Have inequalities become so entrenched that we can no longer imagine a fairer society? Whilst many are dissatisfied with the status quo, it is surprisingly hard to find a coherent vision of what a better and fairer world would look like. In the Festival’s closing event, leading thinkers put forward their suggestions.
Meet our speakers and chair
Daniel Chandler (@dan_chandler) is an economist and philosopher based at LSE and author of Free and Equal: What Would a Fairer Society Look Like? He has degrees in economics, philosophy and history from Cambridge and the LSE, and was awarded a Henry Fellowship at Harvard where he studied under Amartya Sen. He has worked in the British Government as a policy advisor in the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit and Deputy Prime Minister's Office, and as a researcher at think tanks including the Resolution Foundation and Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Ayça Çubukçu (@ayca_cu) is an author, academic, and editor based in London. In her scholarship, she has explored the themes of humanity, violence, internationalism, racism, and solidarity, and has written on legal and political theory. After leaving Turkey at the age of 17, she was educated in the United States and began teaching at Columbia and Harvard universities. Ayça currently co-directs the human rights programme at LSE, where she is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology. Ayça’s writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, the Guardian, Al Jazeera, Jadaliyya, Thesis 11, Law & Critique, London Review of International Law and other academic publications. Some of her work has been translated into Portuguese, Italian, and Turkish. Ayça has lectured widely in North America and Europe, and has appeared in BBC’s Newsnight programme and other BBC productions. She has also served as an editor for a number of publications, including The Cobbler, Jadaliyya, Humanity Journal, and the "LSE International Studies Series" at Cambridge University Press.
Swatee Deepak (@Swatee) is a Practitioner in Residence at LSE's Marshall Institute. She works with private and public foundations in strategy development and design, with individuals and families of wealth on their redistribution strategies and oversees a portfolio of businesses and start-ups across philanthropy, socially minded businesses and the arts. Swatee was previously Director of the With and For Girls Collective, the world’s only participatory fund by and for adolescent girls and prior was Director of Stars Foundation, a private philanthropic foundation focused on funding grassroots organisations working with children and young people around the world. She is a founding member of several collectives working across philanthropy and social justice movements including Closer Than You Think, Healing Solidarity and Shake the Table and is a Board Member of the Global Fund for Children and EMpower - The Emerging Markets Foundation.
David Willetts is the President of the Resolution Foundation (@resfoundation). He served as the Member of Parliament for Havant (1992-2015), as Minister for Universities and Science (2010-2014) and previously worked at HM Treasury and the No. 10 Policy Unit. He is Chair of the UK Space Agency, a Board member of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and a visiting Professor at King’s College London. He is the Chair of Innovate Cambridge and an Honorary Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford. Lord Willetts has written widely on economic and social policy. His book A University Education is published by Oxford University Press. A second edition of his book The Pinch on fairness between the generations was published in 2019.
Neil Lee (@ndrlee) is Professor of Economic Geography in the Department of Geography and Environment at LSE. He convenes the Cities, Jobs and Economic Change theme in the International Inequalities Institute and is Director of BSc Geography with Economics. His research considers economic development, innovation, public policy, and inequality. He is Chair of the Policy Committee of the Regional Studies Association and has worked with public and private sector organisations including the World Bank, the OECD, the European Commission, NESTA, the Kuwaiti Government and the UK government.
More about this event
This event is part of the LSE Festival: People and Change running from Monday 12 to Saturday 17 June 2023, with a series of events exploring how change affects people and how people effect change. Booking for all Festival events will open on Monday 15 May.
Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival
Podcast and video
A podcast of this event is available to download from What Would a Fairer Society Look Like?
A video of this event is available to watch at What Would a Fairer Society Look Like?
Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.