Political Economy of Inequality in Africa
PASR X LuCAC
Junior Scholars' Workshop
August 14th and 15th, 2024
Lusaka, Zambia
The Program on African Social Research (PASR) invites proposals to participate in a Junior Scholars Workshop on the Political Economy of Inequality in Africa to be held on August 14th and 15th, 2024 at the Lusaka Contemporary Art Center (LuCAC) in Lusaka, Zambia. PASR will cover all travel-related expenses, including food and lodging during the workshop.
The study of inequality in Africa continues to attract researchers from across the humanities, social sciences and public health. The Covid 19 pandemic has added a new impetus to inequality studies given its disparate impacts within and between countries. Further, new approaches to the study of inequality, particularly in the social sciences, are posing challenging to standard theorizations of inequality as the just result of “merit-based” processes. These approaches, which are inter- and trans-disciplinary, have been spurred on by new analyses of data on the persistence of inequalities between groups (gender, race, ethnicity, countries).
We seek proposals on the broad theme of the Political Economy of Inequality in Africa. These can include theorizations of how and why different inequalities arise or descriptive/statistical analyses of new ways of documenting inequality in Africa. We are particularly interested in understandings of inequality that focus on marginalized groups or understudied topics. Further, we are interested in analyses that shed light on the ways in which politics and economics (and different political and economic systems) can accentuate or diminish inequalities including work that examines instances where public policy has been successful in reducing inequality.
The workshop will be transregional and open to all disciplines, including political science, economics, history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, public health and cultural studies.
This workshop aims to showcase the research of junior scholars (defined as PhD students and pre-tenure assistant professors or the equivalent). Preference will be given to scholars based at African institutions, but all proposals will be considered for inclusion. Participants are required to contribute original papers of 2500-3000 words that will be discussed at the workshop and then revised and edited for publication in our open access journal African Social Research.
To apply, please send a 300-word proposal including your current affiliation and academic level to africansocialresearch@gmail.com by May 22nd, 2024.
