LSE Press – förlag

A generation ago, the so-called Washington Consensus laid out a series of dos and don'ts for policymakers around the world. Today, that vision is recognised as having fallen short in a number of ways - particularly in its neglect of the social and institutional factors that are indispensable for achieving sustained growth and for building fairer and more cohesive societies.The immense challenges humanity faces are easy to list: climate change, pandemics, social inequalities, the far-reaching effects of the tech revolution and AI, a fragmenting world economy, and a wave of populism and political polarisation that has undermined support for liberal democracy in many countries. It is much harder to identify a set of new ideas - and policies - that will solve these seemingly intractable global problems. In this new world, political leaders and policymakers need guidance and principles that can assist when choosing among policy alternatives. To this end, the editors of this volume convened over 50 of the world's leading economists and policy experts at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). The London Consensus: Economic Principles for the 21st Century is the result of these exchanges. It is not intended as a one-size-fits-all set of economic remedies, but an exercise in assembling the best available evidence and ideas to foster dialogue, and ultimately to develop a set of principles that can address the urgent political, social and economic tasks ahead.

The world stands at a crossroads. The next decade will determine whether we avoid climate, biodiversity, and economic catastrophe – or unlock a new era of sustainable, resilient, and inclusive growth. The Growth Story of the 21st Century challenges the outdated idea that we must choose between climate action and development. Instead, it presents a compelling case for a transformation that delivers both prosperity and a healthier planet.Drawing on economics, finance, policy, politics, and behavioural science, Nicholas Stern explores why this transformation is essential, what it entails, and how we can achieve it. He revisits the insights of the Stern Review two decades on and sets out a new research agenda for economics and the social sciences.This is a story of optimism – about how rapid technological advances, including digitisation and AI, can drive change at scale. But it does not shy away from the immense challenges ahead. With clear and practical strategies for national and international action, this book is a call to leaders, businesses, and individuals alike: the future is in our hands, and delay is the riskiest option of all.

The UK’s Changing Democracy presents a uniquely democratic perspective on all aspects of UK politics, at the centre in Westminster and Whitehall, and in all the devolved nations.The 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU marked a turning point in the UK’s political system. In the previous two decades, the country had undergone a series of democratic reforms, during which it seemed to evolve into a more typical European liberal democracy.The establishment of a Supreme Court, adoption of the Human Rights Act, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish devolution, proportional electoral systems, executive mayors and the growth in multi-party competition all marked profound changes to the British political tradition.Brexit may now bring some of these developments to a juddering halt. The UK’s previous ‘exceptionalism’ from European patterns looks certain to continue indefinitely. ‘Taking back control’ of regulations, trade, immigration and much more is the biggest change in UK governance for half a century. It has already produced enduring crises for the party system, Parliament and the core executive, with uniquely contested governance over critical issues, and a rapidly changing political landscape. Other recent trends are no less fast-moving, such as the revival of two-party dominance in England, the re-creation of some mass membership parties and the disruptive challenges of social media.In this context, an in-depth assessment of the quality of the UK’s democracy is essential. Each of the 2018 Democratic Audit’s 37 short chapters starts with clear criteria for what democracy requires in that part of the nation’s political life and outlines key recent developments before a SWOT analysis (of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) crystallises the current situation. A small number of core issues are then explored in more depth.Set against the global rise of debased semi-democracies, the book’s approach returns our focus firmly to the big issues around the quality and sustainability of the UK’s liberal democracy.

Macroeconomic policy is one of the most important policy domains, and the tools of macroeconomics are among the most valuable for policy makers. Yet there has been, up to now, a wide gulf between the level at which macroeconomics is taught at the undergraduate level and the level at which it is practiced. At the same time, doctoral-level textbooks are usually not targeted at a policy audience, making advanced macroeconomics less accessible to current and aspiring practitioners. This book, born out of the Masters course the authors taught for many years at the Harvard Kennedy School, fills this gap. It introduces the tools of dynamic optimization in the context of economic growth, and then applies them to a wide range of policy questions – ranging from pensions, consumption, investment and finance, to the most recent developments in fiscal and monetary policy. It does so with the requisite rigor, but also with a light touch, and an unyielding focus on their application to policy-making, as befits the authors’ own practical experience. Advanced Macroeconomics: An Easy Guide is bound to become a great resource for graduate and advanced undergraduate students, and practitioners alike.

