Audio, video and pdf files from LSE's programme of public lectures and events.http://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/Web Producer: Rich Media - LSE Web Serviceslsewebsite@lse.ac.ukhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/Copyright © Terms of use apply see http://www2.lse.ac.uk/termsOfUse/SQL Serverhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/assets/richmedia/webFeedImages/publicLectures_generic_300.jpg2013-05-17T14:20:07.197Z

Speaker(s): Dr Andrew Khoury | This lecture distinguishes between different types of moral responsibility and discusses the implications for our notions of apology, forgiveness, and punishment. Andrew Khoury is a fellow in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, LSE.

Dr Andrew Khouryhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=19082013-05-16T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Andrew Beatty | The centrality of emotion in thought and action is increasingly recognised in the human sciences, though basic questions of definition and scope remain unresolved. Where do emotions begin and end? How should we identify and analyse them? How write about them? Ethnographic fieldwork, as pioneered by Malinowski, offers powerful insights into the place of emotion in social life; but emotions are peculiarly difficult to capture in the generalizing format of case study and ethnographic summary. Andrew Beatty argues that semantic, structural, and discourse-based approaches tend to miss what is most important - what counts for the persons concerned and therefore what makes the emotion. Beatty reviews the conceptual and methodological issues and concludes that only a narrative approach can capture both the particularity and the temporal dimension of emotion, restoring verisimilitude and fidelity to experience.Andrew Beatty is author of A Shadow Falls: in the heart of Java and a forthcoming ethnographic narrative After the Ancestors.

Dr Andrew Beattyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=19072013-05-16T18:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Lord Glasman, Michael Gove | Britain as "One Nation" is an idea of government that belonged to the Conservative Party, originating with Benjamin Disraeli who saw Britain divided into two nations, the rich and the poor. Disraeli defined One Nation politics as the practices necessary to, ‘maintain the institutions of the realm and elevate the condition of the people’.In his 2012 conference speech Ed Miliband defined his party as "One Nation" Labour. In a period of economic crisis and with the loss of public trust in the ability of politicians to renew our institutions and elevate the condition of the people, who now speaks for One Nation?The LSE Institute of Public Affairs is organising a series of events to bring together leading politicians of the Government and Opposition, together with academics and commentators, to discuss the meaning of "One Nation" and the future of the country.The series launches with this debate on the "One Nation" tradition, what it means and how it relates to the issues facing the country today.Michael Gove has been MP for Surrey Heath since 2005 and secretary of state for Education since 2010. Michael was first elected as member of parliament for Surrey Heath in May 2005. He served as shadow minister for Housing & Planning and shadow secretary of State for Children, Schools & Families. He is a former chairman of Policy Exchange, a centre-right think-tank and was previously worked for the Times and the BBC.Maurice Glasman became a Labour Peer in 2011 and is senior lecturer in Political Theory at London Metropolitan University where he is also director of its Faith and Citizenship Programme. Glasman is the originator of the term "Blue Labour", which advocates that the Labour Party should reclaim its more conservative roots from before 1945.

Lord Glasman, Michael Govehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=19062013-05-15T19:45:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Ha-Joon Chang, Professor Danny Quah | The Department of International Development’s third annual Development Debate will consider the topic “Does market-led development have a future?”. The debate is organized by the Development Management Programme, and features two world authorities on economic growth and development, Professor Danny Quah of the LSE, and Dr Ha-Joon Chang of Cambridge.Ha-Joon Chang is one of the leading heterodox economists and institutional economists specialising in development economics. Currently Reader in the Political Economy of Development at the University of Cambridge, Chang is the author of several best-selling books, most notably Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective (2002) and 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism (2010). He has served as a consultant to the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the European Investment Bank as well as to Oxfam and various United Nations agencies. He is also a fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C.

Dr Ha-Joon Chang, Professor Danny Quahhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=19042013-05-15T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor John Hyman, Dr Elisabeth Schellekens | What, if anything, do different manifestations of beauty have in common? Does it make sense to apply the concept of beauty to them all, and if so, are there actually different kinds of beauty?John Hyman is professor of aesthetics and fellow of Queen’s College, University of Oxford and editor of the British Journal of Aesthetics.Elisabeth Schellekens is senior lecturer in philosophy at Durham University and co-editor of the British Journal of Aesthetics.

Professor John Hyman, Dr Elisabeth Schellekenshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=19052013-05-15T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Sundaresh Menon, Professor Jan Paulsson | A debate on the roles and responsibilities of arbitral institutions, arbitrators and counsel for ensuring that international arbitration remains in tune with new challenges.Sundaresh Menon is the chief justice of Singapore and former attorneygeneral.Jan Paulsson is LSE visiting professor and president of ICCA.

Sundaresh Menon, Professor Jan Paulssonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=19002013-05-09T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Amelia Andersdotter MEP, Robert Ashcroft, Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, Dr Luke McDonagh, Eg White | As the nature of music consumption reaches a critical point, a panel of experts on both sides of the debate discuss the industry’s future.Amelia Andersdotter is a member of the Pirate Party in the European Parliament.Robert Ashcroft is chief executive of PRS for Music.Ludovic Hunter-Tilney is the pop critic for the Financial Times.Luke McDonagh is a fellow in the Department of Law at LSE.Eg White is an Ivor Novello award-winning musician, songwriter and producer.

Amelia Andersdotter MEP, Robert Ashcroft, Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, Dr Luke McDonagh, Eg Whitehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18992013-05-09T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Wolfgang Spohn | Drawing on his Lakatos Award winning book The Laws of Belief, Wolfgang Spohn asks how is truth best characterised? And what are the relationships between truth and what it is rational to believe?Wolfgang Spohn is chair in philosophy and philosophy of science at the University of Konstanz.

Professor Wolfgang Spohnhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18982013-05-09T18:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Joseph Nye | Wealth and power are shifting from the West to the rising economies of the East. But in a world of complex interdependence, who wields power, to what end, and with what consequences is far from clear. Joseph Nye is distinguished service professor and former dean of the Harvard Kennedy School.

Professor Joseph Nyehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18932013-05-08T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Anat Admati | The past few years have shown that risks in banking can impose significant costs on the economy. Many claim, however, that a safer banking system would require sacrificing lending and economic growth. Anat Admati examines this claim and the narratives used by bankers, politicians, and regulators to rationalize the lack of reform, exposing them as invalid. Admati calls for ambitious reform and outlines specific and highly beneficial steps that can be taken immediately.Anat Admati is the George G. C. Parker Professor of Finance and Economics at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. She serves on the FDIC Systemic Resolution Advisory Committee and has contributed to the Financial Times, Bloomberg News, and the New York Times. This event marks the publication of her new book The Bankers' New Clothes: What's Wrong with Banking and What to Do about It.

Professor Anat Admatihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18962013-05-08T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Laila El-Haddad, Maggie Schmitt | In the summer of 2010, writer Laila El-Haddad and food documentarian Maggie Schmitt were able to fulfill a long-held plan to travel the length of the Gaza Strip, documenting all aspects of the Gaza District's notably distinctive cuisine, the lives of many experienced Gaza cooks, and the challenges facing the Strip's food system today. The result is The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey, a richly illustrated volume whose 130 fully kitchen-tested recipes represent the first-ever codification of Gaza's rich culinary heritage. The book's numerous sidebars also take the reader into the kitchens, garden-plots, and farms of Gazan families, showing how the resilience and resourcefulness of the Strip's residents-- including the 80% of them who are refugees from parts of the Gaza District that were captured by Israel in 1948-- have helped to keep Gaza's food heritage alive today.The Gaza Kitchen has a Foreword by former New York Times senior food writer Nancy Harmon Jenkins and has received plaudits from many experienced food writers, including Claudia Roden, Anthony Bourdain, and Yotam Ottolenghi. It was named the "Best Arab Cuisine book of 2012" by Gourmand International, and has been widely reviewed in media outlets worldwide.Laila El-Haddad, is a talented blogger, political analyst, social activist, and parent-of-three from Gaza City. Her 2010 book Gaza Mom: Palestine, Politics, Parenting, and Everything in Between won praise from Hanan Ashrawi, Ali Abunimah, and others. Laila was born in Kuwait and raised primarily in Saudi Arabia, while summering in Gaza. She received her BA from Duke University and her MPP from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Maggie Schmitt, is a writer, researcher, translator, educator, and social activist. She holds a B.A. from Harvard in Literature and has conducted advanced graduate studies in Social Anthropology and Mediterranean Studies at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She works in various media—writing, production, photography, video—exploring and recording the daily practices of ordinary people as a way of understanding political and social realities in various parts of the Mediterranean region.

Laila El-Haddad, Maggie Schmitthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18922013-05-08T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Gavin Hewitt | Gavin Hewitt will discuss the story of a flawed dream, a noble vision that turned dangerous and which has led Europe into its gravest crisis for which it was totally unprepared.Gavin Hewitt has been the BBC’s Europe editor since 2009. He is an award-winning journalist and has covered stories all over the world. His new book is The Lost Continent: The BBC's Europe Editor on Europe's Darkest Hour Since World War Two.

Gavin Hewitthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18942013-05-08T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Kwesi Aning | An examination of the changing strategic security environment in West Africa and the effectiveness of the response initiated by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) with the support of the international community. Kwesi Aning is the head of academic affairs at the Kofi Annan Peacekeeping Centre in Accra.

Dr Kwesi Aninghttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18952013-05-08T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Matthew Broome, Dr Bonnie Evans, Professor Tim Thornton | How should we think of mental disorders? Can psychiatry be reduced to neuroscience, or is there something irreducibly mental in mental illness?Matthew Broome is associate clinical professor of psychiatry and consultant psychiatrist in early intervention in the Division of Mental Health and Wellbeing at the University of Warwick Medical School.Bonnie Evans is a researcher in the Centre for the Humanities and Health at King’s College London.Tim Thornton is professor of philosophy and mental health at the University of Central Lancashire.

Professor Matthew Broome, Dr Bonnie Evans, Professor Tim Thorntonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18832013-05-07T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Saleh Muslim Mohamed | It is nine months since Kurds took control of towns in northern Syria, having established an unprecedented coalition of Kurdish parties. Saleh Muslim Mohamed, the co-President of the most prominent Syrian Kurdish party, will assess the progress of Kurdish politics and local government and the wider Syrian and regional context.Saleh Muslim Mohamed is the Co-President of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the Deputy General Coordinator of the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria (NCB) and a member of the Supreme Kurdish Council in Syria.

Saleh Muslim Mohamedhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18812013-05-03T16:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Sir Malcolm Rifkind | The acute economic crisis of the euro, coupled with the chronic political crisis of Europe’s democratic deficit, have created a situation in which Britain’s membership of the European Union can no longer be taken for granted. Former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind outlines a ‘moderate eurosceptic’ approach to the issue, which he believes would produce a mutually beneficial solution acceptable to the United Kingdom and her European partners alike.Sir Malcolm Rifkind is Conservative Member of Parliament for Kensington. He first entered Parliament in 1974 as Member for Edinburgh Pentlands, serving as Defence Secretary between 1992 and 1995, and as Foreign Secretary between 1995 and 1997. He is currently serving as Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee, which oversees the UK’s intelligence agencies.

Sir Malcolm Rifkindhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18822013-05-02T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Theda Skocpol | What happened to Obama's "new New Deal"? Why did his achievements enrage opponents more than they satisfied supporters? How has the Tea Party's ascendance reshaped American politics?Theda Skocpol is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University.

Professor Theda Skocpolhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18782013-05-02T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Bassem Awadallah, Dr Adeel Malik | The speakers will argue that the struggle for a new Middle East will be won or lost in the private sector, and that dismantling regional barriers to trade constitute the most important collective action problem that the Middle East has faced since the fall of the Ottoman Empire.Bassem Awadallah is the former Jordanian minister of finance.Adeel Malik is Islamic Centre lecturer in Development Economics and Globe Fellow in the Economies of Muslim Societies at Oxford University.

Dr Bassem Awadallah, Dr Adeel Malikhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18762013-05-02T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): João Carlos Ferraz | An overarching sense of uncertainty prevails in the second decade of the 21st century, as dramatic changes sweep most aspects of life in every corner of the planet. This lecture will attempt to discuss the constitutive elements of the uncertainties we live with and their associated challenges. These should compose the boundaries of the debate about what development is, or should be, in the 21st century. The recent economic, social and political evolution of Brazil will serve as a point of reference. Uncertainty must be addressed through the pursuit of knowledge, as effective policies – whether public or private -- require sound analytical pillars. This is where Albert Hirschman and Oscar Niemeyer and their life achievements come in. They were men of their time, men of the future. They designed ideas and monuments; they were politically engaged and engage others to think about and act upon development processes. But they never abandoned the firm belief that development is time- and place-specific, a lesson which applies to Brazil and is more broadly applicable and important to recall today.João Carlos Ferraz is vice president of the Brazilian Development Bank, BDNES.

João Carlos Ferrazhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18772013-05-02T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Hilary Lawson, Professor Steven Rose, Professor Barry Smith | Since Plato the greatest intellectual adventure is often thought to be the pursuit of truth. Might there be alternative intellectual adventures? And if so, of what would they consist?Hilary Lawson is director of the Institute of Art and Ideas, a non-realist philosopher and the author of Closure.Steven Rose is professor of biology and director of the Brain and Behaviour Research Group at the Open University.Barry Smith is director of the Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London.

Hilary Lawson, Professor Steven Rose, Professor Barry Smithhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18742013-05-01T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Vladislav Surkov | Editor's note: This lecture is delivered in Russian. The challenge of diversifying Russia’s economic structure and reducing its reliance on natural resource sectors has been the policy agenda for many years. Russia aims to transition into a self-sustaining, innovation-led economic growth model.The government has focused increasingly on modernisation and, in particular, on innovation, as the key to Russia’s successful development over the longer term. As a result of this, innovation - boosting government initiatives have been created, such as the highly ambitious Skolkovo Technopark and Skolkovo Institute for Science and Technology, that aspire to make Russia a global innovation powerhouse.Vladislav Surkov is the deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation and chief of staff of the Russian Government. He oversees a large array of government initiatives, including in area of innovation, education and culture. He is a trustee of the Skolkovo Fund and chairman of the Board of trustees at SkolkovoTech, and is actively involved with the government initiative to create a technology innovation park and ecosystem in Russia. Prior to his appointment at the Russian Government, Mr Surkov was the deputy chief of staff of the Russian President. He is widely attributed to the creation of the "Sovereign Democracy" concept in the last decade.

Vladislav Surkovhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18802013-05-01T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr David Graeber, Professor Craig Calhoun | From the earliest meetings for Occupy Wall Street, David Graeber felt that something was different from previous demonstrations. What was it about this particular movement that worked this time? And what can we now do to make our world more democratic again? Graeber presents a vital new exploration of anti-capitalist dissent, looking at the actions of the 99% and revealing the alternative political and economic possibilities of our future.David Graeber is an anthropologist at Goldsmiths, University of London, who has been involved with the Occupy movement most actively at Wall Street. He is widely credited with coining the phrase "We are the 99%" and is the author of the widely praised Debt: The First 5000 Years. His new book The Democracy Project is published by Allen Lane.Craig Calhoun is a world-renowned social scientist whose work connects sociology to culture, communication, politics, philosophy and economics. He took up his post as LSE Director on 1 September 2012, having left the United States where he was University Professor at New York University and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge and President of the Social Science Research Council. He is the author of several books including Nations Matter, Critical Social Theory, Neither Gods Nor Emperors and most recently The Roots of Radicalism (University of Chicago Press, 2012).

Dr David Graeber, Professor Craig Calhounhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18732013-04-30T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Arif Naqvi | The theme of the event is private equity’s role in the transformation of the world economy. As Western economies battle to restructure their economies and re-launch growth, South-South investment flows have been steadily growing over the last decade. Vast and exciting investment opportunities are opening up in these global growth markets, but is it really true that best in class returns and socially transformational investments can go hand in hand?Arif Naqvi will give a keynote speech entitled 'Global Growth Markets: Transforming our world, our businesses, our communities'. The lecture will be followed by a panel discussion entitled ‘Doing well by doing good? Private Equity Investing in Emerging Markets’ led by Felda Hardymon with Tsega Gebreyses, Arif Naqvi and Diana Noble.Arif Naqvi is the founder and group chief executive of The Abraaj Group, a private equity investor. Naqvi founded the Group in 2002 in Dubai. It started with $60 million in assets under management and today manages $7.5 billion.

Arif Naqvihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18912013-04-30T18:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Nate Silver | In this age of information-overload, Silver argues it is more difficult than ever to distinguish a true "signal" from the noisy universe of data. Silver shows that by embracing uncertainty, and being alert to the role that motivations and biases can play in warping predictions, we will be less likely to repeat the mistakes of the past.Nate Silver is a statistician and political forecaster at The New York Times. In 2012, he correctly predicted the outcome of 50 out of 50 states during the US presidential election, trumping the professional pollsters and pundits. He was named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People in the world, and one of Rolling Stones' top Agents of Change. Silver graduated with Honors with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Chicago. He spent his third year at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His new book is The Signal and the Noise: the art and science of prediction.The LSE Media Group is a special interest group set up for and run by LSE alumni who work or have an interest in the media industry. It is active in the UK and in the US. The Group is unusual in its embracing definition of the media to include advertising, journalism, public relations, new media, entertainment, publishing, marketing and other creative interests.If you are an interested in learning more about the LSE Media Group please email alumni@lse.ac.uk.

Nate Silverhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18722013-04-29T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Miriam de Búrca, Ruth Goddard, Adela Jušic, Jonathan Watkins, Dr Gwendolyn Sasse | Artists from Northern Ireland, South Africa and Bosnia will reflect upon the impact of violent conflict on their work. The event includes screenings of Dogs have no religion by Miriam de Búrca, and The Sniper by Adela Jušic, as well as images from Ruth Goddard’s work The/My persistent past/history.Miriam de Búrca is a visual artist from Belfast, Northern Ireland.Ruth Goddard is a London-based artist from South Africa.Adela Jušic is an artist from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.Dr Gwendolyn Sasse is a professorial fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford and co-curator of the exhibition.Jonathan Watkins is director of Ikon Gallery, Birmingham and curator of the 2013 Iraq Pavilion for the Venice Biennale.This event is in association with the Alan Cristea Gallery. Miriam de Búrca, Ruth Goddard and Adela Jušic are three of the artists included in the exhibition Conflicted Memory being held at the Alan Cristea Gallery, 29 April – 1 June 2013, 31 Cork Street, London.

Miriam de Búrca, Ruth Goddard, Adela Jušic, Jonathan Watkins, Dr Gwendolyn Sassehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18712013-04-29T18:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Karma Nabulsi, Professor Ilan Pappe, Professor Rosemary Hollis, Peter Kosminsky | On this panel discussion, chaired by Jon Snow of Channel 4 News, the speakers will discuss aspects of the current situation in Palestine, including: Palestinian domestic politics, Israel’s position, the international dimension of the impasse and the insights into the conflict provided by film-making.Karma Nabulsi is Lecturer in International Relations at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford and Fellow in Politics at St Edmund Hall.Rosemary Hollis is Professor of Middle East Policy Studies and Director of the Olive Tree Scholarship Programme at City University London. Her research focuses on international political and security issues in the Middle East, particularly European, EU, UK and US relations with the region.Ilan Pappe is Professor of History, Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies and Co-Director for the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies at the University of Exeter.Peter Kosminsky is a British writer, director and producer. He is the director of The Promise, a four episodes television series telling the story of a young woman who goes to Israel and Palestine determined to find out about her soldier grandfather's involvement in the final years of Palestine under the British mandate.Jon Snow is a British journalist and presenter. He has been the face of Channel 4 News since 1989.

Dr Karma Nabulsi, Professor Ilan Pappe, Professor Rosemary Hollis, Peter Kosminskyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18792013-04-26T18:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Charles Moore | Not For Turning is the first volume of Charles Moore's authorized biography of Margaret Thatcher, the longest serving Prime Minister of the twentieth century and one of the most influential political figures of the postwar era.Charles Moore's biography of Margaret Thatcher, published after her death on 8 April 2013, immediately supercedes all earlier books written about her. At the moment when she becomes a historical figure, this book also makes her into a three dimensional one for the first time. It gives unparalleled insight into her early life and formation, especially through her extensive correspondence with her sister, which Moore is the first author to draw on. It recreates the atmosphere of British politics as she was making her way, and takes her up to what was arguably the zenith of her power, victory in the Falklands.Charles Moore joined the staff of the Daily Telegraph in 1979, the year Margaret Thatcher came to power, and as a political columnist in the 1980s, he covered several years of Mrs Thatcher's first and second governments. From 1984-90 he was editor of the Spectator; from 1992-95 editor of the Sunday Telegraph; and from 1995 to 2003 editor of the Daily Telegraph, for which he is still a regular columnist.

Charles Moorehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18672013-04-25T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Nancy Pelosi | Nancy Pelosi is the Democratic Leader of the House of Representatives. From 2007 to 2011, she served as the first woman Speaker of the House and is also the first woman in American history to lead a major political party in Congress. Leader Pelosi has led House Democrats for a decade and has represented San Francisco in Congress for 25 years.Pelosi led the Congress in passing historic health insurance reform, key investments in college aid, clean energy and innovation, and initiatives to help small businesses and veterans. She has been a powerful voice for civil rights and human rights around the world for decades.Professor Michael Cox is founding co-director of LSE IDEAS and professor of international relations at LSE.

Nancy Pelosihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18662013-04-19T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Various - see description | 10.30-10.45 Welcome from Michael Bromwich and Al Bhimani10.45-11.45 Laura Spira (Oxford Brookes University) - Corporate Governance and Management - a Blurred Boundary?11.45-12.45 Michael Power (London School of Economics and Political Science) - Searching for Risk CultureAfternoon Session Hong Kong Theatre, CLM.G.02, ground floor, Clement House, Aldwych14.00-14.30 Martin Thomas (Call4Change) - Measuring Thriving Organisational Performance in Turbulent Times14.30-15.30 Alfred Wagenhofer (University of Graz, Austria) - Characteristics of Accounting Information that Serves the Board of Directors15.30-16.45 Panel Discussion - Management Accounting and Corporate Governance - Gillian Lees, Michael Power, Martin Thomas, Alfred Wagenhofer - Chairman: Michael Bromwich17.15-18.00 ICAEW Distinguished Practitioner Lecture - Philip Gregory, Senior independent non-executive Director, Hansard Global plc. - The Effect of Changing Governance on the Finance Function; Some Personal Observations and Experiences

Various - see descriptionhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18652013-04-18T10:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Colin Pyle, Ryan Pyle | When Canadian brothers Colin Pyle and Ryan Pyle set out from Shanghai on a motorcycle journey that had never previously been attempted, they thought they had some idea of what lay ahead of them. It was a misconception that had become evident by the end of Day 1. But, despite the many challenges they faced, 65 days and 18,000km later they’d succeeded in circumnavigating China. In an expedition of extremes, Colin and Ryan visited the third lowest point on Earth and slept at Everest Base Camp beside its highest mountain. They traveled off-road through deep desert sands in suffocating heat, traversed mountain passes in freezing temperatures that turned the moisture in their clothes to ice, and rode in torrential rain through mudslides beside rapidly rising flood waters. At the end of their remarkable journey, the brothers had strengthened the bond between them, gained a Guinness World Record, tested their endurance to its limits, and shared an adventure that most of us will only ever dream of having. In their book The Middle Kingdom Ride, Colin and Ryan take us with them as they travel through the diverse and extraordinary landscapes of China, from its border with North Korea, to the ancient Muslim city of Kashgar, across the vast empty spaces of the Mongolian grasslands, over the mountains and into the monasteries of Tibet. Ryan Pyle graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Political Science and made his home in Shanghai, China, where he still lives today. Over the last 10 years, he has gained an international reputation as an award-winning documentary photographer and now author and television presenter. He is regularly invited to give talks about his work and about China at universities and institutes around the world.Colin Pyle graduated from Ryerson University in Toronto with a degree in Finance. Colin was part of a very successful currency brokerage start up in Toronto that was sold in July 2008. After managing the successful integration of his old company Colin stepped down as President of Equity Foreign Exchange Services to hit the road and live life. In October 2010, Colin completed the Guinness World Record setting Middle Kingdom Ride with his brother Ryan. The two of them followed up with a 2012 India Ride; an amazing 54 day circumnavigation of India. Colin is involved in lecture engagements and future television productions. Colin completed an MBA from Hult International Business School, is an active entrepreneur in London, England where his main focus is growing Mandarin House to be the first global Mandarin language and cultural school.Nick Byrne is director of the LSE Language Centre.

Colin Pyle, Ryan Pylehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18622013-04-17T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Rolf Dobelli | Rolf Dobelli argues that we are swayed by cognitive biases when making decisions. By knowing what they are and how to spot them, we can avoid them and make better choices. In this lecture, Rolf will guide us through the most common errors of judgement and how to avoid them. It will transform your decision making – at work, at home, every day.Rolf Dobelli is a Swiss writer and entrepreneur. He has an MBA and a PhD in economic philosophy from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and is a co-founder of getAbstract, the world's leading provider of book summaries. Dobelli is also founder and curator of Zurich.Minds, an invitation-only community of the most distinguished thinkers, scientists and artists. His book, The Art of Thinking Clearly has sold in over 17 languages and has been a massive bestseller in Europe.

Rolf Dobellihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18602013-04-11T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Salman Khan, Professor Martin Bean | Join Salman Khan as he tells the inspiring story of how the Khan Academy came to be and shares his thoughts on what education could be like in the future. The lecture will be chaired by Rohan Silva, Senior Policy Adviser to the Prime Minister. Professor Martin Bean, Vice-Chancellor of the Open University, will respond to Khan's lecture.Salman Khan is the founder and executive director of the Khan Academy, a nonprofit organization on a mission to provide "a free world-class education for anyone anywhere." Khan was listed in Fortune's annual "40 under 40," which recognizes business's hottest rising stars, as well as Fast Company's list of the "100 Most Creative People in Business." Khan was also recently profiled in "60 Minutes," featured on the cover of Forbes, and recognized by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Salman Khan, Professor Martin Beanhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18592013-04-10T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Various - see description | 1000 - How to build trust in your journalism?Speakers: Ruurd Bierman, Cilla Benkö, Trushar BarotWhat can news media organisations do in the digital age to build the confidence and engagement of their audiences?1230-1300 - How to use social media for journalismSpeakers: Yasmine El Rafie, Nadja HahnWhat can journalists do with social media to improve their journalism?1400-1500 - Trust In EuropeSpeakers: Nik Gowing, Asun Gomez, Kelly Evans, Jonty BloomAs the European economic crisis continues, what can journalists do when the public lose trust in their leaders?

Various - see descriptionhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18612013-04-05T09:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Ben S Bernanke, Olivier Blanchard, Professor Lawrence H. Summers, Axel A. Weber | Five years on, the global economy continues to come to terms with the impact of the financial crisis. This event examines the lessons that both economists and policymakers should learn in order to lessen the chance of future crises.Ben S. Bernanke was sworn in on February 1, 2006, as chairman and a member of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System. Before his appointment as chairman, Dr. Bernanke was chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, from June 2005 to January 2006.Olivier Blanchard is economic counsellor and director, Research Department at the International Monetary Fund. After obtaining his Ph.D in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977, he taught at Harvard University, returning to MIT in 1982, where he has been since where he holds the post of Class of 1941 Professor of Economics.Lawrence H. Summers is President Emeritus of Harvard University. During the past two decades he has served in a series of senior policy positions, including vice president of development economics and chief economist of the World Bank, undersecretary of the Treasury for International Affairs, director of the National Economic Council for the Obama administration from 2009 to 2011, and secretary of the treasury of the United States, from 1999 to 2001. He is currently the Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard University.Axel A. Weber is visiting professor of economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, former president of the Deutsche Bundesbank and current chairman of the board of UBS.Professor Sir Mervyn King is governor of the Bank of England. Before joining the Bank he was professor of economics at the LSE, and a founder of the Financial Markets Group.

Dr Ben S Bernanke, Olivier Blanchard, Professor Lawrence H. Summers, Axel A. Weberhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18562013-03-25T17:15:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Steffen Hertog, Professor Giacomo Luciani, Dr Marc Valeri, Dr Khalid AlMezaini | Although most Arab countries remain authoritarian, many have undergone a restructuring of state-society relations. Lower and middle class interest groups have lost ground, while big business has benefited in terms of its integration into policy-making and the opening-up of economic sectors that used to be state-dominated. Arab businesses have also started taking on aspects of public service provision in health, media and education that used to be the domain of the state, while also becoming increasingly active in philanthropy.This launch for Business Politics in the Middle East (Hurst, 2013), a volume by LSE's Dr Steffen Hertog and edited by Professor Giacomo Luciani and Dr Marc Valeri, will cover the political role of regional capitalists during and after the Arab uprisings, prospects for the emergence of a more independent bourgeoisie, economic reform and new social contracts.Dr Steffen Hertog is Senior Lecture in Comparative Politics in LSE’s Department of Government. Hertog has been researching the comparative political economy of the Gulf and Middle East for more than a decade, working with a number of local and international institutions.Professor Giacomo Luciani is Scientific Director of the Master in International Energy of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences-Po and a Princeton University Global Scholar attached to the Woodrow Wilson School and the Department of Near Eastern Studies. He is also a visiting professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva and co-director of the Executive Master in Oil and Gas Leadership.Dr Marc Valeri is Lecturer in Political Economy of the Middle East at the University of Exeter. After a Master's Degree in Comparative Politics, with speciality on Arab and Muslim worlds, he received a PhD in 2005 from Sciences Po Paris. His work dealt with nation-building and political legitimacy in the Sultanate of Oman since 1970.Dr Khalid Almezaini is an Assistant Professor at Qatar University and was previously a research fellow in the Kuwait Programme at LSE. He has taught International Relations at Cambridge, Edinburgh and Exeter universities. His research focuses on International Relations of the Middle East and the Gulf in particular.

Dr Steffen Hertog, Professor Giacomo Luciani, Dr Marc Valeri, Dr Khalid AlMezainihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18552013-03-21T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Linda Yueh | What drives China's impressive growth and will it continue? Parsing the evidence leads to some surprising conclusions and also points to needed reforms to sustain development in the coming decades. Linda Yueh is director of the China Growth Centre and fellow in economics at St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford. She is also adjunct professor of economics at the London Business School. Linda's new book is entitled China's Growth: The Making of an Economic Superpower.

Dr Linda Yuehhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18532013-03-21T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Andrew Abbott | This lecture argues that since excess and overabundance are central phenomena of modern life, we should refound social theory on the concept of "too much of" rather than "too little of." I trace the origin of the scarcity theories that dominate our reasoning, and sketch the outlines of a social theory based on excess. Andrew Abbott is the Gustavus F and Ann M Swift Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology, Chicago University. Abbott's major research interests lie in the sociology of occupations, professions, and work, the sociology of culture and knowledge, and social theory. Abbott also has longstanding interests in methods, heuristics, and the philosophy and practice of sociology.

Professor Andrew Abbotthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18522013-03-21T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Evgeny Morozov | Evgeny Morozov will be presenting his latest book To Save Everything, Click Here, which argues that the proliferation of sensors, big data, and social networks have given policymakers the irresistible temptation to solve problems that, perhaps, should not be solved at all - or only solved via democratic debate, not nifty technological fixes. Evgeny Morozov is the author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom (which was the winner of the 2012 Goldsmith Book Prize) and a contributing editor for The New Republic. Previously, he was a visiting scholar at Stanford University, a Scwhartz fellow at the New America Foundation, a Yahoo fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown (where he also taught), and a fellow at the Open Society Foundations (where he also served on the board of the Information Program). Prior to moving to the US, Morozov worked as Director of New Media at Transitions Online, a media development NGO based in Prague. His monthly column on technology comes out in Slate, Corriere della Sera, El Pais, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and several other newspapers. He's also written for The New York Times, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Times Literary Supplement, London Review of Books and other publications.

Evgeny Morozovhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18512013-03-21T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Hilary Lawson, Dr Parashkev Nachev, Dr Jaime Whyte | We have seen a gradual erosion of belief in objective truth, but in a world without truth how are we to understand lies? This second event in the series debates the nature of lies and their importance. Are lies necessarily morally wrong, and what is the relationship between lies, power and individual identity? This lecture is the second of a three-part series entitled Error, Lies and Adventure, the first talk 'Beyond Truth: Error and Adventure' will take place on 4 March. Hilary Lawson is director of the Institute of Art and Ideas and the author of Closure. Parashkev Nachev is senior clinical research associate at the Institute of Neurology, UCL, and honorary clinical lecturer at Imperial College London. Jamie Whyte is a former Times columnist and Cambridge philosopher. Joanna Kavenna is an Orange Award-winning novelist. She has written for the London Review of Books and the Observer.

Hilary Lawson, Dr Parashkev Nachev, Dr Jaime Whytehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18502013-03-21T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Ulrich Beck, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Professor Mary Kaldor | The basic rules of European democracy are being subverted or turned into their opposite, bypassing parliaments, governments and EU institutions. Multilateralism is turning into unilateralism, equality into hegemony, sovereignty into the dependency and recognition into disrespect for the dignity of other nations. Even France, which long dominated European integration, must submit to Berlin’s strictures now that it must fear for its international credit rating.In this event, Ulrich Beck, Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Mary Kaldor discuss the current political crisis and how to reinvent democracy in Europe.Ulrich Beck is professor of Sociology at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany. His recent books include Cosmopolitan Europe (with Edgar Grande) (Polity Press 2007), World at Risk (Polity Press 2009), A God of One’s Own (Polity Press 2010), Twenty Observations on a World in Turmoil (Polity Press 2012), Distant Love (together with Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim) (Polity Press 2013) and German Europe (Polity Press 2013).Daniel Cohn-Bendit is a German politician, active also in France. He is currently co-president of the group European Greens–European Free Alliance in the European Parliament and co-chair of the Spinelli Group, a European parliament intergroup aiming at relaunching the federalist project in Europe. His latest book is For Europe (2012; with Guy Verhofstadt).Mary Kaldor is professor of Global Governance in the Department of International Development at LSE, where she directs the Human Security and Civil Society Research Unit. She has just completed a report on The Bubbling Up of Subterranean Politics in Europe based on research undertaken by seven field teams across Europe.

Professor Ulrich Beck, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Professor Mary Kaldorhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18542013-03-21T13:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Ian Goldin | The growing gap between global problems and solutions reflects a crisis in global governance. Professor Ian Goldin will present ideas from his latest book, Divided Nations: Why Global Governance is Failing and What can be done about it? Ian will focus on the financial crisis, the internet, pandemics, migration and climate change to highlight the need for urgent global action and provide proposals as to what is to be done. Professor Ian Goldin is director of the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford. He was previously vice president and director of policy for the World Bank after serving as advisor to President Mandela and chief executive of the Development Bank of Southern Africa. He has been knighted by the French government and author of 16 books, including Globalization for Development, Exceptional People (On Migration), and his most recent Divided Nations. Born in South Africa, Goldin has a BA (Hons) and a BSc from the University of Cape Town, an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Doctorate from the University of Oxford.

Professor Ian Goldinhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18462013-03-20T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Daniel Gros, Professor Charles Goodhart, Professor Michael Haliassos | Dr Daniel Gros is director of Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels. Professor Charles Goodhart, Emeritus Professor of Banking & Finance; director of Financial Regulation Research Programme, LSE. Professor Michael Haliassos is chair for Macroeconomics and Finance, Goethe University Frankfurt; director, Center for Financial Studies, Frankfurt.

Dr Daniel Gros, Professor Charles Goodhart, Professor Michael Haliassoshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18472013-03-20T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Anne Phillips | Editor's note: Unfortunately the first few minutes of the lecture are missing from this recording. In this inaugural lecture, to celebrate her appointment as the Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science, Anne Phillips addresses the status of the human in politics. Is what Hannah Arendt called 'the abstract nakedness of being human' sufficient to establish principles of solidarity or equality? And can we talk of what, as humans, we have in common without thereby dismissing as irrelevancies our gender, sexuality, or 'race'? Anne Phillips is Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science in the Department of Government. She is also currently Director of the LSE Gender Institute. She joined the 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 Department of Government. She is a leading figure in feminist political theory, and writes on issues of bodies and property, democracy and representation, equality, multiculturalism, and difference. Much of her work can be read as challenging the narrowness of contemporary liberal theory. In 1992, she was co-winner of the American Political Science Association's Victoria Schuck Award for Best Book on Women and Politics published in 1991 (awarded for Engendering Democracy). She was awarded an honorary Doctorate from the University of Aalborg in 1999; was appointed Adjunct Professor in the Political Science Programme of the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, 2002-6; and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2003. In 2008, she received a Special Recognition Award from the Political Studies Association, UK, for her contribution to Political Studies. In 2012, she was awarded the title Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science. Simon Hix is Professor of European and Comparative Politics and Head of the Government Department at LSE.

Professor Anne Phillipshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18482013-03-20T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Cécile Laborde, Professor Tariq Modood, Professor Anne Phillips | Under the combined criticisms of feminism, secularism and nationalism, multiculturalism is repeatedly being pronounced dead. Has it really reached the end of the road and what are the alternatives? Cécile Laborde is professor of political theory at University College London. Tariq Modood is the founding director of the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship at the University of Bristol. Anne Phillips is director of the Gender Institute and professor of political and gender theory in the LSE Gender Institute.

Professor Cécile Laborde, Professor Tariq Modood, Professor Anne Phillipshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18442013-03-19T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Isatou Touray | This talk discusses the efforts made by grassroots Gambian activists and community campaigns, as well as external forces, in building resistance to female genital mutilation in one of the few countries in the world where the practice remains not legally prohibited. Isatou Touray is founder and Executive Director of the Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (GAMCOTRAP), an organisation which has campaigned for women’s and girls’ rights since the 1980s, and which has been a leader in the struggle to eliminate Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). In addition to a prolific list of publications, Dr Touray has engaged extensively with other rights organisations in The Gambia and beyond. This has included membership of the Gender Action Team for the Ratification of the African Protocol on Women’s Rights, and the Technical Advisory Body for the Policy for the Advancement of Gambian Women, and acting as Secretary General for the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices. In recognition of her achievements, sacrifices and service to others, in 2008 Dr Touray was awarded the US Ambassadorial Prize for ‘International Woman of Courage’ and was voted ‘Gambian of the Year’, an honour bestowed previously on only two female nationals. This event is supported by the LSE Annual Fund.

Dr Isatou Tourayhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18412013-03-18T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Ali Ansari | Launching his latest book, The Politics of Nationalism in Modern Iran, Professor Ali Ansari will explore the idea of nationalism in the creation of modern Iran, considering the broader developments in national ideologies that took place following the emergence of the European Enlightenment and showing how these ideas were adopted by a non-European state. Ali Ansari is Professor in Modern History with reference to the Middle East at University of St Andrews, where he is also the founding director of the Institute for Iranian Studies.

Professor Ali Ansarihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18422013-03-18T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): James Dawson, Kate Kingsley, Meg Rosoff | This event celebrates the culmination of the LSE/First Story creative writing competition for key stages 3, 4 and 5 and will include a prize-giving presentation, as well as a reception following the event. Trying new things can be daunting, but also inspiring. In our creative writing trying a new genre or subject, or exploring what new technology has to offer can be liberating. But is it sometimes best to stick to the classics? Find out what has inspired our panel of authors, and join in the discussion. James Dawson, author of dark teen thrillers Hollow Pike and Cruel Summer, grew up in West Yorkshire, writing imaginary episodes of Doctor Who. He later turned his talent to journalism, interviewing luminaries such as Steps and Atomic Kitten before writing a weekly serial in a Brighton newspaper. Until recently, James worked as a teacher, specialising in PSHCE and behaviour. He is most proud of his work surrounding bullying and family diversity. He now writes full time in London and is published by Indigo/Orion. Kate Kingsley is the author of Young, Loaded & Fabulous, a scandalous YA series about mean teens at British boarding school. After growing up between London and New York City, Kate started her writing career at GQ magazine. She has been published in places like The Sunday Times Magazine and the New York Times. This is her first year working with the wonderfully talented First Story students, an experience she is absolutely loving. She currently lives in East London, where she's writing her sixth book. Meg Rosoff was born in Boston, educated at Harvard and St Martin’s College of Art, and worked in New York City for ten years before moving to London permanently in 1989. She worked in publishing, politics, PR and advertising until 2004, when she wrote How I Live Now, which won the Guardian Children’s fiction prize (UK), Michael L Printz prize (US), the Die Zeit children’s book of the year (Germany) and was shortlisted for the Orange first novel award. Her second novel, Just in Case, won the 2007 Carnegie Medal. Meg’s other books include What I Was, The Bride's Farewell and There Is No Dog. This event is linked to LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival|, taking place from Tuesday 25 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

James Dawson, Kate Kingsley, Meg Rosoffhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18392013-03-18T18:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Michael Ward | LSE London's 2013 Lent term seminar series begins on the 14th of January. Speakers from within and beyond academia will focus on many of the implications of the current economic and political environment for London, covering relevant issues such as the road pricing, UK trends in higher education, census data and localism. Presenters include academics and practitioners from relevant fields. Each seminar is chaired by one of the members of LSE London, while speaker’s presentations, available podcasts and any other related documents are posted here regularly after each session.

Michael Wardhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=19022013-03-18T16:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Paul Preston, Dr Daniel Beer, Professor Helen Graham, Professor Dan Stone | A discussion of the atrocities against civilians in the Spanish Civil War, the political consequences in Spain today and the parallels with Nazi and Soviet experiences. Paul Preston is Director of the LSE’s Cañada Blanch Centre and author of numerous books on Spain of which the latest is The Spanish Holocaust. Daniel Beer is Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at Royal Holloway and the author of Renovating Russia: the Human Sciences and the Fate of Liberal Modernity (Cornell, 2008). Helen Graham is Professor of History at Royal Holloway. Her most recent book is The War and its Shadow. Spain’s Civil War in Europe’s Long Twentieth Century (2012). In 2010 she was Visiting Chair in Spanish Culture and Civilisation at the King Juan Carlos Centre, New York University. Dan Stone is Professor of Modern History at Royal Holloway, University of London. His books include Histories of the Holocaust (OUP, 2010); The Oxford Handbook of Postwar European History (OUP, 2012) and The Holocaust, Fascism and Memory (Palgrave, 2013). The Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies is located within the European Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science and is the focus of a flourishing interest in contemporary Spain in Britain. LSE Works is a series of public lectures, that will showcase some of the latest research by LSE's Research Centres. In each session, LSE academics will present key research findings, demonstrating where appropriate the implications of their studies for public policy. A list of all the LSE Works lectures can be viewed online.

Professor Paul Preston, Dr Daniel Beer, Professor Helen Graham, Professor Dan Stonehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18352013-03-14T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Alexis Tsipras | Alexis Tsipras is President of Syriza-USF (Official Opposition Party, Greece). Professor Kevin Featherstone is director of the Hellenic Observatory at LSE.

Alexis Tsiprashttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18372013-03-14T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Peter Hall | This presentation explores the origins and consequences of the contemporary crisis of the Euro from the perspective of a varieties-of-capitalism approach to the political economy. It associates the inadequacies of the governing institutions adopted for the Euro with a set of mythologies that was blind to the presence of distinctive varieties of capitalism in Europe and locates some of the roots of the crisis in the problems associated with combining joining varieties of capitalism in a single currency. The problems encountered by the Euro lie less in the ‘asymmetrical shocks’ anticipated in 1992 and more in the ‘institutional asymmetries’ across political economies. The problems the EU has had in resolving the crisis are also linked to divergent diagnoses of the problem rooted in distinctive philosophies of governance associated again with varieties of capitalism in Europe. Peter A. Hall is Krupp Foundation Professor of European Studies, a faculty associate of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, and co-director of the Program on Successful Societies for the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Hall is co-editor of Successful Societies: How Institutions and Culture Affect Health (with M. Lamont), Changing France: The Politics that Markets Make (with B. Palier, P. Culpepper), Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage (with D. Soskice), The Political Power of Economic Ideas: Keynesianism across Nations, Developments in French Politics I and II (with A. Guyomarch, J. Hayward and H. Machin), European Labor in the 1980s and the author of Governing the Economy: The Politics of State Intervention in Britain and France as well as over seventy articles on European politics, public policy-making, and comparative political economy.

Professor Peter Hallhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18382013-03-14T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Kishore Mahbubani | 88% of the world’s population lives outside the West and is rising to Western living standards, and sharing Western aspirations. But while the world changes, our way of managing it has not and it must evolve. In this lecture, leading policy thinker Kishore Mahbubani outlines new policies and approaches that will be necessary to govern in an increasingly interconnected and complex environment. This event marks the publication of his new book The Great Convergence: Asia, the West, and the Logic of One World. Kishore Mahbubani is the Dean and Professor in the Practice of Public Policy at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. From 1971-2004 he served in the Singapore Foreign Ministry, where he was Permanent Secretary from 1993-1998, served twice as Singapore’s Ambassador to the UN, and in 2001 and 2002 served as President of the UN Security Council. Professor Mahbubani is the author of Can Asians Think?, Beyond the Age of Innocence: Rebuilding Trust Between America and the World, and The New Asian Hemisphere: the Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East. Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines have listed him as one of the top 100 public intellectuals in the world, and in 2009 The Financial Times included him on their list of Top 50 individuals who would shape the debate on the future of capitalism. In 2010 and 2011 he was selected as one of Foreign Policy’s Top Global Thinkers.

Professor Kishore Mahbubanihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18282013-03-14T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor David Ferris | This lecture will argue that painting, rather than retreat from the transformation of the visual image announced by photography, has now become photography’s most important interpreter. David Ferris is professor of humanities and comparative literature at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Professor David Ferrishttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18362013-03-14T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Kate Bell, Duncan Bowie, Howard Reed, Zoe Williams | Seventy years ago the Beveridge Report announced the pursuit of a new settlement, one that would dramatically change the structure of Britain for the better. With this in mind, a new project from Class looks at what Beveridge's analysis of society can teach us about the Giant Evils of today and how can we use this to chart an alternative course for a welfare state - orSocial State - fit for a new settlement in 2015. This event at the London School of Economics will bring together the experts working on Class's Social State project in a panel discussion on the themes and policy suggestions proposed in this series of work. Kate Bell is child poverty coordinator of the Child Poverty Action Group. Duncan Bowie is senior lecturer in Spacial Planning at the University of Westminster. Howard Reed is director of the economic research consultancy Landman Economics. Zoe Williams is a columnist at The Guardian.

Kate Bell, Duncan Bowie, Howard Reed, Zoe Williamshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18432013-03-13T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor John Breuilly, Dr Faisal Devji, Dr Mark Hewitson | This discussion will mark the launch of The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism edited by Professor John Breuilly.The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism comprises thirty six essays by an international team of leading scholars, providing a global coverage of the history of nationalism in its different aspects—ideas, sentiments, and politics. Every chapter takes the form of an interpretative essay which, by a combination of thematic focus, comparison, and regional perspective, enables the reader to understand nationalism as a distinct and global historical subject.The book covers the emergence of nationalist ideas, sentiments, and cultural movements before the formation of a world of nationstates, as well as nationalist politics before and after the era of the nation-state, with chapters covering Europe, the Middle East, North-East Asia, South Asia, South-East Asia, Sub- Saharan Africa, and the Americas. Essays on everyday national sentiment and race ideas in fascism are accompanied by chapters on nationalist movements opposed to existing nation-states, nationalism and international relations, and the role of external intervention into nationalist disputes within states. In addition, the book looks at the major challenges to nationalism: international socialism, religion, pan-nationalism, and globalization, before a final section considering how historians have approached the subject of nationalism.John Breuilly is professor of nationalism and ethnicity at LSE.Dr Faisal Devji is reader in Indian History, St. Antony's College, University of Oxford.Dr Mark Hewitson is senior lecturer in German History and Politics in the Department of German at University College London.

Professor John Breuilly, Dr Faisal Devji, Dr Mark Hewitsonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18252013-03-13T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Duvvuri Subbarao | This lecture is in honour of Dr Indraprastha Gordhanbhai (IG) Patel who was the ninth director of LSE from 1984 to 1990.Over the five years through 2003-08 leading up to the global financial crisis, India clocked an average annual growth of 8.7 per cent on the back of wide ranging structural and policy reforms and growing integration with the global economy. By the year 2008, India was the fourth largest economy in the world in purchasing power parity terms. For a nation that once believed that the ‘Hindu rate of growth’ was its destiny, this remarkable growth performance became a trigger for setting off aspirations for double-digit growth.Those aspirations have moderated significantly with growth moderating below trend in the post-crisis period owing to the impact of the global downturn as also a host of domestic policy and operational bottlenecks. The post-crisis period has also been characterized by a large fiscal deficit, historically high current account deficit and inflation persisting above the comfort level. Macroeconomic management during this period has had to contend with balancing between stimulating growth and reining in inflation, dealing with the short-term pressures in external sector without compromising long-term sustainability and returning to a path of fiscal responsibility.Dr Subbarao, governor of the Reserve Bank of India will reflect on these challenges from the Reserve Bank perspective and illustrate the dilemmas encountered in making policy choices.Dr Duvvuri Subbarao assumed office as the twenty-second governor of the Reserve Bank of India on 5 September 2008. Prior to this appointment, Dr Subbarao served as finance secretary to the Government of India from April 2007 to September 2008 and as secretary to the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council from March 2005 to March 2007, and was a lead economist in the World Bank (1999 - 2004). Dr Subbarao came into the Reserve Bank just a week before the global financial crisis erupted in full in mid-September 2008. He led the Reserve Bank’s effort to mitigate the impact of the crisis on India and was actively engaged in the G-20 effort to coordinate an international response to the crisis.

Dr Duvvuri Subbaraohttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18242013-03-13T14:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Jeffrey D Sachs | The world has agreed to adopt Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to guide global development after 2015. Professor Jeffrey Sachs will discuss the choice of SDGs and a policy and normative framework to achieve them.Jeffrey D. Sachs is a world-renowned professor of economics, leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author, and syndicated columnist whose monthly newspaper columns appear in more than 80 countries. He has twice been named among Time magazine's 100 most influential world leaders. He was called by the New York Times, "probably the most important economist in the world," and by Time magazine "the world's best known economist." A recent survey by The Economist magazine ranked Professor Sachs as among the world's three most influential living economists of the past decade.Professor Sachs serves as the director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and professor of health policy and management at Columbia University. He is special advisor to United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon on the Millennium Development Goals, having held the same position under former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. He is co-founder and chief strategist of Millennium Promise Alliance, and is director of the Millennium Villages Project. He has authored three New York Times bestsellers in the past seven years: The End of Poverty (2005), Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (2008), and The Price of Civilization (2011).

Professor Jeffrey D Sachshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18232013-03-13T12:45:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Anne Applebaum | The nations of the region we called “Eastern Europe” were once closely linked, so much so that West Europeans had trouble distinguishing them. But since 1989 they have made different choices and taken different paths. Are there lessons which can be learned from the East European experience of reform? Professor Anne Applebaum is the Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs for the 2012-2013 academic year.

Professor Anne Applebaumhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18212013-03-12T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor A. John Simmons | Modern states claim a wide variety of rights of control over particular geographical territories. These claims, however, are regularly disputed, often leading to violence. This fact makes practically pressing the questions, to be explored in these lectures, of how and to what extent such territorial claims by states can be justified. A. John Simmons (Ph.D., Cornell) is Commonwealth Professor of Philosophy, and professor of Law; editor, Philosophy and Public Affairs; Editorial Board member, Social Theory and Practice. He specialises in political philosophy, ethics, history of moral and political theory, and philosophy of law. This is the second in a series of two lectures by Professor Simmons, the first, States and their Territories: Boundaries of Authority, takes place on Monday 11 March.

Professor A. John Simmonshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18192013-03-12T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Hugh Segal | Senator Hugh Segal, Canada's Special Envoy to the Commonwealth, will speak about Commonwealth reform and the role it can play in helping its members strengthen Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law.Senator Hugh Segal was appointed Canada's Special Envoy to the Commonwealth in 2011. This followed upon his service as a member of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group (2010-2011) which produced 106 recommendations for Commonwealth renewal for the 21st century.Senator Segal is a former Chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and he now chairs the Anti-Terrorism Committee of the Senate. He is a former president of the Institute for Research on Public Policy, chief of staff to a Prime Minister of Canada and Associate Cabinet Secretary in Ontario.

Hugh Segalhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18202013-03-12T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Roland Dannreuther | When there are shifts in distribution of power in international politics, energy security emerges as a salient concern. Professor Dannreuther will consider the implications of two shifts: first, the flow of energy from east to west (oil and gas) and the increasing links between Asia and energy-producing regions; and secondly, the flow from consumers of energy to producers of energy with the rise of resource nationalism. Professor Dannreuther joined the University of Westminster in September 2009 as head of the Department of Politics and International Relations and Professor of International Relations. He is also an International Fellow at the Department of International Relations, Tbilisi State University, Georgia.

Professor Roland Dannreutherhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18182013-03-11T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Etienne Balibar | Etienne Balibar is Anniversary Chair in Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University and emeritus professor of moral and political philosophy at the University of Paris 10 Nanterre.

Professor Etienne Balibarhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18162013-03-11T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Clare Hemmings | This paper charts the significance of Emma Goldman's revolutionary thought for a contemporary analysis of sexuality, gender and revolt. Throughout her life (1869-1940) and work Goldman centred sexuality as both key to how capitalism functions (particularly for women) and as a privileged site for political transformation. Connecting sexuality to labour, Goldman's analyses of reproduction, prostitution, homosexuality and free love provide a helpful challenge to contemporary feminist investments in materialist and cultural analyses as opposed, and open up the possibility of an alternative feminist history with sexual materialism at its heart. But in claiming Goldman's thinking for a post-Marxist queer and feminist politics, what do we need to ignore in her thought? What does serious consideration of the sexual (but not gendered) essentialism that grounds Goldman's thought do to a contemporary vision of feminist transformation? Drawing on primary materials and a creative re-reading of archival fragments, I suggest that Goldman's sexual politics allows for a reinvigorated feminist method (as well as politics) with a real connection to others at its heart. Clare Hemmings is Professor of Feminist Theory and has been working at LSE for 13 years. Her primary areas of research interest are feminist theory and sexuality studies, and her main publications in these spheres are Bisexual Spaces (Routledge 2002) and Why Stories Matter (2011), for which she won the 2012 Feminist and Women's Studies Association Book Prize.

Professor Clare Hemmingshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18142013-03-11T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor A. John Simmons | Modern states claim a wide variety of rights of control over particular geographical territories. These claims, however, are regularly disputed, often leading to violence. This fact makes practically pressing the questions, to be explored in these lectures, of how and to what extent such territorial claims by states can be justified.A. John Simmons (Ph.D., Cornell) is Commonwealth Professor of Philosophy, and professor of Law; editor, Philosophy and Public Affairs; Editorial Board member, Social Theory and Practice. He specialises in political philosophy, ethics, history of moral and political theory, and philosophy of law.

Professor A. John Simmonshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18222013-03-11T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Jon Danielsson, Professor Charles Goodhart, Matt King | The first public event of the ESRC Systemic Risk Centre at LSE will debate whether the post crisis reforms of financial regulations will be effective in protecting us from financial excesses, or may perversely destabilise the financial system. The panel of experts will debate the topic and take questions from the audience.Jon Danielsson is the director of the Systemic Risk Centre at LSE. His research interests include financial stability, systemic risk, extreme market movements, market liquidity and financial crisis. He has published his research extensively in both academic journals and the mainstream media, and has presented his work at a number of universities and institutions.Charles Goodhart is emeritus professor of Banking and Finance with the Financial Markets Group at LSE, having previously, 1987-2005, been its deputy director. Until his retirement in 2002, he had been the Norman Sosnow Professor of Banking and Finance at LSE since 1985. Before then, he had worked at the Bank of England for seventeen years as a monetary adviser, becoming a chief adviser in 1980. In 1997 he was appointed one of the outside independent members of the Bank of England's new Monetary Policy Committee until May 2000. Earlier he had taught at Cambridge and LSE. Besides numerous articles, he has written a couple of books on monetary history; a graduate monetary textbook, Money, Information and Uncertainty (2nd Ed. 1989); two collections of papers on monetary policy, Monetary Theory and Practice (1984) and The Central Bank and The Financial System (1995); and a number of books and articles on Financial Stability, on which subject he was adviser to the Governor of the Bank of England, 2002-2004, and numerous other studies relating to financial markets and to monetary policy and history. His latest books include The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision: A History of the Early Years, 1974-1997, (2011), and The Regulatory Response to the Financial Crisis, (2009).Matt King is managing director and global head of Credit Products Strategy at Citi. His team is responsible for forming views and advising clients on the full spectrum of credit, across high grade, high yield, leveraged loan, structured, emerging and municipal bond markets. While the majority of clients are investors, he also deals frequently with issuers and regulators on everything from market direction to valuation to risk management. Matt King is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and has published extensively on credit markets over the past two decades. Some of his most widely referenced pieces include Are the brokers broken? (published two weeks before Lehman’s bankruptcy), Buy the bubbles, sell the bath, and How much debt is too much debt? Prior to joining Citi in 2003, Mr King was head of European Credit Strategy at JPMorgan. He is British, and a graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he read Social & Political Sciences.

