interview

This episode of Radio 4's Woman's Hour series looks at the widening wealth gap under the Labour Government. More than half of families with disabled children live on the margins of poverty; just 16 percent of mothers with disabled children work, compared with 61 percent of other mothers; and childminders and nurseries geared to providing facilities for disabled children are scarce. With the Government setting targets to tackle child poverty,

In a series of three documentaries for Radio 4, Jenny Cuffe reports from the frontline of social work, witnessing some of the dramatic and intractable human problems social workers are called on to deal with, as well as the moments of success and black comedy.

The first episode looks at the new staff recruited to work in the London Borough of Haringey where Victoria Climbie was murdered.

The second programme discusses some to of the mental health issues social workers face.

This episode of Radio 4's Thinking Allowed series includes a segment on the stereotypes surrounding how men talk and what they talk about. If the stereotypes are to be believed, men either don’t talk very much, or talk compulsively and competitively about sport, cars and their latest drinking exploits.

This episode of Radio 4's Woman's Hour series looks at living with an abusive mother. In 2001, Dave Pelzer wrote about the horrific abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother during his childhood, and how she encouraged his brothers to treat him as 'the family slave'. One brother in particular stood out. Now, that brother has written his own version of events.

Jenni Murray talks to Richard Pelzer about his role as his mother's main collaborator and how, when Dave was taken away, he fell from favour and found himself on the receiving end of the abuse.

This episode of Radio 4's Thinking Allowed series includes a segment on gay, lesbian and bisexual muslims in view of the fact that non-heterosexuality is strictly censored in Islamic religious texts. This year the Sociological Review published an article by Andrew Yip called 'Negotiating Space with Family and Kin in Identity Construction: the Narratives of Non-heterosexual Muslims'.

This episode of Radio 4's Thinking Allowed series consists of a segment on the management of risk in everyday life. As almost every decision a person makes involves weighing up of the odds of success or failure and risk, risk management has become a popular area of sociological debate.

Host Laurie Taylor speaks with delegates at the British Sociology Association's conference in York to find out what aspects of risk they've been discussing. Dr. Iain Wilkinson, Professor Jane Lewis and David Denney join the discussion.

This episode of Radio 4's Woman's Hour series looks at whether domestic violence is a gender issue. The most recent British Crime Survey shows that one in four women and one in six men have suffered domestic violence at some point in their lives. As part of Domestic Violence Awareness Week, Woman's Hour looks at the statistics and asks how helpful it is to think about domestic violence as either a male or female problem.

This episode of Radio 4's Woman's Hour series asks if single parents should have to seek work to get benefits. As the Government launches further pilot projects to encourage lone parents to return to work, Woman's Hour asks whether incentives or sanctions are more effective in getting parents back into the labour market.

David Willets, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary and Kate Stanley, Head of Social Policy at the Institute for Public Policy Research discuss whether lone parents with secondary school aged children should have to seek work in order to claim benefits.

In this episode of Radio 4's Thinking Allowed series, following the interview with Sociologist James Stockinger in September 2004, Professor Peter Nolan talks to Laurie Taylor on the uniqueness of the British the public sector ethos and finds out why its employees, despite being the most motivated, are the most demoralised sector of the workforce. This segment is second of three discussions in the audio clip.

This episode of Radio 4's Woman's Hour series looks at the 100,000 children under 16 living in the UK who run away from home. We hear from a woman whose twelve year old daughter persistently ran away and was frequently returned to the family home by the police. Jill Colbert from the Safe in the City project in Salford - who works with young runaways - and John Wheeler from Childline will be joining Jenni Murray to discuss the difficulties that parents of runaways can face in accessing help.