In contrast to the prediction of mainstream economists, African wealth and income inequality, while already being among the highest in the world, is worsening. Government responses in Sub-Saharan Africa have often exacerbated this crisis by cutting public spending on social services such as health, education, and water. Inequality issues have thus become increasingly important in academic and policy circles. However, while there is a wide range of literature on the historical roots of both current economic performance as well as inequality in Africa, research on wealth inequalities in Africa remains limited. The wealth divide is important to understanding inequality because it is a product of and feeds into the maldistribution of income".
The summer school therefore aims to enhance capacities and share research on understanding wealth, the influence of neoliberal and other policies as drivers of wealth (in)equality, different forms of inequalities, methods for data collection, measuring and analyzing inequalities, and understanding the nexus between inequalities and conflict. Specific attention will be paid to the drivers of wealth inequality including class, gender, displacement, persons with disability, and the rural-urban divide. By the end of the summer school, participants will be able to collaboratively develop interdisciplinary research designs to contribute to the understanding, analysing, measuring, and reporting of the gender-disaggregated data on wealth inequality and the implications of wealth inequalities to policy and practice.
As part of the outputs, participants will collectively draft blog posts and policy briefs reflecting on the summer school’s experiential learning, which will be published on the IfSO blog. Participants will work in groups with established researchers from the US, Europe, and Africa to develop, write, and publish a paper or chapter on a wealth-related subject. Finally, the participants will help to develop a plan to institutionalize the study of wealth, wealth inequality, and related policy initiatives in the curriculum of their university or department.
Dates 16-22 September 2024
Venue: Senate Conference Hall, Senate Building Level 4
