India is far from being a superpower

India is not a superpower and will not become one in the foreseeable future, suggests a special report published by LSE.

Upgraded CMS

The School's Content Management System (CMS) - the software used to produce and provide the LSE website - will be upgraded in the last two weeks of March.

Maurice Fraser

Maurice, senior fellow in the European Institute, has been special adviser to three foreign secretaries and his favourite type of music is florid arias and cantatas of the Italian baroque.

For many of us, the idea of swimming in an alpine lake in the middle of winter would be incomprehensible. But Nuala Connolly (pictured), events coordinator in LSE IDEAS, did just that when she took part in the 2012 Lake Bled Winter Swimming Cup in February.

Attended by swimmers from Germany, Slovenia, Latvia, Finland, Russia, the UK and the Czech Republic, the competition took place in Lake Bled in Slovenia. The lake was completely frozen over with ice and snow, therefore a 25 metre x 50 metre area had to be cleared in order for the competition to take place. The air temperature was minus eight degrees and the water temperature was between one and two degrees.

Nuala explained: ‘The distances swum were quite short as, after a few minutes in the water, your hands and feet go numb and it becomes quite dangerous. It is not so much the cold water that is the danger but more the getting warm afterwards as this is when hypothermia kicks in. It is important to get dressed and warm up quickly. In total we were in the water no more than five to seven minutes.’

The School is sad to announce that Emeritus Professor Peter Loizos (pictured), who taught in the Department of Anthropology for over 30 years, died on Friday 2 March.

Peter started working at LSE in 1969, and became professor of anthropology in 1997, before retiring from full-time teaching in 2002.

LSE has released the latest in its series of films highlighting life at the School through the stories of individuals, events, projects - or, in this case, a course.

LSE100 emerged from the 2008 Teaching Taskforce. An interdisciplinary course that brings students from different disciplines together and uses compelling contemporary issues such as climate change and global poverty to explore the key elements of ‘thinking like a social scientist’, the course is now compulsory following a successful pilot project.

In this film, funded by HEIF4, the director of LSE100, Dr Jonathan Leape, sets out the thinking behind the course and senior academics from across the School, including Professor Luc Bovens, Professor Michael Cox and Professor Nicholas Stern, explain their involvement with the course and the value of introducing students to a range of analytical tools.

Students on the course also talk of its value - to both their own understanding of the full breadth of the social sciences, and also to prospective employers, who are looking for students who can write cogent arguments, work well in groups and see an issue from a range of perspectives.

On Friday 2 March Dr Armine Ishkanian (pictured), Department of Social Policy, took part in a radio debate hosted by the Voice of Russia.

The debate focused on the controversy over American-funded non-governmental organisations in Egypt, Russia and elsewhere. Other panellists included Peter Willets, from London's City University, Max Wind-Cowie, from the think tank Demos, and Dmitri Babbitch, Voice of Russia‘s political analyst.

The School's Content Management System (CMS) - the software used to produce and provide the LSE website - will be upgraded to the latest version in the last two weeks of March.

This change will only affect CMS editors and contributors, and their managers; there should be little or no impact for most staff and students. The new version brings improvements to the interface, functionality and performance.

A series of sessions is now underway for CMS editors and contributors to preview the new version and familiarise themselves with the main changes. Editors and contributors will be asked to limit use of the current CMS to essential updates between Wednesday 21 and Monday 26 March, with the new version going live on Tuesday 27 March.

These are just some of the projects that have been recently funded through the Teaching and Learning Development Fund:

• For undergraduates on the Sociology Department's crime, deviance and control course, the opportunity to work alongside PhD students from the Mannheim Centre to conduct recorded interviews with criminologists that will enhance their learning and understanding of key concepts and provide some experience in methodological research.
• A novel orientation idea for MSc students in the Department of Media and Communications, in the form of a 'photo-hunt' which stimulated them into thinking about theory by asking them to photograph objects around LSE that related to quotes from key media and communications texts; the students' 'exhibitions' were later presented at a social event.
• Production of a course pack and provision of additional teaching resource to enhance learning support and student assessment on the Department of Maths' first year quantitative methods course.

The Library has purchased the complete electronic full text of the US Congressional Hearings digital collection historical archive 1824-2003.

This resource substantially improves access to material that had previously been hard to locate in print and microform in the Library's US Government collection.

Until recently it was often difficult to find out if anyone had cited your books or book chapters. This proved frustrating for social scientists with monograph outputs which could not easily be included in bibliometric/citation analyses.

However, the LSE Library has just purchased a new Book Citation Index that will allow you to find out how many times your monographs have been cited and add these to your existing journal citation counts.

