Podcasts and Videos
Missed one of our events? Catch up here!
Book Launch: Forced Migration, Masculinities, and Vulnerabilities in the Mediterranean. Refugee Men on the Margins of Europe
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 10 March 2026
This event marked the launch of Forced Migration, Masculinities, and Vulnerabilities in the Mediterranean, a new book examining forced migrant men’s vulnerabilities along the Central Mediterranean Route (CMR), which connects sub-Saharan Africa to Sicily via Libya.
Speakers: Dr Isabel Shutes, Professor Alessio D’Angelo, Professor Eleonor Kofman and the author, Dr Marcy Palillo
Chair: Professor Coretta PhillipsThis event was supported by the Inter-University Migration Network, a collaborative research network bringing together scholars from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), University of Greenwich, and Middlesex University.
2026 Annual LSE Behavioural Public Policy Lecture
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 5 March 2026
Speaker: Professor Ching Leong (National University of Singapore)
Chair: Professor Adam Oliver (Department of Social Policy, LSE)Professor Ching Leong delivered the 2026 Annual LSE Behavioural Public Policy Lecture. The title of the lecture was “Not a Drop to Drink: How Behavioural Biases Keep Us from the Water We Need, and How We Can Fix It.”
This lecture explores the growing influence of behavioural insights on policy formulation and government responses in the water sector.
Book Launch- The Public Health Approach to Violence Reduction: Stories, Movements & Hope
Hosted by the Mannheim Centre for Criminology on 30 January 2026
This event launched the findings of a new book, The Public Health Approach to Violence Reduction: Stories, Movements & Hope (OUP, 2026), that interrogates the past, present and future of the public health approach.
Minds that Dare – liberation of thought and expression: The ALM and Academic Freedom
Co-hosted by the Department of Social Policy and LSE Academic Freedom Network on 28 January 2026
Speaker: Professor Paul Frijters, Visiting Professor in the Department of Social Policy.
Chair: Professor Stephen Jenkins, Department of Social PolicyIn this talk, Paul will share his experiences in academia that led him to set up Academia Libera Mentis (ALM), with the ambition of establishing form of rigorous academic education that encourages independent thought fostered by communal living.
No video available
Fault lines: the new political economy of a warming world
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy and Global School of Sustainability on 10 November 2025
Speaker: Professor Helen Milner
Chair: Dr Liam F Beiser-McGrathIn this lecture, Helen Milner addressed why vulnerability, lived experience, and material self-interest will drive the next phase of climate politics, and what that means for diplomacy, democracy and development.
The social safety net as an investment in children
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 23 October 2025
Speaker: Professor Hilary Hoynes
Chair: Professor Coretta PhillipsIn this year’s Annual Lecture. Professor Hilary Hoynes explored the concept of viewing the social safety net as a long-term investment in children.
A society free from poverty: how do we get there and what would it look like?
Hosted by LSE Festival: Visions for the Future on 16 June 2025
Speakers: Abby Jitendra, Dr Abigail McKnight, Dr Thomas C. Stephens
Chair: Dr Tania BurchardtThe event challenged the old adage, 'The poor will always be with us', by envisaging a future free from poverty. The speakers identifed the gains for children and for society as a whole from ending child poverty and the gains for workers, families and the economy from ending bad jobs.
Read the related blog post here
Annual LSE Behavioural Public Policy Lecture- Normative Rationality After Behavioural Economics: What is Left?
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 27 March 2025
Speaker: Professor Mario J. Rizzo (NYU).
Chair: Professor Adam Oliver (LSE).Professor Mario J. Rizzo gave this year’s Annual LSE BPP lecture, offering an alternative to the orthodox economics notion of rationality.
Book launch of Hartley Dean's Sociality, Social Rights and Human Welfare
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 22 January 2025
This event formally launched Sociality, a revised and extended 10th anniversary edition of Social Rights and Human Welfare (a book first published in 2015). It introduces sociality as a central theme, making a new and radical contribution to thinking about social rights and human welfare. The discussion explored such thinking in relation to current real-life social care issues, but also in relation to rights-based approaches in prevailing social struggles and welfare crises.
Speakers: Hartley Dean (Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, LSE), Tania Burchardt (Associate Director of CASE and Associate Professor of Social Policy, LSE) and Nikky Catto (freelance author, writer and community engagement consultant and former Chair/Trustee of Brixton Advice Centre).
Chair: Kitty Stewart (Professor of Social Policy and Associate Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE).
Getting lost in a field: a personal history in behavioural public policy
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 09 December 2024
In his inaugural lecture, Adam Oliver describes how he became involved in, and has helped contribute towards the development of, the still relatively new field of behavioural public policy (BPP).
Speaker: Professor Adam Oliver (LSE)
Chair: Professor Alex Voorhoeve (LSE)Read the related article 'Getting lost in a field: a personal history of the development of behavioural public policy' by Professor Adam Oliver here.
ENOUGH. A talk about extreme wealth and what it means to turn away from it
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 27 November 2024
Over the past 50 years extreme wealth has accelerated. Shareholder primacy, tax avoidance, executive pay and ‘hoover up economics’ have meant that more and more money is in private hands versus government and that that private money is increasingly concentrated amongst a few individuals.
Leading economist Kate Raworth and extreme wealth expert Jake Hayman speak on this critical subject, in a conversation chaired by Dr Sunil Kumar.
Book Talk: The No Club
Hosted by The Women in Social and Public Policy Research Hub (WISPPRH) on 1 November 2024
A transformative book talk event designed to empower your career trajectory and impact organizational leadership. Learn to navigate and mitigate the assignment of low-impact tasks that can stunt professional growth, particularly for women.
