Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast 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): 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 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): 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): 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.

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): 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): 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): Prof Patrick Dunleavy, Simon Bastow, Adam Cooper, Jonathan Portes, Prof Bernard Silverman, Neil Wholey, Dr Alan Cann, Prof Vicky Randall, Prof Stephen Hanney, Prof Huw Davies, Richard Bartholomew, Prof Edward Melhuish, Prof Sandy Thomas | A half day conference hosted by LSE's Public Policy Group/Impact of Social Sciences Project held on Monday, 12th March 2012 at the Institute for Government, London. With the incentives for academics to engage with government again strengthened through the REF process, this half day conference will examine the ways in which academic research impacts on government and policymaking, how tried and tested methods as well as newer digital technologies are affecting their relationships and the key touch-points where academic expertise can be of most use on major policy issues. Introduction, 2pm, Introduction from the LSE Impacts of Social Sciences team, Speakers: Prof Patrick Dunleavy, Simon Bastow (LSE Public Policy Group) Session 1, 2.20pm, The Policymakers' View: How Government Departments can Better Leverage Academic Research, Speakers: Adam Cooper (Head of Social Science Engagement at DECC, Jonathan Portes (Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research), Prof Bernard Silverman (Chief Scientific Adviser at the Home Office), Neil Wholey (Westminster City Council). Session 2, 3.45pm, The Academics' View: Opening up Academic Work to Policymakers, Speakers: Dr Alan Cann (Leicester University), Prof Vicky Randall (Essex University), Prof Stephen Hanney (Brunel University), Prof Huw Davies (University of St Andrews). Session 3 (Final Session), 5pm, Change, Evaluation and Future-proofing: Academic Interventions in the Policy Process, Speakers: Richard Bartholomew (Chief Research Officer, Department of Education), Prof Edward Melhuish (Director, Impact Evaluation of Sure State), Prof Sandy Thomas (Director of Foresight, Government Office for Science).

Contributor(s): Prof Patrick Dunleavy, Simon Bastow, Adam Cooper, Jonathan Portes, Prof Bernard Silverman, Neil Wholey, Dr Alan Cann, Prof Vicky Randall, Prof Stephen Hanney, Prof Huw Davies, Richard Bartholomew, Prof Edward Melhuish, Prof Sandy Thomas | A half day conference hosted by LSE's Public Policy Group/Impact of Social Sciences Project held on Monday, 12th March 2012 at the Institute for Government, London. With the incentives for academics to engage with government again strengthened through the REF process, this half day conference will examine the ways in which academic research impacts on government and policymaking, how tried and tested methods as well as newer digital technologies are affecting their relationships and the key touch-points where academic expertise can be of most use on major policy issues. Introduction, 2pm, Introduction from the LSE Impacts of Social Sciences team, Speakers: Prof Patrick Dunleavy, Simon Bastow (LSE Public Policy Group) Session 1, 2.20pm, The Policymakers' View: How Government Departments can Better Leverage Academic Research, Speakers: Adam Cooper (Head of Social Science Engagement at DECC, Jonathan Portes (Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research), Prof Bernard Silverman (Chief Scientific Adviser at the Home Office), Neil Wholey (Westminster City Council). Session 2, 3.45pm, The Academics' View: Opening up Academic Work to Policymakers, Speakers: Dr Alan Cann (Leicester University), Prof Vicky Randall (Essex University), Prof Stephen Hanney (Brunel University), Prof Huw Davies (University of St Andrews). Session 3 (Final Session), 5pm, Change, Evaluation and Future-proofing: Academic Interventions in the Policy Process, Speakers: Richard Bartholomew (Chief Research Officer, Department of Education), Prof Edward Melhuish (Director, Impact Evaluation of Sure State), Prof Sandy Thomas (Director of Foresight, Government Office for Science).

