Inequality
Here you'll find all the research on inequality carried out at CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences and its laboratories.
For a long time, social science publications essentially approached the question of inequalities from the all-encompassing angle of classes and social stratification before developing a more detailed approach to better characterise individual situations and the different forms of inequality. This opened up new possibilities for shedding light on collective action and social debates.
The full range of diverse inequalities is now a core subject for a great deal of work in the humanities and social sciences. The primary aim of this research is to enhance our understanding of the concept of inequality in all its many facets. Researchers in this field also work on describing, measuring and objectifying inequalities, analysing the mechanisms of inequality including their transmission and reproduction, forms of resistance and mobilisation, providing information for policy-making and evaluating policies, actions and measures to combat inequality, exclusion and the various forms of discrimination and domination. Research in this area goes well beyond income inequalities alone and shows that inequalities are multidimensional and can be assessed through the prism of intersectionality. Inequality can be on the basis of origins, social background, education, gender, sexuality, family, health, age, disability, urban segregation, territory, migration, cultural practices, digital uses, the environment, energy, justice and law or the labour market. The relationship between inequalities and the environment and fuel poverty have been the subject of growing interest in recent years while the COVID pandemic has revealed and amplified existing inequalities.
A great deal of research into inequalities is empirical but it has also led to a wide variety of theoretical and methodological approaches being developed. It constantly moves back and forth between the private and family spheres and the public sphere or between statistical objectification and ethnographic approaches and tends to be areal and/or comparative in nature. Such research is located on different scales, from the local to the global (North-South inequalities) and involves sociology, political science, economics, geography, anthropology, history, philosophy and legal science.
Research centers and networks
CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences laboratories
- Centre de sociologie des organisations (CSO)
- Centre d’étude des mouvements sociaux (CEMS)
- Centre d’Études et de Recherches Administratives, Politiques et Sociales (CERAPS)
- Centre d’études européennes et de politique comparée
- Centre de droit comparé du travail et de la sécurité sociale (COMPTRASEC)
- Centre de recherche critiques sur le droit (CRECRID)
- Centre de recherche sur les inégalités sociales (CRIS)
- Centre de recherche sur les liens sociaux (CERLIS)
- Centre de Recherches Sociologiques et Politiques de Paris (CRESPPA)
- Centre de recherches sociologiques sur le droit et les institutions pénales (CESDIP)
- Centre de Théorie et Analyse du Droit (CTAD)
- Centre lillois d’études et de recherches sociologiques et économiques (Clersé)
- Centre Maurice Halbwachs (CMH)
- Centre Max Weber (CMW)
- Centre Méditerranéen de sociologie, de science politique et d’histoire (MESOPOLHIS)
- Centre nantais de sociologie (CENS)
- CENTRE DE RECHERCHE MEDECINE, SCIENCES, SANTE, SANTE MENTALE, SOCIETE (CERMES 3)
- Droit et changement social (DCS)
- Droits international, comparé et européen (DICE)
- Espaces et SOciétés (ESO)
- Géographie-cités
- Groupe d’étude des méthodes de l’analyse sociologique de la Sorbonne (GEMASS)
- Institut de l’Ouest : Droit et Europe (IODE)
- Institut des sciences juridique et philosophique de la Sorbonne (ISJPS)
- Institutions et Dynamiques Historiques de l’Économie et de la Société (IDHEL)
- Laboratoire Architecture Ville Urbanisme Environnement (LAVUE)
- LAboratoire DYnamiques sociales et recomposition des espaces (LADYSS)
- Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire d’Études sur les Réflexivités – Fonds Yann Thomas (LIER-FYT)
- Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Sciences, Innovations, Sociétés (LISIS)
- Laboratoire interdisciplinaire Solidarités, Sociétés, Territoires (LISST)
- Pôle de Recherche pour l’Organisation et la diffusion de l’Information Géographique (PRODIG)
- UNITE DE RECHERCHE MIGRATIONS ET SOCIETE (URMIS)
Laboratories in other countries
Networks
- Thematic network for research on educational issues
Research Program
- CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences is involved in the IRIMA Priority Research Programme and Equipment IRIMA Priority Research Programme and Equipment or PEPR with funding from the Investments for the Future programme PIA4. Soraya Boudia leads the programme for the CNRS.
- CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences is involved in the VDBI Priority Research Programme and Equipment or PEPR with funding from the Investments for the Future programme PIA4. Jean-Yves Toussaint and Gilles Gesquières lead the programme for the CNRS.
Innovation and outreach
Chaire de professeur junior
- CNRS Sciences humaines & sociales a proposé une chaire de professeur junior sur les « Inégalités éducatives : mesures dans le temps long et expérimentations situées et à grande échelle (InEducaME) » en 2023. Cette chaire a débouché sur le recrutement d’un agent, affecté au Centre Max Weber à compter de 2024.