Autumn 2015 | Public lectures and events | Audio and pdf

Contributor(s): Zoe Konstantopoulou | Greece is at the forefront of questions connecting human rights protection, debt and austerity. Zoe Konstantopoulou will share her insights on the fight to secure social rights. Zoe Konstantopoulou (@ZoeKonstant) was President of the Greek Parliament and a politician of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), and is a practicing lawyer. She was elected to the post of President on 6 February 2015 with a record number of 235 out of 300 votes, making her the youngest Speaker in the history of the Hellenic Parliament. As Speaker, she worked to expose the truth around the debt and human crises in Greece. She holds a law degree from the University of Athens, a Master’s in Law from Columbia University with a focus on International Law, Human Rights and Criminal Law and a DEA from the University of Paris 1 (Panthéon la Sorbonne) in European Criminal Law and Criminal Policy in Europe. In her legal practice she is active in the fields of criminal law and human rights. She is a member of the Athens and New York Bars. Margot Salomon (@Margot_Salomon) is associate professor in the Centre for the Study of Human Rights and Department of Law. The Centre for the Study of Human Rights at LSE (@LSEHumanRights) is a trans-disciplinary centre of excellence for international academic research, teaching and critical scholarship on human rights. LSE Law (@lselaw) is an integral part of the School's mission, plays a major role in policy debates & in the education of lawyers and law teachers from around the world.

Contributor(s): Professor David Harvey | David Harvey's politicised work on geography, social theory, urban political economy and capitalism has shaped academic debate for decades. He is one of the most cited social scientists in the world, and his works have been translated into multiple languages. Here, Harvey joins a panel of experts to explore his ideas - and alternative views. David Harvey (@profdavidharvey) is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology & Geography at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. Michael Storper (@michaelstorper) is Professor of Economic Geography at LSE, and holds Professorships at Sciences-Po and UCLA. Jane Wills is Professor of Human Geography, Queen Mary, University of London. Murray Low is Associate Professor of Human Geography in the LSE Department of Geography & Environment. The LSE Department of Geography & Environment (@LSEGeography) is a centre of international academic excellence in economic, urban and development geography, environmental social science and climate change.

Contributor(s): Anote Tong | Kiribati is in the front line of climate change. Despite Kiribati's best efforts at mitigation, relocation of its people may be the only long term option as the physical fabric of the country becomes uninhabitable. Anote Tong has been President of Kiribati since 2003, and steps down at the end of 2015 after meeting the term limits prescribed by the Kiribati Constitution. Climate change has been the defining issue of his Presidency. President Tong is an alumnus of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Robin Mansell (@REMVAN) is LSE Deputy Director and Provost and Professor of New Media and the Internet in the Department of Media and Communication.

Contributor(s): Professor Oriana Bandiera, Mushtaque Chowdhury, Professor Esther Duflo, Anna Minj, Muhammad Musa, Desmond Swayne | Can extreme poverty be eliminated through programmes targeting the world’s ultra-poor? The panel will discuss the merits of so called graduation approaches. Oriana Bandiera is a Professor of Economics at the LSE and the Director of STICERD. Mushtaque Chowdhury is Vice-Chairperson, BRAC. Esther Duflo is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at MIT. Anna Minj is Director of the Targeting the Ultra Poor Programme, BRAC. Muhammad Musa, Executive Director, BRAC. Desmond Swayne is Minister of State at DFID. Robin Burgess is a Professor of Economics at LSE and Director of the IGC. The International Growth Centre (@The_IGC) aims to promote sustainable growth in developing countries by providing demand-led policy advice based on frontier research. Based at LSE and in partnership with Oxford University, the IGC is initiated and funded by DFID. BRAC (@BRACworld) is a global leader in creating opportunity for the world’s poor.

