Thinking Allowed
Episodes
Secrecy at Work, Drugs and Employment
15 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Secrecy at Work: the hidden architecture within our organisations. Laurie Taylor talks to Christopher Grey, Professor of Organization Studies at Royal...
Ale drinkers, Northern accents
01 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Northern accents at work: Trainee teachers are under pressure to speak the Queen's English. Laurie Taylor talks to Alex Barrata, lecturer in Linguisti...
'Queer' wars, Nigerian beauty pageants
25 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
'Queer' Wars: The claim that LGBT rights are human rights meets fierce, sometimes deadly opposition in many parts of the world. Politicians and religi...
Glasgow gangs - Russian gangs
18 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Glasgow & Russian gangs: Laurie Taylor explores their origins, organisation and meaning in two strikingly different cultures. He talks to Alistair...
Migrant women, Wedding paradoxes
04 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Migrant women in Britain: Laurie Taylor talks to Linda McDowell, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Oxford and author of a sweeping stu...
The Flaneur - Walking in the City
27 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Walking in the city: The flaneur and flaneuse. Laurie Taylor presents a themed programme which explores the history and meaning of the urban stroller,...
Happiness and government, Good parenting
20 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Happiness - Should the government promote it? Danny Dorling, Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford, talks to Laurie Tay...
Ethnography Award winner, Transcultural football
13 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The winner of the 2016 British Sociological Association & Thinking Allowed Ethnography award, Maxim Bolt, Lecturer in Anthropology and African Stu...
The BSA and Thinking Allowed Ethnography Award Shortlist
06 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The Ethnography award 'short list': Thinking Allowed, in association with the British Sociological Association, presents a special programme devoted t...
Dance halls, Pick-up artists
30 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Dance halls: a social and cultural history. James Nott, Lecturer in History at the University of St. Andrews, talks to Laurie Taylor about the origins...
Eviction, Self-build
23 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Evicted: Laurie Taylor explores the lives of people who are compelled to leave their homes. Matthew Desmond, Associate Professor in the Social Science...
Philanthropy - Charity
17 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Philanthropy & charitable giving: Is there such a thing as a free gift? Laurie Taylor talks to Linsey McGoey, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the ...
Small towns, Patient rescue and resuscitation
09 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Small towns: Laurie Taylor talks to Steve Hanson, Associate Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Lincoln, and author of an ethnographic study of...
The debt collection industry, Spousal job loss
02 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The debt collection industry: Laurie Taylor explores what happens when everyday forms of borrowing, such as credit cards, personal loans and store car...
Refusing adulthood, How young people feel about being poor
24 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Refusing adulthood. Laurie Taylor talks to Susan Neiman, the American moral philosopher, who asks, if and why, some people refuse to grow up. She argu...
Museums and nationalism, Imagining utopias
17 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Museums and the 'nation': What can we learn about nationalism by looking at a country's cultural institutions? Laurie Taylor talks to Peggy Levitt, Pr...
Weather forecasting, Young people and politics
10 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Weather forecasting: Laurie Taylor explores a scientific art form rooted in unpredictability. He talks to Phaedra Daipha, Assistant Professor of Socio...
Consumerism, Work-life balance
03 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Consumerism: a history of our modern, material world and the endless quest for more 'things'. Laurie Taylor talks to Frank Trentmann, Professor of His...
The Creative Economy, 'Grudge' Spending
27 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The Creative Economy: Angela McRobbie, Professor of Communications at the Goldsmiths, questions what's at stake in the new politics of culture and cre...
Con Men in New York, Iconography of punishment
20 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Con men in New York: The little known world of the urban hustler. Laurie Taylor talks to Terry Williams, Professor of Sociology at the New School for ...
Modern slavery, School lunch boxes
13 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Modern Slavery: Laurie Taylor explores the tensions and dilemmas at the heart of contemporary struggles against enslavement; from forced labour to sex...
The end of 'careers', Humour at work
06 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Identity and work: Laurie Taylor explores selfhood in an era in which our working lives are becoming increasingly uncertain. He talks to Jesse Potter,...
Fashion and Beauty
30 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Fashion:pleasure and danger. Laurie Taylor considers the costs of 'keeping up appearances', then and now. From the flaming tutus of ballerinas to the ...
A Special Programme on Rituals
23 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Rituals at Christmas & beyond. Laurie Taylor presents a special programme on the place of rituals in everyday life. How have they changed over tim...
Chess worlds, Competitive entrepreneurs
16 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Chess players: Laurie Taylor talks to Gary Fine, Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University, and author of a study into the complex, committed ...
