UNRISD is hosting a two-day closed seminar on the “Social and Political Dimensions of Inequality” at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, on June 16 – 17 2008.
The seminar will present some research findings of the European Research Consortium on "Inequality: Mechanisms, Effects and Policies" (INEQ). INEQ is financed by the European Commission, and comprises research institutes from five European countries including UNRISD. The research project on inequality is part of the VI European Research Framework Programme “Citizens and Governance in a Knowledge-Based Society”. It aims at investigating the economic and social mechanisms that are producing inequality within European countries and in the European Union as a whole and make for its persistence; investigating the effects inequality has on economic performance and social integration in Europe; identifying policies – both at national and EU level – capable of reducing economic inequality, fostering social cohesion and sustaining competitiveness in the global economy.
The seminar will concentrate on three aspects of the research on inequality: activism associated with North-South inequality and its policy impacts, gender and migration. During the first session on migration, research focusing on the impacts on employment and inequality in EU Neighbouring Countries from the University of Paris Dauphine will be presented. The University of Milan and CRISS will lead the session on gender, by presenting their research findings on gender and ethnic inequalities. Lastly, research findings on activism from UNRISD will focus on the changing dynamics of civil society advocacy and policy influence, and, in particular, how civil society actors in France and the United Kingdom that are intent on challenging neo-liberalism, correcting gross imbalances in North-South inequality and struggling for more inclusive patterns of development, are responding and attempting to bring about policy and legal reforms.