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ON NOW : Pick of the Week
19/05/2013

Pick of the Week Catherine Bott chooses the best of BBC Radio this week.

ON NEXT : 19:00 The Archers

The Reith Lectures

Image for Civil and Uncivil Societies

Listen now 58 mins

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Civil and Uncivil Societies

Duration:
58 minutes
First broadcast:
Tuesday 10 July 2012

The historian Niall Ferguson examines institutions outside the political, economic and legal realms, whose primary purpose is to preserve and transmit particular knowledge and values. In a lecture delivered at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he asks if the modern state is quietly killing civil society in the Western world? And what can non-Western societies do to build a vibrant civil society?

Producer: Jane Beresford.

  • Transcript: Civil and Uncivil Societies

    Broadcasting House

    Read the transcript of Niall Ferguson's final 2012 Reith Lecture, Civil and Uncivil Societies, in which he asks what constitutes a vibrant and independent civil society.

  • Comment on this lecture

    Woman typing on a laptop

    Read comments and share your views on Niall Ferguson’s final Reith Lecture on the Radio 4 blog.

  • Further listening and reading

    Brain cogs

    Explore some of the references and topics from Niall Ferguson's fourth Reith Lecture, Civil and Uncivil Societies.

Broadcasts

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