For the next three weeks, Thinking Allowed will be taking a rest from reporting the latest social science findings and will instead be concentrating upon the work of three theorists whose work regularly informs much of that research.

We will begin with Michel Foucault, the French philosopher and social scientist, whose work has had a profound effect upon our understanding of such diverse phenomena as sexuality, punishment and madness.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b038hg73

In the second week we will turn to the Marxist critic Walter Benjamin, and assess how his observations on consumerism, the mass reproduction of art, and the nature of urban life, have informed the area now known as Cultural Studies.

Finally, we will consider the work of Erving Goffman, the anthropologist who has provided us with such an extraordinarily subtle account of the rules and conventions which govern everyday social interaction.

Each of these programmes will feature extracts from the writings of the relevant theorists and contributions from leading social scientists whose own work has been informed by their distinctive insights.

I'm greatly looking forward to this brief excursion, this chance to step back and look at a rather wider picture than that which normally falls within the programme's gaze.

Normal service will be resumed on Wednesday September 11th.

Laurie

Broadcast: Wednesday 21 August 13 (4 pm BST) and Sunday 25 Aug 13 (rpt)