Volume Twenty-Three • Number Four • 23 October 2000 - News & Views - Press and Information Office

On Thursday 12 October, the Centre for the Analysis of Risk and Regulation (CARR) held a reception to mark research support from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) of £2.3m over five years. Professor Gordon Marshall, ESRC chief executive officer, said: 'This is a new and exciting initiative which promises to yield some excellent research results.'

Taking learning forward

Vice-chairman of the Court of Governors, Bryan Sanderson, has been appointed chair of the Learning and Skills National Counci (LSNC) and Sir Michael Lickiss, LSE governor and chairman of the South West of England Regional Development Agency, has been appointed a member. The National Council will oversee the work of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), a body set up to modernise post-16 learning.

Bryan Sanderson, formerly group managing director of BP Amoco plc, said: 'The council represents an alliance of major partners involved in the challenge of transforming learning and skills in this country.

'We now have a job to do - to break down barriers to learning, to encourage more people to take the opportunity to transform their lives through education and training, and give businesses a say in getting the skilled people they need.'

Former LSE lecturer honoured

On 11 October, Professor Erika Szyszczak, Jean Monnet Professor of European Law at Nottingham, attended the 45th Women of the Year lunch and assembly millennium festival. A celebration of the work of women, the event took pace at the Café Royal in London.

The international woman speaker at the lunch was Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova who read a citation honouring Nelson Mandela.

Professor Szyszczak was a lecturer at LSE from 1989 to 1998. During that time, she was also advisor to women students.

She was chosen from over 2,000 nominees to attend the lunch - one of the most prestigious occasions in the national calendar - for her outstanding services to higher education.

Turkish studies

Jonathan Liebenau and Alain Guyomarch went to the Bilgi University, Istanbul to interview the nine short listed candidates for the newly established Bilgi/LSE Fellowship in Contemporary Turkish Studies. The fellowship attracted great interest and the quality of applicants was especially high.

The first fellow appointed is Dr Gamze Avci, assistant professor at Bosphorous University, Department of Political Science and International Relations. She will be working on a fellowship project entitled: Turkey and the European Union: institutional explanations of an 'averse' partnership. She will also be responsible for the implementation of the Contemporary Turkish Studies programme, co-ordinated by Dr Gul Berna Ozcan in the European Institute.

The Bilgi/LSE Fellowship is funded by the Bilgi Foundation. The objective of the fellowship is to help develop Turkish studies in the European Institute.

Books & publications

Qualitative Researching with Text, Image and Sound
Martin W Bauer and George Gaskell, eds
Sage Publications

This practical handbook offers a unique resource for today's social researcher and provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to a broad range of research methods.

The Roman-Jewish Wars and Hebrew Cultural Nationalism
Moshe Aberbach and David Aberbach
Palgrave

The Roman-Jewish wars of 66-70, 115-17 and 132-35 CE destroyed the territorial, social and political bases of militant Jewish nationalism.

In this controversial book, the authors show how these wars were precipitated partly by Jewish demographic and religious expansion and by conflict with the Greeks.

They argue that the trauma and humiliation of defeat stimulated Jewish cultural growth - a growth which was an implicit rejection of Graeco-Roman civilization and values in favour of a more exclusivist religious-cultural nationalism.

Against a background of globalisation, risk and cultural pluralism, the problem of social exclusion and its possible remedies have become a major focus for political and social analysis and policy making.

This collection of original essays by leading social thinkers and analysts offers a comprehensive exploration of the topic and considers various practical agenda. Contributors include Zygmunt Bauman, Bernard Crick, John Gray, Ruth Lister, Raymond Plant, Richard Sennett and Charles Taylor.

They said it

In a press release for Internet company Headfiller.com, Dr David Lewis, Social Policy, commented: 'There is an acronym in academic circles known as COWDUNG, which stands for Conventional Wisdom of the Dominant Group.

'A crucial function of university study is to develop the mental discipline as well as the intellectual courage to challenge firmly established views in an academically vigorous way. The earlier a student develops this attitude of intelligent questioning the better.'

There are a number of documents available on the email public folders which are designed help students hone their study and learning skills.

Public lectures

The Third Way signals the possible end of American political exceptionalism. The US is no longer represented in the Socialist International by the minuscule American Socialist Party but by the Democratic Party. It is no more capitalists -v- socialists, it is now Democrats against Republicans.

