Lse: Public Lectures And Events

Contributor(s): Adejoké Bakare, Dipo Faloyin, Dr Edwini Kwame Kessie, Professor David Luke | Food is family, food is fuel, nourishment, cultural and fundamental. Connections made through food are an effective way to change minds, shift narratives, and amend policies to guard against food deprivation seen in many parts of Africa today. As explored in David Luke’s new book How Africa Eats, this diverse panel of tastemakers will explore the history of African cuisine; production and distribution, as well as considering the factors which may disrupt these; food security, food trade, and climate risks. 

Contributor(s): Kofi Mawuli Klu, Lidia Thorpe, Dr Imaobong Umoren | How can we reckon with the complex and painful legacies of the British Empire? What would it mean to create an international truth-telling commission, and why is this conversation so urgent today? This event explores the vision for a Peoples' International Truth-Telling Commission on the British Empire - a platform to uncover historical injustices, amplify voices silenced by colonial histories, and challenge enduring inequalities. The Commission will foster dialogue and accountability that transcends national borders, acknowledging the shared but unequal impacts of empire on the Global South and North alike.

Contributor(s): Roger Highfield, Suhair Khan, Isabel Losada, Professor Michael Muthukrishna | Where should we look for optimism about the future? Our final panel come together to share some of the ideas, innovations and discoveries that could shape the world to come for the better.

Contributor(s): Dr Sara Geneletti, Dr Laura Gilbert, Professor Helen Margetts | Routinely collected UK government data sets contain staggering amounts of information. The potential for the use of these data to understand how government policies are changing people’s lives, to aid better decision making and to hold government accountable for the policies they make is enormous. The process is not however all plain sailing. Good, big, and representative data sets are essential, and datasets are often far from perfect with inherent biases and missing entries. Cleaning data is time consuming and labour intensive and analysis requires skilled data scientists. These issues can be overcome or at least mitigated, and in the future government policies could be based on evidence drawn from these data and tested on model populations prior to implementation.

Contributor(s): Lila Ibrahim | Lila Ibrahim, Chief Operating Officer of Google DeepMind, is shaping the company's strategic operations and partnerships to drive innovation and impact. At this event, she will share her vision for the future and discuss the transformative potential of AI in the years ahead.

Contributor(s): Professor G. John Ikenberry, Professor Rana Mitter, Professor Nathalie Tocci | Navigating the US-China relationship will be one of the great challenges of our time. It will impact everything from geopolitics to global growth to technological innovation. Can this pivotal international relationship be managed peacefully and productively, or are we heading toward a world of economic fracture, military rivalry, and multiple blocs?

Contributor(s): Professor Martin Knapp, Professor Lord Layard, Dr Laura Taylor | The panel explore how we can identify cost-effective policies to improve societal wellbeing — and why it will be key to shaping the future of the UK and beyond.

Contributor(s): Anthony Scaramucci | Anthony Scaramucci, LSE alumnus and American financier and broadcaster, who briefly served as the White House Director of Communications, joins LSE's President Larry Kramer for a conversation about his visions for the future. This recording contains strong language.

Contributor(s): Professor Nava Ashraf, Nick Dalton, Dr Daniel Susskind | As the world of work evolves, so do our expectations, values, and definitions of success. How can we adapt to new ways of working while staying connected to purpose and meaning?

Contributor(s): Dr Zhamilya Mukasheva, Dr. Aaron Reeves, Dr Boris Walbaum, Lord Willetts | Is a university education still worth the investment of rising tuition fees and time spent studying towards a degree rather than gaining valuable work experience? Higher education around the world is undergoing a series of rapid transformations. The effects of AI and emerging technologies, the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on today’s job market, the complex global challenges requiring interdisciplinary attention, and the rise of campuses as the site of contestation around free speech have all led to many questioning both the form and function of contemporary universities.

Contributor(s): Professor Daron Acemoglu | Daron Acemoglu, LSE alumnus and co-recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in economics, whose work has provided new insights into why there are such vast differences in prosperity between nations, will be in conversation with LSE's President Larry Kramer, on his visions for the future and will speak about Remaking Liberalism. Democracy (and in fact liberal democracy) was successful in bringing shared prosperity, reliable public services, and a voice for citizens. But there have been major problems in its agenda, hurting its support across a wide range of constituencies. The talk will present ideas about how we can bolster support for democracy, and what this involves in terms of a new conceptualisation of liberal democracy and liberalism.