Land Ownership, Home at work
09 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Land ownership in Britain: Laurie Taylor explores our forgotten acres. He talks to Peter Hetherington, writer and journalist, as well as author of a n...
Everyday life, Cafe society
02 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Everyday life: Laurie Taylor talks to Les Back, Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London, about his study into those seemingly unimp...
Frauds of the left, Siblings
25 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
'Frauds' of the Left: Laurie Taylor examines the intellectual credibility of key thinkers of the New Left. Roger Scruton, Visiting Professor of Philos...
Elite jobs, Hairdresser craft
18 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
How elite students get elite jobs. Lauren Rivera, Associate Professor of Management and Organisation at Northwestern University's Kellog School of Man...
Zoos explored, Funeral arranging
11 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Zoos in the modern world: Laurie Taylor talks to David Grazian, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and author of 'Amer...
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, The hidden life of domestic things
04 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) has stirred more passionate controversy than any other trade negotiations. Critics suggest...
Ambivalent atheism; Neoliberalism and old age
28 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Ambivalent atheism: Laurie Taylor talks to Lois Lee, Research Associate with the Institute of Advanced Studies at University College, London, and auth...
Human Rights in Northern Ireland, Social Mobility and Education
21 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Northern Ireland & the unusual role of human rights discourse in the peace process. Laurie Taylor talks to Jennifer Curtis, honorary fellow in Soc...
Being Single - Modern Romance
14 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Modern romance: love in the age of technology. Laurie Taylor talks to Eric Klinenberg, Professor of Sociology at New York University, & co- author...
Female Serial Killers, Secular Stagnation
07 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Female Serial Killers: Although there is much written on male serial killers, there's less analysis of their female equivalent, perhaps because of the...
Russia's Red Web - Older Entrepreneurs
30 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The 'Red Web': The Internet in Russia is a totalitarian tool but is also a device by which totalitarianism can be resisted. Laurie Taylor talks to And...
Cross-Class Marriage, The social history of women-only train carriages
23 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Cross class marriage: Laurie Taylor talks to Jessi Streib, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Duke University, US, about her study into the lives of ...
Stop and search, Cancer patients and welfare reform
16 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Stop & Search: Laurie Taylor explores a police practice which is seen as a vital tool against crime by law enforcers, but has been dogged by contr...
Prison gangs in US, Millionaire children
29 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Prison gangs in the USA. Laurie Taylor talks to David Skarbek, Lecturer in the Department of Political Economy at King's College, London, about his re...
The colour black, Mixed-race people
22 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Black: the cultural and historical meaning of the darkest colour. From the 'little black dress' which epitomises chic, to its links to death, depressi...
Middle-class drug dealers, Globalisation of white collar work
15 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Middle class drug dealers: Laurie Taylor discusses a study into suburban drug selling amongst well heeled teens in a wealthy suburb of Atlanta, USA. T...
Arab Londoners - Migrants and British identity
08 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Being Arab in London: diaspora and difference in the city. Laurie Taylor talks to Ramy M. K. Aly, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the American ...
Factory music, Volunteering post-recession
01 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Factory music:the role that popular music plays in workers' culture. Marek Korczynski, Chair in Sociology of Work at the Nottingham University Busines...
White Working Class Boys; French Thought
24 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
White, working class boys at school: Laurie Taylor talks to Garth Stahl. Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of South Australia, and...
The 'Precariat'; Humour in Sociology
17 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The 'Precariat': Laurie Taylor talks to Guy Standing, Professor in Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of Lo...
Lesbian Lives in Russia; Big Data
10 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Lesbian lives in Russia: Laurie Taylor talks to Francesca Stella, Research Fellow in Sociology at the University of Glasgow, and author of a study whi...
Anthropology - The Future of the A-level; Crime and Blame
03 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Anthropology: the future of the A level. Laurie Taylor talks to Joy Hendry, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University, about the...
Poverty in Britain; Unemployment As a Choice
19 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Poverty in Britain: Laurie Taylor talks to Joanna Mack, Learning and Teaching producer at the Open University, about the largest ever survey of UK lev...
The Gym: A Social History; Tattoos at Work
11 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The gym: Laurie Taylor explores the social history of the gymnasium with the writer and sociologist, Eric Chaline. Although this 'temple of perfection...
Division of Domestic Labour - Gentrification and Working-Class Residents
05 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Gentrification: its impact on working class residents. Laurie Taylor talks to Kirsteen Paton, lecturer in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at...
Post Traumatic Stress; Managing Beds in the NHS
29 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Post traumatic stress in male combat veterans: Laurie Taylor talks to Nick Caddick, Research Assistant at Loughborough University, and co-author of a ...
