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  4. 15/07/2009

15/07/2009

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Last broadcast on Mon, 20 Jul 2009, 00:15 on BBC Radio 4 (see all broadcasts).

Synopsis

Laurie Taylor explores the latest research into how society works.

Research has shown that health and social problems become more acute in an unequal society, where the gap between the richest and poorest is greatest. For most of us, respect is measured in money, and lack of it or low pay tells us that we are worth very little. But given the chance, would we as a society be prepared to rebalance?

Laurie Taylor discusses these issues with Professor Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, authors of The Spirit Level: Why Equal Societies Almost Always So Better, and Sunder Katwala from The Fabian Society, on a new paper on underlying motivation.

Also teddy bears; how did a real hunting story become a political myth which left Theodore Roosevelt forever credited as the namesake of the teddy bear, symbolic of childhood innocence?

Professor Richard Wilkinson

Professor Richard Wilkinson, Researcher in social inequalities in health and the social determinants of health; former Emeritus Professor of Social Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham

The Spirit Level: Why Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better
by Richard Wilkinson (Author), Kate Pickett (Author)
Publisher: Allen Lane
ISBN-10: 1846140390
ISBN-13: 978-1846140396

Find out more about Richard Wilkinson

Dr Kate Pickett

Dr Kate Pickett, Senior Lecturer in epidemiology at the University of York

The Spirit Level: Why Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better
by Richard Wilkinson (Author), Kate Pickett (Author)
Publisher: Allen Lane
ISBN-10: 1846140390
ISBN-13: 978-1846140396

Find out more about Kate Pickett

Sunder Katwala

Sunder Katwala, General Secretary of the Fabian Society

Find out more about Sunder Katwala

Dr Donna Varga

Dr Donna Varga, Associate Professor in the Department of Child and Youth Study at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax (Nova, Scotia Canada)

Teddy's Bear and the Sociocultural Transfiguration of Savage Beasts Into Innocent Children, 1890- 1920
by Donna Varga
The Journal of American Culture, Vol. 32, No. 2., pp. 98-113

Find out more about Donna Varga

Broadcasts

  1. Wed 15 Jul 2009
    16:00
  2. Mon 20 Jul 2009
    00:15

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30 minutes

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