Europe in 2011 and beyond [Audio]
Speaker(s): János Martonyi | János Martonyi is the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Hungary, which assumes the Presidency of the European Union on 1 January 2011. Mr Martonyi has been Foreign Minister since May 2010. He is actively involved in politics as the President of the Free Europe Centre for European Integration of the Fidesz Hungarian Civic Union, a member of the Executive Board of the Centre for European Studies, a foundation of the European People's Party based in Brussels, a member o
Rationality in the Social Sciences: black box, empty box, or both [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Nicholas Baigent | Nicholas Baigent is professor at the Institute of Public Economics at Graz University and president of the Central European Program in Economic Theory.
Valuing the Humanities [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor James Ladyman, Professor Martha Nussbaum, Lord Rees of Ludlow, Richard Smith | James Ladyman is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bristol and co-editor of the British Journal of the Philosophy of Science. Martha Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. Lord Rees of Ludlow is President of the Royal Society, Astronomer Royal and Master of Trinity College Cambridge. Richard Smith is a Former editor of t
The Naked Swimmer: Can Spain (and the Euro) overcome this crisis? [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Luis Garicano | Spain is widely considered the weak link in the Euro construction. We examine the validity of this assumption by analysing the origins and evolution of the current crisis and the growth perspectives of Spain. Luis Garicano is a Professor of Economics and Strategy at the LSE's departments of Management and Economics. Through the Madrid based FEDEA foundation, he has been involved in efforts to promote structural reforms in the Spanish Economy. In particular h
The Long History of Dietetics: thinking sociologically about food, knowledge and the self [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Steven Shapin | A survey and interpretation of historically changing ideas about food, knowledge, and the self. Steven Shapin is Franklin L Ford Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University.
Israeli Academic Boycott: Helpful or Harmful? [Audio]
Speaker(s): Dr John Chalcraft, Professor Daniel Hochhauser | This is a joint event hosted by the LSESU Palestine Society and LSESU Israel Society, this debate will be centred around the following motion: "This house believes in an academic boycott of Israel". John Chalcraft graduated with a starred first in history (M.A. Hons) from Gonville and Caius college Cambridge in 1992. He then did post-graduate work at Harvard, Oxford and New York University, from where he received his doctorate with dis
The Naked City [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Sharon Zukin | Renowned sociologist Sharon Zukin will discuss her latest book, The Naked City: the death and life of authentic urban places, which explores the gentrification of cities. Sharon Zukin is professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and City University Graduate Center.
Gender, Words and Power: meanings of inequality at a time of neo-liberalism [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Mary Evans | This lecture explores changing vocabularies of feminism and the possibilities of a new political language and new forms of politics. Mary Evans is LSE centennial professor attached to the Gender Institute from 2010 to 2013.
The Net Delusion: Does free information mean free people? [Audio]
Speaker(s): Evgeny Morozov | At the start of the twenty-first century we were promised that the internet would liberate the world. We could come together as never before, and from Iran's 'twitter revolution' to Facebook 'activism', technological innovation would spread democracy to oppressed peoples everywhere. We couldn't have been more wrong. Morozov destroys this myth, arguing that 'internet freedom' is an illusion, and that technology has failed to help protect people's rights. Not only tha
Eating Animals [Audio]
Speaker(s): Jonathan Safran Foer, Kristina Musholt | Eating Animals is an exhaustively-argued account of one man's decade-long struggle with vegetarianism. Part memoir, part exposé, the book examines the topics of factory farming and commercial fisheries and explores the cultural significance of food. Jonathan Safran Foer is the author of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Everything Is Illuminated, which won the National Jewish Book Award and the Guardian First Book Award.Kristina Musholt
How did London Get Away With it? The Recession and the North-South Divide [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Henry G Overman, Professor Ian Gordon, Alex Jones, Hamish McRae | It was widely expected that London would, in the short to medium run, be the most severely hit of the UK regions in the recession initiated by the 2007-08 financial crisis. This lecture considers why this did not happen. Henry G Overman is professor of economic geography at LSE and director of the Spatial Economics Research Centre. Ian Gordon is professor of human geography at LSE. Alex Jones is chief executi
