IDC Dynamics of Inequality and Difference
Inequality and difference are pervasive social realities that shape how societies organise life, distribute value and imagine forms of living together. They are expressions of historical processes of valuation, exclusion and recognition that determine whose lives, knowledges and practices are rendered visible or marginalised. Understanding these dynamics requires attention to the interplay of material structures, symbolic orders and affective experiences that together sustain patterns of inclusion and exclusion.
As conditions and outcomes of contested social processes, inequalities concern access to, participation in and entitlement over material and immaterial resources alike, including knowledge, space, labour, meaning and being. Likewise, difference is not simply a matter of categorical distinction but is shaped by power-laden relations through which identities, boundaries and belongings are produced, negotiated and at times transformed. Rather than separating economic inequalities from cultural or symbolic ones, the DK conceives dynamics of inequality and difference as dynamically intertwined within broader configurations of power and social imagination, with a particular focus on de-/postcolonial and intersectional perspectives. Racialised, social, economic, linguistic, gendered and epistemic hierarchies intersect and co-produce one another across local, national and transnational contexts.
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Research Area “Cultural Encounters – Cultural Conflicts”
The Research Area aims at researching social transformations and the challenges associated with them. It forms the largest research network in the humanities, cultural studies, and social sciences in Western Austria.
IDC Dynamics of Inequality and Difference
Universität Innsbruck, RA Cultural Encounters – Cultural Conflicts
Innrain 52d | 6020 Innsbruck