Brexit and the End of Empire
Askja
N-132
Faculty of Life- and Environmental Sciences (Geography) at the School of Engineering and Natural Sciences at the University of Iceland invites you to an open lecture about Brexit and the End of Empire.
About the Lecture:
What role did the legacy of the British Empire play in the United Kingdom’s vote to exiting the European Union? Whatever kind of Brexit occurs – hard, soft, or even a last-minute cancellation and staying in the European Union – the British public will be asking questions about why this has happened and what it means for many years to come. The source of British woes was not immigrants or some perceived lack of sovereignty, but of their own making. Geography is central to Brexit, including living in a country with the highest rate of income inequality in Europe, combined with a misplaced nostalgia about Britain’s imperial history and a profound anxiety about Britain’s status today. The vote to leave the EU appears like the last gasp of the old empire working its way out of the British psyche.
About the Lecturer
Danny Dorling is the Halford Mackinder Professor in geography at the University of Oxford. His work concerns issues of housing, health, employment, education, wealth and poverty, on which he has published numerous books and contributed widely to public debate in the United Kingdom. This lecture is based on his most recent book, jointly written with Sally Tomlinson: Rule Britannia.
Danny Dorling is the Halford Mackinder Professor in geography at the University of Oxford
