ONE of the UK’s leading equality campaigners will head to Chester to take part in a free lunchtime seminar.
The event including Professor Kate Pickett will be held at the University of Chester’s Centre for Public Health Research on April 28.
Appealing to a wide range of people with interests in fields such as health, local government, psychology, sociology and economics, the seminar will explore the evidence behind Prof Pickett’s highly acclaimed book The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone.
Prof Pickett will explain why she believes that large income inequalities damage a country’s social fabric and the quality of life for its people.
Co-founder of the campaign group The Equality Trust, Prof Pickett jointly authored The Spirit Level with Richard Wilkinson. She said: “There is compelling evidence which shows that more equal societies - those with a narrower gap between rich and poor - are more cohesive, healthier, suffer fewer social problems and are more environmentally sustainable.”
Prof Pickett will present that evidence during her seminar and cite examples of societies, such as Japan and Sweden, where greater equality is linked to good health and lower rates of most social problems.
Prof Miranda Thurston, director of Chester’s Centre for Public Health Research, said: “Kate Pickett is a high-profile campaigner and author and we are delighted to welcome her to the university.
“The Spirit Level has been feted as one of the New Statesman’s Top 10 Books of the Decade and a Financial Times Book of the Year. The New Statesman said the book’s findings are likely to shape political debate for many years to come. The Centre for Public Health Research is part of the university’s Faculty of Applied and Health Sciences. Our monthly lunchtime seminars have become a regular fixture in our ever growing calendar of public health research and education activities.
“This year, our research seminar programme – which has been organised by our two full-time Gladstone Bursary Fellowship PhD students, Katie Powell and Rebecca Mead – is better than ever and has attracted a large amount of interest, both inside and outside the university.”
The one-hour seminar with Prof Pickett will take place in Room 004 of the Critchley Building on the university’s Chester campus, starting at 12.30pm.
While the event is free of charge, the organisers request advance registration. Contact Jess Hitchcock on 01244 511740 or j.hitchcock@chester.ac.uk