´óÏó´«Ã½

MEET THE GUESTS

American sociologist William Julius Wilson looks at why many poor African Americans still seem to be trapped in inner city ghettoes and shows how the interplay between social structures and cultural traits can perpetuate urban poverty. He also describes how aspirational programmes like New York's Harlem Children's Zone (which combines education and social services for young people) can help to break the cycle.

British philosopher Roger Scruton asks, what is beauty? He says we are continuously searching for a shared standard by which to measure beauty in arts and culture and he believes our conclusions about what makes something beautiful are founded in human rationality.

German artist and film-maker Clemens von Wedemeyer examines in his work how a camera lens can subtly distort the way we see the world, blurring the boundaries between reality and make believe and reflecting the way our pervasive cinematic culture has begun to make us see life as if through a movie camera, rather than through our own eyes.