Speaker: Professor Lise Versterlund (University of Pittsburgh)
Discussant: Dr Margaux Suteau (LSE)
Chair: Professor Almudena Sevilla (LSE)
Department of Social Policy Annual Lecture
Reconceptualising African migrations towards decolonial futures
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 30 October 2024
This Lecture challenges the persistence of coloniality in policy making on intra-Africa migration.
Drawing on the now extensive critique of the hegemony of coloniality/Euro-American modernity in the production of international migration/refugee regimes and policies, the Lecture discusses how global policy making contributes to the dehumanisation, protracted displacement, enslavement, and deaths of Africans who move, and asks why should African mobility be a problem at home and abroad and what are the alternatives for decolonial/rehumanising futures.
Speaker: Professor Patricia Daley (University of Oxford)
Chair: Professor Coretta Phillips (LSE)
Book launch of Ann Oakley's The Science of Housework
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 17 October 2024
This event was to launch the latest book by Professor Ann Oakley (Social Research Institute, UCL).
The Science of Housework tells an important but forgotten story behind the health improvement that took place in the UK and other countries in the early 20th century. An international movement led by women scientists and other campaigners informed the public about the science of domestic cleanliness and introduced it as a subject in higher education.
No video available
Book launch of 'Caste in Everyday Life: Experience and Affect in Indian Society'
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy’s Race Matters Initiative in collaboration with the LSESU Ambedkar Society on 24 June 2024
Speakers: Dr Dhaneswar Bhoi, Professor Hugo Gorringe
Chair: Dr Sunil KumarThis book explores the complex realities and experiences associated with 'caste,' examining how it can evoke life-threatening fear for some individuals while nurturing life-enriching networks for others.
End of the month vs end of the world politics: the green backlash
Hosted by LSE Festival: Power and Politics on 15 June 2024
Speakers: Susan Aitken, Dr Liam Besier-McGrath, Ciaran Cuffe, Jean-Louis Missika
Chair: Dr Catarine HeecktTaking Liam Beiser-McGrath’s research around the political feasibility of climate action and research by the European Cities Programme at LSE Cities as a point of departure, this event will bring together a panel of European city leaders to discuss what has been driving a growing backlash against the green transition in Europe, and how this is shaping urban politics and policy making.
Global innovations transforming education
Hosted by the Centre for Economic Performance and the Department of Social Policy on 6 June 2024
Speakers: Amy Ellis-Thompson, Lucy Heller, David Cervera, Luz Rello
Chair: Ismael Sanz LabradorA policy panel and discussion focusing on the innovative strategies and policies driving educational advancements globally. From cutting-edge technology to impactful reforms, the panel will explore diverse approaches to shaping the future of education.
No video available
Climate Crossroads: The Future of Climate Change Policy in a Year of Pivotal Elections
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 22 May 2024
Speakers: Professor Sarah Birch, Professor Stephen Fisher, Dr Michael Lerner, Dr Pavithra Suryanarayan
Chair: Dr Liam Besier-McGrath2024 is a crucial year for climate policy and the pursuit of net-zero targets, with many pivotal elections taking place in the coming months.
Experts will discuss how the outcomes of these elections could influence international commitments to greenhouse gas reduction and the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
Pakistan's Elections 2024: Navigating the Impact on Pakistan's Democracy
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy and LSE South Asia Centre (SAC) on 26 March 2024
This event on the Pakistani elections will explore the implications of these elections for Pakistan's fragile democracy.
Esteemed scholars and practitioners provided diverse perspectives on the recent election processes and their consequences. They also explored how Western countries can contribute to this effort, ultimately reinforcing democracy globally.
Women in the Workplace
Hosted by Department of Social Policy and the Women in Social and Public Policy Research Hub on 13 March 2024
In this engaging and insightful public forum, distinguished researchers and stakeholders came together to address the pressing issue of gender inequalities in the workplace.
Speakers: Dr Caroline Coly, Alesha De-Freitas, Alice Marchionno, Professor Paola Profeta
Chair: Professor Almudena Sevilla
Celebrating the Career of Professor Tim Newburn
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy and LSE Law School on Saturday 2 March 2024
For over 40 years, Tim Newburn has been a key figure in British and European criminology and social policy. The author of over 40 books, Tim’s influence spans the whole field, from comparative and historical scholarship through policy studies, policing, youth justice, drugs and alcohol, urban violence and restorative justice to criminological theory. At this event, Tim’s colleagues and students gathered to discuss his influence and his major contributions to the field, and to the LSE, and to celebrate his career. The event was chaired by Professor Nicola Lacey.
Education or Exclusion? The challenges and tensions between school exclusions and children’s rights
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy and the Education Research and Policy Hub on 7 February 2024
Speakers: Professor Feyisa Demie, Mathew Purchase KC, Dan Rosenberg, Kyann Zhang
Chair: Dr Sonia Exley
This panel brings together researchers and education professionals to question the ongoing issues regarding school exclusions, and the implications for governance, policy and practice.
Empowering citizens with behavioural science
Hosted by STICERD and the Department of Social Policy on 30 January 2024
Speaker: Professor Ralph Hertwig
Chair: Dr Barbara FasoloBehavioural public policy has gained significant attention recently due to two key factors: political debates over government size and role, and the globally influential approach of nudging. This talk will outline recent developments in conceptual and empirical research that aims to empower citizens by boosting their competences.
The legacy of Richard Titmuss: social welfare fifty years on
Hosted by LSE Health and Department of Social Policy on 27 November 2023
Richard Titmuss, the first chair in Social Administration at the London School of Economics and Political Science, died fifty years ago in 1973. From his appointment in 1950 until his death Titmuss established and defined the field of social policy. This event will discuss Titmuss’s critique of the ‘welfare state’, and how his insights have had to evolve in the light of the challenges to, and strategies for, social welfare which have come to predominate since his death.
