Politics of Inequality

This programme has now ended, but continues as a network. The III networks are former research programmes that continue to be active in research, collaboration, and impact in their subject area.
This network explores the practices of resistance, reproduction, mobilisation, and contestation which constitute a politics of inequalities from a bottom-up perspective. Research within this network has an international and comparative focus, adopting an intersectional lens to explore collective action and everyday resistance against various social, cultural, economic and political inequalities.
This network is co-led by Professor Armine Ishkanian and Professor Ellen Helsper
This research network draws together the expertise of LSE academics from different Departments and is committed to a cross-disciplinary approach. We also aim to work with international partners, including those in the global south. The network will support research collaborations, funding bids, as well as knowledge exchange activities. The network will be an open and inclusive space for researchers across LSE and beyond to forge new connections, knowledge, and practices in the politics of inequalities.
This network is linked to the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity (AFSEE) programme, which is based in the International Inequalities Institute (III). Given that the AFSEE programme is committed to building a community of people who are "committed to using collective leadership to work towards social and economic justice for all", it is intended that research within this network will inform the teaching on AFSEE modules, the AFSEE Fellows’ projects and MSc dissertations, and that it will seek to engage with and to include the expertise of Fellows.
The focus of the network
Embracing a broad definition of civil society as a space for uncoerced collective action, research within this network addresses how a range of actors working within the space of civil society, from social movements, grassroots groups, NGOs, trade unions, solidarity networks, as well as ordinary citizens and non-citizens are confronting, challenging, and resisting political, social and economic inequalities at various levels, including the local, (trans)national, and international. We adopt a critical view, challenging normative assumptions about civil society. As subaltern actors have always created ways of resisting, concepts and networks, within and beyond the constraints of organisations, institutions and hegemonic discourses, the research in this network considers popular self-activity, direct action, as well as everyday, micro-level processes of reproduction and resistance.
Alongside examining the forms of action, our research will consider the (re)-production of ideas, understandings, and knowledge. We set out to consider how and under which circumstances grassroots actors are challenging and transforming narratives and public debates around inequalities, as well as how inequalities are reproduced and resisted in everyday practices, discourses and interactions. We aim to understand how ordinary people experience, accept, resist, or reproduce inequalities - in families, households, peer and community networks, media discourses, neighbourhoods and online platforms. Our research investigates emergent forms of political organising among subaltern groups, popular struggle, the "vernaculars" of collective action, and engages with struggles for epistemic justice. In doing so, it critiques the epistemic violence occasioned by social inequalities and probes different conceptualisations and instantiations of justice, equity, inequality, and imaginations of a better world.
Finally, given that part of the resistance to equality comes from within sections of civil society, such as right wing and conservative movements, research will consider the movement-countermovement dynamics as well as the dialectical relationships between such movements and popular struggles seeking to tackle inequalities.
Network Activities
The network will be an open and inclusive space for researchers across LSE and beyond to forge new connections, knowledge and practices in the politics of inequalities. In that interest, the network will host and support the following activities:
- Workshops, roundtables, seminars/webinars – where network members and other researchers working on issues related to the network’s focus, can present work in progress
- Platform for knowledge exchange and dissemination – the network will host (or co-host) events by network members, such as public events, book launches, or exhibitions
- Platform for putting together collective funding proposals
- Opportunity to connect and work with practitioners, activists, and researchers from the AFSEE network.
- From Digital Skills to Tangible Outcomes (DISTO)
- Rethinking Media Literacy and Digital Skills (REMEDIS)
- Exploring the Potential for Academic Practitioner Collaborations for Social Change (AcPrac)
Past projects:
Professor Armine Ishkanian, Executive Director of the AFSEE programme and Politics of Inequality Research Programme Co-Leader, LSE III and Professor in Social Policy,Department of Social Policy, LSE.
Professor Ellen Helsper, Politics of Inequality Research Programme Co-Leader, LSE III and Professor of Digital Inequalities, Department of Media and Communications, LSE.
Dr Akile Ahmet, Head of Inclusive Education, LSE Eden Centre for Educational Enhancement, LSE.
Dr Eileen Alexander, LSE Fellow in Qualitative Methodology, Department of Methodology, LSE.
Dr Paul Apostolidis, Associate Professorial Lecturer and Deputy Head of Department for Education, Department of Government, LSE.
Dr Sara Camacho Felix, Assistant Professorial Lecturer, LSE III.
Professor John Chalcraft, Professor of Middle East History and Politics, Department of Government, LSE.
Dr Flora Cornish, Faculty Associate, LSE III and Associate Professor in Research Methodology, Department of Methodology, LSE.
Dr Dina Davaki, MSc International Health Policy Placements Officer, Department of Health Policy, LSE.
Dr Dena Freeman, Senior Visiting Fellow, Department of Anthropology, LSE.
Dr Seeta Peña Gangadharan, Associate Professor, Department of Media and Communication, LSE.
Dr Duncan Green, Senior Strategic Adviser at Oxfam GB and Professor in Practice, International Development, LSE.
Dr Shalini Grover, Assistant Professorial Research Fellow, LSE III.
Dr Timothy Hildebrandt, Associate Professor of Social Policy and Development, Department of Social Policy, LSE.
Professor Jonathan Hopkin, Faculty Associate, LSE III and Professor of Comparative Politics, Department of Government, LSE.
Professor Naila Kabeer, Faculty Associate, LSE III and Professor of Gender and Development, Department of International Development, LSE.
Dr George Kunnath, Assistant Professorial Research Fellow, LSE III.
Dr Maël Lavenaire, Research Fellow, LSE III.
Professor Sumi Madhok, Professor of Political Theory and Gender Studies, Department of Gender Studies, LSE.
Dr Francesca Manzi, Assistant Professor of Management, Department of Management.
Dr Fabrício Mendes Fialho, Research Fellow, LSE III.
Dr Rishita Nandagiri, LSE100 Fellow, LSE.
Dr Tahnee Ooms, Visiting Fellow, LSE III.
Dr Annalena Oppel, Research Officer, LSE III.
Dr Pedro Ramos Pinto, Visiting Senior Fellow, LSE III.
Liz Sayce, Visiting Senior Fellow, LSE III.
Dr Hakan Seckinelgin, Associate Professor, Department of Social Policy, LSE.
Professor Alpa Shah, Global Economies of Care Research Programme Leader, LSE III. and Professor, Department of Anthropology, LSE.
AFSEE Affiliates
Nicola Browne, Coordinator, Act Now Northern Ireland.
Georgia Haddad Nicolau, Co-founder and director, Instituto Procomum.
Jenny McEneaney, Senior Improvement Policy Adviser on Cyber, Digital, and Technology, Local Government Association.
Johnny Miller, Photographer and Filmmaker.
Foluke Ojelabi, Strategic Planning Monitoring and Reporting Specialist, UNICEF.
