OU News

News from The Open University

  1. Home
  2. An OU/BBC Radio series examines how the UK’s major issues could be rethought

An OU/BBC Radio series examines how the UK’s major issues could be rethought

Posted on Arts and social sciences, Society and politics, TV and radio

A new Open University/BBC radio series called Rethink examines the emerging issues in society, economics, technology and politics in relation to the UK’s standing in the world.

Simon Usherwood, Professor of Politics and International Studies at the OU, is a consultant to the programme makers who show how we might approach those issues differently.

The weekly programme, which first airs on Thursday 16 January on BBC Radio 4 at 4pm, looks at the latest thinking and research and discusses new ideas that might make the world a better place. You can also hear the broadcast on BBC Sounds.

The first episode analyses the results of the last General Election where we saw three out of every seven Brits vote for either Reform UK, Liberal Democrats, Green Party or one of Britain’s many regional or nationalist parties.

It also showed that our traditional parties of right and left, Labour and the Conservatives, collectively amassed their lowest vote share ever – well under 60%.

Does this result suggest that British politics is now too complicated to be understood by the labels ‘left’ and ‘right’?

Professor Usherwood said:

“For me, the really interesting aspect of the series is the way it tries to approach familiar topics in new ways.

“That’s good not only for the matter in hand, but also for more general critical engagement with the world around us. It’s very easy to sit there and feel a bit helpless in the face of big challenges or complex situations, but there’s always scope to move things on.

“That can really help in building our confidence in not just facing the world but also shaping it. In that sense, it connects really well with what we do at the OU: giving people the tools to lead richer, more engaged lives in their communities.”

Other topics included in the series feature discussions about museums, political labels, technology and AI, social housing, crime prevention, medical data and the global economy.

Supporting Online content:

Visit the Broadcast and Partnerships site OU Connect where you can find out more on how the ideas discussed in the series make people re-think the future, particularly around technology, identity, and ownership.

This film was commissioned by Broadcast and Partnerships and is supported by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, with particular relevance to BA (Hons) Social Sciences, BA (Hons) Politics, Philosophy and Economics and Introducing the Social Sciences.

  • Commissioned by Dr Caroline Ogilvie, Director, Broadcast and Partnerships
  • Academic Consultant: Professor Simon Usherwood
  • Media Fellow: Professor Zoe Walkington
  • Broadcast Project Manager: Jo Shipp
  • Supporting online content Matt Ray