The student protests that rocked South Africa’s universities in 2015 are part of a class struggle as poor and marginalised people fight for their place in an unequal system.
When our political institutions are market-driven, they risk becoming a democratic shell that no longer serves the people, as the European Union experience is showing.
Theophilos Papadopoulos/flickr
Democracy’s problem is not the crisis but the triumph of capitalism. Democracy has become market-conforming, resulting in whole sections of society lacking meaningful representation.
Unequal education is a result of what happens in schools.
Rick Wilking/Reuters
Although Sierra Leone is not yet officially ebola-free, there are significant improvements. Economic recovery discussions have also started. Care needs to be taken to ensure broader societal benefit.
Most of us can’t bend it like Beckham, for various reasons. But is that necessarily the worst thing?
Reuters/Ben Nelms
Rather than hold on to the idea of equality of opportunity, it might be more accurate to say that we don’t really support it because it comes at too high a price.
Division between the have and have nots is likely to widen – and food is one area where many will go without.
Mixed-income developments replace Chicago’s Cabrini-Green Homes: Old Town Village West townhouses rise in front of the last remaining towers (since demolished) in this 2009 photograph.
Lawrence Vale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Shomon Shamsuddin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
For decades, public housing stood as the most architecturally visible and politically stigmatized reminder of urban poverty in many American cities. Originally built to accommodate an upwardly mobile segment…
Better speech and brighter horizons.
John Stillwell/PA Wire
Penny Roy, City, University of London and Shula Chiat, City, University of London
All children with early language problems are at increased risk of struggling at school, and having reduced employment opportunities and life chances, but the risk of early language problems is disproportionately…
Activists dressed as musicians and wearing masks depicting leaders of the members of the G7 protest against wealth inequality in Brussels in June.
Reuters
Wealth and income inequality have many causes, and it’s pretty much beyond dispute that any well-functioning capitalist society will have some degree of disparity between the richest and the poorest. It’s…
No one likes tax but inheritance tax (or “death tax”) is the focus of particular moral outrage. On the face of it, this is odd. The reason tax is disliked is because it reduces the money you can spend…
Is the right to pursue happiness equally available to all Americans?
Josh Hallett
Foundation essay: This article is part of a series marking the launch of The Conversation in the US. Our foundation essays are longer than our usual comment and analysis articles and take a wider look…
Generation austerity no longer believes the future will be better than the present.
lilgamerboy14
In the UK and other parts of the Western world, the notion that we are progressing towards a better future has been a consistent, if not entirely uninterrupted, ideal. But in recent years, this idea seems…
Ofsted’s recent report into competitive sport in schools – provocatively entitled Going the Extra Mile – criticises state schools for not doing enough to develop sporting talent. A significant number of…
While Australia takes centre stage as this year’s G20 host, some of Joe Hockey’s budget policies are on the group’s ideological fringes.
AAP/Daniel Munoz
Australia is hosting the G20 this year and showcasing to the world its approach to welfare policy: deny young people income support for up to six months and instead make more food vouchers available. This…