Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Spring 2014 | Public lectures and events | Audio and pdf

Contributor(s): Professor Ian Morris | If you had been born 20,000 years ago, you would have faced a one in ten or even one in five chance of dying violently. But in the century since 1914—despite its two world wars, atomic bombs, and multiple genocides—that risk has fallen to barely one in 100. Why? The answer is uncomfortable: despite all its horrors, over the long run war itself has made the world a safer and richer place, because war alone has proved able to create larger societies that pacify themselves internally. This talk looks at how this paradoxical process has unfolded and what it means for the 21st century. Ian Morris is Jean and Rebecca Willard Professor of classics and professor of history at Stanford University and a fellow of the Stanford Archaeology Center. He directs Stanford's archaeological excavations at Monte Polizzo, Sicily, and has published ten books including Why the West Rules – For Now and War: What is it good for?. This event marks the publication of his latest book War: What is it good for?: The role of conflict in civilisation, from primates to robots.

Contributor(s): Professor Craig Calhoun, Senator Dato' Sri Abdul Wahid Omar, Professor Arne Westad, Professor Tao Wenzhao, Dr Hassan Wirajuda, Professor Ricky Burdett, Datuk Syed Mohamed Ibrahim, Professor Mike Douglass, Professor Danny Quah, Azman Mokhtar… | The LSE Asia Forum is an important and very public part of the School's strategy to enhance its long standing relationship with the rapidly developing Asian region. LSE has historically attracted many very talented students and staff from all major Asian countries. The School has a large and distinguished group of alumni in the region and has been active in building partnerships with business and governments for many years. The LSE Asia Forum is a unique opportunity to bring together LSE's key partners in the region. The Forum provides an opportunity for analysis of different perspectives on the economic, social, political and cultural contributions Asia is making to global development. The 6th Asia Forum entitled 'Building Asian futures: integration, welfare and growth?' took place on 2-3 April 2014 at the Shangri La Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Contributor(s): James Dawson, Kate Kingsley, Geraldine McCaughrean, Jon Robinson | The culmination of the 2013-14 LSE and First Story creative writing competition sees a panel of award-winning young adult authors discussing self-portraits - how much of themselves do they include in their writing? James Dawson (@_jamesdawson), author of dark teen thrillers Hollow Pike and Cruel Summer, grew up in West Yorkshire, writing imaginary episodes of Doctor Who. He later turned his talent to journalism, interviewing luminaries such as Steps and Atomic Kitten before writing a weekly serial in a Brighton newspaper. Until recently, James worked as a teacher, specialising in PSHCE and behaviour. He is most proud of his work surrounding bullying and family diversity. He now writes full time in London and is published by Indigo/Orion. Kate Kingsley (@KateKingsley) is the author of Young, Loaded & Fabulous, a scandalous YA series about mean teens at British boarding school. After growing up between London and New York City, Kate started her writing career at GQ magazine. She has been published in places like The Sunday Times Magazine and the New York Times. Geraldine McCaughrean (@GMcCaughrean) is one of today's most successful and highly regarded children's authors. She has won the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread Children's Book Award (three times), the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the Smarties Bronze Award (four times) and the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award. In 2005 she was chosen from over 100 other authors to write the official sequel to J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan. Peter Pan in Scarlet was published in 2006 to wide critical acclaim. Geraldine’s latest novel, The Middle of Nowhere, is published by Usborne Publishing and is out now. Jon Robinson (@jonstoryteller) is author of Nowhere, the first novel in a captivating new conspiracy thriller series. When he's not writing, he volunteers for a leading Alzheimer’s charity.

Contributor(s): Professor Donatella Della Porta | From Gezi Park in Istanbul to Tahrir Square in Cairo, as well as in the heart of Europe, threatened regimes have faced down massive protests with brutal repression. But when do mass social movements go underground and choose violence? Della Porta brings to bear her extensive research into left-wing, right-wing, ethnonationalist, and religious forms of political violence to answer this question. The comparison of quite different cases of escalation allows to single out the competitive dynamics of radicalization both inside social movements and between them and the state. Donatella Della Porta is professor of political science and political sociology at the European University Institute with a distinguished record of research into social movements and political violence. Omar McDoom is assistant professor in comparative politics in the Department of Government at LSE.

Contributor(s): Ian Gordon | LSE London's 2014 Lent term seminar series begins on the 20th of January. Speakers from within and beyond LSE will focus on London's current economic and political environment London, covering relevant issues such as the private rented sector, the distribution of poverty and the densification effects of international migrants. Presenters include academics and practitioners from relevant fields. Each seminar is chaired by one of the members of LSE London, while speaker’s presentations, available podcasts and any other related documents are posted here regularly after each session.