Contributor(s): Professor Ian Morris | 20,000 years ago, ‘international relations’ meant interactions between tiny foraging bands; now it means a global system. Philippe Roman Chair Ian Morris explains how the growth of the international system and the shifts of power within it are linked to geography and energy extraction. In tracing this story, Professor Morris asks: Why were the world’s greatest powers concentrated in western Eurasia until about AD 500? Why did they shift to East Asia until AD 1750? Why did they return to the shores of the North Atlantic? And where will they go next? Ian Morris is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2015-16. Michael Cox is Director of LSE IDEAS. LSE IDEAS (@LSEIDEAS) is a foreign policy think-tank within LSE's Institute for Global Affairs.

Contributor(s): Tim Judah | Veteran war reporter and Economist correspondent Tim Judah explores the impact of the ongoing conflict on the inhabitants of Ukraine. His new book is In Wartime: Stories from Ukraine. Tim Judah (@timjudah1) writes for the New York Review of Books and the Economist, most recently on the situation in Ukraine. In his career he has covered the aftermath of communism in Romania and Bulgaria and the war in Yugoslavia for The Times and the Economist. His most recent books are Kosovo: What Everyone Needs to Know and The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia. Robert Cooper is a Visiting Senior Fellow at LSE IDEAS. He was educated at Oxford and joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1970. Since then Mr Cooper has worked at various British Embassies abroad and since mid-2002 he has been working on behalf of the EU. The International Relations Department at LSE (@LSEIRDept) is now in its 87th year, making it one of the oldest as well as largest in the world.

Contributor(s): Dr Kate Devlin, Dr Mateja Jamnik, Professor Huw Price, Dr Mark Sprevak | AI is progressing fast. What level has it reached? Is human-level AI a realistic possibility? And if it is achieved in the near future, what will the consequences be for humanity? Could AI threaten our very existence? In this panel discussion, philosophers Huw Price and Mark Sprevak and computer scientists Mateja Jamnik and Kate Devlin discuss these and other questions concerning AI and the future of humanity. Kate Devlin is a Lecturer in Computing at Goldsmiths, University of London. Mateja Jamnik is Senior Lecturer in Computing at Cambridge. Huw Price is Professor of Philosophy, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, Cambridge. Mark Sprevak is Senior Lecture of Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. Dr Jonathan Birch is Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, LSE and Forum for European Philosophy Fellow. The Forum for European Philosophy (@ForumPhilosophy) is an educational charity that organises a full and varied programme of philosophy and interdisciplinary events in the UK.

Contributor(s): Professor Wendy Carlin | The financial crisis triggered a fundamental rethinking of how economics students are taught and what they learn. An international collaborative project of economists (the CORE project), led by Wendy Carlin, has responded with a new curriculum that provides tools for engaging with the issues of economic inequality, environmental sustainability, innovation and wealth creation, and financial instability. Some policy shortcomings can be traced to a view – standard in undergraduate economics teaching – that the pursuit of self-interest in competitive markets is a sufficient guide to how society should allocate its resources. But this confidence in unregulated markets finds little support in recent economic research. In this new, empirically based view, instability, growing economic disparity and environmental destruction are not exceptions to the rule but rather the expected outcomes of an unregulated market economy. Fundamental changes have occurred, too, in economic knowledge of individual behaviour resulting in a growing recognition of the economic importance of ethical and other-regarding motives alongside self-interest. The tools of economics can be taught using new research insights and empirical results to address questions of importance to students, policy-makers and a broader public. Wendy Carlin is Professor of Economics at University College London, and Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research. Robin Archer is Director of the Ralph Miliband Programme at LSE. The Ralph Miliband Programme (@rmilibandlse) is one of LSE's most prestigious lecture series and seeks to advance Ralph Miliband's spirit of free social inquiry.

