Some face-to-face events are returning. Check carefully for any requirements.

During a speech in 1957, Prime Minister Harold MacMillan declared “our people have never had it so good”. Now, more than half a century later, are we fundamentally any better off? Through discussion of technological advances, social changes, political reforms, and economic shocks and recessions, this panel will seek to question whether the world we currently live in is indeed a better place than it was in the 1950s.
Chaired by Professor Brian Nolan, Professor of Social Policy, the panel will consist of:
*Dr Max Roser, James Martin Fellow at The Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School
*Dr Anders Sandberg, James Martin Fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute
*Professor Robert Walker, Professor of Social Policy
A drinks reception will follow, all welcome.
This is a joint event between the Oxford Martin School and The Oxford International Relations Society (IRSoC)
The lecture is free and open to all and will be followed by a drinks reception for members of IRSoc, membership is available on the night.
Major General (Rtd) Jonathan Shaw CB CBE has 32 years experience in the UK Army during which time he commanded on operations at every rank up to two star. He has gained extensive operational experience in the Falklands, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan and has a profound knowledge of the workings of Whitehall and international strategy. Major Shaw is the former Assistant Chief of Defence Staff and Colonel Commandant of The Parachute Regiment (Director of the Special Forces).
As Assistant Chief of Defence Staff, his responsibilities included international security policy, global issues and he headed the Defence Cyber Security Programme.
Graduating from Oxford having read Politics and Philosophy, he joined the Parachute Regiment in 1981 and retired as its Colonel Commandant in 2012. Since leaving the Ministry of Defence in 2012, Major General Jonathan Shaw holds consulting roles at three security companies, Optima Group UK, Certivox, and Tempest Group.

Have you thought about using crowdfunding to fund your next degree, innovation, entrepreneurial project, charitable work, creative arts or sports club? What support you need from your college, the university and the crowdfunding platform? Speak out and let them know.
OxFund invited Jonathan May – the CEO and Co-founder of Hubbub, the representatives from the Development Offices at Green Templeton College, Keble College, Merton College, Regent’s Park, St Hugh’s College, Somerville College (the only Oxford college has its own branded crowdfunding platform) and University College, and the staff from ISIS Innovation who are working with Hubbub to build a Oxford-branded crowdfunding platform for Oxford staff and students to raise money for their entrepreneurial projects to form a panel to listen your needs.
More college’s development offices may join, as we are still in the process of confirming. Please check the Facebook event for the updates. Even your college’s development office is not in the panel, speak out your needs and we will pass them to the development office of your college.
This book talk is a joint event between the Oxford Martin School and the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict
This book talk will see author Chris Woods discuss his new book Sudden Justice: America’s Secret Drone Wars, an exposé of the little-understood yet extremely significant world of drone warfare. His work is based on insights from many of those intimately involved – the pilots and analysts, US and UK intelligence officials, Special Forces and Pentagon commanders.
Chris Woods is an award-wining investigative journalist who specialises in conflict and national security issues. During almost a decade at the BBC, he was a senior producer for both Panorama and Newsnight.
The event will be introduced by Dr Alex Leveringhaus, a James Martin Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict and lead author of the recent Oxford Martin Policy Paper Robo-Wars: The Regulation of Robotic Weapons.
The book talk will be followed by a book signing, all welcome
This book talk will be live webcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdE9AJrZ_Fk

This is a joint event between the Oxford Martin School and The Oxford International Relations Society (IRSoC)
For more than a century, the United States has been the world′s most powerful state. Now some analysts predict that China will soon take its place. Does this mean that we are living in a post–American world? Will China′s rapid rise spark a new Cold War between the two titans?

