Contributor(s): Zoe Konstantopoulou | Greece is at the forefront of questions connecting human rights protection, debt and austerity. Zoe Konstantopoulou will share her insights on the fight to secure social rights. Zoe Konstantopoulou (@ZoeKonstant) was President of the Greek Parliament and a politician of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), and is a practicing lawyer. She was elected to the post of President on 6 February 2015 with a record number of 235 out of 300 votes, making her the youngest Speaker in the history of the Hellenic Parliament. As Speaker, she worked to expose the truth around the debt and human crises in Greece. She holds a law degree from the University of Athens, a Master’s in Law from Columbia University with a focus on International Law, Human Rights and Criminal Law and a DEA from the University of Paris 1 (Panthéon la Sorbonne) in European Criminal Law and Criminal Policy in Europe. In her legal practice she is active in the fields of criminal law and human rights. She is a member of the Athens and New York Bars. Margot Salomon (@Margot_Salomon) is associate professor in the Centre for the Study of Human Rights and Department of Law. The Centre for the Study of Human Rights at LSE (@LSEHumanRights) is a trans-disciplinary centre of excellence for international academic research, teaching and critical scholarship on human rights. LSE Law (@lselaw) is an integral part of the School's mission, plays a major role in policy debates & in the education of lawyers and law teachers from around the world.

Contributor(s): Professor David Harvey | David Harvey's politicised work on geography, social theory, urban political economy and capitalism has shaped academic debate for decades. He is one of the most cited social scientists in the world, and his works have been translated into multiple languages. Here, Harvey joins a panel of experts to explore his ideas - and alternative views. David Harvey (@profdavidharvey) is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology & Geography at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. Michael Storper (@michaelstorper) is Professor of Economic Geography at LSE, and holds Professorships at Sciences-Po and UCLA. Jane Wills is Professor of Human Geography, Queen Mary, University of London. Murray Low is Associate Professor of Human Geography in the LSE Department of Geography & Environment. The LSE Department of Geography & Environment (@LSEGeography) is a centre of international academic excellence in economic, urban and development geography, environmental social science and climate change.

Contributor(s): Daniel Susskind, Professor Richard Susskind | In an era when machines can out-perform human beings at most tasks, we will neither need nor want doctors, accountants, consultants, and many other professions, to work as they did in the 20th century. In this public lecture, Richard and Daniel Susskind predict the decline of experts as we know them, as the rise in new technologies transforms the way that practical know-how is made available in society. Richard Susskind (@richardsusskind) is IT Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice of England, President of the Society for Computers and Law and holds professorships at the University of Oxford, University College London and Gresham Collage. Daniel Susskind (@danielsusskind) is a Lecturer in Economics at the University of Oxford. Richard and Daniel are co-authors of The Future of the Professions: how technology will transform the work of human experts Dr Carsten Sørensen is Associate Professor (Reader) of Information Systems and Innovation within Department of Management at LSE. The Department of Management (@LSEManagement) is a globally diverse academic community at the heart of the LSE, taking a unique interdisciplinary, academically in-depth approach to the study of management and organisations.

Contributor(s): Edgars Rinkevics | Russia's aggression in Ukraine and the rise of ISIL has brought the issue of European security to the forefront. Latvia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edgars Rinkevics, explains the threats from the Baltic viewpoint. Edgars Rinkevics (@edgarsrinkevics) is Latvia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, a position he has held since 2011. Previously he was the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Defence and Head of the President's Chancery. The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) was established in 1991 as a dedicated centre for the interdisciplinary study of processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector.

Contributor(s): Professor Philip Schlesinger | The discourse of the creative economy is everywhere. First developed by the British New Labour government in the late 1990s, it has influenced a global way of thinking about the relations between culture and the economy. The lecture will address its rise and diffusion and the role of political entrepreneurship in the continuous reworking and dissemination of an orthodox mode of thought, illustrated by examples from the UK, EU and UN. What are the appeals of the creative economy? Why have counter-arguments been so ineffective? What are the consequences for how we understand cultural work? The lecture is informed by Philip Schlesinger's first-hand research into how cultural bodies work, published in two new co-authored books. Drawing on interviews with key players, The Rise and Fall of the UK Film Council analyses the shifting politics of support for the British film industry in a transnational market dominated by the US. Curators of Cultural Enterprise is an ethnographic analysis of a key cultural business support agency, that portrays how UK creative economy policy operates in devolved Scotland. Both studies raise questions about the rationality of public policy. Angela McRobbie’s response will draw upon work related to her book Be Creative: Making a Living in the New Culture Industries which charts the ‘euphoric’ moment of the new creative economy, as it rose to prominence in the UK during the Blair years, and considers it from the perspective of contemporary experience of economic austerity and uncertainty about work and employment. Philip Schlesinger (@PRSchlesinger1) is Professor in Cultural Policy in the Centre for Cultural Policy Research/CREATe at the University of Glasgow and Visiting Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. Angela McRobbie (@angelamcrobbie) is Professor of Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London. Jonothan Neelands is Professor of Creative Education at Warwick Business School and Research Project Director of the Creative Industries Federation. Robin Mansell (@REMVAN) is Deputy Director and Provost and Professor of New Media and the Internet. The Department of Media and Communications (@MediaLSE) undertakes outstanding and innovative research and provides excellent research-based graduate programmes for the study of media and communications. The Department was established in 2003 and in 2014 our research was ranked number 1 in the most recent UK research evaluation, with 91% of research outputs ranked world-leading or internationally excellent.

Contributor(s): Professor Michel Wieviorka | Evil has dramatically changed in modern Europe. The turning point was the mid-eighties. Terrorism, anti-Semitism, racism and nationalism are not as they were in the recent past and their renewal poses a formidable threat. Michel Wieviorka (@MichelWieviorka) is professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and president of the Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme. Maurice Fraser is Head of the European Institute and Professor of Practice in European Politics. The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) was established in 1991 as a dedicated centre for the interdisciplinary study of processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector.

Contributor(s): Margrethe Vestager | National authorities (NCAs) and national courts are empowered to apply the EU competition rules together with the Commission. Since 2004, the Commission and the NCAs together have adopted almost 1,000 decisions in antitrust cases – 85% by the NCAs. Joint action within the European Competition Network means more effective enforcement and more deterrence. However, despite common substantive rules, national authorities must rely on national procedural powers when applying EU law. Where those powers are not fully developed, both the NCAs' effectiveness as enforcers and the level playing field in the single market risk being undermined. The time is therefore ripe to consider boosting the enforcement powers of NCAs. Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) is European Commissioner for Competition. She is a former Danish Minister for Economic Affairs and the Interior and former Deputy Prime Minister of Denmark. The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) was established in 1991 as a dedicated centre for the interdisciplinary study of processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector.

