News

Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey presents the major findings and policy recommendations of her monograph to Liberia's Senate

Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey presented the major findings and policy recommendations of her monograph to the plenary of Liberia's Senate in Monrovia on 14 December 2021. The book has also been favourably reviewed in Development in Practice, International Migration Review, Review of African Political Economy, African Studies Review and African Studies Quarterly.

Civil Society and democratization in the former Soviet Union

Dr Armine Ishkanian was interviewed for QCode Magazine about civil society and democratization in the former Soviet Union. This was part of a series to mark the 30th anniversary of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Read here.

Findings of IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities

On the 6 December 2021, Professor Lucinda Platt participated in an event - Men and women at work: the more things change the more they stay the same?- as part of her role as a Panel Member for the IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities. Lucinda also spoke to Sky News and BBC Scotland, and Women's Hour on the 6 December about the findings that were being covered in the event.

Panel event on violence and injustice in Greece

Dr. Leonidas Cheliotis, Associate Professor of Criminology and Deputy Head of the Department of Social Policy, participated in a high-profile panel on violence and injustice in Greece, organised by LSE's Hellenic Alumni Association. The event, which was held in Greek, took place in Athens on 29 November, at the Cultural Centre 'Hellenic Cosmos' of the Foundation of the Hellenic World, and Dr. Cheliotis joined online. Other speakers included: Ioanna Paliospyrou (graduate of the University of Piraeus), whose recent violent victimisation sparked the discussion; Nikos Alivizatos (Emeritus Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Athens); and Eva Antonopoulou (journalist). The event can be watched here (video starts at 21.10).

Message from Professor David Lewis

I will be moving to the LSE's Department of International Development from 1 September 2021.

I just wanted to thank everyone who has made my quarter century in the department so memorable - from early days in the Centre for Voluntary Organisation / Civil Society in the 1990s, to the MSc Social Policy and Planning in Developing Countries (SPPDC) programme during the 2000s, and then later as head of department in the mid 2010s.

Throughout my time here I have had the pleasure of working with amazing people - students, support staff, and faculty.

I decided to make the move for two reasons. The first is that after such a long time I've felt the need to make a change, shake things up a bit, and take on new challenges. The second is that my work has always focused on international development issues and ID seems the logical place to develop it further.

I'm very much looking forward to this new phase of university life, and it also feels like a good time to reflect on how much I've learned and benefited from being in one of the School's most influential and important departments.

I look forward to keeping in touch in the future, and I wish the department every success during the years to come.

Ninth Meeting of the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality

The Ninth Meeting of the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality (ECINEQ) was held online, from July 8 to July 10, 2021, hosted by LSE as a collaboration between LSE Department of Social Policy, International Inequalities Institute and STICERD.

Professor Stephen Jenkins delivered the Presidential Address.
The conference provided an international forum for researchers interested in the analysis of economic inequality and related fields.
Read more here.

New paper uses popular music to explore inequality

A new paper and upcoming book explore how popular culture, such as music, can be used to understand poverty and development issues.

In the article, Professor David Lewis (LSE), Dennis Rodgers (The Graduate Institute, Geneva) and Michael Woolcock (World Bank) investigate this under-researched area and discuss how music is important as a medium of struggle and dissent.
Read more here

Comparative Mortality Statistics

As a direct result of a Social Policy Working Paper on COVID-19 comparative mortality statistics published earlier this year, Professor Anne West has been invited by the Director-General of the WHO to join the Technical Advisory Group for COVID-19 Mortality Assessment (as an observer).

Scroungers versus Strivers: the myth of the welfare state

This LSE IQ episode is dedicated to social policy giant Professor Sir John Hills, who died in December 2020.

In this episode, John tackles the myth that the welfare state supports a feckless underclass who cost society huge amounts of money. Instead, he sets out a system where most of what we pay in, comes back to us. He describes a generational contract which we all benefit from, varying on our stage of life. Listen here

Child Poverty

Dr Kitty Stewart and Mary Reader have written about their Nuffield Foundation funded research findings for the Independent, and how their research shows that, even prior to the pandemic, child poverty and inequalities among young children had risen since 2015.
Read here.

In memory of Professor Robert Pinker

Professor Pinker had a long association with the Department of Social Policy, as Professor of Social Work Studies and then Professor of Social Administration between 1978-1996. His influence on the discipline was recognised through a Special Recognition Award from the Social Policy Association in 2015. Share your memories and thoughts here.

A Partnership in Peril?
Health charities and the NHS in a pandemic

A new study published by LSE Consulting describes the 2020 pandemic as a “wake up call” for health policy planners in England. The paper by Dr Tony Hockley and Professor Alison Leary details how charities have been filling major gaps in health and care services that are set to grow in the coming decades, and how policymakers have done little to involve these charities in planning their response to the pandemic. Read more here.

Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey launches book on Dual Citizenship

Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey held the inaugural launch of her latest book, Development, (Dual) Citizenship and Its Discontents in Africa: The Political Economy of Belonging to Liberia, at the University of Liberia on 7 January 2021. Read more here.

What’s the point of social science in a pandemic?

While the scientific community has taken centre stage in the fight to overcome the virus, how have social scientists helped us navigate – and evaluate –the UK’s response? Dr Adam Oliver contributes to this LSE IQ Podcast.

Listen here.

In memory of Professor Sir John Hills

It is with immense sadness that we share the devastating news of the passing of Professor Sir John Hills. He made tremendous contributions to social science and his work has had a major impact on social policy, especially in relation to poverty and inequality.  Friends, colleagues and students can share their memories here.

How can we end child poverty in the UK?

A campaign by the Manchester United footballer, Marcus Rashford, has prompted the UK government to provide extra support for children from low-income families during the pandemic. Even before coronavirus, child poverty had been rising for several years. This bite-sized episode of LSE iQ explores the question, ‘How can we end child poverty in the UK?’ Joanna Bale talks to Dr Kitty Stewart.
Listen here. 

Professor Lucinda Platt has been appointed to the UK Statistics Authority's Inclusive Data Task Force

The Taskforce will have a UK remit, providing recommendations on improving the UK’s inclusive data holdings and infrastructure.  The work of the Taskforce will reflect user needs from a broad range of stakeholders including central and local government, academics, civil society, think tanks and businesses. Read more here.

Development, (Dual) Citizenship and Its Discontents in Africa

Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey explains her forthcoming book Development, (Dual) Citizenship and Its Discontents in Africa on the BBC World Service's Weekend. Read more here.

Professor Lucinda Platt has been appointed as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences

We're delighted to announce that Professor Lucinda Platt is one of 73 leading social scientists who have been elected to the Fellowship of The Academy of Social Sciences. Nominated for their outstanding contributions to research, policy education, society and economy. Read more here.

China poverty alleviation

Professor Stephen Jenkins was an invited speaker at a Webinar on "China poverty alleviation – knowledge generation and international sharing", jointly organised by the International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – China Office, and Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development, 29 September 2020. He spoke about "European approaches to poverty alleviation and social inclusion".

What does Social Policy look like for you within your community?

The theme for this year's offer holders photography competition was "What does Social Policy look like for you within your community?"

Find out more about the winning submissions here.

COVID-19 and child poverty

Professor Lucinda Platt scripted a short video for the Economics Observatory to highlight COVID-19 and child poverty. 

Watch here.

Professor Francisco H.G. Ferreira welcomed as an affiliated member

We are excited to welcome Francisco H. G. Ferreira as an affiliated member to the Department of Social Policy! Francisco is the Amartya Sen Professor of Inequality Studies and Director (designate) of International Inequalities Institute. 

You can read more about Francisco here.

COVID-19: Complex reasons for different country responses

There are many complex reasons why countries have reacted differently to the COVID-19 outbreak and these should be fully understood before any judgment is passed about a certain response.

This is the key finding emerging from a collection of COVID-19 response blogs written by health experts from over 40 different countries and regions around the world, and collated by Dr Adam Oliver. Read more here.

Are some ethnic groups more vulnerable to COVID-19 than others?

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected some sections of the population more than others, and there are growing concerns that the UK’s minority ethnic groups are being disproportionately affected. Professor Lucinda Platt and Ross Warwick authors of new research from IFS.

Read more here.

Research reveals the true extent of corruption in fisheries

Dr Yifei Yan writes article for Virtual Ocean Dialogues about corruption in fisheries and highlights the need for a more comprehensive mix of anti-corruption measures.

Read more here.

What does COVID-19 mean for Rural Development?

Professor David Lewis writes opinion piece for IPS on the implications and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for people in rural areas.

Read more here.

Analysis on Chinese citizen's view of COVID-19

Dr Timothy Hildebrandt contributes to article in Washington Post to offer some unique insights into Chinese citizens' views of their governments's COVID-19 response. 

Read more here.

UK pensions reform research

NEST have been working with the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Bath to bring together existing information and share the previously private recollections of key decision-makers involved in the reforms through a series of video interviews. Included is an interview with Professor Sir John Hills.

Watch here.

Child Benefit

With millions of families facing a catastrophic loss of income due to the coronavirus,  leading social policy academics from LSE and universities across the UK, have signed a letter calling on the Chancellor to raise Child Benefit. 

Read more here.

The behavioural science behind the UK's social distancing policy

Dr Adam Oliver speaks to WIRED about effective ways to get people to voluntarily stay home during the outbreak of Covid-19. 

Read more here.

Eileen Munro, Emeritus Professor of Social Policy has been appointed to the Board of Cafcass

Cafcass (the Child and Family Court Advisory Social Service) was created under the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 and safeguards and promotes the welfare of children involved in family court proceedings. 
Read more here.

Podcast

Professor John HIlls talks about inequality in the UK today and the impact it can have on mental health.

Listen here.

Congratulations to the following students who have won prizes in the LSE Festival Research Competition

Lucy Bryant- Poster Prize for 
 “Regulating Live Music: who's running the show?”

Evelina Bondareva - Written Pitch Prize for 
 “Complexities of Anti-Refugee Sentiment: the importance of historical and societal explanations”

Valentina Iemmi was also ‘Highly Commended’ for her poster
“Time to Invest in Global Mental Health: a moral imperative”

Research project- Gypsy and Traveller Experiences of Crime and Justice since the 1960s

Dr Coretta Phillips leads this new mixed methods study,  to provide the first systematic, comprehensive and historically grounded account of the crime and criminal justice experiences of Gypsies and Travellers in in two urban and two rural areas of England since the 1960s. Read more here.

LGBT people in China

Dr Timothy Hildebrandt interviewed by BBC news for a wide ranging piece. Read here

The prospect of same-sex marriage in China

Dr Timothy Hildebrandt speaks about the prospect of same-sex marriage in China to NBC news, and how the legislation "could be used strategically to improve China's human rights reputation." Read here.

New Year's Honours

Congratulations to Professor Lucinda Platt who was appointed OBE for her services to the social sciences in the 2020 New Year's Honours. Read more here.

Dr Leonidas Cheliotis wins Mueller Award

The award is conferred annually by the International Section of the American Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences for 'outstanding contributions to the field of comparative/international criminal justice'. Dr. Cheliotis won the award for his widely published work on the political and economic underpinnings of crime and penal and cognate policies in Greece, the UK and the US from both national and international comparative perspectives. Read more here.

