Events

Sustainability, Inclusive Development and Dr B.R. Ambedkar - A celebration to mark 100 years of “The Problem of the Rupee: Its Origin and Its Solution”

Invitation only event hosted by the India Observatory, International Inequalities Institute

Saturday 13th - Sunday 14th April, 2024. In-person event. Centre Building, Malaysia Auditorium.

Speakers: Larry Kramer, President, LSE; Ravindra Kulkarni, VC University of Mumbai; Lord Nicholas Stern, LSE; Lord Meghnad Desai; Virendra Sharma, MP 

The India Observatory at International Inequalities Institute, in collaboration with University of Mumbai, Mumbai, India & Babasaheb Ambedkar Research and Training Institute (BARTI), Pune, India, is organising a two day conference titled 'Sustainability, Inclusive Development and Dr B.R. Ambedkar' during 13-14 April 2024 at Malaysia Auditorium, LSE, to celebrate the centenary of Ambedkar's PhD at the LSE.

Please note this event is invitation only.

Narrative Ethnography of Interstate Seasonal Migrant Women in Punjab, India

Seminar hosted by International Inequalities Institute

Thursday 25 April 2024, 11.00am to 12:30 am. In-person event. Centre Building, Room 2.06.

Speaker:

Dr. Niyathi R. Krishna, Sir Ratan Tata Post-Doctoral Visiting Fellow, III, LSE

Chair: 

Dr. Ruth Kattumuri, Co-Founder, India Observatory, III, LSE

In this seminar, Dr. Niyathi R. Krishna will be presenting her research on interstate seasonal migrant women in Punjab, India, conducted as part of Sir Ratan Tata fellowship 2023-24 at the International Inequalities Institute. This qualitative study attempts to unravel the gender order induced experiences in the lives of interstate seasonal labour migrant women in Punjabat various levels in the post pandemic period, as labourers, migrants, and people possessing multiple binds in terms of caste, class, and gender. Concurrently, the study also analyses the causes, process, and consequences of interstate, seasonal migration of women in India and reviews existing policy gaps.

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Plus ça change? Continuity and change in social attitudes and worldviews in 21st century Brazil

Part of the Inequalities Seminar Series

Tuesday 7 May 2024, 12.30am to 1:30 pm. In-person event. Sir Arthur Lewis Buildling, Room LG.04 (SAL.LG.04)

Speakers:

Dr Fabrício Mendes Fialho, Research Fellow, LSE III; Alberto C. Almeida, Director, Brasilis Institute

In the 21st century, Brazil has undergone rapid changes in societal attitudes towards key issues such as religiosity, race relations, and gender. At the same time, attitudes towards the rule of law and the 'Brazilian knack' have remained steady over recent decades. In this seminar, we will discuss findings from two large-scale national social surveys conducted in 2002 and 2023 to map out the paths of values change in the Brazil over the past two decades.

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Human Rights: The Case for the Defence

Hosted by International Inequalities Institute, LSE Human Rights and the Wollstonecraft Society

Tuesday 7 May 2024 at 6:30pm– 8:00pm. In-person and online event. Old Buillding (OLD) Theatre.

Speaker: Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, leading British human rights lawyer and campaigner and legislator in the House of Lords

Discussants: Professor Conor Gearty, Professor of Human Rights Law at LSE and a barrister in practice at Matrix Chambers; Bee Rowlatt, writer and public speaker, and a programmer of events at the British Library

Chair: Professor Alpa Shah, Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science

We are threatened by wars, inequality, new technologies and climate catastrophe, and we need our human rights now more than ever. At this year’s annual Wollstonecraft Society Lecture, we are joined by Shami Chakrabarti, lawyer, parliamentarian and leading British human rights defender.

Chakrabarti will discuss her latest book Human Rights: The Case for the Defence, which shows us why human rights are essential for our future. Outlining the historic national and international struggles for human rights, from the fall of Babylon, to the present day, Chakrabarti is an indispensable guide to the law and logic underpinning human dignity and universal freedoms. Her intervention will engage both sceptics and supporters, equipping believers in the battle of ideas and persuading doubters to think again. For human rights to survive, they must be far better understood by everyone.

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Workshop on climate change and inequality

Workshop hosted by International Inequalities Institute, and Queen Mary's, University of London

Friday 10 May 2024, 9.00am to 6.00pm. In-person and online event. Fawcett House, Room 9.04.

The Research Circle for the Study of Inequality and Poverty (QMUL) and the International Inequalities Institute (LSE) will host a workshop on climate change and inequality on the 10th of May 2024 at the London School of Economics. The keynote speaker for the workshop will be Professor Lord Nicholas Stern, IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government at the Department of Economics and Chair of Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics.

Researchers are invited to submit long abstracts (1000 words) or complete papers by 23rd February 2024. Authors selected for the workshop will present their full papers in a workshop on 10th May 2024.

