Events

Vulture Capitalism

Monday 13 January, 6.30pm - 8.00pm. In-person and online event. Old Theatre, Old Building.

Speakers:
Grace Blakeley, Author, Journalist, and Political commentator
Dr Michael Vaughan, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, LSE III

Chair:
Dr David Madden, Associate Professor in Sociology, LSE

Join us for this talk at which UK commentator and economic thinker Grace Blakeley will talk about her latest book, Vulture Capitalism.

In the book, Grace Blakeley takes on the world’s most powerful corporations by showing how the causes of our modern crises are the result of the economic system we have built – “a toxic melding of public and private power”. It’s not a broken system; it’s working exactly as planned. It can’t be fixed. It must be replaced.

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Power to the people

Monday 27 January, 6:30pm – 8:00pm. In-person and online event. Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House.

Speakers:
Dr Danny Sriskandarajah, Chief Executive, New Economics Foundation and Visiting Senior Fellow, LSE III
Jo Swinson, Director, Partners for a New Economy (P4NE) and Visiting Professor, Cranfield University

Chair:
Professor Armine Ishkanian, Executive Director, Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity and Professor, Department of Social Policy, LSE

In 2024, two billion people headed to the polls in some 50 countries around the world. But the drama of these elections risks obscuring just how fragile the foundations of democracy have become. A political system that is geared towards short-term wins, run by politicians that few of us trust, is failing to address complex global problems. Many of us feel disempowered, disillusioned and distrustful.

Join this free talk to hear Danny Sriskandarajah discuss his new book Power to the People. Drawing on his extensive experience in leading civil society organisations around the globe, he sets out his radical blueprint for change. From giving democracy a participatory makeover to public ownership of social media spaces, and from re-energising co-operatives to creating a people’s chamber at the United Nations, he presents a range of inspiring ideas for how we can reclaim our power and change the world.

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

Tuesday 4 February, 6:30pm – 8:00pm. In-person and online event. Old Theatre, Old Building.

Speakers:
Professor Mike Savage, Wealth, Elites and Tax Justice Research Programme Leader, LSE III and Martin White Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, LSE
Aditya Chakrabortty, Senior Economics Commentator, The Guardian
Clare MacGillivray, Director, Making Rights Real and Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity

Chair:
Dr Faiza Shaheen, Distinguished Policy Fellow, LSE III

It is ten years since the seminal Social Class in the 21st Century was published. 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). Ten years on 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.

This free public event will be held at LSE, where Social Class in the 21st Century was first launched in November 2015. This event will again question and open the continued difficult debate about the British Class system. Our panel will ask - does social class still matter in Britain in the 21st century?

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