Events in ID LSE Department of International Development

We know that complex global problems require multidisciplinary approaches and solutions, but how and where do the arts and humanities fit in?

Eminent anthropologist Keith Hart draws on the humanities, popular culture and his own experiences to help us explore our own place in history.

The crisis in Ukraine is a rapidly growing humanitarian emergency. How is the humanitarian community responding to this crisis, and what are the implications for humanitarian studies more broadly? Gathering together a range of researchers and practitioners with experience across the breadth of humanitarian assistance, this panel seeks to explore the implications of the Ukraine crisis on the principles, policies, and practices of humanitarianism.

A recording of the event, 'More Than Money? How Anthropology Can Offer Richer Analysis For Economists' at LSE, Thursday 07 October 2021.

Anthropology has often been seen as an academic version of Indiana Jones – namely a discipline devoted to exotic travel that does not have much relevance for the modern world.

However, anthropology-trained Financial Times journalist and author Gillian Tett argues that this image is completely wrong today, and anthropology can make a vital contribution to public policy, corporate and financial life, as well as our communities as we try to 'build back better' after COVID-19. Indeed, she argues that a world drowning in artificial intelligence and other digital innovations desperately needs a second type of 'AI' – Anthropology Intelligence – to enable us to flourish.

But what does this mean for the economics profession? Could economists benefit by embracing this new type of AI? Gillian Tett explores this question in this talk, and her new book Anthro-Vision; A New Way To See In Business And Life. Deborah Rowland, a leading global thinker, speaker, writer, and coach in the field of leading big complex change also shares her perspective on an anthropological approaches to business and other complex systems.

This podcast is a recording from a panel discussion on Tuesday 27 July hosted by the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa and the Department of International Development on 'Decolonising development studies: Practical steps in course designing, reading selections and classroom discussions'. The discussion covered many complex questions around how to decolonise development studies, considering the various layers of this debate which address epistemological questions, methodological issues, diversity of authors, curriculum designing, and classroom discussions with and among students.

This event celebrated the launch of Overcoming Boko Haram: Faith, Society & Islamic Radicalization in Northern Nigeria.

The book looks beyond the details of the insurgency to examine the wider social and political processes that explain why Boko Haram emerged when and where it did, and what forces exist within society to contain it. Drawing on the detailed fieldwork of specialist Nigerian and Nigerianist scholars from Nigeria, connecting the worst of Boko Haram violence to the wider realities of the present, the book offers new insights into the drivers of Islamic extremism in Nigeria - poverty, regional inequality, environmental stress, migration, youth unemployment, and state corruption and human rights abuses - with a view to charting more sustainable paths out of the conflict.

#LSEbokoharam

Speakers:
Dr Kate Meagher, Co-Author and Associate Professor in Development Studies

Professor Funmi Olonisakin, Professor of Security, Leadership and Development at King's College London

Aoife McCullough, PhD candidate and Former Research Fellow at ODI

Chair:
Professor Catherine Boone, Professor of International Development