UK risking fall in national life expectancy as social inequalities increase

A new report, written by Michael Murphy, Marc Luy and Orsola Torrisi shows inequalities in life expectancy between the richest and poorest have widened since 2011. While people in wealthier areas of the UK continue to live longer, for those living in the most deprived areas, life expectancy is stalling, or even reversing. 
Read more here.

Keynote presentations

Professor Anne West gave a keynote presentation on Wednesday 4th December to the Westminster Education Forum policy conference: England’s school system – Improvement and attainment, partnerships and the free schools programme. Anne's presentation was entitled: 'Once country, two school systems and proposals for greater alignment between academies and maintained schools'. Read more here.

Anne West gave a keynote lecture at the 3rd Annual Colloquium of the Society for Educational Studies at Oriel College, Oxford on Friday 27th September 2019.

The Colloquium was entitled ‘Education reform legislation in a changing society’.

Anne’s presentation was entitled ‘Legislative provision for early childhood education in England in the 20th century: From discretionary nursery education to universal early childhood education and care’. In the paper she argues that the ideas underpinning early years education changed during the 20th century alongside the legislative changes. In the early 20th century, state-funded nursery education was provided, at the discretion of local education authorities, in nursery schools/classes for children whose home conditions were deemed unsatisfactory. By the end of the 20th century, 'nursery education' was universally available for four-year-olds and delivered by a 'mixed economy' of providers.

4th World Congress on Probation - Sydney 2019

Michael Spurr, Visiting Professor in Practice in the Department, will be a keynote speaker at the 4th World Congress on Probation, which will be held in Sydney Australia over three days. 

In addition to participating in the Congress, Michael will be providing input to the New South Wales Corrections Board to assist them in developing a strategic plan to reduce reoffending in their system. He will also be engaging with colleagues from the University of Sydney including speaking at a public seminar at the Sydney Law School organised by their Institute of Criminology entitled ‘Beyond Punishment ‘looking at the role non custodial sentences can play in rehabilitation.

Professor Stephen Jenkins becomes President-Elect of the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality

Professor Stephen Jenkins has been elected as President-Elect of the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality (ECINEQ)from July 2019 to July 2021. After this period he becomes President for the following two years, 2021-2023, succeeding the economist  Professor Thomas Piketty. The election was announced at ECINEQ’s biannual conference in Paris 3-5 July 2019.
Read more here.

Trial of HIV prevention implant hailed as boost in fight against disease

Dr Timothy Hildebrandt who has carried our research on public perception of PrEP welcomes the trial and conveys his views in a related The Guardian article on Medical research. 
Read here.

Children of divorced parents more likely to become overweight

Dr Berkay Özcan, Associate Professor from LSE's Department of Social Policy, said: “We show that the family context is crucially important for children’s health and we need policies that support children and families which are undergoing a break-up.
Read more here.

Blog- Health clinic rules in Zambia drive inequities in maternal well-being, by Laura Sochas

Many women in pregnancy receive advice from health workers, communities and public medical institutions. Despite efforts to improve maternal health in Zambia, rules governing the antenatal period for women can have a detrimental impact.
Read more here.

Jessica Ng, PhD candidate, recipient of the SPA Award for Excellence in Doctoral Research

Jessica Ng is the receipient of the 2019 SPA Award for Excellence in Doctoral Research for her 2018 conference paper "Understanding the persistence of 'short-term' health crisis NGOs: The case of Toronto's minority ethnospecific HIV/AIDS organisations". 
Read more here.

Early years: children with special needs discouraged from some primary schools

Children with a Statement of Special Educational Needs who attend pre-schools based in primary schools are significantly less likely than their peers to be admitted to the school’s reception class, according to a new LSE report. 

Lead author, Dr Kitty Stewart, said: “There are aspects of the way early education policy is currently working that are increasing rather than narrowing inequalities between children." Read more here.

Statement of support for Mr Yiğit Aksakoğlu

The Department of Social Policy wishes to express its support for our former student and LSE alumnus. Read more here.

Professor Anthony Leslie Hall (1947 – 2019)

We are sharing the very sad news that Professor Tony Hall, who retired from the Department in 2017, died on Monday 20 May after a long illness.There is a dedicated webpage to celebrate Tony’s many achievements and to provide the opportunity for you to share your memories. Read more here.

Reducing and preventing homelessness

LSE Housing and Communities receives £75,000 boost by The Mitchell Charitable Trust to tackle social challenge. Located within LSE’s Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, the Housing Plus Academy is a knowledge exchange and research partnership with LSE Housing and Communities. Read more here.

Inequalities in the twenty-first century: the IFS Deaton Review

A new study from The Institute for Fiscal Studies with Professor Lucinda Platt and Professor Tim Besley on the expert panel, will span five years and look at inequalities in areas such as income, wealth, health, social mobility and political participation.

News coverage: 
BBC News coverage
The Guardian coverage

Blog- Which groups will suffer most as a consequence of Brexit?

Dr Kitty Stewart reviews the evidence on how Brexit is expected to affect different population groups and asks whether it might, at least, reduce income inequality.
Read here.

Complete University Guide

LSE us ranked top for the study of Social Policy in the latest Complete University Guide. The guide is produced annually and assesses universities by a number of measures, including research quality and graudate prospects. Read more here.

PAA Annual Meeting 2019

Researchers from the Department of Social Policy presented their work at the Meeting of the Population Association of America, which took place in Austin, Texas, from April 10-13, 2019.
Read more here.

Keynote at the European Conference of Social Work

Dr Tania Burchardt gave a keynote speech on How could a 'capability approach' influence social work practice at the European Conference of Social Work Research in Leuven, Belgium. 
View slides from keynote here.

Breaking Prison Narratives

This conference, supported by the Department of Sociology and the SPA and hosted by the Department of Social Policy and the Mannheim Centre for Criminology, brought together screenwriters, novelists, documentary-makers, criminologists and others working in the criminal justice system to discuss and challenge media representations of penal issues. Read more here.

Serious Violence

Dr Mike Shiner have evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on changing patterns in drug use, links between drugs and violent crime, and international and UK drug policy. 
Watch the recording of the session here.

Blog- What does it mean to be British? And who defines it?

As part of the LSE Festival 2019, Diane Abbott, Eric Kaufmann, Alita Nandi, Sunder Katwala, and Ilka Gleibs discussed the question of Britishness – what does it mean and who gets to define it. Professor Lucinda Platt provides an overview of the main arguments. Read here.

Research on academies

Professor Anne West's research on academies included in article in The New Statesman about the contiversial reform on Britain's schools. Read here.

Top globally for Social Policy

LSE was ranked first in the world for Social Policy in the QS World University Rankings. Published annually since 2011, QS World University Rankings by subject are based on academic reputation, employer reputation and research impact. The rankings use data from 1,200 universities from 78 countries. Read more.

Effective delivery of public servies likely to decline after Brexit

A new report by Dr Kitty Stewart, Dr Kerris Cooper and Dr Isabel Shutes finds that the economic impact of Brexit will leave less money for these services, and a reduction in immigration means there will be fewer trained workers to work in key areas like health, social care, and housing construction. Read more.

Inequality estimates for the UK

Professor Stephen Jenkins's research with colleagues has led ONS to produce a new experimental series of inequality estimates for the UK, better addressing the under-reporting and under-coverage of the income of the UK’s richest individuals than in existing series.
Read more. 

New study of inequality in the UK

The Institute for Fiscal Studies is launching a major new £2.5 million study of inequality in the UK, funded by the Nuffield Foundation and chaired by Nobel Laureate Professor Sir Angus Deaton. Professor Lucinda Platt is on the expert panel. Read more.

BBC Podcast: Does the world need more babies?

As the global population grows, does the world really need more babies?  Dr Berkay Ozcan was interviewed at the BBC and helped the producers of this podcast.
Listen here.

Test tube babies: Medically assisted reproduction procedures unlikely to cause harm

Children born through medically assisted reproduction, such as IVF, are at higher risk of being premature and to be born low birth weight, but it’s unlikely to be due to the procedures used, according to a new study led by Dr Alice Goisis. Read more.

Girl power: Fathers of daughters less likely to hold sexist attitudes

Fathers are less likely to hold traditional attitudes towards gender roles if they have a school age girl, new research from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) has found.

Julia Philipp, a PhD candidate in LSE’s Department of Social Policy and the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, said: “Traditional attitudes towards gender roles can be a barrier to achieving gender equality inside and outside the workplace, so our evidence that such attitudes can change over time is very encouraging.”
Read more.

Unveiling the Blue Plaque- Sir William Beveridge

On 24 November 2018 the School’s one-time Director and author of the famous 1942 report that laid the foundations for Britain’s post-Second World War welfare state, William Beveridge, was honoured through one of the English Heritage’s famous ‘blue plaques’ being fixed to the wall of the house where he lived a hundred years ago.  
Read more.

Helicopter parents

Professor Anne West shares her experiences with others in an article in The Guardian. Read more.

LSE IQ Podcast- Can activism really change the world?

This episode takes a look at protest movements and activism. 

The experts featured in this month's episode are Dr Ayça Çubukçu, Associate Professor in Human Rights in LSE’s Department of Sociology, Dr Armine Ishkanian is Associate Professor in LSE’s Department of Social Policy and Dr Chris Rossdale is both a Fellow in the Department of International Relations at LSE.
Listen here.

Grant awarded

Professor David Lewis has been awarded a £24,200 grant under the LSE IGA-Rockefeller Funding Call (Third Round) on Resilience Research to study 'Universities as knowledge brokers in the governance of climate resilience'. The focus is on the ways the Least Developed Countries Universities Consortium on Climate Change (LUCCC) supports private, public and civil society sector actors working to strengthen climate resilience. The project will be a collaboration with universities in three countries across three regions: Europe, East Africa and South
Asia) across the Global North and South. 
The research partners are: Independent University of Bangladesh (Dr Saleemul Huq), Makerere University (Uganda, Dr David Mfitumukiza), and TH Köln University of Applied Sciences (Germany, Professor Lars Ribbe).

Professor Stephen Jenkins gives keynote lecture

Professor Stephen Jenkins gave an invited keynote lecture on 'Improving our understanding of inequality and poverty' to the New Zealand Government Economics Network annual conference, in Wellington NZ on 9 November. On 8 November he led a roundtable at the NZ Ministry of Social Development on current issues in poverty measurement.

Annual Meeting of the European Academy of Sociology

Professor Lucinda Platt gave a talk on the subject of  “The evolution of boys’ and girls’ occupational aspirations across ethnic groups in the UK” at the Annual Meeting of the European Academy of Sociology (of which she is a fellow) in Paris on Saturday 20th October.

The paper looked at how children’s responses to the question “what do you want to be when you grow up” change across childhood (between the ages of around 7 and around 14), and how the differ by ethnic group. It found that overall choices were highly gendered (i.e. girls wanting to do jobs dominated by women and boys wanting to do jobs dominated by men), though over time they became slightly less so. Differences by ethnic group were smaller; but while occupational aspirations were generally ambitious, minority groups, both boys and girls tended to be more ambitious.

Drug policing drives racial disparity in the criminal justice system

While the use of stop and search has fallen significantly, there has been a shocking increase in racial disparities in the policing and prosecution of drug offences according to a new report by Stopwatch, Release and LSE. Read more here. 

Media: Is racial bias in police stop and search getting worse?

Dr Michael Shiner contributes to a Channel 4 News report which explores this issue.
Watch here.

