Social Science Research Council

Persistent inequalities are among the principal challenges confronting contemporary societies. Whether measured in terms of economic resources, political power or social status, inequalities in the distribution of assets powerfully affect the life chances of individuals throughout the world, and undermine efforts to forge more integrated social and political orders. Phenomena of inequality, and the reproduction of inequalities over time, are central concerns of an initiative being developed at the Council. Work on "paradoxical inequalities" in the Latin America region is being carried out in collaboration with Princeton University and a consortium of researchers in the Andes and Central America. These efforts seek to illuminate the social processes through which situations of inequality are sustained or mitigated in different contexts, and highlight the puzzle of persistence of inequalities amidst concerted efforts to overcome them.

To this end, a group of over twenty historically-minded social scientists from across the Americas will convene in Princeton in May of 2006 to think about alternative approaches to understanding inequality in Latin America. This initial workshop will be followed by two subsequent colloquia in the Fall of 2006 and Spring of 2007 in which participants will present a series of draft papers based on their research framed by these early discussions. These papers will ultimately culminate in an anthology of broad-gauged and integrated essays that promises to expand our understanding of both Latin America and the historical processes of inequality.

Meanwhile, in an effort to extend the SSRC-Princeton initiative to regions beyond Latin America, and to grapple with factors that may prove especially useful for cross-regional analyses of inequalities, the Council also organizes workshops to explore the state of research on the nexus between inequalities and violence, and on the intersections of agrarian change and persistent inequality. One such meeting, held in April 2005 at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, brought together specialists on conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, as well as on Latin America, and generated stimulating recommendations for follow-up work that would consider how inequalities foster violence, how conflicts alter the landscape of inequalities, and how post-conflict settlements may impinge on inequalities.