Thinking Allowed

• Updated:
  Weekly
• Average duration:
  27 minutes

Recent episodes (7)

• White Collar Crime - Punishment

  Wed, 18 Nov 09

  Duration:
  28 mins

  Should middle class offenders be put in Open Prisons? Is it right to take loss of professional reputation into account when sentencing white collar criminals. Laurie concludes his exploration of the hidden attitudes to white collar crime

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• White Collar Crime 2 - The Regulators

  Fri, 13 Nov 09

  Duration:
  29 mins

  Laurie continues his exploration of white collar crime. Who are the people charged with protecting the public from corporate crime and professional offending? Are they doing their job?

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• White Collar Crime 1: The Culture of the Crime

  Wed, 4 Nov 09

  Duration:
  28 mins

  Do we turn a blind eye to white collar crime? In the first of a special series Laurie explores what lies behind the extremely low clear up rate for fraud, and discovers the cultural factors that underly corporate crime.

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• Organ Donation & Flip flops

  Thu, 29 Oct 09

  Duration:
  28 mins

  The flip flop is the highest selling piece of footwear in the world, worn by rich and poor. Laurie Taylor is joined by sociology professor, Caroline Knowles, who has traced its journey from the plastics factories of China to the cities of Ethiopia. They discuss why this seemingly insignificant sandal can tell us the bigger picture of Chinese industrialisation, mass migration and economic divisions across the world. New research on the cultural influences on people who choose not to donate organs.

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• Suburbia & Forgetting

  Thu, 22 Oct 09

  Duration:
  27 mins

  Laurie Taylor discusses the enduring appeal of Suburbia. 3 out of 4 British people live there, yet the term 'suburban' can be a short hand for small mindedness and lack of individuality. According to the writer Paul Barker, planners and architects deride suburbia, but many are drawn to its safety, space and freedom. Also Lynsey Hanley, author of Estates: An Intimate History, will be comparing suburban existence to life on a housing estate. Also why modernity and forgetfulness go hand in hand. In an era of mega cities, electronic media and casualised work, are we losing the foundations of shared memory? The Social Anthropologist, Paul Connerton charts the ways in which contemporary life damages our collective and individual memories.

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• Grave Goods & Politics of Alcohol

  Wed, 14 Oct 09

  Duration:
  28 mins

  From jewellery, photos, hats, glasses, and even food, drink and tobacco what do the objects we choose to leave in the coffins of loved ones tell us about the ritual of death and mourning? Laurie Taylor discusses modern day grave goods with Sheila Harper and Duncan Sayer from the Centre for Death and Society in Bath. why do we leave equipment that might be needed in an afterlife like glasses or walking sticks? Also – alcohol as a lens to understand social change. The links between drink, national identity and economic prosperity.

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• American prisons and classification

  Wed, 7 Oct 09

  Duration:
  29 mins

  Laurie Taylor talks to Loic Wacquant, one of America's leading sociologists about why he believes America's social state is withering at the expense of its expanding prison system and why the UK could also be heading in the same direction. Nicola Lacey, Professor of Criminal Law at the London School of Economics joins to discuss whether the UK at risk of becoming overly dependent on prisons while eroding its welfare system? Also are your books filed alphabetically; colour coded, or strictly Dewey decimal? Or just in no particular order at all? Laurie is joined by philosopher Anthony Grayling to discuss classification. Why do it and what limits does applying order to our knowledge impose?

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