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Description
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Transcript of the plenary by Danny Dorling at the BSA Annual Conference 2016.
Demographically, Britain has changed more in the last 15 years than the previous 50. Economically, the crash of 2008 has changed our society in ways we are still only just coming to recognize. Socially, the gaps between the haves, maybe-haves and have-nots are wide and continue to grow. Politically, the country is more polarized than it has been since the aftermath of any election in the last 120 years. Geographically, the north-south divide continues to deepen as the country splits between a London commuter-belt, and the Northern and Western archipelago of declining cities told to compete with each other, each pretending that they are doing well. This talk will combine maps of changes revealed by the last two censuses and more recent statistics, with new ideas that are emerging for a kinder, more tolerance, more understanding and less divisive politics. A change has happened and we have a choice: between becoming even more unequal, mistrustful and suspicious of each other, or now starting to turn a tide that has only flown one way for over 40 years.
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