emerging powers are reacting, and what role the UK has to play in both utilising and mitigating these tactics.

Contributor(s): Ros Taylor, Dr Abby Innes, Professor Gwyn Bevan | The post-war political settlement established by Clement Attlee’s government developed systems to tackle what William Beveridge identified as five giant evils of Britain in 1942: Want, Disease, Ignorance, Idleness, and Squalor. By 1979, these systems were failing. In the UK, from 1979, successive governments led by Margaret Thatcher aimed to tackle those failures in a neoliberal settlement based on rolling back the state and empowering markets. This strategy was based on two fundamental neoliberal ideas. First, the social responsibility of private enterprises is to maximise profits within rules of the game. Second, effective systems of governance can harness the attractions of market forces for services that violate the requirements for markets to be effective.

Contributor(s): Gemma Mortensen, Kirsty McNeill, David Robinson | How are we to live together? More than ever, the big questions that we face are all about relationships. Their substance and quality will determine the direction and quality of our lives. In his 2018 LSE public lecture David Robinson set out the case for building a better society by building better relationships. What happened next? David will tell the unfolding story of the Relationships Project, discuss new trends in our understanding of relationships, and put forward his practical vision of a place where 'meaningful relationships are the central operating principle' for social innovation.

Contributor(s): Dr SM Rodriguez, Dr Mame-Fatou Niang | In tandem with the theme of Black History Month, "Celebrating our Sisters, Saluting our Sisters, and Honouring Matriarchs of Movements", this panel discussion analyses the role of black women in social, cultural and political movements historically and in our times.

Contributor(s): Professor Martin Daunton | In his latest book, which forms the basis of this lecture, Martin Daunton pulls back the curtain on the institutions and individuals who have created and managed the economy over the last ninety years, revealing how and why one economic order breaks down and another is built.

Contributor(s): Faiza Shaheen, Duncan Green, Dr Jens Madsen | Experts will discuss how change isn't as straightforward as we'd like it to be – How it can be all in the timing and that, at times, you just need to wait for the right moment to make change happen. We’ll hear from an academic striving to become a Member of Parliament and make change from within the political system, rather than by lobbying from the outside. And an author and strategic advisor to Oxfam will explain how change is built around communities and groups of people rather than the individual. Mike Wilkerson talks to: Faiza Shaheen, an author and a Labour candidate running to become an MP; Dr. Jens Madsen an Assistant Professor at LSE’s Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science; and Dr. Duncan Green a Professor in Practice and Senior Strategic advisor to Oxfam. Contributors Faiza Shaheen Duncan Green Jens Madsen   Research How change Happens: Duncan Green

Contributor(s): Dr Sara Camacho-Felix, Professor Kehinde Andrews | An all-encompassing, insightful and wry look at living in a racist world, by a leading black British voice in the academy and in the media. Take a step through the looking-glass to a strange land, one where Piers Morgan is a voice worth listening to about race, where white people buy self-help books to cope with their whiteness, where Boris Johnson and Donald Trump are seen by the majority of the population as 'the right (white) man for the job'. Perhaps you know it. All the inhabitants seem to be afflicted by serious delusions, like that racism doesn't exist and if it does it can be cured with a one-hour inclusion seminar, and bizarre collective hallucinations, like the widely held idea that Britain's only role in slavery was to abolish it. But there is a serious side too. Black and brown people suffer from a greater number of mental health difficulties, caused in no small part by living in a racist society. Society cannot face up to the racism at its heart and in its history, so the delusions and hallucinations it conjures up to avoid doing so can only best be described as a psychosis, and the costs are being borne by the sons and daughters of that racist history.

Contributor(s): Professor Jason Sharman, Oliver Bullough, Thomas Anthony, Dr Kristin Surak | Drawing on fieldwork in sixteen countries, Kristin Surak exposes the world of the wealthy elites who buy passports, the states and brokers who sell them, and the normalisation of a once shadowy practice. It’s a business that thrives on uncertainty and imbalances of power between big, globalised economies and tiny states desperate for investment. In between are fascinating stories of buyers, brokers, and sellers, all ready to profit from the citizenship trade. Joining Kristin will be three experts who offer different angles into this world. Thomas Anthony, CEO of Citizenship Investment Unit of the country of Grenada, brings a Caribbean perspective on the programs. Oliver Bullough, author and journalist, has examined issues around financial crimes. Jason Sharman of Cambridge University will share his extensive knowledge of the political economy of offshore.

Contributor(s): Arun Blair-Mangat | To celebrate Black History Month, join us for this conversation between LSE alumnus Arun Blair-Mangat and LSE President Eric Neumayer. 

Contributor(s): Paul Nowak | The protracted cost of living crisis has seen a resurgence of industrial action across almost every sector of the British economy. To discuss the political implications of this renewed activism in the labour movement, we are joined by Paul Nowak, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress.

Contributor(s): Dr Jennifer Wynter, Professor Christine Whitehead, Dr Maria-Christina Vogkli, Pam Orchard, Manny Hothi | London accounts for around 60% of all households in temporary accommodation in England and over a quarter of those who are sleeping rough. Households also stay in temporary accommodation for much longer. In this debate we will be looking at the reasons why the situation has worsened; the consequences for individuals facing homelessness; the consequences for London’s local authorities; and the impact of proposed policy changes.

Contributor(s): Professor Danny Dorling | Britain was once the leading economy in Europe; it is now the most unequal. Fifty years ago the UK led the world in child health; today, twenty-two of the twenty-seven EU countries have better mortality rates for newborns. No other European country has such miserly unemployment benefits; university fees so high; housing so unaffordable; or a government economically so far to the right. 

Contributor(s): | Climate change raises new, foundational challenges in science. It requires us to question what we know and how we know it. The subject is important for society but the science is young and history tells us that scientists can get things wrong before they get them right. How, then, can we judge what information is reliable and what is open to question? During the event the essential characteristics of climate change which make it a difficult issue to study will be highlighted. A series of challenges in the study of climate change across multiple disciplines will be presented and the audience will be taken on a journey through the maths of complexity, the physics of climate, philosophical questions regarding the origins and robustness of knowledge, and the use of natural science in the economics and policy of climate change.

Contributor(s): Mikhail Khodorkovsky | The book is Khodorkovsky's account of what is happening in Russia today and what could happen in the future. Putin will not last forever: sooner or later, there will be a post-Putin era. But Russia's history has been deeply shaped by an autocratic trap: a revolution against an autocracy has produced another autocracy, followed by another revolution and another autocracy, and so on. If Russia is to find its place as a constructive partner in a global community of civilised nations, then it has to escape this vicious cycle. His book is Khodorkovsky's account of his own journey and of how the vicious cycle of Russian history can be broken. He charts a pathway towards a parliamentary federal republic which would enable Russia to become a free and democratic society, living in peace and without dragons.

Contributor(s): Professor Andrés Velasco | He terms this as the "identity synthesis" which seeks to put each citizen's matrix of identities at the heart of social, cultural and political life. This, he argues, is "the identity trap". Mounk traces the intellectual origin of these ideas and their use as politica, social and cultural capital over the decades. He makes a nuanced case on why their application to areas from education to public policy is proving to be deeply counterproductive. He argues for universalism and humanism, and posits that the proponents of identitarian ideas will, though they may be full of good intentions, make it harder to achieve progress towards genuine equality.

Contributor(s): Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Sir Isaac Julien | Henry Louis Gates, Jr in conversation with Isaac Julien and LSE's Imaobong Umoren.

Contributor(s): Professor Nina Lvovna Khrushcheva | With the war in Ukraine well into its second year, we are joined by Nina Khrushcheva to discuss the fault lines that the war has opened up in Russian society - and the potential of the Russia left to use these fractures to push for a more progressive Russia.

Contributor(s): Professor Christian Leuz | Publicity and transparency are frequently proposed as solutions to societal and environmental problems; after all, sunlight is famously said to be the best of disinfectants. Such regimes have become common place for consumer protection, food safety, healthcare, campaign contributions, conflicts of interest, and more. They are viewed as less intrusive and more benign than directly regulating corporate activities. But do they work? Or are transparency regimes simply politically more expedient? These questions are very relevant in the context of sustainability as many countries are requiring firms to provide reports on their impacts on the environment and society more broadly. We will therefore ask what transparency can do when it comes to widespread environmental impacts, such as greenhouse gas emissions. Can disclosure mandate help clean up the environment? What are the limitations of transparency and why it is not always the best solution?

Contributor(s): Professor Mike Wilkinson, Professor Helen Thompson, Hans Kundnani, Professor Gurminder K Bhambra | The European Union is often seen as a cosmopolitan rejection of violent nationalism. Yet the idea of Europe has a long, problematic history—in medieval times, it was synonymous with Christianity; in the modern era, it became associated with ‘whiteness’. Eurowhiteness exposes the EU as a vehicle for imperial amnesia. Narratives of European integration emphasise the lessons of war and the Holocaust, but not the lessons of colonial history. The EU is about power as much as peace—and civic ideas of Europe are being displaced by ethnic and cultural ones. Since the 2015 refugee crisis, whiteness has become even more central to European identity—a troubling new turn in Europe’s long civilisational project. It is time to confront the relationship between ideas of Europe and ideas of race.

Contributor(s): Professor Tomila Lankina, Dr Eleanor Knott, Professor Robert Falkner, Professor Chris Alden | Few predicted the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Even fewer thought it would still be going on 18 months later. There is though almost complete agreement that what began as a regional conflict has changed the world forever.

Contributor(s): Matthew Syed, Dr Michael Muthukrishna | Playing on the phrase “a theory of everything” from physics, Michael Muthukrishna discusses his ambitious, original, and deeply hopeful book A Theory of Everyone, which draws on the most recent research from across the sciences, humanities, and the emerging field of cultural evolution to paint a panoramic picture of who we are and what exactly makes human beings different from all other forms of life on the planet.

Contributor(s): Professor Fabio Sánchez, Professor Sarmistha Pal, Professor Jean-Paul Faguet | This new book brings together a new generation of political economy studies, blending theoretical insights with empirical innovation, including broad cross-country data as well as detailed studies of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Ghana, Kenya and Colombia. The authors investigate the pros and cons of decentralisation in both democratic and autocratic regimes, and the effects of critical factors such as advances in technology, citizen-based data systems, political entrepreneurship in ethnically diverse societies, and reforms aimed at improving transparency and monitoring.

Contributor(s): Ryan Centner, James, Jamal | Homosexuality is illegal in just over a third of countries across the globe. Some nations, like Barbados, have recently repealed anti-gay laws, but others, like Uganda, have just introduced the death penalty. Joanna Bale talks to LSE’s Dr Ryan Centner about how Western gay men living in Dubai create covert communities where they can meet and socialise. James, a British gay man, and Jamal, an Emirati gay man, also share their very different experiences of life in the city. Research links: Peril, privilege, and queer comforts: the nocturnal performative geographies of expatriate gay men in Dubai http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/110762/ The Pink Line: The World’s Queer Frontiers https://www.markgevisser.com/the-pink-line

Contributor(s): Professor David Sumpter | What is the best way to think about the world? How often do we consider how our own thinking might impact the way we approach our daily decisions? Could it help or hinder our relationships, our careers, or even our health? Acclaimed mathematician David Sumpter shows how we can deal with the chaos and complexity of our lives with four easily applied approaches to our problems: statistical, interactive, chaotic and complex. Combining engaging personal experience with practical advice and inspiring tales of ground-breaking scientific pioneers (with a tiny bit of number crunching along the way), Sumpter explains how these tried and tested methods can help us with every conundrum, from how to bicker less with our partners to pitching to a tough crowd - and in doing so change our lives.

Contributor(s): Heather Boushey, Ed Miliband MP, Dr Arkebe Oqubay, Dr Anna Valero | The transition to a net zero economy requires a new industrial revolution. How should the UK and other countries craft effective policies to generate such radical change? What will be the effect of the Biden administration’s green subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act on the US, Europe and the rest of the world?

Contributor(s): Professor Oriana Bandiera, Chipokota Mwanawasa, Asif Saleh, Ali Sarfraz | The conversation will centre around the pressing needs of adaptation and social protection, both integral for survival and resilience in these regions. The speakers will discuss the need for research and innovative strategies promoting sustainable livelihoods and diversification of jobs, highlighting policy interventions that fortify the most vulnerable against escalating climate shocks.

Contributor(s): Professor Michael Greenstone, Professor Namrata Kala, Omar Masud, Liu Xin | This event raises the profile of this important determinant of human well-being and explore innovative ways to reduce it. To do this we will pair prominent academics and policy makers working on the frontline of the war on air pollution to help map a path forward for the world.

Contributor(s): Alison McGovern MP, Professor Henrik J Kleven, Professor Linda Scott | In this event, expert and best-selling author Linda Scott, in a conversation with academic and political leaders, discusses how the unequal division of the burden of parenthood fuels women’s systematic exclusion from economic participation.

Contributor(s): Professor Sir Christopher Pissarides, Professor Charlie Beckett, Dr Giulia Gentile | We’ll hear about the introduction of Artificial Intelligence in the courtroom, and what might happen if robots take over the roles of judges. Experts will explore how journalism and other professional fields could be affected by the AI revolution. They will discuss what individuals can do to prepare, and the role of governments and businesses in addressing practical and ethical concerns about the technology. Maayan Arad talks to: Professor Sir Christopher Pissarides, LSE professor of economics and Nobel Prize winner; Professor Charlie Beckett, LSE media professor and director of Polis, LSE’s journalism think-tank; and Dr Giulia Gentile, Lecturer in Law at the University of Essex Law School and former a Fellow at LSE Law School.   Contributors Professor Sir Christopher Pissarides Professor Charlie Beckett Dr Giulia Gentile Chat GPT Research LawGPT? How AI is Reshaping the Legal Profession by Giulia Gentile The digitisation of justice risks blurring the lines between public and private actors by Giulia Gentile AI in the courtroom and judicial independence: An EU perspective by Giulia Gentile Forthcoming report by JournalismAI – a project of Polis, the LSE’s journalism think-thank. The Pissarides Review into the Future of Work and Wellbeing The Institute for the Future of Work      

Contributor(s): James Ball | The Other Pandemic: How QAnon Contaminated the World, takes us into the depths of the internet to trace the origins and rapid ascent of QAnon – the world's first digital pandemic – and how we can build immunity. Imagine a deadly pathogen that, once created, could infect any person in any part of the globe within seconds. No need to wait for travellers, trains, or air traffic to spread it, all you need is an internet connection. In his new book, James Ball decodes the cryptic language of the online right and with a surgeon's precision tracks the spread of QAnon, the world's first digital pandemic. QAnon began in 2017 as an internet community dedicated to supporting President Trump and intent on outing a global cabal of human traffickers. What started as a macabre game of virtual make believe quickly spiralled into the spread of virulently hateful, dangerous messaging – which turned into tragic, violent actions. From a standoff at the Hoover Dam, to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on 6 January 2021, to protesting COVID-19 lockdowns, this digital pandemic has spread globally and shows no signs of stopping.

Contributor(s): Dr Joana Setzer, Catherine Higham, Dr Maria Antonia Tigre, Professor Lauge Poulson, Dr Birsha Ohdedar, Sophie Marjanac, Laura Ford | This influential report presents an overview of climate litigation, highlighting recent developments and future trends. The report is widely read and cited by civil society organisations, policymakers, the legal community, judges, financiers, scholars and media all around the world. Over the past year, the climate litigation field has seen novel case strategies deployed against a broad array of government and corporate actors. Notable examples in the private sector include a world-first case brought against Shell's Board of Directors, as well as against a commercial bank. Three new cases have also been brought against Russia, Finland and Sweden, to challenge the inadequacy of their national climate plans more Increasingly a broad range of actors is compelled to understand how the litigation landscape is evolving and what risks litigation poses to their activities in the public and private spheres. The event is chaired by the Grantham Research Institute’s Director, Elizabeth Robinson, and will begin with a short presentation from authors Joana Setzer and Catherine Higham on the findings of the 2023 Global Trends in Climate Change Litigation report. The presentation is followed by a panel discussion, with five distinguished experts in the field. Panellists react to the report and draw out key aspects from their own experience in the field.

Contributor(s): Professor Gary Younge, Gary Stevenson, Dr Faiza Shaheen, Kimberly McIntosh | Part memoir, part polemic, this is a personal and statistical look at how society is built, the people it leaves behind, and what we can do about it. Our panel of speakers discuss the prospects for social mobility in Britain today, and how we can create opportunities for all.

Contributor(s): Erin K. Wilson, Georgette Bennett, John Casson, Dr Mukulika Banerjee | But this has distracted us from asking how religion itself is changing and, in turn, changing understandings of identity, political participation and citizenship for millions of people around the world. In many countries religion is being fused with populist politics and becoming an important component in new nationalisms such as in Russia and India where Orthodox Christian and Hindu Nationalists discourse have taken on new importance. In other places it is being mobilised as a source of resistance to state oppression or corporate exploitation. Are these more political expressions of religion less grounded in personal piety and community practice, reflecting a different kind of secularisation – the loss of transcendence? Is religion in today’s world more politicised, more tribal, and less spiritual? Or are we in fact in a post-secular era where spiritual impulses are changing our understanding of ‘secular’ politics?

Contributor(s): Professor Vladislav Zubok, Professor Tomila Lankina, Adam Curtis, Grigor Atanesian | Adam Curtis’s BAFTA-nominated BBC series, Russia 1985-1999: TraumaZone, documents what it felt like to live through the collapse of communism and democracy, based on preserved and digitised footage from BBC archives and forgotten or never shown scenes from Soviet life and life in post-Soviet states. Adam Curtis and Traumazone producer Grigor Atanesian, in conversation with Professor Vladislav Zubok and Professor Tomila Lankina, will reflect on what went wrong thirty-something years ago.

Contributor(s): | These include reported mass rape, torture, and abductions of children, as well as the destruction of civil infrastructure like schools, hospitals, and residential homes. Efforts are under way by inter-state and non-state organisations, governments, and civil society to document the crimes and the material consequences and costs of the invasion. The panel, including prominent Ukraine policy practitioners and leading academic experts on Ukraine and Russia, discuss whether there is a legal case to be made that Russia is committing crimes of aggression and/or genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes; and what the prospects are for prosecuting the crimes in international tribunals. They will also ask what the perpetrators’ responsibility is for post-war reconstruction of Ukraine, whether through paying for damages or tackling legal issues (such as the possibility of using Russia’s frozen assets).

Contributor(s): Lord Willetts, Swatee Deepak, Dr Ayça Çubukçu, Daniel Chandler | Whilst many are dissatisfied with the status quo, it is surprisingly hard to find a coherent vision of what a better and fairer world would look like. In the Festival’s closing event, leading thinkers put forward their suggestions.

Contributor(s): Lucia Osborne-Crowley, Winnie M Li, Dr Kathryn Claire Higgins, Rowena Chiu | More than five years after the first Weinstein allegations appeared in news headlines, #MeToo continues to impact our media landscape, but we should not ignore the impact this movement has had on the individual people caught in the glare of the media spotlight. Which survivors are seen as believable in the media? What is the emotional labour required of survivors whose experiences of trauma are made so very public? Our unique panel looks at at these mediated struggles for visibility, authenticity, and recognition around #MeToo, drawn from their own lived experience, media practice, and academic research. Rowena Chiu’s story became public during the Harvey Weinstein investigation and later a Hollywood film adaptation. Winnie M Li’s experience with news media reports of her rape prompted her subsequent writing, activism, and PhD research. Lucia Osborne-Crowley’s personal trauma informed her own study of the law, and then her astute journalism around sexual assault. They will speak in dialogue with Sarah Banet-Weiser and Kathryn Claire Higgins, whose latest book is Believability: Sexual Violence, Media, and the Politics of Doubt (2023).

Contributor(s): | More and more individuals and groups are taking action and using their voices to tackle the growing social and economic inequalities. Social movements and activists engage with, challenge, and seek to shape policy processes and wider political transformations to tackle inequalities through forms of mobilisation as well as everyday forms of action and resistance. From racial justice to climate emergency and women’s rights, they are imagining and building more equal, just, and sustainable societies all across the world. Looking beyond just forms of resistance, this panel will discuss the role of activists and social movements in today’s world and examine their agency in imagining utopian futures and creating change. How are social movements providing creative spaces for not only challenging inequalities but also coming up with alternative ideas for solutions to address the problems they are fighting against? And how and to what extent are these ideas informing policy changes?

Contributor(s): Ros Taylor, Professor Gwyn Bevan | So what is wrong with the design of British government, and how has it resulted in catastrophic failures of governance in recent years? To mark the publication of his new book with LSE Press, Professor Gwyn Bevan and political podcaster and author Ros Taylor will reflect on a century of systemic failures of governance and explore what an innovative state might look like in the future.

Contributor(s): Dr Angela Spatharou, Dr Alexandra Gomes, James Fransham | We are rightly concerned about the misuse of our personal data, but data science and the tracking of data reveal crucial information about the impacts of change on people, as the COVID-19 pandemic uncovered. Health and well-being must also be seen beyond the medical point of view - the space we live in has a strong impact on us, as shown in our Festival exhibition Mapping People and Change. 

Contributor(s): Professor Michael Wooldridge, Dr Giulia Gentile, Dr Thomas Ferretti, Dr Christine Chow | The sudden rise of ChatGPT has confirmed that artificial intelligence is no longer a technology of the future, but is already shaping our everyday lives – from work and education to policing, transport and even sport. 

Contributor(s): Tomiwa Owolade | Debate abounds around racism, identity, diversity, immigration and colonial history, and, in the rush to address injustice, Britain has followed the lead of the world's dominant power: America. We judge ourselves by America's standards, absorb its arguments and follow its agenda. But what if we're looking in the wrong place?In This is Not America, Tomiwa Owolade argues that too much of the conversation around race in Britain is viewed through the prism of American ideas that don't reflect the history, challenges and achievements of increasingly diverse black populations at home. If we want to build a long-lasting and more effective anti-racist agenda - one that truly values black British communities - we must acknowledge that crucial differences exist between Britain and America; that we are talking about distinct communities and cultures, distinguished by language, history, class, religion and national origin.

Contributor(s): Dr Katerina Glyniadaki | Drawing examples from her research on migration management, Dr Glyniadaki discusses some steps that organisations for migrants take to prevent crises, as well as some strategies individual migrants employ to tackle transition and overcome relevant challenges.

Contributor(s): Professor Sam Friedman, Professor Lee Elliot Major | A society with high social mobility creates opportunities for people from all backgrounds to excel. The UK is becoming less socially mobile, meaning that, compared to previous generations, the chances of young people starting out today are more tightly tied to their background. Leading experts in this field discuss not only what can be done to level the playing field - but why it’s not being done already and what is needed to turn ideas into action.

Contributor(s): Dr Karin A. King, Dr Aurelie Cnop-Nielsen | Negotiation is one of the most important skills of successful managers in organisations today. In the context of ongoing change in business, economies and society, organisations need to adapt the design of work and the workplace. The ability to use negotiations effectively day to day has become a key skill for managers to support employees and teams through ongoing change. This session looks closely at what it takes to be an effective negotiator and what that means for supporting people in organisations today to navigate ongoing complex change. Participants consider how you can develop the skills it takes to support your teams to navigate change while creating more value for all involved through effective negotiations.

Contributor(s): Dr Eleanor Knott, Dr Kristin Surak, Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey | In this session three scholars from across the social sciences explore the varying, complex, and global nature of inequalities produced in and through citizenship in the 21st century. Drawing on their newly released books, our panel discuss new transformations in citizenship and (in)equality, ranging from contestations around dual citizenship for Liberia, to the sale of citizenship by microstates to millionaires, to the extra-territorial acquisition of citizenship in Crimea and Moldova.

Contributor(s): Martin Lewis | Ours is an age of rampant inequalities and pervasive financial struggles, where the power of big banks and corporations seems overwhelming to the individual. Whilst you might hope for longer term systemic change, what can you do in the shorter term to improve your financial situation and change your relationship with money?  

Contributor(s): Professor Nicola Lacey, Professor Robert J. Sampson | Does when you are born shape your life chances? A leading sociologist discusses his ground-breaking study of criminal justice that shows that when you come of age matters as much (and perhaps more than) who you are in determining whether you get arrested.

Contributor(s): Sadiq Khan | For many years, Sadiq wasn't fully aware of the dangers posed by air pollution, nor its connection with climate change. Then, aged 43, he was unexpectedly diagnosed with adult-onset asthma - brought on by the polluted London air he had been breathing for decades. Scandalised, Sadiq underwent a political transformation that would see him become one of the most prominent global politicians fighting (and winning) elections on green issues. Since becoming Mayor of London in 2016, he has declared a climate emergency, introduced the world's first Ultra-Low Emission Zone, and turned London into the first-ever 'National Park City'. Now, Sadiq draws on his experiences to reveal the seven ways environmental action gets blown off course - and how to get it back on track. Whether by building coalitions across the political spectrum, putting social justice at the heart of green politics, or showing that the climate crisis is a health crisis too, he offers a playbook for anyone - voter, activist, or politician - who wants to win the argument on the environment. It will help create a world where we can all breathe again.

Contributor(s): Dr Jonathan Cardoso-Silva | Generative AI is a field of artificial intelligence that can create new data based on existing data, such as text, images, code and sounds. It can mimic the way humans create new ideas, concepts and designs that are both diverse and novel. It has the potential to transform higher education by enhancing learning outcomes, fostering creativity and enabling authentic assessments. However, it also poses challenges and ethical implications, such as ensuring quality, integrity and fairness. This talk will demonstrate how generative AI can be used to create engaging and personalised learning experiences for students in higher education. It will show examples of how generative AI tools can generate text, images, code and sounds based on text prompts, sketches or other inputs. It will also discuss how generative AI can enable more authentic assessments that measure students’ knowledge and skills in a relevant and meaningful way. The talk will highlight the opportunities and challenges of using generative AI in higher education and provide some practical tips and best practices for educators and learners.

Contributor(s): Dr Rachel O'Neill, Adrienne Herbert, Dr Thomas Curran | Over the past 30 years, there has been a substantial increase in the percentage of people who feel they need to be perfect. The pressure we put on ourselves to be perfect and the expectations we feel from others and society-at-large can lead to depression, burnout and other mental illnesses, particularly amongst younger generations.

Contributor(s): Dr Luca Taschini, Annet Nakyeyune, Bogolo Kenewendo | We consider the ways in which climate change mitigation will be financed, seeking approaches from key African academics and professionals. We address the environmental and ecological challenges the continent faces and critically evaluate climate capitalism.

Contributor(s): Dr Anna Valero, Rain Newton-Smith, Chris Skidmore, Dr Liam F Beiser-McGrath | As new ways to power our homes, workplaces and transport are developed there will be opportunities for sustainable, healthier economic growth. But there will also be costs for firms, workers and households. To date, climate action has faced challenges from the people, through protests and failed referenda, but has also been driven by public support and activism. How we can ensure the net zero transition is an inclusive one, so that crucial public support can be maintained and built?

Contributor(s): Dr Jens Madsen, Laura de Molière, Professor Conor Gearty, Stella Creasy | Prevented by risk or fear; hampered by bureaucracy; stifled by people circumventing interventions; or cancelled out by unintended consequences - the panel will consider the legal, social, political and psychological reasons why change is so hard. 

Contributor(s): Dr Emilio Lastra-Gil | People in different organisations may use the same new technology differently and, consequently, change informal organising in distinct ways. Materiality allows social effect if it is constant in the organisation under study. The aim of this session will be to discuss the socio-materiality perpective of ICTs.

Contributor(s): Susan Scholefield, David Sinclair, Professor Sir Vince Cable | Prior to retiring people rarely consider these questions, and there is little of a public policy framework to help them do so. How much do we understand – or anticipate - the psychological life-change around moving from a full-time executive role to something else? The path to retirement is sometimes direct, sometimes voluntary and rarely what we think it will be. We discuss what research, teaching and ethnography can tell us about public policy around aging and the transition from work to retirement. The discussion touches on current public policy debates about the retirement age, anti-age discrimination, health and well-being.

Contributor(s): Dr Jasmine Virhia, Yolanda Blavo | In this session, we cover the changes to the workplace owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the potential changes we expect to see in the future, and the UTOPIA framework, which we developed for the future of financial and professional services.

Contributor(s): Dr Linda Yueh, Baroness Shafik, Zanny Minton Beddoes, Professor Richard Davies | Expert economists share stories of what is possible, and what the pitfalls might be, showing how economists and policymakers have changed our lives – to create safer, happier and fairer societies. 

Contributor(s): Professor Adam Przeworski | The contemporary period of crisis has fundamentally altered party-political landscapes in democracies around the world. The rise of the far right, shifting voter preferences, renewed union activism, and new ideas have all contributed to a host of new opportunities and constraints for social democrats and the parties they inhabit -- and untangling this series of challenges will be key for understanding our shared political futures.

Contributor(s): Professor Kris Manjapra | Manjapra argues that during each of the supposed emancipations from slavery – whether Haiti after the revolution, the British Empire in 1833 or the United States during the Civil War – Black people were dispossessed by the moves meant to free them. Emancipation codified existing racial-colonial hierarchies - rather than obliterating them, with far-reaching consequences for climate colonialism and for environmental justice. For centuries, Black reparations movements emerged in opposition to emancipation’s racial distribution of social exploitation, toxicity, and precarity. Black reparations movements enacted liberation, sovereignty, Maroon ecologies, and alternative ways of dwelling beyond the racial-colonial order. Manjapra highlights the radical traditions of Black reparations as a long and ongoing struggle against the world order first created by slavery, then redoubled by emancipation, with deep consequences for how we approach climate justice today.

Contributor(s): Professor Tyler Cowen | For the first time, Large Language Models give us a direct and effective means of conversing with Artificial Intelligence on substantive questions of our choosing, including matters of economics. How do Large Language Models change our conception of how economies work? Are economies better described by words than we thought, or less well described? Given this new power of text, is Michael Polanyi's phenomenon of inarticulable knowledge more or less important?

Contributor(s): Professor Raj Chetty | This talk will discuss recent research using data on billions of friendships from Facebook that identifies economic connectedness -- the degree of social interaction between low- and high-income people -- as a key predictor of economic mobility.  It will then discuss what factors determine the degree of interaction across class lines and policy implications to increase the forms of social capital most relevant for upward income mobility.

Contributor(s): Professor Cornelia Woll, Dr C Raja Mohan, Professor Charles A Kupchan, Dr Selina Ho | Support for traditional international institutions such as the UN and the WTO is weakening in the Global North as well as the Global South. Can these institutions be revived and if so, how? Or is the postwar rules-based order now so fractured that we are likely to get more international and domestic “buy in” starting anew?

Contributor(s): Hannah Barnes, Professor Lucinda Platt | In this event investigative journalist Hannah Barnes speaks about her book: how she came to investigate the Tavistock’s gender service for children, the testimony she received, and her attempts to understand how safeguarding concerns got lost and the service unraveled. 

Contributor(s): Professor Charles Stépanoff | In these three cases, we engage in opaque communication that is far from the standard psycholinguistic model of transparent discussion between adults. Yet anthropologists know that these asymmetrical situations can be some of the most emotionally intense in human lives. This willingness to build sociality beyond linguistic humanity (with infants, deceased and non-humans) allows humans to have a future, a past and a rich relationship with their living environment. This lecture argues that our ontological polyglossia is not a deviance but an intrinsic feature of the human condition. In these asymmetrical situations, the mind of our interlocutor remains opaque to us, which requires exploratory imagination and communicational creativity from us. We will explore this polyglossia in ritual language and in the kinship relationships Siberian peoples build with animals and the dead.

Contributor(s): Bee Rowlatt, Angela Saini | Join us as Angela reveals the true roots of gendered oppression, and the complex history of how male domination became embedded in societies across the globe. Travelling to the world’s earliest known human settlements, and tracing cultural and political histories from the Americas to Asia, she overturns simplistic universal theories to show that what patriarchy is and how far it goes back really depends on where you are. Despite the push back against sexism and exploitation in our own time, even revolutionary efforts to bring about equality have often ended in failure and backlash. Saini examines what part every one of us plays in keeping patriarchy alive, and asks that we look beyond the old narratives to understand why it persists.

Contributor(s): Dr William MacAskill | Does what we do today determine the happiness or misery of trillions of people in the future? MacAskill proposes that by making wise moral decisions today, we can navigate a multitude of crises – bioengineered pandemics, technological stagnation, climate change, and transformative AI – more fairly for generations to come.

Contributor(s): Dr Gabriella Paolucci, Dr Poornima Paidipaty, Professor Bridget Fowler | This book is the first sustained work reflecting on the relations between these two major theorists, and includes contributions from major writers drawing from both scholarly traditions. This new book especially focuses on "the practice of critique" that both thinkers exercised vigilantly throughout their careers. We reflect that ongoing dialogue with the entire body of Marxian critique is a constant in Bourdieu's writings, most clearly evidenced by the adoption of a critical perspective on the social world, and reinforced by the repeated references to Marx’s texts. 

Contributor(s): Professor Raghuram Rajan | When the Federal Reserve expanded its balance sheet via large-scale asset purchases (quantitative easing) in recent years, we find an increase in commercial bank deposits with a shortening of their maturity, and also an increase in outstanding bank lines of credit to corporations. However, when it halted the balance-sheet expansion in 2014 and even reversed it during quantitative tightening starting in 2017, there was no commensurate shrinkage of these claims on liquidity. Consequently, the past expansion of the Fed’s balance sheet left the financial sector more sensitive to potential liquidity shocks when the Fed started shrinking it, necessitating Fed liquidity provision in September 2019 and again in March 2020. If the past repeats, the shrinkage of the central bank balance sheet is not likely to be an entirely benign process and will require careful monitoring of the size of on- and off-balance-sheet demandable claims on the banking sector. It is reasonable to ask whether the prior expansion and then shrinkage of the central banks balance sheets had left the private financial sector more vulnerable to such disruptions, and as a result, dependent on further liquidity interventions.

Contributor(s): Polly Toynbee, Professor David Runciman, Professor Margaret Levi, Daniel Chandler | In his new book, Free and Equal: What Would a Fair Society Look Like?, Daniel Chandler argues that the ideas we need are hiding in plain sight, in the work of the twentieth century's greatest political philosopher, John Rawls. Although Rawls revolutionised philosophy — he is routinely compared to figures such as Plato, Hobbes and Mill – his distinctive vision of a fair society has had little impact on politics, until now. In this talk Daniel Chandler explores how Rawls’ ideas can rehabilitate liberalism as a progressive public philosophy, and point the way towards a practical agenda that would reinvigorate democratic politics and transform, or even transcend, capitalism.

Contributor(s): Professor John Foot | But how much does the contemporary period of political upheaval compare to the past? And what does this mean for the left in Italy and beyond? To find out, we're joined by John Foot to discuss his new book Blood and Power: The Rise and Fall of Italian Fascism.

Contributor(s): Professor Brian Burgoon, Professor Michael Cox, Professor Sara Hobolt, Professor Peter Trubowitz, Dr Leslie Vinjamuri | In Geopolitics and Democracy, Peter Trubowitz and Brian Burgoon provide a new explanation of why the liberal international order has buckled under the pressures of anti-globalist political forces. They trace the anti-globalist backlash to foreign policy decisions made by Western leaders in the decade after the Cold War’s end. These decisions sought to globalize markets and pool national sovereignty at the supranational level while undercutting social protections at home—a combination of policies that succeeded in expanding the Western liberal order, but at the cost of mounting public discontent and political fragmentation. This roundtable will discuss the book and its broader implications for democracy and the liberal order going forward.

Contributor(s): Professor Leonard Wantchekon, Professor Lord Stern, Professor Diane Coyle, Professor Pranab Bardhan | A generation ago, the so-called Washington Consensus laid out a series of do´s and don’t´s for policymakers around the world, and particularly in emerging and developing countries. The world has changed a great deal since 1989 and so has the collective wisdom on what sound policies look like. Today, goals such as sustainability, equity and cohesion play a much bigger role in orienting policy design than they did in the 1980s. There is a growing sense that states should take a more proactive role in confronting all these challenges, but is also likely that many states lack the capacity to do the job well, and will need to be reformed and made fit for purpose. This panel brings together experts discussing key emerging priorities and challenges across a number of policy areas, reflecting on not just what these policy priorities are and why, but also on how they can be implemented.

Contributor(s): Professor William Cook | The general setting is the following. Complexity theory suggests there are limits to the power of general-purpose computational techniques, in engineering, science and elsewhere. But what are these limits and how widely do they constrain our quest for knowledge? The TSP can play a crucial role in this discussion, demonstrating whether or not focused efforts on a single, possibly unsolvable, model will produce results beyond our expectations. We discuss the history of the TSP and its applications, together with computational efforts towards exact and approximate solutions.

Contributor(s): Professor Catarina Dutilh Novaes | Catarina Dutilh Novaes gives a public lecture on her Lakatos Award winning book, The Dialogical Roots of Deduction. Catarina is known for her research on the history and philosophy of logic, philosophy of mathematics, social epistemology, reasoning and cognition, and argumentation theory.

