Call for papers is available HERE

Program being finalized.

CALENDAR

Deadline for sending communication proposals 6 october 2019

Date of the decision of the scientific committee 25 november 2019

Deadline for registration and sending of retained papers 9 march 2020

Call for paper may be downloaded HERE

Growth, development and inequalities

An increasingly unequal development?

LiRIS and ESO,  University Rennes 2

27-28-29 may 2020 Rennes

Inequalities are a consequence of development, which is a polarized process. For a long time, the “Kuznets hypothesis” founded the dominant vision of economists on this topic. It states that inequalities rise at the beginning of the economic growth process and then decline. Since then, empirical studies have less and less confirmed this pattern. It is mainly because, as the author recognized himself, this hypothesis was dependent on extrapolations in the USA. Moreover, the aim of the article, published during the Cold War, was to transition under-developed countries away from Communism. Nowadays, academic literature underlines the growing trend of rising inequalities in the developing word. Fast economic growth Asia provides a good example: while Japan, Taiwan or South-Korea first experienced a shared-development, now in South-East Asia or in China the increase in incomes and the development of a middle-class are not leading to an enhancement of social mobility, but rather deepening inequalities. In Europe, state transfers have for a long while limited inequalities and fostered convergence, but their ongoing hardening prevents further integration, threatening international cooperation and the cohesion of the European Union (EU). This trend prompted the World Bank to mobilize and study the concept of “Class” as an economic category.

Globalization and the upheaval of the international environment, in common with the Chinese economic expansion, allow an acceleration of growth and emphasizes the differentiation between productive structures and economic trajectory in developing countries. Some countries return to the primary sector while others accelerate their technological development. Everywhere inequalities are growing between the winners and losers of world economic enlargement and competition. The speed and differentiation of economic development are strengthening because available shortcuts proliferate: the stocks of advanced countries and the supply of technologies increase; commercial protection falls; international insertion opportunities rise; the circulation of capital, technologies and skills accelerates, etc. In China, India or South-East Asia international openness fosters economic growth and allows for the reduction of poverty. Although globalization has long been presented as a growth driver, it does not culminate in an equally shared prosperity. In many countries, unskilled workers lost their jobs, industrialization has receded, jobs in manufacturing have disappeared and wage gaps between unskilled and skilled workers have increased.

Inequalities are growing both within and between countries. A large part of the current world population live in a more unequal society than during the previous century. Despite the rise in world wealth, income disparities are greater in developing countries. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recalls that since 2000, 50% of the rise in world wealth benefits just 1% of the world population. By contrast, the poorest half of humanity received only 1% of this world wealth’s rise. The distribution of wealth is still concentrated. The richest 1% of the planet owned 32% of the world’s wealth in 2000; this had swelled to 46% by 2010. The world is more unequal today than it has ever been since World War II. These monetary inequalities overlap with blatant social and ecological inequalities. Threats to the ecosystem and the disruption of the planet’s geochemical cycles impact long-term development perspectives. Impacts of these global problems will be localized, highly unequal and differentiated, between and within countries. The poorest amongst the existing population will prove the most vulnerable.

The continuation of such trends seems likely in the medium, but not necessarily long, term. In a variety of ways, inequalities are a threat to economic progress and international cooperation. They restrict prospects of economic development, limit access to economic resources and exacerbate exclusion. They undermine the states that endeavour to define common objectives and accrue resources to achieve them. They weaken social cohesion, cause conflicts and lessen democratic processes. Frustration promotes political instability and reactions against inequalities and globalization are likely to transform politics in several developing countries. Therefore, the polarization of economic growth and job-creation in the South will probably cause population displacements as people relocate to access better opportunities.

The determinants of inequalities are complex as they have a multidimensional nature and are often cumulative. If the rise in income inequalities, within and between developing countries, is partly due to the globalization, development policies and their modalities played an important role. The 36^th Development Days of the Association Tiers-Monde (ATM) - organized by LiRIS EA 7481 and ESO-Rennes at the University of Rennes 2 together with GEMDEV - will aim to stimulate intellectual debates on the links between economic growth, development and inequalities in the South as well as the North. The ATM 2020 conference will have a particular focus on developing workshops pertaining to relevant research topics.

Workshops

Communication proposals should be consistent with following disciplinary fields: urban planning and development, economics, management, law, sociology and political sciences, demography, history, environmental sciences, health… They must precise, in maximum two pages, the main issues, the methodology as well as the analysis framework, expected results and main bibliographical elements. They can deal with theoretical, empirical or methodological aspects and can be written in French, English or Spanish. Oral talks will be done in French or English.

Respect of these instructions is a prerequisite for the examination of any proposal by the scientific committee.