Contributor(s): Prof Patrick Dunleavy, Simon Bastow, Adam Cooper, Jonathan Portes, Prof Bernard Silverman, Neil Wholey, Dr Alan Cann, Prof Vicky Randall, Prof Stephen Hanney, Prof Huw Davies, Richard Bartholomew, Prof Edward Melhuish, Prof Sandy Thomas | A half day conference hosted by LSE's Public Policy Group/Impact of Social Sciences Project held on Monday, 12th March 2012 at the Institute for Government, London. With the incentives for academics to engage with government again strengthened through the REF process, this half day conference will examine the ways in which academic research impacts on government and policymaking, how tried and tested methods as well as newer digital technologies are affecting their relationships and the key touch-points where academic expertise can be of most use on major policy issues. Introduction, 2pm, Introduction from the LSE Impacts of Social Sciences team, Speakers: Prof Patrick Dunleavy, Simon Bastow (LSE Public Policy Group) Session 1, 2.20pm, The Policymakers' View: How Government Departments can Better Leverage Academic Research, Speakers: Adam Cooper (Head of Social Science Engagement at DECC, Jonathan Portes (Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research), Prof Bernard Silverman (Chief Scientific Adviser at the Home Office), Neil Wholey (Westminster City Council). Session 2, 3.45pm, The Academics' View: Opening up Academic Work to Policymakers, Speakers: Dr Alan Cann (Leicester University), Prof Vicky Randall (Essex University), Prof Stephen Hanney (Brunel University), Prof Huw Davies (University of St Andrews). Session 3 (Final Session), 5pm, Change, Evaluation and Future-proofing: Academic Interventions in the Policy Process, Speakers: Richard Bartholomew (Chief Research Officer, Department of Education), Prof Edward Melhuish (Director, Impact Evaluation of Sure State), Prof Sandy Thomas (Director of Foresight, Government Office for Science).

Contributor(s): Prof Patrick Dunleavy, Simon Bastow, Adam Cooper, Jonathan Portes, Prof Bernard Silverman, Neil Wholey, Dr Alan Cann, Prof Vicky Randall, Prof Stephen Hanney, Prof Huw Davies, Richard Bartholomew, Prof Edward Melhuish, Prof Sandy Thomas | A half day conference hosted by LSE's Public Policy Group/Impact of Social Sciences Project held on Monday, 12th March 2012 at the Institute for Government, London. With the incentives for academics to engage with government again strengthened through the REF process, this half day conference will examine the ways in which academic research impacts on government and policymaking, how tried and tested methods as well as newer digital technologies are affecting their relationships and the key touch-points where academic expertise can be of most use on major policy issues. Introduction, 2pm, Introduction from the LSE Impacts of Social Sciences team, Speakers: Prof Patrick Dunleavy, Simon Bastow (LSE Public Policy Group) Session 1, 2.20pm, The Policymakers' View: How Government Departments can Better Leverage Academic Research, Speakers: Adam Cooper (Head of Social Science Engagement at DECC, Jonathan Portes (Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research), Prof Bernard Silverman (Chief Scientific Adviser at the Home Office), Neil Wholey (Westminster City Council). Session 2, 3.45pm, The Academics' View: Opening up Academic Work to Policymakers, Speakers: Dr Alan Cann (Leicester University), Prof Vicky Randall (Essex University), Prof Stephen Hanney (Brunel University), Prof Huw Davies (University of St Andrews). Session 3 (Final Session), 5pm, Change, Evaluation and Future-proofing: Academic Interventions in the Policy Process, Speakers: Richard Bartholomew (Chief Research Officer, Department of Education), Prof Edward Melhuish (Director, Impact Evaluation of Sure State), Prof Sandy Thomas (Director of Foresight, Government Office for Science).

