Explore every episode of the podcast Autumn 2011 | Public lectures and events | Audio and pdf

Contributor(s): Rita Giacaman | How do young Palestinians define dignity? What is the importance of dignity in their lives? What would increase or decrease their sense of dignity? Following a pilot project which included 102 interviews with young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years old in Ramallah, Professor Rita Giacaman's presentation will outline the main findings of the research which focused on young Palestinian's reflections on dignity. Rita Giacaman is a professor of public health at the Institute of Community and Public Heath at Birzeit University. She is a founding member of the institute and has worked there for 34 years. Giacaman has chronicled the effects of the Israeli military occupation, and has advocated for women to have a prominent role in an eventual Palestinian state.

Contributor(s): Ed Heery, John Kelly, David Metcalf | "The unsolved problems in the research of work and employment" – a round table discussion among former BJIR chief editors.

Contributor(s): Peter Popham | Twenty-three years after an uprising involving millions, and 21 years after elections which Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won by a landslide, Burma remains in the grip of the military regime, now ruling through pseudo-democratic proxies. Has the 'Oxford housewife's' so-called 'revolution of the spirit' been a complete wash-out? What lessons does Burma's bleak recent history hold for the rest of the world? This event celebrates the publication of Popham's new book The Lady And The Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi. Peter Popham has toured Burma as an undercover journalist several times since his first visit to the country in 1991. A foreign correspondent and commentator with the Independent newspaper, he covered South Asia (including Burma) for a period in the late 90s. Popham interviewed Suu Kyi when she was released from house arrest in 2002, and met her again in 2011.

Contributor(s): Professor Katalin Farkas | Our iPhones, diaries, computers or collaborators are extensions of our minds, according to a philosophical argument. This lecture investigates the significance of this claim in our understanding of the notion of a self. Katalin Farkas is professor of philosophy at the Central European University's Department of Philosophy, Budapest.

Contributor(s): Leszek Czarnecki | The lecture talks about establishing a prosperous business and seeks to present the crucial factors for success: a good idea, sound financing and a devoted team. These three ingredients working harmoniously together can make a company truly exceptional. Leszek Czarnecki is chairman of the Supervisory Board of Getin Holding SA and Getin Noble Bank SA and a majority shareholder of six companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. He is author of Simply Business and Risk in Banking: a post-crisis perspective.

Contributor(s): Ben Rogers, Professor Roger Scruton | Architecture is the most public of art-forms and has borne political, religious and moral meanings throughout history. Can architecture promote human well-being? and if so, how? Ben Rogers is director of the Centre for London think tank. Roger Scruton is a writer and philosopher, who holds visiting positions at St Andrews University, the University of Oxford and the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. With an introduction from William Arthurs.

Contributor(s): Professor Juan Cole | Juan Cole is Richard P Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan and author of the blog Informed Comment. This lecture is part of The Fred Halliday Distinguished Lecture Series.

Contributor(s): Malcolm Turnbull | The world economy is being transformed by the rise of Asia and increasing integration. Accompanying competition and adjustment pressures are a source of anxiety in many of the advanced economies, as are declining weight and influence relative to the emerging economies. But the opportunities and potential upside are larger still, and not just for commodity exporters such as Australia. Malcolm Turnbull is the MP for Wenworth in the Australian parliament and serves as Shadow Minister for Communications and Broadband. He entered parliament in 2004 serving as Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister from 2006 until he was appointed to Cabinet as the Minister for Environment and Water Resources; a position he held until the Federal Election in November 2007. After the election Malcolm was appointed as Shadow Treasurer and following a leadership ballot in September 2008, he was elected by his colleagues to lead the Liberal Party as Leader of the Opposition, a position held until December 2009. Malcolm graduated from Sydney University with a BA LLB. He won a Rhodes Scholarship and completed a further law degree at Oxford. During and after his studies at Sydney University, Malcolm worked as a journalist with the Bulletin, 2SM, TCN 9 and the London Sunday Times. After a successful career in journalism Malcolm began practicing law in 1980. He quickly established a reputation as an effective advocate, most notably when he successfully defended former MI5 agent Peter Wright against the British government, in the "Spycatcher" trial. Malcolm left law for business in 1987 where he has since been responsible for the establishment and success of many Australian businesses. In particular he has been a determined supporter of Australian technology. He co-founded OzEmail in 1994. His software companies have won many awards for exporting Australian technology. In 1997 Malcolm was elected to attend the Australian Constitutional Convention. He led the republican case in that Convention and in the subsequent referendum.

Contributor(s): Professor Robert Trivers | After decades of research, one of the most influential theoretical evolutionary biologists of our time has returned to found the principles of a provocative new science on why we lie to ourselves. Robert Trivers argues that we deceive ourselves the better to deceive others. Self-deception is something we all practice and it is diverse, widespread and powerful. It can also apply to a wide range of phenomena from airplane crashes, to false historical narratives, war, and religions. Robert Trivers has been acclaimed as one of 100 greatest thinkers and scientists of the twentieth century by Time magazine and has been on the faculty at Harvard, the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Rutgers University. His new book is Deceit and Self-Deception: Fooling Yourself the Better to Fool Others.

