Department of Social Policy seminars

Autumn Term

Thursday 28 November 2024, 1.00pm-2.30pm, in person and online (OLD 2.21)

Abstract: Environmental justice debates often grapple with the complex causal links between selective residential migration and environmental inequality. To address this gap, we explore the relationship between selective residential migration and environmental inequality, focussing on the air pollution disadvantages of immigrant minorities in England and Germany. In this presentation, we use longitudinal household-level data from the UKHLS and the German SOEP, linked to air pollution metrics such as NO2, PM2.5, and SO2. Our analysis reveals that immigrant minorities in both countries reside in areas with significantly higher levels of air pollution. Immigrants do not experience similar improvements in air quality upon relocation as compared to non-immigrant households starting under the same conditions. The disadvantage in levels and migration returns is more pronounced in England. To delve further into the selective migration processes, we compare the immigrant disadvantage in air pollution to the disadvantage in neighbourhood deprivation. Despite improvements among immigrants in England in relative income deprivation, significant air pollution exposure persists. Using an explorative design, we find that moving out of urban ethnic enclaves improves neighbourhood deprivation but not air pollution, which requires moves to less densely populated areas. Such moves are rare due to similar pollution levels across proximate areas.

Presenter Bio: Tobias Rüttenauer is Lecturer in Quantitative Social Science at University College London's Social Research Institute. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellow in Sociology at Nuffield College, Oxford. His research interests encompass environmental sociology, spatial demography, and quantitative methods. He has investigated air pollution distribution, ethnic minority exposure, and internal migration patterns. He also explores the impact of exposure to extreme weather on environmental attitudes and other behavioural outcomes.

How to attend?

Attend in person- OLD 2.21
Register to attend online here

Thursday 5 December 2024, 1.00pm-2.30pm, in person and online (OLD 2.21)

Abstract: Quality-of-life offenses—municipal and state criminal laws that purport to regulate social and physical disorder—regularly target people who violate those laws because they engage in routine activities of daily living in public spaces. These laws target unsheltered individuals and include a litany of offenses prohibiting activities like public camping, sleeping in public spaces, and disorderly conduct. Constitutional litigation challenging these offenses have labelled these laws “status crimes” because they criminalise behaviours inextricably linked with status or derivative of status. Quality-of-life offenses are by their nature exclusionary devices; their enforcement leads to the removal of offending individuals whose conduct allegedly generates or contributes to social and physical disorder. Viewed in this vein, it becomes clear to see that the function of these quality-of-life offenses is not solely to reduce or eliminate disorders or even promote general welfare of the community; these laws also exclude certain individuals from the community. This presentation proposes a new account of status crimes that aligns with an historical understanding of the Fourteenth Amendment in the United States. In so doing, I propose a new way of thinking about status crimes that better aligns with the precise constitutional injuries that status offenses pose to individuals targeted by jurisdictions for life-sustaining activities in public spaces.

Presenter Bio: Jamelia Morgan, Professor of Law at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law, is an award-winning and acclaimed scholar and teacher focussing on issues at the intersections of race, gender, disability, and criminal law and punishment. Her scholarship and teaching examine the development of disability as a legal category in American law, disability and policing, overcriminalisation and the regulation of physical and social disorder, and the constitutional dimensions of the criminalisation of status. She received a BA in Political Science and a Master of Arts in Sociology from Stanford University, and her JD from Yale Law School.

How to attend?

Attend in person- OLD 2.21
Register to attend online here

Thursday 12 December 2024, 1.00pm-2.30pm, in person and online (OLD 2.21)

Abstract: Surveillance cameras have often been regarded as intrusive devices for citizens’ privacy. However, they have now been widely used in ordinary people’s homes in China. Why do Chinese people voluntarily bring so-called big brothers to their homes? Using data collected through in-depth interviews with various stakeholders in the use of home surveillance cameras, this presentation explores how surveillance cameras become a banality in Chinese home settings. We argue that while surveillance cameras were first introduced for controlling both strangers and family members, two new functions have developed. On one hand, home cameras facilitate long-distance caring while family members are away from home. On the other hand, they become a playful device in their ability to capture otherwise non-capturable moments. We argue that the nature of home surveillance cameras has transformed from a controlling device to a multi-functional device involving control, care and play, which explains the popularity of home cameras in China. We also find that while tactical resistance to surveillance is widely practiced in the home setting, these resistances are constrained and limited. In this paper, we contribute to the literature on the function creep of surveillance cameras globally.

