Spring 2012 | Public lectures and events | Video

Contributor(s): Dr Faramerz Dabhoiwala | Nowadays we believe that consenting adults have the freedom to do what they like with their own bodies. We publicise and celebrate sex; we discuss it endlessly; we are obsessed with the sex lives of celebrities. We think it wrong that in other cultures people suffer for their sexual orientation, that women are treated as second-class citizens, or that adulterers are put to death. Yet until quite recently our own society was like this too. For most of western history, all sex outside marriage was illegal, and the church, the state, and ordinary people all devoted huge efforts to suppressing and punishing it. This was a central feature of Christian civilization, one that had steadily grown in importance since the early middle ages. In his new book which he will discuss in this lecture, Faramerz Dabhoiwala describes in dramatic detail how, between 1600 and 1800, this entire world view was shattered by revolutionary new ideas - that sex is a private matter; that morality cannot be imposed by force; that men are more lustful than women. Henceforth, the private lives of both sexes were to be endlessly broadcast and debated, in a rapidly expanding universe of public media: newspapers, pamphlets, journals, novels, poems, and prints. IThe Origins of Sex shows that the creation of this modern culture of sex was a central part of the Enlightenment, intertwined with the era's major social, political and intellectual trends. It helped create a new model of Western civilization, whose principles of privacy, equality, and freedom of the individual remain distinctive to this day. IFaramerz Dabhoiwala was born in England, grew up in Amsterdam, and was educated at York and Oxford. He is the Senior Fellow in History at Exeter College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and the father of two children.

Contributor(s): Professor Roderick MacDonald | Universities are facing increasing pressure to be relevant for students entering the job market. Yet law faculties are under increasing pressure to become less professional and to broaden their curriculum with interdisciplinary courses in the liberal arts. Might the study of law reclaim the central role that it played in the University a millennium ago? Roderick MacDonald is F R Scott Professor of Constitutional and Public Law at McGill and visiting professor at LSE Law.

Contributor(s): Sri Mulyani Indrawati | Sri Mulyani Indrawati will be exploring the cycles of global economic crisis and the sweep of revolutions and uprisings across the Arab world and beyond and how it is reshaping the substance and practice of international development. Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Managing Director, joined the World Bank in June 2010. She is responsible for the Bank's operations in Africa, East Asia & the Pacific, Europe & Central Asia, Latin America & the Caribbean, the Middle East & North Africa and South Asia. In addition, Sri Mulyani oversees other administrative vice-presidencies and functions, including the Integrity Vice Presidency, Sanctions Board Secretariat and the Office of Evaluation and Suspension. Prior to joining the Bank Group, Sri Mulyani served as Indonesia's Minister of Finance, at which time she guided economic policy for one of the largest countries in Southeast Asia, and one of the biggest states in the world, navigating successfully in the midst of the global economic crisis, implementing key reforms, and earning the respect of her peers across the world. Ms Indrawati served as State Minister and Chair of the Indonesian National Development Planning Agency prior to her position as Finance Minister, Her earlier positions include Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs, Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund, faculty member at the University of Indonesia and a visiting professor at the Andrew Young School of Public Policy at Georgia State University. Ms. Indrawati holds a PhD in economics from the University of Illinois and a BA in economics from the University of Indonesia. She has received numerous honours and awards, including Euromoney Magazine's Global Finance Minister of the Year, and Emerging Markets Best Finance Minister in Asia. She has also been regularly on Forbes List of the 100 Most Powerful Women.

Contributor(s): Professor Alan Sked | Why do some people retain iconic status in the historical consciousness of various nations? What does this tell us about them? More importantly, what does it reveal about later and present generations? Alan Sked is professor of international history at LSE.

Contributor(s): Dr Carool Kersten | In the course of the last decade, dramatic political events involving Muslims across the world have put Islam under increased scrutiny. The focus of this attention is generally limited to the political aspects and often even further confined by constrictive views of Islamism narrowed down to its most extremist exponents. Much less attention is paid to the parallel development of more liberal and progressive alternative Islamic discourses; but the final decades of the twentieth-century has also seen the emergence of a Muslim intelligentsia exploring new and creative ways of engaging with the Islamic heritage. Their ideas appear to provide an alternative to both the hard secularism represented by either authoritarian or more benign regimes and the advocacy of an Islamic state. It appears that this third way resonates with the ambitions and expectations of those involved in the Arab uprisings of 2011. In this presentation Carool Kersten discusses how three emblematic Muslim intellectuals from Algeria, Egypt and Indonesia give new relevance to religion in the post-secular and post-Islamist Muslim world of the 21st century. Following the lecture, his latest book 'Cosmopolitans and Heretics: New Muslim Intellectuals and the Study of Islam', nominated for the Asia Society's Bernard Schwartz Book Award as well as for the AAR Prize for Best First Book in History of Religion, will be available for purchase and signing.

