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BBC Radio 4

Thinking Allowed

What happens when we tell the story of modern Britain as part of a much bigger, global history? Professor Kate Pickett OBE has recently been appointed as the UK's first-ever Professor for the Public Understanding of Social Science at the University of York. She tells Laurie about the importance of her new role at a time when social inequalities are starker than ever. Les Back (Professor of Sociology at the University of Glasgow) and Gurminder Bhambra (Professor of Historical Sociology at the University of Sussex) continue the discussion on the crucial nature of sociology in contemporary society and consider the ways in which it can help us rethink the past.

As the current President of the British Sociological Association, Les Back reflects on its seventy-five years of existence and reflects on a discipline that has often felt under pressure. From early post-war concerns with the welfare state to ideas inspired by feminism and anti-racism, he traces sociology’s shifting priorities - and argues for a more open, inclusive “sociological imagination”, alive to the importance of community in an increasingly individualised world.

Gurminder Bhambra argues that rather than simply “decolonising” knowledge, we need to put colonial histories back at the centre of how we understand society. From the global networks that made the Industrial Revolution possible to the overlooked contributions of colonial subjects to British prosperity, she explores how these hidden connections continue to shape debates about migration, belonging and inequality. 
She has co-edited and contributed to a new book - The Modern World After Colonialism, Remaking the Social Sciences. 

Producer: Natalia Fernandez
Editor: Robyn Read

Rethinking Sociology: Empire, Knowledge and Connection

As a new World Cup approaches, what does it mean that gambling now sits so close to the heart of football - and how far has the game travelled from its local roots?

Laurie Taylor explores two distinct ways of understanding football’s place in contemporary society. He’s joined by Darragh McGee from the University of Bath, whose book Imitation Games charts the rapid rise of gambling and its growing entanglement with the sport. McGee reflects on how this shift has been normalised, particularly among younger supporters, and considers the broader social consequences of an increasingly immersive and continuous online gambling environment.

Adam Dinsmore from Manchester Metropolitan University's Institute of Sport focuses not on football’s global reach but on its local meanings. Drawing on research with supporters in post-industrial towns such as Blackburn and Middlesbrough, he examines how football clubs continue to function as powerful symbols of place-identity. In communities shaped by de-industrialisation, where traditional forms of work and collective life have eroded, the local club often remains one of the last enduring institutions linking past and present. 

Producer: Natalia Fernandez
Editor: Robyn Read

Football and gambling

What does it mean to undertake "ethical" research in complex and changing social settings?

Marion Vannier, from the University of Manchester, uses diaries and letters written by prisoners in her research with older men serving life sentences. Her work, including ‘Project Hope’, offers an insight into the experience of ageing behind bars, showing how ideas such as “hope” aren't always a positive. She discusses the difficult questions about trust, representation and responsibility when putting prisoners’ own voices centre stage and in the public domain. 

Helen Busby is an independent research Ethics Advisor who has edited a new collection of essays Reframing Qualitative Research Ethics. She argues ethics cannot be reduced to fixed rules or procedural checklists, but are shaped by negotiation, reflection and the realities of research practice. The book brings together detailed case studies of dilemmas encountered in the field, alongside proposals for reform, including a more flexible review processes, discipline-specific approaches and a broader emphasis on research integrity. 

Producer: Natalia Fernandez
Editor: Robyn Read

Ethics in sociological research

What does Émile Durkheim’s 1897 study of suicide tell us about the social conditions that shape whether life feels worth living and how does a current project add to our understanding?

Laurie Taylor is joined by Alexander Oaten, from the University of Lincoln, and Sarah Huque, from the University of Edinburgh who are involved in Discovering Liveability: Co-producing Alternatives to Suicide Prevention - a seven-year Wellcome Trust funded collaboration. This sets out to challenge the way suicide prevention is usually framed. Rather than focusing on moments of crisis, the project asks a different question: how can we create societies in which life feels more liveable and what insights can you gain from people who have experienced suicidal thoughts?

Producer: Natalia Fernandez
Editor: Robyn Read

If you’re suffering distress or despair and need support, including urgent support, a list of organisations that can help is available at bbc.co.uk/actionline

Suicide, Society and Liveability

What does an 18-month study of residents on a housing estate in southern England tell us about living with debt? Laurie Taylor talks to Ryan Davey from Cardiff University about his new book The Personal Life of Debt - Coercion, Subjectivity and Inequality in Britain, which tries to understand how debt affects people emotionally as well as economically. 

Laurie is also joined by Sarah Kerr (LSE International Inequalities Institute), whose book, Wealth, Poverty and Enduring Inequality - Let’s Talk Wealtherty, investigates the stubborn persistence of inequality in the UK. Kerr argues that the gap between top and bottom earners has become entrenched and normalised across generations. 

Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Debt and Wealth Inequality

What can the worlds of mountaineering and endurance running reveal about changing ideas of freedom, identity and the body? Laurie Taylor talks to Sarah Lonsdale, Senior Lecturer in Journalism at City, University of London, about her new book Wildly Different - her study of early 20th‑century women who sought autonomy through outdoor adventure. She focuses on the mountaineer Dorothy Pilley, whose Alpine achievements and reflective writing challenged prevailing assumptions about femininity and physical capability. 

In 'Dirtbag Dreams', Carl Morris (sociologist, historian and social psychologist from the University of Lancashire) explores the history of mountain, ultra and trail running in the US and Britain from its origins right up until today. He asks if the ever-increasing popularity of these sports risk making them overly commercial and corporate? A keen fell runner himself, Morris examines the distinctive values that shape these endurance communities, including ideas of authenticity, self‑sufficiency and the pursuit of physical extremity. 

Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Extreme Sports

What explains the apparent decline of grand theory in sociology, and what does this shift mean for the discipline today? Laurie Taylor asks whether sociologists are now less inclined to engage with large, overarching theoretical frameworks, and explores the reasons behind this change.

He is joined by Professor Les Back (University of Glasgow) and Professor Imogen Tyler (University of Lancaster), who consider whether theory still resonates within contemporary sociology and, if so, which thinkers remain most influential. Who are the discipline’s most cited theorists today, and which grand figures - such as Marx, Weber, Durkheim and Foucault - continue to shape sociological thought?

It may be argued that theory remains stronger within feminist and women’s studies traditions, but what does this suggest about long‑standing questions concerning the gendered character of theory itself?

Laurie Taylor and guests set out to consider which new or emerging theoretical approaches offer fresh ways of understanding familiar social phenomena, and whether they signal a transformation in the discipline or simply a reworking of older sociological concerns.

Producer: Natalia Fernandez

The demise of Grand Theory?

What do we learn when a city’s future is defined not by rapid change, but by who leaves and who stays? Laurie Taylor looks at two neighbourhoods in different countries, during different periods in history and explores the human cost of gentrification - and what happens when the project fails.

Sharon Cornelissen (sociologist and Director of Housing at the Consumer Federation of America) discusses her latest book, "The Last House on the Block - Black Homeowners, White Homesteaders, and Failed Gentrification in Detroit', her study of Detroit’s Brightmoor neighbourhood. After living as a homeowner in Brightmoor for several years, Cornelissen argues that American cities should look more closely at depopulation and disinvestment because she experienced firsthand what it is like to live somewhere with a very small population and a distinct lack of both public and private investment.

In his new book, "Songs of Seven Dials - an Intimate History of 1920s and 1930s London", Matt Houlbrook (Professor of Cultural History at the University of Birmingham) writes about the history of the central London district in the interwar years through the story of a 1927 libel trial involving a Sierra Leonean café owner and a nationalist newspaper. Through this personal story, he reveals the tensions around race, class and “improvement” that shaped the area’s future. Seven Dials near Covent Garden emerges as a place where business interests collide with local residents and where money and influence win out over the rights of individuals — early examples of the pressures now associated with gentrification a century later.

Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Gentrification in Detroit and London

The winner of the British Society of Criminology Book Award in 2025 was Kate Herrity. Her study looks at the way our different senses contribute to the experience of prison life and is called Sound, Order and Survival in Prison: The Rhythms and Routines of HMP Midtown. Her research looks at the way for many prisoners, listening becomes a vital survival practice.

Kate Gooch is a Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Bath. In her new book, 'Prison Violence - The Search for Recognition and Respect', she analyses the nature, causes and culture of prison victimisation in an English young offender institution for men aged 18-21 years old. Her research examines how hierarchies develop, how fear circulates, and how both staff and young men negotiate constantly shifting landscapes of threat, reputation and authority.

Laurie Taylor presents. 

Producer: Natalia Fernandez

Prison violence, sound and survival

How does the environment we move through shape the way we see and experience the world? 

Laurie Taylor talks to Alex Prior (London South Bank University) about his research inside Westminster, where he walked alongside MPs and staff to uncover how the corridors of power feel different depending on who you are and what your job is. 
James Fletcher from the University of Bath worked on a project exploring what it’s like to navigate the bus and tram routes of central Manchester while living with dementia. He looked at how familiar streets and transport systems change when memory and mobility are shifting and the implications of this. 

What is the value of research conducted in this way and what are the downsides? 

Producer: Natalia Fernandez

The go-along research method

Development of a country is conventionally measured by GDP, but that can mask a growing inequality in that nation and makes no reference to freedoms, rights or education. The philosopher Martha Nussbaum outlines her 'human capabilities' approach which she has developed with the Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen. She tells Laurie that her index can be applied around the world and across all cultures as an index which measures how populations are flourishing or flailing.
Producer: Charlie Taylor.

Creating capabilities

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