Conference of consensus on social and academic diversity

Professor Anne West contributed – by video - to a ‘conférence de consensus’, which was held in Montréal on 9 and 10 October. Her contribution focused on the different ways in which policy makers in Europe have sought to improve the social and academic mix of schools, for example via admissions arrangements, developing new schools, merging schools. Watch the video by connecting to the webcast here.

Key note presentation at BIEN Annual Conference

Professor Anne West gave a Key Note presentation at the Berlin Interdisciplinary Education Research Network (BIEN) Annual Conference at DIW, Berlin on 17th September 2018.

Her talk was entitled ‘The expansion of “private” schools in England (academies/free schools), Sweden (friskolor) and Eastern Germany (Freie Schulen): Policy goals, ideas and political parties’. 
Read more.

Media- No more excuses: the NHS must fund anti-HIV pre-exposure drugs now

Research shows that fears of a public outcry over PrEP are fuelled by negative media coverage, not facts. Dr Timothy Hildebrandt writes Opinion piece for The Guardian.  Read more.

Occupational aspirations of children

From an early age, children are asked about what they would like to do when they grow up. Their answers - and the jobs they go on to do - reveal some striking differences. Read more here. 

New research: How much you save may be influenced by your grandparents' place of birth

The study, which is the first of its kind to find a link between culture and saving behaviour, used long-term data to explore the saving habits of UK migrants, their children and their grandchildren and found that culture impacts on saving behaviour for up to three generations. Dr Berkay Ozcan is one of the authors of the report. Read more here.

Perspectives on poverty in Europe

Professor Stephen Jenkins gave an invited plenary lecture on "Perspectives on poverty in Europe" to the European Commission’s Community of Practice on Fairness Workshop on ‘Income inequality and its policy determinants – beyond a MS level analysis’, Brussels, 11 September 2018.

Media: Violence, abuse and disappearance in Bangladesh

Professor David Lewis contributes to a hard hitting Channel 4 News report. View here.

Research presentation at Department for Education

On 28th August, Professor Lucinda Platt, with her co-author Sam Parsons from UCL, presented research on children with special educational needs (SEN), their school engagement and experience and their long-term outcomes at a seminar at the Department for Education. The studies showed that teenagers with SEN, while interested in school, have much more negative experiences than their peers. They also face cumulative impacts on social relationships and economic well-being throughout life, though there is some evidence that the situation has improved for more recent cohorts. The research is part of an ESRC- funded programme of research.

LSE Blog: What should be the future of UK-Bangladesh realtions after aid?

Guest bloggers Saleemul Huq, International Centre for Climate Change and Development, and Professor David Lewis, Department of Social Policy at the LSE, suggest a new future for UK-Bangladesh relations once Bangladesh graduates from a Least Developed Country to a Middle Income Country in 2021. Read more.

Boomerang children 'Closer' to parents in challenging economy

The parents of middle-class millennials are providing vital emotional and financial support to their young adult children – as students and graduates – in a challenging employment and housing environment, new research has shown. Read more.

Low expectations are stopping young disabled people going to university

Almost half of all young people in England now go on to higher education. This means that teenagers in the UK are more likely to go to university than ever before.

Official figures reveal that 49% of students in England are expected to enter advanced studies by the age of 30. But new research by Professor Lucinda Platt and Dr Stella Chatzitheochari shows that students with special educational needs and disabilities are far less likely to go to university than those with no known disabilities. 
Read more.

LSE Blog: Ten lessons from Grenfell

Social landlords and the government have long neglected their existing housing stock in favour of new homes, leading to a deterioration of safety standards and a lack of accountability. In the case of Grenfell Tower, these conditions led to at least 72 deaths. A year on from the fire, and with problems in multi-storey blocks being uncovered all over the country, Professor Anne Power outlines ten key lessons to be learnt from Grenfell.
Read more.

Law and order

40 years ago, GF Newman's quartet of plays, Law and Order, explored the role of the Metropolitan Police, the criminal, the solicitor and the prison system around one central story. Four decades later, have we any cause for complacency? Professor Tim Newburn talks to Laurie Taylor as part of Radio 4 series: Thinking Allowed.

Listen here

Dr Armine Ishkanian gives invited lecture and presentation on Armenia

Dr Armine Ishkanian gave an invited lecture at the International Gender Studies Centre at Lady Margarets Hall, University of Oxford on comparative analysis of civil society mobilisation against domestic violence in the UK and Armenia. Read more.

Dr Armine Ishkanian gave a presentation at Chatham House on the revolution in Armenia. Read more.

Diversity: Ethically mixed schools better for social cohesion

Pupils from schools with greater ethnic diversity have more positive feelings towards pupils of different ethnicities, according to a new study of attitudes in English secondary schools from the University of Bristol and LSE. Read more. 

David Donnison- Shaper of social policy for the last half century

David Donnison, who has died aged 92, was one of a group of outstanding academics who played an important part in shaping social policy during the 1960s and 70s, and, in his case, well beyond. Read more.

Pupil happiness: Increased access to independently-run schools decreases student wellbeing

The competition created by increased access to autonomous schools, such as academies, faith schools and private schools, raises academic achievement but decreases pupil wellbeing, a new study from the London School of Economics and Political Science published in the Economics of Education Review has found. 
Read more.

Media- Royal wedding: The UK's rapidly changing mixed-race population

Meghan Markle's marriage to Prince Harry will see her become the first mixed-race member of the Royal Family. Professor Lucinda Platt writes for the BBC about the mixed heritage population of the UK and how the wedding reflects wider changes in UK society. 
Read here.

Podcast- Gender Pay Gap Reporting

Dr Berkay Ozcan discusses the root causes of workplace pay gaps and how employers can reduce them, plus generder pay gap reporting and ethnicity pay gap reporting.

Listen here

LSE Blog- A revolution of values: Freedom, responsibility, and courage in the Armenian Velvet Revolution

Mass protests in Armenia, which began in April and led to the resignation of Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, have been dubbed a ‘Velvet Revolution’. Dr Armine Ishkanian explains that this revolution has been rooted in the values of Armenian society and its domestic, socio-economic and political realities, rather than geopolitics or foreign relations. Read here.

Media- Armenia after the revolution

In an article on the Aljazeera website, Dr Armine Ishkanian talks about the opportunities and challenges facing the country after the revolution. Read here.

Professor Stephen Jenkins gives keynote lecture at LIS User Conference

Professor Stephen Jenkins highlights Tony Atkinson's contribution to inequality research in Europe and the world at a Keynote lecture at LIS User Conference 3-4 May 2018. The keynote lecture was entitled "European Poverty". Read more

LSE Blog- Assessing the impact of the Rohingya crisis on Bangladesh 

Whilst the people and the government of Bangladesh have set a shining example for the world in terms of offering sanctuary to the Rohingya, Professor David Lewis assesses the potential repercussions on the immediate area and beyond for this act of generosity. Read here.

LSE IQ- Are we seeing a new gender equality revolution?

Gender politics has dominated the news over the past year with issues like the UK gender pay gap and the global #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. Helping explore this new wave of feminism and whether or not it will bring about lasting change for women. are: Professor Beverley Skeggs, Director of the Atlantic Fellows programme at LSE's International Inequalities Institute, Professor Jennifer Brown, Co-director of LSE's Mannheim Centre for Criminology, and Winnie Li, award-winning author, activist and PhD researcher in LSE's Department of Media and Communications. Access podcast here.

Parents' lives made more miserable by boomerang generation

Adult children who return to live with their parents, the so-called 'boomerang generation', cause a significant decline in parents' quality of life and well-being, according to new research from the ALPHA research unit. Read more.

LSE Blog- What protests in Athens, Cairo and London tell us about opposition to neoliberalism

Drawing on a new study based on interviews with activists in Athens, Cairo and London, Dr Armine Ishkanian highlights that activists often view the current economic system as being fundamentally incompatible with their conception of democracy, but that the term ‘anti-neoliberal’ fails to capture the full extent of their political positions and policies. Read here.

LSE Blog- Monitoring Global Poverty- Tony Atkinson and the World Bank

At the Beveridge 2.0 LSE Festival event Five LSE Giants’ Perspectives on Poverty, Professor Stephen Jenkins explained how the World Bank is changing its methodological approach as a result of the Monitoring Global Poverty report written by an “LSE Giant”, Professor Sir Anthony (Tony) B Atkinson (1944-2017), formerly Tooke Professor of Economic Science and Statistics, 1980–1992, and Centennial Professor, 2010–17. Read here.

Outstanding recent contributions to the National Child Development Study

Congratulations to Dr Alice Goisis, Dr Berkay Ozcan and Professor Mikko Myrskyla who received an award for outstanding recent contributions to the science of National Child Development Study for their paper “Decline in the negative association between low birth weight and cognitive ability" at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies recent celebration of the National Child Development study at 60. Read the paper here.

The transgender arguments dividing society

In an article on the BBCs website, Dr Timothy Hildebrandt discussed some of the difficulties that face the government in addressing issues related to transgender people in Britain.

QS World subject rankings

LSE ranked top university in Europe for social sciences and LSE Social Policy ranked 3rd in the world in the latest QS World University rankings. Read more here. View the latest QS World University rankings here.

LSE Festival Research Competition

Congratulations to Diego Alburez Gutiérrez, winner of the LSE PhD Academy Prize, for his image How to Survive a Genocide: Lessons from the Guatemalan Civil War. 

The PhD Academy prize was selected from shortlisted photograph, poster and research abstract submissions from PhD students. Read more.

Media- Beveridge 2.0 / Gearty Grillings / Anne West on ignorance/education

In 1942 former LSE Director William Beveridge launched his blueprint for a British universal care system, ‘from the cradle to the grave’. Some 75 years on, LSE offered a week-long festival of public events, exploring today’s “Five Giants”: the challenges of poverty; health and social care; education and skills; housing and urbanisation; and the future of work.

In this episode, Professor Anne West discusses ignorance / education.

Media- Beveridge 2.0 / Gearty Grillings / Lucinda Platt on Poverty/Want

In 1942 former LSE Director William Beveridge launched his blueprint for a British universal care system, ‘from the cradle to the grave’. Some 75 years on, LSE offered a week-long festival of public events, exploring today’s “Five Giants”: the challenges of poverty; health and social care; education and skills; housing and urbanisation; and the future of work.

In this episode, Professor Lucinda Platt discusses poverty / want.

LSE Blog- Oxfam crisis: we need a more informed debate 

Few would say that the alleged behaviour of aid workers in the Oxfam sexual exploitation scandal is acceptable. But the nature of the criticism that has followed these revelations, including government threats to cut Oxfam’s funding, is driven more by politics than genuine understanding of the sector, explains Professor David Lewis.

Academic Abroad

Professor Eileen Munro presented a talk at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, in which she shared her thoughts on the role of social work in child protection and how social workers can develop their skills in the field. During her talk Munro discussed child abuse and neglect, how child protection services fit into wider cultural relationships between children, parents, community and the State, and on how to develop expertise in social work. Read more.

Research programme

A major new £1million research programme will analyse the progress of social policy in addressing social inequalities.

Social policies and distributional outcomes in a changing Britain (SPDO) will be undertaken by a team of inequalities and social policy experts at LSE’s Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE), in partnership with University of Manchester, Heriot Watt University and UCL Institute for Education.
Read more.