Dr Jon Danielsson, Professor Charles Goodhart, Matt Kinghttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18152013-03-11T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Stuart Basten, Carlos Cavalle, Wolfgang Lutz, Catherine Hakim, John Parker, Eric Kaufmann | This panel explores the impact of declining fertility in western countries and East Asia - especially the social effects which have largely been ignored. The panel will also launch the publication of a new book, Whither the Child: Causes and Consequences of Low Fertility (Paradigm Publishers 2013). Stuart Basten is ESRC Fellow in Demography and Social Policy at Oxford University. Carlos Cavalle is the Director, Social Trends Institute. Wolfgang Lutz is Professor, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). Catherine Hakim is Professor, Centre for Policy Studies. John Parker is the Globalisation Editor, Economist Magazine. Eric Kaufmann is Professor, Birkbeck, University of London.

Stuart Basten, Carlos Cavalle, Wolfgang Lutz, Catherine Hakim, John Parker, Eric Kaufmannhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18402013-03-11T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Chris Brown | LSE London's 2013 Lent term seminar series begins on the 14th of January. Speakers from within and beyond academia will focus on many of the implications of the current economic and political environment for London, covering relevant issues such as the road pricing, UK trends in higher education, census data and localism. Presenters include academics and practitioners from relevant fields.

Chris Brownhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18172013-03-11T16:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Enda Kenny | Enda Kenny is Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland, a position he has held since March 2011. He has been the Leader of Fine Gael since June 2002 and has represented the people of Mayo as a Fine Gael member of Dáil Éireann since 1975. He served as Minister for Tourism and Trade from 1994 - 1997. He was also Vice-President of the European People’s Party from 2006-2012.

Enda Kennyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18132013-03-11T15:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Ama de Graft Aikins, Dr Gora Mboup, Professor Vanessa Watson | Notwithstanding improvements, urban health in Africa remains a particular challenge, with 70 per cent of urban dwellers living in informal settlements, facing multiple disease burdens. How might we move towards healthy African cities?Ama de Graft Aikins is a visiting fellow at LSE Health and senior lecturer at the Regional Institute for Population Studies, University of Ghana.Gora Mboup is a senior demographic and health expert and the chief of the Global Urban Observatory of UN-HABITAT.Vanessa Watson is professor and deputy dean of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of Cape Town.

Dr Ama de Graft Aikins, Dr Gora Mboup, Professor Vanessa Watsonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18082013-03-07T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Louise de Sousa, Elda Moreno, Pragna Patel | The Istanbul Convention is the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. It is the first legally binding instrument in Europe and in terms of scope the most advanced treaty in the world creating a comprehensive legal framework to prevent violence, to protect victims and to end the impunity of perpetrators. It defines and criminalises various forms of violence against women (including forced marriage, female genital mutilation, stalking, physical and psychological violence and sexual violence). It also foresees the establishment of an international group of independent experts to monitor its implementation at national level. Louise de Sousa is Head of Human Rights and Democracy Department at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Elda Moreno is Head of Gender Equality and Human Dignity Department and Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law at the Council of Europe. Pragna Patel is the founding member of Southall Black Sisters.

Louise de Sousa, Elda Moreno, Pragna Patelhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18072013-03-07T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Dr Ahmet Davutoglu | Editor's note: Unfortunately the last few minutes of the lecture are missing from this recording. Professor Dr Ahmet Davutoglu is Minister of Foreign Affairs of the 60th Government of the Republic of Turkey, a position he has held since 2009.He was born on February 26th, 1959 in Konya and completed his secondary education at the Istanbul High School. In 1983 he graduated from the Bosphorus University with a double major in Political Science and Economics at the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences. He completed his MA in the Department of Public Administration and received his PhD from the Department of Political Science and International Relations, Bosporus University.In 1990 he became an Assistant Professor at the International Islamic University of Malaysia where he established and chaired the Political Science Department until 1993. In 1993, he became an Associate Professor.Between 1995 and 1999 he has worked at Marmara University, teaching at the Institute for Middle Eastern Studies, the Institute for Insurance and Banking, at the Doctoral Program on Local Administrations and Political Science Department. Between 1998 and 2002 he was a visiting lecturer at the Military Academy and the War Academy.Following the November 2002 elections he was appointed as Chief Adviser to the Prime Minister and Ambassador at large by the 58th Government of the Republic of Turkey. He continued to serve in the 59th and 60th Governments.He worked at Beykent University in Istanbul as a professor from 1995 to 2004, serving as Head of the Department of International Relations, Member of University Senate and Member of Board of Management while teaching as a visiting scholar at the Marmara University.Professor Davutoglu published several books and articles on foreign policy in Turkish and English. His books and articles have also been translated into several languages including Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, Persian and Albanian.Professor Sevket Pamuk is LSE Chair in Contemporary Turkish Studies.

Professor Dr Ahmet Davutogluhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18092013-03-07T16:45:00Z

Speaker(s): Mark Hoban | Presented by British Government @ LSE and LSE Civil Service and Public Policy Alumni Group.

Mark Hobanhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18062013-03-06T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Gareth Jones, Juan Sebastian Lama, Gloria Morrison, Dr Austin Zeiderman | Editor's note: Unfortunately the last few minutes of the lecture are missing from this recording. This panel event is a student-led initiative, full title 'Urban Controversies: how controversies shape our cities,' with speakers Dr Gareth Jones (Reader, LSE Urban Geography), Juan Sebastian Lama (architect, PUC Chile and MSc City Design student), Gloria Morrison (Campaigning Coordinator, JENGbA) and Dr Austin Zeiderman (LSE Cities Research Fellow), talking about natural and man-made disasters and their aftermath in Columbia, Chile and London.

Dr Gareth Jones, Juan Sebastian Lama, Gloria Morrison, Dr Austin Zeidermanhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18052013-03-06T18:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Baroness Williams | Shirley Williams is a former Labour cabinet minister and one of the Gang Of Four who left Labour to start the Social Democrats.

Baroness Williamshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18022013-03-05T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Paul Collier | How to Harness Natural Resource Wealth for Accelerated Development.

Paul Collierhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18032013-03-05T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Hilary Lawson | Philosophers have pursued truth, and many have placed truth at the centre of their account of meaning. But might this be a mistake? Could error be at the heart of language, and adventure, rather than truth, be the matter in hand? In the first of three events on the theme, Hilary Lawson argues for a radical reappraisal of the importance of error.This lecture is the first of a three-part series entitled Error, Lies and Adventure, the second talk 'The Power of Lies' will take place on 21 March.Hilary Lawson is director of the Institute of Art and Ideas, a non-realist philosopher and the author of Closure.

Hilary Lawsonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17992013-03-04T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Pablo Fernandez, Carlos Lopez, Miguel Klingenberg | The recent expropriation of Repsol by the Argentine government raises important legal, diplomatic and policy issues that put into question the current system of international investment protection. This seminar invites to debate on this issues from the investor's perspective. Pablo Fernández is Professor of Finance at the IESE Business School, Madrid.Carlos López Jall is the Director of International Organizations and European Affairs of Repsol S.A.Miguel Klingenberg is the Deputy Secretary General of Repsol S.A. Jan Kleinheisterkamp is Senior Lecturer of Law at LSE.

Pablo Fernandez, Carlos Lopez, Miguel Klingenberghttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18012013-03-04T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Hazem Kandil | Cambridge University's Dr Hazem Kandil will help explain why Egypt's popular uprising has so far failed to overthrow the regime through exploring the positions of the main players in the revolt: the military, security, and the various political factions. Kandil's latest book, Soldiers, Spies and Statesmen: Egypt's Road to Revolt, (Verso, 2012) analyses Egypt’s transformation from military regime to police state, on the road to revolution. Hazem Kandil is the Cambridge University Lecturer in Political Sociology and Fellow of St Catharine’s College. His work examines military-security institutions and revolutionary movements. He has published on revolution, warfare, the sociology of intellectuals, and Islamism in various academic journals and periodicals. Kandil has taught political science at the American University of Cairo and social theory at UCLA before settling at the Sociology Department at Cambridge University.

Dr Hazem Kandilhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18122013-03-04T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Alain Juppé | At this time of mistrust towards the European Union, Alain Juppé reiterates his strong beliefs and his faith in Europe's future. A plea by a French statesman who has always been committed to the European enterprise.Alain Juppé was President of the political party Union for a Popular Movement from 2002 to 2004. He served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2011 to 2012. He also served as Prime Minister of France from 1995 to 1997 under President Jacques Chirac and the Minister of Defence and Veterans Affairs from 2010 to 2011. He had previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1993 to 1995, and as Minister of the Budget and Spokesman for the Government from 1986 to 1988.

Alain Juppéhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17982013-03-04T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Baljit Bains | LSE London's 2013 Lent term seminar series begins on the 14th of January. Speakers from within and beyond academia will focus on many of the implications of the current economic and political environment for London, covering relevant issues such as the road pricing, UK trends in higher education, census data and localism. Presenters include academics and practitioners from relevant fields.

Baljit Bainshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18002013-03-04T16:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Miranda Glover, Charles Leadbeater, Sam Riviere | Some people have been struck by the aphoristic potential of Twitter. Others see developments in new media as bringing the era of the literature to an end. This panel will explore the way new media impacts on traditional literary and philosophical forms of writing and reading. One question is about the *threat* of new media to classical literacy: fragmentation and overload in new media leading to the withering away of traditional literary, philosophical and poetic forms. Another question is about the *chance* that new media offers for new forms of cultural literacy: where everyone can become a reader and a writer.Miranda Glover is group account director for FMI Group, she specialises in brand positioning, strategic digital comms, film and social media marketing, heading up accounts including LG Mobile, Global and EHQ. She’s previously worked for international agencies with Motorola, Sony PlayStation, Lastminute.com, Unilever and others. She has published three novels with Random House, Meanwhile Street (2009) Soulmates (2007) and Masterpiece (2005), which was shortlisted for the Pendleton May first novel award and translated into seven languages.Charles Leadbeater is a leading authority on innovation and creativity, and author of We:think: the power of mass creativity, which charts the rise of mass, participative approaches to innovation from science and open source software, to computer games and political campaigning. Sam Riviere's poems have appeared in various publications and competitions since 2005. He co-edits the anthology series Stop Sharpening Your Knives and his debut collection 81 Austerities is published by Faber & Faber. He is currently working towards a PhD at the University of East Anglia. He was a recipient of a 2009 Eric Gregory Award.Simon Glendinning is director of the Forum for European Philosophy.This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival|, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Miranda Glover, Charles Leadbeater, Sam Rivierehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18102013-03-02T19:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Clémentine Deliss, Elke Krasny, Maria Lind, Justin McGuirk | In recent years arts practice has shifted towards new modes of collaborative production while digital platforms continually offer new ways to distribute and engage with the arts. As performing and visual arts organisations are transforming relationships with audiences, more varied roles have emerged for curators beyond exhibition making and collections management. Curating has evolved to embrace audience-generated content. Many curators see their role more and more as a cultural producer.The panel will examine an evolving definition of contemporary curation within their practices, and their relationships to the cities and people around them. Is an architect who arranges and designs spaces or the city a curator? Is a curator an architect of sorts producing spaces of exchange? What about the work a writer or researcher does in 'curating' arguments and ideas? Finally, how does the increasing importance of the everyday, of the street, and of shifting political geographies of art practice mark curation today?Clémentine Deliss is director of Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt am Main since April 2010. She studied contemporary art in Vienna, and social anthropology in Vienna, London, and Paris. She holds a PhD (1988) from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London on 1920s French museum anthropology and dissident surrealism.Elke Krasny is a cultural theorist, curator, urbanist and author, based in Vienna. She researches on the interrelations of architecture, urban space, issues of cultural identity and representation, engaged art practices, gender and world fairs, museums and exhibitions as cultural formations. She teaches Art and Public Space, Museum Pedagogy, Visual Didactics, Didactics of Architecture and Space and Cultural Education at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, "Garden as Community" at the Technical University of Vienna, Cultural Studies at the FH Joanneum Graz and is a visiting professor at the University of Bremen "Urban Transformation and its Narratives" 2006.Maria Lind is a curator and critic. She is director of Tensta Konsthall, a centre for contemporary art in Stockholm, Sweden. Between 2001 and 2004 she was director of the Munich Kunstverein. Previous to that she was curator at Moderna Museet in Stockholm (from 1997-2001) and in 1998 was co-curator of Manifesta 2 Europe’s nomadic biennale of contemporary art.Justin McGuirk is a writer, critic and curator. He is the director of Strelka Press, the publishing arm of the Strelka Institute in Moscow, and the design consultant to Domus. He has been the design columnist for The Guardian and the editor of Icon magazine. In 2012 he was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture for an exhibition he curated with Urban Think Tank. He is currently working on a book about activist architecture and social housing in Latin America.Theatrum Mundi / The Global Street is a new urban forum based in London at LSE Cities. It seeks to understand what brings life to a city, particularly in its public places and asks how these might be better designed. Theatrum Mundi, focused on urban culture, brings architects and town planners together with performing and visual artists to reimagine the public spaces of twenty-first century cities – streets, squares, parks, and places for culture. We begin with theoretical conversations and move towards real projects, celebrating those which embody new thinking about public space.This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival|, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Dr Clémentine Deliss, Elke Krasny, Maria Lind, Justin McGuirkhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17972013-03-02T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Ben Galley, Claire Squires, Damon Zucca | New technologies have the potential to revolutionise how publishing works. And the benefits for authors of faster and more accessible opportunities are obvious. But the death of books has long been predicted but has not yet come to pass. This session will look at the prospects for the future of academic and traditional publishing in the digital age. The session will examine the current state of play in digital publishing, how readers’ views are being heard and how the publishing world may change over the next decade.Ben Galley is an author and indie publisher. He will look at will look at what technology offers for both writing and publishing.Claire Squires is director of the Stirling Centre for International Publishing and Communication at the University of Stirling. She researches the history of the book and publishing in the 20th and 21st centuries and is director for Publications and Awards for the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing.Damon Zucca is publisher of Scholarly and Online Reference at Oxford University Press, where he oversees the planning and development of a range of print and digital publishing initiatives, including Oxford Biblical Studies, Oxford Bibliographies, and Oxford Handbooks Online. He has been working in scholarly book publishing for fifteen years as an editor at Garland Publishing, Routledge, and Peter Lang before coming to OUP.Jonathan Derbyshire is culture editor of the New Statesman. His literary journalism has also appeared in a number of newspapers and magazines, including the Financial Times, the Guardian, Literary Review, Prospect and the Times Literary SupplementThis event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Ben Galley, Claire Squires, Damon Zuccahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17962013-03-02T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Claude Fischler, Matthew Fort, Katie Miller, Carl Warner | Food is something of an obsession in contemporary culture, with 'celebrity' chefs topping the bestseller lists and pop-up restaurants and foodie blogs the height of cool. But are we thinking about food in the right way? Food shortages are predicted to be the next major world crisis, and obesity and eating disorders increasingly test our health services. Do campaigns to encourage sustainable healthy eating make any difference? This panel will explore international attitudes to food.Claude Fischler is director of Research at CNRS, the national research agency of France, and heads the Interdisciplinary Institute for Contemporary Anthropology, a research and graduate studies unit of Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. His main area of research is a comparative, social science perspective on food and nutrition, their role and determinants in societies and cultures. His work covers the structure and function of cuisines, taste and preferences, body image and their evolution and change over time and space. He has published numerous articles on these issues, as well as books including L'Homnivore, Du Vin and Manger. His latest book Les Alimentations particulières on special dietary requirements and the issues they involve will be published in 2013.Matthew Fort was Food and Drink editor of the Guardian from 1989- 2006. He has written for a wide variety of British, American and French publications. In 1992 he won the title of Glenfiddich Food Writer of the Year and, in 1993, Glenfiddich Restaurant Writer of the Year, as well as The Restaurateurs’ Association Food Writer of the Year. He was Glenfiddich Cookery Writer of the Year in 2005. He has written three books on food, the third of which, Eating Up Italy, was the Guild of Food Writers Book of the Year in 2005, and his fifth, Sweet Honey, Bitter Lemons, a food portrait of Sicily, won the Premio Sicilia Madre Mediterranea in 2009. Recent television series include Greatest Dishes in the World (Sky; 2005); The Forager’s Field Guide (ITV; 2005). He co-presented Market Kitchen (UKTVFood) with Tom Parker Bowles until 2010. Currently he’s a judge on The Great British Menu (BBC2; 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011,2012, 2013).Katie Miller is Sustainable Seafood Coalition advisor at ClientEarth. Prior to joining ClientEarth, Katie coordinated events for environmental NGO Green Alliance and worked on both fisheries and coral reefs in marine and freshwater conservation programmes at the Zoological Society of London.Carl Warner is a professional still life photographer with a studio in London, and has worked in the advertising industry for more than 20 years. Over the past ten years he has been developing a body of work making landscapes out of food. This work has been featured in magazines and newspapers all over the world, as well as advertising campaigns and commissions from some of the biggest brand names in the food industry. His book Carl Warner's Food Landscapes is published by Abrams Image.James Thornton is an environmental lawyer, social entrepreneur, and the founding CEO of ClientEarth. James founded ClientEarth - Europe’s first public interest environmental law organisation - in 2007. Now operating globally, it uses advocacy, litigation and research to address the greatest challenges of our time - including biodiversity loss, climate change, and toxic chemicals. The New Statesman has named him as one of 10 people who could change the world.This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Claude Fischler, Matthew Fort, Katie Miller, Carl Warnerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17952013-03-02T15:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Paul Farley, Tristan Gooley, Sara Maitland | Paul Farley has received widespread acclaim for his poetry, including the Whitbread Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award, the E.M. Forster Award and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year. From 2000-02 he was poet-in-residence at the Wordsworth Trust in Grasmere, and as a broadcaster he has made many programmes with the BBC on art, landscape and literature, including Auden: Six Unexpected Days, The Larkin Tapes and Children of the Whitsun Weddings. Edgelands, a non-fiction book (co-written with Michael Symmons Roberts), was serialised as a Radio 4 Book of the Week in 2011. His latest collection, The Dark Film, is a Poetry Book Society Choice.Tristan Gooley is a writer, navigator and explorer. He has worked in travel most of his life, led expeditions on five continents and pioneered a renaissance in the very rare art of natural navigation. Tristan is the only living person to have both flown solo and sailed single-handed across the Atlantic. He is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Institute of Navigation and Vice Chairman of the UK's largest independent travel company, Trailfinders. His books include The Natural Explorer and The Natural Navigator. His website is www.naturalnavigator.com.Sara Maitland is the author of numerous works of fiction, including the Somerset Maugham Award-winning Daughters of Jerusalem, and several non-fiction books about religion. The Book of Silence was shortlisted for four prizes: The Orwell, the Saltire, The Scottish Arts Council book award and the Bristol Festival of Ideas Book prize, and has sold more than 30,000 copies. Born in 1950, she studied at Oxford University and currently tutors on the MA in creative writing for Lancaster University. Her latest book is Gossip from the Forests.Tim Cresswell is pofessor of human geography at Royal Holloway.This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Paul Farley, Tristan Gooley, Sara Maitlandhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17942013-03-02T15:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Pat Barker | Moving from the Slade School of Art to Queen Mary's Hospital, where surgery and art intersect in the rebuilding of the shattered faces of the wounded, Pat Barker’s latest novel Toby's Room is a riveting drama of identity, damage, intimacy and loss. This event will explore art’s responsibility to war, and the links between art, literature, science and history.Pat Barker was born in Thornaby-on-Tees in 1943. She was educated at LSE and has been a teacher of history and politics. Her books include Union Street (1982), winner of the 1983 Fawcett Prize, which has been filmed as Stanley and Iris; Blow Your House Down (1984); Liza's England (1986), formerly The Century's Daughter, The Man Who Wasn't There (1989); the highly acclaimed Regeneration trilogy, comprising Regeneration,The Eye in The Door, winner of the 1993 Guardian Fiction Prize, and The Ghost Road, winner of the 1995 Booker Prize for Fiction and Another World. Her last novel was Life Class.Suzannah Biernoff is lecturer in modern and contemporary visual culture, Department of History of Art and Screen Media at Birkbeck College.This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Pat Barkerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17922013-03-02T13:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Carola Luther, Michael McGregor, Dr Llewelyn Morgan | How well can political ideas and sentiments be expressed and illuminated in poetry? Are oblique references more successful than the overt? Is the formulation of political ideas in poetry intrinsically more difficult than other ideas? Does a poet’s expression of politics necessarily compromise her status as a poet, or are our views of these matters culturally specific, related to assumptions about and ideals of the poet that cannot be applied at all historical times.In this panel discussion speakers will read short passages of poetry to illustrate their points.Carola Luther is a former poet in residence at The Wordsworth Trust, now living in Yorkshire. She is the author of Arguing with Malarchy and Walking the Animals (Carcanet Press) and Herd (Wordsworth Trust). Carola will examine the topic from the perspective of contemporary poetry.Michael McGregor is The Robert Woof Director of The Wordsworth Trust – an organisation that not only curates the world’s most important collection of Wordsworth manuscripts, but also supports contemporary poetry through readings, workshops and a poetry residence. Michael’s remarks will centre on the treatment of political issues such as the French Revolution by Wordsworth and other Romantics.Llewelyn Morgan is lecturer in classical literature and language and tutorial fellow in classics at Brasenose College, Oxford, and author of Musa Pedestris: Metre and Meaning in Roman Verse, Oxford University Press. Llewelyn will focus on the Latin poets, Virgil and Horace, who wrote under the indirect patronage of the first Roman emperor.Richard Bronk is a visiting fellow at the European Institute, LSE, and author of The Romantic Economist (Cambridge University Press).This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Carola Luther, Michael McGregor, Dr Llewelyn Morganhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17932013-03-02T13:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Vayu Naidu, Michael Wood | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor audio quality of this recording. After a performance by the highly acclaimed story teller Vayu Naidu of a story from the Ramayana, this discussion will explore the oral tradition of storytelling, and fiction.Vayu Naidu is a story teller. She is founder and artistic director of the Vau Naidu company, which promotes storytelling as theatre, with a signature style combining text, music and dance. She has brought research and performance of oral traditions into British Academy, creating new works with composers and orchestras and for theatre and radio drama. Her debut novel is Sita's Ascent.Michael Wood is a British historian and filmmaker. He has made over 100 documentary films including In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great and The Story of India, which have been seen in most countries of the world; the latest was The Great British Story on BBC 2 this summer. Among his many books he is the author of The Story of India (BBC) and a contributor to Chidambaram the Home of Nataraja (Marg Mumbai); his South Indian Journey (Penguin) was praised by Rough Guides as ‘one of the most enlightening books ever written about South India’. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a governor of the RSC.Mukulika Banerjee is a reader in Social Anthropology at LSE.This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festivals, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Dr Vayu Naidu, Michael Woodhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17912013-03-02T11:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Gabriella Ambrosio, Vered Cohen–Barzilay, Marina Nemat | Literature has a unique capacity to touch the hearts and minds and engage readers in a way that is distinctly different from political or academic texts. Can it play a role in exposing human rights violations? Should literature be ‘engaged’, and should authors take political or social stand?Gabriella Ambrosio’s first novel, Before we Say Goodbye, was inspired by the true story of a suicide bombing and is widely used as an educational tool.Vered Cohen–Barzilay is founder of Novel Rights, which encourages the literary community to take action.Marina Nemat’s memoir, Prisoner of Tehran, tells of growing up in Iran, being imprisoned for speaking out against the Iranian government and escaping a death sentence.Susan Marks joined the LSE in 2010 as Professor of International Law.This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Gabriella Ambrosio, Vered Cohen–Barzilay, Marina Nemathttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17902013-03-02T11:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Katy Darby | Editor's note: This podcast contains writing exercises, which may mean some periods of silence during the recording, but we would encourage you to join in. Bored of the same old viewpoint or genre? Want to inject new life into your prose? Katy Darby talks about experimenting and playing around with different approaches to writing fiction. We'll explore the genesis and development of ideas (and come up with some new ones of our own) - and discuss ways of telling a story which can refresh a dusty narrative and teach an old plot new tricks. Katy Darby is author of The Unpierced Heart, director of short story event Liars' League and writing tutor at City University. This is the second of three workshops, preceeded by Fast Fiction: creative writing and changing technology at 10am, and followed by Based on a True Story at 12noon. This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Katy Darbyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18272013-03-02T11:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Jonathan Gibbs | Editor's note: This podcast contains writing exercises, which may mean some periods of silence during the recording, but we would encourage you to join in. It’s a truism that technology is changing the way we live our lives – but should this fact change just what we write about, or should it change the way we write too? In this workshop we will look at – and try out – various ways that writers have tried to keep pace with the new dynamics of the digital age, including flash fiction and Twitter fiction, as well as seeing what happens when we try to incorporate these new ways of understanding the world, and dealing with the information overload, into more tradition prose styles and forms. Bring a pad and paper, and a Twitter-enabled communication device (phone or laptop) ready to tweet – set up an account if you don’t have one. Jonathan Gibbs is currently finishing a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of East Anglia, where he was awarded a Malcolm Bradbury memorial bursary, and graduate teacher of the Year. His story, Tiny Camels is published by www.shortfirepress.com and his novel Randall, or The Painted Grape is currently on submission. This is the first of three workshops, followed by Trying New Positions: how to spice up your text life at 11am, and Based on a True Story at 12noon. This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Jonathan Gibbshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18262013-03-02T10:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Hugh Tomlinson QC, Karon Monaghan QC, Jamie Burton, Martin Howe QC, Richard Honey, Tim Frost, Will Hutton, Andrew Lilico, Ruth Porter, Magdalena Sepulveda, Polly Toynbee | Introduction: Conor Gearty (LSE Department of Law) and Aoife Nolan (Just Fair) Judge: Hugh Tomlinson QC (Matrix Chambers) Prosecution: led by Karon Monaghan QC (Matrix Chambers) with Jamie Burton (Doughty Street) Defence: led by Martin Howe QC (8 New Square) with Richard Honey (Francis Taylor Building) Expert Witnesses: Tim Frost (Cairn Capital Group), Will Hutton (Oxford University), Andrew Lilico (Europe Economics), Ruth Porter (Institute of Economic Affairs), Magdalena Sepúlveda(UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights) and Polly Toynbee (The Guardian)Does UK government policy on economic austerity breach international human rights law? In an innovative legal proceedings, the charges will be brought, and 'Austerity' defended, by a team of legal experts, backed by distinguished human rights and other specialist witnesses from the UK and around the world. Overseen by a leading barrister acting as judge, the trial will end with a verdict delivered by a jury of children and young people, as well as the audience. The jury is made up of members of Amplify (the Children's Commissioner for England's Advisory Group of children and young people) and members of the LSE Widening Participation Programme.For full speaker biographies, the prosecution indictment and the defence statement for the event, please click on Event posting.For additional information on the event, please click on the Just Fair - Austerity on Trial link in Related Links below.

Hugh Tomlinson QC, Karon Monaghan QC, Jamie Burton, Martin Howe QC, Richard Honey, Tim Frost, Will Hutton, Andrew Lilico, Ruth Porter, Magdalena Sepulveda, Polly Toynbeehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18112013-03-01T18:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Russell Goulbourne, Dr Tim Hochstrasser, Dr Paul Keenan | This discussion will explore the work and influence of the French Enlightenment philosopher, art critic and writer Denis Diderot, a key figure for the Festival in the 300th anniversary of the year of his birth. Probably best known for co-founding and editing the Encyclopedie, our panel of experts will discuss this and other less well-known areas of his life, including his association with Catherine the Great and his writings about Pacific discoveries.Russell Goulbourne is professor of early modern French literature at the University of Leeds and his books include a translation of Diderot’s The Nun.Tim Hochstrasser is senior lecturer in International History at LSE. Dr Hochstrasser's research focuses on the two-way relationship between intellectual life and political action in the history of early modern Europe, and above all on the use made of contemporary historical and philosophical writing to legitimate and defend changing concepts of sovereignty and political structure.Paul Keenan is lecturer in international history at LSE. Dr Keenan's research deals with Russia during the eighteenth century and, in particular, the role of St Petersburg in the relationship between Russia and other contemporary European states.Paul Stock is lecturer in early modern international history at LSE.This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Professor Russell Goulbourne, Dr Tim Hochstrasser, Dr Paul Keenanhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17892013-03-01T16:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Jenny Uglow | Jenny Uglow celebrates National Women’s History Month and its theme ‘women inspiring innovation through imagination’ with this talk about Sarah Losh, who built an extraordinary church in a village near Carlisle in the 1840s. As a woman innovator she broke all conventions in designing, supervising the building, and even carving the alabaster - sixty years before women architects were accepted into RIBA. She has been called ‘a Charlotte Bronte of wood and stone’, defying the gothic vogue, and creating a Romantic language of symbols, from the pinecone and lotus to fossils from local mines, incorporating new ideas from geology and science, and celebrating the buried past and resurrection of the earth.Jenny Uglow’s books include Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories, The Lunar Men: The Friends who Made the Future and, most recently, The Pinecone.Hermione Lee is well known as a writer, reviewer and broadcaster. Her books include biographies of Virginia Woolf and Edith Wharton.This event is organised in association with the Royal Society of Literature. Forthcoming RSL speakers include: Emma Donoghue, Jung Chang, Hermione Lee, Richard Mabey, Alice Oswald and Robin Robertson. Please visit www.rslit.org to book or for more information. Membership of the Royal Society of Literature is open to all. This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Jenny Uglowhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17882013-03-01T12:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor David Abulafia | One great sea, a multitude of cultures and an embarrassment of riches: David Abulafia shares his intellectual odyssey from Alicante to Alexandria, from Salerno to Smyrna.David Abulafia is professor of Mediterranean History at Cambridge University and author of The Great Sea: a human history of the Mediterranean.Helen Moore is fellow and tutor at Corpus Christi College, Oxford and University lecturer in the Faculty of English.This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Professor David Abulafiahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17872013-03-01T12:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor John Gray | John Gray draws on an extraordinary array of memoirs, poems, fiction and philosophy to make us re-imagine our place in the world. Writers as varied as Ballard, Borges, Freud and Conrad are mesmerised by forms of human extremity - experiences on the outer edge of the possible, or which tip into fantasy and myth. What happens to us when we starve, when we fight, when we are imprisoned? And how do our imaginations leap into worlds way beyond our real experience?In this lecture, John Gray will explore the conundrum of our existence - an existence which we decorate with countless myths and ideas, where we twist and turn to avoid acknowledging that we too are animals, separated from the others perhaps only by our self-conceit. In the Babel we have created for ourselves, it is the silence of animals that both reproaches and bewitches us.John Gray is emeritus professor of european thought at LSE, and author of Straw Dogs, The Immortalization Commission and The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths.This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Professor John Grayhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17842013-02-28T19:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Leandro Carrera, Professor Patrick Dunleavy, Joe Grice, Edwin Lau, Barry Quirk | For many decades there has been little effective analysis and guidance on how to improve the organizational productivity of government bodies consistently over time. Yet unless this can be achieved, the relative price of public services is doomed to rise ineluctably (the 'Baumol disease' problem).Leandro Carrera and Patrick Dunleavy's new book Growing the Productivity of Government Services (published by Edward Elgar) provides the first in-depth empirical treatment of the organizational productivity of unique national government agencies, focusing on UK taxation, social security and regulatory agencies. In addition, they also show how productivity analysis for decentralized services can include salient and managerially useful variables, looking at how IT and management modernization help shape the productivity of NHS hospitals. The first rule of productivity growth in public services is to focus hard on consistently measuring and improving productivity performance. The second rule is to embrace IT modernization carried out in tandem with genuinely effective and well-considered business process reorganization.This lecture will discuss ideas for the improvement of public sector productivity from a local, national and international government perspective.Leandro Carrera is a senior researcher at the Pensions Policy Institute.Patrick Dunleavy is professor of political science and public policy at LSE.Joe Grice is chief economist at the Office for National Statistics.Edwin Lau is head of the Reform of the Public Sector Division in the OECD Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate.Barry Quirk is chief executive at the London Borough of Lewisham.Diane Coyle OBE is a freelance economist, and is a member of the UK Competition Commission and Vice Chairman of the BBC Trust. Previously she was an advisor to the UK Treasury and the Economics Editor of the Independent.LSE Public Policy Group (PPG) is an independent consultancy and research organisation.PPG provides thorough analysis and recommendations for a variety of clients; providing an interface between academia, the private, public and 'third' sector.LSE Works is a series of public lectures, that will showcase some of the latest research by LSE's Research Centres. In each session, LSE academics will present key research findings, demonstrating where appropriate the implications of their studies for public policy. A list of all the LSE Works lectures can be viewed online.

Leandro Carrera, Professor Patrick Dunleavy, Joe Grice, Edwin Lau, Barry Quirkhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17822013-02-28T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Jerry Brotton, Mike Parker | Editor's note: Unfortunately the last few minutes of the lecture are missing from the recording. Throughout history maps have been fundamental in shaping our view of the world and our place in it. Our panel will discuss how maps both influence and reflect contemporary events and how, by reading them, we can better understand the worlds that produced them.Jerry Brotton is professor of renaissance studies at Queen Mary University of London, and a leading expert in the history of maps and Renaissance cartography. His last book, The Sale of the Late King's Goods: Charles I and his Art Collection (2006), was short-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize as well as the Hessell-Tiltman History Prize. In 2010, he was the presenter of the BBC4 series Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession. His latest book is A History of the World in Twelve Maps.Mike Parker is the author of the best-selling Map Addict and writer and presenter of BBC Radio 4’s On the Map. He is currently working on a book, The Story of Britain in Road Maps, to be published in autumn 2013.This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Professor Jerry Brotton, Mike Parkerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17832013-02-28T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Ken Livingstone | Ken Livingstone has for almost 40 years been a controversial but highly effective politician who has dominated London politics. He championed low fares for public transport, fought the abolition of the GLC, defeated Labour to become mayor of London in 2000, re-joined Labour and then presided over eight years of pro-development, market-led policy in the capital. He has brought a distinctive point of view to many issues, always dividing opinion. He has continued his life in politics, having been elected to Labour’s NEC and maintaining a commentary on public policy.Ken Livingstone is author of You Can’t Say That: Memoirs, published by Faber.This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Ken Livingstonehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17812013-02-28T13:15:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Miriam Bernard, Dr Kip Jones, Dr Gareth Morris | Academic communication is changing. New emphasis on impact and public engagement, combined with new technologies that allow high quality and easy to use production methods are increasing the possible range of outputs from academic research. This session will hear from three researchers that have used alternative forms for their research dissemination. We will ask what strengths these forms had in comparison to traditional books and articles, their value to research users and their credibility with funders and academic assessors. Miriam Bernard is professor at Keele and looks at representation of aging in drama through a partnership with the New Vic Theatre. Kip Jones is a reader in performative social sciences at Bournemouth University, and film-maker. Gareth Morris of Salford University has used graphic novels to disseminate research findings on homelessness. Amy Mollett is managing editor of LSE Review of Books, a blog providing daily academic book reviews from the social sciences.This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Professor Miriam Bernard, Dr Kip Jones, Dr Gareth Morrishttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17802013-02-28T12:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Greg Artus, Richard Bronk, Aifric Campbell, Professor Roger Kneebone | Is truth a casualty in the stories we tell about science? Is there a conflict between narrative truth and historical truth? Can fiction illuminate scientific themes? What are the challenges of presenting scientific topics in the media? How do scientists tell stories to raise capital? Greg Artus lectures in politics, philosophy and business ethics at Imperial College. His research interests include the nature of human action and perception, and the work of Wittgenstein and Heidegger.Richard Bronk is Visiting Fellow in LSE's European Institute. Richard is is a writer and part-time academic, with particular expertise in the history of ideas, philosophy of economics, comparative corporate governance and European political economy. His books include The Romantic Economist - Imagination in Economics (Cambridge University Press, 2009).Aifric Campbell is a writer and former investment banker at Morgan Stanley. Her latest novel On the Floor was longlisted for the 2012 Orange Prize. She teaches at Imperial College.Roger Kneebone is professor of surgical education at Imperial College. He is a clinician and educationalist who leads a multidisciplinary research group at Imperial College. Roger has an international profile as an academic and innovator and is a 2011 National Teaching Fellow. In 2013 Roger will take up a prestigious Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellowship.Nick Russell was a college science lecturer, freelance journalist, and vocational science curriculum developer before organizing and teaching postgraduate science communication programmes at Birkbeck College and Imperial College. He was head of Department of Humanities at Imperial College before he retired and is now emeritus reader in Science Communication at Imperial College.This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Greg Artus, Richard Bronk, Aifric Campbell, Professor Roger Kneebonehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17792013-02-27T19:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Tan Sri Dato' Azman bin Hj. Mokhtar, Dr Frank Vogel | Organised in conjunction with the Harvard Islamic Finance Project, a distinguished authority shall speak on Islamic finance in the Western world. Tan Sri Dato' Azman bin Hj. Mokhtar is managing director of Khazanah Nasional. Frank Vogel is the founder and former director of Harvard Law School’s Islamic Legal Studies Program.

Tan Sri Dato' Azman bin Hj. Mokhtar, Dr Frank Vogelhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17752013-02-27T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Christopher Andrew, Professor Lord Hennessy, Alan Judd | Although the cliché of the novelist as a typically bohemian, solitary, garret-inhabiting individual persists, in reality today, as in the past, the majority of novelists writing lead double-lives, holding down at least a part-time and very often a full-time job as well. Trollope did a full-time job as a director of the General Post office while simultaneously turning out some of the major novels of the nineteenth century. Kafka worked in an insurance office. Author of the bestseller The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame worked at the Bank of England for thirty years.This panel will discuss the question of combining official work with the writing of fiction in the context of the Cold War and after.Professor Christopher Andrew is author of Defence of The Realm, the official history of MI5.Peter Hennessy is Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary, University of London. He has written several books on contemporary British history including Never Again and Having It So Good. Distilling the Frenzy is his latest book.Alan Judd represents a case in point, having published nine novels, most recently Uncommon Enemy (2012), while simultaneously working in the army, in the Foreign Office and in other Whitehall departments. He has also written, while pursuing these day jobs, The Quest For C , the biography of Mansfield Cumming, founder of MI5.This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Professor Christopher Andrew, Professor Lord Hennessy, Alan Juddhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17762013-02-27T17:15:00Z

Speaker(s): Lisa Appignanesi, Professor Anne Applebaum, Dr Charles Fernyhough | Our ability to remember forms the basis of who we are, and is a psychological trick that has fascinated scientists and authors alike. But are our memories reliable, or are the stories we tell about our past just a fiction of the mind? This panel brings together psychology, history and literature in its exploration of memory.Lisa Appignanesi OBE is a prize-winning writer, novelist, broadcaster and cultural commentator. A visiting professor at King’s College London, she is former president of the campaigning writers association, English PEN, and chair of London’s Freud Museum. . Her latest books are All About Love: Anatomy of an Unruly Emotion, and Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors.Anne Applebaum is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2012-13. Her books include Gulag: A History and Iron Curtain:The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56.Dr Charles Fernyhough is a writer and psychologist. His previous book, The Baby in the Mirror, was critically acclaimed in the UK and has been translated into seven languages. Pieces of Light:The new science of memory was published in July 2012. He is a reader in Psychology at Durham University and has written for the Guardian, Financial Times and Sunday Telegraph.Sandra Jovchelovitch is professor in the Institute of Social Psychology, LSE. She is a social and cultural psychologist interested in the development and social context of knowledge, social representations, community and the social psychology of public spheres. Her current research focuses on how different socio-cultural contexts shape the development and transformation of knowledge, and in particular, on how different systems of knowing meet and relate in contemporary public spheres.This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Lisa Appignanesi, Professor Anne Applebaum, Dr Charles Fernyhoughhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17772013-02-27T17:15:00Z

Speaker(s): Molly Crabapple, Professor Mary Evans, Vicky Featherstone, Kate Mosse | In celebration of LSE’s acquisition of the Women’s Library, our distinguished panel will discuss the role of women in literature, the arts and academia today. This event will include readings from the Women's Library archives, and from works that have inspired our panel. Molly Crabapple is a New York artist. Her most recent projects are Week in Hell, in which she locked herself in a hotel room, covered the walls in paper, and filled 270 square feet of wall with art and Shell Game, a series of large-scale paintings about the revolutions of 2011 that will be shown together publicly in Spring 2013. Her work is in the permanent collection of the New York Historical Society, the Rubin Museum of Art, and the Groucho Club (London). She writes for CNN and Vice. Molly's published books include Discordia (with Laurie Penny; Random House UK, 2012), Devil in the Details (IDW, 2012), Saints and Sinners (IDW, 2012), Week in Hell (2012), Puppet Makers (DC Comics, 2011), and the forthcoming Straw House (First Second Books, 2014). Mary Evans is a LSE Centennial Professor and attached to the Gender Institute from 2010 to 2013. Prior to coming to the LSE as a visiting fellow she taught Women's Studies and Sociology at the University of Kent. Vicky Featherstonehas been artistic director of the National Theatre of Scotland since its foundation in 2006, touring work to venues large and small all around Scotland. One of her first commissions was the hit production Black Watch by Gregory Burke, directed by John Tiffany, which attracted international acclaim, winning multiple awards and touring all over the world. Prior to this Vicky Featherstone was artistic director of new writing company Paines Plough Theatre Company from 1997-2005. In April 2013 she will join the Royal Court Theatre as artistic director. Kate Mosse is the author of three non-fiction books, three plays and five novels, including the multi-million selling international No 1 bestseller, Labyrinth. The first of her Languedoc Trilogy, it was translated into 37 languages and published in 40 countries. The second in the series, Sepulchre, was also a # 1 bestseller. The third and final novel in the series, Citadel, was published in October 2012. She is the co-founder & honorary director of the Orange Prize for Fiction, now called the Women's Prize for Fiction. This event forms part of LSE's 5th Space for Thought Literary Festival, taking place from Tuesday 26 February - Saturday 2 March 2013, with the theme 'Branching Out'.

Molly Crabapple, Professor Mary Evans, Vicky Featherstone, Kate Mossehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17782013-02-27T13:00:00Z

Speaker(s): David Edmonds, Nigel Warburton | In the 5th century BC Socrates brought philosophy to the marketplace. Can this ancient branch of learning be rejuvenated by the technology of the 21st century?Philosophy Bites Back is the second book from the team that brings you Philosophy Bites, the hugely successful podcast that has now had 16 million downloads. Philosophy Bites Back is a collection of conversations with leading scholars on major figures in the history of philosophy.David Edmonds is a senior research associate at Oxford’s Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics.Nigel Warburton is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and author of A LIttle History of Philosophy.

David Edmonds, Nigel Warburtonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17742013-02-26T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Lord Alderdice, Dr Deirdre MacManus | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor audio quality of this recording. How much do we know about the psychology of those engaged in the violence of insurgency and counterinsurgency? What are the predispositions and motivations for violence, and what are the psychological consequences of their experiences? From 1987 to 1998 John Alderdice was the leader of Northern Ireland’s cross-community Alliance Party. He has previously served as the consultant–in-charge of the Centre for Psychotherapy, Belfast.Deirdre MacManus is a forensic psychiatrist and clinical lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London.

Lord Alderdice, Dr Deirdre MacManushttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=18452013-02-26T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Damian Chalmers | As part of the EU, can Britain disobey EU law and when would it be democratic to do so? If Britain left the Union how easy would it be to ignore EU law and when would it be democratic to do so? Damian Chalmers is professor of European Union law at LSE.

Professor Damian Chalmershttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17722013-02-26T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Andrew Simms | Is the sleeping architecture of a new economic approach already with us? Andrew Simms argues that while we might be dancing on the edge of systemic threats to the economy, society and environment, we have the tools and resources necessary to build a bridge across them.Andrew Simms is the author of several books including the bestselling Tescopoly. He is a Fellow of nef (the new economics foundation) where he was policy director for many years, trained at the London School of Economics and Political Science and was described by New Scientist magazine as, ‘a master at joined-up progressive thinking.’ He is also one of the UK’s leading campaigners who coined the term ‘Clone Towns,’ co-authored the groundbreaking Green New Deal, was one of the original organisers of the campaign to cancel poor country debt, and devised how to mark the day in the year when the world enters ‘ecological debt.’ This event marks the publication of his new book Cancel the Apocalypse: The New Path to Prosperity.

Andrew Simmshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17692013-02-25T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Andy Clark | We are entering an age of widespread human enhancement. This raises a fundamental question: where does the mind stop, and the rest of the world begin? Andy Clark is professor of logic and metaphysics at the University of Edinburgh.

Professor Andy Clarkhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17702013-02-25T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Alan Evans | LSE London's 2013 Lent term seminar series begins on the 14th of January. Speakers from within and beyond academia will focus on many of the implications of the current economic and political environment for London, covering relevant issues such as the road pricing, UK trends in higher education, census data and localism. Presenters include academics and practitioners from relevant fields.

Professor Alan Evanshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17712013-02-25T16:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Jim Hagemann Snabe | While the digital age has reached the individual through global social networks and redefined social interaction some years ago, the digital revolution for the business world has just started. Innovation in technology is opening up a whole new area of business opportunities that go beyond our established way of doing business. We can reach the individual consumer instantly anytime anywhere. We can get new business insights and analyze unlimited amounts of data in real time. We can solve problems that weren’t solvable before. And we can redefine value chains and integrate them in global business networks where everyone can participate – big or small – with unlimited possibilities to sell, buy and collaborate. The digital revolution in business is driven by three mega technology trends: in-memory computing for unlimited real-timeness, cloud-based social collaboration and business networks and individual access to mission critical insight for better decisions anytime anywhere from any mobile device. SAP is a leading global innovator that drives the convergence of these mega trends to create the next wave of innovation and growth for businesses. The world is changing rapidly: hyper-connected, shorter product cycles, more unpredictability, and even more limited resources. Businesses need to adjust and innovate much faster to meet future business challenges while constantly sensing and responding to customer demand. Technology, and in particular smart software solutions are game changing – not only for the IT industry but for the entire enterprise. As the global market leader in enterprise software SAP is at the forefront of these developments. An estimated 63% of all world transactions run through SAP. SAP has more than 230.000 customers and achieved total revenues of more than 16 billion Euros in 2012. Jim Hagemann Snabe is SAP co-CEO and will offer unique insights on how the digital revolution creates opportunities across many industries and how the power of innovative software solutions can bring productivity and innovation to a new level that we require to propel sustainable growth for our economies in Europe and across the globe.

Jim Hagemann Snabehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17682013-02-21T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Phil Hutchinson, Professor Vasudevi Reddy, Dr Jonathan Webber | Shame is often depicted as playing a socially negative role. But might it also play an important positive role in our moral psychology, and for a flourishing political community? Is shame a source of self-knowledge, and a spur to transformative action, as Sartre and Beauvoir suggest? How important are other people to one’s feeling of shame? And how should we think about the developmental origins of shame? Phil Hutchinson is senior lecturer in philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University. Vasudevi Reddy is professor of developmental and cultural psychology at the University of Portsmouth. Jonathan Webber is reader in philosophy at Cardiff University.

Dr Phil Hutchinson, Professor Vasudevi Reddy, Dr Jonathan Webberhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17672013-02-21T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Fawaz Gerges, Professor Charles Tripp | What drives large-scale, popular mobilizations in the Middle East and North Africa? And what are the challenges and prospects for democratic transformation and consolidation in the region? This lecture, ahead of the release of the LSE Middle East Centre’s new book, The New Middle East: Protest and Revolution in the Arab World (CUP, 2013), looks to explore these questions and more. Fawaz Gerges is director of the Middle East Centre at LSE. Charles Tripp is professor of politics at SOAS. Kristian Coates Ulrichsen is the co-director of the Kuwait Programme at LSE. The LSE Middle East Centre opened in October 2010. It builds on LSE's long engagement with the Middle East and provides a central hub for the wide range of research on the region carried out at LSE. LSE Works is a series of public lectures, that will showcase some of the latest research by LSE's Research Centres. In each session, LSE academics will present key research findings, demonstrating where appropriate the implications of their studies for public policy. A list of all the LSE Works lectures can be viewed online.

Professor Fawaz Gerges, Professor Charles Tripphttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17662013-02-21T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Simon Hix | A look at how the emerging structure of macro-economic governance in Europe has an impact on traditional modes of democratic politics, at both the national and European levels. Simon Hix is professor of European and comparative politics at LSE and fellow of the British Academy.

Professor Simon Hixhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17642013-02-20T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Werner Telesko | A look at how Habsburg visions and constructions of identity were reflected in the arts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and how the history of the Habsburg Empire was “reconfigured” after 1918. Werner Telesko is corresponding member of the section for the humanities and the social sciences at the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Dr Werner Teleskohttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17632013-02-20T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Conor Gearty, Dr Devika Hovell | Leading human rights lawyer Professor Conor Gearty speaks about his new book Liberty and Security with Dr Devika Hovell. Conor Gearty is professor of human rights law at LSE. Devika Hovell is a lecturer in public international law at LSE.

Professor Conor Gearty, Dr Devika Hovellhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17602013-02-19T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Lord Giddens | The risks we face, and the opportunities we have, in the 21st century are in many respects quite different from those experienced in earlier periods of history. How should we analyse and respond to such a world? What is a rational balance of optimism and pessimism? How can we plan for a future that seems to elude our grasp and in some ways is imponderable? Anthony Giddens is former Director of the LSE and a member of the House of Lords.

Professor Lord Giddenshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17612013-02-19T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Stefano Bartolini | The EU crisis, and the new economic governance instruments invented to solve it, further complicates the problem of the source of EU legitimacy. This lecture will explore these problematic connections. Stefano Bartolini is director of the Robert Schumann Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute.

Professor Stefano Bartolinihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17622013-02-19T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Fawwaz Traboulsi | With few comprehensive histories of Lebanon, Professor Fawwaz Traboulsi's A History of Modern Lebanon, which weaves together more than five centuries of the country's social, political, cultural and economic history, has become a go-to reference for anyone who wants to understand the country. In this lecture, Traboulsi will share the problems he has faced in writing the history of Lebanon and how he has dealt and proposes to deal with these challenges. This event is free and open to all on first come first served basis. Please make sure to arrive early to book your seat. *Note: Professor Traboulsi will also give a smaller seminar on Wednesday 20 2013, in which he will discuss the Arab uprisings. This seminar is limited to 50 attendees and is already fully registred. Fawwaz Traboulsi is Associate Professor of Political Science and History at the Lebanese American University, and the American University of Beirut. He has been a visiting professor at New York University, the University of Michigan, Columbia University, and Cairo University, and a fellow at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, and the Wissenshaftskolleg, Berlin. His books, papers and articles focus on the history, politics, social movements, political philosophy, folklore, and art in the Arab World. Traboulsi’s translations include Edward Said’s memoir, Out of Place, as well as Said's Humanism and Democratic Critique. Traboulsi's most recent publication is A History of Modern Lebanon (in English and Arabic, 2007). Traboulsi, a long time journalist, is a columnist for As-Safir Daily and chief editor of Bidayat, a new quarterly magazine launched last year.

Professor Fawwaz Traboulsihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17592013-02-18T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Shani Orgad, Professor Saskia Sassen, Laurie Taylor | Marking the publication of Shani Orgad's latest book Media Representation and the Global Imagination (Polity), the panel will discuss how the way we imagine the world and its 'others' is nourished by the media, and how the media can offer different images and accounts from the ones we encounter.Dr Shani Orgad is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications at LSE.Saskia Sassen is Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology and Co-Chair Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University.Laurie Taylor presents Thinking Allowed on BBC Radio 4. He is a consultant, writes for newspapers and magazines, contributes to television programmes and is an accomplished public speaker.Charlie Beckett is Head of Department of Media and Communications and Director of Polis.

Dr Shani Orgad, Professor Saskia Sassen, Laurie Taylorhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17582013-02-18T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Julian Baggini, Hardeep Singh Kohli | Humour is not to be confused with comedy and jokes. Humour concerns something that belongs to and can more or less pervade everyday life and conversation, not something restricted to comedy sketches or stand-up routines. In this dialogue we will explore everyday humour, and its distinctive regional and cultural variations. Are there principles of British humour that transcend class, profession, religion and region? Are there ‘cultures of humour’ across the world? Julian Baggini is a philosopher, writer and broadcaster. Hardeep Singh Kohli is a raconteur, a cook, a writer and a broadcaster.

Dr Julian Baggini, Hardeep Singh Kohlihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17552013-02-18T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Eamonn Butler | The Nobel economist F A Hayek was the arch-rival of Keynes in the 1930s and 1940s. Some today say that he has the better explanation of boom-bust cycles and how to end them. His prescription is the exact opposite of Keynes – no big infrastructure spending, no keeping things afloat with quantitative easing and cheap credit, but leaner government, lower taxes, less regulation and more freedom for businesses and individuals alike. In this lecture, Hayek biographer Dr Eamonn Butler of the Adam Smith Institute explains Hayek's view that a prosperous economy and a creative society are better achieved by individual freedom than by state planning. This event marks his latest book Friedrich Hayek: The ideas and influence of the libertarian economist.Eamonn Butler is director of the Adam Smith Institute, rated one of the world's leading policy think-tanks. He has degrees in economics, philosophy and psychology, gaining a PhD from the University of St Andrews in 1978 and an honorary DLitt from Heriot-Watt University in 2012. During the 1970s he worked on pensions and welfare issues for the US House of Representatives, and taught philosophy in Hillsdale College, Michigan, before returning to the UK to help found the Adam Smith Institute.Eamonn is author of books on the pioneering economists Milton Friedman, F A Hayek, Ludwig von Mises and Adam Smith, and on the Austrian and Public Choice schools of economics. He is also co-author of Forty Centuries of Wage and Price Controls, and of a series of books on intelligence testing. Eamonn contributes to the leading UK print and broadcast media on current issues, and his recent popular books The Best Book on the Market, The Rotten State of Britain and The Alternative Manifesto have attracted considerable attention.Allister Heath is Editor of City A.M. Prior to taking over at City A.M. in March 2008, he was Editor of The Business magazine, a publication he joined as economics correspondent and leader-writer when it was a Sunday newspaper in 2002. During those years, he was also a regular contributor to The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday. While at The Business, he also served a two year term as a Wincott visiting professor of financial journalism at the University of Buckingham. Heath was born and schooled in France. He moved to the UK to attend university, graduating with a BSc in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science and an M.Phil in economics from Hertford College, Oxford University.

Dr Eamonn Butlerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17562013-02-18T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Jo Attwool | LSE London's 2013 Lent term seminar series begins on the 14th of January. Speakers from within and beyond academia will focus on many of the implications of the current economic and political environment for London, covering relevant issues such as the road pricing, UK trends in higher education, census data and localism. Presenters include academics and practitioners from relevant fields.

Jo Attwoolhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17572013-02-18T16:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Navi Pillay | In recent years, the world has witnessed a number of incidents involving hate speech at times with wide-ranging and global repercussions. Many governments have put in place measures which not always are in consonance with international human rights law. This lecture recalls the relevant provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and showcases the jurisprudence of the expert bodies monitoring their implementation. It also illustrates some recent activities undertaken by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.The appointment of Navanethem Pillay (Navi) as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights was approved by the General Assembly on 28 July 2008 and she assumed her functions on 1st September 2008. On 24 May 2012, the United Nations General Assembly extended her mandate for a further two years.Ms Pillay, a South African national, was the first woman to start a law practice in her home province of Natal in 1967. Over the next few years, she acted as a defense attorney for anti-apartheid activists, exposing torture, and helping establish key rights for prisoners on Robben Island.She also worked as a lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and later was appointed Vice-President of the Council of the University of Durban Westville. In 1995, after the end of apartheid, Ms. Pillay was appointed as acting judge on the South African High Court, and in the same year was elected by the United Nations General Assembly to be a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where she served a total of eight years, the last four (1999-2003) as President. She played a critical role in the ICTR's groundbreaking jurisprudence on rape as genocide, as well as on issues of freedom of speech and hate propaganda. In 2003, she was elected as a judge on the International Criminal Court in the Hague, where she remained until August 2008.In South Africa, as a member of the Women's National Coalition, she contributed to the inclusion of an equality clause in the country’s Constitution that prohibits discrimination on grounds of race, religion and sexual orientation. She co-founded Equality Now, an international women's rights organization, and has been involved with other organizations working on issues relating to children, detainees, victims of torture and of domestic violence, and a range of economic, social and cultural rights.Ms. Pillay received a BA and a LLB from Natal University South Africa. She also holds a Master of Law and a Doctorate of Juridical Science from Harvard University. She was born in 1941, and has two daughters.

Navi Pillayhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17542013-02-15T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Jean-Paul Costa | A unique opportunity to put your questions to a former president of the European Court of Human Rights, via Twitter @LSELaw using #LSECosta. Jean-Paul Costa is the former president of the European Court of Human Rights.

Jean-Paul Costahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17502013-02-14T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Nick Robinson | Live from Downing Street is the BBC’s political editor’s colourful and personal account of the relationship between the men and women who wield power and those whose job it is to tell the public what they are doing which he will speak about in this lecture at LSE. Nick's book focuses on the key milestones in the long and rocky relationship between politicians and broadcasters: the prime ministers who pioneered broadcasting live from Downing Street – Baldwin and Macmillan; those who fought back – Churchill, Wilson, Thatcher and Blair; and those who could never quite come to terms with it. It also charts the emergence of the charismatic inquisitors of radio and television from Richard Dimbleby and Robin Day to John Humphreys and Jeremy Paxman and concludes with Nick’s own considered view of the controversial issue of impartial reporting. Nick Robinson studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford before joining the BBC in 1986. After a decade working behind the cameras – as a producer on programmes ranging from Crimewatch to On the Record and Panorama – he became a reporter and presenter. He is the only person to have been political editor of both ITV News and now BBC News – a job he has held since August 2005. As well as appearing on TV and radio, he writes an award-winning blog.

