Events

Racial justice and wealth inequality: a call for action
Hosted by the International Inequalities Institute 

Tuesday 10 June, 6.30pm - 8.00pm. In-person and online event. Marshall Building, 2.08. 

Speakers: 
Dr Shabna Begum, CEO of the Runnymede Trust
Dr Kojo Koram, Reader in Law, Birkbeck School of Law
Professor Mike Savage, Professorial Research Fellow, LSE III
Mina Mahmoudzadeh, PhD candidate, LSE Department of Sociology
Esiri Bukata, MSc Inequalities and Social Sciences alumna

Chair: 
Dr Faiza Shaheen, Distinguished Policy Fellow at LSE’s International Inequalities Institute

Important research over the past decade has exposed stark racial inequalities in wealth ownership, pushing the racial wealth gap to the forefront of today’s inequality debates.

This event marks the launch of ‘Why the UK Racial Wealth Divide Matters: a call for action’, a major new report written by the LSE International Inequalities Institute for the Runnymede Trust. Mike Savage, Mina Mahmoudzadeh, and Esiri Bukata will share key findings from the report, highlighting the vast scale of the racial wealth divide and how it has changed in the context of the booming of wealth assets in recent decades. They will also examine the lasting influence of imperial history, the importance of viewing the UK in a global context, and how the remittance economy both reflects global inequalities and perpetuates the racial wealth divide in the UK. The event will be joined by Runnymede CEO Dr Shabna Begum and Dr Kojo Koram (Birkbeck College), who will reflect on the findings and explore their wider implications for racial justice campaigning.

Together, the speakers will open up a vital conversation on how we confront racialised wealth inequality, and what action is needed to build a fairer future.

Register here 

The Idea of Moral Socialism
Hosted by the International Inequalities Institute 

Wednesday 11 June 2025, 5.00pm - 6.30pm. In-person and online event. Sheikh Zayed Theatre, LSE Cheng Kin Ku Building. 

Speakers:
Lea Ypi, Professor of Political Theory at the London School of Economics, Fellow of the British Academy
Amartya Sen, Thomas W. Lamont University Professor, Professor of Economics and Philosophy, Harvard University, Senior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows

Chair: Nicholas Stern, IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government, Chair of the Grantham Research Institute 

Join us for this Eva Colorni Memorial Lecture with Lea Ypi and Amartya Sen. 

What is moral socialism? “If we seek an answer to the waverer who asks us whether he should be a socialist or not,” wrote the Austro-Marxist Otto Bauer more than a century ago “we do need Kant’s ethics.”

In this lecture, Lea Ypi reflects on the failures of state socialism and global capitalism in the twentieth century and suggests a new way forward. Her account seeks to revive the Enlightenment critique of technocratic reason and is grounded on a universal conception of freedom as moral agency. 

Register here 

Breaking the Jeff Bezos model of new technology
III Event for LSE Festival: Visions for the Future

Wednesday 18 June, 7.00pm to 8.00pm. In-person and online event. Marshall Building. 

Speakers:
Faiza Shaheen, Distinguished Policy Fellow at LSE’s International Inequalities Institute, and an economist, writer, and political commentator and activist
Hilary Cottam, internationally acclaimed author, innovator and change maker, Honorary Professor at the Institute of Innovation and Public Purpose, UCL
Jack Stilgoe, professor in science and technology studies, UCL 

Chair: 
Aaron Reeves, Professor of Sociology, LSE, Visiting Professor at the III 

New technology and AI are transforming the labour market at an unprecedented pace, often reinforcing existing inequalities and concentrating wealth in the hands of a few. It is widely believed that without intervention, this trend will continue, creating a society where a handful of tech billionaires thrive while countless others struggle with low wages and job insecurity. But is this future inevitable?

What are the potential scenarios going forward? How can we rethink the way technological innovation is structured to ensure its benefits are more widely shared? Is there an alternative to a winner-takes-all model which creates billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk while pushing many into low paid work?

Join us for a thought-provoking discussion on the future of technology, work, and inequality. We will explore policy solutions that can help mitigate low intergenerational social mobility and spread the gains from new technology.

 Register here

Poor Because They Want To Be: Myths of Inequality and Meritocracy
Hosted by the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity 

Thursday 3 July 2025, 6.00pm -7.30pm. Marshall Building, MAR1.04. 

Join us for the London launch and discussion of Dr Máximo E. Jaramillo-Molina’s new book, Pobres porque quieren: Mitos de la desigualdad y la meritocracia (Poor Because They Want To Be: Myths of Inequality and Meritocracy). Máximo is a Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity (AFSEE) programme and Associate Professor at the Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities (CUCSH), University of Guadalajara.

Register here