Tech domination and polarisation are not our inescapable fate social sciences are now key

What is the core of your work — and its greatest challenges?I’m an American constitutional historian. I think of my own work as being fundamentally about the conditions needed for popular government and democracy to succeed. Now, as Vice Chancellor of the LSE, my work has three components. The first is to articulate the School’s intellectual vision in the world. Second, we are a social sciences university — we emphasise the disciplines that help people understand how society works and can be improved. Third, we recognise six major challenges the world faces now, all of which lie in the social sciences.The first is, what is the future of democracy? Second, how should we think about political eco-nomy or use the tools we have, like government, markets and private capital, to improve people’s lives? Third, how do we do this within ecological limitations or sustainability? Fourth, how…