Contributor(s): Paul Mason, Dr Luke Cooper, Dr Olesya Khromeychuk | Before February 2022 Ukraine was already at war with Russia. This conflict, which began in February 2014 as Russia responded militarily to the "Revolution of Dignity", had already cost thousands of Ukrainian lives by the time of the second Russian invasion. One of them was Olesya Khromeychuk's brother Volodymyr, who died from shrapnel on the frontline in eastern Ukraine. Her book, "The death of a soldier told by his sister", combines memoir and essay, in a poignant account of the costs of the human costs of war, empire and authoritarianism. The book provides a vivid answer as to why, facing a full-scale military onslaught from Russia in February 2022, the people of Ukraine chose to resist. In this public lecture, Olesya discusses the book in light of the events of this year. Her lecture is followed by a discussion with Luke Cooper and Tim Judah.

Contributor(s): Dr Cleve Scott, Geoffrey Robertson, Dr Bob Morris | What can we learn from recent constitutional changes in the Caribbean? And what are the lessons from Britain’s own Republican experiment?

Contributor(s): Dr Jonathan Birch, Professor Kristin Andrews, Dr Rosalind Arden | Since this episode was recorded the UK Animal Welfare Act 2022 has become law. This extends animal welfare protections to animals such as octopuses, lobsters and crabs - a direct result of the findings of LSE academic Dr Jonathan Birch – featured in this episode - that animals are sentient. They have the capacity to experience pain, distress or harm.For this episode, James Rattee travels to the local park to find out how smart dogs are, he’ll hear about a campaign arguing that chimpanzees are animals deserving of their own rights and, finally, he’ll ask whether insects and other invertebrates have feelings. The episode features Jonathan Birch, Associate Professor in LSE's Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, Professor Kristin Andrews, the York Research Chair in Animal Minds at York University (Toronto) and Dr Rosalind Arden, Research Fellow at the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science. Research Foundations of Animal Sentience Project Chimpanzee Rights: The Philosophers’ Brief, Kristin Andrews, Gary L Comstock, Crozier G.K.D., Sue Donaldson, Andrew Fenton, Tyler M John, L. Syd M Johnson, Robert C Jones, Will Kymlicka, Letitia Meynell, Nathan Nobis, David Pena-Guzman and Jeff Sebo. A general intelligence factor in dogs, Rosalind Arden, Mark James Adams, Intelligence Volume 55, March–April 2016, Pages 79-85      

Contributor(s): Dr Mara Pasquamaria Squicciarini | Dr Mara Pasquamaria Squicciarini (@mara_squi) is based in the Department of Economics at Bocconi University and is currently a visiting academic at Harvard. Her research interests include economic history, economic growth and development, and applied macroeconomics. Patrick Wallis is Professor of Economic History at LSE. His research explores the economic, social and medical history of Britain from the 16th to 18th century.

Contributor(s): Professor Sophia Kalantzakos, Daniel Litvin, Rob Patalano, Eric Buisson | Transitioning to net-zero emissions requires a large-scale economic transition to renewable energy. Scaling up the manufacturing of the technologies, including solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and electric vehicles will result in significant demand for and dependency on the supply of a range of minerals for the foreseeable future. These ‘transition-critical minerals’, including metals, minerals and Rare Earth Elements, are required to manufacture the green technologies needed for the transition to a low-carbon economy. As a low-carbon future will not be possible without these minerals, supply chain risks and demand uncertainties are central topics that need to be assessed and addressed, with potential implications for economic and financial stability. The type of transition to a net-zero economy significantly determines the materiality of the risks, with a delayed and disorderly transition presenting greater challenges for financial and price stability.

Contributor(s): Dr Alison Winch, Dr James Muldoon, Miranda Hall, Professor Jeremy Gilbert, Professor Myria Georgiou | But are the digital platforms we have today, and the business models that drive them, good for political life? And even if they are good for some dimensions of politics, for example mobilization, do they work as well for building solidarity and for forming long-term campaigns of progressive political change? What weight should we give to the fears of polarization online versus the more positive potentials of the digital? And differences of scale matter here between urban politics and the national or global? Finally, if we do have concerns about our current digital platforms, how do we build better ones? Who should do this, and what sorts of resource will they need? Our speakers who have all written books highly relevant to these topics will address and debate these urgent questions.

Contributor(s): Ralitsa Angelova, Oliver Bulleid, Christian Hilber, Kath Scanlon | We’ll hear how planning restrictions established in the 1700s are still preventing development on some of London’s most valuable land. Experts will set out why we can’t afford to not build on the greenbelts that circle some of our major cities. And an Executive Director will explain how his organisation is building homes that will be truly affordable in perpetuity. Sue Windebank talks to: Ralitsa (Rali) Angelova, a young mum whose family has had the chance to buy an affordable flat in London; Oliver Bulleid, Executive Director of the London Community Land Trust; Professor Christian Hilber, an urban and real estate economist at LSE and; Kath Scanlon, Distinguished Policy Fellow at LSE London.

Contributor(s): Professor Yasheng Huang | Drawing on new data, he will explore the policy implications of this historical pattern for China at a time of mounting strategic and economic rivalry with the United States.

Contributor(s): Dr Andrew Bailey | Andrew Bailey is Governor of the Bank of England, a position he has held since March 2020. Andrew served as Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) from 1 July 2016 until taking up the role of Governor. As CEO of the FCA, Andrew Bailey was also a member of the Prudential Regulation Committee, the Financial Policy Committee, and the Board of the Financial Conduct Authority. Andrew previously held the role of Deputy Governor, Prudential Regulation and CEO of the PRA from 1 April 2013. While retaining his role as Executive Director of the Bank, Andrew joined the Financial Services Authority in April 2011 as Deputy Head of the Prudential Business Unit and Director of UK Banks and Building Societies. In July 2012, Andrew became Managing Director of the Prudential Business Unit, with responsibility for the prudential supervision of banks, investment banks and insurance companies. Andrew was appointed as a voting member of the interim Financial Policy Committee at its June 2012 meeting. Previously, Andrew worked at the Bank in a number of areas, most recently as Executive Director for Banking Services and Chief Cashier, as well as Head of the Bank's Special Resolution Unit (SRU). Previous roles include Governor's Private Secretary, and Head of the International Economic Analysis Division in Monetary Analysis. Minouche Shafik is President and Vice Chancellor of the London School of Economics and Political Science. She was previously a senior leader of the Bank of England, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. She is an alumna of LSE. Her new book, What We Owe Each Other: A New Social Contract, is out now.

Contributor(s): Dr Richard V Reeves, Dr Abigail McKnight | Boys in OECD countries are 50% more likely than girls to fail at all three key school subjects: maths, literacy, and science. Meanwhile, suicide is the biggest killer of men under the age of 45 in the UK. Profound economic and social changes of recent decades have left many men at a disadvantage in these areas. Many previous attempts to treat this condition have made the same fatal mistake - of viewing the problems of men as a problem with men. In his new book, Richard V Reeves explores how the male malaise is the result of deep structural challenges and societal issues. Richard draws on a careful analysis of social, economic, and demographic trends; current discussions on gender in psychology, public policy, economics and sociology; as well as on interviews with men and women, girls and boys. In particular, he examines the worrying signs that males are less responsive to social programs and policies intended to promote economic mobility. 

Contributor(s): Professor Lars-Erik Cederman | Lars-Erik Cederman addresses the link between nationalism and conflict in relation to the Ukraine war. 

Contributor(s): Catherine McKenna, Chris Skidmore MP | Catherine McKenna will be in conversation with Chris Skidmore MP about how to carry forward and implement the findings of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Expert Group on Net-Zero Commitments of Non-State Entities, which were published in November 2022. The Group’s report sets out a roadmap to prevent net zero from being undermined by false claims, ambiguity and “greenwash”.

Contributor(s): Professor Pinelopi Goldberg | The world is trending away from globalisation. Brexit, the rise of protectionism in the US, and calls for re- or friend-shoring are recent manifestations of this trend. Pinelopi Goldberg, the Elihu Professor of Economics at Yale University and former Chief Economist of the World Bank Group, discusses the causes and implications of the retreat from globalisation for growth and inequality.

Contributor(s): Professor Mariana Mazzucato | Where does value come from? What is the difference between value creation and value extraction? And what is the role of the state in directing and co-shaping economies that are innovative, inclusive and sustainable? Mariana Mazzucato will explain how we lost sight of what value means and why we need to rethink the economic theory and practice that is shaping our economies. The contemporary concept of value - as interchangeable with price - has trapped policymakers in a debate about public “spending” rather than public “investment.” This has enormous implications for how economies are structured, and has impacted how leaders across the political spectrum frame economic policy and industrial strategy. Notably, as industrial policy is being revived, there is an opportunity to embed dynamic conditionalities in state funding to steer growth that is sustainable and inclusive – tackling wealth creation and inequality on a pre-distributive basis. Changing the status quo requires a different understanding of public value and public purpose, and the design of policy as not just market fixing but market shaping. Key to this is also the revival of stakeholder value through a new social contract between public and private actors, ensuring that partnerships between the state, private sector, and labour create shared value. In this way, governments can impact not only the rate of growth, but it’s direction.

Contributor(s): Professor Faruk Birtek, Professor Yaprak Gürsoy, Professor Laurent Mignon, Professor Şuhnaz Yılmaz | It will assess transformations in society, foreign policy, literature and politics while providing an overview of the history of the Turkish Republic, as well as the nation’s competing understandings of itself and idealisations of its past and future. When the Turkish Republic was founded on 29 October 1923, one of its ideals was the modernisation and Westernisation of the newly built nation. In the following century, these ideals have changed in content, but in many spheres of life, dialogues with the idea of progress have continued. Relations with the West and different interpretations of modernity divided the nation. Yet the notion of participating in a historically decisive movement of progress toward something distinctively better than the past has united generations and different political groups in various ways.

Contributor(s): Daniel Jolles, Dr Aliya Hamid Rao, Belton Flournoy, Dr Claire Crawford | Weak productivity in Britain is an acute problem. Explanations have included insufficient necessary skills, an overinvestment in unnecessary skills at the university level, capital shallowing and too little creative destruction. In this webinar we explore a different explanation. We ask whether a failure to recruit and operationalise diverse talent is an underlying root cause of slow growth.

Contributor(s): Paul Johnson | Government decisions determine the welfare of the poor and the elderly, the state of the health service, the effectiveness of our children’s education, and how prepared we are for the future: whether that is a pandemic or global warming. As a society, we are a reflection of what the government spends. Johnson looks at what happened following the financial crisis of 2008-09 and the austerity years that followed. He examines the way that the government tackled the economy during Covid – when the UK budget shot up to over a trillion for the first time – and he analyses prospects for our future as we grapple with looming recession and the cost of living crisis.

Contributor(s): Professor Alex Voorhoeve, Dr Elin Palm, Dr Orla Lynskey | Prominent ethical and legal frameworks claim that governments and businesses can permissibly process personal information, under specific conditions, as soon as data subjects give their consent. This already justifies constraints on personal data processing practices to secure free, informed, and unambiguous consent, as well as to respect the context in which consent was given. But consent is not the whole story. Processing personal data without consent may be permissible in some cases when other “legitimate interests” are at stake, such as national security or fraud prevention: so, how to balance privacy and other legitimate interests? On the other hand, emerging accounts of privacy propose that obtaining individual consent is sometimes insufficient to justify personal data processing. If giving away one’s personal data reveals information about others, or if coordination failure leads to suboptimal privacy for all, collective privacy decisions may be required.

Contributor(s): Dr Nihan Albayrak-Aydemir, Roger’s Bacon, Dr Dario Krpan, Dr Celestin Okoroji, Feiyang Wang | This low diversity of thought is reflected in numerous aspects of social sciences—for example, certain research topics (e.g., those that may be easily publishable) are prioritized over other important but less desirable topics (e.g., those that are not heavily cited or easy to publish); some methodologies such as experimentation are widely used whereas less common methods (e.g., self-observation) are neglected; short-term projects with quick gains are prioritized over the long-term ones; some participant populations are understudied (e.g., non-WEIRD samples - i.e., non-western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic); and theorizing is driven by arbitrary conventions and overly reliant on available research findings while avoiding speculation that could lead to new insights. In this event, social scientists of varied backgrounds will express their perspectives on diversity of thought in social sciences followed by a panel discussion.

Contributor(s): Dr Stuart Gordon, Sveto Muhammad Ishoq, Halima | The UK government could soon be sending some asylum-seekers on a one-way flight to Rwanda as part of a controversial strategy to deter those crossing the English Channel on small boats. Joanna Bale talks to Dr Stuart Gordon, Sveto Muhammad Ishoq and Halima, an Afghan refugee living in a hotel, about what it’s like to flee your country and policy ideas to help resolve the situation. Research links: Regulating humanitarian governance: humanitarianism and the ‘risk society’ by Stuart Gordon: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/105296/ The protection of civilians: an evolving paradigm? by Stuart Gordon: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/101979/ Afghan women’s storytelling and campaigning platform: https://chadariproject.com/about-chadari/

Contributor(s): Baroness Barker, Natalie Gamble, Dr Kirsty Horsey, Professor Isabel Karpin | In 2023, the Law Commission will publish its long-awaited final proposals for reform of the law relating to surrogacy in the UK. 

Contributor(s): Professor Roy Allison | Russia and Western states have long clashed over the nature of international society and the desirability of a liberal rule-based international order. Relations plunged with Russia’s annexation of Crimea, which flouted a core prohibition of the United Nations Charter system against territorial expansion by force. Putin’s renewed all-out invasion of Ukraine now appears openly revanchist. This lecture assesses the implications for international order at large and the operation of international law, including international humanitarian law, around the conflict. It dissects the peculiar logic and false justifications Putin offers for Russia’s aggression. Does he really believe Russia occupies some common civilizational and territorial space with Ukraine, justifying the subjugation of Ukraine to return ‘historic Russian regions’? Or is this cynical cover for strategic ends aimed at the mobilisation of domestic support? With no end to the war in sight, the lecture also questions what remains of the post-Cold war territorial settlement in Europe and whether an eventual negotiated settlement of the war is conceivable under the current Russian leadership.  

Contributor(s): Professor Helen Thompson | The war in Ukraine, mounting cost of living crisis and the looming threat of climate change all underscore the importance of energy to contemporary politics. To help make sense of this vital aspect of 21st century political economy, the Ralph Miliband Programme is joined by Helen Thompson to discuss how many of the defining dislocations of our contemporary world are best understood through the lens of energy politics.

Contributor(s): Martin Wolf, Diane Coyle, Jesse Norman MP | Democracy and capitalism are the political and economic 'operating systems' of today's high-income democracies. But how stable is the relationship between them? The answer is 'not very', since it requires a separation of power from wealth inconsistent with almost all historical experience. In his new book, The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism, Martin Wolf argues that this complex system can best be described as a marriage of 'complementary opposites'. The book analyses how this marriage happened, why it is fragile and how economic and political changes have undermined it. It concludes by asking what needs to be done in response to developments that threaten the survival of liberal democracy itself.

Contributor(s): Dr Hans Kluge | Three years of COVID-19 have exposed the fault lines in health systems across the WHO European Region and globally. The pandemic has also driven home the gross inequities that impact access to health within societies and between countries. As we embark on the 4th year of what the UN Secretary-General has labelled the worst global crisis since World War Two, it’s clear that governments and health partners need a new approach to strengthening health systems overall. Dr Kluge avers that a dual track approach to health strategy and policy must be our new normal. Countries must prepare for the health emergencies that lie ahead, arriving faster than ever before, while, at the same time, investing in essential, everyday health services. This approach addresses this range of health challenges, requiring political commitment at the highest levels, grassroots efforts to strengthen primary health care, innovations in health such as digital health and the adoption of disciplines such as behavioural and cultural insights.

Contributor(s): Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala | LSE President and Vice Chancellor Minouche Shafik in conversation with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization.

Contributor(s): Vicky Pryce, Stefaan de Rynck | A close aide to Michel Barnier, Stefaan De Rynck had a ringside seat in the Brexit negotiations. In his book, Inside the Deal, which he discusses at this event De Rynck demonstrates how the EU-27’s unity held firm while the UK vacillated throughout, changing negotiators, prime ministers, their aims and tactics. From the mood in the room to the technical discussions, he gives an unvarnished account of the process and obstacles that shaped the final deal.

Contributor(s): Marie Yovanovitch, Professor Tomila Lankina | with Tomila Lankina and Peter Trubowitz.

Contributor(s): Liam Byrne MP, Ed Miliband MP, Dr Andy Summers | Using research evidence and on-the-ground experience, they are looking at how to shape a greener economy and close socioeconomic, health and well-being divides in the UK.

Contributor(s): John Alty, Geoffrey Yu, Han-Koo Yeo, Crawford Falconer, Iana Dreyer, Ignacio Garcia Bercero | The world economy is going through a phase of considerable turmoil and instability. First, globalisation seems to be reversing with an acceleration of economic disintegration among major trading powers, securitisation of global trade and investment relations within geo-economic blocks and paralysis of multilateral global governance. Second, our domestic economies are undergoing profound structural shifts in the light of the climate emergency, energy scarcity and rise of digital technologies and artificial intelligence. And third, the centre of the world economy is shifting towards the Asia and Global South. How do policy-makers see these developments? And how can states position themselves to benefit rather than lose from today’s phase of turmoil?

Contributor(s): Dr Joseph Spooner, Sara Williams | Borrowing is a fundamental part of our world, but with millions considered over-indebted before the pandemic and a deepening cost of living crisis fueled by stagnating wages and high inflation, for many the burden of debt looks only set to increase. This month, LSE iQ asks “Do we always need to pay our debts?”, exploring the reasons people might find themselves with problematic levels of debt, the options open to those in financial trouble and how bankruptcy laws could be used more impactfully to the benefit of both individuals and society. Jess Winterstein talks to: Dr Joseph Spooner, Associate Professor in the LSE Law School and author of Bankruptcy: the case for relief in an economy of debt, and Sara Williams, founder of debt advisory website Debt Camel. https://debtcamel.co.uk/

Contributor(s): Professor Stuart Wilks-Heeg, Alberto Parmigiani, Dr Kate Alexander Shaw | Questions over the motivation and effect of financial contributions to political parties and candidates have been a constant source of contention in the politics of democratic countries. However, difficulties accessing reliable data have often constrained research about political finance. In the UK the Electoral Commission has been recording all political donations since its foundation, with detailed information on the date, amount and type of contribution, and names of donors. This panel will discuss preliminary findings of a British Academy/Leverhulme funded study of these donations, and seek to draw broad conclusions about how British politics is funded and what we still need to know.

Contributor(s): Dr Alessio Terzi, Dr Anna Valero | Historically, industrialisation, capitalism, and affluence have contributed to the emissions that are warming the planet’s atmosphere. As humanity starts to grapple with the Herculean challenge of climate change, should economic growth be abandoned to stand a chance of success? Would this lead to a better society, especially in already rich nations, freeing them from pointless consumerism? In Growth for Good, Alessio Terzi takes these legitimate concerns as a starting point to draw the reader on a journey into the socioeconomic, evolutionary, historical and cultural origins of the growth imperative. Rather than simply stating impossibilities, the book draws a credible agenda to enrol capitalism in the fight to stave off climate catastrophe. Shelving command-and-control solutions, or the complete reliance on, the market, Terzi details a plan involving an activist government, proactive business, and engaged citizens.

Contributor(s): Dr Erica Thompson, Dr Stephanie Hare, Professor Diane Coyle | This discussion lifts the lid on science for decision support, so that we can be savvier with how we use science, rather than following it blindly.

Contributor(s): Dr Peter Wilson, Professor Stephanie J. Rickard, Professor John Bew, Sir Paul Tucker | As outlined in his new book, democracies are facing a drawn-out contest with authoritarian states entangling much of public policy with global security issues. He lays out some principles for a sustainable system of international cooperation, showing how democracies can deal with China and other illiberal states without sacrificing their deepest political values. Examples are drawn from the international monetary order, including the role of the US dollar, trade and investment regimes, and the financial system. The approach takes its inspiration from David Hume rather than the standard International Relations menu of Hobbes, Kant, or Grotius, so that each of power, norms and material interests matter. After his opening remarks, our panel engages in a discussion with Paul and each other, and questions from the audience.

Contributor(s): Dr Anne Giersch, Claire North, Dr Bryan W Roberts, Dr Karim PY Thébault | The asymmetry between the past and the future is called the Arrow of Time. For example, the events of the past year have shaped all of us, but the future years are ours to shape. We all perceive the Arrow: we remember the start of the pandemic, but we don't "remember" or even know when it will end in the future. We have hopes about the future, but must simply accept and learn from what has happened in the past. Where do these differences come from? How do they arise in human psychology? Do they have an origin in the physical nature of space and time? What can reflecting on the difference between the past and the future tell us about our place in the post-pandemic world?

Contributor(s): Professor Jonathan Hopkin, James Murray, Dr Andy Summers, Dr Kate Summers | The panel will reflect on what shapes public demand for tax justice, its relation to tackling inequality and the challenges posed by taxing the super-rich.

Contributor(s): Professor Baroness Wolf | Governments around the world are increasingly preoccupied with the financial 'returns' to education; and yet are overseeing the destruction of long-established and once-effective vocational education systems. Why is this? And is it inevitable?

Contributor(s): Professor Shiera Malik, Professor Siba N'Zatioula Grovogui | In these times of multiple crises - of war, ecological catastrophe and resurgent decolonial contestations of the existing order - it often feels like the traditional tools of global governance have lost their relevance and power.  Rather than merely a Western, liberal text, he offers the UDHR as a document with a plurality of authors and sensibilities; a re-reading that could help us (re-)imagine much needed alternatives to the current global order and its various crises.

Contributor(s): Professor Marc Raboy, Dr Alison Norah Gillwald, Dr Gillian Marcelle, Dr Linje Manyozo, Professor Sharon Strover, Professor Hopeton Dunn | Speakers address the legacy of LSE’s Robin Mansell, a leading figure in the field of information and communication technologies (ICTs) theory and practice

Contributor(s): Dr Luiz Awazu Pereira da Silva, Dr Deniz Igan, Dr Benoit Mojon | The debate is intensified by deep recessions related to the COVID-19 pandemic and resurgent food and energy inflation increasing cost of living in 2022, which unequally impact different groups within society. This event marks the launch of the book Inequality Hysteresis, which highlights a new facet of inequality: its persistence or ‘hysteresis’ after recessions.

Contributor(s): Professor Thierry Balzacq | Diplomatic apologies, joint military exercises, gift giving, and global summits, are assumed to be some of the most iconic rituals of world politics. However, many actions that are achieved by means of rituals can be enacted otherwise. What criteria, then, do scholars employ to say that an action or an event is a ritual, and what difference (if any) does it make to its character as well as to its efficacy? To answer this question, Thierry Balzacq develops a grammar of ritual and contrasts it to alternative theories of action in world politics. Ritual is not a residual category of a phenomenon or an event, but is a qualitatively transformed way of going about acting, which, less frequently noticed, entails moral commitments. In this respect, it is posited that ritual enacts a social order as much as it enhances the salience of the action it involves. He will show how, and examine the theoretical implications of a ritual analysis by revisiting four dominant approaches to action in international relations: discourse, performance, practice and habitus, and strategic views. It is argued that while ritual intersects with each account, it does not extend wholesale.

Contributor(s): Olena Zelenska | The event, organised in coordination with the LSE SU Ukrainian student society, was chaired by LSE Director Minouche Shafik. (For the most part, this event is delivered in Ukrainian.)

Contributor(s): Dr Aaron Cheng, Michael Steranka, Joanna Ferreria | Gaming has become a normal part of many people's everyday lives, from mobile to console games it is easier than ever to be a gamer. But how do online games affect us?  This month, LSE iQ asks: Can gaming make us happier? We talk about online abuse in gaming and the toxic nature of some gamers and how a location-based game like Pokémon Go gently nudges players to go outside to play and interact with others.  Mike Wilkerson talks to: Dr Aaron Cheng, Assistant Professor in LSE’s Department of Management; Michael Steranka, Product Director at the creators of the game Pokémon Go Niantic; and Joanna Ferreria an online blogger and avid gamer.  Research blog: https://www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-news-from-LSE/2022/d-Apr-22/Location-based-mobile-games-like-Pok%C3%A9mon-Go-may-help-alleviate-depression

Contributor(s): Kyriakos Mitsotakis | Is Greece on the path to a sustained economic recovery? How substantive have the reforms been? With elections due next year, and with recent controversies, political stability seems at a premium. What vision does the PM have for Greece? And, how are the geopolitics of the region changing? Where does Greece stand on the new issues facing a changing Europe?

Contributor(s): Lord Sumption, Professor Martin Loughlin, Dr Munira Mirza | It will examine the desire among some members of the public to have a democracy without parties or professional politicians, an idea which has its roots in the ancient world. Jonathan Sumption will first discuss such arguments after which there will be a panel discussion. 

Contributor(s): Claire Harding, Dave Hill, Manny Hothi, Stewart Lansley, Professor Baroness Lister | Join us for this important discussion as our panel each presents their thoughts. Our audience are invited to contribute to the discussion as we unpick this difficult question. This event is inspired by the life, work and legacy of George Lansbury (1859–1940). A pioneering campaigner for peace, women’s rights, local democracy and improvements in labour conditions, Lansbury was an adopted East Ender who made a great contribution to local as well as national life.

Contributor(s): Dr Paris Chronakis, Professor Meena Dhanda, Professor James Mark | At issue is the cultural politics of European politics, and we will be discussing how and what kind of European histories get remembered or memorialised, what and who gets included (whose statues are erected and whose toppled), and whose story is left out.

Contributor(s): Professor Leigh Gardner | Leigh Gardner discusses her new book, Sovereignty without Power: Liberia in the Age of Empires, 1822-1980. 

Contributor(s): Professor Manisha Pathak-Shelat, Marium Saeed, Professor Sonia Livingstone, Dr Daniel Kardefelt-Winther, Patrick Burton, Dr Alexandre Barbosa | Our panel explores implementing child rights online. 

Contributor(s): Dr Louise Ashley, David Goodhart, Professor Mark Williams | Despite a narrative of merit, the City of London is characterised by persistent inequalities in its demographic make-up. Against this backdrop, Ashley asks - how does the City reproduce inequality despite an apparent commitment to objective merit, why do efforts to diversify fail to work – and crucially, who benefits?

Contributor(s): Dr Eva Micheler, Professor Sandy Pepper, Professor Alex Voorhoeve, Katherine Griffiths | Over the last 30 years senior executive pay in the USA, UK and many other developed countries has increased dramatically, generating enormous debate and, at times, public and political outrage. Sandy Pepper’s book argues that this ‘soaraway’ inflation in executive pay is the result of a market failure that has lead remuneration committees to become trapped in a prisoner’s dilemma – where they feel they must recommend over-the-odds payments in the vain hope of obtaining or retaining superior talent. For institutional investors too, these developments have created a collective action problem, with many historically unwilling or unable to intervene to curtail excessive corporate executive pay. Combatting this ‘market failure’ approach to executive pay ultimately requires a stronger, reformed ethical response from investors, companies, and executives – but what solutions are feasible? 

Contributor(s): Dr Gregory T Chin | This lecture will present why it has become imperative for China to increase the international use of its currency, the Renminbi (RMB), considering the growing reliance of the United States on economic warfare, including financial warfare, and the fracturing of the liberal global monetary order. The focus is on mapping the internationalization of the RMB, particularly key recent breakthroughs in the preconditions for the RMB to function as an international currency. The primary agents in the making of the RMB into an international currency are China's Party-state, counterpart state agencies, and especially the participating market actors, Chinese corporate actors, the leading commercial banks and manufacturing-and-trading companies -- and their overseas partners -- who are increasingly using the RMB, internationally, for their economic transactions. RMB internationalization has entered a key phase, where pre-existing obstacles still have to be overcome, but where the gradual increases in the RMB's international use are also being met by profound changes in the global monetary order, namely the ongoing shifts to a more multipolar global monetary system and to digital currencies.

Contributor(s): Iain Anderson, Trevor Phillips | This is a time where the rights of all protected groups are being eroded – to note just two examples, the overturning of Roe vs Wade and the cancellation of the UK’s Safe to be Me landmark LGBT+ summit after an uproar over changes to the planned conversion therapy ban. What can civil society do to fight back against what appears to be an inexorable tide?

Contributor(s): Kate Raworth, Maria Carrasco | Doughnut Economics, a framework coined by Raworth, sets out a 21st-century economic vision of meeting the needs of all people within the means of the living planet, through regenerative and distributive design. Over 40 cities and regions worldwide have already started to engage with the concepts and tools, aiming to turn these concepts into practice in place. How are they getting started, and what are the challenges they face? Kate Raworth, author of Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist and co-founder of Doughnut Economics Action Lab, will share the core concepts and tools, along with examples from cities and places that are seeking to turn this economic vision into practice. She will be joined by Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity, Maria Carrasco, for the discussion.

Contributor(s): Dr James Morrison, Professor Stephanie J. Rickard, Joseph C Sternberg, Dr Linda Yueh | A group of leading political analysts size up US national and state elections and what they mean for democratic governance in America.

Contributor(s): Professor André Singer, Professor Claudia Heiss | Is Latin America experiencing a new pink tide?  Can Lula make a dramatic political comeback in Brazil’s closely fought Presidential election? And why has Chile’s new left-wing President failed to secure revision of the Pinochet constitution? 

Contributor(s): Professor Ruha Benjamin | Long before the pandemic, Ruha Benjamin was doing ground-breaking research on race, technology, and justice, focusing on big, structural changes. But the twin plagues of COVID-19 and anti-Black police violence inspired her to rethink the importance of small, individual actions. Part memoir, part manifesto, her new book Viral Justice, which she will talk about at this event, is a sweeping and deeply personal exploration of how we can transform society through the choices we make every day.

Contributor(s): Professor Barry R Weingast | Both Hayek and Smith differ from more recent attempts to define liberty. Indeed, the term, “liberty,” has largely disappeared from traditional economics. As part of a larger study of Adam Smith’s politics, Barry Weingast suggests why this is the case. The reason for this disappearance is that modern economics assumes away the problem that liberty solves, namely, in Hayek and Smith's terms, that of arbitrary power, and in modern terms, that of government predation.

Contributor(s): Ignacio Garcia Bercero, Emily Lydgate | The talk will discuss issues for a potential trade and climate negotiating agenda such as subsidies, liberalisation of goods and services with a positive climate impact, standards for measuring carbon intensity or the role of border carbon measures. It will look into the potential of tackling those issues in a WTO context either multilaterally or through open plurilateral approaches. Photo by Porapak Apichodilok on Pexels

Contributor(s): Dr Benedetta Berti, Professor Christopher Coker, Andy Salmon | After NATO published its new Strategic Concept in June 2022, in the midst of Russia’s war on Ukraine, and 12 years on from its last Strategic Concept, this event takes a look at how the strategy was formed and what it is for.

Contributor(s): Professor Leslie McCall | Questioning widespread notions of US exceptionalism, the lecture critically examines common assumptions about how Americans think about issues of economic inequality (in outcomes and opportunities and across dimensions of race and class) and related policies that reduce economic inequality. Using a wide range of existing and original data sources, as well as multiple methodological approaches, Professor McCall analyses public views in the United States over time and in a comparative context. She proposes a multi-dimensional framework for understanding public views of inequality rooted in desires for substantive economic and educational opportunities through a broad set of social rights, employment protection and support, and redistribution of pay. The in-depth study of the American case in comparative perspective and supplementary cross-national analyses suggests that this novel analytical framework can shed light on the politics of inequality throughout advanced political economies.

Contributor(s): Professor Shakuntala Banaji, Dr Ram Bhat | Social Media and Hate argues that these phenomena, and the extreme violence and discrimination they initiate against targeted groups, are connected to the socio-political contexts, values and behaviours of users of social media platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, ShareChat, Instagram and WhatsApp. The argument moves from a theoretical discussion of the practices and consequences of sectarian hatred, through a methodological evaluation of quantitative and qualitative studies on this topic, to four qualitative case studies of social media hate, and its effects on groups, individuals and wider politics in India, Brazil, Myanmar and the UK. The technical, ideological and networked similarities and connections between social media hate against people of African and Asian descent, indigenous communities, Muslims, Dalits, dissenters, feminists, LGBTQIA communities, Rohingya and immigrants across the four 

Contributor(s): Geoff Tily | Without taxation there is no government. Taxation is essential, but who is to pay, and for what? For centuries people have fought over these questions, and these fights have been at the heart of the development and crises of democracy, from Magna Carta through the French Revolution to the Global Financial Crisis and the Pandemic. Bringing together internationally renowned academic experts and policymakers, this documentary retraces this fascination history across France, Britain and Germany from as far as the Middle Ages up to the present day.

Contributor(s): Dr Olivia Umurerwa Rutazibwa, Maarya Rabbani | Olivia Umurerwa Rutazibwa is Assistant Professor in Human Rights and Politics at the Department of Sociology, LSE. She is a Belgian/Rwandan International Relations scholar and former journalist and Senior Research Fellow of the Johannesburg Institute of Advanced Studies (JIAS), South Africa.  Maarya Rabbani is the 2022-23 Education Officer at LSE Students’ Union. She is a British-Afghan scholar and holds two MSc degrees in Education, and Comparative Politics from the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics and Political Science, respectively.  Eric Neumayer is Professor of Environment and Development at LSE, having joined the Department of Geography and Environment in 1998. 

Contributor(s): Professor Hazel V Carby, Ruby Hembrom | Indigenous, black and Latinx communities suffer the health consequences of living in the most polluted and toxic environments. Indigenous peoples across the Americas are also at the forefront of opposition to the extraction and transportation of fossil fuels. In this event, Hazel Carby will be discussing and showing the work of indigenous artists who are responding to environmental and ecological crises and degradation.

Contributor(s): Professor Abraham L Newman, Dr Jamie Martin, Professor Stephanie J. Rickard | The war in Ukraine raises questions about whether states must be ‘strategic’ about their national economic policies due to geopolitical risks. The scramble for supplies to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic, long-term trends of growing competition between the United States and China and the rise of populism had already fuelled geopolitical tensions, along with fears that globalisation is eroding. As a result, some of the global economy’s most prominent players prioritise economic resilience and reshoring global supply chains with ‘friendly’ allied states. The potential outcome is a fracturing of a globalised economy based on these alliances or outright deglobalisation. All of this is culminating in escalating economic disruptions for lower-income countries, with countries in sub-Saharan Africa facing possible default on their sovereign debt. Added to this, the war in Ukraine has caused the most significant commodity shock since the 1970s. International institutions, like the World Trade Organization, continue to defend global trade and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank continue to champion international cooperation to address economic and social welfare. What are the political, social, and economic implications of these challenges for the global economy? How should international laws and institutions address these challenges to economic integration? How do precedents for twentieth-century international economic institution building help us contextualise today’s challenges?

Contributor(s): Professor Neil Cummins, Professor Sam Friedman, Sabrina Daniel | It examines how we wear and reveal our social class in English society today. Do accents really matter? Is it enough to imitate one supposed ‘social betters’ to achieve social mobility? What cost is there to the individual who changes their social status? Sue Windebank talks to an LSE Law student who reveals how she has overcome the challenges of being an asylum seeker and a care leaver to study law at the School. Professor Sam Friedman, a sociologist of class and inequality, discusses the arbitrariness of what is considered ‘high culture’. And economic historian Professor Neil Cummins reveals how class will probably determine who you marry.

Contributor(s): Professor June Barrow-Green | In 1916 the physician Ronald Ross published the first of three papers on the mathematical study of epidemiology or, as he called it, ‘pathometry’. The second and third of these papers appeared the following year co-authored with the mathematician Hilda Hudson. At the time Hudson, who had ranked equivalent to the 7th wrangler in the 1903 Cambridge Mathematical Tripos, was well known for her work on Cremona Transformations. So how and why did Hudson, a geometer, end up collaborating with Ross, winner of the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1902 for his work on the transmission of malaria? And what role did she play? In her talk June Barrow-Green shall discuss the nature and extent of their collaboration, as well as the content and significance of their work.

Contributor(s): Professor Gary Gerstle | As a new progressivism gains steam on the left, and Donald Trump gears up for a second run on the right, we are joined by Gary Gerstle to discuss his new book, The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order America and the World in the Free Market Era.

Contributor(s): Professor Alpa Shah, Professor Nikhil Anand, Dr Kasia Paprocki | Bangladesh dominates mainstream narratives of climate disaster. Frequently described as the ‘world’s most vulnerable country to climate change’, the oversimplified spectre of a major country slipping underwater has yielded a crisis narrative that erases a complex history of landscape transformation and intense, contemporary political conflicts. Colonialism, capitalism, and local agrarian struggles have so far shaped the country’s coastline more than carbon emissions. Today, both national and global elites ignore this history, while crafting narratives and economic strategies that redistribute power and resources away from peasant communities in the name of climate adaptation.  Threatening Dystopias draws on over two years of multi-sited ethnographic and archival fieldwork with development practitioners, policy makers, scientists, farmers and rural migrants, to investigate the politics of climate change adaptation in Bangladesh from multiple perspectives and scales, offering an in-depth analysis of the global politics of climate change adaptation and how they are both forged and manifested in this unique site.