LSE’s Public Policy Group/Impact of Social Sciences Project is holding a conference, 'From Research to Policy: academic impacts on government', on Monday 12 March, which will be streamed live via the Institute for Government website.

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.

Speakers will include Jonathan Portes, director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, Professor Bernard Silverman, chief scientific adviser at the Home Office, Professor Huw Davies, University of St Andrews, and Professor Sandy Thomas, director of the Foresight Programme, Government Office for Science.

The Centre for the Study of Human Rights is hosting the second Human Rights Doctoral Event on Monday 12 March, organised in partnership with the Human Rights Centres at the University of Essex and University of Cambridge.

In three panels taking place between 11am and 4pm, doctoral students from the three universities will present their work. The three themes are international and global themes in human rights, the European Union and legal protection, and trans-disciplinary themes in human rights.

The aim of the day is to encourage the widest participation and collaboration by PhD students working in human rights in these three universities and across multiple disciplines. Currently registered full or part-time MPhil/PhD students with research in a broadly human rights area are welcome to participate, as are academic colleagues who could contribute to the discussion or be (co-)respondents to the papers.

March’s LSE Perspectives gallery is now online. You can view this month’s selection of photos here.

The gallery features 12 striking images submitted by LSE students and staff. Each image reflects a unique perspective on a particular scene.

If you have taken any artistic images on your travels, from your home town or even just here in London why not submit them for LSE perspectives so that they can be shared with the LSE community.

Any LSE Catering customer using their card as a method of payment and spending £30 or more a month will be entered into a prize draw, from which five lucky winners each month get £10 added to their loyalty purse.

The winners of the prize draw for February were:

• Ying Wu
• Chandran Kukathas
• Akikatsu Matsuda
• Catherine Bennett
• Jan-Frederik Arnold

This week's picture features Amit Chaudhuri and his band performing 'A Moment of Mishearing', an eclectic mix of music, words and images exploring his literary and musical ideas about memory, chance and a city.
The performance followed the Forum for European Philosophy Literary Festival event on Friday 2 March.
For more images like this, visit the Photography Unit.

India is not a superpower and will not become one in the foreseeable future, suggests a special report published by LSE.

The authors argue that despite India’s rising power and wealth it remains shackled by weaknesses which include corruption and poor leadership, extreme social divisions, internal security threats and religious extremism. The report, India: the next superpower?, features essays by nine experts which examine the nation’s economy, defence, government, culture, environment and society.

While they acknowledge the country’s formidable achievements in fostering democracy, growth and cultural dynamism, they generally agree that its structural weaknesses mean that it cannot yet call itself a superpower or be considered a full counterweight to the influence of China (as some in the West have hoped).

Anorexia study backs government ban on underweight models

Anorexia is a socially transmitted disease and appears to be more prevalent in countries such as France where women are thinner than average, according to new research from LSE.

This first ever economic analysis of anorexia, using a sample of nearly 3,000 young women across Europe, concludes that peer group pressure is the most significant influence on self-image and the development of anorexia. The findings endorse government intervention to compensate for social pressure on women, regulating against the use of underweight models in the fashion industry and in women's magazines, for example.

The research, by LSE economist Dr Joan Costa-Font and Professor Mireia Jofre-Bonet of City University, is due to be published in the academic journal Economica later this year. More
 

The impact of the single market on cohesion

A study by LSE Enterprise has assessed the impact of the Single Market on growth, competitiveness and employment in EU27, providing recommendations for cohesion policy from 2014-20.

The study draws on a range of sources, including desk-based research, modelling work, econometric analysis as well as qualitative assessment through a number of case studies covering regions with different characteristics.

Its conclusions concern the alignment of cohesion policy with the Europe 2020 strategy, the integration of regions into the Single Market, the role of leading regions, the quality of public investment, the framework conditions for investments and governance challenges.

For more information, visit Recent reports.

On: Wednesday 14 March from 6.30-8pm in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building

Professor Zygmunt Bauman (pictured), emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Leeds, will deliver this lecture. The lecture is part of the Ralph Miliband Series on The Future of the Left, in association with the Department of Sociology.

The event is free and open to all with no ticket required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis. For more information, click here.
 

Upcoming events include....

Digital Espionage, Crime, and Warfare in the Global Glass House
On: Monday 12 March at 6.30pm in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building
Speaker: Joel Brenner, former head of US counterintelligence and inspector general of the US National Security Agency.

Enemies: a history of the FBI
On: Tuesday 13 March at 6.30pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speaker: Tim Weiner (pictured), Pulitzer prize-winning journalist at the New York Times.

