title: Selfridges

text: The marketing continued on opening day itself. Touted as “London’s Greatest Store,” Selfridges immediately became a cultural and social phenomenon. From the store's soft lighting to the general absence of price tags to live music from string quartets, every detail of the opening was purposeful to draw people into the entire shopping experience and make each shopper feel unique. At Selfridges, shoppers entered another world in which they became "guests," as the store referred to them, and could purchase unique items that differed from the material goods sold in other stores. The successes of the marketing campaign and the store’s opening day highlight that Selfridges sold an entire lifestyle, not just an impressive array of material products.


title: Selfridges

text: ITV and Masterpiece produced a series entitled "Mr Selfridge", first airing on ITV beginning in January 2013 (in ten parts), and later on PBS starting on 30 March 2013 (in eight parts). ITV began airing ten additional episodes in January 2014. The fourth series began in 2016 with the first episode airing on 8 January 2016.


title: Selfridges

text: Selfridges was also featured in the 2017 movie "Wonder Woman" as the shop where Steve Trevor takes Diana Prince to give her a more contemporary appearance to blend in.


title: Crop rotation

text: Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of different types of crops in the same area across a sequence of growing seasons. It reduces reliance on one set of nutrients, pest and weed pressure, and the probability of developing resistant pests and weeds.


title: Crop rotation

text: Growing the same crop in the same place for many years in a row, known as monocropping, gradually depletes the soil of certain nutrients and selects for a highly competitive pest and weed community. Without balancing nutrient use and diversifying pest and weed communities, the productivity of monocultures is highly dependent on external inputs. Conversely, a well-designed crop rotation can reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers and herbicides by better using ecosystem services from a diverse set of crops. Additionally, crop rotations can improve soil structure and organic matter, which reduces erosion and increases farm system resilience.


title: Crop rotation

text: Agriculturalists have long recognized that suitable rotations — such as planting spring crops for livestock in place of grains for human consumption — make it possible to restore or to maintain productive soils. Ancient Near Eastern farmers practiced crop rotation in 6000 BC without understanding the chemistry, alternately planting legumes and cereals.


title: Crop rotation

text: Under a two-field rotation, half the land was planted in a year, while the other half lay fallow. Then, in the next year, the two fields were reversed. In China both the two-field and three-field system had been used since the Eastern Zhou period. From the times of Charlemagne (died 814), farmers in Europe transitioned from a two-field crop rotation to a three-field crop rotation.


title: Crop rotation

text: From the end of the Middle Ages until the 20th century, Europe's farmers practiced a three-field rotation, where available lands were divided into three sections. One section was planted in the autumn with rye or winter wheat, followed by spring oats or barley; the second section grew crops such as peas, lentils, or beans; and the third field was left fallow. The three fields were rotated in this manner so that every three years, one of the fields would rest and lie fallow. Under the two-field system, if one has a total of of fertile land, one would only plant 300 acres. Under the new three-field rotation system, one would plant (and therefore harvest) 400 acres. But the additional crops had a more significant effect than mere quantitative productivity. Since the spring crops were mostly legumes, they increased the overall nutrition of the people of Northern Europe.


title: Crop rotation

text: Farmers in the region of Waasland (in present-day northern Belgium) pioneered a four-field rotation in the early 16th century, and the British agriculturist Charles Townshend (1674–1738) popularised this system in the 18th century. The sequence of four crops (wheat, turnips, barley and clover), included a fodder crop and a grazing crop, allowing livestock to be bred year-round. The four-field crop rotation became a key development in the British Agricultural Revolution. The rotation between arable and ley is sometimes called ley farming.


title: Crop rotation

text: George Washington Carver (1860s–1943) studied crop-rotation methods in the United States, teaching southern farmers to rotate soil-depleting crops like cotton with soil-enriching crops like peanuts and peas.


title: Crop rotation

text: In the Green Revolution of the mid-20th century the traditional practice of crop rotation gave way in some parts of the world to the practice of supplementing the chemical inputs to the soil through topdressing with fertilizers, adding (for example) ammonium nitrate or urea and restoring soil pH with lime. Such practices aimed to increase yields, to prepare soil for specialist crops, and to reduce waste and inefficiency by simplifying planting, harvesting, and irrigation.


title: Crop rotation

text: Crop choice is often related to the goal the farmer is looking to achieve with the rotation, which could be weed management, increasing available nitrogen in the soil, controlling for erosion, or increasing soil structure and biomass, to name a few. When discussing crop rotations, crops are classified in different ways depending on what quality is being assessed: by family, by nutrient needs/benefits, and/or by profitability (i.e. cash crop versus cover crop). For example, giving adequate attention to plant family is essential to mitigating pests and pathogens. However, many farmers have success managing rotations by planning sequencing and cover crops around desirable cash crops. The following is a simplified classification based on crop quality and purpose.


title: Crop rotation

text: Many crops which are critical for the market, like vegetables, are row crops (that is, grown in tight rows). While often the most profitable for farmers, these crops are more taxing on the soil. Row crops typically have low biomass and shallow roots: this means the plant contributes low residue to the surrounding soil and has limited effects on structure. With much of the soil around the plant exposed to disruption by rainfall and traffic, fields with row crops experience faster break down of organic matter by microbes, leaving fewer nutrients for future plants.


title: Crop rotation

text: In short, while these crops may be profitable for the farm, they are nutrient depleting. Crop rotation practices exist to strike a balance between short-term profitability and long-term productivity.


title: Crop rotation

text: A great advantage of crop rotation comes from the interrelationship of nitrogen-fixing crops with nitrogen-demanding crops. Legumes, like alfalfa and clover, collect available nitrogen from the atmosphere and store it in nodules on their root structure. When the plant is harvested, the biomass of uncollected roots breaks down, making the stored nitrogen available to future crops.


title: Crop rotation

text: In addition, legumes have heavy tap roots that burrow deep into the ground, lifting soil for better tilth and absorption of water.


title: Crop rotation

text: Cereal and grasses are frequent cover crops because of the many advantages they supply to soil quality and structure. The dense and far-reaching root systems give ample structure to surrounding soil and provide significant biomass for soil organic matter.


title: Crop rotation

text: Grasses and cereals are key in weed management as they compete with undesired plants for soil space and nutrients.


title: Crop rotation

text: Green manure is a crop that is mixed into the soil. Both nitrogen-fixing legumes and nutrient scavengers, like grasses, can be used as green manure. Green manure of legumes is an excellent source of nitrogen, especially for organic systems, however, legume biomass does not contribute to lasting soil organic matter like grasses do.


title: Crop rotation

text: There are numerous factors that must be taken into consideration when planning a crop rotation. Planning an effective rotation requires weighing fixed and fluctuating production circumstances: market, farm size, labor supply, climate, soil type, growing practices, etc. Moreover, a crop rotation must consider in what condition one crop will leave the soil for the succeeding crop and how one crop can be seeded with another crop. For example, a nitrogen-fixing crop, like a legume, should always precede a nitrogen depleting one; similarly, a low residue crop (i.e. a crop with low biomass) should be offset with a high biomass cover crop, like a mixture of grasses and legumes.


title: Crop rotation

text: There is no limit to the number of crops that can be used in a rotation, or the amount of time a rotation takes to complete. Decisions about rotations are made years prior, seasons prior, or even at the last minute when an opportunity to increase profits or soil quality presents itself.


title: Crop rotation

text: Crop rotation systems may be enriched by the influences of other practices such as the addition of livestock and manure, intercropping or multiple cropping, and is common in organic cropping systems.


title: Crop rotation

text: Introducing livestock makes the most efficient use of critical sod and cover crops; livestock (through manure) are able to distribute the nutrients in these crops throughout the soil rather than removing nutrients from the farm through the sale of hay.


title: Crop rotation

text: Mixed farming or the practice of crop cultivation with the incorporation of livestock can help manage crops in a rotation and cycle nutrients. Crop residues provide animal feed, while the animals provide manure for replenishing crop nutrients and draft power. These processes promote internal nutrient cycling and minimize the need for synthetic fertilizers and large-scale machinery. As an additional benefit, the cattle, sheep and/or goat provide milk and can act as a cash crop in the times of economic hardship.


title: Crop rotation

text: Multiple cropping systems, such as intercropping or companion planting, offer more diversity and complexity within the same season or rotation. An example of companion planting is the three sisters, the inter-planting of corn with pole beans and vining squash or pumpkins. In this system, the beans provide nitrogen; the corn provides support for the beans and a "screen" against squash vine borer; the vining squash provides a weed suppressive canopy and a discouragement for corn-hungry raccoons.


title: Crop rotation

text: Double-cropping is common where two crops, typically of different species, are grown sequentially in the same growing season, or where one crop (e.g. vegetable) is grown continuously with a cover crop (e.g. wheat). This is advantageous for small farms, which often cannot afford to leave cover crops to replenish the soil for extended periods of time, as larger farms can. When multiple cropping is implemented on small farms, these systems can maximize benefits of crop rotation on available land resources.


title: Crop rotation

text: Crop rotation is a required practice, in the United States, for farm seeking organic certification. The “Crop Rotation Practice Standard” for the National Organic Program under the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, section §205.205, states


title: Crop rotation

text: Farmers are required to implement a crop rotation that maintains or builds soil organic matter, works to control pests, manages and conserves nutrients, and protects against erosion. Producers of perennial crops that aren’t rotated may utilize other practices, such as cover crops, to maintain soil health.


title: Crop rotation

text: In addition to lowering the need for inputs (by controlling for pests and weeds and increasing available nutrients), crop rotation helps organic growers increase the amount of biodiversity their farms. Biodiversity is also a requirement of organic certification, however, there are no rules in place to regulate or reinforce this standard. Increasing the biodiversity of crops has beneficial effects on the surrounding ecosystem and can host a greater diversity of fauna, insects, and beneficial microorganisms in the soil as found by McDaniel et al 2014 and Lori et al 2017. Some studies point to increased nutrient availability from crop rotation under organic systems compared to conventional practices as organic practices are less likely to inhibit of beneficial microbes in soil organic matter.


