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Prof Sam Friedman STC S102

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Inequalities and Social Science. This course is not available as an outside option.

The course will consider interdisciplinary approaches to inequality, focusing on (a) how inequality can be conceptualised and explained, (b) how it can be measured and (c) ethical and political issues. Topics to be covered include patterns and trends in economic inequalities; gender, ethnicity, class and age; cultural aspects of inequality; social and intergenerational mobility; global and comparative perspectives; media representation of inequalities; ethical and philosophical approaches; the impact of government, law and social policy.

This course is delivered through a combination of lectures, online materials and seminars totalling a minimum of 40 hours across AT and WT.

It is divided into blocks of related lectures and linked seminars.

Reading Weeks: Students on this course will have a reading week in AT Week 6 and WT Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the AT and 1 presentation in the WT.

Branko Milanovic, Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization (Harvard University Press, 2016)

Piketty, T.  A Short History of Equality (Harvard University Press, 2022)

Hartley Dean and Lucinda Platt, Social Advantage and Disadvantage (Oxford, 2016)

O'Neil, C. 2016 Weapons of Math Destruction. London: Allen Lane

Hickel, J. (2017) The Divide: A Brief Guild to Global Inequality and its Solutions. William Heinemann. London.

Federici, S. (2004) Caliban and the Witch: Women: The Body and Primitive Accumulation. New York. Autonomedia.

Savage, M., (2021) The Return of Inequality: Social Change and the Weight of the Past (Harvard UP).

Essay (50%, 3000 words) in the WT.
Policy brief (50%) in the ST.

An electronic copy of the assessed essay, to be uploaded to Moodle, no later than 4.00pm on the submission day. The essay is due by the first day of Winter Term. 

An electronic copy of the assessed policy brief, to be uploaded to Moodle, no later than 4.00pm on the first Wednesday of Spring Term.

Attendance at all classes and submission of all set coursework is required.