Contributor(s): Evelyn Fox Keller | A substantial literature on risk perception demonstrates the limits of human rationality, especially in the face of catastrophic risks. Human judgment, it seems, is flawed by the tendency to overestimate the magnitude of rare but evocative risks, while underestimating risks associated with commonplace dangers. Such findings are particularly relevant to the problem of crafting responsible public policy in the face of the kinds of threat posed by climate change. If the risk perception of ordinary citizens cannot be trusted, then it would seem logical to based policy decisions on expert judgment. But how rational, how trustworthy, are expert assessments of catastrophic risk? I briefly review the limitations of conventional models of expert risk analysis, especially in dealing with the large uncertainties endemic to the risk of low probability-high impact events in the distant future. The challenges such events pose to the underlying assumptions of these analyses are severe enough to question their basic rationality. I argue that a conception of rationality premised on the bounded knowledge of experts and lay citizens alike, based on context appropriate heuristics, may provide a more trustworthy basis for decision making. Evelyn Fox KellerEvelyn Fox Keller is Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on the history and philosophy of modern biology and on gender and science. She is the author of several books, including A Feeling for the Organism: The Life and Work of Barbara McClintock (1983), Reflections on Gender and Science (1985), The Century of the Gene (2000), and Making Sense of Life: Explaining Biological Development with Models, Metaphors and Machines (2002). Her most recent book, The Mirage of a Space Between Nature and Nuture, is now in press.

Contributor(s): Professor Kathleen Thelen | Do economic crisis and the emergence of service economies make established ideas about "liberal" and "coordinated" capitalism obsolete? Kathleen Thelen is the Ford Professor of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Contributor(s): Alistair Darling MP | Alistair Darling is MP for Edinburgh South West and former Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Contributor(s): Dr Ramachandra Guha | In India, cricketers are even more famous than its film stars; they are venerated and worshipped as gods. This lecture will explain how this sport became an Indian obsession. Ramachandra Guha is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2011-2012.

Contributor(s): Professor Lord Layard | CEP founder Richard Layard will close this series of lectures with a discussion on the economic and social costs of mental illness. Richard Layard is Emeritus Professor of Economics at LSE. He is the head of the Centre for Economic Performance's Programme on Well-Being.

Contributor(s): Rolando Bompadre, Matías Néspolo | As tense as a thriller, as vivid as an undercover documentary, Matías Néspolo’s first novel, Seven Ways to Kill a Cat, examines a place of crime and deprivation. Set in Buenos Aires at the time of Argentina’s financial crash, and seen through the eyes of twenty-year-old Gringo, it tells the story of two boys on the cusp of adulthood who have no choice but to join the gang warfare that rules their community. While its depiction of Buenos Aires rings true in every detail, the barrio could be any place of urban deprivation. With fellow argentine author, Rolando Bompadre, he will discuss society and politics in Latin American literature. Rolando Bompadre teaches Spanish and Italian at the University of Aberdeen, and is author of La víspera de los asesinatos, which was among the finalists of the 1st Premio Tusquets Editores de Novela. Rosalind Harvey has lived in Lima and Norwich, where she fell in love with Spanish and translation, respectively. She now lives in London, where she translates Spanish and Latin American fiction. She has translated Hector Abad’s prize-winning memoir Oblivion and Enrique Vila-Matas’ latest novel Dublinesque with Anne McLean, and her translation of Juan Pablo Villalobos’ Down the Rabbit Hole has been shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. In autumn last year she was one of the first translators in residence at the Free Word Centre. Born in Buenos Aires in 1975, Matías Néspolo studied literature, going on to write poems, short stories, journalism and then Seven Ways to Kill a Cat, his acclaimed first novel. He has been living in Barcelona since 2001 and, in 2010, was selected by Granta as one of their best young contemporary Spanish-language novelists. Seven Ways to Kill a Cat is recommended by English Pen.

Contributor(s): Elif Shafak | Elif Shafak is an award winning novelist and the most widely read female writer in Turkey. She was born in 1971 in Strasbourg and is the author of 11 books, eight of which are novels, including The Bastard of Istanbul (which was long-listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2008) and The Forty Rules of Love (nominated for 2012 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award). Her new novel, Honour, set partly in London about a half-Kurdish half-Turkish immigrant family, will be published by Penguin in April 2012. She writes in both English and Turkish, and divides her time between London and Istanbul. www.elifshafak.com

