Building the Centre-right in Europe: impressions from a lifetime's experience [Audio]
Speaker(s): Wilfried Martens | Centre-right parties dominate at national and European levels. To what do they owe their success - even during this so-called 'crisis of capitalism'? Wilfried Martens is president of the European People's Party and former prime minister of Belgium. This lecture marks the release of his memoirs, I Struggle, I Overcome. Damian Chalmers is Professor of European Union Law based in the Law Department and the European Institute, LSE.
Too Big to Fail [Audio]
Speaker(s): Andrew Ross Sorkin | Andrew Ross Sorkin will take the audience behind the financial crisis and inside various secret meetings and never-before revealed conversations between regulators in Washington DC and London as well as on Wall Street. Sorkin will describe the reporting process of this painstakingly reported narrative; how he was able to gain access to the key players and how they provided him with hundreds of hundreds of pages of internal documents and notes that were the basis
The Value of Nothing [Audio]
Speaker(s): Raj Patel | "Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing." Credit has crunched, debt has turned toxic, the gears of the world economy have ground to a halt. It's now clear that the market doesn't only get it wrong about sub-prime mortgages; it gets it wrong about everything. We need to ask again one of the most fundamental questions a society ever addresses: why do things cost what they do?
Belonging, Diaspora and Community [Audio]
Speaker(s): Amitav Ghosh | Amitav Ghosh is one of India's most acclaimed authors and cultural commentators. His novels include 'The Glass Palace', 'The Hungry Tide' and his most recent 'Sea of Poppies', the first volume of the Ibis Trilogy. He is also a celebrated travel and non-fiction writer, including such works as 'In an Antique Land' and 'Incendiary Circumstances'.
Happiness around the World: the paradox of happy peasants and miserable millionaires [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Carol Graham | The determinants of happiness are remarkably similar around the world, in countries as different as Afghanistan, the U.S, and Chile. Income matters to happiness but only so much; friends, freedom, and employment are good for happiness, while crime, poor health, and divorce are bad. Paradoxically, however, people in places like Afghanistan can be as happy as those in much wealthier and safer ones like Chile. One explanation is the remarkable human capacity to
The Future of Internet Rights: A Conversation with Industry's Leaders [Audio]
Speaker(s): Richard Allan, Kasey Chappelle, Alma Whitten, Usama M. Fayyad | Will the market and innovation decide the future of the internet, or will the future be led by law and policy? The Internet is rapidly evolving and has mutated in the space of a decade from a static information source to a dynamic organism. In the future its shape will be dramatically different, as the online space moves even further to the centre of almost every aspect of our lives.
New Economics [Audio]
Speaker(s): Andrew Simms | Andrew Simms considers the development of a new sustainable economic model, looking at environmental, social and economic aspects. Andrew Simms is an author and a policy director at the New Economics Foundation. His most recent work is Ecological Debt: global warming and the wealth of nations
Uninhibited, Robust and Wide-Open: a free press for a new century [Audio]
Speaker(s): Lee Bollinger | Bollinger explores the meaning of freedom of the press in our globalised, internet-dominated era. Lee C. Bollinger became the nineteenth President of Columbia University on June 1, 2002. A prominent advocate of affirmative action, he played a leading role in the twin Supreme Court cases - Grutter v Bollinger and Gratz v Bollinger - that upheld and clarified the importance of diversity as a compelling justification for affirmative action in higher education. A leading
Europe - the traitor's kiss [Audio]
Speaker(s): Chris Bryant MP | After the recent focus on internal issues, the EU is now turning its attention to global matters. What impact will the emerging economic powerhouses of India, China and Brazil have on Europe's revitalised outward-looking perspective? Chris Bryant MP is UK Minister for Europe.
