SP05 - Inequality in crisis - Perspectives from Latin America
Convened by Arnhild Leer-Helgesen, Astrid Bredholt Stensrud and Margit Ystanes (University of Agder, Norway)
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People in Latin America are currently facing several crises simultaneously. These crises intersect in diverse ways across contexts, often exacerbating inequalities. Climate change, ecological destruction, displacement, economic collapse, Covid-19 and other health emergencies, as well as threats to democracy, gender equality and minority rights, are interconnected crises which reflect existing inequalities. At the same time, we are witnessing social struggles and massive mobilizations arising in response to the crises in various countries. Such responses and protests may contribute to reconfiguring political landscapes and social hierarchies. In this panel we explore the impact of multifaceted crises in the region, with a particular focus on how crisis affects differently positioned people unequally and how various responses and mobilizations create the potentiality of change. In what ways do these responses to crisis intersect with struggles and processes of decolonization?
This panel invites papers discussing links between crisis and inequality in and from Latin America. Crisis on different scales often (re)produce or increase inequalities based on social and economic processes such as gender, race, ethnicity, and class. However, inequalities may also be a key factor spurring crisis, such as political crisis and forced migration. Crisis can also give rise to struggles with the potential to reconfigure inequalities produced by social and economic processes. Using cases from Latin America this panel explores how crisis on different scales have contextual consequences and responses, as well as how crisis and inequality threaten the goals of sustainable development. We welcome papers (both empirical and theoretical) that reflect upon the concepts of sustainability and development in light of inequality and crisis. We also highly encourage conceptual and theoretical discussions of inequality and crisis from a Latin American and decolonial perspective.
Scholarships for one or two young scholars (PhD or Postdoc) from Latin America might be available to cover travel expenses.