Ignorance,Want,Idleness,Disease,& Squalor:

Some suggestionsfor mapping the modern equivalents of these old evils

Danny Dorlingwww.shef.ac.uk/sasi

Lunchtime Seminar University of Sheffield,

8th October 2008

Image Source:The Open

University’sK100_9 ‘unit’PresumablyIn turn from

Newspaper?

From ignorance to elitism?

Howdidwegetto

thisfrom1942

aspirations?

“The University of Nottingham is again confirmed in the intercontinental higher education elite, in global tables published this year.”

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 09:03:00 GMTStory CreditsFor more information contact the University of Nottingham Communications Office on +44 (0)115 951 5765, or email Jonathan Ray, Director, Communications jonathan.ray@nottingham.ac.uk

http://communications.nottingham.ac.uk/News/Article/Nottingham-ranked-in-2008-global-elite.html

From Ignorance to Elitism

• “…we know what works … push them right throughout … until the young children … get the chance to make the most of their God given potential (Tony Blair in 2005, Source: Ball, S. J., 2008, The Education Debate. Bristol, Policy Press, page 12, my emphasis)

• By 2006 Black pupils “were ‘five times less likely to be registered as ‘gifted and talented’” than white (Ibid, page 173, quoting in turn from the Independent on Sunday’s release of an unpublished Department for Education and Schools report in December 2006).

From want to exclusion?

Saturday, 15 December 2007:The intra-contradictions of capitalism, Part 147

“apparently the picture above is doing the rounds at London's Private Equity houses.” Souce: AngloNoelNatter (Sagittarious) (http://anglonoelnatter.blogspot.com/2007/12/intra-contradictions-of-capitalism-part.html

“There is a wide consensus that the difference in personality between individuals is 30 to 50 per cent determined by genes and 50 to 70 per cent determined by environment

and experience …” (Dixon, M. (2005). Brave new

choices? behavioural genetics and public policy a discussion document. London, Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR). (page 11, who offers 1 source for this prejudice).

From want to exclusion?

• There is a resurgence of the misguided fear of a genetically damaged underclass rising: “Parents whose children were known to have the genotype could be offered voluntary parenting classes”[1]. A year or so later and identical ideas coded in similar words are coming out of the mouth of the Prime Minister who said “…instead of waiting until the child goes off the rails, we should act early enough … This is not stigmatizing the child or the family. It may be the only way to save them and the wider community…”[2]

[1] IPPR, Ibid. (page 18).[2] Tony Blair speaking in 2006 reported in Ball, S. J. (2008). The Education Debate. Bristol, Policy Press. (page 154).

From idleness to prejudice?

"The British Beehive" by George Cruikshankhttp://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/politics/beehive.htm

“I have considered whether it would be helpful to have an “ultimate sanction” for jobseekers, in the form of a programme similar to the Australian “work for the dole”. The evidence suggests that the costs may outweigh its benefits as a labour market measure, and therefore I recommend that the Government continues to look at the experience in Australia but does not, for the moment, implement something similar.”

Freud, D. (2007). Reducing dependency, increasing opportunity: options for the future of welfare to work An independent report to the Department for Work and Pensions. London, DWP. page 91.

new slavery?

From idleness to prejudice?

Figure 4: “An asthma-pedigree with eleven generations. From The Icelandic family tree shown in Pálsson, G. (2002). "The Life of Family Trees and the Book of Icelanders." Medical Anthropology 21: 337-367.

On David Freud’s Ideas “in early 2008 “it looked as if his ideas were going to be adopted by the Tories rather than by Labour”*, but by July he was in ‘If all were alike opulent, who must be left to build and decorate our houses?’ 1774**

* Wintour, P. and P. Curtis (2008). 'McQualification' derided as Brown launches training reforms. The Guardian. London. 29 January., and by July 2008 almost all David’s proposals were accepted in the Government’s Green paper to prevent the Tories having them, it was cynically titled: DWP (2008). No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility. London, DWP

**Sourec Guyatt, N. (2007). Have a Nice Doomsday: Why millions of Americans are looking forward to the end of the world. London, Ebury

(Random House). (page 178).