Contributor(s): Vince Cable, Professor Diane Coyle, Bronwyn Curtis, Anna Leach | This event marks the official launch of the LSE Business Review blog bringing together a panel of prominent economists to discuss productivity, the UK’s economic future and the road ahead. Vince Cable (@vincecable) was MP for Twickenham from 1997-2015. He was the Liberal Democrat's chief economic spokesperson from 2003-2010, having previously served as Chief Economist for Shell from 1995-1997. He was Business Secretary under the Coalition Government from 2010-2015. He is the author of The Storm and his latest publication After The Storm. Diane Coyle, OBE (@diane1859), is a Professor of Economics at the University of Manchester. Until April 2015 she was vice-chairman of the BBC Trust, the BBC's governing body, and was previously a member of the Migration Advisory Committee and the Competition Commission. She began her career at the UK Treasury. Bronwyn Curtis is a global financial markets economist and a member of the LSE’s Court of Governors. She is a non-executive director of JP Morgan Asian Investment Trust and Scottish American Investment Trust. She was Head of Global Research at HSBC and Managing Editor of European Broadcast at Bloomberg LP. Anna Leach is head of the economic analysis team at CBI, overseeing the quarterly global macroeconomic forecast and the business surveys of economic conditions across the UK economy. Previously she worked in macroeconomic analysis at the Treasury and as a labour market economist at DWP, as well as undertaking a secondment to the Treasury Select Committee. John Van Reenan (@johnvanreenen) is a professor in the Department of Economics at LSE and director of LSE's Centre for Economic Performance. LSE Business Review (@LSEforBusiness) is an LSE-wide initiative to improve knowledge-exchange activities connecting social science researchers with business professionals in firms, enterprises and markets. The cross-disciplinary blog draws on contributions from LSE and other universities, business executives, consultants, think tanks and not-for-profit organisations.

Contributor(s): Professor Charles Taylor | Professor Charles Taylor will look at the constant temptation for modern democracies to veer towards exclusion. This is despite them being founded on a principle of inclusion, and is due to a weakness built into motivations which democracies draw upon. Having firmly established this context, Professor Taylor will discuss the exclusionary moves we have seen in many Western democracies which have targeted (unfamiliar) religions. Why this intense focus and how to overcome it? This lecture will focus mainly on the Quebec/Canadian situation, and will also point to the current parallels evident in many European countries today. Charles Taylor is a Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at McGill University. His recent works include: Modern Social Imaginaries, A Secular Age, and Laïcité et Liberté de Conscience (with Jocelyn Maclure). Professor Craig Calhoun (@craigjcalhoun) is Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science. This event is co-organised with the Québec Government Office in London.

Contributor(s): Daniel Susskind, Professor Richard Susskind | In an era when machines can out-perform human beings at most tasks, we will neither need nor want doctors, accountants, consultants, and many other professions, to work as they did in the 20th century. In this public lecture, Richard and Daniel Susskind predict the decline of experts as we know them, as the rise in new technologies transforms the way that practical know-how is made available in society. Richard Susskind (@richardsusskind) is IT Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice of England, President of the Society for Computers and Law and holds professorships at the University of Oxford, University College London and Gresham Collage. Daniel Susskind (@danielsusskind) is a Lecturer in Economics at the University of Oxford. Richard and Daniel are co-authors of The Future of the Professions: how technology will transform the work of human experts Dr Carsten Sørensen is Associate Professor (Reader) of Information Systems and Innovation within Department of Management at LSE. The Department of Management (@LSEManagement) is a globally diverse academic community at the heart of the LSE, taking a unique interdisciplinary, academically in-depth approach to the study of management and organisations.

Contributor(s): Edgars Rinkevics | Russia's aggression in Ukraine and the rise of ISIL has brought the issue of European security to the forefront. Latvia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edgars Rinkevics, explains the threats from the Baltic viewpoint. Edgars Rinkevics (@edgarsrinkevics) is Latvia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, a position he has held since 2011. Previously he was the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Defence and Head of the President's Chancery. The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) was established in 1991 as a dedicated centre for the interdisciplinary study of processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector.