Anita Peña Saavedra, Head of the International Affairs Department, Ministry of Women and Gender Equality, Government of Chile and doctoral candidate.
Jite Phido,Senior Program Manager for Innovation, Results For Development.
Barbara van Paassen, Feminist Economics and Climate Justice Advocate.
- De Marco, Stefano, Dumont, Guillaume, Helsper, Ellen J, Díaz-Guerra, Alina, Antino, M, Rodríguez-Muñoz, Alfredo and Martínez-Cantos, José Luis (2023) Jobless and burnt out: digital inequality and online access to the labor market, Social Inclusion, 11(4), 184–197.
- Dumont, Guillaume, De Marco, Stefano and Helsper, Ellen J (2023) Online job search discouragement: how employment platforms and digital exclusion shape the experience of lowqualified job seekers?, New Technology, Work and Employment, 39(1), 89-108.
- Ishkanian, Armine, Manusyan, Arpy, Khalatyan, Mariam and Margaryan, Nvard (2023) Why ideas matter: exploring the potential and limits of local civil society agency in peacebuilding, Journal of Civil Society, 19(20), 193-211.
- Martinez, Diego, Helsper, Ellen J and others (2023a) Analysing intervention programmes: barriers and success factors. A Systematic Review, KU Leuven: REMEDIS.
- Martinez, Diego, Helsper, Ellen J and others (2023b) Co-developing media literacy and digital skills interventions: report on preliminary results, KU Leuven: REMEDIS.
- Ooms, Tahnee, Klaser, Klaudijo and Ishkanian, Armine (2023) The role of academia practice partnerships in the well-being economy: retracing synergies between health and social sciences using bibliometric analysis, Health Policy, 138.
- Byrne, Jasmina, Helsper. Ellen J. & Vosloo, Steven (2023) Towards Child-Centred and Future-Ready Inclusive Digital Public Infrastructure. G20/T20 policy brief for task force 2, Our Common Digital Future: Affordable, Accessible and Inclusive Digital Public Infrastructure. UNICEF. Geneva (CH) and Delhi (India).
- De Marco, Stefano. & Helsper, Ellen J. (in press) Why can't you get a job? Candidates’ online job-seeking skills, and inequalities in access to the labour market. Social Forces.
- Helsper, Ellen J. (2023)Desigualdades Digitales en un Mundo de Pandemia (Digital Inequalities in a Pandemic Suffering World). Edición 1. San José, Costa Rica: Ediciones Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales.
- Ishkanian, Armine, Khalatyan, Mariam, Manusyan, Arpy and Margaryan, Nvard (2023) Why ideas matter: exploring the potential and limits of local civil society agency in peacebuilding. Journal of Civil Society. ISSN 1744-8689.
- Kunnath, George (2023 forthcoming)Naxalite Movement in India, Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Asian History.
- Kunnath, George (2023 forthcoming) Sanskritization: The Inheritance of an Ideational Category, In S. Jodhka & J. Naudet (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Caste in Modern and Contemporary Times. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Kunnath, George and Márquez Montaño, E (eds). (2023) Gender in War and Peace. Revista CS (Special Issue), Vol. 41.
- Lavenaire, Mael (2023) Le mouvement sociopolitique des années 1950 dans les Antilles françaises ou l’émergence d’une nouvelle aspiration : la décolonisation sociale(1946 – 1960) in Joëlle Alazard, Olivier Andurand, Myriam Deniel-Ternand, Aline Fryszman, Marianne Guérin (dir.), Mouvements protestataires et luttes populaires en France (1831-1968), Bréal, Paris, p. 125-133.
- Oppel, Annalena (2023) Communication Matters: sensitivity in fairness evaluations across wealth inequality expressions and levels. WIDER Working Paper 2023/86. Helsinki: UNU-WIDER.
- Oppel, Annalena (2023) Economic, Social, and Political Consequences of Income Inequality Post-Crisis, Forthcoming in Review of Development Economics.
- Oppel, Annalena (2023) Unpacking Informality in Developmentalism Through the Lens of Black Tax, Forthcoming in European Journal of Development Research.
- Oppel, Annalena (2023) Black Tax and coloniality – re-interpretation, emancipation, and alienation, Social Identities
- Teeger, Chana (2023) (Not) Feeling the Past: boredom as a racialized emotion. American Journal of Sociology, forthcoming.
- Abrahamyan, Shushan and Arpy Manusyan (2021) Post-revolutionary rhetoric of the Karabakh conflict: Exhortations and public communication discontinuities
- Al-Sumait, F., Helsper, E.J., Navarro, C. Al-Saif, N., & Raut, N. (2022). Kuwait’s Digital Inequalities Report. From Digital Skills to Tangible Outcomes project report. Available at: https://www.lse.ac.uk/media-and-communications/assets/documents/research/projects/disto/Kuwait-report.pdf
- Brazilian Network Information Center (NIC.br) (Ed.). (2021). COVID-19 ICT Panel: Web survey on the use of Internet in Brazil during the new coronavirus pandemic. Brazilian Internet Steering Committee: São Paulo.
- Büchi, M. (2021). Digital well-being theory and research. New Media & Society, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14614448211056851
- Byrne, Jasmina, Helsper. Ellen J. & Vosloo, Steven (2023) Towards Child-Centred and Future-Ready Inclusive Digital Public Infrastructure.G20/T20 Policy brief for task force 2 Our Common Digital Future: Affordable, Accessible and Inclusive Digital Public Infrastructure. UNICEF. Geneva (CH) and Delhi (India).
- Cabello, P., Claro, M., Rojas, R., & Trucco, D. (2020). Children’s and adolescents’ digital access in Chile: the role of digital access modalities in digital uses and skills. Journal of Children and Media, 1-19. doi:10.1080/17482798.2020.1744176.
- Chouliaraki, L. and Georgiou, M. (2022) The Digital Border: Migration, technology, power. New York: NYU Press
- De Marco, Stefano. & Helsper, Ellen J. (in press) Why can't you get a job? Candidates’ online job-seeking skills, and inequalities in access to the labour market. Social Forces.
- Documentary Film: "Solidarity and resistances: the experience of pobladoras in Valparaíso, Chile". Watch the trailer and the film.
- Dodel, M., Kaiser, D., Mesch, G. (2020) Determinants of cyber-safety behaviors in a developing economy. The role of socioeconomic inequalities, digital skills and perception of cyber-threats. First Monday, 25(7), https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v25i7.10830
- De Marco, Stefano. & Helsper, Ellen J. (in press) Why can't you get a job? Candidates’ online job-seeking skills, and inequalities in access to the labour market.Social Forces.
- Erazo Gómez, A. & Espitia Pérez, L. (2018). Caldono, territory for peace. Tensions in the first year of implementation of the Peace Agreement in the indigenous reserves that hosted former FARC guerrilla combatants. Revista Controversia (210), 45 - 83.
