Danny Dorling

Danny Dorling (born 16 January 1968) is a British social geographer currently 1971 Professor of Geography attached to St Peter's College at the University of Oxford.

In September 2013 Dorling was appointed as the Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford. The name of the professorial chair changed in February 2025 to 1971 Professor of Geography.

Dorling is: a visiting professor in the Department of Sociology of Goldsmiths, University of London; a visiting professor in the School of Social and Community Medicine of the University of Bristol; a visiting fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research; a member of the National Advisory Panel for the polic
Centre for Labour and Social Studies (CLASS)
Thinktank; and, a patron of RoadPeace (since 2011).

Dorling became: a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS) and a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society (FRSS) in 1989; a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) in 2003; a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) in 2010; an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health (HonFFPH) in 2014; a senior associate member of the Royal Society of Medicine (SARSM) in 2015; and, an (honorary) Doctor of the University of York in 2019.

From 2007 to 2017 Dorling was the honorary president of the Society of Cartographers.

Early life and education

Born in Oxford, Dorling attended local state schools, including Cheney School, a coeducational comprehensive and was employed as a play-worker in children's summer play-schemes. Dorling graduated with a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Geography, Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Newcastle in 1989 and completed a PhD in th
''Visualization of Spatial Social Structure''
under the supervision of Stan Openshaw in 1991.

Academic career

From 1991 to 1993, Dorling was a Joseph Rowntree Foundation Fellow and from 1993 to 1996 he was British Academy Fellow at the University of Newcastle. From 1996 to 2000, he was on the faculty of the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol. From 2000 to 2003 he was Professor of Quantitative Human Geography at the University of Leeds. From 2003 to 2013 he was Professor of Human Geography and also in 2013 he was Professor for the Public Understanding of Social Science at the University of Sheffield.

In Dorling's inaugural lecture as Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography in September 2013 he spoke about the increasing disparity between Britain's richest 1% and the rest. He said: "Income inequality has now reached a new maximum and, for the first time in a century, even those just below the richest 1% are beginning to suffer, to see their disposable income drop."

He has mapped (mainly using cartograms), analysed and commented upon UK demographic statistics. In 2005 he co-founded the Internet-base
Worldmapper
project, which now has about 700 world maps and spreadsheets of international statistics. He has been on radio, television and in newspaper articles.

Views

Dorling was very supportive of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader during his leadership from September 2015 until April 2020. In May 2016, Dorling said: "Jeremy Corbyn can take on the zealots and bigots who use migration to stir up fear and hatred. His popular appeal is not based on stoking up current prejudices. It is based on conviction, love and compassion. Just how cynical do you have to be not to see the hope and possibility in that?" In May 2017 he appeared in a Labour Party political broadcast – "Labour Stands With You" – filmed by Ken Loach and published a week before the 2017 United Kingdom general election.

Reception

In February 2006, Dorling's work in human geography was described as "rummaging around" in numbers, crunching his way through reams of raw data, building up an extraordinary picture of poverty and wealth in contemporary Britain.

In April 2010, an editorial in ''The Guardian'' was entitled "In Praise of Danny Dorling".

Works

Source:

Atlases

* Dorling, D. (1995)
''A New Social Atlas of Britain''
London: John Wiley and Sons.
* Champion, T., Wong, C., Rooke, A., Dorling, D., Coombes, M. and Brunsdon, B. (1996)
''The Population of Britain in the 1990s: a social and economic atlas''
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Dorling, D. and Thomas, B. (2004)

Bristol
''Policy Press''

* Dorling, D. (2005)
''Human Geography of the UK''
2nd revised edition, cartography by Hennig, B. (2012
''The Population of the UK''
London
Sage

* Thomas, B. and Dorling, D. (2007)
''Identity in Britain: A cradle‐to‐grave atlas''
Bristol
Policy Press

* Dorling, D., Newman, M. and Barford, A. (2008, 2010)
''The Atlas of the Real World: Mapping the way we live''
London

