OU on the BBC: Thinking Allowed - Cooperation

Creative Commons Image theregeneration under CC-BY-SA A sign outside a co-operative in the Bronx A weekly round-up of new thinking from the social sciences, presented by Laurie Taylor and co-produced by the BBC and The Open University.

This week, Richard Sennett from the London School of Economics discusses his new book Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation where he contends that cooperation is a craft, and the foundations for skillful cooperation lie in learning to listen well and discuss rather than debate.

Richard Sennett’s recently published Together considers the importance of cooperation for our social wellbeing and survival. He looks to evidence of change in social arrangements, from small population bands of humans, to villages, towns, city-states and nations, suggesting that the impetus to conflict is often resolved with eventual cooperation. His concern to address what he sees as a worrying tribalism in contemporary societies is tempered with evidence of collaboration and cooperation in our attempts to manage being ‘together’, despite our apparent differences.

Below, OU politics lecturer and staff tutor, Matt Staples provides an overview of Sennett’s critical work, providing insights to the thinking that has led Sennett to his current research for Together.

Thinking Allowed is on BBC Radio 4 at 4.00pm, Wednesday 1st February. For further broadcast details, and to listen again, visit bbc.co.uk.

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