Contributor(s): José Manuel Barroso | José Manuel Barroso is president of the European Commission, a position he has held since 2004. He was born in Lisbon and after graduating in law from the University of Lisbon, he moved to Geneva where he completed a Diploma in European Studies at the European University Institute, University of Geneva, and a Master's degree in Political Science from the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Geneva, earning an honours in both. He embarked on an academic career, working successively as a teaching assistant at the Law Faculty of the University of Lisbon, in the Department of Political Science, University of Geneva, and as a visiting professor at the Department of Government and School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.). In 1995, he became head of the International Relations Department of Lusíada University, Lisbon. In 1979, he founded the University Association for European Studies. His political career began in 1980 when he joined the Social Democratic Party (PSD). He was named president of the party in 1999 and re-elected three times. During the same period, he served as vice president of the European People's Party. As state secretary for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation he played a key role as mediator in the signing of the peace accords for Angola in Bicesse in 1991, and as minister for foreign affairs he was a driving force in the self-determination process in East Timor between 1992 and 1995. Under his leadership, the PSD won the general election in 2002 and he was appointed prime minister of Portugal in April of that year. He remained in office until July 2004 when he was nominated by the European Council and elected by the European Parliament to the post of president of the European Commission. In June 2009 the European Council unanimously nominated him for a second term as president of the European Commission, and he was re-elected to the post by an absolute majority in the European Parliament in September 2009.

Contributor(s): Baroness O’Neill, Professor George Brock, Gavin Millar | After Leveson, this debate asks: can ethics help us think about whether we have the media needed for a healthy democracy and social fabric? How should we think about the good and harm journalism can do? Baroness O'Neill will open the debate followed by responses from George Brock and Gavin Millar. George Brock (@georgeprof) is head of journalism at City University. He is a member of the executive board of the International Press Institute and chairs the IPI's British committee. He is also a board member of the World Editors Forum. He broadcasts and lectures frequently and reviews for the Times Literary Supplement. He is a former managing editor of The Times. Onora O'Neill is an emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Cambridge and a crossbench member of the House of Lords. She has written widely on political philosophy and ethics, international justice, bioethics and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. She is also the current chair of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. Gavin Millar QC is co-founder of Doughty Street Chambers and a specialist in media law. He has undertaken a number of high profile defamation, privacy, contempt and reporting restriction cases and has acted for most of the major UK media organisations. He is the co-author of Media Law and Human Rights (2009) and on the board of the Centre for Investigative Journalism at City University. Nick Couldry (@couldrynick) is Professor of Media, Communications and Social Theory in the Department of Media and communications at LSE.

Contributor(s): Professor Cecile Fabre, Professor Jeff McMahan | The 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I reminds us of the importance of ethics in war. Under what conditions may states wage war on each other? And what are the moral principles governing the conduct of war? Cecile Fabre is professor of political philosophy at the University of Oxford. Jeff McMahan is professor of philosophy at Rutgers University.

Contributor(s): Dr Tariq Baloch, Salim Moolan, Dr Jan Kleinheisterkamp, Dr Charles Poncet, Sir Bernard Rix, Professor Derek Roebuck, Professor Catherine Rogers, Professor Horatia Muir Watt | This event launches Jan Paulsson's newest book The Idea of Arbitration in the form of three small debates on three central issues of the book: determining arbitral jurisdiction; public policy; and the future of international arbitration. Tariq Baloch is a barrister at 3 Verulam Buildings. Salim Moollan is a barrister at Essex Court Chambers. Jan Kleinheisterkamp is an associate professor at the LSE Law Department and heads the LSE Transnational Law Project. Charles Poncet is a partner at CMS von Erlach Poncet (Geneva). Bernard Rix is a retired Lord Justice Appeal and an arbitrator at 20 Essex Street. Derek Roebuck is a senior fellow at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and a member of IDR Group. Catherine Rogers is an associate professor at Penn State University VV Veeder QC is Essex Court Chambers). Horatia Muir Watt is professor at Science Po Paris. Jan Paulsson holds the Michael Klein Distinguished Scholar Chair at the University of Miami School of Law and he is also Centennial Professor of Law at LSE.

Contributor(s): Farmida Bi, Paul Mills | Organised in conjunction with the Harvard Islamic Finance Project, Farmida Bi talks on Islamic finance in the Western world. Farmida Bi is partner and European head of Islamic Finance, Norton Rose Fulbright LLP. Dr Paul Mills is senior economist at International Monetary Finance, London.

Contributor(s): Professor Salwa Ismail | In this seminar, Professor Salwa Ismail will discuss dimensions of contention and oppositional action anchored in urban space. It addresses the following questions: How, in the context of the Arab Revolutions, did the urban-based mass protests link with existing patterns of urban political action? What forms of contentious action undergird and animate these protests? In answering these questions, the focus will be on urban popular forces in Cairo and on their modes of inhabiting the city, and on the politics of the urban everyday. Salwa Ismail is Professor of Politics with reference to the Middle East at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Her research focuses on everyday forms of government, urban governance and the politics of space. She has published widely on Islamist politics and on state-society relations in the Middle East. She is the author of Rethinking Islamist Politics: Culture, the State and Islamism, and Political Life in Cairo’s New Quarters: Encountering the Everyday State. Her recent publications have appeared in Comparative Studies in Society and History, Third World Quarterly, Social Research, and Contemporary Islam. She is currently working on a manuscript on the politics of violence and memory in Contemporary Syria.