Contributor(s): Professor Julian Go, Professor Noortje Marres, Professor Melinda Mills, Professor Mike Savage | We bring together four outstanding social scientists with a range of research interests and a range of traditions to discuss whether social science is explanation or it is nothing. Inspired by the Group for Debates in Anthropological Theory, the contributors speak in favour or in opposition to this motion. Noortje Marres and Mike Savage will speak in opposition, while Julian Go and Melinda Mills will speak in favour.

Contributor(s): Professor Luc Bovens, Dr Susanne Burri, Professor Kieran Setiya | All human lives, even very comfortable ones, involve some degree of suffering and hardship. We face personal losses and traumas, and confront a world that seems full of injustice, misery and absurdity. Can philosophy help us to cope?

Contributor(s): Professor Robert Falkner, Dr Rita Floyd | This lecture, part of a series on Strategy: New Voices will explore the strategic nexus between great power conflict, energy independence and climate action, and how to develop effective international strategies that help us prevent catastrophic global warming. The war in Ukraine has heightened concerns over the impact that geopolitical instability will have on future climate change and energy policy. Great power tensions and conflict threaten to harm the search for international cooperation on global challenges. At the same time, Russia’s military aggression has galvanised European powers to seek strategic autonomy and reduce their reliance on fossil fuel imports. Will it also end up galvanising leading powers to accelerate the net zero transition?

Contributor(s): Dr Joe Zammit-Lucia | We are transitioning from the age of financialised capitalism to one of political capitalism. The discussion explores how political issues ranging from geopolitical rivalry to climate and environment to culture wars to wealth inequality to diversity and inclusion are now affecting every aspect of business activity and increasingly taking priority over economic considerations. Which businesses and brands can adapt appropriately and thrive in the emerging era - and how?

Contributor(s): Professor Nick Crafts | After World War 2, Britain faced issues which are familiar today: strengthening the welfare state, dealing with an inflated public debt, improving productivity performance, underpinning support for the market economy, and credibly promising a better future. The Attlee government has been widely praised for its handling of this difficult situation and it is often said that we should remember the lessons of the 1940s.

Contributor(s): Professor Rhacel Salazar Parreñas, Lina Abou Habib, Dr Steffen Hertog | The Kafala System, an employment scheme in the Middle East, has attracted much academic scrutiny and criticism over the decades. Human rights activists align the system with slavery, unfreedom, and human trafficking. In her new book, which she will discuss at this event, Rhacel Salazar Parreñas offers more nuanced accounts of workers relationships with their employers in the United Arab Emirates. Rhacel's work employs novel methods of researching the Kafala system and its impact on workers and questions concepts such as unfreedom and freedom. Whilst her arguments highlight the dehumanising treatment and lack of recognition of migrant domestic workers, her empirical data crucially illuminates the diversity of work conditions. A key argument is that rather than ‘abuse’ being the main point of reference in Kafala debates, it is the absence of labour standards in the region that leads to unequal and complex employment relationships. A diverse panel of academics, stakeholders and human rights activists will offer their reflections on Parreñas’ book, highlighting their expertise from the Middle East.

Contributor(s): Professor Sophie Harman, Dr Marsha Henry | In this year’s Fred Halliday lecture, Sophie Harman seeks to answer two fundamental questions: first, why do women die when they don’t have to? and second, what happens when we take the relationship between women’s health and global politics seriously? To answer these two questions, Harman will map key trends in how women’s health is used and abused for political advantage around the world; and offer a key provocation, that these trends are fundamental to understanding, and even predicting, the chaos and crisis the world finds itself in. Women and women’s health saw it coming.

Contributor(s): Professor Emily Jackson, Professor Theda Skocpol, Professor Jeffrey K Tulis | This panel of leading experts on US history and politics consider where the Court is headed and what this means for American democracy.

Contributor(s): Dr Rory Finnin | “If Russia stops fighting, there will be no war. If Ukraine stops fighting, there will be no Ukraine” is the sentiment used by many Ukrainian protesters mobilising against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In this talk, the panellists will consider both Russia's war against and invasion of Ukraine since February 2022 and the longer trajectory of Russia's aggression against Ukraine since 2014, first in Crimea and second in Donetsk and Luhansk. The panellists will reflect on what we know about Ukraine and Ukrainian citizens prior to and since Russia's aggression began, as well as perspectives we can take to understand the scale and consequences of Russia's aggression.

Contributor(s): Simon Commander, Emeritus Professor Saul Estrin | Although the connections world has not yet seriously impeded Asia’s economic renaissance, it comes with significant costs and fallibilities. In their new book, which they will talk about at this event, Saul Estrin and Simon Commander argue that if Asia’s claim to the 21st century is not to be derailed, major changes must be made to policy and behaviour to promote more sustainable economic and political systems. Join the speakers and Minouche Shafik, Director of LSE, for an evening exploring what the future could hold for Asian capitalism.

Contributor(s): Dr Tamma Carleton, Dr Asad Gilani, Professor Michael Greenstone, Dr Eric Obutey | Climate change is already increasing global temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, and resulting in more frequent and severe floods and droughts. Developing countries are most vulnerable to climate change, which can aggravate the effects of poverty and rapid urbanisation. Without effective policies for adaptation and mitigation, climate change may push hundreds of millions further into poverty and limit the opportunities for sustainable development. In order to formulate effective and equitable adaptation and mitigation strategies, governments must be equipped with a thorough estimation of the costs and benefits of various policies.

Contributor(s): Ray Dalio | Expertly putting into perspective the “Big Cycle” that has driven the successes and failures of all the world’s major empires and countries —including the Dutch, the British, and the American— throughout history. The discussion will follow the book revealing the timeless and universal forces behind these shifts and uses them to look into the future, offering practical principles for positioning oneself for what’s ahead.

Contributor(s): Dr Ganga Shreedhar, David Shukman | Sea levels are rising, carbon emissions are increasing and deforestation is continuing at an alarming rate. Human created climate change is drastically reshaping life on earth, with up to 75% of the diversity of the species on our planet on their way to becoming extinct. This month, LSE iQ asks: How can we survive the next mass extinction? We’ll discuss the dangers of greenwashing, what it’s like to witness an environmental catastrophe and how we can change our behaviour to benefit the planet. Anna Bevan talks to: Dr Ganga Shreedhar, Assistant Professor in LSE’s Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, and Associate at the Grantham Research Institute of Climate Change and the Environment and the Inclusion Initiative; and former BBC Science Editor, and now Visiting Professor in Practice at the Grantham Research Institute, David Shukman.   Research Stories of intentional action mobilise climate policy support and action intentions (2021) by Sabherwal, Anandita and Shreedhar, Ganga Personal or Planetary health? Direct, spillover and carryover effects of non-monetary benefits of vegetarian behaviour (2021) by Shreedhar, Ganga and Galizzi, Matteo

Contributor(s): Professor Robin Burgess, Professor John Van Reenen, Professor Mar Reguant, Pol Simpson | The panel discusses new thinking and evidence from leading thinkers and practitioners on this vital subject, including detailed studies of one of the possible success stories – solar power. Does the rapid rise in the use of solar energy represent a ray of hope in addressing the climate crisis?

Contributor(s): Dr Clare Balboni, Lord Deben, Dr Shaun D Fitzgerald, Professor David Keith, Dr Anna Valero | Should we also consider a Plan B of encouraging new technological solutions? And if so, what kind of solutions are there and how would we act upon them? This event brings together some new thinking on this issue.

Contributor(s): Daniel Pink | Too often, people brush off their regrets, chosing always to stay positive and look forward. In his latest book, which he will talk about in this event, Daniel Pink points to regrets as a beacon of our individuality that can be leveraged for better decision making and to understand our core values. Grace Lordan and Daniel Pink discuss the true value in understanding regret and using it to our advantage.

Contributor(s): Lea Ypi, David Hope, Julian Limberg, Tomila Lankina | Joanna Bale talks to Lea Ypi, David Hope, Julian Limberg and Tomila Lankina about defining freedom, debunking trickle-down economics and defying the Bolsheviks.

Contributor(s): Lord Carnwath, Dr Joana Setzer, Dr Roda Verheyen, Kate Higham, Mark Odaga, Ana Carolina Haliuc, Anne Corrigan, Michael Burger | This annual report – which has been published regularly since 2017 – provides an overview of the state of the art of climate litigation and highlights recent developments and recommendations for action. The event begins with a short presentation from authors Joana Setzer and Catherine Higham on the findings of the Grantham Research Institute’s 2022 Global Trends in Climate Change Litigation Policy Report. The presentation is followed by a panel discussion, with five distinguished experts in the field. Panellists react to the report and to draw out key aspects from their own experience in the field. The report is based on data in the Climate Change Laws of the World database which has a user base of nearly 200,000 users a year. Users include policy-makers from national legislatures, environment ministries, and central banks among many others.

Contributor(s): Dr Ann Olivarius | Ann Olivarius is a pioneer of the women’s rights movement, instigating change politically, legally, and in the workplace, creating a world where women are safer and more equal in the UK and the USA. She is a trailblazing feminist lawyer who has made tackling sexual harassment and discrimination her life's work.  Join Grace Lordan in her conversation with Ann Olivarius as they look back on the progress that women have made over the last 50 years. They discuss the current threats facing the Women’s Rights Movement today from the workplace to the community to the political agenda, including why US abortion rights are under attack at this specific point in history.

Contributor(s): Valeria Gontareva | Her remarks also include observations on the Ukrainian banking sector, financial needs, global implications and worldwide economic shocks.

Contributor(s): Piroska Nagy Mohacsi, Dr Angela Lusigi, Dr Ernest Addison | This event explores the financial and economic prospects for the region’s emerging economies, the impact of COVID-19 on development prospects, and more.

Contributor(s): Dr Mathias Koenig-Archibugi, Dr Devika Hovell, Dr Martin Binder | Multilateralism seems in crisis precisely when it is needed most. Challenges are multifaceted and originate from established, emerging and declining powers. In his address to the UN Security Council in April 2022, President Zelenskyy of Ukraine said: “It is now clear that the goals set in San Francisco in 1945 during the creation of a global international security organization have not been achieved. And it is impossible to achieve them without reforms. Therefore, we must do everything in our power to pass on to the next generations an effective UN with the ability to respond preventively to security challenges and thus guarantee peace.” What reforms could revitalise the UN and what are the prospects of them being enacted?

Contributor(s): Dr Jonathan Birch, Huw Golledge, Penny Hawkins | In the UK, a new law requires all policymakers to have due regard for animal sentience. This law has given new urgency to the question: which other animals are sentient? Might some invertebrates, such as octopuses, crabs, snails, or even insects, have experiences that deserve respect and welfare protection?

Contributor(s): Ed Miliband MP | For the past four years, Ed Miliband has been discovering and interviewing brilliant people all around the world who are successfully tackling the biggest problems we face, transforming communities and pioneering global movements. Go Big draws on the most imaginative and ambitious of these ideas to provide a vision for the kind of society we need.

Contributor(s): Dr Kristin Surak, Dr Neil Cummins, Aroop Chatterjee | The COVID world has also entailed a much larger state intervention than at any time since the 1950s, linked to the twin challenges of an aging society and the need to invest in net zero, alongside any costs of recovery. This is something both of the major political parties appear to have signed on to. The question then is not only how much should we tax, but who should we tax, and how far the wealthy should be the focus of increased taxation. Questions of fairness will be central to the debate. In this event we present evidence on the trends in wealth inequality in society and reflect on the political challenges involved in addressing these.

Contributor(s): Dr Imaobong Umoren, Professor Mike Savage , Dr Olivia Umurerwa Rutazibwa | Calls for a decolonisation of the history curriculum, or changes to the way "Empire" is commemorated and discussed, are frequently dismissed or fought against as an attack on British history. Our panel discuss why this debate matters and what we should be doing about it.  

Contributor(s): Dr Nikita Simpson, Dr James Rattee, Dr Joanna Lewis, Suad Duale | As we emerge from it, we are beginning to see the legacies of stigma and trauma that have disproportionately impacted certain groups – especially marginalised groups who are underserved by the state. This participatory short film animates longer-term ethnographic research conducted over the past 24 months across the UK by LSE’s COVID and Care Research Group, led by Professor Laura Bear. It highlights the story of psychotherapist Suad Duale and the Somali single mothers who have stepped up to support their community in this time. Co-directed by Suad Duale, Dr Nikita Simpson and Dr James Rattee, it provides insight into the profound work done by some people to ferry their communities through this crisis.

Contributor(s): Rob Sharp, Dr Eva Polonska-Kimunguyi, Professor Myria Georgiou, Abdulrahman Bdiwi | Over the past decades, and across continents, numerous refugee “crises” have led to the explosion of the global refugee population, which has more than doubled in the last ten years. As so many are forced to leave their homes, not all refugees gain the same level of visibility, welcome, and recognition. What are the consequences for the lives of those who move and those who receive them? How do media representations of refugees affect their reception? And how do refugees use digital media to themselves tell their stories of uprooting and migration?

Contributor(s): Elif Shafak | In her latest novel, award-winning author Elif Shafak explores belonging and identity, love and trauma, nature and renewal through a story of two teenagers in 1970s Cyprus, from opposite sides of a divided land who seek refuge in a taverna to forget the sorrows of the world outside. In conversation with Professor Tomila Lankina, whose latest book explores the legacies of Tsarist Russia and the Russian revolution and how they continue to shape Russian society today, she will explore what we as a society, and as individuals, can do to bring about a better post-COVID world.

Contributor(s): Christine Lagarde, Dr José Viñals | Since November 2019, Christine Lagarde (@Lagarde) has been the President of the European Central Bank. Between 2011 and 2019, she served as the eleventh Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Prior to that she served as French Economic Finance Minister from 2007 to 2011 after having been Trade Secretary from 2005 to 2007. A lawyer by background, she practiced for 20 years with the international law firm Baker McKenzie, of which she became global chairman in 1999. In all such positions, she was the first woman to serve. In 2020, Lagarde was ranked the second most influential woman in the world by Forbes and has been named by TIME as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Christine Lagarde was named Officier in the Légion d'honneur in April 2012 and Commandeur dans l’ordre national du mérite in May 2021. José Viñals was appointed to Standard Chartered PLC in October 2016 and became Group Chairman in December 2016. José was appointed Chairman of Standard Chartered Bank in April 2019. José began his career as an economist and as a member of the faculty at Stanford University, before spending 25 years at the Central Bank of Spain, where he rose to be the Deputy Governor. José joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2009 and stepped down in September 2016 to join Standard Chartered PLC. Minouche Shafik is Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to this, she was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. She is an alumna of LSE. Her new book, What We Owe Each Other: A New Social Contract, is out now. She is co-chair of the Economy 2030 Inquiry commission.

Contributor(s): Teniola Tayo, Richard Kozul-Wright | The economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Africa have been severe, with formal and informal sectors affected by lockdowns, decreasing exports, disruptions to global supply chains, mounting debt and increasing levels of poverty. Fiscal responses have been unable to weather dramatic shifts in business and economic activity worldwide, with major challenges for local populations seeking employment and food security. With historic changes within the continent to the way trade is being conducted, a crucial part of Africa’s economic recovery from COVID-19 therefore hangs on what happens in this area. Will the much-hyped African Continental Free Trade Area really transform the continent’s economic prospects, or does an economic recovery depend on external actors? With a small percentage of Africa receiving vaccines to COVID-19, how can trade work to counter the challenges of supply?

Contributor(s): Ruben Lapa Maximiano, Natura Gracia, Roberto Alimonti | As the world slowly comes out of the pandemic, a number of policy questions arise: was state intervention sufficient? Were the instruments appropriate? Has the level-playing field been altered by the uneven capacity of states to dip into their own pockets? Would a European coordinated strategy have been more appropriate? The panel's aims is twofold: first, to evaluate what happened during the pandemic, taking stock of the effectiveness of the state aid measures and the competition tools used to respond to and manage the crisis; second, to assess whether any policy changes are necessary to upgrade the toolkit for the next crisis to come.

Contributor(s): Professor Nicholas Barr, Andrew Dilnot, Michelle Dyson, Lord MacPherson | A decade after the Dilnot Report called attention to the fact that the finance of social care had been ignored for too long and that the system was "confusing, unfair and unsustainable", the government announced an overhaul to the way adult social care is financed in England. The government’s proposal, to increase finance for social care through an increase in National Insurance contributions (NICs), has attracted a range of diverging opinions. The speakers will debate current proposals and possible alternatives.

Contributor(s): Professor Kristina Spohr, Dr Fiona Hill | A leading national security expert and best-selling author discusses Putin’s Russia, America’s future, and the implications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for the future of European security and democracy.  

Contributor(s): Dr Jason Wong, Lara Pohl-Martell, Jocelyn Blériot | The idea of a circular economy, in which waste and pollution are eliminated through better design, reuse of resources and regeneration, is a radical solution to climate change and biodiversity loss, as well as social problems. But is a shift away from a linear economy achievable, and how?

Contributor(s): Dr Orla Lynskey, Professor Andrew Murray | Globally, we are seeing increasing regulatory alignment to rights-based data protection frameworks. However, a wide variety of alternative data governance initiatives with diverse objectives and conceptual starting points are also emerging. In this session we discuss the legal challenges this entails as well as the opportunities it presents for more effective data governance.

Contributor(s): Dr Jonathan Roberts | In this session, Dr Jonathan Roberts discusses these questions and more and how they relate to new institutions, organisations and mechanisms that aim to create significant social change. He will explore how social entrepreneurs recognise opportunities, how they mobilise resources, how they often use commercial mechanisms for the public good, and how they should always work in partnership with those they seek to help.

Contributor(s): Professor Oya Dursun-Özkanca, Colonel (retired) Rich Outzen, Professor Gencer Özcan | The questions that will be addressed include the following: How have relations between Turkey and NATO evolved in the past 70 years? What has been the Turkish strategy toward NATO in the past two decades? How have the US and the NATO alliance approached Turkey since the early 2000s? The talk will also assess the future prospects of Turkey’s role in NATO given the changing regional circumstances in the Black Sea region.

Contributor(s): Dr Mukulika Banerjee, Dr Yascha Mounk, Professor Lea Ypi | Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the recent changes in the US electoral system, the introduction of additional documentation in the UK and growing electoral authoritarianism in the world’s largest democracy India – all indicate a distortion of democratic institutions as well of their democratic cultures. This panel examines the future of democracy as a political system and explores the importance of cultivation of values and institutions in the preservation of democracy.

Contributor(s): Dr Anna Valero, Rebecca McDonald, Dr Carl Benedikt Frey | Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, underlying structural changes have placed significant pressure on labour markets. This has profound implications for inter-personal and inter-place inequalities. The challenge, therefore, is how we create good jobs in a time of crisis, where everyone and everywhere benefits. This event will discuss the opportunities a transition to net zero presents, and how skills policy needs to be reframed to support strong, sustainable and inclusive job creation.

Contributor(s): Dr Grace Lordan | The world of work is being shaped by the Great Resignation, technology changes and varying policies around hybrid working. But what does this all mean for skills? What skill-set should you hone to be a future leader? What skills should you acquire to be in demand on the labour market? Do we all need to be tech savvy? And what are the skills that will allow a person be in demand in the labour market a decade from now. Join Dr Grace Lordan, author of Think Big, where she will answer these questions and more. Grace will also be telling you more about the value of investing in becoming an inclusive leader through a behavioural science approach.

Contributor(s): Carolyn Fairbairn, Torsten Bell | What can we learn from past periods of change? And how can we build a new economic strategy that responds to the challenges of the 2020s, as well as our legacy problems of weak productivity, high inequality and stagnating living standards? The UK is facing a decisive decade of huge economic change, from restructuring after Brexit and the pandemic, to urgently transitioning towards a net zero future, and adapting to technological shifts amid an ageing population. Some of these shifts present big new opportunities for people and places throughout the country. But they bring challenges too, and failing to respond to the disruption they will bring carries huge risks – to our living standards, our communities, and to our planet. The UK’s many strengths must be harnessed to manage this change well.

Contributor(s): Iman Mersal, Lola Olufemi, Mai Taha | We discuss questions of literary style through the use of photography, poetry, and personal writing, as well as questions of politics through a focus on the intimate, care work, and how past experiences shape the future. This is an inter-generational and transnational conversation: while both texts showcase place-based writing that is attentive to context, they also transcend place and engage with a transnational feminist orientation that takes care seriously as a universal experience and as a political question. These texts are exciting examples of experimental writing and publishing, demonstrating the power and beauty of feminist writing in our current moment.

Contributor(s): Dr Grace Lordan, Helen Krause, Ruben Gnanalingam, Andrew Cohen, Fred Brettschneider | As investor interest in ESG (environmental, social, governance) grows, we consider what components of “S” should be prioritised and measured, delving into how the sector could evolve as “S” measurement becomes more sophisticated.

Contributor(s): Dr Lexi Stadlen, Professor Patricia Jeffery, Sonia Faleiro | This event marks the launch of Lexi Stadlen’s newly published Nine Paths which explores the intimate lives of nine women and their families on an island in the Sunderban, at the eastern edge of India, over the course of a year. There are weddings to celebrate and deaths to mourn, families to care for, difficult marriages to navigate and tragedies to overcome, as we observe the everyday drudgery, unexpected turmoil and the dreams of something better. A conversation chaired by Alpa Shah with Lexi Stadlen, sociologist Patricia Jeffrey who has conducted four decades of research in a Muslim village in Uttar Pradesh and journalist Sonia Faleiro who most recently wrote the The Good Girls, the ordinary killing of two low caste girls in a village in Uttar Pradesh.

Contributor(s): Professor Patrick Tomlin, Professor S. Matthew Liao, Dr Anca Gheaus | In all societies, parents have rights over their children. In particular, they have the right to make decisions on behalf of their children in all areas of their children’s lives, including education, religious observance and relationships. Parental rights fulfil two roles: protecting children’s interests and protecting parents’ interest in rearing their children in line with their values. Yet, these interests are often in tension with one another.

Contributor(s): Professor Glenn Loury | Glenn Loury explores the importance of social networks in influencing education decisions and how a lack of access to networks can act as a barrier to educational attainment. In addition, he will explore the politics of racial inequalities, with a particular focus on the US context. This will involve a critique of identity politics and the kind of anti-racism politics that has emerged in the US. 

Contributor(s): Professor Tim Besley, Dr Tania Burchardt, Professor Michael Cox, Sir Anthony Seldon | This event explores how the UK has changed during the 70 years of the Queen’s reign and will consider how the UK’s: economy, government and politics, social policy and foreign relations have evolved between 1952 and 2022.

Contributor(s): Simon Kuper, Professor Jane Gingrich, Professor Mike Savage | Drawing on his forthcoming book, Chums: How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK, Kuper will discuss the dynamics and effects of Britain’s ruling class and its ‘chumocracy’, with responses from Mike Savage – a sociologist of elites – and Jane Gingrich, Professor of Comparative Political Economy. In his new book, Simon details how Oxford University has produced most of the most powerful Conservative politicians of our time. They aren't just colleagues - they are peers, rivals, friends. And, when they walked out of the world of student debates onto the national stage, they brought their university politics with them. How has this reality helped define and design modern Britain?

Contributor(s): Dr Nayanika Mathur | The Anthropocene is taken to constitute not just a new geologic age of the planet characterised by extreme events, biodiversity loss, the melting of glaciers, etc. – the climate crisis – but also as an imperative of finding new ways of doing and communicating anthropological labour.

Contributor(s): Yvonne Farrell, Francis Kéré, Anne Lacaton, Shelley McNamara, Jeanne-Philippe Vassal, Professor Ricky Burdett | From innovative uses of local resources and participatory design methods in Africa, to the exploration of generosity of space and economic use of materials in educational and residential buildings in cities of the global North, the speakers will argue that architecture plays an increasingly  critical role in constructing more open, resilient and healthy places for people.

Contributor(s): Anna Błuś, Suzanne Hoff, Elene Lam, Dr Niina Vuolajärvi | In this event, Niina Vuolajärvi will outline the main outcomes and recommendations of a policy brief on sex buyer criminalization and its intersections with immigration controls in the Nordic region. The brief is based on Vuolajärvi’s large-scale ethnographic research that includes 210 interviews conducted between 2012-2019 in Sweden, Norway, and Finland. The panel will discuss how the “Nordic model” style regulation looks like in other countries and from a perspective of anti-trafficking efforts.

Contributor(s): Dr Robin Archer | Equality is an idea that has broad appeal – most people endorse the principle that we should be equal before the law, and even defenders of the market put their case in terms of equal property rights. But the socialist idea that people should be equal in their material circumstances is more controversial, and recent trends in egalitarian political philosophy, rather than stepping up to defend it, have tended to back away. 

Contributor(s): Dr Juliana Bidadanure | Age shapes social institutions, roles, and relationships, as well as how we assign obligations and entitlements within them. Each life-stage also brings its characteristic opportunities and vulnerabilities, which spawn inequalities between young and old. How should we respond to these age-related inequalities? Are they objectionable in the same way gender or racial inequalities are? Or is there something distinctive about age that should mitigate our concern for inequalities between young and old? Juliana Bidadanure addresses these and related questions, presenting the theory of justice between age groups that she develops in her book Justice Across Ages: Treating Young and old as Equals. The book advances ethical principles to guide a fair distribution of goods like jobs, healthcare, income, and political power among persons at different stages of their life. If we are ever to live in a society where people are treated as equals, she argues, we must pay attention to how age membership can alter our social standing, and we must regard with suspicion commonplace forms of age-based social hierarchy.

Contributor(s): Rupal Patel, Dr Jack Meaning | The book addresses ten questions that are the key to understanding economics, from ‘Why aren’t Freddos 10p anymore?’ to ‘What actually is money?’. Along the way, it offers idiosyncratic examples of economics in action: whether in the City of London, the Bank of England canteen, Springfield Power Plant or the National Lottery. The result is an authoritative and surprisingly witty guide to economics and why it matters.

Contributor(s): Sylvana Q Sinha, Riya Pabari, Lord Hastings, Michael Fraccaro, Dr Christian Busch | How can we set ourselves (and others) up for success and “smart luck” in a world full of uncertainty? How can we create a career that combines money and meaning—even today, when we cannot know which jobs will still exist tomorrow?  This event marks the LSE launch of the international paperback version of Christian Busch’s book Connect the Dots: The Art & Science of Creating Good Luck. By learning to identify, act on and share serendipity, we can use uncertainty as a pathway to more joyful, purposeful and successful lives. Christian Busch has studied hundreds of subjects who improved their lives by learning to see opportunities in the unexpected.

Contributor(s): Professor Nichola Raihani, Dr Erez Yoeli, Dr Moshe Hoffman | Reviving game theory, Hoffman and Yoeli use it to explain our most puzzling behaviour, from the mechanics of Stockholm syndrome and internalised misogyny to why we help strangers and have a sense of fairness. Fun and powerfully insightful, Hidden Games is an eye-opening argument for using game theory to explain all the irrational things we think, feel, and do and will change how you think forever.

Contributor(s): Dr Liam Kofi Bright, Dr Zena Hitz, Professor Alex Voorhoeve | Is tranquility a recipe for good mental health, well-being and fulfilment, or merely a way to cut ourselves off from what really matters? Should a life well lived include periods of suffering and stress?

Contributor(s): Professor Abhijit Banerjee | The recent pandemic has highlighted the importance of communicating reliable information to very large populations who are all exposed to multiple other sources of information and misinformation. The talk reviews what is known about the proper design of communication strategies—who to inform, how much information, through what means. 

Contributor(s): Dr Michael Callen, Professor Michael Cox, Dr Devika Hovell, Nargis Nehan | Less than months after the western military withdrawal in August 2021, this special issue explores lessons that can be drawn from the fall of the government in Kabul. Inviting scholars from different disciplinary background, the issue reflects on why the US decided to leave, what this may mean for the Western alliance system, the consequences for women’s rights, the geopolitical fall out, international law, development and the economics of peace.

Contributor(s): Kiera Byland, Nyasha Derera, Kester Edwards, Heidi Mallet | This discussion also offers an opportunity to learn more about the challenges individuals with intellectual disabilities face, and the remarkable talents and abilities they bring to their families, neighbourhoods, communities and nations.

Contributor(s): Bee Rowlatt, Fawzia Amini, Baroness Kennedy | The fall of Kabul last summer was a minute-by-minute tragedy, as the Taliban swept to power and many Afghans desperately tried to escape. Among the most vulnerable were women lawyers who had formerly stood up to the Taliban, and as the ‘death lists’ began to circulate, these women had the most to lose. But as we witnessed the rolling back of human rights, the events of last August also summoned acts of immense courage and selflessness. In the spirt of Mary Wollstonecraft, Baroness Kennedy shares the extraordinary stories behind the evacuation of Afghan women judges following the fall of Kabul, and her own connection to their escape. This exchange examines the hopes for women's rights internationally, set the story we all watched on the news into the framework of international justice, and consider those who are left behind.

Contributor(s): Philip Keefer, Professor Aldo Madariaga, Dr Erin McFee | Trust is the belief that others will not act opportunistically. It is faith in others—in their honesty, dependability, and goodwill. Trustworthy people make promises they can keep, follow through on those promises, and do not violate social norms. When trust is absent, society and its members suffer: citizens demand and politicians supply public policies that do not advance collective welfare, feeding disenchantment with democracy; citizens and government officials demand increasing regulation and red tape that slow growth and restrict access to social programs; and the performance of firms and public sector organisations declines as mistrust undermines collaboration, recruitment and innovation. The event discusses the sources and consequences of mistrust and reforms that can offset it.

Contributor(s): Professor Annette Lareau, Sibylle Gollac, Dr Aliya Rao | The event will examine a host of related issues including gender dynamics (and tensions) surrounding wealth and philanthropic giving in families, particularly when the wealth and economic expertise of the wife exceeds that of her husband. Professor Lareau highlights the “stickiness” of gender in shaping these family dynamics, thereby complicating and stigmatising the formidable economic advantages these women hold. Following her presentation, Sibylle Gollac and Dr Katharina Hecht will join the discussion.

Contributor(s): Professor Julian Go | Sociology was born in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a project in, of, and for empire. Its concerns, theories, and epistemology therefore reflected the standpoint of metropolitan elites. Sociology today carries the legacies of this imperial tradition, including its analytic biases.

Contributor(s): Dr. Aaron Reeves, Laura Lane, Daphine Aikens | As food and energy prices soar, it’s predicted that the demand for food banks will reach record highs as those on low incomes and benefits face an uphill battle to make ends meet. Joanna Bale talks to LSE’s Aaron Reeves and Laura Lane, as well as Daphine Aikens, founder and CEO of Hammersmith and Fulham food bank, and some of her clients.

Contributor(s): Sylvie Goulard, Frank Elderson, Otávio Damaso, Dr Ma Jun | Panellists discuss the findings of the report of the Joint NGFS-INSPIRE Study Group on Biodiversity and Financial Stability. The report investigates and strengthens the case for action to enable central banks and supervisors to not only understand the issues the planet is facing due to the unparalleled loss of biodiversity, but also to define the actions that must be taken within existing mandates in the collective effort to address this vital challenge. The report sets out how financial risks stemming from biodiversity loss can have implications for financial stability and therefore the core objectives and policy frameworks of central banks and supervisors. The decline of ecosystem services as a result of biodiversity loss poses physical risks for economic and financial actors that depend upon those services.

Contributor(s): Professor Michael Cox, Professor Caroline Kennedy-Pipe, Professor Peter Trubowitz | The defeat of Donald Trump in November 2020 followed by the attack on the US Congress on 6 January 2021 represented a tipping point moment in the history of the American republic. Divided at home and facing a world sceptical of American claims to be the ‘indispensable nation’ in world politics, it is clear that the next few years will be decisive ones for the United States. But how did the US, which was riding high only 30 years ago, arrive at this critical point? And will it lead to the fall of what many would claim has been one of the most successful empires of modern times? In this volume, Michael Cox, a leading scholar of American foreign policy, outlines the ways in which five very different American Presidents – Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump and now Biden - have addressed the complex legacies left them by their predecessors while dealing with the longer-term problems of running an empire under increasing stress. In so doing, he sets out a framework for thinking critically about US foreign policy since the end of the Cold War without ever losing sight of the biggest question of all: can America continue to shape world affairs or is it now facing long-term decline?

Contributor(s): Professor Shani Orgad, Professor Rosalind Gill, Professor Pumla Dineo Gqola, Dr Katherine Angel | Interrogating the prominence of confidence in contemporary discourse about body image, workplace, relationships, motherhood, and international development, Orgad and Gill demonstrate how “confidence culture” demands of women near-constant introspection and vigilance in the service of self-improvement. They argue that while confidence messaging may feel good, it does not address structural and systemic oppression. Rather, confidence culture suggests that women—along with people of colour, the disabled, and other marginalised groups—are responsible for their own conditions. Rejecting confidence culture’s remaking of feminism along individualistic and neoliberal lines, Orgad and Gill explore alternative articulations of feminism that go beyond the confidence imperative.

Contributor(s): Professor Richard Whitman, Professor Ben Tonra, Dr Kate Ferguson | The invasion of Ukraine seems to have brought not only a new geopolitical environment, but also a re-evaluation of UK foreign policy priorities post-Brexit. What does this mean for the prospect of ‘Global Britain’? Is a British foreign policy outside the EU better able to set its own path or is it even more exposed to the vagaries of international politics? To what extent does the emerging security architecture in Europe suit British priorities? And are relations between the UK and the Republic of Ireland finally out of their recent rocky patch?

Contributor(s): Professor Margaret MacMillan | The growth of the Axis and the failures of the democracies to counter it are often blamed for the outbreak of war in 1939. Is this fair? And could the Western democracies have done more to make common cause with the Soviet Union against the Axis? This lecture focusses on the two years from 1939-1941 and key turning points such as the Nazi-Soviet pact, the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact, the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the Japanese attack on the United States and other powers.

Contributor(s): Professor Cathy McIlwaine | As part of ongoing debates within feminist geography and beyond, the discussion explores the intersections among multiple types of direct and indirect gendered violence across borders and territories. The lecture draws empirically on research conducted over the last 5 years on violence against Brazilian migrant women in London and among women living in the favelas of Maré in Rio de Janeiro. The discussion reflects the feminist co-production of research with a range of organisations and on the role of arts-based methods and engagements in enhancing understandings of gendered violence and through which diverse forms of resistance emerge. 

Contributor(s): Dr Alexandra Gomes, Professor Patrick Wallis, Professor Emily Jackson, Professor Julia Black | We’ll be hearing from Dr Alexandra Gomes, co-creator of Kuwaitscapes (More on the research project that inspired the game, and to download the Kuwaitscapes game), Professor Patrick Wallis, who created an audio drama from the records of a historical document discovered about the Lock Asylum, a home for down-and-out women, Professor Emily Jackson, whose work on fertility has led to a change in the law, and British Academy President and LSE Professor Julia Black, who is spearheading the SHAPE campaign.  

Contributor(s): Professor Philipp Ager | The 1920s border closure is one of the most fundamental changes to United States immigration policy in the past century. In the early 20th century, European immigrants faced few restrictions for entry into the US and close to one million immigrants arrived on the nation's shores each year. This era of open immigration ended in the 1920s with a series of increasingly restrictive immigration quotas, eventually limiting entry from affected countries to 150,000 a year. Professor Ager will discuss the socio-economic consequences this policy had for the US population at that time, and what lessons can be learned from it.

Contributor(s): Professor Sara B Hobolt, Professor Liesbet Hooghe, Professor Lauren McLaren | Sara Hobolt is the Sutherland Chair in European Institutions and Professor in the Department of Government at LSE.  Liesbet Hooghe is the WR Kenan Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Research Professor at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Florence.  Lauren McLaren is Professor of Politics at the University of Leicester. Chris Anderson is Professor in European Politics and Policy. 

Contributor(s): Professor Tomila Lankina | The Estate Origins of Democracy in Russia: From Imperial Bourgeoisie to Post-Communist Middle-Class, challenges the notion that the Soviet Union destroyed the social structure of the past and built a new, Soviet, society, with a new party and nomentklatura elite.

Contributor(s): Elizabeth Nyamayaro | Dr Christine Chow talks with Elizabeth Nyamayaro about her outstanding leadership in launching one of the world's largest global solidarity movements for gender equality, HeForShe, in addition to her work in the UN and her best-selling book I am a Girl From Africa.

Contributor(s): Professor Cheryl Schonhardt Bailey, Dr Stephen Holden Bates, Lord Tyrie | In recent decades, we have seen an explosion in expectations for greater accountability of public policymaking. But, as accountability has increased, trust in governments and politicians has fallen. By focusing on the heart of public accountability—the reason-giving by policymakers for their policy decisions (i.e. deliberative accountability)

Contributor(s): Dr Anthony Masters, Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter | Anthony Masters is Statistical Ambassador for the Royal Statistical Society. David Spiegelhalter is Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge. They are the authors of COVID by Numbers: making sense of the pandemic with data. Qiwei Yao is Professor in the Department of Statistics at LSE.