• Mike set up the volunteer organisation Smile Kids Japan (website under reconstruction…) in 2007 to promote sustainable and local volunteering at institutional care facilities (sometimes called orphanages) in Japan. This grew and has helped volunteers set up visits in 25 of the 47 prefectures in Japan, seeing several thousand people volunteer their friendship to kids in care. Following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that struck Tohoku, Smile Kids Japan joined up with another NPO, Living Dreams, and Mike moved to the area to work full time on this project. Mike and the team raised over $900,000 in the months after the disaster, working with large corporate donors and setting up smaller events, including a 5 kilometre fun run that was carried out in 12 countries on the same day and raised over $100,000. The work was featured on the ITV ‘Tonight’ documentary news program, and in national papers. After giving a talk at TEDxTokyo and returning to the UK to study the alternative care system in Japan, Mike was invited by the Japanese Ambassador to meet and talk with the Emperor and Empress of Japan along with other Brits, including Lord Patten, who had been involved in the relief work.
• Mike is going to speak about fundraising strategies and will suggest (at least) three concrete ideas for fundraising that can be done before the end of term. These can be used for any charity fundraising, however the focus will be on post disaster, specifically on the situation in Nepal.
• The meeting aims to form a small team who can work on a flash fundraising event before the end of term, though you do not have to participate further if you just want to listen to the talk and learn more about fundraising.
To Book a place, click ‘going’ on our Facebook Event https://www.facebook.com/events/467192280115835/
OxFund — the Crowdfunding Society for Oxford Students
Email: hello.oxfund@gmail.com
Website: http://oxfund.wix.com/oxfund
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/OxFund/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/OxFund
Fund OxFund to run events: https://hubbub.net/p/oxfundsociety/
Evening with Sami Awad of the Holyland Trust http://www.holylandtrust.org
Monday 15th June – Impossible to Possible: what does nonviolence mean in Palestine today?
Palestinian Christian Sami Awad, the Executive Director of the Holy Land Trust will lead discussions about nonviolence and its role in bringing a just and lasting peace to all who live in the Holy Land.
Holy Land Trust exists to lead in creating an environment that fosters understanding, healing, transformation, and empowerment of individuals and communities, locally and globally, to address core challenges that are preventing the achievement of a true and just peace in the Holy Land.
6.30pm for 7.00pm start; Friends Meeting House, 43 St. Giles, Oxford.
“It is encouraging for us to know that people have realised that you can stand up for the human rights of the Palestinians without compromising the rights of Israelis to also live in peace. You do not have to pick a side. I invite you ..to continue praying for peace for both communities that live in what we all call the Holy Land.”
Sami Awad.
“We have to not only understand those people who are oppressing us, but try to walk in their shoes, and ultimately to really engage with what it means to follow Jesus’ call to love our enemies.”
Sami Awad.
Sami will be visiting the UK with the Amos Trust. As well as the event on 15th June, Sami will also give a sermon in St Giles Church on Sunday 14th June. These events contribute to the Oxford Palestine Unlocked festival (4th – 20th June) . More details on the website http://palestineunlocked.com and also http://www.amostrust.org

This is a panel discussion organised in collaboration with ‘Oxford Refugee Week’ by the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford. Chairing will be Dr Jeff Crisp, with speakers Prof. Alexander Betts, Prof. Cathryn Costello, Dr Mariagiulia Guiffre and Dr Nando Sigona. Open to all. Registration recommended but not compulsory. To be followed by a drinks reception.

This is a special workshop hosted by the Refugee Studies Centre as part of Oxford Refugee Week.
Programme:
Chair: Professor Dawn Chatty, Professor of Anthropology and Forced Migration and former Director of the RSC
Speakers:
Dr Jeff Crisp, independent consultant, RSC Research Associate, and former Head of Policy Development & Evaluation at UNHCR
Dr Maria Kastrinou, Lecturer, Brunel University
Dr Sara Pantuliano, Director of Humanitarian Policy Group, Overseas Development Institute
Dr Patricia Sellick, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Trust, Peace & Social Relations, Coventry University
Professor Roger Zetter, Professor Emeritus of Refugee Studies, RSC
Since 2011, the on-going conflict in Syria has had an enduring and devastating impact. According to the latest inter-country report of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the humanitarian crisis has reached an unprecedented scale: 7.6 million people are internally displaced in Syria, while more than 3.9 million are seeking protection in neighbouring Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.
Against the background of this unprecedented humanitarian crisis, what are Syrians’ aspirations for their futures? What kind of futures do they want to build? And what measures have EU Member States taken in response to the crisis?
This workshop will draw on ethnographic accounts from work directly with Syrian communities in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. The workshop will bring together experts and academics that have had direct fieldwork experience and can speak about the concerns, needs and aspirations of Syrians who have fled Syria.
This event is open to all. No registration is required.
A wine reception will follow afterward.

