Inequality and the Next Generation

Growing up in poverty means facing daily struggles that shape a child’s education, health, and sense of possibility. Limited resources can restrict access to opportunities, from quality schooling to essential healthcare, impacting prospects far into adulthood. How does early hardship affect a child’s potential? What support is most crucial to breaking the cycle of poverty?

In Seven Children, Danny Dorling reveals how deep inequality impacts children’s lives across the UK, using seven fictional but data-driven child characters to represent the socioeconomic range. Inspired by the Seven Up! documentary, he explores how factors like income, housing, and access to resources shape childhood experiences, emphasizing the erosion of compassion and shared responsibility in society.

Human geographer Sander van Lanen will have a conversation with Danny Dorling to compare the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. What does it mean to grow up in poverty in these countries, and what is done to minimise intergenerational inequalities? What can the Netherlands learn from the UK, and the other way around?

In collaboration with the international Erasmus Mundus research Master programme ISLANDS and the Rudolf Agricola School for Sustainable Development.

Danny Dorling is a British human geographer and professor at the University of Oxford, renowned for his research on social inequality, health, and housing. His work combines statistical analysis with storytelling, shedding light on the effects of inequality. Dorling had authored numerous influential books, including Seven Children and Inequality and the 1%. Much of his work is available open access. 

Sander van Lanen is a human geographer at the University of Groningen working on poverty and inequality. He was involved in research projects on intergenerational poverty in the northern Netherlands and growing up in disadvantage.