Original version

BBC World Service Online

The Forum

Documentaries

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

The programme that explains the present by exploring the past

The programme that explains the present by exploring the past.

The Forum: Uniformity

Discussion & Talk

Fiat cars: Photo (c) Keystone/ Getty Images

01/11/2014 GMT

Uniformity

BBC World Service - The Forum, Uniformity

When is regularity good and when does it become boring, or even oppressive?

Why for some, the idea of uniformity is an aspiration, for others an oppression.  With Kirill Gerstein, George Ritzer, and Alison Brooks.

Everything from transport to building regulations to medical science needs to be underpinned by the idea of uniformity to ensure safe and consistent production and delivery. But can too much uniformity, or misapplied uniformity, be bad for us? And if so, in what way?  Tim Marlow discusses uniformity with the multi-faceted concert pianist and thinker Kirill Gerstein, distinguished sociologist George Ritzer, and award-wining architect Alison Brooks.

Photo: Keystone / Getty Images

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Forum

Uniformity

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service