Thinking Allowed

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 entanglement with the sport. McGee reflects on how this shift has been normalised, particularly among younger supporters, and considers the broader social consequences of an increasingly immersive and continuous online gambling environment.Adam Dinsmore from Manchester Metropolitan University's Institute of Sport focuses not on football’s global reach but on its local meanings. Drawing on research with supporters in post-industrial towns such as Blackburn and Middlesbrough, he examines how football clubs continue to function as powerful symbols of place-identity. In communities shaped by de-industrialisation, where traditional forms of work and collective life have eroded, the local club often remains one of the last enduring institutions linking past and present. Producer: Natalia Fernandez Editor: Robyn Read

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 Prevention - a seven-year Wellcome Trust funded collaboration. This sets out to challenge the way suicide prevention is usually framed. Rather than focusing on moments of crisis, the project asks a different question: how can we create societies in which life feels more liveable and what insights can you gain from people who have experienced suicidal thoughts?Producer: Natalia Fernandez Editor: Robyn ReadIf you’re suffering distress or despair and need support, including urgent support, a list of organisations that can help is available at bbc.co.uk/actionline

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 Alpine achievements and reflective writing challenged prevailing assumptions about femininity and physical capability. In 'Dirtbag Dreams', Carl Morris (sociologist, historian and social psychologist from the University of Lancashire) explores the history of mountain, ultra and trail running in the US and Britain from its origins right up until today. He asks if the ever-increasing popularity of these sports risk making them overly commercial and corporate? A keen fell runner himself, Morris examines the distinctive values that shape these endurance communities, including ideas of authenticity, self‑sufficiency and the pursuit of physical extremity. Producer: Natalia Fernandez

What do we learn when a city’s future is defined not by rapid change, but by who leaves and who stays? Laurie Taylor looks at two neighbourhoods in different countries, during different periods in history and explores the human cost of gentrification - and what happens when the project fails.Sharon Cornelissen (sociologist and Director of Housing at the Consumer Federation of America) discusses her latest book, "The Last House on the Block - Black Homeowners, White Homesteaders, and Failed Gentrification in Detroit', her study of Detroit’s Brightmoor neighbourhood. After living as a homeowner in Brightmoor for several years, Cornelissen argues that American cities should look more closely at depopulation and disinvestment because she experienced firsthand what it is like to live somewhere with a very small population and a distinct lack of both public and private investment.In his new book, "Songs of Seven Dials - an Intimate History of 1920s and 1930s London", Matt Houlbrook (Professor of Cultural History at the University of Birmingham) writes about the history of the central London district in the interwar years through the story of a 1927 libel trial involving a Sierra Leonean café owner and a nationalist newspaper. Through this personal story, he reveals the tensions around race, class and “improvement” that shaped the area’s future. Seven Dials near Covent Garden emerges as a place where business interests collide with local residents and where money and influence win out over the rights of individuals — early examples of the pressures now associated with gentrification a century later.Producer: Natalia Fernandez

How does the environment we move through shape the way we see and experience the world? Laurie Taylor talks to Alex Prior (London South Bank University) about his research inside Westminster, where he walked alongside MPs and staff to uncover how the corridors of power feel different depending on who you are and what your job is. James Fletcher from the University of Bath worked on a project exploring what it’s like to navigate the bus and tram routes of central Manchester while living with dementia. He looked at how familiar streets and transport systems change when memory and mobility are shifting and the implications of this. What is the value of research conducted in this way and what are the downsides? Producer: Natalia Fernandez

DOGS – Laurie Taylor explores the making of the modern companion animal, from working animals to pampered pets. Chris Pearson, Professor of Environmental History at the University of Liverpool, charts the changing fortunes of hunting dogs, street dogs and show dogs, as they moved from the rural to the urban, shedding utilitarian roles to become cherished family members. Also, Mariam Motamedi Fraser, Honorary Research Fellow at University College, London, asks if dogs belong with humans and the natural bond is less natural than we assume. Producer: Jayne Egerton