Contributor(s): Dr Vassilis Monastiriotis | The remarkable rise in unemployment in Greece has in a way overshadowed the substantial differentiation, across regions, in terms of regional unemployment and labour market adjustment. This paper examines the geography of these dynamics using probit regressions of unemployment risk and decomposing the observed regional unemployment differentials into three components corresponding to differences in labour quality, matching efficiency and effective demand. We find that, underlying the general increase in unemployment is a wealth of unemployment dynamics and adjustment trajectories. The fall in effective demand has been largest in the main metropolitan regions and the north and north-western periphery. Adjustment has been strong in some areas (e.g., Athens) but, overall, adjustment processes (such as bumping-down and changes in the mix of workforce characteristics) have been weak. The crisis has nullified the improvements in labour market performance registered since the country’s entry into the Eurozone, hitting especially those regions that benefited most from the latter. The spatial differentiation of adjustment intensities and demand pressures suggests a heightened role for regional policy in the post-crisis period, especially in relation to addressing problems of over-education and matching efficiency in the demand-depressed areas and of inter-regional adjustment mechanisms nationally.

Contributor(s): Dr Philip Roscoe | Could economics be responsible for the greatest problems we face? This lecture explores the making of the economic world and asks: does economics change what it means to be a person? Philip Roscoe (@Philip_Roscoe) is reader in management at the School of Management, University of St Andrews. He is interested in markets and organizing, and has published and lectured on such topics as online dating, organ transplants, non-professional investors and alternative currencies. Philip holds a PhD in management from Lancaster University, an MPhil in medieval Arabic thought from the University of Oxford, and a BA in theology from the University of Leeds. Between studies, he has worked as a financial journalist and tried his hand at running a small business. In 2011 he was one of the ten winners of the inaugural AHRC BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinkers scheme chosen from over a thousand applicants. His new book is I Spend therefore I Am: The True Cost of Economics.

Contributor(s): Alan Rusbridger, Ian Katz, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Cathy Newman, Tom Giles, Luke Lewis… | The 5th Polis Journalism Conference on the topic of Transparency and Accountability was the biggest and most successful yet. The LSE now hosts the UK's most important annual gathering of international journalists. There were at least 700 attendees throughout the day to watch more than 40 speakers from the media industry. Highlights of the conference included keynotes by Alan Rusbridger, Editor of the Guardian and Ian Katz, Editor of BBC Newsnight in conversation with Krishnan Guru-Murthy of Channel 4 News. Other panellists included Cathy Newman of Channel 4 News, Tom Giles of BBC Panorama and Luke Lewis, Editor of Buzzfeed UK. The conference also generated significant buzz on social media including 661 tweets by over 400 Twitter users and our conference hashtag #polis14 was trending on twitter for the entire day. Podcasts and video of the conference will be available on the Polis blog, along with photos of the conference and interviews with conference speakers.

Contributor(s): Dr Richard Iveson | How important are animals to the constitution of democracy? In this talk, Richard Iveson will consider whether the egalitarian entanglement of humans and other animals in fact constitutes the prior condition of any democratic community. Richard Iveson is research fellow in the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland.

Contributor(s): Dr Ahron Bregman | The Arab spring has put on hold the possibility of reaching peace between Israel and Syria, thus leaving the Israeli-Palestinian peace track as the only game in town. At the same time, international efforts, led by US Secretary of State John Kerry to help Israelis and Palestinians negotiate their differences are unlikely to end the occupation and deliver a Palestinian state. The latter could only be achieved, as Ahron Bregman will argue, if three elements come together: first, the arrival in the occupied territories of the Arab Spring in the shape of a third, non-violent Palestinian intifada against the occupation. Second, massive international pressure particularly on Israel but also on the Palestinians to compromise. Third, the remaining in power of a right wing government in Israel. Ahron Bregman was born in Israel. After six years of army service, during which he took part in the 1982 Lebanon war and reached the rank of captain, he left the army to work at the Knesset as a parliamentary assistant. Ahron studied in Jerusalem and London, completing a doctorate in War Studies at King’s College London in 1994. He is the author of, among others, The Fifty Years War: Israel and the Arabs, the companion book to a six-part BBC television documentary (with Jihan el Tahri) and its sequel Elusive Peace, the companion book to a three-part BBC television documentary. His book Cursed Victory: A History of Israel and the Occupied Territories will be published by Penguin in 2014. Ahron teaches at the Department of War Studies, King's College London.

Contributor(s): Suzi Hall | This podcast is from LSE London's 2014 Lent term seminar series. Speakers from within and beyond LSE will focus on London's current economic and political environment London, covering relevant issues such as the private rented sector, the distribution of poverty and the densification effects of international migrants. Presenters include academics and practitioners from relevant fields. Each seminar is chaired by one of the members of LSE London.