Also translated into Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Korean.
* Shaw, M., Davey Smith, G., Thomas, B., and Dorling, D. (2008)
''The Grim Reaper’s road map: an atlas of mortality in Britain''
Bristol
Policy Press

* Dorling, D. and Thomas, B. (2011)
''Bankrupt Britain: An atlas of social change''
Bristol
Policy Press

* Ballas, D., Dorling, D. and Hennig, B. (2014)
''The social atlas of Europe''
Bristol
Policy Press

* Dorling, D. and Thomas, B. (2016)

Bristol
Policy Press


Ballas, D.
Dorling, D. an
Hennig, B.
(2017)
''The Human Atlas of Europe: A continent united in diversity''
Bristol
Policy Press

Books

* Dorling, D. (1996)
''Area cartograms: their use and creation''
Concepts and Techniques in Modern Geography series no. 59, University of East Anglia: Environmental Publications.
* Dorling, D. (1997)
''Death in Britain: How local mortality rates have changed: 1950s–1990s''
York
Joseph Rowntree Foundation

* Dorling, D. (2010)
''Injustice: Why social inequality persists''
Bristol
Policy Press
Extensively revised edition (2015).
* Dorling, D. (2011)
''So you think you know about Britain? The surprising truth about modern Britain''
London
Constable and Robinson

* Dorling, D. (2011)

Bristol
Policy Press

* Dorling, D. (2011)
''The No-Nonsense Guide to Equality''
Oxford
New Internationalist

* Dorling, D. (2012)

Chichester


* Dorling, D. (2013)
''Unequal Health: The scandal of our times''
Bristol
Policy Press

* Dorling, D. (2013)
''The 32 Stops: lives on London’s Central Line''
London


* Dorling, D. (2013)
''Population 10 Billion: The coming demographic crisis and how to survive it''
London
Constable and Robinson

* Dorling, D. (2014)
''All that is Solid: The great housing disaster''
London


* Dorling, D. (2014)
''Inequality and the 1%''
London
Verso

* Dorling, D. (2015)
''Injustice: Why social inequality still persists''
Bristol
Policy Press

* Dorling, D. (2016)
''A Better Politics : How government can make us happier''
London
London Publishing Partnership
''A Better Politics''
Free (low resolution) version
* Dorling, D. (2017)
''The Equality Effect: Improving life for everyone''
Oxford
New Internationalist

* Dorling, D. (2017)
''Do We Need Economic Equality''
Cambridge
Polity Press

* Dorling, D. (2018)
''Peak Inequality''
Bristol
Policy Press

* Dorling, D. (2020)
''Slowdown: The End of the Great Acceleration – and Why It's Good for the Planet, the Economy, and our Lives''
New Haven & London
Yale University Press

* Dorling, D. (2023).
''Shattered Nation: Inequality and the Geography of a Failing State''Verso Books

* Dorling, D. (2024)
''Seven Children: Inequality and Britain's Next Generation''Hurst Publishers

* Dorling, D. (2024)
''Peak Injustice: Solving Britain's Inequality Crisis''Policy Press

* Dorling, D. (2025) The next crisis: what we think about the future, https://dannydorling.org/books/thenextcrisis/
Verso].

