Meet the author
Benjamin is an academic geographer educated at the Universities of Cologne & Bonn and the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (Bremerhaven/Germany) where he conducted research on hyperspectral remote sensing applications in coastal ecosystems. After working as a research assistant and lecturer in human and urban geography at the Urban and Social Geography Working Group of the Department of Geography, University of Cologne (Germany) he joined the Social and Spatial Inequalities Research Group at the University of Sheffield (UK). He completed his PhD as part of the Worldmapper project with research on visualising the social dimensions of our planet. He continues to work as a senior research fellow at the Department of Geography researching social inequalities, humanity’s impact on Earth, global sustainability and new concepts for the visualisation of these issues.
Contact Details
Benjamin David Hennig
Social and Spatial Inequalities Research Group
Department of Geography
University of Sheffield
Winter Street
Sheffield S10 2TN
United Kingdom
Email: b.hennig@sheffield.ac.uk
A Social Atlas of London
Funded by the Trust for London
The research project aims to increase the understanding of poverty and inequality in
London. It builds on the objectives of the Trust for London, which aims to tackle poverty and inequality in the British capital:
About my PhD research (2008-2011): Worldmapping beyond mere description
Funded by the Leverhulme Trust
The research was built on the work of the Worldmapper project. Worldmapper visually describes the world, mapping the contours of hundreds of variables; but only in one way and a way easily open to criticism despite its novelty and wide scope. The PhD addressed these potential criticisms by moving the resource beyond its current simple descriptive form. It included a reflection of more theoretical issues on how world resources, flows and shares are understood, particularly visually understood – and how we can improve on this (find out more about my PhD thesis here). The majority of maps presented on this website are outcomes or leftovers from the PhD. They are also called cartograms, otherwise known as density-equalising maps. The basics for the algorithm used are those described by Michael Gastner and Mark Newman:
Michael T. Gastner and M. E. J. Newman (2004). Diffusion-based method for producing density equalizing maps Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101, 7499-7504.
The research was awarded the 2012 German Study Award
(Deutscher Studienpreis) by the Körber Stiftung
Research Interests
- Global sustainability, demography and population geography, inequality, socioeconomic disparities, urban diversity
- Cartography, Geovisualisation, GIS, Remote Sensing
- London, United Kingdom, Germany, European Union, East- and Southeast Asia
Publications and published conference contributions
See also my Google Scholar page
- Hennig, B.D. (2013). Kriege, Krisen, Konflikte…und Karten: Ein neuer Blick auf die Welt. Wissenschaft und Frieden 2013 (1): 35-38.
Article online (modified/edited version of the published paper) - Hennig, B.D. (2013). Rediscovering the World: Map Transformations of Human and Physical Space. Heidelberg / New York / Dordrecht / London (Springer). http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34848-8
Announcement and eBook (Springer); Order online (Amazon UK); iBook (Apple) - Hennig, B.D. (2013). The human planet. Environment and Planning A 45 (3): 489-491.
Article as PDF; Article online (EPA) - Hennig, B.D. and Dorling, D. (2013). America’s debt to the world. In D. Dorling (Ed). Unequal health. Bristol: 318-322.
Book website - Hennig, B.D. and Dorling, D. (2013). Future people and shifting power. In D. Dorling (Ed). Unequal health. Bristol: 445-447.
Book website - Hennig, B.D. and Dorling, D. (2013). London’s political landscapes. In D. Dorling (Ed). Unequal health. Bristol: 181-184.
Book website - Hennig, B.D. and Dorling, D. (2013). The World’s Billionaires. Political Insight 4 (1): 38.
Article as PDF; Article online (Wiley) - Bastawrous, A., Hennig, B. and Livingstone, I. (2013). mHealth Possibilities in a Changing World. Distribution of Global Cell Phone Subscriptions. Journal of Mobile Technology in Medicine 2 (1): 22-25.
Article as PDF; Article online (JMTM) - Paull, J. and Hennig, B. (2013). The world of organic agriculture. In Willer, H. Lernoud, J. and L. Kilcher (Eds). The world of organic agriculture: statistics and emerging trends 2013. Frick, Switzerland & Bonn (Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL & International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements IFOAM): 129.
- Hennig, B.D. (2012). Mapping an urbanizing planet. Atlantis - Platform for Urbanism 23 (1): 24-27.
Atlantis – Platform for Urbanism (Polis website) - Hennig, B.D. (2012). Reinventing the map collection: new journeys through (un)known worlds of London and America. Geographical Journal 178 (1): 93-95.
Article as PDF; Article online (Wiley) - Hennig, B.D. and Dorling, D. (2012). Educational mobility in England and Germany. In D. Dorling (Ed). Fair Play. Bristol: 155-158.
Book website - Hennig, B.D. and Dorling, D. (2012). Financing the European Union. Political Insight 3 (2): 34.