‘TRADE IN UK-AFRICA RELATIONS’: Event taking place on July 1st at Oxford Brookes University.
This is part of an ESRC seminar series on British Policy after Labour: Coalition, Austerity, Continuity and Change.
This seminar, the fifth in a series of seven and the first since the Conservative election victory in May, will focus on Trade in UK-African Relations and will feature a number of prominent speakers from the worlds of academia, policy and civil society.
It starts with coffees at 1030 and ends at 1630 (a buffet lunch will be provided).
Places are limited so if you are interested in attending could you please confirm by sending an email to me (shurt@brookes.ac.uk) as early as possible.
If you would like to read more about the ESRC series and previous/upcoming seminars then please take a look at our website – http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/bisa-africa/uk-africa-policy/ – or follow us on Twitter @UKAfricaSeminar.
I have also written summaries of the main themes of the four seminars on my blog – http://internationalpoliticsfromthemargin.net/
The Humanitarian Innovation Project is delighted to announce the 2015 Humanitarian Innovation Conference, in partnership with the World Humanitarian Summit. Hosted in Oxford on 17 and 18 July 2015, the theme of this year’s conference is ‘facilitating innovation’. As interest and dialogue around humanitarian innovation continues to expand, conference participants are invited to explore the challenges of creating an enabling environment for humanitarian innovation.
In the lead up to the World Humanitarian Summit, a key focus of the conference will explore how we enable innovation by and for affected communities. What does it mean to take a human-centred approach seriously, and to engage in co-creation with affected populations? It will also seek to examine what facilitation means across the wider humanitarian ecosystem, and how we can better convene the collective talents of people within and across traditional and non-traditional humanitarian actors.
GET INVOLVED
There are many ways to participate in #HIP2015. We welcome contributions and presentations from academics, policymakers and practitioners. We invite individual paper proposals, full panel proposals, and suggestions for alternative and original format sessions (e.g. films, debates, demonstrations) from across sectors. Creativity and diversity are encouraged!
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS & PAPERS
We are accepting submissions for individual presentations or proposals for full panel sessions. For more details, see the full call for papers below. Please submit a title and a brief abstract for your presentation by 31 March 2015. We are also accepting submission of full conference papers. If you wish to submit a paper to the conference, the deadline is 1 July 2015. Accepted papers will be shared with conference participants and on the HIP website.
INNOVATION WORKSHOPS
We also invite submissions from organisations or projects that would like to host an interactive workshop on innovation or other participation-based sessions for conference participants. This includes suggestions for alternative and original sessions such as debates, ‘open space’ formats and innovative facilitation techniques from across sectors. Creativity and diversity are encouraged!
#HIP2015 INNOVATION ‘LAB’
This year there will be space at the conference to set up demonstrations or other interactive platforms for products or programmes in humanitarian innovation. Please get in touch if you or your organisation would be interested in organising an interactive and hands-on workshop at the conference.
‘INNOVATION’ PHOTO EXHIBITION
The Humanitarian Innovation Project will sponsor a photo exhibition for ‘Humanitarian Innovation in Action’. All conference participants are invited to submit their favourite photo depicting a ‘humanitarian innovation’ along with a 100-200 word description. Selected photos will be displayed at the conference, and a photo book will be published and made available following the conference.
DISPLAY MATERIALS & LITERATURE
There will be space at the conference for speakers and organisations to display posters or printed materials to share with other participants. If you are interested in sending or bringing materials for display, please let us know in advance so that we can arrange a space for you. We can also make arrangements if you would like to ship your materials in advance of the conference.
COST
Student fee: £275
Non-profit / Academic fee: £325
Standard fee: £425
[Note: Registration does not include accommodation; participants will need to make their own arrangements for accommodation]
REGISTRATION
Visit the HIP website to register for the conference: http://www.oxhip.org/2014/11/