Violence and war were ubiquitous features of politics long before the emergence of the modern state system. Since the late 18th century major revolutions across the world have further challenged the idea of the state as a final arbiter of international order. This book discusses ten major thinkers who have questioned and re-shaped how we think about politics, violence and relations between states – Thucydides, Augustine, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Clausewitz, Lenin and Mao, and Schmitt.Conflict, war and revolution have generally been seen in political thought as problems to be managed by stable domestic political communities. In different ways, all the paradigmatic thinkers here acknowledge them instead as inevitable dimensions of human experience, manifested through different ways of acting politically – while yet offering radically distinct answers about how they can be handled. This book dramatically broadens the canon of political thought by considering perspectives on the international system that challenge its historical inevitability and triumph.Drawing on history, theology, and law as well as philosophy, Paul Kelly introduces thinkers who challenge fundamentally the ways in which we should think about the nature and scope of political institutions and agents. He illuminates many troubling contemporary conflicts with a critical and historical perspective.This book is primarily intended for second year and upwards undergraduate students in general political theory and international theory, and advanced international relations students. Each chapter is also downloadable on its own for use in courses considering only some of the ten theorists covered.Written in an accessible way Conflict, War and Revolution will also interest advanced general readers with interests in the historical thought underpinnings of political ideas and today’s international politics.

COVID-19 has presented huge challenges to governments, businesses, civil societies, and people from all walks of life, but its impact has been highly variegated, affecting society in multiple negative ways, with uneven geographical and socioeconomic patterns. The crisis revealed existing contradictions and inequalities in society, compelling us to question what it means to return to “normal” and what insights can be gleaned from Southeast Asia for thinking about a post-pandemic world. In this regard, this edited volume collects the informed views of an ensemble of social scientists – area studies, development studies, and legal scholars; anthropologists, architects, economists, geographers, planners, sociologists, and urbanists; representing academic institutions, activist and charitable organisations, policy and research institutes, and areas of professional practice – who recognise the necessity of critical commentary and engaged scholarship. These contributions represent a wide-ranging set of views, collectively producing a compilation of reflections on the following three themes in particular: (1) Urbanisation, digital infrastructures, economies, and the environment; (2) Migrants, (im)mobilities, and borders; and (3) Collective action, communities, and mutual action. Overall, this edited volume first aims to speak from a situated position in relevant debates to challenge knowledge about the pandemic that has assigned selective and inequitable visibility to issues, people, or places, or which through its inferential or interpretive capacity has worked to set social expectations or assign validity to certain interventions with a bearing on the pandemic’s course and the future it has foretold. Second, it aims to advance or renew understandings of social challenges, risks, or inequities that were already in place, and which, without further or better action, are to be features of our “post-pandemic world” as well. This volume also contributes to the ongoing efforts to de-centre and decolonise knowledge production. It endeavours to help secure a place within these debates for a region that was among the first outside of East Asia to be forced to contend with COVID-19 in a substantial way and which has evinced a marked and instructive diversity and dynamism in its fortunes.

Governments in liberal democracies pursue social welfare, but in many different ways. The wellbeing approach instead asks: Why not focus directly on increasing measured human happiness? Why not try to improve people’s overall quality of life, as it is subjectively seen by citizens themselves?The radical implications of this stance include shifting attention to previously neglected areas (such as mental health and ‘social infrastructure’ services) and developing defensible measures of overall wellbeing or quality of life indicators. Can one ‘master’ concept of wellbeing work to create more holism in policy-making? Or should we stick with multiple metrics? These debates have been live in relation to an alternative ‘capacities’ approaches, and they are well-developed in health policymaking. Most recently, the connections between wellbeing and political participation have come into sharper focus.Wellbeing remains a contested concept, one that can be interpreted and used differently, with consequences for how it is incorporated into policy decisions. By bringing together scholars from economics, psychology and behavioural science, philosophy and political science, the authors explore how different disciplinary approaches can contribute to the study of wellbeing and how this can shape policy priorities.