Presenter Bio: Jianhua Xu is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Macau (UM). His research interests include the sociology of crime and deviance, policing, victimology, urban sociology and Macao Studies. He is author of over 60 publications in English and Chinese. Many of his works have appeared in journals such as The China Quarterly, The British Journal of Criminology, Theoretical Criminology and Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, among others. He is currently finishing a book entitled The Chinese Policing Web to be published by Oxford University Press.

How to attend?

Attend in person- OLD 2.21
Register to attend online here

Catch up on our 2024/25 seminar series via our YouTube channel here.

21 November 2024

The role of default options and financial and pension literacy for retirement saving in a fully funded system

Presenter: Dr Piera Bello (University of Bergamo)

No video available

14 November 2024

Aid’s Impact on Social Protection in the Global South

Presenter: Dr Miguel Niño-Zarazúa (SOAS, University of London)

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24 October 2024

Understanding Global Blackness: Indigeneity, Reparations and the Post-colonial State

SPECIAL Race Matters Initiative (RMI) Seminar

Presenter: Dr Althea-Maria Rivas (SOAS, University of London)

No video available

17 October 2024

The Concentration of Children on Income Distribution and Its Consequences for Poverty and Inequality

Presenter: Professor Berkay Ozcan (LSE)

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10 October 2024

Analysis of Cybercrime Issues in Anglophone West Africa

Presenter:Dr Suleman Lazarus (LSE)

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Catch up on our 2023/24 seminar series via our YouTube channel here.

21 March 2024

Birth spacing and the health of mothers and fathers: an analysis of physical and mental health using individual- and sibling-fixed effects
Presenter: Dr Kieron Barclay

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14 March 2024

Intergenerational educational mobility during the twentieth century in 77 low- and middle-income and 15 high-income countries
Presenter: Dr Mobarak Hossain

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15 February 2024

Conflict-related migration: new insights from Ukraine
Presenter: Professor Lucinda Platt

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8 February 2024

Research similarity and Women in Academia
Presenter: Dr Alessandra Casarico

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1 February 2024

Colonization and Social Policy: A Comparative Analysis of Social Policy Development in South Asia; Pre to Post Colonial Era
Presenter: Dr Zahid Mumtaz

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25 January 2024

Intergenerational Poverty Persistence in Europe - is there a Great Gatsby Curve for Poverty?
Presenter: Professor Brian Nolan

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18 January 2024

Kingdon at 40: Multiple Streams, Multiple Flaws
Presenter: Dr Fabio Battaglia

No video available

7 December 2023

The Altruistic Authoritarian Citizen
Presenters:Professor Reza Hasmath (University of Alberta) and Dr Timothy Hildebrandt (LSE)

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23 November 2023

Formal Trade, Informal State: Public Authority and the Governance of Informal Cross-Border Trade in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
Presenter: Dr Jonathan Bashi Rudahindwa (SOAS, University of London)

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16 November 2023

Qualitative Literacy: A Guide to Evaluating Ethnographic and Interview Research
Presenters: Professor Mario Small (Columbia University) and Dr Jessica Calarco (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

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9 November 2023

The Political Economy of Women's Work in Palestine under Settler Colonialism
Presenter: Dr Samia M Al-Botmeh (Birzeit University)

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26 October 2023

Energy Policy Support Increases through Policy Goal Communication
Presenter: Dr Gracia Bruckmann (University of Bern)

No video available

12 October 2023

Marketing Development Studies in the Neoliberal University and How to Be Cosmopolitan
SPECIAL Race Matters Initiative (RMI) Seminar
Presenter: Dr Kamna Patel (University College London)

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5 October 2023

Imperial Development: The Humanitarian-Development Nexus in Jordan and Lebanon
Presenter: Dr Lama Tawakkol (University of Manchester)

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Catch up on our 2022/23 seminar series via our YouTube channel here.

30 March 2023

Social and academic embeddedness as buffers against school closure effects on schooling outcomes

Speaker: Professor Herman van de Werfhorst, European University Institute

Autumn Term

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2019/20

2018/19

2017/18

Behavioural Public Policy Seminars LSE Hayek Programme - Department of Social Policy Joint BPP seminar series

EPG online series

CASE Seminars Social Exclusion Seminars and the Welfare Policy and Analysis Seminars

Mannheim Centre for Criminology Seminars