title: Crop rotation

text: While multiple cropping and intercropping benefit from many of the same principals as crop rotation, they do not satisfy the requirement under the NOP.


title: Crop rotation

text: Agronomists describe the benefits to yield in rotated crops as "The Rotation Effect". There are many benefits of rotation systems. The factors related to the increase are broadly due to alleviation of the negative factors of monoculture cropping systems. Specifically, improved nutrition; pest, pathogen, and weed stress reduction; and improved soil structure have been found in some cases to be correlated to beneficial rotation effects.


title: Crop rotation

text: Other benefits of rotation cropping systems include production cost advantages. Overall financial risks are more widely distributed over more diverse production of crops and/or livestock. Less reliance is placed on purchased inputs and over time crops can maintain production goals with fewer inputs. This in tandem with greater short and long term yields makes rotation a powerful tool for improving agricultural systems.


title: Crop rotation

text: The use of different species in rotation allows for increased soil organic matter (SOM), greater soil structure, and improvement of the chemical and biological soil environment for crops. With more SOM, water infiltration and retention improves, providing increased drought tolerance and decreased erosion.


title: Crop rotation

text: Soil organic matter is a mix of decaying material from biomass with active microorganisms. Crop rotation, by nature, increases exposure to biomass from sod, green manure, and various other plant debris. The reduced need for intensive tillage under crop rotation allows biomass aggregation to lead to greater nutrient retention and utilization, decreasing the need for added nutrients. With tillage, disruption and oxidation of soil creates a less conducive environment for diversity and proliferation of microorganisms in the soil. These microorganisms are what make nutrients available to plants. So, where "active" soil organic matter is a key to productive soil, soil with low microbial activity provides significantly fewer nutrients to plants; this is true even though the quantity of biomass left in the soil may be the same.


title: Crop rotation

text: Soil microorganisms also decrease pathogen and pest activity through competition. In addition, plants produce root exudates and other chemicals which manipulate their soil environment as well as their weed environment. Thus rotation allows increased yields from nutrient availability but also alleviation of allelopathy and competitive weed environments.


title: Crop rotation

text: Studies have shown that crop rotations greatly increase soil organic carbon (SOC) content, the main constituent of soil organic matter. Carbon, along with hydrogen and oxygen, is a macronutrient for plants. Highly diverse rotations spanning long periods of time have shown to be even more effective in increasing SOC, while soil disturbances (e.g. from tillage) are responsible for exponential decline in SOC levels. In Brazil, conversion to no-till methods combined with intensive crop rotations has been shown an SOC sequestration rate of 0.41 tonnes per hectare per year.


title: Crop rotation

text: In addition to enhancing crop productivity, sequestration of atmospheric carbon has great implications in reducing rates of climate change by removing carbon dioxide from the air.


title: Crop rotation

text: Rotating crops adds nutrients to the soil. Legumes, plants of the family Fabaceae, for instance, have nodules on their roots which contain nitrogen-fixing bacteria called rhizobia. During a process called nodulation, the rhizobia bacteria use nutrients and water provided by the plant to convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, which is then converted into an organic compound that the plant can use as its nitrogen source. It therefore makes good sense agriculturally to alternate them with cereals (family Poaceae) and other plants that require nitrates. How much nitrogen made available to the plants depends on factors such as the kind of legume, the effectiveness of rhizobia bacteria, soil conditions, and the availability of elements necessary for plant food.


title: Crop rotation

text: Crop rotation is also used to control pests and diseases that can become established in the soil over time. The changing of crops in a sequence decreases the population level of pests by (1) interrupting pest life cycles and (2) interrupting pest habitat. Plants within the same taxonomic family tend to have similar pests and pathogens. By regularly changing crops and keeping the soil occupied by cover crops instead of lying fallow, pest cycles can be broken or limited, especially cycles that benefit from overwintering in residue. For example, root-knot nematode is a serious problem for some plants in warm climates and sandy soils, where it slowly builds up to high levels in the soil, and can severely damage plant productivity by cutting off circulation from the plant roots. Growing a crop that is not a host for root-knot nematode for one season greatly reduces the level of the nematode in the soil, thus making it possible to grow a susceptible crop the following season without needing soil fumigation.


title: Crop rotation

text: This principle is of particular use in organic farming, where pest control must be achieved without synthetic pesticides.


title: Crop rotation

text: Integrating certain crops, especially cover crops, into crop rotations is of particular value to weed management. These crops crowd out weed through competition. In addition, the sod and compost from cover crops and green manure slows the growth of what weeds are still able to make it through the soil, giving the crops further competitive advantage. By slowing the growth and proliferation of weeds while cover crops are cultivated, farmers greatly reduce the presence of weeds for future crops, including shallow rooted and row crops, which are less resistant to weeds. Cover crops are, therefore, considered conservation crops because they protect otherwise fallow land from becoming overrun with weeds.


title: Crop rotation

text: This system has advantages over other common practices for weeds management, such as tillage. Tillage is meant to inhibit growth of weeds by overturning the soil; however, this has a countering effect of exposing weed seeds that may have gotten buried and burying valuable crop seeds. Under crop rotation, the number of viable seeds in the soil is reduced through the reduction of the weed population.


title: Crop rotation

text: In addition to their negative impact on crop quality and yield, weeds can slow down the harvesting process. Weeds make farmers less efficient when harvesting, because weeds like bindweeds, and knotgrass, can become tangled in the equipment, resulting in a stop-and-go type of harvest.


title: Crop rotation

text: Crop rotation can significantly reduce the amount of soil lost from erosion by water. In areas that are highly susceptible to erosion, farm management practices such as zero and reduced tillage can be supplemented with specific crop rotation methods to reduce raindrop impact, sediment detachment, sediment transport, surface runoff, and soil loss.


title: Crop rotation

text: Protection against soil loss is maximized with rotation methods that leave the greatest mass of crop stubble (plant residue left after harvest) on top of the soil. Stubble cover in contact with the soil minimizes erosion from water by reducing overland flow velocity, stream power, and thus the ability of the water to detach and transport sediment. Soil erosion and seal prevent the disruption and detachment of soil aggregates that cause macropores to block, infiltration to decline, and runoff to increase. This significantly improves the resilience of soils when subjected to periods of erosion and stress.


title: Crop rotation

text: When a forage crop breaks down, binding products are formed that act like an adhesive on the soil, which makes particles stick together, and form aggregates. The formation of soil aggregates is important for erosion control, as they are better able to resist raindrop impact, and water erosion. Soil aggregates also reduce wind erosion, because they are larger particles, and are more resistant to abrasion through tillage practices.


title: Crop rotation

text: The effect of crop rotation on erosion control varies by climate. In regions under relatively consistent climate conditions, where annual rainfall and temperature levels are assumed, rigid crop rotations can produce sufficient plant growth and soil cover. In regions where climate conditions are less predictable, and unexpected periods of rain and drought may occur, a more flexible approach for soil cover by crop rotation is necessary. An opportunity cropping system promotes adequate soil cover under these erratic climate conditions. In an opportunity cropping system, crops are grown when soil water is adequate and there is a reliable sowing window. This form of cropping system is likely to produce better soil cover than a rigid crop rotation because crops are only sown under optimal conditions, whereas rigid systems are not necessarily sown in the best conditions available.


title: Crop rotation

text: Crop rotations also affect the timing and length of when a field is subject to fallow. This is very important because depending on a particular region's climate, a field could be the most vulnerable to erosion when it is under fallow. Efficient fallow management is an essential part of reducing erosion in a crop rotation system. Zero tillage is a fundamental management practice that promotes crop stubble retention under longer unplanned fallows when crops cannot be planted. Such management practices that succeed in retaining suitable soil cover in areas under fallow will ultimately reduce soil loss. In a recent study that lasted a decade, it was found that a common winter cover crop after potato harvest such as fall rye can reduce soil run-off by as much as 43%, and this is typically the most nutritional soil.


title: Crop rotation

text: Increasing the biodiversity of crops has beneficial effects on the surrounding ecosystem and can host a greater diversity of fauna, insects, and beneficial microorganisms in the soil as found by McDaniel et al 2014 and Lori et al 2017. Some studies point to increased nutrient availability from crop rotation under organic systems compared to conventional practices as organic practices are less likely to inhibit of beneficial microbes in soil organic matter, such as arbuscular mycorrhizae, which increase nutrient uptake in plants. Increasing biodiversity also increases the resilience of agro-ecological systems.


title: Crop rotation

text: Crop rotation contributes to increased yields through improved soil nutrition. By requiring planting and harvesting of different crops at different times, more land can be farmed with the same amount of machinery and labour.


title: Crop rotation

text: While crop rotation requires a great deal of planning, crop choice must respond to a number of fixed conditions (soil type, topography, climate, and irrigation) in addition to conditions that may change dramatically from year to the next (weather, market, labor supply). In this way, it is unwise to plan crops years in advance. Improper implementation of a crop rotation plan may lead to imbalances in the soil nutrient composition or a buildup of pathogens affecting a critical crop. The consequences of faulty rotation may take years to become apparent even to experienced soil scientists and can take just as long to correct.


title: Crop rotation

text: Many challenges exist within the practices associated with crop rotation. For example, green manure from legumes can lead to an invasion of snails or slugs and the decay from green manure can occasionally suppress the growth of other crops.


title: Sciences Po

text: The Paris Institute of Political Studies (, commonly known as Sciences Po or Sciences Po Paris) is a public research university, with the status of "grande école" and "grand établissement", located in Paris, France, with further campuses in Dijon, Le Havre, Menton, Nancy, Poitiers and Reims. Sciences Po offers courses and conducting research in political science, history, economics, law and sociology.


title: Sciences Po

text: The institute was established in 1872 by Émile Boutmy as the "École libre des sciences politiques", a private and independent institution of higher education, founded in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War with the stated objective of renewing the training of the political elites and thereby contributing to ameliorating the nation's fortunes after its defeat of 1870. Boutmy aimed at modernising education for French civil servants, by offering additional teachings in political sciences, a relatively new field of study at the time. Students would follow traditional courses as a primary education, usually the classics or the law at the Sorbonne.