- Erazo, A., Montenegro, H. & Valencia, D. (2020). Territorial control, extractive expansion and interculturality: risks and challenges for the construction of territorial peace in southern Tolima. In E. Bolaño Mostacilla, I. Giraldo Quijano & A. Erazo Gómez (Eds.), Building territorial peace. A glance upon northern Cauca, southern Tolima, Perijá mountain range and María mountains. (pp. 83-138). Javeriana University.
- Galperin H., Wyatt, K., Let, T.V. (2020). Covid-19 and the distance learning gap. Connected Cities and Inclusive Growth (CCIG), Policy Brief #5.
- Galperin, H., Bar, A.M., Le, T.V., Daum, K. (2021). How far is California from high-speed broadband Internet for all? Connected Cities and Inclusive Growth (CCIG) Policy Brief #7.
- Galperin, H., Bar, F., Kim, A.M., Le, T.V., Daum, K. (2020). Mapping the distance learning gap in CA. Connected Cities and Inclusive Growth (CCIG) Policy Brief #6.
- Georgiou, M (2019) City of refuge or digital order? Refugee recognition and the digital governmentality of migration in the city. Television and new media http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/101163/
- Georgiou, M. (2022) Digital (In-)visibilities: Spatializing and visualising politics of voice.Communication, Culture, and Critique, 15(2): 269-27.
- Green, Duncan (2020) "Launching a new Research and Action programme on ‘Emergent Agency in a Time of Covid’. Want to join us?" Oxfam FP2P Blog.Green, Duncan (2021) "What kinds of ‘Agency’ are emerging as grassroots organizations respond to Covid?"Oxfam FP2P Blog
- Grošelj, D., van Deursen, A. J. M., Dolničar, V., Burnik, T., & Petrovčič, A. (2020). Measuring internet skills in a general population: A large-scale validation of the short Internet Skills Scale in Slovenia. The Information Society, 1-51. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2020.1862377
- Haddon, Leslie, Cino, Davide, Doyle, Mary-Alice, Livingstone, Sonia, Mascheroni, Giovanna, & Stoilova, Mariya. (2020). Children's and young people's digital skills: a systematic evidence review. Zenodo.
- Helsper, Ellen J. (2023) Desigualdades Digitales en un Mundo de Pandemia (Digital Inequalities in a Pandemic Suffering World).Edición 1. San José, Costa Rica: Ediciones Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales.
- Helsper, E.J. (2020) Overcoming victim blaming and bystander effects through social theatre: Masterclass Cyberscene project evaluation. London (UK): LSE & TheatreRoyal Haymarket’s Masterclass Trust.
- Helsper, E.J. (2021) Chapter 6. Network and Neighborhood Effects in Digital Skills. In E. Hargittai (ed) Handbook of Digital Inequality. Edward Elgar Publishing. https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/handbook-of-digital-inequality-9781788116565.html
- Helsper, E.J. (2021) The Digital Disconnect: The Social Causes and Consequences of Digital Inequalities. SAGE: London, UK.
- Helsper, E.J., Schneider, L., van Deursen, A.J.A.M., van Laar, E. (2021) The youth Digital Skills Indicator: Report on the conceptualisation and development of the ySKILLS digital skills measure. KU Leuven, Leuven: ySKILLS.
- Helsper, Ellen J., Schneider, Luc S., van Deursen, Alexander J.A.M., & van Laar, Ester. (2021). The youth Digital Skills Indicator: Report on the conceptualisation and development of the ySKILLS digital skills measure. Zenodo.
- House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee (2023). Digital exclusion and the cost of living. 3rd Report of Session 2022–23.
- Ishkanian, Armine (2020) Why peace looks a long way off in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. LSE European Politics and Policy (LSE EUROPP) blog (08 Oct 2020).
- Ishkanian, Armine and Shutes, Isabel (2021) Who needs the experts? The politics and practices of alternative humanitarianism in Greece and its relationship to NGOs. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations
- Ishkanian, Armine (2022) Social Movements and Social Policy: New Research Horizons, Journal of Social Policy, v. 51, n. 3, pp. 582-595.
- Ishkanian, Armine, Khalatyan, Mariam, Manusyan, Arpy and Margaryan, Nvard (2023) Why ideas matter: exploring the potential and limits of local civil society agency in peacebuilding.Journal of Civil Society. ISSN 1744-8689
- Keshk, M., Harrison, R., Kizito, W. Psarra, C. , Owiti, P., Timire, C., Camacho, M., De Maio, G., Safwat, H. Matboly, A., and R. Van den Bergh (2021) Offering care for victims of torture among a migrant population in a transit country: a descriptive study in a dedicated clinic from January 2017 to June 2019, International Health, Volume 13, Issue 2, March, Pages 89–97
- Kunnath, George (2023 forthcoming) Naxalite Movement in India, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History
- Kunnath, George (2023 forthcoming) Sanskritization: The Inheritance of an Ideational Category, In S. Jodhka & J. Naudet (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Caste in Modern and Contemporary Times. Oxford: Oxford University Press
- Kunnath, George and Márquez Montaño, E (eds). (2023) Gender in War and Peace. Revista CS (Special Issue), Vol. 41
- Kunnath, G. (2021). "India's Maoist insurgency and counterinsurgency," The Know Show Podcast.
- Kunnath, G. (2022). Peace and Gender Inequality: Lessons from the Colombian Peace Agreement, LSE Research Showcase.
- Lavenaire, Mael (2023) Le mouvement sociopolitique des années 1950 dans les Antilles françaises ou l’émergence d’une nouvelle aspiration : la décolonisation sociale (1946 – 1960)in Joëlle Alazard, Olivier Andurand, Myriam Deniel-Ternand, Aline Fryszman, Marianne Guérin (dir.), Mouvements protestataires et luttes populaires en France (1831-1968), Bréal, Paris, p. 125-133.
- Livingstone, S., Mascheroni, G., & Stoilova, M. (2021). The outcomes of gaining digital skills for young people’s lives and wellbeing: A systematic evidence review.New Media & Society, 0(0).
- Livingstone, S., Ólafsson, K., Helsper, E. J., Lupiáñez-Villanueva, F., Veltri, G. A.., and Folkvord, F. (2017) Maximizing opportunities and minimizing risks for children online: the role of digital skills in emerging strategies of parental mediation. Journal of Communication, 67(1): 82-105. At http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/68612.
- Livingstone, S., Stoilova, M., Stänicke, L., Jessen, R., Graham, R., Staksrud, E. & Jensen, T. (2022). Adolescents experiencing internet-related mental health difficulties: the benefits and risks of digital skills. ZenodoLupinacci, L., Helsper, E.J., Rahali, M., Büchi, M., DeMarco, S., Galperin, H. and Van Deursen, A.J.A.M. (2020) Approaching socio-digital inequalities from a global perspective: Challenges, possibilities and (in)compatibilities of a cross-country research project. Research Dialogues Series Media@LSE, London (UK).