Contributor(s): George Bizos | George Bizos will speak about defending human rights under apartheid in South Africa, drawing on his own career as a human rights lawyer. George Bizos has had a distinguished legal career struggling against apartheid and promoting universal human rights. He has defended the likes of Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki and Morgan Tsvangirai.

Contributor(s): Professor Richard Caplan | Currently leading a research project on 'Exit Strategies and Peacen Consolidation', Richard Caplan will analyse the lessons of the past for an exit strategy in Afghanistan. Richard Caplan is professor of international relations and official fellow of Linacre College. He is also director of the Centre for International Studies.

Contributor(s): Professor Ha-Joon Chang | Three years on since the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008, the world economy is struggling, with huge downward pressures on many people's living standards and sense of security. The predominant opinion is that, in order to get out of this mess, we have to cut taxes, cut welfare spending, and deregulate – so that the wealth creators can start investing and generating wealth again. But why should we so much trust in those very people, who, despite taking ever-larger share of national outputs in the last three decades, have so spectacularly failed to generate more wealth than before? If we are to overcome this crisis and build a better world, we need to part with this myth – that making rich people richer will make all of us richer – and 22 others on how we measure living standards, how we create wealth, how we pay people, how we ensure fairness, and ultimately how we cope with changes and change our future. This event marks the publication of the paperback edition of Chang's latest book 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism. Ha-Joon Chang is a professor in the faculty of politics and economics at Cambridge University where he has taught since 1990. In addition to numerous articles in journals and edited volumes, he has published seven authored books (three of them co-authored) and eight edited books (six of them co-edited). His most recent books include Bad Samaritans: Rich Nations, Poor Policies and the Threat to the Developing World (2007), Kicking Away the Ladder - Development Strategy in Historical Perspective (2002), which won the 2003 Myrdal Prize, Restructuring Korea Inc. (with Jang-Sup Shin, 2003), Globalization, Economic Development and The Role of the State (2003), and Reclaiming Development - An Alternative Economic Policy Manual (with Ilene Grabel, 2004). His writings have been translated into 13 languages. Ha-Joon Chang has worked as a consultant for many international organisations, including various UN agencies such as UNDP (United Nations Development Program) and UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and a number of governments on development policies. He was awarded the 2005 Wassily Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought.

Contributor(s): Misha Glenny | In a world where we shop, bank, work and live online, security has become a nightmare for law enforcement agencies, as those who keep us safe on the street struggle to keep up with ever-changing nature of the online realm. All this is to advantage of the hacker, a highly intelligent and ever-morphing new breed of criminal, who can gain access to our private information through websites and servers which are not secure enough to keep them out. Misha Glenny, author of the bestselling McMafia, has spent the last three years immersed in the worlds of intelligence agencies, security forces, lawyers and that of the hackers themselves, and now brings his findings to us. This event marks the launch of Glenny's new book DarkMarket: CyberThieves, CyberCops and You. Misha Glenny is a distinguished journalist and historian. As the Central Europe Correspondent first for the Guardian and then for the BBC, he chronicled the collapse of communism and the wars in the former Yugoslavia. He won the Sony Gold Award for outstanding contribution to broadcasting. The author of four books, including the acclaimed McMafia, he has been regularly consulted by the US and European governments on major policy issues and ran an NGO for three years, assisting with the reconstruction of Serbia, Macedonia and Kosovo.

Contributor(s): Iain Duncan Smith, Professor Anne Power, Professor Jane Waldfogel | The Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion tracked 200 families bringing up children in deprived neighbourhoods over ten years. The families told us a lot about their biggest worries and greatest needs. Streets and parks are unsafe; local facilities cost too much; energetic teenagers are not allowed to go further afield for fear of trouble so they often hang out on local streets. The thing families wanted most was for more for young people to do. Joblessness among low-skilled young people is extremely high in East London and other poor areas. Employers lose confidence and look for more highly qualified, more experienced and more privileged recruits, creating a vicious cycle for young people from troubled neighbourhoods. Families strive hard for their children, but young people need support. Parents told us what helps most and what works best. They explained what pushes families over the brink. The riots this summer showed how fragile society’s hold is on community resilience, and how many parents fail to control or contain their young people. Most people brought to trial after the riots came from highly disadvantaged and fragmented urban communities. Iain Duncan Smith, will talk about the importance of families to society; and explain how we can create better futures for our most disadvantaged children. Education, Sure Start for all ages, crime prevention, job training, outdoor space and youth activities all build community resilience. Professor Anne Power and Professor Jane Waldfogel will respond. Iain Duncan Smith has been Secretary of State for the UK’s Department for Work and Pensions since the 2010 General Election. He has served as MP for the Chingford and Woodford Green constituency since April 1992 and has held a number of roles in Government, including Leader of the Opposition when he led the Conservative Party from September 2001 until November 2003. In 2004, he subsequently founded the influential think tank, the Centre for Social Justice, which worked to develop innovative policies on tackling poverty and welfare reform. In his early career, Iain Duncan Smith served in the Scots Guards and worked with the General Electric Company.

