A global engagement series: Public purpose in the time of COVID-19

About

Hosted by the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), this virtual events series will ask the questions: What ​is ‘public purpose’ in the time of a global pandemic? What is the role of the State in shaping a social and economic recovery with a new directionality? Throughout the series, IIPP will be in conversation with leading global thinkers on today’s most pressing challenges, from the macroeconomic policy response to the effectiveness of different public governance solutions and civic engagement experimentation.

This series will also explore how to give public purpose to powerful digital technologies and rebuild more resilient economic systems and institutions, as well as what is needed across emerging economies to avoid spiralling into more debt and inequality.

The current global COVID-19 crisis is a wake-up call for a new public purpose which works for a more inclusive and sustainable global society.

Follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #IIPPCOVID19

The series is supported by the European Commission Horizon2020 project, Growinpro.

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Events

If you are unable to reserve a place, each talk will also be uploaded to our YouTube channel at a later date.

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Alicia Bárcena Ibarra

Executive Secretary at Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)

Alicia Bárcena Ibarra is the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). She had previously served as the Under-Secretary-General for Management at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, Chef de Cabinet and Deputy Chef de Cabinet to the former Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan. 

More about Alicia Bárcena Ibarra

Francesca Bria

President of the Italian Innovation Fund and Honorary Professor at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)

Francesca Bria is is an innovation economist and digital policy expert whose work is located at the intersection of technology, geopolitics and the economy. She was recently appointed to lead the newly created Italian Innovation Fund with an aim to develop the Italian venture capital system.

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Danny Dorling

Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography, School of Geography and the Environment of the University of Oxford

Danny Dorling is one of Britain’s leading geographers and has had a major influence on our understanding of inequality and poverty. His work has revealed the multidimensional aspects to inequality beyond simple income measures, especially those in housing, health, employment and education, and pioneered new cartographic methods for understanding how these play out over space and society.

More about Danny Dorling

Jayati Ghosh

Professor of Economics at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; and IIPP Advisory Board member

Jayati Ghosh is Professor of Economics at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her research has covered globalisation, international trade and finance, employment patterns in developing countries, macroeconomic policy, gender and development, and the implications of recent growth in China and India. 

More about Jayati Ghosh

Georgia Gould

Leader and Deputy Leader at Camden London Borough Council and London Councils

Georgia Gould was elected a Labour councillor on Camden Council in 2010 at the age of only 24, becoming its leader in 2017. She has coordinated Camden’s response to COVID-19, including setting up an economic renewal taskforce in partnership with the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP).

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Stephanie Kelton

Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Stony Brook University, and IIPP Advisory Board member

Stephanie Kelton is a Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Stony Brook University. She is a leading expert on Modern Monetary Theory and a former Chief Economist on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee (Democratic staff).

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Richard Kozul-Wright

Jan Kregel

Director of Research at Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, New York

Jan Kregel is director of research at the Levy Economics Institute, director of the Levy Institute master’s program in economic theory and policy, and head of the Institute’s Monetary Policy and Financial Structure program. He also holds the position of professor of development finance at Tallinn University of Technology.

More about Jan Kregel

Aurore Lalucq

Member of the European Parliament

Aurore Lalucq is a French economist and politician who was elected to the European Parliament in 2019. She has been a strong voice for a European Green New Deal agenda and for the adoption of new wealth indicators which factor in social and environmental concerns.

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Mariana Mazzucato

Professor in the Economics of Innovation & Public Value and Director at UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)

Mariana Mazzucato is amongst the most significant contemporary thinkers on innovation and the evolution of markets. Her work has challenged the account of innovation and growth in orthodox economics and initiated new research streams and policy directions. 

More about Mariana Mazzucato

Tim Minshall

Dr John C Taylor Professor of Innovation and Head of Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge

Tim Minshall is one of the world’s leading experts on innovation within the manufacturing sector. His recent research has focused on open innovation as a successful business strategy and on the transformation of manufacturing processes with the emergence of additive manufacturing (3D printing). 