Contributor(s): Professor Philip Schlesinger | The discourse of the creative economy is everywhere. First developed by the British New Labour government in the late 1990s, it has influenced a global way of thinking about the relations between culture and the economy. The lecture will address its rise and diffusion and the role of political entrepreneurship in the continuous reworking and dissemination of an orthodox mode of thought, illustrated by examples from the UK, EU and UN. What are the appeals of the creative economy? Why have counter-arguments been so ineffective? What are the consequences for how we understand cultural work? The lecture is informed by Philip Schlesinger's first-hand research into how cultural bodies work, published in two new co-authored books. Drawing on interviews with key players, The Rise and Fall of the UK Film Council analyses the shifting politics of support for the British film industry in a transnational market dominated by the US. Curators of Cultural Enterprise is an ethnographic analysis of a key cultural business support agency, that portrays how UK creative economy policy operates in devolved Scotland. Both studies raise questions about the rationality of public policy. Angela McRobbie’s response will draw upon work related to her book Be Creative: Making a Living in the New Culture Industries which charts the ‘euphoric’ moment of the new creative economy, as it rose to prominence in the UK during the Blair years, and considers it from the perspective of contemporary experience of economic austerity and uncertainty about work and employment. Philip Schlesinger (@PRSchlesinger1) is Professor in Cultural Policy in the Centre for Cultural Policy Research/CREATe at the University of Glasgow and Visiting Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. Angela McRobbie (@angelamcrobbie) is Professor of Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London. Jonothan Neelands is Professor of Creative Education at Warwick Business School and Research Project Director of the Creative Industries Federation. Robin Mansell (@REMVAN) is Deputy Director and Provost and Professor of New Media and the Internet. The Department of Media and Communications (@MediaLSE) undertakes outstanding and innovative research and provides excellent research-based graduate programmes for the study of media and communications. The Department was established in 2003 and in 2014 our research was ranked number 1 in the most recent UK research evaluation, with 91% of research outputs ranked world-leading or internationally excellent.

Contributor(s): Professor Michel Wieviorka | Evil has dramatically changed in modern Europe. The turning point was the mid-eighties. Terrorism, anti-Semitism, racism and nationalism are not as they were in the recent past and their renewal poses a formidable threat. Michel Wieviorka (@MichelWieviorka) is professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and president of the Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme. Maurice Fraser is Head of the European Institute and Professor of Practice in European Politics. The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) was established in 1991 as a dedicated centre for the interdisciplinary study of processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector.

Contributor(s): Margrethe Vestager | National authorities (NCAs) and national courts are empowered to apply the EU competition rules together with the Commission. Since 2004, the Commission and the NCAs together have adopted almost 1,000 decisions in antitrust cases – 85% by the NCAs. Joint action within the European Competition Network means more effective enforcement and more deterrence. However, despite common substantive rules, national authorities must rely on national procedural powers when applying EU law. Where those powers are not fully developed, both the NCAs' effectiveness as enforcers and the level playing field in the single market risk being undermined. The time is therefore ripe to consider boosting the enforcement powers of NCAs. Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) is European Commissioner for Competition. She is a former Danish Minister for Economic Affairs and the Interior and former Deputy Prime Minister of Denmark. The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) was established in 1991 as a dedicated centre for the interdisciplinary study of processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector.

Contributor(s): Professor Anne Marie Goetz | Sexual violence has been deployed strategically in a wide range of conflicts, and though long recognized as an unlawful tactic of warfare, it has only relatively recently attracted the political focus and operational responses accorded to other violations of civilian rights. This lecture will provide a history of the policy processes leading to the Security Council resolutions recognizing conflict related sexual violence as a tactic of warfare and outlining political, security, judicial and humanitarian responses. These resolutions are grounded in the Security Council’s broader commitment to promoting women’s participation in conflict resolution, prevention and recovery (resolution 1325 of 2000), yet this ‘participation’ focus has not received the same attention and operational responses as have the victim-centered ‘protection’ approaches of the CRSV resolutions. Evidence for this diverging response will be provided, and explanations for it will be assessed, through an analysis of geopolitical dynamics in the Council, institutional changes within the UN, and the relative influence of civil society groups on these processes. Anne Marie Goetz (@amgoetz) is a Clinical Professor at the Center for Global Affairs, New York University. She is on sabbatical from UN Women, where she is Chief Advisor on Peace and Security. Christopher Hughes is Professor of International Relations and Head of Department at LSE. The International Relations Department (@LSEIRDept) at LSE is now in its 87th year, making it one of the oldest as well as largest in the world.