Contributor(s): Professor William Callahan, Mr David Dollar, Professor Michael Hockx, Mr Stephen Harner, Dr Yukon Huang, Sir Christopher Hum, Professor Nicholas Lardy... | The LSE SU China Development Forum (CDF) is an annual conference co-organised by the LSE SU China Development Society and the LSE Asia Research Centre. It provides a platform for vibrant, in-depth intellectual discussions among students, academics and professionals on key issues facing China. The 2014 Forum, held at LSE on 8th February 2014 and attended by over 400 delegates, hosted 28 speakers from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe and the United States including the 2007 Nobel Laureate in Economics, Professor Eric S Maskin and the former British Ambassador to China, Sir Christoper Hum. In the context of the reform plan drafted at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee, seven panel sessions under the overarching theme ‘Rebalancing China’ considered and discussed a range of topics including: privatisation and recentralization; consumption and investment, government social welfare provision and civil structures, China’s international relations. Four panel sessions are available for download: Keynote Opening; The Chinese Economy - Rebalancing China; Power to Empower - China’s Media Revolution; China and the World - A New Interface.

Contributor(s): Professor William Callahan, Mr David Dollar, Professor Michael Hockx, Mr Stephen Harner, Dr Yukon Huang, Sir Christopher Hum, Professor Nicholas Lardy... | The LSE SU China Development Forum (CDF) is an annual conference co-organised by the LSE SU China Development Society and the LSE Asia Research Centre. It provides a platform for vibrant, in-depth intellectual discussions among students, academics and professionals on key issues facing China. The 2014 Forum, held at LSE on 8th February 2014 and attended by over 400 delegates, hosted 28 speakers from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe and the United States including the 2007 Nobel Laureate in Economics, Professor Eric S Maskin and the former British Ambassador to China, Sir Christoper Hum. In the context of the reform plan drafted at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee, seven panel sessions under the overarching theme ‘Rebalancing China’ considered and discussed a range of topics including: privatisation and recentralization; consumption and investment, government social welfare provision and civil structures, China’s international relations. Four panel sessions are available for download: Keynote Opening; The Chinese Economy - Rebalancing China; Power to Empower - China’s Media Revolution; China and the World - A New Interface.

Contributor(s): Professor William Callahan, Mr David Dollar, Professor Michael Hockx, Mr Stephen Harner, Dr Yukon Huang, Sir Christopher Hum, Professor Nicholas Lardy... | The LSE SU China Development Forum (CDF) is an annual conference co-organised by the LSE SU China Development Society and the LSE Asia Research Centre. It provides a platform for vibrant, in-depth intellectual discussions among students, academics and professionals on key issues facing China. The 2014 Forum, held at LSE on 8th February 2014 and attended by over 400 delegates, hosted 28 speakers from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe and the United States including the 2007 Nobel Laureate in Economics, Professor Eric S Maskin and the former British Ambassador to China, Sir Christoper Hum. In the context of the reform plan drafted at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee, seven panel sessions under the overarching theme ‘Rebalancing China’ considered and discussed a range of topics including: privatisation and recentralization; consumption and investment, government social welfare provision and civil structures, China’s international relations. Four panel sessions are available for download: Keynote Opening; The Chinese Economy - Rebalancing China; Power to Empower - China’s Media Revolution; China and the World - A New Interface.

Contributor(s): Mark Solomon, Professor Catherine Harper, Surat Rathgeber Knan, Searle Kochberg, Peter Tatchell | Rainbow Jews is a pioneering oral history/archive project that records and showcases Jewish lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) history from the 1950s to today. This exhibition takes place during LGBT History Month. Please check the Rainbow Jews web page for details see http://bit.ly/1kkzNFE This podcast is a recording of the Q&A session that followed the film screening to mark the opening of the exhibition on 6 February 2014.

Contributor(s): Paul Donovan, George Magnus | Come along to an economics debate to help you consider what will happen next in Europe. Paul Donovan is managing director of global economics at UBS. George Magnus is senior economic advisor at UBS.

Contributor(s): Cardinal Peter Turkson | The current global financial crisis has already continued for six years now – much longer than most feared at the beginning. Moreover, there have been several sequels, the Euro crisis being the most notable. Let us reflect on the surprising technical origins of the crisis and the shocking moral ones. Let us ask what the system has learned, what insights have been acted upon, what reform is underway. And let us explore areas that remain to be reformed, in particular the responsibility of governments to embed practices of financial stewardship. Would the restoration of economic stability and prosperity be enough? Pope Francis would have the economy commit to real remedies for grinding poverty, growing inequality, social exclusion and environmental degradation. Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson is president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and Archbishop emeritus of Cape Coast (Ghana). On 6 October 1992 he was appointed Archbishop of Cape Coast and received episcopal ordination on 27 March 1993. He served as president of the Ghana Catholic Bishops' Conference (1997-2004). He was a member of Governing Council of the University of Ghana, Legon (2001-2006) and of the Board of Directors of Central Region Development Commission (CEDECOM) (2002-2006). He served as treasurer of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) (2007-2009) and presently serves as Vice President of the Association of Episcopal Conferences of Anglophone West Africa (AECAWA). He served as President of the Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa (RECOWA) (2007-2010). He was also Chairman of the Ghana Chapter of the Conference of Religions for Peace (2003-2007) and Ghana National Peace Council (2006-2010). On 24 October 2009 he was nominated President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. On September 24, 2013, he was confirmed by Pope Francis as President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. He has been awarded numerous honorary degrees and speaks 6 languages (Fante, English, French, Italian, German, Hebrew).