Contributor(s): Dr Rachel Gong, Dr Sabina Lawreniuk, Dr Murray Mckenzie, Dr Do Young Oh, Abbey Pangilinan | COVID-19 presents huge challenges to governments, businesses, civil societies, and people from all walks of life, but its impact is highly variegated, affecting society in multiple negative ways, with uneven geographical and socioeconomic patterns. In this regard, this edited volume brings together the voices of researchers who work on and in Southeast Asia to show how COVID-19 reveals existing contradictions and inequalities in our society, compelling us to question what it means to return to 'normal' and what insights we can glean from Southeast Asia for thinking about a post-pandemic world.

Contributor(s): Dr Leslie Vinjamuri, Gideon Rachman, Professor Charles A Kupchan, Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook | Leading foreign policy experts size up the Biden administration’s foreign policy and what we might expect from the administration going forward.

Contributor(s): Professor Shasa Dobrow, Professor Sally Maitlis, Nick O’Shea | We’ll learn how following a calling turned one LSE graduate to beer and building a successful social enterprise, via a holy revelation. We’ll hear stories of animal hoarding, passions gone wrong and burnout. And there’s some hopeful news for those of us who just haven’t found our passion yet.

Contributor(s): Anita Peña Saavedra, Dr Armine Ishkanian, Dr Irene Guijt, Dr Paul Apostolidis | In the wake of COVID-19, a range of civil society actors, from grassroots groups, social movements, and NGOs, stepped in to provide support and assistance to communities. Alongside providing material support (e.g., food, medical supplies etc.) and mutual aid, civil society organisations have been at the forefront in campaigning for better policies and social protections for communities.  Panellists discuss how civil society organisations are responding to the new challenges and examine the forms of solidarity and agency that are emerging. As we ponder the question, “How do we get to a post-COVID world?", we need to consider the ways in which actors across civil society are not only meeting immediate needs, but more importantly, how through prefigurative forms of action they are imagining and enacting new social relations and practices of wellbeing and care.

Contributor(s): Nadia Calviño Santamaría, Professor Iain Begg | Nadia Calviño Santamaría discusses issues related to the current economic recovery, with a particular focus on the policy lessons from the pandemic and the way ahead. 

Contributor(s): Professor Christopher Murray | The COVID-19 pandemic has had massive global impacts infecting more than 3.5 billion and causing more than 15 million excess deaths. The virus has directly killed millions and the lockdowns needed to dampen transmission may have contributed in various ways to millions of pandemic related deaths not due to SARS Cov2 infection. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only been a major shock to human health but has had unprecedented economic impacts. The distribution of health and economic effects has not been even around the world. Countries judged prior to the pandemic to be better prepared to manage threats such as the United Kingdom and Unites States have not faired particularly well during 2020 and 2021. 

Contributor(s): Sophie Magennis, Professor Florian Trauner, Dr Natascha Zaun | This event explores the current challenges affecting migration throughout Europe.Thirty years ago the Maastricht Treaty was signed, creating today’s ‘European Union’ and representing the biggest single transformative text on European integration since the Treaty of Rome in 1958. As internal barriers began to fall, new walls and policies have risen between Europe and the rest of the world. How did Maastricht treaty affect migration through and to Europe? How have migration policies developed today?

Contributor(s): Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh | A moment of change is when circumstances shift quickly. They include life course moments – like becoming a parent or changing careers - and external changes – such as travel disruption or the impact of wider societal disruption. The relationship between moments of change and environmental impact is complex. There are differences across individuals, cultures and society. Professor Whitmarsh will discuss this research, including how this relates to net zero societal change and the COVID-19 pandemic. She will also share her thoughts on implications for policy makers.

Contributor(s): Dr Jessica Whyte | In this talk, Jessica Whyte will trace the development of neoliberal attitudes to the subjective comportment required for a functioning competitive market. Her focus is on the irony by which a neoliberal movement that emerged as a critique of the stoic resignation of previous liberals in the face of poverty, mass unemployment and economic misery, ultimately came to counsel what Friedrich Hayek termed “submission” to our market-dispensed fates. Neoliberalism is commonly understood as a philosophy embracing free trade or laissez-faire. And yet, a key impetus for its development was the rejection of the earlier liberal idea that markets operated in a realm of natural freedom. Walter Lippman, the American journalist who inspired the early neoliberals, believed that liberals had become simple apologists for the miseries of the existing legal order because they neglected the role of law and the state in consolidating the liberal capitalist order. By doing so, he argued, they were reduced to preaching “stoic resignation” in the face of the human suffering that resulted from the market.

Contributor(s): Dr Elizabeth Frazer, Professor Kimberly Hutchings, Professor Paul Kelly | In his new book Paul Kelly considers the lessons about political violence, war and revolution to be learned from ten major thinkers over centuries – Thucydides, St Augustine, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Clausewitz, Lenin, Mao, Schmitt - and draws some lessons for our times. Join us as a panel of speaker discuss the theme of this new publication from LSE Press. Modern international relations apparently shows a rapid swing back towards ‘great power’ politics and the use of force and violence in inter-state relations, dashing the millennial hopes of an irreversible shift towards a more ethically based international regime. Yet a whole succession of major thinkers have espoused versions of a ‘realist’ strand urging recognition of the inevitable presence of violence in international affairs. You can order the book, Conflict, War & Revolution: the importance of violence in international politics, (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney.

Contributor(s): Dr Arun Advani, Alex Cobham, Professor Jayati Ghosh | But with progress towards coordinated global taxation having stalled since, what are some of the major challenges facing the global tax justice movement—in both the global north and global south? And how might the left capitalise on the popular re-emergence of an issue it has long championed?

Contributor(s): Professor Ha-Joon Chang, Dr Francis Mustapha Kai-Kai, Dr Faiza Shaheen, Waleed Shahid | Ministers and policy influencers from across the world discuss how they are addressing inequality and why we have not seen the scale and speed of progress the pandemic has warranted. Speakers discuss a recent report, From rhetoric to action: Delivering equality and inclusion from the Pathfinders initiative hosted by the Center on International Cooperation at New York University, which considers what actually works to address inequality and exclusion in different country settings.

Contributor(s): Sebastian Mallaby | Investing always involves bets on an uncertain future, but venture capitalists face uncertainty of an extreme sort. How do they decide which startups have a chance of making it? How do they impact the economy and society? And why is venture capital spreading globally?

Contributor(s): Dr Effie Fokas, Dr Yannis Ktistakis | Yannis Ktistakis, Judge of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and Effie Fokas, researcher on ECtHR religion case law, will engage in a discussion about issues such as religious education in state schools, the legal status of religious minorities and exemption from sharia law (in the case of Muslims of Thrace), and of the critical role played by the ECtHR in such areas.

Contributor(s): Steve Baker MP, Professor Paul Dolan, Nancy Hey, Dr Johanna Thoma | These questions are particularly relevant at a time when we start to fully understand the consequences of responses to the COVID-19 pandemic on a range of aspects of people’s lives: from mental health to domestic violence, from economic to educational outcomes. A focus on wellbeing can challenge the processes through which different public policy goals have been prioritised.

Contributor(s): Professor Jacob Hacker, Dr Ursula Hackett, Professor G John Ikenberry, Mark Landler, Professor Paula D. McClain | Has President Biden made good on his core campaign promises concerning the pandemic, the economy, and race, inequality, and climate change? Will the Democrats take a drubbing in November’s midterm elections? 

Contributor(s): Professor Joseph Fishkin, Professor Marc Fleurbaey, Dr Jennifer Sheehy-Skeffington | The lingering pandemic crisis and the growing awareness that we are already facing the climate crisis require a rethinking of the objectives and instruments of political action. In this public event three speakers discussed the idea of equality that societies should pursue in the difficult times ahead. This event launches III's new research theme Opportunity Mobility and Intergenerational Transmission of Inequality.

Contributor(s): Professor Wojciech Sadurski | In 2019, Wojciech Sadurski published Poland's Constitutional Breakdown, in which he described the legal and political events that led to the country's recent turn towards illiberalism and democratic backsliding. Join us as he gives an update on the developments in Poland since: what has changed? What has remained the same? And what does Poland's constitutional future hold?

Contributor(s): Hilary Cooper, Professor Simon Szreter | Hilary Cooper and Simon Szreter discuss their book in which they reveal the deep roots of our vulnerability and set out a powerful manifesto for change post-Covid-19. They argue that our commitment to a flawed neoliberal model and the associated disinvestment in our social fabric left the UK dangerously exposed and unable to mount an effective response. This is not at all what made Britain great. The long history of the highly innovative universal welfare system established by Elizabeth I facilitated both the industrial revolution and, when revived after 1945, the postwar Golden Age of rising prosperity. Only by learning from that past can we create the fairer, nurturing and empowering society necessary to tackle the global challenges that lie ahead - climate change, biodiversity collapse and global inequality.

Contributor(s): Shani Orgad | We find out the real reasons some mums leave the workforce, deep dive into the media coverage of one of the world’s most talked-about mothers, Meghan Markle, and get Shani’s advice on how to do it all.  

Contributor(s): Dr Anastasia Chamberlen, Peter Dawson, Professor Antony Duff | Societies take it for granted that we should punish those who commit crimes. Punishment for serious crime takes various forms in different areas of world and periods of history: caning, mutilation, death, exile, servitude, and imprisonment are all examples. But why do societies engage in this practice? What purpose does punishing serve? And does the punishment we find in modern societies do an effective job of meeting these aims? A leading philosopher, a decorated criminologist, and a prominent prison reform campaigner and ex-governor engage in a dialogue to answer these questions.

Contributor(s): Dr Rachel Kleinfeld, Professor Lawrence Sherman, Ziyanda Stuurman | Western models of policing and criminal justice are facing crises of legitimacy at the same time as violent crime is the main source of violent death in the world. How then can police institutions respond to help provide security whilst remaining democratic and accountable? Our panellists focus on examining the causes of the main police-related problems, especially in the Global South, and how these problems best be addressed.

Contributor(s): Marie-Noelle Nwokolo | This lecture is part of a series, titled Strategy: New Voices, organised by the Global Strategies Project in LSE IDEAS. LSE IDEAS (@lseideas) is LSE's foreign policy think tank. Through sustained engagement with policymakers and opinion-formers, IDEAS provides a forum that informs policy debate and connects academic research with the practice of diplomacy and strategy. The Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa (@AfricaAtLSE) promotes independent academic research and teaching; open and issue-oriented debate; and evidence-based policy making. The Institute connects social sciences disciplines and works in partnership with Africa to bring African voices to global debates.

Contributor(s): Professor Harlan Krumholz | We find ourselves in the early 21st century with a plethora of data and a paucity of personalised information to transform care and outcomes. With ever more investments in health care, ever more digital data, ever more computational power, we find that our health indices are declining, our disparities increasing, and ability to translate the life science revolution into tangible population health gains diminishing. In what should be the golden age of health, we are caught in neutral at best, and, in some cases, reverse. Our health care infrastructure was built for a different age, and the economic models, poorly suited to current opportunities, resist change that is necessary for progress. 

Contributor(s): Professor Margaret MacMillan | The year 1917 marked a significant change with the revolutions in Russia and its withdrawal from the war and the entry of the United States. This lecture looks at the shifting balance of power and the changes in the alliances of the opposing sides and assesses the part played by each in the ending of the war and the Allied victory. Finally it examines the role of alliance relationships in the making of the peace.

Contributor(s): Dr Jan Lucassen, Professor Sara Horrell | Jan Lucassen provides an inclusive history of humanity’s busy labour throughout the ages. Spanning China, India, Africa, the Americas, and Europe, Lucassen looks at the ways in which humanity organises work: in the household, the tribe, the city, and the state. He examines how labor is split between men, women, and children; the watershed moment of the invention of money; the collective action of workers; and at the impact of migration, slavery, and the idea of leisure.

Contributor(s): Professor Owen Flanagan, Dr Céline Leboeuf, Dr Emily McRae, Professor Jesse J Prinz | Is anger sometimes a useful emotion? It is often suggested that we should try to suppress our anger. Perhaps passion is a virtue, but anger is simply unproductive. But might anger be useful for achieving positive social change? Can it help us make better moral judgments (or even form part of those judgements)? Can 'good' anger be distinguished in a principled way from 'bad' anger? How do different schools of thought answer these questions?

Contributor(s): Achim Steiner | UNDP’s Human Development Report regularly highlights the impacts of so-called ‘wicked problems’ of under-development, instability and conflict. Recent initiatives such as the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development and the SDG Investor Platform aim to encourage more business and investor contributions to tackling these problems and delivering the SDG Agenda. In this keynote lecture, the head of UNDP Achim Steiner argues that we need to step up multi-stakeholder co-operation and collective efforts to combat rising poverty and inequality, violence that particularly affects women and girls, and economic fragility, that are exacerbated by current crises like COVID-19 and climate change. The lecture will mark the launch of the LSE IDEAS report Maximising business contributions to sustainable development and positive peace. A human security approach. The report sets out what a human security approach means for business, and highlights issue areas such as information technology, impact investing and migration, where the private sector can make a difference through helping to build resilient communities and delivering the SDGs.

Contributor(s): Dr Grace Lordan, Dr Carsten Sorensen, Professor Connson Locke, Hailley Griffis | Joanna Bale talks to LSE’s Connson Locke, Grace Lordan and Carsten Sorensen, as well as Hailley Griffis, a social media management company executive, who believes that offices will soon become extinct.

Contributor(s): Dr Noura Erakat | The report built on decades of the intellectual work and political advocacy of Palestinians scholars and organizations. Notably, the HRW report diverges from those legacies in significant ways.

Contributor(s): Professor Luitgard Veraart | This talk explains insights from mathematics to model loss cascades and apply them to recent financial stress events.

Contributor(s): Professor Didier Fassin, Dr Richard Martin, Christina Varvia | The book engages in a 'counter-investigation' into a fatal encounter between armed French police and a member of the travelling community.  In doing so, it raises deep and troubling questions about the quality of interactions between marginalized communities and official police and judicial processes; and about power, prejudice, and differing constructions of truth.  It will be of interest to lawyers, criminologists, anthropologists and sociologists, and indeed to a general audience.

Contributor(s): Professor Richard H Thaler | Richard H Thaler was awarded the 2017 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to the field of behavioural economics. He is the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioural Science and Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is a member of the National Academy of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2015 he was the president of the American Economic Association. He has been published in numerous prominent journals and is the author of Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioural Economics.

Contributor(s): Dr Jonathan Birch, Professor Kristin Andrews, Dr Rosalind Arden | This episode features Jonathan Birch, Associate Professor in LSE's Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, Professor Kristin Andrews, the York Research Chair in Animal Minds at York University (Toronto) and Dr Rosalind Arden, Research Fellow at the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science. 

Contributor(s): Professor Manolis Galenianos, Professor Alan Manning, Professor Antigone Lyberaki | Manolis Galenianos is Professor of Economics at Royal Holloway, University of London. Antigone Lyberaki is Professor of Economics at Panteion University, Greece.  Alan Manning is Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics and Director of the Community Programme at the Centre for Economic Performance at LSE. Vassilis Monastiriotis is Associate Professor of Political Economy at the European Institute (LSE).

Contributor(s): Dr Beverly Daniel Tatum | Walk into any racially mixed secondary school and you will see young people clustered in their own groups according to race. Is this self-segregation a problem to address or a coping strategy? Beverly Daniel Tatum guides us through how racial identity develops, from very young children all the way to adulthood, in black families, white families, and mixed race families, and helps us understand what we can do to break the silence, have better conversations with our children and with each other about race, and build a better world.

Contributor(s): Surood Mohammed Falih, Pramila Patten, Robinah Rubimbwa | A nine-year-old girl is sold to a 50-year-old man for $2000. This is Afghanistan today. But it was Iraq a few years ago, and Uganda before that. The horror of sexual violence that threatens the lives of girls and women, as well as many boys and men in today’s wars, is no longer an unknown. 

Contributor(s): Dr Nora Fisher Onar, Professor Sieglinde Gstöhl, Professor Karen E Smith | This book gives us a taste of how rich analyses of EU external action have become. Once considered an exception, now EU foreign policy in its various guises appeals to a variety of theoretical perspectives and engages with the most important contemporary political debates, from the role of ‘normative power Europe’ to leadership and effectiveness issues to feminist insights. In this book launch, the editors share their motivations for putting together this collection and, together with contributors, discussant and the audience, discuss the ultimate question: can the study of EU external action overcome Euro-centrism and contribute to a truly global politics?

Contributor(s): Professor Claudia Goldin, Professor Jane Humphries, Dr Berkay Ozcan, Dr Iva Tasseva | Drawing on decades of her own groundbreaking research, Goldin provides a fresh, in-depth look at the diverse experiences of college-educated women from the 1900s to today, examining the aspirations they formed—and the barriers they faced—in terms of career, job, marriage, and children; how the era of COVID-19 has severely hindered women’s advancement, yet how the growth of remote and flexible work may be the pandemic’s silver lining. Career and Family explains why we must make fundamental changes to the way we work and how we value caregiving if we are ever to achieve gender equality and couple equity.

Contributor(s): Will Hutton, Alison McGovern MP, Sir Geoff Mulgan | Are the problems faced by the UK different now? And what lessons are there in progressive renewal? To mark the book's 25th anniversary, this event will bring together Will Hutton with leading political thinkers to update the work and consider parallels between the UK politics of the mid-90s and now.

Contributor(s): Professor John Merriman | John Merriman is the Charles Seymour Professor of History at Yale University. He is the author of Massacre: The Life and Death of the Paris Commune and a recipient of the American Historical Association’s award for a career of Distinguished Scholarship. Robin Archer is the Director of the postgraduate programme in political sociology and the Director of the Ralph Miliband Programme at LSE.

Contributor(s): Dr Tarleton Gillespie, Dr Cait McKinney, Dr Dylan Mulvin | Our world is built on an array of standards we are compelled to share. In Proxies, Mulvin examines how we arrive at those standards, asking, To whom and to what do we delegate the power to stand in for the world? Mulvin shows how those with the power to design technology, in the very moment of design, are allowed to imagine who is included—and who is excluded—in the future. 

Contributor(s): Professor Amartya Sen | Where is 'home'? For Amartya Sen (87) home has been many places – Dhaka in modern Bangladesh where he grew up, the village of Santiniketan where he was raised by his grandparents as much as by his parents, Calcutta where he first studied economics and was active in student movements, and Trinity College, Cambridge, to which he came aged nineteen.

Contributor(s): Dawid Konotey-Ahulu, Philip Fernandez, Ida Liu, Dr Grace Lordan, Beatriz Martin | This discussion marks the launch of the inclusion framework - a new behavioural science based framework to create inclusive global organisations.

Contributor(s): Professor Luis Garicano, Professor Stefanie Stantcheva, Professor Nikos Vettas | These programs differ in ambition, as well as in the scope of policies. This discussion highlights key features of the French, Greek and EU programs, while also focusing on policies to reduce inequality.

Contributor(s): Professor Fatima El Tayeb, Abeera Khan, Dr Richard Mole, Dr Alyosxa Tudor | Challenging the binary of tolerant West and intolerant others, the speakers discuss how both homophobia and homonationalism are intertwined with nationalist projects across the continent.

Contributor(s): Professor Steven Bernstein, Professor Barry Buzan, Dr Robert Falkner, Professor Kathy Hochstetler | Climate change and other environmental threats have moved to the top of the international agenda. All major powers are now committed to fighting global warming and ensuring environmental sustainability. But it has not always been thus. How did the society of states come to accept a responsibility for the global environment? And how deeply committed are states to safeguarding the planet? 

Contributor(s): Professor Michael Cholbi, Dr Will Daddario, Priya Jay | Can we grieve well? Is mourning for public figures very different to the grief we feel after the death of friends and family? What is it like to grieve in the midst of something like a pandemic, where so many lives are touched by tragedy? And what have we learned about grieving though this pandemic, where death is both very publicly discussed but also hidden by the demands of social distancing? We explore the nature of grief and grieving.

Contributor(s): Professor Catherine D'Ignazio, Professor Lauren F Klein | Drawing from their recent book, Data Feminism, Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren Klein present a set of principles for data science that are informed by decades of intersectional feminist activism and critical thought. To illustrate these principles they will discuss a range of recent research projects, including some of their own. Taken together, these examples demonstrate how feminist thinking can be operationalised into more ethical, more intentional, and more capacious data practices, in the digital humanities, computational social science, human-computer interaction and beyond.

Contributor(s): Professor Paul Pierson, Professor Kathleen Thelen | Drawing on their new volume, The American Political Economy: Politics, Markets, and Power, Paul Pierson and Kathleen Thelen lay out a comparatively informed framework for understanding how business power, union decline, racial inequity, government weakness and regional disparities are impacting contemporary American politics and policy.

Contributor(s): Professor Monica McWilliams, Halima Mohamed, Amina Rasul | null

Contributor(s): Mauricio Cárdenas, Ricardo Lagos, Juan Manuel Santos, Baroness Shafik | null

Contributor(s): John F Kerry | null

Contributor(s): Professor Lea Ypi | Pyramid schemes bankrupted the country, leading to violence. One generation’s dreams became another’s disillusionment. As her own family’s secrets were revealed, Ypi found herself questioning what “freedom” really means. With acute insight and wit, Ypi traces the perils of ideology, and what people need to flourish.

Contributor(s): Professor Alexandra Georgakopoulou, Professor Daniel Miller, Dr Rebecca Roache | But is there more to this than a mere increase in communication? Do these different channels of communication change the nature of communication itself? And what might all this mean for our sense of self and identity? 

Contributor(s): Professor Craig Calhoun | null

Contributor(s): Professor Lyndsey Stonebridge, Dr Yoriko Otomo, Dr Adam Etinson | null

Contributor(s): Otegha Uwagba | null

Contributor(s): Professor Hélène Rey | null

Contributor(s): Shri Shaktikanta Das, Dr Swati Dhingra, N K Singh, Martin Wolf | In this event, the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and the Chair of the 15th Indian Finance Commission will discuss the challenges facing the economy of India and what we can expect from it in the future. Meet our speakers and chair Shri Shaktikanta Das (@DasShaktikanta), former Secretary, Department of Revenue and Department of Economic Affairs, Indian Ministry of Finance, assumed charge as the 25th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India in December 2018. Immediately prior to his current assignment, he was acting as Member, 15th Finance Commission and G20 Sherpa of India. Swati Dhingra (@swatdhingraLSE) is Associate Professor in Economics at LSE, and associate of the Centre for Economic Performance. She is currently a member of the UK’s Trade Modelling Review Expert Panel and LSE’s Economic Diplomacy Commission. She is Research Fellow at CEPR, and on the editorial boards of Journal of International Economics and Review of Economic Studies. N K Singh (@NKSingh_MP) is a prominent Indian economist, academician, and policymaker. He is the President of the Institute of Economic Growth and the Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission. Prior to this position, he presided as Chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Review Committee. He also served as a member of the Upper House of the Parliament, the Rajya Sabha, from 2008 to 2014. Martin Wolf (@martinwolf_) is Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times, London. He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2000 for services to financial journalism. His most recent publication is The Shifts and The Shocks: What we’ve learned – and have still to learn – from the financial crisis (London and New York: Allen Lane, 2014). Andrés Velasco (@AndresVelasco) is Professor of Public Policy and Dean of the School of Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Minouche Shafik is Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science and will deliver opening remarks. Nick Stern (@lordstern1) is the IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government and will deliver closing remarks. More about this event The LSE School of Public Policy (@LSEPublicPolicy) is an international community where ideas and practice meet. Our approach creates professionals with the ability to analyse, understand and resolve the challenges of contemporary governance.  

Contributor(s): Professor Paul de Grauwe, Professor Waltraud Schelkle, Martin Wolf | The idea of a common currency materialised with the Maastricht Treaty thirty years ago. But soon after it was tested in a major crisis in 1992/93, with more to come. This panel will discuss whether the reforms since 2010 have been sufficient to make the Euro a "mature" currency. Meet our speakers and chair Paul De Grauwe (@pdegrauwe) is John Paulson Chair in European Political Economy at the LSE European Institute. Prior to joining LSE, Paul was Professor of International Economics at the University of Leuven, Belgium. He was a member of the Belgian parliament from 1991 to 2003. Waltraud Schelkle is Professor in Political Economy at the European Institute and has been at LSE since 2001. She is also an Adjunct Professor (Privatdozentin) of Economics at the Economics Department of the Free University of Berlin. Martin Wolf (@martinwolf_) is chief economics commentator at the Financial Times. Angelo Martelli (@angelo_martelli) is Assistant Professor in European and International Political Economy at the LSE European Institute. He worked as a Consultant for the Jobs Group of the World Bank, as a Policy Fellow for the Open Innovation Team of the UK Cabinet Office and HM Treasury and as a Technical Expert for the IMF. More about this event The European Institute (@LSEEI) is a centre for research and graduate teaching on the processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector. This event is part of the LSE European Institute’s 30thanniversary celebrations. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEEI30

Contributor(s): Professor Lord Alderdice, Dr Fabio Idrobo, Professor Nicola Lacey, Federico Rodriguez | null

Contributor(s): Molly Mathieson, Alexander Mazonowicz, Professor Hanna Pickard | What is addiction? Although it is often discussed in terms of neurobiology, this can’t begin to capture what it means to be addicted and what addiction does to our sense of self. Philosophers have long been concerned with questions about the self and identity, so might philosophy be able to help us to understand addiction? And what does understanding the relationship between addiction and identity mean for recovery? Philosopher Hannah Pickard and members of New Note Orchestra, the first recovery orchestra in the world, discuss. Meet our speakers and chair Molly Mathieson is the founder and Chief Executive of New Note Projects. Alexander Mazonowicz is a musician with New Note Orchestra. Hanna Pickard is Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University. Jonathan Birch (@BirchLSE) is Associate Professor of Philosophy at LSE. More about this event The Forum for Philosophy (@forumphilosophy) hosts events exploring science, politics, and culture from a philosophical perspective. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEForum

Contributor(s): Michel Barnier | This event will explore Michel Barnier's new book, My Secret Brexit Diary: a glorious illusion. In June 2016, the people of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. As the EU's chief negotiator, for four years Michel Barnier had a seat at the table as the two sides thrashed out what Brexit would really mean. The result would change Britain and Europe forever. During the 1600 days of complex and often acrimonious negotiations, Michel Barnier kept a secret diary. He recorded his private hopes and fears, and gave a blow-by-blow account as the negotiations oscillated between consensus and disagreement, transparency and lies. You can order the book, My Secret Brexit Diary: a glorious illusion, (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney. Meet our speaker and chair Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) was European Commission's Head of Task Force for Relations with the United Kingdom from 2019 to 2021. He previously served as Chief Negotiator, Task Force for the Preparation and Conduct of the Negotiations with the United Kingdom under Article 50. Kevin Featherstone is Eleftherios Venizelos Professor in Contemporary Greek Studies and Professor in European Politics in the European Institute at LSE. Minouche Shafik, Director of LSE will deliver introductory and closing remarks. More about this event The European Institute (@LSEEI) is a centre for research and graduate teaching on the processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector. The LSE School of Public Policy (@LSEPublicPolicy) is an international community where ideas and practice meet. Our approach creates professionals with the ability to analyse, understand and resolve the challenges of contemporary governance. This event is part of the LSE Programme: Brexit and Beyond, which is a dedicated series to stimulate the public debate and informed discussion about this most pivotal topic. It comprises a variety of events, targeting LSE staff and students, as well as the general public and specific categories of policy-makers, practitioners and professionals working on Brexit; with the aim of continuing to shape the discussion surrounding its complex and uncertain agenda. The Programme is organised by LSE's European Institute and School of Public Policy. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEBrexit

Contributor(s): Professor Adam Tooze | When news first began to trickle out of China about a new virus in December 2019, risk-averse financial markets could never have predicted the total economic collapse that would follow as stock markets fell faster and harder than at any time since 1929, currencies across the world plunged and investors panicked. Adam Tooze's new book, Shutdown, tells the story of what followed and, in conversation with Patrick Wallis, he will survey the damage and outline potential ways into recovery. Meet our speaker and chair Adam Tooze (@adam_tooze) is the author of Crashed, The Deluge and The Wages of Destruction. He has been the recipient of the Wolfson Prize for History, the Longman-History Today Book of the Year Prize and the Lionel Gelber Prize. Tooze has taught at Cambridge and Yale and is now Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History at Columbia University. Adam is an alumnus of LSE. Patrick Wallis (@phwallis) is Professor of Economic History at LSE. His research explores the economic, social and medical history of Britain and Europe from the 16th to 18th century. More about this event The Department of Economic History (@LSEEcHist) iis one of the world’s leading centres for research and teaching in economic history. It is home to a huge breadth and depth of knowledge and expertise ranging for the medieval period to the current century. You can order the book, Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World's Economy, (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney. This event forms part of LSE’s Shaping the Post-COVID World initiative, a series imagining what the world could look like after the crisis, and how we get there. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEPostCOVID

Contributor(s): Roméo Dallaire, Guissou Jahangiri, Rosa Emilia Salamanca | 21 September marks the International Day of Peace, an opportunity to commit to building a culture of peace. But what exactly is a culture of peace and how do we build it? On this 40th anniversary of World Peace Day our world is far from peaceful. The US withdrawal from Afghanistan has precipitated war and surrender to the Taliban leaving Afghans behind. Women peacebuilders, who have long been on the frontlines negotiating for peace, now face exponential risk of targeted killings along with other activists and human rights defenders. Meanwhile Colombia marks the fifth anniversary of its peace agreement and despite initial progress, women peacebuilders voice concern about the lack of implementation, particularly regarding the inclusion of women and youth, and the deteriorating security situation. The Global Peace Index reported deterioration in peace in 73 countries, a trend of nine of the last 13 years. Demonstrations, riots and militarisation continue to increase, exacerbated by the weakness of state institutions and rule of law exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Meet our speakers and chair Roméo Dallaire (@romeodallaire) is founder of the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace, and Security, a celebrated advocate for human rights, respected government and UN advisor and former Canadian Senator. Throughout his distinguished military career, General Dallaire served in staff, training, and command positions through North America, Europe, and Africa. Most notably, General Dallaire was Force Commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda prior to and during the 1994 genocide. Guissou Jahangiri (@guissoujahangir) is a women’s rights pioneer and a cultural and peace activist. She was elected for a second term as the Vice President of the FIDH world-wide movement for human rights and is the Executive Director of Armanshahr/OPEN ASIA. She leads advocacy campaigns in Afghanistan and the greater region and has spent five years in war-torn Tajikistan as a Human Rights Watch researcher. Jahangiri is also acting head of the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Rosa Emilia Salamanca (@milucina) is the Director of Corporación de Investigación y Acción Social y Económica, a feminist organisation based in Colombia. She is a member of the National Summit of Women and Peace, the Thinking and Action collective and a 2018 Women Peacemaker at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego. Salamanca is also a member of the National Commission for Guarantees for Security and Non-Repetition. Sanam Naraghi Anderlini (@sanambna) is Director of the LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security and the founder of The International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN).More about this event The LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security (@LSE_WPS) is an academic space for scholars, practitioners, activists, policy-makers and students to develop strategies to promote justice, human rights and participation of women in conflict-affected situations around the world. Through innovative research, teaching, and multi-sectoral engagement, the Centre for Women, Peace and Security aims to promote gender equality and enhance women’s economic, social and political participation and security. This event is the sixth in the Coming of Age of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda series and is co-hosted with ICAN and Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEWPS

Contributor(s): Mary Ann Sieghart | Join us for this event at which Mary Ann Sieghart will talk about her new book The Authority Gap. The Authority Gap provides a perspective on the unseen bias at work in our everyday lives, to reveal the scale of the gap that still persists between men and women. Marshalling a wealth of data, and including interviews with pioneering women such as Baroness Hale, Mary Beard and Bernadine Evaristo, this is a fresh feminist take on how to address and counteract systemic sexism in ways that benefit us all. Meet our speaker and chair Mary Ann Sieghart (@MASieghart) makes programmes for BBC Radio 4 and is a Visiting Professor at King’s College London. She spent 2018-19 as a Visiting Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, where she researched her book, The Authority Gap, on why women are taken less seriously than men. She spent 19 years as Assistant Editor of The Times and is a Trustee of The Scott Trust, owner of The Guardian and The Observer. Grace Lordan (@GraceLordan_) is the Founding Director of The Inclusion Initiative (TII) and an Associate Professor in Behavioural Science at LSE. Grace is an expert advisor to the UK government sitting on their skills and productivity board. Her academic writings have been published in top international journals in economics and the broader social sciences. Think Big, Take Small Steps and Build the Future you Want is her first book. More about this event TII (@lse_tii) aims to bring behavioural science insights to firms to allow them to enhance the inclusion of all talent, and simultaneously produce academically rigorous and relevant research that links directly to TII’s purpose. You can order the book, The Authority Gap, (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSESieghart

Contributor(s): Antonia Belcher, Pips Bunce, Belton Flournoy, Jane Hill, Arlene McDermott | Celebrate and reflect on the success of the Pride movement through a behavioural science lens. Grace Lordan, Director of The Inclusion Initiative will chair this event and will be joined by a cross-industry expert panel. This panel session will cover biases, narratives, norms, networks, resilience among other behavioural science topics. The event will also be looking to the future, mapping out what the panel expect for the future of the Pride movement, and taking audience questions. Join us for this moment of celebration. Those that join can expect to laugh, learn and lean into the behavioural science of Pride. Meet our speakers and chair Antonia Belcher (@BelcherAntonia) is the founder of MHBC Cumming construction consulting. Antonia has 40 plus years’ experience in the construction and property industries and leads her own construction business that she formed in 2007. She has been recognised on numerous occasions as one of the Financial Times’ Top 100 LGBT+ Executives. Transitioning in 2000/2003 in a male dominated working environment, where there was no history or visible LGBT+ influences to draw on, she presses for positive change for LGBT+ good in all business spheres, but especially in her chosen career path of surveying. Along with her role as a Director and Head of Global Markets Technology Strategic Programs at Credit Suisse, Pips Bunce is co-chair of the firm’s EMEA LGBT+ & Ally Network. She is a proud and out member of the Trans community, more specifically identifying as both gender-fluid and non-binary and is champion in progressing LGBTQI+ inclusion and equality. Pips was awarded a prestigious position in the OUTStanding and Yahoo Finance executive LGBT+ Leader list, shortlisted for the European Diversity Awards and won the Inspirational Leader category as part of the British LGBT Awards in recognition for her work and commitment. Pips also carries out work with other key organisations having presented in Parliament, worked with the Government Equalities Office, the United Nations and many others. In addition to being a Director in Protiviti’s Technology & Digital consulting practice, Belton Flournoy (@AussieBelton) is founder of Protiviti UK's LGBT+ group, which won best LGBT+ network in 2019 by the Inclusive Tech Alliance. Belton was shortlisted as a top 10 inspirational business leader in 2020 by the British LGBT+ awards, was recently listed as #18 on Yahoo Finance’s Top 100 Future Leaders, #15 on Yahoo Finance’s Top 100 Ethnic Minority Leaders and was featured on the top UK Black Role models, presented by Google. Belton was co-founder of Pride in the City. Belton now sits on The Inclusion Initiative at LSE advisory board. Jane Hill (@JaneHillNews) is a BBC journalist and presenter. She regularly presents BBC News at One, and other BBC News programmes. For 15 years she has been involved with organisations that highlight the value and importance of inclusion and role modelling. Jane is proud to work with, ia, Diversity Role Models and The Albert Kennedy Trust. She has mentored young journalists and hosted conferences and projects that help women and girls, and members of all minority groups. Jane also supports health charities that are close to her heart: Parkinson's UK, Breast Cancer Now and Cancer Research UK. Jane is a Fellow of the British American Project and sit on its Advisory Board, and is an Honorary Fellow of Queen Mary, University of London. Arlene McDermott is Head of Business Management Group Legal and Compliance and is also co-chair of London Stock Exchange Group’s LGBTQ+ network LSEG Pride. The network has had a huge impact on LSEG, enjoying support from the most senior levels of the organisation. Arlene has participated in numerous panels, including for myGwork and for Lesbian Visibility Week. She has also been listed on the Pride Power List 2020 and 2021, Global Diversity List 2020, Visible Lesbian 100 list 2020 and 2021 and the OUTstanding 100 LGBT+ Executives List 2020. LSEG’s LGBTQ+ network has been shortlisted for the DIVA network of the year award 2020 and 2021 and was also shortlisted for the Women in Finance Diversity Initiative of the Year award. It has also raised funds for charities including akt and supported the launch of Pride in the City’s 2020 programme with a Market Close ceremony at London Stock Exchange. Grace Lordan (@GraceLordan_) is the Founding Director of The Inclusion Initiative (TII) and an Associate Professor in Behavioural Science at LSE. Grace is an expert advisor to the UK government sitting on their skills and productivity board. Her academic writings have been published in top international journals in economics and the broader social sciences. Think Big, Take Small Steps and Build the Future you Want is her first book. More about this event TII (@lse_tii) aims to bring behavioural science insights to firms to allow them to enhance the inclusion of all talent, and simultaneously produce academically rigorous and relevant research that links directly to TII’s purpose. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEPride

Contributor(s): Dr Gertjan Vlieghe | Gertjan Vlieghe's term as an external member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee comes to an end in August. Join us for his final lecture as a member of the MPC. In this speech, Dr Vlieghe will consider what we have learned in the past five years about some of the persistent structural drivers of low neutral interest rates, such as demographics, debt and the distribution of income. Considerable new research has been published in these areas, both theoretical and empirical, which explores these drivers, including the extent to which they are interlinked. Since these developments constrain the available monetary policy space, Dr Vlieghe then considers how monetary policy should be set in a constrained environment, as well has how these constraints could be lifted to ensure the effectiveness of future monetary policy. Meet our speaker and chair Gertjan Vlieghe is a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. Prior to his appointment he was a partner and senior economist at Brevan Howard Asset Management. Prior to this he has held positions at Deutsche Bank and the Bank of England including Economic Assistant to Governor Mervyn King. Dr Vlieghe's published research has focused on the importance of money, balance sheets and asset prices in the economy. He holds a doctorate from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Minouche Shafik is Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to this, she was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. She is an alumna of LSE. More about this event The Centre For Macroeconomics (@CFMUK) is a research centre that brings together a group of world class experts to carry out pioneering research on the study of nations’ prosperity, and the crises that afflict them, helping to design policies that will create a healthier and more resilient economy. The Department of Economics (@LSEEcon) at LSE, is one of the leading economics departments in the world. We are a large department, ensuring all mainstream areas of economics are strongly represented in research and teaching. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEVlieghe Transcript A transcript of Dr Gertjan Vlieghe's speech is available to download from Revisiting the 3D Perspective on Low Long Term Interest Rates. Slides A copy of Dr Gertjan Vlieghe's slides is available to download from Revisiting the 3D Perspective on Low Long Term Interest Rates.

