INET-YSI South Asia Regional Conference on Social Change

INET-YSI South Asia Regional Conference on Social Change

Understanding and Addressing Emerging Inequalities in the 21st Century in South Asia

Background

Inequality has long been a critical issue in global discourse, but its nature and scope are rapidly evolving in the 21st century. While income inequality has been rising within many countries in recent decades, inequality between countries has been falling, thanks to the rise of faster-growing emerging economies that are narrowing the income gap with advanced economies. As the world grapples with rapid technological advancements, demographic shifts, environmental challenges, and governance transformations, new forms of inequality are emerging. These inequalities are not confined to traditional markers like income or wealth but are expanding to include disparities in technology access, information flow, life-course disparities, ageing populations, well-being, urbanization, ecological sustainability, agriculture, and governance and law. Considering the rising inequalities across race, religion, social group, gender, geographic location, educational category, occupational type, etc., across many parts of the world, this conference aims to explore the multifaceted dimensions of emerging inequalities, highlight their interconnected nature, and propose strategies for mitigating their impacts to promote inclusive and sustainable development.

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), is organizing a conference for young research scholars (PhD scholars and early career scholars/assistant professors within three years of their PhD) during 24^th to 26^th  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:

1. 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.
2. Governance and Legal Inequalities: Access to justice, legal representation, transparency in governance, and inequality in political participation.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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 PhD scholars and Early Career Researchers/Assistant Professors (within three years of their PhD) 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 travel support 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.
• Submissions of work in progress are also welcome.
• 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: 31st December 2024 [Extended Deadline]
• Selected participants notified of acceptance:  20 January 2025
• Dates of the Conference: 24^th -26^th February 2025
• Venue: Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru

Conference Speakers/Experts: 

• Ajay Bailey
  Professor & Head of Department
  Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning
  Chair in Social Urban Transitions
  Utrecht University, The Netherlands
• A.K. Enamul Haque
  Professor at East West University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  Board Members and Advisor, SANDEE
• Amitabh Kundu
  Professor Emeritus, LJ University
  Visiting Professor, Maulana Azad National Urdu University
  Former Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
• Barbara Harriss-White
  Professor & Senior Research Fellow
  School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies
  Professor Emeritus of Development Studies
  Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College, University of Oxford
  
• Kripa Ananth Pur
  Former Professor, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
• Pijush Kumar Dutta
  Associate Professor, Azim Premji University, 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:  isec-sarc@youngscholarsinitiative.org