Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Spring 2009 | Public lectures and events | Audio and pdf

Contributor(s): President Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev | Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev was elected President of the Russian Federation in March 2008. In November 2005 he was elected First Deputy Prime Minister, previous to this he was Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office.

Contributor(s): President Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev | Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev was elected President of the Russian Federation in March 2008. In November 2005 he was elected First Deputy Prime Minister, previous to this he was Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office.

Contributor(s): Professor Rida Laraki | Laraki argues that the new Majority Judgement voting system is superior because it best ranks candidates according to merit. It best resists manipulation or "gaming the vote." It heeds majority rule. It is not subject to Arrow's impossibility, nor to most other classical paradoxes.

Contributor(s): David Leonard, General Olusegun Obasanjo, Professor James Putzel, Clare Short | With its most recent press release the Crisis States Research Centre (LSE) prompted fierce debate on the international response to the ongoing crisis in the Eastern DRC. Reactions to the arrest of the rebel leader Laurent Nkunda in Rwanda on 22 January are loud and divided, though international actions continue to follow the same three trends identified in the CSRC release. This response, says the CSRC, fails to comprehend the cause, complexity and extent of the crisis.

Contributor(s): Professor Michel Balinski | Balinski presents an introduction to Majority Judgement, a new voting model that proposes a solution to many of the pressing problems confronting representative democracy and its various current electoral systems.

Contributor(s): Lord Goldsmith QC, Howard Davies | The separation of powers idea is at the heart of all legal democracies. Yet within those democracies there will often be positions of high office which require their holders to perform functions which are both legal and political. In this series of events senior figures who hold or have held positions of this type talk about their lives in the law, the nature of their office, the institutions which they serve, their roles and responsibilities within those institutions, the role of lawyers in government and their understanding of the relationship between law and politics.

Contributor(s): Wayne Swan | Wayne Swan was sworn in as Australian Treasurer on 3 December 2007. He has been Member for the Brisbane seat of Lilley from 1993 to 1996, and from 1998 to the present. In 2005 he published Postcode: the Splintering of a Nation, a well-received book on economic and social policy in Australia. Before Wayne's appointment to his current role, he was Shadow Treasurer for three years and for six years Shadow Minister for Family and Community Services (1998-2004).

Contributor(s): Professor Wolfgang Streeck | How does the de-regulation of employment relate to the evolution of other social structures, in particular the family? And what are the consequences for the role of the state in society?

Contributor(s): Professor Ratna Kapur | rofessor Kapur examines the specific challenges that have faced feminist activism in South Asia, and discusses how it might forge a new political direction.

Contributor(s): Professor Gilat Levy | In this lunchtime series lectures, a selection of LSE's academics from across the spectrum of the social sciences explain the latest thinking on how social scientists work to address the critical problems of the day. They survey the leading ideas and contributions made by their discipline, explain the types of problems that are addressed and the tools that are used, and explore the kinds of solutions proposed.

Contributor(s): Professor Barry Buzan | China has moved closer to international society on regional and global levels. The tide of history will probably favour China's peaceful rise, but the country will need to act to ensure this happens.

Contributor(s): Thomas Mirow | The crisis originated in the main western financial centres, but emerging markets will pay the price. How steep a price? And what is the responsibility of the rich countries now?

Contributor(s): Professor Peter Singer | We live in a world of great affluence as well as extreme poverty, and in which the rich nations play a disproportionate role in changing the planet's climate, from which the poor will suffer most. What values would best guide us to a more just and sustainable world? Can we realistically expect them to be put into practice?

Contributor(s): David Miliband, Frans Timmermans, Professor Loukas Tsoukalis, Sir Stephen Wall | An interdisciplinary, cross-party investigation of policy options for the EU post-2009, involving 50 experts from all over Europe. The final report will be presented to national governments and the EU institutions in spring 2009.

Contributor(s): Professor Vytautas Landsbergis | Professor Vytautas Landsbergis will in his lecture be giving his perspective on the today's pressing events in the western world. His lecture will be an examination of consequences of doubtful mentality, as growth in population figures and average living standards have not resulted in increased happiness. Growing frustration and the crumbling myth of welfare state point to a crucial need to consider a new philosophy for life. The lecture will be followed by a Q&A session.

