5-7pm
Richard Wilkinson, Professor at York University and co-author of ‘The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better’, discuss the “pernicious effects that inequality has on societies: eroding trust, increasing anxiety and illness, (and) encouraging excessive consumption”. Bigger income differences between rich and poor make societies dysfunctional, increasing violence, damaging mental and physical health, and leading to a deterioration in the quality of social relations. The book has sold more than 150,000 copies in English and is available in 23 foreign editions.
The Spirit Level has been incredibly important in stimulating debate over inequality in the UK, and provides a wealth of arguments and data for discussion of what inequality is and what it means today.
Part of the Centre for Global Media & Democracy’s ‘(In)Equality in Neo-Liberalising Times’ series.
