Among rich countries Britain has one of the most unequal distributions of wealth and income in the world. After a massive increase in inequality in the 80’s the gap is still widening. Many studies have shown that inequality, not just poverty, has adverse effects across the whole of society. To quote the sub-title of the recent book The Spirit Level “more equal societies almost always do better”.

Prof. Dorling’s talk presents the argument that in rich countries injustice as represented by social inequalities is caused less and less by having too few resources to share around fairly, but is increasingly maintained by widespread adherence to beliefs which actually propagate it.

Danny Dorling is Professor of Geography at the University of Sheffield. He is a member of the advisory group for the Equality Trust (  http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/ ). The Equality Trust campaigns “to gain the widest public and political understanding of the harm caused by inequality”. He has recently been on the team that produced a report about inequalities in Sheffield called "A Tale of Two Cities" (  http://sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/research/sheffield/a_tale_of_2_cities_sheffield_project_final_report.pdf ).

The University Arms is close to the tram, get off at the Sheffield University stop, and several buses stop nearby including 51 & 52, stopping almost next to the pub, with 94 & 95 a short walk away. Parking is available in the streets behind the pub.

You can see a map of the location with this link:  http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=university+arms+sheffield

The following meeting in March will be "Is 'Clean Coal' an act of faith." We will have two speakers with different points of view about this and want to explore and discuss this complex subject.