Stories Behind Immigration - Winner of the Ethnography Award
22 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
This year, the BBC's Thinking Allowed, in association with the British Sociological Association, launched the second year of its award for a study tha...
The Ethnography Award 'Shortlist'
15 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The Ethnography award 'short list': Thinking Allowed, in association with the British Sociological Association, presents a special programme devoted t...
Free Will Explored
08 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Free will explored. Laurie Taylor talks to Julian Baggini, writer and Founding Editor of The Philosophers' Magazine, about his latest work which consi...
Citizenship Ceremonies; Family Ties and Genetics
01 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Making citizens: how countries make public rituals out of endowing new citizens with citizenship. Laurie Taylor talks to Bridget Byrne, Senior Lecture...
Global Clothing and Poverty; Fur Inheritance in Poland
25 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Jeans on a journey: Laurie Taylor talks to Andrew Brooks, Lecturer in Development Geography at Kings College London, about his study of the hidden wor...
Love, Money and HIV in Kenya, Microbreweries
18 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Love, Money and HIV in Kenya. Laurie Taylor talks to Sanyu Mojola, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado, and author of a stu...
Biologising Parenthood - A Lost Avant-Garde,
11 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
A lost avant garde: Laurie Taylor examines the tension between art & money in the contemporary art museum. He talks to Matti Bunzl, Professor of A...
Commercial Surrogacy in India, Money
04 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Wombs for Sale: commercial surrogacy in India & beyond. Couples from all over the world can now hire Indian women to bear their children for a fra...
The British in South Africa - Romanian Economic Migrants in London
25 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Migration: the complexities of transnational movement, identity and belonging. Laurie Taylor explores migration in contrasting contexts. He talks to D...
Conservatism, Emotional Labour in a Care Home
18 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Conservatism: Roger Scruton, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, London, talks to Laurie Taylor, about the intellectual roots of Conservative...
Harvard Business School – The Construction of Pain
11 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Harvard Business School: Laurie Taylor takes a journey through the complex moral world of what many call the West Point of American Capitalism. Michel...
Inside the Muslim Brotherhood
04 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Inside the Muslim Brotherhood - The first in-depth study of the relationship between the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and its own members. Laurie talks...
Social Stigma and Negative Labels - Migraine
28 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Migraine: a cultural history. How did a painful and disabling disorder come to be seen as a symptom of femininity? Laurie Taylor talks to Joanna Kempn...
Tribute to Ulrich Beck (1944 - 2015) - Dissident Irish Republicanism
21 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Dissident Irish Republicanism - Laurie Taylor talks to John Morrison, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of East London, about his in de...
Living Apart Relationships - Grading Universities
14 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Grading universities - The rights and wrongs of the Research Excellence Framework. The REF is the most recent in a series of national assessments of r...
War Games - Riding the Subway
07 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The militarisation of every day life. Joanna Bourke, Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London, talks to Laurie about the multiple ways i...
Self-help and Self-improvement
31 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Self-help & self-improvement. As thoughts turn to resolutions and making a fresh start in 2015, Laurie Taylor wonders if his scepticism about self...
Rituals at Christmas
25 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Customs at Christmas and beyond. It may be best not to invite a sociologist for Xmas - they're liable to spend their time chronicling, even questionin...
Butchers; Fat Gay Men
17 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Fat gay men: Laurie Taylor examines a world in which men are doubly stigmatised - for their weight as well as their sexuality. Jason Whitesel, an Assi...
After Redundancy - Global Payday Lending
10 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Global payday loans: Laurie Taylor talks to Carl Packman, a researcher and writer, who has analysed the growth of a worldwide industry. Today there ar...
Port Cities; Middle Class Alcohol Use
03 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Port cities in the global age; from Marseilles to Liverpool and New Orleans. Laurie Taylor talks to Alice Mah, a sociologist at the University of Warw...
Creative Britain - Sexology
26 Nov 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Creative Britain: Laurie Taylor explores its rise and fall with the British historian, Robert Hewison, who provides an assessment of the cultural poli...
Shoes - Islamic Youth Culture in Western Europe
19 Nov 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Shoes - a journey through our lives and identities. From 'brothel creepers' to perilous stilettos, our choice of footwear changes and evolves over a l...
Meritocracy; Desert Island Doctors
12 Nov 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Meritocracy, then and now. Laurie Taylor talks to Peter Hennessy, Attlee professor of contemporary British history at Queen Mary, University of London...
'Lad culture' in higher education - Fugitives from the law in Philadelphia
05 Nov 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Fugitives from the law: Laurie Taylor talks to Alice Goffman, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, about 'On the R...
