Whitehall Group lunch with Prof. Danny Dorling, Professor of Human Geography, University of Oxford

The Whitehall Group are delighted to be welcoming Prof. Danny Dorling, Professor of Human Geography from the  University of Oxford as guest speaker during lunch on Friday, 19th January, 2024.  During lunch Professor Dorling will discuss “The argument within the Labour party concerning housing policy – An update of All That is Solid:  How the Great Housing Disaster Defines our Times, and What We Can Do about it”.

Professor Danny Dorling FRSA FRGS FRSS FAcSS joined the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford in September 2013 to take up the Halford Mackinder Professorship in Geography. He was previously a professor of Geography at the University of Sheffield. He has also worked in Newcastle, Bristol, Leeds and New Zealand, went to university in Newcastle upon Tyne, and to school in Oxford.

Much of Danny’s work is available open access (see www.dannydorling.org). With a group of colleagues he helped create the website www.worldmapper.org which shows who has most and least in the world. His work concerns issues of housing, health, employment, education, wealth and poverty. His recent books include, co-authored texts: The Atlas of the Real World: Mapping the way we live; Bankrupt Britain: An atlas of social change; Rule Britannia: Brexit and the end of empire; and Finntopia: what we can learn from the world’s happiest country.

Sole authored books include, So you think you know about Britain and Fair Play, both in 2011; in 2012 The No-nonsense Guide to Equality, The Visualization of Social Spatial Structure and The Population of the UK; Unequal Health, The 32 Stops and Population Ten Billion in 2013; All That is Solid in 2014; and Injustice: Why social inequalities persist revised in 2015. In 2016 with Bethan Thomas he authored People and Places: A 21st century atlas of the UK, A Better Politics: How government can make us happier and with Carl Lee: Geography: ideas in profile. In 2017 with Dimitris Ballas and Ben Hennig he produced The Human Atlas of Europe and also wrote the sole authored book The Equality Effect: Improving life for everyone. In 2018 he edited Peak Inequality: Britain’s ticking time bomb. In 2020 he published Slowdown: the end of the great acceleration – and why it’s good for the planet, the economy, and our lives. Due out in 2023 is his latest book: Shattered Nation: Inequality and the Geography of a Failing State.

Before a career in academia Danny was employed as a play-worker in children’s play-schemes and in pre-school education where the underlying rationale was that playing is learning for living. He tries not to forget this. He is an Academician of the Academy of the Learned Societies in the Social Sciences, a former Honorary President of the Society of Cartographers and a current patron of Roadpeace, the national charity for road crash victims.

To find out more about the Whitehall Group events or if you are interested in membership to the Whitehall Group please contact the Group Secretary, Fiona Jones by emailing fionajones.wg@culandsoc.com

The Whitehall Group is a high level policy discussion and thought leadership group whose members are mainly Cambridge alumni or those connected with the University of Cambridge.  The Whitehall Group, a forum of the Cambridge University Land Society (CULS) hosts a series of lunches and dinners for approximately 15 – 20 attendees under the Chatham House Rules. The forum allows members and their guests to meet and discuss matters that are outside of their regular business / professional lives. We count amongst our members and supporters current and former Ministers, Diplomats and senior business executives.  Past speakers have included Ambassadors, Ministers, Commissioners and leading academics and journalists.  Speakers are invited to talk to the group on a current subject of political or economic interest.