Thinking Allowed explores the changing nature of home in a 3 part summer series recorded in the homes of our listeners. Who do we live with, how do our homes operate and what do they say about us and about the dramatic social transformations of the last century and the century to come? By invitation, in each edition a new type of home is invaded, analysed and explained by Laurie Taylor and a panel of two sociologists round the kitchen table.

Much political debate still revolves around the assumption that most of us live in conventional family homes. However research suggests that in 20 years time only 2 out of 5 people will be in marriages and married couples will be outnumbered by other types of household. Behind closed doors, Britain is changing: single living has increased by 30% in 10 years but at the same time financial pressures are fuelling a growth in extended families - people sharing bills, childcare and mucking-in in a way which makes private life far less private.

After invitations from a host of Thinking Allowed listeners, Laurie Taylor visits three different homes. In the last of the series he travels to a village near Preston in Lancashire to meet what is sometimes called a classic 'nuclear' family. He and his accompanying sociologists, Jacqui Gabb from the Open University and Professor Peter Bramham from Leeds Metropolitan University, attempt to divine the future for Britain's private life.

Producer: Jayne Egerton.

Thinking Allowed explores the changing nature of home in a 3 part summer series recorded in the homes of our listeners. Who do we live with, how do our homes operate and what do they say about us and about the dramatic social transformations of the last century and the century to come? By invitation, in each edition a new type of home is invaded, analysed and explained by Laurie Taylor and a panel of two sociologists round the kitchen table.

Much political debate still revolves around the assumption that most of us live in conventional family homes. However research suggests that in 20 years time only 2 out of 5 people will be in marriages and married couples will be outnumbered by other types of household. Behind closed doors, Britain is changing: Single living has increased by 30% in 10 years but at the same time financial pressures are fuelling a growth in extended families - people sharing bills, childcare and mucking-in in a way which makes private life far less private.

After invitations from a host of Thinking Allowed listeners, Laurie Taylor visits three. In this edition he travels to Cove in Argyll and Bute to meet someone who lives alone and works from home. He is accompanied by the sociologists Roona Simpson and Bren Neale in order to help divine the future for Britain's private life.

Thinking Allowed explores the changing nature of home in a 3 part summer series recorded in the homes of our listeners. Who do we live with, how do our homes operate and what do they say about us and about the dramatic social transformations of the last century and the century to come? By invitation, in each edition a new type of home is invaded, analysed and explained by Laurie Taylor and a panel of two sociologists round the kitchen table.

Much political debate still revolves around the assumption that most of us live in conventional family homes. However research suggests that in 20 years time only 2 out of 5 people will be in marriages and married couples will be outnumbered by other types of household. Behind closed doors, Britain is changing: Single living has increased by 30% in 10 years but at the same time financial pressures are fuelling a growth in extended families - people sharing bills, childcare and mucking-in in a way which makes private life far less private.

After generous invitations from Thinking Allowed listeners, Laurie Taylor visits three. In this edition he visits a big multi-generational family in Bristol accompanied by the sociologists Rachel Thomson and Esther Dermot. They attempt to divine the future for Britain's private life.

Producer: Charlie Taylor.

Are we right to blame the parents? Is there anything they could do? Laurie Taylor speaks to two researchers behind a massive investigation into the families of British gang members. Judith Aldridge and Jon Shute tell him what they discovered about the lives and experience of families with children in gangs and whether it is possible to intervene.

Producer: Charlie Taylor.

What role does the mobile phone have in showing off, hooking up and getting dumped? Laurie talks to Emma Bond about her new study into how young people use mobile phones in their intimate sexual relationships.

Laurie Taylor discusses the mummy's curse and other Oriental myths with Marina Warner and Roger Luckhurst. The Ancient Egyptians had no real concept of the curse; instead, Luckhurst argues, it was a product of the Victorian imagination, a result of British ambivalence about Egypt's increasing self-determination. The curse was part of a wider Western tradition of portraying the East as exotic and irrational, dominated by superstitions. That attitude is revealed in the British reaction to English language translations of The Arabian Nights, which played into Oriental stereotypes of barbarity, cruelty and unbridled sexuality. Marina Warner discusses the reasons why the stories of Aladdin et al are as popular as ever in modern, multi-cultural Britain.

Development of a country is conventionally measured by GDP, but that can mask a growing inequality in that nation and makes no reference to freedoms, rights or education. The philosopher Martha Nussbaum outlines her 'human capabilities' approach which she has developed with the Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen. She tells Laurie that her index can be applied around the world and across all cultures as an index which measures how populations are flourishing or flailing.

What is personal, what is confidential and what is private? These are all questions which are addressed in a new sociological study of the nature of privacy. Christena Nippert-Eng claims that 'privacy violations' are particularly damaging because they go to the heart of our rights to determine ourselves as individuals. Her work brings precision to an analysis of current reactions to the unwarranted intrusions of the press.

30 years ago riots broke out in Liverpool which lead to 160 arrests and 258 police officers needing hospital treatment. The four days of street battles, arson and looting lead to violent disturbances in many other British cities and have changed community relations and disorder policing in the country forever. On today's Thinking Allowed, Laurie Taylor explores a study of first hand accounts of those tumultuous days, from police officers, rioters and residents. Richard Phillips and Diane Frost recreate the times.

British comedy, from Music Hall to TV sitcom, was once a democratic medium. Humour united people otherwise divided by class and education. But new research finds that the Alternative Comedy Movement transformed comedy's place in our culture. It rejected the 'lowbrow' tone of earlier humour, creating the basis for comic taste to provide new forms of social distinction. The sociologist, Sam Friedman joins Laurie Taylor to debate comedy snobbery. Also, mobile communications have elided the distinction between work and home. The cultural studies lecturer, Melissa Gregg, and the Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, Rosalind Gill, ask if the lines between our personal and professional lives are increasingly blurred.