Contributor(s): Mike Marqusee | Why does the partisan choice between Real Madrid and Barcelona affect the identity of millions in North Africa, the Middle East and beyond? How does the India- Pakistan cricket rivalry remain salient in a world of 'globalised' sport? Why doesn't North America enjoy the same sports as the rest of the world?' Mike Marqusee seeks to explain the phenomena of 'globalised' spectator sport through examining its origins. He argues that the transnational, transcultural tendency, universal rules and theoretically 'level playing field' shared by capitalism and sport have joint origins in 18th century England. From here, he looks at the effects of market driven 'globalised' spectator sport on identities and loyalties and asks how, despite this, national identity remains salient and, increasingly, financially valuable. He also addresses the issue of American exceptionalism, and how this is reflected in the bifurcation between North American sports and those preferred by the rest of the world. Ultimately, he asks if there is a sporting internationalism that can be posed against the corporate globalisation of sport, and what the elements of that might be. Mike Marqusee is a journalist and activist. He writes widely on sport, politics and their interaction. He is the former editor of Labour Briefing.

Contributor(s): Alan Rusbridger, Ian Katz, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Cathy Newman, Tom Giles, Luke Lewis… | The 5th Polis Journalism Conference on the topic of Transparency and Accountability was the biggest and most successful yet. The LSE now hosts the UK's most important annual gathering of international journalists. There were at least 700 attendees throughout the day to watch more than 40 speakers from the media industry. Highlights of the conference included keynotes by Alan Rusbridger, Editor of the Guardian and Ian Katz, Editor of BBC Newsnight in conversation with Krishnan Guru-Murthy of Channel 4 News. Other panellists included Cathy Newman of Channel 4 News, Tom Giles of BBC Panorama and Luke Lewis, Editor of Buzzfeed UK. The conference also generated significant buzz on social media including 661 tweets by over 400 Twitter users and our conference hashtag #polis14 was trending on twitter for the entire day. Podcasts and video of the conference will be available on the Polis blog, along with photos of the conference and interviews with conference speakers.

Contributor(s): Hazel Blears MP, Annie Machon, Professor Sir David Omand, Matthew Ryder QC | Without whistle blowers and the media the current debate over the accountability of the secret state would not be happening. What should be the future role of the media, if any, in holding the security services to account? Hazel Blears (@HazelBlearsMP) is a member of the Intelligence and Security Committee of parliament. Annie Machon (@AnnieMachon) is director of LEAP Europe and former intelligence officer for MI5. David Omand was the UK’s first security and intelligence coordinator. Matthew Ryder (@rydermc) is a barrister at Matrix Chambers.

Contributor(s): Professor Sami Zubaidi | For the BRISMES annual lecture, Sami Zubaida will explore the question of changing identities. What constitutes authenticity in different spheres of culture is contested between political and religious groups and ideologies. Discourses of difference between Muslim/national cultures and ‘the West’, and the resistance to perceived cultural invasion have featured prominently in these contests, over the generations from the inception of modernity to the present, and accelerated globalisation. These themes are explored in relation to religion, national culture, sexuality, music and food. The BRISMES Award for Services to Middle East Studies will be presented immediately after the lecture to Alastair Newton. Sami Zubaida is Emeritus Professor of Politics and Sociology at Birkbeck, University of London, Fellow of Birkbeck College, Research Associate of the London Middle East Institute, and Professorial Research Associate of the Food Studies Centre, both at SOAS. He has held visiting positions in Cairo, Istanbul, Beirut, Aix-en-Provence, Paris, Berkley CA and NYU, written and lectured widely on themes of religion, culture, law and politics in the Middle East, with particular attention to Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Turkey. His other work is on food history and culture. Books: Islam, the People and the State: Political Ideas and Movements in the Middle East (3rd edition 2009); A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (edited, with R Tapper, 2nd edition 2000); Law and Power in the Islamic World (2003) and Beyond Islam: A New Understanding of the Middle East (2011).

Contributor(s): Dr Gabriel Wollner | Gabriel Wollner offers a political philosophy perspective on questions of international finance and defends the idea of an international financial transaction tax as an instrument for making the international financial system more just. Gabriel Wollner is lecturer in philosophy at LSE.

Contributor(s): David Epstein | In his ground-breaking exploration of athletic success, The Sports Gene, award-winning writer David Epstein get to the heart of the great nature vs nurture debate, and explodes myths about how and why humans excel. Join him for a thought provoking examination of the truth behind talent and success. David Epstein (@DavidEpstein) is an award-winning senior writer for Sports Illustrated, where he covers sports science, medicine and Olympic sports. Ed Smith (@EdSmithWriter) is a journalist and author, most recently of Luck: What It Means and Why It Matters. He is a former professional cricketer and played for both Middlesex and England.

