Kate Pickett is professor of epidemiology in the department of health sciences at the University of York. She is co-author, with Richard Wilkinson, of the bestselling The Spirit Level, winner of the 2012 publication of the year from the Political Studies Association and translated into 24 languages. Pickett is also a co-founder and Trustee of the Equality Trust.
David Edmonds: There are huge inequalities in the United States between rich and poor. Some claim that this is one of the secrets to the dynamism of the U.S. economy. There are tremendous rewards to be had from success: big homes, exotic holidays. Well, yes and no. Kate Pickett, of the University of York, is one half of the duo who wrote The Spirit Level. She says that, in an unequal society, even the wealthy suffer.
Nigel Warburton: The topic we’re focusing on is the case for equality. Could you begin by saying what kind of equality you’re interested in?
Kate Pickett: Our research focuses on social inequality, and by that I mean the vertical inequalities in society — how a society is structured hierarchically — and we use income inequality as a measure of that. Of course, there are all kinds of different inequalities that we don’t focus on: for example, inequalities of ethnicity, of age, or of gender.
[For more of this story, written by David Edmonds & Nigel Warburton, go to https://psmag.com/big-ideas-in...b58c6098c#.hj944c4v3]
Comments (0)