The event brings together authors of published and planned biographies of Richard Titmuss, Brian Abel-Smith and Peter Townsend, alongside Titmuss’ daughter, renowned academic Ann Oakley.
Read the related LSE History Blog 'Fifty years on, who remembers Richard Titmuss?' by Professor John Stewart here.
Academic Freedom and Freedom from Harassment in Universities
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy and LSE Law School on 20 November 2023
There is a lot of current debate about the meaning, nature, importance of and limits to academic freedom, including how it relates to freedom of expression.
This interest and debate has been heightened in the UK by recent legislation on the Higher Education Freedom of Speech Act, as well as by prominent cases of disruption or cancellation of speakers by those with opposing views. This is the launch event for The London Universities' Council for Academic Freedom (www.lucaf.org), a new academic-led and non-partisan organisation which is committed to supporting academic freedom at London universities and beyond.
Living Standards and the Cost of Living Crisis
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 6 November 2023
The UK is currently in the midst of a cost of living crisis, with large segments of the population finding it harder to maintain their living standards as real incomes decrease. In this event, Dr. Mike Brewer from the Resolution Foundation will present findings and research on the decline of living standards over the past two years, brought by rising inflation and the energy crisis, and the prospects for living standards over the coming year. In doing so, he will assess whether the cost of living crisis is near resolution, or becoming an entrenched reality of the UK economy and society.
Department of Social Policy Annual Lecture
A 21st Century Family?
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 19 October 2023
What are the driving forces behind family transformation in our age? The old male breadwinner model is vanishing. What will take its place? How will a new stable family form evolve which is compatible with women's new roles? These are the questions that Professor Gosta Esping-Andersen will address in this year’s Department of Social Policy Annual Lecture.
Blackness and the research gaze
Hosted by the Department of Methodology and the Department of Social Policy’s Race Matters Initiative on 16 October 2023
In this Black History Month 2023 event, speakers reflect on how they embed critical and transformative techniques in researching Black subjectivities. Discover how members of our distinguished panel evaluate the mental health consequences of the Windrush scandal on Caribbean and Black African people in the UK; address experiential and institutional dimensions of ‘race’, racism and anti-racism in Mexico; examine the role of Afro-Colombian activists in designing and implementing cultural policies; and use hip-hop aesthetics to explore the metaphysics of Blackness.
Optimally Irrational. The good reasons we behave the way we do
Hosted by STICERD and the Hayek Programme in Economics and Liberal Political Economy, and the Department of Social Policy on 9 October 2023
A public lecture by Professor Lionel Page on the topic of his latest book: 'Optimally Irrational. The good reasons we behave the way we do'.
Can people change the world? Activists, social movements, and utopian futures
Hosted by LSE Festival: People and Change on 17 June 2023
Speakers:
Dr Armine Ishkanian, Associate Professor in the Department of Social Policy and the Executive Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme at the International Inequalities Institute.Dr Faiza Shaheen, Program Head for the Inequality and Exclusion Grand Challenge of the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies at the Center on International Cooperation at New York University.
Georgia Haddad Nicolau, Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity and a Co-founder and Director of Brazilian commons-based organisation Instituto Procomum.
Chair: Dr Maël Lavenaire, Caribbean and Latin America historian and a Research Fellow in Racial Inequality at the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme.
Looking beyond just forms of resistance, this panel will discuss the role of activists and social movements in today’s world and examine their agency in imagining utopian futures and creating change. How are social movements providing creative spaces for not only challenging inequalities but also coming up with alternative ideas for solutions to address the problems they are fighting against? And how and to what extent are these ideas informing policy changes?
The Changing Inequalities of Citizenship
Hosted by LSE Festival: People and Change on 15 June 2023
Speakers:
Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey, Assistant Professor in International Social and Public Policy in the Department of Social Policy, LSE.
Dr Kristin Surak, Associate Professor of Political Sociology in the Department of Sociology, LSE.
Dr Eleanor Knott, a political scientist and Assistant Professor in Qualitative Methodology in the Department of Methodology, LSE.
Chair: Dr Armine Ishkanian, Associate Professor in the Department of Social Policy and the Executive Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme at the International Inequalities Institute.
Citizenship is often seen as a great equaliser. Yet access to citizenship itself is not equally distributed, nor are the rights gained from citizenship equal for all.
In this session three scholars from across the social sciences explore the varying, complex, and global nature of inequalities produced in and through citizenship in the 21st century. Drawing on their newly released books, our panel discuss new transformations in citizenship and (in)equality, ranging from contestations around dual citizenship for Liberia, to the sale of citizenship by microstates to millionaires, to the extra-territorial acquisition of citizenship in Crimea and Moldova.
The Road to Net Zero: how to seize opportunities and manage change
Hosted by LSE Festival: People and Change on 13 June 2023
Speakers:
Dr Liam F Beiser-McGrath, Assistant Professor in International Social and Public Policy in the Department of Social Policy at LSE.
Chris Skidmore, MP for Kingswood since 2010.
Rain Newton-Smith, Director General of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI)
Dr Anna Valero, Distinguished Policy Fellow at Centre for Economic Performance (CEP)
Chair: Professor Elizabeth Robinson, Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE.
Tackling climate change requires significant and rapid economic and societal change.
As new ways to power our homes, workplaces and transport are developed there will be opportunities for sustainable, healthier economic growth. But there will also be costs for firms, workers and households. To date, climate action has faced challenges from the people, through protests and failed referenda, but has also been driven by public support and activism.
