Introduction

Society has become more knowledgeable and interconnected but contradictorily more unequal. As value chains stretch across international frontiers rewards for different kinds of activities are more polarised generating different opportunities for differently situated people. Society as a whole has never been more opulent (Sen 2000) and for an unprecedented number of people - the economic problem - in Keynes's terms - the-provisioning basic survival needs - food , shelter and clothing has been resolved - but life chances vary profoundly. The pattern of inequality is increasingly complex and the trend is contested with different measures pointing in different directions. Further, despite the many policies to mainstream gender and empower women, gender inequality remains a common element of inequality across the globe.

Income and earnings are only one dimension of inequality but none the less an important one. While it is a truism that reducing inequality between and within nations would lower the overall level of poverty, to do so the processes generating the inequalities have to be articulated. The purpose of this first seminar is therefore to examine the extent and trends in inequality overall and gender inequality in particular within the global new economy. Questions to be considered include: What are the current patterns of inequality, how are they explained, and how are they experienced?

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