Contributor(s): Michael Rosen, Emma-Louise Williams, Lasse Johansson, Andrea Luka Zimmerman | Emma-Louise William’s film, Under the Cranes (2011), is based on the documentary play for voices, Hackney Streets, by poet and former Children's Laureate, Michael Rosen. Blending rare archive footage and dreamlike sequences of present-day Hackney, Williams links the everyday with the social and literary history of this dynamic and culturally diverse East London borough. Following the screening, a panel of speakers will join Williams and Rosen to discuss the hybridity of literature and film, as well as Hackney and the increasing attention it has received in light of the 2012 Olympics and controversial redevelopment projects. Michael Rosen was born in 1946 in north London. He has been writing, performing, broadcasting and lecturing since the early 70s. He co-devised and co-teaches a Masters course at Birkbeck College, University of London. Emma-Louise Williams is a radio producer and first-time film-maker. She is currently making a radio documentary for BBC Radio 4 about unaccompanied, asylum-seeking children and young people in East London. Her work seeks to counter the prevailing perception of the inner city as a site of failure, ugliness and misdeed through a ‘socio-poetics’ of everyday life. Lasse Johansson and Andrea Luka Zimmerman are artists/filmmakers working in East London for Fugitive Images.

Contributor(s): John Lanchester | In his latest state-of-the-nation novel, Capital, John Lanchester tells the story of an ordinary street in the capital, but also of a global crisis. In this conversation with Hay Festival chair Revel Guest, he will discuss the power of a fictional handling of the financial crisis in comparison to non-fictional accounts. John Lanchester is the author of The Debt to Pleasure (winner of the Whitbread First Novel Award), Mr Phillips and Fragrant Harbour, a Sunday Times bestseller, and his work has been translated into 21 languages. His memoir Family Romance was published in 2007 to great acclaim. And his non-fiction work Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No-One Can Pay about the financial crisis was a bestseller both in the UK and the US. He is a contributor to the Guardian and the New Yorker as well as a Contributing Editor to the London Review of Books.

Contributor(s): Richard Holloway, Alex Preston | The former Bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway's memoir, Leaving Alexandria, recounts a life defined by the struggle between public faith and private doubt. Alex Preston’s latest novel, The Revelations, portrays the power of a religious movement amongst a group of young people, exploring why people still need faith in a secular era, and the battle between belief and doubt. Together they will discuss the place of faith, doubt and certainty in our secular modern age. Richard Holloway was Bishop of Edinburgh and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church. A former Gresham Professor of Divinity and Chairman of the Joint Board of the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen, he is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He has written for many newspapers in Britain, including The Times, Guardian, Observer, Herald and the Scotsman. He has also presented many series for BBC television and radio; his new series, on doubt, will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 this spring. Alex Preston was born in 1979 and lives with his family in London. His first novel, the bestselling This Bleeding City, won the Edinburgh festival Reader’s First Book awards and the Spear’s First Book Award, and has been translated into twelve languages. Preston writes and reviews for the New Statesman and the Observer and is a regular panellist on BBC2’s The Review Show.

Contributor(s): Horatio Clare, Dr Alex Gillespie, Abigail King | This panel will discuss the relationship between perceptions and realities of travel, and the influence of travel literature and photography on tourist experiences. Horatio Clare is an award-winning author, broadcaster, novelist and journalist. In 2008 he journeyed from South Africa to South Wales following migrating swallows, a journey he wrote about in A Single Swallow. His latest expedition took him from Felixstowe to Los Angeles on a 150,000 tonne container ship. Horatio writes regularly for Conde Nast Traveller and various national newspapers. Alex Gillespie is a Lecturer in Social Psychology at LSE and Co-Editor of Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour. He has over fifty publications, including three books. He is interested in tourism and tourist photography as an encounter with the other saturated in fantasy. Abigail King is an experienced journalist and photographer who writes about travel for both print and online media. She has circled the globe twice, camped in the snows of Kilimanjaro and Patagonia and tracked down tigers, turtles and panda bears. She’s then had a hot shower and embraced the city life of New York, Rio, Paris and Tokyo.

