Contributor(s): Sir Tony Atkinson, Paul Schreyer, Jean-Paul Fitoussi | In this session, Tony Atkinson, Paul Schreyer and Jean-Paul Fitoussi will give their views on the best ways of defining and measuring economic growth, including distributional considerations and sustainability issues, drawing on state of the art academic literature.

Contributor(s): Dr Amnon Aran, Roger Cohen, Professor Anoush Ehteshami | As the revolutions of 2011 become the politics of 2012, has power shifted in the Middle East, and has Iran been the main beneficiary? This event launches the new LSE IDEAS report After the Arab Spring: power shift in the Middle East. Amnon Aran is a senior lecturer at the Department of International Politics, City University. Roger Cohen is a columnist for the International Herald Tribune and New York Times. Anoush Ehteshami is professor and joint director of the ESRC Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World, University of Durham.

Contributor(s): Dr Robin Murray, Dr Gavan Titley, Hilary Wainwright | Our political leaders claim there is no alternative to austerity cuts. Two academics, who are also activists, argue otherwise, providing examples of existing alternatives from the social economy and from the perspective of the alternative media. Robin Murray is a co-founder of Twin Trading, a pioneer of the fair trade movement, and of the environmental partnership Ekologica. Gavan Titley is a lecturer in media studies at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, and a regular contributor to the Guardian. Hilary Wainwright is a founding editor of Red Pepper and research director of the New Politics programme at the Transnational Institute (TNI).

Contributor(s): Professor Jack Goldstone, Professor Eric Kaufmann, John Parker | This panel will discuss the current global demographic revolution – the contrast between an aging developed world and a youthful developing world. This marks the publication of Political Demography: how population changes are reshaping international security and national politics. Jack Goldstone is the Virginia E and John T Hazel Jr Professor at the George Mason School of Public Policy. Eric Kaufmann is professor of politics at Birkbeck College, University of London. John Parker writes about globalisation without economic policy. He was previously bureau chief in Washington, Moscow and Brussels for the Economist.

Contributor(s): Ruchir Sharma | In this talk Ruchir Sharma will discuss his new book, Breakout Nations. After a decade of rapid growth, the world's most celebrated emerging markets are poised to slow down. Which countries will rise to challenge them? To identify the economic stars of the future we should abandon the habit of extrapolating from the recent past and lumping wildly diverse countries together. We need to remember that sustained economic success is a rare phenomenon. Ruchir Sharma is the head of emerging markets at Morgan Stanley and a longtime columnist for Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, and the Economic Times of India. He lives in New York City.

Contributor(s): Martin McGuinness MP MLA | The deputy first minister of Northern Ireland will discuss his view of Northern Ireland’s position in the future of the Union. Martin McGuinness is a Sinn Féin politician and the current deputy first minister of Northern Ireland.

Contributor(s): Professor Ruth Mace, Professor Catherine Rowett, Professor Volker Sommer | What does it mean to be human? What are the origins of humanity, and what distinguishes us from non-human animals? Ruth Mace is professor of evolutionary anthropology at University College London. Catherine Rowett is professor of philosophy at the University of East Anglia. Volker Sommer is professor of evolutionary anthropology at University College London.

Contributor(s): Ash Amin, Michel Wieviorka, Claire Alexander, Richard Sennett | This event will launch two new books on the society of strangers discussing issues of hyper-subjectivity and desubjectification as the causes of contemporary escalations of violence. Ash Amin’s Land of Strangers offers a diagnosis of attitudes towards the stranger in the West after 9/11, while Michel Wieviorka’s Evil develops a sociological analysis of evil phenomena presenting us with a fresh approach to the understanding of the darker regions of human behaviour. Both authors will be joined by Claire Alexander, Craig Calhoun and Richard Sennett to discuss the analytical challenges posed by the return of the Subject, and the nature of a politics of solidarity. Ash Amin is 1931 Chair of Geography at the University of Cambridge. Craig Calhoun is director of the Institute for Public Knowledge and professor in the departments of Sociology and Media, Culture and Communications at New York University. Richard Sennett is the School Professor of Social and Cultural Theory emeritus at the LSE and University Professor of the Humanities at New York University. Michel Wieviorka is president of the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme and professor at École des hautes études en sciences sociales.

Contributor(s): Lord O'Donnell | As part of the Health of our Institutions Today series, the former cabinet secretary will discuss the health and importance of the civil service today. Gus O'Donnell served as UK Cabinet Secretary from 2005 to the end of 2011, serving under three prime ministers. Prior to that, he was Permanent Secretary to HM Treasury (July 2002 – July 2005). Before that he had been Managing Director, Macroeconomic Policy and International Finance since 1999. From 1998–9 he was Director of Macroeconomic Policy and Prospects, and from 1997–98 was the UK's Executive Director to the IMF and World Bank. He has also been Head of the Government Economics Service, the UK's largest employer of professional economists, since 1998. Gus O'Donnell studied economics at the University of Warwick and Nuffield College Oxford. He joined the Treasury as an economist in 1979, having spent four years as an economics lecturer at the University of Glasgow. Subsequent posts in Government included Press Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1989–90) and Press Secretary to the Prime Minister (1990–94).

Contributor(s): Christian Kellermann | Is "decent capitalism" a contradiction in terms? This panel will discuss how capitalism can be made better, within the bounds of possibility. Christian Kellermann is director of the Nordic Office of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Stockholm. Sebastian Dullien and Christian Kellermann are authors of Decent Capitalism: A Blueprint for Reforming our Economies.