Towards a Global Health Policy? Celebrating 25 Years of Health Policy Teaching at LSE

On: Monday 19 - Tuesday 20 March at LSE.

LSE Health and Social Care is holding a special conference to celebrate its five health MSc programmes. The conference will bring together alumni, policymakers, practitioners, students and academics to debate key global health policy issues.

Themes will include:

• Access to Drugs: the number one policy issue?
• The Global Health Workforce: how can we get it right?
• Does 'High-Performing Health System' Mean the Same Thing Everywhere?
• Protecting Health in Difficult Circumstances: politics, economics and health

LSE Director, Professor Judith Rees, will open the conference at 5.30pm on Monday 19 March, followed by a headline lecture by Professor Julian Le Grand and a supper reception. Starting at 9.30am on Tuesday 20 March, there will be a day of plenary sessions. The conference will close with a drinks reception.

For more information or to register, click here.
 

On until Friday 13 April in the Atrium Gallery, Old Building

The LSE Photo Prize Exhibition 2012 is now on display. The exhibition celebrates the photographic creativity of LSE’s students and staff and showcases the 42 winning entries from this year’s LSE Photo Prize competition, which took on the theme of ‘Overcoming Hurdles’.

The exhibited images were chosen by a judging panel of art professionals and LSE staff. The winners of the competition will be unveiled at the Photo Prize reception on Thursday 8 March.

Podcasts of public lectures and events

Growth for Europe: resuscitating the single market
Speaker: RNDr Petr Nečas
Recorded: Wednesday 29 February, approx 57 minutes
Click here to listen

The Importance of Strong Data Protection Rules for Growth and Competitiveness
Speaker: Viviane Reding
Recorded: Thursday 1 March, approx 55 minutes
Click here to listen

Courses scheduled for next week include:

• Achieving Good Quality Sleep
• Understanding Copyright Issues for Researchers and PhD Students
• Fire Safety Awareness
• Manager as Coach
• Developing your Web Presence
• Getting to Grips with the Office 2010 Upgrade
• Collaborative Writing with Wikis and Google Docs
• Software Surgery

• Getting the Most from Meetings
  Tuesday 13 March
• Manager as Coach
  Wednesday 14 March
• Information Session for Managers - Equality Act 2010
  Friday 16 March
• Leadership
  Wednesday 21 March
• PDR Training for Managers
  Thursday 22 March
• Communication Skills
  Monday 26 March
• Introduction to Higher Education
  Monday 2 April
• Finance for Non-Finance Managers
  Monday 16 April

The Centre for Learning Technology presents the third NetworkED seminar on Wednesday 21 March at 3pm by Professor Martin Weller from the Open University.

The advent of digital, networked and open technologies is impacting upon all aspects of scholarship. Drawing on his book The Digital Scholar, Professor Weller will present a number of lessons from research and experience across a range of disciplines.

The talk will look at issues such as how the nature of research is changing, what new skills might be required, and what are the main issues?

The event is open to LSE staff and research students. To book a place, visit the Training and Development system.

Below are some of the vacancies currently being advertised to internal candidates only, as well as those being advertised externally.

• Administrative assistant, Centre for Analysis of Time Series
• Development executive, ODAR: major gift fundraising
• Estates financial administrator, Estates Division
• Head of LSE Annual Fund, ODAR: annual fund
• Information security manager, IT Services
• Lecturer in media and communications (two posts), Media and Communications
• MSc administrator, Government
• National Bank of Greece post-doctoral research fellowship, Hellenic Observatory
• Network specialist, IT Services
• Operations coordinator, Summer School and Executive Programmes
• Personal assistant to head of department and administrative assistant, Management
• Post doctoral research assistant (economics of climate change), Grantham Research Institute
• Postdoctoral research assistant (green growth), Grantham Research Institute
• Professor in international history, International History
• Research administrator, Mathematics
• Research economist, Spatial Economics Research Centre
• Research economist (education programme), Centre for Economic Performance
• Research officer in control theory, Mathematics
• Senior student services adviser, Academic Registrar's Division
• Training, web and social media manager, IT Services: user services

Nicole wants to hear from you!

Do you have some news, an achievement, or an aspect of LSE life that you would like to share? If so, then I would love to hear from you, contact me at n.gallivan@lse.ac.uk or on ext 7582.

The next edition of Staff News is on Thursday 15 March. Articles for this should be emailed to me by Tuesday 13 March. Staff News is emailed every Thursday during term time and fortnightly during the holidays.