Thinking Allowed is BBC Radio 4's weekly focus on the social sciences. Each week on OpenLearn, we bring you exclusive content from The Open University's academic experts responding to the subjects Laurie Taylor and his guests explore, as well as links to teaching materials such as the Open University module, Introducing The Social Sciences. See what our academics have to say about this week's episode by looking at the link below and share your views using the comments facility.
Thinking Allowed is on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesdays at 4.00pm and repeated on Monday mornings at 12.15am. Full transmission details, and listen again links, can be found on bbc.co.uk.
This week's exclusive academic insights
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Tastes of wine
New content
Through the Lens of Kimberly Gauthier under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 licence
The world of wine is explored in this week's Thinking Allowed. Get a taste of the sociology behind the beverage with our exclusive articles and... Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Tastes of wine
Previous episodes
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - The sociology of love
New content
Old Shoe Woman under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 licence
This week's Thinking Allowed explores the sociology of love with Eva Illouz, author of Why Love Hurts. Read our exclusive academic review of the book... Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - The sociology of love
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Neighbours no more
Thinkstock
In this week's Thinking Allowed, OU academic Emily Cockayne talks about the history of neighbours. Read our exclusive article from Emily herself Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Neighbours no more
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Nationalism
By Ibai Lemon via Flickr under Creatuive Commons licence
This week's Thinking Allowed explores nationalism. Read our academic's exclusive interview with journalist activist Joe Makepeace about the changes to nationalism in the UK Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Nationalism
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - The drama of crime
Dr Azzacov under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 licence
We explore the subject of crime and the role the media plays in it as Thinking Allowed places the spotlight on media coverage of crime Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - The drama of crime
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Sport's role in society
D Dash under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 licence
This week, one of our academics focuses on one of the subjects explored in the latest Thinking Allowed - the role sport plays in society Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Sport's role in society
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - A crisis of waste
Production team
Household refuse is the focus of this week's Thinking Allowed. Find out more then read an exclusive article on the subject from The Open University's... Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - A crisis of waste
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Steeltown meltdown
By Fabi42 via Flicker under Creative Commons license
The subject of this week's Thinking Allowed is the de-industrialisation of Wales. Find out more then read our exclusive article about Wales' dramatic transformation of... Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Steeltown meltdown
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Michelin culture
BBC
This week's Thinking Allowed focuses on cross cultural research that compares Michelin starred restaurants and culture in Britain and Germany Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Michelin culture
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - A sense of home
BBC
In the next episode of Thinking Allowed, Laurie Taylor and a team of two sociologists will be visiting listeners’ homes to discuss their home arrangements Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - A sense of home
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Security firms
BBC
This week's subject is private and military security, timely considering some UK police force's moves to use more security firms. Find out more... Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Security firms
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Why nations fail
Paul Lampard | Dreamstime.com
US economist James Robinson visits the Thinking Allowed studio this week to discuss Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power Prosperity and Poverty Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Why nations fail
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - 20th Century poverty
By Lara604 via Flickr under Creative Commons license
20th Century poverty is the focus of this week's Thinking Allowed. Read an exclusive article from our senior lecturer in politics and international studies Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - 20th Century poverty
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - the purpose of universities
BBC
This week's Thinking Allowed focuses on the purpose of education. In an exclusive article, a senior lecturer in politics at The Open University delves deeper... Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - the purpose of universities
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Citizenship without frontiers
covilha under CC-BY
On Thinking Allowed this week, the Open University's Professor Engin Isin discusses citizenship without frontiers Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Citizenship without frontiers
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Cruel optimism and obesity
Rachwal | Dreamstime.com
The impossibility of the ‘Good Life’ and obesity are discussed on this week's Thinking Allowed. What do our academics say about this? Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Cruel optimism and obesity
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Cooperation
theregeneration under CC-BY-SA
This week's Thinking Allowed topic is cooperation. See what resources we have on OpenLearn to help you learn more on this subject Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Cooperation
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Conspiracy theories
Andrew Aliferis under CC-BY-ND licence
This week Thinking Allowed will be looking at conspiracy theories. Or at least, that's what they want you to think... Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Conspiracy theories
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Being a father and stag nights
BBC
Thinking Allowed focuses on being a father and stag nights in this week's episode Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Being a father and stag nights
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Debt and cosmetic tourism
photos.com
In this week's Thinking Allowed, the team look at debt and cosmetic tourism Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Debt and cosmetic tourism
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Cities under siege and professional boundaries
Koszivu | Dreamstime.com
Cities under siege and uniforms, setting status and professional boundaries in hospital settings are the focus of the first Thinking Allowed of 2012 Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Cities under siege and professional boundaries
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - 2011
Loopzilla under CC-BY-SA
In two runs of programmes in 2011, Laurie Taylor explored the social sciences. Dip into the archive... Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - 2011
Earlier programmes
Thinking Allowed and The Open University have come together before - find out about some of our earlier collaborations.
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Thinking about cities
BBC
Some highlights of, and insights from, the Thinking Allowed season on cities. Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Thinking about cities
OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Thinking about crime
Jupiter Images
Highlights and insights from the Thinking Allowed crime season, co-produced by The Open University. Read more : OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Thinking about crime


















![Polling Station signage [Image: kagey b under CC-BY-NC-ND licence]](/openlearn/files/ole/ole_images/places/general-urban-scenes/polling-station-sign/polling station sign_0_0.jpg)


Login or Register to post comments
This website
I often listen to "Thinking Allowed", which seems like an intelligent programme for adults, so when, in reply to a comment I had posted, I received an email offering a link to a "discussion page", I duly clicked - and found myself in a strange Alice-in-Wonderland world where words had lost their meaning and nothing made sense!
