CONFERENCES ▼

「02. Annual BAGSS Conference

"INEQUALITIES"

29 - 30 September 2015. Bamberg, Germany

A CONFERENCE ORGANIZED BY GRADUATE STUDENTS FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS

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// A WORD FROM THE DIRECTOR

▐  Inequality is a defining issue across all sciences. Whether we are chemists, biologists, economists, psychologists, sociologists or political scientists, establishing similarities and differences between objects – measurement – is a key part of our professional endeavours. And measurement involves inequalities of more or less.

   Beyond narrow methodological issues, inequality may even be a constitutive element for the social and human sciences. Humans are unequal in terms of their genetic make-up; ethnicity; gender; faith; intelligence; skills; economic resources; education; status; social networks; power or other factors. Many classical authors of our disciplines sought to understand the causes, correlates and consequences of inequality – Karl Marx, Max Weber, Gaetano Mosca, Vilfredo Pareto, Roberto Michels or David Ricardo are some obvious examples. There is little doubt that, after decades of expanding welfare states, serious social and economic inequality is on the rise again even in very affluent societies. During the past decade or so income inequality has increased rather than decreased in many advanced post-industrial societies. Global migration is creating a new underclass of excluded people in many countries – from the Arab Gulf to North America and Europe. Discrimination on religious or ethnic grounds is very much back on the international agenda. So is self-imposed segregation. And the “Eurocrisis” demonstrated the differences between powerful and powerless states in the European Union.

   Inequalities may have ‘objective’ sources such as people’s, organisations’ or states’ innate abilities or access to natural resources. At the same time they are often influenced by ‘social’ factors, for example prejudice, exclusion or discrimination related, amongst others, to class background, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. Inequalities may also be the result of the ability to organise collective action, mobilise resources and jointly advance our goals.

   The link between social background factors and occupational opportunities, income, happiness or life expectancy, for example, have been important areas of research for empirical and normative scholars alike. Scholars in the former tradition have sought to explain such inequalities. The latter, normative theorists in particular, have sought to develop criteria to evaluate normative arguments about, and justifications of, inequality, fairness or justice. Not least, strategic theorists have developed models to explain why sometimes, and counter-intuitively, seemingly powerless “Davids” have been successful in defeating overwhelmingly resource- and powerful “Goliaths”, e.g., in wars, coalition negotiations or international relations.

   The social and political sources of inequality are one dimension of our concerns. Inequality may also have consequences for our individual and collective outcomes. For example, students of voting behaviour in political science have shown how differences in class or ethnic background shape our readiness to participate in elections – and the parties we support. They have shown how social change has reduced our emotional attachment to political parties, trades unions or churches. Beyond implications for individual behaviour, inequalities may affect whole societies: Meritocratic societies with low levels of corruption as well as social and political discrimination are often said to be more innovative than others. Societies that have managed to tame the conflict between the powerful and the powerless through institutions and the rule of law have flourished while societies based on the arbitrary rule of brute and unpredictable power have perished.

   The topic of inequality is therefore uniquely suited to challenge the minds and creativity of younger as well as experienced scholars in a multi-disciplinary graduate school such as BAGSS. It cuts across disciplines. At the same time it poses difficult problems of measurement and research design. Most importantly, perhaps, this theme links empirical work to important normative concerns.  It shows unmistakeably why strong social sciences are important for highly diversified, open societies. The papers accepted for presentation at the second Annual BAGSS Conference reflect the diversity of relevant approaches and demonstrate the promise of the next generation of researchers seeking to tackle such crucial issues.

__ Thomas Saalfeld, Director of the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences

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Image Credits: © Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences