Future City: How Do We Stop Britain Becoming a Failed State?

Danny Dorling, Samira Shackle and Tom Clark expose a new geography of inequality rife in the UK today. Together, they will discuss how we can resolve inequality and build better cities for all.

Britain was once the leading economy in Europe; it is now the most unequal. Fifty years ago, the UK led the world in child health, whereas today 22 of the 27 EU countries have better mortality rates for newborns. No other European country has such high university fees and miserly unemployment benefits, or housing so unaffordable and once affluent suburbs now so unproductive. Opportunity has been replaced by food banks, and we now have a society in which people are growing further and further apart.

How do we get out of this mess and build better cities for all?

In his new book, Shattered Nation: Inequality and the Geography of A Failing State, leading geographer Danny Dorling exposes a new geography of inequality. Middle England has been hit hard by the cost-of-living crisis, and even people doing comparatively well are struggling to stay afloat. Before COVID, life expectancy had dropped because of poverty for the first time since the 1930s.

In the spirit of the 1942 Beveridge Report, Dorling identifies the five giants of twenty-first-century poverty that need to be conquered: Hunger, Precarity, Waste, Exploitation, and Fear. He offers powerful insights into how we got here and what we must do to save Britain from becoming a failed state.Dorling is in discussion with writer Samira Shackle and Tom Clark (Joseph Rowntree Foundation). Both are contributors to Broke: Fixing Britain’s Poverty Crisis, which brings together the personal stories behind the communities so often ignored by politicians, introducing us to those at the hardest end of the poverty crisis. Critically, they also come up with ideas for reform and transformation.

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Supported £5

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Accessibility

• Watershed’s main entrance and Box Office are both on the ground floor which is accessible via a ramped, electronically assisted entrance door.
• There are two Blue Badge parking spaces to the rear of Watershed on Canons Road.
• Guide dogs and hearing dogs are very welcome.
• The first floor of Watershed is accessible via lift from the main entrance and includes level access to all areas, including the cinemas and event spaces.
• The cinemas and event spaces have induction loops.
• There is an accessible toilet (with baby changing facilities) near Cinema 1. Follow the signs for the Cinemas and the accessible toilet is just on your left through the double doors before Cinema 1.
• There are gender neutral toilets in the cinema corridor on the first floor.

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Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Watershed, 1 Canon's Road, Bristol, United Kingdom