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
The Future of Global Economic Governance [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Robert Wade | How have changes in world power been translated into governing bodies like the G20, the World Bank and the IMF? The reality is less than meets the eye, and stalemates lie ahead. Robert Wade is professor of political economy and development in the Department of International Development, LSE.
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 Changing Geostrategic Landscape in the Middle East [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Mohammed Ayoob, Patrick Seale, Professor Avi Shlaim | The new Middle East Centre at LSE is holding a public symposium and reception to welcome Middle East specialists to LSE and to promote the work of the centre. Professor Mohammed Ayoob of Michigan State University will present his analysis of the geostrategic landscape of the region. Professor Avi Shlaim of St Antony's College will respond. The event will be chaired by Dr Hassan Hakimian of SOAS.
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
The Have and Have Nots [Audio]
Speaker(s): Branko Milanovic | Inequality is a surprisingly slippery issue, involving not just straightforward comparisons of individuals, but also comparisons of price and consumption differences around the world – and over time. In this lecture Branko Milanovic, the lead economist at the World Bank's research division, will approach the issue in a new and innovative way, focusing on inequality in income and wealth in different time periods and contexts: from inequality in Roman times (and ho
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
Climate Forecasting with Chaos, or Chaos in Climate Forecasting? [Audio]
Speaker(s): Dr Roman Frigg | Predicting how climate change will affect us is of paramount importance, yet it is beset with both practical and conceptual problems. This lecture explores the impact that chaos has on what we can reasonably assert on the basis of climate models. Roman Frigg is deputy director of the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Sciences, LSE.
The Foreign Policy of Modern Russia: The Prospects for Russian British Relations [Audio]
Speaker(s): Sergey Lavrov | Sergey Lavrov is Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. Prior to this he served from 1994-2004 as Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation at the United Nations. He graduated from the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Moscow State Institute of International Relations, beginning his diplomatic career at the Soviet Embassy in Sri Lanka. This event is the opening lecture in Russian Business Week organised by the LSESU Russian Business Society wh
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
Literary Festival 2011 - Science Fiction and International Orders [Audio]
Speaker(s): Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Paul McAuley, Ken McLeod | The study of popular culture has always been a feature of the social sciences as well as of the humanities – indeed, the social sciences have often been in advance of the humanities in this area, more willing to recognise the importance of genres that are frowned upon by the arts establishment. This event will bring together a number of writers of imaginative fiction and academics who have written in this field. Jon Courtney Grimwo
Literary Festival 2011 - Facts are Subversive: crossing the borders between history and journalism [
Speaker(s): Professor Timothy Garton Ash | The border between journalism and academic history is a minefield. Timothy Garton Ash has been crossing it stubbornly for the last thirty years, attempting to combine the crafts of journalist and historian, writing what he calls ‘history of the present’. Taking examples from his most recent book, Facts are Subversive, he talks about the delights and pitfalls of this mongrel craft. Timothy Garton Ash is the author of nine books of political writing o
India and China: Competition, Co-operation or conflict? [Audio]
Speaker(s): Dr Shashi Tharoor | This lecture is part of India Week 2011. Dr Shashi Tharoor is an elected Member of Parliament and a former Minister of State for External Affairs in the Government of India. A prize-winning author of twelve books, both fiction and non-fiction, he is also a widely-published critic, commentator and columnist. In 2007 he concluded a nearly 29-year career with the United Nations, including working for refugees in South-East Asia at the peak of the "boat people" crisis
Literary Festival 2011 - Through the Soviet Looking-Glass [Audio]
Speaker(s): Francis Spufford | At first sight, the USSR of the 1950s and 1960s is a formidably remote and strange place for an early 21st-century western observer to try to inhabit: ideological, materially alien, suffused with obsolete expectations, and operating in its daily life and economic life according to rules that eerily reverse our own. But the reward for crossing this particular imaginative border, argues Francis Spufford, is the discovery, in the mirrorworld of the Soviet Union, of de
Literary Festival 2011 - The Immortalization Commission: Science and the Strange Quest to Cheat Deat
Speaker(s): Professor John Gray | During the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century science became the vehicle for an assault on death. The power of knowledge was summoned to free humans of their mortality. Science was used against science and became a channel for faith. John Gray is most recently the acclaimed author of Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia, and Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals. Having been Professor of Politics at Oxford, Visitin
Can Middle East peace be imposed? [Audio]
Speaker(s): Henry Siegman | Henry Siegman is president of the U.S./Middle East Project, an initiative focused on U.S.-Middle East policy and the Israel-Palestine conflict, launched by the Council on Foreign Relations in 1994. The organization was established as an independent policy institute in 2006 under the chairmanship of General Brent Scowcroft. Mr Siegman is also a visiting research professor at the Sir Joseph Hotung Middle East Program of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Univer
Catch-Up History and the Cold War [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Lord Peter Hennessy | World-renowned expert on Cold War intelligence and espionage Peter Hennessy will address recently declassified documents and how history can help us 'catch-up' with the threats of today. Peter Hennessy is Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at QMUL and was recently elected a Fellow of the British Academy as well as being an Honorary Fellow of LSE. Before joining the Department in 1992, he was a journalist for twenty years with spells on Th