Married with children: Can social policy improve the lives of China's LGB people?

In 1978, China’s Communist government implemented arguably the boldest social policy in world history: couples were to be restricted to a single child per family, in what became commonly known as the ‘one-child’ policy. Although the ban was repealed in 2015, new research finds the policy continues to make life difficult for many people in China, acutely so for its lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) community.

Dr Hildebrandt shows how the one-child policy has intensified family pressure for gay men and lesbian women. Read more.

The rise of precarious employment in Germany

Germany is often portrayed as the economic model to which other countries should aspire. According to some commentators, Britain would be better off if it rebalanced its economy away from low-skilled service sector jobs and rebuilt its manufacturing industry, while others argue that by deregulating its labour market, France would cultivate entrepreneurship.

In a recent paper, Dr Thomas Biegert of the Department of Social Policy and his research partner David Brady see much to admire in the German economy, but find the reality is more complex than its favourable reputation suggests. Read more.

LSE IQ Podcast

Why is social mobility declining?

Helping to answer the question are: Professor Mike Savage, co-director of LSE’s International Inequalities Institute, Dr Abigail McKnight, associate director of LSE’s Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion and Dr Sam Friedman of LSE’s Department of Sociology.

Higher inequality in the UK linked to higher poverty

Both inequality and poverty are now on the rise again and predicted to increase further in the next 5 to 15 years, but it has never been established if the two are directly linked. Researchers from LSE’s Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) explored the different types of inequality including income inequality and concentration of wealth, over the period 1961 to 2016. Read more.

LSE IQ Podcast

Is our prison system broken?

Helping to answer the question are: Dr Simon Bastow, LSE Fellow, Department of Management; Professor Nicola Lacey, School Professor of Law, Gender and Social Policy at LSE; and Dr Sharon Shalev, a fellow of the Mannheim Centre for the Study of Criminology and Criminal Science at LSE and founder of SolitaryConfinement.org 

Professor Eileen Munro in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Professor Eileen Munro was invited to give evidence to the Ministerial Panel on Child Intervention and to provide consultancy to the Minister of Children’s Services and the Office of the Child and Youth Advocate on improving the child protection system.

Professor Munro also gave a lecture at the University of Calgary on ‘Improving social work expertise’. 

Professor Lucinda Platt elected a Fellow of the European Academy of Sociology (EAS)

Congratulations to Professor Lucinda Platt, Professor of Social Policy and Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science for being elected a Fellow of the European Academy of Sociology.

The European Academy of Sociology is a fellowship of respected scholars with expertise in many different areas of sociology, united around the common concern to promote rigorous standards in sociology. Read more.

The relationship between welfare and penal policies

Dr Leonidas Cheliotis gave an invited talk at the Department of Political Science and Public Management of the University of Southern Denmark in the context of an international interdisciplinary workshop on the relationship between welfare and penal policies. Dr Cheliotis’ talk drew on his joint work with Dr. Sappho Xenakis (Birkbeck, University of London), and was entitled ‘Whither Neoliberal Penality? The Past, Present and Future of Imprisonment in the US’. 

Do generous welfare states mean more unemployment?

In new research, Dr Thomas Biegert explores the effects of benefits on job seekers in 20 European countries and the US. Read more on the LSE US Centre’s blog.

Ethnicity, identity and culture

Professor Lucinda Platt gave the opening seminar in the University of Luxembourg's 2017/18 SEMILUX series, talking about Ethnicity and identity: individual and contextual influences on identity expression across ethnic groups. Read more.

Lucinda also gave a talk at the Royal College of Defence Studies on The Politics of Ethnicity and Culture. Read more.

The detrimental social impact of the mining industry in Armenia

Dr Armine Ishkanian was interviewed for an article published in the Neues Deutschland newspaper about the  mining industry in Armenia. Her research was quoted in the article where she draws attention to the negative social impacts of mining in Armenia.  Read full article. 

Female EU citizens face disadvantage in claiming permanent residency in the UK

The finding was made as part of an LSE research project examining female EU citizens' experiences of trying to claim access to residence rights and social benefits.

The researchers, Dr Isabel Shutes of LSE’s Social Policy Department, and Sarah Walker of the Sociology Department at Goldsmiths, University of London, call on the government to address the gender implications of the conditions for acquiring legal residence and social rights. Read more.

Professor Emily Grundy elected a Fellow of the British Academy

Congratulations to Professor Emily Grundy, Professor of Demography at the London School of Economics and Political Science for being elected a Fellow of the British Academy.

Fellows of the British Academy represent the very best of humanities and social sciences research, in the UK and globally. This year’s new Fellows are experts in subjects ranging from feminist theory to the economic development of Africa; medieval history to Indian philosophy and face perception. Read more.

Dr Tim Hildebrandt talks about recent censorship around homosexuality in China

Dr Timothy Hildebrandt was interviewed by the BBC for its coverage of a recent new media regulation in China that, among other restrictions, bans all depictions of homosexuality in online videos. Dr Hildebrandt drew upon his extensive and ongoing research into LGBT-related policies in China and elsewhere. Read article here. Listen to audio version here.

Professor Lucinda Platt at the Understanding Society International conference

Professor Lucinda Platt gave a plenary at the Understanding Society international conference. The topic was: Ethnicity and identity: new perspectives.

Held at the University of Essex, the Understanding Society Scientific Conference provides an international forum for the exchange of research based on longitudinal household panel studies.

The three-day conference attracted 240 delegates from multiple countries (Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Australia, US, Korea) as well as UK, and from government departments and funding organisations, research organisations as well as universities. Read more.

Income directly affects children's outcomes

Poorer children have worse cognitive, social-behavioural and health outcomes because they are poor, and not just because poverty is correlated with other household and parental characteristics, according to a new report from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Kerris Cooper and Kitty Stewart of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion(CASE) and the Department of Social Policy found the strong evidence of the causal effect between household income and children’s outcomes after reviewing 61 studies from OECD countries including the US, UK, Australia, and Germany. Read more

Low cost housing schemes have little impact on social mobility

Flagship Government schemes to help more people get on the UK housing ladder have little impact on improving social mobility as better-off buyers are most likely to benefit from the support.

A new LSE report for the Social Mobility Commission into the impact of low-cost homeownership schemes has found that those benefitting from schemes - such as Help to Buy – earn more than one and half times the national working age median income. Read more.

The state of British prisons

Dr Leonidas Cheliotis was interviewed by the German Press Agency about the state of British prisons. Quoted in an article published by Deutsche Welle, Dr Cheliotis drew attention to the politicisation of penal policy in Britain and the concomitant lack of state commitment to alternatives to imprisonment. Read full article.

Professor Anthony Hall awarded a Newton Fund

Professor Anthony Hall has been awarded a Newton Fund Institutional Links grant to be carried out in partnership with the University of Amazonas in Brazil. This joint research will look into the nature of participatory management and how communities influence decision-making that affects key aspects of their lives such as livelihood diversity, production systems for non-timber forest products (NTFPs), use of traditional knowledge, participatory learning and local technology. 

Only children more likely to support parents in old age than children with siblings

A new study found that only children are more likely than children with siblings to share a household with or live at close distance from ageing parents, particularly when parents suffer from poor health. Read more.

A matter of life and death

Valentina Iemmi analysed the relationship between poverty and suicide in low and middle income countries, and discusses how her work could help inform efforts to address this global health crisis. Read more.

Professor Stephen Jenkins in Berlin

Professor Stephen Jenkins gave an invited plenary lecture at the 50th Anniversary Conference of the German Institute for Research on the Labour Market and Professions (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, IAB) in Berlin, 5-6 April 2017.

His topic was 'Monitoring poverty in Europe: assessing progress since the early-1990s'.

Dr Armine Ishkanian shares her views on the Armenian parliamentary elections

Parliamentary elections were held in Armenia on 2nd April 2017. They were the first parliamentary election of its kind since the signing of a 2015 referendum. Dr Armine Ishkanian talks to CivilNet before the election.

Following the results which saw the ruling Republican Party of Armenia win the largest share of the vote, Armine Ishkanian shares her views on the LSE Blog, 'Armenia’s election: The status quo wins at the expense of democracy.'

Parents with young children are 'substantially' less productive than their colleagues, due to a lack of sleep

In the first study of its kind, Dr Joan Costa-i-Font and Sarah Flèche, of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics and Political Science, have found that baby-induced fatigue is significantly undermining economic performance. Read more.

Dramatic turn-around in cognitive abilities of children born to older mothers

In contrast to 40 years ago, children born to older mothers today are more likely to perform better in cognitive ability tests than those born to younger mothers, reveals new research from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR). Read more.

Can the disadvantages that often accompany becoming a young parent be minimised? 

Professor Emily Grundy studied the effects of early parenthood over the course of people’s lives in two different types of society, finding differences between Eastern and Western European countries in life chances and health in later life. Read more.

Dr Timothy Hildebrandt talks at the University of Oxford China Centre

Dr Timothy Hildebrandt gave a talk on 'The end of the one-child policy and its effect on LGBT Chinese' at the University of Oxford China Centre on Thursday 26th January. presenting a social policy explanation for family pressure- alongside the better known and more commonly discussed sociocultural ones.

Professor Sir Tony Atkinson (1944-2017)

It is with great sadness that the Department notes the death of Tony Atkinson on New Year’s Day. A great man has left us all too soon.

Tony had long-standing connections with the Department, and had just been reappointed as a Centennial Professor (jointly with the Department of Economics). He was the School’s Tooke Professor of Economic Science and Statistics, 1980–1992, and Director of the Suntory-Toyota Centre for Economics and Related Disciplines, within which our department’s Centre for the Analysis of Social Policy is housed. Tony was one of CASE’s greatest supporters throughout its history, and he also made many contributions to the new International Inequalities Institute. Read more.

Modern, globalised lifestyles fuelling obesity epidemic

A new LSE study suggests that our 21st century, globalised lifestyles are fuelling the rise of obesity. Read more.

Cognitive abilities of low birth weight children show dramatic improvement

The gap between the cognitive abilities of children born with a low birth weight and those born with a normal weight has decreased by 50 per cent over the last 40 years or more, according to new research from LSE and the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. Read more.

Professor Mossialos joins expert advisory board to support the Global AMR Innovation Fund 

Professor Elias Mossialos, Brian Abel-Smith Professor of Health Policy within the Department of Social Policy and Director of LSE Health, has been appointed to an expert advisory board to support the Global Antimicrobial Resistance Innovation Fund (GAMRIF).

Professor Mossialos will join 11 other board members and will advise how the UK can best spend an additional £50 million over the next five years to work with global partners to fund innovative initiatives that tackle drug resistant infections, which includes resistance to antibiotics.

Prize Winners 2015/16 Announced!

Prizes are awarded to students for merit or achievement based on nominations received by academics in the Department. In addition, an annual prize is awarded for the best PhD thesis written by a student in the Department.

Congratulations to all of the winners of these prestigious prizes for the 2015/16 academic year. Read more.

LSE Health awarded major European grant for big data project

LSE Health has been awarded its first major European big data grant. From January 2017 it will coordinate 36 organisations in a public-private consortium with a total budget of 7.2 million Euros. Read more.

Mental health interventions in pregnant women and new mothers have benefits

There are clear economic and societal arguments for investing in mental health interventions for women during pregnancy and immediately after birth, a new report by the Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) at the London School of Economics and Political Science suggests. Read more.

