What produces a happy society and a happy life? Written by two of the world’s leading experts on the economics of wellbeing, Richard Layard and Jan-Emmanuel de Neve, the book Wellbeing: Science and Policy shows how wellbeing can be measured, what causes it and how it can be improved. This interdisciplinary concept brings us new notions about how building a happier society is also a path to implementing successful policies.

Russians go to the polls on 15 March in the midst of a war that has threatened the balance of global influence. While economic sanctions by the west together with the rising costs of the war have weakened the economy, China has been quick to fill the gap left as a result. As authorities try to maintain the perception of a free and fair election, an anti-war candidate has been denied the opportunity to run against Putin, laws have been enacted to crack down on ‘fake news’, and independent media has been gagged.

This, the sixteenth annual OxPeace Day-Conference, aims to survey the current world scene and reflect on new issues and actors in peacemaking and peacebuilding, including the roles of AI, climate change, the private sector, China, Qatar, and grassroots actors.

This talk will describe the work of the Extreme Citizen Science Research Group designing and testing solutions for building effective collaborations with Indigenous People and local communities in the context of local conservation initiatives, extractive industry, human rights abuses, or to address the impacts of climate and environmental change on local livelihoods.

We've known for decades that climate change is an existential crisis. For just as long, we've seen the complete failure of our institutions to rise to the challenge. Governments have struggled to meet even modest goals. Fossil fuel interests maintain a stranglehold on political and economic power. Even though we have seen growing concern from everyday people, civil society has succeeded only in pressuring decision makers to adopt watered-down policies. All the while, the climate crisis worsens. Is there any hope of achieving the systemic change we need?

What is the idea of ‘Multiplicity’? And how convincing are the claims that it can be used to overcome longstanding problems in social and international theory? Since this idea was introduced in 2015, it has been the subject of numerous conference panels, roundtables, workshops, forums, edited volumes and publications by over fifty academics. And yet, arguably, it has also been quite widely misunderstood, even among some of those who have adopted it as a research focus. Why should this be, and what can be done about it?

Reconciliation is often thought of as a religious or quasi-religious enterprise, with religious leaders, perpetrators and victims taking the centre stage. Reconciliation is a process that can bring healing, or support the need to sustain just peace over a long period of time. As such, reconciliation efforts may shape the softer fabric of the long-term capacity for coexistence. While the role of religious leaders can be helpful in shaping post-conflict social relationships, reconciliation is also a political assignment.