For developing countries, decentralising power from central government to local authorities holds the promise of deepening democracy, empowering citizens, improving public services and boosting economic growth. But the evidence on when and how decentralisation can bring these benefits has been mixed. Under the wrong conditions, decentralised power can be captured by unrepresentative elites or undermined by corruption and the clientelistic distribution of public resources. The picture is complex, and we still do not understand enough about what factors can contribute to creating better local government, and to what effect. Decentralised Governance brings together a new generation of political economy studies that explore these questions analytically, blending theoretical insights with empirical innovation. Individual chapters provide fresh evidence from around the world, including broad cross-country data as well as detailed studies of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Ghana, Kenya and Colombia. They investigate the pros and cons of decentralisation in both democratic and autocratic regimes, and the effects of critical factors such as advances in technology, citizen-based data systems, political entrepreneurship in ethnically diverse societies, and reforms aimed at improving transparency and monitoring.This wide-ranging volume examines the conditions under which devolving power can intensify democratic competition, boost transparency, and improve local governance, providing examples of good and bad practice in both. It is essential reading for researchers investigating decentralised governance, development and democratisation, and for policymakers and practitioners drawing lessons for future reforms.

Rapid economic growth is often a disruptive social process threatening the social relations and ideologies of incumbent regimes. Yet far from acting defensively, the Chinese Communist Party has lead a major social and economic transformation over forty years, without yet encountering fundamental challenges subverting its rule. A key question for political sociology is thus - how have the logics of China’s governmentality been able to help maintain compliance from the governed while acting so radically to advance the state’s growth priorities? This book explores the issue by analysing the detailed trajectories, rationale, and effects of China’s pension reforms. It uses strong methods, including institutional analysis of resource allocation in the multiple pension schemes and programmes, and quantitative text analysis of the knowledge construction in official discourse along with the reforms. Causal identification estimates the effects of key policy instruments on public opinion about pension responsibility and political trust. Moving beyond the pension issues, the analysis discusses with qualitative evidence why falsified compliance might exist in China’s society and the mechanisms that may lie behind it. Where active counter-conduct (such as resistance) is confined, individuals may choose cognitive rebellion and falsify their public compliance.The Chinese state’s strategy to generate public compliance is hybrid, organic, and dynamic. The state rules society by its customised governance design and constant adjustments. Public compliance is not only acquired through ‘buying off’ the public with governmental performance and transfer benefits, but is also manufactured through achieving cultural changes and new ideological foundations for general legitimation.

Populist movements, parties and leaders have gained influence in many countries, disrupting long-established patterns of party competition, impugning the legitimacy of representative institutions and sometimes actively weakening or coarsening government capabilities. By positing an acute contrast between the will of the people and established elites, and advocating simplistic policy solutions careless of minority rights, populists have challenged the development and even the maintenance of liberal democracy on many fronts.Social scientists’ attention to populism has grown rapidly, although it remains somewhat fragmented across disciplines. Many questions remain. Are populism’s causes economic or cultural? National or local? Is populism a threat to liberal democracy? If so, what kind of threat? And what can be done about it? Employing a range of conceptual toolkits and methods, this interdisciplinary book addresses in a critical and evidence-based way the most common diagnoses of populism’s causes, consequences and policy antidotes.

In the past 30 years, senior executive pay has increased dramatically in the UK, US and other developed countries, causing much debate and, at times, public outrage. In this book, Alexander ('Sandy') Pepper argues that this soaring inflation in high pay is the result of a market failure, leading to inefficient pay practices that are replicated across industries. Individual company's renumeration committees face a prisoner's dilemma, and so recommend over-the-odds payments in the vain hope of obtaining superior talent. For institutional investors, these developments have created a collective action problem, with many historically unwilling or unable to intervene to curtail excessive corporate pay. But are executives themselves really the greedy, self-interested, fat cats of popular culture? Based on a thought experiment and survey of beliefs of over a thousand senior executives from around the world, Pepper and his colleagues found that business executives in fact tend not to justify their pay levels as if they were ethical egoists entitled to act entirely in their own self-interest. Instead, they expressed support for a range of ethical beliefs on inequality and distributive justice. They can be categorised as either welfare liberals, relational egalitarians, meritocrats or free marketeers. Many believe that in a civilised society everyone has the right to an income that is sufficient for a dignified life, and that companies, not just governments, have responsibilities in this respect. So, Pepper argues, it is the market failure in executive pay that has created such wage inflation at the top, and this ultimately requires an ethical response from investors, companies and executives. This is a book for anyone who wishes to understand and tackle business's role in the growing social inequality of advanced economies in an informed, fair and feasible way.