Nick Robinsonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17512013-02-14T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Athar Hussain, Dr Debin Ma, Professor Arne Westad | The 18th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party held last November saw a wholesale replacement of the old with a new Party leadership. More than two-thirds of the old team has stepped down, and the change has yet to run its full course. March this year is going to witness the appointment of a new government leadership, including the President, the Prime Minister and the State Council. In time, the impact of this change at the top will ripple through to the lowest level of the government. The new generation of leaders has given rise to a mixture of renewed hope for overdue political and economic reforms and uncertainty about its stance towards domestic and foreign problems and issues. The panellists, Chinese population and the world outside are still coming to terms with the change that is taking place. The panel discussion aims to assess and answer at least some of the questions raised by the change. Professor Athar Hussain is director of the LSE Asia Research Centre. Dr Debin Ma is lecturer in Economic History, LSE. Professor Arne Westad is co-director of LSE IDEAS.

Professor Athar Hussain, Dr Debin Ma, Professor Arne Westadhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17482013-02-13T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Iver Neumann | One origin of the social sciences lies in opposition to the discipline of history. Rather than speculating about the course of history generally, the idea was to look at the variation in forms of social life. The social sciences are not alone in attempting this. Other approaches to such a study may be found in psychology and biology. Drawing on Durkheim and Mauss, Professor Iver Neumann will begin with a discussion of how these different but overlapping approaches stand today, when the psychologising approach of methodological individualism and the biologising thrust towards stressing the genetic make-up of the species are on the rise. Stressing how humans are a meaning-producing species, and so bound to be living in a condition of alterity, Professor Iver Neumann will make the case for privileging social causes in the study of social life. Professor Iver Neumann will go on to discuss the specificity of International Relations (IR) relative to other social sciences. IR’s sensibilities to alterity on all levels of political life means that it is an apt tradition from which to cope with the globalisation that defines the age. Crucially, however, for such analyses to be meaningful, they have to pay attention to the sundry social fields within which global politics now play out. The large-scale hybridization that goes with globalization means that we can no longer afford to analyse social and political life in terms of pre-social ideas about the state, war, diplomacy etc. The study of top-level decision making cannot neglect the everyday, and vice versa. This is why we should be meticulous in insisting on IR being first and foremost a social science. Iver Neumann is the Montague Burton Professor of International Relations, LSE.

Professor Iver Neumannhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17472013-02-13T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Miroslav Lajcák | Miroslav Lajcák is Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, a position he has held since April 2012. Prior to this he held a series of senior diplomatic postings including managing director for Europe and Central Asia, European External Action Service (Dec 2010-April 2012); High Representative/European Union special representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina (July 2007-January 2009); and personal representative of European Union High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy to facilitate the referendum on the independence of Montenegro (2006). Miroslav Lajcák was educated at Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Faculty of International Relations; Comenius University Bratislava, Faculty of Law; and the College of International and Security Studies, George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, Garmisch – Partenkirchen.

Miroslav Lajcákhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17492013-02-13T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Emily McTernan | Questions of responsibility play a central role within contemporary political debate. This lecture will revise the currently impoverished conception of responsibility within theories of justice. Emily McTernan is a fellow in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at LSE.

Emily McTernanhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17452013-02-12T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Anne Applebaum | Containing elements of managed democracy and corporate capitalism – and reflecting the culture and values of the 1980s KGB – Putinism is now taught to Russian children and propagated in the media. It has an ostensible goal: along with protecting the power and wealth of Putin and his inner circle, it proposes to make Russia strong and feared again. Anne Applebaum is the Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs for the 2012-13 academic year.

Professor Anne Applebaumhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17462013-02-12T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Enrique García | What are the new challenges and opportunities faced by Latin American countries and the New Global South in the 21st Century? Enrique García has been president and CEO of CAF (Development Bank of Latin America) since December 1991. Dr Chris Alden is a Reader in the Department of International Relations at LSE.

Enrique Garcíahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17532013-02-12T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Matthew Oakley | LSE London's 2013 Lent term seminar series begins on the 14th of January. Speakers from within and beyond academia will focus on many of the implications of the current economic and political environment for London, covering relevant issues such as the road pricing, UK trends in higher education, census data and localism. Presenters include academics and practitioners from relevant fields.

Matthew Oakleyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17442013-02-11T16:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Phyllis Bennis | While US policy towards Israel remains unchanged, the long-standing assumption that most Americans – even most Jewish Americans – agree with that policy no longer holds. In the media, in popular culture, in universities and particularly within the Jewish community, there are signs of major shifts. In conversation with MEC Director Professor Fawaz Gerges, writer, analyst and activist Phyllis Bennis discusses these changes with reflection on her own political evolution from Zionist youth leader to anti-war internationalist and Palestinian human rights activist. Phyllis Bennis directs the New Internationalism Project at IPS. She is also a fellow of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. She has been a writer, analyst, and activist on Middle East and UN issues for many years. In 2001 she helped found and remains on the steering committee of the U.S. Campaign to End Israeli Occupation.

Phyllis Bennishttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17422013-02-08T16:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Sarah Coakley, Professor John Cottingham, Professor John Worrall | The idea that nature displays an inherent purpose, and more generally the hand of a wise designer, may have suffered a blow from Darwinian science, but it seems not to have been a death-blow. Indeed, from both academic and popular wings of theist opinion there is still considerable interest in arguments from design. The classic arguments contended that the natural world is so complex and suited to our survival that we cannot but credit it to the work of a wise designer. In this event we will explore attempts to revive design arguments in a time after Darwin. Sarah Coakley is Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity and fellow of Murray Edwards College at the University of Cambridge. John Cottingham is professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Reading and an honorary fellow of St John’s College, Oxford. John Worrall is professor of philosophy of science at LSE. The Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science and the Forum for European Philosophy gratefully acknowledge the support of the LSE Annual Fund.

Professor Sarah Coakley, Professor John Cottingham, Professor John Worrallhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17412013-02-07T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Neil Walker | The EU’s early success owed much to the law’s understated role as the motor of integration, but a more emphatic legal approach to the recent European crisis has been less successful. What does this mean for the future of European law, and the EU itself? Neil Walker holds the Regius Chair of Public Law and the Law of Nature and Nations at the University of Edinburgh.

Professor Neil Walkerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17342013-02-06T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Megan MacInnes, Fred Pearce, Dr Subir Sinha | The theft of land is a global phenomenon. This event will provide an overview of global land grabbing, an analysis of its nature, and discussion of its impact on human rights. Megan MacInnes is the head of the Land Campaign at Global Witness. Fred Pearce is environment consultant at the New Scientist and author of The Land Grabbers: the new fight over who owns the Earth. Subir Sinha is senior lecturer in institutions and development at SOAS.

Megan MacInnes, Fred Pearce, Dr Subir Sinhahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17402013-02-06T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Donatella Della Porta | While liberal democracy is losing trust and legitimacy, social movements of different types are calling for alternatives. This lecture will discuss the potential of participatory and deliberative models of democracy. Donatella Della Porta is professor of sociology at the European University Institute.

Professor Donatella Della Portahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17392013-02-05T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Dominic Lieven | Dominic Lieven asks whether new trends in German and English language scholarship together with the opening of the Russian archives require a fundamental re-thinking of Russia’s role in the outbreak of the First World War. Dominic Lieven is senior research fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Professor Dominic Lievenhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17332013-02-05T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Valerie Bunce | Why do publics decide to challenge authoritarian rulers; why do they take different approaches to achieving these ends; and what explains the spread of such challenges across state boundaries? In this lecture, Professor Bunce will compare these three waves of popular challenges to authoritarian rulers providing insights into the MENA dynamic and important issues related to cross-national diffusion. Valerie Bunce is the Aaron Binenkorb Professor of International Studies and Professor of Government at Cornell University. Her research and teaching address comparative democratization, international democracy promotion (primarily by the U.S.); and inter-ethnic cooperation and conflict.

Professor Valerie Buncehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17322013-02-04T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Gerhard Weiss | LSE London's 2013 Lent term seminar series begins on the 14th of January. Speakers from within and beyond academia will focus on many of the implications of the current economic and political environment for London, covering relevant issues such as the road pricing, UK trends in higher education, census data and localism. Presenters include academics and practitioners from relevant fields.

Gerhard Weisshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17382013-02-04T16:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Tim Besley, Professor Francesco Caselli, Sir Richard Lambert, Rachel Lomax, Professor Lord Stern and Professor John van Reenen | Having sifted through the evidence throughout 2012, the distinguished group of LSE Growth Commissioners launch the report of their findings on the design of a strategy to support UK growth. Tim Besley is LSE professor of economics and political science; co-chair of the commission. Francesco Caselli is professor of economics at LSE. Richard Lambert is chancellor, University of Warwick and former director general of the Confederation of British Industry. Rachel Lomax is non-executive director of HSBC, former deputy governor of the Bank of England and permanent secretary of three government departments. Nicholas Stern is IG Patel chair and director, LSE Asia Research Centre. John van Reenen is director of CEP and professor of economics; co-chair of the commission.

Professor Tim Besley, Professor Francesco Caselli, Sir Richard Lambert, Rachel Lomax, Professor Lord Stern and Professor John van Reenenhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17282013-01-31T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Heriberto Araujo, Juan Pablo Cardenal | Frustrated by the facile, pro-business commentary of so much writing on China and the evasions of Beijing's official pronouncements, two China-based journalists made a drastic decision to see for themselves just how rapidly China is spreading its influence around the world. Many thousands of miles and twenty-five countries later, China's Silent Army is the result: an unprecedented attempt to meet the many Chinese who, through hard work, ingenuity and ruthless business practices are rapidly moving much of the world into Beijing's orbit - from Peruvian mines to Siberian forests, Sudanese dams to Burmese jade mines. The implications of what they are doing - politically, ecologically and economically - are profoundly disturbing and particularly topical in light of the Eurozone crisis and the diminishing economical presence of the West. A disturbing and revealing piece of investigative journalism into the unknown extent of China's global power. Heriberto Araújo arrived to Beijing in early 2007, initially working for the AFP agency as Spanish correspondent in Beijing, and then as a freelance reporter for both French and Spanish media. Juan Pablo Cardenal has been reporting from and about China and the Asia-Pacific region since 2003 - first as Shanghai correspondent for El Mundo, and later from Singapore and Beijing for El Economista. He is currently based in Hong Kong.

Heriberto Araujo, Juan Pablo Cardenalhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17272013-01-30T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Lord Malloch-Brown | Ryszard Kapuscinski exposed the follies of Africa’s rulers and officials while showing an intense emotional identification with the continent’s people. Would he see the current state of Africa as a further triumph of the elites or the redemptive emergence of a more just continent? Mark Malloch-Brown is a former UN deputy secretary-general and was head of the UN Development Programme. He is the author of The Unfinished Global Revolution.

Lord Malloch-Brownhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17252013-01-30T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Craig Calhoun | Craig Calhoun took up his post as LSE Director on 1 September 2012, having left the United States where he was University Professor at New York University and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge and President of the Social Science Research Council. Professor Calhoun is a world-renowned social scientist whose work connects sociology to culture, communication, politics, philosophy and economics. Professor Calhoun is an American citizen but has deep connections with the United Kingdom. He took a D Phil in History and Sociology at Oxford University and a Master's in Social Anthropology at Manchester. He co-founded, with Richard Sennett, Professor of Sociology at LSE, the NYLON programme which brings together graduate students from New York and London for co-operative research programmes.

Professor Craig Calhounhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17312013-01-30T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Hanspeter Kriesi | Professor Kriesi will explore the reactions of Europe’s citizens to the Great Recession, and how the political and economic context is shaping the aftermath of the crisis. Hanspeter Kriesi holds the Stein Rokkan Chair of Comparative Politics at the European University Institute.

Professor Hanspeter Kriesihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17262013-01-30T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Bonnie Ayodele, Professor Zhongying Pang | As Africa-China ties have grown tighter in the past few years, China’s engagement with the continent has evolved from being mostly economically focused to more sensitive socio-political fields. This talk provides in-depth discussion of African security issues in relation to China’s long-held non-interference policy. Bonnie Ayodele is lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the University of Ado Ekiti, Nigeria. Zhongying Pang is professor of international and global affairs at Renmin University of China.

Dr Bonnie Ayodele, Professor Zhongying Panghttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17232013-01-29T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor James Jasper | On those rare occasions when democracy has emerged in history, emotions have been used to define who is a full citizen. Can a new vision of emotions help us protect, repair, and extend democracy rather than curtailing it?James Jasper is professor of sociology at The Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Professor James Jasperhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17222013-01-29T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Rabah Aissaoui | In colonial Algeria, the social, ethnic and religious dividing lines of colonial society remained marked in the interwar period, and the political tensions that traditionally characterised the colonial relationship became particularly acute in the context of the rise of Algerian nationalism during the 1930s. The emergence of Algerian nationalist activism during that period coincided with the celebrations marking the apogee of the French colonial empire.This presentation seeks to examine some key developments in the political mobilisation of Algerians prior to the Second World War and how the French colonial authorities and more specifically the French security services responded to the political situation in Algeria by implementing a number of changes to the intelligence gathering process, changes that were marked by internal conflicts and tensions.Dr Rabah Assaoui is Senior Lecturer in French at the University of Leicester.Dr Aissaoui’s research interests focus on immigration and racism in colonial and postcolonial France. He is particularly interested in the study of discourses on identity and exile, in the diasporic construction of nationalism and more specifically in expressions of ethnic, national and cultural belonging amongst Maghrebi migrants in France.

Dr Rabah Aissaouihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17212013-01-28T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Otto Dov Kulka, Sir Ian Kershaw | In this event Otto Dov Kulka will discuss his new book Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death: Reflections on Memory and Imagination in conversation with historian Sir Ian Kershaw.Auschwitz is for Otto Dov Kulka a vast repository of images, memories, and reveries: “the Metropolis of Death” over which rules the immutable Law of Death. Amidst so much death Kulka finds moments of haunting, almost unbearable beauty (for beauty, too, says Kulka, is an inescapable law). But what does it mean to find beauty in Auschwitz? For him, “the blue of the sky in this land is many times stronger than any blue one can see anywhere else.”Kulka here breaks years of silence, bringing together the personal and historical in a devastating, at times poetic, account of the concentration camps. Returning to the sites of his childhood, Kulka struggles to overcome the obfuscations of memory, unpick the euphemistic language of the camp, and interpret history as he experienced it. These haunting memories – of his mother, who doesn’t look back as she marches towards her death, the sounds of ‘Ode to Joy’ being sung by a children’s choir opposite the crematoria, and the “black stains” along the roadside during the winter death march - instigate forbidden, unanswerable questions. As the author maps his interior world, in a way reminiscent of W. G. Sebald, readers gain a new sense of what it was to experience the Shoah from inside the camps— both at the time, and long afterward.A renowned historian of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, Otto Dov Kulka is Rosenbloom Professor Emeritus in Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was born in Czechoslovakia in 1933. As a child, he was sent first to the ghetto of Theresienstadt and then to Auschwitz. As one of the few survivors he has spent much of his life studying Nazism and the Holocaust, but always as a discipline requiring the greatest coldness and objectivity, with his personal story set to one side.Ian Kershaw is the author of Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris; Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis; Making Friends with Hitler; and Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions that Changed the World, 1940-4. Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis received the Wolfson History Prize and the Bruno Kreisky Prize in Austria for Political Book of the Year, and was joint winner of the inaugural British Academy Book Prize. Until his retirement in 2008, Ian Kershaw was professor of modern history at the University of Sheffield. For services to history he was given the German award of the Federal Cross of Merit in 1994. He was knighted in 2002 and awarded the Norton Medlicott Medal by the Historical Association in 2004. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, and was the winner of the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding 2012.

Otto Dov Kulka, Sir Ian Kershawhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17192013-01-28T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Joseph Hanlon, Dr Jeanette Manjengwa, Teresa Smart | A discussion with the authors of the new book, Zimbabwe Takes Back its Land which offers a nuanced assessment of land reform, countering the dominant media narratives of oppression and economic stagnation in Zimbabwe.Joseph Hanlon is a visiting senior fellow at the LSE and an honorary research fellow at the University of Manchester.Jeanette Manjengwa is deputy director of the Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Zimbabwe, Harare.Teresa Smart is a visiting fellow at the Institute of Education, University of London.

Dr Joseph Hanlon, Dr Jeanette Manjengwa, Teresa Smarthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17202013-01-28T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Alexander Jan | LSE London's 2013 Lent term seminar series begins on the 14th of January. Speakers from within and beyond academia will focus on many of the implications of the current economic and political environment for London, covering relevant issues such as the road pricing, UK trends in higher education, census data and localism. Presenters include academics and practitioners from relevant fields.

Alexander Janhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17372013-01-28T16:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Eve Mitleton-Kelly, Professor Dr Paul Lukowicz, Nestor Alfonzo Santamaria | The scientists behind a crowd safety app, and the City of London Police who use the app in emergencies, will discuss the difference it can make to policy-makers and the emergency services.Eve Mitleton-Kelly is director of the Complexity Research Group at LSE and organised the trial of the app.Paul Lukowicz is scientific director at the Embedded Intelligence German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI).Nestor Alfonzo Santamaria is the lead in business resilience for the City of London Corporation where he is part of the Security & Contingency Planning Group.The LSE Complexity Group has been working for over 16 years, with organisations in the private and public sectors, and several companies in the aerospace industry, to address practical complex problems. In the process it has developed a theory of complex social systems and an integrated methodology using both qualitative and quantitative tools and methods.LSE Works is a series of public lectures, that will showcase some of the latest research by LSE's Research Centres. In each session, LSE academics will present key research findings, demonstrating where appropriate the implications of their studies for public policy. A list of all the LSE Works lectures can be viewed online.

Professor Eve Mitleton-Kelly, Professor Dr Paul Lukowicz, Nestor Alfonzo Santamariahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17182013-01-24T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Luis Garicano, Professor Wouter Denhaan, Professor Paul de Grauwe, Professor John Van Reenen | It is still possible to find a way out of the Eurozone crisis if policy-makers address two problems: dealing with the legacy costs of the initially flawed design of the Eurozone, and fixing the design itself. Luis Garicano is professor and head of the Managerial Economics and Strategy Group in the LSE’s Department of Management. Francesco Caselli is Norman Sosnow chair in economics at LSE. Wouter Denhaan is professor of economics. Paul de Grauwe is John Paulson chair in European Political Economy and head of European Institute. John Van Reenen is professor of economics and director of CEP.

Professor Luis Garicano, Professor Wouter Denhaan, Professor Paul de Grauwe, Professor John Van Reenenhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17162013-01-23T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Tariq Tell | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor audio quality of this recording. Dr Tell will provide context to contemporary politics in Jordan by examining the history of the emergence and consolidation of the modern state in Jordan under Ottoman, British, and Hashemite rule. He will explorehow the sources of Hashemite social power in Jordon were forged and why they have proven more durable than those fashioned under more auspicious circumstances elsewhere in the Arab east. The talk will focus on the historical political economy of Trans-Jordan and the evolution of a militarized monarchical social pact that exchanged loyalty for economic security and bound the peasants and pastoralists of the East Bank to the throne. This is in contrast to much of what has been written on Hashemite rule in Jordan, which has concentrated on the statecraft of the Hashemite monarchs, or paid prime attention to the dynamics of their policies towards the Palestinian question. Dr Tariq Tell is a political economist currently teaching at the Centre for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies at the American University of Beirut. He has previously taught at the American University in Cairo and the University of Manchester (UK). He has also held research posts at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, and in Amman at the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherche sur le Moyen Orient Contemporain (CERMOC) and the Royal Scientific Society. Tell has co-edited Village, Steppe and State: The Social Origins of Modern Jordan (I.B. Tauris, 1994) and edited The Resilience of Hashemite Rule: Politics and the State in Jordan before 1967 (Cahier de Cermoc, 2001). His book, The Social and Economic Origins of Monarchy in Jordan will be published by Palgrave in 2013. He has degrees from St. Antony’s College (Oxford University), the Institute of Development Studies (University of Sussex) and the London School of Economics and Political Science. His current research interests include the comparative history and politics of Arab monarchies and the relationship between imperialism, food security, and popular protest in the Middle East.

Dr Tariq Tellhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17172013-01-23T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Lucy Scott-Moncrieff | Lucy Scott-Moncrieff will reflect on the disappointing progress of human rights and anti-discrimination law, and consider whether the language we use may be part of the problem. Lucy Scott-Moncrieff is the president of the Law Society and managing partner of Scott-Moncrieff and Associates LLP.

Lucy Scott-Moncrieffhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17132013-01-22T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor John Coatsworth | John Coatsworth will talk about the major foreign policy challenges facing the second Obama administration: the decline of international norms and institutions; the drift toward deeper recession in Europe, the obstacles to demilitarization of Middle Eastern policy, the pressures toward militarization of the US “pivot” to East Asia, and the lack of coherent approaches to Africa and Latin America. John Coatsworth is provost and professor of international and public affairs and of history at Columbia University. Previously, he taught at the University of Chicago (1969-1992) and at Harvard, where he was Monroe Gutman Professor of Latin American Affairs (1992-2007) and served as the founding director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (1994-2006). He also chaired the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies. Professor Coatsworth received his degree in History from Wesleyan University and his MA and Ph.D. degrees in Economic History from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Professor John Coatsworthhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17142013-01-22T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Christopher Clark | Few episodes in the history of modern Europe have attracted such intense and lasting historical interest as the July Crisis of 1914. The chain of events that led to the outbreak of World War One still offers one of the most dramatic and intellectually enthralling narratives in modern history. Yet the size and sophistication of the existing secondary literature poses a challenge: how to generate fresh insights into a crisis that has preoccupied historians and generated controversy for nearly a century. This lecture revisits the crisis of 1914, reflects on trends in the recent and older writing on the outbreak of war and examines some new angles of approach. Christopher Clark is professor of modern European history at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge. His principal publications include The Politics of Conversion. Missionary Protestantism and the Jews in Prussia, 1728-1941 (OUP: Oxford, 1995), Kaiser Wilhelm II. A Life in Power (Allen Lane: London, 2009) and (co-edited with Wolfram Kaiser) Culture Wars. Catholic-Secular Conflict in Nineteenth-Century Europe (CUP: Cambridge, 2003) and Iron Kingdom. The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 (Allen Lane: London, 2006).

Professor Christopher Clarkhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17122013-01-22T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Laurie Penny | Taking in Pussy Riot and the 2011 uprisings, and stretching back to the Paris Commune, a contextual look at how the rage and pride of women is personal, political – and endlessly powerful. Laurie Penny is a journalist, blogger and author. She is currently a columnist and reporter for New Statesman.

Laurie Pennyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17152013-01-22T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Ping Fu | We’ve spent the past 20 years capturing physical objects in the digital world. But in the coming decade, as the physical and digital worlds collide, their boundaries will blur in spectacular fashion. Ping will describe how the evolution of robots, sensors, 3D printers and other IT is making it possible to see, feel and make everything digital in a new (human) computer industry. This lecture is rich in lessons for entrepreneurs, creators, and innovators to instigate rather than follow, and to challenge the status quo. Ping will also talk about her personal story of resilience, a journey from the dogmatic anticapitalism of Mao’s China to the high-stakes, take-no-prisoners world of technology start-ups in the US. Her new book Bend, Not Break will be published in January by Portfolio Penguin. Ping Fu is the founder and CEO of Geomagic, a global company providing 3D technology for digital reality. Previously she worked at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, where she initiated and managed the NCSA Mosaic software project that led to Netscape and Internet Explorer. Fu is one of the few women CEOs in technology and was named the 2005 "Entrepreneur of the Year" by Inc. Magazine. She is a member of President Obama's National Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship and sits on the board of the Long Now Foundation.

Ping Fuhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17112013-01-21T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Chrystia Freeland | There has always been some gap between rich and poor but it has never been wider - and now the rich are getting wealthier at such breakneck speed that the middle classes are being squeezed out. Acclaimed business journalist and global editor-at-large of Reuters, Chrystia Freeland has unprecedented access to the richest and most successful people on the planet, from Davos to Dubai. She offers a timely insight into the current state of capitalism and its most wealthy players. Forget the 1% - it's time to get to grips with the 0.1%. This event marks the publication of her latest book Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super Rich. Chrystia Freeland is Editor of Thomson Reuters Digital, following years of service at the Financial Times both in New York and London. She was the deputy editor of Canada's Globe and Mail and has reported for the Financial Times, Economist, and Washington Post. Freeland's last book was Sale of a Century: The Inside Story of the Second Russian Revolution. She lives in New York City.

Chrystia Freelandhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17102013-01-21T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Richard Brown | LSE London's 2013 Lent term seminar series begins on the 14th of January. Speakers from within and beyond academia will focus on many of the implications of the current economic and political environment for London, covering relevant issues such as the road pricing, UK trends in higher education, census data and localism. Presenters include academics and practitioners from relevant fields.

Richard Brownhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17362013-01-21T16:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Sanjeev Sanyal | The history of any country begins with its geography. Marking the launch of his new book, Sanjeev Sanyal looks at how India’s history was shaped by its rivers, mountains and cities. Sanjeev Sanyal is Deutsche Bank’s Global Strategist and was named “Young Global Leader 2010” by the World Economic Forum. This event is co-hosted by LSE Cities, the Asia Research Centre and the India Observatory.

Sanjeev Sanyalhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17092013-01-17T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Henry G. Overman, Alexandra Jones, Adam Marshall | Britain’s cities are facing profound challenges – both in the short run as a result of the recession and in the long run as a result of underlying structural change. In this lecture Henry Overman considers the nature of these challenges and considers what urban policy should do to help cities effectively respond to them. Henry Overman is Professor of Economic Geography at the LSE and Director of the Spatial Economics Research Centre. Alexandra Jones has been Chief Executive of the Centre for Cities since 2010. Prior to this, Alexandra led Ideopolis, the Cities team at The Work Foundation and worked in the former Department for Education and Employment. Adam Marshall was named Director of Policy and External Affairs at the British Chambers of Commerce in July 2009. In this role, he represents the accredited UK Chamber network - with 104,000 companies employing over 5 million people - in Whitehall, Westminster, Brussels and the media. He holds degrees from Yale University (BA) and the University of Cambridge (MPhil, PhD). The Spatial Economics Research Centre is based at the LSE and aims to provide high quality independent research to further understand why some regions, cities and communities prosper, whilst others do not. Research will focus on why there are disparities in economic prosperity at all spatial levels including regional, city-region, local and neighbourhood. LSE Works is a series of public lectures, that will showcase some of the latest research by LSE's Research Centres. In each session, LSE academics will present key research findings, demonstrating where appropriate the implications of their studies for public policy. A list of all the LSE Works lectures can be viewed online.

Professor Henry G. Overman, Alexandra Jones, Adam Marshallhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17082013-01-17T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Baroness Afshar | Prominent Muslim feminist and peer Haleh Afshar will speak on the situation facing Iranian women in their country today. The BRISMES Annual Lecture will be given at LSE by Professor the Baroness Haleh Afshar. The annual BRISMES Award for Services to Middle Eastern Studies will be presented to Baroness Afshar at this event. Haleh Afshar (BA York, PhD University of Cambridge) teaches Politics and Women's Studies at the University of York and serves as a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords. In 2005 she was awarded an OBE for services to equal opportunities. She is also the Visiting Professor of Islamic Law at the Faculté Internationale de Droit Comparée at Strasbourg. She was born and raised in Iran where she worked as a journalist and a civil servant. She has served as the Chair for the British Association of Middle Eastern Studies and Chair of United Nation Association's International Services. Alistair Newton is President of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies.

Baroness Afsharhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17062013-01-16T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Daniel Stedman Jones, Professor Mark Pennington, Professor Lord Skidelsky | How did American and British policymakers become so enamoured with free markets, deregulation, and limited government? Based on archival research and interviews with leading participants in the movement, Daniel Stedman Jones has traced the ascendancy of neoliberalism from the academy of interwar Europe to supremacy under Reagan and Thatcher and in the decades since. He contends that there was nothing inevitable about the victory of free-market politics. Far from being the story of the simple triumph of right-wing ideas, the neoliberal breakthrough was contingent on the economic crises of the 1970s and the acceptance of the need for new policies by the political left. In his lecture he will describe neoliberalism's road to power, beginning in interwar Europe, then shifting its centre of gravity after 1945 to the United States, especially to Chicago and Virginia, where it was developed into an uncompromising political message, communicated through a transatlantic network of think tanks, businessmen, politicians, and journalists held together by Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. A discussion for anyone who wants to understand the history behind the Anglo-American love affair with the free market, as well as the origins of the current economic crisis. Daniel Stedman Jones is a barrister in London. He was educated at the University of Oxford and at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a PhD in history. He has worked as a policy adviser for the New Opportunities Fund and as a researcher for Demos. His latest book is Masters of the Universe: Hayek, Friedman, and the Birth of Neoliberal Politics. Mark Pennington is Professor of Public Policy and Political Economy, King's College, University of London, prior to which he spent eleven years at Queen Mary, University of London. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics. Mark's work lies at the intersection of politics, philosophy and economics with a particular emphasis on the classical liberal tradition. His latest book, Robust Political Economy (2011: Cheltenham, Edward Elgar) examines challenges to classical liberalism derived from neo-classical economics, communitarian political theory and egalitarian ethics. From January 2013 Mark will be the European Editor of the Review of Austrian Economics. Robert Skidelsky is Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick. His three-volume biography of the economist John Maynard Keynes (1983, 1992, 2000) received numerous prizes, and he recently published Keynes: The Return of the Master.

Dr Daniel Stedman Jones, Professor Mark Pennington, Professor Lord Skidelskyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17072013-01-16T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Anders Borg | For the fifth year running Europe is preoccupied with financial turmoil, weak public finances, anemic growth and high unemployment. Progress has been made but with global growth weakening and downside risks on the rise fiscal consolidation remains challenging. The Swedish experience shows that prudent reforms can foster growth while maintaining social cohesion and an extensive welfare state. Twenty years ago, Sweden had large deficits and high debt and experienced a major economic crisis and the loss of investor confidence. Today, Sweden is lauded for its sustainable public finances, real wages have grown at a solid pace for twenty years and a fair income distribution has been maintained. What are the key priorities for growth? And how should policymakers strike a balance between strengthening public finances, sustaining demand and promoting growth? Anders Borg is Minister for Finance in Sweden and has chaired the ECOFIN Council during the 2009 Swedish EU Presidency. He has previously worked as an advisor on monetary policy issues at the Swedish Central Bank and as chief economist at several Swedish banks.

Anders Borghttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17052013-01-16T16:15:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Joseph Mazor | In defending circumcision the speaker will consider bodily integrity, autonomy, reduction of sexual pleasure, the likelihood of the child choosing circumcision, and the possibility of religious alienation. Joseph Mazor is a fellow in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at LSE.

Dr Joseph Mazorhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17042013-01-15T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Len McCluskey | Editor's note: We apologise that the first few moments of the introduction to this lecture are missing from the recording of this session. The Labour movement has started to put itself once more at the heart of British politics but it also needs to link up with social protest to develop a new working-class politics. Len McCluskey is the general secretary of Unite.

Len McCluskeyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17032013-01-15T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): John Elkington | Drawing from his recent book The Zeronauts: Breaking the Sustainability Barrier, John Elkington will provide an account of his personal journey over 40 years on “the sustainability frontier” and his proposals on how to meet global challenges. John Elkington is co-founder and executive chairman of Volans. He is also the co-founder of SustainAbility, where he remains today as a a non-executive member of the board. Dr Mason is a senior lecturer in the department of Geography and Environment and an associate of the Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change and the Environment.

John Elkingtonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17022013-01-15T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Elizabeth A. Povinelli | Are all progressive politics inevitably acts of absolute extinguishment and emancipation, of the production and repression of life? If so why has a progressive imaginary been loathe to confront its own politics of extinguishment. Povinelli examines one strand of progressive political thought--the conversation among critical sexuality studies, immanent critique, and the biopolits--in order to open the problem of ethics and extinguishment beyond the safety of liberal adjudication and justification. Elizabeth A. Povinelli is Professor of Anthropology & Gender Studies at Columbia University. She has directed the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, co-directed the Center for the Study of Law and Culture, and currently Chair of the Department of Anthropology. Povinell’s research seeks to produce a critical theory of late liberalism. She is the author of four books (Labor’s Lot, Chicago, 1994; The Cunning of Recognition, Duke, 2002; The Empire of Love, Duke 2006; Economies of Abandonment, Duke, 2011). The Cunning of Recognition receiving a Bookforum Best Book of the Year. Karrabing-Low Tide Turning, a film she co-directed with Liza Johnson, was selected for the Berlinale Shorts Competition in 2012. She was the German Transatlantic Program Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin, Fall 2011; a Wyse Visiting Professorship at Cambridge University Spring 2012; and a Hallsworth Visiting Professorship at Manchester, Spring 2013.

Professor Elizabeth A. Povinellihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17012013-01-14T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Tony Travers | Editor's note: Unfortunately the last few minutes of the lecture are missing from the recording. LSE London's 2013 Lent term seminar series begins on the 14th of January. Speakers from within and beyond academia will focus on many of the implications of the current economic and political environment for London, covering relevant issues such as the road pricing, UK trends in higher education, census data and localism. Presenters include academics and practitioners from relevant fields.

Tony Travershttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17352013-01-14T16:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Justin Lin | As a result of the miraculous growth since the market-oriented reform in 1979, China’s status in the global economy has dramatically changed. This speech will reflect on China’s unprecedented growth in the past 32 years, examine the reasons of that growth, and discuss prospects and challenges for China to maintain an eight-percent annual growth rate in the coming decades. Justin Yifu Lin is the former World Bank chief economist and senior vice president, development economics. Lin is the founder and first director of the China Center for Economic Research and a former professor of economics at Peking University and at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Justin Lin is to receive an Honorary Degree from LSE – Doctor of Science (Economics).

Professor Justin Linhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16952012-12-18T18:45:00Z

Speaker(s): Lina Khatib | Marking the publication of Lina Khatib's latest book Image Politics in the Middle East: The Role of the Visual in Political Struggle, this lecture focuses on the evolution of political expression and activism in the Middle East over the past decade, highlighting the visual dimension of power struggles between citizens and leaders in Arab countries undergoing transition.Lina Khatib is the co-founding head of the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, a multidisciplinary policy-oriented research program established in 2010 to study democratic change in the Arab world. She is an expert on Middle East politics and its intersection with social, cultural and media issues. At Stanford, she leads research projects on political and economic reform, as well as on political activism in the Arab world, and the political participation of minorities. She is the author of Filming the Modern Middle East: Politics in the Cinemas of Hollywood and the Arab World, (2006), and Lebanese Cinema: Imagining the Civil War and Beyond (2008), and a founding co-editor of the Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication. Her book Image Politics in the Middle East: The Role of the Visual in Political Struggle (IB Tauris, 2012) examines the visual dimension of power struggles between states, political leaders, political parties, and citizens in Egypt, Syria, Libya, Iran, and Lebanon. She is also a consultant and frequent commentator on the Middle East in the media with appearances on CNN, BBC, Al-Jazeera, and several media outlets around the globe.Dr Aitemad Muhanna is a research fellow at the LSE's Middle East Center pursuing post-doctoral research on gender, religion and sustainable human development in Gaza.

Lina Khatibhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16942012-12-13T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Chris Bertram | What can Rousseau’s recently reconstructed fragment Principles of the Right of War tell us about war and “humanitarian intervention” today? Are the principles of just war theory simply a fig leaf for power? Chris Bertram is professor of social and political philosophy at the University of Bristol.

Professor Chris Bertramhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16912012-12-11T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Andrew Marr | Andrew Marr is a journalist, broadcaster and author. He hosts the Sunday morning BBC1 programme The Andrew Marr Show as well as BBC Radio 4's Start the Week every Monday. He wrote and presented his own History of Modern Britain and The Making of Modern Britain for BBC2, which were hugely popular with viewers and won prestigious awards from the Royal Television Society, the Broadcasting Press Guild and BAFTA. More recent offerings include the Diamond Queen documentary and his most recent show, History of the World is being broadcast on BBC1. A book accompanies the series, A History of the World. Born in Glasgow, Andrew went to school in Scotland and gained a first-class degree in English from Cambridge University. He began his career in journalism on The Scotsman newspaper in 1981, later moving to London to become its political correspondent. He was part of the team which launched The Independent in 1986 and returned as its editor, after a stint at The Economist magazine. He was then a columnist for The Express and The Observer before making the move into television, as the BBC's Political Editor, in May 2000.

Andrew Marrhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16842012-12-10T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Salil Shetty | The indivisibility of human rights is proclaimed as a goal, but the reality is different. Separating civil and political from economic, social and cultural rights could result in losing the battle for both. Salil Shetty joined Amnesty International as the organisation’s eighth Secretary General in July 2010. A long-term activist on poverty and justice, Salil Shetty leads the movement's worldwide work to end the abuse of human rights. He is the organisation’s chief political adviser, strategist and spokesperson and takes Amnesty International’s campaigns to the highest level of government, the United Nations and business. Since joining Amnesty International, Salil Shetty has been vocal in supporting the people’s uprising for human rights in the Middle East and North Africa. In December 2010, he led Amnesty International's show of solidarity in Oslo for the imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo calling on the Chinese authorities to improve their human rights record. In September 2010, he represented Amnesty International at the United Nations General Assembly. Salil Shetty has ambitious plans to strengthen Amnesty International's work in the Global South. He has travelled extensively for Amnesty International since joining the organisation, meeting many grassroots activists. Salil Shetty first became involved in campaigning for human rights when growing up in Bangalore, India. With his mother active in women’s groups and his father with the Dalit movement, his home became a hub for local and national activists. Since his student days, when a state of emergency was declared in 1976, and as the President of his college student’s union, Salil Shetty has been actively campaigning against the curtailment of human rights. Prior to joining Amnesty International, Salil Shetty was Director of the United Nations Millennium Campaign from 2003 to 2010. He played a pivotal role in building the global advocacy campaign for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals - eight goals to fight poverty, illiteracy and disease. Under his stewardship, the Millennium Campaign succeeded in making donor and developing country governments more accountable for meeting their commitments to the Goals. As Chief Executive of ActionAid (from 1998 to 2003, before joining the UN), Salil Shetty is credited with transforming ActionAid into one of the world’s foremost international development NGOs. An Indian national, Salil Shetty earned a distinction in a Masters of Science in Social Policy and Planning from the London School of Economics and Political Science and has a Masters in Business Administration from the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Salil Shettyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16812012-12-06T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Julian Baggini, Canon Dr Angus Ritchie, Dr Mark Vernon | Religious and secular philosophers have long debated whether ethics have an objective basis (moral realism) or a relative basis (moral relativism). But does theism or atheism offer a better basis for ‘moral realism’? A theist, an atheist, and an agnostic discuss. Julian Baggini is a writer, journalist and co-founder of The Philosophers’ Magazine. Angus Ritchie is director of the Contextual Theology Centre. Mark Vernon is a writer and journalist.

Dr Julian Baggini, Canon Dr Angus Ritchie, Dr Mark Vernonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16862012-12-06T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Taleb believes that many of the best and most successful systems in the world (such as evolution) have antifragility at their heart. Conversely, those systems which reject antifragility and suppress volatility (such as modern politics and banking) become weaker and less able to withstand the inevitable shocks – the major tragedy of modernity, according to Taleb. But antifragility is not simply an antidote to “black swan events”. Taleb believes that understanding antifragility makes us less fearful in accepting the role of these events as necessary for history, technology, knowledge and everything. Nassim Nicholas Taleb spends most of his time as a flâneur, meditating in cafés across the planet. A former trader, he is currently Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at New York University. He is the author of Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan, an international bestseller which has become an intellectual, social and cultural touchstone. This event marks the publication of his new book, Antifragile.

Professor Nassim Nicholas Talebhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16802012-12-05T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Sara B Hobolt | “Who is to blame?” has become a familiar question in response to the economic crisis that is sweeping Europe. Professor Hobolt discusses when and why citizens, the media, and national governments blame the European Union for policy failures, and considers the consequences for democracy in Europe. This event is part of the eurocrisis@lse series. Sara Hobolt is the Sutherland Chair in European Institutions at the European Institute, LSE.

Professor Sara B Hobolthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16982012-12-05T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): David Patrikarakos | Drawing on years of research and access to unique sources, David Patrikarakos will tell the history of Iran’s nuclear programme, from its beginnings under the Shah until the present day. He will argue that the nuclear programme is the exegesis of modern Iran, evolving alongside the modern state itself. Its history is a kind of tabula rasa (a blank slate) onto which modern Iran’s evolution has been and continues to be written; or, more simply, it is the story of Iran’s attempt to deal with modernity: ordered, detailed, configured.

David Patrikarakoshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16822012-12-05T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor David Nutt | David Nutt will reflect on his ten years’ experience on the government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs until 2010, and present new analyses comparing the harms of drugs and alcohol using more sophisticated methodology. David Nutt is Edmond J Safra Professor of Neuropsychology at Imperial College London. He was chair of the ACMD until 2010 and is now chair of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs.

Professor David Nutthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16792012-12-05T18:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Jonathan Hill | In this lecture, Dr Hill seeks to make the case that Algeria has exerted a profound influence on the discipline of postcolonial studies. He will argue that the country’s legacy is at once political, intellectual and ideological. J.N.C. Hill is a senior lecturer in the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London. He has published widely on North African security issues. Some of his main publications include Nigeria since Independence: Forever Fragile? (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), Remembering the War of Liberation: Legitimacy and Conflict in Contemporary Algeria (Small Wars and Insurgencies, 2012), Islamism and Democracy in the Modern Maghreb (Third World Quarterly, 2011), and Sufism in Northern Nigeria: A Force for Counter-Radicalisation? (United States Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, 2010), and Identity in Algerian Politics: The Legacy of Colonial Rule (Lynne Rienner, 2009).

Dr Jonathan Hillhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16852012-12-04T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Christian List | Science, especially the idea that everything in the universe is physically determined, is often thought to challenge the notion that we, humans, have free will and are capable of choosing our own actions. The aim of this lecture is to argue that there is room for free will in a world governed by the laws of physics. Christian List is professor of political science and philosophy at LSE.

Professor Christian Listhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16782012-12-04T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Gillian Hart | In the light of the conflicting forces that have unfolded in South Africa over the last decade, Gillian Hart takes a fresh look at the nation’s transition from apartheid. Based on Professor Hart’s forthcoming book, this lecture will explore the simultaneous processes of South African de-nationalization, re-nationalization and ‘elite pacting’, before examining how this fits within contemporary debates over passive revolution. Gillian Hart is Professor of Geography and Co-chair of Development Studies and the University of California, Berkeley, and an Honorary Research Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Professor Gillian Harthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16922012-12-04T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Patrick Dunleavy, Chris Thong, Sir Adrian Smith, Nicola Dandridge, Simon Bastow, Victor Henning, Ziyad Marar, Jason Priem, Jane Tinkler, Julia Lane, Cameron Neylon, David Sweeney, Stephen Curry, Mark Thorley, Robert Kiley, Jude England | The Future of Academic Impacts was an all day conference hosted by the LSE’s Impact of Social Sciences project team held on Tuesday, 4th December at Beveridge Hall, Senate House, London. The event is to mark the end of the three-year Impact of Social Sciences project based at the London School of Economics that has been funded by HEFCE. Working with colleagues at Imperial College London and the University of Leeds, we have looked at the nature and measurement of impact of academic research in the social sciences on government and policymaking, business and industry, and civil society. The conference will draw the research project to a close, discuss the results and outcomes of the project and seek to look forward to how impact research and measurement might develop over the next ten year period looking beyond REF2014. 10.00 – 11.30 Session 1: The Economic Impact of Academic Research. Speakers: Patrick Dunleavy – LSE, Chris Thong – Cambridge Economics, Sir Adrian Smith – Vice Chancellor, University of London, Nicola Dandridge – Chief Executive, Universities UK, Simon Bastow – LSE Chair. 11.45 – 13.15 Session 2: Impact and the New Digital Paradigm. Speakers: Victor Henning – Co-Founder & CEO - Mendeley Ltd, Ziyad Marar – Global Publishing Director - Sage, Jason Priem – ImpactStory, Jane Tinkler – LSE Chair. 14.00 – 15.30 Session 3: Next Steps in Assessing Impact. Speakers: Julia Lane – Senior Managing Economist - American Institutes of Research, Cameron Neylon – Senior Scientist - Science and Technology Facilities Council/ Advocacy Director PLoS, David Sweeney – Director (Research, Innovation and Skills) - HEFCE, Patrick Dunleavy – LSE Chair. 16.00 – 17.30 Session 4: Impact as a Driver for Open Access. Speakers: Stephen Curry – Imperial College London, Mark Thorley – RCUK Research Outputs Network, Robert Kiley – Head Digital Services - Wellcome Trust, Chair: Jude England – Head of Social Sciences -The British Library.

Patrick Dunleavy, Chris Thong, Sir Adrian Smith, Nicola Dandridge, Simon Bastow, Victor Henning, Ziyad Marar, Jason Priem, Jane Tinkler, Julia Lane, Cameron Neylon, David Sweeney, Stephen Curry, Mark Thorley, Robert Kiley, Jude Englandhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16932012-12-04T10:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Ulrike Guérot, Mark Leonard, Anthony Teasdale, José Ignacio Torreblanca | The euro crisis has dealt a powerful blow to the EU’s political system. Many European leaders have been ousted, more radical parties are becoming more powerful, and questions are increasingly being asked about the legitimacy of the European Union. European leaders find themselves trapped between the need for a more integrated Europe and the demands of voters: the necessity and impossibility of "more Europe". Ulrike Guérot is ECFR Representative for Germany. Previously she was Senior Transatlantic Fellow with the German Marshall Fund and she headed the European Union unit at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin. Mark Leonard is Co-Founder and Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, the first pan-European Think Tank. Anthony Teasdale is Director, EU Internal Policies, in the secretariat of the European Parliament and Senior Visiting Fellow at the LSE. José Ignacio Torreblanca is El Pais columnist and Head of ECFR Madrid. In May 2011, Foreign Policy en español has ranked him amongst the 10 most influential new intellectuals in Spain and Latin-America. He is a Professor at the UNED and previously worked as Senior Analyst for EU affairs at Elcano Royal Institute for International Affairs. This event is organised by the ECFR and LSE European Institute in partnership with the EU Commission Representation in the UK.

Ulrike Guérot, Mark Leonard, Anthony Teasdale, José Ignacio Torreblancahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16772012-12-03T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Paul De Grauwe | The eurozone experiences an existential crisis. What can we do about it? This event is part of the eurocrisis@lse series. Paul De Grauwe is John Paulson Chair in European Political Economy and head of the European Institute, LSE.

Professor Paul De Grauwehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16752012-11-28T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Sir Roy Goode QC | An admired academic at the top of his field, Professor Goode discusses the reshaping of the law governing security and quasisecurity interests in personal property. Ask your question and join the debate @LSELaw. Roy Goode is emeritus professor of law at the University of Oxford. He is the founder of the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary, University of London.

Professor Sir Roy Goode QChttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16742012-11-27T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Craig Calhoun | Drawing on his decades of research on social protest, Professor Calhoun will explore the roots of radicalism and the relationship between social movements and social change. Professor Calhoun is a world-renowned social scientist whose work connects sociology to culture, communication, politics, philosophy and economics. He took up his post as LSE Director on 1 September 2012, having left the United States where he was University Professor at New York University and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge and President of the Social Science Research Council. Professor Calhoun is an American citizen but has deep connections with the United Kingdom. He took a D Phil in History and Sociology at Oxford University and a Master's in Social Anthropology at Manchester. He co-founded, with Richard Sennett, Professor of Sociology at LSE, the NYLON programme which brings together graduate students from New York and London for co-operative research programmes. He is the author of several books including Nations Matter, Critical Social Theory, Neither Gods Nor Emperors and most recently The Roots of Radicalism (University of Chicago Press, 2012). Describing his own approach to academic work, Professor Calhoun says: "We must set high standards for ourselves, but in order to inform the public well, not to isolate ourselves from it."

Professor Craig Calhounhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16732012-11-27T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Margaret Boden, Professor Gregory Currie, Professor Nicholas Royle | Creativity is among the most treasured human traits, and many of us admire and strive for more creativity in our lives. But what exactly constitutes creativity, and how is it possible? Is creative thinking something that can be learned? Can it be modelled on computers? And if so, what can we learn from such modelling? This panel will discuss these and related questions from the perspectives of philosophy, literature and cognitive science. Margaret Boden is Research Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Sussex. Gregory Currie is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Nottingham. Nicholas Royle is Professor of English at the University of Sussex.

Professor Margaret Boden, Professor Gregory Currie, Professor Nicholas Roylehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16722012-11-27T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Nir Rosen | Journalist Nir Rosen spent eight months in Syria during the current uprisings with unprecedented access to all parties to the conflict, from opposition leaders and activists on the ground, to insurgent leaders and fighters on the ground, to Syrian army, security and loyalist militias (leaders and fighters on the ground). He spent a lot of his time in cities and villages in Daraa, Damascus and its suburbs, Homs, Hama, Tartus, Latakia, Idlib and Aleppo city, talking with Christians, Druze and Ismailis as well as Sunnis and Alawites. Born in New York in 1977, Nir Rosen began reporting in Iraq in April 2003 where he has spent most of the last 10 years. He has also reported from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the former Yugoslavia, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Mexico, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Yemen, Turkey and Egypt. He has written for magazines such as The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and most major American publications. He has filmed documentaries and consults for international NGOs on the Middle East. His first book, In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq was published in 2006. His new book Aftermath: Following the Bloodshed of America’s Wars in the Muslim World was published in 2010 and is about occupation, resistance, sectarianism and civil war from Iraq to Lebanon to Afghanistan. Rosen is currently a fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Nir Rosenhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16762012-11-26T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Victoria Glendinning | How the East India Company, a dysfunctional commercial entity too big to fail, elevated and then spat out the controversial reformist visionary who lost the Company money but founded a world city - Singapore. Victoria Glendinning is a prizewinning biographer, the author of Elizabeth Bowen, Vita, Edith Sitwell, Trollope and Leonard Woolf. She has also written three novels, The Grown-Ups, Electricity and Flight. She is a Vice-President of English PEN and fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Born in Yorkshire, she now lives in Somerset.

Victoria Glendinninghttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16712012-11-26T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor M V Lee Badgett | Same-sex couples on four continents—including eleven countries and six American states—can now legally marry. The experiences of these countries allow a glimpse into the future about what will happen if and when the UK opens marriage to same-sex couples. Will gay people change marriage? Will marriage change lesbian, gay, and bisexual people? Is the world moving too quickly to recognize same-sex couples, or should we have different legal institutions for same-sex couples? With one side worried about the end of civilization and the other side scratching their heads in bewilderment, it is difficult to see room for reasoned discussion. Badgett bridges that gap by drawing on data, interviews, and stories from actual American and Dutch couples and from other countries. M. V. Lee Badgett is a professor of economics and director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is also the research director of the Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy at UCLA. Her most recent book, When Gay People Get Married: What Happens When Societies Legalize Same-Sex Marriage (NYU Press, 2009), focuses on the U.S. and European experiences with marriage equality for same-sex couples. Professor Badgett has testified on her work before Congress and many state legislatures, and she was an expert witness in California’s Prop 8 trial. In 2008, Curve Magazine named her one of the twenty most powerful lesbians in academia. Badgett received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California-Berkeley in 1990, and has a BA in economics from the University of Chicago (1982). The LGBT Alliance brings together the LSE LGBT community in a way that fosters a great community on campus, and protects the rights of LGBT people. Headed by a committee of self-defining LGBT students, the Alliance organises events and campaigns that are fun, engaging and relevant to LGBT students at LSE. We regularly work with other LGBT Societies and Campaigns across London, and indeed the whole country, to ensure you’ve got access to the best range of social, campaigning and careers events. Spectrum is the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Staff Network at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Professor M V Lee Badgetthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16682012-11-26T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Perry Link | In this lecture, Professor Perry Link will discuss the thinking of Chinese dissident, Liu Xiaobo, and the prospects for political change in China. Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 for his long struggle on behalf of democracy in China while serving an 11-year prison sentence for "incitement to subvert state power". His main crime was to draft "Charter 08", a petition calling for an end to Communist Party rule, that was signed by a large number of Chinese intellectuals. Perry Link, emeritus professor of East Asian studies at Princeton University who now teaches at the University of California at Riverside, is a leading expert on Chinese literature, has made Liu’s nonviolent philosophy accessible to a foreign audience by compiling and editing a collection of his essays and poems. Published by Harvard University Press, with an introduction by Vaclav Havel, under the title No Enemies, No Hatred, the book has been described as an aid to reflection for Western readers who might take for granted the values Liu has dedicated his life to achieving for his homeland. In 2011 it was named Wall Street Journal book of the year. If Liu serves his full sentence, he will not be freed until 2020.

Professor Perry Linkhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16642012-11-22T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Conor Gearty, Professor Francesca Klug, Dr Michael Pinto-Duschinsky | A debate on the value of the Human Rights Act against a British Bill of Rights. Conor Gearty is professor of law at LSE. Francesca Klug is a professorial research fellow at LSE and director of the Human Rights Futures Project. Michael Pinto-Duschinsky is a senior consultant on constitutional affairs at Policy Exchange and was formerly a member of the UK commission on a bill of rights.

Professor Conor Gearty, Professor Francesca Klug, Dr Michael Pinto-Duschinskyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16632012-11-22T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Geir Lundestad | While the United States has been the world’s leading power from 1945 into the new millennium, it is now being challenged, primarily by China. In many respects the world is without a clear leader. Geir Lundestad is director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute. His new book is The Rise and Decline of the American “Empire”: power and its limits in comparative perspective.

Professor Geir Lundestadhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16662012-11-22T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Martin Ravallion | Relative deprivation, shame and social exclusion matter to the welfare of people everywhere, but this fact is ignored by standard measures of economic performance, including poverty. The lecture will argue that such social effects on welfare call for a reconsideration of how we assess global poverty, but they do not support widely used measures of relative poverty. It is argued instead that a new class of measures is called for, and new estimates of global poverty are presented. The lecture will discuss the implications for thinking about development policy, including setting global development goals. Martin Ravallion is Director of the World Bank’s Research Department and (from 2013) holds the Edmond D. Villani Chair of Economics at Georgetown University. He served as acting Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, Development Economics at the World Bank succeeding Justin Yifu Lin, and holding the post until Kaushik Basu took up the post. His main research interests over the last 25 years have concerned poverty and policies for fighting it. He has advised numerous governments and international agencies on this topic, and he has written extensively on this and other subjects in economics, including three books and 200 papers in scholarly journals and edited volumes. In 2012 he was awarded the John Kenneth Galbraith Prize. Prior to joining the Bank, Martin was on the faculty of the Australian National University (ANU). He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and has taught economics at LSE, Oxford University, the Australian National University, Princeton University and the Paris School of Economics.

Martin Ravallionhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16652012-11-22T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Frances Fox Piven | Professor Piven will examine a number of pivotal movements in American history, including the mobs of the revolutionary era, the abolitionists, and the labor, civil rights and feminist movements. Frances Fox Piven is distinguished professor of political science and sociology at The Graduate Center, CUNY

Professor Frances Fox Pivenhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16622012-11-21T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Gilles Kepel | Islamist movements have won most of the elections that took place in the aftermath of Arab revolutions. Have they hijacked the demonstrations and sacrifice of the youth that brought down the anciens régimes or have they truly espoused democracy? Gilles Kepel is professor and chair, Middle East and Mediterranean studies at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po).

Professor Gilles Kepelhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16612012-11-21T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Piers Brendon, Professor John Charmley, Professor David Edgerton, Lord Hurd of Westwell | Churchill was both a Liberal who championed social reform, and a Conservative who believed in Empire. This event will examine the contradictions inherent in the life of the man voted greatest Briton. Piers Brendon is a biographer, historian and former keeper of The Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge. John Charmley is a professor of modern British history and head of school at the University of East Anglia. David Edgerton is Hans Rausing Chair in the centre for the History of Science Technology and Medicine, Imperial College London. Douglas Hurd was the British foreign secretary from 1989-95.

Dr Piers Brendon, Professor John Charmley, Professor David Edgerton, Lord Hurd of Westwellhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16602012-11-21T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey | Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey is Reader in Political Science in the Government Department of the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she teaches courses in the politics of economic policy and legislative politics.

Cheryl Schonhardt-Baileyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16832012-11-21T18:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Maurice Fraser, Polly Toynbee | ‘Progressive’ is a slippery term. Right (i.e. Left) - thinking people use it with casual abandon, to confer moral approval on a set of values which they regard as uncontroversial. But on close examination the meaning of the term appears contingent, historically-specific and eminently contestable. Who is to say what is ‘progressive’? Is it time to rescue it from political correctness? And can the Right lay at least as compelling a claim to it as the Left? Maurice Fraser is senior fellow in European politics in the European Institute at LSE. Polly Toynbee is a British journalist and writer, and has been a columnist for The Guardian since 1998.

Maurice Fraser, Polly Toynbeehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16582012-11-20T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Anne Applebaum | We now understand far better what the gulag was, how it evolved, what purposes it served, how many people lived and died within it. Yet what do we really remember of the camp system? What do Russians remember? And how does that memory, or the lack of it, affect Russian politics today? Anne Applebaum is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2012-13.

Anne Applebaumhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16572012-11-20T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Giles Hedger | Giles Hedger joined Leo Burnett in September 2008 as Chief Strategy Officer. He leads one of the largest and most diverse planning departments in London and is helping the Leo Burnett Group realise its vision of being the destination agency for populist brands.This talk is about lessons from adland about intangible value, how it is created, and why it is key to economic recovery. Part of the Media Agenda 2012 series.