Contributor(s): Professor Stephen Jenkins, Professor Simon Burgess, Professor John Hills | Stephen Jenkins launches his book, Changing Fortunes: income mobility and poverty dynamics in Britain, a comprehensive and original study of how people's incomes change between one year and the next. Stephen Jenkins is professor of economic and social policy at LSE. John Hills is professor of social policy and director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at LSE. Simon Burgess is professor of economics and director of the Centre for Market and Public Organisation (CMPO), University of Bristol. This event is supported by the ESRC Research Centre on Micro Social Change at ISER, University of Essex.

Contributor(s): Luke Johnson | Luke Johnson will talk about how new firms and their founders create jobs and wealth, and what we can do to stimulate an enterprise economy. This event marks the publication of Luke's new book Start It Up. Luke Johnson is the Chairman of Risk Capital Partners, a private equity firm he founded in 2001. For six years until 2010 he served as Chairman of Channel 4 Television, a major British broadcaster. He is Chairman/part owner of the restaurant business Giraffe with 40 branches, and Chairman/owner of Patisserie Valerie, Druckers and Baker & Spice, three chains of over 70 retail patisseries. He recently took control of Bread Ltd, Britain's largest artisan baker, including the retail bakery Gail's. As Chairman and majority shareholder of Signature Restaurants he built up the Strada 75 branch restaurant chain and owned various classic London restaurants including The Ivy, Le Caprice and J Sheekey. Previously he was Chairman of PizzaExpress PLC. During his involvement the share price rose from 40p to over 800p. In the 1980s he worked as a stockbroking analyst for Kleinworts. He co-founded the largest UK chain of dental surgeries, Integrated Dental Holdings, which was sold for over £100m after ten years of ownership. He wrote a business column in The Sunday Telegraph between 1998 and 2006, and now writes a weekly essay in The Financial Times. In 2009 he became the Chairman of The Royal Society of Arts. He graduated in medicine from Magdalen College, Oxford University.

Contributor(s): Sergio Cabral, N K Singh, Professor Tony Venables | Urban areas are the most productive parts of the developing world, yet concentrated urban poverty presents some of the biggest policy challenges. This debate will address the potential and the challenges of economic development in urban areas. Sergio Cabral is Governor of the State of Rio de Janeiro. N K Singh is a member of the Indian Parliament. Tony Venables is professor of economics at Oxford University. This event is part of the International Growth Centre's Growth Week, a unique three-day conference taking place between 19 and 21 of September at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Growth Week is the annual conference of the IGC, based at the London School of Economics. It brings together the IGC's international network of scholars, institutional partners and policy makers in partner countries in Africa and South Asia for three days.

Contributor(s): Imran Khan | Born only five years after Pakistan was created in 1947, Imran Khan has lived his country's history. Pakistan now stands alone as the only Islamic country with a nuclear bomb, yet it is unable to protect its people from the carnage of regular bombings from terrorists and its own ally, America. Now, with the revelation that Pakistan has been the hiding place of Osama bin Laden for several years, that relationship can only grow more strained. How did it reach this flashpoint of instability and injustice with such potentially catastrophic results for Pakistan? In this talk he will discuss his new book Pakistan: A Personal History providing a unique insider's view of a country unfamiliar to a western audience. Imran Khan was born in 1952 and grew up playing cricket in Lahore, Pakistan. He played his first international match for his country in 1971. In 1972, he began his studies at Oxford University, where he was a contemporary of Benazir Bhutto. He went on to play cricket for Pakistan until 1992, and was captain of the team from 1982. In 1994 he established a hospital in Pakistan offering free cancer treatment to the poor and is in the process of setting up a second. He also founded Namal College (2007), the only private sector university outside the cities. In April 1996 Imran Khan established his own political party, the Tehreek-e-Insaf, which aims to bring good governance and social justice to the people of Pakistan, and make Pakistan a just and humane society.

Contributor(s): Professor John Sutton | Good advice for governments intervening to promote industrial development can only come from a detailed understanding of countries' industrial capabilities, and institutional frameworks. The aim of the "Enterprise Map" project is to provide this information. John Sutton is a professor of economics at LSE. This event is part of the International Growth Centre's Growth Week, a unique three-day conference taking place between 19 and 21 of September at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Growth Week is the annual conference of the IGC, based at the London School of Economics. It brings together the IGC's international network of scholars, institutional partners and policy makers in partner countries in Africa and South Asia for three days.