Contributor(s): Mete Coban, Rowena Champion, Maanya Jones | At a time of eco-anxiety, climate scepticism, and widespread disillusionment with formal political institutions, how do diverse young Londoners connect with climate politics at a local level? How do they imagine the future of their neighbourhoods, and how can their visions and values be brought to the heart of London’s green transition? Young people arguably have the most at stake in the battle for liveable cities today, and a liveable planet for decades to come. And yet, youth voices are rarely heard in heated public and policy debates about urban green transitions. Building on recent findings from an LSE Cities peer research project in Islington, this event will discuss how young people approach the core debates of the green transition, especially how environmental justice relates to social and economic justice, and how the local green transition can open up space for a deepening of democracy.

Contributor(s): Dr Hilary Cottam, Dr Faiza Shaheen, Professor Jack Stilgoe | New technology and AI are transforming the labour market at an unprecedented pace, often reinforcing existing inequalities and concentrating wealth in the hands of a few. It is widely believed that without intervention, this trend will continue, creating a society where a handful of tech billionaires thrive while countless others struggle with low wages and job insecurity. But is this future inevitable? What are the potential scenarios going forward? How can we rethink the way technological innovation is structured to ensure its benefits are more widely shared? Is there an alternative to a winner-takes-all model which creates billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk while pushing many into low paid work?

Contributor(s): Stan Boland, Dr Robyn Klingler-Vidra, Kanishka Narayan | Driven in large part by the rapid growth of the tech sector, the US economy has diverged from other advanced economies. Despite significant strengths in research, much of Europe has been unable to translate this into the type of large digital firms which have become so important to the modern economy. What are the barriers to developing a thriving tech sector outside of the US? Can European states compete in the tech sector and should they try? What is the future of these advanced economies, if they cannot compete in the industries of the future?

Contributor(s): Natalia Domagala, Mulele Maketo Mulele, Claire Melamed | Data plays a crucial role in designing effective development policies, yet its availability and use in low- and middle-income countries remain inconsistent. In some cases, data is simply unavailable, in others it exists but remains underutilised due to limited access or awareness.

Contributor(s): Professor Oriana Bandiera, Professor Margaret Levi, Professor Dani Rodrik | A generation ago, the so-called Washington Consensus laid out a series of do’s and don’ts for policymakers around the world, but it fell short by neglecting the social and institutional underpinnings indispensable for achieving sustained growth and building fairer and more cohesive societies. What new ideas —and policies— can guide us through the challenges humanity faces today?

Contributor(s): Grace Blakeley, Dr Abby Innes, Ryan Shorthouse | There are frequent discussions on how our current economic system should be reformed and improved to address global challenges. But, should we be thinking more radically about the problems with capitalism? Can we imagine an alternative way of organising our societies?

Contributor(s): Abby Jitendra, Dr Abigail McKnight, Dr Thomas C. Stephens | The event challenges the old adage, 'The poor will always be with us', by envisaging a future free from poverty. The speakers will identify the gains for children and for society as a whole from ending child poverty and the gains for workers, families and the economy from ending bad jobs

Contributor(s): Professor Paul Dolan | Join us for this talk by LSE's Paul Dolan in which he will talk about his new book, Beliefism. Do you avoid people who are strongly against immigration? Or strongly for trans rights? Against abortion? For drug legalisation? We might like to think that we're tolerant, but many of us struggle to engage with people whose opinions differ strongly from our own-even if they might have something useful to contribute to the debate. That means we're falling victim to what behavioural scientist Paul Dolan defines as Beliefism: discrimination against those with different beliefs to us. Drawing on the evidence from across the social sciences, Dolan shows how easy it is for us to divide ourselves into opposing camps - and how harmful that can be.This recording contains strong language.

Contributor(s): Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Professor Amartya Sen, Professor Lord Stern | Join us for this special event celebrating LSE's new Global School of Sustainability at which our speakers will discuss fostering sustainability amidst global uncertainty