This site provides free access to the full text of the report by the Intelligence and Security Committee chaired by Dr. Kim Howells which was published as CM 7617 session 2008-9 in May 2009. The 108 page report examines whether the intelligence received by MI5, the police and other British intelligence and security services could have prevented the terrorist attacks on the London Underground on 7th July 2005. Topics covered include questions about the individual bombers, the surveillence of terrorist groups in Britain and the constraints on MI5. Questions are also raised about the lessons learned in terms of future surveillance and monitoring of radicalisation of young people by Islamic fundamental groups. An appendix contains a detailed timeline of events.

Unisys Security Index is a global measure of how secure citizens and consumers feel in a number of nations worldwide. It is conducted twice a year by commercial company Unisys Security and focuses on a number of key areas: national security (perceived levels of risk from terrorism, wars), financial security (risk from identity fraud, inability to make debt or mortgage repayments, financial insecurity), Internet security (perceived levels of risk from computer viruses, levels of confidence in online banking and shopping services) and personal security (levels of risk from crime, surveillance, access to personal information).

Countries surveyed are usually limited to under 10, including the UK, USA, Brazil, Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, Germany and Spain. The website provides information about the survey methdology and access to global and national statistical data and reports from 2007 onwards. These enable comparison of trends in confidence levels.
Source: LIS-SOCIALSCIENCE@JISCMAIL.AC.UK

Speaker: Professor Amartya Sen, Lamont University Professor, Harvard University

We invite you to join us at the final lecture in the 2009 Global Citizenship Lecture series, hosted jointly by UCL and the Commonwealth Secretariat.

The speaker at this lecture will be Professor Amartya Sen. Professor Sen recently chaired a Commonwealth Commission, the report of which, Civil Paths to Peace, will be part of the material for the lecture and the discussion to follow.

We would be delighted if you were able to join us. Registration will take place at 18.00 in UCL’s Bloomsbury Theatre, Gordon Street WC1H 0AH. The formal lecture will commence at 18.30 and will be followed by a drinks reception at 19.45 in the South Cloisters.

Places are limited, so if you wish to attend the lecture and reception on 2 June, please contact Louisa Diplock at l.diplock@ucl.ac.uk or 020 7679 9743 as soon as possible, and by Wednesday 27 May at the latest.

From Critique to Contestation

MARXISM AND EDUCATION: RENEWING DIALOGUES XII
A Day Seminar
10.00-4.30, Saturday 4 July 2009
Birmingham City University
Perry Barr, B42 2SU
Atwood Building
Room: 044

This is to announce the 12th Marxism and Education: Renewing Dialogues (MERD) Seminar. We will focus on current issues in marxist education research.

We are pleased to confirm the following line-up of speakers:
Andrea Beckmann, Charlie Cooper, Richard Hatcher, Ken Jones and Gurnam Singh

The seminar is free but places are limited. To reserve a place and receive a numbered ticket, please contact Joyce Canaan at joyce.canaan@bcu.ac.uk

A waiting list will come into operation when all the places have been allocated.

Convenors: Joyce Canaan and Richard Hatcher

The Marxism and Education: Renewing Dialogues (MERD) Seminars were founded by Tony Green (University of London, Institute of Education) and Glenn Rikowski in 2001. The first MERD Seminar was run at the Institute of Education in October 2002. For details on MERD Seminars 1-10, click here.

Managing international financial instability: national tamers versus global tigers / Fabrizio Saccomanni.
Cheltenham : E. Elgar, c2008.
ECONOMICS J 10 SAC

Inequality and growth in modern China / edited by Guanghua Wan.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
ECONOMICS L 89 WAN

The analysis of firms and employees: quantitative and qualitative approaches / edited by Stefan Bender et al.
Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, c2008.
ECONOMICS V 10 BEN

The economics of imperfect labor markets / Tito Boeri and Jan van Ours.
Princeton ; Oxford : Princeton University Press, c2008.
ECONOMICS V 18 BOE

Critical republicanism: the hijab controversy and political philosophy / Cécile Laborde.
Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2008.
PUBLIC POLICY BP 190 LAB

The porcelain workshop: for a new grammar of politics / Antonio Negri ; translated by Noura Wedell.
Los Angeles, Calif. : Semiotext(e), c2008.
PUBLIC POLICY JA 71 WED

Transitional justice from below: grassroots activism and the struggle for change / edited by Kieran McEvoy and Lorna McGregor.
Oxford : Hart, 2008.
HUMAN RIGHTS A 300 MAC

The new foreign policy: power seeking in a globalized era / Laura Neack.
Lanham, Md. ; Plymouth : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, c2008.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS XB 7 NEA

This site provides free access to the full text of the House of Lords Committee for Privileges report published as HL 88-I in May 2009. The 107 page report focuses upon allegations of misconduct made against the four peers in The Sunday Times on 25 January 2009, specifically that they accepted ‘cash’ for services such as asking questions and lobbying in the House of Lords. The report also deals more generally with issues relating to political conduct by members of the British parliament, advice, advocacy and lobbying by members, members’ declaration of interests and themes relating to money and politics.

The miniAtlas of Human Security is a publication of the World Bank and Human Security Report Project (available at Geography H 68 HUM). The online version provides free access to a wealth of data on international security and conflicts since 1945. It includes statistics, graphs and maps on the total number of national and international conflicts, time spent in conflict, child soldiers, war crimes and human rights abuses committed during war, plus information on the number of battle deaths and deaths from political related violence. Also provided is some basic data on UN peacekeeping missions.
Source: LIS-SOCIALSCIENCE@JISCMAIL.AC.UK

On Bank Holiday Monday 25th May, the Main and Science libraries will be open from 11.00-18.00.

Sunday 24th May: the Main and Science libraries will close at 21.00.
24 hour opening resumes Tuesday 26th May at 08.45 and ends on Saturday 30th May at 21.00.

Full details are available from: www.ucl.ac.uk/library/opening.shtml

“A friendly seasonal reminder: books you borrow during the summer vacation can be recalled by other readers and this can result in long loans being shortened (we advise you by email) and/or renewals not being possible, so please be ready to return such items promptly. Thank you.”
Vincent Matthews
For UCL Library Services

The Financial Sector Development Indicators (FSDI) come from the World Bank. The “concept provides a framework, as well as the means of assessing financial systems comprehensively. The framework combines the dimensions of financial system, namely, size, access, efficiency and stability, with its sectors, such as banking and equity markets. The means of assessing comprise data, including those for wide-ranging and somewhat abstract concepts that have been translated into concrete and practical assessment measures. Both framework and data are grounded in robustly researched and empirically relevant concepts.”

European Election study trend file 
A set of data made available in Beta format by the Department of Political Science, Trinity College, Dublin. It comprises the data from European Parliament election studies run in almost all EU countries in 1989, 1994, 1999 and 2004. This is made available for downloading in stata files and SPSS. Also provided is the code book which explains the questions and variables used. The data includes comparison of voting patterns, public attitudes and levels of engagement with the European Parliament and European elections, and levels of awareness of media campaigns during EU elections from 1989-2004.

EU profiler is a voting application tool designed to help voters make decisions on who to vote for in the 2009 European Parliament elections. Users are asked a series of questions which provides them with information on who is running in the elections, the policies of the main political parties and where they stand in relation to them. The project was developed by the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RCAS), part of the European University Institute (EUI); Kieskompas and the NCCR Democracy (University of Zurich/Zentrum für Demokratie Aarau)/Politools network. Technical and methodological information about the tool is provided on the website.
Source: LIS-SOCIALSCIENCE@JISCMAIL.AC.UK