Contributor(s): Professor Paul Collier, Sushil Kumar Modi | Getting fragile states on a path of sustainable economic growth is currently a key policy imperative. This session will discuss ways of breaking out of a political equilibrium that creates state fragility and creating one that generates sustained economic growth. Paul Collier is director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies, Oxford University. Sushil Kumar Modi is deputy chief minister of Bihar, India. This event is part of the International Growth Centre's Growth Week, a unique three-day conference taking place between 19 and 21 of September at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Growth Week is the annual conference of the IGC, based at the London School of Economics. It brings together the IGC's international network of scholars, institutional partners and policy makers in partner countries in Africa and South Asia for three days.

Contributor(s): Nick Clegg MP | Nick Clegg is Deputy Prime Minister. Nick Clegg was born in Buckinghamshire in 1967, the third of four siblings. He studied Social Anthropology at Cambridge and continued his post-graduate education at the University of Minnesota and the College of Europe in Bruges. After a brief spell in journalism, Nick worked on international aid programmes and trade policy at the European Commission. He was elected MEP for the East Midlands in 1999 and served as Trade and Industry spokesman for the European Liberal Democrat and Reform group until his decision to step down from the European Parliament to focus on domestic politics in 2004. Nick has contributed to a large number of articles and books, including on education, European Union reform, and trade liberalisation. He worked as a business consultant and part time university lecturer before his election as MP for Sheffield Hallam in 2005. In Parliament, Nick served as the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on Europe (2005-6), Shadow Home Secretary (2006-7) before becoming Leader in 2007. In May 2010 Nick Clegg became Deputy Prime Minister and Lord President of the Council in the coalition government. Tony Travers is Director of LSE London and a visiting professor at the Department of Government at LSE.

Contributor(s): Jason Burke | Throughout the 1990s a vast conflict was brewing. Jason Burke was a first-hand witness of many of the conflict's key moments, and he cuts through the myth and debunks the screaming headlines to reveal the reality for those ordinary people whose lives have changed forever. Drawing together the complex and chaotic events of this vast conflict, Jason Burke explains this still ongoing war and outlines the course it is likely to take in the years to come. In 15 years as a foreign correspondent for the Guardian and Observer, Jason Burke has reported on many of the key events in the Middle East and South Asia. He is the author of two widely praised books, Al-Qaeda and On the Road to Kandahar, the former of which is widely recognised as the first book to accurately asses the terrorist group. His latest book The 9/11 Wars is published by Penguin.

Contributor(s): Carne Ross | In his new book The Leaderless Revolution, former diplomat Carne Ross offers a compelling new vision of what’s wrong with contemporary politics and how to put it right. In a bold and original analysis of world affairs today, Ross develops a unique new philosophy of political action and personal liberation, drawing on traditions of anarchism and cosmopolitanism, as well as his own personal experience of political crisis and conflict. Carne Ross is a former British diplomat, author and journalist. Having resigned from the British foreign service after giving secret testimony to an official inquiry into the Iraq war, he then set up the world's first independent diplomatic advisory group, Independent Diplomat, which advises marginalised countries and groups around the world. His book, The Leaderless Revolution: How Ordinary People Will Take Power And Change Politics in the 21st Century, is published by Simon & Schuster on 1st September.

Contributor(s): Herman Van Rompuy | In this speech, the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, will draw the political lessons from the sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone. To what extent do the 17 countries sharing a single currency -- and the 27 sharing the world's largest market -- need to move forward together? The speech will be followed by a Q & A session. Herman Van Rompuy is the first long-term president of the European Council. Trained as an economist and philosopher at Louvain University, President Van Rompuy served as Belgian's Prime-Minister (2008-2009), Speaker of the Belgian Lower House (2007-2008) and Budget Minister (1993-1999).

Contributor(s): Professor Barry Smith | This lecture will explore the philosophy and neuroscience of taste and what it tells us about perception. Barry Smith is professor of philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London and director of the Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London.

Contributor(s): Professor Gary Sick | Keynote speech by Gary Sick, the final session from the Arab-Iranian Relations: Discourses of Conflict and Cooperation Conference, organised the LSE Middle East Centre.

Contributor(s): Donald Kohn | Donald Kohn is a member of the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee which identifies, monitors, and takes action to remove or reduce systemic risks with a view to protecting and enhancing the resilience of the UK financial system. As the former vice chairman of the US federal reserve, Mr Kohn is an expert on monetary policy, financial regulation and macroeconomics. Prior to taking office as a member of the Board of Governors of the US federal reserve, he was an adviser to the Board for Monetary Policy from 2001 to 2002, secretary of the Federal Open Market Committee from 1987 to 2002, director of the Division of Monetary Affairs from 1987 to 2001, and deputy staff director for Monetary and Financial Policy from 1983 to 87. He also held several positions in the Board's Division of Research and Statistics: associate director from 1981 to 1983, chief of Capital Markets from 1978 to 1981, and economist from 1975 to 1978. Donald Kohn is a senior fellow in the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution.

