INEQUALITIES: the fight for a fair and inclusive society

Projects aiming at eliminating differences and discrimination for the construction of a fair and inclusive society. Liberal and democratic societies have witnessed an increase in inequality in recent decades, after the long post-war period of economic growth and expansion of social rights and generous welfare. Now several factors (demographic decline and population ageing, technological revolution, globalization, financial crises and finally the pandemic and the war) have contributed to block this positive trend, making it more difficult to maintain the expectations of improvement and the welfare levels already reached. As a result societies have become more unequal (relatively), poverty has grown and large sections of the population are dissatisfied with traditional centre-left politics, which appear unable to guarantee expectations of well-being and social improvement, thus fostering an environment favourable to populism. So inequalities are not merely a question of social justice and equity, but also of stability and good health of democracy. Moreover, in our societies we find not only economic inequalities, but also worrying inequalities of status, related to differences such as gender, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability and age, differences resulting in unequal inclusion in citizenship, creating further problems of both justice and social cohesion. Submissions of projects related to these questions are invited: 

– Why inequalities are bad? 

– Why is equality a value? 

– What kinds of inequalities make society unfair and unstable? 

– Can we ever justify inequality? 

– What measures could reduce inequality? 

– What, if any, is the link between inequality and the crisis of democracy? 

– Can egalitarian policies be compatible with individual freedom? 

– And what about global inequalities? 

– How can we imagine addressing both domestic and global inequalities? 

– Is domestic equality easily reconciled with global equality?

*Today is the day! Start thinking and building your project (based on the Call of Proposals) – online uploading will be available starting from March 2024