Inequality and the Environment Symposium for Early-career Researchers

Organized by Sciences Po's Center for Research on social InequalitieS, in partnership with the
World Inequality Lab at the Paris School of Economics

Co-Chairs: Lucas Chancel (Sciences Po - CRIS and Harvard Kennedy School)
Carlo Barone (Sciences Po - CRIS)
Committee: Carlo Barone, Lucas Chancel, Eloi Laurent, Allison Rovny

Rising inequality and environmental degradation are two critical challenges of our time. Our knowledge about the interplay between socio-economic inequality, environmental degradation, and environmental policies remains limited. The literature on inequality and the environment presents various conceptual, empirical, and theoretical gaps hindering societies’ ability to effectively address these issues.
Important questions remain unanswered, such as: How can governments address inequality while averting the exacerbation of climate and biodiversity crises? Which welfare regimes could be compatible with deep decarbonization? What types of political coalitions can support these changes? What role have income and wealth inequality played in accelerating or slowing environmental degradation?

From a methodological standpoint, the basic measurement and analysis of environmental inequalities is a complex task. How can emission inequalities between individuals and social groups be systematically measured? How can the multidimensional distributional impacts of environmental regulations be tracked and explained? How to accurately measure and understand the intersection of social class, gender, racial, and spatial inequalities to better explain observed pollution and depollution patterns?

This symposium aims to present, discuss, and foster innovative approaches to social science research on environmental inequality across three broad research streams :

• Inequalities in the impacts of environmental degradation;
• Inequalities in contributions to environmental damage; 
• Inequalities in capacities to act against pollution or to cope with environmental policies.

We invite PhD students and Post-Docs from economics, sociology, psychology, political science, geography, demography, history, environmental sciences and related fields to submit their papers and participate in the symposium. The event will take place on one day at Sciences Po (Paris). This symposium provides a platform to present groundbreaking research, engage in discussions, and collaborate with other researchers. The participation in person is highly encouraged to facilitate scientific exchanges among researchers, but online participation is possible particularly for researchers from outside Europe.

Please download here the submission guidelines.

Deadline for Submission: November 1st, 2023.

For queries, contact : lucas.chancel@sciencespo.fr and carlo.barone@sciencespo.fr.

Join us in this endeavor to bridge the knowledge gap and foster the outstanding of social science research on inequality and the environment. We look forward to your contributions and insights!