Ralph Miliband Programme Global Risks and Politics in the 21st Century lecture
Date: Tuesday 22 May 2007
Time: 6.30-8pm
Venue: Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Professor Avner Offer
Chair: Professor Lord Meghnad Desai
Affluence breeds impatience, and impatience undermines well-being. The flow of new rewards can undermine the capacity to enjoy them. When choice is myopic, planning for the future is intractable. Instead of calculation, we rely on proven commitment devices like education and politics which are undermined by novelty. Future global shocks like energy depletion and climate change present dilemmas of this kind.
Avner Offer is Chichele Professor of Economic History at the University of Oxford and author of The Challenge of Affluence: self-control and well-being in the United States and Britain since 1950.
This event is free and open to all with no ticket required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis.
For more information email events@lse.ac.uk or call 020 7955 6043.
The next lecture in the series takes place on Tuesday 5 June and is entitled 'Globalisation, Biotechnology and Democracy'.
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