Spring 2011 | Public lectures and events | Video

Contributor(s): Adam Brett, Deborah Doane, Julia Clark, Robin Murray | In this discussion event, a range of speakers look back over 15 years of the Fairtrade Mark and consider whether the movement for a fairer trading system has been ambitious enough. Is Fairtrade catalysing broader social change? Should Fairtrade be working with big corporates and retailers? Is Fairtrade moving producers up the value chain? Is it time to make the rules harder? Adam Brett co-founded Tropical Wholefoods, and is a director of Fullwell Mill, and the Out of this World UK healthfood retailing chain. He has been a self employed entrepreneur since 1990, working on the development of fair trade food businesses in Uganda, Burkina Faso, Pakistan, Zanzibar and Zambia. Deborah Doane is Director of the World Development Movement, which campaigns for justice and equality for the world's poor. Deborah was a founder and trustee of AntiApathy, and has recently joined the Board of the Fairtrade Foundation. Julia Clark is a consultant. As Head of Marketing at Tate & Lyle Sugars, she led the switch of the company's entire retail sugar range to Fairtrade in 2008. At the time this was the largest ever commitment to Fairtrade by any major UK food or drink brand. Robin Murray is an industrial economist and a co-founder and board member of Twin Trading. Twin has established a number of pioneering producer-owned Fairtrade companies, notably Cafédirect, Divine Chocolate, Agrofair UK and Liberation Nuts.

Contributor(s): Professor Sir Tony Atkinson | Fifty years ago, it was believed that income inequality was falling and that poverty had largely been eliminated. This lecture returns to Richard Titmuss' masterly crossexamination of the evidence about income inequality and argues that we have much to learn, but also to add. Tony Atkinson is the centennial professor at LSE. His most recent book is Top Incomes: a global perspective.

Contributor(s): Professor Niall Ferguson | The decisive breakthroughs in the Cold War occurred in seemingly unrelated fields – nuclear arms control and human rights. But was the collapse of communism a reflection of imperial overstretch or the result of liberal aspirations for freedom? This event celebrates the publication of Professor Ferguson's new book Civilization: The West and the Rest. Niall Ferguson is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2010-11.

Contributor(s): Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu | Mr. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu MP, the leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party in Turkey, is visiting LSE only months before Turkey goes to the polls in a national parliamentary election. Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu will present and discuss his party's views on political, economic, and social aspects of Turkey. He will specifically address the interrelations between politics and economy in Turkey.

Contributor(s): Professor Fawaz Gerges | Regardless of the outcome of events in Egypt, for Arabs, psychologically and symbolically, this is their Berlin Wall moment. They are on the brink of a democratic wave similar to the one that swept through Eastern Europe more than 20 years ago, hastening the Soviet Union's collapse. The Arab intifada has put to rest the claim that Islam and Muslims are incompatible with democracy. The democratic virus is mutating and will probably give birth to a new language - and a new era - of politics in the Arab world. Fawaz A. Gerges is a Professor of Middle Eastern Politics and International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He also holds the Emirates Chair of the Contemporary Middle East and is the Director of the Middle East Centre at LSE.

Contributor(s): Dr Hallvard Lillehammer, Dr Bart Streumer | Is moral thought embroiled in some kind of error? And is the error attributable to moral thought as such or to those who interpret it as erroneous? Hallvard Lillehammer is senior lecturer and Sidgwick Lecturer in Philosophy at Cambridge University. Bart Streumer is lecturer in philosophy at the University of Reading.

Contributor(s): Professor Ernst Fehr | Authority and power permeate political, social, and economic life - yet there is limited empirical knowledge about the motivational origins and consequences of authority. Based on an experimental approach, Ernst Fehr's lecture will explore the psychological consequences of authority for important economic interactions. He will document the human desire to exercise authority, the motivation-enhancing effect of possessing authority and the detrimental motivational effects of a lack of authority. Ernst Fehr is director of the Department of Economics at the University of Zurich. He has conducted influential research on the role of social preferences in competition, cooperation and incentive provision.

Contributor(s): Ryan Pyle | Canadian born, award winning, documentary photographer Ryan Pyle first visited China in 2001. After a 3 month trip around the country he was hooked. He has never left since. It was very much Ryan's first trip to China that inspired him to enter the discipline of photography, and since then his imagery has graced the pages of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, Fortune, The Sunday Times Magazine and the Financial Times Magazine. Ryan will visit the LSE to speak about his work, his career to date and what it is like working in China for the world's leading publications. Dr Bingchun Meng is a Lecturer in the department of Media and Communications at LSE.

Contributor(s): Professor Lord Peter Hennessy | World-renowned expert on Cold War intelligence and espionage Peter Hennessy will address recently declassified documents and how history can help us 'catch-up' with the threats of today. Peter Hennessy is Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at QMUL and was recently elected a Fellow of the British Academy as well as being an Honorary Fellow of LSE. Before joining the Department in 1992, he was a journalist for twenty years with spells on The Times as a leader writer and Whitehall Correspondent, The Financial Times as its Lobby Correspondent at Westminster and The Economist. He was a regular presenter of the BBC Radio 4 Analysis programme from 1987 to 1992. In 1986 he was a co-founder of the Institute of Contemporary British History. His latest book is an updated version of his book The Secret State.

Contributor(s): Jeffrey Boloten | As part of HRL Contemporary's collaboration with the LSE, we are delighted to present our first lecture examining the relationship between art and commerce. Jeffrey Boloten, Managing Director of ArtInsight will be talking on the current state of the global art market. An expert in this area, Boloten will use recent research and data to analyse the international art system and its functions from a macro perspective. The slippery subjects of how value is ascertained in the art world and the definition of its meaning will be discussed. Boloten will relate these themes to the recent economic crisis and its effect on global art markets. This will incorporate both established art scenes as well as news and analysis of emerging international markets.