Contributor(s): Professor Andrés Velasco, Dr Mukulika Banerjee, Professor Chris Anderson | In addition to the UK election, our experts weigh in on the future of liberal democracies. 

Contributor(s): Professor Sir Tim Besley, Professor Richard Davies, Eshe Nelson | They explore the pressure on public finances (from the likelihood of future tax rises or spending cuts) to each stance the parties have taken and whether they've accounted the coming fiscal challenges, to what the next Government could and should do next.

Contributor(s): Dr Laura Serra, Elinor Goodman, Professor Tim Bale | Our experts provide insight and analysis on the night. 

Contributor(s): Professor Iain Begg, Professor Michael Cox, Professor Stephanie Rickard, Professor Peter Trubowitz | They explore rising global tensions and defence spending to the outcome of the next US election, and the future of our relationship with the EU and potential outcomes of the French elections.

Contributor(s): Professor Wendy Thomson, Professor Andrew Street, Professor Nicholas Barr | They review the stances of each party and how they’ve shaped their campaigns to what the next Government needs to do to address them.

Contributor(s): Dimitri Zenghelis, Dr Philipp Rode, Professor Elizabeth Robinson | They will also examine the role climate change has played in the election and if the plans made by the main political parties deliver sufficiently to what the next Government could and should do.

Contributor(s): Dr Nick Anstead, Professor Helen Margetts, Professor Julie Posetti | They explore the difference between this election in 2024 and previous ones with regard using AI and what the next Government should do (if anything) to protect the democratic process.

Contributor(s): Ruchir Sharma | Sharma says progressive youth are partly right and that capitalism has morphed into “socialism for the very rich.” The broader issue, however, is socialised risk for the poor, the middle class and the rich; government is trying to guarantee that no one ever suffers economic pain by borrowing heavily to prevent recessions, extend recoveries, and generate endless growth. The result is rapidly rising debt and declining competition. 

Contributor(s): Zaneta Sedilikova, Cynthia Hanawalt, Professor Harro van Asselt, Dr Joana Setzer, Catherine Higham | Activist groups and civil society organisations continue to play a pivotal role in leveraging climate litigation to shape climate governance. Central to many of these cases is the use of human rights arguments to hold governments and corporations accountable for inadequate action on climate issues. The report's authors share their insights and discuss with experts on the latest...

Contributor(s): Daria Zakharova, Professor Elli Leadbeater, Professor Jonathan Birch, Sam Beckbessinger | Human beings are part of a vast sentient world full of conscious creatures, and even those of us far away from centres of political power have immense influence over huge numbers of animal lives - influence which we can choose to exercise for good or ill. 

Contributor(s): Sadiqah Musa, Professor Neil Lawrence, Dr Chandrima Ganguly | Who is in charge of the algorithms and models that shape our future? 

Contributor(s): Shirley Rodrigues, Jean-Louis Missika, Ciaran Cuffe, Dr Liam Beiser-McGrath | Cities are widely considered to be progressive bastions against the tide of populism and growth of right-wing movements across Europe. But recent election results show that cities are not immune to the divisive discourses surrounding the green transition. From Berlin to Barcelona to Oslo to London, green policies have developed into a central battleground in local politics, with initiatives such as...

Contributor(s): Ros Taylor, Dr Laura Gilbert, Rafael Behr | Trust (in media, institutions, politics and democracy) is widely reported to be in decline, but how important is it for a functioning society and why? What’s the relationship between trust and power?

Contributor(s): Dr Maël Lavenaire, Leah Eryenyu, Professor Neil Cummins | Politics of power and wealth have had a huge impact on the structuring of inequalities across the globe. As the racial and ethnic inequalities that we see today stem from centuries of discrimination and marginalisation, in order to tackle them, we will need to understand how they have been embedded in the very structures of our societies. 

Contributor(s): Professor Naila Kabeer, Phillip Hensher, Monica Ali | How can an author bring out the stories and voices buried in their research to deliver the impact they are hoping for? And how should writers communicate experiences of power and oppression that are not their own? Whether embarking on a creative novel or an academic monograph, an author is faced with choices about the ways in which they tell their stories. 

Contributor(s): Dr Grace Lordan | Recently there has been a surge in popular voices in social media stating that DEI is bad for business. There has also been a significant reduction in investment in diversity and inclusion by some of the world’s largest firms.

Contributor(s): Salman Usmani, Professor Alpa Shah, Ross Holder | Amidst the surge of global authoritarianism, how do we protect the freedom of speech and the freedom of dissent that is crucial for democracy? What is the role of global financial institutions and regimes in the crackdown on dissent in faraway places? What role do international human rights organisations, cultural spaces and educational institutions have in protecting the spaces of democracy globally? 

Contributor(s): Iliana Sarafian, Rita Kahsay, Fatou Bensouda | Global legal frameworks to protect women in conflict have been agreed by all members of the UN Security Council. Yet evidence from around the world shows that violence against women, because they are women, remains very much a part of twenty first century warfare.

Contributor(s): Sarah O'Connor, Professor Alan Manning, Professor Stephen Machin, Kate Bell | How much power should employers have over their workers’ lives? Most countries recognise that employer power needs to be curbed – with governments setting out legal requirements on minimum pay, maximum working hours and paid leave. And governments also intervene to curb worker power – ruling on trade union recognition, who can strike and under what conditions. But should governments intervene between...

Contributor(s): Professor Giles Atkinson, Dr Matthew Agarwala | Discover how to measure economic progress and sustainability with practical illustrations in this one-hour workshop by leading experts on measuring sustainable development, Giles Atkinson and Matthew Agarwala. Learn what is at the heart of this topic – “Beyond GDP” is easy to say, but what does it actually mean to move beyond Gross Domestic Product as the primary way that nations use to measure economic and social...

Contributor(s): Professor Leslie Vinjamuri, Professor Helen Thompson, Gideon Rachman | Early hopes that Western democracies’ unified response to Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine would break the populist, anti-globalist fever have not been fulfilled. Instead, since the invasion, opponents of the liberal order have made deeper inroads in France, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, and elsewhere. Meanwhile, the possibility persists that Trump may return to the White House in 2025. 

Contributor(s): Dr Nesrin Alrefaai, Professor Matthew Spangler | The new play 'A handful of lentils' by Dr Nesrin Alrefaai and Professor Matthew Spangler, focuses on the interaction between a Syrian refugee and a state official. They discuss how theatre plays a role in addressing life experiences during political upheaval.  

Contributor(s): Kerryn Krige, Dr Jonathan Roberts | You will learn five practical skills to challenge and reshape power dynamics: Understanding social problems Prioritising coproduction with communities and users Considering organisational design Leading systems change Building (and sometimes not building) market-based solutions

Contributor(s): Professor Paul Collier | Left behind places can be found in prosperous countries — from South Yorkshire, integral to the industrial revolution and now England’s poorest county, to Barranquilla, once Colombia’s portal to the Caribbean and now struggling. More alarmingly, the poorest countries in the world are diverging further from the rest of humanity.