Laurie Taylor talks to Louise Ryan, Professor of Sociology at the London Metropolitan University, about her oral history of the Irish nurses who were the backbone of the NHS for many years. By the 1960s approximately 30,000 Irish-born nurses were working across the NHS, constituting around 12% of all nursing staff. From the rigours of training to the fun of dancehalls, she explores their life experiences as nurses and also as Irish migrants, including those times when they encountered anti Irish racism. They’re joined by Bronwen Walter, Emerita Professor of Irish Diaspora Studies at Anglia Ruskin University, who discusses the way that Irish migration offers an unusual opportunity to explore wider questions about the experience of immigrants and how ethnic identities persist or change over time. Producer: Jayne Egerton

Laurie Taylor talks to Molly Conisbee, Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath, about her ‘people’s’ history of mortality, beyond queens and aristocrats. From the plague pits to grave-robberies and wakes, she explores how cycles of dying, death and disposal have shaped our society. What did it mean to die well in the past, what does it mean now? Also, Chao Fang, Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Liverpool, talks about his study of the meaning of a good death in China & how it differs from western notions which centre the dying person’s wishes rather than family harmony.Producer: Jayne Egerton

Laurie Taylor is joined by Jennifer Chudy, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College, Boston, who discusses her pioneering exploration of racial sympathy. She looks at the reasons why racial inequality in America prompts distress amongst some white people, but not others, and why that sympathy does not necessarily translate into solidarity and political action. Andrea Sangiovanni, Professor of Philosophy at King's College, London explores the nature of solidarity and how definitions have changed. Calls for solidarity are heard everywhere but what does it mean, in practice, and how is it distinct from altruism, justice and fellow-feeling? Producer: Jayne Egerton

Laurie Taylor talks to Ivan Markovic, Lecturer in Human Geography at Durham University, about the unique social atmosphere surrounding tobacco use in modern Britain, from its encouragement as part of the Home Front ‘mood management’ during the Second World War to the impact of smoking on 1980s workplace regulations and the UK ban on its use in public places in 2007. Does smoking still play a significant part in the British cultural imagination? Also, Tricia Starks, Professor of History at the University of Arkansas, discusses cigarettes and the Soviet smoking habit. How did the USSR become the first mass smoking society whilst simultaneously opposing this quintessential capitalist product?Producer: Jayne Egerton

Laurie Taylor talks to Vron Ware, Visiting Professor at the Gender Institute of the LSE, about the reality of living next to a huge army community in the UK. Talking to both sides of the divide, she explores the impact of the sprawling military presence on Salisbury Plain, an area of British countryside which is home to rare plants and wildlife. Is military occupation a positive asset in terms of conservation and ecology? Also, Sunaura Taylor, Assistant Professor in the Division of Society and Environment at UC Berkeley, describes environmental damage below the ground in Tucson Arizona and its ripple effects through the largely Mexican American community living above. Producer: Jayne Egerton

Laurie Taylor talks to Nina Edwards, the author of a new study which unravels the intimate narratives woven into the fabric of our most personal garments. Is there a profound and surprising significance to the garments we wear beneath our outer clothing? Also, Shaun Cole, Associate Professor in Fashion at the University of Southampton, considers the enduring question aimed at men over the choice of boxers or briefs and explores the future direction of men’s undergarments.Producer: Jayne Egerton

When, where, and who gets to touch and be touched, and who decides? How does touch bring us closer together or push us apart? These are urgent contemporary questions, but they have their origins in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Britain. Laurie Taylor talks to Simeon Koole, Senior Lecturer in Liberal Arts and History at the University of Bristol about his new study of the way in which the crowded city compelled new discussions about touch, as people crammed into subway cars, skirted criminals in London's dense fogs and visited tea shops, all the while negotiating the boundaries of personal space. How did these historical encounters shape and transform our understanding of physical contact into the present day? Also, digital touch. Carey Jewitt Professor of Technology at the Institute of Education, London, explores the way technology is transforming our experience of touch. Touch matters. It is fundamental to how we know ourselves and each other, and it is central to how we communicate. So how will the the digital touch embedded in many technologies, from wearable devices and gaming hardware to tactile robots and future technologies, change our sense of connection with each other. What would it be like if we could hug or touch digitally across distance? How might we establish trust or protect our privacy and safety? How might radically different forms of touch impact our relationships and the future?Producer: Jayne Egerton