Thinking Allowed Folgen

Hood: a cultural history of a seemingly neutral garment which has long been associated with violence, from the Executioner to the KKK and inner city gangs. Laurie Taylor talks to the America writer, Alison Kinney, about the material and symbolic meaning of hoods. Also, the blacklisting of employees. Dr Paul Lashmar, Senior Lecturer in Journalism at the University of Sussex, examines a hidden history of discrimination. He's joined by Jack Fawbert, Associate Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University, who provides the most contemporary and widespread instance of blacklisting in the UK - an extraordinary corporate crime which led to over 150 current or retired building workers reaching a substantial out of court settlement with the country's eight largest building employers earlier this year. All had been blacklisted for their trade union activities and alleged political views. How did this happen? Producer: Jayne Egerton.

The House of Commons - an anthropologist's guide to the political 'tribe'. Emma Crewe, Professorial Research Associate at SOAS, spent two years doing interviews in the Palace of Westminster and MPs constituencies. She talks to Laurie Taylor about her study, which provides a fascinating glimpse into the hidden mechanisms of parliamentary democracy. She's joined by Lord Daniel Finkelstein, political commentator and associate editor at The Times.Also, Anne Phillips, Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science, asks if inequality impacts on rates of voting in general elections. Producer: Jayne Egerton.

The Corruption of Capitalism & the rise of the rentiers. Laurie Taylor talks to Guy Standing, Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, who claims we're living through a Second Gilded Age, one which mirrors the vast inequality and concentration of wealth in the hands of the few which characterised late 19th century America. The difference now is that it's global and its beneficiaries are mainly the owners of property. So is capitalism now rigged in favour of a rentier class? They're joined by David Smith, the Economics Editor of The Times.Also, Protest camps: Anna Feigenbaum, Senior Lecturer in Digital Storytelling at Bournemouth University, charts the transnational history of tents pitched for political change.