Contributor(s): Professor Anne Marie Goetz | Sexual violence has been deployed strategically in a wide range of conflicts, and though long recognized as an unlawful tactic of warfare, it has only relatively recently attracted the political focus and operational responses accorded to other violations of civilian rights. This lecture will provide a history of the policy processes leading to the Security Council resolutions recognizing conflict related sexual violence as a tactic of warfare and outlining political, security, judicial and humanitarian responses. These resolutions are grounded in the Security Council’s broader commitment to promoting women’s participation in conflict resolution, prevention and recovery (resolution 1325 of 2000), yet this ‘participation’ focus has not received the same attention and operational responses as have the victim-centered ‘protection’ approaches of the CRSV resolutions. Evidence for this diverging response will be provided, and explanations for it will be assessed, through an analysis of geopolitical dynamics in the Council, institutional changes within the UN, and the relative influence of civil society groups on these processes. Anne Marie Goetz (@amgoetz) is a Clinical Professor at the Center for Global Affairs, New York University. She is on sabbatical from UN Women, where she is Chief Advisor on Peace and Security. Christopher Hughes is Professor of International Relations and Head of Department at LSE. The International Relations Department (@LSEIRDept) at LSE is now in its 87th year, making it one of the oldest as well as largest in the world.

Contributor(s): Professor Michael Cox | Founded by Fabian socialists in the 1890s and attracting such radical figures as Harold Laski, R.H. Tawney and Ralph Miliband, it is hardly surprising that the LSE has acquired a ‘red’ reputation over the years: a reputation that only seemed to be confirmed during the second half of the 1960s when the School was forced to close down because of student protest. But just how radical has the LSE ever been? Has it ever been a hot bed of revolution as critics have claimed? And how true is it of the LSE today? Michael Cox is Professor of International Relations at the LSE and Director of LSE IDEAS. Robin Archer is Director of the Ralph Miliband Programme at LSE. The Ralph Miliband Programme (@rmilibandlse) is one of LSE's most prestigious lecture series and seeks to advance Ralph Miliband's spirit of free social inquiry. The next lecture in the “Progress and its Discontents” series will be taking place on Thursday 3 December with Professor Wendy Carlin What Should We Study When We Study Economics?

Contributor(s): Professor Alcinda Honwana | Disaffected African young people risk their lives to try to reach Europe. Others join radical groups such as Boko Haram, Al-Shabab and Islamic State. Angry young unemployed South Africans were behind xenophobic attacks there. Youth protesting their socio-economic and political marginalization have changed governments in Tunisia and Senegal. One-third of Africans are between the ages of 10 and 24 and they are better educated than their parents and have higher expectations, but they are less likely to have jobs or political influence. Young Africans are organizing in many ways, and are making their voices heard. How will they force governments to listen? Alcinda Honwana is author of The Time of Youth: Work, Politics, and Social Change in Africa and Youth and Revolution in Tunisia. She is Visiting Professor in International Development at the Open University and was director of the Africa Program of the Social Science Research Council, New York. Funmi Olonisakin is Professor of Security, Leadership and Development at King's College London and member of the panel on the 2015 Review of the UN Peacebuilding Architecture. Africa Talks is a programme of high-profile events that creates a platform for African voices to inform and transform the global debate.

Contributor(s): Professor Robert Tombs | Migration has been a crucial element of British and English history. England emerged as a nation amid a period of migration. Its culture is a hybrid. Its modern experience has been shaped by an unprecedented outward and inward flow of peoples. This lecture aims to identify what is special and characteristic about the migration history of England and Britain, and reflect on the way in which migration has affected and still affects the life of the nation. Robert Tombs is Professor of French History at Cambridge and author of The English and their History. He is a specialist in modern French history and on the Franco-British relationship. His most recent work has been an excursion into English history, though with something of a French perspective. Robert Winder is a trustee of the Migrationa Museum Project and author of Bloody Foreigners: The Story of Immigration to Britain, among many other books on cricket, sport and history. The Migration Museum Project (@MigrationUK) is creating a dedicated Migration Museum, telling the story of movement into and out of the UK in a fresh and engaging way. The museum will be an enquiry into who we are, where we came from and where we are going. We hope that, by revealing our shared history to be a history of migration, the museum will open up conversations and discussions about Britishness and belonging. We aim to represent the tales, the emotion and the history that have gone into shaping our national fabric; we aim to be the museum of all our stories.

Contributor(s): Paul Mason | We know that our world is in the process of seismic change - but how can we emerge from the crisis a fairer, more equal society? At the heart of this change is information technology, a revolution that, as Mason shows, is driven by capitalism but which, with its tendency to drive the value of much of what we make towards zero, has the potential to destroy an economy based on markets, wages and private ownership - and, he contends, is already doing so. Paul Mason (@paulmasonnews) is the author of PostCapitalism: A Guide to Our Future and the Economics Editor, Channel 4 News. Professor Robin Mansell is LSE Deputy Director and Provost and Professor of New Media and the Internet in the Department of Media and Communication. The Institute of Global Affairs (IGA) (@LSEIGA) creates a dedicated space for research, policy engagement and teaching across multiple disciplines to pioneer locally-rooted responses to global challenges.

Contributor(s): Anote Tong | Kiribati is in the front line of climate change. Despite Kiribati's best efforts at mitigation, relocation of its people may be the only long term option as the physical fabric of the country becomes uninhabitable. Anote Tong has been President of Kiribati since 2003, and steps down at the end of 2015 after meeting the term limits prescribed by the Kiribati Constitution. Climate change has been the defining issue of his Presidency. President Tong is an alumnus of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Robin Mansell (@REMVAN) is LSE Deputy Director and Provost and Professor of New Media and the Internet in the Department of Media and Communication.

Contributor(s): Patrick Honohan | After a long run of seeming prosperity, the financial crisis left Ireland’s banks more under water and its public and private balance sheets in greater disarray than in most other Western European countries. Since then, the painful processes of bank restructuring and fiscal adjustment, partly under the protection of an IMF-EU financial support arrangement, have revealed much about the domestic and international political economy of debt and austerity. Patrick Honohan was appointed Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland in 2009. Prior to this, he worked at the World Bank and the IMF, and was economics advisor to the Irish government. He is an alumnus of LSE. Charles Bean is a member of the Department of Economics at LSE, and the Centre for Macroeconomics. He was Deputy Governor for Monetary Policy at the Bank of England from 2008-14, and Chief Economist at the Bank of England from 2000 to 2008. The Department of Economics at LSE (@LSEEcon) is one of the largest economics departments in the world. Its size ensures that all areas of economics are strongly represented in both research and teaching. The Centre For Macroeconomics (@CFMUK) brings together world-class experts to carry out pioneering research on the global economic crisis and to help design policies that alleviate it.

