LSE Blogs

Policy responses to #misinformation and disinformation that spreads through #SocialMedia in the #GlobalSouth suffer from a biased evidence base – from research largely carried out in the Global North. Similar biases have been found regarding the outcomes of using #AI tools to combat illegal and harmful information. Robin Mansell (LSE Department of Media and Communications) takes stock of the problem on the LSE International Inequalities Institute blog and considers what can be done. Read more 👉 https://lnkd.in/ddgMYxbU

#Nigeria's president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has proposed #tax reforms which appear fair and inclusive. But, as Uche Igwe, Ph.D writes on the LSE Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa blog, there are historical reasons why members of the public and the political elite don’t trust his intentions. Read more👉 https://lnkd.in/dNFxCTc2

Is the #UK government heading in the right direction on #housing ? In order to solve the housing crisis, we need to make better use of existing urban housing and build more within existing cities. However, Labour’s plans to build on the green belt must also be part of the solution and the only way to reach #NetZero targets, argues Ben Ramanauskas on LSE British Politics and Policy.

Judy Wajcman has spent her career studying the effects of #TechnologicalChange on society and #work. She thinks #AI will improve our lives in many ways, but there are limits to what it can do. “I’m disturbed that our imagination of the future is taken up with technology, rather than a society and a politics that we would want”, she remarked, in a Q&A with LSE's Sophie Mallett. Their conversation ranged over everything from universal basic income to the use of AI in diagnostics, education and care work. https://lnkd.in/eAYZTVgA

The Abraham Accords by Elham Fakhro (Harvard's Belfer Center), published by Columbia University Press, examines Gulf-Israel relations leading up to and since the #AbrahamAccords, a set of bilateral diplomatic agreements between Israel, Bahrain and the UAE signed in the White House in 2020. Reviewing the book for LSE Review of Books, Burak Elmalı writes that this seminal work in Gulf Studies offers nuanced insight into the constraints of diplomatic normalisation in the region, its domestic implications, and the great challenges to sustainable peace.

After the crisis with #USAID, what's in store for aid? Duncan Green (LSE Department of International Development ) explores the future of the aid sector and the prospects for nextgen aid workers at LSE and beyond. Read more 👉 https://ow.ly/NzxZ50Vgp0t

The abrupt closure of USAID is an extreme example of the volatile environment in which NGOs and activists work. Jonathan Roberts (Marshall Institute) writes that measuring impact might help, but a total focus on evidence and measurability brings pitfalls. Doing good, for him, is both an art and a science.

"Structural economic change – rather than parties abandoning traditional left-wing principles – is the root cause of the decline of social democracy." Herbert Kitschelt and Silja Häusermann present findings from their new edited volume, Beyond Social Democracy (Cambridge University Press). https://lnkd.in/gNZ4ep4J

Discussions around the #ClimateCrisis often focus on scientific measures and setting targets. Mike Hulme (University of Cambridge) problematises this "desire to reduce our understanding of the complexities of the world (whether human difference or social-ecological well-being) to a partial and incomplete scientistic project." He argues for more diverse understandings of climate and change and its impacts on society. #NetZero LSE Impact Blog

Galina Starovoitova (1946-1998) played a key role in promoting #democracy in #Russia until her murder in 1998. On LSE European Politics and Policy, Dina Gusejnova (Department of International History, LSE) asks why her name and achievements are not more widely known and how Russian politics might have developed if she had not been assassinated. #WomensHistoryMonth