Sidney Ball Memorial Lectures
Sidney Ball Memorial Lectures
The department’s special annual lectures began in 1917, shortly after Barnett House was founded in 1914. The first lecture was published as the Barnett House Papers No.1 by Oxford University Press in the same year.
When Sidney Ball, chairman of the Barnett House Committee, died in March 1918, the annual talks were renamed as the Sidney Ball Memorial lectures.
The first lecture was delivered on 1 December 1920 by the Right Hon. Sir Horace Plunkett. He began this first lecture with these words:
“I have the honour to inaugurate [the memorial lectures] today. Their aim will be the promotion of an intimate and mutually helpful relationship between the thought of the University Sidney Ball adorned and the working life of the community he lived to serve.”
Barnett House retained copyright over the lectures, except for John Maynard Keynes’ lecture in 1924.
Where available, texts or recordings are linked below.
Sidney Ball Memorial Lectures: 1920 - present
- 2020: Centenary Sidney Ball Lecture: 'COVID-19 and the UK Welfare State' - Professor Peter Taylor-Gooby | 12 November 2020.
- 2021: 'What we owe each other: A new social contract' - Baroness Minouche Shafik.
- 2022: 'Who are we? Contesting and transforming racialised histories and futures in the Carolean era' - Professor Ann Phoenix.
- 2023: 'Inclusion or Segmentation – The Politics of Welfare Reform in 21st Century Western Europe' - Professor Silja Häusermann.
- 2024: 'No more violence by 2030? Where next with the UN global violence reduction goals?' - Professor Manual Eisner.
- 2010: 'Life Chances and Early Childhood Investments' - Professor Gosta Esping-Andersen | 13 October 2010.
- 2011: 'Evidence-based interventions in juvenile justice: Concept, research, practice, and frontiers' - Professor Mark Lipsey | 9 November 2011.
- 2012: 'The Reform of the Welfare State and the Dynamics of People's Lives' - Professor John Hills | 31 October 2012.
- 2013: 'Speaking truth to power: social policy in action' - Baroness Ruth Lister | 4 December 2013.
- 2014: 'The Major Assumptions of Evidence-Based Policy: Bringing Empirical Evidence to Bear' - Professor Tom Cooke | 4 November 2014.
- 2015: 'Anti-Deinstitutionalization and Anti-Institutionalization for Persons with Severe Mental Illnesses: Finding Common Ground' - Dr Phyllis Solomon | 18 December 2015.
- 2016: 'Britain, Europe and Social Policy' - Professor Colin Crouch | 11 November 2016.
- 2017: 'Why should we have trust in numbers?' - Professor David Spiegelhalter | 26 October 2017.
- 2018: 'Where next for Social Policy?' - Professor Fiona Williams | Thursday 8 November 2018 at Lady Margaret Hall.
- 2019: 'The great leap backwards: What is happening with social policy for child health and wellbeing?' - Professor Dame Margaret Whitehead | 15 November 2019. Video unavailable.
- 2000: 'Trans-Atlantic Influences in Social Policy’ - Professor Howard Glennerster | 30 November 2000. No paper available.
- 2007: ‘The Opt-Out Revolution: Motherhood and Social Policy’ - Professor Neil Gilbert | 23 April 2007. No paper available. In 2007 the Sidney Ball Memorial Lecture series was reinstated as an annual event.
- 2007: 'Winner-Take-All Politics: Policy and Inequality in the New American Political Economy’ - Professor Paul Pierson | 1 November 2007. No paper available.
- 2009: 'Early Childhood Poverty and Adult Attainment' - Professor Greg Duncan | 26 February 2009.
- 1993: 'The Population Problem' - Professor Partha Dasgupta. No paper available.
- 1983: Lecture series:
- ‘Social Work and Recession’ - Dr. Jane Aldgate.
- ‘The Prospects for Social Reform’ - David Donnison.
- ‘Socialism and Freedom’ - Frank Field MP.
