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FutureProofing

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Series examining the big ideas that are set to transform the way society functions

Series examining the implications - social and cultural, economic and political - of the big ideas that are set to transform the way society functions

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FutureProofing: Identity

Identity

19/08/2015

BBC Radio 4 - FutureProofing, Identity

How will people answer the question 'Who am I?' in the future?

Timandra Harkness and Leo Johnson explore how people will answer the question 'Who am I?' in the future.

FutureProofing is a series in which presenters Timandra Harkness and Leo Johnson examine the implications - social and cultural, economic and political - of the big ideas that are set to transform the way our society functions. 

Episode 2: Identity

Timandra and Leo explore how we will answer the question 'Who am I?' in future. New thinking points towards identity becoming increasingly a matter of choice rather than a fixed set of personal characteristics and social experiences. Instead of the geographical accidents which determine our places of birth and the environments in which we spend our formative years, future identities appear set to become more fluid, shaped by individual preference and an increasing range of options available to us - and not just culturally, but also regarding qualities such as our ethnicity and gender. 

How might people express a more nuanced form of gender and sexuality in future? If you are born with one ethnicity, could you choose to identify as another? And if we are to shift identity often, could that remove the stigma traditionally attached to all those who present themselves as very different people at different stages of their lives? 

Producer: Jonathan Brunert.

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