Contributor(s): Marina Lewycka, Jeremy Sams, George Szirtes | A panel of experts discuss translation and storytelling in novels, poetry and opera. Are there fundamental elements to storytelling that are shared across cultures, languages and genres? What is lost, and what is created, in translation? Followed by a reading of the winning entry in the LSE micro-fiction student competition and a performance by students of a classic one act play. Marina Lewycka was born in a refugee camp in Germany in 1946 and moved to England with her family when she was about a year old. She spent most of her life since then trying to become a writer, and finally succeeded in 2005 with A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian which has sold more than a million copies in the UK alone. This was followed by Two Caravans in March 2007 and We Are All Made of Glue in July 2009. Her latest novel is Various Pets Alive and Dead. Jeremy Sams is a translator of opera libretti as well as a lyricist, theatre director, composer, orchestrator and musical director. His latest work, The Enchanted Island, recently opened to critical acclaim at the New York Metropolitan Opera. His many translations include Mozart’s Figaro’s Wedding, La Boheme, The Magic Flute and Wagner’s The Ring Cycle (English National Opera); The Merry Widow (Covent Garden); and Les Parents Terribles, The Miser and Mary Stuart (Royal National Theatre). His film scores have won awards from BAFTA (Persuasion) and Ivor Novello (Enduring Love). As a theatre director his credits include Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Sound of Music (Palladium), Noises Off (West End and Broadway) and The Wind in the Willows (Old Vic). George Szirtes was born in Budapest in 1948 and came to England as a refugee in 1956, following the Hungarian Uprising. He has published some thirteen books of poetry in English, most recently Reel (2004), New and Collected Poems (2008) and The Burning of the Books (2009). These have won the Faber Prize, the Cholmondeley Award and, most recently the T S Eliot Prize. As a translator from Hungarian he has published and edited several books of prize-winning poetry and fiction. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and teaches at UEA.

Contributor(s): Lord Hurd, Sam Leith, Ian Leslie, Jonathan Powell | This distinguished panel will discuss the importance of rhetoric, that famous art of persuasion, as well as the centrality of lying and self-deception to human society and politics. Lord Hurd retired as Foreign Secretary in July 1995, after a distinguished career in Government spanning sixteen years. He served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 1984 - 85, Home Secretary from 1985 - 89 and Foreign Secretary 1989 – 1995 in the Governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major. After joining the Diplomatic Service, he went on to serve at the Foreign office in Peking, New York (UN) and Rome. He ran Edward Heath’s private office from 1968 - 70 and acted as his Political Secretary at 10 Downing Street from 1970 - 74. He was MP for Mid-Oxfordshire (later Witney) from 1974 to 1997. He was created a Life Peer in 1997, and has since held numerous appointments in the City and in public life. He was Deputy Chairman of Coutts Bank until the end of 2009. Lord Hurd has written ten political novels. His memoirs were published in October 2003. His biography of the life of Sir Robert Peel was published in 2007. His latest book on eleven British Foreign Secretaries was published in 2010 and he is now at work with Edward Young on a biography of Disraeli. Sam Leith is a former Literary Editor of the Daily Telegraph, and contributes regularly to the Evening Standard, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Spectator and Prospect. He’s the author of two non-fiction books, Dead Pets and Sod's Law and a novel, The Coincidence Engine. His latest book You Talkin’ To Me? Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama is published by Profile Books. Ian Leslie combines careers in advertising and writing. His latest book, entitled Born Liars: Why We Can't Live Without Deceit is about the surprising centrality of lying and self-deception to human society. After studying history at Oxford and the University of Pennsylvania, Jonathan Powell worked for the BBC and Granada TV before joining the Foreign Office in 1979. In 1994 Mr Blair, then Leader of the Opposition, poached him to join his `kitchen cabinet' as his Chief of Staff. When Labour achieved its landslide victory in 1997 Powell was at the heart of the Downing Street machine. He was the only senior member of staff to remain at Blair's side throughout his time at the top of British politics. He is author of The New Machiavelli: How to wield power in the Modern World. Jenni Russell is a political columnist for the Evening Standard and the Sunday Times. She won the Orwell Prize for political journalism in 2011.

Contributor(s): Sarah Salway | Using social media means it has never been easier to get your words out there, but how can you be sure you are being read? Sarah Salway uses personal experience and practical examples to show how you can make the internet work best for you, including getting an audience and writing for personal websites, blogs, podcasts, Facebook pages, and Twitter streams. Canterbury Laureate and Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the LSE, Sarah Salway has been blogging successfully since 2004. She is the author of three novels, including Something Beginning With, and a collection of short stories. Her first poetry collection, You Do Not Need Another Self-Help Book, will be published in March. Her website is at www.sarahsalway.net.

