Contributor(s): Jean-Michel Severino, Martin Wolf | Two of the world's top commentators on economics, development and finance discuss some of the most pressing global imbalances and the social challenges that they pose in the years ahead. Jean-Michel Severino is general inspector of finances, French Ministry of Finance. Martin Wolf is associate editor and chief economics commentator at the Financial Times.

Contributor(s): Michael Shackleton, David Curry, Sara Hagemann, Hugo Brady | The launch of the 8th edition of the "The European Parliament" by Richard Corbett, Francis Jacobs and Michael Shackleton offers a timely opportunity to reflect on the development of this fascinating institution. Following the Lisbon Treaty, has the European Parliament reached the apogee of its powers, or is there still more for the MEPs' to influence? And, after a record low in voter participation in the 2009 European Parliament elections, what can or should the European Parliament do to increase its legitimacy?

Contributor(s): Philip Davies | It is almost thirty years since the American social scientist Carol Weiss noted that social science findings and evaluation evidence "were not having visible impacts on policy decisions". Weiss went on to suggest that "this is not the same as saying that research findings have little influence on policy", but that the influence that they do have is more subtle and indirect. This seminar will consider the various ways in which research gets into policy and practice, as well as the barriers to the successful transfer of research evidence. It will argue that there are some structural reasons why there is a gap between the research and policy making communities, but that this gap can be filled if the subtle and indirect methods of knowledge translation and knowledge transfer are understood and respected.

Contributor(s): Professor Stephen Nickell | This lecture will look at immigration and its economic effects including the contribution to population growth. Why does housing not keep up with population growth? More generally, why do we find it so hard to house our population decently? Stephen Nickell is warden of Nuffield College, Oxford and a member of the Budget Responsibility Committee at the Office for Budget Responsibility. Professor John Van Reenen is Director of the Centre of Economic Performance (CEP) at LSE.

Contributor(s): Eli Pariser | Imagine a world where all the news you see is defined by your salary, where you live, and who your friends are. Imagine a world where you never discover new ideas. And where you can't have secrets. Welcome to 2011. Google and Facebook are already feeding you what they think you want to see. Advertisers are following your every click. Your computer monitor is becoming a one-way mirror, reflecting your interests and reinforcing your prejudices. The internet is no longer a free, independent space. It is commercially controlled and ever more personalised. In this talk, Eli Pariser will reveal how this hidden web is starting to control our lives – and shows what we can do about it. Eli Pariser is a pioneer in online campaigning. He helped start Avaaz.org, one of the world's largest citizen organizations, and is now President of the five-million member MoveOn.org. He's a Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. He has written for the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. This event celebrates the publication of his new book The Filter Bubble: What The Internet Is Hiding From You.

Contributor(s): Professor Yves Tiberghien | In the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008 and at the time of major impasses regarding both the future of the global trading regime and the Kyoto protocol, the global economic governance is in the midst of major uncertainties. The G20 process presents the most systematic effort since 1971 to rebalance the relation between market and governance and to establish an integrated structure of global governance. It has also become the key focal point of a new geopolitical "Great Game". At stake is not just the long-term sustainability of both the global financial and global trading systems and the balance between these two systems; but also the distribution of gains among nations and the transition of power from the US (and to a secondary extent Europe and Japan) to China and other emerging powers (India and Brazil). This talk offers both a conceptual approach to the balance between global rules and global markets at a time of major rebalancing and an empirical review of large issues embedded in the G20 process. It argues that China is the pivotal player in the G20 game and raises questions about the role and preferences of China and Japan in this larger process. As well, it raises question about the strategic position played by the UK. Professor Yves Tiberghien (Ph.D. Stanford University) is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia and a Research Associate at Science Po Paris. He specializes in comparative political economy and international political economy with empirical focus on Japan, China, and Europe. In 2007, Cornell University Press published his new book Entrepreneurial States: Reforming Corporate Governance in France, Japan, and Korea. Professor Tiberghien is currently working on a new multi-year project on the roles of Japan and China in global governance, as well as a project on the political consequences of economic inequality in Japan.

Contributor(s): Ed Balls | Ed Balls is the Labour & Co-operative MP for Morley and Outwood and Shadow Chancellor. He was previously MP for Normanton (2005-2010) and Labour's Shadow Home Secretary (2010-11), Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (2007-2010) and Economic Secretary to the Treasury (2006-2007). Ed brought together schools and children's policy for the first time in the Children's Plan and pushed through radical and progressive policies including raising the education and training age to 18, reform of the social work profession, establishing the support staff negotiating body and extra investment in youth services and short breaks for disabled children and their families. In opposition (1994-1997) and then as chief economic adviser to the Treasury (1997-2004) Ed worked on policies including independence of the Bank of England, the windfall tax and New Deal jobs programme, Sure Start, tax credits and the national minimum wage.

Contributor(s): Professor Michael Cox, Fadi Hakura, Professor Şevket Pamuk | Turkey's international role has grown in recent years as its economy has boomed under the direction of Prime Minister Erdogan and Foreign Minister Davutoglu's much-vaunted 'Strategic Depth' foreign policy doctrine. But as Turkey goes to the polls in a general election, what will be the impact of the result on its international role? This event marks the launch of a major new research report from LSE IDEAS entitled 'Turkey's Global Strategy'. Professor Michael Cox is Co-director of LSE IDEAS and Professor of International Relations at LSE. Fadi Hakura is the manager of the Turkey Project at the Chatham House. Professor Sevket Pamuk is Chair of Contemporary Turkish Studies at the European Institute.

Contributor(s): Professor Benny Morris | The lecture will look at various aspects, some of them innovative, of the 1948 War, the first between the Arabs and Israel. Benny Morris is professor of Middle East history at Ben-Gurion University, Israel, and is the author of several books on Israeli history, including The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited.

Contributor(s): Lord Glasman, Jesse Norman MP | David Cameron has championed the 'big society' as his big idea for government; Ed Miliband has countered with the 'good society'. Two of the thinkers behind these concepts debate what is at stake in rethinking the role of the state in contemporary Britain. Maurice Glasman was raised to Baron Glasman of Stoke Newington and of Stamford Hill in 2011. Jesse Norman is the MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire and author of The Big Society.