New research on how society works
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What does it mean to grow older in Britain today? Laurie Taylor explores the changing realities of later life, from health and independence to inequality and support. Professor Judith Phillips OBE, Professor of Gerontology at the University of Stirling, is the former Research Director of the UKRI Healthy Ageing Challenge - a major national programme which brought together researchers, businesses…
What does it really mean to give something away - or to buy something second-hand? And what, in the process, are we choosing not to see? Laurie Taylor talks to Gaby Harris, Sociologist and Lecturer in Fashion Cultures at Manchester Metropolitan University, about her research on teenage girls and pocket money. Drawing on interviews with 15–17-year-olds, she shows that “pocket money” is far from…
How have South Asian communities in Britain fought for rights, dignity and belonging - and what can that history teach us today? Laurie Taylor explores the overlooked histories of labour struggle, resistance and political activism among South Asian communities in Britain. From early anti-colonial networks to the strikes and campaigns of the 1970s and 80s, the programme traces how successive…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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),…