Afghanistan has been in the headlines for many years – but tragically for all the wrong reasons. First invaded by the Soviets in 1979, the country then experienced the trauma of civil war followed by yet another intervention, this time by the United States and allies, which ended with the West’s ignominious withdrawal in August 2021. Afghanistan: Long War, Forgotten Peace examines multiple dimensions of what happened and why, and what the future holds for the country now the Taliban are back in power. Multidisciplinary in approach, this book features analysts from a variety of academic disciplines, including policy-makers and public intellectuals – many with direct experience of having lived and worked in Afghanistan. It explains why the Taliban finally triumphed, what this means for Afghan society, and how competing actors in the international system have reacted to the Taliban takeover. Questions include whether the West’s withdrawal represented a major or only a temporary setback for NATO and the United States, and whether and how there can be any amelioration of the situation in Afghanistan itself. The country and its people face multiple interrelated challenges, including those of women’s rights, the drugs economies and human trafficking and exploitation. This volume is essential reading for all those concerned with what happens in Afghanistan over the coming months and years, the consequences for the Afghan people – and for the rest of the world.

Access to the radio spectrum is vital for modern digital communication. It is an essential component for smartphone capabilities, the Cloud, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, and multiple other new technologies. Governments use spectrum auctions to decide which companies should use what parts of the radio spectrum. Successful auctions can fuel rapid innovation in products and services, unlock substantial economic benefits, build comparative advantage across all regions, and create billions of dollars of government revenues. Poor auction strategies can leave bandwidth unsold and delay innovation, sell national assets to firms too cheaply, or create uncompetitive markets with high mobile prices and patchy coverage that stifles economic growth. Corporate bidders regularly complain that auctions raise their costs, while government critics argue that insufficient revenues are raised. The cross-national record shows many examples of both highly successful auctions and miserable failures.Drawing on experience from the UK and other countries, senior regulator Geoffrey Myers explains how to optimise the regulatory design of auctions, from initial planning to final implementation. Spectrum Auctionsoffers unrivalled expertise for regulators and economists engaged in practical auction design or company executives planning bidding strategies. For applied economists, teachers, and advanced students this book provides unrivalled insights in market design and public management. Providing clear analytical frameworks, case studies of auctions, and stage-by-stage advice, it is essential reading for anyone interested in designing public-interested and successful spectrum auctions.

Trade is an essential driver of economic transformation, growth, and prosperity. At a time of global uncertainty and policy fluidity, this comprehensive volume demystifies African trade and trade policy to provide a deeper understanding of how trade impacts the lives of all Africans and the continent's development aspirations.Featuring a wealth of data-driven evaluations of trade negotiations and policy choices, How Africa Trades is an invaluable open access resource for making sense of the continent's major trade challenges, including commodity dependence, competitiveness, and how African countries engage with often unconducive international trade rules that distort global markets. In-depth analysis focuses on intra-African trade initiatives, including the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), trade between African countries and their major trading partners, and how the short-term shocks of Covid-19 restrictions brought about longer-term changes in informal and formal trade patterns, and sped-up shifts in digital trade.Edited by Professor David Luke, and featuring vital contributions on trade economics, international law and sustainable development, How Africa Trades draws on the research expertise of LSE's Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa. This volume provides information, expertise and tools for policymakers, stakeholders and scholars with an interest in understanding the dynamics of trade and in making effective policy decisions that centre development and inclusivity for Africa and its people.

If every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets, what is wrong with the design of the systems that govern Britain? And how have they resulted in failures in housing, privatisation, outsourcing, education and healthcare? In How Did Britain Come to This? Gwyn Bevan examines a century of varieties of systemic failures in the British state. The book begins and ends by showing how systems of governance explain scandals in NHS hospitals, and the failures and successes of the UK and Germany in responding to Covid-19 before and after vaccines became available. The book compares geographical fault lines and inequalities in Britain with those that have developed in other European countries and argues that the causes of Britain’s entrenched inequalities are consequences of shifts in systems of governance over the past century. Clement Attlee’s postwar government aimed to remedy the failings of the prewar minimal state, while Margaret Thatcher’s governments in the 1980s in turn sought to remedy the failings of Attlee’s planned state by developing the marketised state, which morphed into the financialised state we see today. This analysis highlights the urgent need for a new political settlement of an enabling state that tackles current systemic weaknesses from market failures and over-centralisation. This book offers an accessible, analytic account of government failures of the past century, and is essential reading for anyone who wants to make an informed contribution to what an innovative, capable state might look like in a post-pandemic world.

