Industrialisation and national identity in modern Africa

Contributor(s): Eline Kuipers, Dr King-Ho Leung, Dr Georgie Mills, Dr Catherine M Robb | Taylor Swift's music connects with philosophy in many places: What is love? What is the value of negative emotions like anger, heartbreak and grief? Is there a moral obligation to speak out against injustice? What does it take to count as a "philosopher"? A new edited book, Taylor Swift and Philosophy, offers a fun and accessible discussion of the ideas and questions that arise from Taylor Swift's life and work. Combining top-tier philosophical research and a passion for Taylor's music, a team of scholars investigate the wisdom that can come from Taylor's songs, bringing new perspectives to important contemporary issues. This panel event will launch the book with a discussion of its main themes.

Contributor(s): Fran Heathcote, Joe Ryle, Professor Kirsten Sehnbruch | n the UK, we work some of the longest hours in Europe while having one of the least productive economies. We invented the weekend a century ago and are long overdue an update to working hours. Rising numbers of employers worldwide are switching to a four-day week, making workers happier and organisations stronger. A four-day week with no loss of pay gives workers the time to live happier and more fulfilled lives, allowing for the parts of life that are often neglected, such as rest, parenting and leisure. It has significant benefits for businesses, as real-world examples show that employers who move to a four-day week improve productivity and cut costs. Research also shows that introducing a 4 day week could reduce the UK's carbon footprint by 127 million tonnes per year. This event will discuss how businesses, charities, and councils can reap the benefits of introducing smarter working. Our panel will present the academic evidence for the benefits of introducing a four-day week, and discuss practical ways to make the change.

Contributor(s): Dr Guru Madhavan | Our world is filled with pernicious problems. How, for example, did novice pilots learn to fly without taking to the air and risking their lives? How should cities process mountains of waste without polluting the environment? Challenges that tangle personal, public, and planetary aspects―often occurring in health care, infrastructure, business, and policy―are known as wicked problems, and they are not going away anytime soon.

Contributor(s): Professor Bingchun Meng, Professor Jeff Pooley, Professor Terhi Rantanen, Dr Marsha Siefert, Dr Wendy Willems | Who were the key pioneers in the formation of comparative communications between the 1920s – 1950s, and how do their legacies of scholarship and practice inform the contemporary global landscapes of news reporting on war and the dissemination of propaganda? Exploring Terhi Rantanen’s new book, Dead Men’s Propaganda: Ideology and Utopia in Comparative Communications Studies, this panel will examine how comparative communications research, 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 in comparative communications research, 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, this book uses detailed archival research and case studies to challenge dominant orthodoxies in the intellectual histories of communication studies.

Contributor(s): Professor Lawrence Lessig | In this lecture, Lawrence Lessig will discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on the 2024 American election, and the implications that this will have for democracy in the future.