Inequality and Justice 

What is studied in the research focus area Inequality and Justice? 

The research area on Inequality and Justice covers topics related to societies, settlements, institutions and policies through an exploration of inequitable power, wealth and entitlements using lenses of social, climate and gender justice and political ecology, feminist and critical theories. The work looks at societies in the Global North and the Global South, critically examining social, economic and environmental dimensions that structure inequalities and injustices, and solutions to address these. We explore community/local scales up to spaces of global policy making, for example on climate change and biodiversity. Themes addressed include the drivers of vulnerability to climate change and the politics of adaptation and maladaptation, water and energy access as a source of political conflict and cooperation, and epistemic hierarchies in research and policymaking. Additional topics include precarity in housing, the legacy of colonialism in environment-development governance, identity and citizenship, and justice and (in)security and violence. 

Methodologies applied include a wide array of qualitative approaches situated in the field, including in Germany and Europe as well as across Asia, Latin America and Africa.

This research contributes to the University of Bonn’s Transdisciplinary Research Areas Individuals and Societies (TRA4), Present Pasts (TRA5) and the Bonn Centre for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS).