Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Spring 2010 | Public lectures and events | Video

Contributor(s): Professor Julian Le Grand, Henk Bekedam, Professor Hu Yonghua, Howard Davies | The fifth LSE Asia Forum took place in Beijing on 25-26 March 2010 with the support of the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS). The Forum addressed a wide range of issues of deep interest to policymakers and wider society, under a general theme relating to the recent challenges and changes that have affected the global economy. A key focus of the Forum was on the role of China in tackling the recent challenges, and what lessons can be learnt for the future. 15:30 - 17:00 - Plenary session: Health care: trust, mistrust, voice or choice? presented by Professor Julian Le Grand followed by a question an answer session, followed by closing remarks from Howard Davies.

Contributor(s): Professor Lord Nicholas Stern of Brentford, Vice Minister Liu He, Zhu Min | The fifth LSE Asia Forum took place in Beijing on 25-26 March 2010 with the support of the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS). The Forum addressed a wide range of issues of deep interest to policymakers and wider society, under a general theme relating to the recent challenges and changes that have affected the global economy. A key focus of the Forum was on the role of China in tackling the recent challenges, and what lessons can be learnt for the future. 14:00 - 14:50 - Climate change and economic growth - question and answer session.

Contributor(s): Ingeborg Grssle, Tanja Fajon | It has been said that EU enlargement in the Western Balkans is about completing the Union. The key question is when and how to do it. Or whether it can be done at all! This public debate between two experienced MEPs aims to explore the argument from all sides. Ingeborg Grssle is a Member of the European Parliament in Germany and Tanja Fajon is a Member of the European Parliament in Slovenia.

Contributor(s): Javier Solana | After ten years of serving as EU High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana reflects on the achievements and challenges ahead for Europe as a global security actor with Professor Mary Kaldor. Javier Solana is a Senior Visiting Professor at the LSE Global Governance. He was formerly the Secretary General of the Council of the EU and EU High Representative for CSFP (October 1999 - December 2009). Prior to that, he was the Secretary General of NATO from 1995 - 1999. He is a former physics professor and long time Spanish cabinet member

Contributor(s): Vince Cable MP, Greg Hands MP, James Plaskitt MP | Keeping in context the events that unfolded in the recent economic crisis, the fiscal burden of the associated policies enacted during that period, and with the likely possibility of a general election soon, the LSE Economics Society is proud to play host to an inter-party debate featuring key members from the three main contending parties of this year's General Election.

Contributor(s): G. Asenath Andrews, Stuart Gulliver, Bruce Katz, Richard Sennett | Detroit was once America's fourth largest city. Built by the car, with its groundbreaking suburbs, freeways and shopping centres, it was the embodiment of the American dream. With its intense race riots that brought the Army into the city, and violent union struggles against the fierce resistance of Henry Ford and the Big Three, it was also the scene of American 'nightmares'.

Contributor(s): Arun Kundnani, Nira Yuval-Davis, Joseph Harker | With immigration issues increasingly taking centre-stage during New Labour's tenure in government, and with the electoral success of the BNP and the rise of the Right arguably signalling a resurgence of racism and xenophobia in British society, this event will discuss the relationship between these two contentious developments.

Contributor(s): Lord Richard Rogers, Bruce Katz, Professor Anne Power, Julia Unwin | This discussion will debate the issues arising from a new book Phoenix Cities which examines seven cities from very different regions of the EU, comparing them with the US experience. Their dramatic decline, intense recovery efforts and actual progress on the ground underline the significance of public underpinning in times of crisis. Innovative enterprises, new-style city leadership, special neighbourhood programme, skills development, environmental reclamation are all explored. The American experience shows that cities left largely to their own devices deliver a slower, more uncertain recovery. The discussion will explore where next for Phoenix Cities, given the economic shocks, the pressures of climate change and the social inequalities that sharply divide these recovering cities.

Contributor(s): Professor Lord Stern | Nicholas Stern is IG Patel professor of economics and government at LSE and chairman of the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy.

Contributor(s): Jeremy Rifkin | At this event Jeremy Rifkin will talk about his latest book The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis. His book is a sweeping new interpretation of the history of civilization, that looks at the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development-and is likely to determine our fate as a species.