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Carlota Perez

IIPP Honorary Professor; Centennial Professor, London School of Economics; and IIPP Advisory Board member

Carlota Perez studies the socio-economic impact of major technological change. Author of the influential Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital, she is Honorary Professor at IIPP and at SPRU, University of Sussex, a Visiting Professor at LSE and at TalTech, Estonia. Carlota’s current research project analyses the historical role of government in shaping the context for innovation.

More abouT Carlota Perez

Katharina Pistor

Edwin B. Parker Professor of Comparative Law at Columbia Law School

Katharina Pistor is a distinguished scholar and writer on corporate governance, money and finance, property rights, and comparative law and legal institutions. Pistor publishes widely in legal and social science journals and has recently argued that the rise of a global money system means a new definition of sovereignty: the control of money.

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Giulio Quaggiotto

Head of the Regional Innovation Center in the Asia Pacific, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Giulio Quaggiotto is an expert in the social and international development aspects of innovation. In his role with the UNDP he works with governments across the Asia Pacific region to develop innovative capabilities and generate solutions to complex development challenges.

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Elly Schlein

Vice President at Emilia-Romagna

Elly Schlein has been hailed as a rising star of the Italian left. She was recently appointed Vice President of Emilia-Romagna by President Stefano Bonaccini, having played a major role in mobilising against the far-right push in the 2020 regional election.

More about Elly Schlein

Rebecca Shipley

Professor of Healthcare Engineering | Director, UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering

Rebecca Shipley is a mathematician who has pioneered the application of mathematical models in medicine. Her research investigates nervous system tissue engineering, where she works to design and test repair constructs, and on the use of computational modelling (in combination with high-resolution imaging) to understand cancerous tumour development and investigate the potential for individualised treatment.

More about Rebecca Shipley

Damon Silvers

Director of Policy of the AFL-CIO and Visiting Professor in Labour Markets and Innovation at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)

Damon A. Silvers a Visiting Professor in Labour Markets and Innovation at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP). He is on sabbatical from the AFL-CIO where is has served as the Director of Policy and Special Counsel for the AFL-CIO. He joined the AFL-CIO as Associate General Counsel in 1997. 

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Robert Skidelsky

Professor Emeritus of Political Economy at Warwick University and Member of the British House of Lords

Robert Skidelsky is one of Britain’s foremost economic historians and a key voice in contemporary economic and political debates. His special expertise is in the historic role of fiscal policy in advanced economies and the rise, fall and return of Keynesian economics.

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William Spriggs

Chief Economist of the AFL-CIO and Professor of Economics at Howard University

William Spriggs is a renowned labour economist specialising in employment issues and Professor at Howard University. As Chief Economist to the AFL-CIO, he chairs the Economic Policy Working Group for the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD and serves on the board of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

More about William Spriggs

Pavlina Tcherneva

Associate Professor of Economics at Bard College

Pavlina Tcherneva is an American economist specialising in Modern Monetary Theory and public policy. Her book The Case for a Job Guarantee (2020) is leading an international argument for job guarantees – voluntary employment opportunities in public service for all who need it – arguing that this can positively transform the current social and economic settlement.

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Els Torreele

Executive Director, Médecins Sans Frontières Access Campaign

Els Torreele is a leading figure in the global effort to increase the access of the world's population to suitable and affordable medical treatments. Until recently, she directed the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Access Campaign where she worked to push the development of medicines, vaccines and diagnostics that address shortfalls in global health provision.

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Cecilia Ugaz Estrada

Director of Department of Policy Research and Statistics at United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)

Cecilia Ugaz Estrada is an economist with extensive experience working in international institutions. Her work at UNIDO concerns the impact of rapid technological change on the future of manufacturing and sustainable development.

More about Cecilia Ugaz Estrada

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