An Intellectual History of Global Inequality, 1960-2015

This project is an intellectual history of global (economic) inequality. Focusing on the entangled histories of American, South American (primarily Argentinean), Indian and African (primarily Ghanaian) public intellectuals, this project will trace their conceptualizations of international and global inequality, their expectations for how (un)equal their future world would be, and their views on the legitimacy of economic inequality. A central thesis is that location matters: where people are located in the world matters for their concepts, their expectations for the future, and their views on the legitimacy of inequality. The overall historical thesis is that the mid-1970s marked a historical watershed: Intellectuals from the Global North and South went from having expectations of a future of near equality to one of permanent inequality, new concepts for inequality were developed, and global inequality was increasingly legitimized. It is a history of shattered hopes, conceptual transformations, and an expanded tolerance for inequality.

The project is a Sapere Aude: DFF-Research Leader grant, funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark.