Events
The redistributive and regulatory role of the state
Join Southern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS) & Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) for the redistributive and regulatory role of the state webinar on 15 Nov
Please join our panel of distinguished speakers Prof Sarah Cook (Southern Centre for Inequality Studies), Dr Abigail Osiki (University of the Western Cape), Ms Mery Laura Perdomo Ospina (ILAW Network), and Dr Ruth Caste-Branco (Southern Centre for Inequality Studies) as they discuss among others:
- How social policy can respond to the changing world of work(ers)?
- How the state can extend public services and social protections to historically marginalized sectors?
- What are the possibilities and limitations of the redistributive role of the state?
Ms Seipati Mokhema (Southern Centre for Inequality Studies) will chair what promises to be a robust engagement
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Wealth Inequality & Elites International Workshop
Join the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at this workshop.
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Book launch: Capital Order, How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism
SCIS invites you to a launch of Professor Clara E. Mattei's book, Capital Order, How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism on 23 March 2023
Clara E. Mattei is an Associate Professor in Economics at The New School for Social Research of New York City and was a member of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton in 2018-2019.
Her research focuses on the relationship between fiscal, monetary, and industrial policies in contemporary capitalism. In particular, she studies the logic of austerity policies and how they shape our society.
Her recent book, Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism (University of Chicago Press, November 2022) has received widespread acclamation: A Financial Times Best Book of the Year “A must-read, with key lessons for the future.”—Thomas Piketty
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Post-Covid Economic Recovery Learning Series
Dismantling power asymmetries in the global financial infrastructure: Pathways towards a democratic and economically just recovery
SCIS invites you to the Dismantling power asymmetries in the global financial infrastructure: Pathways towards a democratic and economically just recovery webinar on 20 April, 14:00-15:30 (SAST).
This is the first of three learning sessions in the Post-Covid Economic Recovery Learning Series. The overarching objective of this learning series is to influence the international development policy discourse based on the experiences of economies and countries in the global South and to dismantle narratives that have historically deprived communities of the necessary resources for addressing the multiple social and economic challenges that they face.
The learning series will attempt to answer some of the following questions:
- How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the social and economic landscape of countries in the global South (e.g. economic growth, public finance, poverty and inequality, gender equality, and employment)?
- What are the gaps between what is being discussed at the international level and the reality of what communities are experiencing on the ground?
- What policies are required for protecting livelihoods and building resilient economies in a post-Covid-19 economic recovery?
The Post-Covid Economic Recovery Learning Series is a collaboration of the Ford Foundation Plus Fund Initiative for Economic and the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies.
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International Conference on New Technologies and the Future of Work in the Global South
The three-day New Technologies & the Future of Work in the Global South International Conference will take place from 17-19 July 2023, in New Delhi.
The Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at Wits, in partnership with the Institute for Human Development and the International Labour Organisation, are organising a three-day international conference themed New Technologies and the Future of Work in the Global South. The conference is scheduled for 17-19 July 2023, in New Delhi. Click this link for more information. Enquiries: Robin.Drennan@wits.ac.za.
The conference aims to address some important issues and concerns in the wake of technological change and emerging forms of work which have important implications for the future of work and for workers. Apart from academics, scholars and experts from policymaking, civil society, industry, worker's organisations and international organisations will contribute to the deliberations of the three-day Conference.
Research papers related to the conference theme, underpinned by the core question of how to address the issue through the right mix of strategies and policies, are invited from scholars and researchers, from both Global South and North.
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Post-Covid Economic Recovery Learning Series: Towards a Gender Just and Caring Economy
Towards a Gender Just and Caring Economy
The Southern Centre for Inequality Studies invites you to the second learning session titled: Towards a Gender Just and Caring Economy. It will focus on the experiences of women and members of the LGBTQIA community and the strategies and opportunities for achieving gender equality in the post-covid recovery. The webinar will take place on 25 May, 14:00-15:30 (SAST).
This is the second of three learning sessions in the Post-Covid Economic Recovery Learning Series. The session will explore issues around employment, land, and livelihoods. It will also look at the importance of a caring economy and the disproportionate and gendered nature of how care is provided and accessed in the global South.
The overarching objective of the Post-Covid Economic Recovery Learning Series is to influence the international development policy discourse based on the experiences of economies and countries in the global South and to dismantle narratives that have historically deprived communities of the necessary resources for addressing the multiple social and economic challenges that they face.
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Professor Keith Hart: Africa and Europe at the Crossroads
SCIS invites you to a hybrid Lunchtime Seminar: Africa and Europe at the Crossroads to be presented by Professor Keith Hart on 16 May, 13:00 - 14:30 (SAST).
Africa and Europe at the Crossroads
https://www.academia.edu/99925313/Africa_and_Europe_at_the_Crossroads
Africa and Europe are actors in a three-act drama: the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. In 1900 Europe had 25% of the world’s population, Africa 7.5%. In 2100 Africa will have 40%, Europe 6%. The EU’s institutional defects -- its inability to resolve its monetary, economic and political problems -- point to inevitable decline, while Africa’s prospects in an aging world have never been more promising. Africa doubled its population since 1900 in an urban revolution. Its disparate regions now converge on the model of the Old Regime and are ripe for liberal revolution. Fragmented nation-states need to build more effective regional trade federations. African exports, apart from minerals, should focus on supplying the rapidly expanding world market for cultural services. A recent World Bank/IMF conference focused on global demographic change: India now surpasses China, and in 2100 half the world’s children will be African. The Asian exporters already plan for this future, but the West is nostalgic for the world its racist empires once made.
