Aaron Reeves

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Inequalities and Social Science. This course is not available as an outside option to students on other programmes.

The course will consider interdisciplinary approaches to inequality, focusing on (a) how inequality can be conceptualised and explained, (b) how it can be measured and (c) ethical and political issues. Topics to be covered include patterns and trends in economic inequalities; gender, ethnicity, class and age; cultural aspects of inequality; social and intergenerational mobility; global and comparative perspectives; media representation of inequalities; ethical and philosophical approaches; the impact of government, law and social policy.

LSE is currently evaluating the use of edit tracking tools for AI-resilient assessment. This course might use edit tracking tools for assessments.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

This course is usually delivered through a combination of lectures and seminars. There will be two hours or more of teaching each week in AT.

It is divided into blocks of related lectures and linked seminars.

Essay.

• Branko Milanovic, Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization (Harvard University Press, 2016)
• Hartley Dean and Lucinda Platt, Social Advantage and Disadvantage (Oxford, 2016)
• O'Neil, C. 2016 Weapons of Math Destruction. London: Allen Lane
• Kenworthy, Lane. Is Inequality the Problem? OUP USA, 2025.
• Shaheen, Faiza. Know Your Place. Simon & Schuster UK, 2023.
   

Quiz (10%) weekly.

Essay (90%, 3000 words) in January.

Attendance at all classes and submission of all set coursework is required.