Contributor(s): Dr Heiner Flassbeck, Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi | Post-crisis policy challenges in the world economy will be the focus of UNCTAD´s Trade and Development Report 2011. The Report will address the question of what lessons have policymakers drawn from the crisis for reforming the international monetary and financial system and the design of macroeconomic policies. The rethinking of policies and the reshaping of the international monetary and financial system remain urgent tasks. The Report will make concrete proposals on how, and in which priority areas, to advance in strengthening regulation of the financial sector and commodity markets, reform of the international monetary system, and the reorientation of fiscal policy. Dr Heiner Flassbeck is Honorary Professor of Hamburg University and Director, Division on Globalization and Development Strategies, UNCTAD secretariat. He is the leader of the team preparing the Trade and Development Report. Previously, he was the Vice-Minister of Finance in Germany and Chief Economist of the German Institute of Economic Research in Berlin. Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi is Secretary-General of UNCTAD. He began his second four-year term as Secretary-General of UNCTAD on 1 September 2009, following his unanimous confirmation by the UN General Assembly. Established in 1964, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development promotes the development-friendly integration of developing countries into the world economy. UNCTAD has progressively evolved into an authoritative knowledge-based institution whose work aims to help shape current policy debates and thinking on development, with a particular focus on ensuring that domestic policies and international action are mutually supportive in bringing about sustainable development.

Contributor(s): Michael Chertoff | In this lecture former US Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff will address changes in home security challenges at the tenth anniversary of 9/11 and in the wake of the death of Bin Laden. This will include the new networked structure of terrorism, the increasing challenge of homegrown terrorism, and cybersecurity. As Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from 2005 to 2009, Mr Chertoff led the country in blocking would-be terrorists from crossing US borders or implementing their plans if they were already in the country. He also transformed FEMA into an effective organization following Hurricane Katrina. His greatest successes have earned few headlines – because the important news is what didn't happen. As co-founder and managing principal at Chertoff Group, Mr Chertoff provides high-level strategic counsel to corporate and government leaders on a broad range of security issues, from risk identification and prevention to preparedness, response and recovery. Before heading up the Department of Homeland Security, Mr Chertoff served as a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Earlier, during more than a decade as a federal prosecutor, he investigated and prosecuted cases of political corruption, organised crime, corporate fraud and terrorism – including the investigation of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Chertoff spent one year of his studies at LSE and is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College (1975) and Harvard Law School (1978). From 1979-1980 he served as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, Jr. In addition to his role at Chertoff Group, Mr. Chertoff is also senior counsel at Covington & Burling LLP, and a member of the firm's White Collar Defense and Investigations practice group.

Contributor(s): Professor Sadik Al Azm | Al-Azm, one of the Middle East's most notable contemporary thinkers, will reflect on the effects of the Arab uprisings on Arab nationalism and Islamist movements. Sadik Al Azm is emeritus professor of modern European philosophy at the University of Damascus.

Contributor(s): Charlie Beckett | This lecture will tell the story of WikiLeaks, the most controversial journalism organisation of the digital age. Led by the charismatic Julian Assange it has produced the biggest leak of secret information in modern times. It has grown from a 'hactavist' whistle-blowing website to one of the best-known media brands in the world, working with major newspapers like the New York Times and The Guardian. It has taken on the most powerful nation in the world and produced headlines around the globe. WikiLeaks has also provoked condemnation for its disregard for conventional journalistic ethics and its disruption of diplomacy. Its founder Julian Assange has fallen out with almost all of his external collaborators and is subject to accusations of sexual assault. This lecture will ask whether WikiLeaks is a model for investigative journalism in the Internet age or a one-off experiment that has gone awry. Charlie Beckett is the director of Polis, the LSE's media think-tank. He was a journalist at the BBC and ITN's Channel 4 News for 20 years before joining the LSE. He is a leading expert on how journalism is changing and the impact on politics in the UK and internationally. He is an influential journalism/politics blogger, writes and broadcasts for international media and speaks at conferences around the world. Beckett is a faculty member of the LSE's Department of Media and Communications where he teaches critical studies in International Journalism and runs the Polis Summer School. He is a trustee of Article 19, the Institute for Development Studies and the Media Society. His new book WikiLeaks: News in the networked era (Polity) examines the effect of WikiLeaks and asks how it relates to new forms of political communications such as the use of social media in the Arab Uprisings.

Contributor(s): Dr Heinz Fischer | In spring 2010, Dr. Heinz Fischer was re-elected as Federal President of the Republic of Austria by popular vote for his second term. His political career includes Speaker of the Austrian Parliament from 1990-2002, various posts in the Austrian Social Democratic Party, the Party of European Socialists, MP as well as a ministerial post. President Fischer is also a professor of political science at Innsbruck University and has published widely including on legal issues.