Post-Dictatorship Art in Argentina; Young Jazz Musicians in London
29 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Post dictatorship art in Argentina and beyond. Laurie Taylor talks to Vikki Bell, Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths College, about the role of the ...
Junk Food Traders in Secondary Schools; Darjeeling Tea Workers
22 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Tea workers in Darjeeling. Laurie Taylor talks to Sarah Besky, Assistant Professor in Anthropology at the University of Michigan, about her study of t...
Drug Mules; 'Dads Only' Parenting Project
15 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Drug Mules - Laurie Taylor talks to Jennifer Fleetwood, Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Leicester, about her study of women in the intern...
Dementia Handbags; Place Hacking
08 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Place hacking the hidden city. Laurie Taylor talks to Bradley Garrett, Lecturer in Geography and Environment at the University of Southampton, about h...
Gaybourhood and City Life
06 Aug 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Gay life at home and in the 'city' - a special edition of Thinking Allowed presented by Laurie Taylor. From squatted terraces to rented bedsits, the s...
Non-Networking Graduates; Race and Consumption
30 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Race & consumption - Laurie Taylor talks to Ben Pitcher, Senior Lecturer at the University of Westminster, about the ways in which racial meaning ...
Dalit Parties and Democratisation in Tamil Nadu; History of the Elevator
23 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Elevators - a cultural history. Before skyscrapers transformed the urban landscape a new conveyance made them possible. The elevator, invented in New ...
Rio, Protests and the World Cup; Dying in Prison
16 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Rio, protests and the World Cup. Laurie Taylor talks to Jessica Leigh Glass, graduate student in the Department of Anthropology at Georgia State Unive...
A History of Tennis, Talking Treatments
09 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Tennis: From Victorian Pastime to Global Phenomenon. Laurie Taylor talks to life long tennis fan and cultural historian, Elizabeth Wilson. The story o...
Russia's upper class, Flip Flops
02 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Flip flops: the world wide trail of an everyday commodity. Laurie Taylor talks to Caroline Knowles, Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University o...
History of Surfing; Coffee Shops and Idleness
25 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Surfing - a political history. Laurie Taylor looks beyond the tanned bodies, crashing waves and carefree pleasure, talking to Scott Laderman, Associat...
Late-Modern Hipsters - Before the Windrush
18 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Before the Windrush - Laurie Taylor talks to John Belchem, Professor of History at the University of Liverpool, about his study of race relations in 2...
Masculinity and betting shops; 'New' biological relatives and kinship
11 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
IVF - it's 35 years years since the initial success of a form of technologically assisted human reproduction which has led to the birth of 5 million '...
Make-up in Iran; Offshoring
04 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Offshoring - the economy of secrecy. The concealment of wealth in tax havens is part of public debate, but John Urry, Professor of Sociology at Lancas...
Gender Inequality in China; Smokestack Nostalgia
28 May 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Chinese women & the resurgence of gender inequality. Laurie Taylor talks to Leta Hong Fincher, about 'Leftover Women', her study of the pressures ...
Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism; Sociology of Sleep
21 May 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism - similarities and differences. Comparisons of anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim sentiment are strikingly absent in British ...
'Illicit' Dance; The Purpose of War
14 May 2014
Contributed by Lukas
'Illicit' dance in India. Laurie Taylor talks to Anna Morcom, Senior Lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London, about her extensive research in...
Baristas; 'People' History
07 May 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The rise & fall of the working class: Laurie Taylor talks to Selina Todd, social historian at St Hilda's College, Oxford, about her sweeping study...
Ethnography Award: The Winner
30 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The winner of Thinking Allowed's first Ethnography award, in association with the British Sociological Association.Laurie Taylor and a team of esteeme...
The Ethnography Award 'Short List'
23 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The Ethnography award 'short list': Thinking Allowed, in association with the British Sociological Association, presents a special programme devoted t...
British working class gardens - Why England fails (at football)
16 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Gardens of the British Working Class - the historian, Margaret Willes, considers the remarkable feats of cultivation by the working class in Britain, ...
The End of Capitalism; Reforming Capitalism
09 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Capitalism - renewal or decline? Laurie Taylor explores the future of our market driven economy. He's joined by David Harvey, Distinguished Professor ...
Kissing; The British Hitman
02 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Kissing - a cultural history. How do we make sense of the kiss and why did it become a vital sign of romance and courtship? Laurie Taylor talks to Mar...
Poverty and 'Shame'; Small-Scale Technology in India
26 Mar 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Poverty and 'Shame' - shame was once described as the 'irreducible core' of poverty by Nobel laureate, Amartya Sen. Laurie Taylor looks at new cross c...