Contributor(s): Professor Shakuntala Banaji, Dr Koen Leurs, Dr Giovanna Mascheroni, Professor Jochen Peter, Dr Mariya Stoilova | Online opportunities bring diverse benefits for children, including positive outcomes on learning, participation, creativity, and identity. An important “ladder of opportunities” for children in Europe, digital technologies can activate the potential for social inclusion, equality and children’s rights. Even so, relatively little is understood about how online opportunities generate benefits for children. Opportunities for children have long been theorised, but how should they be rethought in a digital world? In this webinar we will debate the theories and concepts that underpin such questions, drawing on different disciplinary approaches. Meet our speakers and chair Shakuntala Banaji is Professor of Media, Culture and Social Change and Programme Director for the Msc in Media, Communication and Development in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. Her forthcoming book Social Media Hate with Ram Bhat (scheduled spring, 2022) theorises the landscape of disinformation and trolling in the U.K., India, Brazil and Myanmar with particular attention to the connections between contemporary and historical violence. Koen Leurs (@koenleurs) is an Assistant Professor in Gender and Postcolonial Studies at the Department of Media and Culture, Utrecht University. He works on digital migration and recently directed the projects Connected migrants: comparing digital practices of refuge and expatriate youth and Media literacy through making media: a key to participation of migrant youth?. Currently Koen is a fellow at the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies, writing a book on digital migration. Giovanna Mascheroni (@giovannamas) is Associate Professor at the Department of Communication and Performing Arts, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. She is part of the management team of EU Kids Online, and WP leader in the H2020 project, ySKILLS. She is also leading DataChildFutures, a national project investigating the data practices of Italian families with children aged 0- to 8-year-olds. Her work focuses on the social shaping and the social consequences of digital media, internet of things and datafication for children and young people. Her forthcoming book, Datafied childhoods: Data practices and imaginaries in children’s lives, co-authored with Andra Siibak, will be published in the Digital Formations series. Jochen Peter is a Full Professor at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam. His work explores how young people’s use of new technologies affects their psycho-social development, including the antecedents and consequences of children’s interaction with social robots, the impact of online communication on teenagers’ sociality, and the relationship between sexually explicit material online and adolescents’ sexual attitudes and behaviour. Peter Jochen has published more than 100 journal articles and book chapters. Mariya Stoilova (@Mariya_Stoilova) is a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Her area of expertise is at the intersection of child rights and digital technology with a particular focus on the opportunities and risks of digital media use in the everyday lives of children and young people, data and privacy online, digital skills, and pathways to harm and well-being. Sonia Livingstone (@Livingstone_S) is Professor of Social Psychology at the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She has published 20 books including The Class: Living and Learning in the Digital Age. Since founding the 33 country EU Kids Online network, Sonia has advised the UK government, European Commission, European Parliament, Council of Europe, OECD and UNICEF. More about this event The Department of Media and Communications (@MediaLSE) is a world-leading centre for education and research in communication and media studies at the heart of LSE’s academic community in central London. We are ranked #1 in the UK and #3 globally in our field (2021 QS World University Rankings). This event is part of the CO:RE - Children Online: Research and Evidence webinar series on theory for the EU H2020 project. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEChildren Featured image (used in source code with watermark added): Photo by Robo Wunderkind on Unsplash.

Contributor(s): Samira Ben Omar, Dr Atiya Kamal, Caroline MacDonald, Pasha Shah | The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed both how essential and how fractured Britain’s systems of social care and community health are and the racial and economic divides that determine who is able to access them. It has also, paradoxically shown some ways forward for community engagement as local authorities, the NHS and community groups have built new caring relationships that have saved lives and generated mutual support. This event brings together a diverse range of speakers involved in these policies and local initiatives to move beyond recovery and renewal from COVID-19 and question what equitable social infrastructures might look like in a post-covid world. The event also marks the launch of the LSE Covid and Care Research Group's second report, based on deep ethnographic and qualitative research across the UK. It hopes to set an agenda for investment, research and policy for both central government and local authorities. Meet our speakers and chair Samira Ben Omar (@benomsam) is Assistant Director of Equalities for the North West London Collaboration of CCGs and co-founder of the Community Voices movement for change. Atiya Kamal (@Atiya_K) is a Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology at Birmingham City University. Caroline MacDonald is Assistant Director of People, Places and Communities, at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Pasha Shah is Head of Community Engagement at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Laura Bear (@BearLauraLSE) is Professor of Anthropology at LSE, and a participant in the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours, the ethnicity subgroup of Sage and Independent Sage. She leads the LSE Covid and Care research group. More about this event The Covid and Care Research Group, hosted by LSE's Anthropology Department, are building a conversation between policy makers and the UK population over issues of disadvantage and recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. You can view the full LSE Covid and Care Research Group's second report, based on deep ethnographic and qualitative research across the UK here: Social Infrastructures for the Post-COVID recovery in the UK. This event forms part of LSE’s Shaping the Post-COVID World initiative, a series of debates about the direction the world could and should be taking after the crisis. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECOVID19 Featured image (used in source code with watermark added): Photo by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Unsplash.

Contributor(s): Lionel Barber | Join us for this event with former editor of the Financial Times Lionel Barber at which he will discuss his new book, The Powerful and the Damned: life behind the headlines in financial times. Lionel Barber spent over a decade rubbing shoulders with the global giants of business, finance and politics. Recounting conversations, late-night dinners and unexpected comic nuggets from those who make the news, The Powerful and the Damned is a portrait of the rich, famous, powerful and occasionally damned. In his first authored book, Barber offers unflinching pen portraits of the world’s leading characters, from Trump, Merkel and Draghi, to Prince Andrew, Mohammed Bin Salman and Dominic Cummings. In parallel, Barber provides a personal account of how he transformed the FT into a multi-channel global news organisation with a strong of international awards and groundbreaking reporting. This created a monumental shift for the whole news media landscape. You can order the book, The Powerful and the Damned: life behind the headlines in financial times (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney. Meet our speaker and chair Lionel Barber (@LionelBarber) was editor of the Financial Times from 2005 until January 2020, widely credited with transforming the FT from a newspaper publisher into a multi-channel global news organisation. During his editorship, the FT passed the milestone of 1million paying readers, winning many international awards and accolades for its journalism. Charlie Beckett (@CharlieBeckett) is the founding director of Polis, the think-tank for research and debate around international journalism and society in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. More about this event The Department of Media and Communications (@MediaLSE) is a world-leading centre for education and research in communication and media studies at the heart of LSE’s academic community in central London. We are ranked #1 in the UK and #3 globally in our field (2021 QS World University Rankings). Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEBarber

Contributor(s): Professor Ron Deibert | Join us to hear from Ron Deibert as he explores the disturbing impact of the internet and social media on politics, the economy and the environment, and asks us to consider how best to construct a viable communications ecosystem that supports civil society and contributes to the betterment of the human condition. Disruptive technology, scientific advancements, and a global pandemic have forever changed the way we live and work. Our digital tools allow us to innovate, accelerate growth, and connect with one another as never before, but they often come with unexpected consequences. The same technologies that had been used for public uprisings against oppressive governments are now being used by those governments against political demonstrators, whistleblowers and dissidents. Meet our speaker and chair Ron Deibert (@RonDeibert) is Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and Department of Political Science, as well as the Director of the Munk School's Citizen Lab. The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory focusing on research, development, and high-level strategic policy and legal engagement at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security. Andrés Velasco (@AndresVelasco) is Professor of Public Policy and Dean of the School of Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. More about this event The LSE School of Public Policy (@LSEPublicPolicy) equips its students with the skills and ideas needed to transform people and societies. It is an international community where ideas and practice meet. The School's approach creates professionals with the ability to analyse, understand and resolve the challenges of contemporary governance. The Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto (@munkschool) is a leading hub for interdisciplinary research, teaching and public engagement. It is home to world-class researchers and more than 50 academic centres, labs and programs. The school is made up of 60 faculty members, academic directors and chairholders, with many more affiliated faculty engaged in teaching and research. Find out more about the LSE and University of Toronto double degree – Master of Public Administration and Master of Global Affairs. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEMunk

Contributor(s): Dr Ela Drazkiewicz-Grodzicka, Professor Bradley Franks, Dr Erica Lagalisse | Conspiracy theories fomented by political division and a global pandemic have gained traction in the public consciousness in the last couple of years. For some people these ideas are just fun and entertaining, but for others their interest in them becomes much more consuming. Why do people become involved in this kind of conspiratorial thinking? That’s the question that LSE iQ tackles in this month’s episode. Concerns that 5G phone masts reduce our bodies’ defences against COVID-19 and that vaccines are being used to inject us with micro-chips - allowing us to be tracked and controlled - may seem extraordinary to many of us. But these beliefs have led to the vandalism of 5G phone masts and made some reluctant to be vaccinated. In this episode of LSE iQ, Sue Windebank finds out how left-wing anarchists got caught up in conspiratorial thinking and how Irish parents looking for support and community were accused of spreading a conspiracy. And is LSE unknowingly carrying out the wishes of the Illuminati? Listen to hear how LSE became embroiled in a global conspiracy. Sue talks to: Dr Ela Drążkiewicz from the Institute for Sociology at the Slovak Academy of Sciences; Professor Bradley Franks from LSE’s Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science; and Dr Erica Lagalisse from LSE’s Institute of Inequalities.   Contributors Dr Ela Drazkiewicz-Grodzicka Professor Bradley Franks Dr Erica Lagalisse   Research Taking vaccine regret and hesitancy seriously. The role of truth, conspiracy theories, gender relations and trust in the HPV immunisation programmes in Ireland (2021) by Elżbieta Drążkiewicz Grodzicka in Journal for Cultural Research Beyond “Monologicality”? Exploring Conspiracist Worldviews (2017) by Bradley Franks, Adrian Bangerter, Martin W. Bauer, Matthew Hall and Mark C. Noort in Frontiers in Psychology Occult Features of Anarchism: With Attention to the Conspiracy of Kings and the Conspiracy of the Peoples (2019) by Erica Lagalisse

Contributor(s): Gordon Brown | Join us to hear from United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown speaking about his new book. When the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe in 2020, it created an unprecedented impact, greater than the aftermath of 9/11 or the global financial crisis. But out of such disruption can come a new way of thinking, and in this new book Gordon Brown offers his solutions to the challenges we face in 2021 and beyond. In the book, he states that there are seven major global problems we must address: global health; climate change and environmental damage; nuclear proliferation; global financial instability; the humanitarian crisis and global poverty; the barriers to education and opportunity; and global inequality and its biggest manifestation, global tax havens. Each one presents an immense challenge that requires an urgent global response and solution. All should be on the world’s agenda today. None can be solved by one nation acting on its own, but all can be addressed if we work together as a global community. You can order the book, Seven Ways to Change the World, (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney. Meet our speaker and chair Gordon Brown (@GordonBrown) is the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He is Chair of the Global Strategic Infrastructure Initiative of the World Economic Forum and also serves as Distinguished Global Leader in Residence of New York University. He served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2010. Minouche Shafik is Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to this, she was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. She is an alumna of LSE. More about this event The LSE School of Public Policy (@LSEPublicPolicy) equips its students with the skills and ideas needed to transform people and societies. It is an international community where ideas and practice meet. The School's approach creates professionals with the ability to analyse, understand and resolve the challenges of contemporary governance. This event forms part of LSE’s Shaping the Post-COVID World initiative, a series of debates about the direction the world could and should be taking after the crisis. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECOVID19

Contributor(s): Michaela Rafferty, Jeremiah Emmanuel, Jason Allen | Even before the pandemic, young people in the UK faced many forms of inequality and their health and wellbeing was being eroded by a lack of jobs, a shortage of affordable housing, and cuts to public services. As the gap between the generations grows and young people’s voices and concerns are not adequately taken into account by policy makers and politicians, it is no surprise that young people increasingly feel anxious of what the future holds. This panel brings three young leaders who are working in and beyond their local communities to address inequalities in education, housing, employment and the criminal justice system. The three panellists, Jason Allen, Jeremiah Emmanuel, and Michaela Rafferty, will draw on their ongoing work and share their experiences in dialogue with one another and the audience. In doing so, they will not only consider the consequences of inequalities on young people’s lives and their wellbeing, but also discuss what can be done to tackle those inequalities. Meet our speakers and chair Jason Allen has a dedicated career and specialism in the treatment of trauma in young people. He is recognised as an national expert in gang and youth violence in London and currently runs Mary’s, a hub for counselling, mentoring and gang mediation in Camden which he built from its inception in 2006. His professional training is wide-ranging and he is currently completing a Masters Degree in Psychology and Trauma. Jeremiah Emmanuel (@je1bc) was raised in a single-parent family in south London and started working within his local community from a young age, campaigning around issues that affect his generation. He was elected into the UK Youth Parliament and later became a young mayor within London, as well as setting up a Youth Council for the BBC. Dreaming in a Nightmare, his new book, is a manifesto for how we can tackle inequality in the UK and improve the lives of young people today. Michaela Rafferty (@MichaelaRaffert) is a Youth Engagement and Campaigns Organiser at Just for Kids Law, who exist to ensure young people have their legal rights and entitlements respected and promoted, and their voices heard and valued. She spent 12 years as a community youth worker and human rights activist in Belfast, and has worked in youth rights initiatives in Palestine, women’s empowerment projects in Tajikistan and human rights education in refugee camps in Greece. Michaela is a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity. Armine Ishkanian (@Armish15) is Associate Professor of Social Policy and the Executive Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme at LSE. Her research focuses on the relationship between civil society, policy processes, and social transformation. She is co-convenor of the Politics of Inequality research theme based in the International Inequalities Institute. More about this event The International Inequalities Institute (@LSEInequalities) at LSE brings together experts from many LSE departments and centres to lead cutting-edge research focused on understanding why inequalities are escalating in numerous arenas across the world, and to develop critical tools to address these challenges. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEIII Featured image (used in source code with watermark added): Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.

Contributor(s): Dr Maria Christina Chatziioannou, Dr Andreas Kakridis, Professor Stathis N Kalyvas | How far may the economic problems of the modern Greek state be attributed to the nature of its origins? It’s small, albeit enlarging, size; the lack of popular trust in public institutions and authority; the recourse to patrons and to ‘rent-seeking’; and, its own vulnerability to external powers: are these path-dependent features that overwhelm the scope for change? This panel will discuss the inheritance of 1821 for the course of development taken by modern Greece and how it has structured options and choices. When, and how, has or might such historical determinism be overcome? Meet our speakers and chair Maria Christina Chatziioannou is the Director of the Institute for Historical Research at the National Hellenic Research Foundation. She is Editor of the Historical Library for 1821 supported by the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation as part of the "Bicentennial Initiative 1821-2021". Her latest publication is Entangled histories and collective identity: Narratives of the Chios massacre (1822) (2021). Andreas Kakridis is Assistant Professor of Economic History at the Ionian University, Corfu; since 2017 he has also served as the Scientific Advisor to the Historical Archive of the Bank of Greece. He has taught at the University of Athens (2009-16) and the Panteion University (2016-19), and has also been a visiting fellow at the University of Columbia, New York (2014-15). Stathis Kalyvas (@SKalyvas) is Gladstone Professor of Government at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, and a fellow of All Souls College. Until 2018 he was Arnold Wolfers Professor of Political Science at Yale University, where he founded and directed the Program on Order, Conflict, and Violence and co-directed the Hellenic Studies Program. In 2019 he founded and directs the T. E. Lawrence Program on Conflict and Violence at All Souls College. He has written extensively on civil wars, ethnicity, and political violence. His current research focuses on global trends in political violence and conflict. He has an additional interest in the history and politics of Greece. Joan R. Rosés is Head of the Department of Economic History at LSE. His research interests comprise historical economic geography, European economic history (19th and 20th centuries), long term economic growth and productivity, and labour markets. More about this event The Hellenic Observatory (@HO_LSE) is internationally recognised as one of the premier research centres on contemporary Greece and Cyprus. It engages in a range of activities, including developing and supporting academic and policy-related research; organisation of conferences, seminars and workshops; academic exchange through visiting fellowships and internships; as well as teaching at the graduate level through LSE's European Institute. The event is part of 21 in 21, celebrating the 2021 bicentenary of the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence in 21 Greek-British encounters. The 21 in 21 events are sponsored by the A.G. Leventis Foundation. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEGreece

Contributor(s): Professor Sophie Harman, Professor Naila Kabeer, Dr Gustavo Matta, Dr Clare Wenham | At this book launch, we discuss the need for gender mainstreaming in global health security. As many news reports have made clear during COVID-19, there has been a recent sea change in thinking about the secondary effects of infectious disease control policy on women. However, we have yet to see this reflected in global health policy. When Zika made headlines in 2016, images of women cradling babies affected with microcephaly spread across the media and pulled on heartstrings. But, as this book argues, whilst this outbreak was about women and babies, it also highlighted the lack of broader gendered considerations in global health security. Taking Zika as its primary case but also touching on more recent experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, Feminist Global Health Security asks what the policy response to disease outbreaks tell us about the role of women in global health security. Meet our speakers and chair Sophie Harman (@DrSophieHarman) is Professor of International Politics at Queen Mary, University of London, with a specific interest in global health, African Agency, film and visual methods, and gender politics. She was awarded the Joni Lovenduski Prize for outstanding professional achievement by a mid-career scholar by the Political Science Association (PSA) in 2018, the Philip Leverhulme Prize in 2018, and nominated for the BAFTA for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer in 2019 for her feature film Pili. Naila Kabeer (@N_Kabeer) is Professor of Gender and Development at the Department of Gender Studies and Department of International Development at LSE. Her research interests include gender, poverty, social exclusion, labour markets and livelihoods, social protection and citizenship and much of her research is focused on South and South East Asia. Naila is currently involved in ERSC-DIFD Funded Research Projects on Gender and Labour Market dynamics in Bangladesh and India. Gustavo Matta (@GustavoCMatta) is a public health Researcher at Sergio Arouca National School of Public Health at Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is also the Coordinator of Zika Social Sciences Network. Clare Wenham (@clarewenham) is Assistant Professor of Global Health Policy at LSE. She specialises in global health security, the politics and policy of pandemic preparedness and outbreak response. She has researched this for over a decade, through influenza, Ebola and Zika. Her research poses questions of global governance, the role of WHO and World Bank, national priorities and innovative financing for pandemic control. More recently she has been examining the role of women in epidemics and associated policy. For COVID-19, Clare is Co-Principal Investigator on a grant from the CIHR and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation analysing the gendered dimensions of the outbreak. Justin Parkhurst (@justinparkhurst) is an Associate Professor of Global Health Policy in the LSE Department of Health Policy. He is co-director of the MSc in Health Policy, Planning, and Financing programme, and the current serving Chair of the LSE Global Health Initiative. Dr Parkhurst’s research interests lie in global health politics and policy, as well as the political nature of evidence use to inform policy decisions. More about this event The Global Health Initiative (@LSEGlobalHealth) is a cross-departmental research platform set up to increase the coherence and visibility of Global Health research activity across the School, both internally and externally. It provides support for interdisciplinary engagement and showcases LSE’s ability to apply rigorous social science research to emerging global health challenges. This event forms part of LSE’s Shaping the Post-COVID World initiative, a series of debates about the direction the world could and should be taking after the crisis. You can order the book, Feminist Global Health Security, (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECOVID19

Contributor(s): Dr Cecilia Rouse | How does the Biden-Harris Administration evaluate the current state and growth trajectory of the U.S. economy as it emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic? How are the Administration’s plans to expand infrastructure investment and aid to families and children likely to impact the U.S. in the long run? In this lecture, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Cecilia E. Rouse will offer a rare inside view of U.S. economic policymaking at the beginning of a new presidency. Her lecture will provide a fast-paced tour of the macroeconomic issues confronting the Administration and discuss the role of economists and economic research in U.S. policy debates. Meet our speaker and chair Cecilia Rouse (@CeciliaERouse) is the 30th Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. Before joining the Administration, she was dean of Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs, as well as the Lawrence and Shirley Katzman and Lewis and Anna Ernst Professor in the Economics of Education at the university. From 2009 to 2011, Rouse served as a member of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers and, from 1998 to 1999, worked at the National Economic Council in the Clinton administration as a Special Assistant to the President. Her distinguished academic research has explored a wide array of topics in the economics of education. Tim Besley is School Professor of Economics of Political Science and W. Arthur Lewis Professor of Development Economics in the Department of Economics at LSE. More about this event The Morishima lecture series is held in honour of Professor Michio Morishima (1923-2004), Sir John Hicks Professor of Economics at LSE and STICERD's first chairman. STICERD (@STICERD_LSE) brings together world-class academics to put economics and related disciplines at the forefront of research and policy. Founded in 1978 by the renowned Japanese economist Michio Morishima, with donations from Suntory and Toyota, we are a thriving research community within LSE. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSESTICERD

Contributor(s): Maria Gavouneli, Notis Mitarachi | Join us for the 18th Hellenic Observatory Annual Lecture which this year will be delivered by Notis Mitarachi, Greece's Minister of Migration & Asylum. Greece has been at the epicentre of much of the migration crisis in the Mediterranean. The accommodation and processing of asylum-seekers and refugees in Greece has proved both challenging and controversial. But there are also major implications of the crisis for the European Union and its individual member states in their burden-sharing. What are the lessons from this humanitarian crisis on Europe’s shores? We explore the ways forward. Meet our speaker and chair Notis Mitarachi is Minister of Migration & Asylum of the Hellenic Republic and an MP in the constituency of Chios (New Democracy Party - EPP). In 2019 he was appointed as the Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, responsible for the Social Security & Pension System. In 2012-2015 he served as Deputy Minister for Economic Development and Competitiveness. He has also served as Alternate Governor in the BoG of the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) and as Governor in the BoG of the Black Sea Trade & Development Bank (BSTB). Before returning to Greece in 2010, he had a long international career in the private sector. He is a graduate of INSEAD (MBA), Oxford University (MSc in Industrial Relations) and The American College of Greece (BSc in Business Administration). He is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder. Maria Gavouneli is Associate Professor of International Law, Faculty of Law at the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens. She is the President of the Greek National Commission for Human Rights, Member of the Managing Board, National Transparency Authority and Senior Policy Advisor, Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy – ELIAMEP. She was a Fulbright Scholar – Greece at the University of California Berkeley (2018-2019) and Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London (2005-2019). She has published extensively on the law of the sea, energy and environmental law as well as migration issues. Kevin Featherstone is Eleftherios Venizelos Professor in Contemporary Greek Studies and Professor in European Politics in the European Institute at LSE, where he is also Director of the Hellenic Observatory. More about this event This event is the Hellenic Observatory Annual Lecture. The Hellenic Observatory (@HO_LSE) is internationally recognised as one of the premier research centres on contemporary Greece and Cyprus. It engages in a range of activities, including developing and supporting academic and policy-related research; organisation of conferences, seminars and workshops; academic exchange through visiting fellowships and internships; as well as teaching at the graduate level through LSE's European Institute. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEGreece

Contributor(s): Professor Joel Mokyr | Joel Mokyr will discuss the Great Divergence, the rapid economic and technological growth between c. 1500 and 1950, that gave the West the opportunity to dominate (and often oppress and exploit) the rest of the world. The lecture will answer a simple but haunting question: how were they able to do that? Meet our speaker and chair Joel Mokyr is the Robert H. Strotz Professor of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Economics and History at Northwestern University and Sackler Professor (by special appointment) at the Eitan Berglas School of Economics at the University of Tel Aviv. His most recent book is A Culture of Growth, published in 2016. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Mary Morgan is Albert O. Hirschman Professor of History and Philosophy of Economics in the Department of Economic History at LSE. More about this event The Department of Economics (@LSEEcon) at LSE, is one of the leading economics departments in the world. We are a large department, ensuring all mainstream areas of economics are strongly represented in research and teaching. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEEconomics

Contributor(s): Catherine Woollard | Six years after the beginning of Europe’s so called ‘refugee’ or ‘migration’ crisis, we ask what has happened since and (how) has Europe changed? This event will explore Europe’s ‘refugee’ or ‘migration’ crisis, asking whether Europe has changed since, and what happened to the people who arrived and the policies that governed their arrival. Meet our speakers and chair Heaven Crawley (@heavencrawley) is Professor of International Migration at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University. She is also the Director of the UKRI GCRF South-South Migration, Inequality and Development Hub (MIDEQ). Lucy Mayblin (@LucyMayblin) is a political sociologist whose research focuses on asylum, human rights, policy-making, and the legacies of colonialism. She was recently awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize for her research achievements in the area of asylum and migration. Masooma Torfa (@MasoomaTorfa) was born and grew up in Jaghuri, Afghanistan. She is currently a PhD researcher on forced migration and refugee integration at the University of Hohenheim in Germany. She is the co-founder and directing member of Female Fellows an NGO that is working on the integration and empowerment of migrant women in southern Germany. Masooma has professional work experiences in development projects in Afghanistan with the United Nations Kabul Office and USAID. In the field of migration, she has worked with numerous institutions including the European Commission, the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), the European Program for Integration and Migration (EPIM), Advocate Europe, and Malteser. Catherine Woollard is Director of the European Council of Refugees and Exiles. Manmit Bhambra (@BhambraManmit) is Research Officer in the Religion and Global Society Research Unit at LSE, and Research Director for Migration at the 89 Initiative, Belgium. More about this event The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) is a centre for research and graduate teaching on the processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector. The 89 Initiative (@89initiative) is a European think-do tank. Through cutting-edge research, the Initiative seeks to help solve Europe’s biggest generational challenges and nudge policy-makers and society forward. This event is part of the LSE European Institute Series, Beyond Eurocentrism. This event series aims to explore how the shape and shaping of Europe – its political-economy, its political policy making, or its political culture – needs to be rethought in a time of the exhaustion of Eurocentrism. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEEurocentrism

Contributor(s): Dr Judd Birdsall, Dr H A Hellyer, Dr Courtney Freer | This roundtable discussion will bring together experts from around the world to examine the Biden Administration’s approach to international religious freedom and the implications this has on American foreign policy. Biden’s predecessor made Religious Freedom a cornerstone of its foreign policy, notably highlighted by the creation of the State Department’s “Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom”, which the UK is expected to host in 2022. Will he carry on a similar legacy? Or will we see a substantial shift from the Biden Administration? Finally, what does this mean for America’s foreign policy? Featured image (used in source code): Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Meet our speaker and chair Judd Birdsall (@JuddBirdsall) is a Senior Research Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University. He was previously based at the Centre for Geopolitics at Cambridge University and continues to serve as an affiliated lecturer in the Cambridge University Department of Politics and International Studies. He has served in the U.S. State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom and on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff. Courtney Freer (@courtneyfreer) is Assistant Professorial Research Fellow at the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a non-resident fellow in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings Institution. Her book Rentier Islamism: The Influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gulf Monarchies, published in 2018, traces the political and social role of Islamists in the Arabian Gulf. H A Hellyer, (@hahellyer) a Carnegie Endowment scholar, is Fellow of Cambridge University’s Centre for Islamic Studies, and Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. A prolific public intellectual on governance, international relations, security, and religion, in the West & the Arab world, he is the author of 7 books in these areas. A former Brookings Fellow, he currently helps steer the EU-funded project ‘GREASE’ on “Radicalisation, Secularism & the Governance of Religion”. James Walters (@LSEChaplain) is Director of the LSE Religion and Global Society research unit and a senior lecturer in practice in the Department of International Relations. More about this event International Relations (@LSEIRDept) has been taught at LSE since 1924. The Department was not only the first of its kind, but has remained a leading world centre for the development of the subject ever since. The Department has always been strongly international in character and today the majority of our graduate students, a good proportion of our undergraduates, as well as many members of the faculty are drawn from Europe, North America and further afield. At the same time we have always prided ourselves as having both a national and an international role in training diplomats and future university teachers. The LSE's United States Centre (@LSE_US) is a hub for global expertise, analysis and commentary on America. Our mission is to promote policy-relevant and internationally-oriented scholarship to meet the growing demand for fresh analysis and critical debate on the United States. LSE Religion and Global Society (@LSE_RGS) is an interdepartmental research unit which conducts, coordinates and promotes social science research that seeks to understand the many ways in which religion influences, and is influenced by, geopolitical change. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEFoRB

Contributor(s): Dr Chiara Cordelli | Many governmental functions today—from the management of prisons and welfare offices to warfare and financial regulation—are outsourced to private entities. Education and health care are funded in part through private philanthropy rather than taxation. Can a privatised government rule legitimately? The Privatized State argues that it cannot. In this new book, Chiara Cordelli argues that privatisation constitutes a regression to a precivil condition—what philosophers centuries ago called “a state of nature.” Chiara is going to discuss her book and issues such as privatisation in the democratic state , role of private actors and a new way of administering public affairs with LSE academic Kate Vredenburgh. Meet our speaker and chair Chiara Cordelli (@chiaracordelli) is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. She is the co-editor of Philanthropy in Democratic Societies. Kate Vredenburgh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at LSE. Stephan Chambers will provide a brief welcome speech. Stephan is the inaugural director of the Marshall Institute at LSE. He is also Professor in Practice at the Department of Management at LSE and Course Director for the new Executive Masters in Social Business and Entrepreneurship. More about this event The Marshall Institute (@LSEMarshall) works to improve the impact and effectiveness of private action for public benefit through research, teaching and convening. You can order the book, The Privatized State, (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEPrivatizedState

Contributor(s): Lauren Slater, Professor Tim Lewens, Dr Adrian Alsmith | We trace the development of our modern ideas about the mind, from the highly influential work of Descartes and the impact of Darwinian evolution to more recent accounts of the ‘extended’ mind and the enhancements made possible by new technologies. Why is Descartes so important? What changed with Darwin? And in what ways have technological advances changed how we think about the mind? Join us as we explore the story of one of the central concerns of philosophy. Meet our speakers and chair Adrian Alsmith is Lecturer in Philosophy at Kings College London. Tim Lewens is Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. Lauren Slater (@laurenamslater) is Associate Tutor of Philosophy at Birkbeck. Clare Moriarty (@quiteclare) is a Fellow at the Forum for Philosophy at LSE and IRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin. More about this event The Forum for Philosophy (@forumphilosophy) hosts events exploring science, politics, and culture from a philosophical perspective. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEForum

Contributor(s): Professor Patrick Le Galès, Madeleine Bunting, Professor Gurminder K Bhambra, Professor Mike Savage | In his new book, The Return of Inequality, which he will discuss at this event, sociologist Mike Savage explains inequality’s profound deleterious effects on the shape of societies. Meet our speakers and chair Mike Savage (@MikeSav47032563) joined LSE in 2012 and is now Martin White Professor of Sociology. Between 2015 and 2020, he was Director of LSE’s International Inequalities Institute, which hosts the Atlantic Fellows programme, the largest global programme in the world devoted to challenging inequalities. Gurminder K Bhambra (@GKBhambra) is Professor of Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies in the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, and a Fellow of the British Academy (2020). She was previously Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick. She is author of Connected Sociologies and Rethinking Modernity: Postcolonialism and the Sociological Imagination and co-editor of Decolonising the University. Madeleine Bunting is an award winning freelance writer and former Guardian columnist and associate editor. Her recent books include Love of Country and Island Song. Patrick Le Galès is CNRS Research Professor of Sociology and Politics at Sciences Po in Paris, Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics, and founding Dean of Sciences Po Urban School. His research deals with the governance and the political economy of metropolis in different parts of the world, on mobility inequalities and class, the reconfiguration of the state and political authority. Alpa Shah (@alpashah001) is Associate Professor of Anthropology at LSE and leads the International Inequalities Institute research theme on Global Economies of Care. More about this event The International Inequalities Institute (@LSEInequalities) at LSE brings together experts from many LSE departments and centres to lead cutting-edge research focused on understanding why inequalities are escalating in numerous arenas across the world, and to develop critical tools to address these challenges. The Department of Sociology (@LSEsociology) seek to produce sociology that is public-facing, fully engaged with London as a global city, and with major contemporary debates in the intersection between economy, politics and society – with issues such as financialisation, inequality, migration, urban ecology, and climate change. You can order the book, The Return of Inequality (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney. This event forms part of LSE’s Shaping the Post-COVID World initiative, a series of debates about the direction the world could and should be taking after the crisis. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECOVID19

Contributor(s): Dr Alpa Shah, Sonia Faleiro | Sonia Faleiro will be in conversation with Alpa Shah about her new book Good Girls: An Ordinary Killing. A deep investigation into the death of two low-caste teenage girls, Faleiro explores the coming of age, the failures of care, and the violence of caste, honour and shame in contemporary India. Meet our speakers and chair Sonia Faleiro (@soniafaleiro) is a journalist and writer. She is the author of Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay’s Dance Bars, a book of the year for the Guardian, Observer, Sunday Times, Economist and Time Out. Alpa Shah (@alpashah001) is Associate Professor of Anthropology at LSE and leads the International Inequalities Institute research theme on Global Economies of Care. Her most recent book is the award winning Nightmarch: Among India’s Revolutionary Guerrillas. Armine Ishkanian (@Armish15) is Associate Professor of Social Policy and the Executive Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme at LSE. Her research focuses on the relationship between civil society, policy processes, and social transformation. She is co-convenor of the Politics of Inequality research theme based in the International Inequalities Institute. More about this event The International Inequalities Institute (@LSEInequalities) at LSE brings together experts from many LSE departments and centres to lead cutting-edge research focused on understanding why inequalities are escalating in numerous arenas across the world, and to develop critical tools to address these challenges. You can order the book, The Good Girls: An Ordinary Killing (UK delivery only), from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEIII

Contributor(s): Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey, Dr Ian Sanjay Patel, Dr Megan Ryburn | Citizenship. What does that word really signify? This episode of LSE IQ takes a look at the issue in all its complexities, uncovering how decisions made by a 19th century West African Gola ruler connect to today’s Liberian land ownership laws; why British citizenship became racialised in the decades following the second world war – legislation that led to the Windrush Scandal, devastating the lives of hundreds of black Britons; and how Bolivian migrants in the present day have struggled to create new lives in Chile. To understand more about the many ways citizenship can impact our lives, Jess Winterstein spoke to Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey, Dr Ian Sanjay Patel and Dr Megan Ryburn Speakers: Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey, Dr Ian Sanjay Patel and Dr Megan Ryburn   Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey, Department of Social Policy, LSE https://www.lse.ac.uk/social-policy/people/academic-staff/dr-robtel-neajai-pailey Dr Ian Sanjay Patel, Department of Sociology, LSE https://www.lse.ac.uk/sociology/people/ian-patel Dr Megan Ryburn, Latin America and Caribbean Centre (LACC), LSE https://www.lse.ac.uk/lacc/people/megan-ryburn   Research Development, (Dual) Citizenship and its Discontents in Africa: The political economy of belonging to Liberia by Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey (Cambridge University Press). To read the Introduction free of charge see https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/development-dual-citizenship-and-its-discontents-in-africa/B96CB2D100CFEC03EE476D103F46348B# The ebook is also available in the LSE library. We’re Here Because You Were There: Immigration and the end of empire by Dr Ian Sanjay Patel (Verso) https://www.versobooks.com/books/3700-we-re-here-because-you-were-there Uncertain Citizenship: everyday practices of Bolivian migrants in Chile by Dr Megan Ryburn (University of California Press). https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520298774/uncertain-citizenship