Contributor(s): Reshma Ruia | Reshma Ruia was born in India and grew up in Rome, Italy. After an undergraduate degree in International Relations and post graduate degree in Economic History from LSE, she moved back to Rome where she worked as a development economist with the United Nations and subsequently with the OECD in Paris. She is now based in Manchester, where she obtained an MA in Creative Writing from Manchester University. She is the author of Something Black in the Lentil Soup, described by John Carey in the Times, as a ‘gem of straight-faced comedy.’ One of her short stories has appeared in the Anthology, Too Asian, not Asian Enough. She has recently completed a PhD in Creative Writing from Manchester University and has finished her second novel, A Mouthful of Silence. In this session she will discuss the ways of writing about different cultures- the importance of plot, portrayal of character and narrative voice- as well as what her transition from academic, social scientific culture to a literary one has meant for her writing.

Contributor(s): Professor Mark Pagel | Since humans left Africa less than a hundred thousand years ago there has been a staggering explosion of cultures. What caused this blooming of diversity? Why are there so many mutually incomprehensible languages, even within small territories? Why do we rejoice in rituals, wrap ourselves in flags, or define ourselves in opposition to others? Humans are usually seen as differing from other animals because of our inherent traits of consciousness, language and intelligence. But Pagel shows we've had it the wrong way round. Many of these things would not exist without our propensity for culture - our ability to co-operate in small tribal societies, to pass on beliefs and practices and to accumulate knowledge over generations - so that we prospered while others declined. Pagel's extraordinary history of the role of culture in natural selection shows how humans acquired a mind that is hardwired for culture. Our cultures – although an accident of birth - have outstripped our genes in determining who we are, how we think and speak, and who we love and kill. Weaving together evolutionary biology, anthropology, natural history, philosophy and Pagel's years of observing human behaviour around the globe, this book sheds light on everything from art, morality and affection to jealousy, self-interest and prejudice, and asks whether our cultural legacy equips us for the challenges of life in the modern world. Wired for Culture will change how we view ourselves, not just as individuals, but within the wider story of our species. Mark Pagel is head of the Evolution Laboratory in the Division of Zoology, School of Biological Sciences, at the University of Reading, and an External Professor at the renowned Santa Fe Institute. He has travelled the world studying evolution and the spread of cultures from the Chalbi Desert in Kenya to Tanzania and Zanzibar, and remote Oceania. He is the editor-in-chief of the award winning Oxford Encyclopaedia of Evolution and co-author of The Comparative Method in Evolutionary Biology, which is regarded as a classic, as well as the author of articles in Science, Nature, and other journals. Statistical methods that Pagel has developed are used by researchers all over the world to study evolutionary trends across species. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society. This event marks the publication of his latest book, Wired for Culture: The Natural History of Human Cooperation.

Contributor(s): Dr Llewelyn Morgan | Dr Llewelyn Morgan explores historical and contemporary approaches to one of Afghanistan's most famous monuments, the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Their location's strategic position, controlling passage through the Hindu Kush, has seen a fascinatingly diverse array of visitors and commentators- from Muslims and Christians, to 19th Century classicists on the trail of Alexander the Great and, more recently, UN mine-clearers. Llewelyn Morgan is a classicist, normally occupied reading Classical Latin poetry, and a fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford. He has worked in Ireland and the US as well as the UK, writes regularly for the TLS and can occasionally also be heard on Radio 4. His interest in Afghanistan was sparked by discovering an old Russian samovar in his grandmother's house, engraved with the words "Candahar 1881", a relic of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. The Buddhas of Bamiyan will be published in the spring of 2012. Paddy Docherty was educated at Oxford University. His graduate research into British imperial history led him to the North West Frontier and he travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in the winter of 2003 to research The Khyber Pass, his first book.