Please find the full call for papers here.

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Why wealth inequality matters: an expert roundtable

Workshop co-hosted by International Inequalities Institute and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Monday 13 May, 2.00pm - 5.30pm. In-person and online event. Marshall Building, Room 2.04 (MAR.2.04).

This closed roundtable event presents new and cutting-edge research from the LSE International Inequalities Institute demonstrating the systemic problems that wealth inequality is generating in the UK. The aim to equip policymakers, journalists and civil society groups with key insights that can be used for campaigning work and in spreading awareness so that the issues can inform campaigning in the run up to the General Election.

Researchers at the III have a powerful impact on policy developments, marked for instance in the recent abolition of the ‘non-dom' tax clause which drew on underpinning research by Dr Advani and Dr Summers. We want our new research to also inform emerging policy agendas.

Five panels will introduce new findings on (i) the extent and nature of wealth inequality in the UK, focusing especially on the rich; (ii) how wealth inequalities is shaping the social mobility prospects of Britons; (iii) the entrenched nature of gendered wealth divides; (iv) the scale and significance of the racial wealth divide and (v) how political perceptions amongst the disadvantaged are being shaped by fundamental wealth divides.

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How do we campaign around wealth inequality?

Co-hosted by International Inequalities Institute and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Monday 13 May, 6.00pm - 7.30pm. In-person event. Marshall Building, Room 2.04 (MAR.2.04).

Speakers:

Professor Mike Savage, Martin White Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, LSE; Faiza Shaheen, Visiting Professor in Practice, International Inequalities Institute; Shabna Begum, Interim CEO of the Runnymede Trust

In the shadow of a UK general election, this public event takes stock of the politics of wealth inequality and reflects on how to build political awareness and expand campaigning action. Mindful that divisive ‘culture war’ agendas are being used to fragment and distract campaigning which centres fundamental socio-economic inequality, panelists will consider how to shift political debate to more progressive directions. The recent abolition of the non-dom status, informed by III research and campaigning, shows that change is possible.

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Welfare regime hybridisation and social inequalities

Part of the Inequalities Seminar Series

Tuesday 14 May 2024, 12.30am to 1:30 pm. In-person event. Sir Arthur Lewis Buildling, Room LG.04 (SAL.LG.04)

Speaker: 
Dr Zahid Mumtaz, LSE Fellow, LSE Department of Social Policy

The concept of hybridization in welfare regime literature denotes the presence of multiple forms of welfare regimes in a given context. This means that in any given country, some people might be successfully incorporated into state protection (welfare state regime), while others rely on community and family arrangements (informal security regime), and some are dependent on highly personalized politico-military patrons (insecurity regime).

In this study, we used a novel methodology of data collection to capture welfare regime hybridization in a low-income country like Pakistan. We identified four distinct welfare regimes within the country: Potential welfare state regime (8.2% of the sample), More Effective informal security regime (16.7%), Less Effective informal security regime (68.4%), and Insecurity regime (6.7%).

The study sheds light on the diverse spectrum of inequalities present in Pakistan. While a minority enjoys the advantages of a potentially welfare state regime, funded by substantial public resources, a significant portion of the population lacks formal support and must resort to informal means for survival. Regional disparities further compound these inequalities, with certain areas facing greater deprivation than others. Historical factors, including past conflicts and ongoing socio-political instability, exacerbate these disparities, making it even harder for vulnerable communities to access necessary services and support.

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The sixth suspect: Stephen Lawrence, investigative journalism and racial inequality

Hosted by International Inequalities Institute

Thursday 16 May 2024 at 6:30pm – 8:00pm. In-person event. Old Buillding (OLD) Theatre. 

Speaker: Daniel De Simone, correspondent for BBC News

Discussants: Dr Clive Nwonka, Associate Professor in Film, Culture and Society at UCL Institute for Advanced Studies; Cllr Ann-Marie Cousins

Chair: Professor Shakuntala Banaji, Professor of Media, Culture and Social Change in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE

In June 2023, a major BBC investigation led by BBC News reporter Daniel De Simone produced new evidence that revealed the identity of a previously unnamed key suspect in the April 1993 racist murder of Black teenager Stephen Lawrence by a gang of 5-6 white men in Eltham, South East London that changed policing and race relations in Britain. The news report, and its accompanying BBC One documentary Stephen Lawrence: The Sixth Suspect received worldwide coverage and was met with widespread public demands for an inquiry into the Metropolitan Police’s failure to identify the key suspect and renewed calls for the re-opening of the Stephen Lawrence murder case.

In his first public talk, BBC correspondent Daniel De Simone will offer previously unheard insights into his two-year investigation, how the sixth suspect was identified, his methods and findings, with responses by a panel of experts drawn from academia and politics. The discussion also allows for an exploration of the potential of contemporary investigative journalism practices in uncovering historical institutional failings and intervening in structural racial inequalities.

