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Society, Politics & Law
The dot.com bubble
Sir Isaac Newton observed that he could track the movement of the stars but not the madness of men. This fast paced album looks at the history and causes of economic bubbles and focuses on the highs and lows of the dot.com boom of the early 2000s. How do we spot a bubble emerging? Why do we buy into it? And what are the consequences when a ...
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Society, Politics & Law
The pensions timebomb
Over the last three decades major events, scandals and regulations have shocked the pension system. Have the public lost faith in occupational and private pensions? Should the state pension be enough to see us through our old age? And with the non-working to working ratio continuing to rapidly increase, who will pay? We hear from those that ...
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Society, Politics & Law
Global response to the financial crisis
What caused the financial crisis of 2007-9 and the recession that followed? How did governments and the international banking system respond? Senior Lecturer William Brown is joined by three course team members to address the key issues that emerged as a result of the financial crisis and what it reveals about shifts in the international system....
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Society, Politics & Law
Belfast - healthy city
In the late nineteen eighties, Belfast became part of the World Health Organisation's Healthy Cities Project. The aim was to get as many institutions as possible to make health central to their planning and to give the diverse communities of Belfast a real say in their future. What were the challenges they faced? What solutions did they evolve? ...
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Society, Politics & Law
Globalisation and health
What is the future for global health policy? How are the old paradigms being replaced by new ones? What are the key issues in the new globalised world? Ilona Kickbusch reviews the rapidly changing world of global health. In the past there were relatively few organisations involved and there was a hard dividing line between the public and private...
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Society, Politics & Law
Buddhist Economics
In the world of economics, does a person’s well-being really matter? What is more important, social objectives or profit maximisation – or are they even compatible? During a trip to Burma in 1955, Ernest Schumacher pioneered the concept of Buddhist Economics, a set of principles based on the belief that the function of business is to supply ...
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Nature & Environment
Earth in crisis: environmental policy in an international context
This innovative album introduces one of the biggest, and most complex, of today’s environmental problems – climate change. It features the hard-hitting, "Who Will Pay", selected as a finalist in an international film competition on "Vulnerability Exposed: The Social Dimensions of Climate Change" organised by the World Bank. This 'Earth in ...
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Society, Politics & Law
Understanding Identity
Who are we? What shapes us into the people we are? Over the last 50 years advances in society and technology has meant that we can be whoever we want to be. Infertile couples have the chance of conceiving a child; a man can become a woman; if an organ fails, you can get a new one. But is it all for the greater good? There are people in today's ...
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Society, Politics & Law
Understanding Social Change
Change, diversity and uncertainty are unavoidable features of modern life. Collectively, we may be living through a major transformation in society and the traditions that hold it together. Individually, we may face increasing barriers to taking responsibility for our own destinies, exercising power and making our own decisions. The tracks on ...
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Society, Politics & Law
Living in a globalised world
What are borders for? Who controls them, and why might people risk their lives to cross them? This album examines the border between Mexico and the United States as a symbolic place which both connects and divides people, highlighting complex issues about cultural belonging and national identity. Many disturbing aspects of border control are ...
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Society, Politics & Law
Making Social Worlds
How does society create and control our social world? How do passports and passbooks function as agents of government control? And what are the purposes of citizenship tests and ceremonies? This album provides insight into how large communities are organised to regulate their social behaviour. People who lived under Apartheid in South Africa ...
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Society, Politics & Law
The abolition of capital punishment
Is the death penalty right or wrong? Does it act as a deterrent to serious crime? And is it necessarily an inhumane act? December 16th 2009 sees the 40th anniversary of the abolition in the UK of capital punishment for the crime of murder. In this specially recorded discussion, Professor Gary Slapper, Director of the Centre for Law at The Open ...