Collaborations

* Dorling, D. and Atkins, D. (1995)
''Population density, change and concentration in Great Britain 1971,1981 and 1991''
London: HMSO/ Office of Population Censuses and Surveys.
* Atkins, D., Champion, T., Coombes, M., Dorling, D. and Woodward, R. (1996)
''Urban Trends In England: Latest Evidence from the 1991 Census''
London: HMSO/ Department of the Environment.
* Dorling, D. and Woodward, R. (1996)
''Social polarisation 1971–1991: a micro-geographical analysis of Britain''
Progress in Planning Volume 45, Issue 2. Oxford: Elsevier.
* Dorling, D. and Fairbairn, D. (1997)
''Mapping: Ways of Representing the World''
London: Longman.
* Bartley, M., Blane, D., Brunner, E., Dorling, D., Ferrie, J., Jarvis, M., Marmot, M., McCarthy, M., Shaw, M., Sheiham, A., Stansfeld, S., Wadsworth, M. and Wilkinson, R. (1998, 2003
''Social determinants of health: the solid facts''
Copenhagen: World Health Organization.
* Gordon, D., Davey Smith, G., Dorling, D. and Shaw, M. (1999
''Inequalities in Health: the evidence, edited collection of twenty chapters''
Bristol: Policy Press.
* Shaw, M., Dorling, D., Gordon, D. and Davey Smith, G. (1999, 2000)
''The Widening Gap: Health inequalities and policy in Britain''
Bristol
''Policy Press''

* Dorling, D. and Simpson, S. (1999, 2000)
''Statistics in Society: the arithmetic of politics''
edited collection of over forty chapters, London: Arnold.
* Mitchell, R., Dorling, D. and Shaw, M. (2000)
''Inequalities in Life and Death: What If Britain Were More Equal?''''Joseph Rowntree Foundation''
Bristol: Policy Press.
* Johnston, R., Pattie, C., Rossiter, D. and Dorling, D. (2001)
''From votes to seats: The operation of the UK electoral system since 1945''Manchester University Press

* Davey Smith, G., Dorling, D. and Shaw, M. (eds) (2001)
''Poverty, inequality and health: 1800–2000 – a reader.''
Bristol
Policy Press

* Shaw, M., Dorling, D. and Mitchell, R. (2002)
''Health, Place and Society''
Harlow
Pearson Education

* Ballas, D., Rossiter, D, Thomas, B, Clarke, G.P. and Dorling, D. (2004)
''Geography matters: simulating the local impacts of national social policies''''Joseph Rowntree Foundation''
York: York Publishing Services.
* Dorling, D., Ford, J., Holmans, A., Sharp, C., Thomas, B. and Wilcox, S. (2005)
''The great divide: an analysis of housing inequality''
London: Shelter.
* Wheeler, B., Shaw, M., Mitchell, R. and Dorling, D. (2005)
''Life in Britain: Using Millennial Census data to understand poverty, inequality and place''
Bristol
Policy Press

* Hillyard, P., Pantazis C., Tombs, S., Gordon, D., and Dorling, D. (2005)
''Criminal Obsessions: Why Harm Matters More Than Crime''
London


* Dorling, D., Rigby, J., Wheeler, B., Ballas, D., Thomas, B., Fahmy, E., Gordon, D., and Lupton, R. (2007)
''Poverty, wealth and place in Britain, 1968 to 2005''Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Bristol: Policy Press.
* Pickett, K., Melhuish, E., Dorling, D., Bambra, C., McKenzie, K., Chandola, T., Jenkins, A., Nazroo, J., Kendig, H., Phillipson, C., Maynard, A. (2014)
''″If you could do one thing...″ Nine local actions to reduce health inequalities''Speed Limits for Cars in Residential Areas, by Shops and Schools)''
London: British Academy.
* Dorling, D. an
Lee, C.
(2016)
''Geography: Ideas in Profile''
London


* Dorling, D. an
Gietel-Baston, S.
(2017)
''Why Demography Matters''
Cambridge
Polity Press

* Dorling, D. an
Tomlinson, S.
(2019
''Rule Brittania: Brexit and the end of Empire''
London
Biteback Publishing

* Dorling, D. and Koljonen, A. (2020). ''Finntopia: What We Can Learn from the World’s Happiest Country'', Newcastle & New York
Agenda publishing

Columbia University Press

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dorling, Danny
1968 births
Living people
English geographers
Halford Mackinder Professors of Geography
Academics of the University of Bristol
Fellows of St Peter's College, Oxford
Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences
Labour Party (UK) people
People educated at Cheney School