Why are our rivers and seas polluted by sewage? Image

Why are our rivers and seas polluted by sewage?

15 December 2024 - 33 mins
Podcast Series LSE: Public lectures and events

Contributor(s): Professor Gwyn Bevan, Dr Kate Bayliss, Jo Bateman | This episode of LSE iQ explores a national scandal: widespread illegal sewage dumping by our privatised water companies, and why they are all under criminal investigation.

Speakers: Professor Gwyn Bevan, Dr Kate Bayliss, Jo Bateman

Research links:

How Did Britain Come to This? A century of systemic failures of governance by Gwyn Bevan: https://press.lse.ac.uk/site/books/m/10.31389/lsepress.hdb/

Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated: The persistence of neoliberalism in Britain by Kate Bayliss et al, European Journal of Social Theory: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13684310241241800

33 mins

Series Episodes

Power, freedom, and justice: rethinking Foucault

Power, freedom, and justice: rethinking Foucault

Contributor(s): Professor Mark Pennington | What are the implications of Michel Foucault’s critical social theories for how we think about freedom, power, and justice? Political economist Mark Pennington will address this question exploring themes from his forthcoming book Foucault and Liberal Political Economy: Power, Knowledge and Freedom. Pennington provides a unique engagement between Foucault’s account of power and knowledge and the most prominent theories of social justice in the liberal and social democratic traditions. He will suggest that the "positive" freedoms and rights favoured by contemporary liberal egalitarians, social democrats and standpoint theorists threaten to encase people in a web of bio-political surveillance "technologies" that narrow their scope to act as self-creating individuals. Building on this Foucauldian critique he will suggest that if we are to avoid the dangers of this species of "over-government" we may be best placed to re-explore the value of the "negative" freedoms and rights emphasised by the classical liberal tradition.

1 hour 26 mins

12 February Finished

Racism, anti-racism and the politics of popular culture

Racism, anti-racism and the politics of popular culture

Contributor(s): Professor Anamik Saha, Dr Francesca Sobande | Racism and antiracism clash on a daily basis in media discourse. This joint talk reflects on current practices of "othering" in popular media and probes the nature and meaning of media diversity amidst far right appeals to media representation. These practices point to shifts in whom a plural media system can and ought to serve and why.

1 hour 30 mins

6 February Finished

Does class inequality still matter? The Great British Class Survey ten years on

Does class inequality still matter? The Great British Class Survey ten years on

Contributor(s): Aditya Chakrabortty, Clare MacGillivray, Professor Mike Savage , Zarah Sultana MP | It is ten years since the seminal Social Class in the 21st Century was published. We will revisit the findings, ask if the trends have changed, why class seems to have fallen off the agenda, and what we can do to build solidarity in this new political era. The research was undertaken by a team of sociologists from across the country over several years and reignited the conversation about the British class system amongst academics, the media, politicians and most importantly the great British public. It composed seven classes that reflected the unequal distribution of three kinds of capital: economic (inequalities in income and wealth); social (the different kinds of people we know) and cultural (the ways in which our leisure and cultural preferences are exclusive).

1 hour 23 mins

4 February Finished

Sustainability and prosperity in the age of ecological scarcity

Sustainability and prosperity in the age of ecological scarcity

Contributor(s): Professor Edward B Barbier | Drawing on his book, Scarcity and Frontiers, Edward Barbier argues that how economies choose to exploit natural resources is critical to both their sustainability and prosperity. In past eras, a critical driving force behind global economic development has been the response of society to the scarcity of key natural resources. By raising the cost of exploitation and use, scarcity creates incentives to innovate and substitute. However, economies also avoid scarcity by obtaining and developing new "frontiers" of vital resources. How these two responses play out often determines which economies emerge as leaders. In the present era, rising ecological scarcity and global environmental risks are a defining turning point for all economies, but especially those that are vying to win the “green competitive race” for leading global sectors and markets. The outcome of this race will define how innovation and productivity unfolds over the coming decades as well as whether economies will become more environmentally sustainable.

1 hour 31 mins

3 February Finished

Genesis: artificial intelligence, hope, and the human spirit

Genesis: artificial intelligence, hope, and the human spirit

Contributor(s): Craig Mundie, Mairéad Pratschke | As AI absorbs data, gains agency, and intermediates between humans and reality, it will help us to address enormous crises, from climate change to geopolitical conflicts to income inequality. But it will also pose challenges on a scale and of an intensity that we have never seen before. Co-author Craig Mundie explains how his new book outlines a strategy for navigating the age of AI, charting a course between blind faith and unjustified fear. It is the final book of the late elder statesman Henry Kissinger written in collaboration with technologist Eric Schmidt. Mundie touches on how the book attempts to answer some of the biggest questions of our generation: How will AI alter our perception of reality? How will humanity's role in the discovery of new knowledge evolve in the age of AI? What new forms of control will be required to address AI's autonomous capabilities? Could AI spur a new phase in human evolution?

1 hour 31 mins

30 January Finished

Has neoliberalism failed? Reflections on Western society

Has neoliberalism failed? Reflections on Western society

Contributor(s): Dr Samuel Gregg, Dr Paola Romero | In this timely event, Samuel Gregg will delve into the origins of the term "neoliberalism," its contested usefulness in contemporary discourse, and whether intellectuals such as F. A. Hayek and Milton Friedman fit the "neoliberal" label. He will critically engage various contemporary criticisms of neoliberalism, which includes but is not exclusive to economist Joseph Stiglitz, who argues that neoliberalism has deepened inequality and undermined social cohesion in the West, and philosopher Francis Fukuyama, who links it to the erosion of community and the rise of populism. Dr Gregg will also explore the intellectual foundations of classical liberalism as envisioned by thought leaders at the Mont Pelerin Society and Walter Lippmann Colloquium, emphasizing its grounding in families, communities, and other social institutions as essential components of a free society. He will connect these ideas to the current state of Western society, including the socio-political implications of the recent U.S. presidential election. This event provides an opportunity to reflect on the future of liberal democracy, the role of "neoliberalism" within it, and its broader impact on contemporary politics and society.

1 hour 24 mins

29 January Finished

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