How we can ensure the net zero transition is an inclusive one, so that crucial public support can be maintained and built?
Book Launch: Uncomfortably off: Why the top 10% of earners should care about inequality
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy and the International Inequalities Institute on 31 May 2023
Speakers:
Dr Marcos González Hernando, Honorary Research Fellow at UCL Social Research Institute and affiliated researcher at Universidad Diego Portales and the Centre for the Study of Conflict and Social Cohesion in Chile.
Dr Gerry Mitchell, social researcher, campaigner and community activist.
Respondents:
Dr Arun Advani, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick.
Anoosh Chakelian, Britain Editor of the New Statesman.Chair: Dr Tania Burchardt, Associate Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE), Deputy Director of STICERD, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Policy at the LSE.
Media attention is often focused on the very richest, the 1%, and their capacity to influence politics and shape society. But they are not the only ones who drive politics, the public conversation and much of the private sector. The focus of this book is on the larger top 10%, the managers and professionals of our media, business, the third sector, political parties and academia and who are just as influential.
Time to Think: in conversation with Hannah Barnes
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 23 May 2023
Speakers:
Hannah Barnes, journalist at the BBC's flagship current affairs programme, Newsnight.
Professor Lucinda Platt, Professor of Social Policy and Sociology in the Department of Social Policy at LSE.Chair: Professor David Kershaw, Dean of LSE Law School.
In this event investigative journalist Hannah Barnes speaks about her book: how she came to investigate the Tavistock’s gender service for children, the testimony she received, and her attempts to understand how safeguarding concerns got lost and the service unraveled.
Advancing Equality: The Power of Academia-Business Collaboration and Policy Action
Women In Social and Public Policy Research Hub (WISPPRH) Launch event
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 8 March 2023
The Department of Social Policy hosted the launch of the Women in Social and Public Policy Research Hub (WISPPRH)) on 8 March, with an open roundtable discussion as the centerpiece of the event. This event brought together renowned scholars, representatives of the civil society, and stakeholders in the fields of gender, climate change, and policy. The purpose of the roundtable discussion was to start a conversation on the potential benefits of collaboration and knowledge sharing among centers and programs dedicated to gender issues, with the ultimate goal of making progress on this critical topic.
Speakers: Emma Codd, Professor Paola Profeta, Begoña Ramos and Professor Johanna Rickne.
Chair: Professor Naila Kabeer
Annual LSE Behavioural Public Policy Lecture
Behaviourally-Informed Food Policies: Models, Concepts and Some Evidence
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 7 March 2023
Speaker: Professor Lucia A. Reisch, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge
Chair: Dr Adam Oliver, Department of Social Policy, LSEThe talk first sketches the contours of a behaviourally-informed food policy aiming for more resilient and sustainable food systems. It then presents five recent and ongoing empirical behavioural studies on how to induce change for more sustainable food patterns.
Book Launch: A Political Economy of Behavioural Public Policy
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 15 February 2023
Speakers: Lord Gus O’Donnell (Chair, Frontier Economics),
Professor Shaun Hargreaves Heap (Kings College, London),
Professor Robert Sugden (University of East Anglia)
Elisabeth Costa (Behavioural Insights Team)Chair: Baroness Minouche Shafik (Director of the LSE)
This event marks the publication of Adam Oliver’s new book, ‘A Political Economy of Behavioural Public Policy’ (Cambridge University Press). Baroness Shafik will chair a panel that will consider the development and future of behavioural public policy, with reference to Oliver’s liberal perspective for the field.
How Do We Eradicate Poverty?
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy and LSE Library on 17 November 2022
Speakers: Clare Harding, Dave Hill, Manny Hothi, Stewart Lansley, Professor Baroness Lister
Chair: Professor Lucinda PlattThis event is inspired by the life, work and legacy of George Lansbury (1859–1940). A pioneering campaigner for peace, women’s rights, local democracy and improvements in labour conditions, Lansbury was an adopted East Ender who made a great contribution to local as well as national life.
The Multidimensional Politics of Inequality
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 27 October 2022
In the inaugural Social Policy Lecture at LSE, Leslie McCall presents a novel analytical framework for the understanding of popular responses to economic inequality.
Harnessing Renewable Wind Energy: COP26 Commitments and the Energy Crisis
Hosted by The Department of Social Policy's Green Team on 12 July 2022
The UK hopes to benefit from first-mover advantages in embracing its net- zero targets early, by taking a lead in developing specific technical innovations for harnessing wind energy. Net-zero will also bring wider societal benefits, for instance to human health as a result of improved air quality and a better-protected natural environment. Discussing how the UK can become a world leader in achieving the net-zero strategy, the panel will explore the potential and socio-economic benefits of wind energy amidst the rising energy crisis.
Speakers: MP Alan Brown, Professor Ian Gough
Chair: Dr Ganga Shreedhar
Climate Displacement and Migration: Challenges, Politics and Solutions
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy Green Team and Earth Refuge on 28 June 2022
This webinar is uniquely structured to provide a more holistic and solutions-focused understanding of the problem of climate-driven migration and displacement.
Speakers: Dr Sumudu Atapattu, Lauren Grant, Yumna Kamel, Dr Tasneem Siddiqui, Atle Solberg
Chair: Dr Isabel Shutes
Policy and Social Change
Hosted by the International Inequalities Institute, the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity, the Atlantic Institute, LSE Department of Social Policy, and LSE Cities on 31 May 2022
The world is facing multiple crises that are responsible for widening economic and social inequalities and insecurities, ranging from climate change to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past decade, movements such as Black Lives Matter, Extinction Rebellion, Occupy, and the Indignados have confronted States and elites, challenged inequalities and mobilised to bring about greater justice, democracy, and progressive policy changes. This panel brings together speakers who are working at the intersection of research and policy to discuss the question: what is the relationship between policy and social change?
