Media:
Availability:
In RealMedia only.
Last broadcast on Mon, 1 Jun 2009, 01:06 on BBC World Service (see all broadcasts).
Synopsis
THE FORUM, the ideas programme with BRIDGET KENDALL.
US sociologist WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON on tackling racial inequality.
British philosopher ROGER SCRUTON on our notions of beauty.
German film maker CLEMENS VON WEDEMEYER on the tricks the camera plays with our perception.
IN STUDIO
From left to right: Bridget Kendall, Roger Scruton, Clemens von Wedemeyer
RECORDING THIS WEEK'S FORUM
MEET THE GUESTS
American sociologist WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON looks at why many poor African Americans still seem to be trapped in inner city ghettoes and shows how the interplay between social structures and cultural traits can perpetuate urban poverty. He also describes how aspirational programmes like New York’s Harlem Children’s Zone (which combines education and social services for young people) can help to break the cycle.
British philosopher ROGER SCRUTON asks, what is beauty? He says we are continuously searching for a shared standard by which to measure beauty in arts and culture and he believes our conclusions about what makes something beautiful are founded in human rationality.
German artist and film-maker CLEMENS VON WEDEMEYER examines in his work how a camera lens can subtly distort the way we see the world, blurring the boundaries between reality and make believe and reflecting the way our pervasive cinematic culture has begun to make us see life as if through a movie camera, rather than through our own eyes.
60 SECOND IDEA TO CHANGE THE WORLD
CLEMENS VON WEDEMEYER proposes that all of us migrate to a new country each year, like birds. He says there should be a compulsory yearly game of musical chairs for all nations so, for example, the British would move to South Africa for a year, then onto Brazil and so on and the territory vacated by the British would be taken over by the Vietnamese, say, for that year. This way our minds would be broadened as we’d have to deal with a completely different set of climate problems and social infrastructures. It would also be good for the world’s economy as it would give the travel industry more work.
THIS WEEK'S ILLUSTRATION
The merits of society versus culture in framing the beauty of fact and fiction. By Emily Kasriel
IN NEXT WEEK'S PROGRAMME
Indian environmentalist SUNITA NARAIN on our wasteful attitude to water.
Italian physicist and writer PAOLO GIORDANO on parallels between mathematics and human relationships.
Historian of science ARTHUR I MILLER on the role of intuition in scientific breakthrough.
Broadcasts
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Sun 31 May 200909:06
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Sun 31 May 200920:06
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Mon 1 Jun 200901:06
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