Article as PDF; Article online (Wiley) - Hennig, B.D. and Dorling, D. (2012). Mapping Britain’s Super-rich. Political Insight 3 (3): 42.
Article as PDF; Article online (Wiley) - Hennig, B.D. and Dorling, D. (2012). London’s political landscapes. Political Insight 3 (1): 38.
Article as PDF; Article online (Wiley) - Hennig, B.D. Pritchard, J., Ramsden, M., and Dorling, D. (2012). Remapping the world’s population: Visualizing data using cartograms. In D. Dorling (Ed). Fair Play. Bristol: 379-384.
Book website - Bastawrous, A. and Hennig, B.D. (2012). The global inverse care law: a distorted map of blindness. British Journal of Ophthalmology 96 (10): 1357-1358.
Article as PDF; Article online (BJO) - Ballas, D., Lupton, R., Kavroudakis, D., Hennig, B., Yiagopoulou, V., Dale, R., and Dorling, D. (2012). Mind the Gap – education inequality across EU regions. An independent report authored for the European Commission by the NESSE network of experts.
Report online (European Commission) - Hennig, B.D. (2011). Rediscovering the world: Gridded cartograms of human and physical space. PhD Thesis, University of Sheffield.
Find out more; Get access via the EThOS Archive of the British Library - Hennig, B.D. (2011). The Happy Planet Index. Resurgence 269: 20-21.
Website - Hennig, B.D. and Dorling, D. (2011). In Focus: America’s Debt to the World. Political Insight 2 (3): 34.
Article as PDF; Article online (Wiley) - Dorling, D. and Hennig, B.D. (2011). In Focus: Global Population Shifts. Political Insight 2 (2): 34.
Article as PDF; Article online (Wiley) - Pattie, C., Hennig, B.D. and Dorling, D. (2011). In Focus: US Midterm Elections 2010. Political Insight 2 (1): 34.
Article as PDF; Article online (Wiley) - Paull, J. and Hennig, B. (2011). A World Map of Organic Agriculture. European Journal of Social Sciences 24 (3): 360-369.
Article as PDF; Journal issue online (EJSS);
High-resolution version of the map (Oxford University Archive) - Hennig, B.D. (2010). How to see the world differently / Wie man die Welt auch sehen kann. Griephan Global Security 2010 (1): 14-19.
- Dorling, D. and Hennig, B.D. (2010). In Focus: Government Debt. Political Insight 1 (3): 106.
Article as PDF; Article online (Wiley) - Dorling, D. and Hennig, B.D. (2010). In Focus: General Election 2010. Political Insight 1 (2): 72.
Article as PDF; Article online - Dorling, D. and Hennig, B.D. (2010). Angles, Saxons, Inequality, and Educational Mobility in England and Germany. Social Europe Journal.
Article as PDF; Article online - Hennig, B.D., Pritchard, J., Ramsden, M. and Dorling, D. (2010). Remapping the World’s Population. Visualizing data using cartograms. ArcUser 2010 (1), 66-69.
Article as PDF ; Article online - Hennig, B.D. (2009). Geovisualisation of flows: Finding new approaches to map an interdependent world. Poster presentation at the Annual Conference of the Royal Geographical Society. Manchester.
Download poster as PDF - Hennig, B.D., et al. (2009). Re-Mapping the world’s population. Proceedings of the 2009 ESRI International User Conference. San Diego.
Download paper as PDF - Hennig, B.D., Dorling, D. and Ramsden, M. (2009). Re-Drawing the world: An approach towards a gridded world population cartogram. In: Fairbairn, D. (ed): Proceedings of the GIS research UK 17th annual conference. Durham: 157-161.
Extended abstract as PDF - Hennig, B.D., Cogan, C. and Bartsch, I. (2007). Hyperspectral remote sensing and analysis of intertidal zones – A contribution to monitor coastal biodiversity. In: Car, A., Griesebner, G. and Strobl, J. (eds): Geospatial crossroads @ GI_Forum. Salzburg (= Proceedings of the first geoinformatics forum), 62-73.
Paper as PDF - Hennig, B.D. (2005). Applications of hyperspectral remote sensing in coastal ecosystems: A case study from the German North Sea. Thesis AWI Bremerhaven / University of Cologne.
Abstract as PDF; further information
Project Websites
- Worldmapper Project: www.worldmapper.org
- World Population Atlas: www.worldpopulationatlas.org
- Social and Spatial Inequalities Research Group: www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk
- My website at the Department of Geography (pointless link, it brings you right back here…): www.sheffield.ac.uk/geography/staff/hennig_benjamin
The Institute for Public Policy Research released a list of 50 ‘Northern Lights’ to watch from the North of England. Read more about the 2011 Northern Lights list in this University of Sheffield Press Release and on the IPPR website.
Reminder: While this website also presents some of my professional work, the content published here is fully my own effort and to my personal responsibility. It may not reflect the views of the my professional affiliations or funders.
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