LSE: Public lectures and events

Speaker(s): James Meek | Is the historical association between extreme social change and violent revolution hampering opposition to the ballot-box extremism of the populist right? The Russian revolutions of 1917 still influence contemporary events, but they distort our understanding of them. Because the 1917 revolutions were both violent political transformations and executed programmes of radical social change, we see the two as bound to occur together. But it is not inevitable. From Ukraine and the Arab Spring to neoliberalism and the rise of superrich families, James Meek explores how the world is being reshaped by political revolutions that are empty of coherent ideology, and by transformational social revolutions, radical and ideological, that strive to operate outside the political sphere. James Meek (@LRBoutoflondon) is an award winning novelist and author who has reported extensively from Russia and the Middle East. His books include The People’s Act of Love and Private Island. He is a contributing editor for the London Review of Books. 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.

Speaker(s): Nana Bemma Nti, Christine Chinkin, Jeni Klugman, Jacqui True, Torunn L Tryggestad | How are scholars and researchers worldwide holding governments to account for their local and international women, peace and security commitments? Nana Bemma Nti is Faculty Co-ordinator of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre. Christine Chinkin is Director of the LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security. Jeni Klugman (@JeniKlugman) is Director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. Jacqui True (@JacquiTrue) is Director of the Monash Gender Peace and Security Institute. Torunn L Tryggestad is Director of the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security. Dr Paul Kirby is Assistant Professorial Research Fellow in the Centre for Women, Peace and Security. 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.

Speaker(s): Dr Franklin Ginn, Dr Suzanne Hobson, Professor John Milbank, Florian Mussgnug | Within our apparently secular, globalised, and technology-driven world, we are witnessing a return of apocalyptic thinking. What are its current incarnations and why have they emerged now? Or did apocalyptic thinking ever really leave us? Is it inescapably linked to our belief in progress? What are the politics of apocalypse? Does it paralyse or inspire us? In this event, the panel will consider philosophical, ecological, literary, and theological manifestations of apocalyptic thinking. Franklin Ginn is Lecturer in Cultural Geography, University of Bristol. Suzanne Hobson is Senior Lecturer in Twentieth Century Literature, Queen Mary, University of London. John Milbank (@johnmilbank3) is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Nottingham. Florian Mussgnug is Reader in Italian and Comparative Literature, UCL. Danielle Sands (@DanielleCSands) is a Lecturer in Comparative Literature and Culture at Royal Holloway, University of London and a Forum for European Philosophy Fellow. The Forum for European Philosophy (@ForumPhilosophy) is an educational charity that organises a full and varied programme of philosophy and interdisciplinary events in the UK.

Speaker(s): Dr Rupert Stasch | Editor's note: The first few minutes of the chairperson's introduction is missing from the recording. This lecture draws on Rupert Stasch's fieldwork studying Cannibal Tours-type encounters between international visitors and Korowai people of Indonesian Papua. Korowai, tourists, and guides regularly assimilated Rupert to tourism-relevant roles, and he regularly noticed similarities between tourism participants' ideas or practices and his own. In the lecture, he will explore the ethnography of the anthropology-tourism relation in this research, following a wider well-established genre of productive reflection on anthropology's alignments and disalignments with other social complexes it both studies and is historically co-implicated with. He emphasises that the diversity of alignments drawn or enacted by different participants does not fit one predictable construal of the anthropology-tourism relation. Concerning the side of tourists, he attaches special significance to a minor but theoretically challenging pattern of tourists being “anthropological” not just in a sense of enacting primitivist ideology with historical connections to our discipline, but also being “anthropological” in a sense of taking tourism’s primitivist ideology itself as an object of inquiry, or otherwise developing ideas about tour interactions parallel to his own. This is the Malinowski Memorial Lecture 2017. Rupert Stasch is a lecturer in social anthropology at the University of Cambridge. Katy Gardner trained at Cambridge and the LSE. After spending much of her career at the University of Sussex she has returned to the LSE. Her work focuses on the issues of globalisation, migration and economic change in Bangladesh and its transnational communities in the U.K. LSE's Anthropology Department, (@LSEAnthropology) with a long and distinguished history, remains a leading centre for innovative research and teaching. We are committed to both maintaining and renewing the core of the discipline, and our undergraduate teaching and training of PhD students is recognised as outstanding.

