Contributor(s): Rita Giacaman | How do young Palestinians define dignity? What is the importance of dignity in their lives? What would increase or decrease their sense of dignity? Following a pilot project which included 102 interviews with young people between the ages of 15 and 24 years old in Ramallah, Professor Rita Giacaman's presentation will outline the main findings of the research which focused on young Palestinian's reflections on dignity. Rita Giacaman is a professor of public...

Contributor(s): Ed Heery, John Kelly, David Metcalf | "The unsolved problems in the research of work and employment" – a round table discussion among former BJIR chief editors.

Contributor(s): Dr Kent Deng, Professor Jude Howell, Professor Athar Hussain | Against all previous predictions China has been completely transformed. This raises the question of the "China Model" that we are still trying to understand for the 21st century. Kent Deng is a reader in the Department of Economic History, LSE. Jude Howell is professor in LSE's Department of International Development. Athar Hussain is director of the Asia Research Centre at LSE.

Contributor(s): Professor William Quandt | The US has been an active player in the Middle East over the past century, but has been of minor relevance during the Arab uprisings of 2011. The upheaval, however, will have deep implications for US policy in the region. William Quandt is a professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia.

Contributor(s): Jocelyne Bourgon | Crises, cascading failures, and unpredictable shocks characterise the world we live in. Jocelyne Bourgon will map out an enabling framework for governing in the 21st century. Jocelyne Bourgon has led ambitious public sector reforms as secretary to the Cabinet of Canada. She is president of PGI (Public Governance International) and author of A New Synthesis of Public Administration: serving in the 21st century.

Contributor(s): Brendan Donnelly, Mike Gapes MP, Lord Teverson, Professor Wolfgang Wagner | In this second roundtable in a series on 'EU Foreign Policy after Lisbon' the LSE's European Foreign Policy Unit invites distinguished policy-makers and scholars to discuss the role and impact of parliaments in EU foreign policy-making. Brendan Donnelly is at the Federal Trust and former MEP. Mike Gapes is former Chairman of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select CommitteeLord Teverson is the...

Contributor(s): Dr Armin Schulz | Many organisms make decisions using only reflexes and drives; some, however, do so by employing explicit representations of their goals. Why would they do this? Armin Schulz is lecturer in philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, LSE.

Contributor(s): Kristalina Georgieva | Kristalina Georgieva is European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. Before joining the European Commission in February 2010, she held various positions at the World Bank. She started working there in 1993, initially as Environmental Economist, then Senior Environmental Economist. She continued as Sector Manager on Environment for the East Asia and Pacific Region, and later became the Director in charge of...

Contributor(s): Professor Jeffrey Sachs | The world economy remains in a precarious state after the global recession. Jeffrey Sachs will discuss why we must – and how we can– change our entire economic culture in the time of crisis. Jeffrey Sachs is director of The Earth Institute and Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development and professor of health policy and management at Columbia University.

Contributor(s): Dr Madeleine Korbel Albright | Former US secretary of state Madeleine Korbel Albright will address the future of US foreign policy and the leadership of women in helping to build prosperity, foster peace, and promote democracy across the globe. Madeleine Albright was the 64th secretary of state of the United States (1997-2001) and is professor in the practice of diplomacy at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.

Contributor(s): Peter Popham | Twenty-three years after an uprising involving millions, and 21 years after elections which Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won by a landslide, Burma remains in the grip of the military regime, now ruling through pseudo-democratic proxies. Has the 'Oxford housewife's' so-called 'revolution of the spirit' been a complete wash-out? What lessons does Burma's bleak recent history hold for the rest of the world? This event celebrates the publication...

Contributor(s): Iain Duncan Smith, Professor Anne Power, Professor Jane Waldfogel | The Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion tracked 200 families bringing up children in deprived neighbourhoods over ten years. The families told us a lot about their biggest worries and greatest needs. Streets and parks are unsafe; local facilities cost too much; energetic teenagers are not allowed to go further afield for fear of trouble so they often hang out on local streets. The thing families wanted...

Contributor(s): Professor Barry Smith | This lecture will explore the philosophy and neuroscience of taste and what it tells us about perception. Barry Smith is professor of philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London and director of the Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London.

Contributor(s): Professor Sadik Al Azm | Al-Azm, one of the Middle East's most notable contemporary thinkers, will reflect on the effects of the Arab uprisings on Arab nationalism and Islamist movements. Sadik Al Azm is emeritus professor of modern European philosophy at the University of Damascus.