Contributor(s): Professor Nancy Folbre | For Love and Money, a forthcoming book edited by Nancy Folbre provides an overview of care provision in the United States and develops a framework for the analysis of existing care policies. Nancy Folbre is Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research explores the interface between political economy and feminist theory, with a particular emphasis on the value of unpaid care work. In addition to numerous articles published in academic journals, she is the author of Greed, Lust, and Gender: A History of Economic Ideas (Oxford, 2009), Valuing Children: Rethinking the Economics of the Family (Harvard, 2008), Who Pays for the Kids?: Gender and the Structures of Constraint (Routledge, 1994) and co-editor, with Michael Bittman, of Family Time: The Social Organization of Care (Routledge, 2004). Books she has written for a wider audience include Saving State U (New Press, 2010); The Field Guide to the U.S. Economy (with James Heintz and Jonathan Teller-Elsberg, New Press, 2006 and earlier editions), The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values (New Press, 2001), and The War on the Poor: A Defense Manual (with Randy Albelda, New Press, 1996). She currently coordinates a working group on care work sponsored by the Russell Sage Foundation. You can read her regular contribution to the New York Times Economix Blog. For more information, see her personal website. This event will be introduced by Professor Sarah Ashwin.

Contributor(s): Dr Ramachandra Guha | Jawaharlal Nehru, the man most identified with Indian foreign policy after independence, is remembered for what is considered his greatest failure: the China policy and disastrous war of 1962. But is it fair to hold Nehru responsible for a conflict that arose out of the rise of two competing nationalisms? Ramachandra Guha is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2011-2012.

Contributor(s): Dr David Bell, Professor Simon May | Is genuine love unconditional, or enduring, or disinterested? Simon May says 'no' and offers an alternative theory. David Bell responds with a psychoanalytic perspective. David Bell is president of The British Psychoanalytic Society and a consultant psychiatrist in the Adult Department at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. Simon May is visiting professor of philosophy at King's College London's Department of Philosophy.

Contributor(s): Professor Andrew Oswald | Herd behaviour is often natural and individually rational, but it has the potential to be disastrous for the group. In this lecture, Andrew Oswald will discuss human herd behaviour and its links to 'keeping up with the Joneses'. Andrew Oswald is professor of economics at Warwick University, a visiting fellow at IZA Bonn and an editor of the journal Science.

Contributor(s): Dr Kent Deng, Professor Jude Howell, Professor Athar Hussain | Against all previous predictions China has been completely transformed. This raises the question of the "China Model" that we are still trying to understand for the 21st century. Kent Deng is a reader in the Department of Economic History, LSE. Jude Howell is professor in LSE's Department of International Development. Athar Hussain is director of the Asia Research Centre at LSE.

Contributor(s): Professor Leo Panitch | This lecture marks the 50th anniversary of Ralph Miliband's first major work, the hugely influential Parliamentary Socialism: a study in the politics of Labour. What can Miliband's arguments tell us about contemporary British politics and the modern Labour Party? Leo Panitch is Distinguished Research Professor at York University (Canada) and a renowned political economist, Marxist theorist and co-editor of the Socialist Register, who knew Ralph Miliband well.

Contributor(s): Brian Whitaker, Roger Hardy, Marwan Bishara, Dr Ramy Aly | A panel of seasoned journalists who have covered the Middle East extensively during their careers will critically reflect on the media coverage of the Arab uprisings. Why did reporters miss the build-up and tension which led to the Arab Spring? Have news stories exaggerated the role of social media? Are there wider questions that the coverage of the uprisings raise for reporting more generally? Dr Ramy Aly is lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Sussex and co-founder of the 'Public Service Broadcasting Initiative' (Egypt) and Head of its Research and Editorial Unit. He has contributed research on transnational Arab media and changing political cultures in the EU at the LSE as well as research on Arabic language media at the Open University and CRESC. Brian Whitaker has been a journalist for the British newspaper The Guardian since 1987 and its Middle East editor from 2000-2007. He is currently an editor on the paper's "Comment Is Free". He runs a personal, non-Guardian-related website, Al-Bab.com, about politics in the Arab world. Roger Hardy was for over twenty years a Middle East and Islamic affairs analyst with the BBC World Service. He is the author of The Muslim Revolt: A Journey through Political Islam (Hurst, 2010). He has come to LSE after six months in Washington, DC, at the Woodrow Wilson Center, where he was a public policy scholar researching the 'war of ideas' (under the Bush and Obama administrations). Marwan Bishara is Al Jazeera's senior political analyst. He was previously a professor of International Relations at the American University of Paris. An author who writes extensively on global politics, he is widely regarded as a leading authority on the Middle East and international affairs. Dr Myria Georgiou teaches at the Dept. of Media and Communications, LSE. She has a PhD in Sociology (LSE), an MSc in Journalism (Boston University) and a BA in Sociology (Panteion University, Athens) and her research focuses on the broader areas of diaspora, migration, media and identity.