Contributor(s): Professor Jean-Pierre Filiu | European forces make up most of the international force in south Lebanon. The EU is the main donor to the Palestinian territories, a member of the Quartet and the initiator of the new Union for the Mediterranean. But how is all this activity to translate into a strategy for promoting peaceful co-existence in that troubled region?

Contributor(s): Polly Toynbee, David Walker | The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. City workers earn millions. Manual workers earn less than they did thirty years ago. The widening gap is tearing apart the fabric of our society. In their new book Unjust Rewards: Exposing Greed and Inequality in Britain Today, Polly Toynbee and David Walker present a worrying portrait of Britain.

Contributor(s): Vikram Pandit | Today's financial and economic wreckage will provide the foundations for a system on which a stronger future will be built. This will only happen with a real cooperation and collaboration that is hard to envisage amidst the growing clamour for protectionism, speculation over the possible nationalisation of the banking system, and questions over the right of those at the centre of the industry to be part of the solution. In his lecture, Vikram Pandit will outline his views on the role of banking in society and the future of the industry, its supervision, its structure and its reputation and explains his work to reinvent the world's most global financial services company and his vision for the New Reality.

Contributor(s): Professor Norman Rose | A review of British policies in Palestine in particular and the Middle East in general with special emphasis on the inter-war and post-war periods. For the Jews, this critical period led to the establishment of the state of Israel, for the Palestinians, to their 'Nakba' (Catastrophe), and for the British, a humiliating retreat from their imperial standing. Norman Rose is a graduate of the LSE and now holds the Chair of International Relations at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.

Contributor(s): Professor Michael Cox, Will Hutton, Professor Danny Quah | The upcoming meeting of the G20 in London in early April 2009 is crucial for the development of policies to stabilise the world economy and reform the international financial architecture. What will the G20 do and what should it do? Will Hutton, Danny Quah, Mick Cox and David Held debate the issues.

Contributor(s): Jack Straw | Jack Straw was appointed as lord chancellor and secretary of state for Justice on 28 June 2007. He has previously served as leader of the House of Commons, secretary of state for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and home secretary. In Opposition he served as shadow home secretary, shadow environment secretary and shadow education secretary.

Contributor(s): Nandita Ghose, A.F Harrold, Andre Mangeot, Ife Piancu | This event is aimed at encouraging anyone who has never been to a poetry event before to come and see the amazing and exciting range of possibilities that poetry has. Poet in the City's New Audiences initiative has fast become one of our most popular set of programmes with events at the Guardian on Spoken Word and at Imperial University on Work, Space and Maths. This event has a mix of our favourite performance and up and coming poets that we're sure you'll enjoy.

Contributor(s): Will Self | "All but death" wrote Emily Dickinson "can be adjusted", and yet, the cold fact that bodies must eventually die only serves to hide the reality of death as a contested cultural domain, where competing notions of public and private, tradition and innovation, individual and collective, are played out, and discourses within literature, art, jurisprudence, medicine, religion, and politics all stake their claim to knowledge of the great unknown. This talk will illuminate the social aspects of death and dying in contemporary society, and challenge received ideas of what Rabelais' called our "vast perhaps".

Contributor(s): Professor Jeffrey D Sachs | The G20 Summit is the world's key venue for addressing the current global crisis. Yet there are profound questions facing the Summiteers. What are the underlying causes of the global crisis? What are the priorities to speed economic recovery? How should the G172 (the 172 UN members not members of the G20) be represented? What are the most powerful tools for protecting the world's most vulnerable people, arresting financial contagion, restoring global demand, and creating a path to sustainable development? Does the world require a fundamental re-shaping of global institutions and modes of cooperation?

Contributor(s): Professor Conor Gearty, Ivan Hare, Kenan Malik | A year after the repeal of blasphemy from English law, religious defamation laws are tightening their grip on the world, with the apparent support of the United Nations. Whatever happened to freedom of speech? A discussion of the nature of blasphemy in the twenty-first century.

Contributor(s): Dr. Laura Bear, David Lan, Tim Parks | A reading from Tim Parks' latest novel Dreams of Rivers and Seas followed by a discussion on the anthropological themes explored within it.

Contributor(s): Jane Duran, John Mole, Robert Minhinnick, Jo Shapcott | A high profile poetry event reflecting on the choices that we all make in our lives, whether social, economic, moral or spiritual, featuring a great line-up of some of the UK's finest poets.