Social Policy Alumni win this year's Geneva Challenge

Two of our former MSc in Social Policy and Development (2015-2016) students, Arianna Espinosa-Oliver and Abraham Hidalgo-Mendoza, were part of the winning team that won this year’s Geneva Challenge with the MINGA Collective Waste Management project.

This is an annual competition hosted by the Graduate Institute in Geneva - The Advancing Development Goals International Contest for Graduate Students. This year the students were asked to come up with a project on 'The Challenges of Urbanisation'.

Dr Ernestina Coast invited to speak at International Conferences

Dr Coast was an invited Panellist at the 13th Inter-Ministerial Conference on Population and Development in Dakar (28th-29th November). The event focused on Priority Population and Development Challenges in the context of the SDGs, and Dr Coast presented on Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE).

Dr Coast was also an invited participant at the decennial Africa Regional Conference on Abortion where she presented two research papers and gave an Expert Interview on the role of young people in research.

Key note presentation given by Professor Anne West

Professor Anne West gave the key note presentation at the Reclaiming Education Conference held on Saturday 12 November 2016 in London.

The talk was entitled the ‘History of Comprehensive Education in England’.

Academic Abroad- Dr Armine Ishkanian delivers keynote lectures

Dr Armine Ishkanian delivered keynote lectures on 'Armenia's Current Political and Social Situation in Global Context' at the University of California, Irvine on 2 November as part of the Vahe and Armine Meghrouni Lecture series in Armenian studies, and at the University of California, Los Angeles on the 3 November at the invitation of the Centre for Near Eastern Studies.

PhD student Kerris Cooper wins the 3 minute PhD competition at the LSE Research Festival

The PhD Academy hosted their first 3 Minute Thesis® (3MT) competition as part of the LSE Research Festival. PhD students competed to communicate effectively about their doctoral research, in language accessible to a non-specialist audience, in just 3 minutes.
Read more.

Increased retirement age puts pressure on 'sandwich generation'

A new study from LSE, published in 'Research on Ageing', has found that raising the retirement age is likely to put pressure on middle-aged people with caring responsibilities. Read more.

Leveson press restrictions a 'threat to democracy and accuracy'

The breakdown of metropolitan police and media relations in the wake of the Leveson Inquiry has led to a proliferation of inaccurate and prejudicial news reports in recent years, according to a new study by a leading criminologist, Dr Marianne Colbran. Read more.

Childhood bullying places 'long term strain' on UK mental health services

Lead researcher Dr Sara Evans-Lacko, an Associate Professorial Research Fellow from LSE’s Personal Social Services Research Unit, said: “The impact of childhood bullying on mental health services is most notable at an early age, but the association remains significant at 50. Read more.

Dr Leonidas Cheliotis at CINETS

Dr Leonidas Cheliotis, Assistant Professor in Criminology at the Department of Social Policy, was a keynote speaker at the 3rd CINETS (Crimmigration Control International Network of Studies) conference, which took place at the University of Maryland in College Park on 6-7 October 2016. Dr. Cheliotis' lecture was entitled 'Europe on Trial: Making Sense of State Violence against Irregular Migrants and Refugees', and drew on his ongoing research on the political economy of immigration in Southern Europe. 

Is intergenerational living the secret to good mental health in old age?

Intergenerational cohabitation (parents and adult children living in the same household) may have contributed to curbing high rates of depressive symptoms among older people during the Great Recession, according to new research from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and King’s College London.
Read more.

Government reforms could put the sustainability and quality of early years provision at risk

New research from LSE suggests that government proposals to introduce a new national early years funding formula could put the sustainability of early years education and care providers at risk, and also put at risk the quality of provision available for children.
Read more.

High incomes study shows women are less than a quarter of top one per cent

A new study by LSE’s International Inequalities Institute shows that women make up a smaller and smaller fraction of those with high incomes, the closer you get to the top.  Women have been increasing their representation in the top 10 per cent, but progress has been much less at the very top 0.1 per cent. Read more.

Dr Leonidas Cheliotis to co-organise a British Academy conference

Dr Leonidas Cheliotis, Assistant Professor in Criminology at the Department of Social Policy, along with LSE School Professors Nicola Lacey (Law) and David Soskice (Government), as well as Dr. Sappho Xenakis (Birkbeck Law School), have been successful in their joint application to the British Academy for a two-day international interdisciplinary conference on 'Tracing the relationship between inequality, crime and punishment: Space, time and politics'.

The conference will be fully funded by the Academy and will be held on 7-8 December 2017 at its premises at Carlton House Terrace.

Prize for Sam Lattof, PhD student

Sam Lattof, a PhD student in the Department of Social Policy, was awarded the joint top prize for her poster “Mothers on the move” at the 2016 British Society for Population Studies Annual Conference, which was held 12-14 September, at the University of Winchester.

Government housing benefit cuts directly linked to rise in depression in low income households

Cuts to housing benefit by the UK coalition government have led to a 10 per cent increase in people from low income households reporting poor mental health and helped propel an additional 26,000 people into depression researchers from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), University of Oxford and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine have found.
Read more.

The Olympics made us happy, but was it worth it?

The 2012 Olympic Games caused a marked increase in happiness among Londoners, according to new LSE research which shows for the first time that there are significant intangible effects to hosting the event. Read more.

Dementia toolkit to help patients, carers and healthcare workers

A comprehensive web tool bringing together scientific evidence on dementia care and treatment has been developed by researchers at LSE's Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU). Read more.

Dr Armine Ishkanian comments on political developments in Armenia

Following her published piece in openDemocracy on the July 2016 protests in Armenia, Dr Armine Ishkanian has been commenting for #StreamUpdate on the recent street protests and how they relate to wider social and political developments in Armenia.

North-South economic and social divide still growing

Economic and social divergence between London and the North of England continues to grow, according to new CASE and University of Manchester research. Read more.

Fifa Kara Newton wins Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Award

Fifi Kara Newton, a 3rd year Social Policy student along with another LSE student has won the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Award for their tech start up, Yonder. The app shows you the cheapest flight destinations on the days you want to get away. 

LSE Health outlines reforms for China's pharmaceutical system

China’s pharmaceutical system will struggle to cope with the twin challenges of a rapidly aging population and increases in non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and heart and lung disease. Read more.

Dr Leonidas Cheliotis wins Adam Podgòrecki Prize

Dr Leonidas Cheliotis, has won the prestigious Adam Podgòrecki Prize for his published work in the sociology of crime and punishment.

The prize is awarded biannually by the International Sociological Association (Sociology of Law Section) 'for outstanding achievements in socio-legal research within ten years following completion of a doctorate degree'. 

LSE Health publish study on antibiotic innovation

LSE Health has published a study, commissioned by the Dutch government, outlining a range of policy recommendations for improving the global research and development agendas for antibiotics. Read more.

Professor Anne West and Dr Sonia Exley at KOSMOS International Workshop (University of Humboldt, Berlin)

The Kosmos Workshop on Privatisation and Marketization in Compulsory Education took place on 17th and 18th June in Berlin. Dr Sonia Exley’s presentation focused on England and Professor Anne West’s contribution on Sweden. The proceedings are to be published in an edited volume next year and further collaboration is expected.

Migration does not slow rate of ageing population

Different levels of migration have not led to different rates of population ageing within the UK population, new research from the London School of Economics and Political Science has found. Read more.

Leaving the EU poses 'critical threat' to NHS

Britain’s withdrawal from the EU would negatively impact the NHS in a number of ways, a new briefing report by academics from LSE and the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London has warned.
Read more.

LSE partners with University of Chicago to create global health programme

LSE and the University of Chicago have signed a Memorandum of Understanding aiming to create the world’s first transatlantic partnership in global health policy and economics. 
Read more.

Best Paper Award in VOLUNTAS for 2015

The article, “Surreptitious Symbiosis: Engagement Between Activists and NGOs,” by Professor Marlies Glasius (University of Amsterdam) and Dr Armine Ishkanian (LSE) has been selected for the Best Paper Award in VOLUNTAS for 2015.

Nature versus nurture in obesity: New evidence from adoptee data

Obesity, particularly in children, is a major health concern in many developed economies, where it presents a costly risk to health services. Dr Joan Costa-i-Font, Professor Mireia Jofre-Bonet and Professor Julian Le Grand examined the intergenerational transmission of overweight and obesity using a unique sample of English adoptees. Read more.

LSE to launch 20-year programme funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies to support leaders tackling inequalities

An ambitious programme designed to build a global community of leaders dedicated to changing policy, practice and public dialogue around inequalities has been announced by LSE and The Atlantic Philanthropies. Read more.

Department of Social Policy ranked number 1 in the UK

The Guardian's latest University League Tables rank the LSE's Department of Social Policy as number 1 in the UK

New brain-training tool to help people cut drinking

Professor Paul Dolan, internationally-renowned LSE expert on happiness and behaviour has launched a free online tool to help people who want to cut down on alcohol. Read more.

New LSE book on the transformation of post-industrial European cities

Professor Anne Power’s new book, Cities for a Small Continent, collects compelling evidence from seven archetypal industrial cities across Europe that were the power-houses of the industrial revolution. She argues that far from being “clapped out”, “jobless, poor and dirty” they are stuffed with assets that can be recycled and reused. Read more.

LSE research shows significant social return on investment for London regeneration project

Home Group, one of the UK’s largest providers of high quality social housing and supported housing services and products, has published the results of a report carried out by LSE to assess the impact of a £140m regeneration programme at Rayners Lane, a former council owned estate in the London Borough of Harrow. Read more.

Control over admissions should be removed from schools, new study by Professor Anne West recommends

A new report on secondary school admissions in London by Professor Anne West and Audrey Hind provides an up-to-date analysis of London secondary schools’ admissions criteria and practices between 2001 and 2015. Read more.

Academic Abroad

Dr Tiziana Leone has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Florence for 6 weeks. During that time she has given guest lectures as well as presented her ongoing work on ageing of mid-life women in low income countries at Bocconi University on 9 May.

Huge investment in cancer drugs leads to £14 billion net benefit for UK patients

The UK has more than doubled its spending on cancer drugs over the past decade, leading to a £14 billion (2014 GBP) net economic benefit in terms of increased life outcomes for cancer patients, according to new research published by LSE Health. Read more.

Can Mediation take the pain out of divorce?

Of the estimated 130,000 divorces each year in the UK, around 70 per cent now use mediators to resolve their concerns outside of the court system. New research by LSE sheds light on the impact parental conflict can have on children during the divorce process, and points the way towards how mediation could help. Read more.

Examining the relationship between political systems and state punitiveness

Democratic states are not necessarily less punitive than their non-democratic counterparts, according to a new LSE study. Read more.

LSE's Department of Social Policy ranked 2nd in the world

The latest QS World University Rankings by Subject show eight subjects at LSE are ranked in the world’s top five, and 13 are ranked in the top 10. 

Among these, Social Policy rated 2nd in the world ! Read more.

Gains in life expectancy hide premature deaths among white High School Graduates

Modest gains in life expectancy among white high school-educated Americans obscure the fact that, in contrast to their more highly educated peers, significant numbers are increasingly dying young, reveals research. Read more.

Germany, gender and job satisfaction

Germany may be the economic powerhouse of Europe, but cultural differences between East and West reveal some deeply ingrained views relating to gender, parenthood and job satisfaction. Read more.