Contributor(s): Charlie Beckett | This lecture will tell the story of WikiLeaks, the most controversial journalism organisation of the digital age. Led by the charismatic Julian Assange it has produced the biggest leak of secret information in modern times. It has grown from a 'hactavist' whistle-blowing website to one of the best-known media brands in the world, working with major newspapers like the New York Times and The Guardian. It has taken on the most powerful nation in the world and...

Contributor(s): Dr Heinz Fischer | In spring 2010, Dr. Heinz Fischer was re-elected as Federal President of the Republic of Austria by popular vote for his second term. His political career includes Speaker of the Austrian Parliament from 1990-2002, various posts in the Austrian Social Democratic Party, the Party of European Socialists, MP as well as a ministerial post. President Fischer is also a professor of political science at Innsbruck University and has published widely including on...

Contributor(s): Professor Nancy Folbre | For Love and Money, a forthcoming book edited by Nancy Folbre provides an overview of care provision in the United States and develops a framework for the analysis of existing care policies. Nancy Folbre is Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research explores the interface between political economy and feminist theory, with a particular emphasis on the value of unpaid care work. In addition to numerous articles...

Contributor(s): Dr Ramachandra Guha | Jawaharlal Nehru, the man most identified with Indian foreign policy after independence, is remembered for what is considered his greatest failure: the China policy and disastrous war of 1962. But is it fair to hold Nehru responsible for a conflict that arose out of the rise of two competing nationalisms? Ramachandra Guha is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2011-2012.

Contributor(s): Dr David Bell, Professor Simon May | Is genuine love unconditional, or enduring, or disinterested? Simon May says 'no' and offers an alternative theory. David Bell responds with a psychoanalytic perspective. David Bell is president of The British Psychoanalytic Society and a consultant psychiatrist in the Adult Department at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. Simon May is visiting professor of philosophy at King's College London's Department of Philosophy.

Contributor(s): Professor Andrew Oswald | Herd behaviour is often natural and individually rational, but it has the potential to be disastrous for the group. In this lecture, Andrew Oswald will discuss human herd behaviour and its links to 'keeping up with the Joneses'. Andrew Oswald is professor of economics at Warwick University, a visiting fellow at IZA Bonn and an editor of the journal Science.

Contributor(s): Professor Leo Panitch | This lecture marks the 50th anniversary of Ralph Miliband's first major work, the hugely influential Parliamentary Socialism: a study in the politics of Labour. What can Miliband's arguments tell us about contemporary British politics and the modern Labour Party? Leo Panitch is Distinguished Research Professor at York University (Canada) and a renowned political economist, Marxist theorist and co-editor of the Socialist Register, who knew Ralph Miliband...

Contributor(s): Professor Axel Gosseries, Paul Loach | This dialogue explores the prospects for workplace democracy - utopian ideal, or an idea whose time has come? Axel Gosseries is a professor at the Université de Louvain, UCL, and a research associate at the CPNSS, LSE. Paul Loach has been investing in, and developing, SME's for 30 years.

Contributor(s): Brian Whitaker, Roger Hardy, Marwan Bishara, Dr Ramy Aly | A panel of seasoned journalists who have covered the Middle East extensively during their careers will critically reflect on the media coverage of the Arab uprisings. Why did reporters miss the build-up and tension which led to the Arab Spring? Have news stories exaggerated the role of social media? Are there wider questions that the coverage of the uprisings raise for reporting more generally? Dr Ramy Aly is lecturer...

Contributor(s): Professor Manuel Castells | How are Social Movements shaped by the availability of horizontal communication networks based on the Internet and wireless communication? How can indignation become collective action by the connection between neural networks, digital social networks and urban networks? Which are the cultural and political consequences of these developments? Case studies in different contexts ground a theory of power and social change in the network society...

Contributor(s): Professor Muhammad Yunus | Muhammad Yunus is to be awarded an Honorary Degree – Doctor of Science (Economics) at this ceremony. Professor Yunus will mark the occasion by giving a lecture entitled Social Business: to solve society's most pressing problems and will then take questions from the audience. Muhammad Yunus was born on 28 June 1940 in the village of Bathua, Chittagong, a seaport in Bangladesh. The third of fourteen children, he was educated at Dhaka University and was...