Contributor(s): Baroness Shafik, Professor Lord Giddens, Professor Craig Calhoun, Professor Julia Black | Join us for this special event to celebrate 125 years of the London School of Economics and Political Science. We will be joined by the current director and former directors of LSE. Meet our speakers and chair Julia Black is Strategic Director of Innovation and Professor of Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She was Pro Director of Research from 2014-19 and Interim Director of LSE from 2016-17. Craig Calhoun (@craigjcalhoun) is Professor of Social Sciences at Arizona State University and Centennial Professor at LSE. He was Director of LSE from 2012 to 2016. Anthony Giddens was Director of LSE from 1997-2003. He was educated at the University of Hull and the London School of Economics and Political Science. At LSE, he wrote a dissertation on 'Sport and Society in Contemporary Britain'. He has taught at the University of Leicester and subsequently at Cambridge, where he was Professor of Sociology. Minouche Shafik is Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to this, she was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. She is an alumna of LSE, having studied MSc Economics. Michael Cox is Emeritus Professor of International Relations whose most recent work includes an introduction to a centennial edition of J.M. Keynes’s The Economic Consequences of the Peace. He is currently working on a new history of LSE entitled, The "School": LSE and the Shaping of the Modern World. More about this event 125 years of LSE It’s our anniversary! Join our celebrations as we explore the past, discover new stories, and impact the future. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSE125

Contributor(s): Professor Gurminder K Bhambra | The social sciences are implicated in the reproduction of the very structures of inequality that are ostensibly their objects of concern. This is partly the result of their failure to acknowledge the ‘connected histories’ of one of their primary units of analysis – the modern nation-state, postcolonial scholar Gurminder K. Bhambra will argue. In the inaugural Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity Keynote Lecture, Professor Bhambra will explore the social sciences’ failure to acknowledge the extent to which modern nation-states were bound up with relations of colonial extraction and domination. Without putting such relations at the heart of our analyses, we cannot address global inequality effectively. Positing colonial histories as central to national imaginaries and the structures through which inequalities are legitimated and reproduced, she will explore a framework for a reparatory social science, oriented to global justice as a reconstructive project of the present. The past cannot be undone, she will conclude, but its legacies can be transformed to bring about a world that works for us all. Meet our speaker and chair Gurminder K. Bhambra (@gkbhambra) is Professor of Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies in the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, and a Fellow of the British Academy (2020). She was previously Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick. She is author of Connected Sociologies and Rethinking Modernity: Postcolonialism and the Sociological Imagination and co-editor of Decolonising the University. Armine Ishkanian (@Armish15) is Associate Professor of Social Policy and the Executive Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme at LSE. Her research focuses on the relationship between civil society, policy processes, and social transformation. She is co-convenor of the Politics of Inequality research theme based in the International Inequalities Institute. More about this event The Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme is a Global South-focused, funded fellowship for mid-career activists, policy-makers, researchers and movement-builders from around the world. Based at the International Inequalities Institute, it is a 20-year programme that commenced in 2017 and was funded with a £64m gift from Atlantic Philanthropies, LSE’s largest ever philanthropic donation. The International Inequalities Institute (@LSEInequalities) at LSE brings together experts from many LSE departments and centres to lead cutting-edge research focused on understanding why inequalities are escalating in numerous arenas across the world, and to develop critical tools to address these challenges. This event will have live captioning and BSL interpreters. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEInequalities

Contributor(s): Professor Kevin Featherstone, Professor Brigid Laffan, Professor Kalypso Nicolaidis, Professor Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos, Professor George Tsebelis | Join us for this event that will introduce the new volume The Oxford Handbook of Modern Greek Politics, edited by Kevin Featherstone and Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos. This ground-breaking volume provides a panorama of Greek politics from the transition to democracy in 1974 to the present day. Its 43 chapters are written by leading Greek and international specialists, providing unprecedented breadth and authority. Join the editors in a discussion with Brigid Laffan, Kalypso Nicolaidis and George Tsebelis, concerning its major arguments and themes and the challenges for Greece. Meet our speakers and chair Kevin Featherstone is Eleftherios Venizelos Professor in Contemporary Greek Studies and Professor in European Politics in the European Institute at LSE, where he is also Director of the Hellenic Observatory. He was the first foreign member of the National Council for Research and Technology (ESET) in Greece, serving from 2010-2013. He has contributed regularly to international media on European and Greek politics. Brigid Laffan (@BrigidLaffan) is Director and Professor at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute (EUI), Florence. She was Vice-President of UCD and Principal of the College of Human Sciences from 2004 to 2011. She was the founding director of the Dublin European Institute UCD from 1999 and in March 2004 she was elected as a member of the Royal Irish Academy. Kalypso Nicolaidis is professorial Chair in Transnational Governance at the EUI School of Transnational Governance in Florence. She is currently on leave from the University of Oxford where she has been Professor of International Relations and a governing body fellow at St Antony’s College at the European Studies Centre since 1999. Previously Professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and at ENA, she has worked with numerous EU institutions. Her last book is: Exodus, Reckoning, Sacrifice: Three Meanings of Brexit. LSE alumnus Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos (@DimitriASotiro1) is Professor of Political Science at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of the University of Athens. In 2003 he was Senior Research Fellow at LSE's Hellenic Observatory, in 2009-2010 Visiting Fellow in South East European Studies at St. Antony’s College, Oxford and in the autumn of 2016 Visiting Fellow at the Science Po, Paris. In 2018-2019 he was Visiting Professor at Tufts University and Visiting Fellow at Harvard’s Center of European Studies at Princeton’s Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies. George Tsebelis is the Anatol Rapoport Collegiate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan; member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; honorary PhD from the University of Crete. His work uses Game Theoretic models to analyze the effects of institutions; it covers Western European countries and the European Union. His more recent work studies institutions in Latin America and in countries of Eastern Europe, as well as Greece. Spyros Economides is Associate Professor in International Relations and European Politics at LSE and Deputy Director of the Hellenic Observatory. His current research concentrates on the external relations and security policies of the EU; Europeanisation and foreign policy, and the EU’s relationship with the Western Balkans. His latest publication is Economides and Sperling (eds.) EU Security Strategies: Extending the EU System of Security Governance. More about this event The Hellenic Observatory (@HO_LSE) is internationally recognised as one of the premier research centres on contemporary Greece and Cyprus. It engages in a range of activities, including developing and supporting academic and policy-related research; organisation of conferences, seminars and workshops; academic exchange through visiting fellowships and internships; as well as teaching at the graduate level through LSE's European Institute. You can order the book with a 30% discount ahead of its launch by using code ASFLYQ6 at checkout at The Oxford Handbook of Modern Greek Politics. An interview with the editors about the book can be found at The Oxford Handbook of Modern Greek Politics: An interview with the editors. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEGreece

Contributor(s): Professor Anne Phillips | Drawing on her forthcoming book Unconditional Equals, Anne Phillips explores the dangers of treating equality as conditional on some supposedly shared human characteristic. The claim to be regarded as an equal, or to consider others as our equals, is often explained by reference to some quality all humans are said to possess, something like rationality, a capacity for autonomy, or a sense of justice. This sounds inclusive, but this kind of justification sets up a test. Historically, many millions have been deemed to fail the test: women, the enslaved, the colonised, and those too poor to be considered fully human. The legacy of this way of understanding equality continues today: in philosophical argument, in public policy, and in everyday talk. One of the consequences is that we cannot be confident of a shared belief in even ‘basic’ human equality, not to mention support for the kind of socio-economic equality usually associated with those on the left. This lecture explores whether we can think of an equality that is genuinely unconditional. That is, not based on supposed facts about human beings, not something we might forfeit through our actions or character, but something we ourselves enact through our commitments and claims. Meet our speaker and chair Anne Phillips is the Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science in the Department of Government at LSE. She was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2003 and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2013, She holds honorary degrees from the Universities of Aalborg and Bristol, and in 2016 received the Sir Isaiah Berlin Award for Lifetime Contribution to Political Studies. She is the author of several books including The Politics of Presence: the Political Representation of Gender, Race, and Culture (1995) and the forthcoming book Unconditional Equals. Robin Archer is Director of the Ralph Miliband Programme. You can pre-order the book, Unconditional Equals (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney. More about this event The Ralph Miliband Programme (@rmilibandlse) is one of LSE's most prestigious lecture series and seeks to advance Ralph Miliband's spirit of free social inquiry. The Department of Government (@LSEGovernment) is home to some of the most internationally respected experts in politics and government; producing influential research that has a global impact on policy, and delivering world-class teaching to our students. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEUnconditionalEquals

Contributor(s): Professor Janet C. Gornick, Dr Laurie C. Maldonado, Professor Ive Marx, Dr Rense Nieuwenhuis | In the United States, single mothers are often blamed for their own circumstances and offered little support. The American social policy discourse is very much shaped by the image of the “welfare queen” – a never-married single mother who is dependent on public assistance and refuses to work. However, experiences of lone parents across Europe and other countries calls this stereotype into question. So what does this mean for social policy? Our panel will engage in discussion and provide comparative policy lessons intended to improve the lives of single-parent families in the United States. The panel will also discuss future directions and pressing challenges for single-parent families during a time of COVID-19, as well as social and political unrest in the U.S. Meet our speakers and chair Janet C. Gornick (@JanetGornick) is the Director of the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality, Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the Graduate Center, CUNY, and Director of the US Office of LIS. She has published widely on social welfare policies and their impact on gender disparities in the labor market and/or on income inequality. She has published widely in academic journals. Laurie C. Maldonado (@LCMaldonado1) is Assistant Professor of Social Work at Molloy College, New York. Her research examines the consequences of social policy on the lives of single parent and their families. She has co-edited a book, titled The Triple Bind of Single-Parent Families. Previously, she has worked as a research associate for The Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality. Ive Marx (@IveMarx) is a Professor at the University of Antwerp where he also services as the Director of the Centre for Social Policy Herman Deleeck. His main research interest is labour market and welfare state change in relation to the distribution of income, with a particular focus on poverty. Rense Nieuwenhuis (@RNieuwenhuis) is Associate Professor at Stockholm University SOFI. He studies how family diversity and social policy affect poverty and economic inequality. His research is country-comparative and has a gender perspective. Dr Nieuwenhuis’s recent research is on single-parent families, how women’s earnings affect inequality between households, and family policy outcomes. Amanda Sheely (@AmandaSheely3) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She studies social assistance programs for lone mothers, with a primary focus on the United States. More about this event The Department of Social Policy (@LSESocialPolicy) provides top quality international and multidisciplinary research and teaching on social and public policy challenges facing countries across the world. From its foundation in 1912 it has carried out cutting edge research on core social problems, and helped to develop policy solutions. LSE's United States Centre (@LSE_US) is a hub for global expertise, analysis and commentary on America. Its mission is to promote policy-relevant and internationally-oriented scholarship to meet the growing demand for fresh analysis and critical debate on the United States. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSESingleParent

Contributor(s): Professor Paul Dolan | Join us for this fireside chat where Paul Dolan will continue his reflection on ten years of behavioural science at LSE, discussing biases, narratives, happiness, resilience and more. We will be drawing from research from LSE walls and beyond. We will also be looking to the future, mapping out the most important and exciting areas of study. Those that join us can expect to laugh, learn and lean into behavioural science. Meet our speaker and chair Paul Dolan (@profpauldolan) is Professor of Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is author of the Sunday Times best-selling book Happiness by Design, and Happy Ever After and host of a new podcast series Duck – Rabbit, which explores our polarised culture. Grace Lordan (@GraceLordan_) is an associate professor in behavioural science at LSE. Her research focuses on why some people have successful lives as compared to others because of factors beyond their own control. She is the founder and director of The Inclusion Initiative, a research centre at LSE and the author of Think Big: Take Small Steps and Build the Career You Want. More about this event The Department of Psychological & Behavioural Science (@LSE_PBS) is a growing community of researchers, intellectuals, and students who investigate the human mind and behaviour in a societal context. Our department conducts cutting-edge psychological and behavioural research that is both based in and applied to the real world. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEPBS

Contributor(s): Professor Kristin Andrews, Professor Sarah Brosnan, Dr Susana Monsó | Do non-human animals have morals? Can chimpanzees tell right from wrong? Do dolphins think about what they ought to do? And can a dog really be good? Recent scientific work can shed light on these issues, but they also take us to the heart of two great philosophical questions: what does it mean to be moral and what (if anything) makes humans unique? Meet our speakers and chair Kristin Andrews (@KristinAndrewz) is York Research Chair in Animal Minds at York University, Canada. Sarah Brosnan (@drsfbrosnan) is Distinguished University Professor of Psychology, Philosophy and Neuroscience at Georgia State University. Susana Monsó (@Susana_MonsO) is Lise Meitner Fellow at the Messerli Research Institute, Vienna. Jonathan Birch (@BirchLSE) is Fellow at the Forum for Philosophy and Associate Professor of Philosophy at LSE. More about this event The Forum for Philosophy (@forumphilosophy) hosts events exploring science, politics, and culture from a philosophical perspective. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEForum

Contributor(s): Professor Cheshire Calhoun | Join us for the Brian Barry Memorial Lecture, an annual event honouring the work of political philosopher and former colleague, Professor Brian Barry. Embedded in our social practices are three distinct, default conceptions of a responsible person connected with three distinct basic expectations of and stances toward responsible persons. First is the conception of responsible persons as capable of living up to normative expectations and thus being accountability responsible. Second is a conception of responsible persons as in fact disposed to satisfy minimal normative expectations and thus as compliance responsible. Third is a conception of responsible persons as responsibility takers, that is, as both capable of electing and disposed at least sometimes to actually take the initiative to do good things that could be omitted without blame. In this event Cheshire Calhoun argues that these conceptions are not competing and are rather jointly essential for capturing the complex ways we think about and interact with responsible persons and the centrality of resentment, trust, and hope in everyday life. Meet our speaker and chair Cheshire Calhoun is Professor of Philosophy and head of Philosophy faculty at Arizona State University. She has recently been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Her work stretches across the philosophical subdisciplines of normative ethics, moral psychology, philosophy of emotion, feminist philosophy, and gay and lesbian philosophy. Kai Spiekermann (@SpiekermannKai) is Professor of Political Philosophy in the Department of Government at LSE. Among his research interests are normative and positive political theory, philosophy of the social sciences, social epistemology and environmental change. More about this event The Department of Government (@LSEGovernment) is a world-leading centre for study and research in politics and government. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEResponsible

Contributor(s): Dr Mukulika Banerjee, Professor Paul Dolan, Professor Andrés Velasco, Dr Clare Wenham | Over a year on from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, what key lessons have been learnt that should shape the policies that national and global actors should pursue. Meet our speakers and chair Mukulika Banerjee (@MukulikaB) is a social anthropologist at LSE and was the inaugural director of the LSE South Asia Centre from 2015-2020. She was awarded an LSE Research Grant to study the impact of COVID-10 in India, with Maitreesh Ghatak (LSE Economics). Her forthcoming monograph Cultivating Democracy : politics and citizenship in agrarian India, will be published later this year, and is based on over 20 years of research in rural India. Paul Dolan (@profpauldolan) is Professor of Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is author of the Sunday Times best-selling book Happiness by Design, and Happy Ever After and host of a new podcast series Duck – Rabbit, which explores our polarised culture. Andrés Velasco (@AndresVelasco) is Professor of Public Policy and Dean of the School of Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Clare Wenham (@clarewenham) is Assistant Professor of Global Health Policy at LSE. She specialises in global health security, the politics and policy of pandemic preparedness and outbreak response. She has researched this for over a decade, through influenza, Ebola and Zika. Her research poses questions of global governance, the role of WHO and World Bank, national priorities and innovative financing for pandemic control. More recently she has been examining the role of women in epidemics and associated policy. For COVID-19, Clare is Co-Principal Investigator on a grant from the CIHR and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation analysing the gendered dimensions of the outbreak. Simon Hix (@simonjhix) is the Pro-Director for Research and the Harold Laski Professor of Political Science at LSE. An LSE alumnus, he is one of the leading researchers, teachers, and commentators on European and comparative politics in the UK. Simon has recently been appointed Stein Rokkan Chair in Comparative Politics at the European University Institute in Florence and will take up his new post in September. More about this event The School of Public Policy (@LSEPublicPolicy) equips you with the skills and ideas to transform people and societies. It is an international community where ideas and practice meet. Their approach creates professionals with the ability to analyse, understand and resolve the challenges of contemporary governance. This event forms part of LSE’s Shaping the Post-COVID World initiative, a series of debates about the direction the world could and should be taking after the crisis. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECOVID19

Contributor(s): Professor Craig Calhoun | n the second part of his three-part lecture series, Craig Calhoun will chart the implications of genetic engineering and other transformations of the biological human being for an era which has put the human at the centre of its conception of the good. Meet our speaker and chair Craig Calhoun (@craigjcalhoun) is Professor of Social Sciences at Arizona State University and Centennial Professor at LSE. He is also a previous Director of LSE. Monika Krause is an Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and co-Director of LSE Human Rights. More about this event A podcast of the first lecture in this series is available to download from The Human in Human Rights. LSE Human Rights (@LSEHumanRights) is a trans-disciplinary centre of excellence for international academic research, teaching and critical scholarship on human rights. The Department of Sociology (@LSEsociology) seek to produce sociology that is public-facing, fully engaged with London as a global city, and with major contemporary debates in the intersection between economy, politics and society – with issues such as financialisation, inequality, migration, urban ecology, and climate change. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECalhoun

Contributor(s): Robert Newman, Professor Kieran Setiya, Dr Zoe Walker | We explore what’s philosophically interesting about comedy. Both have a lot in common: showing up the ordinary as odd, critiquing the status quo, hecklers… But can humour be a source of knowledge? What does it tell us about how we interact with one another? What role does it play in our social and political life? And will we ruin the joke by explaining it?! Meet our speakers and chair Robert Newman (@mrrobnewman) is a comedian and author. Kieran Setiya (@KieranSetiya) is Professor of Philosophy at MIT. Zoe Walker is Lecturer in Philosophy at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Sarah Fine (@DrSJFine) is Fellow at the Forum for Philosophy at LSE and Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at King’s College London. More about this event The Forum for Philosophy (@forumphilosophy) hosts events exploring science, politics, and culture from a philosophical perspective. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEForum

Contributor(s): Ken Benoit, Andrew Murray, Seeta Peña Gangaradhan, Alison Powell, Bernhard von Stengel | Computer algorithms shape our lives and increasingly control our future. They have crept into virtually every aspect of modern life and are making life-changing choices on our behalf, often without us realising. But how much power should we give to them and have we let things go too far? Joanna Bale talks to Ken Benoit, Andrew Murray, Seeta Peña Gangaradhan, Alison Powell and Bernhard Von Stengel. Research links: Hello World by Hannah Fry; Information Technology Law: The Law and Society by Andrew Murray; Explanations as Governance? Investigating practices of explanation in algorithmic system design by Alison Powell (forthcoming).

Contributor(s): Sir Anthony Seldon | The Office of the British Prime Minister has endured longer than any other democratic political office, but how have the 55 remarkable individuals who have led the country through peace, crisis and war shaped the role? Join us as we mark the third centenary of the office of the Prime Minister by exploring some of the greatest achievements, the relationship with the monarchy and who has been most effective and why in their time at Number 10. Meet our speaker and chair Anthony Seldon (@AnthonySeldon) is a contemporary historian who has written and edited numerous books, including the definitive accounts of the last five Prime Ministers. He is the honorary historian at Number 10 Downing Street, chair of the National Archive Trust, and has interviewed virtually all those who have worked in Number 10 in the last 50 years. Anthony is an alumnus of LSE. Tony Travers is Professor in LSE's Department of Government and Associate Dean of the LSE School of Public Policy. His expertise lies in local and national government and cities. More about this event The Department of Government (@LSEGovernment) is home to some of the most internationally respected experts in politics and government; producing influential research that has a global impact on policy, and delivering world-class teaching to our students. You can order the book, The Impossible Office? The History of the British Prime Minister, (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEPrimeMinisters

Contributor(s): Muna Luqman, Fatou Bensouda, Hamsatu Allamin | Focusing on the escalating violence and ongoing kidnappings of women and girls in Nigeria and the continued targeting of civilians in Yemen, for this fourth session of the Coming of Age of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda series Sanam Naraghi Anderlini will be in conversation with Hamsatu Allamin, founder of the Allamin Foundation for Peace Development in Maidugiri, Nigeria; Fatou Bensouda, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC); and Muna Luqman, leading peacebuilder and founder of Food4Humanity in Yemen.  Reflecting on their personal experiences and journeys into their fields of expertise, this discussion will draw attention to the growing challenge of failed governance by states, the emergence of ungoverned and ‘alternatively governed’ spaces, and the implications for civilians. The panellists will also discuss the role of the ICC when states are implicated in violence against their own citizens, and what can be done when the state is absent and new entities emerge, with no respect for international norms. Meet our speakers and chair Hamsatu Allamin is an educator by profession, with 32 years’ experience in teaching, public administration, and project management. She is a gender activist and human rights defender, who initiated the creation of the Network of Civil Society for Peace in Borno and Yobe states in Nigeria. Fatou Bensouda is the first woman to serve as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), having assumed office in 2012. In 2011, she was elected by consensus by the Assembly of States Parties to serve in this capacity. Through her work, she has strived to advance accountability for atrocity crimes, highlighting in particular the importance of addressing traditionally underreported crimes such as sexual and gender-based crimes, mass atrocities against and affecting children, as well as the deliberate destruction of cultural heritage within the Rome Statute framework. Muna Luqman (@munaluqman) is the Founder and Chairperson of Food4humanity. She is an activist for women, peace and security; co-founder of the Women Solidarity Network; and member of the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership. Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini (@sanambna) is the Director of the Centre for Women, Peace and Security. More about this event The Centre for Women, Peace and Security (@LSE_WPS) is a leading academic space for scholars, practitioners, activists, policy-makers and students to develop strategies to promote justice, human rights and participation of women in conflict-affected situations around the world. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEWPS

Contributor(s): Professor Richard Bradley, Professor Justin E. H. Smith | Julian Le Grand will talk with Justin E. H. Smith about his new book, Irrationality - A History of the Dark Side of Reason. Irrationality ranges across philosophy, politics, and current events. Challenging conventional thinking about logic, natural reason, dreams, art and science, pseudoscience, the Enlightenment, the internet, jokes and lies, and death, the book shows how history reveals that any triumph of reason is temporary and reversible, and that rational schemes, notably including many from Silicon Valley, often result in their polar opposite. The problem is that the rational gives birth to the irrational and vice versa in an endless cycle, and any effort to permanently set things in order sooner or later ends in an explosion of unreason. Because of this, it is irrational to try to eliminate irrationality. For better or worse, it is an ineradicable feature of life. Meet our speaker and chair Justin E. H. Smith (@jehsmith) is Professor of the history and philosophy of science at the University of Paris 7–Denis Diderot. His books include The Philosopher: A History in Six Types. Richard Bradley is Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research is concentrated in decision theory, formal epistemology and the theory of social choice but he also works on conditionals and the nature of chance. His book Decision Theory with a Human Face, recently published with Cambridge University Press, gives an account of decision making under conditions of severe uncertainty theory suitable for rational but bounded agents. Julian Le Grand has been Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science since 1993. From 2003 to 2005 he was seconded to No 10 Downing St to serve as Senior Policy Adviser to the Prime Minister. He is the author, co-author or editor of over twenty books, and more than one hundred refereed journal articles and book chapters on economics, philosophy, and public policy. More about this event The Marshall Institute (@LSEMarshall) works to improve the impact and effectiveness of private action for public benefit through research, teaching and convening. You can order the book, Irrationality - A History of the Dark Side of Reason, (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEIrrationality

Contributor(s): Professor Etienne Balibar | A cosmopolitics that allows it for mankind to address its common interests is clearly needed, as demonstrated again by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is even urgent, a matter of life and death for millions, and survival for the planet as a livable environment. But there can exist no cosmopolitics without a cosmopolitan idea. From this point of view, we find ourselves in an extremely contradictory situation: always an “essentially contested concept” throughout history, cosmopolitanism today appears squeezed between powerful nationalisms competing for global or local hegemony, and utopian ideals in search of their capacity to rally the multitude. The lecture does not offer a blueprint, it traces a genealogy and delineates some possibilities for the future which is already our actuality. Meet our speaker and chair Etienne Balibar is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris-Nanterre, and Anniversary Chair of Contemporary European Philosophy at Kingston University, London. He is also visiting professor at Columbia University in the City of New York. Ayça Çubukçu (@ayca_cu) is an Associate Professor of Sociology at LSE and co-director of LSE Human Rights. More about this event LSE Human Rights (@LSEHumanRights) is a trans-disciplinary centre of excellence for international academic research, teaching and critical scholarship on human rights. The Department of Sociology (@LSEsociology) seek to produce sociology that is public-facing, fully engaged with London as a global city, and with major contemporary debates in the intersection between economy, politics and society – with issues such as financialisation, inequality, migration, urban ecology, and climate change. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECosmopolitanisms

Contributor(s): Professor Michael R. King, Richard Nesbitt, Ghela Boskovich, Vineet Malhotra, Brenda Trenowden | Join us for a panel discussion on The Technological Revolution in Financial Services: How Banks, Fintechs and Customers Win Together, edited by Michael R. King and Richard W. Nesbitt. Financial services is going through a global transformation. Structural changes are being driven by three forces: regulation, technology, and demographics. This combination is changing the competitive landscape by lowering barriers to entry and increasing competition from outside the industry. These new entrants are leveraging technology to gain a foothold in financial services, with many of them following the disruption playbook and building a foothold at the bottom end of the market by targeting underserved customers. Rather than being threatened by Fintech startups, banks will be more threatened by global technology companies like the Chinese Techfins Alibaba and Tencent and the bigtech companies Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. These tech companies have platform ecosystems that embed financial services, including payments, lending, investing, and insurance. Technology companies will prove to be the real threats to incumbents over the next decade. You can order the book at The Technological Revolution in Financial Services: How Banks, Fintechs, and Customers Win Together. Meet our speakers and chair Ghela Boskovich (@GhelaBoskovich) is a self-proclaimed Fintech fanatic, and Founder of FemTechGlobal™, a network dedicated to challenging the status quo, and improving the inclusiveness and diversity in Financial Services. She is also Head of Europe for the Financial Data and Technology Association. Michael R. King is the Lansdowne Chair in Finance at University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business. Prior to UVic, Michael was at Ivey Business School (2011-2019), where he held the Tangerine Chair in Finance and co-founded the Scotiabank Digital Banking Lab – Canada’s first FinTech research centre. He is the co-author of The Technological Revolution in Financial Services: How Banks, Fintechs and Customers Win Together (with Richard W. Nesbitt). Vineet Malhotra is MD and Head of Retail and Alternate Solutions Group at CIBC Capital Markets. Vineet is also Head of Simplii, an online bank serving Canadian customers. The Retail Solutions Group manufactures and delivers Global Markets products, including Foreign Exchange, Fixed Income, Precious Metals, and Structured Solutions for CIBC Capital Markets’ 6 million retail clients in Canada. Richard Nesbitt is an Adjunct Professor of the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Richard is working with the London School of Economics and Political Science as Chair of a new research institute “The Inclusion Initiative at LSE”. Richard was Chief Operating Officer of CIBC until September 2014. From 2004 to 2008 Richard was Chief Executive Officer of Toronto Stock Exchange. Richard is an alumnus of LSE. Brenda Trenowden (@BTrenowden) is a Partner at PwC leading the Inclusive Culture, Diversity and Purpose consulting practice. As Global Chair of the 30% Club, Brenda worked with Chairs, CEOs and leaders around the world. Brenda was listed as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in Finance for 3 years running and in 2018, was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to the financial sector and gender equality. Minouche Shafik is Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to this she was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. More about this event The Department of Psychological & Behavioural Science (@LSE_PBS) is a growing community of researchers, intellectuals, and students who investigate the human mind and behaviour in a societal context. Our department conducts cutting-edge psychological and behavioural research that is both based in and applied to the real world.

Contributor(s): Dr Daphne Nicolitsas | Putting available talent to its best use is key for the welfare of individuals and of the society to which they belong. Unequal access to opportunity in education and labour markets tampers with the allocation of talent leading to more inequality, poverty traps and lower welfare for all. This lecture reviews recent evidence on the misallocation of talent by economic class and gender in different settings, highlighting how temporary shocks - such as the current pandemic can have permanent consequences. Meet our speakers and chair Oriana Bandiera (@orianabandiera) is the Sir Anthony Atkinson Professor of Economics at LSE, and a fellow of the British Academy, the Econometric Society, CEPR, BREAD and IZA. She is co-editor of Econometrica, vice-president of the European Economic Association, and director of the Gender, Growth and Labour Markets in Low-Income Countries (G²LM|LIC) programme. She serves on the council of the Econometric Society, on board of the International Growth Centre and as vice-president of the Collegio Carlo Alberto. Aristides N. Hatzis is Professor of Philosophy of Law and Theory of Institutions at the University of Athens. He is the Director of Research at the Center for Liberal Studies-Athens, a Fellow of the Institute for Research in Economics and Fiscal Issues-Paris, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Society of European Contract Law, the Steering Committee of the European Network for Better Regulation and the Editorial Board of the European Review of Contract Law. Daphne Nicolitsas is, since Feb 2014, an Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics of the University of Crete. Prior to that she worked in economic policy related jobs and in the financial sector. Her main research interests lie in labour economics and in industrial organization, fields in which she has publications in international journals. Currently, she is co-ordinating an EU-funded project, with partners from top EU Universities, on the structure and conduct of Employers’ Associations in the EU. Kevin Featherstone is Eleftherios Venizelos Professor in Contemporary Greek Studies and Professor in European Politics and the Director of the Hellenic Observatory. More about this event The Hellenic Observatory (@HO_LSE) is internationally recognised as one of the premier research centres on contemporary Greece and Cyprus. It engages in a range of activities, including developing and supporting academic and policy-related research; organisation of conferences, seminars and workshops; academic exchange through visiting fellowships and internships; as well as teaching at the graduate level through LSE's European Institute. The National Bank of Greece (@NationalBankGR), backed by its 179-year participation in the country's economic and social life, is one of the leading Greek financial organisations, with strong tradition and noteworthy contribution to the economic and social transformation of Greece. The Bank’s broad customer base, respected brand name, strong market share in deposits and enhanced capital adequacy ratios secure it with the liquidity needed to finance Greek businesses and reflect the long-standing relationship of trust it enjoys with its clientele. This event forms part of the Hellenic Observatory Athens Lecture Series, co-organised with the National Bank of Greece and supported by the LSE Hellenic Alumni Association. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEAthensLectures

Contributor(s): Professor Jim Sidanius | The Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements have led to a renewed focus on the persistence of inequality along the lines of race, gender, and their intersection. Political psychology attempts to shed light on this through connecting individual behaviour to wider institutional and ideological dynamics. On the eve of the completion of an updated edition of his now classic text, Social Dominance: An Intergroup Theory of Hierarchy and Oppression, political psychologist Jim Sidanius will present some of his latest ideas on the psychological foundations of intergroup inequality, followed by a conversation on their relevance to twenty-first century struggles for social justice. Meet our speaker and chair Jim Sidanius is the John Lindsley Professor of Psychology in memory of William James and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. Jennifer Sheehy-Skeffington (@jsskeffington) is an Assistant Professor in the department of Psychological and Behavioural Science at LSE. More about this event The Department of Psychological & Behavioural Science (@LSE_PBS) is a growing community of researchers, intellectuals, and students who investigate the human mind and behaviour in a societal context. Our department conducts cutting-edge psychological and behavioural research that is both based in and applied to the real world.

Contributor(s): Professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad | A discussion about race and racial inequity in the United States, past and present. Meet our speaker and chair Khalil Gibran Muhammad (@KhalilGMuhammad) is Professor of History, Race and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and the Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies. He is the former Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a division of the New York Public Library and the world’s leading library and archive of global black history. Khalil’s scholarship examines the broad intersections of race, democracy, inequality and criminal justice in modern U.S. history. He is author of The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America (Harvard), which won the 2011 John Hope Franklin Best Book award in American Studies. Peter Trubowitz (@ptrubowitz) is Professor of International Relations and Director of the US Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Associate Fellow at Chatham House. More about this event The LSE's United States Centre (@LSE_US) is a hub for global expertise, analysis and commentary on America. Our mission is to promote policy-relevant and internationally-oriented scholarship to meet the growing demand for fresh analysis and critical debate on the United States. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEUSRace

Contributor(s): Professor Odd Arne Westad | In this series of four lectures, the Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale, Odd Arne Westad, discusses the concept of empire and why it is still relevant today. Even if the Europeans had deemed the 19th century a “long peace”, the world had changed tremendously between 1800 and 1900. Of the 1800 powers only a few remained strong, and they were all European. But, at the same time, the concept of empire was changing, and new forms of anti-imperial resistance was starting to grow. This third lecture will discuss high imperialisms, their relationship to globalising capitalism, and how a destabilised European world initiated the tragedies of the 20th century. Meet our speaker and chair Odd Arne Westad is the Engelsberg Chair for 2020/21 at LSE IDEAS. He is currently the Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale, and is a former director of LSE IDEAS. Christopher Coker is Director of LSE IDEAS. More about this event A podcast of the first lecture can be found at Empires Past & Present: the idea of empire. The second lecture, Empires Past and Present: empire around 1800, took place on 26 January, a podcast is available. LSE IDEAS (@lseideas) is LSE's foreign policy think tank. We connect academic knowledge of diplomacy and strategy with the people who use it. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEEngelsberg

Contributor(s): Dr Natalia Kanem | Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, will discuss why bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights are fundamental to advancing human dignity and equality, prosperity and peace, and sustainable development that leaves no one behind. Meet our speaker and chair Natalia Kanem (@Atayeshe) is United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (@UNFPA). UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health and rights agency. Appointed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in 2017, Dr. Kanem has more than 30 years of strategic leadership experience in the fields of preventive medicine, public and reproductive health, social justice and philanthropy. She started her research career in academia with the Johns Hopkins and Columbia University schools of medicine and public health. Rishita Nandagiri is an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Methodology at LSE. Her doctoral research (Department of Social Policy, LSE; 2019) was a multimethod study investigating women’s abortion-related trajectories to care in Karnataka, India. She was previously an LSE Fellow in Health and International Development at the Department of International Development. More about this event The Global Health Initiative (@LSEGlobalHealth) is a cross-departmental research platform set up to increase the coherence and visibility of Global Health research activity across the School, both internally and externally. It provides support for interdisciplinary engagement and showcases LSE’s ability to apply rigorous social science research to emerging global health challenges. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEHealth

Contributor(s): Kgalema Motlanthe, Ruth Dreifuss, Helen Clark, Juan Manuel Santos Calderón | In the last decade, the negative consequences of the international drug control regime based on repression and coercion have increasingly become visible barriers to sustainable development. Despite important reforms and paradigm changes in certain countries and regions, drug policies still pose serious challenges to the international development objectives. These consequences range from negative outcomes in control of infectious diseases, in access to controlled pain relief, in over incarceration and disproportionality of sentencing targeting certain populations, to breaches in the rule of law as drug laws are not complied with. These consequences are visible and dire at all levels of governance, and affect the most marginalized populations first. What can be done to mitigate the negative consequences of drug policies on development, and what reforms are suggested? This high-level discussion will explore the experiences of four former heads of state or government, from four regions in the world, to discuss the medium and long-term solutions to the harms created by current drug control policies. Meet our speakers and chair Juan Manuel Santos Calderón (@JuanManSantos) is the former President of the Republic of Colombia, serving two terms, from 2010 to 2018. He was Colombia’s first Foreign Trade Minister, has been Minister of Finance and before being elected President, was Minister for National Defence. Prior to entering politics, President Santos was deputy director of El Tiempo newspaper, and wrote a weekly opinion column. He was awarded the King of Spain International Journalism Award and named president of the Freedom of Expression Commission for the Inter American Press Association (IAPA). In 2016 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He is a member of The Elders, a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy and a Honorary Graduate of LSE. President Santos studied for a Master of Science in the Department of Economics at LSE in 1975. Helen Clark (@HelenClarkNZ) is a global leader on sustainable development, gender equality and international co-operation. She served three successive terms as Prime Minister of New Zealand between 1999 and 2008. She then became the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator for two terms from 2009 to 2017, the first woman to lead the organisation. She was also the Chair of the United Nations Development Group, a committee consisting of the Heads of all UN funds, programmes and departments working on development issues. In 2019 Helen Clark became patron of The Helen Clark Foundation. In 2020, she was elected chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy. Ruth Dreifuss was elected Federal Councillor in 1993 by the Federal Assembly, and was re-elected twice. From 1993 to her resignation in 2002, she was Head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs, in charge of public health and social insurance. During the year 1999, Ruth Dreifuss was President of the Swiss Confederation. After her retirement from government, she chaired the commission mandated by WHO that reported on public health, innovation and intellectual property rights, and co-chaired the High Level Panel on Access to Medicines, mandated by the United Nations Secretary-General. Ruth Dreifuss is member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which she chaired from 2016 to 2020. She also serves as a member of the International Commission against the Death Penalty. Kgalema Motlanthe was elected President of the Republic of South Africa by the Parliament in September 2008, a position he held until 9 May 2009. He was appointed by President Jacob Zuma to serve as the Deputy President. He served in that position from 11 May 2009 until 24 May 2014. Motlanthe also served two five-year terms as Secretary General of the ANC from December 1997 to December 2007, and was the Deputy President of the African National Congress from December 2007 to December 2012. He now heads the Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation that was established when he left office of government and is a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy. Andrés Velasco (@AndresVelasco) is the Dean of the LSE School of Public Policy. He was the Minister of Finance in Chile between 2006 and 2010 and has held professorial roles at the Harvard Kennedy School and Columbia University´s School of International and Public Affairs. More about this event The School of Public Policy (@LSEPublicPolicy) equips you with the skills and ideas to transform people and societies. It is an international community where ideas and practice meet. Their approach creates professionals with the ability to analyse, understand and resolve the challenges of contemporary governance. The purpose of The Global Commission on Drug Policy (@globalcdp) is to bring to the international level an informed, science-based discussion about humane and effective ways to reduce the harm caused by drugs and drug control policies to people and societies. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEPolicy

Contributor(s): Professor Sinan Aral | Join us for this talk by MIT professor Sinan Aral who will draw on two decades of his own research and business experience and go under the hood of the biggest, most powerful social networks to tackle the critical question of just how much social media actually shapes our choices, for better or worse. In his new book, which he will be talking about, Aral shows how the tech behind social media offers the same set of behaviour-influencing levers to both Russian hackers and brand marketers—to everyone who hopes to change the way we think and act—which is why its consequences affect everything from elections to business, dating to health. Along the way, he covers a wide array of topics, including how network effects fuel Twitter’s and Facebook’s massive growth to the neuroscience of how social media affects our brains, the real consequences of fake news, the power of social ratings, and the impact of social media on our kids. In mapping out strategies for being more thoughtful consumers of social media, The Hype Machine offers the definitive guide to understanding and harnessing for good the technology that has redefined our world overnight. Meet our speaker and chair Sinan Aral (@sinanaral) is the David Austin Professor of Management, Marketing, IT, and Data Science at MIT; director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy; and head of MIT’s Social Analytics Lab. Edgar Whitley is an Associate Professor (Reader) of Information Systems at LSE Department of Management.