Speaker(s): Lenny Abrahamson, Professor Maximilian De Gaynesford, Francine Stock | 'Film is made for philosophy', wrote Stanley Cavell, 'it shifts or puts different light on whatever philosophy has said about appearance and reality, about actors and characters, about scepticism and dogmatism, about presence and absence'. Does the language of cinema lend itself to questions of metaphysics and mortality? How can a character, a close up, or a cut represent a concept? In this panel, a filmmaker, a film critic, and a philosopher explore the ways in which film has engaged with philosophy and ask how far we might consider film itself a philosophical medium. Lenny Abrahamson (@lennyabrahamson) is a film and television director. His films include Adam & Paul, Frank, and the Oscar-winning Room. Maximilian De Gaynesford is Professor of Philosophy, University of Reading. Francine Stock (@FrancineFilm) is a radio and TV presenter and author of In Glorious Technicolor: a century of film and how it has shaped us. Shahidha Bari (@ShahidhaBari) is Lecturer in Romanticism in the Department of English, Queen Mary, University of London and Forum for European Philosophy Fellow. The Forum for European Philosophy (@ForumPhilosophy) is an educational charity that organises a full and varied programme of philosophy and interdisciplinary events in the UK.

Speaker(s): Julia Gillard, Professor Pauline Rose | Julia Gillard (@JuliaGillard) will make the case for a step change in global investment in education to address a learning crisis in which hundreds of millions of children are out of school and many more are failing to achieve basic levels of learning. Ms Gillard will outline the ways in which donors, philanthropists and the private sector can join with developing countries to ensure the world’s children are equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Julia Gillard is the chair of the Board of Directors of the Global Partnership for Education. She served as Prime Minister of Australia between 2010 and 2013 and successfully managed Australia’s economy during the global economic crises. During her tenure she reformed Australia’s education at every level from early childhood to higher education with a special focus on disadvantaged children. She also established Australia’s first national curriculum and ensured significant investment in school buildings. Before becoming Prime Minister, Ms. Gillard was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and Social Inclusion. Pauline Rose (@PaulineMRose) is Professor of International Education at the University of Cambridge, where she is Director of the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre in the Faculty of Education. She is also Senior Research Fellow at the UK Department for International Development. Professor Rose is author of numerous publications on issues that examine educational policy and practice, including in relation to inequality, financing and governance, democratisation, and the role of international aid. Saul Estrin is a Professor of Management and founding Head of the 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.

Speaker(s): Professor Danny Dorling | In more equal countries, human beings are generally happier and healthier, there is less crime, more creativity and higher educational attainment. In this talk to launch his latest book, Danny Dorling shows that the evidence is now so overwhelming that it should be changing politics and society all over the world. More and more evidence is emerging to suggest that greater economic equality benefits all people in all societies, whether you are rich, poor or in-between. The truth of this generalisation has only become evident recently, and is contentious because it contradicts the views of many in the elite. However, the elite you get in any one country now also appears to be influenced by the levels of inequality you tolerate. The UK and USA voted for Brexit and Trump; Canada, Austria and the Netherlands saw very different recent electoral outcomes. By spring 2017 it became clear that far more countries were becoming more economically equal than more unequal, putting the equality effect to work. But that is of little comfort for the minority of people who live in the few very unequal countries that still see high inequalities, rising or only slowly falling, and in which politics then become increasingly bizarre. The most economically unequal countries in the rich world are now the USA, Israel and the UK. In all three cases sustaining very high rates of inequality is becoming increasingly expensive. Danny Dorling (@dannydorling) is the Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford. He is the author of The No-Nonsense Guide to Equality; The Atlas of the Real World; Unequal Health; Inequality and the 1%; Injustice: Why Social Inequalities Persist; and the forthcoming The Equality Effect. Neil Lee (@ndrlee) is Assistant Professor in Economic Geography at LSE. The 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.

