In this Occasional Paper Series, experts explore the various causes of deepening inequalities in the current context, their implications for sustainable development, and strategies and mechanisms being employed to reverse them. The papers in this series build off discussions held during the UNRISD International Conference
Overcoming Inequalities in a Fractured World: Between Elite Power and Social Mobilization, held in November 2018.
Inequalities are one of today’s greatest challenges, obstructing poverty reduction and sustainable development. Such disparities are catalysed by elite capture of economic and political power, a reinforcing process that compounds inequality, which—in its various dimensions—undermines social, environmental and economic sustainability, and fuels poverty, insecurity, crime and xenophobia. As the power of elites grows and societal gaps widen, institutions representing the public good and universal values are increasingly disempowered or co-opted, and visions of social justice and equity side-lined. As a result, society is fracturing in ways that are becoming more and more tangible, with the growing divide between the privileged and the rest dramatically rearranging both macro structures and local lifeworlds.
Occasional papers
- Persistence of Poverty in an Indigenous Community in Southern India: Bringing Agrarian Environment to the Centre of Poverty Analysis—Sudheesh Ramapurath
- Intergenerational Mobility in Education: Estimates of the Worldwide Variation—Tharcisio Leone
- Movilización social en Colombia para la protección de la salud en el trabajo en un contexto de inequidad—Mauricio Torres Tovar
- Creative Coalitions in a Fractured World: An Opportunity for Transformative Change?—Gabriele Köhler
- Achieving SDG 10: A Global Review of Public Service Inclusion Strategies for Ethnic and Religious Minorities—Ghazala Mir,Saffron Karlsen, Winnie Mitullah, Upendra Bhojani, Benjamin Uzochukwu, Chinyere Okeke, Tolib Mirzoev, Bassey Ebenso, Naila Dracup and Gary Dymski, Doan Thi Thuy Duong, Bui Thi Thu Ha, Steve Ouma, Felicia Onibon, Joyce Ogwezi, Shahab Adris
- Le processus d’appauvrissement des classes moyennes en Haïti et ses conséquences économiques et sociales—Alrich Nicolas
- Inequality, Power and Policy Change: How Chile Moved Towards Greater Political Transparency—Bettina Schorr
- Seeing Inequality? Relative Affluence and Elite Perceptions in Mexico—Alice Krozer
- Elites and Inequality: A Case Study of Plutocratic Philanthropy in the UK—Luna Glucksberg and Louise Russell-Prywata
- Two Decades Under Windmills: Energy Transition and Entrenched Inequalities in La Venta, Mexico—Gerardo A. Torres Contreras
- (Re-)Negotiating Gender and Class: New Forms of Cooperation Among Small-Scale Fishers in Tamil Nadu—Nitya Rao and R. Manimohan
- Business Elites in Panama: Sources of Power and State Capture—Julián Cárdenas and Francisco Robles-Rivera
Further papers will be published as they become available.
Acknowledgement
The conference was carried out with the support of UNRISD institutional funding provided by the governments of Sweden, Switzerland and Finland. The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Geneva Office and the International Geneva Welcome Centre (CAGI) provided direct support to conference participants for their travel and accommodation.