Perceptions of Inequality: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue

Our Ford Foundation-funded Inequality Seminar, Perceptions of Inequality: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue, hosted by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH), took place over two days at St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford, in June 2016. Participants were asked to circulate a reading in advance and to prepare a 8-10 minute presentation, on the way that inequality has been theorised in the speaker’s own discipline, the broader field of inequality studies across disciplines, and the key factors of, and challenges to, local, national and global inequality both today and in the future. This two-day interdisciplinary workshop formed a thoughtful, interdisciplinary investigation of inequality by scholars with a range of insights and expertise, whose work relates to inequality, its drivers and representations. There were a small number of postgraduate students present, based at Oxford and from across a range of disciplines (particularly within the humanities and social sciences), who offered commentary in the roundtable session and in writing after the event. In drawing together this community of scholars, we facilitated a concentrated discussion on inequality, considering how diverse disciplines understand and deal with this phenomenon, so that a more complex set of solutions can emerge. Our hope is that this will stimulate engagement and debate beyond the event, and create channels through which scholars can explore causes, implications and potential solutions.