*How clicktivists, slacktivists and hacktivists are helping us beat cancer sooner*
Michael Docherty, Digital & Strategic Marketing Planning Director, Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK is the world’s leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research. Our vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured. Our work into preventing, diagnosing and treating cancer has helped double UK survival rates in the last forty years. Our ambition is to accelerate that progress so we see at least 3 in 4 patients survive cancer by 2034; the digital revolution playing an important role in helping us get us there.
We will explore the work we’re doing to increase our fundraising impact through digital, how we’re opening up our research for the digital world to engage with, and what might come next!
Free and all welcome, there will be a drinks reception after the talk.
Michael Docherty is Cancer Research UK’s Digital & Strategic Marketing Planning director. He’s been with the charity since late 2007, joining as Head of Online Marketing and later becoming Head of Digital before moving into the director role. In the last year Michael has continued to build digital capability into CRUK and drive the transformation of CRUK’s websites to make them robust, responsive, and above all, user-centric. Prior to CRUK Michael was a Group Marketing Manager at Telstra, Australia’s leading communications company, and has held various product and brand marketing roles at Yahoo!, Hutchison Telecoms & Fairfax Digital.
Image: Cancer Research UK / Wikimedia Commons

What the World is Losing, a talk with Dr Paul Collins, Dr Robert Bewley & Dr Emma Cunliffe
A special talk with Dr Paul Collins, Curator of the Ancient Near East Collections at the Ashmolean Museum, as well as Dr Robert Bewley and Dr Emma Cunliffe from the University of Oxford School of Archaeology
Saturday 25 July, 10.30am‒12pm
Ashmolean Museum Lecture Theatre
FREE entry. No booking required.
*** Spaces limited. Please arrive early to secure your seat. ***
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Middle Eastern cultural heritage is under threat as never before. These talks highlight what the world is losing in Iraq and Syria, as well as talking about Oxford University’s ‘Endangered Archaeology of the Middle East and North Africa’ project.
Dr Paul Collins spoke in April this year about the recent destruction of museums, libraries, archaeological sites, mosques, churches and shrines across northern Iraq to highlight the unique heritage that is being lost.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
This is a free Festival of Archaeology Talk. See the full programme of events at: http://www.ashmolean.org/events/Festival/

A one-day free exhibit featuring powerful children’s drawings from Burma and Sudan.
The event is co-sponsored by Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART) and Waging Peace. The drawings from Burma were collected on visits by HART to their partners. HART works with these partners and others in conflict or post-conflict areas, often facing persecution and oppression and trapped behind closed borders. The areas in which HART’s partners work are often not reached by larger organisations and Government support.
The pictures from Sudan were collected by Waging Peace, from Darfuri children living in refugee camps in Chad. Waging Peace is a non-governmental organisation that campaigns against genocide and systematic human rights abuses and seeks the full implementation of international human rights treaties.
These drawings are commanding and moving, providing an insight into the lives and minds of children living in these contexts.
A lecture in aid of the British red Cross services in Oxfordshire and beyond kindly given by award winning journalist Peter Taylor and entitled ‘Terrorism from IRA to Al Quaeda and ISIL.’ In his lecture Peter will describe his 40 year journey from reporting the IRA to investigating Al Qaeda and, latterly, assessing the Islamic State. He will discuss how successful – or otherwise – governments and states have been in countering the threats and addressing their root causes.

