In party conference season, we look at what bonds party members and what it means to create a new network with its own shared beliefs and rituals. What light can the big thinkers from the worlds of anthropology and sociology shed? From political tribes to criminal gangs, from social media to social class - how do shared beliefs, rituals, rules and values bond us together - and pull us apart?

Anne McElvoy is joined by Kit Davis, emeritus professor of anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London; Lynsey Hanley writer and author of Estates and Respectable: The Experience of Class; Adele Walton, Journalist and author of Logging Off; Alistair Fraser, professor of criminology at Glasgow University; assistant editor of The Spectator and political journalist and Isabel Hardman; and, Rebecca Earle, Professor of History and Chair of the British Academy Book Prize

Shortlist for the British Academy Book Prize announced on October 22nd: The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years by Sunil Amrith The Baton and The Cross: Russia’s Church from Pagans to Putin by Lucy Ash The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World by William Dalrymple Africonomics: A History of Western Ignorance by Bronwen Everill Sick of It: The Global Fight for Women's Health by Sophie Harman Sound Tracks: Uncovering Our Musical Past by Graham Lawson

Producer: Ruth Watts

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Intro

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