Contributor(s): Professor Jessica Wilson, Dr Vanessa Seifert, Philip Ball | The biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky wrote that nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution. Is there an even more general theory that can make sense of all the sciences? The various scientific disciplines each have their own methods, theories, and practices. This is the case even when different sciences try to explain the same phenomena. Can we translate between these distinct disciplines? What does this even mean? Might all of science be reduced to physics one day? Our panel discuss reduction, emergence, and the unity of the sciences. Meet our speakers and chair Philip Ball (@philipcball) is a science writer and Editor of Nature. Vanessa Seifert (@seifert_vanessa) is Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Bristol. Jessica Wilson is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. Clare Moriarty (@quiteclare) is a Fellow at the Forum for Philosophy and IRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin. More about this event The Forum for Philosophy (@forumphilosophy) hosts events exploring science, politics, and culture from a philosophical perspective. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEForum

Contributor(s): Professor Julia Lynch | Inequality has become an intractable feature of the rich industrialised democracies, despite consensus among mass publics and experts that more social and economic equality is desirable. In this lecture, Julia Lynch will examine the political dynamics underlying the “new normal” of high and rising inequality since 1980. To do so, she'll trace the largely unsuccessful attempts of west European governments during this period to reduce socioeconomic inequalities in health and argue that inequality persists despite growing awareness of the harms it creates because of the way political leaders choose to talk about it — and not only because of economic necessity or demands from the electorate. Meet our speaker and chair Julia Lynch is Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on the politics of inequality, public health, and social policy in the rich democracies, particularly the countries of western Europe. Her latest book is Regimes of Inequality: The Political Economy of Health and Wealth. Jonathan Hopkin (@jrhopkin) is Professor of Comparative Politics, in the Department of Government at LSE. You can order the book, Regimes of Inequality: The Political Economy of Health and Wealth, (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney. More about this event The Department of Government (@LSEGovernment) is a world-leading centre for study and research in politics and government. This event forms part of LSE’s Shaping the Post-COVID World initiative, a series of debates about the direction the world could and should be taking after the crisis.

Contributor(s): Euclid Tsakalotos | When SYRIZA came to power in January 2015, it promised an end to the bailouts and to austerity. After a major political struggle, it was obliged to accept new bailout terms and it spent its remaining years in office, in part, implementing its painful measures. In this conversation with Kevin Featherstone, Euclid Tsakalotos will discuss its achievements and setbacks; what lessons its experience suggests for the Left in Europe; and the future for the Left in Greece and elsewhere. Meet our speaker and chair Euclid Tsakalotos (@tsakalotos) was born in 1960. He studied Economics, Politics and Philosophy at the University of Oxford, Development at the University of Sussex, and completed his D.Phil in Economics at Oxford in 1989. He has taught at the University of Kent and Athens University of Economics and Business. Since 2010 he has been Professor of Economics at the University of Athens, and a Syriza MP since May 2012. He was Minister of Finance of the Syriza Governments from July 2015 until July 2019. He is currently serving as the Speaker of Syriza parliamentary group, and coordinator of Economic Policy of the leading opposition. Kevin Featherstone is Eleftherios Venizelos Professor in Contemporary Greek Studies and Professor in European Politics and the Director of the Hellenic Observatory. More about this event The Hellenic Observatory (@HO_LSE) is internationally recognised as one of the premier research centres on contemporary Greece and Cyprus. It engages in a range of activities, including developing and supporting academic and policy-related research; organisation of conferences, seminars and workshops; academic exchange through visiting fellowships and internships; as well as teaching at the graduate level through LSE's European Institute.

Contributor(s): Professor Charles Tripp | This year’s Fred Halliday Memorial Event will explore how and why the symbolic investment in republican discourse and the building of republican institutions can be so detrimental to the rights of the very public that they are meant to represent, even embody. In the construction and history of the republic, the qualities of liberty, of solidarity and of equality have been powerful affective rallying points, shaping the political imagination and holding out the promise of active citizenship. However, the practices of republics have more often than not borne out the charge of ‘organised hypocrisy’. Even where these principles have not been overturned, there remains a tension between them and the political and economic forces that demand a more disciplined, hierarchical order for the reproduction of their power. Using, by way of illustration, examples from across the Middle East and North Africa, it will nevertheless be argued that these are more universal features of the ways in which republican ideals have materialised – but at the same time, the very tensions and contradictions provide incentives and spaces for an insurgent citizenship. Meet our speaker and chair Charles Tripp is Professor Emeritus of Politics with reference to the Middle East and North Africa, and a Fellow of the British Academy. His research interests include the nature of autocracy, state and resistance in the Middle East, the politics of Islamic identity and the relationship between art and power. He is currently working on a study of the emergence of the public and the rethinking of republican ideals in Tunisia. Together with other colleagues he has been one of the founders of the Centre for Comparative Political Thought at SOAS. Karen E. Smith is Professor of International Relations and Head of the Department of International Relations at LSE, and is Director of the European Foreign Policy Unit. More about this event The Department of International Relations (@LSEIRDept) is one of the oldest as well as largest in the world. We are ranked 4th in the QS World University Ranking by Subject 2019 tables for Politics and International Studies. The LSE Middle East Centre (@LSEMiddleEast) builds on LSE's long engagement with the Middle East and North Africa and provides a central hub for the wide range of research on the region carried out at LSE. Find out more about the Fred Halliday memorial lecture series. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEHalliday

Contributor(s): Professor Anne Phillips, Dr Mona Pinchis-Paulsen, Kelsi Brown Corkran | Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg served on the Supreme Court of the United States for 27 years, the first Jewish woman to do so, and only the second woman in the court’s history. During her tenure, she carved out an extraordinary place in American legal history, as well as a unique standing in popular culture as a passionate and fearless defender of liberal principles in general and of gender equality in particular. At this event, our panelists will celebrate her achievements and assess her legacy. Meet our speakers and chair Kelsi Brown Corkran (@KelsiCorkran) is a former law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, based in Washington, DC. She recently joined Georgetown University Law Center as a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy & Protection, where she focuses on civil rights litigation in the United States Supreme Court; before that, she was the head of the Supreme Court practice at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. Kelsi recently argued two significant civil rights cases before the Supreme Court, and she has argued over 30 cases in the courts of appeals. Prior to joining Orrick, Kelsi was with the Civil Appellate Staff at the U.S. Department of Justice, and she also worked in the White House Communications Office under President Obama, where she assisted with judicial nominations, including the confirmation hearings of Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Mona Pinchis-Paulsen (@loyaladvisor) joined LSE in 2020 as Assistant Professor in International Economic Law. She holds a Ph.D. in International Economic Law from The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London and a LL.M. in International Law from The George Washington University School of Law. Mona teaches and researches in the fields of public international law, international trade law, economic development, and international investment law and arbitration. She is part of the managing editorial team for World Trade Review and is co-chair of a seminar series on International Economic Law & Policy, based in London. Prior to joining LSE, Mona was Teaching Fellow for the International Economic Law, Business, and Policy LL.M. Program at Stanford Law School. Anne Phillips is the Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science in the Department of Government. She joined LSE in 1999 as Professor of Gender Theory, and was Director of the Gender Institute until September 2004. She subsequently moved to a joint appointment between the Gender Institute and Government Department, and later to a sole appointment in Government. Her most influential work is The Politics of Presence: the Political Representation of Gender, Race, and Culture (1995). She is currently writing a book on Unconditional Equality. Nicola Lacey is School Professor of Law, Gender and Social Policy. From 1998 to 2010 she held a Chair in Criminal Law and Legal Theory at LSE; she returned to LSE in 2013 after spending three years as Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, and Professor of Criminal Law and Legal Theory at the University of Oxford. More about this event The Department of Government (@LSEGovernment) is a world-leading centre for study and research in politics and government. The Department of Law (@LSELaw) is one of the world's top law schools with an international reputation for the quality of its teaching and legal research. Our community is one of the largest in the School, and has played a major role in policy debates, policy-making and the education of lawyers and law teachers globally.

Contributor(s): Masatsugu Asakawa | Asia has successfully transitioned from a low-income agrarian region in the 1960s to a global manufacturing powerhouse today, driving growth around the world. COVID-19 is threatening to turn back the clock on some of that progress. Policy makers in the region are striving to regain and sustain growth momentum. The Asian Development Bank stands ready to help its developing members toward the path of resilient and sustainable recovery through deeper regional cooperation, inclusive human resource development, green infrastructure, accelerated digitalization, and stronger domestic resource mobilization. Meet our speaker and chair Masatsugu Asakawa is the President of the Asian Development Bank (@adb_hq) and the Chairperson of ADB’s Board of Directors. He was elected President by ADB’s Board of Governors and assumed office on 17 January 2020. Prior to joining ADB, he served as Special Advisor to Japan’s Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, and has a close-to-four decades’ career at the Ministry of Finance with diverse professional experiences that cut across both domestic and international fronts. Hyun Bang Shin (@urbancommune) is Professor of Geography and Urban Studies, Department of Geography and Environment, and Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre at LSE. More about this event The Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre (@LSESEAC) is a multidisciplinary Research Centre of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). It develops and fosters academic and policy-oriented research, drawing on a rich network of experts across disciplines at LSE and beyond, while serving as a globally recognised hub for promoting dialogue and engagement with Southeast Asia and the world.

Contributor(s): Lord O’Neill | Diseases present us with obvious health costs, but there are significant economic costs to illness too. Investing more in health systems and disease prevention, including the use of modern technologies and diagnostics, would not only allow us to cope with future health challenges, but possibly reduce the cost of maintaining and responding to ongoing health care. In this talk, Jim O’Neill will discuss the need to embed health policy in broader economic thinking, reflecting on his experience working in Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and his observations about COVID-19. Meet our speaker and chair Jim O’Neill is Chair of Chatham House. His previous roles include, joint head of research at Goldman Sachs (1995–2000), its chief economist (2001–10) and chairman of its asset management division (2010–13); chair of the City Growth Commission (2014) commercial secretary to the Treasury (2015-16). He is a board member, and one of the founding trustees of educational charity SHINE. Lord O’Neill was created a life peer in 2015 and serves as a crossbench member of the House of Lords. He is an honorary professor of economics, University of Manchester, and holds honorary degrees from the University of Sheffield, University of Manchester, University of London and from City University London. He received his PhD from the University of Surrey and is now a Visiting Professor there. Jim chaired the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance [AMR] from 2014-16. He also recently joined a new EU/WHO Commission on COVID-19. Alistair McGuire is Head of Department and Chair of Health Economics in the Department of Health Policy. His research interests cover all topics in health economics, including international comparisons, economics of the hospital, public/private sector interface and cost-effectiveness analysis of health technologies. More about this event The Department of Health Policy (@LSEHealthPolicy) trains and inspires people passionate about health by advancing and challenging their understanding of health systems and the social, economic and political contexts in which they operate.

Contributor(s): Dr Jean Beaman, Dr Neema Begum, Professor David Theo Goldberg | In the form of white privilege, ‘colour-blindness’ and supremacy, how does whiteness shape individual lives and European societies alike? This event will explore the role of whiteness in Europe and for European identities. Meet our speakers and chair Jean Beaman (@jean23bean) is Associate Professor of Sociology, affiliated with Political Science, Feminist Studies, Global Studies, and the Center for Black Studies Research at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Previously, she was faculty at Purdue University and held visiting fellowships at Duke University and the European University Institute (Florence, Italy). Her research is ethnographic in nature and focuses on race/ethnicity, racism, international migration, and state-sponsored violence in both France and the United States. She is author of Citizen Outsider: Children of North African Immigrants in France (University of California Press, 2017), as well as numerous articles and book chapters. Her current book project is on suspect citizenship and belonging, anti-racist mobilization, and activism against police violence in France. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern University. She is also an Editor of H-Net Black Europe, an Associate Editor of the journal, Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, and Corresponding Editor for the journal Metropolitics/Metropolitiques. Neema Begum (@NeemaBegum) is Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Manchester Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE). Her research is on the voting behaviour, political attitudes and representation of British Black and Asian people. Her PhD was on British ethnic minority attitudes towards European integration and their voting behaviour in the Brexit referendum. David Theo Goldberg (@theodavid) is Director of the systemwide University of California Humanities Research Institute. He is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature, Anthropology, and Criminology, Law, and Society at UC Irvine. His work ranges over issues of social, political, and critical theory, race and racism, the future of the university, and digital technology. His numerous books include Are We All Postracial Yet? (Polity, 2015), and Dread: Facing Futureless Futures (Polity, July 2021). Earlier in his career, he produced independent films and music videos (some of which aired on MTV), and co-directed the award-winning short film on South Africa, The Island. Jennifer Jackson-Preece is Associate Professor in Nationalism at LSE's European Institute and Department of International Relations. More about this event The European Institute (@LSEEI) is a centre for research and graduate teaching on the processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector. This event is part of the LSE European Institute Series: 'Beyond Eurocentrism’. This event series aims to explore how the shape and shaping of Europe – its political-economy, its political policy making, or its political culture – needs to be rethought in a time of the exhaustion of Eurocentrism.

Contributor(s): Shruti Balaji, Professor Michael Cox, Professor Patricia Owens | There is a rich history of scholarly work by women on International Relations that has often been ignored in the discipline. This event, taking place shortly after International Women’s Day, will uncover and explore women’s often foundational role in thinking about international politics. Meet our speakers and chair Shruti Balaji (@shrutibalaji1) is a PhD researcher in the International Relations Department at LSE, working on Indian women international thinkers in the late colonial period in India (c. 1920-50). Michael Cox is Emeritus Professor of International Relations whose most recent work includes an introduction to a centennial edition of J.M Keynes’s The Economic Consequences of the Peace. He is currently working on a history of International Relations at LSE. Patricia Owens is Director of the Leverhulme Research Project, Women and the History of International Thought (@leverhulmewhit) and co-editor with Katharaina Rietzler of Women’s International Thought: A New History You can order the book, Women's International Thought: A New History, (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney. Karen E. Smith is Professor of International Relations and Head of the Department of International Relations at LSE, and is Director of the European Foreign Policy Unit. More about this event The Department of International Relations (@LSEIRDept) is one of the oldest as well as largest in the world. It is ranked 4th in the QS World University Ranking by Subject 2019 tables for Politics and International Studies.  

Contributor(s): Professor Thomas Piketty | Will the Covid-19 pandemic fuel social demand for equality and economic justice? In this lecture, Thomas Piketty offers a refreshing perspective on the historical rise of equality from the 18th century until the early 21st century. The primary determinants of inequality regimes across societies, Piketty argues, are political and ideological, rather than economic or technological. If we remember lessons as to how societies handled past inequality crisis, it is possible to pursue the long-run trend toward equality. Meet our speaker and chair LSE alumnus Thomas Piketty (@PikettyLeMonde) is Professor at EHESS and the Paris School of Economics. He is the author of numerous research articles and of a dozen books. He has done historical and theoretical work on the interplay between economic development, the distribution of income and wealth, and political conflict. He is also co-director of the World Inequality Lab and the World Inequality Database. He is the author of the international best-sellers Capital in the 21st Century (2014) and Capital and Ideology (2020). Tim Besley is School Professor of Economics of Political Science and W. Arthur Lewis Professor of Development Economics in the Department of Economics at LSE. He is also a member of the National Infrastructure Commission and, for 2018, is President of the Econometric Society. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and British Academy. He is also a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Economic Association and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. More about this event The Economica Coase lecture series (after Ronald Coase's celebrated work on the theory of the firm published in Economica) was inaugurated in 2007. Economica (@EconomicaLSE) is an international peer-reviewed academic journal covering research in all branches of economics. The Department of Economics (@LSEEcon) at LSE, is one of the leading economics departments in the world. We are a large department, ensuring all mainstream areas of economics are strongly represented in research and teaching.

Contributor(s): Minette Batters, Tony Danker, Professor Sam Fankhauser, Frances O'Grady | How best can the UK economy compete in the world of the future? What model of market regulation should we seek and can we realistically attain? And, over what time scale? How far might the UK’s strategy be blown off course by wider, exogenous pressures or by domestic pushback? What accommodation should we seek in regulatory standards with our external partners? The panel will discuss the prospects for the future, the opportunities and the threats. Meet our speakers and chair Minette Batters (@Minette_Batters) is the President of the National Farmers Union of England and Wales. She has been an NFU member from grassroots through to County Chairman; she served as Wiltshire’s Council delegate and also as Regional Board Chairman for the South West. Minette has also been a member of NFU Governance Board and served as NFU deputy president for four years from 2014 to 2018, before being elected as president in February 2018. Tony Danker (@tonydanker) is the Director-General of CBI. Prior to this, Tony was the first CEO of Be the Business, a business-led movement created to transform UK’s productivity founded by a group of FTSE-100 Chairmen and the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne. From 2010-2017 Tony was International Director, then Chief Strategy Officer, at Guardian News & Media. Prior to that, he was a Policy Advisor HM Government (2008-10), joining the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury. Sam Fankhauser (@SamFankhauser) is Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at LSE. As part of this role, he also directs the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy (CCCEP) and the Place-based Climate Action Network (PCAN), funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). In January 2013, Frances O'Grady (@FrancesOGrady) became the General Secretary of the TUC, the first woman ever to hold this post. Before the TUC, Frances worked for the Transport and General Workers Union. Minouche Shafik is Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to this, she was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. More about this event This event is part of the LSE Programme, 'Brexit and Beyond'. The LSE Programme: Brexit and Beyond is a dedicated series to stimulate the public debate and informed discussion about this most pivotal topic. It comprises a variety of events, targeting LSE staff and students, as well as the general public and specific categories of policy-makers, practitioners and professionals working on Brexit; with the aim of continuing to shape the discussion surrounding its complex and uncertain agenda. The Programme is organised by LSE's European Institute and School of Public Policy. The European Institute (@LSEEI) is a centre for research and graduate teaching on the processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector. The School of Public Policy (@LSEPublicPolicy) equips you with the skills and ideas to transform people and societies. It is an international community where ideas and practice meet. Their approach creates professionals with the ability to analyse, understand and resolve the challenges of contemporary governance.

Contributor(s): Professor John Hills | This episode is dedicated to social policy giant Professor Sir John Hills, who died in December 2020. In this episode, John tackles the myth that the welfare state supports a feckless underclass who cost society huge amounts of money. Instead, he sets out a system where most of what we pay in, comes back to us. He describes a generational contract which we all benefit from, varying on our stage of life. His words remain timely after a year of pandemic which has devastated many people’s livelihoods. Many of us have had to rely on state support in ways that we could not have anticipated, perhaps challenging our ideas about what type of person receives benefits in the UK. This episode is based on an interview that John did with James Rattee for the LSE iQ podcast in 2017. It coincided with the LSE Festival which celebrated the anniversary of the publication of the ‘Beveridge Report’ in 1942 - a blueprint for a British universal care system by former LSE Director William Beveridge. Professor Sir John Hills CBE, was Richard Titmuss Professor of Social Policy at LSE and Chair of CASE. His influential work didn’t just critique government policy on poverty and inequality, it changed it. He advised on a wide range of issues including pensions reform, fuel poverty, council housing, income and wealth distribution.   Contributors Professor John Hills   Research Good Times Bad Times: the welfare myth of them and us. Bristol: Policy Press by John Hills (2015)  

Contributor(s): Mutale Nkonde, Professor Ulises Ali Mejias, Professor Nick Couldry | Nick Couldry and Ulises Ali Mejias will discuss their book, The Costs of Connection: How Data Colonizes Human Life and Appropriates it for Capitalism. Couldry and Mejias argue that the role of data in society needs to be grasped as not only a development of capitalism, but as the start of a new phase in human history that rivals in importance the emergence of historic colonialism. This new "data colonialism" is based not on the extraction of natural resources or labour, but on the appropriation of human life through data, paving the way for a further stage of capitalism. Today’s transformations of social life through data must therefore be grasped within the long historical arc of dispossession as both a new colonialism and an extension of capitalism. Resistance requires challenging in their new material guises forms of coloniality that decolonial thinking has foregrounded for centuries. The struggle will be both broader and longer than many analyses of algorithmic power suppose, but for that reason critical responses are all the more urgent. New forms of solidarity are needed that help build connection on different terms from those currently on offer. Meet our speakers and chair Nick Couldry (@couldrynick) is Professor of Media Communications and Social Theory at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and from 2017 has been a Faculty Associate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. He is the author or editor of fourteen books including The Mediated Construction of Reality (with Andreas Hepp, Polity, 2016), Media, Society, World: Social Theory and Digital Media Practice (Polity 2012), Why Voice Matters (Sage 2010), and Media: Why It Matters (Polity: October 2019). Ulises Ali Mejias (@UlisesAliMejias) is Professor of Communication Studies and director of the Institute for Global Engagement at the State University of New York, College at Oswego. He is a media scholar whose work encompasses critical internet studies, network theory and science, philosophy and sociology of technology, and political economy of digital media. He is the author of Off the Network: Disrupting the Digital World (University of Minnesota Press, 2013). Mutale Nkonde (@mutalenkonde) is the founding CEO of AI For the People (AFP), a non-profit communications agency. Prior to this Mutale worked in AI Governance. During that time she was part of the team that introduced the Algorithmic and Deep Fakes Algorithmic Acts, as well as the No Biometric Barriers to Housing Act to the US House of Representatives. She started her career as a broadcast journalist and produced documentaries for the BBC, CNN & ABC. She now also writes widely on race and tech, as well as speaking at conferences across the world and currently is on a fellowship at the Digital Civil Society Lab at Stanford and an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center of Internet and Society at Harvard. Bingchun Meng is an Associate Professor in the Department for Media and Communications at LSE. Her research interests include gender and the media, political economy of media industries, communication governance, and comparative media studies. She has published widely on these topic areas on leading international journals. Her book The Politics of Chinese Media: Consensus and Contestation was published by Palgrave in early 2018. You can order the book, The Costs of Connection (UK delivery only), from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney. More about this event The Department of Media and Communications (@MediaLSE) is a world-leading centre for education and research in communication and media studies at the heart of LSE’s academic community in central London. The Department is ranked #1 in the UK and #3 globally in the field of media and communications (2020 QS World University Rankings). Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEMedia

Contributor(s): Professor Connson Locke | Drawing on research from her latest book, Making Your Voice Heard, Connson Locke will look at how to develop your leadership presence and be more influential in the workplace. Discover a fresh approach to influence, grounded in psychological research, and learn how to make your voice heard, regardless of your background or gender. How do you exercise influence when those around you have as much or more power than you do? Where does your power come from? Connson’s book, based on her hugely popular Guardian Masterclass ‘Developing your presence, power, and influence’, draws on the latest research in social psychology and looks to answer why some people are more influential than others and what can make people take notice. This practical guide will help you hone your personal style and enhance your presence and influence. Meet our speaker and chair Connson Chou Locke (@connsonlocke) joined LSE's Department of Management in 2008 where she teaches leadership, organisational behaviour, and negotiation and decision making. She received the Department of Management Outstanding Teaching Contribution Award in 2013, was Highly Commended for Inspirational Teaching in the Student-Led Teaching Excellence Awards in 2015 and 2017, and received the LSE Excellence in Education Award in 2018. Professor Locke holds a PhD and MSc in Business Administration (Organisational Behaviour) from the University of California at Berkeley and a BA in Sociology from Harvard University where she graduated with honours. You can pre-order the book, Making Your Voice Heard, (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney. Conor Gearty is a Professor of Human Rights Law at LSE. More about this event The Department of Management (@LSEManagement) is a world class centre for education and research in business and management. At the heart of LSE’s academic community in central London, we are ranked #2 in the world for business and management. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEVoice

Contributor(s): Professor Gurminder K Bhambra | The Annual British Journal of Sociology Lecture will examine national welfare in the context of being an imperial polity organised around hierarchies – and intersections – of class and race, and the consequences of this for social and political structures. Meet our speaker and chair Gurminder K Bhambra (@GKBhambra) is Professor of Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies in the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex. Nigel Dodd (@nigelbdodd) is Professor of Sociology at LSE and Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Sociology. More about this event The Department of Sociology (@LSEsociology) seek to produce sociology that is public-facing, fully engaged with London as a global city, and with major contemporary debates in the intersection between economy, politics and society – with issues such as financialisation, inequality, migration, urban ecology, and climate change. The British Journal of Sociology is a leading international sociological journal, with a focus on the social and democratic sociological questions of our times, the journal leads the debate on key methodological and theoretical questions and controversies in contemporary sociology.

Contributor(s): Professor Serene Khader, Professor Mark Neocleous, Dr David Westley, Dr David Bather Woods | What do we mean by the term ‘resilience’? We trace the philosophical traditions of resilience and explore critical perspectives on its modern forms. Meet our speakers and chair Serene Khader (@SereneKhader) is Professor and Jay Newman Chair in Philosophy of Culture at CUNY. Mark Neocleous is Professor of the Critique of Political Economy, Brunel University London. David Westley (@David_Westley) is Associate Professor of Psychology, Middlesex University. David Bather Woods (@dbatherwoods) is Senior Teaching Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Warwick. Shahidha Bari (@ShahidhaBari) is a Fellow at the Forum for Philosophy and Professor at the University of the Arts London. More about this event The Forum for Philosophy (@forumphilosophy) is a non-profit organisation that hosts weekly events exploring science, politics, and the arts from a philosophical perspective.

Contributor(s): Paul Vallely, Professor Rob Reich, Fran Perrin | Join us for this talk by Paul Vallely who will be discussing his new book, Philanthropy: From Aristotle to Zuckerberg. The super-rich are silently and secretly shaping our world. In this exploration of historical and contemporary philanthropy, author Paul Vallely reveals how this far-reaching change came about. Vivid with anecdote and scholarly insight, this survey - from the ancient Greeks to today's high-tech geeks - provides an original take on the history of philanthropy. It shows how giving has, variously, been a matter of honour, altruism, religious injunction, political control, moral activism, enlightened self-interest, public good, personal fulfilment and plutocratic manipulation. Highly engaging and meticulously researched, Paul Vallely's authoritative account of philanthropy then and now critiques the excessive utilitarianism of much modern philanthrocapitalism and points to how philanthropy can rediscover its soul. Meet our speakers and chair Fran Perrin is the Founder and Director of the Indigo Trust and was awarded an OBE in 2020 for her services to charity. Fran is also co-founder and Chair of the Board of 360Giving. She was formerly an advisor at the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, in the UK Cabinet Office. Rob Reich (@robreich) is a Professor of Political Science and, by courtesy, Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate School of Education, at Stanford University. He is the director of the Center for Ethics in Society and co-director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, both at Stanford University. He is the author most recently of Just Giving: Why Philanthropy is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better. Paul Vallely (@pvall) is a writer and consultant on philanthropy, ethics, religion and international development. He has worked as a journalist and campaigner with government, businesses, NGOs and churches. He produced award-winning reports from more than 30 countries, was co-author of the report of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa and has advised Bob Geldof, Bono and others. He has written on political, cultural, ethical and religious issues in the New York Times, Sunday Times, Guardian, Times and Independent. He was made a CMG in the 2016 Honours List. You can order the book, Philanthropy - from Aristotle to Zuckerberg, (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney. Stephan Chambers is the inaugural director of the Marshall Institute at LSE. He is also Professor in Practice at the Department of Management at LSE and Course Director for the new Executive Masters in Social Business and Entrepreneurship. More about this event The Marshall Institute (@LSEMarshall) works to improve the impact and effectiveness of private action for public benefit through research, teaching and convening. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEMarshall

Contributor(s): Professor Catherine Barnard, Baroness Hoey, Dr Gerard Lyons, Sir Ivan Rogers | Brexit represents the biggest systemic shock to the UK economy, society and politics for generations. Adapting to the 2016 referendum result has confronted established assumptions about the system, created the need to shift behaviours, and raised new questions about the model to be championed – while institutions struggle with new policy dilemmas, often of a transformative nature. So, what are we learning and what do we still need to learn if the UK is to make a success of Brexit? The panel will consider the changes occurring across government, the economy and society. Meet our speakers and chair Catherine Barnard (@CSBarnard24) is Professor of European Union and Labour Law at Trinity College, University of Cambridge. Catharine Hoey (@CatharineHoey) is a non aligned Peer who took her seat in 2020. After 30 years as the Labour MP for Vauxhall, she stood down at the December 2019 election. During her time as an MP, Baroness Hoey served as a Home Office Minister and was then the first female Sports Minister. A vocal campaigner to Leave the EU, she co chaired Labour Leave and spoke on many all party platforms across the country. Her support for her home country of Northern Ireland has been constant throughout her career. Gerard Lyons (@DrGerardLyons) is an economist and Chief Economic Strategist at Netwealth Investments, having previously served as Chief Economic Adviser to Boris Johnson while he was Mayor of London. Ivan Rogers is the former UK Permanent Representative to the EU. Tony Travers is Associate Dean of the School of Public Policy at LSE. More about this event This event is part of the LSE Programme, 'Brexit and Beyond'. The LSE Programme: Brexit and Beyond is a dedicated series to stimulate the public debate and informed discussion about this most pivotal topic. It comprises a variety of events, targeting LSE staff and students, as well as the general public and specific categories of policy-makers, practitioners and professionals working on Brexit; with the aim of continuing to shape the discussion surrounding its complex and uncertain agenda. The Programme is organised by LSE's European Institute and School of Public Policy. The European Institute (@LSEEI) is a centre for research and graduate teaching on the processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector. The School of Public Policy (@LSEPublicPolicy) equips you with the skills and ideas to transform people and societies. It is an international community where ideas and practice meet. Their approach creates professionals with the ability to analyse, understand and resolve the challenges of contemporary governance.

Contributor(s): Professor Paul Warmington, Professor Sabina Vaught | In the context of a global uprising for racial justice and the expansion of movements such as #BlackLivesMatter, universities have the opportunity and obligation to address structural racism. In the UK the backlash to these efforts has been swift. In October of 2020, members of Parliament attacked Critical Race Theory (CRT) and any institution that teaches it. Since then, CRT has entered into popular conversation in relation to schooling in the UK. But what does CRT really say about education and schooling? What connection does CRT have to the #BlackLivesMatter movement and global Black radical traditions? LSE EmbRace and LSE’s Eden Centre invite Sabina Vaught and Paul Warmington to engage in a dialogue on the topic of Critical Race Theory and education. Meet our speakers and chair Sabina Vaught is Professor and Inaugural Chair of the new Department of Teaching, Learning, and Leading in the School of Education at the University of Pittburgh. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh in 2020, Professor Vaught was scholar-in-residence at The Simpson Center for the Humanities at the University of Washington. At the University of Oklahoma, she established the Carceral Studies Consortium. In her scholarly work, Professor Vaught draws on a constellation of knowledge traditions that help make sense of insurgent and counterinsurgent movements in education: feminisms, the Black radical tradition, Indigenous studies, and legal studies/Critical Race Theory. Her most recent book, Compulsory: Education and the Dispossession of Youth in a Prison School (University of Minnesota Press, 2017), is an ethnographic study inside a U.S. state juvenile prison schooling system. Paul Warmington is Professor in the Department for Education Studies, University of Warwick. Professor Warmington has taught, written and researched on issues of race, class, education and social justice for over thirty years. He was one of the first UK academics to explore Critical Race Theory and has written about CRT's development in the British context. He has worked in higher education since 2000, teaching, researching and writing extensively on sociological and cultural aspects of education. Prior to this, Professor Warmington taught for eleven years in further education, specialising in English and in Black Studies. He teaches at BA, Masters and doctoral levels. His recent writing focuses race equality and education policy, and vocational education Akile Ahmet is the Senior Academic Developer for Inclusive Education in LSE’s Eden Centre. Central to Dr Ahmet’s work is the implementation of LSE’s Inclusive Education Action Plan under LSE’s new Race Equity Framework. She was previously a Senior Lecturer in the sociology of race and racism at Middlesex University where she developed, taught and led modules on race and racism, deconstructing sociology and race and social justice. More about this event This event takes place on the 56th anniversary of Malcolm X's speech delivered at LSE on 11 February, 1965, and marks LSE EmbRace launching its inaugural By Any Means Necessary event series. EmbRace (@lseembrace) is LSE's BME staff network. EmbRace exists to raise awareness of and influence change around culture and diversity issues which affect LSE staff. It seeks to promote mutual understanding through equality, transparency, respect and recognition. The aim of the network is to provide support as well as development and networking opportunities for all members. The Eden Centre (@EdenLSE), established in October 2019, is a pro-active, developmental centre of education expertise with a clear focus on academic staff development, curriculum enrichment and digital innovation. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECRT

Contributor(s): Dr Katie Beswick, Dr Julia King, Professor Antoine Picon | City centres have experienced an exodus. Social distancing has emptied work places and theatres, and transformed the way we move through parks, streets, and supermarkets. At the same time, lockdown has meant that we are ever-present in our own homes. How can we plan for a future where human beings can share both public and private spaces? Join Katie Beswick, Julia King and Antoine Picon to discuss what this new COVID-19 world might look like. Meet our speakers and chair Katie Beswick (@DrKBeswick) is an author and Senior Lecturer in Drama at the University of Exeter. Julia King (@atjuliaking) is Research Fellow at LSE Cities. Antoine Picon is G. Ware Travelstead Professor of the History of Architecture and Technology at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Shahidha Bari (@ShahidhaBari) is a Fellow at the Forum for Philosophy and Professor at the University of the Arts London. More about this event The Forum for Philosophy (@forumphilosophy) is a non-profit organisation that hosts weekly events exploring science, politics, and the arts from a philosophical perspective. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEForum

Contributor(s): Patricia Espinosa | In a world beset by a global pandemic and an existential climate change emergency, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change Patricia Espinosa will provide her vision for 2021 and discuss why this year’s global climate change negotiations, or COP26, will play a crucial role with respect to addressing climate change, building forward from COVID-19 and reinforcing the very concept of multilateralism itself. Meet our speaker and chair Patricia Espinosa (@PEspinosaC) is the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Ambassador of Mexico to Germany since 2012 and from 2001 to 2002, Ms Espinosa was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico from 2006 to 2012, bringing more than 30 years of experience at highest levels in international relations, specialized in climate change, global governance, sustainable development, gender equality and protection of human rights. Nicholas Stern (@lordstern1) is the IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government, Chairman of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and Head of the India Observatory at the London School of Economics and Political Science. More about this event The Department of Geography and Environment (@LSEGeography) is a centre of international academic excellence in economic, urban and development geography, environmental social science and climate change. The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (@GRI_LSE) was established by the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2008 to create a world-leading centre for policy-relevant research and training on climate change and the environment, bringing together international expertise on economics, finance, geography, the environment, international development and political economy. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEUNFCCC

Contributor(s): Dr Tali Sharot, Dr Joan Costa-Font, Professor David de Meza, Dr Chris Kutarna | Despite our growing collective pessimism about the state of the world, when it comes to our own lives, research suggests we are generally optimistic.   After a year that will remain synonymous with anxiety, isolation, endless devastating news reports, and for too many – loss, this episode of LSE IQ asks: is optimism is good for us? And, beyond the effects on our wellbeing, is optimism an accurate lens through which to view the world?   Addressing these issues are: Dr Tali Sharot, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL; Dr Joan Costa-Font, Associate Professor in Health Economics at LSE; Dr David de Meza, Professor of Management at LSE; and Dr Chris Kutarna, author of Age of Discovery: Navigating the Risks and Rewards of our New Renaissance.     Contributors   Dr Tali Sharot Dr Joan Costa-Font Professor David de Meza Dr Chris Kutarna     Research   The Optimism Bias: Why we're wired to look on the bright side by Tali Sharot. Neither an Optimist Nor a Pessimist Be: Mistaken Expectations Lower Well-Being by David de Meza and Chris Dawson in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Why optimism and entrepreneurship are not always a good mix for business by David de Meza and Chris Dawson in The Conversation. Optimism and the perceptions of new risks by Elias Mossialos, Caroline Rudisdill and Joan Costa-Font in the Journal of Risk Research. Explaining optimistic old age disability and longevity expectations by Joan Costa-Font and Montserrat Costa-Font in Social Indicators Research. Does optimism help us during a pandemic? by Joan Costa-Font. Age of Discovery: Navigating the Risks and Rewards of Our New Renaissance by Chris Kutarna and Ian Goldin.  