Speaker(s): Professor Catharine A MacKinnon | The minuscule motion of a butterfly’s wings can trigger a tornado half a world away, according to chaos theory. Under the right conditions, small simple actions can produce large complex effects. In this lecture to mark the launch of her new book, Catharine A MacKinnon argues that the right seemingly minor interventions in the legal realm can have a butterfly effect that generates major social and cultural transformations. Butterfly Politics brings this incisive understanding of social causality to a wide-ranging exploration of gender relations. The pieces collected here—many published for the first time—provide a new perspective on MacKinnon’s career as a pioneer of legal theory and practice and an activist for women’s rights. Its central concerns of gender inequality, sexual harassment, rape, pornography, and prostitution have defined MacKinnon’s intellectual, legal, and political pursuits for over forty years. Though differing in style and approach, the selections all share the same motivation: to end inequality, including abuse, in women’s lives. Several mark the first time ideas that are now staples of legal and political discourse appeared in public—for example, the analysis of substantive equality. Others urge changes that have yet to be realized. The butterfly effect can animate political activism and advance equality socially and legally. Seemingly insignificant actions, through collective recursion, can intervene in unstable systems to produce systemic change. A powerful critique of the legal and institutional denial of reality that perpetuates practices of gender inequality, Butterfly Politics provides a model of what principled, effective, socially conscious engagement with law looks like. Catharine A MacKinnon is Elizabeth A Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School and the James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Christine Chinkin is Director of the Centre for Women, Peace and Security and emerita Professor of International Law. 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.

Speaker(s): Dr Mary Bousted, Peter Hitchens, Melissa Benn, Mark Morrin, Harriet Sergeant | In response to the Government's May 2017 Schools White Paper, the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) and Times Educational Supplement (TES) host ""The Big General Election Grammar Schools Debate"" on whether there is a place for grammar schools in the UK education system. Will they work for everyone, not just the privileged few? After an introduction from Professor Sandra McNally, Director of the Education and Skills Programme at CEP, the high profile panel will argue whether or not there is a way back for grammar schools in the UK, debating the motion 'This house believes that a new government should open more grammar schools.' Melissa Benn (@Melissa_Benn) is a writer, journalist and campaigner. She was educated at Holland Park comprehensive and the London School of Economics where she graduated with a First in history. Mary Bousted (@MaryBoustedATL) is general secretary of ATL (Association of Teachers and Lecturers). Peter Hitchens (@ClarkeMicah) is a journalist, author and broadcaster. Hitchens writes for The Mail on Sunday and is a former foreign correspondent in Moscow and Washington. He works as a foreign reporter and in 2010 was awarded the Orwell Prize for journalism. Lewis Iwu (@lewisiwu) read politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University, where he was elected President of the students’ union. Lewis is an active debating coach, having coached the national teams of Hong Kong in 2006, the United Arab Emirates in 2010 and 2011, and the ESU England schools debating team in 2012. Mark Morrin is ResPublica's Localism Lead. He is focusing on their new projects and workstreams, working in partnership with city-regions, to radicalise the localism agenda and realise a new vision for local economic growth and public sector reform.Harriet Sergeant (@HarrietSergeant) is a journalist, author and Research Fellow of the Centre For Policy Studies. She is the author of books: Between the Lines: Conversations in South Africa, Shanghai: Collision Point of Cultures 1918-1939, Japan, and Among the Hoods: My Years with a Teenage Gang.

Speaker(s): Professor Jonathan Wolff | For much of the early part of the twentieth century, political theorists debated the moral and economic merits of capitalism in competition with communism. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and its satellites, and the triumph of the market economy, those on the political left briefly flirted with the idea of market socialism. But critics of capitalism are running out of alternative ideas, to the point that a placard at an anti-capitalism march proclaimed 'Replace Capitalism with Something Nice!'. In this year's Ralph Oppenheimer Memorial Lecture Professor Jonathan Wolff will ask: Are we stuck with capitalism? How far can it be modified? How far should it be modified? The event will include an introduction by David Edmonds in honour of Ralph Oppenheimer. Jonathan Wolff (@JoWolffBSG) is Blavatnik Professor of Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. Peter Dennis is a Fellow, Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, LSE and Forum for European Philosophy Fellow. David Edmonds (@DavidEdmonds100) is a philosopher, author, and producer of the Philosophy Bites podcast. The Forum for European Philosophy (@ForumPhilosophy) is an educational charity that organises a full and varied programme of philosophy and interdisciplinary events in the UK.