Giles Hedgerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16592012-11-20T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Nasser Saidi | As the Arab uprisings have unfolded, the need for economic reforms across the region has only become more urgent. But where are the road maps? Dr Nasser Saidi explores. Named among the 50 most influential Arabs in the world by The Middle East magazine this year for the fourth consecutive year, Dr Nasser Saidi is the former Chief Economist and Head of External Relations of Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and Executive Director of the Hawkamah-Institute for Corporate Governance and The Mudara Institute of Directors at the DIFC between 2006 and 2012. He is a member of LSE's Middle East Centre Advisory Board. Dr Saidi is also a member of the IMF’s Regional Advisory Group for MENA and Co-Chair of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) MENA Corporate Governance Working Group. He is a member of the Private Sector Advisory Group of the Global Corporate Governance Forum, an institution of the World Bank driving global corporate governance reforms. He is Chair of the regional Clean Energy Business Council. He was formerly the Minister of Economy and Trade and Minister of Industry of Lebanon between 1998 and 2000. He was the first Vice-Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon for two successive mandates, 1993-1998 and 1998-2003. He was a Member of the UN Committee for Development Policy (UNCDP) for two mandates over the period 2000-2006, a position to which he was appointed by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, in his personal capacity. Dr Saidi holds a PhD. and a MA in Economics from the University of Rochester in the US, a M.Sc. from University College, London University and a B.A. from the American University of Beirut.

Dr Nasser Saidihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16672012-11-19T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Gillian Tett | Gillian Tett, a social anthropologist and one of the world’s leading financial journalists, will examine the current uncertain economic environment and how it emerged from the financial crisis, including the roles of institutional failings, culture and human choices. Gillian Tett is US managing editor of the Financial Times and the British Press Awards’ Journalist of the Year (2009).

Gillian Tetthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16542012-11-19T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Laura Valentini, Dr Lea Ypi | What does it mean to be a cosmopolitan? Does cosmopolitanism demand the creation of ‘global’ institutional structures transcending the state? Laura Valentini is lecturer in political philosophy in the Department of Political Science at University College London. Lea Ypi is lecturer in political theory in the Government Department, LSE.

Dr Laura Valentini, Dr Lea Ypihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16562012-11-19T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Julian Castro | The United States economy remains the worlds' largest. Demographic change is seeing Texas and other states increase their number of congressional seats and share of the US economy. Mayor Castro's SA 2020 programme details his vision for San Antonio. How does one of the US' young leaders see its place in the world? Julian Castro is the Mayor of San Antonio, the US' 7th largest city, one of the fastest growing cities in the country. He is a co-chair of the Obama 2012 Campaign and gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. In March 2010, Mayor Castro joined executives from Google and Twitter in being named to the World Economic Forum’s list of Young Global Leaders. In 2005, Castro founded The Law Offices of Julián Castro, PLLC, a civil litigation practice. He has served on the board of Family Services Association, the Clear Channel San Antonio Advisory Board and the San Antonio National Bank Advisory Board. In addition to his community service, Mayor Castro has taught courses at The University of Texas at San Antonio, Trinity University, and St. Mary’s University. Mayor Castro earned his undergraduate degree from Stanford University with honours and distinction in 1996 and a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School in 2000. Mayor Castro’s brother, Joaquin, serves in the Texas House of Representatives.

Julian Castrohttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16552012-11-19T16:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Jean-Paul Faguet | Dr Faguet will speak about his new book Decentralization and Popular Democracy: governance from below in Bolivia. Jean-Paul Faguet is reader in the political economy of development at LSE.

Dr Jean-Paul Faguethttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16522012-11-14T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Kellee Tsai | Comparisons of China and India’s economic development typically focus on either the nature of state intervention in the economy or the role of foreign direct investment (FDI). Yet this ignores a vast network of informal financial flows generated by remittances and ethnic investors residing abroad. Kellee Tsai is a professor in the Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University.

Professor Kellee Tsaihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16502012-11-14T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Lord Heseltine | Part of the Future Of The Union series discussion on the future of each nation within the UK. Michael Heseltine is the former deputy prime minister and patron of the Tory Reform Group. He was an MP from 1966 to 2001.

Lord Heseltinehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16512012-11-14T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Tim Allen, Dr Laura Bogart, Dr Heidi Larson, Professor Nicoli Nattrass, Dr Melissa Parker | This panel discussion will explore the challenges posed by distrust and conspiracy beliefs about public health programmes (schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis, polio and HIV/AIDS) in sub-Saharan Africa (Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria and South Africa). The successful development of effective technologies to treat HIV and vaccinate against polio, lymphatic filariasis and schistosomiasis have all rightfully been hailed as major steps forward in the struggle to control public health problems in sub-Saharan Africa. Lack of uptake of any of these innovations can, however, derail even the best-designed public health programmes. One of the factors contributing to poor uptake is patients’ distrust of either the health technologies themselves or the people who administer them. This is sometimes articulated in the form of conspiracy theories about the origins of the HIV, or the efficacy of vaccines, and constitutes a significant barrier to vaccine uptake, mass treatment compliance, HIV testing, and condom use in numerous countries. Drawing from in-depth research, the speakers will explore the causes and impacts of conspiracy beliefs and distrust of health interventions, and discuss possible solutions. Tim Allen is professor in development anthropology at LSE. Laura Bogart is associate professor at Harvard Medical School. Heidi Larson is senior lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Nicoli Nattrass is professor of economics at the University of Cape Town. Melissa Parker is senior lecturer at Brunel University.

Professor Tim Allen, Dr Laura Bogart, Dr Heidi Larson, Professor Nicoli Nattrass, Dr Melissa Parkerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16472012-11-13T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Craig Calhoun | The university is an institution in upheaval. In his Inaugural Lecture as Director of LSE, Professor Craig Calhoun explores the options for the future. Professor Calhoun is a world-renowned social scientist whose work connects sociology to culture, communication, politics, philosophy and economics. He took up his post as LSE Director on 1 September 2012, having left the United States where he was University Professor at New York University and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge and President of the Social Science Research Council. Professor Calhoun is an American citizen but has deep connections with the United Kingdom. He took a D Phil in History and Sociology at Oxford University and a Master's in Social Anthropology at Manchester. He co-founded, with Richard Sennett, Professor of Sociology at LSE, the NYLON programme which brings together graduate students from New York and London for co-operative research programmes. He is the author of several books including Nations Matter, Critical Social Theory, Neither Gods Nor Emperors and most recently The Roots of Radicalism (University of Chicago Press, 2012). Describing his own approach to academic work, Professor Calhoun says: "We must set high standards for ourselves, but in order to inform the public well, not to isolate ourselves from it."

Professor Craig Calhounhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16482012-11-13T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Charles Arthur | Charles Arthur has been with The Guardian since 2005. His 2012 book “Digital Wars: Apple, Google, Microsoft and the Battle for the Internet” covers the business and technological competition between the three companies.It investigates Apple, Google, Microsoft and the battle for the internet. It reveals what to expect from the internet in the next five years, which company will ultimately be in the driving seat, and what the implications will be for us all. Part of the Media Agenda 2012 series.

Charles Arthurhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16492012-11-13T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): David Lipton | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor audio quality of this recording. Almost two years after the start of the so-called "Arab Spring", the countries concerned are facing significant economic challenges, against the backdrop of a difficult global environment. While much attention is rightly being paid to near term economic stabilization, there is an historic opportunity for structural changes that would liberate economic forces, and allow these economies to generate the growth needed for increasing income and employment opportunities. Notwithstanding their own difficulties, advanced economies must help. David Lipton was appointed First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund on September 1, 2011. Before joining the Fund, he was Special Assistant to the President, and Senior Director for International Economic Affairs. National Economic Council and National Security Council at the White House. He was a Managing Director at Citi, and also worked at Moore Capital Management and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr Lipton served in the Clinton Administration at the Treasury Department, and as Assistant Secretary and Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs. Before that, he was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center of Scholars. From 1989 to 1992, he worked as Economic Advisor to the governments of Russia, Poland and Slovenia. Mr. Lipton began his career with eight years on the IMF staff. He has a Ph.D. and M.A. from Harvard University and a B.A. from Wesleyan University.

David Liptonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16532012-11-13T15:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Anne Applebaum, Professor Craig Calhoun, Professor Michael Cox, Gideon Rachman | After a closely fought election, this highly topical LSE public debate will look ahead to Obama’s second administration and assess the challenges it faces at home and how it is likely to address them, as well as how its relationships with Britain, Europe and the rest of the world are likely to develop. Author and Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum has taken up the post of Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at the School for 2012-13. She is the first woman to ever hold this position. Anne Applebaum is the Director of Political Studies at the Legatum Institute in London, and a columnist for the Washington Post and Slate. After graduating from Yale University, Anne Applebaum was a Marshall Scholar at both the LSE and St. Anthony’s College Oxford. She has also lectured at Yale and Columbia Universities, amongst others. Anne Applebaum’s journalistic work focuses on US and international politics, with a particular focus on economic and political transition. Craig Calhoun is director of LSE. He is a world-renowned social scientist whose work connects sociology to culture, communication, politics, philosophy and economics. He took up his post as LSE Director on 1 September 2012, having left the United States where he was University Professor at New York University and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge and President of the Social Science Research Council. Michael Cox is founding director of LSE IDEAS. `Professor Cox is a well known speaker on global affairs and has lectured in the United States, Australia, Asia, and in the EU. He has spoken on a range of contemporary global issues, though most recently he has focused on the role of the United States in the international system, the rise of Asia, and whether or not the world is now in the midst of a major power shift. Gideon Rachman became chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times in July 2006. He joined the FT after a 15-year career at The Economist, which included spells as a foreign correspondent in Brussels, Washington and Bangkok. He also edited The Economist’s business and Asia sections. His particular interests include American foreign policy, the European Union and globalisation.

Professor Anne Applebaum, Professor Craig Calhoun, Professor Michael Cox, Gideon Rachmanhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16452012-11-12T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Saba Mahmood | The relegation of religion and sexual reproduction to the private sphere is widely regarded as a key feature of modern secular societies. While postcolonial states of South Asia and the Middle East are heir to this arrangement, they are also distinct in that they retain religious laws for the regulation of family affairs. As a result, both minority and majority religious communities of these postcolonial polities continue to exert a fair degree of judicial autonomy over family affairs based on their religious traditions. Professor Mahmood’s talk tries to rethink the classical debate around “family law” and “minority rights” by parsing out the contradictions that attend the public-private distinction institutionalized by the modern state, particularly the complex intertwining of gender, sexuality and religion. Saba Mahmood is associate professor of Anthropology at the University of California Berkeley. She is the author of Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject that received the 2005 Victoria Schuck award from the American Association of Political Science. Most recently she is the co-author of Is Critique Secular? Blasphemy, Injury, and Free Speech (2009) published by the University of California Press. Her work has appeared in a variety of journals including Critical Inquiry, Cultural Anthropology, Boston Review, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Social Research, American Ethnologist, Public Culture, and Cultural Studies. Mahmood is a recipient of the Carnegie Corporation’s scholar of Islam award (2007), and the Frederick Burkhardt fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies (2009-10). In Spring 2013 she will be a resident fellow at the American Academy in Berlin.

Saba Mahmoodhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16462012-11-12T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Fred Pearce, Professor Anthony Hall, Dr Charles Palmer | ‘Land grabbing’ has been described as the most profound ethical, environmental, economic and social issue in the world today. Financial speculation and concerns over food security are driving the acquisition of vast areas of land by foreign entities from beneath the feet of its occupiers in Africa, South-east Asia, South America and Eastern Europe. This debate examines the relative impact of land grabbing on the lives of poor people across the globe. Fred Pearce is an environment, science, and development writer. He writes regularly for New Scientist and the Guardian, and is author of When The Rivers Run Dry and The Landgrabbers. Anthony Hall is professor of Social Policy at LSE. Charles Palmer is lecturer in Environment and Development at LSE.

Fred Pearce, Professor Anthony Hall, Dr Charles Palmerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16442012-11-12T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Michael Brearley, Professor David Papineau | What is meant by ‘being in the zone’? Can philosophy or cognitive science help explain the combination of mental and physical effort required for sporting excellence? Michael Brearley will discuss technique and emotion, concentration and relaxation, self-criticism and self-confidence, and will consider whether the capacity to find an optimum balance of such qualities can be learned or fostered. David Papineau will speak about the way that high-level sport requires intentional mental control of reflex behaviour, and will reflect on what this tells us about both cognition and sport. Michael Brearley is a psychoanalyst in London. In earlier life he taught philosophy, and was a professional cricketer captaining both England and Middlesex. David Papineau is Professor of Philosophy at King's College London.

Michael Brearley, Professor David Papineauhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16412012-11-08T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Charles Hirschkind | A look at the politics of the Salafi movement in Egypt in relation to changing practices of religious media use. The movement is the political face of a much broader and diverse current within Egyptian society, one grounded less in a specific tradition within Islam than in a grassroots movement centred on ethical reform. Charles Hirschkind is associate professor of anthropology, UC Berkeley.

Professor Charles Hirschkindhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16422012-11-08T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Carwyn Jones AM | Part of the Future Of The Union series discussion on the future of each nation within the UK. Carwyn Jones is the first minister of Wales.

Carwyn Jones AMhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16432012-11-08T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Andreas Rödder | The German Question has kept Europe in suspense for more than a century. It appeared to have eventually been solved by German unification and through the integration of the D-Mark - the German "atomic bomb" - into the European Monetary Union. However, after losing two world wars and a third of its territory, having committed the holocaust and expelled huge numbers of its elites, after Europeanising central elements of its power and yet being strained by the economical impact of reunification, Germany is once more suspected of aspiring to supremacy. The lecture will follow the twisted story of Germany in Europe since the late 19th century. In particular it will analyse the connection between German reunification and the decision to introduce the Euro in order to highlight the current "German question" from a historical perspective. Andreas Rödder holds the chair for Contemporary History at the Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz (Germany). He has published books on the mid 19th-century English Conservatives, in German foreign politics in the interwar period as well as on Germany in the 1970s and 80s and at last on German reunification.

Professor Andreas Rödderhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16362012-11-07T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): The Hon Mr Justice Singh | Sir Rabinder Singh is a High Court judge who as a barrister was involved in many leading cases, including on Iraq. A unique opportunity to put your question to a highly respected barrister and judge. The Hon. Mr Justice Singh is an English High Court judge of the Queen’s Bench Division and was a founding member of Matrix Chambers.

The Hon Mr Justice Singhhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16392012-11-07T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Nicolas Berggruen, Nathan Gardels | A conversation about new models of governance, looking at Western democracy, Eastern mandarinates and the search for methods of governance that can extend the benefits of globalisation rather than destroy them. Nicolas Berggruen is the founder and president of Berggruen Holdings, a private investment company, and the Nicolas Berggruen Institute, a think tank devoted to addressing governance issues. Nathan Gardels is a senior advisor at NBI, editor of New Perspectives Quarterly, editor in chief, Global Services, Los Angeles Times Syndicate. Their new book is Intelligent Governance for the 21st Century: a middle way between West and East.

Nicolas Berggruen, Nathan Gardelshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16402012-11-07T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Hans Hoogervorst | A look at international financial reporting standards and accounting harmonisation and what effect these developments are having on economies across the world. Hans Hoogervorst is chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and former chairman of the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets.

Hans Hoogervorsthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16342012-11-06T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Richard Bradley | How should we manage the uncertainty that we face in our decision making? Can this uncertainty be measured and tamed? What are the limits of our techniques for doing so? Richard Bradley is professor of philosophy at LSE.

Professor Richard Bradleyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16382012-11-06T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Andreas Kalyvas | This lecture explores the politicisation of irregular migrants over the last two decades and describes the rise of the stateless citizen as an exemplary form of cosmopolitan citizenship. Andreas Kalyvas is an associate professor of politics at the New School for Social Research, New York. Ayça Çubukçu is a lecturer on human rights at LSE.

Professor Andreas Kalyvashttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16352012-11-06T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Ruth Mackensie | Ruth Mackenzie was the director of the Cultural Olympiad in 2012 which has featured a range of cultural programmes and involved more than 16 million people across the UK. Her talk is an account of how and why London 2012 organised the largest festival in the UK - the London 2012 Festival - as part of the Olympic & Paralympic Games. Part of the Media Agenda 2012 series.

Ruth Mackensiehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16372012-11-06T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Richard Sandor | Dr Richard Sandor will give a first-hand account of his experiences as an inventor of new markets- in interest rates, air and water. Dr. Sandor's latest book Good Derivatives: A Story of Financial and Environmental Innovation tells the story of the creation of the CCX and the evolution of related exchanges such as the European Climate Exchange. Richard Sandor is the current chairman and CEO of Environmental Financial Products LLC, which was the predecessor company and incubator for the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX).

Dr Richard Sandorhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16322012-11-05T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Cynthia Enloe | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor audio quality during the first few minutes of Professor Cynthia Enloe’s presentation. "Post-war" in many societies is a time of flux when new, more just gender relationships can be forged. But a post-war era, if left unattended, is even more likely to be a time when masculinized structures and cultures can become re-established. Cynthia Enloe is research professor of international developmentm and of women’s studies at Clark University, Massachusetts. This event is supported by the Department of International Relations.

Professor Cynthia Enloehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16332012-11-05T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Various - see description | Session 1 - Opening CeremonySpeakers: Professor Stuart Corbridge, Maria Helena Gasparian, Ana Souza, Isabel Santana, Pilar Álvarez-Laso, Professor Sandra JovchelovitchThe Underground Sociabilities International Seminar opening ceremony and Film and Presentation of the Research by Professor Sandra Jovchelovitch – LSE.Session 2 - Favela Trajectories: Building Responses to Exclusion and ViolenceSpeakers: Washington Rimas, Camila Batmanghelidjh, Silvia Ramos, Paul Heritage, Pilar Álvarez-LasoThe Self and Life Trajectories; Community Responses to Crime and Violence; Resisting Exclusion and Generating Positive Practices.Session 3 - Urban Borders, Mediations and New Social ActorsSpeakers: Junia Santa Rosa, Celso Athayde, Antonio Roberto Cesário de Sá, Gareth Jones, Anthony HallBroken City/Communicative City; Crossing Borders in the City; “Talking to the Enemy”: community and police relations; Lessons from AfroReggae and CUFA.Session 4 - The Routes of Underground SociabilitiesSpeakers: Rogerio Sottili, Luis Erlanger, Jailson de Souza e Silva, Ricky BurdettThemes: Psychosocial Scaffoldings and Border Crossing in the City; lessons for policy makers, government, business, NGOs and other partners; developing initiatives towards border crossing and scaffolding.

Various - see descriptionhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=17432012-11-02T10:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Thomas Mayer | Dr Thomas Mayer is Senior Fellow at the Center of Financial Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt and Senior Advisor to Deutsche Bank’s management and key clients. From 2010 to 2012 he was Chief Economist of Deutsche Bank Group and Head of Deutsche Bank Research. He has previously held positions at Goldman Sachs and the International Monetary Fund.

Dr Thomas Mayerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16282012-11-01T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Arne Westad | Arne Westad argues that China’s role in international affairs over the past 250 years has been determined by the country’s restless irresolution and its immense capacity for change. In this lecture he will discuss the significance of China’s past for its behaviour in international affairs today. Arne Westad is director of LSE IDEAS.

Professor Arne Westadhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16292012-11-01T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Li Xiaoyun, Professor Henry Bernstein, Professor Thandika Mkandawire, Professor James Putzel | Professor Li will introduce his new book followed by a panel discussion. Li Xiaoyun is dean of the College of Humanities and Development, China Agricultural University, Beijing. Henry Bernstein is professor of development studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Thandika Mkandawire is professor of African development at LSE and the Olof Palme Professor For Peace at the Institute for Future Studies, Stockholm. James Putzel is professor of development studies and director of the Crisis States Research Programme at LSE.

Professor Li Xiaoyun, Professor Henry Bernstein, Professor Thandika Mkandawire, Professor James Putzelhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16302012-11-01T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Daniel Miller | What can we learn from the study of consumption? How can this contribute to wider issues in social science and even philosophy? How does this change our perspective on economic issues? These questions are explored through a simple question – why, in most countries, do half the population on any given day wear denim blue jeans? Daniel Miller is professor of material culture at University College London. His recent books include Blue Jeans (with S Woodward).

Professor Daniel Millerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16262012-10-31T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Nick Bostrom, Professor Anne Kerr | This dialogue will consider how issues related to human enhancement fit into the bigger picture of humanity’s future, including the risks and opportunities that will be created by future technological advances. It will question the individualistic logic of human enhancement and consider the social conditions and consequences of enhancement technologies, both real and imagined. Nick Bostrom is Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at Oxford University and founding Director of the Future of Humanity Institute and of the Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology within the Oxford Martin School. Anne Kerr is Professor of Sociology at the University of Leeds.

Professor Nick Bostrom, Professor Anne Kerrhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16202012-10-30T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Claire Enders | Claire Enders is a founder of Enders Analysis that offers its subscribers research and advice covering the major commercial, regulatory and strategic issues in mobile and fixed line telecoms, TV and the Internet, as well as the major content businesses such as music, publishing and advertising. This event is part of the POLIS Media Agenda 2012 series.

Claire Endershttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16242012-10-30T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Philipp Rösler | The aftermath of the financial crisis has challenged Europe. Dr Rösler will discuss the reasons as well as new strategies to regather competitiveness and growth. He will also point out how the European monetary union can develop further into a union of stability and what the role of member states in this process should be. Philipp Rösler is the vice chancellor and federal minister of economics and technology of Germany. Dr Rösler also serves as chairman of the Free Democratic Party.

Dr Philipp Röslerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16192012-10-30T13:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Craig Calhoun, Professor Michael Cox, Dr Pippa Malmgren, Professor Sir Robert Worcester | With just a week to go to the US presidential election, this panel of experts will assess the state of the race, look back at Barack Obama’s first term, what a second term would bring, or what "President Romney" would mean for the US and the wider world. Craig Calhoun is director of LSE. Michael Cox is Founding co-director of LSE IDEAS. Pippa Malmgren is the president and founder of Principalis Asset Management, former financial market advisor in the White House and member of the National Economic Council. Robert Worcester was the founder of MORI and is an honorary fellow of LSE.

Professor Craig Calhoun, Professor Michael Cox, Dr Pippa Malmgren, Professor Sir Robert Worcesterhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16232012-10-29T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Lawrence Gonzi | Not for the first time in its chequered history, the Mediterranean region is in a state of transition. In the south, the revolutionary wave of the Arab Spring toppled regimes that had defined the region for decades, leaving in their wake an uncertain, and at times uneasy, regrouping of socio-political forces. To the north,the global economic crisis has exposed the cracks in a number of vulnerable economies that were, until a few years ago, at the vanguard of the continent’s economic growth. Situated right in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea, Malta has found itself at the heart of this political, economic and social maelstrom. As a small, open economy, Malta has had to deal with the consequences of the Eurozone’s economic woes. It was also drawn into the Libyan Crisis, particularly when on 21 February 2011, two Mirage F1 fighter planes landed in Malta unexpectedly, marking the first two high-profile defections from the Ghaddafi regime of the Libyan uprising. Malta faced these challenges head-on. Taking firm action to manage the effects of the recession, Malta fought successfully to maintain its core economic stability; Jose Barroso, President of the European Commission, in fact, recently described Malta’s economic performance as among the best in the Union. Malta also took a stand during the Libyan uprising and served as a humanitarian hub for persons fleeing the conflict and for conveying crucial medical and food supplies to Libya. It is therefore quite fitting that Malta hosted the first 5+5 Summit to be held since 2003, and the first to be held since the Arab Spring, where talks focused on political and economic issues. At this Summit, the Maltese Prime Minister, Lawrence Gonzi, made the case that the Mediterranean nations now have a unique opportunity to work together towards a common goal: a democratic, stable and prosperous North Africa. In his first public talk since bringing together ten Mediterranean states for the historical 5+5 Summit, Prime Minister Gonzi will state his claim for closer regional cooperation in the Mediterranean. What are his views of the incredible changes taking place in the north and south Mediterranean? How can countries and peoples in the region work together to achieve the common aim of democratisation? Lawrence Gonzi took office as Prime Minister of Malta on 23 March 2004, including in his portfolio the Ministry of Finance. On 8 March 2008, Lawrence Gonzi was re-elected Prime Minister.

Lawrence Gonzihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16222012-10-26T12:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Jeremy Bowen | For many living in the Arab world, change felt like a distant dream. But the desperate act of a young Tunisian man in October 2010 would be the touchpaper that united people in anger and frustration and sparked a series of extraordinary events that would change the lives of millions, the impact of which is still being played out today. Award-winning journalist Jeremy Bowen has been the BBC's Middle East editor since 2005 and was on the ground for them as revolution swept through the region. Recognising this as a game-changing moment in the history of the Middle East, through the thoughts and feelings of the people involved, The Arab Uprisings|, Jeremy’s new book, which he will talk about in this lecture captures the violent foment of those heady days and follows the story as it has evolved over the months. With unparalleled access, Bowen examines how the unforeseen but infectious rebellion shook the Middle East and unseated its dictators, whilst also lifting the lid on the brutal police states, tribal loyalty, the influence of social media and the part that foreign help played. Putting these revolutions in their political context and giving insight into the broader history and evolving landscape of the Middle East, it is the story of a change that had once seemed impossible; how it happened and what it means. Jeremy Bowen is Middle East editor for the BBC, having reported from Jerusalem for twelve years. He is the author of two previous books: Six Days and War Stories.

Jeremy Bowenhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16172012-10-25T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Iain Begg, Arnab Das, Dr Gerard Lyons, Rachel Ziemba | As US and European economies teeter on the verge of ever-greater slowdown, what prospects remain for growth elsewhere in the world? Iain Begg is a Professorial Research Fellow in the European Institute at LSE. Arnab Das is managing director of research, Roubini Global Economics. Gerard Lyons is chief economist and group head, Global Research, Standard Chartered Bank. Rachel Ziemba is director of Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) and global macroeconomics at Roubini Global Economics.

Professor Iain Begg, Arnab Das, Dr Gerard Lyons, Rachel Ziembahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16162012-10-25T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor David Stevenson | This lecture will re-examine the origins of international history in Britain after the First World War and re-assess, in the light of the continuing debate about the origins of that war, how far the aspirations of the discipline’s founders remain applicable today. David Stevenson is Stevenson Professor of International History at LSE. His publications include With Our Backs to the Wall: victory and defeat in 1918.

Professor David Stevensonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16182012-10-25T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Christopher Davidson | Christopher Davidson discusses the political and economic pressures building in the Gulf monarchies and considers the likelihood of their survival or collapse over the next five years. Christopher Davidson is reader in Middle East politics in the School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University. His forthcoming book is After the Sheikhs: the coming collapse of the Gulf monarchies.

Dr Christopher Davidsonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16132012-10-24T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Keir Starmer | As the head of the CPS, Keir Starmer QC has been instrumental in a number of high profile prosecutions and is at the forefront of developments in prosecution policy. Most recently, he has announced his intention to issue guidelines around the prosecution of cases involving social media. Your exclusive chance to put your question to one of the most senior lawyers in the UK, join the debate @LSELaw. Please note: this is an open topic event, however there may be some questions the DPP is unable to answer for legal reasons, for example, on specific on-going cases. Keir Starmer is the director of public prosecutions for the Crown Prosecution Service. He was named Human Rights Lawyer of the Year in 2001 and QC of the Year in Human Rights and Public Law in 2007.

Keir Starmerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16272012-10-24T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Kelly Grainger, Giles Hutchins | Giles Hutchins will introduce his new book The Nature of Business, in which he presents the challenges to the prevailing 'business as usual' model and reveals the concepts and mindsets necessary to inspire the businesses of tomorrow. Kelly will present how Interface's sustainability journey aligns with the principles Giles puts forward regarding 'business inspired by nature'. Giles Hutchins is Co-founder of BCI: Biomimicry for Creative Innovation, Giles is a management consultant with over 15 years of business and IT transformation experience with KPMG and Atos International. Kelly Grainger is Head of Sustainability for Interface UK & Ireland. Interface is a worldwide leader in the design and production of carpet tiles and a recognised world leader in sustainable business with its 'Mission Zero'. Kelly is responsible for translating Interface's leadership in sustainability into the marketplace.

Kelly Grainger, Giles Hutchinshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16142012-10-24T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Christian Parenti | An exploration of how climate change is already causing violence as it interacts with the social legacies of economic neoliberalism and cold-war militarism across conflict zones of the Global South, and why it is imperative to attend to it now. Christian Parenti is a professor at the School for International Training Graduate institute; his latest book is Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence (2011). His articles have appeared in Fortune, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Middle East Report, London Review of Books, and The Nation (where he is a contributing editor). He has a PhD in Sociology and Geography from the London School of Economics.

Professor Christian Parentihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16152012-10-24T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Gilbert Achcar | A critical reflection on the politics of secularism and human rights following the so-called “Arab Spring” and the challenges posed for progressive thinking. Gilbert Achcar is professor of development studies and international relations at SOAS.

Professor Gilbert Achcarhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16092012-10-23T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor David Courtwright, Nigel Inkster, Dr William B McAllister, Dr Ethan Nadelmann | How did the international drug control system arise, why has it proven so durable in the face of failure, and is there hope for reform? David Courtwright is professor of history at the University of North Florida. Nigel Inkster is the former director of operations and intelligence for MI6. William McAllister is special projects director at Office of the Historian, US Department of State. Ethan Nadelmann is founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.

Professor David Courtwright, Nigel Inkster, Dr William B McAllister, Dr Ethan Nadelmannhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16102012-10-23T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Ben Page | Ben Page is Chief Executive of the polling company Ipsos MORI. Named one of the "100 most influential people in the public sector" by the Guardian, he has directed hundreds of surveys examining service delivery, customer care and communications working with both Conservative and Labour ministers and senior policy makers across government, leading on work for Downing Street, the Cabinet Office and the Home Office. This event is part of the POLIS Media Agenda 2012 series.

Ben Pagehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16112012-10-23T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Rajat M Nag | If Asia is to achieve its full potential, it will have to be through sustainable growth. To have sustainable growth, Asia must have growth that is inclusive, and growth that is green. These are not, nor should they be, separate processes, but rather simultaneous processes that focus on the quality of growth rather than simply on the quantity of growth. It is imperative for all partners in the region - governments, private sector, civil society and development institutions - to work together to build prosperous, inclusive societies. Rajat Nag has held several senior positions in the Asian Development Bank (ABD) over the past two decades and, as managing director general since December 2006, has provided strategic and operational direction to ADB in its fight against poverty.

Rajat M Naghttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16072012-10-22T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Linda Gordon | Most writing about the American New Left mistakenly refers only to the white student-intellectual movement that coalesced on campuses in the 1960s. This lecture treats the “long New Left,” from civil rights through the white student movement, the anti-Vietnam war movement, the women's liberation movement and the gay liberation movement, taking in also the environmentalism that continued throughout. Within that capacious movement, two related themes dominated: participatory democracy and prefigurative politics—impractical, utopian objectives, yes, but also principles that derive from and continue the core democratic socialist aspirations.' Linda Gordon is University Professor of the Humanities and Florence Kelley Professor of History, New York University. Her research and writings encompass Russian history, the historical roots of contemporary social policy debates in the US, particularly as they concern gender and family issues, and the work of photographer Dorothy Lange. She has won many awards including Guggenheim, NEH, ACLS, Radcliffe Institute and the New York Public Library¹s Cullman Center fellowships. Her publications include Woman's Body, Woman's Right: The History of Birth Control in America (1976, revised and re-published as The Moral Property of Women in 2002), Heroes of Their Own Lives: The History and Politics of Family Violence (1988), Pitied But Not Entitled: Single Mothers and the History of Welfare (1994), The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction (1999), and Impounded: Dorothea Lange and Japanese Americans in World War II (2006).

Professor Linda Gordonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16082012-10-22T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Haytham Manna | Dr Haytham Manna is head of the Syrian National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in exile. An academic and human rights activist, Manna co-founded the Arab Commission for Human Rights in 1998. He acted as the commission's spokesperson until September 2011. Born in 1951 to a family known for its political activism, Manna attended Damascus University as a medical student. He left Syria following ongoing harassment by the security agencies and continued his education at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris. He also earned a PhD in anthropology from the International Institute of Sociology, Paris. He founded the Su’al and Muqarabat intellectual magazines in 1980 and 1998, respectively.

Dr Haytham Mannahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16252012-10-22T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Kumi Naidoo | The environmental movement has achieved widespread popularity since its rise in the 1970s. What are the challenges facing civil society leaders today? And what will successful mass mobilisation require in the future? Kumi Naidoo is the international executive director of Greenpeace.

Dr Kumi Naidoohttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16212012-10-19T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Todd Gitlin, Professor Craig Calhoun | Erupting in September 2011, Occupy Wall Street was jump-started by a radical core who devised a form of action, occupation, that combined face-to-face with electronic elements. In an election year, the ingenuity of the original core has been overshadowed by the momentum, the stakes, and not least the money of the presidential campaign. Whether an Occupy movement takes shape and endures, focused on transformation of a political system overwhelmingly shaped by plutocrats, depends on the actions of many networks that were mobilized within and around the Occupy moment. Todd Gitlin is professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University and is the author of 15 books, including, Occupy Nation: the roots, the spirit, and the promise of Occupy Wall Street. Professor Calhoun is a world-renowned social scientist whose work connects sociology to culture, communication, politics, philosophy and economics. He took up his post as LSE Director on 1 September 2012, having left the United States where he was University Professor at New York University and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge and President of the Social Science Research Council.

Professor Todd Gitlin, Professor Craig Calhounhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16042012-10-18T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Antoni Kapcia, Professor Hal Klepak, Dr Carlos Alzugaray Treto | October 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis. This panel will re-evaluate the impact of the crisis on relations both within the Americas and between the superpowers. Antoni Kapcia is professor in Latin American history, University of Nottingham. Hal Klepak is professor of history and warfare studies at the Royal Military College of Canada. Carlos Alzugaray Treto is professor at the Center for Hemispheric and United States Studies, University of Havana. From 1961-96 he was a foreign service officer, being posted at Cuban diplomatic and consular missions.

Professor Antoni Kapcia, Professor Hal Klepak, Dr Carlos Alzugaray Treto http://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16032012-10-18T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Martin Jacques | Martin Jacques renews his assault on conventional thinking about China, above all, the failure to grasp how China is different and how this difference will come to shape the world in a very different way from the Western era. With Western thinking lagging well behind the curve of China’s rise, he explains how the Western financial crisis has dramatically accelerated China’s global impact and influence. Martin Jacques is the author of the global best-seller When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order, the second edition of which, updated and greatly expanded, was published earlier this year. He is a visiting professor at Tsinghua University and a non-resident fellow at the Transatlantic Academy, Washington DC. He was a visiting senior research fellow at LSE IDEAS. John Gray is emeritus professor of European thought at the LSE and author of The Immortalization Commission: the strange quest to cheat death and many others.

Martin Jacqueshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16052012-10-18T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Lord Lawson of Blaby | Nigel Lawson will discuss his career and life in the front line of British politics over the course of four decades. Nigel Lawson was MP for Blaby from 1974–92 and served as the chancellor of the Exchequer from 1983-1989.

Lord Lawson of Blabyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16002012-10-17T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Anne Applebaum | The horrifying genius of Soviet communism was the system’s ability to get the silent majority in so many countries to play along without much protest. The techniques used to do this are the central topic of this lecture and Iron Curtain, Anne Applebaum’s new book. Anne Applebaum is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2012-13.

Anne Applebaumhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16012012-10-17T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Bassma Kodmani, Nicholas Noe, Yara Nseir | How did the opposition to Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria emerge? This panel will explore the evolution of the Syrian opposition and the impact of developments in Syria upon the wider region. Bassma Kodmani is executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative and a former member of the Syrian National Council’s Executive Bureau. Nicholas Noe is a leading expert on Lebanon, with a particular emphasis on crafting new approaches to non-state actors such as Hizbullah. Yara Nseir is a Syrian civil society activist with a particular interest in defending freedom of expression.

Bassma Kodmani, Nicholas Noe, Yara Nseirhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16022012-10-17T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dan Atkinson, Larry Elliott | Two leading journalists explain how and why Britain has fallen into decline from being a superpower in 1914 to having a third world economy by 2014. Dan Atkinson is the economics editor of The Mail on Sunday, previous to this he was a financial correspondent at The Guardian. Larry Elliott is the economics editor of The Guardian. He is the council member of the Overseas Development Institute and visiting fellow at the University of Hertfordshire. Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson are the authors of two previously successful publications The Gods That Failed and Fantasy Island. Their latest book is Going South: Why Britain will have a Third World Economy by 2014.

Dan Atkinson, Larry Elliotthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15972012-10-16T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Robin Mansell, Professor William H Dutton, Professor Robert Wade | Big challenges face policy makers trying to balance conflicting interests in the information society. This lecture examines why digital information and complex networks make policymaking especially difficult. Robin Mansell is professor of new media and the internet at LSE and author of Imagining the Internet. William H Dutton is professor of internet studies at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. Robert Wade is professor of political economy and development at LSE.

Professor Robin Mansell, Professor William H Dutton, Professor Robert Wadehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15982012-10-16T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Tom Feiling | Tom Feiling, who has spent years in Colombia, unpicks the tangled fabric of this oft-misunderstood country and explores its fascinating history and society. This event marks the publication of Tom's new book Short Walks from Bogotá: Journeys in the new Colombia. Tom Feiling is the filmmaker of Resistencia: Hip-Hop in Colombia, which won numerous awards at film festivals around the world, and was broadcast in four countries. In 2003 he became Campaigns Director for the TUC's Justice for Colombia campaign, which organises for human rights in Colombia. His first book was The Candy Machine: How Cocaine Took Over The World and was published by Penguin in 2009. Tom is an alumnus of LSE.

Tom Feilinghttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15992012-10-16T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Philip Collins | The talk will set out the conditions that have to be in place for a speech to be considered a great example of its kind. Philip Collins is a former speechwriter to Tony Blair and author The Art of Speeches. He had worked in the City and for a political think-tank and is now a leading political columnist for the London Times. This events is part of the POLIS Media Agenda 2012 series.

Philip Collinshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15962012-10-16T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Tim Harford | Tim Harford combines biology, statistical physics, psychology and of course economics to explore how complex problems are solved, and the crucial role of learning from our apparently endless ability to screw up. Tim Harford is the author of Adapt| and The Undercover Economist. He is a senior columnist at the Financial Times, presenter of Radio 4's More or Less, and a visiting fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford.

Tim Harfordhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15932012-10-15T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Aziz Al- Azmeh | What is the condition of the relationship between religion and polity in the Arab World following the upheaval of the past two years? What is the relationship between this condition and the long history of secularism and freethinking in the Arab World? Professor Aziz Al-Azmeh will reflect on these questions as well as take questions from the audience during this lecture. Aziz Al-Azmeh is professor in the School of History at the Central European University and author of Islams and Modernities (Verso, 2009). Al-Azmeh has been a visiting professor at Columbia University, Yale University, University of California, Berkeley, Georgetown University and the American University of Beirut. His works in English also include The Times of History: Universal Themes in Islamic Historiography (CEU Press, 2007) and Muslim Kingship: Power and the Sacred in Muslim, Christian, and Pagan Politics (IB Tauris, 2001).

Professor Aziz Al- Azmehhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15942012-10-15T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Noah Horowitz | Since the 1960s artists have created ephemeral and experiential works of art that were frequently informed by a desire to thwart the market's mechanisms, or simply by ambivalence to economic conventions. How then do these works of art enter the market? By what means can a performance artist make a living without public subsidy? And what challenges and opportunities do conceptual, installation and performance works present to both commercial galleries and collectors? Noah Horowitz is an art historian and expert on the international art market. He is the author of Art of the Deal: Contemporary Art in a Global Financial Market (Princeton University Press, 2011), has contributed to publications for The Serpentine Gallery, London; the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo; and the United Kingdom's Intellectual Property Office. His writings and interviews on contemporary art and economics have appeared in The New York Times, The Observer, REUTERS, artinfo.com, Das Handelsblatt and ArtTactic. He received his PhD from The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and formerly served as Director of the inaugural VIP Art Fair - the first- ever online art fair. Horowitz currently lives in New York where he is a member of the faculty of Sotheby's Institute of Art and Managing Director of The Armory Show. BREESE LITTLE is a commercial gallery directed by Josephine Breese and Henry Little. This is the third lecture as part of our ongoing series proudly in association with LSE Arts. Previous lectures have included Melanie Gerlis, Art Market Editor for The Art Newspaper, on Emerging Art Markets (November 2011) and Jeffrey Boloten, Managing Director of Art Insight on The State of the State of the Global Art Market (February 2011).

Dr Noah Horowitzhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15922012-10-15T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Edward Luce | As it stands, the US faces new countries on the ascendant that will compete with it ever more fiercely as its own power is declining. The US must change paths domestically, economically and internationally if it hopes to slow this steady loss of power. It must also restructure to remain the world's most competitive economy. And it must address quality of life issues and fairness at home. But American politics is broken -- competing forces and interests have led to stasis. With change so hard, what now for a country where the middle classes are suffering as they have never suffered before, the pensions crisis is growing, the deficit out of sight, and radicalism waiting in the wings? Edward Luce is the Washington columnist and commentator for the Financial Times. He writes a weekly column, FT's leaders/editorials on American politics and the economy and other articles. Ed has worked for the FT since 1995 as Philippines correspondent, capital markets editor, South Asia bureau chief in New Delhi and Washington bureau chief between 2006 and 2011. In 2000 Ed was the chief speechwriter for Lawrence H. Summers, the US Treasury secretary. His first book, In Spite of the Gods, The Strange Rise of Modern India remains a high seller. His new book is entitled Time To Start Thinking: America and the Spectre of Decline.

Edward Lucehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15952012-10-15T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Keith Ansell-Pearson | This lecture will consider the dramatic questions about human existence that Bergson poses in the conclusion to his 1932 text The Two Sources of Morality and Religion. Keith Ansell-Pearson is professor of philosophy at the University of Warwick.

Professor Keith Ansell-Pearsonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15902012-10-11T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Lord Hennessy | Peter Hennessy will examine the special considerations that apply to writing the history of one’s own times, with particular reference to themes running through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He will talk about Britain’s impulse to punch well about its weight in the world; at the sustenance of the nuclear weapons policy which has accompanied the impulse and at the intelligence operations which underpin it. He will also look at the contrasting styles and achievements of post-war prime minsters from Clement Attlee to David Cameron. Peter Hennessy is Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary, University of London. He has written several books on contemporary British history including Never Again and Having It So Good. Distilling the Frenzy is his latest book. He is a Fellow of the British Academy.

Professor Lord Hennessyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15892012-10-11T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): David Aaronovitch, Mehdi Hasan | What right is there under freedom of speech to cause offence? How can we balance ideals of free expression with respect for other faiths and beliefs? The sometimes violent reaction to the American-made film about the Prophet has polarised opinion within and between different countries and communities. We bring together David Aaronovitch, Times columnist and author of Voodoo Histories with Mehdi Hasan, Political Director of The Huffington Post UK and co-author of ED: The Milibands and the Making of a Labour Leader to debate what is at stake.

David Aaronovitch, Mehdi Hasanhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15882012-10-11T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr William H Janeway, Professor Dimitri Vayanos | In this talk William Janeway will discuss his new book, Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy: Markets, Speculation and the State. The Innovation Economy begins with discovery and culminates in speculation. Over some 250 years, economic growth has been driven by successive processes of trial and error: upstream exercises in research and invention, and downstream experiments in exploiting the new economic space opened by innovation. Drawing on his professional experiences, William H. Janeway provides an accessible pathway for readers to appreciate the dynamics of the Innovation Economy. He combines personal reflections, from a career spanning forty years in venture capital, with the development of an original theory of the role of asset bubbles in financing technological innovation and of the role of the state in playing an enabling role in the innovation process. Today, with the state frozen as an economic actor and access to the public equity markets only open to a minority, the Innovation Economy is stalled; learning the lessons from this book will contribute to its renewal. William H. Janeway has lived a double life of "theorist-practitioner," according to the legendary economist Hyman Minsky who first applied that term to him twenty-five years ago. In his role as "practitioner," Bill Janeway has been an active venture capital investor for more than 40 years. During that time he built and led the Warburg Pincus Technology Investment team that provided financial backing to a series of companies making critical contributions to the internet economy, including BEA Systems, Veritas Software and, more recently, Nuance Communications, the speech recognition company. He remains actively engaged as a Senior Advisor and Managing Director at Warburg Pincus. As a "theorist," Janeway received a Ph.D in Economics from Cambridge University where he was a Marshall Scholar. His doctoral study on the formulation of economic policy following the Great Crash of 1929 was supervised by Keynes' leading student, Richard Kahn (author of the foundational paper on "the multiplier"). Janeway went on to found the Cambridge Endowment for Research in Finance. Currently he serves as a Teaching Visitor at the Princeton University Economics Department and Visiting Scholar in the Economics Faculty of Cambridge University. Janeway is a director of Magnet Systems, Nuance Communications, O'Reilly Media and a member of the Board of Managers of Roubini Global Economics. He is a member of the board of directors of the Social Science Research Council, and a co-founder and member of the Governing Board of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET). Mr Janeway will be signing copies of his book, which will be available for sale with a 20% discount on the night. Dimitri Vayanos is Professor of Finance and Director of the Paul Woolley Centre for the Study of Capital Market Dysfunctionality at LSE.

Dr William H Janeway, Professor Dimitri Vayanoshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15872012-10-11T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Ha-Joon Chang | It has been four years since the global financial crisis broke out. If this were a normal downturn, the economy should have already recovered. Instead, we are talking about the prospect of a ‘lost decade’. Unemployment, especially youth unemployment, stays stubbornly high, while the financial elite keep drawing huge salaries and bonuses, even as their shenanigans are constantly exposed. What has gone wrong? In the talk, the author debunks the prevailing myths – 23 of them, to be exact – and show how our economic system, especially the financial system, needs to be completely re-wired if we are to build a more dynamic and fairer economy. Ha-Joon Chang teaches economics at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of Kicking away the Ladder and Bad Samaritans. He is the winner of 2003 Gunnar Myrdal Prize and 2005 Wassily Leontief Prize. His latest book is 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism.

Dr Ha-Joon Changhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15842012-10-10T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Robert Cooper, Richard Corbett, John Peet | In a period during which much is being made of fundamental changes in the balance of power, how can Europe redefine itself and its role in the wider international system? This event will launch the IDEAS Special Report, Europe in an Asian Century. Robert Cooper is former director-general for external and politico-military affairs at the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union. Richard Corbett is a former member of the European Parliament and advisor to President Herman Van Rompuy. John Peet is European editor of the Economist.

Robert Cooper, Richard Corbett, John Peethttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15852012-10-10T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): John McCain | On the eve of a Presidential election and with the United States ‘pivoting’ to Asia, Senator John McCain of the US Senate's Armed Services Committee, and the Republican Presidential candidate in 2008 will address an LSE audience and invite guests to participate in an interactive Q&A session. John McCain was elected to the United States Senate in 1986, after serving two terms in the U.S. House. As the son and grandson of distinguished Navy admirals, John attended college at the United States Naval Academy, and launched a 22-year career as a naval aviator upon his graduation. Senator McCain's last Navy duty assignment was to serve as the naval liaison to the United States Senate. He retired from the Navy in 1981. His naval honours include the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart, and the Distinguished Flying Cross. Senator McCain currently serves on the following Senate Committees during the 112th Congress: Ranking Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee; Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Committee on Indian Affairs.

John McCainhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15832012-10-10T14:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Barney Nyameko Pityana | A programme of the Steve Biko Foundation, the Steve Biko Memorial Lecture is a platform to reflect upon the legacy of the late anti-apartheid activist; particularly in relation to issues of consciousness, leadership and the African development agenda. The Revd Canon Professor Nyameko Barney Pityana is Rector of the College of the Transfiguration in Grahamstown, South Africa. A lawyer, theologian, academic and notable human rights activist, Pityana was a founder of the Black Consciousness Movement alongside Steve Biko. Today he writes extensively and gives lectures on ethics, public morality and contemporary South African politics.

Professor Barney Nyameko Pityanahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15802012-10-09T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Sir Mervyn King | Since 2008, we have experienced the worst financial crisis and recession since the 1930’s. What challenges does this pose to the intellectual foundations of monetary policy? Do we need a new approach? Mervyn King is the Governor of the Bank of England. Before joining the Bank he was Professor of Economics at the LSE, and a founder of the Financial Markets Group.

Professor Sir Mervyn Kinghttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15812012-10-09T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Mary Hockaday | Mary Hockaday is one of the BBC’s leading journalism executives. Her latest mission was to oversee the historic move of the BBC journalists into one brand new high tech, multi-media newsroom. This event is part of the POLIS Media Agenda 2012 series.

Mary Hockadayhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15822012-10-09T16:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Guy Verhofstadt | Europe is in crisis. How did we get here? What didn’t work? Faced with such an emergency, are the euro zone states not creating an undemocratic monster? Is euroscepticism not reactionary? Could a federation of 27 actually work? For Europe is a call. A wake up call directed to every citizen. It is an exercise in lucidity that encourages reflection. And it is also an alarm bell. The tone is frank, passionate. The arguments hard hitting : “Europe must once and for all get rid of the navel gazing of its nation-states. A radical revolution is needed. A large European revolution. And a European federal Union must emerge. A Union that enables Europe to participate in the postnational world of tomorrow. By laziness, cowardice and lack of vision, too many of our Heads of State and Government prefer not to see what is at stake. Let’s wake them up. Let’s confront them with their impotence. And give them no respite until they have taken the European way, the way to a Europe of the future, towards a Europe for Europeans. The era of empty summits and statements is over. Now is the time for action.” Daniel Cohn-Bendit was born on 4 April 1945 in Montauban, France, as a second son to German-Jewish parents. After obtaining his abitur at the Odenwaldschule, Germany, he decided to study Sociology at the University of Nanterre, Paris. He became the student leader and spokesperson in the social unrests in May 1968. Because of this role and his German nationality, Daniel Cohn-Bendit was expelled. He worked as a childcare worker and bookseller in the alternative-anarchist scene of Frankfurt am Main, where he co-founded the magazine Pflasterstrand (beach of cobblestone, from the French 1968 slogan "Sous les pavés, le sable"). In 1984, he was founding member of the German green party "DIE GRÜNEN". In 1989, he became honorary Head of Department in the Office for Multicultural Affairs in Frankfurt. Daniel Cohn-Bendit presented the Swiss TV programme Literaturklub from 1994 to 2003. He was elected Member of the European Parliament for the first time in 1994 on a German conscription list. Since 2002, he is co-chairman of the group of the Greens/European Free Alliance. He won his current mandate as head of the list in Ile-de-France / Paris. Daniel holds an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Tilburg, Netherlands. He won the Hannah Arendt prize for Political Thinking, and the Trombinoscope award "Political Personality" for special contributions in the field of politics (2009). Guy Verhofstadt was born in 1953, and attended school and university in Ghent, where he studied the law. In 1972, he became President of the Liberal Flemish Students' Union in Ghent and, four years later, was elected as a City Councillor there. Keen to follow his interest in national politics, Guy went on to take a number of high profile posts including Political Secretary to Willy De Clercq, National President of the Party for Freedom and Progress (PVV), an MP in the House of Representatives, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Budget, a Senator, and National President of the PVV and National President of the Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD). In July 1999 he became Prime Minister of Belgium, heading three separate governments over the course of nearly ten years. In June 2009 Guy Verhofstadt was elected to the European Parliament where he will pursue his interests in European politics after winning the unanimous support of the ALDE Group in their leadership contest. In addition to his duties as a politician, Guy has written a number of books including, The United States of Europe (2006), The New Age of Empires (2008) and Emerging from the Crisis: How Europe can Save the World (2009).

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Guy Verhofstadthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15792012-10-08T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Manuel Castells | This event will present the analyses contained in a new book Aftermath: The Cultures of the Economic Crisis, edited by Manuel Castells, João Caraça, and Gustavo Cardoso. It will retrace the financial crisis that unfolded since 2008 in the United States and Europe as well as discuss the policies dealing with the crisis, the reasons for the rampant euro-crisis, and the alternative social movements opposing financial capitalism and delegitimized governments in the aftermath of the crisis. Manuel Castells is Professor of Sociology, and Director of the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), in Barcelona. He is as well University Professor and the Wallis Annenberg Chair Professor of Communication Technology and Society at the Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He is Professor Emeritus of Sociology, and Professor Emeritus of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught for 24 years. He is the winner of the 2012 Holberg Prize. Paul Mason is the Economics Editor of BBC 2's Newsnight programme. His books include Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed; and Why It's Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions. He blogs at Paul Mason.

Professor Manuel Castellshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=16062012-10-08T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Luis de Guindos | Luis de Guindos is Spanish Minister of the Economy and Competitiveness.

Luis de Guindoshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15782012-10-04T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Kofi Annan | Kofi Annan has been at the centre of the major geopolitical events of our time. With over forty years of service to the United Nations – the last ten as Secretary-General – he provides a unique, behind-the-scenes view of international diplomacy during one of the most tumultuous periods in global politics. Annan’s candid stories of world leaders and public figures of all striped contrast powerfully with his descriptions of the courage and decency of ordinary people everywhere struggling for a new and better world. Kofi Annan was the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, serving two terms between 1997-2006. In 2001, Annan and the United Nations were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. His memoir, Interventions: A Life in War and Peace| is published by Allen Lane Books. William Shawcross is a widely renowned writer and broadcaster, who’s works have appeared in the Sunday Times, Time, Newsweek and the International Herald Tribune. He is the author of numerous acclaimed books including Deliver Us From Evil: Warlords and Peacekeepers in a World of Endless Conflict, Allies: The US, Britain, Europe and the War in Iraq and most recently Justice and the Enemy: From the Nuremberg Trials to Khaled Sheikh Mohammed.

Kofi Annanhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15772012-10-04T13:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Gurbaksh Chahal | Entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal will discuss the lessons learned in his experiences on how people can achieve their dreams. Gurbaksh is a die-hard internet entrepreneur. In January 1999, he started his first company, ClickAgents at the age of 16. It was one of the first ad networks focused around performance based advertising. Eighteen months later he sold it for $40 million to ValueClick. In January 2004, he launched his second company, BlueLithium. The company focused on data, optimization, and analytics and became a pioneer in behavioural targeting. BlueLithium was named one of the top 100 private companies in America for three years in a row by AlwaysOn, and in 2006, the company received the highest honour of Top Innovator of the Year. (Previous winners included Google, Skype, and Salesforce.com.) On 4 September 2007, Yahoo! announced that it was acquiring BlueLithium for $300 million in cash. Some of his television appearances include The Oprah Winfrey Show, Bonnie Hunt, EXTRA and Neil Cavuto, among others. He has also been profiled in such publications as The New York Times, Entrepreneur magazine, and The San Francisco Chronicle. Chahal is also an international best-selling author of The Dream the inspirational tale of his entrepreneurial journey. In September 2009, Chahal launched gWallet, now re-branded as RadiumOne. On April 29, 2010, Chahal was awarded the Leaders In Management Award and an Honorary Doctorate degree in Commercial Science from Pace University for his career achievements as an entrepreneur.

Gurbaksh Chahalhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15752012-10-02T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Aggrey Tisa Sabuni | Aggrey Tisa Sabuni, Economic Advisor to the President, will discuss the successes and challenges of building core Government institutions in South Sudan. Mr. Sabuni will discuss the role of the international community in this process, and identify where the development of these institutions has succeeded and where there is still more work to be done. Aggrey Tisa Sabuni is currently the Economic Advisor to the President, having previously served as Undersecretary (Permanent Secretary) to the Ministry of Finance. He holds a Masters in Development Economics from the University of Glasgow and a Bachelors in Statistics from the University of Khartoum.

Aggrey Tisa Sabunihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15762012-10-02T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Stephen Hester | Stephen Hester took over as Royal Bank of Scotland CEO after the UK Government was forced to rescue the bank from the brink of collapse during the financial crisis. Three and a half years after launching its recovery plan, the bank is in much stronger health. But like the rest of the banking industry, RBS continues to confront serious reputational damage as past mistakes slowly come into full view of regulators, media, and the wider public. Hester will explain how a key linking factor behind the scandals currently affecting the industry has been its approach to customers. And he will argue that improving that approach is the key to fixing both the culture and performance of the banks we all rely on. Stephen Hester was appointed group chief executive of RBS Group on 21 November 2008. He was previously chief executive of The British Land Company PLC, chief operating officer of Abbey National plc and prior to that held positions with Credit Suisse First Boston including chief financial officer, head of fixed income and co-head of European investment banking. In 2008 he served as a non-executive director of Northern Rock plc.

Stephen Hesterhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15742012-10-01T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Anatol Lieven | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor audio quality of this recording. This lecture will describe how the economic decline of the American white middle classes (which in US terms includes parts of what in Europe are called the working classes) is producing a form of radical conservatism which while it has specifically American features, also has sinister echoes of the European past. This event marks the publication of a new edition of America Right or Wrong - An Anatomy of American Nationalism. Anatol Lieven is a professor in the War Studies Department at King's College London, and a senior fellow of the New America Foundation in Washington DC.