Contributor(s): Jonathan Gibbs | The introductory session to the day’s workshops will be looking at ways of getting started, or restarted, in writing fiction. What approaches can you take to plot and character when you do find time to write, and how can you use your time away from your desk to make sure that, when you’re there, you get the most out of it. Jonathan Gibbs has worked as a books journalist for 10 years. He took an MA in Creative Writing at UEA, and is currently nearing the end of a PhD there. The fruits of that, a novel about the Young British Artists, is, as we speak, travelling via his agent to various publishers’ inboxes.

Contributor(s): Justin Cartwright, Professor John Sutherland, DJ Taylor | Recent literary responses to the financial crisis take their place in a rich tradition of novelistic portrayals of the city and finance. What do these tell us of our changing attitude towards, and understanding of, money? Justin Cartwright was born in South Africa and educated in the US and at Oxford University. His work has won numerous awards. In Every Face I Meet was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Leading the Cheers won the Whitbread Novel Award and The Promise of Happiness won the Hawthornden Prize for Literature in 2005. He has won other awards including a Commonwealth Writer's prize and the South African Sunday Times Award. His most recent novel is Other People’s Money, a subtle thriller and also an acutely delineated portrait of a world and a class. It won the Novel of the Year Award at the Spear’s Book Awards. John Sutherland is Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor, UCL. He has taught at Edinburgh University, the California Institute of Education and UCL. His latest book, of many, is Lives of the Novelists: A History of Fiction in 294 Lives. DJ Taylor is the author of two acclaimed biographies, Thackerary and Orwell: The Life, which won the Whitbread Biography Prize in 2003. He has written nine novels, the most recent being Derby Day. David is also well known as a critic and reviewer, and his other books include A Vain Conceit: British Fiction in the 1980s and After the War: the Novel and England since 1945. His journalism appears in the Independent and the Independent on Sunday, the Guardian, The Tablet, the Spectator, the New Statesman and, anonymously, in Private Eye. Aifric Campbell completed a linguistics degree and lectured in semantics in Sweden before spending thirteen years as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley in London where she was the first female MD. She left to study psychotherapy and creative writing, most recently at UEA . Aifric is currently teaching creative writing at Imperial College and her first two novels, The Semantics of Murder and The Loss Adjustor were published by Serpent’s Tail. Her latest book, published in March, is On The Floor, a novel set in the global financial markets.

Contributor(s): Ben Masters | Ben Masters' debut novel Noughties examines the highs and lows of modern student life, which reach a climax for his characters on the last night of university. In this conversation with LSE student Aleona Krechetova, he will discuss whether there is such a thing as a ‘standard’ student experience, and how he approached the question of 'relatability' when writing the book. Ben Masters is twenty-five years old. He was born in Northampton and went to Oxford University in 2005. He is currently working on a PhD in English at Cambridge University.

Contributor(s): John Carey, Claire Tomalin | Claire Tomalin’s biography of Charles Dickens, published to mark the bicentenary of his birth this spring, has been acclaimed by critics. It is, as A.N. Wilson wrote in the New Statesman, ‘a book that goes to the heart of the mystery of Dickens as a writer’, and it conjures up a man with as many different selves as a Russian doll. ‘The inimitable’, as Dickens called himself, was a performer or rock-star charisma, who mesmerised audiences of thousands before the invention of the microphone; a social reformer way ahead of his time; a sentimental lover; a cruel husband. He could be vivacious, charming and selfless, but also imperious, vindictive and egotistical. Claire Tomalin discusses his life and work with literary critic and cultural commentator John Carey. John Carey is Emeritus Merton Professor of English at Oxford University, a distinguished critic, reviewer and broadcaster, and the author of many books, including studies of Donne, Dickens and Thackeray. His celebrated polemic What Good are the Arts? provoked much debate and discussion in 2005. He has been a regular critic on BBC2's Newsnight Review, and is also the editor of the best-selling anthologies The Faber Book of Reportage, The Faber Book of Science and The Faber Book of Utopias. Biographer Claire Tomalin was born in London in 1933. After graduating from Newnham College, Cambridge, she worked in publishing for Heinemann, Hutchinson and Cape before switching to journalism, becoming literary editor of both the New Statesman magazine and the Sunday Times newspaper. She is a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery, London and the Wordsworth Trust, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Vice-President of English PEN. She is the award-winning author of many books, including The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens, Samuel Pepys and Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man. This event is organised in association with the Royal Society of Literature.

