We all love a good story. Stories provide coherence and help to form our sense of identity. Personal and social narratives fundamentally affect the ways we live, how we interact and what is considered important at all levels of decision-making. Inviting authors from a range of disciplines, from psychology to the humanities, economics, economic history and geography, the key aim of the symposium is to explore the role of narratives in shaping what we think, do and feel - for good and for ill.
How to attend?
Programme
Thursday 19th June 2025
CBG Yangtze Lecture Theatre
Symposium Programme
| 9.30-10.00 |
Arrivals and welcome
|
| 10.00-10.45 |
Paul Dolan (LSE Psychological and Behavioural Science) – “The narrative trap: How reaching for ever more can make us miserable and what we can do about it”
Discussant: Jessica Pykett (University of Birmingham)
|
| 10.45-11.30 |
Liz Stokoe (LSE Psychological and Behavioural Science) – “Narratives in the wild: How stories happen and how people use them”
Discussant: Saul Albert (Loughborough University)
|
| 11.30-12.15 |
David Tuckett (University College London) – “Conviction Narrative Theory and Cognitive Economics: The Case of Public Debt Analysis”
Discussant: Paul Collier (University of Oxford)
|
| 12.15-13.15 |
Lunch
|
| 13.15-14.00 |
Tim Besley and Adam Brzezinski (LSE Economics/STICERD) – “Narratives and the political economy of policy choice”
Discussant: James Forder (University of Oxford)
|
| 14.00-14.45 |
Andres Rodriguez-Pose (LSE Geography) – “Losers’ compensation or investment? The mis-selling and re-selling of EU Cohesion policy”
Discussant: Diane Coyle (University of Cambridge)
|
| 14.45-14.55 |
Tea and Coffee Break
|
| 14.55-15.40 |
Mary Morgan (LSE Economic History) – “Travelling Tales”
Discussant: Nancy Cartwright (Durham University)
|
| 15.40-16.25 |
Sarah Dillon (University of Cambridge) – “From Storytelling to Storylistening: The Place of Narrative in Policy”
Discussant: Genevieve Liveley (University of Bristol)
|
| 16.25-16.30 |
Closing remarks
|
The LSE Public Policy Review is an open-access, refereed journal which publishes thematic issues focused on key topics at the heart of current debates in public policy.
The School of Public Policy is an international community where ideas and practice meet. Our approach creates professionals with the ability to analyse, understand and resolve the challenges of contemporary governance.