Contributor(s): Professor Diane Coyle | Why did the size of the U.S. economy increase by 3 percent on one day in mid-2013—or Ghana's balloon by 60 percent overnight in 2010? Why did the U.K. financial industry show its fastest expansion ever at the end of 2008—just as the world's financial system went into meltdown? And why was Greece's chief statistician charged with treason in 2013 for apparently doing nothing more than trying to accurately report the size of his country's economy? The answers to all these questions lie in the way we define and measure national economies around the world: gross domestic product. Diane Coyle (@diane1859) is professor of economics at the University of Manchester. She runs the consultancy Enlightenment Economics, and as well as a regular blog, she is the author of numerous books, including The Economics of Enough and The Soulful Science: What Economists Really Do and Why It Matters. Her latest book is GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History. The Department of Economics at LSE (@LSEEcon) is one of the largest economics departments in the world. Its size ensures that all areas of economics are strongly represented in both research and teaching. The Centre For Macroeconomics (@CFMUK) brings together world-class experts to carry out pioneering research on the global economic crisis and to help design policies that alleviate it.

Contributor(s): Dr Insa Koch, Dr Lisa McKenzie, Dr David Skarbek | There has been much debate in recent years about the role of gangs in both disrupting and providing social order. In this event, scholars from three disciplines draw on their research to debate the significance of gangs and other mechanisms of informal social ordering, the conditions under which they arise, and their relationship to formal sources of social ordering such as law. Insa Koch is Assistant Professor in Law and Anthropology at LSE Law. Lisa McKenzie (@redrumlisa) is a Fellow in the Department of Sociology at LSE. David Skarbek (@DavidSkarbek) is Senior Lecturer in Political Economy at King’s College London. Nicola Lacey is School Professor of Law, Gender and Social Policy, attached to the Departments of Law and Social Policy and to the Gender Institute at LSE. LSE Law (@lselaw) is an integral part of the School's mission, plays a major role in policy debates & in the education of lawyers and law teachers from around the world.

Contributor(s): Professor Philippe Coulangeon, Dr Sam Friedman, Dr Laurie Hanquinet | A panel of leading international experts discuss whether traditional forms of 'highbrow' cultural capital associated with the dominance of the classical and historical canon are being eclipsed by newer and more fluid kinds of cultural tastes, associated with contemporary music and art, sport, and engaging with the social media and computer games. Philippe Coulangeon is Director of Research at SNRS, Sciences Po and Visiting Professor in the Department of Sociology at LSE. Sam Friedman is (@SamFriedmanSoc) Assistant Professor in Sociology at LSE. Laurie Hanquinet (@LHanquinet) is Lecturer in Sociology at University of York. Mike Savage (@MikeSav47032563) is Martin White Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the International Inequalities Institute at LSE. The Department of Sociology at LSE (@LSEsociology) was established in 1904 and remains committed to top quality teaching and leading research and scholarship today.

Contributor(s): Lionel Barber | The future of media is now. News organizations today face new and numerous opportunities and challenges, from the rise of social platforms, to adapting to mobile publishing methods and rhythms, to deep challenges to traditional business models. In his lecture, Lionel Barber will discuss the FT’s response to disruption -- identifying the role of media in a changing, global, technology-driven world. More broadly, Barber will address the role of news and information in modern society, and how the FT sees its relationship with readers evolving. Lionel Barber (@lionelbarber) is the Editor of the Financial Times. Professor Charlie Beckett (@charliebeckett) is Director of Polis and Professor of Media and Communications at LSE. Polis (@PolisLSE) is the LSE's journalism and society think-tank, a part of the Department of Media and Communications aimed at working journalists, media practitioners, people in public life and students in the UK and around the world.

Contributor(s): Dr Susan George | Can Progressives slow the success of neo-liberalism? In recent years links between big business and government have become stronger and more far-reaching than ever, impeding the possibility for progress. Ahead of the Spanish elections and climate change negotiations, Susan George will draw on her new book about the power of big business and her decades of activism and writing to analyse the possibilities for progress. Susan George is a political activist, widely-translated author and President of the Transnational Institute. Her latest book is Shadow Sovereigns: how global corporations are seizing power. Robin Archer is Director of the Ralph Miliband Programme at LSE. The Ralph Miliband Programme (@rmilibandlse) is one of LSE's most prestigious lecture series and seeks to advance Ralph Miliband's spirit of free social inquiry. The next lecture in the “Progress and its Discontents” series will be taking place on Thursday 19 November with Professor Michael Cox Red Flag over Houghton Street? The Radical Tradition at the LSE - Myth, Reality and Fact.

Contributor(s): Charles Moore | Margaret Thatcher was the longest-serving Prime Minister of the twentieth century and one of the most influential figures of the postwar era. Volume Two of Charles Moore's acclaimed authorized biography, which he will talk about in this lecture, covers the central, triumphal years of her premiership, from the Falklands to the 1987 election. Based on unrestricted access to all Lady Thatcher's papers, unpublished interviews with her and all her major colleagues, Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography, Volume Two: Everything She Wants, is an indispensable portrait of a towering figure of our times. Charles Moore (@CharlesHMoore) was born in 1956 and educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read History. He joined the staff of the Daily Telegraph in 1979, and as a political columnist in the 1980s covered several years of Mrs Thatcher's first and second governments. He was Editor of the Spectator 1984-90; Editor of the Sunday Telegraph 1992-95; and Editor of the Daily Telegraph 1995-2003, for which he is still a regular columnist. The prize winning first volume of his biography of Margaret Thatcher was published in 2013. Tony Travers is Director of LSE London, a research centre at LSE. He is also a Visiting Professor in the LSE’s Government Department and Director of British Government @ LSE. British Government @ LSE (@lsegovernment) is an initiative currently based in the Government Department to promote and develop research on British Government being conducted at the LSE. So far world class speakers have attended our events, talking on a range of topics.