Professor Anne West at the Sutton Trust 

Professor Anne West gave a presentation at The Sutton Trust’s international ‘Best in Class Summit: Social mobility through schools’ on 9th March.

She talked about school admissions, the problems faced by disadvantaged families navigating the system and concerns that schools were choosing pupils rather than parents choosing schools.

Research Funding News

Professor Emily Grundy, has been awarded European Commission Horizon2020 funding for the MINDMAP project. The project aims to identify opportunities offered by the urban environment for the promotion of mental wellbeing and cognitive function of older individuals in Europe and is coordinated by the Institut National De La Sante Et De La Recherche Medicale (INSERM).

" I went upstairs to get my chequebook": doorstep fraud and the exploitation of the elderly

Research by Dr Coretta Phillips shows that elderly adults can be vulnerable to doorstep fraud, criminal activity which may go under-reported because of its complex nature.
Read more.

Academic Abroad

Professor Stephen Jenkins visited the OECD in Paris on Friday 19th February, presenting his research on "Better accounting for top incomes in the measurement of inequality levels and trends" at the Second Meeting of Providers of OECD Income Distribution Data. He also gave a seminar at the OECD Economics Department on "Employment instability".

Academic Abroad

Dr Armine Ishkanian was an invited speaker at the "Combatting Environmental Crime: Priorities and Opportunities for further EU Action" which was held at the European Economic and Social Committee, in Brussels on 17th-18th February. Drawing on her research on mining in Armenia, she presented on the role of NGOs and civil society in combatting environmental crime.

Youth mental health neglect a 'moral scandal and enormous economic mistake', says LSE report

More than half of teenagers and young people with mental health problems do not receive any clinical treatment, amounting to a ‘’moral scandal and enormous economic mistake,’’ according to a new LSE study. Read more.

Seminar to launch the major research report

The Value and effects of Judicial Review
By Varda Bondy, Professor Lucinda Platt, and Professor Maurice Sunkin which draws on research funded by the Nuffield Foundation and undertaken by the Public Law Project, the University of Essex and London School of Economics (LSE). This is the first comprehensive independent study to consider the effects of judicial review principally from the perspective of claimants and their advisers.

Measles and migrants

In the past two years, Europe has recorded more than 22,000 cases of measles: a sharp reversal of the 96% decline of the last 20 years. Why is it happening and who is at risk?
Read more.

First born children of women in their thirties perform best in tests of mental development and psychological well-being

The firstborn children of mothers in their thirties score more highly on measures of mental development and psychological well-being than children born to other first time mothers reveals new research. Read more.

Women on the beat

2015 marks 100 years since Edith Smith became the first female police officer in Britain with powers of arrest. Today, women make up 28 per cent of the force but the struggle for acceptance is far from over. Read more.

Cost is the biggest barrier to young people's participation in sport because a third live in poverty

Schools should open up their facilities at evenings and weekends to enable more young people to take part in sport. This is just one of a series of recommendations from an LSE study. Read more. 

Academic Abroad

Dr Leonidas Cheliotis, Department of Social Policy, gave a plenary lecture on 'Political Systems and Punishment: The Challenges of Democratisation' at the 2nd Latin American Congress on Crime and Society, in Argentina from 10-12 December.

Global Girls Research Initiative Launched

Dr Ernestina Coast and Professor Lucinda Platt from the Department of Social Policy are two of a number of LSE academics involved in an exciting new ‘Global Girls Research Initiative’ (GGRI) funded by DfID for nine years and led by the Overseas Development Institute.

Academic Abroad

Anne West, Professor of Education Policy, holds the 2015 Fritz Karsen Chair at Humboldt University in Berlin. Earlier this month she visited Berlin, meeting with professors, researchers and graduate students, and working on two articles with Professor Rita Nikolai. Two proposals for international conferences in Berlin and in Hannover were submitted, one of which also involves Dr Sonia Exley. Further collaborative research is planned.

Child poverty measurement

Dr Kitty Stewart contributes to LSE British Politics and Policy Blog on child poverty measurement. Read more.

Academic Abroad

Professor Lucinda Platt was invited to give the opening lecture at an International Seminar on Design, Collection and Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Mexico, held at CIDE, Aguascalientes, Mexico from the 19-20 November.

New flat rate state pension will lead to benefit cuts for some groups

A new report involving LSE academics has found that low earning renters stand to lose the most from planned reforms to state pensions and long-term care if they are not protected. Read more.

New LSE Housing Academy for social landlords launched

The Academy will help housing associations remain viable social businesses by supporting the communities where they work in a period of austerity. It will be hands-on and action-oriented locally while driving home policy messages among decision-makers. Read more.

Dr Timothy Hildebrandt in the South China Morning Post on the end of China's one-child policy

Dr Timothy Hildebrandt says that with the end of China’s one-child policy, family expectations to produce an offspring will eventually ease on the only child who happens to be gay or lesbian. Read more.

Government regulation and industry practices stalling drug development finds new report

The majority of new medicines entering the market offer few clinical advantages over existing alternatives according to a new analysis article published in the British Medical Journal. Read more.

Research Funding News

The LSE is delighted to have been awarded £565,000 by theJoseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) for a three-year programme to investigate the links between poverty and inequalities. Read more.

Working to the death

Should we accept George Osborne’s claim that the UK’s state pension scheme faces collapse unless we increase the retirement age? In a new book released this month, LSE Visiting Professor John Macnicol challenges this view. Read more.

Academic Abroad

Dr Armine Ishkanian was an invited speaker at the Vienna Policy Conference (29-30 October) which was organised by the Open Society Foundation in Europe and the ERSTE Stiftung.

Research Funding News

Dr Kitty Stewart has received Nuffield Foundation funding to undertake research on segregation in early years settings.

Research Funding News

Professor Anne Power has received funding from Trafford Hall to gather new evidence on the impact of the new government’s austerity programme on social landlords and tenants.

Dr Jeroen Luyten awarded McKinsey Company Award

Dr Jeroen Luyten (LSE Health Fellow) was recently awarded the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) and McKinsey & Company annual scientific prize for his excellent PhD research, and for demonstrating the social and economic relevance of his work.

Heavy drinkers and drugs users underestimate their levels of consumption compared to others

Heavy drinkers and users of illegal drugs downplay their relative levels of consumption, when comparing themselves to others, reveals research by LSE and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Read more.

Dr Timothy Hildebrandt at Chatham House

Dr Timothy Hildebrandt appeared at Chatham House where he spoke in response to the premiere of a Channel 4 documentary on gay conversion therapy in China.

Listen here

Research Funding News

Dr Timo Fleckenstein  has been awarded funding under the British Academy's International Partnership and Mobility Scheme. The project will critically assess the opportunities but also the limits of social investment policies, developing a long-term strategy for social investment policies in the re-design of welfare states.

Research Funding News

Dr Polly Vizard, from CASE, has been awarded funding by the Nuffield Foundation to extend knowledge and understanding of multidimensional poverty and disadvantage experienced by children and young people in Britain. 

Poor children in London get better grades than those outside due to improvement in the capital's schools

New work, published by researchers associated with the Centre for Social Exclusion (CASE) at LSE and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), concludes that the improved performance largely reflects gradual improvements in school quality over time. Read more.

Dr Timothy Hildebrandt on the gay marriage proposal on the Beijing subway 

Dr Timothy Hildebrandt was quoted by the BBC in its coverage of a gay marriage proposal on the Beijing subway that has gone viral on social networking sites in the last week. Read more.

PhD candidate working on Brazil's first community protocol at the International Institute for Environment and Development

Roberta Peixoto Ramos, a PhD candidate at the Social Policy Department, is working on a project to develop the first community protocol in Brazil, which is being implemented at a traditional community in the Brazilian Amazon Forest. Read more.

Academic Abroad

Lucinda Platt gave a plenrary lecture on "What can the sociological anaysis of social mobility bring to the immigration debate? Examples and Reflections" at the European Sociological Association's conference in Prague, 25-28 August. Read more.

Dr Ernestina Coast elected to Guttmacher Institute Board

Dr Coast has been elected to the Board of the Guttmacher Institute. The Institute's overarching goal is to ensure the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health for all people worldwide.

Internet is both harming and helping older people in social interactions

The report, co-authored by Dr Jacqueline Damant and Professor Martin Knapp, found that digital technology has the potential to both harm and help social networking. Read more.

Attending church is the key to good mental health among older Europeans

A study of depression among older Europeans has found that joining a religious organisation is more beneficial than charity work, sport or education in improving their mental health.
Read more.

Drug possession should be removed from police performance indicators

Drug possession should be removed from police performance indicators to encourage officers to spend more time solving serious crime rather than targeting low level possession of cannabis, according to a new LSE study by Dr Michael Shiner. Read more.

Research Impact Case Study-

Helping reform police 'stop and search' powers

LSE research into the 2011 riots in England leads to a review of police powers.Tim Newburn, Professor of Criminology and Social Policy, collaborated with the Guardian in a groundbreaking investigation of the causes of the 2011 riots in England.

Academic Abroad

Professor Stephen Jenkins gave a plenary lecture on "To what extent has income inequality increased?" at the biennial conference of the Society for the Analysis of Economic Inequality (ECINEQ), in Luxembourg, 13-15 July.

Single currency has led to increase in generosity, decrease in national pride

New research from LSE economists Dr Joan Costa Font and Professor Frank Cowell (Department of Economics) shows that countries who have adopted the Euro single currency in the past decade have experienced a decline in national pride. Read more.

Older hospital patients face "widespread and systematic" pattern of poor care

One million older people are affected by poor or inconsistent care in hospitals, according to new research by Dr Polly Vizard and Dr Tania Burchardt  from CASE. Read more.

LSE report shows dementia costs Wales £1.4 billion a year

A new LSE report commissioned by the Alzheimer’s Society, and led by Professor Martin Knapp from PSSRU, reveals the hidden cost of dementia in Wales is estimated at £1.4 billion, an average cost of £31,300 per person each year. Read more.

Research Funding News

Professor Martin Knapp, from PSSRU, has received funding from Mind to undertake an economic analysis of their peer support programme and to model the health economic impact of each programme component.

Research Funding News

Professor Elias Mossialos, from LSE Health and Social Care, has been awarded funding from LSE’s Kuwait Programme to examine the causes of some of the most prevalent chronic diseases and to study the main determinants of access to, utilisation of, and satisfaction with the healthcare system in Kuwait.

Paying people incentives to make healthy choices only works in the long term if they are paid to NOT do something

Monetary incentives to encourage people to live healthier lifestyles only work in the longer term when they are designed to stop negative behaviour, rather than promote positive choices, suggests new research undertaken by Dr Matteo M Galizzi and Professor Paul Dolan. Read more.

Being a parent – before and after a split

Dads who are actively involved in bringing up their young children are more likely, in the event of a split from their partner, to keep in regular contact with their child, according to new research by Professor Lucinda Platt.
Read more.

Can't help falling in love? Why divorce and separation might not be that bad for your health

Middle-aged men and women who have experienced the upheaval of separation, divorce and remarriage are almost as healthy as couples in stable marriages, according to a new study involving Professor Emily Grundy.
Read more.

Primary health care should play bigger role in treating chronic kidney disease

Healthy eating, regular exercise and blood pressure and cholesterol control are among the most effective ways of managing the early stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD).
Read more.