Contributor(s): Professor Michael Cox | Founded by Fabian socialists in the 1890s and attracting such radical figures as Harold Laski, R.H. Tawney and Ralph Miliband, it is hardly surprising that the LSE has acquired a ‘red’ reputation over the years: a reputation that only seemed to be confirmed during the second half of the 1960s when the School was forced to close down because of student protest. But just how radical has the LSE ever been? Has it ever been a hot bed of revolution as critics have claimed? And how true is it of the LSE today? Michael Cox is Professor of International Relations at the LSE and Director of LSE IDEAS. Robin Archer is Director of the Ralph Miliband Programme at LSE. The Ralph Miliband Programme (@rmilibandlse) is one of LSE's most prestigious lecture series and seeks to advance Ralph Miliband's spirit of free social inquiry. The next lecture in the “Progress and its Discontents” series will be taking place on Thursday 3 December with Professor Wendy Carlin What Should We Study When We Study Economics?

Contributor(s): Professor Alcinda Honwana | Disaffected African young people risk their lives to try to reach Europe. Others join radical groups such as Boko Haram, Al-Shabab and Islamic State. Angry young unemployed South Africans were behind xenophobic attacks there. Youth protesting their socio-economic and political marginalization have changed governments in Tunisia and Senegal. One-third of Africans are between the ages of 10 and 24 and they are better educated than their parents and have higher expectations, but they are less likely to have jobs or political influence. Young Africans are organizing in many ways, and are making their voices heard. How will they force governments to listen? Alcinda Honwana is author of The Time of Youth: Work, Politics, and Social Change in Africa and Youth and Revolution in Tunisia. She is Visiting Professor in International Development at the Open University and was director of the Africa Program of the Social Science Research Council, New York. Funmi Olonisakin is Professor of Security, Leadership and Development at King's College London and member of the panel on the 2015 Review of the UN Peacebuilding Architecture. Africa Talks is a programme of high-profile events that creates a platform for African voices to inform and transform the global debate.

Contributor(s): Professor Robert Tombs | Migration has been a crucial element of British and English history. England emerged as a nation amid a period of migration. Its culture is a hybrid. Its modern experience has been shaped by an unprecedented outward and inward flow of peoples. This lecture aims to identify what is special and characteristic about the migration history of England and Britain, and reflect on the way in which migration has affected and still affects the life of the nation. Robert Tombs is Professor of French History at Cambridge and author of The English and their History. He is a specialist in modern French history and on the Franco-British relationship. His most recent work has been an excursion into English history, though with something of a French perspective. Robert Winder is a trustee of the Migrationa Museum Project and author of Bloody Foreigners: The Story of Immigration to Britain, among many other books on cricket, sport and history. The Migration Museum Project (@MigrationUK) is creating a dedicated Migration Museum, telling the story of movement into and out of the UK in a fresh and engaging way. The museum will be an enquiry into who we are, where we came from and where we are going. We hope that, by revealing our shared history to be a history of migration, the museum will open up conversations and discussions about Britishness and belonging. We aim to represent the tales, the emotion and the history that have gone into shaping our national fabric; we aim to be the museum of all our stories.

Contributor(s): Paul Mason | We know that our world is in the process of seismic change - but how can we emerge from the crisis a fairer, more equal society? At the heart of this change is information technology, a revolution that, as Mason shows, is driven by capitalism but which, with its tendency to drive the value of much of what we make towards zero, has the potential to destroy an economy based on markets, wages and private ownership - and, he contends, is already doing so. Paul Mason (@paulmasonnews) is the author of PostCapitalism: A Guide to Our Future and the Economics Editor, Channel 4 News. Professor Robin Mansell is LSE Deputy Director and Provost and Professor of New Media and the Internet in the Department of Media and Communication. The Institute of Global Affairs (IGA) (@LSEIGA) creates a dedicated space for research, policy engagement and teaching across multiple disciplines to pioneer locally-rooted responses to global challenges.