Speakers:
Professor Ricky Burdett (Department of Sociology, LSE),
Dr Amara Enyia (Manager of Policy and Research, the Movement for Black Lives and Founder, Global Black), Tracy Jooste (Senior Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity), Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey (Department of Social Policy, LSE)Chair:
Dr Armine Ishkanian (Executive Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity, III and Associate Professor, Department of Social Policy, LSE)Ukrainian perspectives on the war in Ukraine: A panel discussion with social scientists from Kharkiv, Lviv and Kyiv
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 23rd March 2022
In the 21st century humanity again faces unprecedented challenges with the war in Ukraine. A humanitarian crisis involving millions of refugees and internally displaced persons is met by the triumph of the humanity demonstrated both within and outside of Ukraine. This online public event hosted by the Department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics will provide a discussion forum for social scientists currently located in Ukraine in order for them to share their ideas and views on the war in Ukraine. Participating speakers will bring perspectives from Sociology, Economics and International Relations.
A Climate of Crisis: Human Rights and The Renewable Energy Transition
Hosted by The Beacon Journal and the Department of Social Policy's Green Impact team on 2 March 2022
This event brought together panellists from academia, activist organisations, and think tanks. The conversation focused on the intersections of renewable energy, environmental justice and human rights in order to provide an interdisciplinary understanding of the human rights impacts of current transition pathways to renewable energy and a low-carbon economy.
Speakers: Professor Kathryn Hochstetler (Department of International Development, LSE), Madhuresh Kumar (III, LSE), Glada Lahn (Chatham House)
Chair: Professor Lucinda Platt (Department of Social Policy, LSE)
Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 8 December 2021
This event took the form of an open conversation between Beverly Daniel Tatum and Minouche Shafik about Dr Tatum's book Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race, a perennial bestseller on the psychology of racism, which has been published in the UK for the first time this year.
Speaker: Dr Beverly Tatum
Chair: Baroness Minouche Shafik
Career and Family: women's century-long journey toward equity
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy and the Department of Economic History on 25 November 2021
This event took the form of an open conversation to discuss the themes of gender equity and couple equity as presented in Claudia Goldin’s book, Career and Family: Women’s Century-Long Journey toward Equity.
Speakers: Professor Claudia Goldin, Professor Jane Humphries,
Dr Berkay Ozcan, Dr Iva Tasseva
Chair: Professor Lucinda Platt
Social Policy. A Critical and Intersectional Analysis
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy and the International Inequalities Institute on 21 October 2021
This event took the form of an open conversation about the new book by Fiona Williams, Social Policy. A Critical and Intersectional Analysis. Following a presentation of the key themes and arguments in the book by Williams, the three discussants shared their perspectives.
Speakers: Dr Timo Fleckenstein, Dr Armine Ishkanian,
Dr Isabel Shutes, Professor Fiona Williams
Chair: Professor Lucinda Platt
Ninth Meeting of the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality
The Department of Social Policy, the International Inequalities Institute, and STICERD joined forces to organize the ninth meeting of the Society – the premier international economic association dedicated primarily to the study of inequality in all its manifestations – during 8-10 July.
Professor Stephen P. Jenkins (LSE Social Policy) delivered the Presidential Address, and the other keynote speakers were Professor Sir Richard Blundell (UCL and IFS) and Florencia Torche (Stanford). Around 250 papers were presented at the conference covering a wide range of topics across disciplines from wealth to extreme poverty, intergenerational mobility, educational inequality to political inequality, health inequalities and how government support protects livelihoods in COVID-19 times.
Levelling up- women's pensions need a boost
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 15 June 2021
Speaker: Baroness Ros Altmann, CBE
Chair: Professor Lucinda Platt
Professor Lucinda Platt will be in conversation with Baroness Ros Altmann, CBE to discuss the gender pensions gap and why women’s pension prospects are still far worse than men’s. This multi-faceted problem needs urgent solutions. Former Pensions Minister will talk about how women’s health and working life course, as well as caring roles, mean lower lifetime earnings and lower pensions, but policy also discriminates against women in numerous ways that need to be addressed.
A New Global Purpose for Education?
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 24 May 2021
Speakers: Suchetha Bhat, Tom Fletcher, Valerie Hannon, Andreas Schleicher, Vishal Talreja
Chair: Dr Amelia PetersonEducation is a national endeavour, but with our growing interdependence, is it time we acknowledge it has a global purpose? Join us for the launch of Thrive: The Purpose of Schools in a Changing World.
There is no denying that education is in a moment of flux. With disrupted labour markets, entrenched inequality, and stalled social mobility, long-standing international assumptions about education’s purpose are under strain. Meanwhile, the climate crisis and the reckoning with colonialism are pressing for wholescale reform of what schools and universities prioritise. What movements or institutions are fit to lead this change? And what form should change take? There is a need for a new narrative of what education is for: can it be global?
Where Are All the 'Welfare Queens?' Diversity and European Evidence on Single-Parent Families
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy and LSE US Centre on 20 May 2021
Speakers: Professor Janet C. Gornick, Dr Laurie C. Maldonado, Professor Ive Marx, Dr Rense Nieuwenhuis
Chair: Dr Amanda SheelyIn the United States, single mothers are often blamed for their own circumstances and offered little support. The American social policy discourse is very much shaped by the image of the "welfare queen" – a never-married single mother who is dependent on public assistance and refuses to work. However, experiences of lone parents across Europe and other countries calls this stereotype into question. So what does this mean for social policy?