Contributor(s): Professor Robert J. Shiller | Ever since Adam Smith, the central teaching of economics has been that free markets provide us with material well-being, as if by an invisible hand. Robert Shiller delivers a fundamental challenge to this insight, arguing that markets harm as well as help us. As long as there is profit to be made, sellers will systematically exploit our psychological weaknesses and our ignorance through manipulation and deception. Rather than being essentially benign and always creating the greater good, markets are inherently filled with tricks and traps and will “phish” us as “phools.” This represents a radically new direction in economics, based on the intuitive idea that markets both give and take away. We spend our money up to the limit, and then worry about how to pay the next month’s bills. The financial system soars, then crashes. We are attracted, more than we know, by advertising. Our political system is distorted by money. We pay too much for gym memberships, cars, houses, and credit cards. Drug companies ingeniously market pharmaceuticals that do us little good, and sometimes are downright dangerous. Phishing for Phools explores the central role of manipulation and deception in each of these areas and many more. It thereby explains a paradox: why, at a time when we are better off than ever before in history, all too many of us are leading lives of quiet desperation. Robert J Shiller (@RobertJShiller), the recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in economics, is a best-selling author, a regular contributor to the Economic View column of the New York Times, and a professor of economics at Yale University. His books include Finance and the Good Society, Animal Spirits (co-written with George A. Akerlof), The Subprime Solution, The New Financial Order and Irrational Exuberance. Wouter Den Haan is Professor of Economics at LSE and Co-Director of the Centre for Macroeconomics. The Department of Economics at LSE (@LSEEcon) is one of the largest economics departments in the world. Its size ensures that all areas of economics are strongly represented in both research and teaching. The Centre For Macroeconomics (@CFMUK) brings together world-class experts to carry out pioneering research on the global economic crisis and to help design policies that alleviate it.

Contributor(s): Euclid Tsakalotos | What are the prospects of the Left in government after the summer agreement? Can that agreement be incorporated into a political strategy that furthers social justice and a different economic model? Can Greece act as catalyst for wider progressive changes in the Eurozone and the EU? Euclid Tsakalotos (@tsakalotos) is the Greek Finance Minister. Kevin Featherstone is Hellenic Observatory Director, Eleftherios Venizelos Professor of Contemporary Greek Studies & Professor of European Politics and LSEE-Research on South Eastern Europe Co-Chair.

Contributor(s): Professor Attahiru Jega | This lecture gives the inside story of Nigeria's first successful transfer of power in the contentious 2015 elections that brought the country back from the brink. Attahiru Jega has just completed his term as Chairman of Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission. He is a professor of Political Science and former Vice Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, and has authored and edited a number of books on democratization in Nigeria. He also negotiated a landmark agreement for Nigerian academics as President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities during the early 1990s. Kate Meagher is Associate Professor of Development Studies at the LSE, specializing in Nigeria, and coordinator of the Africa Talks lecture series. Africa Talks is a programme of high-profile events that creates a platform for African voices to inform and transform the global debate.

Contributor(s): Professor Oriana Bandiera, Mushtaque Chowdhury, Professor Esther Duflo, Anna Minj, Muhammad Musa, Desmond Swayne | Can extreme poverty be eliminated through programmes targeting the world’s ultra-poor? The panel will discuss the merits of so called graduation approaches. Oriana Bandiera is a Professor of Economics at the LSE and the Director of STICERD. Mushtaque Chowdhury is Vice-Chairperson, BRAC. Esther Duflo is the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at MIT. Anna Minj is Director of the Targeting the Ultra Poor Programme, BRAC. Muhammad Musa, Executive Director, BRAC. Desmond Swayne is Minister of State at DFID. Robin Burgess is a Professor of Economics at LSE and Director of the IGC. The International Growth Centre (@The_IGC) aims to promote sustainable growth in developing countries by providing demand-led policy advice based on frontier research. Based at LSE and in partnership with Oxford University, the IGC is initiated and funded by DFID. BRAC (@BRACworld) is a global leader in creating opportunity for the world’s poor.

Contributor(s): Martin Wolf | Chief Economics Commentator of the Financial Times Martin Wolf gives an insightful and timely analysis of why the financial crisis occurred, and of the radical reforms needed if we are to avoid a future repeat. Arguing the future financial crises are 'certain,' Wolf outlines his ambitious recommendations for reforming the financial system. Martin Wolf (@martinwolf_) is Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times, London. He has been visiting professor of Oxford and Nottingham Universities, a fellow of the World Economic Forum in Davos, and a member of the UK’s Vickers Commission on Banking, which reported in 2011. He is an honorary graduate of LSE. His latest book is The Shifts and The Shocks: what we've learned – and still have to learn – from the financial crisis. LSE100 (@TheLSECourse) is an innovative course that introduces first year undergraduates to the fundamental elements of thinking like a social scientist, by exploring some of the great intellectual debates of our time from the perspectives of different disciplines.

Contributor(s): Zainab Salbi, Margot Wallström | What does Sweden’s concept of feminist foreign policy imply and what can it teach governments and institutions? How can it further the global agenda of women, peace and security? Zainab Salbi (@ZainabSalbi) is an author, women's rights activist, humanitarian, social entrepreneur and media commentator. Margot Wallström (@margotwallstrom) is Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden. Update: Please note that due to unforeseen circumstances, Margot Wallström will no longer be able to attend the event in person. She will appear via live videolink. The Institute of Global Affairs (IGA) (@LSEIGA) creates a dedicated space for research, policy engagement and teaching across multiple disciplines to pioneer locally-rooted responses to global challenges. The Centre for Women, Peace and Security (@LSE_WPS) is a leading academic space for scholars, practitioners, activists, policy-makers and students to develop strategies to promote justice, human rights and participation for women in conflict-affected situations around the world.

Contributor(s): James Lingwood, Alex Sainsbury | In light of government funding cuts and the continuing air of austerity, alternative donor streams are crucial for many arts initiatives. With Britain’s traditional funding outlets increasingly pressured, private sources of philanthropy and unusual models of patronage are heralded to support artistic endeavour. This panel will debate the advantages and perils of this changing cultural landscape of state and private support. James Lingwood is co-director of Artangel (@Artangel). Over the past two decades, Artangel has built a worldwide reputation for producing extraordinary new art projects in unusual places. Alex Sainsbury is director, curator and funder of Raven Row (@Raven__Row), a non-profit art gallery which opened in Spitalfields in 2009. He has also set up Glass-House Trust, a grant-making charity that has initiated various projects, most recently MayDay Rooms, a social resource holding historical material linked to social movements and experimental culture. As Head of Culture for the Mayor of London for over a decade, Justine Simons has played a central role in the cultural revitalization of London - with Mayors from both sides of the political spectrum. She leads London’s Cultural Policy and shapes the City Hall’s Investment Strategy for the Creative Industries which covers film, fashion and design. Justine also oversees City Hall’s work in music, theatre, visual arts and art in the public realm, as well as being chair of the World Cities Culture Forum. Just economics and politics? Think again. While LSE does not teach arts or music, there is a vibrant cultural side to the School - from weekly free music concerts in the Shaw Library, and an LSE orchestra and choir with their own professional conductors, various film, art and photographic student societies, the annual LSE photo prize competition, the LSE Literary Festival and artist-in-residence projects. For more information please view the LSE Arts and Music website.

