Volume Thirty-Four • Number Ten • 28 June 2004 - News & Views - Press and Information Office

Today, Monday 28 June, Howard Davies is in China to give the inaugural lecture of a new LSE-Peking University lecture series on the social sciences. The lecture, Globalisation and Financial Reform, will be attended by academics, policy makers and the national press.

The lecture series is part of the School's Asia initiative to enhance academic, business and alumni relationships. In China, LSE is building an institutional relationship with Peking University, the most liberal social science institution in China, which has some LSE-trained academic staff.

The series aims to increase the profile of social science for the future development of China and increase, in the UK, the profile of social science study in China. There will be two keynote lectures per year, one in Peking University and one at LSE. In between the lectures, LSE and Peking University academics will be encouraged to deliver lectures on their specific academic area when either visiting London or Beijing. It is hoped that this will offer opportunities to academics from both institutions to meet and discuss common research interests to develop longer and more collaborative relationships.

The idea for this series developed after a lecture by Professor Henrietta Moore on the future of social sciences held in Beijing in February 2003.

In addition, the ESRC Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at LSE and the Center for Social Policy Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences are hosting a workshop on Urban Housing Development and Regeneration in Beijing from 12 to 14 July, with people from six European and four Asian countries or regions participating. In August, for the first time, LSE is offering a selection of its Summer School courses in China, run in partnership with the China Centre for Economic Research at Peking University. LSE staff will be going to Beijing to teach a range of short, intensive business and finance courses.

Bumper summer

This year, the LSE Summer School programme in London is set to welcome a record number of participants. Almost 3,000 people have registered for the three week intensive short courses, taught exclusively by LSE staff. The first session runs from Monday 5 to Friday 23 July, and the second from Monday 26 July to Tuesday 13 August.

The programmes this year are in Accounting and Finance, Economics, English Language, Information Systems, International Relations, Government and Society, Law, and Management.

New options this year include courses on The Middle East in Global Politics taught by Dr Katerina Dalacoura, and Human Resource Management and Employment Relations, by Professor David Marsden.

Summer School convenor Dr John Board said: 'We are thrilled to have so many students enrolling this year. The programme has significantly expanded since it was established in 1989, while continuing to attract a truly diverse mix of participants, drawn from many countries and with an eclectic range of backgrounds.'

Technology and work

The LSE Research Laboratory paper, We Can Work It Out: the impact of technological change on the demand for low skill workers, by Alan Manning, looks at how technology has shaped our working lives. The abstract reads:

'There is little doubt that technology has had the most profound effect on altering the tasks that we humans do in our jobs. Economists have long speculated on how technical change affects both the absolute demand for labour as a whole and the relative demands for different types of labour.

In recent years, the idea of skill-biased technical change has become the consensus view about the current impact of technology on labour demand, namely that technical change leads to an increase in the demand for skilled relative to unskilled labour, painting a bleak future for the employment prospects of less-skilled workers.

But, drawing on a 2003 paper by Levy and Murnane about the impact of technology on the demand for different types of skills, this paper argues that the demand in the least-skilled jobs may be growing. But, it is argued that employment of the less-skilled is increasingly dependent on physical proximity to the more skilled and may also be vulnerable in the long run to further technological developments.'

Strawberry tea

Last Wednesday saw the annual Strawberry Tea, organised by the Staff Common Room (SCR).

This informal summer event is also the time when presentations are made to retiring members. This year, those members were Dudley Baines, Trevor Hartley, Anthony Horsley, Celia Phillips, Jonathan Rosenhead, Sally Sainsbury, Angus Stewart and Paul Taylor. Jenny Law and Debbie Heath were also presented with gifts.

John Carrier made the presentation speeches on behalf of the SCR and invited members and guests to attend the annual dinner on Thursday 1 July, where the speaker will be the Rt Hon the Lord Leonard Hoffman, Baron of Chedworth. Tickets, £20 per person for the meal and all wines, are still available from the SCR.

Media research

The Research Review 2004-05, from the Department of Media and Communications, focuses on Media and Communications in an Uncertain World.

This focus emphasises the Department's interest in the ways in which people are engaging with technologies, the media, and each other in an increasingly complex world.

Using a variety of methods, the research is providing accounts of the social determinants of ongoing transformations in the media and information and communication technologies in five thematic areas: democracy, globalisation, literacies, ethics, and policy.

