Between Fault Lines and Front Lines: Shifting Power in an Unequal World

Inequality is one of today’s greatest challenges, obstructing poverty reduction and sustainable development. As the power of elites grows and societal gaps widen, institutions representing the public good and universal values are increasingly disempowered or co-opted, and visions of social justice and equity side-lined. This book explores the roles of elites and institutions of power in the deepening of social and economic cleavages across the globe, by asking how inequalities have reshaped structures from the local to the transnational level, and what consequences they have wrought. In addition, the contributors present examples of peaceful processes of policy change that have made societies greener and more socially just, levelled out social stratification, and devolved power and resources from elites to non-elites, or towards marginalized or discriminated groups. Based on cutting-edge empirical research, the chapters in this volume bring together conceptual thinking and a number of case studies from the Global North and South, combining different levels of analysis and a range of qualitative research methods to present solutions for closing the inequality gap.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Foreword Preface List of Abbreviations and Acronyms Notes on Contributors Part I: INEQUALITIES IN CONTEXT Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION: BETWEEN FAULT LINES AND FRONT LINES: SHIFTING POWER IN AN UNEQUAL WORLD (Katja Hujo and Maggie Carter) Chapter 2: GLOBAL ECONOMIC INEQUALITIES: TRENDS AND DRIVERS (Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Vladimir Popov) Part II: ENGINES OF INEQUALITY: INSTITUTIONS, POLITICS AND POWER Chapter 3: SOCIO-SPATIAL INEQUALITIES AND INTERGENERATIONAL DEPENDENCIES (Julie MacLeavy and David Manley) Chapter 4: KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY: INEQUALITY IN ACCESS TO CAPITAL ON WALL STREET (Megan Tobias Neely) Chapter 5: REWIRING THE SOCIAL CONTRACT: ECONOMIC INCLUSION AND THE GIG ECONOMY IN NIGERIA (Kate Meagher) Chapter 6: UNDERSTANDING RISKS OF REPRODUCING INEQUALITIES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF INCLUSION POLICIES: BRAZIL, MEXICO AND PERU (Roberto Pires) Chapter 7: CITY-TO-CITY COOPERATION AND THE PROMISE OF A DEMOCRATIC “RIGHT TO THE CITY”: EXPERIENCES FROM BRAZIL AND MOZAMBIQUE (Fritz Nganje) Part III: ELITE IDEOLOGY AND PERCEPTIONS OF INEQUALITY:IMPLICATIONS FOR REDISTRIBUTION AND SOCIAL COHESION Chapter 8: ELITES, IDEAS AND THE POLITICS OF INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT (Tom Lavers) Chapter 9: WHO ARE THE ELITE, WHAT DO THEY THINK ABOUT INEQUALITY AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?: LESSONS FROM BRAZIL AND SOUTH AFRICA (Graziella Moraes Silva, Matias López, Elisa Reis and Chana Teeger) Chapter 10: ELITE IDEOLOGY, PUBLIC OPINION AND THE PERSISTENCE OF POVERTY AND INEQUALITY IN EAST AND SOUTHERN AFRICA (Jeremy Seekings) Part IV: A NEW SOCIAL CONTRACT: ALLIANCES FOR TRANSFORMATIVE CHANGE Chapter 11: OTHERING AND SOLIDARITY IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY AGRARIAN CALIFORNIA: LESSONS FROM CROSS-SECTOR ALLIANCES FOR PROGRESSIVE POLITICAL CHANGE (Antonio Roman-Alcalá) Chapter 12: BUILDING NETWORKS, BRIDGING DIVIDES? ORGANIZATIONAL EXPERIENCES OF PAID DOMESTIC WORKERS IN URUGUAY AND PARAGUAY (Raquel Rojas Scheffer) Chapter 13: INFORMAL WORKERS CO-PRODUCING SOCIAL SERVICES IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH: POLITICAL STRATEGY TOWARD A NEW SOCIAL CONTRACT? (Laura Alfers) EPILOGUE: ONENESS VERSUS THE 1 PERCENT: ECONOMIC POLARIZATION AND THE THREAT TO FREEDOM (Vandana Shiva) Index

About the Author :
Katja Hujo is Senior Research Coordinator at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Switzerland. Maggie Carter is Senior Research Analyst at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Switzerland.

Review :
Explosive, essential and urgent. Between Fault Lines and Front Lines exposes how the spiraling inequality we are witnessing is not a bug but a feature. It reveals that the key political challenge is not how to rescue people who get “left behind”, but rather how to break up the rackets pushing people behind. It shows that empowering the displaced requires displacing the powerful. It demonstrates practical ways in which courageous policy-makers and determined social movements can together pull power away from elites towards ordinary people. It will shake up today’s debates on inequality, and define the terms of tomorrow’s. This inspiring collection featuring excellent research from across the globe shows how entrenched elite power needs to be placed at the centre of our debate about how to renew progressive movements for social change. This new offering from UNRISD, Between Fault Lines and Front Lines, is an ambitious effort by leading social thinkers to shine a light on the often-obscured questions of the structural and institutional drivers and consequences of inequality, and how people, communities and institutions mobilise to tackle its debilitating impacts, transform unequal power relations, and build a just future for our planet and people. The plurality of disciplines, perspectives, positionalities, and locations of the contributors as well as the current conjuncture of multiple crises and deepening inequalities make the book a timely reminder of the urgent need to transform the unacceptable and entrenched power imbalances between and within countries, regions, and groups. May it receive wide readership, critical engagement, and the serious policy attention that it deserves. Growing global inequalities are at the top of the political and academic agenda of progressive forces all around the world. This book, by introducing the lens of power relations, pays special attention to the role of the powerful and the elites in deepening inequalities (the society of the 1%) and to the struggles to redress them (the 99%). Through its analytical and empirical contributions, It will enrich the urgent global debates and the policy implications in this field. It is rare for development actors to "study up," i.e., the elites or the 1% and how the institutional power they wield reproduces socio-economic and political inequalities that threaten the survival of all species and the wellbeing of the 99% of humanity. The authors of in Between Fault Lines And Front Lines not only do this but also demonstrate how collective action from below is working towards what Shiva has called "Earth Democracy." A timely analysis and call to action in the time of Covid.