title: Sciences Po

text: In 1945, the school was nationalised and re-established as a public institution, after criticism of the attitude of its staff during the Second World War and subsequent calls for its closure.


title: Sciences Po

text: After a reform in 1985, Sciences Po began offering full degrees in the social sciences as primary education for its students. Since the mid-1990s, Sciences Po’'s curriculum has been substantially reformed beyond in social sciences beyond political sciences. As of 2021, 80% of Sciences Po graduates choose careers in the private sector.


title: Sciences Po

text: The institute is a member of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA) and "CIVICA – The European University of Social Sciences".


title: Sciences Po

text: Sciences Po was established in February 1872 as the "École Libre des Sciences Politiques" (ELSP) by a group of French intellectuals, politicians and businessmen led by Émile Boutmy, and including Hippolyte Taine, Ernest Renan, Albert Sorel and Paul Leroy Beaulieu. The creation of the school was in response to widespread fears that the inadequacy of the French political and diplomatic corps would further diminish the country's international stature, as France grappled with a series of crises, including the defeat in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, the demise of Napoleon III, and the upheaval and massacre resulting from Paris Commune. The founders of the school sought to reform the training of French politicians by establishing a new "breeding ground where nearly all the major, non-technical state commissioners were trained.". His innovative intellectual axis was to teach contemporary history whereas political elites had been taught ancient humanities only for centuries, which they could still learn in universities at the same time.


title: Sciences Po

text: ELSP acquired a major role in France's political system. From 1901 to 1935, 92.5% of entrants to the Grands corps de l'État, the most powerful and prestigious administrative bodies in the French Civil Service, had studied there (this figure includes people who took civil service examination preparatory classes at Sciences Po but did not earn a degree and, in general, students were taking class there on top of earning a degree in the University of Paris, in particular the Law Faculty).


title: Sciences Po

text: Other countries created similar schools in the following century. In 1875, the in Italy (now part of the University of Florence), at the end of the century, the "École libre des sciences Politiques et Sociales" in Belgium (not existing any more), the Deutsche Hochschule für Politik in Germany, the Columbia School of Political Science (now merged into the Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences), the London School of Economics in the United Kingdom, and, after WW1, for the School of Foreign Service from Georgetown University in the United States.


title: Sciences Po

text: The connection between Sciences Po and French institutions meant that the school also played a key role in the apparatus of the French Empires. In 1886, the university established a colonial school with the goal of training students to take on professions in the colonial administration in a way that “propagates [...] a more scientific and international colonialism”. Many professors and members of the ELSP administration, such as Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, chair in colonial affairs at ELSP, Joseph Chailley-Bert, Jules Cambon, Charles Jonnart, Auguste Louis Albéric d’Arenberg and Ernest Roume, were also closely linked to or worked directly with the colonial government. The colonial branch of ELSP closed in 1893 after a state-sponsored colonial school was created in 1889; however positions in the administrations of French colonies and protectorates continued to accept graduates from the ELSP.


title: Sciences Po

text: Sciences Po underwent significant reforms in the aftermath World War II in 1945. At France's liberation from Nazi occupation, the public servants were accused of collaborating with the Vichy regime and Nazi Germany. Sciences Po was then directly concerned by the draining goal of the National Council of the Resistance. Communist politicians including Georges Cogniot accused the school to be the "home of collaboration" with Nazi Germany and proposed abolishing the ELSP entirely and founding a new state-run administration college on its premises. To fight against this, Roger Seydoux, Jacques Chapsal and André Siegfried, from the school, excluded the most compromised (with Vichy and Nazi Germany) members of the school's staff, defended the school against accusation of collaboration and built up a communication campaign to save the school.


title: Sciences Po

text: The choice would be made by France's Provisional Government, under Charles de Gaulle. Eight of its thirteen ministers were alumni from the school. They made the future of the school escape from the Parliament's control to end up in their own hands. Michel Debré, alumnus, Jules Jeanneney, alumnus whose son just came out of the school, and Roger Grégoire, alumnus, decided that the school would be preserved but under a new structure. Two separate legal entities were created: the Institut d'études politiques (IEP) and the "Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques" () or FNSP. Both entities were tasked by the French government to ensure "the progress and the spread, both within and outside France, of political science, economics, and sociology". FNSP, a private foundation that receives generous subsidies from the government, manages the "IEP de Paris", owns its buildings and libraries, and determines its budget. The two entities work together in lockstep, however, as the director of the school is, by tradition, also the administrator of FNSP. This institutional arrangement gives Sciences Po a unique status, as the school draws most of its resources through substantial government subsidies to FNSP, but does not subject it to many government interventions and regulations, giving it a much higher level of autonomy compared to other French universities and schools. The epithet "Sciences Po" is applied to both entities, which inherited the reputation previously vested in "ELSP".


title: Sciences Po

text: The public-private nature of Sciences Po, Paris, also distinguishes it from a network of institutes of political studies throughout the country that were inspired by its curriculum, namely in Strasbourg, Lyon, Aix, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Toulouse, Rennes and Lille. They are not to be confused with the seven campuses of Sciences Po in France.


title: Sciences Po

text: The government also established in 1945 the École Nationale d'Administration (ENA), an elite postgraduate school for training government officials. From then on, the Grands Corps de l'Etat were obliged to recruit new entrants from ENA. Sciences Po became the school of choice for those hoping to enter the ENA, and so retained its dominant place in educating high-ranking officials.


title: Sciences Po

text: "FNSP" received a significant donations from the Rockefeller Foundation. "FNSP" published periodicals such as "la Revue française de science politique", "le Bulletin analytique de documentation", "la Chronologie politique africaine", and the "Cahiers de la Fondation" as well as its seven research centres and main publishing house, "Presses de Sciences Po".


title: Sciences Po

text: Sciences Po was substantially reformed from the mid-1990s so as to diversify its focus beyond political science and beyond France, mainly under the influence of Olivier Duhamel, who formally had different roles during until his resignation in 2021. Sciences Po was also hit by a number of crises and controversies during this period.


title: Sciences Po

text: After the directorship of Alain Lancelot (1987-1997), the latter choose Olivier Duhamel to sponsor the candidacy of Richard Descoings, who became the director of Sciences Po with Duhamel as special advisor.


title: Sciences Po

text: Under the directorship of Richard Descoings (1997–2012), the school incorporated courses in various branches of the social sciences on top of political science, such as law, economics, history, and sociology. In addition, the school began requiring all its undergraduate students to spend a year abroad, and introduced a multilingual curriculum in French, English, and other languages. Sciences Po also began to expand outside Paris, establishing regional campuses throughout France.


title: Sciences Po

text: During this period, Sciences Po also implemented reforms in its admissions process. Previously, Sciences Po recruited its students exclusively on the basis of a competitive examination. This system was seen to favor students from prestigious preparatory high schools, largely attended by the children of the French political elite. In 2001, Sciences Po founded the Equal Opportunity Program, widening its admissions policy. This program enables the institution to recruit high-potential students at partner high schools in more disadvantaged parts of France who, due to a social, academic, and financial constraints, would not otherwise have been able to attend Sciences Po.


title: Sciences Po

text: From 2001 to 2011, the proportion of scholarship students at Sciences Po went from 6 to 27 percent with around 30% of all students at Sciences Po currently receiving some form of scholarship.


title: Sciences Po

text: The reforms Descoings spearheaded were at times controversial, however, and his leadership style came under heavy criticism for "reigning as almighty king" and to implement a "management of fear". A further report by the French Court of Audit in 2012 severely criticized Sciences Po under the Descoings leadership for its opaque, and possibly illegal, financial management, notably with regard to management salaries, in particular to himself.


title: Sciences Po

text: After the sudden death of Richard Descoing, Frédéric Mion, a graduate of Sciences Po, ENA and École Normale Supérieure and former secretary general of Canal+, was appointed director of Sciences Po on 1 March 2013. It was criticized as a choice of Olivier Duhamel, even though the two other candidates were said to have a much stronger applications than the 9 pages given by Mion in his last minute candidacy with the sponsorship of Duhamel. Louis Vogel, former front-runner candidate who retracted his candidacy to protest against the governance process in Sciences Po, stated that an institution that want to have a place in the academic national and international environment cannot achieve such a thing without having an academic (""universitaire"", a researcher and lecturer coming from the "universités" as opposed to the "grandes écoles") at its head.


title: Sciences Po

text: Mion's intention to pursue Sciences Po's development as a "selective university of international standing" is detailed in the policy paper "Sciences Po 2022", published in the spring of 2014. The restructuring of Master's study into graduate schools continued with the creation of the School of Public Affairs and the Urban School in 2015 and the School of Management and Innovation in 2016.


title: Sciences Po

text: In early 2016, Sciences Po updated its governance structure, adopting new statutes for its two constituent bodies: the "Fondation nationale des sciences politiques" (FNSP) and the "Institut d'études politiques de Paris" (IEP).


title: Sciences Po

text: In late 2016, Sciences Po acquired a new site, the Hôtel de l'Artillerie in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, which it intends to make it a site of "educational renewal".


title: Sciences Po

text: In April 2018, Sciences Po students blocked the main entrance to the school in protest against Macron's education reforms which gives "universités" the power to set admission criteria and rank applicants (a power that Sciences Po has).


title: Sciences Po

text: In 2021, Sciences Po was hit by the Duhamel scandal, mainly put forward by the best-seller book "La Familia Grande" and newspaper articles from "Le Monde" and "Nouvel Obs", a sexual violence scandal one and a succession crisis. Olivier Duhamel, director of the National Foundation of Sciences Po, Frédéric Mion, director of Sciences Po, and other members of the board of these institutions resigned. It led to appeals to a reform of the governance of Sciences Po. Instead, Sciences Po faced "ultimate attempts of a generation to maintain control of the designation of a successor for Duhamel". This process further tarnished the reputation of Sciences Po. "L'Express" later published a significant investigation on the transformations of Sciences Po since the 1990s, called "Sciences Po goes off the rails".


