LSE Literary Weekend - Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire
Editors note: Unfortunately the last few minutes of this event are missing from the podcast. Iain Sinclair is a writer, poet and film-maker and widely regarded as one of London's greatest chroniclers. Jerry White has been writing about London for thirty years. His London in the Twentieth Century: A City and Its People won the Wolfson History Prize 2001. Patrick Wright is a writer with an interest in the cultural and political dimensions of modern history. He is the author of a number of highly a
Capitalism 3.0
Capitalism needs to be reinvented for a new century in which the forces of economic globalization are much more powerful than before. Just as Adam Smith's minimal capitalism was transformed into Keynes' mixed economy, we need to contemplate a transition from the national version of the mixed economy to its global counterpart. We have to imagine a better balance between markets and their supporting institutions at the global level. Sometimes, this will require extending institutions outward from
The Post-American World and the Rise of the Rest
In this lecture, Fareed Zakaria will expound on the 'The Post-American World'; a world in which the United States no longer dominates the global economy, orchestrates geopolitics or overwhelms cultures. He will explain how the 'rise of the rest' - the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia, and many others - is the great story of our time. He will also explain how economic growth in any given country produces political confidence, national pride, and international problems. What d
Housing Markets and the Global Financial Crisis
Residential property is the single largest asset in people's everyday lives and its associated mortgage debt constitutes one of the biggest financial assets in most economies. Yet political economy largely ignores both. We know that the kind of housing people occupy and their level of debt affects their preferences for the level of public spending, taxation, and inflation. Housing is intimately tied to welfare systems and can be seen as a social right or as a means to acquire wealth over one's l
The Future of Global Capitalism, Convergence or Divergence Across the World
This event brings together Martin Jacques, Professor Michael Cox, and Professor Robert Wade to debate the changing nature and form of modern capitalism and to explore some of the challenges that will confront capitalism in the years ahead. Martin Jacques is the author of When China Rules the World: the Rise of the Middle Kingdom and the End of the Western World, and a Senior Visiting Fellow at LSE IDEAS. Michael Cox is professor of international relations and co-director of LSE IDEAS. Robert Wad
LSE Literary Weekend - At the margins - are hard times good times for literature?
Editors note: We apologise for the poor audio quality of this podcast. The UK has been buffeted by financial crises and an economic collapse which have seen public debt soar and corporate budgets constrict. The publishing industry has arguably seen its worst financial year in decades, with flagging book sales and dwindling literature coverage in the national press. How will literature will fare in the current climate, and in the years to come? Will major publishers' dwindling revenues mean fewer
LSE Literary Festival - How to write a novel- an introduction for beginners with Justine Mann
Does the task of writing a novel both excite and daunt you? Using the political novel as an example, this workshop will examine how to progress from initial ideas to a successful draft. Participants should emerge with an understanding of the task that lies ahead and a greater sense of what is required in terms of structure, characterisation and plot.
LSE Literary Weekend - Theatre of Action?
Editors note: We apologise for the poor audio quality of this podcast. Theatre has a rich tradition of raising political issues, as evidenced in LSE founder George Bernard Shaw’s work. A discussion between a playwright and director on whether contemporary drama still aims to challenge audiences.
Jimmy Stewart Is Dead -- Ending the World's Ongoing Financial Plague with Limited Purpose Banking
Let's call a spade a spade. Today's financial system, with its limited liability, insider rating, political kickbacks, director sweetheart deals, non disclosure, and internal corporate raiders, was built for hucksters -- hucksters who systematically manufactured and sold trillions in fraudulent securities, grabbed hoards of loot, and left the public to pick up the pieces.
The Party: The Secret World Of China's Communist Rulers
China's political and economic growth in the past three decades is one of astonishing, epochal dimensions. The country has undergone a remarkable transformation on a scale similar to the industrial revolution in the West. The most remarkable part of this transformation, however, has been largely left untold—the central role of the Chinese Communist Party. As an organization alone, the Party is a phenomenon of unique scale and power. With more than seventy-three million members, it does more th
ME++ The Cyborg Self and the Networked City
Throughout history, humans have created unique physical spaces in which to live, work and socialize. But the digital age has completely transformed the places in which we conduct our affairs, according to William J. Mitchell. We don’t congregate at the town bank any more for financial transactions. We visit ATMs or bank online.
Technologies Changing Communities, Communities Innovating Technology
The best way to help a community help itself, say Dayna Cunningham and Alexa Mills, is to enable its members to find their voices and talk to each other. In several projects in the U.S. and overseas, the two speakers are developing methodologies for enabling communities to express and define themselves, so they may b
Rebuilding Haiti
In the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake, four panelists with strong personal and professional ties to Haiti share their insights about the different paths to rebuilding and reconstructing the country.
Erica James begins with a view of Haiti’s history of “insécurité”, a term used to describe “cycles of polit
A comparison of attitudes
In this unit we shall look more closely at the evidence available to assess the truth of this argument. Were the working people, as opposed to the political leaders, interested in the issue of expansion? Was such interest evident only among certain sections of the community? Was it predominantly an enthusiasm for empire or not? We shall also try to identify some of the reasons underlying the nature of the response. And we shall be interested in how far politicians found it worth their while to �
Financial Services: Prospects for Your Future
In a lively discussion with Simon Johnson,
Lawrence Fish deconstructs the near collapse of the banking system and points out the multiple factors that have contributed to the financial crisis.
Topics in the discussion include the banks that did not fail, how Canadian and other countries' banking systems
Looking Ahead to 2020
Real-world practitioners of systems engineering/engineering systems describe how the young discipline has shaped their very large enterprises.
For the past 10 years, David Lehman has been incorporating key systems engineering ideas within MITRE Corporation. Successes include getting project leaders to think
New Media, Civic Media
As old media die, new forms are emerging, but it’s not clear they will serve such vital civic functions as “helping people form publics,” as Pat Aufderheide puts it. These panelists point to promising experiments in “Public Media 2.0,” but caution that new media are not guaranteed to shore up democracy or invigorate
Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons
Joseph Cirincione delivers an energetic and at times impassioned primer on the standoff with Iran on its nuclear program, drawn in part from his latest book, The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons (Columbia University Press, Spring 2007).
He offers a succinct ‘equation’ to describe what drives nat
The War in Afghanistan: How to End It
[from the MIT News Office]
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband urges the Afghanistan government to consider bringing Taliban supporters into its political system, telling an MIT audience that the prompt pursuit of a political deal among Afghanistan’s warring factions is necessary to build a lasting p
The Road from Copenhagen
Following the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in December 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark, a five-member panel reviews the pros and cons of the events that took place. Moderated by Ernest Moniz, the panel includes Rob Stavins, Michael Greenstone, Stephen Ansolabehere (filling in for William Bonvillian)