Professor Anatol Lievenhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15912012-10-01T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Omotunde E.G. Johnson, Dr Louis Kasekende, Dr Ijaz Nabi, Dr Abdul Hafiz Shaikh | The developed world has recently fallen behind in the numbers game, as African and Asian countries have experienced enviable growth. However, this debate will focus on the challenges that the two continents now face in maintaining this positive trend and the policies that are necessary to ensure that growth is sustainable. Omotunde E.G. Johnson is the IGC Sierra Leone country director. Dr Johnson has taught at the University of Sierra Leone, the University of Michigan and George Mason University. He was a staff member of the International Monetary Fund for 26 ½ years. Since his retirement from that organisation in November 2000, he has been an independent researcher as well as a consultant for organisations including the IMF, UNCTAD, African Peer Review Mechanism of the African Union, African Development Bank and the West African Monetary Institute. Dr Louis Kasekende is deputy governor at the Bank of Uganda. He recently served at the African Development Bank as chief economist, a position he held for three and a half years. Previously he served as Alternate Executive Director and later as Executive Director at the World Bank for Africa Group 1, including 22 countries mostly from Anglophone Sub-Saharan Africa. He is a member of the United Nations Group of Eminent Persons for the Least Developed Countries and was recently appointed to the Financial Stability Board taskforce on Emerging Markets and Developing Economies. Ijaz Nabi is the IGC Pakistan Country Director and a former professor of economics and dean of the School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law at Lahore University of Management Sciences. He is also member of the prime minister’s economic advisory council, chief minister of Punjab’s advisory council and the monetary policy committee of the State Bank of Pakistan. Dr Nabi returned to Pakistan in 2008 after 22 years at the World Bank in Washington where he worked on Mexico, Korea, Thailand (leading the World Bank team during the East Asian financial crisis), Malaysia, Korea, Laos and Myanmar. Dr Abdul Hafiz Shaikh is Pakistan’s minister for finance, revenue, economic affairs, statistics and planning and development. Dr Shaikh has previously worked at Harvard University and The World Bank. Dr Shaikh served as minister for finance, planning & development in Sindh Province from 2000 to 2002, and was the architect of the financial recovery of Sindh. From 2003 to 2006 he served as the federal minister for privatisation & investment. Dr Shaikh was awarded Pakistan’s “Man of the Year” in 2004 by the business community in recognition of his contributions to the country. Dr Shaikh has a Ph.D in economics and has authored many publications including a book on Argentina.

Dr Omotunde E.G. Johnson, Dr Louis Kasekende, Dr Ijaz Nabi, Dr Abdul Hafiz Shaikhhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15712012-09-25T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Lawrence M. Krauss | The question, "Why is there something rather than nothing?" has been asked for millenia by people who speculate on the need for a creator of our Universe. Today, exciting scientific advances provide new insight into this cosmological mystery: Not only can something arise from nothing, something will always arise from nothing. Lawrence Krauss will present a mind-bending trip, based on his bestselling new book, back to the beginning of the beginning and the end of the end, reviewing the remarkable developments in cosmology and particle physics over the past 20 years that have revolutionized our picture of the origin of the universe, and of its future. In the process, it has become clear that not only can our universe naturally arise from nothing, but that it probably did. Lawrence M. Krauss is a renowned cosmologist and science popularizer, and is Foundation Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration, and director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University. Hailed by Scientific American as a rare public intellectual, he is also the author of more than three hundred scientific publications and nine books, including the international bestseller, The Physics of Star Trek, and his most recent bestseller entitled A Universe from Nothing, now being translated into 17 languages. He received his PhD from MIT in 1982 and then joined the Society of Fellows at Harvard, and was a professor at Yale University and Chair of the Physics Department at Case Western Reserve University before taking his present position. Internationally known for his work in theoretical physics, he is the winner of numerous international awards, and is the only physicist to have received major awards from all three US physics societies, the American Physical Society, the American Institute of Physics, and the American Association of Physics Teachers. Krauss is also a commentator and essayist for newspapers such as the New York Times, and the Wall St. Journal, and has written regular columns for New Scientist, Scientific American, and Slate, and appears regularly on radio and television. He serves as co-chair of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and on the Board of Directors of the Federation of American Scientists.

Professor Lawrence M. Krausshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15672012-09-24T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Ben Akabueze, Professor Paul Collier, Professor Tony Venables | Urban areas are the most productive parts of the developing world, yet concentrated urban poverty presents some of the biggest policy challenges. By 2008, for the first time in history, more than half of the world’s population was living in urban areas and it is projected that by 2030 this number will swell to almost 5 billion, with urban growth concentrated in Africa and Asia. This discussion will address the potential and the challenges of economic development in urban areas. Ben Akabueze is commissioner for economic planning & budget of Lagos State, Nigeria. A distinguished banker, accountant, economist and administrator, he holds a first class B.Sc degree in Accounting from the University of Lagos and an Advanced Management Programme Certificate from the Lagos Business School. He has served as Lagos State commissioner for economic planning & budget since January 2007, having first been appointed by Governor Tinubu and then re-appointed for two terms now by Governor Fashola. Paul Collier is professor of Economics and director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies, Oxford University. He took a five year Public Service leave, 1998-2003, during which he was director of the Research Development Department of the World Bank. He is academic director of the International Growth Centre. In 2008 Paul was awarded a CBE ‘for services to scholarship and development’. He is the author of The Bottom Billion, which in 2008 won the Lionel Gelber, Arthur Ross and Corine prizes and in May 2009 was the joint winner of the Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book prize. His second book, Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places was published in March 2009; and his latest book, The Plundered Planet: How to reconcile prosperity with nature was published in May 2010. Tony Venables CBE is professor of Economics at the University of Oxford where he also directs the Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies. He is a member of the International Growth Centre’s Steering Group. He is a fellow of the British Academy and of the Econometric Society. Former positions include chief economist at the UK Department for International Development, professor at the London School of Economics, research manager of the trade research group in the World Bank, and advisor to the UK Treasury.

Ben Akabueze, Professor Paul Collier, Professor Tony Venableshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15682012-09-24T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Pierre Moscovici | Pierre Moscovici will address both the policy outlook in France and the ongoing crisis management developments at the European level. Pierre Moscovici was appointed Minister of the Economy and Finance on 16 May 2012, following the election of President François Hollande. He has been involved in European and international affairs as well as in national politics, in particular on fiscal issues. He was first a member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 1997, and became one of its vice-presidents from 2004 to 2007. In the meantime, he was elected to France's National Assembly in 1997 (and was later re-elected in 2007 and 2012), in the constituency of Doubs in eastern France, and was appointed Minister for European Affairs in the government of Lionel Jospin from 1997 to 2002, where he was specifically involved in finalizing the Amsterdam Treaty in 1997 and negotiating the Nice Treaty in 2000. He was also involved in negotiating the European Constitutional Treaty of 2004 and was a vigorous advocate of its adoption in France. Before holding elected office, he worked for the French Socialist Party, which he joined back in 1984 as an expert on fiscal issues. Pierre Moscovici joined the Audit Court (Cour des Comptes) after graduating from the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA) in 1984.

Pierre Moscovicihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15642012-09-17T16:15:00Z

Speaker(s): Heiner Flassbeck, Professor Robert Wade | In the context of the ongoing fall-out from the global financial crisis, income distribution is back to the centre of economic analysis and policies. The Trade and Development Report 2012 explores the linkages between income distribution, growth and development. The still unresolved financial crisis and its negative effects on global economic growth make a new approach towards inequality all the more urgent. Heiner Flassbeck is the Director of the Division on Globalisation and Development Strategies at UNCTAD and has led the research team behind the annual Trade and Development Reportsince 2005 as well as policy initiatives by UNCTAD since the global crisis, especially on financialisation of the world economy and reform of the international monetary system. Robert Wade is Professor of Political Economy and Development in the Department of International Development at LSE. A New Zealander, educated Washington DC, New Zealand, Sussex University. Worked at Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, 1972-95, World Bank, 1984-88, Princeton Woodrow Wilson School 1989/90, MIT Sloan School 1992, Brown University 1996-2000. Fellow of Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton 1992/93, Russell Sage Foundation 1997/98, Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin 2000/01. Fieldwork in Pitcairn Is., Italy, India, Korea, Taiwan. Research on World Bank 1995-continuing. Author of Irrigation and Politics in South Korea (1982), Village Republics: The Economic Conditions of Collective Action in India (1988, 1994), Governing the Market: Economic Theory and the Role of Government in East Asia's Industrialization (1990, 2003). He won the American Political Science Association's award of Best Book in Political Economy, 1992. Established in 1964, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development promotes the development-friendly integration of developing countries into the world economy. UNCTAD has progressively evolved into an authoritative knowledge-based institution whose work aims to help shape current policy debates and thinking on development, with a particular focus on ensuring that domestic policies and international action are mutually supportive in bringing about sustainable development.

Heiner Flassbeck, Professor Robert Wadehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15632012-09-11T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Apostolos Doxiadis, Pavlos Eleftheriadis, Michael Jacobides, Andreas Koutras, George Prokopakis | Editor's note: This event was conducted in Greek. The first part of the discussion focused on (a) what should be the long-term “vision” for Greek economy and society, and (b) what obstacles are preventing the evolution towards that vision and what ways exist to circumvent them. There were four talks by a panel of speakers, which was chaired by Dimitri Vayanos, followed by a Q&A session. The second part of the discussion, chaired by Nikitas Konstantinidis, focused on how diaspora Greeks could help with the resolution of the crisis. The event took place under the auspices of the Hellenic Observatory at the LSE.

Apostolos Doxiadis, Pavlos Eleftheriadis, Michael Jacobides, Andreas Koutras, George Prokopakishttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15652012-09-11T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Mick Cox | Professor Mick Cox is one of Europe’s leading commentators on the United States. He holds a Chair in International Relations and is also Co-Director of IDEAS, a Centre for the Study of Diplomacy and Strategy at LSE. He is the author, editor and co-editor of over twenty books. His most recent books include a major popular text on US Foreign Policy published by Oxford University Press, and a study on US Presidents and Democracy Promotion. He is a regular visitor to the United States and China and holds Visiting Professorships in Rome, Milan and Melbourne.

Professor Mick Coxhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15612012-08-02T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Pankaj Mishra | The Victorian period, viewed in the West as a time of self-confident progress, was experienced by Asians as a catastrophe, with foreign soldiers and merchants tearing apart the great empires which had once formed the heart of civilization. In his new book From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia, which he will discuss in this event Pankaj Mishra allows the reader to see foreign imperialism anew, through the eyes of the journalists, poets, radicals and charismatics who criss-crossed Europe and Asia – and through their thoughts and writings to understand how China, India and the Muslim World are remaking the world we know – in their own image, not that of the West. Pankaj Mishra is the author of Temptations of the West, An End to Suffering, The Romantics and Butter Chicken in Ludhiana. He writes regularly for The Guardian, New York Times, New York Review of Books and New Statesman.

Pankaj Mishrahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15592012-07-30T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Sir Stephen Wall, George Eustice MP, Roger Helmer MEP, Mark Reckless MP, Dr Helen Szamuely | With the crisis continuing in the eurozone, recent polls suggest that the vast majority of the British electorate would be in favour of a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. In the current climate the voices of those in favour of the European project have been noticeable by their absence. Today programme presenter Evan Davis chairs this debate on the motion "Britain should stay in the European Union." Tony Blair's former EU adviser Sir Stephen Wall will defend the proposition against a panel that are opposed to Britain remaining in the EU in its current guise. Sir Stephen Wall worked closely with five British Foreign Secretaries and was Foreign Policy Adviser to Prime Minister John Major. He was British Ambassador to Portugal from 1993 to 1995, Permanent Representative to the European Union from 1995 to 2000 and Head of the European Secretariat in the Cabinet Office and EU adviser to the Prime Minister from 2000 to 2004. From 2004 to 2005 he was the Principal Adviser to the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster. Sir Stephen is Chair of the Council of University College, London, Chair of the Federal Trust, Chair of Trustees at Cumberland Lodge, Member of the Council of Wilton Park, Member of the Board of Trustees of the Thomson Foundation, Trustee of the Franco-British Council and Honorary Fellow of Selwyn College Cambridge. He is also on the Council of the European Council on Foreign Relations. George Eustice is the Conservative MP for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle. George was born and brought up in Cornwall. After a time working in the family farming business, he gained nine years political campaign experience, first for the anti-euro 'No Campaign' as its Campaign Director between 1999 and 2003 and then as the Conservative Party's Head of Press under Michael Howard between 2003 and the 2005 General Election. He was David Cameron's Press Secretary from June 2005 until the end of 2007 and was part of his campaign team during the leadership contest. Roger Helmer was first elected to the European parliament in 1999 for the East Midlands region, subsequently being re-elected in 2004 and 2009. He defected from the Conservative Party to UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) in March 2012. Roger won a State Scholarship to Churchill College, Cambridge, where he read mathematics, graduating in 1965 with a B.A. and subsequently an M.A. He started his business career in 1965 with Procter & Gamble in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, going on to hold senior marketing and general management appointments in a range of companies, including well-known multinationals like Readers Digest, National Semiconductor, Coats Viyella and the whisky firm United Distillers, now part of the drinks conglomerate Diageo. Mark Reckless is the Conservative member of parliament for Rochester and Strood, having been elected in 2010. He serves on the Home Affairs Select Committee. Mark graduated in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University and has an MBA from Columbia Business School. More recently he has trained as a barrister, gaining an LLB from the College of Law and being called to the Bar in 2007. Dr Helen Szamuely is head of research for the Bruges Group and blogger on Your Freedom and Ours. She was a founder member of the EU Referendum blog and is a researcher in the House of Lords. Evan Davis joined the presenter team on Today in April 2008 following a six-and-a-half year stint as the BBC's economics editor. He also presents The Bottom Line, Radio 4's business discussion programme and Dragons' Den, the BBC Two business reality show. Before his promotion to editor, Evan worked for BBC Two's Newsnight from 1997 to 2001 and as a general economics correspondent from 1993.

Sir Stephen Wall, George Eustice MP, Roger Helmer MEP, Mark Reckless MP, Dr Helen Szamuelyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15622012-07-24T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): William Jefferson Clinton | William Jefferson Clinton is the Founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation| and 42nd President of the United States. He was the first Democratic president in six decades to be elected twice — first in 1992 and then in 1996. After leaving the White House, President Clinton established the William J. Clinton Foundation with the mission to improve global health, strengthen economies, promote healthier childhoods, and protect the environment by fostering partnerships among governments, businesses, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and private citizens to turn good intentions into measurable results. Today the Foundation has staff and volunteers around the world working to improve lives through several initiatives, including the Clinton Health Access Initiative (formerly the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative) which is helping more than 4 million people living with HIV/AIDS access lifesaving drugs. Other initiatives – including the Clinton Climate Initiative, the Clinton Development Initiative, and the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative – are applying a business-oriented approach worldwide to fight climate change and develop sustainable economic growth in Africa and Latin America. Established in 2005, the Clinton Global Initiative brings together global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues. In the U.S., the Foundation is working to combat the alarming rise in childhood obesity through the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, and is helping individuals and families succeed and small businesses grow. Celebrated actress and humanitarian Ashley Judd has served on the Board of Directors for PSI since 2004, after serving as Global Ambassador for PSI’s HIV education and prevention program, YouthAIDS, since 2002. Ms Judd has visited legislators on Capitol Hill, addressed the General Assembly of the UN, spoken at the National Press Club, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations and at the Condé Nast World Savers Congress, and served as an expert panellist at the Clinton Global Initiative. In addition to her role with PSI, Ms Judd serves on the Board of Directors of Defenders of Wildlife and the Advisory Councils of the International Center for Research on Women, Demand Abolition, and Apne Aap Worldwide. Most recently, she released her first book, a memoir entitled All that is Bitter and Sweet which speaks to her deep commitment for global health.

William Jefferson Clintonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15542012-07-11T16:45:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Ernestina Coast, Gary Darmstadt, Karl Hofmann, Ashley Judd, Nina Muita | On July 11, the UK Government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will launch the London Summit on Family Planning. The unprecedented event will bring world leaders together to catalyze political and financial commitments to reach the needs of an additional 120 million women who lack access to modern, voluntary family planning methods. One day prior on July 10, LSE Health and PSI (Population Services International) will co-host a public discussion about the summit's relevance to health, economic, and environmental challenges facing every country - and why everyone, in every sector, has a critical role to play.

Dr Ernestina Coast, Gary Darmstadt, Karl Hofmann, Ashley Judd, Nina Muitahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15362012-07-10T17:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Danny Quah | Danny Quah is Professor of Economics and Kuwait Professor at LSE. He is Senior Fellow at LSE IDEAS, and had previously served as LSE’s Head of Department for Economics (2006-2009) and Council Member on Malaysia’s National Economic Advisory Council (2009-2011). Quah is also Tan Chin Tuan Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore, and lectures regularly at Peking University. He holds degrees from Princeton and Harvard, and was Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at MIT before joining LSE. In 2011 Quah gave the Inaugural LSE Big Questions Lecture, on East Beats West. His current research focuses on the shifting global economy and the rise of the east.

Professor Danny Quahhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15372012-07-10T17:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Hamid Dabashi | Will the dispute over Iran's potential nuclear proliferation lead to war? Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.

Professor Hamid Dabashihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15342012-07-05T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Lord Robert Skidelsky, Dr Maurice Glasman | Why do we work almost as hard as we did 40 years ago, despite being on average twice as rich? Robert Skidelsky suggests an escape from the work and consumption treadmill. This event marks the publication of Robert and Edward Skidelsky's new book How Much is Enough? The Economics of the Good Life. Dr Maurice Glasman is a reader in political theory at London Metropolitan University, author of Unnecessary Suffering and a Labour Peer. Robert Skidelsky is Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick. His three-volume biography of the economist John Maynard Keynes (1983, 1992, 2000) received numerous prizes, and he recently published Keynes: The Return of the Master.

Professor Lord Robert Skidelsky, Dr Maurice Glasmanhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15332012-07-04T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Andrew Blum | The internet is not some abstract "cloud" of connectivity - it exists in tubes - on the ground and under the sea. Andrew Blum explains how the internet exists in the real world and makes the case for why we all need to understand this. This event celebrates the publication of Tubes: Behind the Scenes at the Internet. Andrew Blum is a correspondent at Wired (U.S.) magazine whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including the New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Times.

Andrew Blumhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15322012-07-03T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Joseph E Stiglitz | In his new book, The Price of Inequality, which he will discuss in this lecture Joseph Stiglitz considers the causes of inequality, why is it growing so rapidly and what are its economic impacts? He explains that markets are neither efficient nor stable and will tend to accumulate money in the hands of the few rather than engender competition and considers our political system that frequently shapes markets in ways that advantage the richest over the rest. He shows how moving money from the middle and bottom of society to the top, far from stimulating entrepreneurship actually produces slower growth and lower GDP with even more instability. Redistributing wealth from the very rich would produce far greater gains overall in our economies than the rich would lose. Joseph Stiglitz was Chief Economist at the World Bank until January 2000. He is currently University Professor of the Columbia Business School and Chair of the Management Board and Director of Graduate Summer Programs, Brooks World Poverty Institute, University of Manchester. He won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001 and is the best-selling author of Globalization and Its Discontents, The Roaring Nineties, Making Globalization Work and Freefall, all published by Penguin. Professor Stiglitz will also be in discussion with Professor Amartya Sen on Thursday 28 June at 6.30pm. Details of this event: A Lecture by Joseph E Stiglitz.

Professor Joseph E Stiglitzhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15312012-06-29T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Joseph E Stiglitz, Professor Amartya Sen | Joseph E Stiglitz was chief economist at the World Bank until January 2000. He is currently University Professor at Columbia University and won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001. Amartya Sen teaches economics and philosophy at Harvard University, and was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, until 2004. He won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1998. Professor Sen is an honorary fellow of LSE. This event is supported by LSE's Department of International Development and STICERD. Professor Stiglitz will also be speaking on Friday 29 June at 6.30pm about his new book, details of the event: The Price of Inequality.

Professor Joseph E Stiglitz, Professor Amartya Senhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15282012-06-28T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Tony Burton, Alex Morton, Professor Henry Overman, Professor Anne Power | House prices in Britain remain exceptionally high. We urgently need more housing, but where should we build it? Can we meet our needs by redeveloping existing built up areas? Or does the problem call for more radical solutions. Tony Burton is from Urban Task Force; Alex Morton is from Policy Exchange, Senior Research Fellow for Housing & Planning; Professor Henry Overman is from LSE and Professor Ann Power is from LSE.

Tony Burton, Alex Morton, Professor Henry Overman, Professor Anne Powerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15352012-06-27T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Frederick Kempe | Kempe explores the war of nerves between the young, untested President Kennedy and the bombastic Soviet leader, as they squared off over the future of a divided city - and the world came to the brink of disaster. This event celebrates the publication of Kempe's new book Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khruschev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth. Frederick Kempe is president and CEO of the Atlantic Council and a former Berlin bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal. A number of the photos included in Frederick Kempe's presentation are published on his website, Berlin1961.com.

Frederick Kempehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15272012-06-26T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): David Goldblatt | Seventeen days, 12,000 athletes, 29 sports, 302 gold medals: this event will be your personal trainer for the back stories and culture of the modern Olympics. David Goldblatt is a writer, broadcaster and teacher. He is author of The Ball is Round: a global history of football and, with Johnny Acton, How to Watch the Olympics. Simon Glendinning is a reader in European philosophy in the European Institute, LSE and director of the Forum for European Philosophy.

David Goldblatthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15242012-06-25T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dambisa Moyo | Dambisa Moyo discusses the increasingly heated competition for the world's water and land, and the likely geopolitical fallout of China's biggest commodity rush in history. Are we heading for large-scale conflict and what can governments do to avoid it? Dambisa Moyo author of Dead Aid and How the West Was Lost; she has been an economist at the World Bank and Goldman Sachs and was chosen as Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2009. This event celebrates the publication of her new book Winner Take All: The Race for the World's Resources.

Dambisa Moyohttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15252012-06-25T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Luigi Zingales | When the Italian-born economist Luigi Zingales first arrived in the United States in the 1980s, he embraced the American dream: the belief that what brings you success is hard work, not luck or who you know. But the economic events of the past decade, combined with the actions of politicians from both sides, have undermined capitalism's reputation. In A Capitalism for the People, which he will discuss in this lecture, Zingales warns that the US economy risks deteriorating into a Berlusconi-style crony-capitalist system – pro-business rather than pro-market, and run by corrupt politicians who are more concerned with lining the pockets of the connected elite than with improving opportunity for the people. If it continues to lose popular support, can capitalism survive? Zingales' real-world recommendations for restoring true competition to the economic system give hope that the US can not only avoid the fate of Italy and Greece, but rebound to greatness. Luigi Zingales is the Robert C McCormack Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance, and the David G Booth Faculty Fellow at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. He serves as the director of the American Finance Association, a faculty research fellow for the National Bureau of Economic Research, a research fellow for the Center for Economic Policy research and a fellow for the European Governance Institute.

Professor Luigi Zingaleshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15232012-06-21T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): His Holiness the Dalai Lama | His Holiness the Dalai Lama is visiting the LSE to deliver the opening speech of a one' day conference entitled Tolerance in a Just and Fair Society, at the invitation of Frederick Bonnart Braunthal Trust, Matrix Chambers, the Sigrid Rausing Trust and the London School of Economics & Political Science. HH the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He was born on 6th July 1935 in north-eastern Tibet and recognised as the incarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama at the age of two. Since 1959, he has been living in Dharamsala in the north of India which is now the seat of the Central Tibetan Administration. In 2011 HH the Dalai Lama completed the process of democratisation of the Central Tibetan Administration by devolving all his political authorities to the elected leadership. HH the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 in recognition of his opposition to the use of violence in the Tibetan struggle and his work internationally for peace, human rights issues and global environmental problems. In September 2006, he received the highest civilian honour in the United States, the Congressional Gold Medal, in recognition of his advocacy of non-violence, human rights and religious understanding. More recently, on 14 May 2012, HH the Dalai Lama was presented with the 2012 Templeton Prize at a ceremony at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. The Templeton Prize honours a living person who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life’s spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical works.

His Holiness the Dalai Lamahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15202012-06-20T09:15:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Simon Glendinning | A look at the role of philosophy in launching the idea of a European Union with reference to Kant and Nietzsche. Simon Glendinning is reader in European philosophy in the European Institute, LSE and director of the Forum for European Philosophy.

Dr Simon Glendinninghttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15182012-06-19T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Faiza Chaudary, Dr Armine Ishkanian, Professor David Lewis, Ralph Michell, Professor Simon Szreter | To coincide with the publication of The Big Society Debate: a new agenda for social welfare? the speakers will examine the concept's ideological underpinnings and the challenges it poses for those involved in translating the ideas of the big society into practice. Faiza Chaudary is the deputy chief executive and director of policy and communications for the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services. (NCVYS). Armine Ishkanian is a lecturer in NGOs and development at LSE. David Lewis is a Professor of Social Policy and Development, in the Social Policy Department at LSE. Ralph Michell is the director of Policy for ACEVO. He leads ACEVO’s work engaging with policy makers in Whitehall and Westminster, local government, the NHS and elsewhere on issues ranging from public service reform to third sector capacity-building. Simon Szreter holds the chair of history and public policy at the University of Cambridge and is managing editor of historyandpolicy.org.

Faiza Chaudary, Dr Armine Ishkanian, Professor David Lewis, Ralph Michell, Professor Simon Szreterhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15192012-06-19T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Professor Christine Chinkin, Professor Nicola Lacey, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, Dr Maung Zarni | Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is Chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and Member of Parliament of Kawhmu constituency in Burma. She was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1991. Christine Chinkin, FBA, is currently Professor in International Law at the London School of Economics. She has widely published on issues of international human rights law, law, including as co-author of The Boundaries of International Law: A Feminist Analysis. Nicola Lacey holds a Senior Research Fellowship at All Souls College, and is Professor of Criminal Law and Legal Theory at the University of Oxford, having previously held a chair at the London School of Economics. Nicola’s research is in criminal law and criminal justice, with a particular focus on comparative and historical scholarship. In 2011 she won the Hans Sigrist Prize for scholarship on the rule of law in modern societies. Sir Geoffrey Nice QC is a barrister; he is a signatory of Harvard’s Crimes in Burma report. Sir Geoffrey is a member of Burma Justice Committee and works with NGO's and other groups seeking international recognition of crimes committed in conflicts; represents government and similar interests at the ICC. A Burmese native, Dr Zarni is a veteran founder of the Free Burma Coalition, one of the Internet's first and largest human rights campaigns and a Visiting Fellow at the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, LSE. His forthcoming book, provisionally titled Life under the Boot: 50-years of Military Dictatorship in Burma, will be published by Yale University Press. Mary Kaldor is professor of Global Governance in the Department of International Development and Director of the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit at LSE. She writes on globalisation, international relations and humanitarian intervention, global civil society and global governance, as well as what she calls New Wars.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Professor Christine Chinkin, Professor Nicola Lacey, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, Dr Maung Zarnihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15162012-06-19T10:30:00Z

Speaker(s): H.E. Mohammed Al-Sabah, Steffen Hertog | H.E. Dr Mohammed Al-Sabah is the former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Kuwait. Steffen Hertog is Lecturer in Comparative Politics at LSE and author of Princes, brokers and bureaucrats: oil and the state in Saudi Arabia.

H.E. Mohammed Al-Sabah, Steffen Hertoghttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15582012-06-15T10:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Diane Coyle | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor audio quality of this recording. The world's leading economies are facing many crises. What these crises have in common is a reckless disregard for the future. This lecture examines the policy changes necessary to run the economy for tomorrow as well as today. Diane Coyle runs Enlightenment Economics. She is vice chair of the BBC Trust, and a visiting professor at the University of Manchester.

Professor Diane Coylehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15152012-06-14T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Sebastian Seung | Sebastian Seung, a dynamic young professor at MIT, is at the forefront of a revolution in neuroscience which believes that the basis of our identity lies not in our genes but in the connections between our brain cells. Just as the genome has been mapped, so Seung plans to map the "connectome". By mapping this "connectome", Seung hopes to unlock the mysteries of identity and personality. Sebastian Seung is Professor of Computational Neuroscience at MIT and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He has made important advances in robotics, neuroscience, neuroeconomics and statistical physics. His research has been published in leading scientific journals, and also featured in The New York Times, Technology Review, and The Economist. This event celebrates the publication of his new book Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are.

Professor Sebastian Seunghttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15132012-06-13T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Anders Dahlvig | Businesses are in the spotlight as never before and consumer trust in many sectors has deteriorated badly in recent times. In this lecture, the former president and CEO of Ikea, Anders Dahlvig, explains how a clear understanding of vision and values can translate throughout the entire business into best practice and sustainable profit growth. Anders Dahlvig is the former President and CEO of Ikea. With him at the helm from 1999-2009, Ikea enjoyed unprecedented growth and expansion, while at the same time championing the causes of social and environmental responsibility. Anders has recently written The Ikea Edge to show how motives of profit and social good can work in harmony to benefit an organisation.

Anders Dahlvighttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15142012-06-13T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Richard Bellamy | This lecture will contrast liberal and republican models of democracy and representation and will apply them to the EU. Richard Bellamy is professor of political science and director of the European Institute at University College London.

Professor Richard Bellamyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15112012-06-12T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Sheri Berman | Ralph Miliband believed that socialism should be both revolutionary and practical. This talk will argue that at least one variant of it--social democracy--was and might still be by looking back at the role it played in creating the Europe that is in transition today. During the 19th and first half of the 20th century Europe was the most turbulent region on earth, convulsed by war, economic crises and social and political conflict. Yet during the second half of the 20th century it was among the most stable, a study in democracy and prosperity. How can we understand this remarkable transformation? The answer lies in the changes that occurred after 1945, among the most important of which was a dramatic shift in the understanding of what it would take to ensure democratic consolidaton in Europe. Across the political spectrum a new understanding of democracy developed in Western Europe one that went beyond what think of today as “electoral” or even “liberal” democracy to what is best understood as “social democracy”—a regime type which entails not merely dramatic changes in political arrangements, but in social and economic ones as well. This talk will explain the background and logic of this "regime type" as well as consider its continuing relevance today. Sheri Berman is Professor of Political Science at Columbia University. Her research interests include political development, European politics, the history of the left, and comparative political economy. She is the author of The Social Democratic Moment: Ideas and Politics in the Making of Interwar Europe (1998) and The Primacy of Politics. Social Democracy and the Ideological Dynamics of the Twentieth Century (2006).

Professor Sheri Bermanhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15122012-06-12T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Ali Dayan Hasan | As the Pakistan-US relationship reaches an unprecedented low, Pakistan appears to be in human rights and security freefall. The elected government remains wellmeaning but inept. The military appears unable to let go of its India-centric security paradigm and to be using its "time-out" from its alliance with the US to craft a hardline on Afghanistan, attempt regime change domestically and shrink space for liberal discourse. Three years after its restoration to office, the internationally lionized "independent" judiciary appears to be less than perfect, using judicial activism not just to curb the excesses of the executive but also to incessantly exceed its mandate and trigger political instability. The mineral rich South Western province of Balochistan is in a state of effective rebellion, the tribal areas reel under predator drone strikes and the port city of Karachi suffers from hundreds of political killings which are exacerbating ethnic tensions. As things go from bad to worse, the only unifier in Pakistan appears to be anti-Americanism. The civilian government and mainstream political parties that many hoped would provide a counterpoint to the Pakistani military appear to be in meltdown despite having publicly thrown in their lot with the country's army with grave implications for the human rights of ordinary people on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Can the West still be a force for good in the country, or is it in fact the problem? Why is the American embrace considered so deadly that many Pakistanis prefer a compact with the abusive Taliban? And can the US afford to just walk away from the human rights mess it sought to clear up after 9/11 but a decade later only appears to have made worse? Before taking over as Pakistan Director, Ali Dayan Hasan served as Human Rights Watch's South Asia researcher since 2003 and has specialized expertise in Pakistan. Hasan is responsible for researching, authenticating and writing reports, briefing papers and news releases produced by Human Rights Watch on Pakistan. He advocates South Asian human rights concerns globally with regional bodies, national governments, international financial institutions and is a regular contributor on Pakistan in the international media. In addition to appearing frequently as a commentator on television, his opinion pieces have appeared in major international media. Before joining Human Rights Watch, Hasan was a senior editor at Pakistan's premier independent, political news monthly magazine, Herald. During 2006 and 2007, Hasan was also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Leverhulme Changing Character of War Programme at the University of Oxford.

Ali Dayan Hasanhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15102012-06-07T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Rev Dr Giles Fraser, Professor John Gray | In the first event of the Programme for the Study of Religion and Non-Religion, Giles Fraser examines the links between Enlightenment thought and theology, reflecting on how theology frames the very ways in which we can understand the denial of God. Giles Fraser is the former canon chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral. John Gray is emeritus professor of European Thought at LSE. This event is supported by the LSE Annual Fund.

Rev Dr Giles Fraser, Professor John Grayhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15082012-06-06T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Robert JC Young | The translations of Freud have been a subject of controversy for many years, but how did Freud himself theorise the role of translation in psychoanalysis? Robert JC Young is Julius Silver Professor of English and Comparative Literature at New York University.

Professor Robert JC Younghttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15092012-06-06T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Daniel Kahneman, Professor Paul Dolan | This public conversation with Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman hosted by LSE and the Hay Festivals will focus on his best selling book Thinking, Fast and Slow. Professor Kahneman will be signing copies of his book after the event. Daniel Kahneman is Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Princeton University and a Professor of Public Affairs Emeritus at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. The recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics for his seminal work in psychology that challenged the rational model of judgment and decision making, his ideas have had a profound and widely regarded impact on many disciplines – including economics, business, law and philosophy. Until now, he has never brought together his many years of research and thinking in one book. His book Thinking, Fast and Slow was published late in 2011. Paul Dolan is Professor of Behavioural Science in the Department of Social Policy at the LSE. There are two main themes to his work. The first focuses on developing measures of wellbeing that can be used in policy, particularly in the valuation of non-market goods. Amongst other things, he is currently looking at the happiness hit of the 2012 Olympic Games. The second considers ways in which the lessons from the behavioural sciences can be used to understand and change individual behaviour. This work is focussing on the important role that situational factors play in influencing our behaviour, as summarised in the 'mindspace' report for the Cabinet Office. Evan Davis joined the presenter team on Today in April 2008 following a six-and-a-half year stint as the BBC's economics editor. He also presents The Bottom Line, Radio 4's business discussion programme and Dragons' Den, the BBC Two business reality show. Before his promotion to editor, Evan worked for BBC Two's Newsnight from 1997 to 2001 and as a general economics correspondent from 1993.

Professor Daniel Kahneman, Professor Paul Dolanhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15022012-06-01T13:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Stephen Cave, Professor John Gray | The will to live forever is central to the human story. Can it be fulfilled? And should we want it to be? Stephen Cave is a philosopher and writer. He is the author of Immortality: the quest to live forever and how It drives civilisation. John Gray is emeritus professor of European thought at LSE and author of The Immortalization Commission: the strange quest to cheat death.

Dr Stephen Cave, Professor John Grayhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14962012-05-30T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Ayman Asfari, Keith O'Nions, Jon Moulton | In this session, Ayman Asfari, Keith O'Nions and Jon Moulton will discuss their views on "Driving Growth through Science, Engineering, and Innovation".

Ayman Asfari, Keith O'Nions, Jon Moultonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15072012-05-30T10:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Paul Krugman | The Great Recession is more than four years old—and counting. Yet, "Nations rich in resources, talent, and knowledge—all the ingredients for prosperity and a decent standard of living for all—remain in a state of intense pain." In his new book, End This Depression Now! which he will discuss in this event Krugman shows how the failure of regulation to keep pace with an increasingly out-of-control financial system positioned the United States and the world as a whole, for the greatest financial crisis since the 1930s. Decrying the tepid response thus far, he lays out the steps that must be taken to free ourselves and turn around a world economy stagnating in deep recession. His is a powerful message: a strong recovery is only one step away, if our leaders find the intellectual clarity and political will to see it through. Paul Krugman, the recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics, is a best-selling author, columnist and blogger for The New York Times. A professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, The Economist called him "the most celebrated economist of his generation".

Professor Paul Krugmanhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14942012-05-29T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Jonathan Fenby, Guy De Jonquieres, Linda Yueh | In an era characterised by economic crisis in the West, what kind of global role does China's geoeconomic strategy aspire to? This event launches the new LSE IDEAS report Kiss of the Dragon? China's Geoeconomic Strategy in a changing global order. Johnathan Fenby is the former editor of the Observer and the South China Morning Post. Guy De Jonquieres is a senior fellow at the European Centre for Political Economy. Linda Yueh is the director of the China Growth Centre and a fellow in economics at the University of Oxford.

Jonathan Fenby, Guy De Jonquieres, Linda Yuehhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14952012-05-29T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Pedro Carriço, Jon Coleman, Dr Hans-Joachim Henckel, Peter Luketa, Geetha Muralidhar, Professor Danny Quah, Lars H Thunell | A look at the role of export credit agencies and financial institutions in promoting global trade and the challenges they face during Europe's sovereign debt crisis. Pedro Carriço is Head of International Relations and Country Risk Department at Seguradora Brasileira de Crédito à Exportação. Jon Coleman is Chairman of the British Exporters Association. Hans-Joachim Henckel is head of division at the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. Peter Luketa is global head of export finance at HSBC Bank plc. Geetha Muralidhar is executive director of Export Credit Guarantees Corporation of India LTD. Danny Quah is professor of economics at LSE. Lars H Thunell is executive vice president and CEO of International Finance Corporation.

Pedro Carriço, Jon Coleman, Dr Hans-Joachim Henckel, Peter Luketa, Geetha Muralidhar, Professor Danny Quah, Lars H Thunellhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15052012-05-29T18:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Dominic Sandbrook | In the mid-1970s, Britain's fortunes seemed to have reached their lowest point since the Blitz. Across the country, a profound argument about the future of the nation was being played out, not just in the political arena but in everything from episodes of Doctor Who to singles by the Clash. As Dominic Sandbrook reveals, this extraordinary, chaotic period was the decisive point in the creation of modern Britain. Dominic Sandbrook is the author of three highly acclaimed books on post-war Britain, as well as a prolific reviewer and columnist. His major new BBC2 documentary series, The Seventies, will air in April 2012 and his latest book is Seasons in the Sun: The Battle for Britain, 1974-1979 published by Allen Lane in May.

Dominic Sandbrookhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14902012-05-28T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Jayati Ghosh | Dynamic left movements are emerging that go beyond traditional socialist paradigms to incorporate ecological constraints as well as the demands of women, ethnic minorities, tribal communities and other marginalised groups. Jayati Ghosh is professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University and the executive secretary of International Development Economics Associates.

Professor Jayati Ghoshhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14892012-05-28T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Ian Davis, John Van Reenen, Hal Varian | In this session, Ian Davis (formerly McKinsey & Co.), John Van Reenen (Director, CEP, LSE) and Hal Varian (Chief Economist, Google) will discuss the role of management in a strategy for growth.

Ian Davis, John Van Reenen, Hal Varianhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15002012-05-28T15:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Quentin Skinner | Among contemporary political theorists, the idea of individual liberty is generally defined in negative terms as absence of interference. This lecture argues that, if the concept is instead approached genealogically, this orthodoxy begins to appear in need of qualification and perhaps abandonment. The genealogy traced in the lecture is shown to carry three specific implications, which are discussed in turn. The first is that the concept of interference is of much greater complexity than is often allowed, and gives rise to a number of rival theories of negative liberty. The second is that it may be misleading to assume that liberty can be defined only in negative terms. Finally, even if we accept that liberty is a negative concept, it remains unclear that negative liberty is best understood as absence of interference. The lecture ends by considering the rival 'republican' contention that freedom is best understood as a condition of independence from the arbitrary will and power of others. Quentin SkinnerQuentin Skinner is the Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities at Queen Mary, University College London. He is the author of numerous books and articles on early modern political thought and is a founder of the ‘Cambridge School’ of the history of political thought.

Quentin Skinnerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15302012-05-24T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Pierre Mayer, Professor Jan Paulsson | The 3rd LSE Arbitration Debate will confront Pierre Mayer and Jan Paulsson over the question whether international arbitrators can consider some otherwise applicable laws to be unlawful , as argued by Paulsson in his 2009 Lalive lecture and challenged by Mayer in an article in the Revue de l'arbitrage. Pierre Mayer is Professor of Private International Law at the University Pantheo Sorbonne - Paris I and a partner at Dechert LLP in Paris. Jan Paulsson is the co-head of the international arbitration and public international law groups of Freshfields LLP. Johnny Veeder QC is a Barrister at Essex Court Chambers.

Professor Pierre Mayer, Professor Jan Paulssonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14862012-05-23T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Michael Sandel, Stephanie Flanders, Professor Julian Le Grand, Rt Revd Peter Selby | Is there something wrong with a world in which everything is for sale? If so, how can we prevent market values from reaching into spheres of life where they don't belong? What are the moral limits of markets? Noted public philosopher and Harvard professor Michael J. Sandel will explore some of these pressing questions with responses from Stephanie Flanders, Professor Julian Le Grand and Bishop Peter Selby. St Paul's Cathedral is delighted to host a discussion on this vital topic within a sacred space in order to explore the intersection between faith, morality and markets and the power that money has in our lives. Questions and comments from the audience will be taken. Michael J. Sandel is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University, where he has taught political philosophy since 1980. His recent book, Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? relates the big questions of political philosophy to the most vexing issues of our time. His new book, What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, has just been published. At Harvard, Sandel's courses include Ethics, Biotechnology, and the Future of Human Nature, Ethics, Economics, and Law, and Globalization and Its Critics. His undergraduate course, Justice, has enrolled over 15,000 students, and is the first Harvard course to be made freely available online and on public television. A recipient of the Harvard-Radcliffe Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize, Sandel was recognised by the American Political Science Association in 2008 for a career of excellence in teaching. He has been a visiting professor at the Sorbonne (Paris), delivered the Tanner Lectures on Human Values at Oxford University, and in 2009 delivered the BBC Reith Lectures. In 2010, China Newsweek named him the "most influential foreign figure of the year" in China. Stephanie Flanders has been a reporter at the New York Times (2001); a speech writer and senior advisor to the US Treasury Secretary (1997-2001); a Financial Times leader-writer and columnist (1993-7); and an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and London Business School. She became BBC economics editor in April 2008. She has won numerous awards, including the 2010 Harold Wincott Award for online journalism. She blogs at Stephanomics. Julian Le Grand is the Richard Titmuss Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine, a Trustee of the Kings Fund, and a Founding Academician of the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences. Dr Peter Selby was Bishop of Worcester from 1997 until 2007 and in 2001 was also appointed to Bishop of Prisons, a post from which he also retired in September 2007. Ann Pettifor is director of Policy Research in Macro-Economics (PriME), and a senior fellow of the New Economics Foundation. She is the author of The Coming First World Debt Crisis which was published in 2006. St Paul's Institute seeks to foster an informed Christian response to the most urgent ethical and spiritual issues of our times: financial integrity, economic justice, and the meaning of the common good. JustShare is a coalition of churches and charities committed to global development and social justice.

Professor Michael Sandel, Stephanie Flanders, Professor Julian Le Grand, Rt Revd Peter Selbyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15042012-05-23T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Corrado Passera | Corrado Passera is Italian minister of economic development, infrastructure and transport. From 2002 to 2011 he was CEO of Intesa SanPaolo Bank and prior to that he was CEO of Poste Italiane, CEO and general director of Banco Ambrosiano Veneto, and CEO of Olivetti Group. He holds a post-graduate degree in business administration from Bocconi University of Milan and a masters degree in business administration from Wharton School of Philadelphia.

Corrado Passerahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14972012-05-23T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Stephen Fries, David Newbery, Bridget Rosewell | In this session, Stephen Fries, David Newbery and Bridget Rosewell will give their views on the relationship between infrastructure, energy and Growth.

Stephen Fries, David Newbery, Bridget Rosewellhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14992012-05-23T14:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Tobias Billström, Peter Sutherland | Migrants play a crucial role in the development of countries of origin and countries of destination. How can labour immigration and other policies in Europe be shaped so as to optimise the benefits? Tobias Billström is Swedish minister for migration and asylum policy. Swedish migration policy includes refugee and migration policy, voluntary return home and support to voluntary return migration. Billström, a member of the Moderate Party, has been a member of Parliament since 2002. Peter Sutherland is the United Nations special representative for migration. A former European Commissioner and Director General of the WTO, he is the chairman of Goldman Sachs International. He is the chairman of the LSE Court of Governors.

Tobias Billström, Peter Sutherlandhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14852012-05-23T13:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Erik Olin Wright | Wright argues that we can be simultaneously utopian and practical by pursuing projects for social transformation within capitalism that point us in an emancipatory direction beyond capitalism. Erik Olin Wright is Vilas Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and president of the American Sociological Association.

Professor Erik Olin Wrighthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14832012-05-22T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Steven Mithen | What can the archaeological record of our stone age ancestors bring to our understanding of the relationship between music and language? Steven Mithen is professor of early prehistory and pro-vice chancellor at the University of Reading. He is the author of The Singing Neanderthals: the origins of music, language, mind, and body.

Professor Steven Mithenhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14842012-05-22T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Ambassador Ron Kirk | In a major address, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk will discuss opportunities for the U.S.-EU trade relationship at a critical time. Leaders on both sides acknowledge the need for a fresh look at the U.S.-EU trade and investment relationship, to ensure that it meets its potential. Ambassador Kirk will emphasize how the United States and the EU can work together – bilaterally for mutual growth, at the World Trade Organization for better results, and around the world to better integrate emerging and transitioning markets into the world economy. Ambassador Ron Kirk is the United States Trade Representative (USTR). He is a member of President Obama's Cabinet and serves as the President's principal trade advisor, negotiator, and spokesperson on trade issues. Since Ambassador Kirk was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in March 2009, he has led the Obama Administration’s market-opening negotiations and dialogue with trading partners around the world, including the conclusion of bilateral free trade agreements with Korea, Colombia, and Panama, advancing the ambitious regional Trans-Pacific Partnership talks, and sustaining serious U.S. engagement at the World Trade Organization. Ambassador Kirk has also simultaneously pursued robust enforcement of America's trade rights in support of U.S. businesses and workers, and he has focused efforts to better assist American small businesses seeking opportunities in international markets. Ambassador Kirk brings both public service and private sector experience to USTR. He served two terms as the first African-American mayor of Dallas. Prior to becoming mayor, he served as Texas Secretary of State under Governor Ann Richards. In addition, Ambassador Kirk has practiced law as a partner in the international law firm Vinson & Elkins, LLP. He was named one of "The 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America" by The National Law Journal in 2008.

Ambassador Ron Kirkhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14822012-05-22T12:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Anna Wesselink, Neil Hirst, Philip Webber, Nick Mabey, James Smith, Juliet Davenport, Nafees Meah, David Kennedy, Jason Lowe, Sarah Samuel, Professor Sir Brian Hoskins | Evaluating the Impact of Climate Change Research is a half-day conference hosted by the LSE's Public Policy Group/Impact of Social Sciences project and Imperial College London, held on Monday, 21st May 2012, at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Climate change is one of the most pressing issues affecting global governments. The complex interplay of scientific research, business interests, and strongly held public opinion creates difficulties in building consensus around policy and industry change. This half day conference seeks to look at how academic research in the climate change and energy areas has impacted on government and policymaking and business and industry practice. 2.00pm to 3.30pm, Session 1: Impacting Local, National and International Governance on Climate and Energy Policy. Chair: Professor Patrick Dunleavy (LSE Public Policy Group). Speakers: Anna Wesselink (Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds), Neil Hirst (Grantham Institute of Climate Change, Imperial College London), Philip Webber (Chair, SGR). 4.00pm to 5.30pm, Session 2: Academic and Industry Liaison and Partnerships on Future Change. Chair: Nicola Ranger (LSE Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and Environment). Speakers: Nick Mabey (E3G), James Smith (Carbon Trust), Juliet Davenport (Founder, CEO of Good Energy). 6.00pm to 7.30pm, Session 3 - Public Roundtable: The Impact of Climate Change Research. Speakers: Nafees Meah (Head of the Climate and Energy Science Analysis Team, Department of Energy and Climate Change), David Kennedy (Chief Executive of the Committee on Climate Change), Jason Lowe (Head of Knowledge Integration, and Mitigation Advice, Met Office), Sarah Samuel (Head of Sustainable Energy Policy, Ofgem). Discussant: Professor Sir Brian Hoskins (Director of Grantham Institute for Climate, Imperial College London).

Anna Wesselink, Neil Hirst, Philip Webber, Nick Mabey, James Smith, Juliet Davenport, Nafees Meah, David Kennedy, Jason Lowe, Sarah Samuel, Professor Sir Brian Hoskinshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=15012012-05-21T14:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Ambassador Alicia Castro, Dr John Hughes, Professor George Philip | Although thirty years have passed since the South Atlantic conflict, disagreements over the Falkland/Malvinas islands continue to cast a shadow over UK-Argentina relations. This discussion will focus on what diplomatic steps can be taken to reduce current tensions, and improve long-term relations between the UK and Argentina. Alicia Castro is the Argentine ambassador to the UK. John Hughes is the former UK Ambassador to Argentina. George Philip is professor of Latin American comparative politics, Department of Government, LSE.

Ambassador Alicia Castro, Dr John Hughes, Professor George Philiphttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14812012-05-17T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Joshua Cohen | The second lecture in this series will reflect on political-philosophical challenges raised by the "mobile" approach to improving standards of living in very poor settings. The first lecture Mobile for Development Meets Human-Centred Design takes place on Tuesday 16 May. Joshua Cohen is Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society and professor of political science, philosophy, and law at Stanford. Although part of a series this is a stand-alone lecture and can be attended without having attended the first event.

Professor Joshua Cohenhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14792012-05-16T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Shakuntala Banaji, Dr Vandana Desai, Jamal Osman, Susan Parnell, Dr Scott Rodgers, John Vidal | As the world population urbanises, it is crucial that we critically examine how the media invites us to ""see"" cities. Visible Cities will bring together academics and journalists to critically examine the ways in which cities in developing countries are currently portrayed and consider alternatives. Dr Shakuntala Banaji is a lecturer in the Department of Media and Communications at the LSE. Her research interests include the meaning, history and textual study of cinema, particularly South Asian media and Hindi films; the socio-political contexts of audiences, representations of gender and ethnicity; tensions between popular and elite media; internet cultures; online civic participation; young people and cultural identities. She is the editor of South Asian media cultures: audiences, representations, contexts (2010). Dr Vandana Desai is a senior lecturer in the geography department at Royal Holloway. She conducts cross-disciplinary research on infrastructure and security of tenure in slums; aging, livelihoods and poverty; and gender and development, with a regional focus on South Asia. Jamal Osman is an award-winning independent journalist and filmmaker focusing on East Africa, including extensive work in Somalia. He has produced stories for Channel 4 and the Guardian, and is the recipient of the Royal Television Society (RTS) Independent Award 2012, the Amnesty International Gaby Rado Memorial Award 2010, the news story of the year prize at the Foreign Press Association (FPA) Awards 2009. His work for the Guardian on Al-Qaida's aid distribution in Somalia was recently shortlisted for the 2012 Broadcast Digital Awards ""Best News of Current Affairs Content"". Dr Susan Parnell is an urban geographer in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences at the University of Cape Town and is the Director of the 'CityLab' at the African Centre for Cities. She is currently the Leverhulme Visiting Professor at UCL. Her research interests include contemporary urban policy research (local government, poverty reduction and urban environmental justice). Sue is also on the boards of several local NGOs concerned with poverty alleviation, sustainability and gender equity in post-apartheid South Africa. Dr Scott Rodgers is a lecturer in Media Theory in the Department of Media and Cultural Studies at Birkbeck. His research interests include the idea of a specifically 'urban' politics or public culture, and especially its constitution through media and processes of mediation and the ways in which urban life has been a longstanding focus for, as well as a milieu of, professional and amateur journalism. In 2008 he hosted a two day workshop on media practices and the political spaces of cities entitled ""Mediapolis"". John Vidal is the environment editor at the Guardian, writing on environment and international development issues, focusing on cities in Africa, Bangladesh and Latin America . He is the author of McLibel: Burger Culture on Trial (1998) and has contributed chapters to books on topics such as the Gulf war, new Europe and development. Dr Suzanne Hall is an urban ethnographer, and has practised as an architect and urban designer in South Africa. Her research and teaching interests include social and economic forms of inclusion and exclusion, urban multiculture, the imagination and design of the city, and ethnography and visual methods. She is a recipient of the Rome Scholarship in Architecture (1998-1999) and the LSE's Robert McKenzie Prize for outstanding Ph.D. research (2010). She co-edited (with Dinardi and Fernández) Writing Cities (2010, LSE), and her research monograph, City, street and citizen: The measure of the ordinary, is forthcoming.

Dr Shakuntala Banaji, Dr Vandana Desai, Jamal Osman, Susan Parnell, Dr Scott Rodgers, John Vidalhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14802012-05-16T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Richard Bronk | How far was Hayek justified in viewing the price mechanism as a marvel in its capacity to solve the problem of dispersed and incomplete knowledge? Richard Bronk is a visiting fellow at the LSE European Institute and author of The Romantic Economist.

Richard Bronkhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14752012-05-15T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Joshua Cohen | The first of two lectures which explore the idea of using mobile platforms and human centred design to promote development in low-income communities. This lecture will look at examples of this approach in Nairobi's informal settlements. The second lecture Mobile for Development – Global Justice takes place on 16 May. Joshua Cohen is Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Ethics in Society and professor of political science, philosophy, and law at Stanford.

Professor Joshua Cohenhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14762012-05-15T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Andy Altman, Professor Ricky Burdett, Jim Eyre, Jim Heverin, Michael Taylor | This event brings together the key decision makers and architects of the London 2012 Olympic Games facilities to discuss the architecture and design of London 2012. Andy Altman is Chief Executive of the London Legacy Development Corporation. Ricky Burdett is Professor of Urban Studies at LSE and director of LSE Cities and the Urban Age programme. Jim Eyre is director of WilkinsonEyre Architects. Jim Heverin is Associate Director of Zaha Hadid Architects. Nicholas Serota is director of the Tate. Michael Taylor is Senior Partner at Hopkins Architects.

Andy Altman, Professor Ricky Burdett, Jim Eyre, Jim Heverin, Michael Taylorhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14772012-05-15T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Nicole Watts | Dr Nicole Watts, who was in Sulaimaniya last spring for the 'Kurdish Spring', discusses her ongoing research on dissent and campaigns for social and political change in Iraqi Kurdistan. Dr Watts is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at San Francisco State University where she teaches on comparative politics, Middle East politics and social movements.

Dr Nicole Wattshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14782012-05-15T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Lord Sumption | As part of the Health of our Institutions Today series, Jonathan Sumption will discuss foreign policy in the UK courts. Jonathan Sumption is a justice of the UK Supreme Court.

Lord Sumptionhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14732012-05-14T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Eli Zaretsky | The US, Zaretsky argues, has always had a vibrant and powerful left in times of crisis. He discusses three such crises: slavery, capitalist industrialisation and the present. Eli Zaretsky is professor of history at the New School for Social Research and author of Why America Needs a Left.

Professor Eli Zaretskyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14742012-05-14T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Lord Boateng | Ed Vulliamy, who reported extensively on the mid-1990s war in Bosnia, will discuss his new book The War Is Dead, Long Live The War, examining its legacy 20 years later. Ed Vulliamy is a British journalist and writer. Drawing on his unique experience as an MP, a peer, a Labour Minister and the grandson of a Ghanaian coco farmer, Lord Boateng will explore how aid to Africa can be used to empower producers instead of fostering dependency. Paul Boateng served as the British high commissioner to South Africa from March 2005 to May 2009 and was the UK's first black Cabinet Minister.

Lord Boatenghttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14642012-05-10T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor David Vogel | Since 1990, the United States and the European Union have traded places. During the previous three decades, health, safety, and environmental regulations were typically more stringent, innovative and comprehensive in the US than in Europe. But many of the risk regulations more recently adopted by the EU such as for food safety, biodiversity, chemical health and safety, and global climate change are more risk averse than those adopted by the United States. The EU has also replaced the US as the major initiator and supporter of new global environmental agreements. These policy shifts are largely due to three factors: stronger public demands for additional government regulation in Europe than in the US, increased partisan polarization in the US and the political strength of "greener" member states and green pressure groups in the EU, and a shift in the criteria used to manage risks. While American policymakers have placed increase reliance on risk assessments, European policymakers have become able and willing to enact regulations on precautionary grounds. David Vogel is the Solomon P Lee Distinguished Professor of Business Ethics, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley and author of The Politics of Precaution.

Professor David Vogelhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14652012-05-10T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor David Harvey | Given the strong relationship between urbanization and capital accumulation, and the consequent urban roots of both past and present fiscal crises, it follows that the city is a key arena within which class forces clash. The sharpening of these clashes transforms movements for the right to the city into urban uprisings and revolutionary movements. This then poses the key question of how to mobilize and organize a whole city around a movement for revolutionary change. David Harvey is Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Place, Culture and Politics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His most recent books include A Companion to Marx's Capital; The Enigma of Capital (Deutscher Prize, 2010); and Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution.

Professor David Harveyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14662012-05-10T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Martin Hickman, Tom Watson MP | In this event the authors will discuss their new book, Dial M for Murdoch which "looks to uncover the inner workings of one of the most powerful companies in the world: how it came to exert a poisonous, secretive influence on public life in Britain, how it used its huge power to bully, intimidate and cover up, and how its exposure has changed the way we look at our politicians, our police service and our press." "Dial M for Murdoch gives the first connected account of the extraordinary lengths to which the Murdochs’ News Corporation went to “put the problem in a box” (in James Murdoch’s words), how its efforts to maintain and extend its power were aided by its political and police friends, and how it was finally exposed." Following stints with Reuters and the Press Association, Martin Hickman joined The Independent as a news editor in 2001. He became the Consumer Affairs Correspondent in September 2005 and has run the paper's trenchant campaigns on packaging, bank charges and factory-farmed chicken. He writes on subjects as diverse as food, finance, energy and fashion. Tom Watson has been the UK Member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich East since 2001. Watson was a Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office from 2008 to 2009. In 2011, he was made the first ever Deputy Chair of the Labour Party, with responsibility for co-ordinating Labour's campaigning, by Ed Miliband.

