British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences

A British Academy conversation evening between Richard Layard, FBA, London School of Economics and Political Science, and Michael Marmot, University College London
Convened by Shula Marks, FBA, University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies
and supported by the Academy of Medical Sciences

Chair: Baroness O'Neill, President of the British Academy

The British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1

Wednesday 4 October 2006
6.00-7.30pm
£10 (£5 concessions) to include a drinks reception

An evening dialogue between the epidemiologist Sir Michael Marmot and the economist Lord Richard Layard, FBA, both of whom have recently written fascinating books at the interface of medicine/ well-being and the social sciences.

Michael Marmot’s Status Syndrome: How your social standing directly affects your health, derives from his internationally renowned study of hierarchy and health in the civil service which shows how health is closely related to the degree of control we have over our lives; Richard Layard’s Happiness. Lessons from a New Science brings together recent research in the neurosciences and economics to explore `the causes of happiness and the means we have to affect it'. The books are both remarkable and complementary; lucid and extraordinarily accessible. If confirmed, the findings they integrate have profound implications for the political agenda of Western countries.