Contributor(s): Professor Axel Gosseries, Paul Loach | This dialogue explores the prospects for workplace democracy - utopian ideal, or an idea whose time has come? Axel Gosseries is a professor at the Université de Louvain, UCL, and a research associate at the CPNSS, LSE. Paul Loach has been investing in, and developing, SME's for 30 years.

Contributor(s): Professor Manuel Castells | How are Social Movements shaped by the availability of horizontal communication networks based on the Internet and wireless communication? How can indignation become collective action by the connection between neural networks, digital social networks and urban networks? Which are the cultural and political consequences of these developments? Case studies in different contexts ground a theory of power and social change in the network society presented in the book Communication Power (Oxford University Press, paperback edition 2011) is to be presented in this lecture. Manuel Castells is University Professor and the Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He is a Harold Lasswell Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, as well as a fellow of the Spanish Royal Academy of Economics, a fellow of the Academia Europea, a fellow of the Mexican Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the British Academy.

Contributor(s): Professor Muhammad Yunus | Muhammad Yunus is to be awarded an Honorary Degree – Doctor of Science (Economics) at this ceremony. Professor Yunus will mark the occasion by giving a lecture entitled Social Business: to solve society's most pressing problems and will then take questions from the audience. Muhammad Yunus was born on 28 June 1940 in the village of Bathua, Chittagong, a seaport in Bangladesh. The third of fourteen children, he was educated at Dhaka University and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study economics at Vanderbilt University. He then served as chairman of the economics department at Chittagong University before devoting his life to providing financial and social services to the poorest of the poor. He is the founder of Grameen Bank, serving as managing director until May 2011. Yunus is the author of the bestselling Banker to the Poor. In October 2006, Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Grameen Bank, for their efforts to create economic and social development. The trailer of Bonsai People - The Vision of Muhammad Yunus, the first film that looks at the work of Muhammad Yunus from microcredit through to social business is available using the link below.

Contributor(s): Lord Nat Wei | Lord Wei will give a lecture in memory of Lord Michael Chan, the first ever ethnic Chinese member of the House of Lords, who passed away in 2006. Nat Wei is the youngest and only ethnic Chinese peer in the House of Lords.

Contributor(s): Dr Jason McKenzie Alexander, Dr Keith Jensen, Dr Andrew Pinsent | What generates our capability to act morally? How much is it part of our basic biology? How is it socialised? Is it reasoned, emotional, or does it derive from some other source entirely? Jason McKenzie Alexander is reader in philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, LSE. Keith Jensen is lecturer in comparative and developmental psychology at the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London. Andrew Pinsent is research director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at the University of Oxford.

Contributor(s): Andrew Dilnot | Achieving a sustainable and fair system for funding the support required by people with social care needs represents a growing challenge to governments across the world. In his address, Andrew Dilnot will introduce the rationale for the recommendations made by the independent Commission on the Funding of Care and Support set-up by the coalition government and which reported in July 2012. How do the Commission's proposals allocate responsibility between individual and the state, and why? Andrew Dilnot is Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford and a Pro Vice Chancellor of Oxford University. He was the Chairman of the Commission on the Funding of Care and Support, whose report was published in July 2011. He is the author, with Michael Blastland, of the best-selling book about numbers The Tiger that isn't, of which Rory Bremner has said 'it makes statistics far, far too interesting'. He was the founding presenter of BBC Radio 4's series on the beauty of numbers, 'More or Less' and was Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies from 1991 to 2002. He is the chairman of the Statistics Users Forum of the Royal Statistical Society, and a trustee of the Nuffield Foundation. He has been a member of the board of the National Consumer Council and of the Office of Science and Technology Review of the use of science in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. He has served on the Social Security Advisory Committee, the Retirement Income Inquiry, the Balance of Central and Local Government Funding Inquiry, the Rowntree Committee on the future costs of long term care, the Ageing Population Foresight panel, and the Councils of the Royal Economic Society and Queen Mary and Westfield College. He is an Honorary Fellow of St John's College Oxford, Queen Mary University of London, the Swansea Institute of Higher Education and the Institute of Actuaries, and holds an Honorary Doctorate from City University. His main research interests lie in government economic policy as it affects individuals, companies, and the wider economy. He was awarded a CBE in 2000 for services to economics and economic policy.

