Interdependent Inequalities in Latin America: Structures and Negotiations

Project description

Latin America is critical for understanding social inequalities for two seemingly contradictory reasons: On the one hand, it constitutes the most unequal region of the world. At the same time, however, it is the only region in which a reduction in inequalities in some selected countries in the past 20 years can be observed. Against this background, desiguALdades.net is developing further on the interdependent inequalities approach to understanding social inequalities in Latin America at both the macro and micro levels.
 
On the macro level we defined three clusters which our previous research on the role of global entanglements in structuring social inequalities has identified as contributing to the persistence or even the increase of social inequalities and, nevertheless, as having the potential to decrease them: global social stratification, the limits to distribution, and the valorization of nature. The German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) contributes actively to the clusters on limits to distribution and on valorisation of nature.

To demonstrate the usefulness of the concepts developed within the interdependent inequalities approach, five focal studies will be conducted at the micro level. These studies examine the linkages between global and transregional processes and local negotiations in specific empirical topics; DIE contributes with a study on REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) in Peru.

desiguALdades.net is an interdisciplinary, international, and multi-institutional research network on interdependent inequalities in Latin America. It brings together experts on social inequalities and experts on Latin America and involves scholars from a wide variety of disciplines from universities and non-university research institutions in Latin America, Europe and North America. The network is coordinated by Lateinamerika-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin (LAI, Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin), Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (IAI, Ibero-American Institute of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Berlin), GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies (Hamburg) and DIE.

During the first phase (2009-2014) of the project, knowledge on a wide variety of topics related to interdependent inequalities affecting Latin America was produced and a network of researchers on social inequalities was consolidated in order to analyse the global structuration und multidimensionality of interdependent social inequalities in Latin America. In the second phase (2014-2016), desiguALdades.net focuses on the discrepancies between these global configurations and national scenarios of bargaining processes concerning social inequalities.

This will be addressed by a research strategy which consists of three clusters, in which we develop a comprehensive synthesis of the interdependent inequalities approach (Cluster A Global Structuration of Inequality; Cluster B Limits to Distribution; Cluster C Valorisation of Nature). In each cluster, focal studies will be carried out to deepen some aspects which have not been highlighted yet.

desiguALdades.net is supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF, German Federal Ministry of Education and Research) in the frame of its funding line on area studies.

Events

TTIP: What are the implications for developing countries and rising powers?

Leaving no-one behind