Spring 2012 | Public lectures and events | Video

Contributor(s): William Patry | Copyright laws are declared to be the underpinnings of creativity, innovation, the knowledge economy, and everything short of curing the sick and feeding the poor. Can copyright laws do all these wonderful things, or are they, in Ian Hargreaves' words, the result of lobbynomics? William Patry is senior copyright counsel at Google Inc. He has written far too much about copyright law, including his new book How to Fix Copyright Law and so now spends his time playing bass clarinet.

Contributor(s): Dimitris Daskalopoulos, Moritz Kraemer, Vicky Pryce, Poul Thomsen | This is a very timely discussion of whether Greece can get out of its current economic crisis. The financial markets show concern that the recent bailout will not be enough and a further rescue may be needed. There is renewed international concern that other euro members will find themselves in difficulty prompting further action – Portugal, it is feared, may need another bailout. The rescue strategy for Greece is clearly the ‘test case’ that will shape the response to any further problem. So, can it work? What must the ‘Troika’ and Greece do to return the economy to growth? The panel debate brings together key experts and protagonists. Dimitris Daskalopoulos is chairman of the board of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV). Moritz Kraemer is managing director EMEA, analytical manager (Sovereign Ratings) at Standard & Poor's. Vicky Pryce is senior managing director-economics of FTI Economics. Poul Thomsen is deputy director, in the European Department of the International Monetary Fund and and head of the Troika Programme for Greece.

Contributor(s): William Hague MP | William Hague MP, Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State, presents Plenary Session II of the 2012 BRISMES Annual Conference. The conference is organised by the LSE Middle East Centre and the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies.

Contributor(s): Professor Abhijit Banerjee | Poor Economics by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo won the FT Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year 2011 for their analysis of why the poor, despite having the same desires and abilities as anyone else, end up with entirely different lives. They argue that so much of anti-poverty policy has failed over the years because of an inadequate understanding of poverty. Looking at some of the most surprising facets of poverty: why the poor need to borrow in order to save, why they miss out on free life-saving immunizations but pay for drugs that they do not need, and why they start many businesses but do not grow any of them, they give us all a new understanding of the complex reality of living on very little and offer practical solutions for reducing poverty. Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at MIT. He is the recipient of many awards, including the inaugural Infosys Prize in 2009, and has been an honorary advisor to many organizations including the World Bank and the Government of India.

Contributor(s): Professor Ghassan Salamé | Professor Ghassan Salamé, Dean, Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA) presents the I.B. Tauris Plenary Session I of the 2012 BRISMES Annual Conference. The conference is organised by the LSE Middle East Centre and the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies.

Contributor(s): Professor Daniel Everett | Over the past fifty years, the most popular theory of language is that it is an outgrowth of an innate biogram, often referred to as Universal Grammar. In this lecture he will explore an alternative perspective, namely, that language is a human invention and cultural artefact, passed down from one generation to another. Its principal task is to solve the communication problem that human sociality, what Aristotle referred to as the "social instinct", imposes upon us. Daniel Everett has held appointments in anthropology and linguistics at the University of Campinas, the University of Pittsburgh, Manchester University, and Illinois State University. He is currently Dean of Arts and Sciences at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He is the author of Don't sleep, there are snakes and Language: the cultural tool, both published by Profile. He has conducted research on many Amazonian languages, but is best known for his research on the Piraha language of Brazil.

Contributor(s): Leon Charles, Karl Hood | Grenada's role during the Climate Change negotiations at Durban, during COP17, as the chair of the Alliance of Small Islands States, highlighted the role vulnerable countries can play during international negotiations. Discover what it means to be a small island state facing the impacts of climate vulnerability and how a small country can play such a vital role in international negotiations. Leon Charles is is the Grenadian lead climate change negotiator. He is a former chairman of the AWG-KP (2007) under the UNFCC, and former AOSIS chief negotiator (2007 - 2011). He was the lead consultant in the development of Grenada's National Strategic Plan for Climate Change (2007) and inter alia has also worked on National Communications (First National Communications for Grenada, St. Kitts-Nevis and Dominica) and led a vulnerability analysis of Grenada's coastline (CPACC - Component 4 - 1999/2001). Karl Hood became minister of Foreign Affairs, the Environment, Foreign Trade and Export Development in November 2010, and subsequently Foreign minister only from 2011. He entered Parliament as a member of The National Democratic Congress in July of 2008 and served at various times as minister for Labour, Health, Ecclesiastical Affairs, among others. Minister Hood brings to politics a disciplined approach and a great love and compassion for people. He sees politics as the means of creating legislation and formulating policies to enrich the lives of ordinary people. He believes that true progress comes with the development of people, not patronage. Born in Happy Hill, St. George’s, Karl Hood was educated at the Presentation Boys College, the West Indies School of Theology, Nyack College, and Newport University. He holds a master's degree in leadership, is trained as an optician and has practiced as a minister of religion.

