Economic Inequalities and Sustainability
Abstract
Program
Team
References
Abstract
Economic inequality, in some quarters, continues to be justified for the incentives it generates for economic growth. Recent literature however questions this premise, pointing to the adverse consequences of high inequality for sustaining development. Further, the anticipation that economic inequality in developing regions will reduce after reaching a particular threshold level of income as suggested by Kuznets, has been belied by recent trends. Both within countries and international inequalities have been widening since the second half of the 20th century. Such macro trends have micro and meso level implications. Who gains and who loses? Why and how are gains of economic growth unevenly spread? How do economic, social and political institutions mediate this process? Importantly, such inequalities also interact and constrain the pathways for ecological sustainability?
What are the pathways through which inequality undermines livelihoods and ecologies? On another register, if uneven development is an inherent feature of capitalist growth process, how does this unevenness intersect with other sources of vulnerability such as caste, gender and religion? Does the inequality-generative logic of new growth processes different from earlier growth regimes? If yes, how? This workshop will address key aspects of these dimensions of inequality. In addition, the sessions will also focus on explaining measures of inequalities across social groups, space and gender in India. Emphasis will be placed on interpretations of such measures and the limitations of standard measures. Qualitative methods that focus on poverty producing processes and how they can complement quantitative metrics of poverty will also be discussed.
Program
TUE, 29 NOV
09:30 – 10:00 | Opening speech, Introduction and objectives of the workshop, Presentation of trainers and participants
10:00 – 11:00 | Introduction to inequality measurements – Jalil Nordman, Arnaud Natal
11:00 – 11:15 | break
11:15 – 12:30 | Example of longitudinal surveys: Palanpur case study – Himanshu
12:30 – 01:30 | Lunch
01:30 – 03:00 | Example of longitudinal surveys: Palanpur case study & Discussions – Himanshu
03:00 – 03:15 | break
03:15 – 05:30 | Introduction to inequality issues in Tamil Nadu – M. Vijaybaskar
WED, 30 NOV
09:30 – 11:00 | Focus on Tamil Nadu: Context, concepts and introduction to household surveys in Tamil Nadu – Jalil Nordman, Venkatasubramanian, Ajit Menon, M. Vijayabaskar
11:00 – 11:15 | break
11:15 – 12:30 | The NEEMSIS survey: an example of longitudinal data collection tool & Projection of a documentary – Jalil Nordman, Venkatasubramanian
12:30 – 01:30 | Lunch
01:30 – 03:00 | The NEEMSIS survey: an example of longitudinal data collection tool Methods of analysis and some results – Venkatasubramanian, Vijayabaskar, Ajit Menon
03:00 – 03:15 | break
03:15 – 05:30 | Student exercises on measurement using the NEEMSIS survey – Arnaud Natal, Jalil Nordman, Cécile Mouchel
THU, 01 DEC
09:30 – 11:00 | Commons, Sustainability and Equity: Some Issues in Conception and Measurement – Priya Sangameswaran, Ajit Menon
11:00 – 11:15 | break
11:15 – 12:30 | Commons, Sustainability and Equity: Some Issues in Conception and Measurement – Priya Sangameswaran, Ajit Menon
12:30 – 01:30 | Lunch
01:30 – 03:00 | Groupwork preparation
03:00 – 03:15 | break
03:15 – 05:30 | Groupwork preparation
FRI, 02 DEC
09:30 – 11:00 | Groupwork preparation
11:00 – 11:15 | break
11:15 – 12:30 | Groupwork presentation preparation
12:30 – 01:30 | Lunch
The afternoon will be dedicated to the presentation and discussion of each workshop groupwork.
Team
Coordinators
Ajit Menon, Professor, Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), Chennai
Christophe Jalil Nordman, Economist, Research Director with French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD-DIAL, Paris, France), IFP Research associate (Pondicherry, India)
M. Vijayabaskar, Professor, Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS), Chennai
Invited tutors
Himanshu, Professor, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, JNU, New Delhi
Priya Sangameswaran, Associate Professor, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta.
G. Venkatatasubramanian, Researcher, French Institute of Pondicherry, Pondicherry
Arnaud Natal, Assistant researcher, University of Bordeaux and French Institute of Pondicherry, Pondicherry
References
Lele, S. and Norgaard, R.B. 1996. “Sustainability and the Scientist’s Burden”. Conservation Biology 10(2), 354-365.https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1996.10020354.x
Mosse, David. 1997. “The Symbolic Making of a Common Property Resource: History, Ecology and Locality in a Tank-irrigated Landscape in South India”. Development and Change’ 28(3), 467-504.https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-7660.00051
Guérin, I., Mouchel, C., Nordman, C.J. (2022). “With a Little Help From My Friends? Surviving the Lockdown Using Social Networks in Rural South India”, South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal (SAMAJ), forthcoming.
Guérin, I., Michiels, S., Natal, A., Nordman C.J., Venkatasubramanian, G. (2022). “Surviving Debt, Survival Debt in Times of Lockdown”, Economic and Political Weekly, 57(1), January, pp. 41-49.
Michiels, S., Nordman C.J., Seetahul, S. (2021). “Many Rivers to Cross: Social Identity, Cognition and Labour Mobility in Rural India”, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 697(1), pp. 66–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027162211055990
Guérin I., Nordman C.J., Reboul, E. (2021). “The Gender of Debt and Credit: Insights from Rural Tamil Nadu”, World Development, 142, p. 105363, June: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105363
Guérin, I., Lanos, Y., Michiels, S., Nordman, C.J., Venkata., G. (2017). “Understanding Social Networks and Social Protection: Insights on Demonetisation from Rural Tamil Nadu”, Economic and Political Weekly, 52(50), pp. 44-53.
Vijayabaskar, M (2017), The Agrarian Question amidst Popular Welfare: Interpreting Tamil Nadu’s Emerging Rural Economy, Economic and Political Weekly; 52/46: 67-72