Since the high-profile killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, the Obama administration has launched policing reforms to heal racial “mistrust” through a renewed commitment to “community policing” and “procedural justice.” Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing and the new National Center for Building Community Trust and Justice showcase the hope of racial repair … Continue reading "Naomi Murakawa: The Perils of Policing Reform"

Inequality between nations and inequality within societies are almost always examined as two distinct problems. To the extent that we have addressed the global history of inequality, as in the work of Acemoglu, Atkinson, Milanovic or Piketty, we have drawn on comparative methods, defined, and limited by, the logic of national accounting. The focus has … Continue reading "Richard Drayton: European empires and the origins of modern inequality"

The US experienced a dramatic ideological shift towards ‘neoliberalism’ around 1980, which featured deregulation of labor, product and financial markets; shrinking or eliminating social protection and redistributive programs to the nonelderly; and giant tax cuts for top income households. Predictably, income and wealth inequality skyrocketed, the middle class share of total income collapsed, and worker … Continue reading "David Howell: Lousy Jobs in the Rich World: What Happened to Shared Growth?"

The so-called Gilded Age of the late-19th century was not a moment of increasing income inequality. In fact, capitalists and their allies in journalism, academia, and Congress claimed on solid empirical grounds that the benefits of economic growth accrued mainly to workers, turning capitalists into public servants. Piketty's formulae for the Belle Epoque cannot, then, … Continue reading "James Livingston: The American Anomaly, 1870-1950: Testing Thomas Piketty’s Comparative History"

This paper takes up the contemporary debate on the pasts and futures of "non-racialism". I am interested in non-racialism as both a form of political thinking and a mode of political practice directed towards equality imagined within the nation. I offer a critical appreciation of political thinking on non- racialism not to answer the question … Continue reading "Suren Pillay: Equality, Citizenship and Difference: Becoming Post Apartheid"

Collecting ethnic and racial statistics is a contentious issue in a large number of countries around the world. For decades, ethnic and racial classifications have been conceived and used to segregate, build hierarchies and nurture racial and ethnic stratifications and inequalities. Moreover, ethnic and racial statistics have not only been used for evil purposes, their … Continue reading "Patrick Simon: Lighter than blood: ethnic enumeration in the era of equality policies"

Patrik Svensson Umeå University Patrik Svensson is a Professor of Humanities and Information Technology at HUMlab, Umeå University, and the former Director of HUMlab (2000-2014). His current work can be loosely organized under two themes: Digital Humanities and Conditions for Knowledge Production. The first theme includes research and practice in relation to the intersection of … Continue reading "Patrik Svensson: From Lab to Lounge: Liminal Spaces for Learning"