Events

III Public Lecture

Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2016

Speaker: Anthony Shorrocks (Director, Global Economic Perspectives; Senior Research Fellow, World Institute of Development Economics Research)

Chair: Prof John Hills (LSE)

Discussants: Dr Abigail McKnight (LSE) and Deborah Hardoon (Oxfam)

Wed 23rd Nov, Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House, 6.15-7.45pm

Drawing on Credit Suisse data, Oxfam created worldwide headlines this year with the claim that 62 people own the same as half the world. To mark the publication of the Global Wealth Report 2016, Tony Shorrocks explains the basis of Credit Suisse data and summarises the current evidence on the level, distribution and trends of household wealth in all regions and countries of the world since 2000. 

The lecture will be followed by a reception in The LSE Garrick, Lower Ground Floor, Columbia House, Aldwych. 

Attendance is conditional upon registration. Please register by sending an e-mail to inequalities.institute@lse.ac.uk, stating whether you also wish to attend the reception following the lecture.

Inequalities seminar series

International Inequalities Institute / Sociology Department

Redefining Support for Redistribution:  preferences for reducing economic inequality in the US and Sweden

Speaker: Prof Leslie McCall (Northwestern University)

Tues 29th Nov, TW2 9.05, 12.15-13.45

In contrast to studies of the multiple determinants and implications of inequality, research into the potential array of solutions to the problem of inequality is narrower in scope.  there are two main strands:  the study of tax and social policies (social redistribution) and pay-compression policies that address inequalities in the labour market (market distribution).

III Public Lecture

Success and Luck:  good fortune and the myth of meritocracy

Speaker:  Prof Robert H. Frank (Cornell Univ)

Discussant: Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP

Chair:  Prof Nicola Lacey (LSE)

Wed 7th Dec, Sheikh Zayed Theatre, 6.30-8pm

How important is luck in economic success?  As conservatives correctly observe, people who amass great fortunes are almost always talented and hard-working.  But liberals are also correct to note that countless others have those same qualities yet never earn much.  In recent years, social scientists have discovered that chance plays a much larger role in important life outcomes than most people imagine.  In this talk about his new book, Success and Luck:  good fortune and the myth of meritocracy, Robert Frank explores the surprising implications of those findings to show why the rich underestimate the importance of luck in success - and why that hurts everyone, even the wealthy.

Social Solidarity in the "Knowledge Economy"

Speaker: Prof Kathleen Thelen (MIT)

Thurs 12th Jan, Hong Kong Theatre, 6.30-8pm

This lecture examines cross-nationally divergent responses to the challenges posed by the transition to the "knowledge economy" and explores the role of the state in sustaining growth, employment, and social solidarity in the contemporary period.

The Piketty Opportunity

Speaker: Patricia Hudson (Emeritus Professor Cardiff University), Avner Offer (Chichele Professor of Economic History, All Souls College, Oxford Univ), Keith Tribe (Independent Scholar)

Thurs 26th Jan, Hong Kong Theatre, 6.30-8pm

Following the publication of The Contradictions of Capital, editors and authors join with the International Inequalities Institute to discuss the analysis of inequality in an international context.

Getting Respect: responding to stigma and discrimination in the United States, Brazil and Israel

Speaker: Prof Michele Lamont

Wed 8th Mar, venue to be confirmed, 6.30-8pm

This lecture will address the issues in Micele Lamont's latest book, which contributes to the study of everyday racism and stigma management, the quest for recognition, and the comparative study of inequality and processes of cultural change.

Re-imagining Civil Society Engagement: in search of social innovation

Speaker: Prof Maurizio Ferrera (Milan)

Wed 23rd Nov, Wolfson Theatre, NAB, 2pm

Carbon and Inequality: from Measurement to Policy

Speaker: Dr Lucas Chancel, with respondent Dario Kenner

Thurs 1st Dec, 32 Lincolns Inn Fields, Room 1.04, 12.00-13.30

The seminar will present recent trends in economic inequality and individual carbon emissions at the international and national levels. It will also seek to identify the conditions under which carbon mitigation measures can be implemented with positive social impacts - and, conversely, discuss how economic inequality reduction policies can be performed with limited impacts on carbon emissions.

Register here

Third seminar

Thurs 16th Feb 2017, 12.00-13.30

The Health Co-benefits of the low carbon economy

Speaker: Prof Sir Andy Haines (London School of Medicine and Tropical Hygiene)

Can the co-benefits of climate action help to deliver social equity?

Speaker: Dr Alison Smith (Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford)

Can local carbon reduction programmes work in disadvantaged areas?

Speaker: Dr Ruth Mayne (Oxfam GB and Environmental Change Institute, Unviersity of Oxford)

Register here

Time, carbon and social policy

Thurs 9th Mar 2017

Speaker: Prof Angela Druckman (Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP), University of Surrey)

Would income redistribution result in higher aggregate emissions?