Contributor(s): Kapka Kassabova, Mustafa Kör, Naema Tahir | The migrant intellectual, writes Edward Said, has 'double perspective'. He or she is in a constant dialogue with his or her old and new home. Their writings often convey both a sense of loss and yearning but also display a richness wrought by the integration of multiple cultural identities, unique experiences and diverse modes of expression. These authors will explore what is it like to be migrant writers in their respective societies: what are the points of divergence, what are the commonalities? The authors will be invited to start off the evening by reading short excerpts from their work that typifies their own experiences as migrant authors. We will then explore some of the following questions in a roundtable discussion.

Contributor(s): Professor Lord Anthony Giddens | Political action and intervention, on local, national and international levels, is going to have a decisive effect on whether or not we can limit global warming, as well as how we adapt to that already occurring. At the moment, however, Anthony Giddens argues controversially, we do not have a systematic politics of climate change.

Contributor(s): Alistair Beaton, Martin Rowson | Alistair Beaton is Britain's leading writer of political satire. Martin Rowson is an award-winning political cartoonist whose work appears regularly in The Guardian, The Times, The Independent on Sunday, the Daily Mirror, the Scotsman, Tribune, Index on Censorship and Granta.

Contributor(s): Iain Sinclair, Jerry White, Patrick Wright | Iain Sinclair is a writer, poet and film-maker and widely regarded as one of London's greatest chroniclers. Jerry White has been writing about London for thirty years. His London in the Twentieth Century: A City and Its People won the Wolfson History Prize 2001. Patrick Wright is a writer with an interest in the cultural and political dimensions of modern history. He is the author of a number of highly acclaimed and sometimes also reviled books, including The Village that Died for England (1995), Tank: the Progress of a Monstrous War Machine and Iron Curtain: from Stage to Cold War (2007).

Contributor(s): Ben Okri | Poet in the City and LSE are honoured to be holding a special showcase event with the world famous poet and writer Ben Okri. Born in 1959 in Minna, northern Nigeria, he became world famous as a writer in 1991 when he won the Booker prize for his novel The Famished Road. Set in a Nigerian village, this was the first in a trilogy of successful novels about Azaro, a spirit child. In all he has published eight novels, and won countless awards and honours for his writing. His latest novel, Starbook, was published in 2007.

Contributor(s): Antony Gormley, Professor Richard Sennett, Neven Sidor | By exploring the experiential and social impacts of creating spaces for public engagement, contemplation and education - including the Fourth Plinth at Trafalgar Square and the LSE's New Academic Building - an artist, an architect and a sociologist discuss the intellectual practice of 'designing spaces for thought'.

Contributor(s): Hans Ulrich Obrist, Adrian Searle | Hans Ulrich Obrist was born in Zurich in May 1968. He joined the Serpentine Gallery as Co-director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects in April 2006. Prior to this he was Curator of the Musie d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris since 2000, as well as curator of museum in progress, Vienna, from 1993-2000.

Contributor(s): President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono | General TNI (Ret) Dr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was born in Pacitan on 9 September 1949. Having graduated from the Military Academy in 1973, his military career and rank rose until he became a four-star general in 2000. In 1991, he received his Master of Arts in Management from Webster University, the United States. He earned a Doctorate Degree in Agricultural Economics from Bogor Institute of Agriculture in 2004.

Contributor(s): Mohsin Hamid, David Hare, Boyd Tonkin | This event marks the launch of the LSE Space for Thought Literary Weekend, the LSE's first ever Literary Festival, celebrating the completion of the New Academic Building. A discussion about not only the links between the social sciences and the arts, but the role of the arts in the LSE's past, present and future. Is literature relevant today?

Contributor(s): Morris Gleitzman, Elizabeth Laird, Anthony McGowan, Patrick Ness, Meg Rosoff | The culmination of a creative-writing competition for London state schools, this panel discussion looks at how authors find inspiration in contemporary social issues- from gang culture and knife crime, to the more timeless problems of being a teenager. The panel of popular and award-winning teen authors have dealt with topics as wide ranging as Ethiopian street children and Nazi Germany, with a mixture of reality, comedy and fantasy.

Contributor(s): Karl Otto Pöhl | How has the euro performed over its first ten years, and how will it cope with the strains caused by the current financial and economic crisis? Karl Otto Pvhl was president of the German Bundesbank from 1980-91, and played a leading role in the preparation of the European single currency.