One respondent on-line to the news summed up the implications of the Green paper:

“So what will happen? Well, the people who are faking it (and considering you get £60 a week and the stigma of being labelled disabled I think it will be considerably less than the tabloids may wish us to think) will just change their lies accordingly to pass the new assessment, whilst those genuinely ill will be bullied into unsuitable positions by private sector companies motivated by the bottom line”

(July 22 ‘08, at 01:18am, by ‘tangerinedream’)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree

/2008/jul/22/welfare.labour

From Disease to Despair?

From Disease to Despair?

defined daily doses (DDDs) per 1,000 population Source: NHS (2007). NHS Quality Improvement Scotland: clinical indicators 2007. Glasgow, NHS.

SSRI’s medication peaks at ages 25-44 (page 6). Rates now over 10% of population in Argyll and Clyde (Greater Glasgow area) (page 12). The target is to stay at this!

From Squalor to Waste?

[poster printed by the Industrial Workers of the World, dramatising economic inequality under capitalism and aiming to gain support for

Industrial unionism.” Reproduced under the Wikipedia definition of “economic inequality” “Copyright 1911 by the International Pub Co.

747 W 25th St. Cleveland Ohio USA”).]

‘Squalor’ transformed from a giant preventing the meeting of ‘the need for adequate housing’, to keeping up with the Jones: “Average debts in Britain have increased by 50% in real terms over the nine years 1997-2006[1], and “…the UK accounted for half the credit card borrowing in the EU-15”[2] in 2006 Source: Irvin, G. (2008). Super Rich: The rise of inequality in Britain and the United States. Cambridge, Polity. (page 170). [1] (page 171).[2] (page 189. my emphasis).

From Squalor to Waste?

Ehrenpreis, D. (2007). Poverty in Focus: the challange of inequality. Brasilia, International Poverty Centre. [Image source: Front page: Photomontage by Dr. Kurt Källblad, Malmö, Sweden, It includes parts of photos by George Bosela, Wellington, Ohio, USA; Bernhard Brück, Munich, Bavaria, Germany; David Davis, Union, Kentucky, USA; Projeto10 (Chico, Antonio, Tiago, Eduardo), Atibaia, São Paolo, Brazil; Kurt Källblad; Birgitta Lagerström, Brasilia, Brazil; and Xiskya Valladares, Madrid, Spain.]

The imaginary voyaging of the elite is akin to a search for a new Atlantis…

* Arundhati Roy quoted in Bauman, Z. (2006). Liquid Fear. Cambridge, Polity Press. (page 74).

Does Inequality underlie these five?

Source: Wilkinson, R. G. and K. E. Pickett (2007). "The problems of relative deprivation: Why some societies do better than others." Social Science and Medicine 65: 1965-1978.

Elitism

Exclusion

Prejudice

Despair

Waste

England’s Inequality ‘lottery’?

And the worldwide geographical ‘lottery’ ?.. Suppose ‘you are here’…

Where are you? Zoom out

Notice anything odd?

And now? What’s the projection?Take a pin and stick it in?

Finally, Maps of mortality are especially emotive. So simply

describe. Not only the poor suffer…ratios

Mortality ratios – transport causes

All transport200 – 399150 – 199140 – 149130 – 139120 – 129110 – 119100 – 109 91 – 99 83 – 90 77 – 82 71 – 76 67 – 70 50 – 66 25 – 49

With cars we are killers of the greatest numbers of children and adults from age 5 to 35. More deadly than any other cause.

And next?Trying to map some flows

If anyone

Can help

use with

Ideas over

flow mapping

(particularly

Global) – please

Email: danny.dorling@ Sheffield.ac.uk

This image is from an IEEE publication and used by the New Economics Foundation

Conclusion/ Acknowledgments

The British Academy for sponsoring the work on New Social Evils and The Leverhulme Trust for agreeing to extend that to an international study.

With Mark Newman and Anna Barford the ‘Real World Atlas’ being published in two weeks by Thames and Hudson, and with Mary Shaw, Bethan Thomas and George Davey Smith, ‘The Grim Reaper’s Roadmap’ being published in October 2008 by Policy Press.

On education map: Judith Watson (Brighton), and John Pritchard at the SASI group, in Geography at Sheffield:

www.shef.ac.uk/sasi