2017 saw terrific publications from many female authors. Spanning topics such as geopolitics, history, economics and technology. Many of our exclusive female speakers were among these authors. Below we give a summary of just some of the books published last year and those upcoming in 2018 in order to celebrate International Women’s Day.
The Enemy Within – A Tale of Muslim Britain
Being a British Muslim for the past decade or so has been a brutal affair. How did this state of affairs come to pass? What are the lessons and challenges for the future – and how will the tale of Muslim Britain develop?
Sayeeda Warsi draws on her own unique position in British life, as the child of Pakistani immigrants, an outsider, who became an insider, the UK’s first Muslim cabinet minister, she explores questions of cultural difference, terrorism, surveillance, social justice, religious freedom, integration and the meaning of ”British values”. Looking at changing attitudes and policy, especially over the last 15 years, The Enemy Within examines in close focus whether our counter terrorism strategy has been effective or counterproductive and what Britain’s Muslim communities might have become had the war on terror not happened.
The Great Economists: How Their Ideas Can Help Us Today
What can the ideas of history’s greatest economists tell us about the most important issues of our time?
Linda Yueh is an economist, broadcaster, and author. She is also a Fellow in Economics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford University, and Adjunct Professor of Economics at London Business School.
Her latest book, due to be released later this month, is entitled The Great Economists: How Their Ideas Can Help Us Today. In this book, Yueh explains the key thoughts of history’s greatest economists, how our lives have been influenced by their ideas and how they could help us with the policy challenges that we face today.
She outlines how the issues that the economy has gone through in the past and overcome are repeating themselves today. Therefore drawing on the work of “the great economists”, Yueh aims to show how we can tackle the economic issues of today.
In the light of current economic problems, and in particular economic growth, Yueh explores the thoughts of economists from Adam Smith and David Ricardo through Joan Robinson and Milton Friedman to Douglass North and Robert Solow. Along the way she asks what we can learn from times gone by; for example: what do the ideas of Karl Marx tell us about the likely future for the Chinese economy?
Smarter Homes: How Technology Has Changed Your Home Life
An expert on the Internet of Things, Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino is an interaction designer, product designer and entrepreneur.
She is also the Director of designswarm a strategic consultancy focusing on the Internet of Things.
In 2018, her debut book, Smarter Homes: How Technology Has Changed Your Home Life will be published. The book walks through the historical, societal and political context for the changes in focus of the ‘smartness’ of the technologies that we have in our home. Affordability, efficiency, convenience and experimentation have all been motivations for our definition of ‘smarter homes’.
Over the past 100 years, the home has been a battleground for ideas of future living. Fuelled by the electrification of cities, the move from the country to cities, post-war recovery and the development of the internet, the way we live at home (alone or with others) has changed beyond recognition.
Science fiction writing, the entertainment industry, art, and modern interior design and architecture movements have also contributed to defining our aspirations around a future and now more present and possible ‘smart’ home.
From the decade-old smart fridge that tells you if you have run out of milk to smart speakers that let you shop hands-free, some visions of the ‘smart’ home are yet to excite us while others are becoming a reality and will shape how we will live at home very soon.
The second half of the book breaks down what current developments tell us about what our homes will look like in the next 10 years through the lens of spaces, services, appliances and behaviours in our homes.
My Year with Helen (the film)
Helen Clark served for nine years as Prime Minister of New Zealand, serving three successive terms from 1999-2008. Later she was the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009-17.
Under her leadership, New Zealand achieved significant economic growth, low levels of unemployment, and high levels of investment in education and health, and in the well-being of families and older citizens. She and her government prioritised reconciliation and the settlement of historical grievances with New Zealand’s indigenous people and the development of an inclusive multicultural and multi-faith society.
As Prime Minister, Clark was a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an international network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers whose mission is to mobilise the highest-level women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development.
My Year with Helen gives a closely observed view of Helen’s bid for the top job, as the UN turns itself inside out in an effort to deliver unprecedented transparency in an historic year.
It is filmed while Clark is also carrying out her work as Administrator of UNDP, the cameras follow Clark to Botswana, Britain, Spain and Ukraine as well as the UN’s New York headquarters.
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