The full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022 has not only caused immense suffering inside the country, and among its people, it has shifted the political landscape in Russia for the worse, altered the strategic map of Europe, and created division and economic pain in the rest of the world. In this volume, a group of internationally acclaimed academics – many originally from Ukraine or Russia – examine the deep causes of Putin’s war, the role played by other actors such as China and the United States, the severe consequences for the many millions of Ukrainians displaced from their home and country, the impact on the West and the Global South and the challenges confronting Ukraine when the war finally comes to an end. Part of the LSE Public Policy Review Series, Ukraine: Russia’s War and the Future of the Global Order offers a rigorous intellectual response to this extreme humanitarian crisis and considers the implications for the future of Ukraine and the transformed global order.

In Dead Men’s Propaganda: Ideology and Utopia in Comparative Communications Studies, Terhi Rantanen investigates the shaping of early comparative communications research between the 1920s and 1950s, notably the work of academics and men of practice in the United States. Often neglected, this intellectual thread is highly relevant to understanding the 21st-century’s challenges of war and rival streams of propaganda.Borrowing her conceptual lenses from Karl Mannheim and Robert Merton, Rantanen draws on detailed archival research and case studies to analyse the extent and importance of work outside and inside the academy, illuminating the work of pioneers in the field. Some of these were well-known academics such as Harold Lasswell and the authors of the seminal book Four Theories of the Press. Others operated in the world of news agencies, such as Associated Press's Kent Cooper, or were marginalised as émigré scholars, notably Paul Kecskemeti and Nathan Leites. Her study shows how comparative communications, from its very beginning, can be understood as governed by the Mannheimian concepts of ideology and utopia and the power play between them. The close relationship between these two concepts resulted in a bias in knowledge production, contributed to dominant narratives of generational conflicts, and to the demarcation of Insiders and Outsiders.By focusing on a generation at the forefront of comparative communications at this pivotal time in the 20th century, this book challenges orthodoxies in the intellectual histories of communication studies.

The idea of the 'Bangladesh paradox' describes the unexpected social progress that Bangladesh has made in recent decades that has been both pro-poor and gender equitable. This began at a time when the country was characterised by extreme levels of poverty, poor quality governance, an oppressive patriarchy and rising Islamic orthodoxy.This 'paradox' has evoked a great deal of interest within the international development community because Bangladesh had been dubbed an 'international basket case' at the time of its independence in 1971, seemingly trapped in a development impasse. Previous attempts to explain this paradox have generally taken a top-down approach, focusing on the role of leading institutional actors - donors, government, NGOs and the private sector. In Renegotiating Patriarchy: Gender, Agency and the Bangladesh Paradox, Naila Kabeer starts with the rationale that policy actions taken at the top are unlikely to materialise into actual changes if they are not acted on by the mass of ordinary women and men. But what led these women and men to act? And why did they act in ways that modified some of the more oppressive aspects of patriarchy in the country? That is what this book sets out to investigate.It describes the history of the Bengal delta, and the forces that gave rise to the kind of society that Bangladesh was at the time of its independence. It considers the policy and politics that characterised post-independence Bangladesh and how these contributed to the progress captured in the idea of the Bangladesh paradox.But the key argument of the book is that much of this progress reflected the agency exercised by ordinary, often very poor, women in the course of their everyday lives. Their agency helped to translate institutional actions into concrete changes on the ground. To explore why and how this happened, the book draws on a rich body of ethnographic, qualitative and quantitative research on social change in Bangladesh - including studies by the author herself. The book is therefore about how norms and practices can change in progressive ways despite unpropitious circumstances as a result of the efforts of poor women in Bangladesh to renegotiate what had been described as one of the most non-negotiable patriarchies in the world.