title: Sciences Po

text: Bénédicte Durand, interim administrator of Sciences Po, published in "L’Express" an op-ed stating that Sciences Po is facing "one of the most painful crisis of (the) history" of Sciences Po. She criticized the fact that the school has become the "target" of a "witch hunt" and is held responsible for "all the woes of the society" without "intellectual honesty", and told "hate-mongers" that Sciences Po will survive this crisis in spite of the "threats". The institute later published reports on deontology and sexual violence that were called by "Nouvel Obs" "abundant but shy".


title: Sciences Po

text: On 22 November 2021 Mathias Vicherat, former CEO of Danone, former spokesman of the French National Railways Network and former deputy cabinet director of the Mayor in Paris, assumed office as the new director of Sciences Po. This appointment has been criticized, because Vicherat does not have an academic background and would have been chosen as the former classmate and friend of the president. Vicherat pledged to name someone with an academic experience as number 2 to compensate his background. He wants to reinforce the private sector outcomes of the Sciences Po diploma.


title: Sciences Po

text: In 2022, the book "Une jeunesse engagée" was published, describing the evolution of Sciences Po student body over the decades. In 2022, 70% of the students considered themeselves as part of an elite, whereas only 53% did in 2002. 55% of the students voted for left-wing politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon and 71% of the students consider themselves as left-wing, whereas 57% did in 2002. The book also described a place where knowledge and study have little place and where students focus on networking and the dismay of students and lecturers in front of this new reality.


title: Sciences Po

text: Further controversies occurred, including one around the cancellation of two lectures by Peggy Sastre and Leonardo Orlando around the theory of evolution of Charles Darwin and gender studies., with the direct involvement of Vicherat.


title: Sciences Po

text: Sciences Po has seven campuses in France, with each specialising in different regions of the globe. Every May, at the end of the academic year, all seven campuses come together for the inter-campus Collegiades de SciencesPo tournament, also known as the MiniCrit. At the tournament, students represent each campus and compete against one another in arts and athletic competitions. Different events include athletic games such as volleyball and football, as well as artistic competitions such as music and dance.


title: Sciences Po

text: The Paris campus is spread across several buildings concentrated around the Boulevard Saint-Germain in the 6th and 7th "arrondissements". The historic centre of Sciences Po at 27 rue Saint-Guillaume houses the head office and central library since 1879. It is also home to Sciences Po's two largest teaching halls, the Amphitheatres Émile Boutmy and Jacques Chapsal. Other buildings include:


title: Sciences Po

text: The Paris campus enrolls about 3,000 undergraduate students, almost a third of whom are international exchange students.


title: Sciences Po

text: Sciences Po purchased in 2016 the Hôtel de l’Artillerie, a 17th-century former monastery of 14,000 m located 200 meters from its campus on rue Saint-Guillaume, from the French Ministry of Defense and will refurbish the building for a total cost of around 200 million euros in total (estimation). The new facility will be for the graduate programs and will open in 2022. It will provide social housing for 50 to 100 students with need-based aid from the State.


title: Sciences Po

text: Located on the coast of Normandy, Le Havre has hosted the undergraduate Euro-Asian campus since 2007. The campus has 3 majors, including economics and society, politics and government and political humanities, students primarily choose to spend their third year abroad in an Asian country. Furthermore, Le Havre is home to several Dual Degree programs, and welcomes international students from over thirty countries from all around the world.


title: Sciences Po

text: Established in the French Riviera city of Menton in 2005, the campus is located in an entirely renovated 19th-century building overlooking the Mediterranean. According to the Sciences Po brochure, Menton is home to the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean focus branch of Sciences Po and welcomes 300 students each year. Students study in one of two tracks (anglophone/francophone) and may take one of three core Oriental languages (Arabic, Farsi, or Turkish) and an additional concentration language (Italian or Hebrew) if they are fluent in their core language. The third mandatory year abroad is spent in the Middle East or elsewhere.


title: Sciences Po

text: Established in the region of Lorraine in 2000, the Nancy campus is located in an 18th century heritage site, the Hôtel des Missions Royales. The curriculum is taught in French, English and German, as it focuses on the European Union and French-German relations.


title: Sciences Po

text: Opened in 2010, the campus is located in the heart of the historic city of Poitiers in the Hôtel Chaboureau, a renovated building dating from the 15th century. The academic programme is focused on Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula.


title: Sciences Po

text: The Reims campus opened in September 2010. It is housed in the 17th century "College des Jesuits". Despite being the most recent campus, it is the largest of the regional campuses of Sciences Po, with over 1,600 undergraduate.


title: Sciences Po

text: Sciences Po operates under a dual governance model composed of two entities: the "Fondation nationale des sciences politiques" (FNSP), a private non-profit foundation, and the "Institut d’études politiques de Paris" or Paris Institute of Political Studies, a public higher education institution. These two bodies constitute Sciences Po, which is the official term used to designate them collectively.


title: Sciences Po

text: The FNSP is responsible for the strategic direction and administrative and financial management of Sciences Po. It is administered by a board of directors.


title: Sciences Po

text: The role of the Paris Institute of Political Studies is to ensure teaching, research and library services, like all international research universities. Its governing bodies consist of the Board of Directors, the Student Life and Education Committee and the Academic Board.


title: Sciences Po

text: The Executive Committee is the institution’s operational steering committee. It brings together the directors of Sciences Po’s various divisions and offices under the authority of the President of Sciences Po. The Executive Committee implements the strategic direction and makes operational decisions on running and managing the institution.


title: Sciences Po

text: Sciences Po's resources have grown threefold over the past 15 years, from €55 million in 2000 to €128 million in 2010 to €197 million in 2018.


title: Sciences Po

text: The French government’s support for the institution, in the form of structural public subsidies, has increased from €36 million in 2000 to €69.3 million in 2018. At the same time, growth in the institution's own resources has led to a gradual decline in the relative share of public funds in Sciences Po's overall budget. This figure has decreased by more than one-third, from 66% in 2000 to approximately 35% in 2018.


title: Sciences Po

text: Sciences Po's own resources have grown significantly. They have been multiplied by six: from €18.3 million in 2000 to €127.2 million in 2018. These resources now account for a majority of the budget.


title: Sciences Po

text: The institution took on a debt of €191 million in 2016 in order to fund the acquisition of its new Paris campus and undertake the restoration of the site. This debt is partially guaranteed by the Paris City Council.


title: Sciences Po

text: The academic bodies of Sciences Po consist of the Undergraduate College, six professional schools, and the Doctoral School.


title: Sciences Po

text: The Sciences Po Undergraduate College offers a three-year Bachelor of Arts degree with a multidisciplinary foundation in the humanities and social sciences with emphasis on civic, linguistic, artistic, and digital training.


title: Sciences Po

text: On all campuses, students choose a multidisciplinary major – Politics & Government, Economies & Societies, or Political Humanities. In addition, each campus offers a different regional specialism which anchors students' intellectual objectives, the regions are: Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East-Mediterranean, and North America.


title: Sciences Po

text: Sciences Po offers dual bachelor's degrees with Columbia University, Keio University, University College London, Freie Universität Berlin, University of British Columbia, the University of Sydney, the National University of Singapore, the University of Hong Kong, and the University of California.


title: Sciences Po

text: In 2021, 15,284 students applied to the Undergraduate College across all three admissions pathways (the exam procedure, the Equal Opportunity Programme, and the international procedure). 1,630 students were accepted, for an admission rate of 7%.


title: Sciences Po

text: At the graduate level, Sciences Po's seven schools offer one- and two-year Master's programmes and PhD programmes. All graduate programmes are delivered on the Sciences Po campus in Paris. Sciences Po also hosts dual Master's programmes with international partners. Students enrolled in these dual degree programmes spend one year at Sciences Po in Paris and one year at the partner university.


title: Sciences Po

text: The Undergraduate College ("Collège universitaire") is the home of all undergraduate students. At the graduate level, there are seven professional schools:


title: Sciences Po

text: The Doctoral School offers Master and PhD programmes in law, economics, history, political science, or sociology. The PhD programme contains roughly 600 doctoral candidates.


title: Sciences Po

text: Research at Sciences Po covers economics, law, history, sociology and political science, while also taking in interdisciplinary topics such as cities, political ecology, sustainable development, socio-economics and globalization.


title: Sciences Po

text: Sciences Po is home to a research community that includes over 200 researchers and 350 PhD candidates. In 2015, 32% of the school's budget was devoted to research. That year, 65% of its research publications were in French, 32% in English and 3% in other languages.


title: Sciences Po

text: The institute has research centers, seven of which are affiliated with France's National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).


title: Sciences Po

text: In addition to these research units, the institute has recently established three major research programs – the LIEPP, DIME-SHS and MaxPo.


title: Sciences Po

text: Founded in 1871, the nucleus of the school's research is the "Bibliothèque de Sciences Po". The library offers a collection of more than 950,000 titles in the field of social sciences.


title: Sciences Po

text: In 1982, the Ministry of National Education made the "Bibliothèque" the Centre for Acquisition and Dissemination of Scientific and Technical Information in the field of political science, and since 1994, it has been the antenna associated with the "Bibliothèque Nationale de France". The "Bibliothèque de Sciences Po" is also the main French partner in the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, which is based at the London School of Economics.


title: Sciences Po

text: Founded in the 1950s, "Presses de Sciences Po" is the publishing house of Sciences Po. It publishes academic works related to the social sciences.


title: Sciences Po

text: Sciences Po organizes public lecture events. Recent guest speakers have included Ban Ki-moon, General David Petraeus, Condoleezza Rice, former President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Eric Schmidt, Joseph Stiglitz, Sheryl Sandberg, Mario Draghi, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and Harvard University professor Michael Sandel.


title: Sciences Po

text: Since 2007 it has organized the Franco-British Dialogue Lecture Series in collaboration with the LSE and the French Embassy in London. The lectures are held every term at the LSE's European Institute.


title: Sciences Po

text: In rankings based on English-speaking publications, in 2022, Sciences Po ranks 2nd globally for the study of Politics in the QS World University Subjects Rankings, whereas it is ranked 62nd in social sciences by Times Higher Education. In QS Rankings and Times Higher Education, Sciences Po is globally ranked 242 and 401–500.