Contributor(s): Professor Amartya Sen | At this event Amartya Sen will be in conversation about his latest publication, The Country of First Boys, which is a new collection of cultural essays in which Sen examines social justice and welfare, by addressing some of the fundamental issues of our time like deprivation, disparity, hunger, illiteracy, alienation, globalisation, media, freedom of speech, injustice, inequality, exclusion, and exploitation. Amartya Sen is Thomas W. Lamont University Professor, and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, at Harvard University. He is the recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics and an honorary fellow of LSE. Nicholas Stern is IG Patel Professor and Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE and President of the British Academy. Established in 2015, the South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE) marks a step-change in LSE’s engagement with South Asia. LSE has more than 70 subject experts whose teaching and research interests concern South Asia; the Centre harnesses this world class inter- and multi-disciplinary expertise to underwrite the School’s fundamental mission of impacting public awareness through informed knowledge. The SAC is a global platform to engage with South Asia – whose particularities constantly challenge conventional social science thinking about the region.

Contributor(s): Professor Walter W Powell | Civil society is challenged to demonstrate its impact. Network and linguistic analyses of webpages reveal intense struggles among governments, businesses, and nonprofits to define effectiveness. Walter W. Powell is Professor of Education, Sociology, Organizational Behavior, Management Science and Engineering, and Public Policy, Stanford University. Judy Wajcman is Anthony Giddens Professor of Sociology at LSE. The Department of Sociology at LSE (@LSEsociology) was established in 1904 and remains committed to top quality teaching and leading research and scholarship today.

Contributor(s): Elizabeth Crawford, Sarah Gavron, Faye Ward | The Women's Library is one of LSE Library's most important special collections, documenting the history and foundation of the women's suffrage movement. Do not miss this unique opportunity for LSE staff and students to discover more about the making of the film 'Suffragette'. We are delighted to welcome Sarah, Faye and Elizabeth to discuss their experiences making the film and the historical period in which it is set. Elizabeth Crawford was historical consultant to Suffragette. Sarah Gavron is the director of Suffragette. Faye Ward is the producer of Suffragette.

Contributor(s): Dr Dimitri Trenin | Leading Moscow-based analyst Dimitri Trenin opens up the black-box of Russia’s foreign policy and sheds light in particular on the role of the internal factors. This public lecture is organised on the occasion of the publication of Russia’s Foreign Policy: Ideas, Domestic Politics and External Relations, a collective volume co-edited by LSE academics Dr David Cadier and Professor Margot Light, to which Dr Trenin contributed a chapter. Dimitri Trenin (@DmitriTrenin) is Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center and a Senior Associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Before joining Carnegie in 1994 he served in the Soviet and Russian army. He’s a frequent commentator for the world news media, in particular The New York Times, The Moscow Times and Beijing’s Global Times. Michael Cox is Director of LSE IDEAS. The International Relations Department at LSE (@LSEIRDept) is now in its 87th year, making it one of the oldest as well as largest in the world. LSE IDEAS (@LSEIDEAS) is a foreign policy think-tank within LSE's Institute for Global Affairs.

Contributor(s): Alastair Campbell | Alastair Campbell, the former spokesman and strategist for Tony Blair, will speak about Winners and How They Succeed to the LSE Media Alumni Group on 2 November 2015. Alastair helped guide Labour to victory in three successive general elections, and knows what it takes to succeed. His presentation will get to the heart of winning by answering the question: How do sportsmen excel, entrepreneurs thrive or individuals achieve their ambition? He will also review what this means for the current media and political scene. Attendees will benefit from Alastair's unique insight into how winners succeed, drawing on an array of talented people – from elite athletes to top managers, from rulers of countries to rulers of global business empires.

Contributor(s): Dr Niall Cunningham, Professor Fiona Devine, Dr Sam Friedman, Dr Daniel Laurison, Dr Lisa McKenzie, Professor Mike Savage , Dr Helene Snee, Dr Paul Wakeling | A fresh take on social class from the experts behind the BBC's 'Great British Class Survey'. Social class has re-emerged as a topic of enormous scholarly and public attention. In this new book, Social Class in the 21st Century, Mike Savage and the team of sociologists responsible for the Great British Class Survey report their definitive findings and propose a new way of thinking about social class in Britain today. The book presents the ideas and facts behind their new conceptualization of class: a new British class system composed of seven classes that reflect the unequal distribution of three kinds of capital: economic (inequalities in income and wealth); social (the different kinds of people we know) and cultural (the ways in which our leisure and cultural preferences are exclusive). This book looks beyond labels to explore how and why our society is changing and what this means for the people who find themselves in the margins as well as in the centre. Niall Cunningham is Lecturer in Geography at Durham University. Fiona Devine is Head of Manchester Business School and Professor of Sociology. Sam Friedman (@SamFriedmanSoc) is Assistant Professor in Sociology at LSE. Daniel Laurison (@Daniel_Laurison) is Post-doctoral Fellow in Sociology at LSE. Lisa Mckenzie (@redrumlisa) is LSE Fellow in Sociology at LSE. Mike Savage (@MikeSav47032563) is Martin White Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the International Inequalities Institute at LSE. Helene Snee (@HeleneSnee) is Lecturer in Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University. Paul Wakeling (@pbjwakeling) is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Education at the University of York. Nicola Lacey is School Professor of Law, Gender and Social Policy, attached to the Departments of Law and Social Policy and to the Gender Institute at LSE. The Department of Sociology at LSE (@LSEsociology) was established in 1904 and remains committed to top quality teaching and leading research and scholarship today. The new International Inequalities Institute at LSE (@LSEInequalities) brings together experts from many LSE departments and centres to lead critical and cutting edge research to understand why inequalities are escalating in numerous arenas across the world, and to develop critical tools to address these challenges.

Contributor(s): Professor Michael Cox, Professor Danny Quah, Dr Leslie Vinjamuri | If the 19th century was Europe's - and the 20th century became America's - is there any reason why the 21st century should not be Asia's? Michael Cox is Director of LSE IDEAS. Danny Quah (@DannyQuah) is Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre. Leslie Vinjamuri is Co-Director of the Centre for the International Politics of Conflict, Rights and Justice and a Associate Professor in International Relations at SOAS, University of London. Tim Frost is a Founder and Director of Cairn Capital and Markit. LSE IDEAS (@LSEIDEAS) is a foreign policy think-tank within LSE's Institute for Global Affairs. The Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre (@LSESEAC) is an inter-disciplinary, regionally-focused academic centre within the Institute of Global Affairs at LSE. Building on the School's deep academic and historical connections with Southeast Asia, the Centre seeks to encourage the best academic and policy research, with core focus on the social context of the region.

Contributor(s): Professor Ian Morris | 20,000 years ago, ‘international relations’ meant interactions between tiny foraging bands; now it means a global system. Philippe Roman Chair Ian Morris explains how the growth of the international system and the shifts of power within it are linked to geography and energy extraction. In tracing this story, Professor Morris asks: Why were the world’s greatest powers concentrated in western Eurasia until about AD 500? Why did they shift to East Asia until AD 1750? Why did they return to the shores of the North Atlantic? And where will they go next? Ian Morris is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2015-16. Michael Cox is Director of LSE IDEAS. LSE IDEAS (@LSEIDEAS) is a foreign policy think-tank within LSE's Institute for Global Affairs.

Contributor(s): Dr Andreas Dombret | While bankers and regulators are still busy implementing the lessons learnt from the crisis, new challenges have arisen that might once again change the banking landscape. Andreas Dombret is a Member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank. He trained as a bank clerk with Dresdner Bank before studying business management at the Westfälische Wilhelms University in Münster. He was awarded his PhD by the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen-Nuremberg. From 1987 to 1991, he worked at Deutsche Bank’s Head Office in Frankfurt as a manager with the power of procuration. From 1992 to 2002, he worked at JP Morgan in Frankfurt and London, from 1999 as a Managing Director. From 2002 to 2005, he was the Co-Head of Rothschild Germany located in Frankfurt and London, before serving Bank of America as Vice Chairman for Europe and Head for Germany, Austria and Switzerland between 2005 and 2009. He was awarded an honorary professorship from the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel in 2009. Since May 2010, he has been a member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank with currently responsibility for Banking and Financial Supervision, Risk Control and the Bundesbank’s Representatives Offices abroad. He is also responsible for G7, G20 and IMF (Deputy of the Bundesbank), Supervisory Board (SSM) (Member), Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCDS) (Member of the Bundesbank and Bank for International Settlements, Basel (Board of Directors). Charles Bean is a Professor of Economics at LSE and a former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. The Financial Markets Group Research Centre (FMG) at LSE (@FMG_LSE) is one of the leading European centres for academic research into financial markets and is a focal point for research communication with the business, policy making, and academic finance communities.

Contributor(s): Professor Dominic Lieven | This lecture and new book Towards the Flame: Empire, War and the End of Tsarist Russia is a study of the international crisis of 1900-19 from a largely Russian angle. It is based on significant research in Russian archives. Professor Dominic Lieven provides a radically different interpretation of the crisis to the one that dominates anglophone historiography. Dominic Lieven is Senior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, and a Fellow of the British Academy. Janet Hartley is Professor of International History and Head of the Department of International History at LSE. The Department of International History (@lsehistory) is one of the top five university history departments in the UK.

Contributor(s): Professor James Fairhead, Professor Katy Gardner, Professor David Lewis, Professor David Mosse | This is a panel discussion in support of the following publication Anthropology and Development Challenges for the Twenty-First Century, which will include both authors, Katy Gardner and David Lewis who are both LSE academics. Anthropology and Development is a completely rewritten new version of the best-selling and critically acclaimed book Anthropology, Development and the Post-Modern Challenge (1996). It offers an innovative reformulation of the field, a resource for researchers and policy makers, and a key reading for students on undergraduate and graduate courses at leading universities in Europe and North America. Katy Gardner and David Lewis engage with nearly two decades of continuity and change in the development industry. Arguing that the world of international development has expanded and become more technocratic since the 1990s, Anthropology and Development insists on a focus on the core anthropological issues surrounding poverty and inequality, and aims to redefine perceptions of the key problems in the field. James Fairhead is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Sussex. Katy Gardner is Professor of Anthropology and Head of the Department of Anthropology at LSE. David Lewis (@lewisd100) is Professor of Social Policy and Development and Head of the Department of Social Policy at LSE. David Mosse is Professor of Social Anthropology at SOAS. Deborah James is Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at LSE. The Department of Social Policy (@LSESocialPolicy) is the longest established in the UK and offers outstanding teaching based on the highest quality empirical research in the field. LSE's Anthropology Department (@LSEAnthropology), with a long and distinguished history, remains a leading centre for innovative research and teaching.

Contributor(s): Professor Ian Morris | In the last 50 years, knowledge of archaeology, anthropology, history, evolution, genetics and linguistics has exploded. A new synthesis of history is emerging, suggesting that people are all much the same and the societies we create all develop in much the same ways. What varies is the places in which societies develop. Biology and geography have driven a 150,000-year story of cooperation and competition. By projecting forward the patterns of the past and the forces that disrupt them, we can begin to see where the 21st century might take us. Ian Morris is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2015-16. Michael Cox is Director of LSE IDEAS. LSE IDEAS (@LSEIDEAS) is a foreign policy think-tank within LSE's Institute for Global Affairs.

Contributor(s): Sir Suma Chakrabarti | President Chakrabarti’s lecture will focus on the importance of the partnership between the state and the private sector in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SGGs). The state alone will not be able to deliver on the ambitious vision for global sustainable growth and inclusive development that is at the core of the SDGs. The private sector can and should become a key partner in this process. This approach has been endorsed by the international community over the summer, when world leaders met in Addis Ababa to discuss how to mobilise and channel resources for sustainable development. The President’s speech will reflect on types of private sector engagement building on the experience of the EBRD in fostering strategic partnerships between the state and the private sector. Sir Suma Chakrabarti (@ebrdsuma) is the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The EBRD is a multilateral developmental bank founded in 1991, with the purpose of developing open and sustainable market economies in countries committed to democratic principles. Today, the Bank is active in more than 30 countries from central Europe to central Asia and the southern and eastern Mediterranean. Prior to his current role Sir Suma held the position of Permanent Secretary at the British Ministry of Justice. Prior to this, from 2002, he headed the UK’s Department for International Development (formerly the Overseas Development Administration (ODA) where he worked closely with economies undergoing substantial reform in eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and the Middle East and North Africa. After studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Oxford, Sir Suma took a Masters in Development Economics at the University of Sussex. Dr Waltraud Schelkle is Associate Professor of Political Economy at the European Institute, LSE. The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) was established in 1991 as a dedicated centre for the interdisciplinary study of processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector.