The New Age of Empire: how racism and colonialism still rule the world
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 27 April 2021
Speaker: Professor Kehinde Andrews
Chair: Professor Coretta PhillipsCoretta Phillips in conversation with Kehinde Andrews discussing his new book, The New Age of Empire. A book that offers no easy answers to critical questions, The New Age of Empire presents a new blueprint for challenging age-old systems. Andrews argues that the "West is rich because the Rest is poor", and that reforming a racist global order calls for radical solutions.
Understanding Human Need: alternative perspectives
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 10 March 2021
This online panel discussion will focus on a recently revised edition of the book, Understanding Human Need, by Hartley Dean. Human need is a central but elusive concept of decisive significance for Social Policy at a time when humanity as a species is subject to a confluence of intersecting and, in several respects, self-inflicted existential threats. This new book not only reprises existing distinctions between ‘thin’ needs and ‘thick’ needs and between needs defined from the ‘top-down’ and those identified from the ‘bottom up’, but pays particular attention to the question of just what is human about human need. To do this the book revisits the radical humanist perspective to be found especially in the Karl Marx’s earlier writings on the characteristics of the human species and what it essential to being human.
Speakers: Professor Hartley Dean (Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at the LSE) , Professor Ian Gough (Visiting Professor at the Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion and Associate of the Grantham Research Institute at the LSE, and Emeritus Professor at the University of Bath), Dr Tania Burchardt (Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion at the LSE), Professor David Taylor (Emeritus Professor of Social Theory and Social Policy at the University of Brighton).
Chair: Dr Kitty Stewart (Associate Professor of Social Policy and Associate Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the LSE).
Why Should We Build Back Differently?
Hosted by LSE Festival: Shaping the Post-COVID World on 2 March 2021
ONLINE PRE-RECORDED EVENT
Speaker: Dr Sunil Kumar
After the pandemic we must build back not better, but differently, bringing low-wage and precarious workers centre stage. Sunil Kumar will draw upon his research on housing, informality and internal migration in India and juxtapose it with his engagement of events in England.
The COVID-19 pandemic has flattened the human experience across space and time, particularly in the areas of home, care, precarity of work and education. The experience of social distancing; the crisis in care; the plight of those in the informal economy; and the challenges of online learning apply to those in India, just as in the UK, and serve to highlight inequalities in both countries, exacerbated by the pandemic response. These shared experiences have also highlighted the highly interdependent nature of human flourishing.
We Are All in This Together: has COVID-19 taught us how to save the world?
Hosted by LSE Festival: Shaping the Post-COVID World on 1 March 2021
Speakers: Sanchayan Banerjee, Professor Nick Chater,
Dr Adam Oliver, Dr Ganga Shreedhar
Chair: Dr Jennifer Sheehy-SkeffingtonCan the massive shift in the way we now relate to each other, and the rules we choose to live by, help us tackle other collective threats to humanity, like climate change?
We need coordinated and cooperative collective action. Experts in behavioural public policy and sustainability discuss how the experience of the pandemic can be leveraged to enable new, transformative behaviours and policies.
Book Launch Event
Development, (Dual) Citizenship and Its Discontents in Africa
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy on 25 February 2021
Does dual citizenship reproduce inequalities?
Robtel Neajai Pailey grapples with this question and more in her engaging monograph Development, (Dual) Citizenship and Its Discontents in Africa: The Political Economy of Belonging to Liberia (Cambridge University Press, 2021). Drawing on rich life histories from over two hundred in-depth interviews in West Africa, Europe, and North America, she examines socio-economic change in Liberia, Africa’s first black republic, through the prism of citizenship. Marking how historical policy changes on citizenship and contemporary public discourse on dual citizenship have impacted development policy and practice, Pailey reveals that as Liberia transformed from a country of immigration to one of emigration, so too did the nature of citizenship, thus influencing claims for and against dual citizenship. Her book develops a new model for conceptualising citizenship within the context of crisis-affected states while offering a compelling critique of the neoliberal framing of diasporas and donors as the panacea to post-war reconstruction.
Speaker: Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey (Assistant Professor in International Social and Public Policy in the Department of Social Policy at LSE).
Discussants: Professor George Klay Kieh (Dean of the Mickey Leland-Barbara Jordan School of Public Affairs and Professor of Political Science at Texas Southern University), Dr Bronwen Manby (Visiting Senior Fellow at LSE Human Rights).
Chair: Professor Coretta Phillips (Professor of Criminology and Social Policy in the Department of Social Policy at LSE).
A Commitment to Welfare: the impact of Richard Titmuss on health and social policy
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy and the Department of Health Policy on 22 October 2020
Speakers: Jon Ashworth MP, Dr Sara Machado, Professor Lucinda Platt, Professor John Stewart
Chair: Professor Sir Julian Le GrandHaving joined the LSE in 1950, Richard Titmuss almost single-handedly, created the academic field of social administration (what we would now call social policy) in Britain. He wrote extensively on health, inequalities and other welfare issues, which have again come to the fore in the COVID-19 pandemic. What can we learn from Richard Titmuss as we look forward to the post-COVID world?
COVID-19: the impact on the UK's ethnic minority populations
Hosted by LSE's online public event series - COVID-19: The Policy Response on 1 July 2020
Speakers: Professor Kehinde Andrews, Dr Miqdad Asaria, Professor Lucinda Platt, Ross Warwick, Professor Heidi Mirza
Chair: Dr Armine IshkanianThere is increasing concern that people from ethnic minority backgrounds are being disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 in England. Drawing on new IFS research, the panel will discuss the reasons why mortality is disproportionately high for minority groups, present evidence on how some minority groups are disproportionately affected by the economic impacts of the lockdown, and recommend ways forward to limit further differential social and economic consequences.
