Spring 2012 | Public lectures and events | Video

Contributor(s): Prof Patrick Dunleavy, Simon Bastow, Adam Cooper, Jonathan Portes, Prof Bernard Silverman, Neil Wholey, Dr Alan Cann, Prof Vicky Randall, Prof Stephen Hanney, Prof Huw Davies, Richard Bartholomew, Prof Edward Melhuish, Prof Sandy Thomas | A half day conference hosted by LSE's Public Policy Group/Impact of Social Sciences Project held on Monday, 12th March 2012 at the Institute for Government, London. With the incentives for academics to engage with government again strengthened through the REF process, this half day conference will examine the ways in which academic research impacts on government and policymaking, how tried and tested methods as well as newer digital technologies are affecting their relationships and the key touch-points where academic expertise can be of most use on major policy issues. Introduction, 2pm, Introduction from the LSE Impacts of Social Sciences team, Speakers: Prof Patrick Dunleavy, Simon Bastow (LSE Public Policy Group) Session 1, 2.20pm, The Policymakers' View: How Government Departments can Better Leverage Academic Research, Speakers: Adam Cooper (Head of Social Science Engagement at DECC, Jonathan Portes (Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research), Prof Bernard Silverman (Chief Scientific Adviser at the Home Office), Neil Wholey (Westminster City Council). Session 2, 3.45pm, The Academics' View: Opening up Academic Work to Policymakers, Speakers: Dr Alan Cann (Leicester University), Prof Vicky Randall (Essex University), Prof Stephen Hanney (Brunel University), Prof Huw Davies (University of St Andrews). Session 3 (Final Session), 5pm, Change, Evaluation and Future-proofing: Academic Interventions in the Policy Process, Speakers: Richard Bartholomew (Chief Research Officer, Department of Education), Prof Edward Melhuish (Director, Impact Evaluation of Sure State), Prof Sandy Thomas (Director of Foresight, Government Office for Science).

Contributor(s): Prof Patrick Dunleavy, Simon Bastow, Adam Cooper, Jonathan Portes, Prof Bernard Silverman, Neil Wholey, Dr Alan Cann, Prof Vicky Randall, Prof Stephen Hanney, Prof Huw Davies, Richard Bartholomew, Prof Edward Melhuish, Prof Sandy Thomas | A half day conference hosted by LSE's Public Policy Group/Impact of Social Sciences Project held on Monday, 12th March 2012 at the Institute for Government, London. With the incentives for academics to engage with government again strengthened through the REF process, this half day conference will examine the ways in which academic research impacts on government and policymaking, how tried and tested methods as well as newer digital technologies are affecting their relationships and the key touch-points where academic expertise can be of most use on major policy issues. Introduction, 2pm, Introduction from the LSE Impacts of Social Sciences team, Speakers: Prof Patrick Dunleavy, Simon Bastow (LSE Public Policy Group) Session 1, 2.20pm, The Policymakers' View: How Government Departments can Better Leverage Academic Research, Speakers: Adam Cooper (Head of Social Science Engagement at DECC, Jonathan Portes (Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research), Prof Bernard Silverman (Chief Scientific Adviser at the Home Office), Neil Wholey (Westminster City Council). Session 2, 3.45pm, The Academics' View: Opening up Academic Work to Policymakers, Speakers: Dr Alan Cann (Leicester University), Prof Vicky Randall (Essex University), Prof Stephen Hanney (Brunel University), Prof Huw Davies (University of St Andrews). Session 3 (Final Session), 5pm, Change, Evaluation and Future-proofing: Academic Interventions in the Policy Process, Speakers: Richard Bartholomew (Chief Research Officer, Department of Education), Prof Edward Melhuish (Director, Impact Evaluation of Sure State), Prof Sandy Thomas (Director of Foresight, Government Office for Science).

Contributor(s): Prof Patrick Dunleavy, Simon Bastow, Adam Cooper, Jonathan Portes, Prof Bernard Silverman, Neil Wholey, Dr Alan Cann, Prof Vicky Randall, Prof Stephen Hanney, Prof Huw Davies, Richard Bartholomew, Prof Edward Melhuish, Prof Sandy Thomas | A half day conference hosted by LSE's Public Policy Group/Impact of Social Sciences Project held on Monday, 12th March 2012 at the Institute for Government, London. With the incentives for academics to engage with government again strengthened through the REF process, this half day conference will examine the ways in which academic research impacts on government and policymaking, how tried and tested methods as well as newer digital technologies are affecting their relationships and the key touch-points where academic expertise can be of most use on major policy issues. Introduction, 2pm, Introduction from the LSE Impacts of Social Sciences team, Speakers: Prof Patrick Dunleavy, Simon Bastow (LSE Public Policy Group) Session 1, 2.20pm, The Policymakers' View: How Government Departments can Better Leverage Academic Research, Speakers: Adam Cooper (Head of Social Science Engagement at DECC, Jonathan Portes (Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research), Prof Bernard Silverman (Chief Scientific Adviser at the Home Office), Neil Wholey (Westminster City Council). Session 2, 3.45pm, The Academics' View: Opening up Academic Work to Policymakers, Speakers: Dr Alan Cann (Leicester University), Prof Vicky Randall (Essex University), Prof Stephen Hanney (Brunel University), Prof Huw Davies (University of St Andrews). Session 3 (Final Session), 5pm, Change, Evaluation and Future-proofing: Academic Interventions in the Policy Process, Speakers: Richard Bartholomew (Chief Research Officer, Department of Education), Prof Edward Melhuish (Director, Impact Evaluation of Sure State), Prof Sandy Thomas (Director of Foresight, Government Office for Science).