Professor Keith Hart
Keith Hart is Professor of Anthropology Emeritus, Goldsmiths, University of London. He is a full-time writer who has lived and worked in 24 countries on four continents. He has homes in Paris and Durban. Keith believes that engaged intellectuals should try to understand and shape emergent world society. He was Distinguished Visiting Professor at Wits School of Social Sciences (2007); Honorary Professor in the School of Social Development, UKZN (2008-13); and Co-founder and International Director of the Human Economy Programme, University of Pretoria (2011-18).
Self in the World https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/HartSelf can be purchased through Ike’s Books, Durban https://ikesbooks.com/. An inspection copy is available in the Department of Anthropology. A colourful Lagos interview with an African slant is at https://bordersliteratureonline.net/globaldetails/keith_hart. For more information, see his website at https://keithhart.academia.edu/.
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Green Transition for Whom? Strategies for achieving climate-resilient economies in the global South
Green Transition for Whom? Strategies for achieving climate-resilient economies in the global South
The Southern Centre for Inequality Studies invites you to the third and final learning session titled: Green Transition for Whom? Strategies for achieving climate-resilient economies in the global South.
The webinar will take place on 22 June, 14:00 - 15:30 (SAST). It will be available in English, Spanish, and French languages.
This learning session will reflect on the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on efforts towards sustainable development in the global South, and the key strategies for achieving a green transition based on the multiple challenges currently facing individuals and communities in these regions. By centering the experiences of women, youth, and communities in the global South, the session takes an alternative approach from the top-down policy recommendations which have dominated the sustainable development discourse.
The session seeks to answer the following question: What would a green, just and inclusive recovery look like based on the experiences of communities and economies in the global South?
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South Africa's Spending Choices
UNICEF and SCIS' Public Economy Project (PEP) invite you to a public seminar titled South Africa's Spending Choices on 27 June from 09:30 to 13:00
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS) Public Economy Project (PEP) invite you to a public seminar reflecting on “South Africa’s Spending Choices: a review of the 2023 Budget”.
The overall objective of the seminar is to explore and debate South Africa’s 2023 macro-fiscal framework and spending choices to address poverty, inequality, and socio-economic rights ahead of the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement in October.
The seminar will provide a forum for participants to share the main trends in the expenditure of the South African budget and their implications for public services and the realisation of socio-economic rights.
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Is Inequality Causing Pandemics and, If So, How?
SCIS invites you to a seminar by Dr Matthew Kavanagh titled Is Inequality Causing Pandemics and, If So, How? on 4 July (15:00 - 16:30)
About the seminar:
We are living through multi-pandemic era with rising inequality. Outbreaks from COVID-19 to MPox quickly spread around the world, HIV remains a pandemic we seem not to be able to shake. This comes at a time of mounting inequality within countries and very specific forms of geopolitical inequality between countries. Are these two realities linked? Exploring the economic, social, and political drivers of pandemics, this talk lays out what we know, what we're struggling to know, and the urgency of an inequality-busting rather than inequality-reinforcing approach to pandemic preparedness.
About the speaker:
Matthew Kavanagh, PhD, is the Director of the UNAIDS-Georgetown University Collaborating Centre on HIV Policy and Inequality and special advisor to the Executive Director of UNAIDS. A political scientist by training, he also leads the HIV Policy Lab working to empirically understand and politically shift the policy environment for tackling pandemics.
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Recasting Workers’ Power: Work and Inequality In the Shadow of the Digital Age
SCIS and FES invite you to the launch of Edward Webster and Lynford Dor's book - Recasting Workers’ Power; Work and Inequality in the Shadow of the Digital Age
Join the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung for a hybrid book launch of Emeritus Professor Edward Webster and Lynford Dor's recently published book: Recasting Workers' Power: Work and Inequality in the Shadow of the Digital Age (Bristol University Press / Wits University Press)
There is a widespread view that labour as a counter-hegemonic force has come to an end. This theoretically innovative book based on ground-breaking field work challenges this pessimistic “End of Labour Thesis”. Drawing on labour process theory and the power resources approach the book shows how the power of workers’ is recast as work is restructured. As capital overcomes obstacles to accumulation through various fixes, the working class and its organisations are restructured . By highlighting the struggles of largely precarious and informal workers in sub-Saharan Africa, the book clearly articulates the challenges workers face but suggests some grounds for optimism in the new and hybrid forms of organisation emerging on the shadows of the digital age.
The question raised by these findings is whether these embryonic forms of worker organisation – what the authors call the “Southern trend” – are sustainable and could become the foundations for a new cycle of worker solidarity and union growth. Despite the changes brought about by globalisation and digitalisation, the book shows how informal solidaristic groups among workers continue.
The authors conclude that if traditional unions continue to focus on those workers in stable jobs the growing number of precarious workers will be left without a voice and will have to build their power afresh. The result will be deepening inequality and a diverging labour movement. What has been called “dualization” will shape Southern labour’s future
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Annual Lecture: Recent changes in the global income distribution and their political implications
SCIS invites you to the 2023 Annual Inequality Lecture to be presented by Professor Branko Milanovic
Professor Branko Milanovic will present the 2023 lecture titled Recent changes in the global income distribution and their political implications. The online lecture will take place on September 19th, 16:30 - 18:00 (SAST)
Professor Milanovic will discuss the evolution in global inequality over the past two centuries, with a focus on the most recent 2008-2018 estimates, and will draw political implications of the important changes that are taking place in the global distribution of income. In particular, it will focus on the rise of the middle class in Asia, income stagnation of the rich countries’ middle classes, reshuffling of global income positions, and the emergence of the global plutocracy. It will discuss possible future evolution of global inequality in which the roles of India and large African countries will become increasingly important.
Branko Milanovic is a Research Professor at the Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY), Senior Scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-economic Inequality at CUNY, and Visiting Professor at the Institute for International Inequalities at the London School of Economics. His main area of work is income inequality, in individual countries and globally, including in pre-industrial societies.
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