Contributor(s): Helen Clark | In recent times, the challenges of the developing world have been compounded by multiple crises: the food and fuel crises, the global recession, and devastating natural disasters. There is also the huge climate challenge. How can the international community move the development agenda forward, and stay focused on achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015?

Contributor(s): John Elkington | This lecture will discuss adapting to climate change within a new economic framework. John Elkington is co-founder of think tank SustainAbility and founding partner and director of Volans.

Contributor(s): Professor Lord Nicholas Stern of Brentford, Vice Minister Liu He, Zhu Min | The fifth LSE Asia Forum took place in Beijing on 25-26 March 2010 with the support of the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS). The Forum addressed a wide range of issues of deep interest to policymakers and wider society, under a general theme relating to the recent challenges and changes that have affected the global economy. A key focus of the Forum was on the role of China in tackling the recent challenges, and what lessons can be learnt for the future. 114:00 - 14:50 - Plenary session: Climate change and economic growth, presented by Professor Lord Nicholas Stern of Brentford.

Contributor(s): Professor Allen Buchanan | It is becoming possible to extend human capacities and perhaps even create new ones through the application of biomedical technologies. Putting biomedical enhancements in a historical context can help us avoid common misunderstandings of ethical issues.

Contributor(s): Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, Professor Steven Pinker | What happens when a novelist and philosopher talks to a cognitive neuroscientist about faith, reason, fiction, and God? Listen in as Rebecca Newberger Goldstein and her husband Steven Pinker explore what Spinoza would say about Darwin, what role fiction should play in intellectual life, whether any of the arguments for the existence of God are any good, and other topics at the interface of literature, science, and philosophy.

Contributor(s): Wazhma Frogh, David Kilcullen, Horia Mosadiq, Michael Semple, Tom Tugendhat | Chaired by distinguished UN diplomat and envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, experts on Afghanistan will discuss the current situation in that country and possibilities for its future during a time of disintegrating support for western military involvement and a resurgent Taliban.

Contributor(s): Professor Allen Buchanan | Many consider genetic modification to be the riskiest mode of biomedical enhancement. The problem of unintended bad consequences is serious, but it is often misrepresented in terms of interference with the 'wisdom of nature' or the handiwork of the 'master engineer' of evolution.

Contributor(s): Ami Ayalon, Professor Christine Chinkin, Karma Nabulsi, Colonel Desmond Travers | This public discussion, chaired by the distinguished UN diplomat and envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, will discuss the findings of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict and the 'Goldstone Report' that it produced. Panellists will also examine the state of the peace process, and how this might unfold in the future.

Contributor(s): Sang-Hyun Song | Judge Sang-Hyun Song was appointed President of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in March, 2009. He initially joined the ICC in 2003, when he became a judge for a term of nine years. President Song has extensive practical and academic experience in the area of court management, criminal procedure, and the law of evidence. For thirty years, he taught as a professor of law at Seoul National University Law School, beginning in 1972. He has also held visiting professorships at a number of law schools, including Harvard, New York University and Melbourne.

Contributor(s): Tony Juniper | This event will explore the role of universities in driving the sustainability agenda. Tony Juniper is a campaigner, writer, and a senior associate with the Cambridge University Programme for Sustainability Leadership. Professor Janet Hartley is Pro-director for teaching and learning at LSE.

Contributor(s): Sir Ken MacDonald QC | Public prosecutors must be free from political influence to command confidence. But if they are not answerable to politicians, how are they accountable to the public for their work?

Contributor(s): Dr David Kershaw | In this lunchtime series of 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 John Bowen | We discuss 'Studying Islam across times and place: how to compare?' and this time we subject 'Islam' to an analytical discussion. The anthropological approach advocated here focuses on processes by which Muslims refer back to an Islamic tradition, and employ those references to explain and change the social world. Current debates in Aceh (Indonesia) about how to understand sharî`a provide an initial case study; these debates are then shown to be quite similar to some underway in Western Europe.

Contributor(s): Professor Arne Westad, Professor Wang Jisi, Michael Yahuda | The fifth LSE Asia Forum took place in Beijing on 25-26 March 2010 with the support of the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS). The Forum addressed a wide range of issues of deep interest to policymakers and wider society, under a general theme relating to the recent challenges and changes that have affected the global economy. A key focus of the Forum was on the role of China in tackling the recent challenges, and what lessons can be learnt for the future. 1:30 - 12:45 - Plenary session: China: An Emerging Diplomatic Superpower? presented by Professor Arne Westad, followed by a question and answer session.

