Don't panic about the birth of Baby 8 Billion. Before he's 65 our numbers will be in reverse We should not be alarmed at the rise in global population; it's inequality, greed and waste that are the real problems of our age, writes Professor Danny Dorling, Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography and author of Population 10 Billion in an opinion piece for The Guardian. 06/10/22 6 October 2022 - 
read more + Austerity led to twice as many excess UK deaths as previously thought - here's what that means for future cuts Cuts to public services and living standards across Britain from 2010 contributed to 335,000 excess deaths - twice as many as previously thought, according to new research. These austerity measures were introduced by the coalition government elected into office that year, partly in response to the banking crash of 2008. Prof Danny Dorling explores the consequences for future cuts in an article for The Conversation. 06/10/22 6 October 2022 - 
read more + 20th anniversary of the Dana Declaration on Mobile Peoples and Conservation The 20th anniversary of the Dana Declaration on Mobile Peoples and Conservation was marked in Wadi Dana, Jordan, from 7-10th September 2022 with the event titled Dana+20: Mobile Indigenous Peoples, Conservation, Sustainable Development and Climate Change Two Decades after the Dana Declaration. Working with the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN, Jordan), representatives of the World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous Peoples (WAMIP), concerned practitioners and academics, and representatives of Mobile Peoples from around the world - including Mongolia, Malaysia, India, Iran, Jordan, Sweden, Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, and Peru - came together to discuss shared concerns. 17/12/21 17 December 2021 - 
read more + Christmas socialising: three health experts explain how to interpret new advice Prof Danny Dorling is one of three health experts asked for their thoughts by The Conversation on how to cut down on socialising to slow the spread of Covid-19 in line with the guidance from Chris Whitty the chief medical officer for England. 02/12/21 2 December 2021 - 
read more + When will life return to normal after the pandemic? No one can ever know for sure when life will return to normal after a particular event, not least because what's normal keeps on changing, even in normal times. Nevertheless, it's a question we can't help pondering - particularly when new COVID developments, such as the emergence of the omicron variant, keep on shifting the pandemic's goalposts - Prof Danny Dorling writes in The Conversation. 30/09/21 30 September 2021 - 
read more + Professors Patricia Daley, Tim Schwanen and Dariusz Wójcik awarded Academy of Social Sciences Fellowships Patricia Daley, Professor of the Human Geography of Africa, Tim Schwanen, Professor of Transport Geography and Director of the Transport Studies Unit (TSU), and Dariusz Wójcik, Professor of Economic Geography, have been awarded prestigious fellowships by the Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS), which recognise excellence and impact in the social sciences. 12/04/21 12 April 2021 - 
read more + Amplifying Indigenous and local community voices to Decolonise Conservation On 5th March, the School of Geography and the Environment became an international hub for decolonizing conservation, by hosting the panel 'The Future of Conservation: COP26 and Beyond'. Born out of #DecoloniseConservation, an engagement campaign from XR Youth Solidarity, the panel was a call to action to begin building solidarity ties between Indigenous and local community leaders and academics, in order to bring a united front to COP26 and seek protections for the rights of over 1.65 billion Indigenous peoples, local communities and Afro-descendants in high biodiversity areas. 18/03/21 18 March 2021 - 
read more + Census 2021 will reveal how a year of lockdowns and furlough has transformed the UK Danny Dorling discusses the pros and cons of the 2021 census, commenting how it will provide a clearer picture of the inequalities that have come to light since the beginning of the pandemic in his latest piece for The Conversation. 14/03/21 14 March 2021 - 
read more + If Boris Johnson is serious about levelling up, he would plan for a 2026 census now Professor Danny Dorling shares concern that this month's census would not give an accurate picture of Britain due to lockdown measures, stating that an extra census in 2026 would show whether the government's aim of "levelling up" poorer areas was working. Read in full via The Guardian. 08/12/20 08 December 2020 - 
read more + Working towards anti-racist school geography in Britain Amber Murrey argues why the British geography school curriculum must include the uncomfortable geographies of British colonialism and inequality in order to foster anti-racist and environmentally just futures. 02/12/20 2 December 2020 - 
read more + Why is COVID-19 more severe in the north of England? The story in four graphs Prof Danny Dorling and Prof George Davey Smith (Bristol) explore the geographical differences in infections and deaths from COVID-19 in an article in The Conversation. 27/11/20 27 November 2020 - 