- Manusyan, Arpy, Margaryan, Nvard, Khalatyan, Mariam and Armine Ishkanian (2020) The silence of our friends: what has been the global civil society response to the war in Nagorno Karabakh? | openDemocracyMarquez et al. (2020) "The conditions for women's autonomy: Statistical data for Valle del Cauca". In Data Brief. ISSN: 2352-3409. Reed Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2020.105751.
- Marquez Montano, E. (2020) "Sexismo, violencia simbólica y respuestas institucionales: reflexiones en torno al proyecto Desarrollo de un sistema piloto de gestión de la equidad de género y la diversidad sexual para la Universidad Icesi". En Perspectivas de Género en la Educación Superior. Una Mirada Latinoamericana. Universidad Icesi. p.123 - 142, 2020 ISBN: 978-958-5590-55-7.
- Marquez-Montaño, E. (2020) Parar para Avanzar: Feminist Activism in 2019 Latin American Mobilization. In Shayne, Julie. Persistence is Resistance: Celebrating 50 years of gender, women & sexuality studies. University of Washington.
- Martínez Carrillo, H. (2019). Los segundos ocupantes en el proceso de restitución de tierras: reto a la reparación con vocación transformadora. Bogotá: Dejusticia.
- Martínez Carrillo, H. & Michalowski, S. (2021). Submission to the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights in response to the consultation on Business in Conflict and Post-conflict Contexts. University of Essex Transitional Justice Network.
- Martínez Carrillo, H., Michalowski, S. & Cruz-Rodríguez, M. (2021). Towards Consolidating Synergies between Business and Human Rights and Transitional Justice.
- Martínez Carrillo, H., Michalowski, S. & Cruz-Rodríguez, M. (2020). ¿A quiénes sancionar?: Máximos Responsables y Participación Determinante en la Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz. Bogotá: Dejusticia.Nampoothiri, Niranjan J. and Filippo Artuso (2021) "What can we learn from 200 case studies of ’emergent agency in a time of Covid’?"Oxfam FP2P Blog
- Nampoothiri, Niranjan J. and Filippo Artuso (2021) "Civil Society’s Response to Coronavirus Disease 2019: Patterns from Two Hundred Case Studies of Emergent Agency", Journal of Creative Communications
- Policy inform: "Políticas públicas y violencia contra las mujeres: Reflexiones de activistas feministas", Paula Santana Nazarit, Anita Peña Saavedra, and Alondra Castillo Delgado (Download in Spanish).Psarra, Christina. (2017) The Deadly ‘Humanitarian Ping-Pong’ of Refugee Rescue at Sea, The New Humanitarian
- Scheerder, A. J., van Deursen, A. J. A. M., & van Dijk, J. A. G. M. (2020). Taking advantage of the Internet: A qualitative analysis to explain why educational background is decisive in gaining positive outcomes. Poetics, 80, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2019.101426
- Shutes, Isabel and Ishkanian, Armine (2021) Transnational welfare within and beyond the nation-state: civil society responses to the migration crisis in Greece. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studiesvan Deursen, A. (2020). Digital Inequality During a Pandemic: Quantitative Study of Differences in COVID-19-Related Internet Uses and Outcomes Among the General Population. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(8). DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.2196%2F20073
- Shutes, Isabel and Ishkanian, Armine (2021) Transnational welfare within and beyond the nation-state: civil society responses to the migration crisis in Greece. Journal of Ethnic and Migration.
- United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Vosloo, Steven & Helsper. Ellen J. (2023) Towards a Child-Centred Digital Equality Framework. Office of Global Insight and Policy (OGIP), UNICEF, Geneva (CH).
- Van Deursen, A. J. A. M., Helsper, E. J., & Eynon, R. (2016). Development and validation of the Internet Skills Scale (ISS). Information, Communication & Society, 19(6), 804-823. doi: 10.1080/1369118X.2015.1078834 http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/64485/
- van Deursen, A. J., van der Zeeuw, A., de Boer, P., Jansen, G., & van Rompay, T. (2021).Digital inequalities in the Internet of Things: differences in attitudes, material access, skills, and usage. Information, Communication & Society, 24(2), 258-276, https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1646777
- van Deursen, A. J., van der Zeeuw, A., de Boer, P., Jansen, G., & van Rompay, T. (2021). Development and validation of the Internet of Things Skills Scale (IoTSS). Information, Communication & Society, 1-17, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2021.1900320
- Van Deursen, A.J.A.M. & Helsper, E.J. (2021). Mediawijsheid: Conceptualisering en belang in een gemedieerde samenleving.Lacunes in bestaand onderzoek en beleid. [Media Wisdom: Conceptualisation and importance in a mediated society. Gaps in existing research and policy]. Enschede, Nederland: Universiteit Twente. Available at: https://www.utwente.nl/en/centrefordigitalinclusion/Files/mediawijsheid-conceptualisering-en-belang-vandeursen-helsper.pdf
- van Laar, E., van Deursen, A., van Dijk, J., & de Haan, J. (2020a). Determinants of 21st-Century Skills and 21st-Century Digital Skills for Workers: A Systematic Literature Review. Sage Open, 10(1). doi:10.1177/21582440199001.
- van Laar, E., van Deursen, A., van Dijk, J., & de Haan, J.(2020b). Measuring the levels of 21st-century digital skills among professionals working within the creative industries: A performance-based approach. Poetics, 81. doi:10.1016/j.poetic.2020.101434
- Working paper: "Women's Solidarity Networks' take on COVID-19: The case of Valparaiso, Chile - Recommendations for local social policies", Anita Peña Saavedra, Alondra Castillo Delgado, and Magdalena Rodriguez Torres (Download in English and in Spanish
Previous Politics of Inequality events:
Politics of Inequality conference
Hosted by the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity and the International Inequalities Institute
21 - 22 November 2024. In-person event. Fawcett House Research Suite.
To mark the completion of the Politics of Inequality research programme, a 2-day international conference was held in November 2024. This included presentations by researchers, practitioners, activists and AFSEE Fellows. Discussions focused on the lived experiences and impacts of inequalities and the forms of resistance and contestation.
In addition to paper presentations, the conference also hosted a multi-media exhibition of photographs and videos and live podcast session led by AFSEE Senior Fellow Barbara van Paassen, who produces the People vs Inequality podcast series.
Democracy and the right to protest in the UK
Hosted by the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity and the International Inequalities Institute
Monday 24 March 2025 6.30pm to 8.00pm. In-person and online event. LSE Lecture Theatre, Centre Building.
Speakers:
Richard Martin, Assistant Professor of Law, LSE Law School
Sam Nadel, PhD candidate, Department of Social Policy, LSE
Pascale Frazer-Carroll, Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity, campaigner and social impact director
Chair:
George Kunnath, Associate Professor (Education) and Lifelong Engagement Lead, AFSEE
Throughout history, protests have been a key tactic for activists and movements to express discontent and push for change.