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Labour Inequalities Bound In Histories Of The Colonial And Postcolonial: A Workshop On Impact And Knowledge Exchange

Hosted by International Inequalities Institute

Monday 20 May, and Tuesday 21 May 2024, 9.30am to 5.00 pm. In-person and online event. Marshall Building, Room 1.07.

This workshop aims to deepen theoretical knowledge of the impacts of colonialism by exploring marginalized and disadvantaged cohorts who remained invisible at the formal close of empire in South Asia (1947 onwards) and the aftermath. Categories who have gone unnoticed, unaccounted, and remained hidden or have escaped our attention. What was the relationship of these groups to the colonial state, economy, and civic society? How did they confront colonial practices? What kind of knowledge systems, skill sets, labour and world views were they able to offer that met with biases and omissions? Did they see the later as transformational? Did the postcolonial moment alter their circumstances by opening new economic pathways, identities, resistance, migration avenues, social mobility, and a diverse set of experiences? Or did the postcolonial moment deepen existing inequalities that remain bound up in colonial histories? Crucially, the workshop aims to explore approaches that prioritize decoloniality, coloniality and postcoloniality. We seek papers that can offer new insights to discuss and advance debates through fresh ideas, rigorous knowledge exchange, and impactful evidence. 

Researchers are invited to submit abstracts (150 - 200 words) or complete papers by 29th February 2024. 

Please find the full call for papers here.

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Inequalities Seminar with Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay

Part of the Inequalities Seminar Series

Tuesday 21 May 2024, 12.30am to 1:30 pm. In-person event. Sir Arthur Lewis Buildling, Room LG.04 (SAL.LG.04)

Speaker: 
Professor Sanghamitra Bandopadhyay, Professor of Development Economics and the Deputy Director of the Centre for Globalisation Research, Queen Mary University of London and Visiting Professor, LSE III

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Visions of inequality: from the French Revolution to the end of the Cold War

Hosted by International Inequalities Institute

Thursday 30 May 2024 at 6:30pm – 8:00pm. In-person event. Old Buillding (OLD) Theatre. 

Speaker: Professor Branko Milanovic, Research Professor at the Graduate Center at City University of New York (CUNY), Senior Scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality at CUNY, and Visiting Professor at the International Inequalities Institute at LSE

Chair: Professor Facundo Alvaredo, Co-Director of the World Inequality Database and the World Inequality Lab

Join us for this talk by Branko Milanovic about his new book, Visions of Inequality: from the French Revolution to the end of the Cold War.

A history of how economists across two centuries have thought about inequality, told through portraits of six key figures. “How do you see income distribution in your time, and how and why do you expect it to change?” That is the question Branko Milanovic imagines posing to six of history's most influential economists: François Quesnay, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, Vilfredo Pareto, and Simon Kuznets. Probing their works in the context of their lives, he charts the evolution of thinking about inequality, showing just how much views have varied among ages and societies. Indeed, Milanovic argues, we cannot speak of “inequality” as a general concept: any analysis of it is inextricably linked to a particular time and place. Meticulously extracting each author’s view of income distribution from their writings, Milanovic offers an genealogy of the discourse surrounding inequality. These intellectual portraits are infused not only with a deep understanding of economic theory but also with psychological nuance, reconstructing each thinker’s outlook given what was knowable to them within their historical contexts and methodologies.

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Power, politics, and belonging: the lasting impacts of colonialism 

Hosted by LSE Festival: Power and Politics

Saturday 15 June 2024 at 12:00pm – 1:00pm. In-person and online event. Marshall Building. 

Chair: Dr Sara Camacho-Felix, Assistant Professor (Education) in the International Inequalities Institute at LSE

Politics of power and wealth have had a huge impact on the structuring of inequalities across the globe. As the racial and ethnic inequalities that we see today stem from centuries of discrimination and marginalisation, in order to tackle them, we will need to understand how they have been embedded in the very structures of our societies. 

We discuss examples of racial and ethnic inequalities from the 19th century to the present day in an attempt to unravel the legacy of past injustices and investigate the link between power, politics, and belonging. 

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Defending democracy: building solidarity with persecuted writers, journalists, and artists

Hosted by LSE Festival: Power and Politics

Saturday 15 June 2024 at 2:00pm – 3:00pm. In-person and online event. Marshall Building. 

Amidst the surge of global authoritarianism, how do we protect the freedom of speech and the freedom of dissent that is crucial for democracy? What is the role of global financial institutions and regimes in the crackdown on dissent in faraway places? What role do international human rights organisations, cultural spaces and educational institutions have in protecting the spaces of democracy globally? 

In this event, we examine the persecution of writers, academics, journalists and artists across the globe, and question the unwitting role of international financial regimes and reflect on how we might cultivate international solidarity and carve out vital spaces of hope in these globally challenging times. 

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