FORMS OF INEQUALITY AND THE LEGITIMACY OF GOVERNANCE

International Interdisciplinary Conference on “FORMS OF INEQUALITY AND THE LEGITIMACY OF GOVERNANCE”.

Montecatini Terme, Tuscany, Italy – 28-31 July 2023

CALL FOR PAPERS & PANELS

This 4-day International Conference is organized by the International Urban Symposium-IUS. It will bring together junior and senior scholars from around the world, who will present their work based on ethnographic knowledge on Forms of Inequality and the Legitimacy of Governance.

Mainstream publications have recently addressed inequalities in health, income, education, labour market and competition, and the gaps between different parts of a country – often worsened by the effects of stereotype and stigma. While concern with inequalities stays at the forefront of today’s policy debates, worldwide, equality of opportunities, of access to resources, to compete continues to be a utopia. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed pre-existing inequalities, often bringing out graphically the ramified ways in which they – individually or in combination – threaten the very fabric of the economic, social and political system. Our analysis needs to recognize the nature and interconnections between different forms of inequality and investigate the major forces combining to create inequalities.

With a keen eye on citizens’ rights and their betrayal, the Conference aims to address variations of inequality across the world, the socio-economic, fiscal, legislative and political forces that determine them and the efficacy and legitimacy of the policies implemented to tackle them. In view of the fundamental distinction between equality and levelling argued comparatively in Urban Inequalities: Ethnographically Informed Reflections (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), we invite scholars from the social sciences to participate in this event with ethnographically based papers to address key topics in this field.

Key Topics:

• Employment, Unemployment and Work, including the "gig economy", digital work and the inequalities between the "guaranteed" who enjoy secure employement and the "non-guaranteed" (e.g., the self-employed, the small entrepreneurs, causal/temporary contracts);
• Economic and Non-economic resources;
• Access to Credit (individual and national);
• Healthcare and Public Health;
• Housing: accessibility, financialization;
• Gentrification;
• Education and Educational Opportunities;
• Regional Disparities;

Deadline for Paper and Panel Proposals: Monday 13 March 2023.

Further Information and Registration Details and are available at: https://www.internationalurbansymposium.com/events/2023-2/‎‎