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What is inequality? How can we measure it? Inequality and the fight against it make up a huge proportion of the political debate, both in this country and globally. However, pinning down exactly what we mean when we say inequality is an essential step towards understanding it, and being able to think about how to address it in many areas of daily life.
Why Measures Matters: A Brief History of Inequality and the Unexpected Outcomes of Quantifying It
Poornima Paidipaty
(Philomathia Research Associate)
Between 2014 and 2017, Poornima worked with Dr Ramos Pinto on his project ‘The Measure of Inequality: Social knowledge in Historical Perspective’. In her talk, she will discuss the history of metrics and how the use of metrics can exacerbate inequality.
Inequality and crime – where and how differences appear and why they matter
Alex Sutherland
(Senior Research Leader at RAND Europe)
This talk takes a walk through the many and varied ways that inequalities relate to crime and criminal justice. Starting from where people are born, where they grow up, to what happens at school, and how people are treated by the criminal justice process. The talk will cover ideas from different disciplines that converge on the topics of crime and criminal justice, and discuss policies relating to these topics. Along the way, we’ll ask ourselves what crime is and think about what an equitable criminal justice system might look like.
Does Inequality Matter?
Mark Ramsden
(Lecturer in Sociology)
In recent years, a general consensus has developed that inequality is not good for society. But, can you explain why inequality is bad? This session will begin with an introduction to some examples of inequality. Attention will then be focused on considering if inequality is bad for society. It is intended that the audience will actively participate in developing an argument to explain why inequality might be bad, or not.
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