Contributor(s): Xavier Bettel | With Luxembourg chairing the EU Council of Ministers, the Luxembourg Prime Minister will focus on the various challenges the Luxembourg Presidency had to face since July and the implementation of its ambitious programme of work in order to prepare the EU for the challenges ahead. Xavier Bettel (@Xavier_Bettel) is Prime Minister of Luxembourg. Following the legislative elections of 20 October 2013, Xavier Bettel was appointed Prime Minister, Minister of State, Minister for Communications and Media, Minister for Religious Affairs on 4 December 2013 in the coalition government formed by the Democratic Party (DP), the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP) and the Green Party ("déi gréng"). A member of the DP since 1989, Xavier Bettel was elected to Parliament for the first time in 1999 at the age of 26 while standing for the DP in the constituency of the Centre. He was re-elected in 2004, 2009 and 2013. In Parliament, he assumed among others the roles of vice-chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee from 2004 to 2013 and vice-chairman of the Committee of Enquiry into the State Intelligence Service from 2012 to 2013. From 2009 to 2011, he assumed the role of chairman of the DP parliamentary group.

Contributor(s): Fredrik Reinfeldt | Structural changes and several crises in recent years have put tremendous pressure on the labour market. Many jobs are gone, but a lot of new jobs have been created. The challenge which emerges is that many new jobs have very different skills profiles to jobs that have been lost. Many people risk ending up outside the labour market. The Swedish example shows the need for a framework which covers all parts of the labour market, to be able to create the right conditions for new jobs for everyone. Fredrik Reinfeldt has been active in Swedish and international politics for over 25 years. He reinvented the Moderate Party (centre-right) creating “the new Moderates” and entered into an alliance with three other center and center-right parties. The four party alliance won two successive elections and Reinfeldt, as Prime Minister, presided over two coalition governments (2006 until 2014). During his time as Prime Minister, Reinfeldt reformed the Swedish economy and labour market, making Sweden one of the most competitive countries in Europe. More than 300,000 new jobs were created. The Swedish economy had higher growth rates and sounder public finances than other European countries during his time as Prime Minister. Sweden was also the only country in the EU that lowered its national debt during the financial crises. He is currently writing a book about his time in politics. The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) was established in 1991 as a dedicated centre for the interdisciplinary study of processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector.

Contributor(s): Rachel Kyte | The Paris Accord, the hoped for ambitious agreement, to be decided at the 21st Convention of the Parties of the UNFCCC, this December, will set us on a new pathway towards zero carbon growth. When the negotiators go home, what messages will they have sent to economic actors globally? How will an orderly transition to zero carbon growth be managed and financed? In response to overwhelming scientific consensus and a compelling economic case that we need to change the course of our carbon history, who will CEOs, Heads of State and others respond to the question “when you knew, what did you do?” Rachel Kyte (@rkyte365) is a World Bank Group Vice President and Special Envoy for Climate Change. As a leading advocate for action to combat climate change because of its intrinsic link to poverty and development, Ms. Kyte is the leading figure for the World Bank Group in efforts to campaign for an ambitious agreement at the 21st Convention of the Parties of the UNFCCC this December. She is leading work on climate change adaptation, mitigation, climate finance, and disaster risk and resilience across the institutions of the World Bank Group, including IBRD, IDA, IFC, and MIGA. Professor Samuel Fankhauser is Co-Director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and Deputy Director of the ESRC-funded Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, both at the London School of Economics. The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (@GRI_LSE) is a research centre at LSE. The Institute’s research looks at the economics of climate change, and aims to inform policy and academic debate.

Contributor(s): Lord Turner | Too much private debt led to the disastrous crisis of 2008. In future public policy must constrain the quantity and influence the allocation of private credit creation. And we should ‘print money’ to escape the post crisis mess. That sounds dangerous – but relying on private credit to drive growth is more so. Adair Turner (@AdairTurnerUK) has combined careers in business, public policy and academia. He became Chairman of the United Kingdom Financial Services Authority as the financial crisis broke in September 2008, and played a leading role in the redesign of the global banking and shadow banking regulation as Chairman of the International Financial Stability Board's major policy committee. He is now a Senior Fellow of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, and at the Centre for Financial Studies in Frankfurt. Prior to 2008, Lord Turner was a non-executive Director at Standard Chartered Bank (2006-2008); Vice Chairman of Merrill Lynch Europe (2000-2006); and, from 1995-1999, Director General of the Confederation of British Industry. He was with McKinsey & Co. from 1982 to 1995. Lord Turner became a cross-bench member of the House of Lords in 2005 and was appointed Chair of the Climate Change Committee in 2008, stepping down in 2012; he also chaired the Pensions Commission from 2003 to 2006, and the Low Pay Commission from 2002 to 2006. He is the author of Just Capital – The Liberal Economy (Macmillan, 2001), Economics after the Crisis, (MIT Press, 2012) and his newest book, Between Debt and the Devil: Money, Credit, and Fixing Global Finance and holds Visiting Professorships at the London School of Economics and at Cass Business School, City University. He is a Trustee and Chair of the Audit Committee at the British Museum. Robert Peston (@Peston) is the BBC's Economics Editor and founder of the education charity, Speakers for Schools. He has written three books, How Do We Fix This Mess, Who Runs Britain?, and Brown’s Britain. Peston has won more than 30 awards for his journalism, including Journalist of the Year from the Royal Television Society. The Financial Markets Group Research Centre (FMG) at LSE (@FMG_LSE) is one of the leading European centres for academic research into financial markets and is a focal point for research communication with the business, policy making, and academic finance communities.

Contributor(s): Dushyant Dave | India has faced serious challenges from internal and external armed groups and terrorists. Tens of thousands of citizens and several thousand security personnel have lost their lives in recent years. Reprisals by security forces have in turn led to serious human rights violations. Large scale sectarian violence (such as that which targeted Sikhs in 1984 and Muslims in 2002) has highlighted the serious failure of the Indian state in protecting lives and providing justice to victims. The absence of accountability in such glaring examples highlights the gross violations of the human values and human rights upon which the post-Independence Indian state was founded. Because of its sheer size, and often because of apathy, the justice system has failed to establish firm roots for protecting the human rights of Indian citizens, especially women, the poor and oppressed, and minority groups. Dushyant Dave, a highly regarded and widely known Senior Advocate and President of the Supreme Court Bar Association of India, speaks from his considerable experience about the issues of accountability and justice at stake in India today. His talk will discuss the focused and vigorous campaigns needed across the legislature, executive and judiciary to address serious human rights violations, provide sound systems of redress and ensure strict standards of democratic and legal accountability. Dushyant Dave is a Senior Advocate and President of the Supreme Court Bar Association of India. Chetan Bhatt (@ChetanBhatt1962) is Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights. The Centre for the Study of Human Rights at LSE (@LSEHumanRights) is a trans-disciplinary centre of excellence for international academic research, teaching and critical scholarship on human rights. The South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE) leads the school's long-term engagement in the region by facilitating multi-disciplinary approaches and comparative research by LSE academics.