In conjunction with The Angus Library and Archive’s exhibition, ‘Navigating the Congo’, Bandi Mbubi, will be joining us to speak about conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and his work in demanding the development of fairtrade technology which uses conflict-free minerals.
Bandi Mbubi is a founder and director of Congo Calling, an organisation who are working to bring the world’s attention to the atrocities being committed in the Congo and for a peaceful resolution to the ongoing war. Bandi writes and speaks nationally and internationally to create a mass movement of consumers who demand the development of fair trade technology which uses ethically-sourced, conflict-free minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The exhibition will be open to visitors before the talk from 1pm-5.30pm on 22nd September.

Join us for the Oxford launch of the new NoNonsense series
Panelists:
Maggie Black, author of NoNonsense International Development
A former co-editor of New Internationalist, Maggie has written numerous books on development subjects. She has worked as a consultant writer and editor for UN and other international organizations and for NGOs including Save the Children, WaterAid and Anti-Slavery International. She is also the author of the No-Nonsense Guide to International Development.
Peter Stalker, author of NoNonsense The Money Crisis
Peter is a former co-editor of the New Internationalist who now works as a communications consultant to UN agencies. He has edited the global Human Development Report, and produced many other UN reports on economic and social issues. He is also the author of the No-Nonsense Guide to International Migration.
Danny Chivers, author of NoNonsense Renewable Energy
Danny is an environmental writer, carbon analyst and performance poet. He is actively involved in climate justice groups such as Art Not Oil, Reclaim the Power and No Dash For Gas. He is also the author of The No-Nonsense Guide to Climate Change.
The launch will begin with a panel discussion, introduced and led by Chris Brazier (New Internationalist Co-editor) along with special guest Danny Dorling (Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford, and author of many books including the No-Nonsense Guide to Equality and Inequality and the 1%).
The discussion will be followed by an opportunity for questions from the audience, drinks and a chance to buy copies of the new series.
About the NoNonsense Series:
The all-new NoNonsense books cut through the noise and hype surrounding today’s big issues. Concise, comprehensive and critical, they get to the heart of the matter.
FAQs
What are the transport/parking options getting to the event?
Ruskin College is easily accessible by car with ample free parking on site.
Local buses: 280 and U1 — exit at Headington Shops.
Demographic changes across the world pose one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. Longer lifespans and shifting fertility rates bring with them an array of global health issues. In this lecture, Professor Sarah Harper, Co-Director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, will talk about the causes and effects of population change and the global age structural shift, and Professor Robyn Norton, Co-Director of The George Institute for Global Health, will address the implications of these changes on global health.

The Oxford Forum for Medical Humanities presents a talk on effective altruism and the true impact of a doctor, by (medical doctor) Dr Gregory Lewis.
Doctors have a pretty solid reputation as do-gooders, and many students go into medicine for altruistic reasons. But how much good do doctors do? If you are deciding whether to become a doctor in the UK, how many lives can you expect to save over the course of your career?
Dr Gregory Lewis, a full-time doctor and ex-Cambridge medical student, will present some of his research into these very questions. This talk should be of interest to medics and non-medics alike who are serious about the impact of their career.
Date: Saturday 24 October (Week 2)
Time: 4:30pm-5:30pm
Venue: Blue Boar Lecture Theatre, Christ Church
************************
WHY DOCTORS DON’T DO MUCH GOOD
If you want to save lives, should you study medicine? Probably not.
The conclusion of our research is that most people skilled enough to make it in a field as challenging as medicine could have a bigger social impact through an alternative career.
The best research suggests that doctors do much less to improve the health of their patients than you might naturally expect. Health is more determined by lifestyle factors, and most of the treatments that work particularly well could be delivered with a smaller number of doctors than already work in the UK or USA.
However, medicine is high earning and highly fulfilling, and we expect there are more promising opportunities to help others through biomedical research, public health, health policy and (e.g. hospital) management.
Overall, we think going to medical school would be the best way to have a social impact only if someone felt they were a significantly better fit for medicine than the other options we recommend.
Source: 80,000 Hours https://80000hours.org/2012/08/how-many-lives-does-a-doctor-save/
************************
BIOGRAPHY
Dr Gregory Lewis, a full-time public health doctor training in the east of England. He studied Medicine at Cambridge, where he volunteered for Giving What We Can and 80,000 Hours, and he did his FY1 at the John Radcliffe Hospital.
He will present some of his research into these very questions. This talk should be of interest to medics and non-medics alike who are serious about the impact of their career
Rising inequality is a key focus in today’s policy discussions and media discourse. Building on research from The Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School (INET Oxford), Professor Brian Nolan, Director of the Employment, Equity and Growth Programme at INET Oxford and Professor John Muellbauer, Deputy Director of Economic Modelling at INET Oxford, will consider the causes and consequences of inequality, and what can be done to address it.