Contributor(s): Dr John Darwin | It was perhaps no coincidence that Halford Mackinder, the most famous exponent of geopolitical theory, wrote his seminal essay in 1904 when British world power seemed on the verge of a secular crisis. This lecture examines how far the insights contained in Mackinder's four major works explain the geopolitical fortunes of the British world system in its age of blood and iron.

Contributor(s): Professor Ha-Joon Chang | Ha-Joon Chang is a reader in the political economy of development at Cambridge University. This event is supported by the LSE Annual Fund.

Contributor(s): Professor Tim Jackson | This lecture will discuss a new vision of shared prosperity. It will consider the capability of human beings to flourish within the ecological limits of a finite planet. Tim Jackson is professor of sustainable development at the University of Surrey and economics commissioner on the UK Sustainable Development Commission.

Contributor(s): Professor Rayna Rapp | Over the last three decades, an escalating proportion of US school children have been classified for special education. At the same time, scientists have focused increasingly on juvenile brains. This lecture looks at the work of both neuroscientists and psychiatric epidemiologists.

Contributor(s): Len Curran, Andrew Heiron | Fierce price competition, painstaking cost-cutting, and widespread volatility is making life in the auto industry incredibly challenging. How has Renault adapted, and where does it see the auto industry heading? As a fledgling technology (and one of the great hopes for reducing global carbon emissions) can any electric car concept overcome such an inhospitable environment? Renault Group Commercial Director Len Curran and Electric Vehicles chief Andrew Heiron will both be offering their insights.

Contributor(s): Professor Robert Baldwin, Julia Black | In this lunchtime series of 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 Sally Healy, Dr Jeremy Lind, David Peppiat, Elizabeth Winter | The Obama administration has abandoned the term 'War on Terror' and taken steps to undo the worst excesses of the post-9/11 security regime. However the legislation, structures and practices introduced after the attacks remain deeply embedded. The event is followed by the launch of Jude Howell and Jeremy Lind's new book Counter-terrorism, Aid and Civil Society.

Contributor(s): Stephen Green, Dr. M. Umer Chapra | This lecture discusses the growing role alternative financing arrangements, such as Islamic finance, have on the global financial markets. It explains how morality or faith based forms of finance can continue to enhance modern finance in the future.

Contributor(s): Professor Gilles Kepel | This lecture will assess how successful President Obama's engagement with the Muslim world has been. Gilles Kepel is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS.

Contributor(s): Professor Leszek Balcerowicz | Leszek Balcerowicz is an economist, a Professor at the Warsaw School of Economics, Former President of the National Bank of Poland and Former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in the first non-communist Polish Government after the Second World War.

Contributor(s): Howard Davies, His Excellency Mr Yang Jiechi, His Royal Highness The Duke of York | The fifth LSE Asia Forum took place in Beijing on 25-26 March 2010 with the support of the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS). The Forum addressed a wide range of issues of deep interest to policymakers and wider society, under a general theme relating to the recent challenges and changes that have affected the global economy. A key focus of the Forum was on the role of China in tackling the recent challenges, and what lessons can be learnt for the future. This session comprises the welcome and introduction from Howard Davies, followed by the keynote speech presented by His Excellency Mr Yang Jiechi, followed by an address by His Royal Highness The Duke of York.

Contributor(s): Professor David Goldblatt | Globalisation has seen sport achieve a hitherto unequalled global cultural significance, but it has also left it in thrall to capitalism. Will economic forces continue to shape sport? David Goldblatt is a writer, broadcaster and teacher. He is author of The Ball is Round: a global history of football.

Contributor(s): Steve Pyke, Dr Alex Voorhoeve | Alex Voorhoeve builds on Plato's arguments for philosophising about ethics in dialogue form. Steve Pyke will describe how he photographs philosophers, including how he approaches his subjects and what his portraits reveal about them.

Contributor(s): Professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff | Let's call a spade a spade. Today's financial system, with its limited liability, insider rating, political kickbacks, director sweetheart deals, non disclosure, and internal corporate raiders, was built for hucksters -- hucksters who systematically manufactured and sold trillions in fraudulent securities, grabbed hoards of loot, and left the public to pick up the pieces.