Articles in the review include: Public Connection and Civic Engagement; Media and Globalisation; Global Youth Culture; Minority Media in Europe; Equality of Opportunity for Internet Use; Ethical Consequences of contemporary Media; and Growth-nodes in a Knowledge-based Europe.

A risky business?

Risk management and its implications for public and private sector organisations was the focus of the PD Leake Trust lecture given by Professor Mike Power last week at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

Entitled The Risk Management of Everything, the lecture considered the explosion of 'risk talk', the rise of secondary risk management, and the pervasive influence of defensive risk management over the last decade. The lecture explored the effects of the risk management phenomena on internal control of organisations and, in particular, the impact on professional expert judgement.

Martyn Jones and Nigel Turnbull were respondants to Professor Power's argument that the risk management of everything was creating defensive organisational cultures. Questions were also taken from the audience of 200 comprising a mix of practitioners and academics.

The public lecture was the sixth and last in the series of talks sponsored by the PD Leake Trustees in association with LSE. It was based on Mike Power's book The Risk Management of Everything: rethinking the politics of uncertainty, recently published by the UK think tank DEMOS, and available from www.demos.co.uk

Creating cyber trust

Professor Robin Mansell, Media and Communications, and Dr James Backhouse, Information Systems, joined 40 academics, policy makers, senior civil servants and industry leaders to speak at the Foresight Cyber Trust and Crime Prevention Project launch event conference, held at the Institution of Electrical Engineers on 10 June. The conference marked the conclusion of the initial phase of The Foresight Cyber Trust and Crime Prevention project.

The project was set up by the government to look at the challenges and opportunities of new information and communication technologies in the next 15 to 20 years, in particular seeking to explore the application and implications of next generation technologies in areas such as identity and authenticity, surveillance, system robustness, security and information assurance and the basis for effective interaction and trust between people and machines.

In her keynote speech, Home Office minister Hazel Blears reiterated the importance of looking ahead at advances in next generation information and communication technology to ensure awareness of all possibilities and to be ready to take action against potential threats.

Dr Backhouse, also on the advisory panel for the project, reflected on the current achievements of the research findings and how they are already positively impacting government policy and the business world. Robin Mansell, expert advisor to the project, spoke on issues of trust and risk and the opportunities for future research based on her synthesis of the social science, science and engineering reviews for the project.

IT Services/Library training courses

Catering hours

The LSE Columbia Bar closed on Monday 21 June for major refurbishment so that a new student and staff catering outlet can open next term. The new facility will be called the LSE Garrick. This will replace and expand services currently offered in the Robinson Room, which will be converted into much needed teaching space. Monday to Friday vacation catering times are:

Brunch Bowl 9am-5pm
Plaza Cafe 9am-6pm
Café Pepe 9.30am-2.30pm (until 13 August only)
SCR Dining Room 12.30-2pm closed 2 August-3 September
SCR Coffee Bar 10am-4.30pm (closed 2 August-3 September)
Beavers Retreat 12-2pm and 5-7pm.

Helping to make a difference

On Friday 18 June, the LSE Volunteer Centre's (LSE VC) Events and Publicity Committees were up bright and earlier to put posters up around the School, reminding people about LSE's first ever Clothing Donation Day.

When the doors opened at 10am, people came from all over the School with mountains of unwanted clothes, shoes - and even a duvet! Volunteers worked very hard to sort, pack and label the donations and by the end of the day, 33 big bin bags were bursting with donated clothing.

The eight bags of men's items were delivered to University College Hospital for use in the emergency room and for their work with homeless people. The remaining 25 bags were taken to Oxfam on Drury Lane who were delighted with the new supplies. Well done to the organising committees and a huge thank you to everyone who donated.

LSE VC only opened in January this year but it is already proving popular with students. It has 115 registered volunteers and around 50 placements with local organisations. A committee has now been set up to help expand and widen the reach of LSE VC and is composed of 18 volunteers divided into four sub-committees which have their own area of responsibility such as training, support, publicity and events.

Disability inequality

End of year lunch
The end of year lunch was held for LSE Circles network and all students with disabilities and/or dyslexia in the library meeting room on Monday 21 June.

Rounding up the year
It has been an eventful year for disability equality in the School, with the number of students making contact with the Disability Office rising to over 400. We have had our fifth Community Service Volunteer (CSV) living in High Holborn, managing a flexible and varied workload and meeting the day to day needs of several disabled students. We have also developed student co-ordinators for both the Circles network of peer support and the Speakers' Bureau of students willing to talk from their own experience at staff training events.