Today, however, the democratic space for protests and collective mobilisation is rapidly shrinking. From more forceful and frequent crackdowns on protesting to introducing new legislation to restrict protest and prosecute individuals, governments across the world, including the UK, are increasingly finding new ways to suppress protest and silence critical voices.
This panel will discuss why protests matter, what the shrinking of democratic space means for social movements and activists, and what can be done to protect freedom of speech and the right to protest.
Hosted by the International Inequalities Institute
Monday 27 January 2025 6.30pm to 8.00pm. In-person and online event. Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House.
Speakers:
Dr Danny Sriskandarajah, Chief Executive, New Economics Foundation and Visiting Senior Fellow, LSE III
Jo Swinson, Director, Partners for a New Economy (P4NE) and Visiting Professor, Cranfield University
Lysa John, Executive Director, Atlantic Institute
Chair: Professor Armine Ishkanian, Executive Director, Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity and Professor, Department of Social Policy, LSE
In 2024, two billion people headed to the polls in some 50 countries around the world. But the drama of these elections risks obscuring just how fragile the foundations of democracy have become. A political system that is geared towards short-term wins, run by politicians that few of us trust, is failing to address complex global problems. Many of us feel disempowered, disillusioned and distrustful.
In this talk Danny Sriskandarajah discusses his new book Power to the People. Drawing on his extensive experience in leading civil society organisations around the globe, he sets out his radical blueprint for change. From giving democracy a participatory makeover to public ownership of social media spaces, and from re-energising co-operatives to creating a people’s chamber at the United Nations, he presents a range of inspiring ideas for how we can reclaim our power and change the world.
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.
Speakers: Professor Neil Cummins, Professor of Economic History in the Department of Economic History at LSE; Leah Eryenyu, Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity; Dr Maël Lavenaire, Research Fellow in Racial Inequality in the International Inequalities Institute at LSE
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.
Solidarity economics: why mutuality and movements matter
Hosted by the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity and the International Inequalities Institute
Tuesday 23 January 2024 6.30pm to 8.00pm. In-person and online event. Centre Building (CBG), Auditorium.
Speakers:
Professor Manuel Pastor, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern California
T.O. Molefe, Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity and a writer and editor with an affinity for transformative social research
Chair:
Professor Armine Ishkanian, Executive Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme at LSE International Inequalities Institute
Traditional economics is built on the assumption of self-interested individuals seeking to maximize personal gain, but that is far from the whole story. Sharing, caring, and a desire to uphold the collective good are also powerful motives. In a world on fire – facing threats to multiracial democracy, tensions from rising economic inequality, and even the existential threat of climate change, can we build an alternative economics based on cooperation?
In this lecture Manuel Pastor, joined by T.O. Molefe, will discuss his newest book Solidarity Economics: why mutuality and movements matter. He will introduce the concept of solidarity economics, which is rooted in the idea that equity is key to prosperity and social movements are crucial to the reconfiguration of power in our politics and show how we can use solidarity economics to build a fairer economy that can generate prosperity and preserve the planet.
A Lecture by Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados
Hosted by the International Inequalities Institute, Oxfam GB and the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity
Wednesday 6 December 5.30pm - 7.00pm. In-person and online event. Room TBC.
Join us for this special event with LSE alumna Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados.
Mia Amor Mottley (@miaamormottley) became Barbados' eighth and first female Prime Minister on May 25, 2018. Ms Mottley was elected to the Parliament of Barbados in September 1994 as part of the new Barbados Labour Party Government. Prior to that, she served as one of two Opposition Senators between 1991 and 1994. One of the youngest persons ever to be assigned a ministerial portfolio, Ms. Mottley was appointed Minister of Education, Youth Affairs and Culture from 1994 to 2001. She later served as Attorney General and Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados from 2001 to 2008 and was the first female to hold that position.
Ms Mottley is an Attorney-at-law with a degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science, specialising in advocacy. She is also a Barrister of the Bar of England and Wales. In 2002, she became a member of the Local Privy Council. She was also admitted to the Inner Bar, becoming the youngest ever Queens Counsel in Barbados.
Jean-Pierre Sainton and the struggle for political independence in the French Caribbean
Hosted by the International Inequalities Institute and the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity
Thursday 26th October 2023 6.00pm to 7.00pm. In-person event. LSE Centre Building (CBG), Room 1.06.
Speaker: DrMaël Lavenaire, Caribbean and Latin America historian and Research Fellow in Racial Inequality at the LSE International Inequalities Institute
To celebrate Black History Month 2023, Dr Maël Lavenaire (LSE International Inequalities Institute) takes you on a journey to the 1960s, 70s and 80s in his home country of Guadeloupe (French Caribbean), where the struggle for political independence started in 1963 and turned into an armed struggle 20 years later. The event shines light on Caribbean scholar Professor Jean-Pierre Sainton and his singular contribution to Caribbean history.
Born in 1954, Professor Sainton was the son of one of the independentist leaders, Dr Pierre Sainton, who was arrested in 1967 in a colonial repression led by the French government to ensure its sovereignty on the French Antilles in a global context marked by the decolonisation. Growing up in this atmosphere, Professor Sainton became a militant for the independence movement, but at the beginning of the 90s, the failure of this struggle marked by bomb attacks and the deaths of several militants inspired him to better understand the political history of Guadeloupe as a post-slavery society characterised by socio-racial inequalities. This led him to become the most important contributor to the political history of the French Antilles.
Hosted by the International Inequalities Institute and Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity
Wednesday 25 October 6.30pm to 8.00pm. Online and in-person public event. Sheikh Zayed Theatre, Cheng Kin Ku Building.
Speakers:
Professor Kehinde Andrews, Professor of Black Studies, Birmingham City University
Dr Sara Camacho Felix, Assistant Professor (Education) and Programme Lead, Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity, LSE III
Chair:
Dr Maël Lavenaire, Research Fellow in Racial Inequality, Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity, LSE III
Join us for a talk by Kehinde Andrews about his new book, The psychosis of whiteness. An all-encompassing, insightful and wry look at living in a racist world, by a leading black British voice in the academy and in the media. Society cannot face up to the racism at its heart and in its history, so the delusions and hallucinations it conjures up to avoid doing so can only best be described as a psychosis, and the costs are being borne by the sons and daughters of that racist history.
Can people change the world? Activists, social movements, and utopian futures
Hosted by LSE Festival: People and Change
Saturday 17 June 11.00am to 12.00pm. Online and in-person public event. Marshall Building.