"OpenLearn" - what's that supposed to mean? "Explore Try Study" - what? I was invited to "discover more" about my "passions"; although I can't see how the OU can tell me more about my passions than my lover and I between us already know!
A number of words were floating about on the screen, but "discussion" wasn't one of them. I thought I'd try "OU community". There, I was invited to "find out what we're playing with". Just a minute, is this a university or a kindergarten? I learnt that you are "giving away cool stuff". Is this a university or Hello magazine?
I read that "the OU has been working with external partners to create spaces for you to experience what we have to offer"; couldn't you just tell me what you have to offer?
You say:"We want everyone to reach their own conclusions"; thank you very much, but being an intelligent adult, I always do!
Ah, here's something called "Platform" where there is discussion apparently. I click again; still no discussion, but news of "member offers and discounts". I thought that was the job of the Students' Union, while the actual University got on with teaching and researching!
Oh, and "competitions" as well! Not so much a university, more a game show, then!
It seems to me that if I wanted to study with the OU again, I would need an introductory course in Teenspeak, Woolly Thinking, Being Patronised and General Silliness!
Hi Anne, Thanks for your
Hi Anne,
Thanks for your feedback. The websites you have found are designed to appeal to the general public as part of the Open University's mission to be open to all. When writing we keep in mind that many of the people using this site won't have studied at a University and the use of academic terminology can be off-putting. We aim to write in a way that is friendly and accessible. We'll review the pages you've mentioned to ensure we are using plain and concise language.
Thanks again.
OpenLearn Moderator
Decline of violence in History
The Decline of violence.
Let me declare at outset that I am usually persuaded by Dr Pinkers work and his conclusions: now for the but; not Dr Pangloss.
Some refutations
Maybe one reason for the decline in violent fatalties, especially since the Enlightment has been the rise in science specifically Public Health, for example the single most significant cause of death in the Crimean war was not shot or sabre, but cholera and typhoid.
Secondly the evidence seems to refute the notion of tolerance flowing in one direction, eg our suggested increasing tolerance/indifferance to homosexual behaviour- I dont think thats true in equatorial Africa. Indeed wasnt Ancient Greece a homophilic society? And is now no longer.
Thirdly, DrO'Hear's priviliging of the Christian new testament? Perhaps I'm wrong, but I think the only religion that has not waged a Holy War is Bhuddism.
Lets see what happens in Greece? Lets see what happens when the water runs out, and crops fail- would Pinker have come to these rIdiculous conclusion if he had lived not on a Harvard campus, but modern Somalia? Is this taking his theories of language too far, cosmopolitanism requires the precondition of food and welfare, not the other way round-see Abraham Maslow
Decline of violence in History
I agree absolutely with Nick Rumble's assessment of Pinkers work especially as it comes out of the Harvard mentality which has brought on the worst amount of calamity in the 21st and now going on into the 2nd century in an absurd Milton Freeman meets pnac scenario.
Decline of violence by the U.S.A. has not occurred but has increased intervening by force to change non-complimentary administrations from 1950's Guadaloupe through Cuba, Angola, Chile, Grenada, Iraq, Afghanistan and now peering at Iran for a first strike opportunity.
Decline in violence will not come about by the failure and collapse of Harvard inspired global monetary "systems" generated by the not so clever but intellectually fascinating prospect bundling up CDO's with the etc.'s etc.'s which will increase change but most likely more deprivation, death, injury and destruction
A reader of Voltaire's "Candide" has to warn anyone adopting the Panglossian/ Liebnitz course of philosophy that there is a liability to incur much buttock excising whenever a sharp blade is not engaged with the cutting of heads - a likely and and somewhat complimentary prospect that academics have often to suffer when not protected by the wealth of the US fed.
At Sussex with International Relations it became abundantly clear to me while attempting to wade through the corrupted language of american academic treatises that "Linguistic Analysis" had in fact become a weapon of war - "pacification" being the simile for dropping more TNT on neutral Laos than was dropped on Nazi Germany during WW2.
So Pinker try a better academic linguistic - Leary's "drop out turn on tune in" to a reality other than a pay check.
Decline of violence in History
I agree absolutely with Nick Rumble's assessment of Pinkers work especially as it comes out of the Harvard mentality which has brought on the worst amount of calamity in the 21st and now going on into the 2nd century in an absurd Milton Freeman meets pnac scenario.
Decline of violence by the U.S.A. has not occurred but has increased intervening by force to change non-complimentary administrations from 1950's Guadaloupe through Cuba, Angola, Chile, Grenada, Iraq, Afghanistan and now peering at Iran for a first strike opportunity.
Decline in violence will not come about by the failure and collapse of Harvard inspired global monetary "systems" generated by the not so clever but intellectually fascinating prospect bundling up CDO's with the etc.'s etc.'s which will increase change but most likely more deprivation, death, injury and destruction
A reader of Voltaire's "Candide" has to warn anyone adopting the Panglossian/ Liebnitz course of philosophy that there is a liability to incur much buttock excising whenever a sharp blade is not engaged with the cutting of heads - a likely and and somewhat complimentary prospect that academics have often to suffer when not protected by the wealth of the US fed.
At Sussex with International Relations it became abundantly clear to me while attempting to wade through the corrupted language of american academic treatises that "Linguistic Analysis" had in fact become a weapon of war - "pacification" being the simile for dropping more TNT on neutral Laos than was dropped on Nazi Germany during WW2.
So Pinker try a better academic linguistic - Leary's "drop out turn on tune in" to a reality other than a pay check.