Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

Radio 4,30 Apr 2008,30 mins

Passengering - Superclass

Thinking Allowed

Available for over a year

PASSENGERING Dr Eric Laurier is a research fellow in the Department of Geography at the University of Edinburgh; together with his colleagues he recently made a study of the distinctive ways in which people behave in cars. He reveals his findings about the conversational conventions and rituals of car passengers. SUPERCLASS The global superclass is made up of 6,000-7,000 people whose influence is so great that it dwarfs the power of nation states. Laurie Taylor is joined by David Rothkopf the author of a new book called Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making and Saskia Sassen Centennial Professor in the Department of Sociology at the LSE to discuss who the members of this superclass are, how they affect our lives, and whether or not we should be doing anything to regulate their incredible power.

Programme Website
More episodes