Nearly 80 years ago, Karl Popper gave a spirited philosophical defence of the Open Society in his two-volume work, The Open Society and Its Enemies. In this book, J. McKenzie Alexander argues that a new defence is urgently needed because, in the decades since the end of the Cold War, many of the values of the Open Society have come under threat once again. Populist agendas on both the left and right threaten to undermine fundamental principles that underpin liberal democracies, so that what were previously seen as virtues of the Open Society are now, by many people, seen as vices, dangers, or threats.The Open Society as an Enemy interrogates four interconnected aspects of the Open Society: cosmopolitanism, transparency, the free exchange of ideas, and communitarianism. Each of these is analysed in depth, drawing out the implications for contemporary social questions such as the free movement of people, the erosion of privacy, no-platforming and the increased political and social polarisation that is fuelled by social media.In re-examining the consequences for all of us of these attacks on free societies, Alexander calls for resistance to the forces of reaction. But he also calls for the concept of the Open Society to be rehabilitated and advanced. In doing this, he argues, there is an opportunity to re-think the kind of society we want to create, and to ensure it is achievable and sustainable. This forensic defence of the core principles of the Open Society is an essential read for anyone wishing to understand some of the powerful social currents that have engulfed public debates in recent years, and what to do about them.

In recent times Australia has developed into one of the world's leading liberal democracies. Its governments have delivered continuous economic growth for more than three decades, even against the turmoil of a global pandemic. And the country's highly competitive elections and strong political institutions operate within a stable and balanced federal system.In Australia's Evolving Democracy a team of leading academic authors use an audit approach to critically explore national government institutions, as well as state- and territory-level politics, and to examine how each has contributed to or held back Australian political life as it has changed and diversified. For instance, the top two parties' monopoly of governance has only begun to adjust to a modern transition to multi-party politics, although balanced voting systems for two-house legislatures have allowed for some adaptation. To date, the country has successfully avoided both rancorous populist politics (as in the USA) and serious governance decline (as in the UK).Each of the book's 28 chapters tackles one institution or issue, outlining recent developments along with an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, to fully evaluate the state of Australian democracy in the 21st century. In doing so, the authors draw key lessons for other democracies, showing in detail how robust major and micro-institutions can guard against democratic 'backsliding' and policy failures.This comprehensive audit also highlights scope for potential democratic improvements. Australia continues to confront the challenges of partisan political barriers to addressing climate change and improving the situation of First Nations peoples, redressing modern social inequalities, and responding to popular mistrust of government and politicians.By taking an in-depth, nuanced approach to multiple democratic issues across the whole of the country's distinctive political system, this book provides analysis that is accessible for students new to Australian politics, along with many insights for political scientists studying comparative democratic politics and Australian institutions.

Why do images and reports of starving and malnourished Africans appear so often in the media? What are the actual dimensions of the problem? What has trade and climate got to do with it? In How Africa Eats: Trade, Food Security and Climate Risks, award-winning author David Luke and a team of researchers seek to answer these questions, to explain why Africa struggles with food security and what can be done about it. The intersection between trade, agriculture policies, and climate risks is fundamental to this enquiry.Using a data-led approach, this book examines in detail what Africa eats and where and how it is produced. It investigates how finance, investment, foreign aid, institutions, actors and capacities interact with policies in holding Africa back from becoming an agricultural powerhouse despite having 60 per cent of the world’s arable land area.The book evaluates how climate change exacerbates the continent’s challenges and scrutinises the sustainability of production systems in the face of environmental volatility. Experts in trade policy, international law and development unpack the barriers that currently limit the growth of intra-African food trade, including the role of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and model the expected impact of the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on agricultural trade.The extent of food deprivation in Africa is sobering. The United Nations estimates that a fifth of the African population is undernourished, and a quarter live with the day-to-day experience of severe food insecurity. How Africa Eats provides a vital, open access resource for academics, policymakers and trade experts seeking to address the continent’s food insecurity in the face of urgent threats from climate change, trade barriers and complex policy challenges.

Case studies have long been an integral part of business and management education. As artificial intelligence transforms teaching and learning, they are assuming even greater importance. Cases provide the opportunity to learn from real-life scenarios, equipping students with the analytical skills required to critically examine data, apply theory, and interpret complex situations in what is an increasingly noisy and uncertain world.Navigating the 21st Century Business World: Case Studies in Management is a fully open access collection of management cases, featuring examples from the health sector, media, oil and gas industries, fast fashion, financial services, and the public sector.Written by LSE academics and tested in the classroom, the case studies in this book challenge students to evaluate classic issues of management, such as corporate governance and leadership, and to address contemporary dilemmas, from considering a company’s responsibilities in the face of man-made climate change to how to create inclusive workforces.Each case details the core dilemmas raised and includes questions for students to consider when preparing the case. Academics and industry trainers can use the collection to make their lessons more hands-on and to enhance their curriculum. The case studies provide practical examples of management decision-making to spark thought-provoking discussions for university students, experienced executives looking to improve their leadership skills, and entrepreneurs seeking a competitive edge.