- ‘The Social Services in Adversity – a Review’ - Professor A. H. Halsey.
- ‘In Defence of Comprehensive Schools’ - Dr. A. F. Heath.
- ‘The Changing Political Contours of the Welfare State’ - Neville Johnson.
- ‘Innovation, Experiment and Research in Social Services’ - G. A. N. Smith.
- 1988: Lecture series:
- ‘European Demographic Trends and Their Implications for Social Policy’ - Jonathan Bradshaw.
- ‘Are ‘Rights’ an Essential Component of any Theory of Social Policy?’ - David Donnison.
- 'Does the Welfare State Make People Passive and Dependent? A Test Against the Swedish Experience' - Robert Erikson.
- 'Poverty in the European Community: Trends and Responses' - Graham Room.
- 1971/2: Professor S. Radzinowitz. No further details available.
- 1972/3: Professor James Meade. No further details available.
- 1973: 'The Role of the Volunteer in the Modern Social Service’ - The Right Honourable Richard Crossman. No paper available.
- 1974/5: Tony Lynes. No further details available.
- 1975/6: Professor Edward Lipinski. No further details available.
- 1960: The common market: From customs union to economic unity’ - Robert Marjolin. No paper available.
- 1962: ’Medical ethics and social change in developing countries’ - R. M. Titmuss. No paper available.
- 1964: ‘Social Welfare Past and Present’ - Asa Briggs. No paper available.
- 1965: ‘A Nation of Regions?’ - D. J. Robertson. No paper available.
- 1966: ‘Prices and Income Policy: reflections after the first six months’ - Aubrey Jones. No paper available.
- 1967: ‘The place for educational expansion’ - Sir Edward Boyle. No paper available.
- 1968: ‘The uses and abuses of economics’ - Sir Eric Roll. No paper available.
- 1969: 'Industrial Relations and the Law: retrospect and prospect’ - Professor Kahn-Freund. No paper available.
- 1951: ‘Problems of nationalised industries' - Lord Citrine. No paper available.
- 1953: ‘The full employment economy, with special reference to wages policy' - Sir Douglas Copland. No paper available.
- 1953: ‘The social sciences programme of UNESCO’ - Alva Myrdal. No paper available.
- 1954: ‘The place of the economist in government’ - Sir Robert Hall. No paper available.
- 1955: ‘The control of American foreign policy’ - Mr Francis Biddle. No paper available.
- 1956: ‘Taxation and economic development’ - Professor W. A. Lewis. No paper available.
- 1957: ‘The export of electoral systems’ - W. J. M. Mackenzie. No paper available.
- 1958: ‘The Arbitrator’s Task' - Barbara Wootton. No paper available.
- 1959: ‘Trained manpower for new states – the scope for international action' - Kenneth Younger. No paper available.
- 1940: ‘Some Experiences of Economic Control in Wartime’ - Sir William Beveridge | 29 February 1940 | Barnett House Papers No. 23, OUP 1940.
- 1941: ‘Administrative Problems of International Organisation’ - F. P. Walters | 28 February 1941 | Barnett House Papers No. 24, OUP 1941.
- 1942: ‘The Historian Looks Forward’ - J. H. Clapham | 4 June 1942 | Barnett House Papers No. 25, OUP 1942.
- 1943: ‘The Personnel and Problems of the Higher Civil Service’ - H.E. Dale | 26 February 1943 | Barnett House Papers No. 26 OUP 1943.
- 1944: ‘The British Commonwealth and World Order’ - Sir Walter Layton | 3 March 1944 | Barnett House Papers No. 27, OUP 1944.
- 1945: ‘War and Unemployment’ - Henry Clay | 8 March 1945 | Barnett House Papers No. 28, OUP 1945.
- 1949: ‘Future Developments in Sociology in England' - Edward A. Shils. No paper available.
- 1930: ‘The Past and Present of Unemployment Insurance' - Sir William H. Beveridge | 7 February 1930 | Barnett House Papers No. 13, OUP 1930.
