Archive Detail

Speaker:

Unequally distributed income and wealth, unequal access to information and education, unequal treatment due to group membership: these are the fields in which we investigate the political dimension of inequality. But not every difference in income is perceived as unfair. Likewise, the exclusion of members of a group from certain privileges can be perceived as right and just, even by members of the affected group. The political dimension of inequality obviously rests on perceptions of inequality. Impulses to change the prevalent order can only flourish where things are perceived, not only as unequal, but as unfair, unjustified, unbearable. This is why our first research area in the Cluster is the analysis of perceptions and political preferences regarding inequality. We ask: "Why do people perceive some distributions of resources as unfair, and not others – and how does this perception influence their political preferences?"

In our first Research Day, we focus on this area of perception, bringing together research from the different disciplines and projects.

For participation and program, please contact Thomas Wöhler (thomas.woehler@uni-konstanz.de).