Audio, video and pdf files from LSE's 2012 programme of public lectures and events.http://www.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/LSE Film and Audio Teamcomms.filmandaudio@lse.ac.ukhttp://www.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/Copyright © Terms of use apply see http://www.lse.ac.uk/termsOfUse/SQL Serverhttp://www.lse.ac.uk/assets/richmedia/webFeedImages/publicLectures_2012_1400.jpg2016-11-17T12:42:30.403Z

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

Speaker(s): Various - see description | Session 1 - Opening Ceremony. Speakers: Professor Stuart Corbridge, Maria Helena Gasparian, Ana Souza, Isabel Santana, Pilar Álvarez-Laso, Professor Sandra Jovchelovitch. The 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 Violence. Speakers: Washington Rimas, Camila Batmanghelidjh, Silvia Ramos, Paul Heritage, Pilar Álvarez-Laso. The Self and Life Trajectories; Community Responses to Crime and Violence; Resisting Exclusion and Generating Positive Practices. Session 3 - Urban Borders, Mediations and New Social Actors. Speakers: Junia Santa Rosa, Celso Athayde, Antonio Roberto Cesário de Sá, Gareth Jones, Anthony Hall. Broken 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 Sociabilities. Speakers: Rogerio Sottili, Luis Erlanger, Jailson de Souza e Silva, Ricky Burdett. Themes: 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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.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://www.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=12922012-01-09T18:30:00Z