Professor Anne West at the International Comparisons Conference in Paris on 4th and 5th June

Professor Anne West gave two plenary presentations at the International Comparisons Conference in Paris on 4th and 5th June. The Conference focused on social and ethnic mixing in schools and included contributions by academics from a wide
range of countries including Canada, the US, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and England.

Zambia urged to tackle the stigma of abortion and unwanted pregnancies

Despite safe abortions being legal in a very wide number of circumstances since 1972, women in Zambia continue to take unnecessary risks to end unwanted pregnancies. Read more.

Research Funding News

Dr Ernestina Coast and Dr Emily Freeman have been awarded £30,000 by the LSE RIIF to study unsafe abortion in rural Zambia and practices of conscientious objection by medical practitioners.

This successful funding bid develops out of an on-going research project into unsafe abortion in Zambia funded by ESRC-DFID.

LSE Student Led Teaching Excellence Awards 2015

Dr Arjan Gjonca has been highly commended for the Award for Excellent Welfare and Pastoral Support. 

LSE Class Teacher Awards 2015

Diana Quirmbach, Dr Bert Provan and Liz Bailey have received Class Teacher Awards. These awards are nominated by academic departments in regognition of the special contribution made by graduate teaching assistants, teaching fellows and guests teachers to their work.

Professor Stephen Jenkins and Professor Lucinda Platt at the Trento Festival of Economics

On Monday 1 June Professor Stephen Jenkins and Professor Lucinda Platt gave lectures at the Trento Festival of Economics, which this year had Social Mobility as its theme.

Research Funding News 

Professor Anne West has been awarded a grant from the Nuffield Foundation to explore the public funding of early years education in England. The project will involve an analysis of government policy on the funding of free early education, along with an analysis of expenditure and will explore how the funding formula for free early education has been developed and implemented in a sample of local authorities with different levels of deprivation, political complexions and constellations of providers.

Honesty trumps political loyalty in lost wallet experiment

People are just as likely to return a ‘lost’ wallet to an owner who has a different political affiliation to their own suggests new research by Professor Paul Dolan. Read more.

LSE Research News- Professor Martin Knapp awarded funding

Professor Martin Knapp from PSSRU, has received funding from the Shirley Foundation to conduct research to examine the economic case for interventions for people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

New Research Impact Case Study- Creating incentives to improve public services

Innovative policy ideas from Professor Sir Julian Le Grand, Richard Titmuss Professor of Social Policy, and LSE researchers inspired radical government reforms that introduced choice and competition to improve key public services. Read more.

Members of Department presented research at this year's Population Association of America's Annual Meeting

Nine members of the Department of Social Policy presented their research at this year's  Annual Meeting in San Diego, California. They included Dr Barclay, Ms Batyra, Dr Coast, Dr Goisis, Professor Grundy, Dr Herman, Ms Mariani, Professor Myrskyla, Professor Platt and Ms Vaisanen. Read more.

Thousands miss out on palliative care due to unfair health system

The UK’s palliative care system needs a major overhaul, according to an LSE report, which reveals widespread inequities and a lack of services for non-cancer patients. Read more.

No such thing as an empty nest when it comes to graduates

An LSE study looking at the relationship between parents and their adult children returning to live at home after university has revealed mixed experiences. Read more.

Shining example of UK research

Reading the Riots, a study by LSE and the Guardian  newspaper to examine the causes and consequences of the 2011 London riots, has been picked as one of the "shining examples of UK research" by the journal Nature.

ARMA Awards- Professor Tim Newburn nominated in the Impact category

Professor Tim Newburn is a finalist in the Impact category of the ARMA awards, which "celebrates a research manager or research management team that has invented, innovated or transformed the processes for supporting the translation of research into societal impact". He was nominated for his collaboration with the Guardian on a project called Reading the Riots.

Dr Leonidas Cheliotis awarded Outstanding Critical Criminal Justice Scholar Award

Dr Cheliotis, Assistant Professor of Criminology at the Department of Social Policy, has been selected for the 2015 Outstanding Critical Criminal Justice Scholar Award by the American Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (Critical Criminal Justice Section). 

Professor Lucinda Platt participates in workshop on 'Reducing Inequality: What American' Scholarship Can Learn from the European Experience'

A group of US and European scholars met at Marbach Castle to discuss the pressing subject of inequality across society and between different groups and how it might be addressed. Jointly funded by the William T. Grant Foundation and the Jacobs Foundation , the workshop participants discussed commissioned papers covering the state of inequality in the US across five areas of overall inequality, immigration, mental health, education and criminal justice, with a particular focus on youth inequality.

High rise estates can work if they are made energy efficient, says new LSE report

LSE Housing and Communities, in partnership with Rockwool, launched High Rise Hope Revisited, a new report examining the social implications of whole building energy efficiency refurbishments in residential tower blocks.
Read more.

'Nurture' more important than 'nature' for overweight children

Parents’ lifestyles, rather than their genes, are primarily responsible for their children being overweight according to research by the Centre for Economic Performance, based at LSE.
Read more.

Dr Hakan Seckinelgin appointed new Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Civil Society

Dr Hakan Seckinelgin, Associate Professor in International Social Policy, is the new Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Civil Society.

The journal, which is published four times a year, has multidisciplinary focus that is interested in theoretical and empirical research on civil societies, their development and their interactions with the broader local and global societal processes.

Family beliefs a barrier to aged care health reform

New research by Dr Joan Costa-i-Font shows that older people are avoiding taking out long-term care insurance, fearing their children will desert them in old age. Read more.

LSE Research News- Professor Stephen Jenkins awarded funding 

Professor Stephen Jenkins was awarded funding of £59,082 through the University of Essex’s ESRC-funded Research Centre for Micro-Social Change (MiSoC). The research aims to point to ways in which our society can navigate the post-war transition from solidarity built on a sense of common purpose to the integration of people with diverse backgrounds, preferences and abilities in an era of new pressures.

LSE Research News- Professor Anne Power awarded funding

Professor Anne Power, LSE Housing, was awarded funding of £30,817 from Street Games UK Ltd to undertake a study to uncover how poverty impacts on young people, how this interacts with access to sport and how these barriers can be overcome.

Professor David Lewis speaks at Wilson Center

To Avoid Reinforcing Status Quo, Focus on Understanding Livelihood Systems

Leonidas Cheliotis has won the 2014 Best Public Intellectual Special Issue Award

Dr Cheliotis won the award for his guest-edited special issue of the prestigious centenarian journal South Atlantic Quarterly (published by Duke University Press) on 'Prison Realities: Views from Around the World'. Dr Cheliotis’ own contribution to the collection discusses the uses and abuses of temporary release in a Greek male prison. 

New Year Honours at LSE 

Professor Julian Le Grand has been awarded a knighthood for services to social science and public service.

Julian Le Grand has been the Richard Titmuss Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science since 1993. Read more.

LSE's Department of Social Policy excels in the REF again

LSE's Department of Social Policy has excelled once again in the REF, the UK's most recent nationwide assessment of research quality, impact and environment, which is undertaken every six to seven years. The results published last week show that LSE Social Policy is the UK's number one department for world leading and internationally excellent research.

The REF assessment takes place according to a quality scale from 1* to 4*, with 4* representing world leading research quality. In REF 2014 LSE's Department of Social Policy had the highest percentage (94%) of world leading 4* and internationally excellent 3* publications of any UK institution. It also had the highest possible scores (100%) for research impact and environment.

In the overall ranking, aggregating scores for research outputs, impact of research on policy, and academic environment LSE Social Policy was placed second in the country league table. When adjusted to take account of the percentage of staff submitted to REF, LSE Social Policy is by some distance the number one UK Social Policy Department for overall quality research.

Congratulations to everyone in the Department of Social Policy for an outstanding set of results.

Read more.

More generous state unemployment benefits may protect the health of unemployed men

Men who lose their job in US states that provide generous unemployment benefits are at lower risk of poor health, according to new research. Read more.

LSE study shows sharp rise in teenage childbearing during Iraq War

A new study by Valeria Cetorelli, an LSE PhD candidate in demography in the Department of Social Policy, shows that teenage fertility in Iraq rose by more than 30 per cent between 2003 and 2010 due to increased early marriage among less-educated girls. Read more.

Professor Anne Power in LSE Connect, LSE's alumni magazine: Hunger pains: rise of the food bank

Anne Power, Professor of Social Policy and Head of LSE Housing and Communities, argues that due to falling incomes, harsh government cuts and the continuing rise in the cost of basic living, an increasing number of families across the UK are caught in a new poverty trap and the growing need for food banks is just the tip of the iceberg. Read more.

Professor David Lewis a speaker at the Wilson Center's panel event

Professor David Lewis, Head of the Department of Social Policy, was a speaker at the Wilson Center's panel event on 'Living Through Extremes: Building Livelihood Resilience Across Sectors and Countries'.

Millennium Cohort Study: Initial findings from the Age 11 study published

The Millennium Cohort Study, edited by Professor Lucinda Platt was published on Friday 28th November. Lucinda Platt was PI of the Millennium Cohort Study before joining the LSE and oversaw the data collection and data release for the age 11 survey, as well as editing this volume of initial findings across six topic areas. Read more here.

Professor Eileen Munro awarded the President's Medal of the Operational Research Society

On Wednesday 26th November, Professor Eileen Munro of the Department of Social Policy, received the President's Medal of the Operational Research Society.

The honour, which was shared with Professor David Lane, Henley Business School, and Elke Husemann, was for their use of a range of systems thinking approaches in the Munro Review of Child Protection - a high-profile review of state-managed child protection activities in England, conducted for the Department for Education.

Professor Tony Barnett is leading a United Nations Study on the Socio-Economics Impact of Ebola Outbreak in West Africa

Professor Tony Barnett, now at the LSHTM but still engaged with the LSE, is leading a United Nations Study on the Socio-Economic Impact of Ebola outbreak in West Africa. He is also a recipient of a grant from the BBSRC/DFID/ESRC to research- together with Professor Dirk Pfeiffer and Dr Guillaume Fournier from the Royal Veterinary College- the relationship between avian influenza transmission, risk of zoonotic transfer, and the structure of live bird markets in Bangladesh.

Stand tall if you are living in a democracy

Men growing up in a democracy are likely to be taller than those who spend the first 20 years of their lives in a communist regime.
The link between democracy and stature is related to good nutrition, high disposable income and a life free of social and political constraints, according to new findings. Read more.

Poor lose, and rich gain from direct tax and benefit changes since May 2010- without cutting the deficit

New analysis from LSE and the University of Essex shows that the poorest groups lost the biggest share of their incomes on average, and those in the bottom half of incomes lost overall, following benefit and direct tax changes since the 2010 election. Read more.

Ethical Dilemmas of vaccination

How relevant are gender and age when making policies  about vaccination and does this leave governments open to claims of discrimination?Read more.

Dr Leonidas Cheliotis launches report at the Southbank Centre

The report is a long-term multi-method evaluation study he led on the process and effectiveness of an arts-based mentoring scheme for former prisoners, run by the Koestler Trust with funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. The study found that arts mentoring can make indirect but significant contributions to desistance from crime, but also that arts-based programme provision needs to be extended as well as combined with cognate and complementary services to this end. 

To view the report click here (PDF)
To view the accompanying film click here

Does having children make us any happier?

