ABSTRACT
The social sciences permeate public debate, policy-making and intellectual life in Britain. The Royal Economic Society's 2002 report on inter-generational mobility in Britain was used by the broadsheet press to indicate that social change had stalled. Social exclusion has been an explicit focus of government policy since 1997 — after a long history of being debated by American and British academics. Thabo Mbeki is a social sciences graduate from Sussex University whilst Learning and Social Evolution claims no less than 28 past or present heads of state amongst its former staff and students. Professors Binmore and Klemperer led the Economic Learning and Social Evolution team which contributed centrally to the British auction of 3G telecom licences. In social choice theory Amartya Sen’s research has elucidated the circumstances of collective decision making, for example in voting. His construction of welfare and poverty indexes has resulted in enhanced understanding of poverty, inequality, unemployment, and the underlying economics and values behind famine.