Watch the event recordingListen to the podcast
Speakers:
Dr Armine Ishkanian, Associate Professor, LSE Department of Social Policy and Executive Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme, LSE III
Dr Faiza Shaheen, Visiting Professor in Practice, LSE III and Program Lead on Inequality and Exclusion, NYU Center on International Cooperation
Georgia Haddad Nicolau, Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity and Co-founder and Director of Instituto Procomum
Chair:
Dr Maël Lavenaire, Research Fellow in Racial Inequality at the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme, LSE III
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, inequality is on the rise, but so is grassroots activism. More and more individuals and groups are taking action and using their voices to tackle the growing social and economic inequalities. Looking beyond just forms of resistance, this panel will discuss the role of activists and social movements in today’s world and examine their agency in imagining utopian futures and creating change. How are social movements providing creative spaces for not only challenging inequalities but also coming up with alternative ideas for solutions to address the problems they are fighting against? And how and to what extent are these ideas informing policy changes?
AFSEE Keynote Lecture - Doughnut Economics: a new economic vision for cities
Hosted by the International Inequalities Institute and the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity
Thursday 10 November 6.30pm to 8.00pm. Online public event.
Speaker:
Kate Raworth, Co-founder of Doughnut Economics Action Lab and Senior Associate, Oxford University Environmental Change Institute
Discussant:
Maria Carrasco, Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity, LSE and Executive Director, Entramada
Chair:
Dr Armine Ishkanian, Research Programme Co-Leader (Politics of Inequality) and Executive Director AFSEE programme, LSE III and Associate Professor, Department of Social Policy, LSE
In the AFSEE Keynote Lecture, Economist Kate Raworth will discuss how we can create equal and just cities without overburdening the environment. She will be joined by Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity, Maria Carrasco, for the discussion.
Doughnut Economics, a framework coined by Raworth, sets out a 21st-century economic vision of meeting the needs of all people within the means of the living planet, through regenerative and distributive design. Over 40 cities and regions worldwide have already started to engage with the concepts and tools, aiming to turn these concepts into practice in place. How are they getting started, and what are the challenges they face?
The role of social norms in shaping collective action
Part of the III Inequalities Seminar Series
Tuesday 24 January 12.00pm to 1.00pm. Online and in-person public event. The Marshall Building - MAR 1.09.
Speaker:
Professor Roberto González, Professor of Social Psychology, P. Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC)
Chair:
Dr Armine Ishkanian, Executive Director of AFSEE programme and Associate Professor, LSE Department of Social Policy
This seminar will address how social norms shape collective action aimed at social change. Based on Social identity and normative conceptual frameworks, we will discuss why it is important to consider this rather neglected topic in the collective action literature by presenting and discussing recent experimental and longitudinal studies supporting the importance of doing it.
The emergence of a social decolonisation: the question of social change in the French West Indies after World War II
Part of the III Inequalities Seminar Series
Tuesday 29 November 12.30pm to 1.30pm. Online and in-person public event. LSE Centre Building, Room 2.05.
Speaker:
Dr Maël Lavenaire, Research Fellow, LSE III
Chair:
Dr George Kunnath, Assistant Professorial Research Fellow, LSE III
The social change which takes place in the French West Indies after World War II is essentially generated by a sociohistorical interaction between various elements of change observed from 1946 to 1961. Here we refer to the new political status of French Department allowed by a global context, the outbreak of social movements involved in the process of decolonisation, public policies and a specific planning of "economic and social development" as well as the population growth with the emergence of a new generation from a sociological viewpoint. This interactionist process conducts to the new type of society emerging in the French West Indies since the 1960’s, without drastically changing their colonial social structure and racial inequalities. This singular transformation is characterised by new social frustrations, while maintaining existing frustrations that stemmed from slavery legacies in spite of the overall significant improvement of the living conditions.
Challenges Facing Liberal Democracies: Citizenship and civil society confronting growing inequality
Part of the III Inequalities Seminar Series
Tuesday 18 October 12.30pm to 1.30pm. Online and in-person public event. LSE Centre Building, Room 2.05.
Speaker:
Professor Thomas P. Boje, Professor, Department of Social Science and Business, Roskilde University
Chair:
Dr Armine Ishkanian, Executive Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity Programme, LSE III, Associate Professor in the Department of Social Policy
Some of the crucial challenges facing all liberal democracies in their aspiration for social cohesion and solidarity are how to provide the conditions for individuals to be active, participative citizens. In other words, how to provide opportunities and frameworks for citizens to be involved in mutual social and cultural relationships and for society and the collective to show solidarity with disadvantaged groups. In this seminar, Professor Thomas P. Boje will discuss some of the major challenges facing today’s liberal democracies when it comes to growing inequality, restrictions on citizenship rights, growing polarization in civic activism and the impact of globalization on citizens’ empowerment.
Understanding Inequality in India
Part of the III Inequalities Seminar Series
Tuesday 27 September. In-person and online public event.
Speaker:
Professor Reetika Khera, Narendra and Chandra Singhi Chair Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.
Chair:
Professor Sumi Madhok, Professor of Political Theory and Gender Studies, LSE
The difficulties in measuring inequality in India, given the paucity of data and the compounding effects of social inequality on economic inequality, have been commented upon. Given these constraints, several scholars have documented the very high, and possibly rising, levels of economic inequality in India.
This talk turns the focus to the lack of recognition of the scale of the problem, especially among the rich/ elite in India. The issue requires urgent attention because the proliferation of digital technologies in basic education and health care is likely to exacerbate inequalities in the long run. The widespread misperception among India's rich/ elite that they are 'middle class' contributes to the lack of policy action, including action on fairer taxation policies in the country.
Watch the video
Listen to the podcast
Can people change the world? Activists, social movements, and utopian futures
Hosted by LSE Festival: People and Change
Saturday 17 June 11.00am to 12.00pm. Online and in-person public event. Marshall Building.
Watch the event recording
Listen to the podcast
Speakers:
Dr Armine Ishkanian, Associate Professor, LSE Department of Social Policy and Executive Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme, LSE III
Dr Faiza Shaheen, Visiting Professor in Practice, LSE III and Program Lead on Inequality and Exclusion, NYU Center on International Cooperation
Georgia Haddad Nicolau, Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity and Co-founder and Director of Instituto Procomum
Chair:
Dr Maël Lavenaire, Research Fellow in Racial Inequality at the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme, LSE III
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, inequality is on the rise, but so is grassroots activism. More and more individuals and groups are taking action and using their voices to tackle the growing social and economic inequalities. Looking beyond just forms of resistance, this panel will discuss the role of activists and social movements in today’s world and examine their agency in imagining utopian futures and creating change. How are social movements providing creative spaces for not only challenging inequalities but also coming up with alternative ideas for solutions to address the problems they are fighting against? And how and to what extent are these ideas informing policy changes?
Hosted by Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity and LSE Latin America and Caribbean Centre
Wednesday 28 September. Online public event.