A. International inequalities and growing differentiation of trajectories in Developing countries (DCs) 

• Growing fragmentation of the South: theoretical analysis of international divergence; catch-up without convergence; Regional integration and convergence
• The dynamics of emergence: differentiation and reproducibility
• International inequalities of rights
• Inequality and late industrialization
• Technological development and inequalities
• Middle-income trap
• Inequalities and international migrations dynamic
• The role of inequalities in international tensions: economic nationalism, protectionism, separatism, security policy, non-cooperative policies
  

B. Inequalities and internal divergences

• Inequalities and growth; unequal growth sustainability
• Structural change, dualism and development
• Income dynamic and their distribution
• New middle-class: nature, measure and dynamics
• Inequalities and social cohesion
• Territorial and spatial inequalities
• Social-urban inequalities (segregation, fragmentation, exclusion, …)
• Impact of the demographic change and the ageing on inequalities in the DCs.
• Rise in inequalities in the North: an analogous dynamic?
  

C. Definitions, measures and dimensions of the inequalities

• Evolution of the concept of inequalities and institutionalization of the inequalities
• Inequalities in the long run: historical perspectives, prospective
• New index of inequalities
• Inequalities in access to public goods and basic services (health, education, water, etc.)
• Ethnic, religious, gender and between social-groups inequalities
• Gender inequalities
• Inter/intra generational inequalities
• Inequality of results and inequality of opportunity
  

D. Globalization, international trade and inequalities 

What links between growing globalization and growing inequalities?

• Trade specializations and inequalities (good vs bad specializations; deterioration in the terms of trade; review of the Prebish-Singer thesis, etc.)
• Financial international integration and inequalities
• Inequalities and global value chain
• Fair-trade and the new forms of trade: inequalities reducers?
• South-South trade and inequalities
• A new Centre-Periphery hierarchy?
• Impact of Chinese and Indian international integration on the inequalities
  

E. Inequalities and national economic policy 

• Inclusive and non-inclusive growth policy: national experimentations, adaptation and perspective
• The fight against poverty
• Institutions and inequalities
• Fiscal and redistributive policies (agrarian reforms…)
• Social policies and social transfers in the DCs
• Education policies
• Financial inclusion and micro-finance
• Social inclusion and solidarity-based systems
  

F. Inequalities and sustainable development policies

• Ecological inequalities and vulnerability
• Ecological and/or energy transition policies and fight against precariousness
• Integrated policies in front of differentiated impacts of environmental shocks
• Mitigation, adaptation and resilience strategies in front of disasters and climate change
• Planning policies and inequality reduction between territories
• Sustainable development objectives, capabilities strengthening and social empowerment

 G. Inequalities, multilateral frameworks for aids and decentralized cooperation

• Issues and involvement of policies promoted by international financial institutions on internal inequalities
• Inequalities in the international strategic framework
• Role and orientation of European aids policies and financing for development
• Issues of inequalities in the international cooperation of the European Union (EU-Africa partnerships, neighbourhood policies, etc.)
• Impact of financialization and privatization of development aid on inequalities
• Decentralized cooperation in the service of development

Scientific committee

S. Ababacar Dieng (Cheikh Anta Diop Dakar), P. Adair (Paris Est-Créteil), D. Acclassato (Abomey-Calavi), D. Avom (Dschang ), B. Boidin (Lille I), A. Bourgain (Luxembourg), A. Calcagno (Cnuced), M. Catin (Toulon), M. Clément (Bordeaux), C. Ehrhart (Rennes 2), JJ. Gabas (CIRAD), H. Gérardin (Lorraine), C. Gironde (IHEID Geneve), B. Guesnier (Poitiers), V. Goueset (Rennes 2), M. Humbert (LIRIS), B. Jetin (Univ Brunei Darussalam), E. Lafaye de Micheaux (Rennes 2), M. Lautier (Rennes 2), P. Lectard (Montpellier), M.  Lelart, (Cnrs, Orléans), F. Leloup (UC Louvain), C. Mainguy (Strasbourg), C. Mayoukou (Rouen), JP Maréchal (Paris Sud), T. Montalieu (Orléans), P. Ould Amed (Ird), T. Pairault (Cnrs ; Ehess), M. Perisse (Artois), JL Perrault (Rennes 1), J. Poirot (Lorraine), B. Quenault (Rennes 2), M. Rigar (Cadi Ayyad, Marrakech), F. Roubaud (DIAL), A. Saludjian (UFRJ, Rio), S. Somnez (U Atilim, Ankara), S. Treillet (Paris Est-Créteil), M. Tsayem-Demaze (Le Mans), JC. Vérez, (Toulon), M. Vernières (Paris 1).

Steering Committee

Atm : J. Brot, H. Girardin ; LiRIS and ESO : A. Heneguelle, L. Charles, D. Diaw, B. Quenault, P. Turquet, Y. Guy, A. Pellegris, M. Peketi, C. Ehrhart, M. Lautier, C. Tonnellier, A. Berthe, E. Lafaye de Micheaux.

Websites:  

 https://atm2020.sciencesconf.org/

http://www.mondesendeveloppement.eu, rubrique Association Tiers-Monde