Contributor(s): Juan Manuel Santos Calderón | Juan Manuel Santos Calderón is President of the Republic of Colombia. Born in Bogota on August 10, 1951. He was a cadet at the Navy Academy in Cartagena; he studied Economics and Business Administration and carried out graduate studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Harvard University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He was Chief of the Colombian delegation before the International Coffee Organization (ICO) in London; he was the most recent Designate to the Presidency and Colombia's first Foreign Trade Minister. He has also been Finance Minister and National Defense Minister. During this last position, he was in charge of leading the implementation of the government's Democratic Security Policy. He created the Good Government Foundation (Fundación Buen Gobierno) and founded the political party Partido de la U in the year 2005, currently Colombia's largest political party. As a journalist he was a columnist and Deputy Director of the newspaper El Tiempo, he was awarded the King of Spain Prize and was president of the Freedom of Expression Commission for the Inter American Press Association (IAPA). He has published several books, among which the most significant are The Third Way, co-written with the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Check on Terror (Jaque al Terror), where he describes the most important actions against the Farc terrorist group during his tenure as head of the Ministry of Defense. On June 20, 2010, (after obtaining the largest vote during the first round of the presidential elections which took place on May 30 of the same year) at the second round of the presidential elections, he was elected President of the Republic of Colombia for the four year period between August 7, 2010 and August 7, 2014. He obtained more than 9 million votes, the highest amount obtained by any candidate in the history of Colombian democracy. During his campaign, he promised to lead a government of national unity that would carry out the transition from democratic security to democratic prosperity. President Santos is married to María Clemencia Rodríguez, with whom he has three children: Martín (21), María Antonia (19) and Esteban (16).

Contributor(s): Kamalesh Sharma | Kamalesh Sharma will reflect on the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in October 2011, which is expected to adopt reforms that will renew the focus and increase the impact of the Commonwealth. Kamalesh Sharma is the Commonwealth secretary general. He previously served as India's high commissioner to the United Kingdom.

Contributor(s): Professor William Quandt | The US has been an active player in the Middle East over the past century, but has been of minor relevance during the Arab uprisings of 2011. The upheaval, however, will have deep implications for US policy in the region. William Quandt is a professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia.

Contributor(s): Paulina Bozek, Vyacheslav Polonski, Christina Kerr | This is the second year of events where invited alumni share a stage with current students in a public talk. This is a unique opportunity for LSE students, staff and alumni to meet and share their experience in an informal forum. Paulina Bozek is the CEO of INENSU, a start-up game company making social and innovative games for the connected generation. Prior to founding INENSU, she was the Development Director of the Atari London Studio where she was responsible for overseeing the creative direction and team management for the development of social games and applications. Paulina spent six years at Sony as the Executive Producer of the SingStar franchise for PlayStation. SingStar has been instrumental in establishing games as popular entertainment and has achieved over $500million in revenue. Paulina started her career in games in 1999 at Ubisoft in Montreal, Canada. In 2004 Paulina was awarded the BAFTA Interactive New Talent Award. In 2005, SingStar was awarded the BAFTA Award for Originality. Paulina has an MSc in Media and Communications from the LSE (2002) and a nBA in Cultural Studies from McGill University. She is a frequent speaker at industry events on new media technology and popular culture. Vyacheslav Polonski is a Stelios Scholar and is currently in his third year in the BSc in Management at LSE. He has previously worked at the World Economic Forum, PwC and Amazon.com and founded the Strategy & Management Consulting Conference at the LSE, which became Europe's largest student conference on business strategy. Vyacheslav is also president of the LSE SU Consultancy Society and founder of the 'BusinessBattle' Trading Card Game. In 2011, he was honoured at the British Council 'International Student of the Year' Awards and was shortlisted for the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards. At the WorldStage lecture, he talked about his passion for entrepreneurship and some of the projects he has developed alongside his studies at LSE. Christina Kerr (LSE alumnus) worked at Price Waterhouse Coopers from 2002 - 2010 in the position Senior Manager for Campus Recruitment in her last two years there and now works in campus recruitment for Barclays Capital. Christina talked about what employers (not just banks!) look for in graduates and offer advice on how to make yourself more employable. Head of Recruitment and Admissions at LSE, Cath Baldwin chaired the event.

Contributor(s): Professor Ralf Michaels | We are witnessing a paradigmatic shift in the reality and theory of law. The new transnational law – international commercial arbitration, non-state codifications like the UNIDROIT Principles, the alleged emerging convergent legal order– cannot be safely grounded, as law has been for a long time, in the state. Yet what its foundations are, or should be, remains unclear. In this situation, a remarkable number of authors shift from rational of political argument to invocations of dreams, faith, vision, as basis for the new transnational law. Most would dismiss these invocations as purely rhetorical. But dreams, vision and faith have played a central role in the history of texts in literature and political philosophy since at least the Bible, and current authors are, even if unknowingly, placing themselves in these traditions. The new transnational law is utopian in the literal sense of the word: placeless. Once we realize this connection, we can say more about its reality and its potential. Michaels studied law at the Universities of Passau and Cambridge, U.K. While at Duke, he has been a visiting professor at the Universities of Panthéon/Assas (Paris 2), Princeton, Pennsylvania, and Toronto; he has also held senior research fellowships at Harvard and Princeton, as well as the American Academy in Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for Private Law in Hamburg.