Contributor(s): George Papandreou | Professor Amartya Sen, the Eva Colorni Trust and LSE are delighted to be hosting this year's Eva Colorni Memorial Lecture. The Colorni lectures are held regularly in memory of Eva Colorni, who taught economics at the former City of London Polytechnic - now incorporated into London Metropolitan University - until her early death in 1985. A collection of the earlier lectures is published by Oxford University Press, under the title Living As Equals. This year's lecture will be delivered by former prime minister of Greece, George Papandreou. George Papandreou is president of Socialist International, a member of the Hellenic Parliament and former president of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK). He served as the 11th prime minister of Greece from October 6 2009 – November 11 2011, after PASOK’s victory in the October 2009 national elections. After completing his university studies at Amherst College in Massachusetts and graduate studies at London School of Economics and Political Science, Papandreou won an MP seat for the Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) party in 1981. He has served in the Greek parliament ever since. He has held the posts of under-secretary for cultural affairs, minister for education, and minister for foreign affairs. As education minister from 1994-1996, George Papandreou founded Open University in Greece, an innovative national effort to facilitate undergraduate and graduate distance learning. As foreign minister from 1999–2004, he was widely praised for his diplomatic bridge building. He successfully negotiated better relations with former rival Turkey. In 2004, Papandreou was elected leader of PASOK in the country's first open primary—a move highly symbolic of his commitment to participatory governance—and held that position until March 2012. Papandreou is also the president of the Socialist International, an international association of political parties, of which PASOK is a member. In 2012, Papandreou was named a visiting fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics. In 2013, he served as a global fellow and adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs as well as a faculty member in the Master of Public Affairs program at Sciences Po in Paris.

Contributor(s): Dr Florence Gaub | The lecture will cover post-2011 Libya and ask key questions related to post-conflict reconstruction, security sector reform and transitional justice. What can we learn for future cases of regime change? How can security be built without external security provision? What are the factors that facilitate or impede political transitions? Florence Gaub joined the European Union Institute for Strategic Studies in May 2013 where she works on the Arab world with a focus on strategy and security. In addition to monitoring post-conflict developments in Iraq, Lebanon and Libya, she works on Arab military forces, conflict structures and geostrategic dimensions of the Arab region. Previously employed at NATO Defence College and the German parliament, she wrote her PhD on the Lebanese army at Humboldt University Berlin and holds degrees from Sciences Po Paris, Sorbonne and Munich universities.

Contributor(s): Paul Cheshire | LSE London's 2014 Lent term seminar series begins on the 20th of January. Speakers from within and beyond LSE will focus on London's current economic and political environment London, covering relevant issues such as the private rented sector, the distribution of poverty and the densification effects of international migrants. Presenters include academics and practitioners from relevant fields. Each seminar is chaired by one of the members of LSE London, while speaker’s presentations, available podcasts and any other related documents are posted here regularly after each session.

Contributor(s): Dr Joshua Busby | Drawing on a rich set of interviews and surveys, Joshua Busby shows how the global AIDS treatment advocacy movement helped millions in the developing world gain access to lifesaving medication. Joshua Busby is an associate professor of public affairs and a fellow in the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service.

Contributor(s): Dr Matthew Goodwin, Peter Kellner | ‘Eurosceptic‘ parties all around Europe are gathering momentum in advance of the European Parliament elections in May. But how wide and how deep does their support actually run? And has hostility towards the EU become a surrogate for other discontents? Matthew Goodwin is associate professor at the University of Nottingham, where his research focuses on radical right parties, immigration and Euroscepticism. He is co-author of the new book, Revolt on the Right: Explaining Public Support for the Radical Right in Britain (with Robert Ford). Peter Kellner has been president of YouGov since 2007 and is the former political editor of New Statesman.

Contributor(s): Dr Keyu Jin | The CFM and Department of Economics lecture series focuses on topical macroeconomic questions. Its aim is to give an informative and balanced overview of available knowledge among macroeconomists. This talk considers China’s growing role in the world economy. Keyu Jin is a lecturer at LSE. Her research has focused on global imbalances and global asset prices, as well as international trade and growth. Wouter Den Haan is professor of economics and co-director of the Centre for Macroeconomics at LSE.

Contributor(s): Alan Rusbridger, Ian Katz, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Cathy Newman, Tom Giles, Luke Lewis… | The 5th Polis Journalism Conference on the topic of Transparency and Accountability was the biggest and most successful yet. The LSE now hosts the UK's most important annual gathering of international journalists. There were at least 700 attendees throughout the day to watch more than 40 speakers from the media industry. Highlights of the conference included keynotes by Alan Rusbridger, Editor of the Guardian and Ian Katz, Editor of BBC Newsnight in conversation with Krishnan Guru-Murthy of Channel 4 News. Other panellists included Cathy Newman of Channel 4 News, Tom Giles of BBC Panorama and Luke Lewis, Editor of Buzzfeed UK. The conference also generated significant buzz on social media including 661 tweets by over 400 Twitter users and our conference hashtag #polis14 was trending on twitter for the entire day. Podcasts and video of the conference will be available on the Polis blog, along with photos of the conference and interviews with conference speakers.