This lecture focuses on the policies required to preserve social inclusion in an economy changed by globalisation and new technology. In particular, it will consider the threat those changes pose to the 'European Social Model', and reject the notion that the forces of global competitiveness imply the wholesale dismantling of the European welfare state.

Evening concert

The brilliant pianist Alexander Tselyakov, a prize-winner at the 1986 International Tchaikovsky Competition, Moscow, has performed worldwide.

His Shaw Library concert will comprise: Mozart, Sonata in F major; Chopin, Barcarolle, Revolutionary Study, Scherzo No 2 in B flat minor; Rakhmaninov, Preludes nos 5 and 12, Moment Musical, Elégie, Étude-tableau in F sharp minor; Rosenblatt, Variations on a theme of Paganini.

Obituary

Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister, died on 28 September aged 80.

Our image of Pierre Elliot Trudeau is a composite of pictures and quotes: the pirouette behind the Queen, 'fuddle duddle' 'just watch me', the red rose. But the former Canadian Prime Minister, LSE alumnus (1946-47) and Honorary Fellow, was a complex man, whose arrogance disguised shyness and whose playfulness hid an iron will.

The Quebec into which Trudeau was born was inward-looking and dominated by English Canada. But Trudeau - half English, half Quebecois - was born a cosmopolitan, who travelled widely in his youth, and studied at Harvard, Paris and LSE. Thus his entry into politics was like a breath of fresh air, which soon became Trudeaumania. Nice, boring Canada had elected a fifth Beatle as Prime Minister. Behind the sandals and beads, however, was a first-class intellect, guided by the principle of 'reason over passion'.

Yet Trudeau was indeed passionate about Canada. He seduced and then defined it. If Canada is known as a country that is multicultural, bilingual, friendly towards, but independent of, the US, with a constitution to call its own, it is Trudeau's work. So was a disastrous national debt. His arrogance alienated many. Nixon distrusted him. Western Canadians felt he did not understand them. His greatest struggle - against Quebec nationalism - is not yet won. On balance, however, Trudeau made Canada more just, Canadians more pluralistic and Canadian politics more vibrant. Trudeau presided over an extraordinary period in Canadian history, and it was made extraordinary by his towering presence. He dominated Canadian politics for 15 years as Prime Minister, and afterwards too. For this reason, his death has resulted in an unprecedented outpouring of public grief, where admirers and former adversaries seem equally dumbfounded by the hole that has been left at the heart of Canada.

Better signposting

Over the coming term, signs within LSE buildings will be smartened up and updated. Each building has been colour coded, and more prominent directional arrows introduced, to help people find their way around more easily. The old lettering will be cleaned up and amended to take account of office moves.

The new signs are going up in Connaught House, to be followed by the Old Building, and then ten more buildings. As the signs go up, Keith Foot, assistant estates officer, asks that people within that building check that their floor sign is now accurate. Please email Keith, k.foot@lse.ac.uk, with any changes when you see the new signs.

IT Services /Library training courses

Book on ext 6223 or email: IT_Training. All classes are held in Room S186 unless otherwise stated.

Learning and teaching sessions

The Computer Security Research Centre (Information Systems) is running the following three sessions, led by Dr James Backhouse and Carol Hsu. The sessions build on their work with the Learning and Teaching Technology Group, on developing on-line learning for courses within a masters programme at LSE.

New staff may be interested in seeing themselves on video, and getting some practice on such issues as running classes and marking students' work. Three forthcoming sessions are useful here:

Tuesday 7 November
Marking student essays and giving feedback: a practice forum 2-5pm

The new QAA review process starts to affect departments next year so early preparation should be considered:

Monday 13 November
The QAA academic review process: an introduction 12.50-1.50pm

Monday 20 November
Preparing programme specifications and course outlines 2-5pm

New environments and the quality of life

LSE has opened its doors to some of the world's leading architects and urban designers to engage with the problems of the contemporary city. The LSE Cities Programme and the Royal Academy - currently hosting London's most controversial contemporary art exhibition Apocalypse - are sponsoring a series of lectures which explore the social and spatial implications of urban change.