Race and Policing in America
Hosted by the United States Centre- online public event on 12 June 2020
Speakers: Professor Nicola Lacey, Professor Tracey L. Meares, Professor Tim Newburn, Dr Coretta Phillips
Chair: Professor Peter TrubowitzGeorge Floyd’s death has sparked widespread protest in the U.S. over police abuse. This roundtable will discuss the sources of police violence and what can be done to fix America’s police and make law enforcement accountable.
Exhibition: Education for Impact: promoting wellbeing and equality
Hosted by LSE Arts
Monday 20th January to Friday 14 February 2020
Atrium Gallery, Old Building LSE
This transformative and inter-disciplinary exhibition showcased PhD research being undertaken in the Departments of Social Policy, Health Policy and Psychological and Behavioural Sciences under the broad themes of wellbeing and equality.
Britain and the Welfare State in the 21st Century: a more or less "irresponsible society"?
Speaker: Professor John Hills
Discussants: Dr Sonia Exley, Professor Howard Glennerster
Chair: Professor Anne WestHosted by the Department of Social Policy on 14 November 2019
In November 1959, Richard Titmuss, Head of the then Department of Social Science and Administration (now Social Policy) at LSE, gave a lecture on ‘The Irresponsible Society’. In it he pointed to the features of Britain in the late 1950s that added up to irresponsibility: the power of unaccountable financial interests; the way ‘welfare for the better-off’ undermined social security; the view of education simply as economic investment; irresponsible newspapers; and the tolerance of inequality. Sixty years on from the lecture John Hills, Richard Titmuss Professor of Social Policy at LSE will discuss how we might judge today’s society by similar – and new – criteria.
The Colour of Injustice: 'race', drugs and law enforcement in England and Wales
Speakers: Katrina Ffrench, David Lammy MP, Dr Michael Shiner, David Tucker
Chair: Dr John Collins
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy and The International Drug Policy Unit- 20 May 2019
Ethical Space in Policy Making: Advancing the use of Indigenous Traditional Knowledge in community planning in Canada
Perry Stein (AACI)
Department of Social Policy seminar- 26 March 2019
Reconfiguring notions of whiteness among Latin American migrants on London and Madrid
Dr Ana Gutierrez (University of Oxford)
Department of Social Policy and III seminar series on Migration Ethnicity and Race- 20 March 2019
Protesting Inequalities
Bird la Bird, Dr Aviah Sarah Day, Dr Armine Ishkanian, Professor Tomila Lankina, Dr Olga Onuch
Hosted by LSE Festival: New World (Dis)Orders- 2 March 2019
What does it mean to be British and who defines it?
Diane Abbott MP, Sunder Katwala, Professor Eric Kaufmann, Dr Alita Nandi
Hosted by LSE Festival: New World (Dis)Orders- 2 March 2019
Eight years after 2011: do social movements still matter?
Professor Geoffrey Pleyers (Université Catholique de Louvain)
Department of Social Policy public event- 13 February 2019
Infinite difference, limited recognition: Digital makings of the city of refuge
Prof Myria Georgiou (LSE Department of Media & Communications)
Department of Social Policy and III seminar series on Migration Ethnicity and Race- 23 January 2019
Exhibition: How Social Policy Research Shapes the World You Live In
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy
Thursday 10 January - Sunday 20 January 2019
gallery@oxo, OXO Tower Wharf
This comparative and contemporary exhibition showcased Social Policy research responding to global challenges in areas such as inequality, work, family, poverty, migration and education.
More details here.
Uncertain citizenship: Everyday practices of Bolivian migrants in Chile
Dr Megan Ryburn (LSE Latin American and Caribbean Centre)
Department of Social Policy and III seminar series on Migration Ethnicity and Race- 8 November 2018
The Impact of Immigration on Natives' Fertility: Evidence from Syrians in Turkey
Dr Berkay Özcan (LSE Department of Social Policy)
Department of Social Policy and III seminar series on Migration Ethnicity and Race- 25 October 2018
A Greater Good Transcending: Richard Titmuss and the NHS
Professor John Stewart (Glasgow Caledonian University)
Hosted by the LSE Library
10 April 2018
LSE Festival: Beveridge 2.0
Rethinking Beveridge for the 21st Century
21-24 February 2018
Department related events, hosted by LSE Festival: Beveridge 2.0
What Can be Done to Reduce Inequality?
Rachel Lomax, Ed Miliband, Lord Willetts
Hosted by the Department of Social Policy, III, STICERD
16 February 2018
Selective schooling and its relationship to private tutoring: lessons from South Korea
Dr Sonia Exley (LSE Department of Social Policy)
III Inequalities seminar
30 January 2018
Beveridge 2.0- Rethinking the Welfare State for the 21st Century
Minouche Shafik, Professor Sir John Hills, Dr Waltraud Schelkle, Professor Richard Sennett, Professor Alex Voorhoeve
29 November 2017
What if we abolished the dock? Rethinking court design and court ritual
Paula Backen, Abigail Bright, Chris Henley, Professor Linda Mulcahy, Dr Meredith Rossner
14 November 2017
Can Social Landlords Make Private Renting Work Better?