Reading Wars explores heated, even murderous, political struggles over who gets to read and what they get to read. Those conflicts, once again in the news, stretch back centuries. In this book, Don Herzog examines the history and politics of anxieties about readers and reading, spanning both the United States and Britain, from the 1500s right up to contemporary battles over banning library books and freedom of speech.In these pages, Herzog deftly interweaves episodes from Reformation England, when first Catholics and then Protestants cracked down on unsupervised Bible-reading, with the deadly campaigns in pre-Civil War America to keep black people – both free and enslaved – illiterate. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources, he reconstructs arguments insisting that ordinary men and women could not be trusted to read what they liked – indeed, that some of them ought not read at all. And he charts struggles to promote literacy.Herzog argues that at stake in these battles is whether some people – those banned from reading – are perceived as not fully human, or lesser persons than others. The radical campaign to let more or less everyone read more or less everything is ultimately, therefore, a campaign for equality.

Authority is not a word with many positive connotations. It suggests power-hungry dictators, trigger-happy police, stifling bureaucracies, and monumental urban landscapes. In Nonauthoritarian Authority Julian Brigstocke argues that in these shattered times, anti-authoritarianism is not enough: a radical, speculative reinvention of authority is needed. He introduces the idea of nonauthoritarian authority: a form of power that pluralises marginalised and hidden voices, recognises diverse agencies, and amplifies heterogeneous demands. Engaging with key philosophical debates around materiality, experience, feeling, agency, and landscape, Nonauthoritarian Authority stages a series of experiments with thinking, reading, researching, and writing nonauthoritarian authority. Dramatising a speculative search for barely sensed, dispersed authorities, Brigstocke’s experiments in thinking explore the intrinsically spatial nature of authority, through empirical studies of violent urban borders in Rio de Janeiro, colonial material infrastructures in Hong Kong, monumental architecture in Paris, and everyday spaces of encounter in the UK.  Offering an intricate and playful reflection on the relationship between authority, urban forms, and writing, each exercise in thinking links form and genre to a distinctive way of imagining authority. Each chapter simultaneously critiques a form of authoritarian authority and searches for a new, nonauthoritarian authority within the rubble of the old.

Doing Open Social Science: A Guide For Researchers is the first comprehensive book setting out the principles and practices of open research, tailored specifically for those in the social science disciplines, at every career stage, offering practical advice on how to make research more transparent, trustworthy and reusable.

In Climate Hegemony, Laurie Parsons brings us a human's-eye view of the climate crisis, drawing on two decades of frontline research in Cambodia. He sets out how, if we were to rethink the perspective from which we understand climate change, we can build knowledge from and for marginalised communities, and so challenge the climate impasse.

Numbers are a crucial mediator of how we understand the world, with humans the frequent subject of quantification. Drawing on in-depth fieldwork in a German school, Marked: School Grades and the Quantified Life is a nuanced account of the effects of grades on students, and a cautionary tale of the increasing quantification of human life.

In What's a Company For? Alexander Pepper considers the controversial subject of corporate purpose. Through academic argument and philosophical dialogues, he makes the case for responsible business.

Professor Ron Johnston OBE, FAcSS, FBA was one of the most celebrated geographers of his generation. Producing a prolific research record that spanned six decades, Johnston was an insightful, thoughtful, and open-minded contributor to debates and research practices in human geography, to understanding the histories and productions of geographical knowledge in modern Anglo-American geography, and to the study of electoral, political, urban, and social geographies.  He was widely recognised as a champion of geography whose work continues to influence the field today.  Geography and a Geographer: Reimagining the Discipline After Ron Johnston brings together contributors whose work speaks to the geographies Johnston helped shape. It offers an invitation to revisit Johnston’s body of work and consider its relevance for the future of the discipline. Across the volume, authors reflect on Johnston’s intellectual legacy, the evolution of human geography, disciplinary history and memory, mentorship, collaboration and collegiality. Other chapters respond to calls to decolonise and pluralise how geography is narrated and practised, and encourage fresh thinking about the role of quantitative approaches in human geography.  Thought-provoking and forward-looking, this collection reflects Johnston’s passion for geography and celebrates his extensive contributions to the discipline.  It pays tribute to his scholarship through engagement with the ideas and concepts he developed in his research, and reflects on where his work can take us next.