Irish Mensa Lecture and Discussion: Why Are Cities Going Bankrupt?

Each month we watch a pre-recorded lecture from Gresham College and follow up with a discussion inspired by what we just learned. This month's topic is "Why Are Cities Going Bankrupt?."

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In the late nineteenth century, Joseph Chamberlain transformed Birmingham with municipal enterprise and urban improvement. However, in the last few years, it has faced the equivalent of bankruptcy, alongside other large British cities.

This lecture asks, why have cities lost the confident civic pride of the Victorian era and now struggle to provide basic services from a limited financial base? Most importantly: what can be done to regenerate them?

Our Speaker:
Professor Martin Daunton is Visiting Gresham Professor of Economic History.

He is a British academic and historian. He was Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, between 2004 and 2014. He is Emeritus Professor of Economic History at the University of Cambridge.

He has written two books on the history of taxation in Britain – Trusting Leviathan: The Politics of Taxation in Britain, 1799–1914 and Just Taxes: The Politics of Taxation in Britain, 1914–1979, and co-edited with colleagues in Berlin a volume of essays on the political economy of public finance in leading OECD countries since the 1970s. His book The Economic Government of the World, 1933 to 2023 was published by Allen Lane in 2023.

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This is a FREE virtual event, with no need to register in advance. Just click on the Zoom link below when it's time to join the meeting.

Join Zoom Meeting: https://tinyurl.com/3hz4kmve.
Meeting ID: 821 8936 6863
Passcode: 850078

The lecture will take place at 7 p.m., Irish time. Consider using this time zone converter for your local equivalent: https://tinyurl.com/5d5eud3f.

For more information, contact Mary Reilly at mary@craftcottage.ie.