Emerging inequalities in the 21st century pose a significant challenge to achieving equitable and sustainable development. These disparities—whether technological, informational, ecological, or governance-related—are deeply interconnected, requiring coordinated, multi-sectoral responses. By understanding and addressing these inequalities, we can work toward a more inclusive and just society where access to resources, opportunities, and well-being is equitable for all. Therefore, this conference aims to identify the drivers of emerging inequalities and to analyse the interconnected nature of these inequalities and their broader social, economic, and political implications. Further, it emphasizes vulnerable groups that are disproportionately affected by these emerging inequalities, such as women, rural populations, and low-income communities. As an outcome, it also expects policy interventions and inclusive growth strategies that can mitigate these disparities and promote equity across all dimensions.
With this background, the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru, in collaboration with the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) and Its Young Scholars Initiative (YSI), an initiative of the Institute of New Economics Thinking (INET), is organizing a conference for young research scholars (Ph.D. scholars and early career scholars within three years of their Ph.D.) during 24th to 26th of February 2025.
Selected participants will have an opportunity to attend the “Pre-conference Workshop on Measuring Inequalities” by international experts.
Thus, the proposed conference would deliberate on, but not limited to, the following subthemes:
- Ageing and Wellbeing Inequalities: Healthcare access, pension inequality, intergenerational equity, support for ageing populations, mental health disparities, healthcare access, work-life balance, and life satisfaction across socioeconomic groups.
- Governance and Legal Inequalities: Access to justice, legal representation, transparency in governance, and inequality in political participation.
- Digital and Information Inequalities: Unequal access to digital infrastructure, skills gap in technology use, and automation-related job displacement, misinformation, unequal access to knowledge, and the role of media and platforms in perpetuating disparities, technological inequality in agriculture, manufacturing, and service sectors.
- Spatial Inequities: Housing affordability, spatial segregation, infrastructure inequality, urban-rural disparities, land and market access, unequal distribution of resources and opportunities, health treatment among different geographical areas or regions, disparities in access to public facilities, and fair treatment based on location.
- Agriculture, Ecological and Environmental Inequalities: Unequal exposure to environmental hazards, access to clean resources, and climate resilience, the effects of climate change on smallholder farmers.
Prospective Participants:
We invite Ph.D. scholars and early career scholars (within three years of their Ph.D.) from South Asian countries to submit their papers. The selection of the participants will be based on the full papers and representation of the region.
Financial Support:
Selected participants will receive a travel stipend to travel within the South Asian region and accommodation to support their participation in the conference. Participants shall be responsible for arranging their visas, if necessary.
Paper Submission Guidelines:
- Scholars are required to submit a full paper for the conference, with a maximum of 8,000 words (excluding references and tables). The paper should provide sufficient details about the background of the study, theoretical considerations/assumptions, research questions, methodology, nature of evidence, conclusions, and implications, and 4-5 keywords.
- In addition to the full paper, Scholars are also required to submit an abstract of 300 words.
- The paper must be the original work of the scholars. All papers will be checked for originality using Turnitin/URKUND/DrillBit.
- All submissions must be in PDF format. The formatting should be done in Times New Roman font, size 12 for regular text and bold for headings, with 1.15 line spacing and justified alignment.
- The author’s name or affiliation should not be mentioned in the paper. The title of the paper should be used as the filename.
- Along with the full paper, scholars are also required to submit their latest Curriculum Vitae.
Dates & Venue:
- Last date for submission of full papers: 18 December 2024
- Selected participants notified of acceptance: 31 December 2024
- Dates of the Conference: 24th -26th February 2025
- Venue: Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru
Organizing Committee:
- Karthick V., Assistant Professor, Centre for Economic Studies and Policy, ISEC
- Arun Balachandran, Organizer, INET-YSI | Postdoctoral Researcher, Columbia University
- Christina Kujur, Organizer, INET-YSI | Doctoral Scholar, ISEC
- Bikram Barman, Coordinator, INET-YSI | Doctoral Scholar, ISEC & Utrecht University
Advisory Committee:
- D Rajasekhar, Professor & Director, ISEC
- S. Madheswaran, RBI Chair Professor & Head, Centre for Economic Studies and Policy, ISEC
- Sunanda Nair-Bidkar, Director, South Asia, INET
For any further information, please contact us: [email protected]