The Disability Office is looking forward to moving to the ground floor of the Old Building before the start of next term. Look out for the office warming party!

Call for papers

The Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism (ASEN) is holding its 15th Annual Conference, Nation and Empire, at the School on Wednesday 20 and Thursday 21 April 2005. The first day is dedicated to a discussion of nation and empire by leading scholars in the field. The second day offers opportunities for scholars to examine the significance of empire in the context of the study of nationalism in a series of panel sessions.

Suggested themes include: Ancient Empire; Myths and Memories of Empire; The Collapse of Empire and the Rise of Nations; The American Empire and Post-Imperialism; Empire and Representation: art and image.

The committee is now calling for papers to be presented on Thursday, 21 April 2005. Applications should include a summary of the proposed paper (500 words max), with CV and postal and email addresses. Please indicate in the application which theme is addressed. Applications from PhD students and young scholars are particularly encouraged to apply. Deadline for applications: 1 November 2004.

Papers submitted to the conference will also be considered for publication in a special issue of Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism (SEN).

Please send applications to: ASEN 2005 Conference Committee, LSE, Houghton Street. Further details are available online at: www.lse.ac.uk/collections/ASEN/.

Media bites

Noticeboard

News&Views
This is the last News&Views for this term. The next issue will be out on Monday 4 October.

Summer Yoga classes
The LSE Yoga Club will continue to provide yoga classes for students and staff members throughout the summer at the School. For more details and the classes timetable, please email: au.club.yoga@lse.ac.uk or: g.a.puentes@lse.ac.uk.

Forum for European Philosophy
Monday 5 July. 6.30-8pm, British Library, Euston Road. Life Stories lecture. Ray Monk: His World as I found It. £2.50/£3.50. Call: 020 7412 7222.

Royal Society
Monday 19 and Tuesday 20 July. Carlton House Terrace. Scientific discussion meeting. Professors Andy Dobson, Princeton University; Daniel Pauly, British Columbia University; Albert van Jaarsveld, Stellenbosch University; Drs Jeff Hutchings, Dalhousie University, and Bob Watson, The World Bank: Beyond Extinction Rates: monitoring wild nature for the 2010 target. Free with registration. Please see: www.royalsoc.ac.uk/events.

Small ads

To rent: bright spacious room in attractive top floor maisonette. Walking distance Arsenal/Finsbury Park tube. Available from April. To share kitchen/dining room and bathroom with LSE academic (part-time use only). Must be tidy and n/s. £110 p/w including utilities. Contact j.p.rubies@lse.ac.uk.

To let: newly redecorated, 2 double bed first floor flat in stunning conversion in quiet and leafy Priory Road, West Hampstead. 4 mins from tube, Thameslink, and all amenities on Finchley Road including O2 centre. Available furnished or unfurnished. Only £290 per week. Please call Claudia on 07957 147 164 for more details.

To rent: double bedroom with own bathroom in 2 bed, 2 bath fully furnished flat, 5 mins from Chancery Lane/Farringdon tubes. Fully equipped kitchen, wooden floors. Swimming pool, weight room, sauna. N/S preferred. £165 p/w (inc hot water and c/h). Contact Gian Luigi, tel: 07949 480018, email: g.albano@ucl.ac.uk.

To let: delightful, self-contained, fully equipped one bedroom flat in Georgian square adjacent to Imperial War Museum. Just over 1 mile from LSE. Suit couple/single person. £220 p/w plus utilities. Tel: 020 7735 3116, fax: 020 7587 1681.

Wanted: a studio or one bedroom flat from October 2004-June 2005, for a research officer. Please contact: h.narasimhan@lse.ac.uk.

To let: Bright, modern terraced house, on three floors. Three double bedrooms, small courtyard garden. Vauxhall Walk, near Lambeth Bridge. Very pleasant 20-minute walk to LSE along the South Bank. £1,340 p/m. Available from late June. N/S only. Contact Tony Hockley, 020 7834 0697, email: t.c.hockley@lse.ac.uk.

To let: generous south-facing double room in recently refurbished house. Central heating, large living room, kitchen and garden in East Finchley, N2. £118 p/w. Single room: £85 p/w. Both excl bills. Contact 07967 137160.

Wanted for new lecturer: one bedroom flat outside central London from 1 July to end of spring 2005. After this, something larger will be needed for a small family. Please email: robertsamuelsimon59@yahoo.de.

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, 6th Floor, Tower 1, 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 Thirty-Four • Number Ten • 28 June 2004

Exciting links with China