Contributor(s): Tim Judah | Veteran war reporter and Economist correspondent Tim Judah explores the impact of the ongoing conflict on the inhabitants of Ukraine. His new book is In Wartime: Stories from Ukraine. Tim Judah (@timjudah1) writes for the New York Review of Books and the Economist, most recently on the situation in Ukraine. In his career he has covered the aftermath of communism in Romania and Bulgaria and the war in Yugoslavia for The Times and the Economist. His most recent books are Kosovo: What Everyone Needs to Know and The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia. Robert Cooper is a Visiting Senior Fellow at LSE IDEAS. He was educated at Oxford and joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1970. Since then Mr Cooper has worked at various British Embassies abroad and since mid-2002 he has been working on behalf of the EU. The International Relations Department at LSE (@LSEIRDept) is now in its 87th year, making it one of the oldest as well as largest in the world.

Contributor(s): Professor Jane Waldfogel, Dr Lee Elliott Major | The belief that with hard work and determination, all children have the opportunity to succeed in life is a cherished part of the American Dream. Yet, increased inequality in America has made that dream more difficult for many to obtain. In Too Many Children Left Behind, an international team of social scientists assesses how social mobility varies in the United States compared with Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Bruce Bradbury, Miles Corak, Jane Waldfogel, and Elizabeth Washbrook show that the academic achievement gap between disadvantaged American children and their more advantaged peers is far greater than in other wealthy countries, with serious consequences for their future life outcomes. With education the key to expanding opportunities for those born into low socioeconomic status families, Too Many Children Left Behind helps us better understand educational disparities and how to reduce them. Jane Waldfogel is Compton Foundation Centennial Professor, Columbia University School of Social Work and Visiting Professor at CASE, LSE. She is co-author of Too Many Children Left Behind. Lee Elliott Major (@Lem_SuttonTrust) is Chief Executive of the Sutton Trust which aims to improve social mobility through education. He leads its development work and oversaw the trust’s research work from 2006-2012. John Hills is Professor of Social Policy and Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) and Co-Director of the International Inequalities Institute at LSE. The Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at LSE (@CASE_LSE) focuses on the exploration of different dimensions of social disadvantage, particularly from longitudinal and neighbourhood perspectives, and examination of the impact of public policy. The new International Inequalities Institute at LSE (@LSEInequalities) brings together experts from many LSE departments and centres to provide co-ordination and strategic leadership for critical and cutting edge research and inter-disciplinary analysis of inequalities.

Contributor(s): Professor Dieter Helm | Natural capital is what nature provides to us for free. Renewables - like species - keep on coming, provided we do not drive them towards extinction. Non-renewables - like oil and gas - can only be used once. Together, they are the foundation that ensures our survival and well-being, and the basis of all economic activity. In the face of the global, local, and national destruction of biodiversity and ecosystems, economist Dieter Helm offers a crucial set of strategies for establishing natural capital policy that is balanced, economically sustainable, and politically viable. Professor Dieter Helm (@Dieter_Helm) is Professor of Energy Policy and Fellow of New College, Oxford. Professor Giles Atkinson is Professor of Environmental Policy in the Department of Geography & Environment at LSE. The LSE Department of Geography & Environment is a centre of international academic excellence in economic, urban and development geography, environmental social science and climate change. The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (@GRI_LSE) is a world-leading centre for policy-relevant research and training on climate change and the environment, bringing together international expertise on economics, finance, geography, the environment, international development and political economy.

Contributor(s): Professor John Kay | Modern economies need finance, to enable us to make payments, transfer wealth across our lifetimes and between generations, allocate capital and maintain the corporate and physical infrastructure, and to help us manage the risks of everyday life. Instead, we have created a financial world that talks to itself, trades with itself, and is increasingly divorced from the activities of the real economy. John Kay explains how this came about – and what can be done to recreate a financial sector responsive to economic and social needs. John Kay (@JohnKayFT) is an economist whose career has spanned the academic world, business and public affairs. Currently, he is a visiting Professor of Economics at LSE and a Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is a director of several public companies and contributes a weekly column to the Financial Times. He recently chaired the Review of UK Equity Markets and Long-Term Decision-Making which reported to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills in July 2012. He is the author of many books, including The Truth about Markets (2003), The Long and the Short of It: finance and investment for normally intelligent people who are not in the industry (2009) and Obliquity (2010). His latest book is Other People’s Money. Wouter Den Haan is Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Centre for Macroeconomics. The Department of Economics at LSE (@LSEEcon) is one of the largest economics departments in the world. Its size ensures that all areas of economics are strongly represented in both research and teaching. The Centre For Macroeconomics (@CFMUK) brings together world-class experts to carry out pioneering research on the global economic crisis and to help design policies that alleviate it.

Contributor(s): Sean McFate | It was 2004, and Sean McFate had a mission in Burundi: to keep the president alive and prevent the country from spiralling into genocide, without anyone knowing that the United States was involved. The United States was, of course, involved, but only through McFate's employer, the military contractor DynCorp International. Throughout the world, similar scenarios are playing out daily. The United States can no longer go to war without contractors. Yet we don't know much about the industry's structure, its operations, or where it's heading. Even the U.S. government - the entity that actually pays them - knows relatively little. In The Modern Mercenary, Sean McFate combines a broad-ranging theory of the phenomenon with an insider’s understanding of what the opaque world of the private military industry is actually like, explaining its economic structure and showing in detail how firms operate on the ground. McFate provides an unparalleled perspective into the nuts and bolts of the industry, as well as a sobering prognosis for the future of war. Sean McFate (@seanmcfate) is Associate Professor at the National Defense University, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council and Adjunct Professor at Georgetown School of Foreign Service. Sean is an alumnus of LSE. Christopher Coker is Professor of International Relations at LSE. The International Relations Department at LSE (@LSEIRDept) is now in its 87th year, making it one of the oldest as well as largest in the world.