Martin Hickman, Tom Watson MPhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14622012-05-09T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Ed Vulliamy | Ed Vulliamy, who reported extensively on the mid-1990s war in Bosnia, will discuss his new book The War Is Dead, Long Live The War, examining its legacy 20 years later. Ed Vulliamy is a British journalist and writer.

Ed Vulliamyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14632012-05-09T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Greg Muttitt | The author of Fuel on the Fire will talk about lessons from Iraq on oil, war and democracy. Greg Muttitt is campaigns and policy director at War on Want and the author of Fuel on the Fire: oil and politics in occupied Iraq.

Greg Muttitthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14602012-05-08T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Robert Eaglestone, Dr Edward Harcourt | What, if anything, is common to moral guilt, guilt at breaking a diet, survivor guilt, and collective guilt? Do phenomenologies of guilt vary according to culture or upbringing? Is guilt an "advanced" moral emotion or a primitive one? Robert Eaglestone is professor of contemporary literature and thought at Royal Holloway, University of London. Edward Harcourt is University Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Oxford.

Professor Robert Eaglestone, Dr Edward Harcourthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14722012-05-08T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Leszek Balcerowicz | Unsustainable fiscal policy hampers growth - the effect not only of sovereign debt distress but also of an overblown welfare state. What can we learn from the financial-fiscal crisis (US, UK, Ireland, Spain) and the fiscal-financial crisis (Greece, Portugal)? Professor Leszek Balcerowicz has served three times in the Polish government and the central bank, being in charge of economic reforms. Between 1989–1991 and 1997-2000 he held the position of Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister, and between 2001-2007 he served as Governor of the National Bank of Poland. He is a member of the group of trustees of the Institute of International Finance (US) and also a professor of economics at the Warsaw School of Economics. He is also a Distinguished Associate of the International Atlantic Economic Society (IAES), a member of the Group of Thirty and a board member of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Professor Balcerowicz is chairman and a founder of the Civil Development Forum Foundation (FOR) and in 2011, he was appointed a member of the Advisory Scientific Committee providing advice and assistance on issues relevant to the work of the European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB).

Professor Leszek Balcerowiczhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14612012-05-08T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Robert Shiller | The reputation of the financial industry could hardly be worse than it is today with the ongoing financial crisis. Robert Shiller is no apologist for the sins of finance--he is probably the only person to have predicted both the stock market bubble of 2000 and the real estate bubble that led up to the subprime mortgage meltdown. However in his new book, he argues that, rather than condemning finance, we need to reclaim it for the common good. He makes a powerful case for recognizing that finance, far from being a parasite on society, is one of the most powerful tools we have for solving our common problems and increasing the general well-being. We need more financial innovation--not less--and finance should play a larger role in helping society achieve its goals. This event marks the publication of Professor Shiller's new book Finance and the Good Society. Robert J. Shiller is the author of Irrational Exuberance and The Subprime Solution, and the coauthor, with George A. Akerlof, of Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism. He is the Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics at Yale University.

Professor Robert Shillerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14582012-05-03T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Helmut K Anheier, Professor Mary Kaldor, Ahmed Naguib, Laurie Penny | As part of the launch of the tenth anniversary edition of the Global Civil Society yearbook, two of the founding editors will discuss the radicalisation of civil society with Ahmed Naguib and Laurie Penny, and ask what is new about the current politics of squares. Helmut K Anheier is dean at the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, and one of the founding editors of the Global Civil Society yearbook. Mary Kaldor is director of the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, LSE, and one of the founding editors of the Global Civil Society yearbook. Ahmed Naguib is an activist and co-founder of the Council of the Trustees of the Revolution in Egypt, who mobilised a march to Tahrir on 28 January 2011. Laurie Penny is a journalist and feminist activist, and has tweeted regularly from both the London and New York Occupy actions under the moniker @pennyred. Catherine Fieschi is the director of Counterpoint, a research and advisory group that focuses on the cultural and social dynamics of risk. Prior to directing Counterpoint, Catherine led the London based think tank Demos (2005-2008).

Professor Helmut K Anheier, Professor Mary Kaldor, Ahmed Naguib, Laurie Pennyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14562012-05-02T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Richard B Freeman | This lecture contends that the last 3-4 decades' increase in inequality and financialization threatens the success of democratic capitalism. It reviews the changes in income distribution and financialization of economies, with special attention to the US, that make the world increasingly diverge from free market ideals and argues that the economic interests of small groups of "crony capitalists" have come to dominate government responses to the financial crisis and ensuing recession. The danger is not an ever-expanding socialist state, per Hayek's Road to Serfdom, but of a move to economic feudalism, in which a small set of wealthy masters dominate markets and the state and subvert or outsmart efforts to regulate their behavior or rein them in. Professor Freeman will explore the way in which modern internet and communication technology and the increases in team-based production, worker participation in firm decision-making and in group incentive pay can restore the influence of the many and create a "shared capitalist" solution. Richard B. Freeman holds the Herbert Ascherman Chair in Economics at Harvard University. He directs the National Bureau of Economic Research / Sloan Science Engineering Workforce Projects, and is Senior Research Fellow in Labour Markets at the London School of Economics' Centre for Economic Performance. He received the Mincer Lifetime Achievement Prize from the Society of Labor Economics in 2006. In 2007 he was awarded the IZA Prize in Labor Economics. In 2011, he was appointed Frances Perkins Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Science. His recent publications include Can Labor Standards Improve Under Globalization (2004), What Workers Want (2007 2nd edition), What Workers Say: Employee Voice in the Anglo American World (2007), Reforming the Welfare State: Recovery and Beyond in Sweden (2010), and Shared Capitalism at Work: Employee Ownership, Profit and Gain Sharing, and Broad-based Stock Options (2010).

Professor Richard B Freemanhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14572012-05-02T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Sir Tony Atkinson, Paul Schreyer, Jean-Paul Fitoussi | In this session, Tony Atkinson, Paul Schreyer and Jean-Paul Fitoussi will give their views on the best ways of defining and measuring economic growth, including distributional considerations and sustainability issues, drawing on state of the art academic literature.

Sir Tony Atkinson, Paul Schreyer, Jean-Paul Fitoussihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14982012-05-02T10:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Amnon Aran, Roger Cohen, Professor Anoush Ehteshami | As the revolutions of 2011 become the politics of 2012, has power shifted in the Middle East, and has Iran been the main beneficiary? This event launches the new LSE IDEAS report After the Arab Spring: power shift in the Middle East. Amnon Aran is a senior lecturer at the Department of International Politics, City University. Roger Cohen is a columnist for the International Herald Tribune and New York Times. Anoush Ehteshami is professor and joint director of the ESRC Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World, University of Durham.

Dr Amnon Aran, Roger Cohen, Professor Anoush Ehteshamihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14532012-05-01T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Robin Murray, Dr Gavan Titley, Hilary Wainwright | Our political leaders claim there is no alternative to austerity cuts. Two academics, who are also activists, argue otherwise, providing examples of existing alternatives from the social economy and from the perspective of the alternative media. Robin Murray is a co-founder of Twin Trading, a pioneer of the fair trade movement, and of the environmental partnership Ekologica. Gavan Titley is a lecturer in media studies at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, and a regular contributor to the Guardian. Hilary Wainwright is a founding editor of Red Pepper and research director of the New Politics programme at the Transnational Institute (TNI).

Dr Robin Murray, Dr Gavan Titley, Hilary Wainwrighthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14542012-05-01T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Jack Goldstone, Professor Eric Kaufmann, John Parker | This panel will discuss the current global demographic revolution – the contrast between an aging developed world and a youthful developing world. This marks the publication of Political Demography: how population changes are reshaping international security and national politics. Jack Goldstone is the Virginia E and John T Hazel Jr Professor at the George Mason School of Public Policy. Eric Kaufmann is professor of politics at Birkbeck College, University of London. John Parker writes about globalisation without economic policy. He was previously bureau chief in Washington, Moscow and Brussels for the Economist.

Professor Jack Goldstone, Professor Eric Kaufmann, John Parkerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14552012-05-01T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Ruchir Sharma | In this talk Ruchir Sharma will discuss his new book, Breakout Nations. After a decade of rapid growth, the world's most celebrated emerging markets are poised to slow down. Which countries will rise to challenge them? To identify the economic stars of the future we should abandon the habit of extrapolating from the recent past and lumping wildly diverse countries together. We need to remember that sustained economic success is a rare phenomenon. Ruchir Sharma is the head of emerging markets at Morgan Stanley and a longtime columnist for Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, and the Economic Times of India. He lives in New York City.

Ruchir Sharmahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14492012-04-30T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Martin McGuinness MP MLA | Editor's note: The recording comprises the lecture only, it does not include the the question and answer session. There was a short interruption 11 minutes into the lecture owing to fire alarm, this section has been edited out of the recording. The deputy first minister of Northern Ireland will discuss his view of Northern Ireland’s position in the future of the Union. Martin McGuinness is a Sinn Féin politician and the current deputy first minister of Northern Ireland.

Martin McGuinness MP MLAhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14522012-04-30T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Ruth Mace, Professor Catherine Rowett, Professor Volker Sommer | What does it mean to be human? What are the origins of humanity, and what distinguishes us from non-human animals? Ruth Mace is professor of evolutionary anthropology at University College London. Catherine Rowett is professor of philosophy at the University of East Anglia. Volker Sommer is professor of evolutionary anthropology at University College London.

Professor Ruth Mace, Professor Catherine Rowett, Professor Volker Sommerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14502012-04-30T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Ash Amin, Michel Wieviorka, Claire Alexander, Richard Sennett | Editor's note: There was a fire alarm test at the venue on the night of the event. This has been edited out of the recording and consequently there is short break 10 minutes into the podcast. This event will launch two new books on the society of strangers discussing issues of hyper-subjectivity and desubjectification as the causes of contemporary escalations of violence. Ash Amin’s Land of Strangers offers a diagnosis of attitudes towards the stranger in the West after 9/11, while Michel Wieviorka’s Evil develops a sociological analysis of evil phenomena presenting us with a fresh approach to the understanding of the darker regions of human behaviour. Both authors will be joined by Claire Alexander, Craig Calhoun and Richard Sennett to discuss the analytical challenges posed by the return of the Subject, and the nature of a politics of solidarity. Ash Amin is 1931 Chair of Geography at the University of Cambridge. Craig Calhoun is director of the Institute for Public Knowledge and professor in the departments of Sociology and Media, Culture and Communications at New York University. Richard Sennett is the School Professor of Social and Cultural Theory emeritus at the LSE and University Professor of the Humanities at New York University. Michel Wieviorka is president of the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme and professor at École des hautes études en sciences sociales.

Ash Amin, Michel Wieviorka, Claire Alexander, Richard Sennetthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14512012-04-30T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Lord O'Donnell | As part of the Health of our Institutions Today series, the former cabinet secretary will discuss the health and importance of the civil service today. Gus O'Donnell served as UK Cabinet Secretary from 2005 to the end of 2011, serving under three prime ministers. Prior to that, he was Permanent Secretary to HM Treasury (July 2002 – July 2005). Before that he had been Managing Director, Macroeconomic Policy and International Finance since 1999. From 1998–9 he was Director of Macroeconomic Policy and Prospects, and from 1997–98 was the UK's Executive Director to the IMF and World Bank. He has also been Head of the Government Economics Service, the UK's largest employer of professional economists, since 1998. Gus O'Donnell studied economics at the University of Warwick and Nuffield College Oxford. He joined the Treasury as an economist in 1979, having spent four years as an economics lecturer at the University of Glasgow. Subsequent posts in Government included Press Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1989–90) and Press Secretary to the Prime Minister (1990–94).

Lord O'Donnellhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14482012-04-26T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Christian Kellermann | Is "decent capitalism" a contradiction in terms? This panel will discuss how capitalism can be made better, within the bounds of possibility. Christian Kellermann is director of the Nordic Office of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Stockholm. Sebastian Dullien and Christian Kellermann are authors of Decent Capitalism: A Blueprint for Reforming our Economies.

Christian Kellermannhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14462012-04-25T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Katrin Flikschuh | What does it mean to have an "innate right to freedom"? Is the innate right to freedom a natural right? Is it the role of the state to protect individual rights to freedom? Katrin Flikschuh is reader in modern political theory in the Government Department, LSE.

Dr Katrin Flikschuhhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14472012-04-25T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Jonathan Fenby | In this event to mark the publication of his new book, Tiger Head, Snake Tails: China Today, How it Got There and Where it is Heading, Jonathan Fenby will draw together the political, economic and social aspects of today's China to give a unique overview of the emerging superpower. His book also covers foreign relations, history and its heritage, regional matters, demography, the environment, corruption and the "trust deficit". It concludes with an account of the new leaders who will take over running China from the end of this year and assess the challenges they will face. Jonathan Fenby is a British journalist and former editor of The Observer newspaper 1993-1995 and the South China Morning Post 1995-2000.

Jonathan Fenbyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14452012-04-24T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Victoria Borwick, Jenny Jones, Ken Livingstone, Brian Paddick | In the run up to the London mayoral elections, the Fawcett Society has invited the leading mayoral campaigns to debate what they will do for London's four million women. The Mayor of London is the UK’s most powerful directly elected politician, managing a budget of £14.6 billion. The way these resources are used could make a huge difference. The Mayor can affect planning, transport, policing and a number of other services in ways that have an impact on equality between women and men. This event will allow the audience to hear from the leading campaigns and ask: What About Women? Victoria Borwick is an assembly candidate for the Conservative Party. She is a Londonwide Assembly Member, a Kensington and Chelsea Councillor, Chairman of Borough Community Relations. In 2007 she came second to Boris Johnson in the selection process to choose the Conservative Candidate for Mayor. Jenny Jones is the mayoral candidate for the Green Party. She currently represents the Green Party in the London Assembly, having been successful in all three elections since the assembly's creation in 2000. In March 2011, Jones was selected to be the Green Party candidate to be Mayor of London in the 2012 elections. She served as Deputy Mayor of London from May 2003 to June 2004. Ken Livingstone is the mayoral candidate for the Labour Party. He was London’s first elected mayor from May 2000. He has held the following positions in elected Office: 2000-2008, Mayor of London, 1987-2001, Member of Parliament for Brent East, 1981-1986, Leader of the Greater London Council, GLC member for Paddington. He has also been a borough councillor in Lambeth and Camden, and served as a GLC councillor in Hackney before Paddington. He stood as a parliamentary candidate in 1979 in Hampstead. Brian Paddick is the mayoral candidate for the Liberal Democrats. He was, until his retirement in May 2007, Deputy Assistant Commissioner in London's Metropolitan Police Service and the United Kingdom's most senior openly gay police officer. The event will include an introduction from Professor Kate Jenkins, visiting professor in the Government Department at LSE, and vice chair of the LSE Court of Governors.

Victoria Borwick, Jenny Jones, Ken Livingstone, Brian Paddickhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14442012-04-23T18:45:00Z

Speaker(s): Edward Lucas | In this talk, Edward Lucas will discuss his newly published book Deception: Spies, Lies and how Russia Dupes the West, which investigates the modern-day spy wars between the Kremlin's intelligence services and their Western adversaries, and their historical roots. Edward Lucas (Bsc Econ 1983) is international editor of The Economist. He has spent more than 25 years reporting from eastern and central Europe. His 2008 best-seller, The New Cold War: how the Kremlin menaces Russia and the West was translated into 20 languages.

Edward Lucashttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14422012-04-19T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): William Patry | Copyright laws are declared to be the underpinnings of creativity, innovation, the knowledge economy, and everything short of curing the sick and feeding the poor. Can copyright laws do all these wonderful things, or are they, in Ian Hargreaves' words, the result of lobbynomics? William Patry is senior copyright counsel at Google Inc. He has written far too much about copyright law, including his new book How to Fix Copyright Law and so now spends his time playing bass clarinet.

William Patryhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14412012-04-02T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dimitris Daskalopoulos, Moritz Kraemer, Vicky Pryce, Poul Thomsen | This is a very timely discussion of whether Greece can get out of its current economic crisis. The financial markets show concern that the recent bailout will not be enough and a further rescue may be needed. There is renewed international concern that other euro members will find themselves in difficulty prompting further action – Portugal, it is feared, may need another bailout. The rescue strategy for Greece is clearly the ‘test case’ that will shape the response to any further problem. So, can it work? What must the ‘Troika’ and Greece do to return the economy to growth? The panel debate brings together key experts and protagonists. Dimitris Daskalopoulos is chairman of the board of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV). Moritz Kraemer is managing director EMEA, analytical manager (Sovereign Ratings) at Standard & Poor's. Vicky Pryce is senior managing director-economics of FTI Economics. Poul Thomsen is deputy director, in the European Department of the International Monetary Fund and and head of the Troika Programme for Greece.

Dimitris Daskalopoulos, Moritz Kraemer, Vicky Pryce, Poul Thomsenhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14402012-03-28T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): William Hague MP | William Hague MP, Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State, presents Plenary Session II of the 2012 BRISMES Annual Conference. The conference is organised by the LSE Middle East Centre and the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies.

William Hague MPhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14392012-03-27T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Abhijit Banerjee | Poor Economics by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo won the FT Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year 2011 for their analysis of why the poor, despite having the same desires and abilities as anyone else, end up with entirely different lives. They argue that so much of anti-poverty policy has failed over the years because of an inadequate understanding of poverty. Looking at some of the most surprising facets of poverty: why the poor need to borrow in order to save, why they miss out on free life-saving immunizations but pay for drugs that they do not need, and why they start many businesses but do not grow any of them, they give us all a new understanding of the complex reality of living on very little and offer practical solutions for reducing poverty. Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at MIT. He is the recipient of many awards, including the inaugural Infosys Prize in 2009, and has been an honorary advisor to many organizations including the World Bank and the Government of India.

Professor Abhijit Banerjeehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14382012-03-26T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Ghassan Salamé | Professor Ghassan Salamé, Dean, Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA) presents the I.B. Tauris Plenary Session I of the 2012 BRISMES Annual Conference. The conference is organised by the LSE Middle East Centre and the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies.

Professor Ghassan Salaméhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14372012-03-26T09:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Daniel Everett | Over the past fifty years, the most popular theory of language is that it is an outgrowth of an innate biogram, often referred to as Universal Grammar. In this lecture he will explore an alternative perspective, namely, that language is a human invention and cultural artefact, passed down from one generation to another. Its principal task is to solve the communication problem that human sociality, what Aristotle referred to as the "social instinct", imposes upon us. Daniel Everett has held appointments in anthropology and linguistics at the University of Campinas, the University of Pittsburgh, Manchester University, and Illinois State University. He is currently Dean of Arts and Sciences at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He is the author of Don't sleep, there are snakes and Language: the cultural tool, both published by Profile. He has conducted research on many Amazonian languages, but is best known for his research on the Piraha language of Brazil.

Professor Daniel Everetthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14302012-03-22T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Leon Charles, Karl Hood | Grenada's role during the Climate Change negotiations at Durban, during COP17, as the chair of the Alliance of Small Islands States, highlighted the role vulnerable countries can play during international negotiations. Discover what it means to be a small island state facing the impacts of climate vulnerability and how a small country can play such a vital role in international negotiations. Leon Charles is is the Grenadian lead climate change negotiator. He is a former chairman of the AWG-KP (2007) under the UNFCC, and former AOSIS chief negotiator (2007 - 2011). He was the lead consultant in the development of Grenada's National Strategic Plan for Climate Change (2007) and inter alia has also worked on National Communications (First National Communications for Grenada, St. Kitts-Nevis and Dominica) and led a vulnerability analysis of Grenada's coastline (CPACC - Component 4 - 1999/2001). Karl Hood became minister of Foreign Affairs, the Environment, Foreign Trade and Export Development in November 2010, and subsequently Foreign minister only from 2011. He entered Parliament as a member of The National Democratic Congress in July of 2008 and served at various times as minister for Labour, Health, Ecclesiastical Affairs, among others. Minister Hood brings to politics a disciplined approach and a great love and compassion for people. He sees politics as the means of creating legislation and formulating policies to enrich the lives of ordinary people. He believes that true progress comes with the development of people, not patronage. Born in Happy Hill, St. George’s, Karl Hood was educated at the Presentation Boys College, the West Indies School of Theology, Nyack College, and Newport University. He holds a master's degree in leadership, is trained as an optician and has practiced as a minister of religion.

Leon Charles, Karl Hoodhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14292012-03-22T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Robert Hodgkinson, Kirstin Gillon, Josep Bisbe, Andrea Dossi, Ian Herbert, Michael Bromwich, Phillie Karkaria | Editor's note: Unfortunately the last few minutes are missing from the recording of the afternoon session. The 33rd annual MARG Conference took place on 22 March 2012. The theme for the 2012 conference was 'Management Accounting Leadership: Global Challenges - Local Responses.' Morning Session - Robert Hodgkinson and Kirstin Gillon (ICAEW), The Finance Function and Information Technology: A Bigger Picture. Josep Bisbe (ESADE Ramon Llull University), Diversity in Culture and Environmental Dynamism as Key Challenges for Performance Measurement Systems in Global Firms. Afternoon Session - Andrea Dossi (SDA Bocconi School of Management, Bocconi University), Control Leadership in MNC's: Global Value based Reporting - Local Strategies. Panel Discussion: How Can Management Accounting Leadership Improve? Josep Bisbe, Andrea Dossi, Ian Herbert and Robert Hodgkinson. Chairman: Michael Bromwich. CIMA Distinguished Practitioner Lecture, Phillie Karkaria (Exectutive Director of Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd), Global Challeges, Local Solutions and Management Accounting Leadership.

Robert Hodgkinson, Kirstin Gillon, Josep Bisbe, Andrea Dossi, Ian Herbert, Michael Bromwich, Phillie Karkariahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14592012-03-22T10:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Shami Chakrabarti | New Labour arguably left Britain more comfortable in its diversity and better protected by anti-discrimination law. Equal treatment for gay people advanced significantly and the Human Rights Act provides a modern Bill of Rights for everyone in the Kingdom. Curiously however, parallel laws dishonoured these values in thought, word and deed. Home affairs hyperactivity left ours a less friendly country in which to seek asylum, dissent or even be young. The Coalition bound itself together with "civil liberties" and quickly reversed some excesses of the previous decade. Last year's "Arab Spring saw it promote human rights abroad. However the Government appears bitterly divided by them at home. Is the debate about a more "British" Bill of Rights, political genius, pragmatic fudge or a dangerous swindle capable of depriving us all of vital protection against abuse of power? Shami Chakrabarti has been Director of Liberty (The National Council for Civil Liberties) since September 2003. Shami first joined Liberty as In-House Counsel on 10 September 2001. She became heavily involved in its engagement with the "War on Terror" and with the defence and promotion of human rights values in Parliament, the Courts and wider society. A Barrister by background, she was called to the Bar in 1994 and worked as a lawyer in the Home Office from 1996 until 2001 for Governments of both persuasions. Since becoming Liberty's Director she has written, spoken and broadcast widely on the importance of the post-WW2 human rights framework as an essential component of a democratic society. She is Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, a Governor of the British Film Institute, and a Visiting Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford in addition to being a Master of the Bench of Middle Temple. She was recently invited to be one of 6 independent assessors advising Lord Justice Leveson in his Public Inquiry into the Culture, Practice and Ethics of the UK Press. Francesca Klug is professorial research fellow and director of the Human Rights Futures Project at LSE.

Shami Chakrabartihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14362012-03-20T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Danny Quah, Alastair Newton | Danny Quah is Kuwait Professor at the LSE. Alastair Newton is Senior Political Analyst at Nomura International.

Danny Quah, Alastair Newtonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14352012-03-16T10:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Abdulkarim Soroush | Professor Soroush will discuss the role of philosophy – and Popper's thought in particular – in Iranian religious and political reform. Abdulkarim Soroush is a leading intellectual in Iran and has held visiting positions at, amongst other institutions, Harvard and Princeton. This event is supported by The Sir Karl Popper Memorial Fund. The Popper Memorial Fund would like to thank the Austrian Cultural Forum |for the generous support they have offered toward the 2012 Lecture.

Professor Abdulkarim Soroushhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14242012-03-15T18:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Zygmunt Bauman | Being on the left in times of globalisation and divorce of power and politics. New mechanisms of domination and reproduction of inequality, from society of producers to society of consumers. From proletariat to precariat. From solidarity to oneupmanship. Deficit of trust, crisis of agency, and people on the move. Zygmunt Bauman is Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Leeds. He was awarded the European Amalfi Prize for Sociology and Social Sciences in 1991 and the Theodor W. Adorno Award of the city of Frankfurt in 1998. He has been awarded in 2010, jointly with Alain Touraine, the Príncipe de Asturias PrizePrize for Communication and the Humanities. The University of Leeds launched the The Bauman Institute within its School of Sociology and Social Policy in Bauman's honour in September 2010.

Professor Zygmunt Baumanhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14232012-03-14T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Eric Hanushek, Steve Machin, Ludger Wößmann | LSE Growth Commission, Evidence Session 1: Human Capital | In this session, Eric Hanushek, Stephen Machin and Ludger Wößmann gave their views on the role skills should play in the formulation and implementation of a strategy to secure long-term growth for the UK, reflecting on lessons from international experience and state of the art academic literature. Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He has been a leader in the development of economic analysis of educational issues, and his work on efficiency, resource usage, and economic outcomes of schools has frequently entered into the design of both US and international educational policy. Steve Machin is Professor of Economics at University College London, Research Director at the Centre for Economic Performance, a member of the Low Pay Commission and Director of the Centre for the Economics of Education. Ludger Wößmann is Head of Human Capital and Innovation at CES Ifo Institute for Economic Research, University of Munich.

Eric Hanushek, Steve Machin, Ludger Wößmannhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14282012-03-14T10:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Tim Weiner | The United States is a country founded on the ideals of democracy and freedom, yet throughout the last century it has used secret and lawless methods to destroy its enemies. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the most powerful of these forces. Following his award-winning history of the C.I.A., Legacy of Ashes, Tim Weiner has now written the first full history of the F.B.I. as a secret intelligence service, Enemies: A History of the FBI| which he will talk about in this lecture. Drawn entirely from firsthand materials in the F.B.I.'s own files, Enemies brilliantly brings to life the entire story, from the cracking of anarchist cells to the prosecution of the 'war on terror'. It is the story of America's war against spies, subversives and saboteurs - and the self-inflicted wounds American democracy suffered in battle. Throughout the book lies the long shadow of J. Edgar Hoover, who ran the F.B.I. with an iron fist for forty-eight years. He was not a monster, but a brilliant confidence man who ruled by fear, force, and fraud. His power shaped America; his legacy haunts it. Tim Weiner is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at the New York Times, where he has reported from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan and fifteen other nations. He was based for a decade in Washington, DC, where he covered the C.I.A. and the Military - the latter topic being the subject of his Blank Check: The Pentagon's Black Budget. He is the author of the bestselling Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, which won the 2007 National Book Award for Non-Fiction.

Tim Weinerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14212012-03-13T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Rahel Jaeggi | Editor's note: Unfortunately the last few minutes of the question and answer session are missing from the podcast. Does modern society cause us to be alienated from ourselves? This lecture will argue that a re-thinking of the philosophical concept of alienation can provide us with an important resource for social critique. Rahel Jaeggi is professor for practical philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at the Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin.

Professor Rahel Jaeggihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14222012-03-13T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): James Caan | On Dragons' Den, James Caan saw over 1,000 budding entrepreneurs pitch their ideas from anything that ranged from the bizarre to the revolutionary. Having spent the past 30 years starting, building and growing businesses, James has become recognised as one of the UK's most prominent experts on entrepreneurship. His talk will take you through the journey of an entrepreneur, the pathway to a successful business, but also the ability to recognise when an idea is not a business, potentially saving you the investment of valuable time and money. James Caan is one of the UK's most celebrated businessmen. Having built global multi-million pound recruitment companies, he now has a portfolio of over 30 businesses within his private equity firm, Hamilton Bradshaw. He has consistently followed the mantra of "backing people with passion" and invests in entrepreneurs across a number of sectors including real estate, recruitment and professional services. This event celebrates the publication of James Caan's new book Start Your Business in 7 Days.

James Caanhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14342012-03-13T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Scott Barrett | Professor Barrett discusses whether the prospect of approaching climate catastrophes makes international cooperation on climate change any easier, and examines how the international system is likely to respond to the future crossing of a 'climate tipping point'. Scott Barrett is the Lenfest-Earth Institute Professor of Natural Resource Economics at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and the Earth Institute.

Professor Scott Barretthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14172012-03-12T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Joel Brenner | A former intelligence insider illuminates the strategic vulnerabilities created by the technologies that run our public and private lives, shriveling privacy, bleeding us of technologies that create wealth, power, and jobs, and laying public and private infrastructure open to crippling disruption – with thoughts on how to deal with it. Joel Brenner (LSE PhD 1973) is the author of America the Vulnerable: Inside the New Threat Matrix of Digital Espionage, Crime, and Warfare. He is the former head of US counterintelligence and inspector general of the US National Security Agency and practices law in Washington, DC, focusing on privacy and security issues.

Joel Brennerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14182012-03-12T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Mukulika Banerjee, Patrick French, Professor Maitreesh Ghatak, Professor Sunil Khilnani | Editor's note: Unfortunately the last few minutes of the question and answer session are missing from the podcast. This panel will focus on the underside of Indian democracy, as visible in, among other things, the insurgencies in Kashmir; a Maoist rebellion in the heart of India; growing inequalities between rich and poor; and the massively high rates of corruption within government. Mukulika Banerjee is a reader in anthropology at the Department of Anthropology, LSE. Patrick French is the author of Liberty or Death and India: a portrait. Maitreesh Ghatak is Professor of Economics at LSE. Sunil Khilnani is director of King's College London's India Institute. Dr Ramchandra Guha is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2011-2012.

Dr Mukulika Banerjee, Patrick French, Professor Maitreesh Ghatak, Professor Sunil Khilnanihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14192012-03-12T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Zack Cooper, Paul Corrigan, Frank Dobson MP, Alastair McLellan, Zoe Williams | This event will bring together a range of experts in the field of NHS reform to debate whether competition has a role to play in improving the NHS. Each speaker to talk for 5 to 7 minutes, before opening to questions from the floor. Dr Zack Cooper is a health economist at the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics. Zack's work focuses on assessing the impact of competition in hospital and insurance markets and analysing the effect of financial incentives and payment reforms on health care delivery. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Chicago and did his Masters and PhD at the London School of Economics. Paul Corrigan CBE is a Labour politician, and was health adviser to Tony Blair. Frank Dobson MP is a Labour Party politician who was Secretary of State for Health from 1997 to 1999. Alastair McLellan is editor of the Health Service Journal. Zoe Williams is a regular columnist in The Guardian and New Statesman.

Dr Zack Cooper, Paul Corrigan, Frank Dobson MP, Alastair McLellan, Zoe Williamshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14202012-03-12T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Prof Patrick Dunleavy, Simon Bastow, Adam Cooper, Jonathan Portes, Prof Bernard Silverman, Neil Wholey, Dr Alan Cann, Prof Vicky Randall, Prof Stephen Hanney, Prof Huw Davies, Richard Bartholomew, Prof Edward Melhuish, Prof Sandy Thomas | A half day conference hosted by LSE's Public Policy Group/Impact of Social Sciences Project held on Monday, 12th March 2012 at the Institute for Government, London. With the incentives for academics to engage with government again strengthened through the REF process, this half day conference will examine the ways in which academic research impacts on government and policymaking, how tried and tested methods as well as newer digital technologies are affecting their relationships and the key touch-points where academic expertise can be of most use on major policy issues. Introduction, 2pm, Introduction from the LSE Impacts of Social Sciences team, Speakers: Prof Patrick Dunleavy, Simon Bastow (LSE Public Policy Group) Session 1, 2.20pm, The Policymakers' View: How Government Departments can Better Leverage Academic Research, Speakers: Adam Cooper (Head of Social Science Engagement at DECC, Jonathan Portes (Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research), Prof Bernard Silverman (Chief Scientific Adviser at the Home Office), Neil Wholey (Westminster City Council). Session 2, 3.45pm, The Academics' View: Opening up Academic Work to Policymakers, Speakers: Dr Alan Cann (Leicester University), Prof Vicky Randall (Essex University), Prof Stephen Hanney (Brunel University), Prof Huw Davies (University of St Andrews). Session 3 (Final Session), 5pm, Change, Evaluation and Future-proofing: Academic Interventions in the Policy Process, Speakers: Richard Bartholomew (Chief Research Officer, Department of Education), Prof Edward Melhuish (Director, Impact Evaluation of Sure State), Prof Sandy Thomas (Director of Foresight, Government Office for Science).

Prof Patrick Dunleavy, Simon Bastow, Adam Cooper, Jonathan Portes, Prof Bernard Silverman, Neil Wholey, Dr Alan Cann, Prof Vicky Randall, Prof Stephen Hanney, Prof Huw Davies, Richard Bartholomew, Prof Edward Melhuish, Prof Sandy Thomashttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14312012-03-12T14:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Evelyn Fox Keller | A substantial literature on risk perception demonstrates the limits of human rationality, especially in the face of catastrophic risks. Human judgment, it seems, is flawed by the tendency to overestimate the magnitude of rare but evocative risks, while underestimating risks associated with commonplace dangers. Such findings are particularly relevant to the problem of crafting responsible public policy in the face of the kinds of threat posed by climate change. If the risk perception of ordinary citizens cannot be trusted, then it would seem logical to based policy decisions on expert judgment. But how rational, how trustworthy, are expert assessments of catastrophic risk? I briefly review the limitations of conventional models of expert risk analysis, especially in dealing with the large uncertainties endemic to the risk of low probability-high impact events in the distant future. The challenges such events pose to the underlying assumptions of these analyses are severe enough to question their basic rationality. I argue that a conception of rationality premised on the bounded knowledge of experts and lay citizens alike, based on context appropriate heuristics, may provide a more trustworthy basis for decision making. Evelyn Fox KellerEvelyn Fox Keller is Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on the history and philosophy of modern biology and on gender and science. She is the author of several books, including A Feeling for the Organism: The Life and Work of Barbara McClintock (1983), Reflections on Gender and Science (1985), The Century of the Gene (2000), and Making Sense of Life: Explaining Biological Development with Models, Metaphors and Machines (2002). Her most recent book, The Mirage of a Space Between Nature and Nuture, is now in press.

Evelyn Fox Kellerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14432012-03-08T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Alistair Darling MP | Alistair Darling is MP for Edinburgh South West and former Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Alistair Darling MPhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13852012-03-07T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Kathleen Thelen | Do economic crisis and the emergence of service economies make established ideas about "liberal" and "coordinated" capitalism obsolete? Kathleen Thelen is the Ford Professor of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Professor Kathleen Thelenhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13862012-03-07T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Lord Layard | CEP founder Richard Layard will close this series of lectures with a discussion on the economic and social costs of mental illness. Richard Layard is Emeritus Professor of Economics at LSE. He is the head of the Centre for Economic Performance's Programme on Well-Being.

Professor Lord Layardhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13832012-03-06T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Ramachandra Guha | In India, cricketers are even more famous than its film stars; they are venerated and worshipped as gods. This lecture will explain how this sport became an Indian obsession. Ramachandra Guha is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2011-2012.

Dr Ramachandra Guhahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13842012-03-06T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Rolando Bompadre, Matías Néspolo | As tense as a thriller, as vivid as an undercover documentary, Matías Néspolo’s first novel, Seven Ways to Kill a Cat, examines a place of crime and deprivation. Set in Buenos Aires at the time of Argentina’s financial crash, and seen through the eyes of twenty-year-old Gringo, it tells the story of two boys on the cusp of adulthood who have no choice but to join the gang warfare that rules their community. While its depiction of Buenos Aires rings true in every detail, the barrio could be any place of urban deprivation. With fellow argentine author, Rolando Bompadre, he will discuss society and politics in Latin American literature. Rolando Bompadre teaches Spanish and Italian at the University of Aberdeen, and is author of La víspera de los asesinatos, which was among the finalists of the 1st Premio Tusquets Editores de Novela. Rosalind Harvey has lived in Lima and Norwich, where she fell in love with Spanish and translation, respectively. She now lives in London, where she translates Spanish and Latin American fiction. She has translated Hector Abad’s prize-winning memoir Oblivion and Enrique Vila-Matas’ latest novel Dublinesque with Anne McLean, and her translation of Juan Pablo Villalobos’ Down the Rabbit Hole has been shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. In autumn last year she was one of the first translators in residence at the Free Word Centre. Born in Buenos Aires in 1975, Matías Néspolo studied literature, going on to write poems, short stories, journalism and then Seven Ways to Kill a Cat, his acclaimed first novel. He has been living in Barcelona since 2001 and, in 2010, was selected by Granta as one of their best young contemporary Spanish-language novelists. Seven Ways to Kill a Cat is recommended by English Pen.

Rolando Bompadre, Matías Néspolohttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14152012-03-03T19:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Elif Shafak | Elif Shafak is an award winning novelist and the most widely read female writer in Turkey. She was born in 1971 in Strasbourg and is the author of 11 books, eight of which are novels, including The Bastard of Istanbul (which was long-listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2008) and The Forty Rules of Love (nominated for 2012 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award). Her new novel, Honour, set partly in London about a half-Kurdish half-Turkish immigrant family, will be published by Penguin in April 2012. She writes in both English and Turkish, and divides her time between London and Istanbul. www.elifshafak.com

Elif Shafakhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14162012-03-03T19:00:00Z

Speaker(s): John Lanchester | In his latest state-of-the-nation novel, Capital, John Lanchester tells the story of an ordinary street in the capital, but also of a global crisis. In this conversation with Hay Festival chair Revel Guest, he will discuss the power of a fictional handling of the financial crisis in comparison to non-fictional accounts. John Lanchester is the author of The Debt to Pleasure (winner of the Whitbread First Novel Award), Mr Phillips and Fragrant Harbour, a Sunday Times bestseller, and his work has been translated into 21 languages. His memoir Family Romance was published in 2007 to great acclaim. And his non-fiction work Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No-One Can Pay about the financial crisis was a bestseller both in the UK and the US. He is a contributor to the Guardian and the New Yorker as well as a Contributing Editor to the London Review of Books.

John Lanchesterhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14132012-03-03T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Michael Rosen, Emma-Louise Williams, Lasse Johansson, Andrea Luka Zimmerman | Editor's note: Unfortunately the last few minutes of the question and answer session are missing from the podcast. Emma-Louise William’s film, Under the Cranes (2011), is based on the documentary play for voices, Hackney Streets, by poet and former Children's Laureate, Michael Rosen. Blending rare archive footage and dreamlike sequences of present-day Hackney, Williams links the everyday with the social and literary history of this dynamic and culturally diverse East London borough. Following the screening, a panel of speakers will join Williams and Rosen to discuss the hybridity of literature and film, as well as Hackney and the increasing attention it has received in light of the 2012 Olympics and controversial redevelopment projects. Michael Rosen was born in 1946 in north London. He has been writing, performing, broadcasting and lecturing since the early 70s. He co-devised and co-teaches a Masters course at Birkbeck College, University of London. Emma-Louise Williams is a radio producer and first-time film-maker. She is currently making a radio documentary for BBC Radio 4 about unaccompanied, asylum-seeking children and young people in East London. Her work seeks to counter the prevailing perception of the inner city as a site of failure, ugliness and misdeed through a ‘socio-poetics’ of everyday life. Lasse Johansson and Andrea Luka Zimmerman are artists/filmmakers working in East London for Fugitive Images.

Michael Rosen, Emma-Louise Williams, Lasse Johansson, Andrea Luka Zimmermanhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14142012-03-03T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Richard Holloway, Alex Preston | The former Bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway's memoir, Leaving Alexandria, recounts a life defined by the struggle between public faith and private doubt. Alex Preston’s latest novel, The Revelations, portrays the power of a religious movement amongst a group of young people, exploring why people still need faith in a secular era, and the battle between belief and doubt. Together they will discuss the place of faith, doubt and certainty in our secular modern age. Richard Holloway was Bishop of Edinburgh and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church. A former Gresham Professor of Divinity and Chairman of the Joint Board of the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen, he is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He has written for many newspapers in Britain, including The Times, Guardian, Observer, Herald and the Scotsman. He has also presented many series for BBC television and radio; his new series, on doubt, will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 this spring. Alex Preston was born in 1979 and lives with his family in London. His first novel, the bestselling This Bleeding City, won the Edinburgh festival Reader’s First Book awards and the Spear’s First Book Award, and has been translated into twelve languages. Preston writes and reviews for the New Statesman and the Observer and is a regular panellist on BBC2’s The Review Show.

Richard Holloway, Alex Prestonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14112012-03-03T15:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Horatio Clare, Dr Alex Gillespie, Abigail King | This panel will discuss the relationship between perceptions and realities of travel, and the influence of travel literature and photography on tourist experiences. Horatio Clare is an award-winning author, broadcaster, novelist and journalist. In 2008 he journeyed from South Africa to South Wales following migrating swallows, a journey he wrote about in A Single Swallow. His latest expedition took him from Felixstowe to Los Angeles on a 150,000 tonne container ship. Horatio writes regularly for Conde Nast Traveller and various national newspapers. Alex Gillespie is a Lecturer in Social Psychology at LSE and Co-Editor of Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour. He has over fifty publications, including three books. He is interested in tourism and tourist photography as an encounter with the other saturated in fantasy. Abigail King is an experienced journalist and photographer who writes about travel for both print and online media. She has circled the globe twice, camped in the snows of Kilimanjaro and Patagonia and tracked down tigers, turtles and panda bears. She’s then had a hot shower and embraced the city life of New York, Rio, Paris and Tokyo.

Horatio Clare, Dr Alex Gillespie, Abigail Kinghttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14122012-03-03T15:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Lord Hurd, Sam Leith, Ian Leslie, Jonathan Powell | This distinguished panel will discuss the importance of rhetoric, that famous art of persuasion, as well as the centrality of lying and self-deception to human society and politics. Lord Hurd retired as Foreign Secretary in July 1995, after a distinguished career in Government spanning sixteen years. He served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 1984 - 85, Home Secretary from 1985 - 89 and Foreign Secretary 1989 – 1995 in the Governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major. After joining the Diplomatic Service, he went on to serve at the Foreign office in Peking, New York (UN) and Rome. He ran Edward Heath’s private office from 1968 - 70 and acted as his Political Secretary at 10 Downing Street from 1970 - 74. He was MP for Mid-Oxfordshire (later Witney) from 1974 to 1997. He was created a Life Peer in 1997, and has since held numerous appointments in the City and in public life. He was Deputy Chairman of Coutts Bank until the end of 2009. Lord Hurd has written ten political novels. His memoirs were published in October 2003. His biography of the life of Sir Robert Peel was published in 2007. His latest book on eleven British Foreign Secretaries was published in 2010 and he is now at work with Edward Young on a biography of Disraeli. Sam Leith is a former Literary Editor of the Daily Telegraph, and contributes regularly to the Evening Standard, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Spectator and Prospect. He’s the author of two non-fiction books, Dead Pets and Sod's Law and a novel, The Coincidence Engine. His latest book You Talkin’ To Me? Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama is published by Profile Books. Ian Leslie combines careers in advertising and writing. His latest book, entitled Born Liars: Why We Can't Live Without Deceit is about the surprising centrality of lying and self-deception to human society. After studying history at Oxford and the University of Pennsylvania, Jonathan Powell worked for the BBC and Granada TV before joining the Foreign Office in 1979. In 1994 Mr Blair, then Leader of the Opposition, poached him to join his `kitchen cabinet' as his Chief of Staff. When Labour achieved its landslide victory in 1997 Powell was at the heart of the Downing Street machine. He was the only senior member of staff to remain at Blair's side throughout his time at the top of British politics. He is author of The New Machiavelli: How to wield power in the Modern World. Jenni Russell is a political columnist for the Evening Standard and the Sunday Times. She won the Orwell Prize for political journalism in 2011.

Lord Hurd, Sam Leith, Ian Leslie, Jonathan Powellhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14102012-03-03T13:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Marina Lewycka, Jeremy Sams, George Szirtes | A panel of experts discuss translation and storytelling in novels, poetry and opera. Are there fundamental elements to storytelling that are shared across cultures, languages and genres? What is lost, and what is created, in translation? Followed by a reading of the winning entry in the LSE micro-fiction student competition and a performance by students of a classic one act play. Marina Lewycka was born in a refugee camp in Germany in 1946 and moved to England with her family when she was about a year old. She spent most of her life since then trying to become a writer, and finally succeeded in 2005 with A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian which has sold more than a million copies in the UK alone. This was followed by Two Caravans in March 2007 and We Are All Made of Glue in July 2009. Her latest novel is Various Pets Alive and Dead. Jeremy Sams is a translator of opera libretti as well as a lyricist, theatre director, composer, orchestrator and musical director. His latest work, The Enchanted Island, recently opened to critical acclaim at the New York Metropolitan Opera. His many translations include Mozart’s Figaro’s Wedding, La Boheme, The Magic Flute and Wagner’s The Ring Cycle (English National Opera); The Merry Widow (Covent Garden); and Les Parents Terribles, The Miser and Mary Stuart (Royal National Theatre). His film scores have won awards from BAFTA (Persuasion) and Ivor Novello (Enduring Love). As a theatre director his credits include Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Sound of Music (Palladium), Noises Off (West End and Broadway) and The Wind in the Willows (Old Vic). George Szirtes was born in Budapest in 1948 and came to England as a refugee in 1956, following the Hungarian Uprising. He has published some thirteen books of poetry in English, most recently Reel (2004), New and Collected Poems (2008) and The Burning of the Books (2009). These have won the Faber Prize, the Cholmondeley Award and, most recently the T S Eliot Prize. As a translator from Hungarian he has published and edited several books of prize-winning poetry and fiction. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and teaches at UEA.

Marina Lewycka, Jeremy Sams, George Szirteshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14252012-03-03T13:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Sarah Salway | Using social media means it has never been easier to get your words out there, but how can you be sure you are being read? Sarah Salway uses personal experience and practical examples to show how you can make the internet work best for you, including getting an audience and writing for personal websites, blogs, podcasts, Facebook pages, and Twitter streams. Canterbury Laureate and Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the LSE, Sarah Salway has been blogging successfully since 2004. She is the author of three novels, including Something Beginning With, and a collection of short stories. Her first poetry collection, You Do Not Need Another Self-Help Book, will be published in March. Her website is at www.sarahsalway.net.

Sarah Salwayhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14092012-03-03T12:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Llewelyn Morgan | Dr Llewelyn Morgan explores historical and contemporary approaches to one of Afghanistan's most famous monuments, the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Their location's strategic position, controlling passage through the Hindu Kush, has seen a fascinatingly diverse array of visitors and commentators- from Muslims and Christians, to 19th Century classicists on the trail of Alexander the Great and, more recently, UN mine-clearers. Llewelyn Morgan is a classicist, normally occupied reading Classical Latin poetry, and a fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford. He has worked in Ireland and the US as well as the UK, writes regularly for the TLS and can occasionally also be heard on Radio 4. His interest in Afghanistan was sparked by discovering an old Russian samovar in his grandmother's house, engraved with the words "Candahar 1881", a relic of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. The Buddhas of Bamiyan will be published in the spring of 2012. Paddy Docherty was educated at Oxford University. His graduate research into British imperial history led him to the North West Frontier and he travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in the winter of 2003 to research The Khyber Pass, his first book.

Dr Llewelyn Morganhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14062012-03-03T11:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Reshma Ruia | Reshma Ruia was born in India and grew up in Rome, Italy. After an undergraduate degree in International Relations and post graduate degree in Economic History from LSE, she moved back to Rome where she worked as a development economist with the United Nations and subsequently with the OECD in Paris. She is now based in Manchester, where she obtained an MA in Creative Writing from Manchester University. She is the author of Something Black in the Lentil Soup, described by John Carey in the Times, as a ‘gem of straight-faced comedy.’ One of her short stories has appeared in the Anthology, Too Asian, not Asian Enough. She has recently completed a PhD in Creative Writing from Manchester University and has finished her second novel, A Mouthful of Silence. In this session she will discuss the ways of writing about different cultures- the importance of plot, portrayal of character and narrative voice- as well as what her transition from academic, social scientific culture to a literary one has meant for her writing.

Reshma Ruiahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14072012-03-03T11:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Mark Pagel | Since humans left Africa less than a hundred thousand years ago there has been a staggering explosion of cultures. What caused this blooming of diversity? Why are there so many mutually incomprehensible languages, even within small territories? Why do we rejoice in rituals, wrap ourselves in flags, or define ourselves in opposition to others? Humans are usually seen as differing from other animals because of our inherent traits of consciousness, language and intelligence. But Pagel shows we've had it the wrong way round. Many of these things would not exist without our propensity for culture - our ability to co-operate in small tribal societies, to pass on beliefs and practices and to accumulate knowledge over generations - so that we prospered while others declined. Pagel's extraordinary history of the role of culture in natural selection shows how humans acquired a mind that is hardwired for culture. Our cultures – although an accident of birth - have outstripped our genes in determining who we are, how we think and speak, and who we love and kill. Weaving together evolutionary biology, anthropology, natural history, philosophy and Pagel's years of observing human behaviour around the globe, this book sheds light on everything from art, morality and affection to jealousy, self-interest and prejudice, and asks whether our cultural legacy equips us for the challenges of life in the modern world. Wired for Culture will change how we view ourselves, not just as individuals, but within the wider story of our species. Mark Pagel is head of the Evolution Laboratory in the Division of Zoology, School of Biological Sciences, at the University of Reading, and an External Professor at the renowned Santa Fe Institute. He has travelled the world studying evolution and the spread of cultures from the Chalbi Desert in Kenya to Tanzania and Zanzibar, and remote Oceania. He is the editor-in-chief of the award winning Oxford Encyclopaedia of Evolution and co-author of The Comparative Method in Evolutionary Biology, which is regarded as a classic, as well as the author of articles in Science, Nature, and other journals. Statistical methods that Pagel has developed are used by researchers all over the world to study evolutionary trends across species. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society. This event marks the publication of his latest book, Wired for Culture: The Natural History of Human Cooperation.

Professor Mark Pagelhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14082012-03-03T11:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Jonathan Gibbs | Editor's note: This podcast contains writing exercises, which may mean some periods of silence during the recording, but we would encourage you to join in. The introductory session to the day’s workshops will be looking at ways of getting started, or restarted, in writing fiction. What approaches can you take to plot and character when you do find time to write, and how can you use your time away from your desk to make sure that, when you’re there, you get the most out of it. Jonathan Gibbs has worked as a books journalist for 10 years. He took an MA in Creative Writing at UEA, and is currently nearing the end of a PhD there. The fruits of that, a novel about the Young British Artists, is, as we speak, travelling via his agent to various publishers’ inboxes.

Jonathan Gibbshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13992012-03-03T10:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Justin Cartwright, Professor John Sutherland, DJ Taylor | Recent literary responses to the financial crisis take their place in a rich tradition of novelistic portrayals of the city and finance. What do these tell us of our changing attitude towards, and understanding of, money? Justin Cartwright was born in South Africa and educated in the US and at Oxford University. His work has won numerous awards. In Every Face I Meet was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Leading the Cheers won the Whitbread Novel Award and The Promise of Happiness won the Hawthornden Prize for Literature in 2005. He has won other awards including a Commonwealth Writer's prize and the South African Sunday Times Award. His most recent novel is Other People’s Money, a subtle thriller and also an acutely delineated portrait of a world and a class. It won the Novel of the Year Award at the Spear’s Book Awards. John Sutherland is Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor, UCL. He has taught at Edinburgh University, the California Institute of Education and UCL. His latest book, of many, is Lives of the Novelists: A History of Fiction in 294 Lives. DJ Taylor is the author of two acclaimed biographies, Thackerary and Orwell: The Life, which won the Whitbread Biography Prize in 2003. He has written nine novels, the most recent being Derby Day. David is also well known as a critic and reviewer, and his other books include A Vain Conceit: British Fiction in the 1980s and After the War: the Novel and England since 1945. His journalism appears in the Independent and the Independent on Sunday, the Guardian, The Tablet, the Spectator, the New Statesman and, anonymously, in Private Eye. Aifric Campbell completed a linguistics degree and lectured in semantics in Sweden before spending thirteen years as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley in London where she was the first female MD. She left to study psychotherapy and creative writing, most recently at UEA . Aifric is currently teaching creative writing at Imperial College and her first two novels, The Semantics of Murder and The Loss Adjustor were published by Serpent’s Tail. Her latest book, published in March, is On The Floor, a novel set in the global financial markets.

Justin Cartwright, Professor John Sutherland, DJ Taylorhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13982012-03-02T19:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Ben Masters | Ben Masters' debut novel Noughties examines the highs and lows of modern student life, which reach a climax for his characters on the last night of university. In this conversation with LSE student Aleona Krechetova, he will discuss whether there is such a thing as a ‘standard’ student experience, and how he approached the question of 'relatability' when writing the book. Ben Masters is twenty-five years old. He was born in Northampton and went to Oxford University in 2005. He is currently working on a PhD in English at Cambridge University.

Ben Mastershttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13972012-03-02T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): John Carey, Claire Tomalin | Claire Tomalin’s biography of Charles Dickens, published to mark the bicentenary of his birth this spring, has been acclaimed by critics. It is, as A.N. Wilson wrote in the New Statesman, ‘a book that goes to the heart of the mystery of Dickens as a writer’, and it conjures up a man with as many different selves as a Russian doll. ‘The inimitable’, as Dickens called himself, was a performer or rock-star charisma, who mesmerised audiences of thousands before the invention of the microphone; a social reformer way ahead of his time; a sentimental lover; a cruel husband. He could be vivacious, charming and selfless, but also imperious, vindictive and egotistical. Claire Tomalin discusses his life and work with literary critic and cultural commentator John Carey. John Carey is Emeritus Merton Professor of English at Oxford University, a distinguished critic, reviewer and broadcaster, and the author of many books, including studies of Donne, Dickens and Thackeray. His celebrated polemic What Good are the Arts? provoked much debate and discussion in 2005. He has been a regular critic on BBC2's Newsnight Review, and is also the editor of the best-selling anthologies The Faber Book of Reportage, The Faber Book of Science and The Faber Book of Utopias. Biographer Claire Tomalin was born in London in 1933. After graduating from Newnham College, Cambridge, she worked in publishing for Heinemann, Hutchinson and Cape before switching to journalism, becoming literary editor of both the New Statesman magazine and the Sunday Times newspaper. She is a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery, London and the Wordsworth Trust, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Vice-President of English PEN. She is the award-winning author of many books, including The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens, Samuel Pepys and Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man. This event is organised in association with the Royal Society of Literature.

John Carey, Claire Tomalinhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13962012-03-02T12:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Pavel Litvinov, Michael Scammell | Acclaimed writer and founding editor of Index on Censorship. Michael Scammell and former Russian dissident Pavel Litvinov discuss the nature of censorship and the future of freedom of speech. It was Pavel Litvinov’s courageous public appeal to the West for help, during a Soviet show trial in 1968, that inspired the creation of Index on Censorship magazine, a forum for banned writers, artists and intellectuals in the struggle against censorship. Forty years on, as Index on Censorship celebrates its anniversary, this will be a rare opportunity to hear an illuminating discussion from two leading voices in the history of free speech. Michael Scammell is the author of The Indispensable Intellectual, the authorised biography of Arthur Koestler. Pavel Litvinov is a writer, physicist and human rights activist. Jo Glanville is editor of Index on Censorship.

Pavel Litvinov, Michael Scammellhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13952012-03-01T19:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Phillip Gross, Sarah Salway, Ewa Zadrzynska | The Poetry Unites project consists of a series of five-minute films shown on TV, the Internet and in cinemas, in which a poetry lover speaks about his or her life in the context of presenting a favourite poem. This project with a literary dimension reveals both similarities and differences between people. By offering intimate insights into the mind of another person, it contributes to mutual understanding among European citizens. The films bring together millions of people who would otherwise probably never have had contact with each other and therefore would never have seen how much they have in common. In this event, poetry readings, including film clips from the Poetry Unites project, will be followed by a discussion of the importance of poetry in people’s everyday lives. The event will conclude with a short prize-giving presentation for the LSESU Lit Soc Poetry Competition 2011/12 and the announcement and distribution of the second edition of the student led publication, Philosoverse which is supported by the LSE Annual Fund and the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at LSE.

Phillip Gross, Sarah Salway, Ewa Zadrzynskahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13942012-03-01T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Colin Crouch | Reflection on a century of European social democracy reveals its finest triumphs to have been when it has ensured a pluralism and political inclusiveness more extensive than anything that could otherwise be provided in capitalist societies. This essentially liberal achievement, rather than state control, should therefore be seen as its hallmark. This perspective provides the basis for an optimistic appraisal of social democracy’s future, but also points to inhospitable elements in the current and future social environment that have to be confronted and challenged: growing inequality and corporate political power, the decline of trade unions, and the growing irrelevance of the nation state framework within which social democracy built its citizenship. Colin Crouch is professor of governance and public management at Warwick Business School.