Contributor(s): Mark Easton, Penny Lawrence, Aileen Murphie, Jeff Patmore, Professor Lord Stern | University social science plays an essential role in the ‘human-dominated’ and ‘human-influenced’ systems that are central to our modern civilization. Across the world around 40 million people now work or study in university social science, or work in jobs where they ‘translate’ or mediate advances in social science research for use in business, government and public agencies, health care systems, media and civil society organizations. Yet the impacts of university social science have been under-researched, and their effectiveness often decried. Relatively little is known about the scale, diversity, and external salience of university social science research as a discipline group. This evidence-based study attempts to describe this successful and sizeable UK industry and highlights the impacts it systematically has on the UK’s economy and society. The event will hear from an elite panel of experts from government, business, civil society and the media, and will discuss the benefits and barriers to utilizing academic research in their sectors, and the salience and value of social science expertise. Mark Easton is home editor for BBC News. Penny Lawrence is international programmes director at Oxfam GB. Aileen Murphie is director of Local Government VFM at the National Audit Office. Jeff Patmore is former head of strategic university research & collaboration at British Telecom. Nicholas Stern is chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE.

Contributor(s): Professor Julia Darby, Professor Danuta Hübner MEP, Dr Alberto Montagnoli, Professor Andrés Rodríguez-Pose | A major innovation in the Four Presidents’ report is the proposal for a shock absorption mechanism that helps regions in the Euro area to adjust. This proposal is a revival of an earlier insurance device that the Commission was asked to develop in the 1990s. The stabilisation potential of such a scheme and its political viability have not been scrutinised in depth so far. It is therefore useful to draw on the experience of another heterogeneous monetary union, namely the UK. The North-South divide in terms of economic structure has been profound, leading to deindustrialisation in the North of England and housing bubbles in the South. With the benefit of hindsight, what would have been measures that could contain counterproductive dynamics such as deindustrialisation and financial overheating? How can the pooling of risks in a heterogeneous union benefit from diversity?

Contributor(s): Jonathan Cooper, Kseniya Kirichenko, Peter Tatchell | On the eve of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, a panel discusses the on-going threats to LGBT rights in Russia – from the recent ‘homosexual propaganda’ law to the banning of gay pride parades. Jonathan Cooper is an international human rights law practitioner and chief executive of the Human Dignity Trust. Kseniya Kirichenko is a legal assistance program coordinator for the St Petersburg LGBT organisation ‘Coming Out’. Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) a renowned LGBT rights campaigner and director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation. Susan Marks is professor of international law in the Department of Law at LSE.

Contributor(s): Dr Panos Hatziprokopiou | Migrant entrepreneurship remains a relatively marginal topic within migration studies in Greece. Yet immigrants’ involvement in self-employment and independent economic activity has grown rather fast and has been linked to the dynamics of immigrants’ settlement and the formation of ethnic communities at a local level, especially in Athens. The deepening crisis and austerity shaking the Greek economy and society transform radically the circumstances and the context in which the phenomenon took shape in the past two decades. Still, the study of migrants’ entrepreneurship unveils three parallel “crises” that predated the current one. Firstly, Greece’s immigration crisis, a product of the way migratory trends have been managed by the State since the early 1990s. This partly relates to the crisis of small enterprises, major employers of migrant labour in the 1990s, and the challenges posed by internationalisation and large-scale competition. Both are in turn associated to the urban crisis of Athens, referring to processes of urban development in relation to shifting social and economic geographies in the city. The seminar will discuss results of a research project kindly funded by the Hellenic Observatory. Combining qualitative and qualitative methods, the study looked at migrant businesses in three Athenian neighbourhoods, adopting thus a micro local lens and a focus on everyday practices and relationships on the ground. These allow us not only to analyse the emergence of ethnic economies, but also to reflect on the dialectics between processes of migrant settlement, institutional and policy developments and the dynamics of urban transformation under changing economic conditions.

Contributor(s): Professor Julia Black, Dr Jon Danielsson, Professor Charles Goodhart | The official response to the current economic crisis may create long term stability or, in actual fact, lay the seeds for the next. The panel of experts will debate what is the more likely outcome. Julia Black is director of LSE’s Law and Financial Markets Project. Jon Danielsson (@JonDanielsson) is co-director of the Systemic Risk Centre (@LSE_SRC). Charles Goodhart is emeritus professor of banking and finance with the Financial Markets Group at LSE.

Contributor(s): Professor George Loewenstein, Samuel Nguyen, Professor Drazen Prelec | Better decisions versus autonomous choices: should policy makers try to influence people’s behaviour using techniques from the behavioural sciences when it comes to retirement savings, organ donation and lunch choice? George Loewenstein is Herbert A. Simon Professor of Economics and Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. Samuel Nguyen is senior economist for the Behavioural Insights Team in the Cabinet Office. Drazen Prelec is professor of management science and economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Contributor(s): Professor Gilbert Achcar | The euphoria that welcomed the Arab uprising in its initial stage tended to turn into gloom in recent months. Away from impressionistic reactions, Gilbert Achcar will assess and discuss the latest developments in the Arab-speaking region on the occasion of the publication of his recent book, The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising. Gilbert Achcar grew up in Lebanon, researched and taught in Beirut, Paris and Berlin, and is currently professor of development studies and international relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London.