title: Sciences Po

text: Sciences Po is often described by others and itself as an elite institution, due to its admissions selectivity and its close connection with powerful networks within French society. It has been described as a "school of power" that has emulated abroad. Because this elite status is associated with social reproduction, Sciences Po launched an "Equal Opportunity Programme" in 2001, to increase the representation of working class families, which as of 2013, make up 9% of students.


title: Sciences Po

text: Sciences Po has been described as a school prioritising professional networks over expertise. It diversification beyond political science and history in the 1990s would have resulted in limited expertise on each subject. As a result, the school is nicknamed "Sciences Pipeau" (pronounced and sometimes spelled "Sciences Pipo", "pipeau" meaning "scam" in colloquial French) by the general public and within the school. One of the courses related to the Law have been nicknamed "Legal Bullshit" by students due to the lack of content.


title: Sciences Po

text: The school has therefore been criticized by outside observers and students for not having them acquire an actual expertise. The sociologist Nicolas Jounin, alumnus of Sciences Po, talked about an "intellectual imposture" in an op-ed called "it is time to be done with Sciences Po". The journalist at France Culture Guillaume Erner stated that the institution is "only advertisement and artifice". According "Le Monde", students in the school would be sometimes "disillusioned" after having "fantasized" about the school.


title: Sciences Po

text: The institute has been described as having low expectations from its students. According to "Le Monde", "when students educated in a faculty of social science join a master at Sciences Po, their academic level is often higher than those who followed multi-disciplinary education at an institute of political science". The Law courses at Sciences Po have also received criticism for holding lower standards than those at full law degrees; a student both at Sciences Po and at Paris II told "L'Express": "In Law (at Paris II), I spend three days on an essay and I have 8 (out of 20); at Sciences Po, I spend three hours on an essay and I have 16 (out of 20)." In 2012, lecturers at Sciences Po criticized instructions they received from the school telling them not to take into account grammar mistakes in their marking. The trend would furthermore be a decline of the level; according to "Le Monde", the cause would be the 2001 "Equal Opportunity Programme", but a lecturer in the school stated in 2021 that the reason is more the desire to attract international students and therefore the need to mark more leniently: all marks are harmonized so that the average mark would always be the same.


title: Sciences Po

text: The school has also been criticized for its close-mindedness and for its self-persuasion to be an elite institution. "Libération" stated in an editorial that the school have not understood that it is not special in the outside world. Peter Gumbel called Sciences Po and other "Grandes Écoles" "elite colleges [which] have become a machine for perpetuating a brilliant but blinkered, often arrogant and frequently incompetent ruling freemasonry". The academic Gilles Devers criticized the institution for being the "base of the conservatism, and the mold of the molluscs that make the public elite" where "dissenting ideas are only admitted if they strengthen the system".


title: Sciences Po

text: Sciences Po has also been accused of being unduly helped by the media and politicians. "Almost every French newspaper is run by an alumnus of Sciences Po", and most of the journalists in France are alumni from Sciences Po, so it would give the school "an unparalleled media coverage" and permit it to "cultivate a culture of secrecy" about its internal affairs. "Sciences-Po is under-criticized," analyzes a professor for "Mediapart", "Those who teach there have no interest, and not necessarily the urge, to do so. Those who are not there can hope to be there one day." The journalist Ariane Chemin stated in 2013 that, because so many journalists come from Sciences Po, the school has an unduly good public reputation.


title: Sciences Po

text: The institute has also been criticized for the unfair favoritism it would be the subject of from the State, in which many public servants would be alumni of the school. It is partly state-funded, and some, including institutes of political studies in the provinces, have indeed accused it of receiving a disproportionate share of public money. In 2012, for example, Sciences Po Lille student representatives called Sciences Po (Paris) the "coronation of State inequity". Nicolas Jounin stated that the school is a "financial hold-up".


title: Sciences Po

text: Sciences Po is funded in large part by public money and is a semi-public institute but is governed as a private institution. It has been described by Alain Garigou as governed from 1872 to 2013 in compliance the "discreet rules of the "bourgeoisie"". The founder Emile Boutmy stayed the director until his death in 1906 and his successor stayed until he was 90 years old in 1936.


title: Sciences Po

text: In 2013, the process of designation of a successor for Richard Descoings has been openly criticized. Louis Vogel, professor of law, former president of the Society of Presidents of university, of Paris 2 University and of Sorbonne University and Sciences Po alumnus, had announced its candidacy based on bringing the school closer to the "universités" in a new international environment. He was presented as the front-runner as his profile and experience matched the best the advertised job profile. Louis Vogel was one of the three preselected candidacies but ended up retracting its candidacy before the final choice. He stated that the pre-selection also chose candidates who did not fit with the job profile, showed that the real desired profile was else, and that he did not want to endorse with his candidacy a process that is in opposition with his convictions. He further stated that Sciences Po "is sending a bad signal" and that they will have to solve their issue internally. The student vice-president of the executive board said that this decision is a "disavowal" for the research committee of Sciences Po. Two other candidates publicly criticized the process. In the end, Frédéric Mion made a last minute candidacy with a light application of 9 pages and was chosen with the sponsorship of Olivier Duhamel.


title: Sciences Po

text: In 2021, after the Duhamel scandal, and the resignations of Olivier Duhamel and Frédéric Mion, the process for the designation of the new head of the National Foundation, a new board of the Foundation and a new head the institute (Sciences Po itself) was heated and largely criticized. The press talked about a "bad soap" filled with "low blows", and alumni and academics talked about a "grotesque" "parody of democracy" According to "Challenges", people close to Duhamel who are still members of the board of the National Foundation and who will be leaving are creating ad hoc committees, outside of the status of the Foundation, to process to votes in which they have a preponderant voice to choose in advance who can be candidate to become the head and the new members of the board, who will select afterwards the director of Sciences Po itself. After several votes which have been criticized for their lack of due process, Laurence Bertrand has been pre-selected to become the new head of the Foundation. Another candidate judged the legitimity of the process "hardly credible". A third candidate published an op-ed in "Le Monde" exposing the details of what he called a "tragicomedy". In the end, Mathias Vicherat, former CEO of Danone, was chosen. This appointment has been criticized, because Vicherat does not have an academic background. He would have been chosen as a friend and former classmate of Emmanuel Macron. A lecturer at the Institute said: "The whole procedure was shamelessly rigged so that in the end, only the candidacy of Mathias Vicherat, the President's friend, with no academic experience, remained. They methodically discarded all serious candidates."


title: Sciences Po

text: Camille Kouchner, daughter of Bernard Kouchner, published a book in which she wrote that her step-father Olivier Duhamel, at that time president of the Foundation of Sciences Po which was the "heart of [his] power" for 30 years, sexually abused his step-son for two years during his childhood. She denounced the "microcosm of powerful people, [at] Saint-Germain-des-Prés" (headquarters of Sciences Po) who "knew" according to her, but acted "like nothing happened". Newspapers further unearthed a series of controversial attitudes toward the sexuality of minors. It led to a series of investigations on the environment of Duhamel at Sciences Po and on the way they dealt with these abuses.


title: Sciences Po

text: The scandal "shook" Sciences Po ("Le Monde") and put it into turmoil (France Culture). The scandal was compared to a "bomb" launched on Sciences Po ("Le Figaro"), to an "unpinned grenade throwned on Sciences Po" ("Le Temps" and "Courrier International") and to a "shockwave" on Sciences Po ("The Times", "La Croix" etc.). Frederic Mion had been alerted, in particular by Aurélie Filippetti in 2019, former Ministry of Culture, of the situation but a "law of silence" had been put in place in the family regarding this. Mion declared he thought he was "rumour" and that he should have taken the issue more seriously. He told "Le Monde": "I let myself be fooled". According to "Le Temps", a group of lecturers knew these allegations, some of them since 2008. They didn't break the silence, justifying themselves by the possible prescriptive period or that these facts were part of the "familial saga" in a hedonist context and "complex parents-children relations" in the 1970s.


title: Sciences Po

text: The scandal eventually led to a series of resignations under pressure at Sciences Po. After Duhamel himself resigned, both students of Sciences Po and public figures asked for the resignation of Frédéric Mion, director of Sciences Po, who first refused to do so. Mion, who Duhamel hand-picked in controversial circumstances as director of Sciences Po with a salary of 200,000 euros, first acknowledged "errors in judgment in [his] handling of the allegations", and after a continuous pressure to do so, resigned in the end. It later became apparent that he had lied to the inspectors to protect at least 6 other people inside Sciences Po. Marc Guillaume, former secretary of state, current prefect of the Paris region, and a close associate of Duhamel, resigned from the National foundation of Sciences Po.


title: Sciences Po

text: Through Sciences Po, Duhamel had a large "network of influence" in politics, newspapers, TV channels, finance, etc. and therefore the scandal attained many people because of their link with the institution. Their role in protecting this intellectual environment has been questioned. Duhamel's power has extented to Emmanuel Macron and Édouard Philippe (former prime minister), both Sciences Po alumni, and both are trying to distance themselves from the "Dumahel case". Elisabeth Guigou, former minister of Justice, resigned from the national commission on incest.


title: Sciences Po

text: The scandal also has put into light the power of the Foundation of Sciences Po, less well known than Sciences Po itself but "at the heart of strategical decisions since 1945", and that the FNSP and Sciences Po are "untouchable with the power of their network".


title: Sciences Po

text: Following the Duhamel scandal, Sciences Po issued a statement condemning "all forms of sexualized violence" and declaring "its shock and astonishment". It also stated: “The fight against sexual and gender-based violence is at the heart of our institution's core values and actions.”


title: Sciences Po

text: After Richard Descoing, head of the school from 1997 to 2012, died under suspicious circumstances, it was revealed that he had sex with students, and made no case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's habit of "seducing" young students. Descoing also has been accused of sending burning messages to students, but no further inquiry was made. Descoing had a controversial night life and relation to drugs, and was found dead in a hotel in suspicious circumstances. After the New York v. Strauss-Kahn case, DSK had to stop giving lectures at Sciences Po. He admitted orgies with young women but had denied any violence.