Speakers:
Dr Fred Batista, Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, UNC Charlotte
Professor Rosana Pinheiro Machado, Professor in the School of Geography, University College Dublin
Amanda Segnini, Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity and MSc candidate in Inequalities and Social Science, LSE
Chair:
Dr Fabrício Mendes Fialho, Research Officer, LSE III
The upcoming presidential election in Brazil is set to be the most decisive vote-casting in the country since redemocratisation in 1985. Jair Bolsonaro, a polarizing far-right populist, is running for re-election after a controversial first term marked by systemic corruption, record high deforestation of the Amazon Forest, attacks against institutions, rising poverty and unemployment, overt bigotry against minorities, and a chaotic mismanagement of the pandemic that resulted in more than 600,000 deaths. As public opinion polls indicate Bolsonaro’s re-election as unlikely, Bolsonaro has discredited the electoral system and threatened to overthrow the regime in a coup d’etat whilst enjoying firm support of a mobilized and loyal one-third of the electorate.
Stakes have never been so high for the survival of Brazilian democratic regime and its institutions. What factors will influence vote choice pro and against Bolsonaro? Who are his followers? What will be Bolsonaro’s legacy to Brazilian politics? What can be done to defend Brazilian democracy? Drawing together a panel of experts the event will seek to address these questions and create a dialogue on the challenges faced by one of the world’s largest democracies.
Landscapes of Environmental Racism
Hosted by the International Inequalities Institute and Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity
Thursday 20 October 6.30pm to 8.00pm. Online and in-person public event. Sheikh-Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building.
Speaker:
Professor Hazel V Carby, Charles C. and Dorathea S. Dilley Professor Emeritus of African American Studies and Professor Emeritus of American Studies, Yale University
Discussant:
Ruby Hembrom, Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity, LSE
Chair:
Dr Imaobong Umoren, Associate Professor, Department of International History, LSE
Settler colonialism and racial capitalism in the US has resulted in dramatic forms of inequality through institutionalized, geopolitical, and environmental racism. Indigenous, black and Latinx communities suffer the health consequences of living in the most polluted and toxic environments. Indigenous peoples across the Americas are also at the forefront of opposition to the extraction and transportation of fossil fuels. In this event, Hazel Carby will be discussing and showing the work of indigenous artists who are responding to environmental and ecological crises and degradation.
Among the artists discussed are Diné and trans-customary photographer Will Wilson, Chemehuevi photographer Cara Romero, and Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, and Lokata artist Cannupa Hanska Luger. These important works focus on urgent environmental issues, like the eradication of indigenous communities through damming and the ecological devastation of petroleum, coal and uranium extraction, while contextualizing them within the wider history of settler colonialism and racial capitalism. These artists also present new ways of thinking about our environment and imagining the future from indigenous perspectives.
AFSEE Keynote Lecture - Doughnut Economics: a new economic vision for cities
Hosted by the International Inequalities Institute and the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity
Thursday 10 November 6.30pm to 8.00pm. Online public event.
Speakers: Kate Raworth (Co-founder of Doughnut Economics Action Lab and Senior Associate, Oxford University Environmental Change Institute) and Maria Carrasco (Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity, LSE and Executive Director, Entramada)
Chair: Dr Armine Ishkanian, Research Programme Co-Leader (Politics of Inequality) and Executive Director AFSEE programme, LSE III and Associate Professor, Department of Social Policy, LSE
In the AFSEE Keynote Lecture, Economist Kate Raworth will discuss how we can create equal and just cities without overburdening the environment. She will be joined by Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity, Maria Carrasco, for the discussion.
Doughnut Economics, a framework coined by Raworth, sets out a 21st-century economic vision of meeting the needs of all people within the means of the living planet, through regenerative and distributive design. Over 40 cities and regions worldwide have already started to engage with the concepts and tools, aiming to turn these concepts into practice in place. How are they getting started, and what are the challenges they face?
Resistance Doesn't Walk Alone - exhibition
Hosted by the International Inequalities Institute, Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity, and LSE Arts
Atrium Gallery, Old Building, LSE Campus
The collaboration between photographer and AFSEE Fellow Johnny Miller and the Politics of Inequality research programme, showcases the ways that individuals and communities are confronting, challenging, and resisting political, social and economic inequalities in Brazil.
The exhibition works were captured in eight cities across Brazil in 2022. The research project was commissioned by the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme and the LSE’s International Inequalities Institute.
More information on the exhibition can be found here
Decolonising Pedagogy: race, gender, and marginal voices in higher education
Hosted by the International Inequalities Institute and the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity
Tuesday 07 June 2022
Speakers: Professor Heidi Safia Mirza (Emeritus Professor of Equality Studies in Education, UCL Institute of Education and Visiting Professor of Race, Department of Social Policy, LSE) and Dr Sara Camacho Felix(Assistant Professorial Lecturer and Programme Lead, Atlantic Fellows in Social and Economic Equity, III)
Chair: Dr Armine Ishkanian(Executive Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity, III and Associate Professor, Department of Social Policy, LSE)
Fundamental to decolonising pedagogy is an understanding of the way we ‘talk’ about race, gender and social justice in our taken for granted systems of knowledge and power. In this AFSEE Keynote Lecture, Heidi Mirza will discuss how we situate the raced and gendered ‘Other’ in everyday discourse and why and how marginalised groups articulate alternative world views. Professor Mirza will be joined by discussant Dr Sara Camacho Felix.
Hosted by the International Inequalities Institute, the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity, the Atlantic Institute, LSE Department of Social Policy, and LSE Cities
Tuesday 31 May 2022
Speakers: Dr Amara Enyia(Manager of Policy and Research, the Movement for Black Lives and Founder, Global Black) Tracy Jooste(Senior Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity), Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey(Assistant Professor in International Social and Public Policy, Department of Social Policy, LSE)
Chair: Dr Armine Ishkanian (Executive Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity, III and Associate Professor, Department of Social Policy, LSE)
The world is facing multiple crises that are responsible for widening economic and social inequalities and insecurities, ranging from climate change to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past decade, movements such as Black Lives Matter, Extinction Rebellion, Occupy, and the Indignados have confronted States and elites, challenged inequalities and mobilised to bring about greater justice, democracy, and progressive policy changes. This panel brings together speakers who are working at the intersection of research and policy to discuss the question: what is the relationship between policy and social change?
Civil Society, Solidarity and Emergent Agency in the Time of COVID-19
Hosted by the International Inequalities Institute and the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity
Wednesday 23 February 2022
Speakers: Dr Paul Apostolidis(Department of Government, LSE), Dr Irene Gujit (Oxfam, GB), Dr Armine Ishkanian(Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity), Anita Peña Saavedra(Atlantic Fellow, LSE III)
Chair: Dr George Kunnath(Research Fellow, LSE III)
In the wake of COVID-19, a range of civil society actors, from grassroots groups, social movements, and NGOs, stepped in to provide support and assistance to communities. Alongside providing material support (e.g., food, medical supplies etc.) and mutual aid, civil society organisations have been at the forefront in campaigning for better policies and social protections for communities. In this panel, we bring together speakers who have been working with communities across the globe, from Chile, Zimbabwe, the Philippines, and the US to document practices of solidarity, resistance, and mutual aid. They will discuss how civil society organisations are responding to the new challenges and examine the forms of solidarity and agency that are emerging.