African Urbanism [Audio]
Speaker(s): Edgar Pieterse | Africa is the fastest urbanising region in the world, and has become the focus of increasing attention from architects and planners, academics, development agencies and urban think-tanks. Professor Edgar Pieterse argues for a new way of thinking about African cities to accompany this surge of interest and to replace traditional views of African cities as sites of absence and neglect. Rapid urbanisation along with impressive economic growth rates for much of the Conti
Big Society and Social Policy in Britain: a panel discussion [Audio]
Speaker(s): Frances Crook, Professor David Lewis, Rory Stewart MP, Karl Wilding | In 2010 prime minister David Cameron introduced the idea of the Big Society. It is yet unclear what this actually means, let alone what impact it will have on social policy in Britain or overseas. This panel will examine these questions and discuss their views on the Big Society. Frances Crook is the appointed director of the Howard League for Penal Reform. She was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Years Honours
The Role of Education in Greece's Recovery [Audio]
Speaker(s): Anna Diamantopoulou | With the economic crisis in Greece, the government is embarking on an ambitious set of domestic reforms. What is the role of education in enhancing Greece's international competitiveness? Can Greece achieve the target of doubling R&D expenditure by 2020? Can the government realise its controversial reforms in the university sector and will they bring Greece closer to the rest of Europe? Anna Diamantopoulou is the minister for education, lifelong learning and rel
Peace Vs. Women's Rights in Afghanistan: Compatible or Contradicting Concepts? [Audio]
Speaker(s): Zainab Salbi | The talk will focus on the dichotomy of how peace and women's rights in Afghanistan are currently mutually exclusive. Zainab Salbi will address the issue on whether peace and women's rights go together in Afghanistan - is it possible to have both in this country or do they contradict each other and therefore are not attainable simultaneously? Zainab Salbi is founder and CEO of Women for Women International, a grassroots humanitarian and development organization helping
Growing the aid budget at a time of deficit reduction: moral imperative and political challenge [Aud
Speaker(s): Harriet Harman MP | The three main political parties have committed to the target of spending 0.7 per cent of Britain's Gross National Income on overseas aid from 2013. But, at a time when the government are embarking on a programme of deficit reduction, that political consensus cannot be allowed to lead to complacency. Harriet Harman MP, Labour's Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, will set out the arguments for overseas aid and, in a changing economic and polit
Absolute beginners: behavioural economics and human happiness [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Paul Dolan | In Absolute Beginners by The Jam, Paul Weller sang "I need the strength to go and get what I want". The problem is that we often want things that do not improve our wellbeing. Or at least that is what we think the evidence is telling us. This lecture explores the sources of our mistakes and the robustness of the evidence. It considers the implications for public policy of us being absolute beginners about the sources of our wellbeing. Paul Dolan is a Professor
The Nobel Lecture: Equilibrium in the Labour Market with Search Frictions [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Christopher Pissarides | Editor's note: Content Copyright: © The Nobel Foundation 2010. We apologise for the poor audio quality during the first few minutes of the video. Christopher Pissarides was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Sciences in 2010 (jointly with Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen) for their work on the economics of unemployment, especially job flows and the effect of being out of work. Christopher Pissarides is professor of economics at LSE and h
Impact, Concerns and Future of Political Transitions in Latin America [Audio]
Speaker(s): Carlos Mesa | Editor's note: The audio podcast is in Spanish. Having worked for the government from 2000, Carlos Mesa Gisbert was President of Bolivia from 2003 to 2005. His presidency focussed on constitutional reform to increase political representation and participation of citizen groups and indigenous people; Bolivian decentralization; and strengthening relations with other Latin American countries. As an academic and journalist Carlos Mesa has published extensively on the politi
Literary Festival 2011 - This House Believes that the Future of Rights is Left not Right [Audio]
Speaker(s): David Davis MP, Professor Conor Gearty | For the past twenty weeks Conor Gearty has been writing a collaborative book online, at www.therightsfuture.com, with an essay appearing weekly alongside regular longer items and occasional brief remarks on current affairs, with each post being open for comment from the general public. Many have replied with dedication and commitment. The result is a series of essays, discussions and critical engagements addressing such issues as the meaning o