Contributor(s): Hazel Blears MP | The tragic events of 7/7 illustrated the threat to our society posed by violent extremism. Preventing it is one of the defining challenges of our age. Hazel Blears will explore the tough choices government has to make - how to empower new voices to join the debate, how to support people standing up for shared values and how to equip communities with the skills, confidence, and resilience they need to be part of the solution. In June 2007, Hazel Blears became the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

Contributor(s): Joschka Fischer | Joschka Fischer was Germany's foreign minister and vice-chancellor from 1998 to 2005.

Contributor(s): Professor Peter Onuf | Professor Onuf explores the development of the elusive and controversial ideal of democracy from Thomas Jefferson's revolutionary writings to Abraham Lincoln's great effort to vindicate republican principles in the American Civil War. Peter Onuf is Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor of History at the University of Virginia and Harmsworth Professor of American History at the University of Oxford.

Contributor(s): Pauline Tiffen, Rajah Banerjee, Kate Sebag, Katie Stafford, Dyborn Chinonga | The idea of fair trade has become increasingly popular amongst consumers and some producers. But who does fair-trade really benefit? The producers? The consumers? The Farmers? These are some of the issues that the panel will debate.

Contributor(s): Professor Fred Halliday | Thirty years after the fall of the Shah of Iran and the advent of Ayatollah Khomeini to power, the Iranian revolution continues to exert a dynamic ideological and political influence across the Middle East. In a retrospective analysis of the revolutionary period itself, some of whose decisive moments he witnessed at first hand, and of the subsequent development of the Islamic Republic Professor Fred Halliday will attempt to set these dramatic events in context, as much that of the comparative study of revolutions as of the history of the contemporary Middle East.

Contributor(s): Alex Brummer, Vince Cable MP, Evan Davis, Gillian Tett, Professor Willem Buiter | This event will discuss the reporting leading up to the global credit crash of 2008. Alex Brummer has been City Editor for the Daily Mail since 2000. He has over thirty years' experience in the media. Vincent Cable is the Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer and speaks for his party on issues of Finance, European Economic and Monetary Union and the City. Evan Davis is a presenter of BBC Radio 4's Today programme. He was the BBC's Economics Editor from 2001-2008.

Contributor(s): Dr Gezim Alpion | Having identified some of the reasons which made Sister Teresa leave the Loreto Order in 1948, Alpion approaches this painful but momentous departure from a sociological perspective through biographical and historical contextualization and in the light of the work of Marx, Freud, Durkheim on the sociology of religion and career.

Contributor(s): George Soros | On the eve of the G20 summit, George Soros will argue that authorising an increase in SDRs is the most significant step that the G20 leaders could agree. This event will also launch the paperback edition George Soros latest book, The Crash of 2008 and What it Means: the New Paradigm for Financial Markets.

Contributor(s): Professor Marco Sassòli | Professor Sassoli will explore the relationship between International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law during non-international armed conflict, by applying the lex specialis principle. Marco Sassrli is professor of international law at the University of Geneva and associate professor at the Universities of Quebec and Laval.

Contributor(s): Professor Jean Tirole | This is the third annual Coase-Phillips lecture, hosted jointly by Economica and the Department of Economics. Jean Tirole is one of the world's most eminent economists working in the fields of industrial organisation, finance and game theory.

Contributor(s): Sir John Gieve | The past 18 months have been a tumultuous time for the financial sector and the global economy more generally. In this speech, his last as Deputy Governor at the Bank of England, Sir John Gieve will discuss some of the key lessons for public policy and outline some potential improvements that could be made to the framework and tools available to policy makers. Sir John Gieve was appointed Deputy Governor in January 2006. In addition to his membership of the Monetary Policy Committee, he has specific responsibility for the Bank's Financial Stability work and is a member of the Board of the FSA.

Contributor(s): Judge Sir Christopher Greenwood | While each system of national law seeks to regulate affairs within only one society, international law concerns the entire world. Yet it has almost none of the methods of enforcement available to national legal systems. So, can it change the world? Christopher Greenwood was elected a judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in November 2008. He is an authority in international law who taught at LSE for 12 years, and was a practising barrister and has been a QC since 1999. He has appeared as an advocate in several cases at the ICJ.