Hosted by the Department of Media and Communications and International Inequalities Institute
Monday 07 March 2022
Speakers: Professor Marta Arretche(Professor, Department of Political Science University of São Paulo), Professor Ellen Helsper(Professor of Digital Inequalities, Department of Media and Communications, LSE), Professor Karen Mossberger(Frank and June Sackton Professor of Public Affairs, Arizona State University) and Professor Mike Savage(Martin White Professor of Sociology, LSE)
Chair: Professor Bart Cammaerts(Head of the Department of Media and Communications, LSE)
With the increased digitisation of society comes an increased concern about who is left behind. From societal causes to the impact of everyday actions, leading experts will discuss Ellen Helsper's latest book, The Digital Disconnect which explores the relationship between digital and social inequalities, and the lived consequences of digitisation.
Changing the Story on Disability?
Hosted by the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity and International Inequalities Institute
Monday 11 October 2021
Speakers: Liz Sayce(JRF Practitioner Fellow, LSE III), Tom Shakespeare (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), Fredrick Ouko(Atlantic Fellow, LSE III), Kate Stanley (FrameWorks UK)
Chair: Dr Armine Ishkanian
This event will hear from those who are striving to shift narratives around disability through public awareness campaigns globally and will explore whether and how an empirical approach to ‘framing’ could effectively move public perceptions and behaviours.
Thirty years after the world’s first disability discrimination law (the Americans with Disabilities Act 1990), and fourteen years after the UN adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, debate remains fierce on how to influence public attitudes and behaviours towards disabled people: how to erode and replace discriminatory stereotypes. Disability rights advocates argue that charities (perhaps inadvertently) reinforce negative imagery in their promotion and fundraising. Yet arguably defining disability as a core equality issue has not, as yet, lit up public consciousness and action.
Youth and Inequalities in the UK
Hosted by the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity and International Inequalities Institute
Tuesday 29 June 2021
Speakers: Jason Allen(St Mary's Youth Team Manager), Jeremiah Emmanuel(entrepreneur, youth activist and author) and Michaela Rafferty(III Atlantic Fellow; Young People’s Development Worker, Just for Kids Law)
Chair: Dr Armine Ishkanian
Even before the pandemic, young people in the UK faced many forms of inequality and their health and wellbeing was being eroded by a lack of jobs, a shortage of affordable housing, and cuts to public services. As the gap between the generations grows and young people’s voices and concerns are not adequately taken into account by policy makers and politicians, it is no surprise that young people increasingly feel anxious of what the future holds. This panel brought together three young leaders who are working in and beyond their local communities to address inequalities in education, housing, employment and the criminal justice system.
For a Reparatory Social Science
Hosted by the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity and International Inequalities Institute
Wednesday 26 May 2021
Speaker: Professor Gurminder K Bhambra
Chair: Dr Armine Ishkanian
In the inaugural Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity Keynote Lecture, Professor Bhambra explored the social sciences’ failure to acknowledge the extent to which modern nation-states were bound up with relations of colonial extraction and domination. Without putting such relations at the heart of our analyses, we cannot address global inequality effectively. Positing colonial histories as central to national imaginaries and the structures through which inequalities are legitimated and reproduced, she explored a framework for a reparatory social science, oriented to global justice as a reconstructive project of the present. The past cannot be undone, she concluded, but its legacies can be transformed to bring about a world that works for us all.
Refusing Discriminatory Technologies of Power: racial justice and the challenge of hi-tech policing - Inequalities Seminar Series
Tuesday 11 May 2021
Speaker: Dr Seeta Peña Gangadharan
Chair: Professor Ellen Helsper
From informational capitalism to biased code, technological systems increasingly form part of larger structures of oppression and domination. This talk tackled the topic of technology, injustice, and inequity with a focus on bottom-up practices of resistance, rejection, and refusal of digital and automated systems that increasingly govern people’s lives.
When Violence Endures: inequality, resistance, and repression in India's Maoist guerrilla zones - Inequalities Seminar Series
Tuesday 23 March 2021
Speaker: George Kunnath
Chair: Professor Ellen Helsper
This talk engaged with the concept of violence in the context of the ongoing Maoist insurgency and counterinsurgency in India. During the five-decade-long armed conflict involving the Maoist guerrillas and the landless/poor peasants on the one side, and the state security forces and upper-caste/private militias on the other, violence has taken multiple forms. It has spiralled, giving rise to new formations and new theatres of war, especially in the forested areas which are home to indigenous populations. The speaker conceptualised this enduring violence and reflect on the possibility of resolutions, drawing on twenty years of his research in conflict-affected regions in India, and recently in Colombia.
- Book Launch
Hosted by the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity
Thursday 18 March 2021
Speakers: Masana Ndinga-Kanga, Ben Phillips,and Pedro Telles
Chair: Dr Armine Ishkanian
Inequality is the crisis of our time. The growing gap between a few at the top and the rest of society damages us all. No longer able to deny the crisis, governments across the globe have pledged to address it – and yet inequality keeps on getting worse. In his new book, How to Fight Inequality: and why that fight needs you, international anti-inequalities campaigner Ben Phillips discusses why winning the debate is not enough: we have to win the fight. Drawing on his insider experience, and his personal exchanges with activists and leaders of successful movements, Phillips shows how the battle against inequality has been won before, and shares a practical plan for defeating inequality again.
Precarious Work, COVID-19 and Latino Immigrants in the US
Thursday 25 February 2021
Speakers: Genoveva Roldán Dàvila, Paul Apostolidis, Patricia Pozos Rivera,and Juan de Lara
Chair: Daniela Castroa Alquicira
The Politics of Inequality: why should we focus on resistance from below?
Wednesday 27 January 2021
Speakers: Professor John Chalcroft, Dr Flora Cornish, Professor Ellen Helsper, Dr Armine Ishkanian, and Dr Sumi Madhok
Chair: Dr Alpa Shah
While it is now widely accepted that inequality is the defining issue of our time and there is growing research on the drivers and impacts of inequalities, there has been less focus on how inequalities are experienced and resisted by ordinary people and communities. The newly launched Politics of Inequality research programme at the International Inequalities Institute explores the practices of resistance, mobilisation, and contestation from a bottom-up perspective.
Oxfam Emergent Agency project launch
Thursday 12 November 2020
This event was part of the AFSEE Covid-19 Rapid Response Fund initiative
Speakers: Katherine Marshall, Laurence Cox,and Yogesh Kumar Ghore
Please click here for a summary about the meeting by Dr Duncan Green.
Research presentation by Anita Pena Saavedra (AFSEE Senior Fellow) based on AFSEE Covid-19 Rapid Response Fund project
Thursday 12 November 2020
Conversatorio: Pobladoras, Memoria y Resistencia: Reflexiones a partir de los derechos humanos y los feminismos (Jueves, 19 de noviembre de 2020 - 18:00 a 20:00 Hrs)