Professor Anne Power
Inequalities Seminar
14 November 2017
Sexualities and Ageing: the case of Cyprus
Debbie Laycock, Constantinos N Phellas
13 November 2017
Representing Poverty and Inequality: The legacy of Charles Booth
Revolutions LSE Literary Festival 2017
Joseph Bullman, Professor Mary Morgan, Sarah Wise
Recorded on 25 February 2017
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Stagnation Generation: Exploring intergenerational fairness
Revolutions LSE Literary Festival 2017
Nona Buckley-Irvine, Georgia Gould, Professor John Hills and Omar Khan
Recorded on 22 February 2017
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Drug Policies Beyond the War on Drugs?
LSE Works lecture
Dr John Collins, Professor Lawrence Phillips, Dr Joanne Csete, Dr Michael Shiner
Recorded on 15 February 2017
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The Relationship between Inequality and Poverty: mechanisms and policy options
LSE Works lecture
Dr Eleni Karagiannaki and Dr Abigail McKnight
Recorded on 8 February 2017
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Documenting Genocide: survey evidence on ISIS violence against Yazidis
LSE Works lecture
Dr Valeria Cetorelli
Recorded on 11 January 2017
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When Elephants Fight
Department of Social Policy film screening and Q&A
Peter Jones, Bandi Mbubi, JD Stier
Recorded on 24 October 2016
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The Welfare Trait: how state benefits affect personality
Centre for Philosophy of Natural Social Science public lecture
Dr Adam Perkins, Dr Kitty Stewart
Recorded on 29 June 2016
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Cities for a Small Continent
LSE Housing and Communities research and consultancy group
Professor Bruce Katz, Professor Anne Power
Recorded on 24 May 2016
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Social Advantage and Disadvantage
Department of Social Policy book launch discussion
Professor Hartley Dean, Professor Lucinda Platt,Dr Sonia Exley
Recorded on 18 May 2016
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Criminal: the truth about why people do bad things
Department of Social Policy and Mannheim Centre for Criminology Public Lecture
Tom Gash
Recorded on 3 May 2016
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New Media, Old News: strategies for penal reform groups to manage the new media landscape
Department of Social Policy, Mannheim Centre for Criminology and the Howard league public discussion
Dr Marianne Colbran, Niall Couper, Andrew Neilson, Danny Shaw, Alan White
Recorded on 20 January 2016
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Anthropology and Development: challenges for the 21st Century
Department of Social Policy and Department of Anthropology public discussion
Professor James Fairhead, Professor Katy Gardner, Professor David Lewis, Professor David Mosse
Recorded on 28 October 2015
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Too Many Children Left Behind: the US achievement gap in comparative perspective
CASE and International Inequalities Institute Public Lecture
Professor Jane Waldfogel, Dr Lee Elliot Major
Recorded on 21 October 2015
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Misbehaving: the making of behavioural economics
Department of Social Policy Public Lecture
Recorded on 9 June 2015
Professor Richard Thaler
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The Government Paternalist: nanny state or helpful friend?
Department of Social Policy Public Lecture
Recorded on 20 May 2015
Professor Sir Julian Le Grand
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Inequality in the 21st Century: a day long engagement with Thomas Piketty
Conference
Recorded on 11 May 2015
David Soskice, Wendy Carlin, Bob Rowthorn, Diane Perrons, Stephanie Seguino, Lisa McKenzie, Naila Kabeer, Dr Laura Bear, Gareth Jones, Mike Savage, Sir John Hills, Sir Tony Atkinson, Thomas Piketty
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Inequality: what can be done?
Recorded on 30 April 2015
Professor Sir Tony Atkinson, Tom Clark, Professor Baroness Lister
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Changing Patterns of inequality in the UK
LSE Works: CASE Public Lecture
Recorded on 12 March 2015
Professor Sir John Hills, Dr Polly Vizard
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How Good We Can Be: ending the mercenary society and building a great country
Department of Social Policy Public Lecture
Recorded on 11 February 2015
Will Hutton
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Picturing Race and Inequality: the potential for social change
Conflict Research Group Public Discussion
Recorded on 13 January 2015
Professor Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Mark Neville, Professor Tim Newburn, Professor Gwendolyn Sasse, Polly Toynbee
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Good Times Bad Times: the welfare myth of them and us
Department of Social Policy Public LectureRecorded on 12 November 2014
Speaker: Professor Sir John Hills
Respondents: Polly Toynbee, Professor Holly Sutherland
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Happiness by Design
Department of Social Policy Public Lecture
Recorded on 22 October 2014
Professor Paul Dolan
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Hand to Mouth: the truth about being poor in a wealthy world
Department of Social Policy public conversation
Recorded on 16 October 2014
Linda Tirado
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Practical and ethical dilemmas of working in the current Ebola crisis
LSE Health and Africa Initiative Research Seminar
Recorded on 15 October 2014
Dr Benjamin Black
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Fault Lines and Silver Linings in the European Social Model(s)
Department of Social Policy Centennial Lecture
Recorded on 11 June 2014
Professor Anton Hemerijck
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The Ethics of the Cognitive Sciences: children's pathologies – how do we think about children’s mental health?
Recorded on 19 November 2013
Dr Rachel Cooper, Professor Eileen Munro, Professor Emily Simonoff
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The Metropolitan Revolution: perspectives from US cities
Recorded on29 October 2013
Bruce Katz, Professor Anne Power
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Richard Titmuss Annual Lecture: Richard Titmuss: forty years on
Recorded on 23 October 2013
Professor Howard Glennerster
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Reclaiming Democracy in the Square? Interpreting the Anti-Austerity and Pro-Democracy Movements
Recorded on 10 October 2013
Dr Heba Raouf Ezzat, Professor Marlies Glasius, Dr Armine Ishkanian
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Social Science in the Public Sphere: Riots, Class and Impact
Recorded on2 July 2013
Professor Fiona Devine, Dr Sam Friedman, Professor Tim Newburn
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