Global middle powers and the changing world order

Contributor(s): Conrad Wolfram | The recent prominence of AI has exposed major deficiencies in education. Not only how much improvement can be made in the pedagogical process with modern technology, but also how the subject-matter has diverged from what's needed in the real world. Maths education has been at the epicentre of this mismatch: required of all, seen as central to the future, yet without reformation for the technology revolution that has elevated it to such importance in society. Conrad Wolfram will explain what the problem is, how we fix it and his group's pioneering work to rebuild the curriculum to achieve "computational literacy for all". He will go further: explaining how failures in maths education should forewarn us of actions needed across the curriculum as we enter the AI age, and technology transforms our world.

Contributor(s): Professor Peter Godfrey-Smith | Join us for the Sir Karl Popper Memorial Lecture which will be delivered by Peter Godfrey-Smith who will speak about tolerance and the freedom of expression. Karl Popper suggested that tolerance in political contexts can be self-defeating. “Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance,” he said, because it allows intolerance to flourish and take over. He called this the “paradox of tolerance.” One important kind of tolerance relates to the expression of controversial ideas. Using a framework for understanding tolerance developed with Ben Kerr, Peter Godfrey-Smith will discuss problems raised by toleration of the intolerant, especially around questions of speech and expression. The framework itself doesn't dictate policies, but combined with other arguments it can provide support for a "classic liberal" treatment of free expression, where some protection is afforded to the expression of unpopular views. The framework eliminates the appearance of tension or "paradox" in some liberal combinations of attitudes.

Contributor(s): Dr Mohamed Saleh | Why has democracy struggled to thrive in the Global South? In this British Academy-funded research project, Mohamed Saleh develops a new economic history of the Middle East that explains the economic roots of authoritarianism in the region. He theoretically and empirically investigates how demands for democratisation emerge from intra-elite conflicts in an agrarian economy, despite the lack of an industrial bourgeoisie that was crucial in the Global North, and how elite politics shift with colonialism, the intrusion of industrial capital, and postcolonial nationalist military coups.

Contributor(s): John Cassidy | In this lecture John Cassidy will speak about his new book, Capitalism and Its Critics: A Battle of Ideas in the Modern World. At a time when we are faced with fundamental questions about the sustainability of the economic system, Capitalism and Its Critics provides a kaleidoscopic history of the now dominant system of global capitalism, from colonialism and the Industrial Revolution to the ecological crisis and artificial intelligence. Cassidy will tell the story through the eyes of the system’s critics. From eighteenth-century weavers who rebelled against early factory automation to Eric Williams's paradigm-changing work on slavery and capitalism, to the Latin American dependistas, the international Wages for Housework campaign of the 1970s, and the modern degrowth movement. He looks at familiar figures – Smith, Marx, Luxemburg, Keynes, Polanyi – from a fresh perspective, but also focuses on many less-familiar, including William Thompson, the Irish proto-socialist whose work influenced Marx; Flora Tristan, the French proponent of a universal labour union; John Hobson, the original theorist of imperialism; and J. C. Kumarappa, the Indian exponent of Gandhian economics.

Contributor(s): Professor George Lawson, Dr Jasmine K Gani | This lecture, held in honour of the renowned scholar Fred Halliday, will explore the relationship between revolutions and world order in contemporary geopolitics. Fred Halliday argued that revolutions were the “sixth great power” of the modern world, a force that sat alongside the five great powers that sought to regulate 19th century world politics. Does Halliday’s assessment of the impact of revolutions remain true today? This talk analyses the three main forms that revolution takes today – ‘people power’ movements, ‘restoration revolutions’ and ‘decentralised vanguardism’ – and assesses their impact on contemporary world order. It argues that revolutions remain central to contemporary world politics, not as a “sixth great power”, but still as the primary means through which people around the world mobilise against injustice, inequality and domination.