Monthly Archives: February 2011

From squeeze to crash: the role of living standards in the financial crisis

Posted on February 28, 2011 by

While almost no-one predicted the financial crisis of 2007, there’s been no shortage of people rushing to explain it with the benefit of hindsight. Amid all the competing explanations, one caught my eye: the idea that rising US income inequality … Continue reading →

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Paying Kids to Be Better Students

Posted on February 25, 2011 by

School is often boring, and even the best students are difficult to motivate from time to time. In America’s inner city schools – the kinds of places with metal detectors at the doors and drug dealers lurking on the corners … Continue reading →

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A theory of everything? Part two.

Posted on February 23, 2011 by

On 6th May, the British Sociological Association and the Open University are hosting a postgraduate conference on inequality; abstracts will be accepted up until the 28th February. The main theme of the conference is on whether we need on overarching … Continue reading →

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What Does the Public Think Unions Stand For? The Battle for Hearts and Minds in Wisconsin

Posted on February 21, 2011 by

Are public sector labor unions greedy leeches on the side of government, or are they the last bulwark of a national movement for working people? The battle to define American public sector labor unions, and the labor movement in general, … Continue reading →

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The Wisconsin Protests

Posted on February 20, 2011 by

As the lone Wisconsin-based contributor to Inequalities, I have been remiss in not writing about the ongoing protests here in Madison. Here is what’s going on.

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Place, Race, Gender, and Wellbeing

Posted on February 18, 2011 by

In Ben’s interesting post from Thursday he mentions a project underway by some of his LSE colleagues to apply Amartya Sen’s capabilities framework to inequality in Britain. Here in the United States the Social Science Research Council has undertaken the … Continue reading →

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A theory of everything?

Posted on February 17, 2011 by

On 6th May, the British Sociological Association and the Open University are hosting a postgraduate conference on inequality.  If you’re a UK-based postgrad inequalities researcher then you should come; abstracts will be accepted for a little while longer until the … Continue reading →

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Global inequality in 3 charts

Posted on February 14, 2011 by

Intellectual pin-ups are a bad idea. I’ve lost track of the number of razor-sharp thinkers whose opinions turn to mush when they’re surrounded by worshipful students and flattering policymakers, keen to brush themselves with their hero’s stardust. So it’s with … Continue reading →

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Your Sneakers Make Me Sick

Posted on February 11, 2011 by

We all know that status and consumption go together like lobster and champagne. The high status people get the finer things in life, and the highest status people get the finest things of all. In pre-modern societies the relationship between … Continue reading →

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What is Health Equity?

Posted on February 9, 2011 by

I had planned to use my posting privileges here to write a series of posts on the idea of health equity, which would then form the basis of a public talk I have to give. Unfortunately, the date for the … Continue reading →

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