Inequality

Inequality

Relationships between social disadvantage and socio-economic outcomes are well documented in some many parts of the world but less is known about unfair and uneven development over space and time in most countries. The Inequalities cluster encourages both critically engaged technical work and technically capable critical work. Our work embraces quantitative and qualitative social research practice to provide clarity about the best routes for understanding and tackling inequalities through an interdisciplinary and multidimensional perspective. Our current projects include exploring the factors that explain inequality and the impact on vulnerability, particularly in the context of the current Covid-19 pandemic. DIRE members in the School of Geography and School of Health and Social Care are engaged in ongoing real-time research about how demographic and socio-economic inequalities increased the vulnerability of some groups in society to biological contagion and acute mental health conditions during the pandemic. Other areas of research include how socio-economic inequalities in coastal communities in developed and developing countries are reflected in policy-making, particularly in relation to planning and management responses to biodiversity loss and sea level rise.