Contributor(s): Sheila O’Donnell, John Tuomey | O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects won the LSE international architectural competition for the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre in June 2009. Five years later, with the building completed and the Student Centre thriving in use, Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey will discuss the ideas behind their architectural design. The lecture will be followed by the book launch of Space for Architecture the work of O’Donnell + Tuomey.

Contributor(s): Dr Jonathan Birch, Professor Andrew Whiten | Culture surrounds us. But where did it come from? And what are the basic mechanisms underpinning its transmission? One way to answer this question is to compare the evolution of culture among humans to that of non-human cousins like monkeys and chimpanzees. In this event, renowned scientist Andrew Whiten will present some of his results on the evolution of culture, followed by a discussion with philosopher of biology Jonathan Birch....

Contributor(s): George Bizos, Catherine M. Cole, Professor David Dyzenhaus, Lord Joffe, Dr Jens Meierhenrich | What role for law in the struggle against injustice? On 12 June 1964, Nelson Mandela and seven of his co-defendants in the Rivonia Trial were sentenced to life imprisonment for acts of sabotage against the apartheid regime. On the 50th anniversary of their sentencing, LSE hosts its official commemorative event to honour the life of Nelson Mandela. Eminent contemporaries and leading...

Contributor(s): Professor Anton Hemerijck, Dr Waltraud Schelkle, Professor David Soskice | Professor Hemerijck will consider whether the aftermath of the 2008 global credit crunch marks a new opportunity to reconfigure and re-legitimise social policy and the European project. Anton Hemerijck is dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and vice rector at the VU University Amsterdam. He is LSE Centennial Professor in the Department of Social Policy. Trained as an economist and political...

Contributor(s): Zainab Hawa Bangura | Zainab Hawa Bangura assumed her position as Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict at the level of Under-Secretary-General on 4 September 2012. In this capacity, she serves as Chair of the interagency network, UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict (UN Action). Ms Bangura has over 20 years of policy, diplomatic and practical experience in the field of governance, conflict resolution and reconciliation in...

Contributor(s): Professor Iver Neumann, Dr Arkady Moshes, Dr Thomas Gomart | This expert roundtable will discuss Russia’s declared strategy to invest in soft power instruments in regional and global politics. What are Russia’s soft power assets? Has Moscow been successful in turning them into influence?

Contributor(s): Richard Blakeway, Professor Paul Cheshire, Rachel Fisher, Wayne Hemmingway, John Stewart | The governor of the Bank of England recently warned that the overheated housing market represents the "biggest risk" to the country’s long-term recovery. Mark Carney said rising property prices and the subsequent increase in large-value mortgages, could lead to a "debt overhang" capable of destabilising the economy. He spoke of "deep, deep structural problems" in the market, with demand...

Contributor(s): Leila Zerrougui | In July 2011, the Security Council adopted landmark resolution 1998, which highlights the impact of attacks on schools and hospitals on the safety, education and health of children during armed conflict, and calls for greater action to ensure that schools and hospitals have no part in warfare. On 21 May 2014, the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict will launch the Guidance Note on the implementation of...

Contributor(s): Professor Claus Offe | Current debates on “nudges” reflect the decline of traditional tools of policy implementation. This talk explores policy tools – ranging from paternalist manipulation to moral suasion and participatory schemes – that aim at shaping social behaviour. Claus Offe is a professor of theories of the state at Hertie School of Governance, Berlin. Ken Shadlen is a professor in development studies in the Department of International Development at LSE. Credits: Tom...

Contributor(s): Richard Sharp | Recently created, the Financial Policy Committee is novel and has been in existence for a year. Why was the FPC created and how has macro prudential policy developed? What are the challenges facing the committee in addressing uncertainty and evaluating data to support its policy decisions and what are its priorities? How does the FPC address its dual mandate and evaluate the costs of its actions. Richard will discuss his experience of being an external member...

Contributor(s): Professor Anne Applebaum, Eugeniusz Smolar, Nigel Thorpe, Professor Vladislav Zubok | The Polish roundtable talks and subsequent elections on 4 June 1989 were a crucial step in ending the Cold War. 25 years later, LSE IDEAS and the Polish Embassy in London invite witnesses of the Polish Democratic Transition to join academics to discuss the importance of the events for Poland, for Europe, and for the world. Anne Applebaum was the Phillippe Roman Chair in History and...

Contributor(s): Dr William MacAskill | Should I work for a non-profit organisation in Africa? Or should I go into the City, and try to earn as much as I can to donate to good causes? William MacAskill is a research associate in the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford and is also president of 80,000 Hours ethical career advisory service. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production), LSE AV Services (Audio Recording)

Contributor(s): Shami Chakrabarti, Professor Nicola Lacey | The British like to believe they are free, but after Snowden, Miranda and the “war on terror”, how true can this be? Are most of us free while those who seek change discover a tenuous grip on freedom? Shami Chakrabarti is director of Liberty. Nicola Lacey is LSE School Professor of Law, Gender and Social Policy. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production), LSE AV Services (Audio Recording).

