Night Waves - 13/02/2008

Philip Dodd meets Sudhir Venkatesh, an American sociology professor who took the extraordinary step of joining a gang on Chicago's South Side in order to study urban poverty. He talks about the complicated and dangerous relationship between himself and his subjects. Architect Jan Kaplicky, from avant-garde design practice Future Systems – responsible for the Media Centre at Lords Crickets Ground – discusses his controversial plan to build a huge multicoloured blob-like Library in Prague. As London Fashion week gets underway, Philip discusses 18th century dress with fashion historians John Styles and Caroline Cox, asking what influence the age of flamboyant wigs shiny buckles has on street style today? And Susannah Clapp reviews the new wordless play by Austrian writer Peter Handke.