Contributor(s): Pavel Litvinov, Michael Scammell | Acclaimed writer and founding editor of Index on Censorship. Michael Scammell and former Russian dissident Pavel Litvinov discuss the nature of censorship and the future of freedom of speech. It was Pavel Litvinov’s courageous public appeal to the West for help, during a Soviet show trial in 1968, that inspired the creation of Index on Censorship magazine, a forum for banned writers, artists and intellectuals in the struggle against censorship. Forty years on, as Index on Censorship celebrates its anniversary, this will be a rare opportunity to hear an illuminating discussion from two leading voices in the history of free speech. Michael Scammell is the author of The Indispensable Intellectual, the authorised biography of Arthur Koestler. Pavel Litvinov is a writer, physicist and human rights activist. Jo Glanville is editor of Index on Censorship.

Contributor(s): Phillip Gross, Sarah Salway, Ewa Zadrzynska | The Poetry Unites project consists of a series of five-minute films shown on TV, the Internet and in cinemas, in which a poetry lover speaks about his or her life in the context of presenting a favourite poem. This project with a literary dimension reveals both similarities and differences between people. By offering intimate insights into the mind of another person, it contributes to mutual understanding among European citizens. The films bring together millions of people who would otherwise probably never have had contact with each other and therefore would never have seen how much they have in common. In this event, poetry readings, including film clips from the Poetry Unites project, will be followed by a discussion of the importance of poetry in people’s everyday lives. The event will conclude with a short prize-giving presentation for the LSESU Lit Soc Poetry Competition 2011/12 and the announcement and distribution of the second edition of the student led publication, Philosoverse which is supported by the LSE Annual Fund and the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at LSE.

Contributor(s): Professor Colin Crouch | Reflection on a century of European social democracy reveals its finest triumphs to have been when it has ensured a pluralism and political inclusiveness more extensive than anything that could otherwise be provided in capitalist societies. This essentially liberal achievement, rather than state control, should therefore be seen as its hallmark. This perspective provides the basis for an optimistic appraisal of social democracy’s future, but also points to inhospitable elements in the current and future social environment that have to be confronted and challenged: growing inequality and corporate political power, the decline of trade unions, and the growing irrelevance of the nation state framework within which social democracy built its citizenship. Colin Crouch is professor of governance and public management at Warwick Business School.

Contributor(s): Professor Adam Kuper | Adam Kuper, who has written widely on the history and theory of anthropology, introduces the work of Charles Seligman, founder of LSE Anthropology, pioneer of fieldwork techniques, and medical doctor who devised means of treating servicemen for shell-shock. He gives insights into Seligman's journals and research notes housed in LSE Library, and provides commentary on Jonathan Miller's documentary about the 1898 Torres Straits expedition: 'Dr Miller and the Islanders', which reveals the problematic racist overtones of the views of late 19th century anthropology. The documentary will be shown after Adam Kuper's talk. Olivia Seligman, radio producer and member of the Seligman family, and students from LSE Anthropology will read extracts from Seligman’s journals and letters.

Contributor(s): Amit Chaudhuri, Ian Jack | A conversation between award-winning Indian wrtier and musician Amit Chaudhuri and former Granta and Independent on Sunday editor Ian Jack, will be followed by a performance by the five-piece Amit Chaudhuri Band. Amit Chaudhuri's first CD ‘This Is Not Fusion’ (Times Music) was released in Britain on the award-winning independent jazz label Babel, and received excellent reviews from some of the most considerable music publications in the UK. He is the only Indian musician to have performed twice at the prestigious London Jazz Festival and he has played in Beijing, Berlin, Lille, Brussels, Frankfurt, and at various venues in Britain - notably the Hay on Wye Festival, the Brecon Jazz Festival, the Big Sky Jazz Festival and the South Bank Centre. His second CD, ‘Found Music’, came out in October 2010 in the UK from Babel to great acclaim. Since 2005, Amit Chaudhuri, with The Amit Chaudhuri Band, has appeared at many world-wide venues.