Spring 2011 | Public lectures and events | Video

Contributor(s): Dr Chris Smith | Dr Chris Smith explores present-day predicaments and tomorrow's technologies, from the most surprising facts to the most innovative new inventions, from staggering stats to serious developments that will transform the world around us. Chris Smith is a medical doctor and scientist, employed as a specialist registrar and clinical lecturer in virology at Cambridge University. He is also the founder and driving force behind The Naked Scientist, a live weekly radio talkback show aired by the BBC.

Contributor(s): Professor Gareth Austin, Professor Joseph Inikori, Professor James Robinson | The relative poverty of Sub-Saharan Africa today is often attributed to the malevolent legacies of its past. This forum draws together three leading contributors to the ongoing debate about institutional legacies which still affect African development. Gareth Austin is professor of international history at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. Joseph Inikori is professor of history at the University of Rochester. James Robinson is the David Florence Professor of Government at Harvard University.

Contributor(s): Professor Nicholas Lardy | Nicholas Lardy will address charges that China's recent stimulus program was flawed by, among other things, a massive increase in bank lending; the creation of a property bubble, and the weakening of market forces. Nicholas Lardy is the Anthony M Solomon Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. This event is sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank.

Contributor(s): John Madeley, Professor Philippe Marliere, Professor Hakan Yilmaz | This series of events explores how our understanding of Europe's identity can be enhanced and developed in a new way by taking in a distinctively Turkish perspective. John Madeley is a senior lecturer at LSE's Government Department. Philippe Marliere is professor in French and European politics at UCL. Hakan Yilmaz is professor of political science at Bogaziçi University, Istanbul.

Contributor(s): Professor Henry G Overman, Professor Ian Gordon, Alex Jones, Hamish McRae | It was widely expected that London would, in the short to medium run, be the most severely hit of the UK regions in the recession initiated by the 2007-08 financial crisis. This lecture considers why this did not happen. Henry G Overman is professor of economic geography at LSE and director of the Spatial Economics Research Centre. Ian Gordon is professor of human geography at LSE. Alex Jones is chief executive of the Centre for Cities. Hamish McRae is an associate editor of The Independent. LSE Works is a new series of public lectures, sponsored by SAGE publications, that will showcase some of the latest research by LSE's Research Centres. In each session, LSE academics will present key research findings, demonstrating where appropriate the implications of their studies for public policy. The next LSE Works lecture is Where is Future Growth Going to Come From?

Contributor(s): Dambisa Moyo | This event celebrates the publication of Dambisa Moyo's new book How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly and the Stark Choices Ahead. Dambisa Moyo is an international economist who writes on the macroeconomy and global affairs. She is the author of critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working.

Contributor(s): Valdis Dombrovskis | After years of unsustainable growth and profligate spending, in 2009 Latvia experienced the deepest economic crisis in the European Union, with a GDP fall of 18%. Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis came to power facing the daunting task of averting bankruptcy. Severe austerity measures, combined with an international loan package, have yielded results – in 2010 Latvia's recession ended and economic growth is expected to resume in 2011. In this lecture, the Prime Minister will outline the tough choices he had to make in order for Latvia to recover and grow. Valdis Dombrovskis is Prime Minister of Latvia. He studied physics and economics in Latvia, Germany and the US before entering political life. As a founding member of the 'New Era' party, Valdis Dombrovskis has been Latvia's Minister of Finance 2002-2004, member of the European Parliament 2004-2009, and Prime Minister since March 2009.

Contributor(s): Jonathan Safran Foer, Kristina Musholt | Eating Animals is an exhaustively-argued account of one man's decade-long struggle with vegetarianism. Part memoir, part exposé, the book examines the topics of factory farming and commercial fisheries and explores the cultural significance of food. Jonathan Safran Foer is the author of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Everything Is Illuminated, which won the National Jewish Book Award and the Guardian First Book Award.Kristina Musholt is deputy director of the Forum for European Philosophy and fellow in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, LSE.

Contributor(s): Evgeny Morozov | At the start of the twenty-first century we were promised that the internet would liberate the world. We could come together as never before, and from Iran's 'twitter revolution' to Facebook 'activism', technological innovation would spread democracy to oppressed peoples everywhere. We couldn't have been more wrong. Morozov destroys this myth, arguing that 'internet freedom' is an illusion, and that technology has failed to help protect people's rights. Not only that – in many cases the internet is actually helping authoritarian regimes. From China to Russia to Iran, oppressive governments are using cyberspace to stifle dissent: planting clandestine propaganda, employing sophisticated digital censorship and using online surveillance. We are all being manipulated in more subtle ways too – becoming pacified by the net, instead of truly engaging. This event marks the publication of Evgeny Morozov's new book The Net Delusion: How Not to Liberate The World.

Contributor(s): Professor Niall Ferguson | 'Nixon goes to China' shattered the façade of Communist unity and dug the United States out of the hole it found itself in at the end of the 1960s. Critics have seen Nixon and Kissinger's policy as morally compromised, but was it actually the key to America's victory in the Cold War? Niall Ferguson is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2010-11.