read more + Brexit And Beyond with Professor Danny Dorling Danny Dorling talks to 'UK In a Changing Europe' Director Anand Menon about the wealth and inequality gap in this country, how academics should communicate their findings to the wider world and the importance of using experts in a pandemic in this new Brexit and Beyond podcast. 25/11/20 25 November 2020 - 
read more + Berlin's rent cap offers a new way of thinking about Britain's housing crisis Alex Vasudevan explains why the UK must explore alternative policies to tackle its intensifying housing crisis in his newly authored opinion piece for The Guardian. 20/10/20 20 October 2020 - 
read more + New funding to improve water security for 10 million people in Africa and Asia by 2024 New funding from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office will support global research and practice to improve water security for 10 million people in Africa and Asia, through Oxford University's REACH programme led by SoGE and the Smith School. 06/10/20 06 October 2020 - 
read more + Coronavirus: Is the cure worse than the disease? The most divisive question of 2020 Danny Dorling considers experts' current and changing beliefs of how best to manage the pandemic and where the balance of advantages and disadvantages lies in his latest article for The Conversation. 01/10/20 01 October 2020 - 
read more + Why are coronavirus rates rising in some areas of England and not others? Danny Dorling co-authors a new article explaining why more coronavirus tests will not see an equal rise of positive cases across the country. Read in full via The Conversation. 28/09/20 28 Sep 2020 - 
read more + Finntopia: what we can learn from the world's happiest country? In the quest for the best of all societies, Professor Danny Dorling provides insights on his latest book, exploring what can be learnt from Europe's most equitable country and what's made it the world's happiest country for three years running. 10/09/20 10 September 2020 - 
read more + Coronavirus: why aren't death rates rising with case numbers? Danny Dorling uses government data from England and Wales to explain why coronavirus death rates remain low despite cases rising for two months in his latest article for The Conversation. 17/04/20 17 April 2020 - 
read more + How neoliberalism shapes urban nature: new book out! In her book Les Natures de la Ville Néolibérale (The Natures of the Neoliberal City) (UGA Editions, 2019), SoGE Departmental Lecturer Marion Ernwein examines the ways in which neoliberal urbanism shapes these evolutions, their promises and their potential. 25/09/19 25 Sep 2019 - 
read more + English people living in Wales tilted it towards Brexit, research finds At the British Science Association's annual meeting Professor Danny Dorling presented new research which suggested Wales' 52% leave vote could in part be attributed to the influence of English voters. Border towns and areas with large English communities correlated with a higher proportion of leave votes, he observed. 04/09/19 4 September 2019 - 
read more + RGS-IBG celebrates Professor Linda McDowell's work A special event 'Celebrating the contributions of Linda McDowell' was jointly organised by the Economic Geography Study Group and the Gender and Feminist Geographies Study Group, as part of the RGS-IBG 2019 Conference on Thursday 29 August. 06/08/19 6 August 2019 - 
read more + Why we need more babies "The main reason we have continued global population growth today is not because of childbirth, but because we are all now living so much longer." Professor Danny Dorling responds to Prince Harry's comments on limiting how many children he has, citing new data from the Office for National Statistics, which show that birth rates in Britain hit a historic low in 2018, down nearly 10 per cent on 2012. 18/07/19 18 July 2019 - 
read more + The Sharing Economy and Blurring in Public-Private Relationships Geoff Dudley, David Banister and Tim Schwanen observe some unforeseen consequences of the sharing economy on transport habits and governance, such as the recent decline in bus use in London, the growth of public-private data exchange and a shifting power balance. 24/06/19 24 June 2019 - 
read more + Why is life expectancy faltering? For the first time in 100 years, Britons are dying earlier. The UK now has the worst health trends in western Europe - and doctors and experts believe that the impact of austerity is a major factor. Professor Danny Dorling comments in a Guardian article on the decline in life expectancy in the UK for the first time in 100 years. 04/06/19 4 June 2019 - 
read more + Smart Handpumps crowdfunding appeal launched On 3 June OxReach launched its latest crowdfunding campaign, to raise £50,000 for Smart Handpumps before 1 July. The money will be used to develop technology so that Smart Handpumps can be deployed more widely across rural Kenya, and beyond, so that more people can benefit from sustainable water supplies. 23/05/19 23 May 2019 - 
read more + Brexit: how the end of Britain's empire led to rising inequality that helped Leave to victory Professor Danny Dorling explores the link between empire, inequality and Brexit in a new article for The Conversation. 17/04/19 17 April 2019 - 