Uncertainty and Ambiguity in American Fiscal and Monetary Policies [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Thomas J Sargent | Combining an historical approach with macroeconomic theory, Thomas Sargent will discuss ways of thinking about American fiscal and monetary policies - exploring how contradictions have developed and how they have been resolved. Thomas Sargent is professor of economics at New York University and senior fellow at Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
LSE Literary Festival - How Would a Robot Read a Novel? [Audio]
Speaker(s): Dr Kavita Abraham, Dr Jon Adams, Dr Robert Hudson | Don't judge a book by its cover? Don't be ridiculous. We constantly make judgements on books - from where it appears in a shop, its pretty cover, its heft or subject matter, the praise and criticism we hear about it. Reviewers are even more prejudiced. They know the author, or hate the publisher or, even worse, are a meticulous and lucid expert on the subject. All human readings are subjective. Is there another way? Would an objecti
LSE Literary Festival - Sociology as Literature [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Richard Sennett | Richard Sennett's award winning Sociology of Literature explores the role of narrative in social research and in writing sociology.
LSE Literary Festival - Animating a Myth for our times: The Lawsuit of the Animals against Humanity
Speaker(s): Zeina Frangie-Eyres, Dr Simon Glendinning, Professor Marina Warner, Dr Mark Wright | An event that combines a story-telling of the 1000-year-old eco-fable The Animals' Lawsuit against Humanity with a panel discussion on the story's historical and literary origins; current biodiversity in the midst of species extinction; the philosophical relationship between humans; and animals and the need for a myth for our times.
Prosperity without Growth [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Tim Jackson | This lecture will discuss a new vision of shared prosperity. It will consider the capability of human beings to flourish within the ecological limits of a finite planet. Tim Jackson is professor of sustainable development at the University of Surrey and economics commissioner on the UK Sustainable Development Commission.
LSE Asia Forum 2010 - 08:00 - 09:45 - Welcome & Introduction - Keynote Speech - Address by His Royal
Speaker(s): Howard Davies; His Excellency Mr Yang Jiechi; His Royal Highness The Duke of York | The fifth LSE Asia Forum took place in Beijing on 25-26 March 2010 with the support of the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS). The Forum addressed a wide range of issues of deep interest to policymakers and wider society, under a general theme relating to the recent challenges and changes that have affected the global economy. A key focus of the Forum was on the role of China in tackling
Economics And Politics Post-Lisbon [Audio]
Speaker(s): Baroness Catherine Ashton | Baroness Catherine Ashton is the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Vice President of the European Commission. Prior to this she served as European Commissioner for Trade.
Atheists On Religion [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Tim Crane, Professor AC Grayling | For the last 150 years or so European philosophers and sociologists have tended to regard religion as just one more pre-scientific myth and superstition that has had its day, and likely to wither on the vine of History. This view, the secularization thesis, seems today to be in poor shape. Not only does there appear to be no sign of withering, still less a clear path of scientific and rational progress, but religion seems to be reviving. C
The Financial Crisis: Who is to Blame? [Audio]
Speaker(s): Howard Daves, Robert Peston | There is still no consensus on who or what caused the financial crisis which engulfed the world, beginning in the summer of 2007. A huge number of suspects have been identified, from greedy investment bankers, through feckless borrowers, dilatory regulators and myopic central bankers to violent video games and high levels of testosterone among the denizens of trading floors. There is not even agreement on whether the crisis shows a need for more governme
Fanatacism [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Robert Eaglestone, Dr Alberto Toscano | Alberto Toscano will be debating his counter-history of fanaticism, in which he argues that fanaticism has played a critical role in forming modern politics. Robert Eaglestone is professor of contemporary literature and thought at Royal Holloway, University of London. Alberto Toscano is senior lecturer in sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Europe in the new energy world order [Audio]
Speaker(s): Lykke Friis | The cold war era was characterised by a bipolarity based on ideologies and nuclear arms. The post cold war era will increasingly be defined by energy. Power and economic welfare will depend on a country's or region's access to the world's decreasing fossil fuels or the development of renewable energy. In this lecture, the Danish Minister of Climate and Energy focuses on Europe's chances to prosper in this new energy world order. Lykke Friis is the Danish Minister for Cl