A one-day interdisciplinary symposium to launch the Fiction and Human Rights Network at TORCH.
The symposium brings together an eclectic range of thinkers to analyze the ways in which the genre of fiction might or might not contribute to debates about the nature and role of dignity in human rights.
Speakers include: Helena Kennedy QC; Stephen Clingman; Philippe Sands QC; Zoe Norridge; Elleke Boehmer; Cathryn Costello, Mark Damazer; Charles Foster, Jonathan Herring; Michelle Kelly; Marina MacKay; Kate McLoughlin; Dana Mills; Ankhi Mukherjee; Natasha Simonsen; Carissa Véliz.

Devaki Jain Inaugural Lecture:
Graça Machel DBE is a Mozambican politician and humanitarian. She is an international advocate for women’s and children’s rights and in 1997 was made a British dame for her humanitarian work. She is the widow of former South African president Nelson Mandela and of Mozambican president Samora Machel. Mrs Machel is currently Chancellor of the
University of Cape Town.
All are welcome to attend. Find out more at http://tinyurl.com/nv9292t.
Reuters Institute seminars “The business and practice of journalism”
The following seminars will be given at 2 pm on Wednesdays, normally in the Barclay Room, Green Templeton College.
Convenors: James Painter, David Levy
Nazanine Moshiri, roving correspondent, Al Jazeera English
2 December: ‘The changing nature of reporting from a war zone’

This panel takes the publication of Ruti Teitel’s new book ‘Globalizing Transitional Justice’ as paperback 15 years after the publication of her seminal book ‘Transitional Justice’ (OUP 2000) as the entry point into a critical discussion of the state of the field of Transitional Justice: What is its future? Has it a future? What is the role of Law vis-à-vis other disciplines in the field? Are the concepts and methods of Transitional Justice which emerged against the backdrop of transitions in Latin America and Eastern Europe still relevant to new contexts such as transitions in the Middle East? How are national and international security agendas with their renewed focus on terrorism affecting Transitional Justice Mechanisms? How can we push the research agenda in the field in new directions?
Panel Members:
Prof. Ruti Teitel, Ernst C. Stiefel Professor of Comparative Law and Director of the Institute for Global Law, Justice and Policy at New York Law School
Prof. Leigh Payne, Professor of Sociology, University of Oxford
Prof. Chandra Sriram, Professor of International Law and International Relations, University of East London
Dr. Iavor Rangelov, Global Security Research Fellow, London School of Economics
Leo Beletsky, School of Law, Northeastern University will deliver the lecture
At a time of mounting global interest in reorienting drug laws and their enforcement towards public health principles, rigorous evaluation of such efforts remains sparse. In a 2009 “Narcomenudeo” law, Mexico decriminalized the possession of small amounts of drugs, instituting a drug treatment diversion scheme in lieu of incarceration. To evaluate reform implementation, we undertook a study of people who inject drugs (PWID) in Tijuana, Mexico–a locale where elevated levels of addiction and its related harms raise the stakes for this intervention’s positive impact. The study integrated a structured questionnaire with in-depth interviews assessing legal knowledge, police encounters, drug treatment history, and risk behaviors. Between 2010-2013, we recruited 737 adults; 32 participated in qualitative interviews. Only 81 (11%) respondents reported being aware of the reform’s formal provisions; virtually none experienced its operational components (e.g. having their drugs weighed, being diverted to treatment). Highlighting the deficit in the legitimacy of law enforcement institutions and professionals, 699 (98%) saw police practice as generally inconsistent with formal policy. Instead of treatment diversion, our multivariate analyses showed police encounters to be independently associated with known drug user risk behaviors, including syringe sharing and poly-drug use. Qualitative interviews underscored the limitations of policy reform in settings where citizens’ lived experience is substantially shaped by arbitrary policing practices rather than black letter law. As drug policy reforms gain global momentum, ancillary structural interventions to improve fidelity are needed to assure their public health benefit. Police training and management approaches currently underway in response to this study’s findings will be discussed.
Beletsky, L., Wagner, K. D., Arredondo, J., Palinkas, L., Rodríguez, C. M., Kalic, N., & Strathdee, S. A. (2015). Implementing Mexico’s “Narcomenudeo” Drug Law Reform A Mixed Methods Assessment of Early Experiences Among People Who Inject Drugs. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 1558689815575862.
Strathdee, S. A., Arredondo, J., Rocha, T., Abramovitz, D., Rolon, M. L., Mandujano, E. P., … & Beletsky, L. (2015). A police education programme to integrate occupational safety and HIV prevention: protocol for a modified stepped-wedge study design with parallel prospective cohorts to assess behavioural outcomes. BMJ open, 5(8), e008958.