Contributor(s): Alexandre A. Tombini | In his lecture Governor Tombini will discuss the current state of the Brazilian economy and perspectives on the future, with a focus on monetary policy. Alexandre Tombini is governor of Banco Central do Brasil, a position he has held since January 2011. He is a member of the BIS Board of Directors since December 2013, and also holds the position of co-chair of the FSB Regional Group of the Americas since July 2013 and the position of chairman of CEMLA´s Board of Governors since May 2013. He was deputy governor for financial system regulation and bank licensing at the Central Bank of Brazil and has held other positions at the board level, since June 2005, including in the area of international affairs and of special studies. Previous to joining the board of Banco Central do Brasil, he was senior advisor to the board of the International Monetary Fund, in Washington DC. Earlier in his career, he held various senior positions in banking and international trade, working for Banco Central do Brasil, the Brazilian Government and at Universidade de Brasília. The nomination to his current post required Senate approval. Mr Tombini holds a PhD degree in Economics from University of Illinois, at Urbana-Champaign, and an undergraduate degree from Universidade de Brasília, at Brasília.

Contributor(s): Aruna Rao | We are pleased to announce that Aruna Rao, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Gender at Work, will be delivering a lunchtime seminar. How can change be made to happen to disrupt the deep structures of gender inequality in the programs, policies and every-day practices of social change organizations, mainstream development agencies and systems? This presentation will use the Gender at Work analytical matrix as a ‘lens’ to examine this question in a set of organizations, assess outcomes, and highlight key questions and challenges. Aruna Rao, an Indian national, is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Gender at Work (www.genderatwork.org), an international collaborative that strengthens organizations to build cultures of gender equality and social justice. She is an expert in the field of gender and development with over 30 years of experience in pioneering new approaches to gender and institutional change. She has consulted widely with a range of government, academic and development agencies. She has led the Boards of AWID and CIVICUS and served on the Board of the UN Democracy Fund. She has written extensively on gender equality and institutional change, gender mainstreaming, and human rights. Among Dr. Rao’s publications are Gender at Work: Organizational Change for Equality (Kumarian Press, 1999), and Gender Analysis and Development Planning (Kumarian Press, 1991). She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Administration from Columbia University, New York.

Contributor(s): Nigel Farage | UKIP leader and MEP Nigel Farage will discuss the importance of this year’s upcoming European elections. Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) is leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP).

Contributor(s): Alan Rusbridger, Ian Katz, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Cathy Newman, Tom Giles, Luke Lewis… | The 5th Polis Journalism Conference on the topic of Transparency and Accountability was the biggest and most successful yet. The LSE now hosts the UK's most important annual gathering of international journalists. There were at least 700 attendees throughout the day to watch more than 40 speakers from the media industry. Highlights of the conference included keynotes by Alan Rusbridger, Editor of the Guardian and Ian Katz, Editor of BBC Newsnight in conversation with Krishnan Guru-Murthy of Channel 4 News. Other panellists included Cathy Newman of Channel 4 News, Tom Giles of BBC Panorama and Luke Lewis, Editor of Buzzfeed UK. The conference also generated significant buzz on social media including 661 tweets by over 400 Twitter users and our conference hashtag #polis14 was trending on twitter for the entire day. Podcasts and video of the conference will be available on the Polis blog, along with photos of the conference and interviews with conference speakers.

Contributor(s): Professor Barry Buzan, Trine Flockhart, Professor John Ikenberry, Professor Charles Kupchan | This roundtable of eminent scholars will debate the future of the liberal international order. The liberal order is a global system based on shared norms, economic openness, and commitment to cooperation through multilateral institutions. Will this system of global governance persist, or is the global system likely to become more fragmented, mercantilist, and more conflictual? Barry Buzan is emeritus professor of international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science and honorary professor at the University of Copenhagen and Jilin University. Trine Flockhart is senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies in Copenhagen and in 2013-2014 senior fellow at the Transatlantic Academy in Washington D.C. John Ikenberry is Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University and co-director of Princeton’s Center for International Security Studies. In 2013-2014 he is the Eastman Visiting Professor at Balliol College, Oxford. Charles Kupchan is professor of international affairs at Georgetown University and the Whitney H. Shepardson Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2013-2014 he is a senior fellow at the Transatlantic Academy.

Contributor(s): Dr Mareike Kleine, Professor Duncan Snidal, Luuk van Middelaar, Professor Helen Wallace | This roundtable of eminent scholars and practitioners of the EU will debate a new way of thinking about how the EU and other international organisations really work as well as discussing the book’s insights and the implications of its argument. Simon Hix (@simonjhix) is professor of European and comparative politics at LSE. Mareike Kleine is lecturer in EU politics at LSE. Duncan Snidal is professor of international relations at the University of Oxford. Luuk van Middelaar (@LuukvMiddelaar) is advisor to the president of the European Council. Helen Wallace is an emeritus professor at the European Institute at LSE.

Contributor(s): Professor Amartya Sen | Drawing on his ground-breaking work on poverty and development, Professor Sen will examine some of the biggest economic, moral and philosophical issues facing anti-poverty campaigners today. Amartya Sen is Thomas W. Lamont University Professor, and professor of economics and philosophy, at Harvard University. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998 for his contributions to the study of fundamental problems in welfare economics. His most recent book is An Uncertain Glory: India and Its Contradictions, co-authored with Jean Dreze. Professor Sen in an Honorary Fellow of the London School of Economics and Political Science.