Contributor(s): Professor Catherine Malabou, Dr Michael O’Rourke, Dr Danielle Sands | Speaking both as a woman and a philosopher, Catherine Malabou will guide us through the philosophical, cultural, and biological questions surrounding gender and sexual difference. Catherine Malabou is a professor of modern European philosophy at Kingston University. Michael O’Rourke is a lecturer in the School of Arts and Psychotherapy at Independent Colleges, Dublin. Danielle Sands is a visiting lecturer in...

Contributor(s): Julia Barfield, Nicholas Boys Smith, Paul Finch, Simon Jenkins, Sir Edward Lister, Rowan Moore, Tony Travers, Nicky Gavron | There are now proposals for over 230 new tall buildings to be built in London over the next decade, 80 per cent of which are residential. As London’s population continues to expand, is this high-rise vision of London's future the right one for our city and its people? Kicking off the London Festival of Architecture 2014 programme, Centre for London, the...

Contributor(s): Billy Bragg | Is it possible to be both progressive and patriotic? Billy Bragg argues that from Magna Carta to Euro-scepticism, England is a nation that has been defined by dissent. Billy Bragg (@billybragg) is an English singer-songwriter and left-wing activist. Robin Archer is a reader in political sociology in the Department of Sociology at LSE. Credits: Tom Sturdy (Audio Post-Production), LSE AV Services (Audio Recording).

Contributor(s): Professor Richard Clogg, Professor Evanthis Hatzivassiliou, Professor Constantinos Tsoukalas | This year marks the 40th anniversary of the collapse of the Greek Junta and its democratic transition. July 1974 and the events that followed were a pivotal moment for modern Greece - the inclusiveness of its political system; the return of many from the diaspora; the creation of new political parties; a shift in its foreign policy; and a path towards Europe. The panel will explore...

Contributor(s): Johannes Hahn | With reforms now in place, EU regional policy focuses more than ever on investment that will improve the quality of life of EU citizens. € 350 billion - the EU's second biggest spending priority - will above all support small and medium-sized enterprises, research and innovation, renewable energies and energy efficiency, education, and fight against unemployment and poverty. How can we ensure it is well spent? We will be asking to what extent the reforms...

Contributor(s): Gail Kelly | Come and hear Gail’s thoughts on leadership and what it takes to succeed in the current environment. Gail will share her insights, perspectives and lessons learnt drawing from personal experience over 12 years as a CEO of a major financial institution in Australia. Gail started her career as a teacher in South Africa and made the switch to banking in 1980. With over 30 years of banking experience, she is currently chief executive officer of the Westpac Group....

Contributor(s): Professor T.V. Paul | Seemingly from its birth, Pakistan has been struggling to build a proper democracy and a secure state. Today it ranks 133rd out of 148 countries in global competitiveness. Its economy is as dysfunctional as its political system is corrupt; both rely heavily on international aid for their existence. Taliban forces occupy many key areas of the country and engage in random violence. It possesses over a hundred nuclear weapons that could fall into terrorists’...

Contributor(s): Dr Maria Alvarez, Professor Lisa Bortolotti, Professor Christian List, Dr Magda Osman | Traditional philosophical accounts of decision making assume that conscious rational thinking leads to wise choices. But recent psychological evidence suggests that we should trust our intuitions instead and ‘go with the flow’. Do these views conflict? If so, which one is correct? Or are both rational thinking and intuition ways of choosing for a reason? This panel discussion will bring...

Contributor(s): Professor Jonathan Nitzan | Theorists and policymakers from all directions and of all persuasions remain obsessed with the prospect of recovery. For mainstream economists, the key question is how to bring about such a recovery. For heterodox political economists, the main issue is whether sustained growth is possible to start with. But there is a prior question that nobody seems to ask: can capitalists afford recovery in the first place? If we think of capital not as means of...

Contributor(s): Professor David Hulme, Professor Thomas Pogge | What do we owe to the global poor? David Hulme and Thomas Pogge will discuss questions of global poverty from the point of view of development studies and political philosophy. David Hulme is a professor of development studies at the University of Manchester. Thomas Pogge is Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale University.

Contributor(s): Professor David Stark | Professor Stark discusses the conditions for innovation; analysis of dissonance, including the necessity of a healthy critical social science and humanities to innovation. David Stark is LSE Centennial Professor and Arthur Lehman Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Columbia University. Mike Power is professor of accounting at the Department of Accounting and former director of the Centre for the Analysis of Risk and Regulation (CARR) at...