Contributor(s): Robert Hodgkinson, Kirstin Gillon, Josep Bisbe, Andrea Dossi, Ian Herbert, Michael Bromwich, Phillie Karkaria | The 33rd annual MARG Conference took place on 22 March 2012. The theme for the 2012 conference was 'Management Accounting Leadership: Global Challenges - Local Responses.' Morning Session - Robert Hodgkinson and Kirstin Gillon (ICAEW), The Finance Function and Information Technology: A Bigger Picture. Josep Bisbe (ESADE Ramon Llull University), Diversity in Culture and Environmental Dynamism as Key Challenges for Performance Measurement Systems in Global Firms. Afternoon Session - Andrea Dossi (SDA Bocconi School of Management, Bocconi University), Control Leadership in MNC's: Global Value based Reporting - Local Strategies. Panel Discussion: How Can Management Accounting Leadership Improve? Josep Bisbe, Andrea Dossi, Ian Herbert and Robert Hodgkinson. Chairman: Michael Bromwich. CIMA Distinguished Practitioner Lecture, Phillie Karkaria (Exectutive Director of Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd), Global Challeges, Local Solutions and Management Accounting Leadership.

Contributor(s): Shami Chakrabarti | New Labour arguably left Britain more comfortable in its diversity and better protected by anti-discrimination law. Equal treatment for gay people advanced significantly and the Human Rights Act provides a modern Bill of Rights for everyone in the Kingdom. Curiously however, parallel laws dishonoured these values in thought, word and deed. Home affairs hyperactivity left ours a less friendly country in which to seek asylum, dissent or even be young. The Coalition bound itself together with "civil liberties" and quickly reversed some excesses of the previous decade. Last year's "Arab Spring saw it promote human rights abroad. However the Government appears bitterly divided by them at home. Is the debate about a more "British" Bill of Rights, political genius, pragmatic fudge or a dangerous swindle capable of depriving us all of vital protection against abuse of power? Shami Chakrabarti has been Director of Liberty (The National Council for Civil Liberties) since September 2003. Shami first joined Liberty as In-House Counsel on 10 September 2001. She became heavily involved in its engagement with the "War on Terror" and with the defence and promotion of human rights values in Parliament, the Courts and wider society. A Barrister by background, she was called to the Bar in 1994 and worked as a lawyer in the Home Office from 1996 until 2001 for Governments of both persuasions. Since becoming Liberty's Director she has written, spoken and broadcast widely on the importance of the post-WW2 human rights framework as an essential component of a democratic society. She is Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, a Governor of the British Film Institute, and a Visiting Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford in addition to being a Master of the Bench of Middle Temple. She was recently invited to be one of 6 independent assessors advising Lord Justice Leveson in his Public Inquiry into the Culture, Practice and Ethics of the UK Press. Francesca Klug is professorial research fellow and director of the Human Rights Futures Project at LSE.

Contributor(s): Danny Quah, Alastair Newton | Danny Quah is Kuwait Professor at the LSE. Alastair Newton is Senior Political Analyst at Nomura International.

Contributor(s): Professor Abdulkarim Soroush | Professor Soroush will discuss the role of philosophy – and Popper's thought in particular – in Iranian religious and political reform. Abdulkarim Soroush is a leading intellectual in Iran and has held visiting positions at, amongst other institutions, Harvard and Princeton. This event is supported by The Sir Karl Popper Memorial Fund. The Popper Memorial Fund would like to thank the Austrian Cultural Forum |for the generous support they have offered toward the 2012 Lecture.

Contributor(s): Professor Zygmunt Bauman | Being on the left in times of globalisation and divorce of power and politics. New mechanisms of domination and reproduction of inequality, from society of producers to society of consumers. From proletariat to precariat. From solidarity to oneupmanship. Deficit of trust, crisis of agency, and people on the move. Zygmunt Bauman is Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Leeds. He was awarded the European Amalfi Prize for Sociology and Social Sciences in 1991 and the Theodor W. Adorno Award of the city of Frankfurt in 1998. He has been awarded in 2010, jointly with Alain Touraine, the Príncipe de Asturias PrizePrize for Communication and the Humanities. The University of Leeds launched the The Bauman Institute within its School of Sociology and Social Policy in Bauman's honour in September 2010.

Contributor(s): Eric Hanushek, Steve Machin, Ludger Wößmann | LSE Growth Commission, Evidence Session 1: Human Capital | In this session, Eric Hanushek, Stephen Machin and Ludger Wößmann gave their views on the role skills should play in the formulation and implementation of a strategy to secure long-term growth for the UK, reflecting on lessons from international experience and state of the art academic literature. Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He has been a leader in the development of economic analysis of educational issues, and his work on efficiency, resource usage, and economic outcomes of schools has frequently entered into the design of both US and international educational policy. Steve Machin is Professor of Economics at University College London, Research Director at the Centre for Economic Performance, a member of the Low Pay Commission and Director of the Centre for the Economics of Education. Ludger Wößmann is Head of Human Capital and Innovation at CES Ifo Institute for Economic Research, University of Munich.