Contributor(s): Professor Lord Anthony Giddens, Professor David Held, Professor Mary Kaldor, Professor Danny Quah | The world now confronts crises unique in their global character. Distinguished LSE experts argue these crises provide an opportunity to transform the world and to build capacity for responding to extreme global challenges.

Contributor(s): David Willetts MP | David Willetts will analyse the distribution of income and wealth between different generations in Britain. He will investigate why the baby boomer generation have done particularly well for both income and wealth. He will then look at why the younger generation face much less favourable economic circumstances. Drawing on his new book The Pinch he will firmly place the issue of fairness between the generations on the political agenda.

Contributor(s): James Purnell MP | The credit crunch was followed by a consensus on the centre-Left that the world was entering a "progressive moment", and that the financial crisis represented a failure of the ideas of the New Right. Yet, in Europe at least, social democracy has struggled to articulate what the progressive response to the crisis, and has struggled electorally as a consequence. To resolve this paradox, the Left needs to recognise that the financial crisis challenges its received ideology too, and that if it wants to survive electorally, it will need to renew itself intellectually. The lecture will argue that such a renewal can come from re-examining Labour's traditions, and from having the courage to be bolder about goals and methods.

Contributor(s): AS Byatt, Ben Okri, Helen Simpson, Colin Thubron | Four very different writers consider four very different aspects of love: love as enchantment, and love as madness; passion in youth, and compassion in age. They read their favourite passages on love both from their own work, and from the work of others, and, on Valentine's eve, discuss Shakespeare's notion that 'The lunatic, the lover and the poet are of imagination all compact'.

Contributor(s): Zeina Frangie-Eyres, Dr Simon Glendinning, Professor Marina Warner, Dr Mark Wright | An event that combines a story-telling of the 1000-year-old eco-fable The Animals' Lawsuit against Humanity with a panel discussion on the story's historical and literary origins; current biodiversity in the midst of species extinction; the philosophical relationship between humans; and animals and the need for a myth for our times.

Contributor(s): Matt Charman, John Caird | Theatre has a rich tradition of raising political issues, as evidenced in LSE founder George Bernard Shaw's work. A discussion between a playwright and director on whether contemporary drama still aims to challenge audiences.

Contributor(s): Lionel Shriver | Lionel Shriver will be discussing and reading from her new novel So Much for That on the cusp of release in March. Described in HarperCollins's spring catalogue as "about illness, death, and money", Shriver's latest explores four different scenarios with a medical aspect, in a kind of literary "ER". The book examines the catastrophic personal fall-out of America's dysfunctional health-care system, while also raising tough questions that all Western countries are having to wrestle with--the most signal among them: how much money is one life worth?

Contributor(s): Howard Davies, His Excellency Mr Yang Jiechi, His Royal Highness The Duke of York | The fifth LSE Asia Forum took place in Beijing on 25-26 March 2010 with the support of the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS). The Forum addressed a wide range of issues of deep interest to policymakers and wider society, under a general theme relating to the recent challenges and changes that have affected the global economy. A key focus of the Forum was on the role of China in tackling the recent challenges, and what lessons can be learnt for the future. This session comprises the welcome and introduction from Howard Davies, followed by the keynote speech presented by His Excellency Mr Yang Jiechi, followed by an address by His Royal Highness The Duke of York.

Contributor(s): Professor Richard Sennett | Richard Sennett's award winning Sociology of Literature explores the role of narrative in social research and in writing sociology.

Contributor(s): Dr Jane Darcy, Brian Dillon, Sally O'Reilly | Consciousness of our own mortality is at the heart of the human experience, and has long fascinated writers and artists, inspiring quite an obsession with the body and its well-being. This panel will examine the relationship between creativity, illness and the imagination.

Contributor(s): Will Alsop, Professor Rosemary Ashton, Leo Hollis, Hans Ulrich Obrist | How do we attempt to understand the sprawling "modern Babylon" that is London, with its layers of social, political and cultural history? Can art, architecture and literature help us to 'read' this complex city?

Contributor(s): Michael Blackburn, Mario Petrucci, Richard Tyrone-Jones | Three poets discuss the interrelationship between art and literature and the social sciences. What are the links between these seemingly polarised disciplines? Does art have any concrete influence on the social and political sciences?