Contributor(s): Professor Richard Sennett | Living with people who differ – racially, ethnically, religiously, or economically – is one of the most difficult challenges facing us today. Modern politics emphasises unity and similarity, encouraging the politics of the tribe rather than of complexity. Richard Sennett argues that living with people unlike ourselves requires more than goodwill: it requires skill. The foundations for skilful co-operation lie in learning to listen well and to discuss rather than debate. People who develop these capacities earn a reward: they can take pleasure in the company of others. Sennett discusses how we can strengthen cooperation online, face-to-face in ethnic conflicts, among financial workers and community organisers. This event marks the publication of Sennett's new book Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Co-operation. Richard Sennett retired in 2011 as University Professor at NYU and academic governor and Professor of Sociology at the LSE. He has won numerous international prizes, and was most recently awarded the Spinoza Prize for outstanding contributions to public debate on morality. Together forms part of a three-book project on 'homo faber', focusing on the skills human beings possess to make a life together; the first volume, The Craftsman, was published in 2008. He is the author of many celebrated books including The Fall of Public Man and The Corrosion of Character.

Contributor(s): Professor Shirin M Rai | At times of crisis social expenditure is cut, but with what consequences? Using the concept of depletion, Professor Rai measures the extent of loss for individuals, households and communities. Shirin M. Rai studied at the University of Delhi (India) and Cambridge University (UK) and joined the University of Warwick in 1989. She is Professor in the department of Politics and International Studies. She has directed a four year Leverhulme Trust funded programme on Gendered Ceremony and Ritual in Parliament (2007-2011). Her research interests lie in the area of feminist politics, gender and political institutions, globalisation and development studies. She has written extensively on issues of gender, governance and development in journals such as Signs, Hypatia, New Political Economy, International Feminist Journal of Politics and Political Studies. She is the author of Gender and the Political Economy of Development: from Nationalism to Globalisation (2002). Her latest works are Feminists Theorize the International Political Economy, Special Issue of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society (co-ed. With Kate Bedford); The Gender Politics of Development (2008, Zed Books/Zubaan Publishers), (co-ed) Global Governance: Feminist Perspectives (2008, Palgrave) and (ed.) Ceremony and Ritual in Parliament (2010). She is the co-editor (with Wyn Grant) of the Manchester University Press book series Perspectives on Democratic Practice.

Contributor(s): Dr Naijun Hu | What is social policy? According to Professor Tim Newburn, Head of the Department of Social Policy at LSE, "social policy is an interdisciplinary and applied subject concerned with the analysis of societies' response to social needs. The basic human needs include: food and shelter, a sustainable and safe environment, the promotion of health, the treatment of the sick, the care and support of those unable to live a fully independent life and the education and training of individuals to a certain level that enable them to fully participate in society". Accordingly, ideal social policy should touch every aspect of peoples' needs and well-being, with governments satisfying peoples' needs and expectations. In China's traditional socialism, these needs should be satisfied by the direct delivery of the government. Hence, the Working Unit was of much importance prior to the systemic reforms of the 1990's, whether government, PSOs or enterprises. Consequently, China still has large public sector organisations and huge numbers of public sector employees. After the 1990's, pension, healthcare, housing, unemployment and maternity benefits are being delivered through the social insurance system. The basic characteristics of social insurance are the pooling of risk, the contribution requirement and limits to the level of benefit. However, social insurance alone will not satisfy these needs if China seeks to attain the levels outlined by Professor Newburn. Through comparing social policy as it is understood at the LSE and social policy practices in the UK, the disadvantages of China's social insurance system in meeting peoples' needs are highlighted and analysed, and suggestions made as to how to build and enhance social policy theory and practice in China. Dr Naijun Hu is currently a Visiting Fellow at the LSE Asia Research Centre. He received his PhD in Management at Tsinghua University in 2010. In 2008 and 2009 he spent six months at the Asia Research Centre as a visiting student. Dr Hu was previously a post-doctoral visiting research fellow at King's College London's China Institute.

Contributor(s): Dr Ehtisham Ahmad, Rachid Benmassoud, Dr Robert Hathaway, Shahid Kardar, Dr Maleeha Lodhi, Kashif Zafar | Has civilian assistance to Pakistan over the past three decades assisted with development and improvements in living standards, or become a hindrance? Has the availability of bilateral and multilateral largesse, often driven by strategic considerations, subverted the difficult structural reforms that the assistance was designed to promote? The publication of the recent Woodrow Wilson Center report: "Aiding without abetting: making US civilian assistance to Pakistan work for both sides", that calls for a reorientation of the Kerry-Lugar assistance and addresses the operations of USAid, provides an opportunity to discuss some of the issues arising from the poor design and implementation of civilian assistance. There are also growing political concerns in Pakistan about the political "capture" of some of the assistance as well as growing dependency. Dr Ehtisham Ahmad is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the LSE Asia Research Centre. Rachid Benmassoud is the World Bank Director for Pakistan. Dr Robert Hathaway is the Director of the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Shahid Kardar is a former Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan. Dr Maleeha Lodhi is a former High Commissioner of Pakistan to the United Kingdom, and a former Ambassador to the United States. Kashif Zafar from the British Pakistan Foundation will provide an introduction.

Contributor(s): Professor Hiski Haukkala, Dr Petr Kratochwil, Dr Nicu Popescu, Professor Stefan Wolff | This roundtable on 'EU Foreign Policy after Lisbon: The EU's Influence in its Eastern Neighbourhood' looks at the impact of the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership on the domestic politics of its partner countries, and how this has changed since the Lisbon Treaty. Professor Hiski Haukkala (University of Tampere, Finland); Dr Petr Kratochwil (Institute of International Relations, Prague); Dr Nicu Popescu (European Council on Foreign Relations); Professor Stefan Wolff (University of Birmingham).