Contributor(s): Jacky Wright | Join us for this fireside chat with Jacky Wright, Chief Digital Officer and Corporate Vice President, Microsoft US. Meet our speaker and chair Jacky Wright (@WrightJacky) is the Chief Digital Officer and Corporate Vice President, Microsoft US, where she inspires and leads teams to help businesses leverage technology to drive innovation, adopt sustainable and accessible business models, and digitally transform. Wright rejoined Microsoft in 2019 after completing a two-year secondment as Chief Digital and Information Officer (CDIO) for HMRC, the British Government tax department. Jacky has extensive experience leading large-scale organisations driving digital transformation and market making solutions. Some of her previous roles include CIO roles at Microsoft, BP and GE. Wright is widely recognized as a transformational global leader, innovative technologist and recognized STEM advocate. She uses her broad platform to drive thought leadership not just for the positive impact of digital transformation for business, but also for social, economic and environmental change. As a woman of colour, her passion, advocacy and influence to create a truly inclusive world is demonstrated in the various forums where she regularly speaks on diversity, digital inclusion and the power of inclusive leadership. Kenneth Benoit (@kenbenoit) is Director of LSE's Data Science Institute and Professor of Computational Social Science in the Department of Methodology at LSE. More about this event The Data Science Institute forms the institutional cornerstone of the LSE's involvement in data science. Working alongside the academic departments across the School, the DSI's mission is to foster the study of data science and new forms of data with a focus on their social, economic, and political aspects. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEData

Contributor(s): Professor Michael Cox, Professor Simon Goldhill, Dr Johanna Hanink | Are we living in a world marked by a new impunity of power? Political leaders discard established norms and taboos that have guided the behaviour of their predecessors and, in doing so, they win popular support from new areas of society, including the disengaged and excluded. How did we get here? Our notions of the good society, of the responsibility that comes with power, and, of course, democracy and its discourse, stem from ancient and classical Greece. Aristotle, Pericles, Plato, and Socrates etc. have shaped our political thinking, processes and systems. Our deepest sense of Western values, embedded in education curricula across our societies, emanates from classical Athens. Is it no longer of use or value? Are we now judging utility and cost differently? This panel will bring together a set of experts to address these issues from different vantage points. Meet our speakers and chair Michael Cox is Founding Director of LSE IDEAS. He was appointed to a Chair at LSE in 2002. He helped establish the Cold War Studies Centre at LSE in 2004 with Arne Westad, and later they were both Founding Directors of LSE IDEAS in 2008. Professor Cox has lectured to universities world-wide as well as to several government bodies and many private companies. He is currently visiting professor at the Catholic University in Milan. He is the author, editor and co-editor of over 30 books, including most recently a collection of his essays The Post-Cold War World, as well as new editions of J M Keynes’s, The Economic Consequences of the Peace and E H Carr’s Nationalism and After. He is now working on a new history of LSE entitled, The “School”: LSE and the Shaping of the Modern World. Simon Goldhill is Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge and Foreign Secretary of the British Academy. He has written extensively about Greek society and the culture of ancient democracy. His books have been translated into ten languages and won three international prizes. He has lectured, and broadcast on television and radio, all over the world, from Canada to China. Johanna Hanink (@johannahan) is Associate Professor of Classics at Brown University and co-editor of the Journal of Modern Greek Studies. Her work focuses on classical Athens and the modern reception of Greek antiquity. She is author of Lycurgan Athens and the Making of Classical Tragedy and The Classical Debt: Greek Antiquity in an Era of Austerity. She is also a translator of Ancient and Modern Greek, and her new volume Andreas Karkavitsas: The Archeologist and Selected Sea Stories (translation with introduction and notes) is due out in autumn with Penguin Classics. Paul Kelly (@PjThinker) is Professor of Political Theory at the LSE, where he has taught for over 25 years. He is author and editor of fifteen books on political philosophy and the history of political ideas. His publications include Utilitarianism and Distributive Justice (Clarendon 1990), Liberalism (Polity 2005) and edited Political Thinkers with David Boucher (Oxford 2017). He has also been co-editor of Political Studies and editor of Utilitas: A Journal of Utilitarian Studies. He was recently Pro-Director Education at LSE and has recently returned to regular academic life. He is completing a book entitled Conflict, War and Revolution.

Contributor(s): Professor Shani Orgad, Professor Sarah Knott, Jess Brammar | In this event we will grapple with past and present experiences of mothering. How can we tell a story of maternal labour in the past, in the absence of data? What does it mean to study mothering today, in the context of intensified neoliberalism? How does mothering enter the radar of policymakers? And what is the relationship between these questions and how we study them in contemporary academia? Mothering experiences were almost entirely absent from public discourse in Britain and North America until around the 1970s, when the Women’s Liberation Movement directed long-overdue attention to mothering and maternal labour. Today, on the other hand, mothering is impossible to miss. Motherhood, mothering and mothers are the objects considerable attention: in memoirs, advice and self-help guides; in magazines, popular television and film; across a range of online platforms, and in policy debates about work-life balance, parenting and gender equality in the workplace. Historian Sarah Knott and sociologist Shani Orgad will discuss these topics, drawing on their rich work on mothering and reflecting on their different approaches to studying it. Meet our speakers and chair Jess Brammar (@jessbrammar) is the Editor-in-chief of HuffPost UK. She was previously Deputy Editor of BBC Newsnight, and led the programme's award-winning coverage of the Grenfell Tower disaster and other major news events. Prior to that she was a news producer at ITN, after beginning her career at BBC Question Time. She obtained her undergraduate degree in international history from LSE. Jess has recently returned to work from maternity leave. Sarah Knott (@knott_sarah) is Sally M. Reahard Professor of History at Indiana University and a Fellow of the Kinsey Institute. Among other publications, she is the author of Mother: An Unconventional History (2019) and co-editor of Mothering's Many Labours (2021). Sarah has served as an editor of the American Historical Review, the American Historical Association's flagship journal, and sits on the editorial board of Past and Present. She has held many fellowships including from the Andrew Mellon foundation, the Rothermere American Institute, and the Oxford Centre for Life Writing. Shani Orgad is Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. Shani's research interests include gender, inequality, migration, feminism and media narratives. She is the author of numerous journal articles, blogs, and five books including: The Confidence Cult(ure) (with Rosalind Gill, forthcoming, Duke University Press), Heading Home: Motherhood, Work, and the Failed Promise of Equality (2019, Columbia University Press), Caring in Crisis? Humanitarianism, the Public and NGOs (with Bruna Seu, 2017, Palgrave), Media Representation and the Global Imagination (2012, Polity) and Storytelling Online: Talking Breast Cancer on the Internet (2005, Peter Lang). You can order the book, Heading Home: motherhood, work, and the failed promise of equality, (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney. Wendy Sigle is Professor of Gender and Family Studies at the Department of Gender Studies. She has worked on a variety of issues related to families and family policy in historical and contemporary societies. More about this event The Department of Media and Communications (@MediaLSE) is a world-leading centre for education and research in communication and media studies at the heart of LSE’s academic community in central London. The Department is ranked #1 in the UK and #3 globally in the field of media and communications (2020 QS World University Rankings). Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEMedia

Contributor(s): Professor Odd Arne Westad | Around 1800 the world was dominated by a number of predominant empires at different stages of development: Britain, France, Austria, Russia, the Ottomans, Spain, and the Qing. This lecture will discuss each of these empires, the resistance against them, and how the future looked from the perspective of each. Meet our speaker and chair Odd Arne Westad is the Engelsberg Chair for 2020/21 at LSE IDEAS. He is currently the Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale, and is a former director of LSE IDEAS. Michael Cox was appointed to a Chair at LSE in 2002, having previously held positions in the UK at The Queen's University of Belfast and the Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth. He helped establish the Cold War Studies Centre at LSE in 2004 and later co-founded LSE IDEAS in 2008 with Arne Westad. More about this event In this series of four lectures, the Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale, Odd Arne Westad, will discuss the concept of empire and why it is still relevant today. This event is the second in the series. A podcast of the first lecture can be found at Empires Past & Present: the idea of empire. The third lecture, Empires Past and Present: empire around 1900, will take place on Tuesday 30 March. LSE IDEAS (@lseideas) is LSE's foreign policy think tank. We connect academic knowledge of diplomacy and strategy with the people who use it. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEEngelsberg

Contributor(s): Professor Simon Hix, Professor Wendy Thomson, Dr Beth Thompson | Universities increasingly compete in globalised markets. The EU has encouraged student mobility through programmes like Erasmus. Graduate students, in particular, seek education across Europe. Researchers collaborate in increasingly dense cross-national networks. What impact might Brexit have on students and research? What might universities themselves do to mitigate the impact of any new barriers? How can the UK best compete internationally? Our panel will consider where we are and where we might be heading. Meet our speakers and chair Simon Hix (@simonjhix) is Pro-Director for Research at LSE and Harold Laski Professor of Political Science in the Department of Government at LSE. Beth Thompson (@Beth_Thompson) is Head of Policy and Advocacy - UK & EU at the Wellcome Trust. Wendy Thomson (@Wendy_Thomson_) is Vice-Chancellor of the University of London. Tony Travers is Associate Dean of the School of Public Policy at LSE. More about this event This event is part of the LSE Programme, 'Brexit and Beyond'. The LSE Programme: Brexit and Beyond is a dedicated series to stimulate the public debate and informed discussion about this most pivotal topic. It comprises a variety of events, targeting LSE staff and students, as well as the general public and specific categories of policy-makers, practitioners and professionals working on Brexit; with the aim of continuing to shape the discussion surrounding its complex and uncertain agenda. The Programme is organised by LSE's European Institute and School of Public Policy. The European Institute (@LSEEI) is a centre for research and graduate teaching on the processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector. The School of Public Policy (@LSEPublicPolicy) equips you with the skills and ideas to transform people and societies. It is an international community where ideas and practice meet. Their approach creates professionals with the ability to analyse, understand and resolve the challenges of contemporary governance.

Contributor(s): Professor Paul Dolan | Join us for this fireside chat where Paul Dolan will be reflecting on ten years of behavioural science at LSE, discussing biases, narratives, happiness, resilience and more. We will be summarising the learnings from behavioural science in the last 10 years, drawing from research from LSE and beyond. We will also be looking to the future, mapping out the most important and exciting areas of study. Those that join us can expect to laugh, learn and lean into behavioural science. Meet our speaker and chair Paul Dolan (@profpauldolan) is Professor of Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is author of the Sunday Times best-selling book Happiness by Design, and Happy Ever After. Grace Lordan (@GraceLordan_) is an associate professor in behavioural science at LSE. Her research focuses on why some people have successful lives as compared to others because of factors beyond their own control. She is the founder and director of The Inclusion Initiative, a research centre at LSE and the author of Think Big: Take Small Steps and Build the Career You Want. More about this event The Department of Psychological & Behavioural Science (@LSE_PBS) is a growing community of researchers, intellectuals, and students who investigate the human mind and behaviour in a societal context. Our department conducts cutting-edge psychological and behavioural research that is both based in and applied to the real world.

Contributor(s): Inger Andersen | The planet is in the throes of the three connected crises of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste. We urgently need to start delivering solutions or face major disruption. Inger Andersen, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, discusses how we can make science more democratic and inclusive to inform better policies. How the economic and businesses community can recognise the true value of nature and so protect it. How governments can unite the nature, climate and pollution agendas to start delivering results. And how every one of us can contribute by making more sustainable choices in our daily lives. Meet our speaker and chair Inger Andersen (@andersen_inger) is Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. Between 2015 and 2019, Ms. Andersen was the Director-General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Ms Andersen has more than 30 years of experience in international development economics, environmental sustainability, strategy and operations. She has led work on a range of issues including agriculture, environmental management, biodiversity conservation, climate change, infrastructure, energy, transport, and water resources management and hydro-diplomacy. Between 1999 and 2014, Ms. Andersen held several leadership positions at the World Bank including Vice President of the Middle East and North Africa; Vice President for Sustainable Development and Head of the CGIAR Fund Council. Prior to her 15 years at the World Bank, Ms. Andersen worked 12 years at the United Nations, first on drought and desertification, beginning with the UN Sudano-Sahelian Office. In 1992, she was appointed UNDP’s Water and Environment Coordinator for the Arab Region. Minouche Shafik is Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to this, she was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. Thomas Smith is Assistant Professor in Environmental Geography at LSE. He teaches on a number of environmental courses, focussing on innovative technology-enhanced experiential learning and field-based education in geography. More about this event The Department of Geography and Environment (@LSEGeography) is a centre of international academic excellence in economic, urban and development geography, environmental social science and climate change. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEUNEP

Contributor(s): Professor Cass R. Sunstein | Friedrich Hayek argued for freedom of choice based on outsiders knowing much less than choosers so that interferences with personal freedom will make choosers worse off. This lecture will explore the challenge to that argument that comes from behavioural economics and discusses an ongoing program of research which has created a form of Hayekian behavioural economics. Meet our speaker and chair Cass R. Sunstein (@CassSunstein) is currently the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard. From 2009 to 2012, he was Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. He is the founder and director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy at Harvard Law School. Professor Sunstein has testified before congressional committees on many subjects, and he has been involved in constitution-making and law reform activities in a number of nations. Tim Besley is School Professor of Economics of Political Science and W. Arthur Lewis Professor of Development Economics at LSE. More about this event The Department of Economics (@LSEEcon) at LSE, is one of the leading economics departments in the world. We are a large department, ensuring all mainstream areas of economics are strongly represented in research and teaching. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEHayek

Contributor(s): Professor Laura Bear, Nikita Simpson, Professor Joan Roses, Dr Adam Oliver, Dr Clare Wenham, Professor Patrick Wallis | In this month’s episode of the LSE IQ podcast we ask, ‘What’s the point of social science in a pandemic?’. On the 23rd March 2020 Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the country’s first national lockdown. In the months since, there has been a seismic shift in all our lives. As we embark on 2021 and, hopefully, the latter stages of the pandemic, now is an apt moment to reflect on how we’ve got to where we are. While the scientific community has taken centre stage in the fight to overcome the virus, how have social scientists helped us navigate – and evaluate –the UK’s response?   In this episode we talk to anthropologists Professor Laura Bear and Nikita Simpson, Economic historians Professor Patrick Wallis and Professor Joan Roses, Assistant Professor of Global Health Policy Dr Clare Wenham and behavioural economist Dr Adam Oliver.     Research   ’A good death’ during the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK: a report on key findings and recommendations, by the COVID and Care Research Group A Right to Care: The Social Foundations of Recovery from COVID-19, by the COVID and Care Research Group The Redistributive Effects of Pandemics: Evidence of the Spanish Flu. By Sergi Basco, Jordi Domenech, and Johanne Rohses Separating behavioural science from the herd by Adam Oliver Reciprocity and the art of behavioural public policy by Adam Oliver What is the future of UK leadership in global health security post Covid-19? By Clare Wenham A Dreadful Heritage: Interpreting Epidemic Disease at Eyam, 1666-2000, by Patrick Wallis Eyam revisited: lessons from a plague village, by Patrick Wallis   Contributors   Professor Laura Bear Nikita Simpson Professor Joan Roses Dr Adam Oliver Dr Clare Wenham Professor Patrick Wallis

Contributor(s): Dr Andy Summers, Emma Chamberlain, Dr Arun Advani | The unprecedented public spending required to tackle COVID-19 has been followed by debates about how to rebuild public finances and tackle inequalities exposed by the crisis. This event launches the final report of a major new project investigating the desirability and feasibility of a ‘wealth tax’ for the UK. Building on contributions by a network of world-leading experts on tax policy, the report will make recommendations to government on how to tax wealth more effectively. Arun Advani (@arunadvaniecon) is Assistant Professor of Economics and Impact Director of the CAGE Research Centre at the University of Warwick. He is also a Research Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and a Visiting Fellow at the LSE International Inequalities Institute. Emma Chamberlain is a barrister at Pump Court Tax Chambers and Visiting Professor in Practice at the LSE International Inequalities Institute. She is also a Visiting Professor at University of Oxford, where she teaches Taxation of Global Wealth. Andy Summers (@summers_ad) is Associate Professor of Law in the Department of Law at LSE and an Associate Member of the LSE International Inequalities Institute. He is also a Research Associate at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and CAGE Research Centre at the University of Warwick. Tim Besley is School Professor of Economics of Political Science in the Department of Economics at LSE. He was a member of the IFS’s Mirrlees Review panel, and is currently a Commissioner of the National Infrastructure Commission. The International Inequalities Institute (@LSEInequalities) at LSE brings together experts from many LSE departments and centres to lead cutting-edge research focused on understanding why inequalities are escalating in numerous arenas across the world, and to develop critical tools to address these challenges. The Department of Law (@LSELaw) is one of the world’s best law schools. The department ranked first for research outputs in the UK's most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) and was in the top 5 law departments overall in the 2018 Complete University Guide. Our staff play a major role in helping to shape policy debates, and in the education of current and future lawyers and legal scholars from around the world. This research was made possible through funding by the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity (AFSEE) programme's Covid-19 Rapid Response fund, UKRI/ESRC (Grant number - ES/V012657/1) – Covid-19 Rapid Response and CAGE Research Centre at the University of Warwick. This event forms part of LSE’s Shaping the Post-COVID World initiative, a series of debates about the direction the world could and should be taking after the crisis. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECOVID19

Contributor(s): Lord O'Donnell | Join Gus O'Donnell and Paul Dolan in conversation, as they discuss the role of happiness in public policy. Gus O'Donnell (@Gus_ODonnell) was Cabinet Secretary and Head of the British Civil Service from 2005-2011 and is currently Chairman of Frontier Economics. Paul Dolan (@profpauldolan) is Professor of Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is author of the Sunday Times best-selling book Happiness by Design, and Happy Ever After. The Department of Psychological & Behavioural Science (@LSE_PBS) is a growing community of researchers, intellectuals, and students who investigate the human mind and behaviour in a societal context. Our department conducts cutting-edge psychological and behavioural research that is both based in and applied to the real world. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEHappiness

Contributor(s): Professor Atul Kohli, Dr Natalya Naqvi | How did Western imperialism shape the developing world? And what effect has Anglo-American expansionism had on economic development in poor parts of the world? This discussion will cover how Atul Kohli tackles this question in his new book, Imperialism and the Developing World, by analyzing British and American influence on Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America from the age of the British East India Company to the most recent U.S. war in Iraq. Atul Kohli is the David K.E. Bruce Professor of International Affairs at Princeton University. His principal research interests are in the area of political economy of developing countries. He is the author of Imperialism and the Developing World: How Britain and the U.S. Shaped the Global Periphery (Oxford University Press, 2020); Poverty amid Plenty in the New India (2012) (a Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2012 on Asia and the Pacific); State-Directed Development: Political Power and Industrialization in the Global Periphery (2004) (winner of the Charles Levine Award (2005) of the International Political Science Association); Democracy and Discontent: India's Growing Crisis of Governability (1991); and The State and Poverty in India (1987). He has also edited or coedited ten volumes (most recently, Business and Politics in India, 2019; and States in the Developing World, 2017) and published some sixty articles. Through much of his scholarship he has emphasized the role of sovereign and effective states in the promotion of inclusive development. He currently serves as a co-chair of the editorial committee of the journal World Politics, where he also served as the chief-editor during 2006-13. During 2009-10 he was the Vice President of the American Political Science Association. He has received grants from the Social Science Research Council, Ford Foundation and the Russell Sage Foundation. He received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. You can order the book, Imperialism and the Developing World, from the Oxford University Press website. Natalya Naqvi (@natalyanaqvi) is Assistant Professor in International Political Economy in the Department of International Relations at LSE. Karen E. Smith is Professor of International Relations and Head of the Department of International Relations at LSE, and is Director of the European Foreign Policy Unit. The Department of International Relations (@LSEIRDept) is one of the oldest as well as largest in the world. It is ranked 4th in the QS World University Ranking by Subject 2019 tables for Politics and International Studies.

Contributor(s): Professor Seyla Benhabib | The Annual Human Rights Day Lecture hosted by LSE Human Rights will be delivered this year by Professor Seyla Benhabib of Yale University. The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol are the main legal documents governing the movement of refugees and asylum seekers across international borders. As the number of displaced persons seeking refuge has reached unprecedented numbers, states have resorted to measure to circumvent their obligations under the Convention. These range form bilateral agreements condemning refugees to their vessel at sea to the excision of certain territories from national jurisdiction. In this talk Professor Benhabib will analyse these movements in the context of a dual dynamic of deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation. While socio-economic developments and the rise of the world-wide web have led to the deterritorialisation of domains of the economy and the media, escaping legal control, territorial presence whether on terra firma or vessels at sea, continue to be the basis for the entitlement to human and citizens’ rights. The period ushered by The 1951 Convention was based on a sovereignty regime of territorial containment which seems to be nearing its end today. Seyla Benhabib is Emerita Professor at Yale University since June 2020, and currently Senior Research Fellow and Professor of Law Adjunct at Columbia Law School, with affiliation in the Philosophy Department of Columbia University. Ayça Çubukçu (@ayca_cu) is an Associate Professor in LSE Human Rights, Department of Sociology and the Co-Director of LSE Human Rights. LSE Human Rights (@LSEHumanRights) is a trans-disciplinary centre of excellence for international academic research, teaching and critical scholarship on human rights. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEHumanRightsDay

Contributor(s): Professor David Hunter, Professor Carl Heneghan, Professor Sunetra Gupta, Professor Paul Dolan, Professor Dame Sally Davies | The policy responses to COVID-19 have involved severe restrictions on the contact we have with other people. By and large, the restrictions have been imposed on everyone irrespective of their risks from the virus. Some people consider this to be the most effective way to deal with impact of the virus, whilst others have argued that our policy responses ought to be targeted at those most at risk of morbidity and mortality. This panel discussion will seek to flush out the costs and benefits of these and other possible approaches. Sally Davies (@UKAMREnvoy) is Master of Trinity College in Cambridge and also the Special Envoy on AMR (antimicrobial resistance) for the UK Government. She has formerly held positions of Chief Medical Officer and Chief Medical Adviser to the UK government. She was a member of the WHO Executive Board. And Co-Convenor of the UN Inter Agency Coordinating Group on AMR. Paul Dolan (@profpauldolan) is Professor of Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is author of the Sunday Times best-selling book Happiness by Design, and Happy Ever After. Sunetra Gupta (@SunetraGupta) is a professor of theoretical epidemiology at University of Oxford. Her main focus is the evolution of diversity in pathogens, using mathematical models to generate new hypotheses regarding the processes that determine the population structure of these pathogens. Carl Heneghan (@carlheneghan) is a clinical epidemiologist and professor of evidence-based medicine in Oxford university, as well as director of the centre for evidence-based medicine and a practising GP. He was one of the founders of AllTrials, an international initiative which calls for all studies to be published, and their results reported. His work includes investigating drugs and devices, advising governments on regulatory evidence, working with the media assessing health claims and research on common presenting conditions in primary care, including work on antivirals Tamiflu. He set up and directs the Oxford COVID Evidence Service. David Hunter is Richard Doll Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine and Director of the Translational Epidemiology Unit at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, UK. His early work was on HIV transmission in East Africa and he subsequently went on to research diet and cancer etiology through large-scale prospective studies. He founded the Program in Genetic Epidemiology and Statistical Genetics at Harvard and was co-chair of the steering committee of the Breast and Prostate Cancer Cohort Consortium at the National Cancer Institute. He was co-director of the NCI Cancer Genetic Susceptibility Markers poject focussed on genome-wide association studies, and Dean for Academic Affairs at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. He is Chief Science Advisor to the Early Disease Detection Research Project UK (EDDRP UK)." Julia Black is Strategic Director of Innovation and Professor of Law at LSE. The School of Public Policy (@LSEPublicPolicy) equips you with the skills and ideas to transform people and societies. It is an international community where ideas and practice meet. Their approach creates professionals with the ability to analyse, understand and resolve the challenges of contemporary governance. This event forms part of LSE’s Shaping the Post-COVID World initiative, a series of debates about the direction the world could and should be taking after the crisis. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECOVID19

Contributor(s): Sir Paul Marshall | Join us for this conversation between Minouche Shafik and Paul Marshall on his latest book, 10½ Lessons from Experience: Perspectives on Fund Management. In his book Paul Marshall, founder of LSE’s Marshall Institute distils the experience of 35 years of investing, including over 20 years at Marshall Wace, the global equity hedge fund partnership. The book describes the disconnect between academic theory and market practice, in particular the reality and persistence of 'skill' - the continuing ability of the best practitioners to beat the market. But he also underscores the prevalence of uncertainty and human fallibility, showing how a successful investment management business must steer a path which recognises both the persistence of skill and the pitfalls of cognitive bias, human fallibility and hubris. What do we know about finance in theory that’s wrong in practice? What do we do when investing in practice that’s wrong in theory? Paul Marshall debates these questions with Minouche Shafik, and tries to find a point at which theory and practice are in equilibrium. Paul Marshall is CIO and Chairman of Marshall Wace LLP, a global hedge fund headquartered in London, with $48bn in AUM. As CIO he has overall responsibility for investment strategy and performance. He is a founding Trustee of Ark, the children’s charity, and Chairman of Ark Schools, which manages 39 primary and secondary academies in London, Birmingham, Hastings and Portsmouth. Marshall served as Lead-Non-Executive Director at the UK Department for Education from 2013 to 2016. In April 2015, he co-founded the Marshall Institute for Philanthropy and Social Entrepreneurship at LSE. He is founder and owner of UnHerd Media. He was co-editor of The Orange Book, editor of The Tail and author of 10 ½ lessons from Experience. Marshall was knighted in Her Majesty’s Birthday Honours’ list in June 2016 for services to education and philanthropy He holds an MBA from INSEAD Business School and a BA (Hons) from St John’s College, Oxford University. You can order the book, 10½ Lessons from Experience: Perspectives on Fund Management, (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney. Minouche Shafik is Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to this she was Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. The Marshall Institute (@LSEMarshall) works to improve the impact and effectiveness of private action for public benefit through research, teaching and convening. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEMarshall

Contributor(s): Dr Lisa Walters, Professor Lewis Powell, Dr James Burton | Zombies, time travel, brain transplants… science fiction and philosophy have a lot in common. Indeed, they have a shared history, with some of the most important figures of the Enlightenment writing science fiction alongside their better-known philosophical work. And Naomi Alderman, Liu Cixin, and China Miéville are among the many that ensure this close relationship persists right up to today. From Francis Bacon’s utopian island to Margaret Cavendish’s polar bear army, our literary and philosophical experts discuss how science fiction and philosophy have influenced one another, putting the ‘phi’ back into ‘sci-fi’. James Burton is Lecturer in Cultural Studies and Cultural History at Goldsmiths, University of London. Lewis Powell is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Buffalo. Lisa Walters is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Liverpool Hope University. Clare Moriarty is a Fellow at the Forum for Philosophy and an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at Trinity College Dublin, University of Dublin. The Forum for Philosophy (@forumphilosophy) is a non-profit organisation that hosts weekly events exploring science, politics, and the arts from a philosophical perspective. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEForum

Contributor(s): Dr Kitty Stewart | A campaign by the Manchester United footballer, Marcus Rashford, has prompted the UK government to provide extra support for children from low-income families during the pandemic. Even before coronavirus, child poverty had been rising for several years. This latest bite-sized episode of LSE iQ explores the question, ‘How can we end child poverty in the UK?’ Joanna Bale talks to Kitty Stewart of LSE’s Social Policy Department and Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion. Dr Stewart is currently part of a major research programme examining what progress has been made in addressing social inequalities through social policies. Research links: K Cooper and K Stewart (2020): Does Household Income Affect children’s Outcomes? A Systematic Review of the Evidence   K Stewart and M Reader (2020 forthcoming): The Conservatives’ record on early childhood: policy, spending and outcomes 2015-20.   Polly Vizard, John Hills et al (2020 forthcoming): The Conservatives’ Record on Social Policy: Policies, spending and outcomes 2015 to pre-Covid 2020.

Contributor(s): Professor Rohini Pande | Join us for the annual Coase-Phillips Lecture which this year will be delivered by Rohini Pande. Even before COVID-19 changed the trajectory of global poverty reduction, the returns to economic growth were increasingly unequally divided in developing economies. Based on lessons from India’s myriad social protection programs – including rural employment guarantee, post COVID-19 cash transfers to women and food transfer programs - this lecture will discuss the implications of unequal power structures and low state capacity for the design of effective anti-poverty programs. The talk will then ask – looking ahead, how should considerations of state capacity and accountability be factored in evaluating policy proposals, such as Universal Basic Income and urban employment guarantees? Or, in devising policies to eventually put an end to the pandemic? Rohini Pande is the Henry J. Heinz II Professor of Economics and Director of the Economic Growth Center at Yale. She is a co-editor of American Economic Review: Insights and an alumna of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Pande’s research is largely focused on how formal and informal institutions shape power relationships and patterns of economic and political advantage in society, particularly in developing countries. She is interested the role of public policy in providing the poor and disadvantaged political and economic power, and how notions of economic justice and human rights can help justify and enable such change. Her most recent work focuses on testing innovative ways to make the state more accountable to its citizens, such as strengthening women’s economic and political opportunities, ensuring that environmental regulations reduce harmful emissions, and providing citizens effective means to voice their demand for state services. Noam Yuchtman joined LSE as Professor in 2019, having been awarded a British Academy Global Professorship. In addition to his position at LSE, Noam is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and serves on the editorial boards of the Review of Economic Studies, the Economic Journal, the Journal of the European Economic Association, Economica, and the Journal of Economic History. The Department of Economics (@LSEEcon) at LSE, is one of the leading economics departments in the world. We are a large department, ensuring all mainstream areas of economics are strongly represented in research and teaching. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECoasePhillips

Contributor(s): Alice Carse, Professor Nicola Lacey, Dr Astrid Sanders, Dr Sarah Trotter | A panel discussion of legal issues that arise from many people increasingly working from home, a pattern that seems likely to persist even after the Covid 19 pandemic has finished. Issues that will be considered include health and safety, working time, discrimination law, and the effectiveness of employment regulation. Alice Carse practices in employment and industrial relations law at Devereux Chambers. She has particular experience of strikes and industrial action and has advised on some of the most high profile industrial disputes of recent years, for example acting (as junior counsel) for Royal Mail in successfully obtaining an injunction to prevent strike action over Christmas 2017. In summer 2020 Alice appeared (as junior counsel) for the successful Respondent in the Court of Appeal in Walker v Co-operative Bank leading a case on the material factor defence in equal pay claims. Alice is a contributing editor of Harvey on Industrial Relations and Employment Law. Nicola Lacey is School Professor of Law, Gender and Social Policy. From 1998 to 2010 she held a Chair in Criminal Law and Legal Theory at LSE; she returned to LSE in 2013 after spending three years as Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, and Professor of Criminal Law and Legal Theory at the University of Oxford. She has held a number of visiting appointments, most recently at Harvard Law School. She is an Honorary Fellow of New College Oxford and of University College Oxford; a Fellow of the British Academy; and a member of the Board of Trustees of the British Museum. In 2011 she was awarded the Hans Sigrist Prize by the University of Bern for outstanding scholarship on the function of the rule of law in late modern societies and in 2017 she was awarded a CBE for services to Law, Justice and Gender Politics. Astrid Sanders is an Associate Professor of Labour Law and joined LSE in September 2013. She completed all her postgraduate and undergraduate studies at Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford. Astrid was awarded her doctorate from the University of Oxford in 2009. As well as her D.Phil, she earlier obtained two other postgraduate degrees at Corpus Christi College. She also achieved outstanding marks as an undergraduate in her law examinations. The University of Oxford notably awarded her two prizes for Best Performance. Prior to joining LSE, she was a Lecturer at Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham for four years from 2009 to 2013. Sarah Trotter joined the Law Department as an Assistant Professor in September 2018. Her research is about how particular categories (like ‘the child’ and ‘the individual’) are constructed in law and about the assumptions that are made in European human rights law and domestic law about relationships. She wrote her PhD thesis (‘On coming to terms: How European human rights law imagines the human condition’) at LSE. Prior to that, she studied at the University of Cambridge (LLM), Sciences Po (Erasmus year), and LSE (LLB). Hugh Collins has published research in contract law, employment law, European law, legal theory, and human rights law. He is currently Cassel Professor of Commercial Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science, having previously been the Vinerian Professor of English Law at All Souls College, Oxford 2014-2019, Professor of English Law at LSE 1991-2014, and a Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford. He studied law at Oxford and Harvard. He is a Fellow of the British Academy. He served on the editorial committee of The Modern Law Review from 1991-2014, including a period as General Editor. He is co-founder of the European Review of Contract Law and has also served on the editorial committee of the Industrial Law Journal. The Department of Law (@LSELaw) is one of the world's top law schools with an international reputation for the quality of its teaching and legal research. Our community is one of the largest in the School, and has played a major role in policy debates, policy-making and the education of lawyers and law teachers globally. This event forms part of LSE’s Shaping the Post-COVID World initiative, a series of debates about the direction the world could and should be taking after the crisis.

Contributor(s): Dr Miro Griffiths, Dr Gareth Millward, Gill Morris | An event to mark the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act with a personal view of Alf Morris, the MP who put the private members’ bill before Parliament. This event considers Alf Morris’ involvement in this Act and his work on behalf of people with disabilities, with perspectives on the legacy of the Act, and how debates and public awareness around disability have changed in the years since it was passed. Miro Griffiths (@Mirogriffiths) is Teaching Fellow in Disability Studies at the University of Leeds. He has been involved in disability rights since the age of fourteen and has ollaborated with various organisations, human rights institutes and government departments on a wide range of issues pertaining to disability politics and social theory. In May 2014, he was awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) as recognition of his service to disabled people. Gareth Millward (@MillieQED) is Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at the University of Warwick and and his PhD at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2014 focused on how the category of disability policy was created and then evolved between 1965 and 1995. Gill Morris (@Gill_Morris) is founder of Connect Communications and has over 30 years’ experience in increasing lobbying transparency and improving public affairs practices in the UK. She is also the daughter of Alf Morris. Armine Ishkanian (@Armish15) is Executive Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme at the International Inequalities Institute and Associate Professor in the Department of Social Policy, LSE. This event will have live captioning and BSL interpreters. The British Library of Political and Economic Science (@LSELibrary) was founded in 1896, a year after the London School of Economics and Political Science. It has been based in the Lionel Robbins Building since 1978 and houses many world class collections, including The Women's Library. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEDisabilityAct50

Contributor(s): Professor Stephanie J. Rickard, Professor Barry Eichengreen | Explanations for variants of populism are typically framed as a contest between culture and economics. Building on his recent book, The Populist Temptation, Professor Barry Eichengreen (University of California-Berkeley) will consider the arguments for both. Utilising data from British Election Surveys, he will show that populism, and Brexit in particular, is as much about economics as it is about culture and identity. Barry Eichengreen (@B_Eichengreen) is the George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Stephanie J. Rickard (@SJRickard) is a Professor of Political Science at the LSE in the Department of Government. Her research examines the effects of political institutions on economic policies. She has appeared on various media outlets to discuss events in the global economy, including BBC Radio 4's flagship Today programme. Peter Trubowitz (@ptrubowitz) is a Professor of International Relations and Director of the US Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Associate Fellow at Chatham House. The LSE's United States Centre (@LSE_US) is a hub for global expertise, analysis and commentary on America. Its mission is to promote policy-relevant and internationally-oriented scholarship to meet the growing demand for fresh analysis and critical debate on the United States. Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEUSPopulism