Rethinking Inequality In a Changing Global Order

Persistent and widening inequalities are widely recognized as among the most pressing challenges facing the world today. Disparities in wealth and income have historically increased in many countries, limiting progress in poverty reduction and sustainable development. This session aims to bring together scholars examining the structures, mechanisms, and consequences of inequality in an increasingly interconnected world.

Global inequality continues to shape economic, political, and social life across regions. Despite expanding global markets and intensified transnational flows, disparities in wealth, labor conditions, mobility, and access to resources persist—and in many cases these have deepened. At the same time, efforts to end discrimination and to expand equal rights for marginalized groups have encountered backlashes in many regions.

This session seeks to explore how global, national, and local processes intersect with transforming geopolitical configurations, contending ideologies, and interdependent economic, ecological, technological, cultural and governance institutions.

We welcome theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions that address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Transnational production networks and unequal economic integration
• Global labor markets, international unionism, migration, and precarity
• Inequality in the digital economy and platform capitalism
• Colonial legacies, development regimes, and structural dependency
• Environmental inequality and climate justice
• Gendered, racialized, and ethnic dimensions of global inequality
• Comparative analyses of welfare regimes and social protection
• Shifting educational institutions and their impact on inequality
• New methodological approaches to studying inequality across borders
• Global class and race relations