title: Sciences Po

text: In February 2021, hundreds of students and former students shared on Twitter allegations of rape or sexual abuse at several Instituts d'études politiques, and claimed that despite denunciations of victims, "colleagues and staff [were] unwilling to take their complaints seriously". A hashtag #SciencesPorcs ("Sciences Pigs", similar to the French #Metoo hashtag #Balancetonporcs) has been widely used to do so.


title: Sciences Po

text: Among many op-eds dealing with the 2021 crisis at Sciences Po, two male alumni published in "L'Express" an op-ed specific to the sexual violence scandal, stating their disagreement with the "caricature" that is made of Sciences Po, which would be the object of "passions, sometimes irrational ones" in the public "imaginary" because of the elite status they say the institute has; they assured there is no systemic problem regarding sexual violence in Sciences Po. Bénédicte Durand, interim administrator of the school, further told "Le Figaro" that "no, there is no rape culture in Sciences Po".


title: Sciences Po

text: Students have created the associations "Alwanat" and "Being Black at Sciences Po" to denounce open anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, anti-Black and anti-Asian hate by staff and students in the Reims and Menton campuses. Students anonymously asked the institute to recognise the existence of racism in Sciences Po.


title: Sciences Po

text: Many students and some members of the French Parliament have expressed concern about the enforcement of racialism in Sciences Po.


title: Sciences Po

text: Sciences Po have been criticized in 2022 for "censuring" lectures on darwinism and theory of evolution, considered by some critics as the "ultimate taboo" in the institute. Vicherat, director of Sciences Po, insisted however that Darwin is not censured at Sciences Po.


title: Sciences Po

text: The institution has been accused in 2021 by two members of Parliament, in particular Annie Genevard, to give additional points to students using the controversial "écriture inclusive". Sciences Po has denied this claim and it has been widely reported as fake news, but "Le Figaro" news have found the information to be true and some media have taken back their assessment of this information as being fake news.


title: Sciences Po

text: Alain Lancelot, director of Sciences Po from 1987 to 1996, was investigated for financial mismanagement by the French Court of Audit.


title: Sciences Po

text: Since 1997, the institution has been hit by a number of scandals, notably concerning the leadership of Richard Descoings, its director from 1997 to 2012.


title: Sciences Po

text: Descoings, director from 1997 to 2012, had been criticized for offering large sums of money (through salary rise, free accommodation, etc.) to diverse members of staff, including his wife, in spite of the fact that Sciences Po is partly stately funded.


title: Sciences Po

text: In February 2012, it was revealed that an inspector of the French Court of Audit, in charge of investigating the financial behaviour of Sciences Po, was at the same time employed by Sciences Po.


title: Sciences Po

text: On 3 April 2012, Descoings was found dead in his Manhattan luxury hotel room during a trip where he was representing Sciences Po in New York. The police initially concluded that his death had been caused by an overdose, but the final coronary report eventually stated that he died a natural death. Descoings' energy on this last day and the missing phones and computer have raised questions as to the precise circumstances of his death.


title: Sciences Po

text: In October 2012, the Court of Audit reprimanded Sciences Po for financial mismanagement, accusing it of opaque remuneration procedures, unwarranted expenses claims and excessive pay-rises for managers. The Court noted that the school's complex legal status – a public institute managed by a private trust – had contributed to dysfunction and waste. It also criticized the French government for increasing state funding for the school without insisting on additional public oversight. Sciences Po has also been accused to prevail results over morals.


title: Sciences Po

text: In November 2012, the government dismissed , Sciences Po's interim director, but he sought the school's permanent directorship all the same, reasoning that Alain Lancelot and Richard Descoings, former Sciences Po directors, had also been reprimanded by the Court of Audit and yet performed well in their management of the school.


title: Sciences Po

text: In July 2015, Jean-Claude Casanova, the former president of the "Foundation Nationale des Sciences Politiques", the private trust which manages Sciences Po, was fined €1500 for failing to properly consult the Foundation's Administrative Council over budgeting decisions involving public money. The Court of Financial and Budgetary Discipline eventually found Casanova guilty, but gave him a lenient sentence because the procedures had some part of regularity and because it was not customary in Sciences Po to follow all the financial rules.


title: Sciences Po

text: In February 2016, the Court of Audit noted that reforms had been made, but stated that greater transparency was still needed. Frédéric Mion, director of Sciences Po since 2013, defended the school's record and asked the judges to write their report again.


title: Sciences Po

text: Originally, only the "maîtrise en droit" delivered after 4 years of study by "universités" (as opposed to "Grandes écoles" like Sciences Po) was giving access to the legal profession. As soon as 2004, fearing for the access to the bar and legal professions to be open to institutions that are not faculties of law in "universités", 54 professors of law signed a long text in the 'Recueil Dalloz' (major French legal journal), called "The Fight for the Law". They pointed out in particular the problem of the quality of the knowledge of legal professionals and of their deontology, should it be otherwise. They managed to have the education in law to have a special place in the French Code of Education. The move was co-led by Guillaume Drago, professor at Paris II Panthéon-Assas, and François Gaudu, professor at Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne.


title: Sciences Po

text: In 2007, however, a governmental decree authorized Sciences Po students to pass the Bar exam, providing they take a master's degree with the mention "law". Academics in law labeled such a move as a "coup" and created an online petition called "call against the questioning of the utility of legal studies in the education of lawyers" ("appel contre la remise en cause de l'utilité des études juridiques dans la formation des avocats"). 445 academics publicly signed the petition, which is 15% of all French academics in law. The unity of the French academic body was noted: left- and right-wing professors, professors from Paris and outside Paris, in public law or private law... were in favor of the move. Students’ unions supported it. The union of (French) law school's deans "totally" associated itself to the move too. These critics said that it would not be a problem if Sciences Po was offering 8 semesters of law, as required as a general rule, to access to the bar. However, Sciences Po would be offering only general courses in social sciences with only a "sprinkling of law" in the masters programs. That would not be enough to become a barrister ("avocat") and would put into question the utility of the law to become one. It would be creating barristers with a cheap education in law and would be detrimental, in particular, for the citizens who would take the services of barristers who did not have a proper education in law. To them, with this decree, the law was becoming a marketing product in a service of a school of political science that has many connections with politicians. They would have preferred Sciences Po to keep with political sciences.


title: Sciences Po

text: In 2009, Sciences Po created the ""École de droit de Sciences Po"" ("law school", as opposed in French to a "faculté de droit", "faculty of law"), delivering masters (graduate) degrees only. In 2008, partly as an answer, Paris II Panthéon-Assas created a "collège de droit" (undergraduate level) and then an ""école de droit"" (graduate level) on top of its faculty of law to attract top students in France. A lot of universities followed this model, and created these highly selective "colleges" or "schools".


title: Sciences Po

text: Sciences Po has been criticized for the abuse of the title of "professor" from their adjunct lecturers. Only 7% of the teaching body have permanent employment. People lecturing only a few hours call themselves "professor at Sciences Po". This creates artificial advertisement, both for Sciences Po advertising a prestigious "staff" and for politicians and journalists linking themselves to this prestigious network.


title: Sciences Po

text: It has been customary to graduate in Sciences Po in addition to a law school or a "grande école" in Paris, therefore many of these graduates are also graduates of the latter. Most the alumni network is composed of students who received lectures in Sciences in addition to another studies.


title: Sciences Po

text: In 2016, the Sciences Po Alumni Association declared that there were 55,000 alumni. Many alumni are notable for their roles in fields such as politics or business.


title: Sciences Po

text: Five of the eight presidents of the French Fifth Republic have attended Sciences Po, including Georges Pompidou (in addition to the École normale supérieure), François Mitterrand (in addition to the Paris Law Faculty), Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy (who did not graduate; in addition to the law school of Paris Nanterre University), François Hollande (in addition to HEC and Paris II), and Emmanuel Macron. Acting president Alain Poher (in addition to Mines ParisTech) is also an alumnus. A number of French politicians who are Sciences Po alumni also graduated from Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA), as the Sciences Po degree and its preparatory programmes prepare well for the competitive entrance to ENA.


title: Sciences Po

text: According to a study published in "Le Monde" in 2017, 14% (81 of the 577) of French members of parliament elected the same year were Sciences Po graduates, the most represented university in the National Assembly. The French Castex government included a number of Sciences Po graduates, including Florence Parly, Bruno Le Maire, and Jean-Michel Blanquer.


title: Sciences Po

text: Some politicians having a role in international organisations were also students at Sciences Po, including Simone Veil (in addition to the Paris Law School), former President of the European Parliament; Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former UN Secretary General; Pascal Lamy, former Director-General of the World Trade Organisation; Michel Camdessus and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former presidents of the International Monetary Fund; Jean-Claude Trichet, former President of the European Central Bank; and Marisol Touraine, Chair of Unitaid Executive Board.


title: Sciences Po

text: Sciences Po is also "alma mater" to politicians including Habib Bourgiba (Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Tunisia 1956-1957 and the first President of the Tunisian Republic 1957-1987), Joseph Ki-Zerbo (Burkinabé advocate for African independence), Mohammad Mosaddegh (Prime Minister of Iran 1951-1953), Pierre Trudeau (Prime Minister of Canada 1968–1979, 1980–1984), and Thanat Khoman (Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs 1959-1971 and Deputy Prime Minister 1981-1983).


title: Sciences Po

text: Senior French diplomats including Jean-Marcel Jeanneney (France's first Ambassador to Algieria) François Delattre (currently Permanent Representative of France to the UN), Gérard Araud (former ambassador to the USA), Sylvie Bermann (currently ambassador to Russia), Bernard Émié (currently Director of the DGSE), Jean-Maurice Ripert (former Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations, Ambassador of France to Russia, and Ambassador of France to China), and Maurice Gourdault-Montagne (currently ambassador to China) are also alumni.


title: Sciences Po

text: The writer Marcel Proust for one year, the founder of the modern Olympics Pierre de Coubertin for one year, fashion designer Christian Dior, author Leïla Slimani, author Emmanuel Carrère, Harvard University Professor of political science Stanley Hoffmann, Chinese linguist Ma Jianzhong, Director of Paris Peace Forum Justin Vaïsse, journalist Arthur Dreyfus, researcher, Margaret Maruani, political scientist Tiago C. Peixoto, and former "Le Monde" editor Jean-Marie Colombani have all graduated from Sciences Po.