Professor Colin Crouchhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13812012-03-01T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Amit Chaudhuri, Ian Jack | Editor's note: The podcast is the conversation only, it does not include the music performance. A conversation between award-winning Indian wrtier and musician Amit Chaudhuri and former Granta and Independent on Sunday editor Ian Jack, will be followed by a performance by the five-piece Amit Chaudhuri Band. Amit Chaudhuri's first CD ‘This Is Not Fusion’ (Times Music) was released in Britain on the award-winning independent jazz label Babel, and received excellent reviews from some of the most considerable music publications in the UK. He is the only Indian musician to have performed twice at the prestigious London Jazz Festival and he has played in Beijing, Berlin, Lille, Brussels, Frankfurt, and at various venues in Britain - notably the Hay on Wye Festival, the Brecon Jazz Festival, the Big Sky Jazz Festival and the South Bank Centre. His second CD, ‘Found Music’, came out in October 2010 in the UK from Babel to great acclaim. Since 2005, Amit Chaudhuri, with The Amit Chaudhuri Band, has appeared at many world-wide venues.

Amit Chaudhuri, Ian Jackhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14272012-03-01T18:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Adam Kuper | Adam Kuper, who has written widely on the history and theory of anthropology, introduces the work of Charles Seligman, founder of LSE Anthropology, pioneer of fieldwork techniques, and medical doctor who devised means of treating servicemen for shell-shock. He gives insights into Seligman's journals and research notes housed in LSE Library, and provides commentary on Jonathan Miller's documentary about the 1898 Torres Straits expedition: 'Dr Miller and the Islanders', which reveals the problematic racist overtones of the views of late 19th century anthropology. The documentary will be shown after Adam Kuper's talk. Olivia Seligman, radio producer and member of the Seligman family, and students from LSE Anthropology will read extracts from Seligman’s journals and letters.

Professor Adam Kuperhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14262012-03-01T18:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Sue Christoforou, Professor Mary Evans, Owen Jones | The recent riots in parts of England have focussed increased attention on what has increasingly been described as the 'underclass' of English society. Various politicians have clambered (or leapt) onto a bandwagon that has defined this group as beyond civil society. Many of the people regarded as dangerous are young and male and one half of the 'chavs' who have been the subject of Owen Jones's book. But who are 'these people' and has a social identity been created for them that sees only the negative in their behaviour? Sue Christoforou is a policy analyst and campaigner. She has worked for a number of national campaigning organisations, including Mind, Macmillan Cancer Support and DrugScope. Mary Evans is centennial professor at the Gender Institute, LSE. Owen Jones is author of Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class. He has worked in parliament as a trade union lobbyist and parliamentary researcher.

Sue Christoforou, Professor Mary Evans, Owen Joneshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13922012-03-01T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Patrick French, Reshma Ruia, Kamila Shamsie | The panellists will discuss and compare the political, social and economic trajectories of India and Pakistan since independence through the lenses of the social sciences and of literature. While India is heralded as a new, democratic, economic powerhouse, Pakistan is deplored as a basket-case of religious-fundamentalism, feudalism and corruption. But those who know the region are aware that both images are oversimplifications. India has managed to portray itself as dynamic, entrepreneurial and democratic but the masses often experience both economic growth and democracy quite differently to what this sanitized image suggests. Pakistan has largely been portrayed negatively as a quasi-medieval feudal-cum-theocratic state but the reality is that, despite its myriad social and political troubles, Pakistan has a modern, capitalist economy; its feudal lords are really capitalist farmers, and its allegedly medieval religious leaders are actually responding to the challenges and contradictions of the modern world. What is clear is that modernization has created winners and losers in both countries and it appears that some of the latter are gravitating towards insurgency; in India towards the Maoists and in Pakistan towards the Islamists. The panellists will discuss these themes from the larger, structural perspectives of the social sciences as well as from the perspective of people's lived experiences through the lens of literature. Patrick French is the author of India: A Portrait, Younghusband, Liberty or Death, Tibet, Tibet and The World Is What It Is. His books have won the Somerset Maugham Award, the Royal Society of Literature W.H. Heinemann Prize, the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Hawthornden Prize. Anatol Lieven is chair of international relations and terrorism studies at King's College London, and a senior fellow of the New America Foundation in Washington DC. He was previously a journalist, who reported from South Asia, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe for The Times and other publications. His books include Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power, America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism, with John Hulsman, Ethical Realism: A Vision for America's Role in the World and most recently Pakistan: A Hard Country. Reshma Ruia was born in India and grew up in Rome, Italy. After an undergraduate degree in International Relations and post graduate degree in Economic History from LSE, she moved back to Rome where she worked as a development economist with the United Nations and subsequently with the OECD in Paris. She is now based in Manchester, where she obtained an MA in Creative Writing from Manchester University. She is the author of Something Black in the Lentil Soup, described by John Carey in the Times, as a ‘gem of straight-faced comedy.’ One of her short stories has appeared in the Anthology, Too Asian, not Asian Enough. She has recently completed a PhD in Creative Writing from Manchester University and has finished her second novel, A Mouthful of Silence. Kamila Shamsie is the author of five novels, and a book of non-fiction, Offence: The Muslim Case. Her most recent novel Burnt Shadows has been translated into more than 20 languages and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. In 2010 The Telegraph named her among the 20 best novelists under 40 in Britain. She writes for The Guardian and the International Herald Tribune, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Trustee of English PEN and FreeWord. She grew up in Karachi, and now lives in London.

Patrick French, Reshma Ruia, Kamila Shamsiehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13912012-03-01T13:15:00Z

Speaker(s): Viviane Reding | Viviane Reding has been the Vice-president of the European Commission, responsible for Justice, Fundamentals Rights and Citizenship since February 2010. In 1999 she joined the European Commission as Commissioner responsible for Education, Culture, Youth, Media and Sports until 2004, and then as Commissioner responsible for Information Society and Media from 2004 to 2010. Prior to her political career, Viviane Reding started off as a journalist at the newspaper Luxembourg Wort in Luxembourg, where she served as President of the Luxembourg Union of Journalists from 1986 until 1998. From 1979 onwards she embarked on a political career, working as a member of the Luxembourg Parliament. Viviane Reding reinforced her position by becoming city councillor of Esch-sur-Alzette (Luxembourg) from 1981 to 1999. She then went on to work as the National President of Christian-Social Women (Luxembourg) from 1988 to 1993 and, finally, the National President of the Christian-Social Party (Luxembourg) from 1995 to 1999. In 1989, Viviane Reding was elected as a member of the European Parliament where she presided first over the Committee on Social Affairs, Employment and the Working environment (1992-1994) and then over the Committee for Civil Liberties and Home Affairs (1997-1999).

Viviane Redinghttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13792012-03-01T11:00:00Z

Speaker(s): AS Byatt, Robert Irwin | AS Byatt and Robert Irwin discuss the enduring relevance of mythical stories and their portrayal of the human experience , and explore whther they are worth retelling time and again. A S Byatt is renowned internationally for her novels and short stories. Her novels include the Booker Prize-Winning Possession and The Children's Book. Her most recent book is Ragnorak: The End of the Gods, a retelling of the Norse myth. A distinguished critic as well as a writer of fiction, A S Byatt was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999. Robert Irwin is the author of For Lust of Knowing: The Orientalists and Their Enemies, The Middle East in the Middle Ages, The Arabian Nights: A Companion and numerous other specialised studies of Middle Eastern politics, art and mysticism. His novels include The Limits of Vision, The Arabian Nightmare, The Mysteries of Algiers and Satan Wants Me.

AS Byatt, Robert Irwinhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13902012-02-29T19:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Simon Cottle | This lecture examines some of the complex ways in which media and communications represent and enter into demonstrations, riots and uprisings. Simon Cottle is general editor of the "Global Crisis and the Media" series for the publisher Peter Lang.

Professor Simon Cottlehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13772012-02-29T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Charlie Beckett, Heather Brooke, Nick Cohen | We will be talking about the paradox that we live in an age when the Internet should make information more available than ever and yet secrecy still abounds. New media should facilitate We will be talking about the paradox that we live in an age when the Internet should make information more available than ever and yet secrecy still abounds. New media should facilitate better democratic debate than ever before, and yet, some fear that open, honest discussion is being drowned out. Charlie Beckett is director of POLIS and author of Wikileaks: News in the Networked Era. Heather Brooke, is an investigative journalist and freedom of expression campaigner and author of The Revolution Will Be Digitised. She was a leading force in the revelations of the MPs' expenses scandal and has battled to improve access to official information from governments, local authorities and other powerful institutions. Nick Cohen, is a journalist and author of You Can't Read This Book: Censorship in an Age of Freedom. Nick has used his columns in the Observer and elsewhere to rage against what he sees as the betrayal of real liberal values by the Left in Britain in the face of corporate and political pressure, but also ideological challenges from illiberal forces such as religious fundamentalism.

Charlie Beckett, Heather Brooke, Nick Cohenhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13892012-02-29T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Beverley Skeggs | Professor Skeggs will revisit her 1997 study on "respectability" and its political parallels in the present day. In doing so, she will discuss the current vogue for reality television as social work, and our response to it as an audience. Beverley Skeggs is professor of sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Professor Beverley Skeggshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13782012-02-29T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Professor Pedro Ferreira, Professor Elaine Fox, Mark Henderson | Editor's note: Unfortunately the last few minutes of the question and answer session are missing from the podcast. Media reporting of the sciences can shape public opinion. While it may be insightful and revelatory, it can also be misleading and sensationalist, even irresponsible. This distinguished panel will examine the positives and negatives of the media's role in science communication. Jim Al-Khalili is a British scientist, author and broadcaster. He is a professor of physics at the University of Surrey where he also holds a chair in the public engagement in science. He is a vice president and trustee of the British Science Association and holds an EPSRC Senior Media Fellowship. Pedro Ferreira is a professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford and a fellow and tutor in Physics at Oriel College, Oxford. His first book, State of the Universe, was published in 2006, and he is currently working on a popular history of Einstein's theory of General Relativity, to be published in 2013. He has written for Nature, Science, New Scientist, Physics World, Physics Today, Scientific American, Sky at Night, CERN Courier, BBC Focus and The Guardian. Elaine Fox is professor of psychology and cognitive neuroscience at the University of Essex and currently visiting fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford. She is one of the world's leading experimental psychologists. Her research is dedicated to uncovering the mysteries of how the human brain unconciously analyses information. She is current writing about the discovery of specific genes that tip people towards either a pessemistic or optimistic mindset, which in turn are linked to vulnerability and resilience. Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain will be published in Spring 2012. Mark Henderson is Head of Communications at the Wellcome Trust and former Science Editor of The Times. His first book, 50 Genetics Ideas You Really Need to Know was published by Quercus in 2009. His second book, The Geek Manifesto, which explores the relationship between science and politics, will be published by Bantam Press in May 2012. This event is supported by the Hire Intelligence speakers' agency.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili, Professor Pedro Ferreira, Professor Elaine Fox, Mark Hendersonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14052012-02-29T17:15:00Z

Speaker(s): RNDr Petr Nečas | In this lecture by Petr Nečas, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, he will examine how amidst a severe economic crisis, Europe is looking for solutions to restore growth and create jobs. Several fresh concepts and innovative initiatives have recently been put on the table while the potential of the Single Market – a key tool and a well-proven instrument to get the Union back on track – remains unexploited. Petr Nečas became Prime Minister of the Czech Republic after the General Election in 2010. Mr Nečas was sworn by the President in July 2010 and his Government gained vote of confidence by the Parliament in August 2010. Petr Nečas leads the Civic Democratic Party (ODS). Prime Minister Nečas was born on November 19, 1964, in Uherské Hradiště, the Czech Republic. He was educated at the Faculty of Science of the University of J. E. Purkyně in Brno, where he received a post-gradual degree in Natural Sciences in 1988, with Plasma Physics being a topic of his thesis. Before becoming the Member of the Czech Parliament, Mr. Nečas worked as a production engineer and researcher. As a Member of the Parliament since 1992, Petr Nečas held a number of positions in the Committees focused on NATO, defence issues and European Union. Namely, Chairman of Defense and Security Committee, Deputy Chairman on the Joint Committee of the European Parliament and the Czech Parliament, Deputy Chairman on the European Affairs Committee. Prior to becoming the Prime Minister, Petr Nečas served as a Minister of Labor and Social Affairs and a Deputy Prime Minister during 2006 – 2009 and the First Deputy Minister of Defense during 1995 – 1996.

RNDr Petr Nečashttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13762012-02-29T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Jane Davies, David McDaid, Margaret Perkins, Jeanette Winterson | This session explores the substantial role that arts can play in improving health and wellbeing. A number of studies have demonstrated the positive benefits from, for example, reading for people with dementia. Speakers within this session have been working to demonstrate the benefits of arts on health and to develop integral services within health and social care practices. This session will discuss the healing power of literature and hear what is cutting edge today. Jane Davies is founder and director of the Reader Organisation, a national charity “dedicated to bringing about a reading revolution”. Jane taught for fifteen years in the Department of Continuing Education at Liverpool, and set up The Reader magazine as a way of getting the excitement of her reading-together based courses out into the wider world. Since 1997, Jane has wanted to make a bigger place for books and reading in the heart of the nation. David McDaid is senior research fellow in health policy and health economics at LSE Health and Social Care and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies at LSE. David's principle research activities focus on mental health policy predominantly, but not exclusively, in Europe. He has published more than 40 peer reviewed papers largely on the use of economics in policy making and on mental health policy and acted as a consultant to a variety of governments, public and voluntary agencies including the World Health Organisation, the European Commission and Amnesty International. Margaret Perkins is research officer within the Personal Social Services Research Unit at LSE. Margaret has a Master's in Social work from LSE and has experience in hospital social work, local authority mental health and children's work and care management of older people. She also has a number of years experience in the voluntary sector with the Citizen's Advice Bureau service and the Motor Neurone Disease Association advising families on services and support for those living with MND. Jeanette Winterson has won various awards around the world for her fiction and adaptations, including the Whitbread Prize, UK, and the Prix d'argent, Cannes Film Festival. She wrote her first novel, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit|, when she was 23. In 2006 Jeanette Winterson was awarded an OBE for services to literature. She writes regularly for various UK newspapers, especially The Times and The Guardian, and her journalism can be found on the site. Her memoir – Why be happy when you could be normal? – was published in October 2011 and draws on issues of mental health. Tim Joss has been director of the Rayne Foundation since 2005. Tim co-founded and was the first chair of the British Council for School Environments, the independent champion of excellent design and architecture of schools. In 2008, Tim wrote New Flow a better future for artists, citizens and the state|. It led to Tim creating the Public Engagement Foundation, which aims to open up markets for the arts in non-arts settings. Previously Tim was artistic director & chief executive of festivals in Bath where he expanded the Bath International Music Festival and founded the Bath Literature Festival. He has been chair of the British Arts Festivals Association and chair of the Community Music Commission of the International Society for Music Education. He is a visiting senior fellow in Cultural Policy & Management at City University, a trustee of the London Sinfonietta and the Richard Feilden Foundation (which focuses on Africa, education and architecture), and a member of Arts & Business Advisory Council.

Jane Davies, David McDaid, Margaret Perkins, Jeanette Wintersonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13882012-02-29T16:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Mr Egemen Bağış | LSE Contemporary Turkish Studies Public Lecture - Creating a Common Future Together: Towards a Visionary Europe. Egemen Bağış is Turkish Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator.

Mr Egemen Bağışhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14332012-02-29T16:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Roger Scruton, Maurice Fraser | What are the distinctive features of European culture today? To what extent can we lean on our European cultural inheritance, in an age when its Christian foundations are crumbling? And is it one inheritance or many? Roger Scruton is an adjunct scholar of the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC, a new position he took up in July 2009. Prior to that he was a research professor for the Institute for the Psychological Sciences. He is also a fellow of Blackfriars Hall in Oxford. He is a writer, philosopher and public commentator who has specialised in aesthetics with particular attention to music and architecture. He engages in contemporary political and cultural debates as a powerful conservative thinker and polemicist. He has written widely in the press on political and cultural issues. Recent publications include Green Philosophy|, The Uses of Pessimism, Beauty, Understanding Music and I Drink Therefore I Am. Maurice Fraser is a Senior Fellow in European Politics at LSE.

Professor Roger Scruton, Maurice Fraserhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13872012-02-29T13:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Orley Ashenfelter | Real wages measure worker welfare and the cost of labour. After providing some historical background and the basis for their interpretation, Professor Ashenfelter reports the results of a decade long study of wage rates at McDonald's restaurants in over 60 countries. Orley Ashenfelter is Joseph Douglas Green 1895 Professor of Economics and director of the Industrial Relations Section at Princeton University.

Professor Orley Ashenfelterhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13722012-02-28T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Luc Bovens, Dr Marco Simoni, Professor Insan Tunali | These events take up a theme at the heart of contemporary European life, and draw on the expertise of Turkish scholars who might provide a fresh perspective. Luc Bovens is Professor of Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, LSE. Marco Simoni is a lecturer in European political economy at the European Institute, LSE. Insan Tunali is associate professor of economics at Koç University, Turkey. This event is jointly organised with the LSE Chair in Contemporary Turkish Studies.

Professor Luc Bovens, Dr Marco Simoni, Professor Insan Tunalihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13732012-02-28T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Stefan Collini | Across the world, universities are now more numerous than they have ever been, yet at the same time there is unprecedented confusion about their purpose and scepticism about their value. In this talk about his new book What Are Universities For? Stefan Collini will provide a spirited and compelling argument for rethinking the way we see our universities and the purposes they serve. Stefan Collini challenges the common claim that the priority for universities is to contribute to economic growth. Instead, he argues that we must reflect on the different types of institution and the distinctive roles they play. In particular we must recognise that attempting to extend human understanding, which is at the heart of disciplined intellectual enquiry, can never be wholly harnessed to immediate social purposes - particularly in the case of the humanities, which both attract and puzzle many people and are therefore the most difficult subjects to justify. Collini is not afraid to take issue with government policies, but his critique is positive as well as fundamental, drawing on deeper insights to propose better starting-points. At a time when the future of higher education lies in the balance, What Are Universities For? offers us a deeper, more persuasive understanding of why universities matter - to everyone. Stefan Collini has become one of the most important critical voices in debates about universities and their future. A frequent contributor to The Guardian, The London Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement and other publications, he is the author of, among other works, Absent Minds: Intellectuals in Britain (2006). He is Professor of Intellectual History and English Literature at Cambridge University.

Professor Stefan Collinihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13742012-02-28T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Roy Bridge | The Archduke Franz Ferdinand was heir to the thrones of Austria-Hungary before his assassination in 1914. Had he lived, his views on international affairs would have helped shape Europe's destiny and may have prevented world war. Roy Bridge is Professor Emeritus of Diplomatic History at the University of Leeds.

Professor Roy Bridgehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13712012-02-27T18:30:00Z

Contributor(s): Professor Conor Gearty | 'What are human rights and where do they come from?', asks Professor Conor Gearty in the latest Burning Issue lecture from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Gearty, a professor of human rights law and a practising barrister, looks at the history of human rights and ideas that have informed their development such as democracy and dignity. He challenges the notion that human rights are a western idea, a mere 'cultural accessory', or that they can be used to justify 'necessary evil' – as an excuse to go to war or to torture as part of interrogation for example. The lecture explores the reality of what it is like to be deprived of one's human rights through interviews with a victim of torture and a psychologist. Professor Gearty argues: "We risk our culture if we collude in the idea that our way of life is so valuable that we can afford to depart from it in order to secure it." The lecture is the third and final of LSE's 'Burning Issues' lectures – a short series of interactive talks, designed to showcase the social sciences to a non-academic audience. In the first lecture, ‘Parasites – enemy of the poor’, Professor Tim Allen questions the effectiveness of our fight against one of humankind's most endemic invisible enemies. In the second lecture, the 'Right to Die', Professor Emily Jackson tackles the provocative issue of assisted dying. The Burning Issue Lectures are supported by the LSE Annual Fund and Cato Stonex (BSc International Relations 1986).

Professor Conor Geartyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13672012-02-24T12:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Lord Stern | Five years on from the Stern Review there have been important changes in the world which are likely to have a profound impact on our response to the two defining challenges of the century; overcoming poverty and managing climate change. Lord Stern will discuss how we can bring economics and political economy to the analysis of our response to these challenges in the context of a special but difficult decade in the global economy. The analysis of climate change has seen risk and the new-energy-industrial revolution move up the agenda in recent years, and we have learned more about prospects and mechanisms of collaboration. We require a deepening of the understanding of public policy for promoting the dynamics of transformation and managing immense risks. This should include a strong focus on key market failures. In this series of lectures, Lord Stern will outline the attractiveness of the new energy-industrial revolution and of low-carbon growth and will discuss how we can build the necessary national and international action to respond to the two defining challenges. This is the third of the three lectures, the others take place on 21 and 22 February. Nicholas Stern is IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government, and Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, LSE. John Van Reenen is Director of the Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.

Professor Lord Sternhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13692012-02-23T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Charles Tripp | This talk will look at how resistance to regimes' appropriation of public space has been a central theme of the Arab uprisings. Charles Tripp is a professor of politics with reference to the Middle East at the School of Oriental and African Studies.

Professor Charles Tripphttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13682012-02-23T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Caroline Bird, William Fiennes, Meg Rosoff, Philip Womack | The most popular books today are filled with vampires, ghosts, wizards and other fantasy figures. Is real life so uninspiring? Come along and join the fantasy versus reality debate. Caroline Bird is an award-winning poet. She has had three collections of poetry published by Carcanet; Looking Through Letterboxes|, Trouble Came to the Turnip and Watering Can. Caroline's have also been published in several anthologies, and are published regularly in PN Review, Poetry Review and The North magazine. A member of the Royal Court Young Writers Programme, Caroline has also written several plays including Nothing to Say, The Pie, Lumberjills, A Hymn With Drums and A Special Boy. She is an enthusiastic leader of poetry workshops in Schools and a regular teacher at the Arvon Foundation. William Fiennes is the bestselling author of The Snow Geese and The Music Room, and Director of the charity First Story, which supports creativity and literacy in challenging secondary schools. Meg Rosoff was born in Boston, educated at Harvard and St Martin’s College of Art, and worked in New York City for ten years before moving to London permanently in 1989. She worked in publishing, politics, PR and advertising until 2004, when she wrote How I Live Now, which won the Guardian Children’s fiction prize (UK), Michael L Printz prize (US), the Die Zeit children’s book of the year (Germany) and was shortlisted for the Orange first novel award. Her second novel, Just in Case, won the 2007 Carnegie Medal. Meg’s latest book is There Is No Dog. Philip Womack is the author of two critically acclaimed children's books, The Other Book and The Liberators. This event will be followed by a short prize-giving for the LSE First Story creative writing competition. With thanks for the support of the LSE Annual Fund.

Caroline Bird, William Fiennes, Meg Rosoff, Philip Womackhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13932012-02-23T18:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Louay Hussein | Louay Hussein is one of Syria's leading intellectuals who has spent his life writing and publishing on political and social debates concerning Syria and the Arab world. He spent seven years in prison because of his views. After his release in 1991, he wrote a book on his experience in prison and the extreme torture to which he was subjected. Despite his experiences, Hussein is a champion of reconciliation and wants to reach a peaceful win-win solution for Syrians. He was the first political opposition figure to be arrested after the onset of the uprising in Syria and was released a few days later, after being tortured.

Louay Husseinhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13642012-02-22T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Lord Stern | Five years on from the Stern Review there have been important changes in the world which are likely to have a profound impact on our response to the two defining challenges of the century; overcoming poverty and managing climate change. Lord Stern will discuss how we can bring economics and political economy to the analysis of our response to these challenges in the context of a special but difficult decade in the global economy. The analysis of climate change has seen risk and the new-energy-industrial revolution move up the agenda in recent years, and we have learned more about prospects and mechanisms of collaboration. We require a deepening of the understanding of public policy for promoting the dynamics of transformation and managing immense risks. This should include a strong focus on key market failures. In this series of lectures, Lord Stern will outline the attractiveness of the new energy-industrial revolution and of low-carbon growth and will discuss how we can build the necessary national and international action to respond to the two defining challenges. This is the second of the three lectures, the others take place on 21 and 23 February. Nicholas Stern is IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government, and Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, LSE.

Professor Lord Sternhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13652012-02-22T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Mukhtar Hussain, Professor Volker Nienhaus | It is felt that conventional financial systems have failed and should be replaced, or supplemented, by more ethical banking and socially responsible finance. Can Islamic Finance, as a system with a strong religious background and moral framework, satisfy this hope? Mukhtar Hussain is chief executive officer at HSBC Malaysia. Volker Nienhaus is visiting professor, University of Reading.

Mukhtar Hussain, Professor Volker Nienhaushttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13662012-02-22T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Lord Stern | Five years on from the Stern Review there have been important changes in the world which are likely to have a profound impact on our response to the two defining challenges of the century; overcoming poverty and managing climate change. Lord Stern will discuss how we can bring economics and political economy to the analysis of our response to these challenges in the context of a special but difficult decade in the global economy. The analysis of climate change has seen risk and the new-energy-industrial revolution move up the agenda in recent years, and we have learned more about prospects and mechanisms of collaboration. We require a deepening of the understanding of public policy for promoting the dynamics of transformation and managing immense risks. This should include a strong focus on key market failures. In this series of lectures, Lord Stern will outline the attractiveness of the new energy-industrial revolution and of low-carbon growth and will discuss how we can build the necessary national and international action to respond to the two defining challenges. This is the first of the three lectures, the others take place on 22 and 23 February. Nicholas Stern is IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government, and Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, LSE. Judith Rees is Director, LSE.

Professor Lord Sternhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13612012-02-21T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Michael D. Higgins | On 11 November 2011, Michael D. Higgins was inaugurated as the ninth President of Ireland. A passionate political voice, a poet and writer, academic and statesman, human rights advocate, promoter of inclusive citizenship and champion of creativity within Irish society, Michael D. Higgins has previously served at almost every level of public life in Ireland, including as Ireland's first Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht.

Michael D. Higginshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13622012-02-21T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Mark Vernon | What, in fact, is the love called friendship? What is the nature of its rules and perils, as well as its promise? Mark Vernon is a writer, broadcaster and journalist. He is an honorary research fellow at Birkbeck, University of London.

Dr Mark Vernonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13632012-02-21T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dweep Chanana, Anwar Hasan,Shiv Nadar | Mr Dweep I. Chanana is a Director of Philanthropy & Values-based Investing at UBS AG. For the past five years he was responsible for advising clients in Africa, Asia, Israel, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. He previously managed the UNDP’s Growing Sustainable Business initiative in Kenya and worked in the telecommunications industry. Dweep serves as mentor to a number of social enterprises and is co-founding Benefiit, a peer network of professional impact investors. UBS recently concluded a study of family philanthropy in Asia. The study revealed interesting insights into the evolution and state of philanthropy in Asia, and particularly India. Dweep will share some of the findings of the study, including some lesser known and possibly unexpected facets of philanthropy in the region. He will also draw comparisons to the practice of philanthropy globally, in the past and today. Mr Anwar Hasan is the Managing Director of Tata Limited in London. He joined the Tata Group in 1963 in Calcutta with Tata Steel. After holding several executive positions with Tata Steel he was appointed Managing Director of Tata Limited in 1999. Mr Hasan will speak about the Tata model of philanthropy. The founders of Tata had initiated and sustained a tradition of bequeathing much of their personal wealth to the many trusts they have created for the greater good of India and its people. Thus they created an extraordinary saga of philanthropy that has enriched India and its citizens across a century. Today the Tata trusts have come to control 66 per cent of the shares of Tata Sons, the holding company of the group. The wealth that accrues from this asset supports an assortment of causes, institutions and individuals in a wide variety of areas. The trusteeship principle governing the way the group functions casts the Tatas in a rather unique light: capitalistic by definition but socialistic by character. The Tata Group was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2007 in recognition of the group's long history of philanthropic activities. Mr Shiv Nadar is Founder and Chairman of HCL Technologies and the Shiv Nadar Foundation. He founded HCL in the mid 1970s, which today is a $6 billion global enterprise with 90,000 professionals from diverse nationalities, who operate from 31 countries including over 500 points of presence in India. Shiv Nadar was conferred the Padma Bhushan - the third highest civilian honour, awarded by the President of India. Forbes Magazine featured Shiv Nadar in its list of 48 Heroes of Philanthropy in the Asia Pacific region in 2011. Mr Nadar will speak on Creative Philanthropy as a model for building spirals of inspiration. Shiv Nadar Foundation is engaged in empowering people through primary, secondary and higher education and transform lives. Creative Philanthropy is modelled on the principle of building institutions of excellence in education for long-term high impact socio-economic transformation and creating spirals of inspiration & concentric circles of impact and outreach. Mr Nadar posits that the potential outcome of creative philanthropy is its differentiated high impact approach that creates individuals as catalysts of transformation for many others. Dr Ruth Kattumuri is Co-Director, LSE India Observatory.

Dweep Chanana, Anwar Hasan,Shiv Nadarhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13602012-02-21T18:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Ulrich Beck | Editor's note: Unfortunately the beginning of the chairperson’s introduction is missing from the podcast. German euro-nationalism is not inevitable. Europe's crisis is an opportunity to enlarge democracy. Ulrich Beck is professor of sociology, University of Munich and British Journal of Sociology LSE Centennial Professor in the Department of Sociology.

Professor Ulrich Beckhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13592012-02-20T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Pierre Dinan | Unlike other African economies since independence, Mauritius has experienced long term sustained economic growth and development. What explains this success? Pierre Dinan is an economic consultant and external member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Mauritius.

Pierre Dinanhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13572012-02-16T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Gareth Peirce | Evidence suggests that the British government has colluded in a range of extrajudicial activities – rendition, internment without trial, torture – and has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal its actions. Gareth Peirce is a solicitor whose battles against miscarriages of justice have changed legal history.

Gareth Peircehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13582012-02-16T18:30:00Z

Contributor(s): Professor Emily Jackson | In a humane society, should it be legal to help those who are suffering terribly to end their lives? Emily Jackson, professor of law at LSE, tackles this provocative issue in a public lecture entitled ‘Right to Die’. Professor Jackson looks at how the law deals with the issue of assisted dying. While there is an absolute prohibition on assisting someone to kill themselves in the UK, Jackson shows that the line drawn between lawful and unlawful practices which may lead to someone’s death, is not clear cut. She asks whether the law draws the line between the right place. The lecture is the second of LSE's 'Burning Issues' lectures – a short series of interactive talks, designed to showcase the social sciences to a non-academic audience. In the first lecture, ‘Parasites – enemy of the poor’, Professor Tim Allen questions the effectiveness of our fight against one of humankind's most endemic invisible enemies. In the third and final lecture, Professor Conor Gearty will ask what human rights are in 'The DNA of Human Rights'. The Burning Issue Lectures are supported by the LSE Annual Fund and Cato Stonex (BSc International Relations 1986).

Professor Emily Jacksonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13532012-02-16T12:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Kurt Barling, Sehrish Ejaz-Khan, Rajiv Gopie | Kurt Barling, uses media to examine social injustice, racial prejudice and inequality. Over the past 20 years Kurt has worked on numerous prestigious BBC programmes, made dozens of documentaries and won a string of awards. Kurt will reflect on his time at LSE, and with current LSE students discuss the importance of culture at LSE and beyond. Kurt Barling is a LSE alumnus and BBC London Special Correspondent. Sehrish Ejaz- Khan is an undergraduate student in Economics and Economic History, and Rajiv Gopie is a post graduate student in International Relations, both at LSE.

Kurt Barling, Sehrish Ejaz-Khan, Rajiv Gopiehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13562012-02-15T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Alex Salmond MSP | Alex Salmond will set out his vision for Scotland's future, including the opportunities provided by independence, setting the context for the Scottish government's plans for a referendum. Alex Salmond is the first minister of Scotland. He was born in Linlithgow in 1954. He attended Linlithgow Academy before studying at St Andrews University, where he graduated with a joint honours MA in Economics and History. He became the first ever SNP First Minister of Scotland in May 2007 and won the Aberdeenshire East constituency at the May 2011 election, when the SNP won a majority of seats of in the Scottish Parliament. MSPs re-elected him unopposed for a second term as First Minister on May 18 2011.

Alex Salmond MSPhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13542012-02-15T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Loretta Napoleoni | In this lecture, which coincides with the publication of her latest book Maonomics, Professor Napoleoni will argue that current global economic turmoil is the beginning of the collapse of capitalism and the victory of "communism with a profit motive" (Commi-Capitalism), that the balance of power in the world is shifting from West to East, and that the Chinese Communist economic model is winning out over the Western system. Loretta Napoleoni is an expert on terrorist financing and money laundering, and advises several governments and international organizations on these issues. She also advises several banks on strategies to counter the current economic crisis. She is a regular media commentator for CNN, Sky and the BBC, and writes about terrorism, money laundering and the economy for several European national papers including El Pais, The Guardian and Le Monde.

Loretta Napoleonihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13552012-02-15T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Roger Brownsword, Professor Neil Levy, Professor Sir Michael Rutter | Editor's note: Unfortunately the beginning of the chairperson’s introduction is missing from the podcast. Will developments in the neurosciences change our moral and legal notions of criminality and responsibility – and if so, how? Roger Brownsword is professor of law at King's College London. Neil Levy is deputy director of the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics and the Florey Neuroscience Institute, University of Melbourne. Michael Rutter is professor of developmental psychopathology in the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London.

Professor Roger Brownsword, Professor Neil Levy, Professor Sir Michael Rutterhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13522012-02-14T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Nicholas Wapshott | Eighty years ago at the LSE, Friedrich Hayek launched an assault upon the new economic thinking of John Maynard Keynes. The clash was so bitter and vituperative that it scandalized the cloistered world of academia. Eighty years on, the differences between the two men have still not been finally resolved and their conflicting approaches to the economy continue to define the profound chasm between politicians of left and right. Nicholas Wapshott is a columnist for Reuters and regular contributor to Newsweek and The Daily Beast. He is the author of Keynes Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics and Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage. He is a former senior editor for The Times and the New York Sun and editorial consultant to Oprah Winfrey.

Nicholas Wapshotthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13512012-02-13T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Fawaz Gerges | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor audio quality of this recording. Islamist parties from Tunisia to Morocco to Egypt, and most likely in Libya when elections take place soon, have won majorities in Parliaments. After decades of being persecuted and outlawed, religious-based activists will take ownership of the seats of power in the Arab heartland. What does the rise of Islamists to power mean to the future of the Middle East and the region's international relations? How will Islamists coming to power affect transition from authoritarianism to pluralism, including institution-building, civil-military dynamics, civil society, and rights of minorities? To what extent will the Islamist moment transform the geostrategic architecture of the Middle East, especially the Arab-Israeli conflict and the new Cold War between the Saudi-led alliance and the Iranian coalition? How will the Western powers respond to the rise of Islamist-led governments, and will both camps dust off a forgotten chapter of co-existence and cooperation during the Cold War? Fawaz Gerges, who has researched religiously-based social movements for more than two decades, will reflect on the causes and implications of the new Islamist moment in the Middle East. Fawaz A. Gerges is a Professor of Middle Eastern Politics and International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He also holds the Emirates Chair of the Contemporary Middle East and is the Director of the Middle East Centre at LSE. He earned a doctorate from Oxford University and M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Gerges has taught at Oxford, Harvard, and Columbia, and was a research scholar at Princeton and was a chairholder (the Christian A. Johnson Chair in Middle Eastern Studies and International Affairs) at Sarah Lawrence College, New York. His special interests include Islam and the political process, social movements, including mainstream Islamist movements and jihadist groups (like the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda), Arab politics and Muslim politics in the 20th century, the international relations of the Middle East, the Arab-Israeli conflict, state and society in the Middle East, American foreign policy towards the Muslim world, the modern history of the Middle East, history of conflict, diplomacy and foreign policy, and historical sociology. Gerges is author of three recently acclaimed books: The Rise and Fall of Al Qaeda: What American and Western Politicians Don't Want You to Know? (Oxford University Press, 2011); Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy (Harcourt Press, 2007), and The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global (Cambridge University Press, 2005). The Washington Post selected The Far Enemy as one of the best 15 books published in the field. Journey of the Jihadist was on the best-selling list of Barnes and Nobles and Foreign Affairs Magazine for several months.

Professor Fawaz Gergeshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13502012-02-13T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Jonathan Steele, Francesc Vendrell | Jonathan Steele's new book, Ghosts of Afghanistan, is the definitive study of the Soviet and US wars in Afghanistan, by one of the few reporters who has covered both occupations. Jonathan Steele is a columnist, author and former chief foreign correspondent of the Guardian. Francesc Vendrell was the EU special representative for Afghanistan, 2002-2008 and is a visiting fellow at the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, LSE.

Jonathan Steele, Francesc Vendrellhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13472012-02-09T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Christopher Pissarides | Labour markets across the OECD reacted differently to the financial crisis of 2008 and the debt crisis that followed. Professor Pissarides will review these different responses, seek explanations for them, and draw conclusions about labour market policy in recession. The focus will be on unemployment and how to contain its rise in light of the negative shocks to economic activity. Christopher Pissarides is the Norman Sosnow Chair in Economics, LSE, and recipient of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences.

Professor Christopher Pissarideshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13482012-02-09T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Nicola Dandridge, Professor Sue Mendus | When does freedom of speech threaten the cohesion of a university as a learning community? Should there be any limits on what can be said in a university? Nicola Dandridge is chief executive of Universities UK. Sue Mendus is professor of political philosophy at the University of York. This event is jointly organised with the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method and the LSE Chaplaincy.

Nicola Dandridge, Professor Sue Mendushttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13452012-02-08T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Thomas Frank | Editor's note: Unfortunately the beginning of the chairperson’s introduction is missing from the podcast. Economic meltdown usually brings calls for change – or it's supposed to. But when Thomas Frank set out to find these, all he heard were loud demands that the losers be hit harder and that the winners get more. In his new book, Pity The Billionaire, which he will discuss in this talk Frank takes us a wild road-trip through the strange landscape of the American Right, the Tea Party and Glenn Beck, makes sense of a topsy-turvy world and shows how instead of complying with the new speed limit, conservative America has stamped hard on the accelerator. It is essential reading for understanding how we all got to where we are, and how we might get out. The founding editor of the Baffler, Thomas Frank is the author of One Market Under God, The Conquest of Cool, What's the Matter with America? and The Wrecking Crew. He is also a contributor to Harper's, The Nation and the New York Times.

Thomas Frankhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13462012-02-08T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Roderick MacDonald | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor audio quality of this recording. Universities are facing increasing pressure to be relevant for students entering the job market. Yet law faculties are under increasing pressure to become less professional and to broaden their curriculum with interdisciplinary courses in the liberal arts. Might the study of law reclaim the central role that it played in the University a millennium ago? Roderick MacDonald is F R Scott Professor of Constitutional and Public Law at McGill and visiting professor at LSE Law.

Professor Roderick MacDonaldhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13432012-02-07T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Faramerz Dabhoiwala | Nowadays we believe that consenting adults have the freedom to do what they like with their own bodies. We publicise and celebrate sex; we discuss it endlessly; we are obsessed with the sex lives of celebrities. We think it wrong that in other cultures people suffer for their sexual orientation, that women are treated as second-class citizens, or that adulterers are put to death. Yet until quite recently our own society was like this too. For most of western history, all sex outside marriage was illegal, and the church, the state, and ordinary people all devoted huge efforts to suppressing and punishing it. This was a central feature of Christian civilization, one that had steadily grown in importance since the early middle ages. In his new book which he will discuss in this lecture, Faramerz Dabhoiwala describes in dramatic detail how, between 1600 and 1800, this entire world view was shattered by revolutionary new ideas - that sex is a private matter; that morality cannot be imposed by force; that men are more lustful than women. Henceforth, the private lives of both sexes were to be endlessly broadcast and debated, in a rapidly expanding universe of public media: newspapers, pamphlets, journals, novels, poems, and prints. IThe Origins of Sex shows that the creation of this modern culture of sex was a central part of the Enlightenment, intertwined with the era's major social, political and intellectual trends. It helped create a new model of Western civilization, whose principles of privacy, equality, and freedom of the individual remain distinctive to this day. IFaramerz Dabhoiwala was born in England, grew up in Amsterdam, and was educated at York and Oxford. He is the Senior Fellow in History at Exeter College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and the father of two children.

Dr Faramerz Dabhoiwalahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13442012-02-07T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Sri Mulyani Indrawati | Sri Mulyani Indrawati will be exploring the cycles of global economic crisis and the sweep of revolutions and uprisings across the Arab world and beyond and how it is reshaping the substance and practice of international development. Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Managing Director, joined the World Bank in June 2010. She is responsible for the Bank's operations in Africa, East Asia & the Pacific, Europe & Central Asia, Latin America & the Caribbean, the Middle East & North Africa and South Asia. In addition, Sri Mulyani oversees other administrative vice-presidencies and functions, including the Integrity Vice Presidency, Sanctions Board Secretariat and the Office of Evaluation and Suspension. Prior to joining the Bank Group, Sri Mulyani served as Indonesia's Minister of Finance, at which time she guided economic policy for one of the largest countries in Southeast Asia, and one of the biggest states in the world, navigating successfully in the midst of the global economic crisis, implementing key reforms, and earning the respect of her peers across the world. Ms Indrawati served as State Minister and Chair of the Indonesian National Development Planning Agency prior to her position as Finance Minister, Her earlier positions include Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs, Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund, faculty member at the University of Indonesia and a visiting professor at the Andrew Young School of Public Policy at Georgia State University. Ms. Indrawati holds a PhD in economics from the University of Illinois and a BA in economics from the University of Indonesia. She has received numerous honours and awards, including Euromoney Magazine's Global Finance Minister of the Year, and Emerging Markets Best Finance Minister in Asia. She has also been regularly on Forbes List of the 100 Most Powerful Women.

Sri Mulyani Indrawatihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13422012-02-07T18:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Alan Sked | Why do some people retain iconic status in the historical consciousness of various nations? What does this tell us about them? More importantly, what does it reveal about later and present generations? Alan Sked is professor of international history at LSE.

Professor Alan Skedhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13382012-02-06T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Carool Kersten | In the course of the last decade, dramatic political events involving Muslims across the world have put Islam under increased scrutiny. The focus of this attention is generally limited to the political aspects and often even further confined by constrictive views of Islamism narrowed down to its most extremist exponents. Much less attention is paid to the parallel development of more liberal and progressive alternative Islamic discourses; but the final decades of the twentieth-century has also seen the emergence of a Muslim intelligentsia exploring new and creative ways of engaging with the Islamic heritage. Their ideas appear to provide an alternative to both the hard secularism represented by either authoritarian or more benign regimes and the advocacy of an Islamic state. It appears that this third way resonates with the ambitions and expectations of those involved in the Arab uprisings of 2011. In this presentation Carool Kersten discusses how three emblematic Muslim intellectuals from Algeria, Egypt and Indonesia give new relevance to religion in the post-secular and post-Islamist Muslim world of the 21st century. Following the lecture, his latest book 'Cosmopolitans and Heretics: New Muslim Intellectuals and the Study of Islam', nominated for the Asia Society's Bernard Schwartz Book Award as well as for the AAR Prize for Best First Book in History of Religion, will be available for purchase and signing.

Dr Carool Kerstenhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13392012-02-06T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Shirin M Rai | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor audio quality of this recording. At times of crisis social expenditure is cut, but with what consequences? Using the concept of depletion, Professor Rai measures the extent of loss for individuals, households and communities. Shirin M. Rai studied at the University of Delhi (India) and Cambridge University (UK) and joined the University of Warwick in 1989. She is Professor in the department of Politics and International Studies. She has directed a four year Leverhulme Trust funded programme on Gendered Ceremony and Ritual in Parliament (2007-2011). Her research interests lie in the area of feminist politics, gender and political institutions, globalisation and development studies. She has written extensively on issues of gender, governance and development in journals such as Signs, Hypatia, New Political Economy, International Feminist Journal of Politics and Political Studies. She is the author of Gender and the Political Economy of Development: from Nationalism to Globalisation (2002). Her latest works are Feminists Theorize the International Political Economy, Special Issue of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society (co-ed. With Kate Bedford); The Gender Politics of Development (2008, Zed Books/Zubaan Publishers), (co-ed) Global Governance: Feminist Perspectives (2008, Palgrave) and (ed.) Ceremony and Ritual in Parliament (2010). She is the co-editor (with Wyn Grant) of the Manchester University Press book series Perspectives on Democratic Practice.

Professor Shirin M Raihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13402012-02-06T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Richard Sennett | Living with people who differ – racially, ethnically, religiously, or economically – is one of the most difficult challenges facing us today. Modern politics emphasises unity and similarity, encouraging the politics of the tribe rather than of complexity. Richard Sennett argues that living with people unlike ourselves requires more than goodwill: it requires skill. The foundations for skilful co-operation lie in learning to listen well and to discuss rather than debate. People who develop these capacities earn a reward: they can take pleasure in the company of others. Sennett discusses how we can strengthen cooperation online, face-to-face in ethnic conflicts, among financial workers and community organisers. This event marks the publication of Sennett's new book Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Co-operation. Richard Sennett retired in 2011 as University Professor at NYU and academic governor and Professor of Sociology at the LSE. He has won numerous international prizes, and was most recently awarded the Spinoza Prize for outstanding contributions to public debate on morality. Together forms part of a three-book project on 'homo faber', focusing on the skills human beings possess to make a life together; the first volume, The Craftsman, was published in 2008. He is the author of many celebrated books including The Fall of Public Man and The Corrosion of Character.

Professor Richard Sennetthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13412012-02-06T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Naijun Hu | Editor's note: Unfortunately the last few minutes of the question and answer session are missing from the podcast What is social policy? According to Professor Tim Newburn, Head of the Department of Social Policy at LSE, "social policy is an interdisciplinary and applied subject concerned with the analysis of societies' response to social needs. The basic human needs include: food and shelter, a sustainable and safe environment, the promotion of health, the treatment of the sick, the care and support of those unable to live a fully independent life and the education and training of individuals to a certain level that enable them to fully participate in society". Accordingly, ideal social policy should touch every aspect of peoples' needs and well-being, with governments satisfying peoples' needs and expectations. In China's traditional socialism, these needs should be satisfied by the direct delivery of the government. Hence, the Working Unit was of much importance prior to the systemic reforms of the 1990's, whether government, PSOs or enterprises. Consequently, China still has large public sector organisations and huge numbers of public sector employees. After the 1990's, pension, healthcare, housing, unemployment and maternity benefits are being delivered through the social insurance system. The basic characteristics of social insurance are the pooling of risk, the contribution requirement and limits to the level of benefit. However, social insurance alone will not satisfy these needs if China seeks to attain the levels outlined by Professor Newburn. Through comparing social policy as it is understood at the LSE and social policy practices in the UK, the disadvantages of China's social insurance system in meeting peoples' needs are highlighted and analysed, and suggestions made as to how to build and enhance social policy theory and practice in China. Dr Naijun Hu is currently a Visiting Fellow at the LSE Asia Research Centre. He received his PhD in Management at Tsinghua University in 2010. In 2008 and 2009 he spent six months at the Asia Research Centre as a visiting student. Dr Hu was previously a post-doctoral visiting research fellow at King's College London's China Institute.

Dr Naijun Huhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13372012-02-06T11:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Ehtisham Ahmad, Rachid Benmassoud, Dr Robert Hathaway, Shahid Kardar, Dr Maleeha Lodhi, Kashif Zafar | Has civilian assistance to Pakistan over the past three decades assisted with development and improvements in living standards, or become a hindrance? Has the availability of bilateral and multilateral largesse, often driven by strategic considerations, subverted the difficult structural reforms that the assistance was designed to promote? The publication of the recent Woodrow Wilson Center report: "Aiding without abetting: making US civilian assistance to Pakistan work for both sides", that calls for a reorientation of the Kerry-Lugar assistance and addresses the operations of USAid, provides an opportunity to discuss some of the issues arising from the poor design and implementation of civilian assistance. There are also growing political concerns in Pakistan about the political "capture" of some of the assistance as well as growing dependency. Dr Ehtisham Ahmad is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the LSE Asia Research Centre. Rachid Benmassoud is the World Bank Director for Pakistan. Dr Robert Hathaway is the Director of the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Shahid Kardar is a former Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan. Dr Maleeha Lodhi is a former High Commissioner of Pakistan to the United Kingdom, and a former Ambassador to the United States. Kashif Zafar from the British Pakistan Foundation will provide an introduction.

Dr Ehtisham Ahmad, Rachid Benmassoud, Dr Robert Hathaway, Shahid Kardar, Dr Maleeha Lodhi, Kashif Zafarhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13332012-02-02T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Hiski Haukkala, Dr Petr Kratochwil, Dr Nicu Popescu, Professor Stefan Wolff | This roundtable on 'EU Foreign Policy after Lisbon: The EU's Influence in its Eastern Neighbourhood' looks at the impact of the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership on the domestic politics of its partner countries, and how this has changed since the Lisbon Treaty. Professor Hiski Haukkala (University of Tampere, Finland); Dr Petr Kratochwil (Institute of International Relations, Prague); Dr Nicu Popescu (European Council on Foreign Relations); Professor Stefan Wolff (University of Birmingham).

Professor Hiski Haukkala, Dr Petr Kratochwil, Dr Nicu Popescu, Professor Stefan Wolffhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=14872012-02-02T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Alexander Kamenskii | In the course of the eighteenth century, Russia became an active participant in European diplomatic relations. But to what extent was Russia part of Europe? And is it possible to study Europe without including Russia? Alexander Kamenskii is deacon of the Faculty of History and chief research fellow of the Poletaev Institute for Theoretical and Historical Studies in the Humanities at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow.

Professor Alexander Kamenskiihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13342012-02-02T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Alain de Botton | Is it possible to remain a committed atheist but nevertheless benefit from the wisdom of religion? Marking the publication of his new book Religion for Atheists, Alain de Botton proposes that we look to religions for insights into how we might live in and arrange our societies. Alain de Botton is the author of non-fiction essays on themes ranging from love and travel to architecture and philosophy. His bestselling books include The Architecture of Happiness.

Alain de Bottonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13352012-02-02T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr James McDougall | South Asia, China, Europe, North America, sub-Saharan Africa: most major world regions have histories that can be clearly characterised. The Maghrib, despite being perhaps historically the first region to be provided with a model of historical development (by Ibn Khaldun), remains to a large degree unidentifiable with its own distinctive 'pattern of the past'. This may be changing as scholarship focuses more on global, cross-regional, and interactive histories in which North Africa, as a 'hinge' at the edge of three continents, can easily and productively be placed. But does this approach risk misconstruing North Africa's own particularities? How can regional and global histories together best account for North Africa's place in world history? Dr James McDougall| is Laithwaite Fellow and tutor in modern history at Trinity College. His research interest includes Modern and contemporary Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, African and Islamic history, especially Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco.

Dr James McDougallhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13362012-02-02T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): David Lammy MP | The riots across England in the summer of 2011 were sparked by events in Tottenham, north London. Tottenham was also the site of the Broadwater Farm riots in 1985. David Lammy, MP for the area, reflects on the causes of these events and what role racial inequality played. David Lammy has been the Labour MP for Tottenham since 2000. Rob Berkeley is Director of the Runnymede Trust.

David Lammy MPhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13312012-02-01T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Vítor Gaspar | Vítor Gaspar is Minister of Finance. He was appointed Portuguese Finance Minister in Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho's cabinet in June 2011. Mr Gaspar was an adviser to the Bank of Portugal from February 2010, having been from 2007 Director-General at the Bureau of European Policy Advisers (ERI) with the President of the European Commission. Previously he was Director-General for Research at the European Central Bank for six years. Gaspar was awarded a degree in economics by the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP) in 1982, and has a doctorate in economics by the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, awarded in 1988.

Vítor Gasparhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13322012-02-01T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Cullen Murphy | For centuries states have used their power to censor information, to conduct surveillance, to impose belief, to manipulate and to punish. Cullen Murphy's extraordinary, provocative new book which he will talk about in this lecture explores the idea that the Inquisition - the Catholic body that existed in Europe (and beyond) for over 700 years - is not a medieval oddity, but is intrinsically bound up with the creation of the modern world. Travelling from freshly opened Vatican archives to the detention camps of Guantánamo and the filing cabinets of the Third Reich, he traces the Inquisition's legacy to show how, as time went on, its techniques became the standard operating procedure of secular persecution. Murphy explores the role of the Inquisition in a new phase in the battle between the individual private conscience and the forces that try to contain it. This event marks the publication of his new book God's Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World. Cullen Murphy is Vanity Fair's editor at large and the author of Are We Rome? and The Word According to Eve. He was previously managing editor of The Atlantic Monthly.

Cullen Murphyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13292012-01-31T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Wael Ghonim | In this conversation, Wael Ghonim will discuss his new book Revolution 2.0| providing a unique insider's story from the heart of the Egyptian Spring. He gives unparalleled insight into why the Egyptian people finally rejected 30 years of oppression and found a voice. Wael Ghonim was born in 1980 in Cairo, and lived in Saudi Arabia for most of his childhood until moving back to Egypt at the age of 13. A prominent internet entrepreneur, by his mid-twenties Wael was a key member or founder of three of the Arab world's most popular websites, and in 2008 he was hired by Google as Regional Product Manager for the Middle East and North Africa. A passionate and committed individual, Wael's knowledge of technology and his dedication to the cause of democracy in Egypt came together in 2011 when he set up a Facebook page that facilitated the protests that would lead to the departure of Hosni Mubarak.

Wael Ghonimhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13822012-01-31T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Peter Hain MP | During a discussion on his latest book Outside In|, former anti-apartheid leader turned Labour cabinet minister Peter Hain will recall his campaigning days, receiving a letter bomb, being prosecuted in two political trials and his role in negotiating the historic 2007 settlement in Northern Ireland. He was also Britain's first-ever African-born Africa Minister and a passionate advocate and deliverer of devolved government to Wales. Featuring Iraq, Mugabe, Europe, Gibraltar, blood diamonds, working with MI5 and MI6, delivering justice for workers robbed of their pensions and compensation for sick miners, Hain gives a fascinating insight into life near the top of the Blair and Brown governments. Peter Hain is the Labour MP for Neath and Shadow Secretary of State for Wales. He was elected to the House of Commons in 1991 and after Labour's victory in 1997, joined the Blair government. Firstly at the Welsh Office and then as minister for Africa and then Europe Minister. He also served as Leader of the House of Commons, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. As the son of courageous anti-apartheid activists, he spent his childhood in South Africa and then in exile in Britain, where he led the campaign against white-only sports tours.

Peter Hain MPhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13272012-01-30T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Paul Mason | Our world is changing dramatically. Social upheaval has followed worldwide economic crisis and the gulf between the haves and the have-nots is widening. In 2011, this profound disconnect found expression in events that we were told had been consigned to history: revolt and revolution. In his new book Why It's Kicking Off Everywhere which he will discuss in this lecture Paul Mason sets out to explore the causes and consequences of this current wave of struggle, illuminating the links between the economic and social crisis. He explores and analyses what lies behind the new revolutions – a volatile combination of the near collapse of free-market capitalism, new technologies and changes in popular culture, and a profound shift in our understanding of what freedom means. Looking at how new social media have impacted on how we behave and organize, Mason interviews activists on the ground and the people behind these new forms of collective action, providing an insight into the agile networks of Twitter- and Facebook-savvy young protesters supporting the viral spread ofinternational activism. The economics editor of the BBC's flagship program Newsnight, Paul Mason is also one of the most influential journalists on twitter. He first reported live for the BBC on 9/11, and covered the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 from outside its New York HQ. His television and online reports have tracked the social and economic impact of the global meltdown from the mean streets of Gary, Indiana to the elite salons of Davos.

Paul Masonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13282012-01-30T18:30:00Z

Contributor(s): Professor Tim Allen | For millions of the world's poor, parasitic infections can be debilitating or even lethal. There are high hopes for new mass medication programmes but treatment has not always proceeded as planned, and in some cases there has been fierce local resistance. In this Burning Issue public lecture, Tim Allen – professor of development anthropology – will examine the facts, the failures and the future of our fight against one of humankind's most endemic invisible enemies. The lecture is the first of LSE's 'Burning Issues' lectures – a short series of interactive talks designed with a public audience in mind. Two lectures will follow with Professor Emily Jackson tackling the issue of assisting dying in the 'Right to Die' and Professor Conor Gearty asking what human rights are in 'The DNA of Human Rights'. The Burning Issue Lectures are supported by the LSE Annual Fund and Cato Stonex (BSc International Relations 1986).

Professor Tim Allenhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13172012-01-30T12:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Henry Wai-chung Yeung | In this lecture, Henry Wai-chung Yeung will aim to explain how a number of leading business firms from Asian newly industrialized economies (NIEs) of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan are articulated into global production networks and become major players in their respective market niches. Drawing upon a triangular analytical framework and original empirical data, he will seek to explain the complex relationships between the dynamic articulation of these leading Asian firms into different global production networks and their simultaneous upgrading from typical followers to market leaders. He will argue that the interplay between corporate strategies and home base advantages within the context of changing global production networks can offer a better explanation of the differentiated competitive outcomes of these Asian firms. He will conclude the lecture with some implications for theory and policy in relation to corporate development in Asian economies. Born in Guangzhou, China, Henry Wai-chung Yeung emigrated with my family to Hong Kong in 1979 moving to Singapore in 1988. He graduated with B.A. First Class Honours in Geography from the National University of Singapore and obtained his Ph.D. from the School of Geography, University of Manchester in England in 1995, returning to Singapore to start his career at the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore. Since 2005, he has been Professor of Economic Geography. His research interests cover broadly theories and the geography of transnational corporations, Asian firms and their overseas operations and Chinese business networks in the Asia-Pacific region. I have conducted extensively research on Hong Kong firms in Southeast Asia, the regionalization of Singaporean companies, and the emergence of leading Asian firms in the global economy. The National University of Singapore (NUS) and LSE are both top-ranked, research-led universities. NUS is one of just five institutions with which LSE is developing multi-faceted partnerships for mutual benefit of staff and students. This is the 2nd of a new "LSE-NUS" public lecture series, which seeks to provide a global platform to increase the profile and impact of prominent researchers.