- 1930: 'Foreign Policy’ - Lord D’Abernon | October 31 1930 | Barnett House Papers No. 14, OUP 1930.
- 1931: ‘Balance of Trade Delusions’ - Edwin Cannan | 13 November 1931| Barnett House Papers No. 15, OUP 1931.
- 1932: ‘The Machinery of Government’ - The Right Hon. Viscount Cecil of Chelwood | 16 November 1932 | Barnett House Papers No. 16, OUP 1932.
- 1934: ‘Juvenile Employment and Education’ - R.H.Tawney | 2 May 1934 | Barnett House Papers No.17, OUP 1934.
- 1934: ‘Man: The Master or the Slave of Material Things?’ - The Right Hon. Herbert Morrison | 15 November 1934 | Barnett House Papers No. 18, OUP 1935.
- 1935: ‘The New Aspects of Industrial Combination’ - Professor Dr. Hermann Levy | 26 October 1935 | Barnett House Papers No.19, OUP 1936.
- 1936: ‘The Borderland between Public and Voluntary Action in the Social Services’ - Sir Hubert Llewellyn Smith | Barnett House Papers No. 20, OUP 1937.
- 1937: ‘Treatment of Crime’ - Sir Alexander Maxwell | 16 November 1937 | Barnett House Papers No.21, OUP 1938.
- 1938: ‘The Average and the Individual’ - Dr. A. L. Bowley | 3 November 1938 | Barnett House Papers No. 22, OUP 1938.
- 1920: ‘The Universities and Rural Life’ - Sir Horace Plunkett | 1 December 1920 | Printed as ‘Oxford and the Rural Problem’ Barnett House Papers No.6, OUP 1921.
- 1922 - ‘Scientific Management and the Engineering Situation’ - Sir William Ashley | Barnett House Papers No. 7, OUP 1922.
- 1923: ‘The Historical Causes of the Present State of Affairs in Italy’ - G.M.Trevelyan | 31 October 1923 | Barnett House Papers No. 8, OUP 1923.
- 1924: ‘The End of Laissez Faire’ - John Maynard Keynes | November, 1924 | The essay with the same title, published in 1926 by the Hogarth Press was stated to be based on the 1924 Sidney Ball lecture. The Hogarth Press version has been reprinted many times, including in J. M. Keynes, Essays in Persuasion, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2010.
- 1926: ‘Natural Instinct: The Basis of Social Institutions’ - Lord Hugh Cecil | 25 November 1925 | Barnett House Papers No. 9, OUP 1926.
- 1927: ‘The Statistical Verification of Social and Economic Theory’ - Sir Josiah Stamp | 5 November 1926 | Barnett House Papers No. 10, OUP 1927.
- 1927: ‘The English Poor Law: Will it Endure?’ - Mrs Sidney Webb | 21 November 1927 | Barnett House Papers No. 11, OUP 1928.
- 1928: ‘The Functions of Economic Analysis’ - A.C. Pigou | 27 May 1929 | Barnett House Papers No. 12, OUP 1929 (A.C. Pigou was invited to speak in 1928 but was delayed by illness).
Barnett House Papers: 1917-1920
1917: 'The Problem of Juvenile Crime' - Charles E.B. Russel | Published as Barnett House Papers No. 1, OUP 1917. Available here.
1917: 'Development of the Education of Wage-earners, with special reference to the Education of Older Boys and Girls' - Spurley Hey | Published as Barnett House Papers No. 2, OUP 1917. Available here.
1918: 'The Needs of Popular Musical Education' - Sir Henry Hadow | Barnett House Papers No. 3, OUP 1918. Available here.
1919: 'The Place of the University in National Life' - The Right Hon. H. A. L. Fisher | Barnett House Papers No. 4, OUP 1919. Available here.
1920: 'The Industrial Section of the League of Nations' - The Right Hon. G. N. Barnes | Barnett House Papers No. 5, OUP 1920. Available here.