Thurs 27th April 2017

Speaker: Lutz Sager (Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, LSE)

Postgrowth and Wellbeing

Thurs 25th May 2017

Speakers: Prof Max Koch (Lund University) and Dr Milena Buchs (University of Leeds)

Charles Booth Centenary Lectures 

Thursday November 3rd

Speakers: Mary Morgan  (LSE Economic History Dept), Alan Manning (LSE Economics Dept), Stephen Machin (LSE Centre for Economic Performance), Fran Tonkiss (LSE Sociology Dept), Suzi Hall (LSE Cities), Anne Power (LSE Social Policy Dept), Emily Grundy (LSE Social Policy Dept), Tim Newburn (Social Policy Dept) and John Hills (LSE International Inequalities Institute and Social Policy Dept)

This event, which coincided with the LSE Research Festival 2016, was part of a wider LSE celebration of pioneering social scientist Charles Booth, who died in 1916, and whose original survey into life and labour in London is held in the LSE Library.

Booth's investigation of poverty in London provides a key example both of the creative development of social science and of the ways in which research may be used to have a positive impact on society. The event brought together a group of scholars from a range of disciplines to explore the substance of Booth's ideas as well as his broader legacy for the social sciences and for contemporary social analysis.

Video recordings avaialble here.

Climate Change, Inequality and Social Policy

Speaker: Prof Ian Gough (CASE)

Thurs 3 Nov 2016

This seminar brought together the study of environmental pressures on the one hand and the social dimension of inequality on the other, with the aim of facilitating an interdisciplinary dialogue between the two and develop an agenda for research and policy development.

Download paper

Listen to podcast

Inequalities seminar series 

International Inequalities Institute / Sociology Department

The Organizational Production of Earnings Inequalities

Speaker:  Prof Donald Tomaskovic-Devey (UMASS)

Tues 25th Oct

Organisations raise capital, hire, produce, sell, and distribute surplus, generating the initial distributions of income from which all other income inequalities follow.  But what drives workplace inequality levels and trends?

See slides (pdf)

See video recording

Taxing the Rich: a history of fiscal fairness in the United States and Europe

Speaker: Prof David Stasavage

Chair: Prof David Soskice

In today's social climate of growing inequality, why are there not greater efforts to tax the rich? David Stasavage asks when and why countries tax their wealthiest citizens.

See slides

2016 APPAM International Conference - Inequalities: Addressing the Growing Challenge for Policymakers Worldwide

The Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management> 2016 conference was held at the III, an international conference of policy researchers and analysts from around the globe to share the latest research and knowledge on the pressing challenge on inequality.

Challenging Inequalities

This public debate at LSE following the International Inequalities Institute Annual Conference 2016 explored different approaches to challenging inequality across the globe with Craig Calhoun, Shami Chakrabarti, Duncan Green, and Phumeza Mlungwana.

International Inequalities Institute Annual Conference 2016

An international gathering of academics and policymakers to discuss inequality, our annual conference featured Thomas Piketty, Kimberlé Crenshaw (pictured), Kim Weeden, Facundo Alvardeo, Murray Leibbrandt, LSE MSc students and more on topics including intersectionality, income and wealth inequality, capital, and taxation.

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

MacArthur 'Genius' award winning ethnographer Matthew Desmond speaks about his investigation into the low-income rental market and eviction in privately owned housing, and argues it is a cause, not just a symptom, of poverty.

Utopia in the Twenty-first Century

Five hundred years ago Thomas More’s Utopia was published, but what is its relevance today? Ruth Levitas argues that what is important about More is less the substance than the method: Utopia should be regarded not as a plan, but as a method of exploring potential futures. Part of LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival 2016.

Standing Out: Transgender Candidates Around the World

At this event transgender candidates from around the world shared their experience of running for office, and academics discussed how increased visibility increases acceptance.

Social Class in the 21st Century

Mike Savage and the team of sociologists responsible for the Great British Class Survey,  discussed their findings and proposed a new way of thinking about social class in Britain today, arguing that while the class war was over the new politics of class are only just beginning. This event also saw the launch of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Poverty and Inequalities Programme.

Too Many Children Left Behind

Jane Waldfogel of Columbia University explains her work as part of a team of social scientists who compared educational outcomes and their link to family socio-economic status across the English speaking world. Their striking findings include that much inequality is present before children start school. Joint event with CASE.

Elites and Urban Dynamics: New Perspectives Conference

A one-day seminar funded by the ESRC Alpha Territory project, in association with the LSE International Inequalities Institute, organised by Rowland Atkinson (University of Sheffield), Roger Burrows (Goldsmiths) and Mike Savage (LSE). 

The Great Divide with Joseph E. Stiglitz

Why has inequality increased in the Western world and what can we do about it? Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz suggests ways to counter this growing problem.

Inequality in the 21st Century Conference with Thomas Piketty

A day long conference with Thomas Piketty, Centennial Professor at the III whose Capital in the Twenty-First Century has been of global significance in shaping debates about inequality. This joint conference with the LSE Department of Sociology and the British Journal of Sociology was the official launch of the III.

Inequality: What can be done?

World leaders have come to recognise the importance of income inequality but the consensus remains that 'nothing can be done'. Professor Sir Tony Atkinson argues that present levels of inequality are not inevitable and that there are concrete measures to be taken to tackle inequality.