read more + Tip the planet: tackling climate change with small, sensitive interventions Smith School researchers explain their new paper in Science, which introduces the idea of socioeconomic and political tipping points around climate change. Identifying and triggering these "Sensitive Intervention Points" could, they say, generate outsized impacts and accelerate progress towards a post-carbon world. 12/04/19 12 April 2019 - 
read more + Research shows rapid urbanisation increasing pressure on rural water supplies globally An international team led by Dr Dustin Garrick has carried out the first systematic global review of water reallocation from rural to urban regions - the practice of transferring water from rural areas to cities to meet demand from growing urban populations. They found that 69 cities with a population of 383 million people receive approximately 16 billion cubic meters of reallocated water per year - almost the annual flow of the Colorado River. 20/03/2019 20 March 2019 - 
read more + Professor Gillian Rose elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences The School is delighted to announce that Professor of Human Geography Gillian Rose has been conferred a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, in recognition of her work shaping the field of cultural geography. As an Academy Fellow Professor Rose joins distinguished scholars and practitioners from academia and the public and private sectors working in Social Sciences. 01/02/2019 1 February 2019 - 
read more + New Water Security and Sustainable Development Hub launched Dr Katrina Charles leads the Oxford team, part of an ambitious new UKRI/GCRF interdisciplinary hub project aimed at tackling the world's toughest challenges. "This collaboration gives us the opportunity to build on our research... to tackle these intractable interdisciplinary water security challenges in new places and with new approaches." 07/09/18 7 September 2018 - 
read more + Global Financial Centres after the Global Financial Crisis and Brexit - book launch Professor Dariusz Wójcik will host the launch of the book entitled 'Global Financial Centres after the Global Financial Crisis and Brexit', just published by Oxford University Press, at the British Academy in London on Monday 17 September 2018. 16/08/2018 16 August 2018 - 
read more + Improving life expectancy used to be the UK's forte - now it's falling behind Professor Danny Dorling writes with London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine's Lucinda Hiam about the emerging evidence that UK life expectancy growth has stalled. "Life expectancy is one of the most important indicators a country can produce about the health of its population," they write. "Any deterioration in it is a marker of significant underlying societal problems." 11/07/2018 11 July 2018 - 
read more + Peak inequality The gap between the very rich and the rest is wider in Britain than in any other large country in Europe, and society is the most unequal it has been since shortly after the First World War. But is great change coming? Professor Danny Dorling says the signs are there, that we've reached peak inequality. 26/06/2018 26 June 2018 - 
read more + Heathrow's third runway is expensive, polluting and unequal - why the poor will lose out After more than a decade of debate, the expansion of London's Heathrow airport has been given the green light. Construction could begin as early as 2021. However, in all the deliberation over costs and connectivity, the biggest losers from this decision - the poor - have been largely left out of the discussion, writes Professor David Banister. 19/04/2018 19 April 2018 - 
read more + Resigned Activism book wins ethnography prize Associate Professor in the Human Geography of China Dr Anna Lora-Wainwright wins prestigious ethnography award for her book on the 'slow violence' of living with pollution in China and the ensuing struggle for health and justice. 22/03/2018 22 March 2018 - 
read more + Is Fukushima doomed to become a dumping ground for toxic waste? Seven years after the Tsunami that caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdowns, SoGE research fellow Dr Peter Wynn Kirby discusses possible future plans for the radiation-hit exclusion zone, including robot test-fields and safe storage for Japan's 17,000 tonnes of radioactive waste. "It is only a matter of time before it becomes possible for politicians to publicly back the idea of transforming the area around Fukushima Daiichi into a secure repository." 15/03/2018 15 March 2018 - 
read more + Concerns raised over rising deaths in England and Wales Health chiefs are failing to investigate a clear pattern of rising death rates and worsening health outcomes in England and Wales, argues Danny Dorling and colleagues in The BMJ, as the latest figures show more than 10,000 extra deaths in first weeks of 2018 compared with previous years. 08/03/2018 8 March 2018 - 
read more + The Population Bomb Professor Danny Dorling joins the BBC Radio 3 Arts and Ideas panel, to discuss the global best-seller 'The Population Bomb' written at peak population growth in 1968. This population growth has now slowed - from 2% year-on-year then to 1% today - and we are heading towards births balancing deaths, Dorling explains. 21/02/2018 21 February 2018 - 