The birth of a first and a second child briefly increases the level of their parents’ happiness, but a third does not, according to new research from LSE and Western University, Canada. Read more.

Dr Armine Ishkanian an invited expert and speaker at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

She presented a paper titled "Where is Armenia heading?" at the high-level forum where forward-looking strategic discussions about Armenia's future development took place in a private, invitation-only environment. 

School can worsen disabled children's behavioural problems, researchers say

A study from LSE and the Institute of Education, University of London, has found that the behavioural problems of many disabled children worsen between the ages of 3 and 7. They encounter increasing difficulties in terms of hyperactivity, emotional problems and getting on with other children. Read more.

Sex and fertility versus health in AIDS stricken Africa

How do you reconcile the basic sexual and fertility needs of 25 million Africans with the stark reality of HIV/AIDS? The impact is devastating and extends way beyond a health crisis, with far reaching effects on the African workforce, family, education system and the economy in general. Read more.

New Research Unit Launch: ALPHA- Ageing, Lifecourse and Population Health Analysis

The LSE ALPHA research unit undertakes and promotes quantitative research on lifecourse, socio-economic and intergenerational influences on individual and population health using a range of large scale, predominantly longitudinal datasets.

Dr Leonidas Cheliotis gives a lecture on the Political Economy of Punishment at the University of A Coruña.

Dr Leonidas Cheliotis's lecture focused on the relationship between globalisation, neoliberal capitalism and border control at an international two-day conference on 'The Political Economy of Punishment Today: Visions, Debates and Challenges', organised in A Coruña, Spain, by the Law School, University of A Coruña.

Dementia costs the UK £26 billion a year

A new report which has been co-authored with The Alzheimer's Society, LSE and the King's College London has found that dementia costs the UK £26 billion a year - enough to pay the energy bills of every household in the country. Read more.

British Society for Population Studies Annual Conference 2014

The  BSPS  Annual Conference 2014   was held at the University of Winchester from 08 -10 September. Presentations were made by staff and students from the Social Policy Department: Dr Coast, Dr Gjonca, Dr Goisis, Dr Leone, Prof Murphy, Dr Oczan, Prof Platt, and Ben Wilson.

Professor Martin Knapp awarded Fellowship at King's College London

Professor Martin Knapp has been awarded a fellowship as an Honorary Professor of Health Economics at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London.

Social Policy Association launches new website

The Social Policy Association used the Sheffield 2014 conference to launch a brand new website, along with three short videos aimed at prospective students which consider, amongst other questions, "What is Social Policy"

Rising prices, falling wages and welfare cuts- a recipe for debt in Newham

Households in one of the poorest boroughs in London face crippling debt and financial pressures despite a widespread desire to work and an aversion to high cost lenders, according to a new report from LSE. Read more.

Twins and short spaced births are linked to premature death among parents

The findings, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, suggest that the accumulated physical, emotional and financial stresses of raising children close in age could have long-term health implications.
Read more.

Dr Adam Oliver discusses the policy battle to reduce the nation's expanding girth.

With obesity levels in the UK now the third highest in Western Europe, political leaders are struggling to find a solution to the nation’s expanding girth. Are nudge policies the way to go?

Dr Ernestina Coast presented findings of a systematic review on maternal and newborn health to the WHO in Geneva

Dr Ernestina Coast, a member of the Guideline Development Group for the World Health Organization's Technical Consultation on health promotion interventions for maternal and newborn health,  presented in Geneva 15-17th July 2014 the findings of a systematic review, led by herself and involving a team from the LSE including Eleri Jones and Sam Lattof. 

Dr Armine Ishkanian at  International conference - 'United we stand? Alliances and conflicts between social democratic parties, trade unions, and social movements'

Dr Armine Ishkanian was the keynote speaker at an international conference titled “United we stand? Alliances and conflicts between social democratic parties, trade unions, and social movements” hosted by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in Berlin on 7 July. She presented findings from a Robert Bosch Stiftung funded research project titled Interpreting the Movements of 2011 – 2012.

Autism costs the UK £32 billion a year

Research led by Professor Martin Knapp has highlighted that autism costs the UK £32 billion a year; more than any other medical condition, and greater than cost of cancer, stroke and heart disease combined. Affecting more than 1% of the population, care for those affected can last for 60-70 years. Read more.

Savings on Sanity

It is increasingly recognised across the world that intervening early in mental illness not only spares millions from untold misery but can save millions in finances. Professor Martin Knapp provides an overview of a field of study that could transform this century and in which LSE leads the way in the Summer 2014 edition of LSE Alumni's Connect magazine. Read more.

Dr Ernestina Coast at an International workshop in Kenya on 'Decision-making regarding abortion'

Dr Ernestina Coast  was an invited participant at an international workshop in Kenya on 'Decision-making regarding abortion' from 3 - 5 June. She presented findings from an ESRC/DFID-funded research project 'Pregnancy termination trajectories in Zambia: the social and economic consequences for women'. This presentation was the first output of a new ESRC-funded grant for Impact Maximisation from ESRC/DFID’s Poverty Alleviation Research programme.

Professor Stephen Jenkins, new Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Economic Inequality

Stephen Jenkins, Professor of Economic and Social Policy, is the new Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Economic Inequality. He has also been appointed an Honorary Professorial Fellow of the Institute for Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne. 

Dr Coretta Phillips nominated for BBC Radio 4/British Sociological Association award

Dr Coretta Phillips  was nominated to the shortlist of the inaugural BBC Radio 4 Thinking Allowed/ British Sociological Association Award for Ethnography for her book The Multicultural Prison: Ethnicity, Masculinity and Social Relations Among Prisoners. The shortlist was discussed on a special programme on Radio 4 on 23 April 2014 (link).

New LSE research project: South Asia's urbanisation-migration nexus

An innovative DFID-funded research project investigates the economic, political and spatial relationships that result from the urbanisation-migration nexus in five South Asian countries- Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. The £279.000 project is led by Dr Sunil Kumar (Principle Investigator, Department of Social Policy).

Professor Paul Dolan on BBC Horizon

Professor Paul Dolan discusses how intuition and logic interact and help us make the numerous decisions that we are faced with every day on BBC Horizon.

CNESCO:  Conseil National d'Évaluation du Système Scolaire.
(National Council for the Evaluation of the School System).

Professor Anne West has been nominated as a member of the le Conseil national d'évaluation du système scolaire (Cnesco) an independent body recently set up by the French Government to evaluate the organisation and outcomes of the French school system. Read more.

Research funding: women's health in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

Dr Coast, Dr Leone, Prof Lewis have been awarded funding by the Middle East Centre for a research project with the Institute of Community and Public Health at Birzeit University. The research project will generate new data and analyses to better understand women's health over the lifecourse, with a particular focus on those women currently under-served or neglected by the health system.

Social Policy Academics listed in new LSE's 'Influential Academics' project

Five academics, past and present, from the Department of Social Policy have been named in LSE's 'Influential Academics' project. The project, hosted by British Government at LSE, is intended to show how a number of the School's personalities contributed directly to political thought and policy. Read more.

Centennial Professorship Announcement

The Department is delighted to announce that LSE has appointed Anton Hemerijck, Professor of Institutional Policy Analysis at VU University Amsterdam, to the position of Centennial Professor in the Department of Social Policy. Professor Hemerijck has been nominated to the Centennial Chair on account of his outstanding contribution to the comparative study of social policy with particular reference to his important contributions to theorising changing (European) welfare states in times of intrusive social and economic restructuring. He joined the Department in January 2014 and will stay until December 2016.

Obituary- Sally Sainsbury

It is with the greatness sadness we mark the death of Sally Sainsbury with this tribute by Professor David Piachaud. Read more.

Symposium at the 2013 Annual Conference of the Social Policy Association to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Richard Titmuss's death.

Symposium at the 2013 Annual Conference of the Social Policy Association to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Richard Titmuss's death.The year 2013 marks the fortieth anniversary of Richard Titmuss's death. Rightly acknowledged as the principal founder of the discipline of social administration/social policy, Titmuss's period as the first Professor of Social Administration in the UK (1950-73), held at the London School of Economics, more or less coincided with the period of the 'classic' welfare state, which functioned in the socio-economic context of full employment, intact families and steady economic growth. Significantly, Titmuss's death (in April 1973) occurred some six months before the OPEC-led oil price rise which was to send shock waves through industrialised economies and usher in a long period of self-doubt and welfare state retrenchment. From his death onwards, the social policy agenda changed markedly.

The symposium offered contrasting perspectives on Titmuss's achievements, not only examining them in the context of 1950-73, but also assessing the relevance of Titmuss's ideas for the very different social and economic circumstances of today.

Chaired by John Macnicol (Visiting Professor in the Department of Social Policy), the main presenters were Ann Oakley (Professor at the Institute of Education on 'Time Remembered: the Legend and the Legacy of Richard Titmuss'; Adrian Sinfield (Emeritus Professor at the University of Edinburgh) on 'Why Do We Need to Keep Reading Titmuss?'; and Robyn Rowe (PhD student at LSE) on 'Titmuss and the Dilemmas of Benefits for Women'

Professor John Hills has been knighted for his services to Social Policy

Professor John Hills, one of LSE's leading academics has had his expertise and service rewarded in the Queen's Birthday Honours list, and has been knighted for his services to social policy.

Professor Anne Power writes below to mark the occasion:
John has been at LSE since 1986 when he joined the Welfare State Programme with Julian Le Grand. Julian commented to me that John was rather 'into the detail' of housing. This was music to my ears as John is a real housing expert. More that that, he understands the way public finances, tax systems, welfare and the many varieties of public spending and support within the British and other welfare systems work. It is this detailed knowledge and ability to apply it to major policy problems that led the government to ask him to be part of the Pensions Commission; to carry out a review of social housing; to do an assessment of equality and inequality for the last Labour government; and to unravel the mystery of why the scale of fuel poverty raced up and down by several millions in only a year or two. These studies carried out with teams of government analysts have changed the way that not just government policy, but also academic thinking, has progressed. It gives social Policy a form and original foundation for the more purely theoretical, or purely applied, evidence would have a great less meaning. This contribution shapes many current social policy debates.

Dr Coretta Phillips has been jointly awarded the Criminology Book Prize
for 2013

Dr Coretta Phillips has been jointly awarded (with Dr Deborah Drake, The Open University, for Prisons, Punishment and the Pursuit of Security) the Criminology Book Prize 2013 for her book The Multicultural Prison: ethnicity, masculinity and social relations among prisoners.

LSE Health awarded research grant

LSE Health together with 12 other institutional partners have been awarded a € 3 million research grant by the European Commission under DG Research's 7th Framework Programme for their project entitled ADVANCE-HTA, commencing in January 2013 for 3 years. LSE Health will act as the principal investigator and coordinator, led by Panos Kanavos, reader in International Health Policy, bringing together a team of high-level experts with extensive experience in the area of health policy, health economics, health and research methodologies, access to medicines, pharmaceutical policies, medical devices and health technology Assessment (HTA).

PSSRU at LSE and Kent partnership

PSSRU at LSE and Kent are delighted to be part of a partnership that has been awarded by the NICE Collaborating Centre for Social Care (NCCSC). The partnership is led by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), and also involves Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Coordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre), Research in Practice (RIP) and Research in Practice for Adults (RIPfA).