Professor Henry Wai-chung Yeunghttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13252012-01-26T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Ramachandra Guha | High annual growth rates, a rising middle class, and successes in the software sector have led to much talk of India becoming a superpower. But rather than seek to expand India's influence abroad, the political class and intellectual elite would do well to focus on the fissures within. Ramachandra Guha is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2011-2012.

Dr Ramachandra Guhahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13262012-01-26T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor John Sidel | Editor's note: Unfortunately the last few minutes of the question and answer session are missing from the podcast. Over the past several months, an alarmist picture of developments in Egypt has emerged in the media, raising the spectre of Islamization, inter-religious violence, and generalized criminality and disorder. Yet these early signs of trouble are amply familiar to observers of transitions from authoritarian rule to democracy elsewhere in the developing world. In particular, the case of Indonesia is especially instructive, given a set of striking parallels with Egypt today. Against this backdrop, Professor John Sidel, author of Riots, Pogroms, Jihad: Religious Violence in Indonesia (Cornell University Press, 2006) will discuss democratization in Egypt in the light of Indonesia's experience over the past thirteen years since the fall of long-time president Suharto (Indonesia's Mubarak) in 1998. His lecture will reveal what Indonesia's experience of democratization portends for Egypt in the months and years. John Sidel is the Sir Patrick Gillam Professor of International and Comparative Politics at LSE. Professor Sidel specializes in the study of Southeast Asia and has three main areas of thematic expertise and interest in the study of politics, as reflected in his research, writing, and teaching: local politics, religion and politics, and nationalism and transnational forces.

Professor John Sidelhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13222012-01-25T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Martti Koskenniemi | Martti Koskenniemi is director of the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights and visiting professor at LSE Law.

Professor Martti Koskenniemihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13242012-01-25T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis | Placed at the crossroads of three continents, Cyprus remains of key strategic importance in the Eastern Mediterranean. Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis is the minister of foreign affairs for Cyprus.

Dr Erato Kozakou-Marcoullishttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13232012-01-25T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Bill Gates, Professor Hans Rosling | Editor's note: Copyright © 2012 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. The Global Poverty Project has partnered with The Co–operative during the UN Year of Co-operatives to launch a new initiative that will raise awareness and inspire communities to take action for the 1.4 billion people still living in extreme poverty. Bill Gates will speak to the inaugural Global Poverty Ambassadors as part of the London launch of his Annual Letter. In the letter, he will outline the key innovations and commitment needed to continue making progress against global challenges like disease and poverty in 2012. Bill is inviting students from around the world to write their own letters on the most urgent issues we face today. (If you have a big idea you would like to share, please write 300-500 words and email it to annualletter@gatesfoundation.org). Professor Hans Rosling will also address the Ambassadors and students using his extraordinary, interactive graphics, which reveal global trends and the great benefits of development aid. Bill Gates is co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Hans Rosling is Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institute and co-founder and chairman of the Gapminder Foundation.

Bill Gates, Professor Hans Roslinghttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13702012-01-25T13:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Jodi Kantor, Professor Sarah Churchwell | Jodi Kantor will be in conversation with Professor Sarah Churchwell to discuss her new book The Obamas: A Mission, A Marriage which is an intimate portrait of the Obamas in the White House by a New York Times journalist who has been covering the President and first lady for 5 years. The Obamas had never lived together full-time as a family until they moved into the White House - and that's where their political and personal lives became inextricable. Kantor interviewed the Obamas together in the Oval Office and is the only author to be granted access to Michelle Obama's East Wing. Filled with detail and insight into their partnership and personalities, The Obamas: A Mission, A Marriage reveals the hidden aspects of their time in the White House. With a keen eye for the ironies of public life and the realities of power, Kantor brings into sharp focus the question that underpins the Obamas' marriage: can politics achieve real change in society? Jodi Kantor began her journalism career by dropping out of Harvard Law School to join Slate.com in 1998. Four years later, she became the youngest section editor of The New York Times, taking over and revamping the Arts & Leisure section. She began covering the Obamas for the paper in 2007, writing front-page stories that chronicled their biographies and philosophies, and also writing about Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin and other major political figures along the way. She is a recipient of the Columbia Young Alumni Achievement Award, she was chosen by Crain's Magazine as one of "40 Under 40" New Yorkers, and she appears regularly on American television, including Today and the Charlie Rose Show. Sarah Churchwell is Professor of American Literature and Public Understanding of the Humanities. Her research and teaching expertise are in 20th-21st century and contemporary American literature and culture; American film history and theory, gender theory; cultural studies and popular culture; life-writing and literary theory.

Jodi Kantor, Professor Sarah Churchwellhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13192012-01-24T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Rodric Braithwaite, Andrei Grachev, Professor Margot Light | What were the origins of the collapse of the USSR? What did 1991 look and feel like from the inside? What is the legacy of 1991 for the former USSR itself? This expert panel will reflect on how history unfolded. Rodric Braithwaite was British Ambassador to Moscow from 1988 to 1992. Andrei Grachev served on the International Relations Department of the CPSU and was confidant and official spokesman for Mikhail Gorbachev. Margot Light is Professor Emeritus in the Department of International Relations, LSE.

Rodric Braithwaite, Andrei Grachev, Professor Margot Lighthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13202012-01-24T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Roy F Baumeister | A new understanding of how people control themselves has emerged from the past decade of research studies. Self-control depends on a limited energy supply, and each person's willpower fluctuates during the day as various events deplete and then replenish it. Decision making and creative initiative also deplete the same willpower supply, while eating and sleeping can restore it. Some circumstances propel people to perform well despite depleted willpower, including power and leadership roles, local incentives, and personal beliefs. People with high self-control specialize less in resisting temptation than avoiding it. Roy F Baumeister is one of the world's most influential psychologists. He received his PhD from Princeton in 1978 and currently is Francis Eppes Eminent Scholar and head of the psychology programme at Florida State University. He was over 450 scientific publications, and Willpower: Rediscovering Our Greatest Strength is his latest book.

Dr Roy F Baumeisterhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13212012-01-24T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Helmut Anheier, Professor Mient Jan Faber, Professor Marlies Glasius, Professor Mary Kaldor | The panel will discuss the political implications of giving power to ordinary people in an era when the nation-state has lost its primacy as a political actor. The event launches the book Bottom-up Politics: an agency-centred approach to globalisation. Helmut Anheier is professor of sociology at the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin. Mient Jan Faber is Professor Emeritus at the Free Universit, Amsterdam and visiting professor at the University of Houston. Marlies Glasius is Professor of Citizens Involvement in War Zones and Post-Conflict Zones at the Faculty of Social Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, and a Visiting Fellow at the LSE Human Security and Civil Society Research Unit. Mary Kaldor is professor of Global Governance and director of the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit, LSE.

Professor Helmut Anheier, Professor Mient Jan Faber, Professor Marlies Glasius, Professor Mary Kaldorhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13122012-01-23T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Liam Byrne MP | As we enter the year of the Beveridge Report's 70th Anniversary, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Liam Byrne MP, sets out Labour's case for welfare reform. Liam Byrne is Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and Coordinator of Labour's policy review. Elected in 2004, Liam held several ministerial positions in the Labour Government before becoming Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 2009. Before entering politics Liam co-founded the eCommerce business egsgroup.com, and worked as a banker with NM Rothschilds. He was a Fulbright scholar at the Harvard Business School where he took his MBA with honours.

Liam Byrne MPhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13132012-01-23T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Yezid Sayigh | The construction of authoritarian power in Arab states over past decades has enmeshed national armies in political, economic, and social structures and dynamics. Democratic transition therefore implicates constitutional debates about the nature of the state with renegotiation of the role and status of the military. Yezid Sayigh is a senior associate at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, where his work focuses on the future political role of Arab armies, the resistance and reinvention of authoritarian regimes, and the Israel-Palestine conflict and peace process.

Professor Yezid Sayighhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13142012-01-23T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi | Against the backdrop of the ongoing global banking crisis, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi discusses the economic problems and prospects of sub-Saharan Africa over the decade ahead. Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13152012-01-23T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Jean-Michel Severino, Martin Wolf | Two economic experts discuss the state of the world economy after the eurozone financial crisis. Jean Michel Severino is inspector general at the French Ministry of Finance. Martin Wolf is a journalist at the Financial Times.

Jean-Michel Severino, Martin Wolfhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13162012-01-23T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Atila Eralp, Professor Richard Gillespie, Dr Sharon Pardo | This roundtable on 'EU Foreign Policy after Lisbon: The View from the Mediterranean' looks at how the EU is perceived as a foreign policy actor in its southern neighbourhood. Professor Atila Eralp is from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara; Professor Richard Gillespie is from the University of Liverpool and Dr Sharon Pardo is from Ben Gurion University. Professor Karen E Smith is from LSE.

Professor Atila Eralp, Professor Richard Gillespie, Dr Sharon Pardohttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13102012-01-19T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Philip Coggan | The world is drowning in debt. Greece is on the verge of default. In Britain, the coalition government is pushing through an austerity programme in the face of economic weakness. The US government almost shut down in August because of a dispute over the size of government debt. Our latest crisis may seem to have started in 2007, with the collapse of the American housing market. But as Philip Coggan shows in this new book, Paper Promises: Money, Debt and the new World Order which he will talk about in this lecture, the crisis is part of an age-old battle between creditors and borrowers. And that battle has been fought over the nature of money. Creditors always want sound money to ensure that they are paid back in full; borrowers want easy money to reduce the burden of repaying their debts. Money was once linked to gold, a commodity in limited supply; now central banks can create it with the click of a computer mouse. Time and again, this cycle has resulted in financial and economic crises. In the 1930s, countries abandoned the gold standard in the face of the Great Depression. In the 1970s, they abandoned the system of fixed exchange rates and ushered in a period of paper money. The results have been a long series of asset bubbles, from dotcom stocks to housing, and the elevation of the financial sector to economic dominance. The current crisis not only pits creditors against debtors, but taxpayers against public sector workers, young against old and the western world against Asia. As in the 1930s and 1970s, a new monetary system will emerge; the rules for which will likely be set by the world's rising economic power, China. Philip Coggan was a Financial Times journalist for over twenty years, including spells as a Lex columnist, personal finance editor and investment editor, and is now the Buttonwood columnist of The Economist. In 2009, he was awarded the title of Senior Financial Journalist in the Harold Wincott awards and was voted Best Communicator at the Business Journalist of the Year Awards. Philip Coggan is the author of the business classic, The Money Machine.

Philip Cogganhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13112012-01-19T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Bronwyn Curtis, Dr Jon Danielsson, Professor Robert Wade | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor audio quality throughout the panel discussion section of the podcast. LSE Arts are pleased to host a very special screening of the highly anticipated film Margin Call| based on the financial crash – starring Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore, Zachary Quinto, Paul Bettany and Stanley Tucci and released in UK cinemas on 13 January. Reviewed by The New York Times as "an extraordinary feat of filmmaking", Margin Call is a thriller that revolves around the key people at an investment bank over a 24-hour period during the early stages of the financial crisis. When entry-level analyst Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto) unlocks information that could prove to be the downfall of an investment firm, a roller-coaster ride ensues as decisions both financial and moral catapult the lives of all involved to the brink of disaster. This podcast comprises the introduction and panel discussion that followed the screening. Bronwyn Curtis is Executive Editor and Senior Advisor at HSBC and is co-sponsor of the Balance group. She is also Chairman of the Society of Business Economists, a board member of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, the Council at the London School of Economics and the Advisory Board at Imperial College Business School, as well as a member of The Times newspaper's Shadow Monetary Policy Committee. Previously, Bronwyn was Head of European Broadcasting and Managing Editor at Bloomberg. Her other senior roles include Global Head of Currency and Fixed Income Strategy at Deutsche Bank and Chief Economist at Nomura International. She has also worked for the World Bank and the United Nations on commodity based projects in Africa, LATAM and Asia. Dr Jon Danielsson is a Reader in the Finance Department at LSE. Professor Robert Wade is a Professor in the International Development department at LSE.

Bronwyn Curtis, Dr Jon Danielsson, Professor Robert Wadehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13082012-01-18T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Lino Cardarelli | After the Arab Spring, lasting political change in North Africa will require sustained regional cooperation to promote economic integration and efficient and accountable governance. What should a bold plan of action look like? Lino Cardarelli is Senior Deputy Secretary General for Project Funding Coordination and Business Development SMEs in the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean, a position he has held since 2010. From March to June 2011 has also covered the position of Acting Secretary General in the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean. Since his return from Baghdad mid-2005, Lino Cardarelli is serving in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as expert and coordinator of the Italian economic initiatives in the Middle East and Gulf Countries. Before that, during 2004, he had the position as deputy Senior Advisor in Government Authority of Iraq (in Baghdad) where he had also the position at the PMO (Program Management Office) and IRMO (Iraqi Reconstruction Management Office) as coordinator of Donors Countries project, Special Assistant and deputy to the Executive Director Dave Nash. With more than 30 years of International experience working in Africa, Middle East, Latin America, USA and European Countries, he was involved in the management of companies producing and marketing in heavy and specialty chemicals, pharmaceutical, engineering constructions, textiles, machine tools and in the financing of significant projects and the acquisition of companies. Prior to that, he was Chief Financial Officer, General Manager and Managing Director of Montedison Group, one of the leaders in world in chemicals and pharmaceuticals. While in this position he acted as Executive President in the related companies Incas Bonna Spa and Cedar Trading S.A. and as Executive Director of Erbamont and Ausimont. Lino Cardarelli graduated in Economics at the University of Parma (Italy) and attended a semester at the London School of Economics and Political Science (London), at the La Sorbonne (Paris) and at the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies (Salzburg, Austria). He holds a specialization at the Harvard Business School (Boston) in Strategic Finance and has a degree in Business Development at the IMEDE University in Lausanne (Switzerland).

Dr Lino Cardarellihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13092012-01-18T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Mario Monti | Mario Monti is Italian Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy and Finance, positions he has held since 16 November 2011. He was President of Bocconi University, Milan, from 1994 to November 2011, when, upon his request, he was suspended from his functions as President of Bocconi for the duration of his mandate as President of the Council of Ministers. He was also European chairman of the Trilateral Commission and honorary president of Bruegel, the European think-tank he launched in 2005. He is the author of the report to the President of the European Commission on "A new strategy for the single market" (May 2010). As the EU-appointed coordinator for the electricity interconnection between France and Spain, he brokered an agreement between the two heads of governments in June 2008. He was a member of the Attali Committee on economic growth in France, set up by President Sarkozy (2007-2008). He was for ten years a member of the European Commission, in charge of the Internal market, Financial services and Tax policy (1995-1999), then of Competition policy (1999-2004). In addition to a number of high-profile cases (e.g. GE/Honeywell, Microsoft, the German Landesbanken), he introduced radical modernisation reforms of EU antitrust and merger control and led, with the US authorities, the creation of the International Competition Network (ICN). Born in Varese, Italy, in 1943, he graduated from Bocconi University and did graduate studies at Yale University. Prior to joining the European Commission, he had been professor of economics and rector at Bocconi University.

Mario Montihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13052012-01-18T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Guy Dammann | Everyone admits that there is no fact of the matter about aesthetic judgements. Nonetheless, constantly referring to artistic taste as 'relative' limits the power of art to change us. Guy Dammann is the music critic of the Times Literary Supplement, and a critic and commentator for the Guardian.

Dr Guy Dammannhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13072012-01-17T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Wadah Khanfar | The recent elections in Tunisia and Egypt have brought Islamist parties to power, a pattern that may very well repeat itself as uprisings turn to elections across the Arab world. In the west, this phenomenon has led to a debate about the 'problem' of the rise of political Islam. In the Arab world, too, there has been mounting tension between Islamists and secularists. As the Arab uprisings began, Wadah Khanfar, a former foreign correspondent in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, was the top executive at Al Jazeera, arguably the leading media source as the protests have unfolded, until he resigned in September 2011. As a former newsman and now CEO of Integral Media Strategies, Khanfar is in touch with some of the greatest thinkers and influential leaders and activists in the Middle East today and will reflect on what he sees as a necessary and long overdue debate about the rise of political Islam and where, politically and economically, he sees the region shifting as the rise continues. Wadah Khanfar is CEO of Integral Media Strategies and the former director general of the Al Jazeera Network. He began his career with the network in 1997, covering some of the world's key political zones, including South Africa, Afghanistan and Iraq. He was appointed the chief of the Baghdad bureau, and later as the network's managing director. In 2006, he became Al Jazeera's director general. During his 8-year tenure at the helm, the network transformed from a single channel into a media network including Al Jazeera Arabic, Al Jazeera English, Al Jazeera Documentary and the Al Jazeera Center for Studies. During this period, the Arab world witnessed historic transformation including Arab Awakening. Khanfar, who resigned from the network in September 2011, has been named as one of Foreign Policy's Top 100 global thinkers of 2011 as well as one of Fast Company's 'Most Creative People in Business' of the year. Khanfar has a diverse academic background with post-graduate studies in Philosophy, African Studies, and International Politics. Charlie Beckett is director of POLIS.

Wadah Khanfarhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13062012-01-17T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Michael Kimmel | We hear, occasionally, that women's studies discriminates against men. More often, it's that women's studies doesn't include men. In this lecture, Kimmel will suggest that women's studies provides an essential framework for understanding men's lives, and that framework actually will enable men to experience richer and fuller lives. By addressing several key thematic areas -- work, family life, sexuality -- he will show that the insights generated by women's studies are both available to men and, indeed, necessary for men to live the lives we say we want to live. Michael Kimmel is among the world's leading researchers on men and masculinities. The University Distinguished Professor of Sociology at State University of New York, Stony Brook, he is the author of the best-seller, Guyland: The perilous World Where Boys Become Men as well as The Gendered Society, Manhood In America, Men's Lives, A Gay's Guide to Feminism, and many other works. He is the founding editor for the scholarly journal Men and Masculinities.

Professor Michael Kimmelhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13022012-01-16T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Bernard Hogan-Howe | The current commissioner of the Met and former chief constable of Merseyside Police will speak about his hopes and aspirations in relation to the future of policing in the capital. Bernard Hogan-Howe is the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service.

Bernard Hogan-Howehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13032012-01-16T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Philip McCann | The special adviser to the European Commissioner for Regional Policy will discuss one of the great policy-making challenges of recent times. Professor Philip McCann is special adviser to Johannes Hahn and the University of Groningen Endowed Chair of Economic Geography.

Professor Philip McCannhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13012012-01-12T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Eric Ries | Most new businesses fail. But most of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach to business that's being adopted around the world. It is changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. The Lean Startup is about learning what your customers really want. It's about testing your vision continuously, adapting and adjusting before it's too late. Now is the time to think Lean. This event marks the publication of Eric Ries new book The Lean Startup. Eric Ries is an entrepreneur and author of the New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup and the popular entrepreneurship blog Startup Lessons Learned.He co-founded and served as CTO of IMVU, his third startup. In 2007, BusinessWeek named him one of the Best Young Entrepreneurs of Tech. In 2009, he was honoured with a TechFellow award in the category of Engineering Leadership. He serves on the advisory board of a number of technology startups, and has consulted to new and established companies as well as venture capital firms. He is currently serving as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Harvard Business School and a Fellow for IDEO, the design consulting firm. His Lean Startup methodology has been written about in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, the Huffington Post, and many blogs.

Eric Rieshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=13002012-01-12T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Owen Flanagan | Can Buddhism be re-discovered as a naturalistic and comprehensive philosophy that is compatible with the rest of knowledge, yet capable of pointing us to a path of human flourishing? Owen Flanagan is James B Duke Professor of Philosophy at Duke University.

Professor Owen Flanaganhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12982012-01-11T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Juliet Schor, Professor Lord Skidelsky, Professor Tim Jackson | As the economic crisis deepens, this is the moment to consider moving towards much shorter, more flexible paid working hours – sharing out jobs and unpaid time more fairly across the population. The new economics foundation (nef) set out the case in its report 21 Hours: Why a shorter working week can help us all to flourish in the 21st century. Now, in partnership with CASE (Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion) at the London School of Economics, this event brings together a panel of experts to examine the social, environmental and economic implications. They will consider how far a shorter working week can help to address a range of urgent social, economic and environmental problems: unemployment, over-consumption, high carbon emissions, low well-being and entrenched inequalities. Juliet Schor is Professor of Sociology at Boston College, and author of Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth, and The Overworked American. Professor Lord Skidelsky is Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick and biographer of J. M. Keynes. He is the co-author, with Dr Edward Skidelsky, of the forthcoming book, How Much is Enough? Economics and the Good Life. Tim Jackson is Professor of Sustainable Development at Surrey University, and author of Prosperity without Growth.

Professor Juliet Schor, Professor Lord Skidelsky, Professor Tim Jacksonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12972012-01-11T18:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Masaaki Shirakawa | Until a few years ago, the long stagnation of the Japanese economy after the bursting of a credit-fuelled asset bubble in the late 1980s was regarded as an episode that would never be replicated elsewhere in the world. Quite a few commentators argued that the recovery became unnecessarily drawn-out and painful because policy responses were ill-timed and inadequate. Many experts believed that prompt and massive policy responses would save any other economy from the same fate as Japan. Three years after the global economy had nearly suffered a meltdown in late 2008, following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, growth, especially in the developed economies, remains anemic, in spite of the huge fiscal stimulus and decisive monetary easing quickly introduced by governments and central banks. Economists are drawing graphs of current GDP, inflation, property prices and interest rates superimposed with Japanese data from the 1990s, revealing eerily similar patterns. Now, there is a growing fear among the general public of a prolonged period of weak growth in the developed economies, expressed in one word as "Japanization." TMasaaki Shirakawa is the Governor of the Bank of Japan, he will reflect on the experience of Japan leading to and following the bursting of the Japanese bubble, drawing particular attention to the fragility of the recovery under economy-wide deleveraging. There will be a discussion on the similarities and dissimilarities between Japan in the 1990s and the current state of developed economies, with an added emphasis on factors behind the credit and asset-price cycles, including demography, the structure of the labor market and the sectoral distribution of debt. Another issue to be examined is the increasing concerns over the sustainability of government finances after massive fiscal stimuli. The speech will conclude by exploring the role of policy in sustaining and strengthening the recovery under the dual constraint of fiscal sustainability and the zero-bound on nominal interest rates. TMasaaki Shirakawa was born in Fukuoka Prefecture in Japan on September 27, 1949. Governor, Bank of Japan since April 9, 2008; Chair of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Asian Consultative Council since October 2010, and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the BIS since January 2011; Member of the Group of Thirty since August 2009. Graduated from the University of Tokyo with a B.A. in Economics and hired by the Bank of Japan in 1972, he completed his advanced training at the University of Chicago (M.A. in 1977). At the Bank of Japan, his career encompassed both monetary policy and financial stability, and held key positions, including Executive Director (2002 - 2006), responsible for laying the groundwork of Japanese monetary policy decisions. He also had extensive international experience, as the General Manager for the Americas and as the Advisor to the Governor for International Capital Markets. Leaving the Bank in July 2006, he assumed Professorship at the Kyoto University School of Government until March 2008, when he rejoined the Bank.

Masaaki Shirakawahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12932012-01-10T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Daniel Sieberg | At the start of the new year, Daniel Sieberg, author of The Digital Diet: The Four-step Plan to Break your Tech Addiction and Regain Balance in your Life offers timely advice for technology gluttons everywhere, explaining how best to ditch the digital dependency, take back control of your life, restore real relationships, and use technology in a healthier way. Daniel Sieberg works with Google marketing in New York. An Emmy-nominated journalist he is a former technology correspondent for CBS and CNN, and previously hosted science and technology programmes for online channel ABC News NOW.

Daniel Sieberghttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12942012-01-10T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Angus Roxburgh | Former BBC correspondent Angus Roxburgh talks about his new book on the Putin years and Russia's relationship with the West. Drawing on exclusive interviews conducted for a new BBC documentary series, he describes Putin's descent into authoritarianism, and also argues that the West threw away chances to bring Russia in from the cold, by failing to understand its fears and aspirations following the collapse of communism. This event marks the publication of Angus Roxburgh's latest book The Strongman: Vladimir Putin and the struggle for Russia. Angus Roxburgh is one of Britain's most distinguished foreign correspondents. An author and renowned journalist, he was the Sunday Times Moscow Correspondent in the mid-1980s and the BBC's Moscow correspondent during the Yeltsin years. He is the author of The Second Russian Revolution and Pravda: Inside the Soviet Press Machine.

Angus Roxburghhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12952012-01-10T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Roger Owen | Professor Owen will look at Egypt's Tahrir Square revolution in the light of the revolutions of 1919 and 1952, drawing on them to indicate some of the problems and possibilities ahead. Roger Owen is A J Meyer Professor of Middle East History at Harvard University.

Professor Roger Owenhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12922012-01-09T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Rita Giacaman | How do young Palestinians define dignity? What is the importance of dignity in their lives? What would increase or decrease their sense of dignity? Following a pilot project which included 102 interviews with young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years old in Ramallah, Professor Rita Giacaman's presentation will outline the main findings of the research which focused on young Palestinian's reflections on dignity. Rita Giacaman is a professor of public health at the Institute of Community and Public Heath at Birzeit University. She is a founding member of the institute and has worked there for 34 years. Giacaman has chronicled the effects of the Israeli military occupation, and has advocated for women to have a prominent role in an eventual Palestinian state.

Rita Giacamanhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12882011-12-13T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Ed Heery, John Kelly, David Metcalf | "The unsolved problems in the research of work and employment" – a round table discussion among former BJIR chief editors.

Ed Heery, John Kelly, David Metcalfhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12892011-12-13T17:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Kent Deng, Professor Jude Howell, Professor Athar Hussain | Against all previous predictions China has been completely transformed. This raises the question of the "China Model" that we are still trying to understand for the 21st century. Kent Deng is a reader in the Department of Economic History, LSE. Jude Howell is professor in LSE's Department of International Development. Athar Hussain is director of the Asia Research Centre at LSE.

Dr Kent Deng, Professor Jude Howell, Professor Athar Hussainhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12862011-12-08T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor William Quandt | The US has been an active player in the Middle East over the past century, but has been of minor relevance during the Arab uprisings of 2011. The upheaval, however, will have deep implications for US policy in the region. William Quandt is a professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia.

Professor William Quandthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12872011-12-08T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Jocelyne Bourgon | Crises, cascading failures, and unpredictable shocks characterise the world we live in. Jocelyne Bourgon will map out an enabling framework for governing in the 21st century. Jocelyne Bourgon has led ambitious public sector reforms as secretary to the Cabinet of Canada. She is president of PGI (Public Governance International) and author of A New Synthesis of Public Administration: serving in the 21st century.

Jocelyne Bourgonhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12822011-12-06T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Brendan Donnelly, Mike Gapes MP, Lord Teverson, Professor Wolfgang Wagner | In this second roundtable in a series on 'EU Foreign Policy after Lisbon' the LSE's European Foreign Policy Unit invites distinguished policy-makers and scholars to discuss the role and impact of parliaments in EU foreign policy-making. Brendan Donnelly is at the Federal Trust and former MEP. Mike Gapes is former Chairman of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select CommitteeLord Teverson is the Chairman, Sub-Committee C - Foreign Affairs, Defence and Development, House of Lords. Professor Wolfgang Wagner is from the University of Amsterdam.

Brendan Donnelly, Mike Gapes MP, Lord Teverson, Professor Wolfgang Wagnerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12962011-12-06T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Armin Schulz | Many organisms make decisions using only reflexes and drives; some, however, do so by employing explicit representations of their goals. Why would they do this? Armin Schulz is lecturer in philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, LSE.

Dr Armin Schulzhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12832011-12-06T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Kristalina Georgieva | Kristalina Georgieva is European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. Before joining the European Commission in February 2010, she held various positions at the World Bank. She started working there in 1993, initially as Environmental Economist, then Senior Environmental Economist. She continued as Sector Manager on Environment for the East Asia and Pacific Region, and later became the Director in charge of World Bank environmental strategy, policies and lending. In 2004 her work took me to Moscow, where she was World Bank Director for the Russian Federation, responsible for a large portfolio of World Bank projects in tax administration, customs, education, health, environment and regional development. In 2007-2008 she held the position of Director for Sustainable Development and, finally was appointed Vice President and Corporate Secretary of the World Bank Group. At this post, she acted as the interlocutor between the World Bank's senior management, its Board of Directors and the 186 countries that make up the World Bank Group shareholders. Ms Georgieva obtained her MA in Political Economy and Sociology at the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria. Her PhD in Economic Science was granted by the same university, for her dissertation on Environmental Policy. Between 1977 and 1993, she worked as associate professor at the University of National and World Economy. During this period she was also a Research Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and spent one year as Visiting Professor at Fiji's University of the South Pacific and the Australian National University. In 1991 she went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she did post-graduate research in environmental policy, co-led a course on economies in transition, and consulted on environmental policy in Eastern Europe.

Kristalina Georgievahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12812011-12-06T13:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Jeffrey Sachs | The world economy remains in a precarious state after the global recession. Jeffrey Sachs will discuss why we must – and how we can– change our entire economic culture in the time of crisis. Jeffrey Sachs is director of The Earth Institute and Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development and professor of health policy and management at Columbia University.

Professor Jeffrey Sachshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12802011-12-05T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Madeleine Korbel Albright | Former US secretary of state Madeleine Korbel Albright will address the future of US foreign policy and the leadership of women in helping to build prosperity, foster peace, and promote democracy across the globe. Madeleine Albright was the 64th secretary of state of the United States (1997-2001) and is professor in the practice of diplomacy at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.

Dr Madeleine Korbel Albrighthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12792011-12-02T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Peter Popham | Twenty-three years after an uprising involving millions, and 21 years after elections which Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won by a landslide, Burma remains in the grip of the military regime, now ruling through pseudo-democratic proxies. Has the 'Oxford housewife's' so-called 'revolution of the spirit' been a complete wash-out? What lessons does Burma's bleak recent history hold for the rest of the world? This event celebrates the publication of Popham's new book The Lady And The Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi. Peter Popham has toured Burma as an undercover journalist several times since his first visit to the country in 1991. A foreign correspondent and commentator with the Independent newspaper, he covered South Asia (including Burma) for a period in the late 90s. Popham interviewed Suu Kyi when she was released from house arrest in 2002, and met her again in 2011.

Peter Pophamhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12762011-12-01T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Iain Duncan Smith, Professor Anne Power, Professor Jane Waldfogel | The Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion tracked 200 families bringing up children in deprived neighbourhoods over ten years. The families told us a lot about their biggest worries and greatest needs. Streets and parks are unsafe; local facilities cost too much; energetic teenagers are not allowed to go further afield for fear of trouble so they often hang out on local streets. The thing families wanted most was for more for young people to do. Joblessness among low-skilled young people is extremely high in East London and other poor areas. Employers lose confidence and look for more highly qualified, more experienced and more privileged recruits, creating a vicious cycle for young people from troubled neighbourhoods. Families strive hard for their children, but young people need support. Parents told us what helps most and what works best. They explained what pushes families over the brink. The riots this summer showed how fragile society’s hold is on community resilience, and how many parents fail to control or contain their young people. Most people brought to trial after the riots came from highly disadvantaged and fragmented urban communities. Iain Duncan Smith, will talk about the importance of families to society; and explain how we can create better futures for our most disadvantaged children. Education, Sure Start for all ages, crime prevention, job training, outdoor space and youth activities all build community resilience. Professor Anne Power and Professor Jane Waldfogel will respond. Iain Duncan Smith has been Secretary of State for the UK’s Department for Work and Pensions since the 2010 General Election. He has served as MP for the Chingford and Woodford Green constituency since April 1992 and has held a number of roles in Government, including Leader of the Opposition when he led the Conservative Party from September 2001 until November 2003. In 2004, he subsequently founded the influential think tank, the Centre for Social Justice, which worked to develop innovative policies on tackling poverty and welfare reform. In his early career, Iain Duncan Smith served in the Scots Guards and worked with the General Electric Company.

Iain Duncan Smith, Professor Anne Power, Professor Jane Waldfogelhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12772011-12-01T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Barry Smith | This lecture will explore the philosophy and neuroscience of taste and what it tells us about perception. Barry Smith is professor of philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London and director of the Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London.

Professor Barry Smithhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12782011-12-01T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Sadik Al Azm | Al-Azm, one of the Middle East's most notable contemporary thinkers, will reflect on the effects of the Arab uprisings on Arab nationalism and Islamist movements. Sadik Al Azm is emeritus professor of modern European philosophy at the University of Damascus.

Professor Sadik Al Azmhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12852011-11-30T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Charlie Beckett | This lecture will tell the story of WikiLeaks, the most controversial journalism organisation of the digital age. Led by the charismatic Julian Assange it has produced the biggest leak of secret information in modern times. It has grown from a 'hactavist' whistle-blowing website to one of the best-known media brands in the world, working with major newspapers like the New York Times and The Guardian. It has taken on the most powerful nation in the world and produced headlines around the globe. WikiLeaks has also provoked condemnation for its disregard for conventional journalistic ethics and its disruption of diplomacy. Its founder Julian Assange has fallen out with almost all of his external collaborators and is subject to accusations of sexual assault. This lecture will ask whether WikiLeaks is a model for investigative journalism in the Internet age or a one-off experiment that has gone awry. Charlie Beckett is the director of Polis, the LSE's media think-tank. He was a journalist at the BBC and ITN's Channel 4 News for 20 years before joining the LSE. He is a leading expert on how journalism is changing and the impact on politics in the UK and internationally. He is an influential journalism/politics blogger, writes and broadcasts for international media and speaks at conferences around the world. Beckett is a faculty member of the LSE's Department of Media and Communications where he teaches critical studies in International Journalism and runs the Polis Summer School. He is a trustee of Article 19, the Institute for Development Studies and the Media Society. His new book WikiLeaks: News in the networked era (Polity) examines the effect of WikiLeaks and asks how it relates to new forms of political communications such as the use of social media in the Arab Uprisings.

Charlie Becketthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12752011-11-30T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Heinz Fischer | In spring 2010, Dr. Heinz Fischer was re-elected as Federal President of the Republic of Austria by popular vote for his second term. His political career includes Speaker of the Austrian Parliament from 1990-2002, various posts in the Austrian Social Democratic Party, the Party of European Socialists, MP as well as a ministerial post. President Fischer is also a professor of political science at Innsbruck University and has published widely including on legal issues.

Dr Heinz Fischerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12712011-11-29T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Nancy Folbre | For Love and Money, a forthcoming book edited by Nancy Folbre provides an overview of care provision in the United States and develops a framework for the analysis of existing care policies. Nancy Folbre is Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research explores the interface between political economy and feminist theory, with a particular emphasis on the value of unpaid care work. In addition to numerous articles published in academic journals, she is the author of Greed, Lust, and Gender: A History of Economic Ideas (Oxford, 2009), Valuing Children: Rethinking the Economics of the Family (Harvard, 2008), Who Pays for the Kids?: Gender and the Structures of Constraint (Routledge, 1994) and co-editor, with Michael Bittman, of Family Time: The Social Organization of Care (Routledge, 2004). Books she has written for a wider audience include Saving State U (New Press, 2010); The Field Guide to the U.S. Economy (with James Heintz and Jonathan Teller-Elsberg, New Press, 2006 and earlier editions), The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values (New Press, 2001), and The War on the Poor: A Defense Manual (with Randy Albelda, New Press, 1996). She currently coordinates a working group on care work sponsored by the Russell Sage Foundation. You can read her regular contribution to the New York Times Economix Blog. For more information, see her personal website. This event will be introduced by Professor Sarah Ashwin.

Professor Nancy Folbrehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12722011-11-29T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Ramachandra Guha | Jawaharlal Nehru, the man most identified with Indian foreign policy after independence, is remembered for what is considered his greatest failure: the China policy and disastrous war of 1962. But is it fair to hold Nehru responsible for a conflict that arose out of the rise of two competing nationalisms? Ramachandra Guha is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2011-2012.

Dr Ramachandra Guhahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12732011-11-29T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr David Bell, Professor Simon May | Is genuine love unconditional, or enduring, or disinterested? Simon May says 'no' and offers an alternative theory. David Bell responds with a psychoanalytic perspective. David Bell is president of The British Psychoanalytic Society and a consultant psychiatrist in the Adult Department at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. Simon May is visiting professor of philosophy at King's College London's Department of Philosophy.

Dr David Bell, Professor Simon Mayhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12742011-11-29T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Andrew Oswald | Herd behaviour is often natural and individually rational, but it has the potential to be disastrous for the group. In this lecture, Andrew Oswald will discuss human herd behaviour and its links to 'keeping up with the Joneses'. Andrew Oswald is professor of economics at Warwick University, a visiting fellow at IZA Bonn and an editor of the journal Science.

Professor Andrew Oswaldhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12702011-11-28T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Leo Panitch | This lecture marks the 50th anniversary of Ralph Miliband's first major work, the hugely influential Parliamentary Socialism: a study in the politics of Labour. What can Miliband's arguments tell us about contemporary British politics and the modern Labour Party? Leo Panitch is Distinguished Research Professor at York University (Canada) and a renowned political economist, Marxist theorist and co-editor of the Socialist Register, who knew Ralph Miliband well.

Professor Leo Panitchhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12692011-11-25T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Brian Whitaker, Roger Hardy, Marwan Bishara, Dr Ramy Aly | A panel of seasoned journalists who have covered the Middle East extensively during their careers will critically reflect on the media coverage of the Arab uprisings. Why did reporters miss the build-up and tension which led to the Arab Spring? Have news stories exaggerated the role of social media? Are there wider questions that the coverage of the uprisings raise for reporting more generally? Dr Ramy Aly is lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Sussex and co-founder of the 'Public Service Broadcasting Initiative' (Egypt) and Head of its Research and Editorial Unit. He has contributed research on transnational Arab media and changing political cultures in the EU at the LSE as well as research on Arabic language media at the Open University and CRESC. Brian Whitaker has been a journalist for the British newspaper The Guardian since 1987 and its Middle East editor from 2000-2007. He is currently an editor on the paper's "Comment Is Free". He runs a personal, non-Guardian-related website, Al-Bab.com, about politics in the Arab world. Roger Hardy was for over twenty years a Middle East and Islamic affairs analyst with the BBC World Service. He is the author of The Muslim Revolt: A Journey through Political Islam (Hurst, 2010). He has come to LSE after six months in Washington, DC, at the Woodrow Wilson Center, where he was a public policy scholar researching the 'war of ideas' (under the Bush and Obama administrations). Marwan Bishara is Al Jazeera's senior political analyst. He was previously a professor of International Relations at the American University of Paris. An author who writes extensively on global politics, he is widely regarded as a leading authority on the Middle East and international affairs. Dr Myria Georgiou teaches at the Dept. of Media and Communications, LSE. She has a PhD in Sociology (LSE), an MSc in Journalism (Boston University) and a BA in Sociology (Panteion University, Athens) and her research focuses on the broader areas of diaspora, migration, media and identity.

Brian Whitaker, Roger Hardy, Marwan Bishara, Dr Ramy Alyhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12682011-11-24T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Axel Gosseries, Paul Loach | This dialogue explores the prospects for workplace democracy - utopian ideal, or an idea whose time has come? Axel Gosseries is a professor at the Université de Louvain, UCL, and a research associate at the CPNSS, LSE. Paul Loach has been investing in, and developing, SME's for 30 years.

Professor Axel Gosseries, Paul Loachhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12652011-11-24T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Manuel Castells | How are Social Movements shaped by the availability of horizontal communication networks based on the Internet and wireless communication? How can indignation become collective action by the connection between neural networks, digital social networks and urban networks? Which are the cultural and political consequences of these developments? Case studies in different contexts ground a theory of power and social change in the network society presented in the book Communication Power (Oxford University Press, paperback edition 2011) is to be presented in this lecture. Manuel Castells is University Professor and the Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He is a Harold Lasswell Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, as well as a fellow of the Spanish Royal Academy of Economics, a fellow of the Academia Europea, a fellow of the Mexican Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the British Academy.

Professor Manuel Castellshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12662011-11-24T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Muhammad Yunus | Muhammad Yunus is to be awarded an Honorary Degree – Doctor of Science (Economics) at this ceremony. Professor Yunus will mark the occasion by giving a lecture entitled Social Business: to solve society's most pressing problems and will then take questions from the audience. Muhammad Yunus was born on 28 June 1940 in the village of Bathua, Chittagong, a seaport in Bangladesh. The third of fourteen children, he was educated at Dhaka University and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study economics at Vanderbilt University. He then served as chairman of the economics department at Chittagong University before devoting his life to providing financial and social services to the poorest of the poor. He is the founder of Grameen Bank, serving as managing director until May 2011. Yunus is the author of the bestselling Banker to the Poor. In October 2006, Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Grameen Bank, for their efforts to create economic and social development. The trailer of Bonsai People - The Vision of Muhammad Yunus, the first film that looks at the work of Muhammad Yunus from microcredit through to social business is available using the link below.

Professor Muhammad Yunushttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12642011-11-24T17:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Lord Nat Wei | Lord Wei will give a lecture in memory of Lord Michael Chan, the first ever ethnic Chinese member of the House of Lords, who passed away in 2006. Nat Wei is the youngest and only ethnic Chinese peer in the House of Lords.

Lord Nat Weihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12622011-11-23T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Jason McKenzie Alexander, Dr Keith Jensen, Dr Andrew Pinsent | What generates our capability to act morally? How much is it part of our basic biology? How is it socialised? Is it reasoned, emotional, or does it derive from some other source entirely? Jason McKenzie Alexander is reader in philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, LSE. Keith Jensen is lecturer in comparative and developmental psychology at the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London. Andrew Pinsent is research director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at the University of Oxford.

Dr Jason McKenzie Alexander, Dr Keith Jensen, Dr Andrew Pinsenthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12602011-11-22T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Andrew Dilnot | Achieving a sustainable and fair system for funding the support required by people with social care needs represents a growing challenge to governments across the world. In his address, Andrew Dilnot will introduce the rationale for the recommendations made by the independent Commission on the Funding of Care and Support set-up by the coalition government and which reported in July 2012. How do the Commission's proposals allocate responsibility between individual and the state, and why? Andrew Dilnot is Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford and a Pro Vice Chancellor of Oxford University. He was the Chairman of the Commission on the Funding of Care and Support, whose report was published in July 2011. He is the author, with Michael Blastland, of the best-selling book about numbers The Tiger that isn't, of which Rory Bremner has said 'it makes statistics far, far too interesting'. He was the founding presenter of BBC Radio 4's series on the beauty of numbers, 'More or Less' and was Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies from 1991 to 2002. He is the chairman of the Statistics Users Forum of the Royal Statistical Society, and a trustee of the Nuffield Foundation. He has been a member of the board of the National Consumer Council and of the Office of Science and Technology Review of the use of science in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. He has served on the Social Security Advisory Committee, the Retirement Income Inquiry, the Balance of Central and Local Government Funding Inquiry, the Rowntree Committee on the future costs of long term care, the Ageing Population Foresight panel, and the Councils of the Royal Economic Society and Queen Mary and Westfield College. He is an Honorary Fellow of St John's College Oxford, Queen Mary University of London, the Swansea Institute of Higher Education and the Institute of Actuaries, and holds an Honorary Doctorate from City University. His main research interests lie in government economic policy as it affects individuals, companies, and the wider economy. He was awarded a CBE in 2000 for services to economics and economic policy.

Andrew Dilnothttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12632011-11-22T18:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Juan Manuel Santos Calderón | Juan Manuel Santos Calderón is President of the Republic of Colombia. Born in Bogota on August 10, 1951. He was a cadet at the Navy Academy in Cartagena; he studied Economics and Business Administration and carried out graduate studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Harvard University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He was Chief of the Colombian delegation before the International Coffee Organization (ICO) in London; he was the most recent Designate to the Presidency and Colombia's first Foreign Trade Minister. He has also been Finance Minister and National Defense Minister. During this last position, he was in charge of leading the implementation of the government's Democratic Security Policy. He created the Good Government Foundation (Fundación Buen Gobierno) and founded the political party Partido de la U in the year 2005, currently Colombia's largest political party. As a journalist he was a columnist and Deputy Director of the newspaper El Tiempo, he was awarded the King of Spain Prize and was president of the Freedom of Expression Commission for the Inter American Press Association (IAPA). He has published several books, among which the most significant are The Third Way, co-written with the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Check on Terror (Jaque al Terror), where he describes the most important actions against the Farc terrorist group during his tenure as head of the Ministry of Defense. On June 20, 2010, (after obtaining the largest vote during the first round of the presidential elections which took place on May 30 of the same year) at the second round of the presidential elections, he was elected President of the Republic of Colombia for the four year period between August 7, 2010 and August 7, 2014. He obtained more than 9 million votes, the highest amount obtained by any candidate in the history of Colombian democracy. During his campaign, he promised to lead a government of national unity that would carry out the transition from democratic security to democratic prosperity. President Santos is married to María Clemencia Rodríguez, with whom he has three children: Martín (21), María Antonia (19) and Esteban (16).

Juan Manuel Santos Calderónhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12612011-11-22T12:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Kamalesh Sharma | Kamalesh Sharma will reflect on the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in October 2011, which is expected to adopt reforms that will renew the focus and increase the impact of the Commonwealth. Kamalesh Sharma is the Commonwealth secretary general. He previously served as India's high commissioner to the United Kingdom.

Kamalesh Sharmahttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12582011-11-21T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Paulina Bozek, Vyacheslav Polonski, Christina Kerr | This is the second year of events where invited alumni share a stage with current students in a public talk. This is a unique opportunity for LSE students, staff and alumni to meet and share their experience in an informal forum. Paulina Bozek is the CEO of INENSU, a start-up game company making social and innovative games for the connected generation. Prior to founding INENSU, she was the Development Director of the Atari London Studio where she was responsible for overseeing the creative direction and team management for the development of social games and applications. Paulina spent six years at Sony as the Executive Producer of the SingStar franchise for PlayStation. SingStar has been instrumental in establishing games as popular entertainment and has achieved over $500million in revenue. Paulina started her career in games in 1999 at Ubisoft in Montreal, Canada. In 2004 Paulina was awarded the BAFTA Interactive New Talent Award. In 2005, SingStar was awarded the BAFTA Award for Originality. Paulina has an MSc in Media and Communications from the LSE (2002) and a nBA in Cultural Studies from McGill University. She is a frequent speaker at industry events on new media technology and popular culture. Vyacheslav Polonski is a Stelios Scholar and is currently in his third year in the BSc in Management at LSE. He has previously worked at the World Economic Forum, PwC and Amazon.com and founded the Strategy & Management Consulting Conference at the LSE, which became Europe's largest student conference on business strategy. Vyacheslav is also president of the LSE SU Consultancy Society and founder of the 'BusinessBattle' Trading Card Game. In 2011, he was honoured at the British Council 'International Student of the Year' Awards and was shortlisted for the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards. At the WorldStage lecture, he talked about his passion for entrepreneurship and some of the projects he has developed alongside his studies at LSE. Christina Kerr (LSE alumnus) worked at Price Waterhouse Coopers from 2002 - 2010 in the position Senior Manager for Campus Recruitment in her last two years there and now works in campus recruitment for Barclays Capital. Christina talked about what employers (not just banks!) look for in graduates and offer advice on how to make yourself more employable. Head of Recruitment and Admissions at LSE, Cath Baldwin chaired the event.

Paulina Bozek, Vyacheslav Polonski, Christina Kerrhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12902011-11-21T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Ralf Michaels | We are witnessing a paradigmatic shift in the reality and theory of law. The new transnational law – international commercial arbitration, non-state codifications like the UNIDROIT Principles, the alleged emerging convergent legal order– cannot be safely grounded, as law has been for a long time, in the state. Yet what its foundations are, or should be, remains unclear. In this situation, a remarkable number of authors shift from rational of political argument to invocations of dreams, faith, vision, as basis for the new transnational law. Most would dismiss these invocations as purely rhetorical. But dreams, vision and faith have played a central role in the history of texts in literature and political philosophy since at least the Bible, and current authors are, even if unknowingly, placing themselves in these traditions. The new transnational law is utopian in the literal sense of the word: placeless. Once we realize this connection, we can say more about its reality and its potential. Michaels studied law at the Universities of Passau and Cambridge, U.K. While at Duke, he has been a visiting professor at the Universities of Panthéon/Assas (Paris 2), Princeton, Pennsylvania, and Toronto; he has also held senior research fellowships at Harvard and Princeton, as well as the American Academy in Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for Private Law in Hamburg.

Professor Ralf Michaelshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12562011-11-17T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dan Sperber | Many social scientists and philosophers - John Searle in particular in The Construction of Social Reality - argue that social facts exist in virtue of being collectively recognized. I want to debunk this view and offer a truly naturalistic (but non-reductionist) alternative. I characterize social facts in terms of causal chains where the causal links are alternatively mental and environmental. I suggest a way to reconceptualise the social domain that raises new questions and allows new answers, while preserving the knowledge and competence accumulated in the traditional social sciences. Dan Sperber is a French social and cognitive scientist. He is the author numerous articles in anthropology, linguistics, philosophy and psychology and of three books: Rethinking Symbolism (Cambridge UP 1975), On Anthropological Knowledge (Cambridge UP 1985), and Explaining Culture (Blackwell 1996). He holds an emeritus research professorship at the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Paris, a recurrent visiting professorship at the Department of Philosophy of the Central European University in Budapest, and is the director of the International Cognition and Culture Institute. He is Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, Foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and member of the Academia Europaea. He has been the first laureate of the Claude Lévi-Strauss Prize in 2009.

Dan Sperberhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12842011-11-17T18:00:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Gilles Kepel | From the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings to their suppression in Bahrain and Syria; from civil war in Yemen and Libya to the challenges arising from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – what are the prospects for the Arab revolt(s)? Gilles Kepel is professor and chair, Middle East and Mediterranean Studies, at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po).

Professor Gilles Kepelhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12532011-11-16T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): John Tirman | US author John Tirman argues that while Americans are rightly concerned about the number of US troops killed in battle, they can seem indifferent, often oblivious, to the far greater number of casualties suffered by those they fight and those they fight for. John Tirman is executive director of MIT's Center for International Studies. This lecture marks the publication of his new book The Death of Others.

John Tirmanhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12542011-11-16T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Chaloka Beyani, Ignacio Llanos, Professor Sir Adam Roberts | The UN has a responsibility to protect populations from genocide and crimes against humanity, but to what effect? Experts will consider how recent events, such as those in Libya, challenge the international concept of 'Responsibility to Protect'. Chaloka Beyani is senior lecturer in law, LSE. Ignacio Llanos is counsellor of the Embassy of Chile in the UK. Adam Roberts is president of The British Academy.

Dr Chaloka Beyani, Ignacio Llanos, Professor Sir Adam Robertshttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12492011-11-15T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Brian Moore | Editor's note: This podcast contains explicit language. Former England rugby player turned journalist and media commentator gives his forthright views on a whole range of topics from the failings of the England football team to the rights and wrongs of Twitter. Moore speaks out on corruption in cricket, the downward spiral of boxing, the state of British tennis, the politicization of the Ryder Cup and of course, the world of rugby. Brian will be signing copies of his book More Thoughts of Chairman Moore after the talk. Brian Moore won 64 caps for the England rugby team between 1987 and 1995, played in three Rugby World Cups and won the Grand Slam in 1991, 1992 and 1995. Originally a qualified solicitor, he writes a regular column for the Daily Telegraph and is a co-commentator for international rugby matches on BBC, and will cover the 2011 Rugby World Cup for TalkSport. His double award-winning autobiography, Beware of the Dog, was released in 2010, and was followed by The Thoughts of Chairman Moore, Vol.1, published last Christmas.

Brian Moorehttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12502011-11-15T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Daniel Kahneman, Professor Lord Richard Layard | Two systems drive the way we think and make choices: System One is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System Two is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Over many years, Daniel Kahneman has conducted groundbreaking research into this – in his own words – "machinery of the mind". Fast thinking has extraordinary capabilities, but also faults and biases. Intuitive impressions have a pervasive influence on our thoughts and our choices. Only by understanding how the two systems work together, Kahneman shows, can we learn the truth about the role of optimism in opening up a new business, and the importance of luck in a successful corporate strategy, or the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, and the psychological pitfalls of playing the stock market. Kahneman shows where we can trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choice are made in both our business and personal lives – and how we can guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. This public conversation between Professor Kahneman and Professor Lord Layard celebrates the publication of Kahneman's new book Thinking, Fast and Slow. Daniel Kahneman is Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Princeton University and a Professor of Public Affairs Emeritus at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. The recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics for his seminal work in psychology that challenged the rational model of judgment and decision making, his ideas have had a profound and widely regarded impact on many disciplines – including economics, business, law and philosophy. Until now, he has never brought together his many years of research and thinking in one book. Richard Layard is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, where he was, until 2003, the founder-director of the Centre for Economic Performance. He now heads the Centre's Programme on Well-Being. Since 2000 he has been a member of the House of Lords.

Professor Daniel Kahneman, Professor Lord Richard Layardhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12512011-11-15T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Robin Harris | Drawing on his new book, The Conservatives-A History, Robin Harris will review the different styles, strengths and weaknesses of successive Conservative leaders, and analyse the problems which they and the Party faced at different junctures. He will consider whether there are lessons to be drawn from this historical experience for the present and future. Robin Harris began to work for the Conservative Party in 1978, becoming Director of the Conservative Research Department, a government political adviser and a member of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Policy Unit. When Mrs Thatcher left Downing Street, so did he, going on to assist her with books and speeches. In recent years, he has written an authoritative history of the city state of Dubrovnik and an acclaimed biography of the French statesman, Talleyrand. He is currently working on a biography of Margaret Thatcher.

Robin Harrishttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12462011-11-14T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor John Breuilly, Professor Sir Francis Jacobs, Professor Umut Özkirimli | This series of events explores how our understanding of Europe's identity can be enhanced and developed in a new way by taking in a distinctively Turkish perspective. John Breuilly is professor of nationalism and ethnicity at the Government Department, LSE. Francis Jacobs is professor of law and Jean Monnet Professor at King's College London's School of Law. Umut Özkirimli is visiting professor, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University. This is event is jointly organised with the LSE Chair in Contemporary Turkish Studies.

Professor John Breuilly, Professor Sir Francis Jacobs, Professor Umut Özkirimlihttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12472011-11-14T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Laura Oldfield Ford | In this talk, artist, writer and zine maker Laura Oldfield Ford will be showing traces and relics from her psychogeographic drifts around the ruined landscapes of London's hinterlands. This event marks the publication of Laura's new book Savage Messiah. Laura Oldfield Ford, originally from Halifax, West Yorkshire, studied at the Royal College of Art and has become well known for her politically active and poetic engagement with London as a site of social antagonism. She exhibits and teaches across Europe and America.

Laura Oldfield Fordhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12482011-11-14T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Sven Lindqvist | This lecture marks the centenary of aerial bombardment. More than just a military revolution, this development redrew the legal and moral boundaries between civilians and combatants and spread the theatre of war into cities and domestic spaces. Sven Lindqvist is the author of over 30 widely translated books including A History of Bombing. The lecture is part of a joint initiative of LSE Sociology and the Sociology Department at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Sven Lindqvisthttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12452011-11-10T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Professor Robert H. Frank | Who was the greater economist--Adam Smith or Charles Darwin? The question seems absurd. Darwin, after all, was a naturalist, not an economist. But Robert Frank, New York Times economics columnist and best-selling author of The Economic Naturalist, predicts that within the next century Darwin will unseat Smith as the intellectual founder of economics. Frank's new book is entitled The Darwin Economy. In this conversation with Paul Mason, economics editor of BBC 2's Newsnight, Frank will argue that the reason for this is that Darwin's understanding of competition describes economic reality far more accurately than Smith's. The consequences of this fact are profound and our failure to recognize that we live in Darwin's world rather than Smith's is putting us all at risk by preventing us from seeing that competition alone will not solve our problems. The good news is that we have the ability to tame the Darwin economy. The best solution is not to prohibit harmful behaviours but to tax them. By doing so, we could make the economic pie larger, eliminate government debt, and provide better public services, all without requiring painful sacrifices from anyone. That's a bold claim, Frank concedes, but it follows directly from logic and evidence that most people already accept. Robert H. Frank is an economics professor at Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management and a regular "Economic View" columnist for the New York Times, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos. His books, which have been translated into 22 languages, include The Winner-Take-All Society (with Philip Cook), The Economic Naturalist, Luxury Fever, What Price the Moral High Ground?, and Principles of Economics (with Ben Bernanke).

Professor Robert H. Frankhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12592011-11-10T18:30:00Z

Speaker(s): Dr Michael Spindelegger | Dr Michael Spindelegger is Vice-Chancellor of the Republic of Austria and Federal Minister for European and International Affairs. He graduated from the University of Vienna with a doctorate in law. This event is part of the LSESU Austrian Society's Global Business and Politics from an Austrian Perspective lecture series. LSE's European Foreign Policy Unit| (EFPU) based in the International Relations Department acts as a focus for research and teaching on issues relating to the steadily more serious attempts to create a collective European foreign policy since 1970.

Dr Michael Spindeleggerhttp://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=1243