Dissertation Workshop: Social Mobility, Inequity and City in the Global South

Social Mobility, Inequity and City in the Global South
3^rd Joint Dissertation Workshop

University of Copenhagen and New York University

21-22^nd June 2013

In 2012, the annual World Economic Forum at Davos convened under the theme of ‘the great transformation’ wrought by economic liberalization in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In 2013, the UNDP Human Development Report, The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World, similarly argues that rapid progress in the Global South is driving a historic shift in global dynamics, lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty, bringing billions into a new global middle class, In the dark shadow of the unfolding economic crisis in the Global North, this optimism focuses on ‘emerging markets’ where the gains of liberalization are said to have built new foundations for prosperity anchored in vast expanding consumer populations. Nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America are now routinely showcased for global investors and policymakers as success stories ‘opened up’ by structural adjustment and economic reforms. Such direct linkages between state policy and social progress have been debated throughout modern history but are now particularly poignant as a world financial crisis and mounting social inequity and disruption generate social costs that call into question the capacity of ‘free markets’ and neo-liberal economic reforms to sustain human improvement.

Cities are focal points for the social mobility and prosperity that signify ‘the rise of the South,’ and also highlight the social immobility and deprivation that produce our planet of slums and agrarian and environmental crisis. In this multi-disciplinary dissertation workshop, we focus on the inequity of globalization in and around urban centers of the global South, from various theoretical and empirical perspectives, including but not limited to fields of history, sociology, anthropology, political science, political economy and development studies. We invite PhD students who have completed substantial dissertation research on any aspect of urbanized inequity in the world of globalization to discuss their work at a two-day workshop in New York City on 21-22 June, 2013.  

Prospective participants should send (1) a letter describing their research and reasons for joining the workshop, (2) a curriculum vita, and (3) a short writing sample drawn from their dissertation, in one combined PDF file email attachment, to David Ludden ludden.david@gmail.com (New York University) and Dr. Ravinder Kaur rkaur@hum.ku.dk (University of Copenhagen) by 7 April 2013.