Contributor(s): Prof Patrick Dunleavy, Simon Bastow, Adam Cooper, Jonathan Portes, Prof Bernard Silverman, Neil Wholey, Dr Alan Cann, Prof Vicky Randall, Prof Stephen Hanney, Prof Huw Davies, Richard Bartholomew, Prof Edward Melhuish, Prof Sandy Thomas | A half day conference hosted by LSE's Public Policy Group/Impact of Social Sciences Project held on Monday, 12th March 2012 at the Institute for Government, London. With the incentives for academics to engage with government again strengthened through the REF process, this half day conference will examine the ways in which academic research impacts on government and policymaking, how tried and tested methods as well as newer digital technologies are affecting their relationships and the key touch-points where academic expertise can be of most use on major policy issues. Introduction, 2pm, Introduction from the LSE Impacts of Social Sciences team, Speakers: Prof Patrick Dunleavy, Simon Bastow (LSE Public Policy Group) Session 1, 2.20pm, The Policymakers' View: How Government Departments can Better Leverage Academic Research, Speakers: Adam Cooper (Head of Social Science Engagement at DECC, Jonathan Portes (Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research), Prof Bernard Silverman (Chief Scientific Adviser at the Home Office), Neil Wholey (Westminster City Council). Session 2, 3.45pm, The Academics' View: Opening up Academic Work to Policymakers, Speakers: Dr Alan Cann (Leicester University), Prof Vicky Randall (Essex University), Prof Stephen Hanney (Brunel University), Prof Huw Davies (University of St Andrews). Session 3 (Final Session), 5pm, Change, Evaluation and Future-proofing: Academic Interventions in the Policy Process, Speakers: Richard Bartholomew (Chief Research Officer, Department of Education), Prof Edward Melhuish (Director, Impact Evaluation of Sure State), Prof Sandy Thomas (Director of Foresight, Government Office for Science).

Contributor(s): Evelyn Fox Keller | A substantial literature on risk perception demonstrates the limits of human rationality, especially in the face of catastrophic risks. Human judgment, it seems, is flawed by the tendency to overestimate the magnitude of rare but evocative risks, while underestimating risks associated with commonplace dangers. Such findings are particularly relevant to the problem of crafting responsible public policy in the face of the kinds of threat posed by climate change. If the risk perception of ordinary citizens cannot be trusted, then it would seem logical to based policy decisions on expert judgment. But how rational, how trustworthy, are expert assessments of catastrophic risk? I briefly review the limitations of conventional models of expert risk analysis, especially in dealing with the large uncertainties endemic to the risk of low probability-high impact events in the distant future. The challenges such events pose to the underlying assumptions of these analyses are severe enough to question their basic rationality. I argue that a conception of rationality premised on the bounded knowledge of experts and lay citizens alike, based on context appropriate heuristics, may provide a more trustworthy basis for decision making. Evelyn Fox KellerEvelyn Fox Keller is Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on the history and philosophy of modern biology and on gender and science. She is the author of several books, including A Feeling for the Organism: The Life and Work of Barbara McClintock (1983), Reflections on Gender and Science (1985), The Century of the Gene (2000), and Making Sense of Life: Explaining Biological Development with Models, Metaphors and Machines (2002). Her most recent book, The Mirage of a Space Between Nature and Nuture, is now in press.

Contributor(s): Professor Kathleen Thelen | Do economic crisis and the emergence of service economies make established ideas about "liberal" and "coordinated" capitalism obsolete? Kathleen Thelen is the Ford Professor of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Contributor(s): Alistair Darling MP | Alistair Darling is MP for Edinburgh South West and former Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Contributor(s): Dr Ramachandra Guha | In India, cricketers are even more famous than its film stars; they are venerated and worshipped as gods. This lecture will explain how this sport became an Indian obsession. Ramachandra Guha is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2011-2012.

Contributor(s): Professor Lord Layard | CEP founder Richard Layard will close this series of lectures with a discussion on the economic and social costs of mental illness. Richard Layard is Emeritus Professor of Economics at LSE. He is the head of the Centre for Economic Performance's Programme on Well-Being.

Contributor(s): Rolando Bompadre, Matías Néspolo | As tense as a thriller, as vivid as an undercover documentary, Matías Néspolo’s first novel, Seven Ways to Kill a Cat, examines a place of crime and deprivation. Set in Buenos Aires at the time of Argentina’s financial crash, and seen through the eyes of twenty-year-old Gringo, it tells the story of two boys on the cusp of adulthood who have no choice but to join the gang warfare that rules their community. While its depiction of Buenos Aires rings true in every detail, the barrio could be any place of urban deprivation. With fellow argentine author, Rolando Bompadre, he will discuss society and politics in Latin American literature. Rolando Bompadre teaches Spanish and Italian at the University of Aberdeen, and is author of La víspera de los asesinatos, which was among the finalists of the 1st Premio Tusquets Editores de Novela. Rosalind Harvey has lived in Lima and Norwich, where she fell in love with Spanish and translation, respectively. She now lives in London, where she translates Spanish and Latin American fiction. She has translated Hector Abad’s prize-winning memoir Oblivion and Enrique Vila-Matas’ latest novel Dublinesque with Anne McLean, and her translation of Juan Pablo Villalobos’ Down the Rabbit Hole has been shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. In autumn last year she was one of the first translators in residence at the Free Word Centre. Born in Buenos Aires in 1975, Matías Néspolo studied literature, going on to write poems, short stories, journalism and then Seven Ways to Kill a Cat, his acclaimed first novel. He has been living in Barcelona since 2001 and, in 2010, was selected by Granta as one of their best young contemporary Spanish-language novelists. Seven Ways to Kill a Cat is recommended by English Pen.