Contributor(s): Tim Weiner | The United States is a country founded on the ideals of democracy and freedom, yet throughout the last century it has used secret and lawless methods to destroy its enemies. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the most powerful of these forces. Following his award-winning history of the C.I.A., Legacy of Ashes, Tim Weiner has now written the first full history of the F.B.I. as a secret intelligence service, Enemies: A History of the FBI| which he will talk about in this lecture. Drawn entirely from firsthand materials in the F.B.I.'s own files, Enemies brilliantly brings to life the entire story, from the cracking of anarchist cells to the prosecution of the 'war on terror'. It is the story of America's war against spies, subversives and saboteurs - and the self-inflicted wounds American democracy suffered in battle. Throughout the book lies the long shadow of J. Edgar Hoover, who ran the F.B.I. with an iron fist for forty-eight years. He was not a monster, but a brilliant confidence man who ruled by fear, force, and fraud. His power shaped America; his legacy haunts it. Tim Weiner is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at the New York Times, where he has reported from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan and fifteen other nations. He was based for a decade in Washington, DC, where he covered the C.I.A. and the Military - the latter topic being the subject of his Blank Check: The Pentagon's Black Budget. He is the author of the bestselling Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, which won the 2007 National Book Award for Non-Fiction.

Contributor(s): Professor Rahel Jaeggi | Does modern society cause us to be alienated from ourselves? This lecture will argue that a re-thinking of the philosophical concept of alienation can provide us with an important resource for social critique. Rahel Jaeggi is professor for practical philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at the Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin.

Contributor(s): James Caan | On Dragons' Den, James Caan saw over 1,000 budding entrepreneurs pitch their ideas from anything that ranged from the bizarre to the revolutionary. Having spent the past 30 years starting, building and growing businesses, James has become recognised as one of the UK's most prominent experts on entrepreneurship. His talk will take you through the journey of an entrepreneur, the pathway to a successful business, but also the ability to recognise when an idea is not a business, potentially saving you the investment of valuable time and money. James Caan is one of the UK's most celebrated businessmen. Having built global multi-million pound recruitment companies, he now has a portfolio of over 30 businesses within his private equity firm, Hamilton Bradshaw. He has consistently followed the mantra of "backing people with passion" and invests in entrepreneurs across a number of sectors including real estate, recruitment and professional services. This event celebrates the publication of James Caan's new book Start Your Business in 7 Days.

Contributor(s): Professor Scott Barrett | Professor Barrett discusses whether the prospect of approaching climate catastrophes makes international cooperation on climate change any easier, and examines how the international system is likely to respond to the future crossing of a 'climate tipping point'. Scott Barrett is the Lenfest-Earth Institute Professor of Natural Resource Economics at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and the Earth Institute.

Contributor(s): Joel Brenner | A former intelligence insider illuminates the strategic vulnerabilities created by the technologies that run our public and private lives, shriveling privacy, bleeding us of technologies that create wealth, power, and jobs, and laying public and private infrastructure open to crippling disruption – with thoughts on how to deal with it. Joel Brenner (LSE PhD 1973) is the author of America the Vulnerable: Inside the New Threat Matrix of Digital Espionage, Crime, and Warfare. He is the former head of US counterintelligence and inspector general of the US National Security Agency and practices law in Washington, DC, focusing on privacy and security issues.

Contributor(s): Dr Mukulika Banerjee, Patrick French, Professor Maitreesh Ghatak, Professor Sunil Khilnani | This panel will focus on the underside of Indian democracy, as visible in, among other things, the insurgencies in Kashmir; a Maoist rebellion in the heart of India; growing inequalities between rich and poor; and the massively high rates of corruption within government. Mukulika Banerjee is a reader in anthropology at the Department of Anthropology, LSE. Patrick French is the author of Liberty or Death and India: a portrait. Maitreesh Ghatak is Professor of Economics at LSE. Sunil Khilnani is director of King's College London's India Institute. Dr Ramchandra Guha is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2011-2012.

Contributor(s): Dr Zack Cooper, Paul Corrigan, Frank Dobson MP, Alastair McLellan, Zoe Williams | This event will bring together a range of experts in the field of NHS reform to debate whether competition has a role to play in improving the NHS. Each speaker to talk for 5 to 7 minutes, before opening to questions from the floor. Dr Zack Cooper is a health economist at the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics. Zack's work focuses on assessing the impact of competition in hospital and insurance markets and analysing the effect of financial incentives and payment reforms on health care delivery. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Chicago and did his Masters and PhD at the London School of Economics. Paul Corrigan CBE is a Labour politician, and was health adviser to Tony Blair. Frank Dobson MP is a Labour Party politician who was Secretary of State for Health from 1997 to 1999. Alastair McLellan is editor of the Health Service Journal. Zoe Williams is a regular columnist in The Guardian and New Statesman.