The way land and property perform within the UK economy is not well understood. For many commentators, the UK has a dysfunctional planning system and an immensely concentrated but opaque pattern of land ownership. Public dissatisfaction with both government and market-led responses to the housing crisis is mounting. This seminar will look at land and housing policy, expose underlying problems (such as the structural link between land and our financial system) and address the potential solutions, notably how to ensure a functional housing policy.

Debates about money and wider monetary policy rarely make headlines – but times are changing. Recent events like the Scottish referendum and the election of Jeremy Corbyn, with his support for “people’s quantitative easing”, have got people talking about the purpose of monetary policy and the nature of money itself. This seminar will examine whether our monetary system is fit to meet the challenges of the future. 

The accession of Cyprus to the EU in 2004 is the single most important strategic development in the country’s turbulent history since independence in 1960.  It affirmed Cyprus’s place in Europe and its importance in the security of the Eastern Mediterranean, therefore proving to be a win-win development, both for the Island and for the region.

Dr Lindsay Whitfield examines the emergence and trajectory of a new agro-industry in Ghana, the pineapple export industry, using the technological capabilities approach. It explains the limited expansion of the industry and its declining competitiveness in the face of new competition by looking at how Ghanaian exporters developed technological capabilities initially and the incentives and disincentives to building on those capabilities. 

In exploring competitiveness, Governor of Croatian National Bank Boris Vujčić examines European productivity trends relative to the U.S. and Asia, as well as productivity catch-up and divergence across different European economies, including the newer EU states. In exploring diverging trends in productivity across Europe both pre and post EMU, Boris argues that any lasting solution to Europe's growth shortfalls can only be addressed via structural reforms. 

Sheila A. Smith, a senior fellow for Japan studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, discusses her new book, "Intimate Rivals: Japanese Domestic Politics and a Rising China." 

Dr Micah Muscolino discusses his new book entitled "The Ecology of War in China: Henan Province, the Yellow River, and Beyond, 1938–1950."

Professor Sarah Chartock discusses ethnodevelopment policies--policies that recognize or address the entrenched overlap between ethnicity and poverty--illustrated with the cases of Peru, Ecuador and Guatemala.

In 2013, the UK Parliament legalized same-sex marriage in England and Wales. Dr Scot Peterson discusses whether this is the first time there has been a divergence in the general understanding of marriage and the definition enshrined in law.