Mapping systemic approaches to understanding inequality and their potential for designing and implementing interventions to reduce inequality (original) (raw)

Stewart, F. (2013). Approaches towards Inequality and Inequity: Concepts, measures and policies, Office of Research Discussion Paper No.2013-01, UNICEF Office of Research, Florence

Inquality, in various forms, is a major source of injustice, a cause of poverty, and sometimes of conflict. Children are often the victims. This paper analyses the different concepts of inequality, in particular differentiating individual, or vertical, and group, or horizontal, inequality, and adopting a plural approach to inequality, which involves moving beyond income to include some basic capabilities such as health, education and nutrition, and also inequalities in political power and cultural status. The paper discusses what a fair, or equitable, distribution is, drawing on some contributions of Western philosophers and economists. After reviewing different approaches, it argues that inequality among groups is particularly unjust. The paper argues for a plural perspective on the space in which inequality is assessed, following Sen’s capability approach. Special attention needs to be given to those capabilities which affect people’s basic life chances, including health, educatio...

Inequality in Human Development

2009

The Institute of Social Studies is Europe’s longest-established centre of higher education and research in development studies. Post-graduate teaching programmes range from six-week diploma courses to the PhD programme. Research at ISS is fundamental in the sense of laying a scientific basis for the formulation of appropriate development policies. The academic work of ISS is disseminated in the form of books, journal articles, teaching texts, monographs and working papers. The Working Paper series provides a forum for work in progress which seeks to elicit comments and generate discussion. The series includes academic research by staff, PhD participants and visiting fellows, and award-winning research papers by graduate students. Working Papers are available in electronic format at www.iss.nl Please address comments and/or queries for information to:

SOCIOLOGY 6130: Graduate Seminar in Social Inequality

This course explores the study of social inequality and sociological approaches to this topic. Evidence of social, political and economic inequality is pervasive in society, and its causes and proposed solutions are often the subject of fierce debate in academia and broader society. Growing domestic and global poverty, the persistence of racial, ethnic, gender, class discrimination and the increasing visibility of inter-and intra-country differences in wealth and income are just some aspects of contemporary social inequality. This course introduces students to ongoing debates about the sources and consequences of inequality, while also exploring how social inequality is enacted and perpetuated daily. This course will cover basic concepts and facts as well as both classical and contemporary theoretical debates. NOTE: This course will also act, in part, as preparation for the Social Inequality comprehensive exam.

Addressing Inequality

RIMCIS : International and Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Sciences, 2012

The global sociology currently faces one of its greatest challenges: to contribute to the debate about the most serious problem which all societies have faced in recent years. The rising inequality has led to many initiatives for reflection, discussion and evaluation of public policies in order to combat poverty. Particularly, the fact that the Millennium Goals are supposed to accomplish their significance by 2015 provides the International Sociological Association (ISA) the unique opportunity to contribute to those goals through their own analyses and proposals. Over many years, the ISA has promoted the integrated debate of its members on issues related to inequalities: from different perspectives such as education, health, social movements, public policies, gender problems and violence, among others. The overlapping and accumulation of inequalities has been, so to speak, the natural environment from which the ISA can take part in this international debate. This article identifies ...