title: Sciences Po

text: Jurist and 1907 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Louis Renault taught international law at Sciences Po since its foundation in 1875 until his death in 1918.


title: Sciences Po

text: Élie Halévy taught history of English political ideas and socialism at Sciences Po from 1896 until his death in 1937.


title: Sciences Po

text: Pierre Renouvin, a French historian of international relations, taught at Sciences Po from 1938 to 1970


title: Sciences Po

text: The philosopher, anthropologist and sociologist Bruno Latour taught at Sciences Po from 2006 until his death in 2022.


title: Sciences Po

text: Pierre Hassner, a Romanian-French geopolitologist and philosopher, was Director Emeritus of Research at the Sciences Po Center for International Studies and Research.


title: Sciences Po

text: Jean-Luc Parodi, a French political scientist, worked at the Sciences Po Center of Political Research for the entirety of his career.


title: Kaftan

text: A kaftan or caftan (; , ) is a variant of the robe or tunic. Originating in Asia, it has been worn by a number of cultures around the world for thousands of years. In Russian usage, "kaftan" instead refers to a style of men's long suit with tight sleeves. It may be made of wool, cashmere, silk, or cotton, and may be worn with a sash. Popular during the time of the Ottoman Empire, detailed and elaborately designed garments were given to ambassadors and other important guests at the Topkapı Palace. Variations of the kaftan were inherited by cultures throughout Asia and were worn by individuals in Russia (North Asia, Eastern Europe and formerly Central Asia), Southwest Asia and Northern Africa.


title: Kaftan

text: Styles, uses, and names for the kaftan vary from culture to culture. The kaftan is often worn as a coat or as an overdress, usually having long sleeves and reaching to the ankles. In regions with a warm climate, it is worn as a light-weight, loose-fitting garment. In some cultures, the kaftan has served as a symbol of royalty.


title: Kaftan

text: According to "Encyclopedia of Islam", this fashion came up quite early among Arabs under the influence of Persian fashions. In Arabic, the word "khaftān" is used just like in Persian"." It is described as a long robe as far as the calves sometimes or just under the knee. It is open at the front and the sleeves are slight cut at the wrists or even as far as to the middle of the arms.


title: Kaftan

text: D'Arvieux in his travels in the 17th century mentions Syrian Amirs and Bedouin Sheikhs wearing the kaftan as winter garments.


title: Kaftan

text: During the Islamic golden age of the Abbasid era, the cosmopolitan super-culture spread far and wide to Chinese emperors, Anglo-Saxon coinage, but also in Constantinople too (current day Istanbul). They were mimicking and imitating Baghdadi culture (capital of the Abbasids).


title: Kaftan

text: In the 830s, Emperor Theophilus, who fought the Arabs on the battlefield and built a Baghdad-style palace near the Bosporus, went about "à l'arabe" in kaftans and turbans. Even as far as the streets of Ghuangzhou during the era of Tang dynasty, the Persian kaftan was in fashion.


title: Kaftan

text: The kaftan became a luxurious fashion, a richly styled robe with buttons down the front. The caliphs wore elegant kaftans made from silver or gold brocade and buttons in the front of the sleeves. The caliph al-Muqtaddir (908–932) wore a kaftan from silver brocade Tustari silk and his son one made from Byzantine silk richly decorated or ornamented with figures. The kaftan was spread far and wide by the Abbasids and made known throughout the Arab world.


title: Kaftan

text: The caftan appears to be the oldest Turkish dress, this costume can be traced as far back as the Hun and Gokturk periods. The kaftan was the favourite garment worn in Turkic states of Central Asia, the Turkic Empire in India, the Seljuk Turks and the Ottomans. It was the most important component of the Seljuk period and the oldest known examples of this robe are said to have been found in Hun tombs. The costume of the Gokturk period consisted of long kaftans that are closed with a belt at the waist, these kaftans can be observed in Gokturk statues.


title: Kaftan

text: The Seljuk Sultan Ahmad Sanjar who ruled from 1097 to 1118 gave 1000 red kaftans to his soldiers. In 1058 as well as the period of the Seljuk Sultan Malik Shah the Seljuk Turks wore kaftans and excavations discovered a child's kaftan dating back to the reign of Sanjar-Shah who ruled from 1185 or 1186 to 1187.


title: Kaftan

text: The tiles in the Kubadabad Palace depict Turkish figures dressed in kaftans. The palace was built for Sultan Aladdin Kayqubad I who ruled from 1220 to 1237. Furthermore, typical Seljuk depictions from the 11th to the 13th century depict figures dressed in Turkish style kaftans. The kaftan was also worn by the Anatolian Seljuks who had even gifted kaftans to the first Ottoman Sultan, Osman I. In connection with the inheritance of Osman I, the historian Neşri described a kaftan in the list of inherited items: “There was a short-sleeved kaftan of Denizli cloth.” In an excavation in Kinet in Turkey, a bowl dating back to the early 14th century was found with a depiction of a man wearing what appears to be a kaftan.


title: Kaftan

text: Kaftans were worn by the sultans of the Ottoman Empire. Decoration on the garment, including colours, patterns, ribbons, and buttons, indicated the rank of the person who wore it. In the first half of the 14th century Orhan Ghazi captured Bursa and made it the Ottoman capital. One of the chief specialties of Bursa was gold embroidery among other weaving related specialties, an archive notes that two kaftans made of the finest Bursa gold-brocaded velvet were prepared for the circumcision of Geliboulu Bey Sinan Pasha’s two sons in 1494.


title: Kaftan

text: Ibn Battuta who had visited Anatolia witnessed that a mudarris was wearing a gown embroidered with golden pieces and that a Seljuk Bey gifted a kaftan that was embroidered with golden threads. From the 14th century through the 17th century, textiles with large patterns were used. By the late 16th and early 17th centuries, decorative patterns on the fabrics had become smaller and brighter. By the second half of the 17th century, the most precious kaftans were those with 'yollu': vertical stripes with varying embroidery and small patterns – the so-called "Selimiye" fabrics.


title: Kaftan

text: Most fabrics manufactured in Turkey were made in Istanbul and Bursa, but some textiles came from as far away as Venice, Genoa, Persia (Iran), India, and even China. kaftans were made from velvet, "aba", "bürümcük" (a type of crepe with a silk warp and cotton weft), "canfes", "çatma" (a heavy silk brocade), "gezi", "diba" (), "hatayi", "kutnu", "kemha", "seraser" (Persian ) (brocade fabric with silk warp and gold or silver metallic thread weft), "", "zerbaft" (Persian ), and "tafta" (Persian ). Favoured colours were indigo blue, kermes red, violet, "pişmiş ayva" or "cooked quince", and weld yellow. Silk or wooled vests embellished with couched gold thread or silk embroidery probably represent the introduction of a Turkish feature into an Arab aesthetic.


title: Kaftan

text: Nearly 2500 caftans and other garments belonging to subsequent sultans from the 15th to the 19th century are preserved in the Topkapi Saray museum. The Topkapi Palace Museum houses 21 kaftan that belonged to Mehmed the Conqueror, 77 kaftan that belonged to Suleiman the Magnificent, 13 that belonged to Ahmed I, 30 that belonged to Osman II and 27 that belonged to Murad IV.


title: Kaftan

text: The Female kaftan is inscribed in the intangible cultural heritage of humanity, as Tlemcen's costume. It is the main piece of the Chedda of Tlemcen.


title: Kaftan

text: The kaftan has been historically documented to be worn in Algeria in the beginning of the 16th century and the presence of the kaftan in Algeria dates far back to the Rustamid period and is attested during the Zirid period in the 10th century as well as the Zayyanid period. Following the Ottoman tradition, the male kaftan, known as the kaftan of honour, was bestowed by the Ottoman Sultan upon the governors of Algiers who, in turn, bestowed kaftans upon the Beys and members of distinguished families. In his "Topography and General History of Algiers", described it as a coloured robe made of satin, of damask, of velvet and silk and having a form that reminded him of the priests' cassocks. The Dey wore the kaftan with dangling sleeves; the "khodjas" (secretaries) wore a very long cloth based kaftan, falling to the ankles; the "chaouchs" (executors of the justice of the dey) were recognized by a green kaftan with sleeves either open or closed, according to their rank. The kaftan was also worn by the janissaries in the 17th and part of the 18th century. It continued to be worn by male dignitaries well into the 20th century.


title: Kaftan

text: The female kaftan, on the other hand, evolved locally and derives from the ', a mid-calf jacket that combined Morisco and Ottoman influences, but which evolved following a very specific Algerian style from the sixteenth century onward. Between the sixteenth and seventeenth century, middle-class women started wearing the '. The use of brocades and quality velvet, the profusion of embroidery and gold threading were not enough to satisfy the need for distinction of the wealthiest Algerians who choose to lengthen the ' all the way to the ankles to make a kaftan that became the centrepiece of the ceremonial costume, while the ' was confined to the role of daily clothing. The introduction of gold thread embroidery into North Africa itself is reputed to have been introduced through Turkish rule.


title: Kaftan

text: Several types of kaftans were developed since then, while still respecting the original pattern. Nowadays, the Algerian female kaftans, including the modernised versions, are seen as an essential garment in the bride's trousseau in cities such as Algiers, Annaba, Bejaia, Blida, Constantine, Miliana, Nedroma and Tlemcen.


title: Kaftan

text: According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the kaftan was introduced into the Barbary States by the Ottomans and spread by fashion as far as Morocco.


title: Kaftan

text: According to art historian Rachida Alaoui, the kaftan in Morocco dates back to the end of the 15th century and goes back to the region's Moorish history, which represents the medieval heritage of Al-Andalus. However, the first "written record" of the garment being worn in Morocco is from the 16th century, she states.


