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Inequality and Elite Power: What Is the Problem and What Can Be Done?

When: Wednesday, 19 February 2025 - Wednesday, 19 February 2025
Where: Hybrid Event
Parktown Management Campus
SCIS Annex Lecture Theatre, Annex (Opposite North Lodge Building), Parktown Management Campus
Start time:13:00
Enquiries:

asanda.mbhele@wits.ac.za

 

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Cost: Free but registration is required as space is limited!

SCIS invites you to a round table discussion on Inequality and Elite Power: What Is the Problem, and What Can Be Done? on 19 Feb 2025, 13:00 - 14:30 (SAST).

The Wealth Inequality and Elites research stream invites you to a roundtable titled Inequality and Elite Power: What Is the Problem and What Can Be Done?

About the project:
Inequalities and the elite capture of economic and political power threaten democratic governance and social cohesion globally. The increasing concentration of wealth and income at the top creates fractures and biases in our economic and political systems, undermining social progress, inclusive societies and sustainable development (Hujo and Carter 2022, 4). Yet, despite the terrible toll of inequality, there remain considerable gaps in research and knowledge on the group of actors responsible: elites.

Recognising this, the Economic and Social Research Council-funded project ‘Transnational elites and the reproduction of inequalities’ delves into the inner workings of elite network building within business communities—key mechanisms of elite formation and consolidation. This project focuses on three critical dimensions: the intermediaries who train wealthy members of a global leadership organisation in appropriate behaviour, the new sites and forms of elite cohesion the organisation reveals, and the role of the family in driving elite reproduction and consolidation.

The project invites you to this public roundtable to discuss the role and influence of elite cohesion, identity formation and reproduction in India and South Africa with the aim of understanding the actors and relationships driving inequalities, critical if we are to build a more equitable and just future.

Meet our panel of experts and scholars:

  • Ujithra Ponniah - Senior Researcher at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS) on the ‘Wealth Inequality and Elites’ research stream. 
  • Maggie Carter - Senior Research Analyst at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) in the Transformative Social Policy Programme. 
  • Katja Hujo -  Head of the UNRISD Bonn office and leads the Transformative Social Policy Program. 
  • Masana Mulaudzi -  Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity and a South African political economist.
  • Seeraj Mohamed - Deputy Director for Economics in the South African Parliamentary Budget Office and Adjunct Professor in the School of Government at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). 

Register: Public Roundtable registration link.

 

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