Speaker(s): Kyriakos Mitsotakis | Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in conversation with Kevin Featherstone, will speak on the topic of populism and the potential of the Greek Economy. Kyriakos Mitsotakis (@kmitsotakis) is the President of Nea Dimokratia. Kevin Featherstone is Head of the European Institute, LSE. The Hellenic Observatory (HO) (@HO_LSE)is part of the European Institute at the LSE. Established in 1996, it is internationally recognised as one of the premier research centres on contemporary Greece and Cyprus.

Speaker(s): Professor Jane Mansbridge | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor audio quality of this podcast. The Trump election and the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom revealed that some members of the political class were not listening hard enough to the concerns of some of the voters disadvantaged by globalisation. What kinds of contacts do representatives have with their constituents? What kinds ought they to have? With better contact, would the representatives have convinced their constituents that a Clinton presidency or a Remain vote better served their interests? This event is the Brian Barry Memorial Lecture 2017. Jane Mansbridge is Charles F. Adams Professor of Political Leadership and Democratic Values, at the Harvard Kennedy School. She is the author of Beyond Adversary Democracy, an empirical and normative study of face-to-face democracy, and the award-winning Why We Lost the ERA, a study of anti-deliberative dynamics in social movements based on organizing for an Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. She is also editor or coeditor of the volumes Beyond Self-Interest, Feminism,Oppositional Consciousness, Deliberative Systems, and Negotiating Agreement in Politics. She was President of the American Political Science Association in 2012-13. Lea Ypi (@lea_ypi) is Professor in Political Theory, Department of Government, LSE. The Department of Government (@LSEGovernment) at LSE is one of the largest political science departments in the UK. Our activities cover a comprehensive range of approaches to the study of politics.

Speaker(s): Professor Alison Gopnik | In the past 15 years, we have discovered that even young children are adept at inferring causal relationship. But are there differences in the ways that younger children, older children and adults learn? And do socioeconomic status and culture make a difference? Alison Gopnik will present several studies showing a surprising pattern. Not only can preschoolers learn abstract higher-order principles from data, but younger learners are actually better at inferring unusual or unlikely principles than older learners and adults. This pattern also holds for children in Peru and in Headstart programs in Oakland, California. Alison Gopnik relates this pattern to computational ideas about search and sampling, to evolutionary ideas about human life history, and to neuroscience findings about the negative effects of frontal control on wide exploration. Gopnik's hypothesis is that our distinctively long, protected human childhood allows an early period of broad hypothesis search, exploration and creativity, before the demands of goal-directed action set in. Alison Gopnik (@AlisonGopnik) is Professor of Psychology and Affiliate Professor of Philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley. Sandra Jovchelovitch is Professor of Social Psychology at LSE where she directs the MSc in Social and Cultural Psychology. The Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science (@PsychologyLSE) study and teach societal psychology: the psychology of humans in complex socio-technical systems (organisations, communities, societies). Our research deals with real-world issues, we train the future global leaders.

Speaker(s): Professor David S Bell, Rokhaya Diallo, Professor Philippe Marlière | A panel of leading scholars and commentators will debate what the outcome of the election tells us about the prospects for the left in France. David S Bell is Emeritus Professor of French Government and Politics at the University of Leeds. Rokhaya Diallo (@RokhayaDiallo) is a French journalist, writer, award-winning filmmaker and activist. Philippe Marlière is Professor in French and European Politics at University College London. 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.

Speaker(s): Professor Simon Blackburn, Dr Olivier Driessens, Professor Edith Hall | If video killed the radio star, how are we to understand celebrity in a world of Twitter, YouTube, and reality TV? Has the social function of celebrity changed, or are new kinds of celebrities performing the same function in different ways? Our panel will consider what celebrities are for, what their rights and responsibilities might be, and what our attitude towards celebrities ought to be. Simon Blackburn is Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Research Professor, UNC Chapel Hill and Professor, New College of the Humanities. Olivier Driessens is Lecturer in the Sociology of Media and Culture, University of Cambridge. Edith Hall (@edithmayhall) is Professor of Classics, King’s College London. Peter Dennis is a Fellow, Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, LSE and Forum for European Philosophy Fellow. The Forum for European Philosophy (@ForumPhilosophy) is an educational charity that organises a full and varied programme of philosophy and interdisciplinary events in the UK.