British architects: Richard Rogers, Zaha Hadid and Norman Foster, and international designers: Daniel Libeskind, Oriol Bohigas and Charles Correa, are at the very forefront of the theory and practice of city design today. They will give illustrated talks on how their buildings and projects for housing, cultural and mixed-use areas respond to the challenges of modern cities in the developed and developing world.

At a time when more than half the world's population is living in cities, the quality of the built environment takes on even greater social significance. Architects and urban designers are responsible for creating new environments and repairing the old. But, as Richard Sennett, chairman of the LSE Cities Programme, has noted 'while the functions of cities have been transformed by the global economy, the built environment is not well integrated with its economic, social, cultural and political needs.' By exploring the links between urban design and society, these lectures will foster an informed debate on the future design and governance of cities.

For further information please contact Michelle Langan, LSE Cities Programme, ext 6828, fax 020 7955 7697, email: architecture@lse.ac.uk.

Research Fellowships

The Centre for European Studies and the Regional History Centre are launching a joint research programme on European culture contact in the Bristol region. The programme aims to document and analyse cultural contact and exchange between the population of the Bristol region and immigrants from Europe, primarily during the 19th and 20th centuries. Tenable from 1 December. Details are currently being finalised. Deadline for applications is probably Friday, 3 November with interviews expected on or before Wednesday 29 November. Further particulars and application form, email: ullrich.kockel@uwe.ac.uk.

Source: The Student Support Network (SSN) - an LSE-wide network for research students. To become a member, email Ahmad Lutfi at: a.a.lutfi@lse.ac.uk.

Noticeboard

Work experience
Enterprise LSE (ELSE), requires a student with excellent IT skills to update and work on the design of some of their websites. The ideal candidate will have excellent working knowledge of the Internet and the main Windows packages. Please reply by email, with a CV attached, to Jenny Hughes at ELSE: j.m.hughes@lse.ac.uk.

Economists' Bookshop promotion
The European Union: Who's winning, who's losing? From 26 October to 6 November, Economists' Bookshop.

Music Society
Orchestra: new players please book an audition from 4.30pm (rehearsal at 7.30pm) in the Shaw Library.
Choir: first rehearsal 6pm.

AIESEC careers fair
If you are still considering what you want to do with your life, or you just want to take a break before starting the career ladder, why not go along to the AIESEC careers fair on 27 October, New Connaught Rooms, Great Queen Street, 10am-5pm.

The fair will give you the chance to meet representatives of such firms as UBS, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Andersen Consulting. For further information visit the AIESEC website: www.careersfairs.org.

University of London lecture
Wednesday 25 October, 6pm, Chancellor's Hall, Senate House. Professor Wayne Fields: An Epic Presumption: America and its presidency.

Small ads

For sale: 2/3 bedroom Victorian house in Chiswick, W4, near tube and North London Line (BR). Stripped floors throughout and working coal fire. 45' east/south facing garden. £299,950. Tel: 020 8995 3897, 07940 552915 (mobile).

To let: comfortable maisonette in Notting Hill area, 2 bedrooms and lovely loft study-bedroom. Fully furnished, pleasant outlook and car space. Five mins to Ladbroke Grove tube, 10 mins to Holland Park. Suit visiting academics. Available 1 January-September 2001. Contact Professor Wajcman e-mail: j.wajcman@lse.ac.uk.

To let: delightful, self-contained, fully equipped one bedroom flat in Georgian square adjacent to Imperial War Museum. Just over one mile from LSE. Suit couple or single person. £200 pw plus utilities. Tel: 020 7735 3116, fax: 020 7587 1681.

To let: smart, unfurnished flat in Battersea. One min walk to Queenstown Road (Waterloo 5 mins) or Battersea Park (Victoria 5 mins) stations. Double bedroom, single bedroom (or study) and lounge. Brand new fitted kitchen. Totally redecorated. Oak floor. Available immediately. £275 per week. Call 020 7627 2189 or mobile 07947 806769.

LSE News & Views is published every Monday during term by the Press & Information Office. Printed by Reprographics Department. The aim is to provide a means of communication for all members of the School as well as news and information about people and activities. Articles, news and photographs are welcome. Contributions should be sent to Toni Sym, Press & Information Office, H615, to arrive no later than one week before publication date. All personal ads carry a standard charge of £2 for up to 50 words.

Volume Twenty-Three • Number Four • 23 October 2000

CARR celebrates funding