read more + Why is life expectancy in England and Wales 'stalling'? Academics have called for an independent enquiry to ascertain what is happening to life expectancy in England and Wales and what should be done about it. Co-author Professor Danny Dorling explains, "there are some European countries, especially Norway and Finland... they continue to see life expectancy rise and rise. They are doing the best and we, in the UK, the worse when it comes to progress since 2010". 09/02/2018 9 February 2018 - 
read more + New 'Settlers' exhibition opens Dr Claire Hann and Prof Danny Dorling have helped curate a new exhibition entitled 'Settlers: Genetics, geography and the peopling of Britain', that opens at the Museum of Natural History today. From the arrival of the earliest modern humans to the people of the present day, 'Settlers' tells the dynamic story of Britain's ever-changing population. 01/02/2018 2 February 2018 - 
read more + The rise of the planetary labour market "This will be the first year in human history in which a majority of the world's population is connected to the internet." SoGE Research Affiliate Professor Mark Graham writes for the New Statesman on the rise of this newly emerging labour market in which millions of jobs can be performed from "almost anywhere on Earth". 31/01/2018 31 January 2018 - 
read more + How anti-globalisation switched from a left to a right-wing issue Honorary Research Associate Daniel Haberly his co-authors explore the new backlash against economic globalisation which, they say, "emerges from concerns about its impacts in the Global North". 30/01/2018 30 January 2018 - 
read more + Austerity policies at the heart of soaring homelessness and related health harms Writing for the British Medical Journal, SoGE's Mark Fransham and Professor Danny Dorling say action is needed on issues of welfare reform and the housing market to help those caught up in the homelessness crisis. 07/12/17 7 December 2017 - 
read more + Living with pollution in rural China SoGE's Dr Anna Lora-Wainwright talks about her new book 'Resigned Activism', a study of how people in rural China have responded to pollution. Studies tend to focus on activist movements, she explains, and "less attention is given to individual responses - to fatalism, resignation and how pollution is naturalised. But if we want to understand environmentalism, we also need to understand these processes". 30/11/17 30 November 2017 - 
read more + Reflections on falling life expectancy in the UK Life expectancy in Britain has fallen so much that a million years of life could disappear by 2058, say Oxford's Professor Danny Dorling and Hong Kong's Stuart Gietel-Basten. The latest projections from the Office for National Statistics herald the end of 110 years of steadily improving life expectancy in the UK, they write. "The implications for this are huge and the reasons the statistics were revised is a tragedy on an enormous scale." 21/11/17 21 November 2017 - 
read more + A call to end austerity In advance of the UK's winter budget 2017, academics including Halford Mackinder Professor Danny Dorling have called for the Chancellor to end austerity. The letter cites research published earlier this year, co-authored by Dorling, which quantified the number of early deaths linked to NHS spending cuts and the social care crisis. 4/10/17 4 October 2017 - 
read more + Up to 8,000 deaths a year may be caused by rising bed-blocking A new paper co-authored by Danny Dorling asks if the rise in UK mortality rates since 2015 can be explained by the increase in delayed discharges of NHS patients. Whilst the exact number of deaths due to bed-blocking is unclear, the statistical link is significant. "When you block beds you see overall mortality of the population go up," says Dorling. "This is evidence that says when you push the system too far it does have an effect." 26/09/17 26 September 2017 - 
read more + At the heart of London's housing crisis is the decline of 'middle-income' households Richard Florida writes in The Sunday Times about the 'new urban crisis' in which London's poorly paid service workers are being priced out of the city. He cites research from Danny Dorling and Benjamin Hennig identifying the decline of "middle-income" households over the last three decades. 30/04/17 30 April 2017 - 
read more + Squatting makes the world a better place Covering the eviction of one of Britain's "highest-profile and most politically significant squats" -Grow Heathrow - the Guardian cites Dr Alexander Vasudaven's work, documenting how the economic crisis has been followed by a crackdown on squatters' rights across Europe and north America. 01/04/17 1 April 2017 - 
read more + How squats can shape the cities they're in Vice interviews SoGE Associate Professor Alexander Vasudevan on his new popular history on squatting: 'The Autonomous City'. "Squats may disappear but they politicise people's lives," Vasudevan comments. "It is often an instrumental and formative moment for them. These are moments that point to different ways in which we might think about how we house ourselves in cities."