title: Kaftan

text: According to Naima El Khatib Boujibar, however, the kaftan might only have been introduced to Morocco by the Saadi Sultan Abd al-Malik, who had lived in Algiers and Istanbul. Abd al-Malik, who had officially acknowledged Ottoman overlordship throughout his time as ruler of Morocco, dressed in Ottoman fashion, spoke Turkish, reorganised his army and administration in imitation of Ottoman practices and used Ottoman Turkish titles for his officials. The second half of the sixteenth century was a period of Ottoman influence in Morocco during which Ahmad al-Mansur, who was greatly influenced by Ottoman culture, adopted Turkish costumes and customs, he introduced Ottoman fashions of dress, his army adopted Turkish costumes and titles and ambassadors even noted the use of Turkish pottery and Turkish carpets in the Badi Palace. Aspects of Ottoman culture had been introduced to Morocco during the reign of both Abd al-Malik and Ahmad al-Mansur and Abd al-Malik’s brief reign opened a period which continued under his successor of the "Turkification" of Morocco. Henri Terrasse asserted that Moroccan embroidery styles are almost all derived from the former regions of the Turkish empire, the introduction of gold thread embroidery into North Africa itself is reputed to have been introduced with Turkish rule.


title: Kaftan

text: Worn by the dignitaries and women of the palace at first, it became fashionable among the middle classes from the late 17th century onwards.


title: Kaftan

text: Today in Morocco, kaftans are worn by women of different social groups and the word kaftan is commonly used to mean a "one-piece traditional fancy dress". Alternative two-piece versions of Moroccan kaftans are called takchita and worn with a large belt. The takchita is also known as Mansouria which derives from the name of Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur, who invented Al-Mansouria and the new fashion of wearing a two-piece kaftan.


title: Kaftan

text: In West Africa, a kaftan is a pullover robe, worn by both men and women. The women's robe is called a kaftan, and the men's garment is referred to as a Senegalese kaftan.


title: Kaftan

text: A Senegalese kaftan is a pullover men's robe with long bell-like sleeves. In the Wolof language, this robe is called a "mbubb" and in French, it is called a "boubou". The Senegalese kaftan is an ankle-length garment, and is worn with matching drawstring pants called "tubay". Usually made of cotton brocade, lace, or synthetic fabrics, these robes are common throughout West Africa. A kaftan and matching pants are called a kaftan suit. The kaftan suit is worn with a kufi cap. Senegalese kaftans are formal wear in all West African countries.


title: Kaftan

text: In Russia, the word "kaftan" is used for another type of clothing: a style of men's long suit with tight sleeves. Going back to the people of various Baltic, Turkic, Varangian (Vikings) and Iranic (Scythian) tribes who inhabited today's Russia along with the Slavic population, kaftan-like clothing was already prevalent in ancient times in regions where later the Rus' Khaganate and Kievan Rus' states appeared.


title: Kaftan

text: The Russian kaftan was probably influenced by Persian and/or Turkic people in Old Russia. The word "kaftan" was adopted from the Tatar language, which in turn borrowed the word from Persia. In the 13th Century, the kaftan was still common in Russia. In the 19th century, Russian kaftans were the most widespread type of outer-clothing amongst peasants and merchants in Old Russia. Currently in the early 21st Century, they are most commonly used as ritual religious clothing by conservative Old Believers, in Russian fashion (Rusfashion), Russian folk dress and with regards to Russian folklore.


title: Kaftan

text: Hasidic Jewish culture adapted a silky robe ("bekishe") or frock coat ("kapoteh", Yiddish word "kapote" or Turkish synonym "chalat") from the garb of Polish nobility, which was itself a type of kaftan. The term may originate from the Spanish "capote" or possibly from "kaftan" via Ladino. Sephardic Jews from Muslim countries wore a kaftan similar to those of their neighbours.


title: Kaftan

text: In Southeast Asia, the kaftan was originally worn by Arab traders, as seen in early lithographs and photographs from the region. Religious communities that formed as Islam became established later adopted this style of dress as a distinguishing feature, under a variety of names deriving from Arabic and Persian such as "jubah", a robe, and "cadar", a veil or chador.


title: Kaftan

text: In the recent era the kaftan was introduced to the West in the 1890s, Queen Victoria's granddaughter Alix of Hesse wore a traditional Russian coronation dress before a crowd which included Western on-lookers, this traditional dress featured the loose-fitting Russian kaftan which was so exotic to Western eyes. This was one of the first times a Western woman, a high-status Western woman who had also been seen in fashionable Western dress no less, was seen wearing something so exotic. The traditional Russian kaftan resembles the kaftans worn by the Ottoman sultans; it was in stark contrast to the tight-fitting, corseted dresses common in England at that time.


title: Kaftan

text: The kaftan slowly gained popularity as an exotic form of loose-fitting clothing. French fashion designer Paul Poiret further popularised this style in the early 20th century.


title: Kaftan

text: In the 1950s, fashion designers such as Christian Dior and Balenciaga adopted the kaftan as a loose evening gown or robe in their collections. These variations were usually sashless.


title: Kaftan

text: American hippie fashions of the late 1960s and the 1970s often drew inspiration from ethnic styles, including kaftans. These styles were brought to the United States by people who journeyed the so-called "hippie trail". African-styled, kaftan-like dashikis were popular, especially among African-Americans. Street styles were appropriated by fashion designers, who marketed lavish kaftans as hostess gowns for casual at-home entertaining.


title: Kaftan

text: Diana Vreeland, Babe Paley, and Barbara Hutton all helped popularise the kaftan in mainstream western fashion. Into the 1970s, Elizabeth Taylor often wore kaftans designed by Thea Porter. In 1975, for her second wedding to Richard Burton she wore a kaftan designed by Gina Fratini.


title: Kaftan

text: More recently, in 2011 Jessica Simpson was photographed wearing kaftans during her pregnancy. American fashion editor André Leon Talley has also worn kaftans designed by Ralph Rucci as one of his signature looks. Beyoncé, Uma Thurman, Susan Sarandon, Kate Moss, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and Nicole Richie have all been seen wearing the style. Some fashion lines have dedicated collections to the kaftan.


title: 20 Fenchurch Street

text: 20 Fenchurch Street is a commercial skyscraper in London that takes its name from its address on Fenchurch Street, in the historic City of London financial district. It has been nicknamed "The Walkie-Talkie" because of its distinctive shape, said to resemble a two-way radio handset. Construction was completed in spring 2014, and the three-floor "sky garden" was opened in January 2015. The 38-storey building is tall. Since July 2017, the building has been owned by Lee Kum Kee Groups.


title: 20 Fenchurch Street

text: Designed by architect Rafael Viñoly and costing over £200 million, 20 Fenchurch Street features a highly distinctive top-heavy form which appears to burst upward and outward. The entrance floor and 34 floors of office space are topped by a large viewing deck. A bar and restaurants are included on the 35th, 36th and 37th floors; these are, with restrictions, open to the public.


title: 20 Fenchurch Street

text: The tower was originally proposed at nearly tall but its design was scaled down after concerns about its visual impact on the nearby St Paul's Cathedral and Tower of London. It was subsequently approved in 2006 with the revised height. Even after the height reduction there were continued concerns from heritage groups about its impact on the surrounding area. The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Ruth Kelly, called in the project for another public inquiry. The project was consequently the subject of a public inquiry; in 2007 this ruled in the developers' favour and the building was granted full planning permission. In 2015 it was awarded the Carbuncle Cup for the worst new building in the UK in the previous 12 months.


title: 20 Fenchurch Street

text: In 2013 Paul Finch of the Design Council CABE said he regretted supporting the project during the public inquiry, saying that the developers "made a mess of it" and were architects of their own misfortune.


title: 20 Fenchurch Street

text: Previously owned by the Land Securities Group, the company posted a £95m loss in 2016. In July 2017, the Hong Kong food company Lee Kum Kee Groups agreed to purchase the building from Land Securities and Canary Wharf Group for £1.3 billion. Savills Management Resources hold the contract to carry out all management of 20 Fenchurch Street.


title: 20 Fenchurch Street

text: The previous building at 20 Fenchurch Street was tall with 25 storeys and was built in 1968 by Land Securities. The architect was William H. Rogers.


title: 20 Fenchurch Street

text: The building was formerly occupied by Dresdner Kleinwort and was notable for being one of the first tall buildings in the City of London, and for its distinctive roof. It was one of the towers nearest to the River Thames when viewed from the southern end of London Bridge.


title: 20 Fenchurch Street

text: Demolition of the building was completed in 2008. Despite the top-down method of construction, it was not demolished from the bottom-up, as a temporary structure was built, allowing Keltbray, the demolition contractor, to demolish the building from the top down.


title: 20 Fenchurch Street

text: The 'sky garden' at the top of the building was claimed by the developer to be London's highest public park, but since opening there have been debates about whether it can be described as a 'park', and whether it is truly 'public' given the access restrictions. The garden spans the top three floors, which are accessible by two express lifts and include a large viewing area, terrace, bar and two restaurants. Fourteen double-deck lifts (seven low-rise up to the 20th floor, seven high-rise above the 20th floor) serve the main office floors of the building.


title: 20 Fenchurch Street

text: The south side of the structure is ventilated externally to improve efficiency and decrease solar gain, whilst the east and west faces incorporate extensive solar shading. There is a southern entrance in addition to the main northern entrance set back from Fenchurch Street.


title: 20 Fenchurch Street

text: In January 2009, Canary Wharf Contractors began piling on the site of 20 Fenchurch Street. Piling and ground works were completed in June 2009.


title: 20 Fenchurch Street

text: In January 2011, work at the basement level of the tower began. By the end of October 2011, the building was rising above street-level. December 2011 saw the tower's core begin to rise. The concrete core was topped out in March 2012 and by July the structural steelwork was under way around the core. Structural steelwork topped out in December 2012.


title: 20 Fenchurch Street

text: Fire protection contractor Sharpfibre Ltd began applying fire protection to the structural steelwork in December 2012, completing in March 2013. Cementitious spray was applied to the steelwork, which was supplied directly to the entire building using a purpose-built mixing and pumping station located on the ground floor.


title: 20 Fenchurch Street

text: The building completed to shell and floor in April 2014 and the first tenants began moving into the building from May 2014 prior to final completion in August of that year.