Hosted by Oxford School of Geography and the Environment and moderated by Danny Dorling.
Universal basic income (UBI) is an alternative form of social security, which posits that all people should receive an unconditional sum of money to pay for their survival needs. Despite its controversy, UBI has recently attracted considerable attention throughout the political spectrum and has even been enshrined in the programmes of leading European parties. Proponents argue that UBI would simplify welfare, reduce bureaucracy, incentivize creative work, improve the social distribution of wealth, and eliminate the conflict between labor and the need for automation in many areas of the economy.
To date the ReCivitas project remains one of only a handful of instances where UBI has been trialled in a real community. Cofounded by Marcus Brancaglione, this Brazilian NGO has successfully run a donation-funded basic income trial in a rural slum close to Sao Paulo since 2008. From its outset the project was guided by a libertarian ideal: to show that the satisfaction of basic survival needs is a human right that can be guaranteed without making people dependent on state patronage. However, ReCivitas also sees UBI as a developmental alternative to the preferred neoliberal tool of microfinance that so often fails in its mission to increase entrepreneurial investment in poor communities and to deliver people from poverty.
In this talk Brancaglione will present the lessons of the ReCivitas project, the effect UBI has had on its recipients and, in turn, on his own personal development. He will challenge prejudices against UBI and discuss the potential of UBI as a policy alternative in different countries, communities and economic contexts.
Marcus Brancaglione is the co-founder of ReCivitas, a Brazilian NGO that runs a groundbreaking basic income project in a rural slum close to São Paulo. Relying solely on donations, ReCivitas gives every villager an unconditional monthly payment of 30 Brazilian Reais. Brancaglione is also the creator of Governe-se, a platform for the promotion of direct democracy, and the alternative intellectual property licence, Robin Right. His publications include works on basic income, revolution in Brazil, and the possibility of a left-libertarian theology.
Join us for post-talk drinks at the Kings Arms from 7pm onwards.
One week after the 1967 ‘Six-Day War’, a group of young kibbutzniks, led by renowned author Amos Oz and Editor Avraham Shapira, recorded intimate conversations with soldiers returning from the battlefield. The Israeli army censored the recordings, allowing only a fragment of the conversations to be published. Censored Voices reveals these original recordings for the first time.
Following the screening, there will be a talk from Professor Derek Penslar, Oxford’s Stanley Lewis Professor of Israel Studies. Dr Penslar has written a number of books and articles on Israel’s place in modern Jewish and world history, and co-edits two scholarly journals, The Journal of Israeli History and Jewish Social Studies.
Please book by emailing events@lmh.ox.ac.uk