Southern Centre for Inequality Studies

10/09/2026

Care is not only unpaid household labour. It also includes paid work done by nurses, teachers, social workers, domestic workers, community health workers, carers and many others.
Without care, society cannot function.

10/09/2026

Why do we need an International Panel on Inequality?

Inequality is growing, but are governments equipped with the evidence needed to tackle it?
🌍 The richest 10% receive 53% of global income, while the poorest half receives just 8%.
💰 The richest 10% own around three-quarters of global wealth. The poorest half owns just 2%.
📈 Almost two-thirds of people live in countries where inequality is rising.
These disparities are too significant to ignore. A scientific assessment process could provide governments with the robust evidence they need to understand inequality and take effective action.

Read the full article: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02806-9

09/09/2026

Who cares for the people who care for us?

A new working paper examines the rise of outsourcing and casualisation among nurses in South Africa’s private hospital sector — and the impact of precarious work on those keeping healthcare systems running.

📄 Read more: https://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/items/6986bc65-fb3a-4c50-a760-f470abf71761

08/09/2026

Climate change does not only damage land, homes and infrastructure. It increases the work needed to care for people, both at home and through care systems which include healthcare infrastructure.
Care must be part of climate policy.

07/09/2026

Can global justice be achieved without addressing informal work?

The Global Justice Report offers bold ideas for tackling inequalitybut, but what about the 2 billion people working informally?

For many, reducing working hours isn’t the answer. The real issue is earning enough, with greater security and protection.

A new SCIS article asks whether global justice frameworks are truly reflecting the realities of workers in the Global South.

👉 Read more: https://www.wits.ac.za/news/sources/scis-news-and-opinion-pieces/global-justice-report-offers-bold-ideas-but-misses-the-realities-of-2-billion-informal-workers.html

07/09/2026

⏰ REMINDER
📢 CALL FOR PAPERS | JOINT SYMPOSIUM
Climate Transitions, Industrialisation & Development in the Global South
The Southern Centre for Inequality Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand and Princeton University invite submissions for a joint symposium exploring how climate transitions are reshaping production, labour, industrial policy, value chains and development trajectories across the Global South.
🌍 Themes include:
• The Climate Factory
• Green Industrial Policy & State Capacity
• Labour, Skills & the Just Transition
• Critical Minerals, Batteries & Climate Capital
• Comparative Climate Projects
📄 Submit:
• Abstract of no more than 500 words
• Short biographical note (max. 150 words)

Click here to access the document: https://bit.ly/4wL8D3U

📩 Submit abstracts and queries: [email protected]

04/09/2026

What if the economy we are waiting for never arrives?
South Africa has spent decades waiting for growth to return, investment to arrive, unemployment to fall, and transformation to deliver a more inclusive economy.
But what if the challenge is not simply that change is taking too long?
What if we need to rethink what development itself could look like?
In their latest article, Stacey-Leigh Joseph, Geci Karuri-Sebina and Omar Kassim argue that South Africa’s development challenge is also a challenge of imagination.

Read the full article: https://t4.wits.ac.za/terminalfour/preview/10/en/200960/3919921/text/fulltext

03/09/2026

What happens when jobs are concentrated in cities, but people’s lives, families and communities remain rooted elsewhere?
South Africa’s employment geography has a human cost. Avela Njwambe argues for rethinking work, wellbeing and economic opportunity beyond urban centres.
Read more: https://www.wits.ac.za/news/sources/scis-news-and-opinion-pieces/the-employment-paradox-rethinking-work-beyond-urban-centres-.html

03/09/2026

Watch EP 2 of the ACACIA Hub 🌍

Floods close schools. Heat shuts down clinics. And through it all, someone still has to care for children, the sick and the elderly.

As climate change increases the need for care, why is care still missing from climate policy?

The ACACIA Hub is changing that conversation.

▶️ Watch Episode 2: https://youtu.be/xqdDsi1CC08

Climate change is reshaping lives and increasing the need for care ...

03/09/2026

ICYMI: We recently hosted the launch of Becoming Agarwal: The Manufacture of a Close-Knit Mercantile Caste by Ujithra Ponniah.

How are caste privilege, kinship and economic power reproduced across generations?

Drawing on extensive interviews, ethnographic research and community archives, the book explores how gender, marriage, family and community shape caste cohesion in contemporary urban India—and where these structures begin to be questioned.

🎥 Watch the full book launch and join the conversation.

👉 Click the link to watch: https://youtu.be/SCHtqFH13KY?si=RxYJXxwqFW7kbCgV