LSE International Inequalities Institute

What story can we tell about inequalities? Elif Shafak, as well as being an award-winning novelist, is also a political scientist who has taught in universities in several countries – giving her a very unique perspective on this question.

In this interview with Mora McLagan from the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme, Elif discusses the role of art and literature in exposing inequalities and expanding our worldview: “Literature has an organic ability, a very gentle ability, to rehumanise people who have been dehumanised and to bring the periphery to the centre”.

Read the interview here: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2026/06/17/how-art-and-literature-can-expose-inequalities-an-interview-with-elif-shafak/

Today marks Youth Day in South Africa. Mlondi Mveli Mdluli (Member of Parliament) looks into the country’s youth unemployment crisis – and finds that Black African youths face unemployment rates more than four times those of their white counterparts. How should policymakers respond to this desperate situation?

It’s a sobering reflection 50 years – to the day – after the Soweto Uprising, when Black schoolchildren took to the streets to protest apartheid’s imposition of Afrikaans as the language of instruction. The state responded with live ammunition, killing more than 500 people. “The occasion demands not only remembrance but a rigorous empirical question. What has been delivered to the generation that inherited the post-apartheid settlement?”

Read the post here: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2026/06/16/post-apartheid-south-africa-youth-unemployment-gap-is-still-defined-by-race-soweto-uprising/

What is driving the rise in populism - and how can we stop it?

Catch up on our recent event for the launch of the new book by Liam Byrne. Our panel drew crucial connections between rising populism and growing inequality.

Watch it here ⬇️

Why populists are winning and how to beat them | LSE Event In 2024, two billion people went to vote – and populism won big. Do...

📢 A new framework for incorporating poor-quality employment into global poverty measures.

New paper by Kirsten Sehnbruch, Ricardo Nogales and Mauricio Apablaza explores how work quality can be considered in future measures of multi-dimensional poverty.

Read the paper here: https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s11205-026-03867-z?sharing_token=OCwHN5rtNoDvj9X12LJo4ve4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY6Ytja2wM_8Bon9B8N1YCWfw83W_z7oNLI7TQkM7IvIuFyJhEcmTgMtCZFDm7pyJHOyNHPhHYy9Dbm6GGqk3I2kkYwN7feEpCGbDYYvGWgIxvM_CCY3ugVlzLrKvuEylTY%3D

Efforts to drive progressive change rely on the notion of solidarity. But how does the person *not* living in precarity or under immediate threat identify with the person who is – and how can they best offer support?

In our latest blog post, Anthea Lawson, author of How Not To Save The World, investigates the psychosocial foundations of the “saviour complex”. For those committed to social change, she argues, questioning one’s own assumptions is a good place to start:

“Might you be attached to the status of being the one who knows, or to your *form* of knowledge? Has your knowledge at some point offered a sense of security and defence? Does knowledge and the form it takes, including education, play a role in your ideas of merit and worth?”

Read the post here: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2026/06/10/is-shared-experience-necessary-for-solidarity-saviour-complex-activism-psychology/

Is shared experience necessary to act in solidarity? For those seeking to drive progressive change, might questioning one's own assumptions be a good place to start? Campaigner Anthea Lawson explores.

Around the world, while men still carry out more paid work, women perform three times as much unpaid domestic and care work, write Marie Renée Andreescu, Maria Valentina Gabrielli, Romaine Loubes and Anne-Sophie Robilliard of the World Inequality Lab in our latest blog post.

If you factor in both domestic labour and paid work, women work more hours than men – 52 hrs per week vs 44 hrs for men. What’s more, the gender pay gap – which traditional estimates place at around 8% – widens to 43%.

Read the post here: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2026/06/09/women-work-more-than-men-but-the-economy-still-pays-them-less-gender-pay-gap-domestic-work/

Women work more than men – but the economy still pays them less Looking at domestic & economic labour together, women work more but earn 43% less than men, on average – much greater than usual estimates of the gender pay gap

The climate crisis is reshaping economies, societies, and livelihoods—but not everyone bears its costs equally.

Our panel brings together leading academics and practitioners to explore the deep links between climate change and inequality.

Secure your spot 🎟️

Can we tackle climate change? | Experience from the globe 1pm Fri 19 Jun | Lucas Chancel, Denis Fernando, Zephanie Repollo | Free event at the LSE Festival: How to save the planet | Ticket required

In a recent seminar at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Professor Mike Savage presented research on analysing the power of global elites in the 2020s.

Watch now ⬇️

UN DESA DISD Webinar with Mike Savage on Analysing the power of global elites in the 2020s This webinar was organized by the Division for Inclusive Social Dev...

What is the extent of poverty and homelessness in the U.S?

In our recent seminar, Professor Bruce D. Meyer presented new research, which tells a complex story of improvements in wellbeing at the bottom of the distribution largely due to government transfers.

Watch now ⬇️

12 facts about poverty and homelessness in the U.S. | LSE III Event Hosted by the International Inequalities Institute on 28 April 2026...

📢 We are excited to announce the launch of the African Inequality Review in partnership with the African Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research, UNU-WIDER and World Bank Group.

“At a time of rising global fragmentation, fiscal pressure, and uncertainty, African governments face increasingly difficult choices about how to protect vulnerable groups, expand opportunity and sustain inclusive development.”

In that context, the African Inequality Review (AIR) sets out to generate new, comparable evidence on inequality across Africa, and connect that evidence to policy decision-making processes, write Andrew Dabalen (World Bank), Francisco H. G. Ferreira (International Inequalities Institute), Patricia Justino and Rodrigo Oliveira (UNU-WIDER) and Murray Leibbrandt (University of Cape Town) in our latest blog post.

Read the post here: https://shorturl.at/rLbCj
Read more about the project here: https://air.wider.unu.edu/