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In October 2017, the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies (SCIS) was established to undertake research on the growing levels of inequality across the world, but especially in the global South. The founding team developed five strategic objectives.

• To build internal SCIS research capacity.
• To advance the inequality research agenda.
• To develop linkages across the global South.
• To foster a cohort of [inequality] scholars from the global South.
• To effect real change through policy and advocacy (added in 2019).Our plans were ambitious: To challenge the dominance of the global North in the study of inequality, build strong networks, nurture a new generation of inequality scholars in the global South, produce new knowledge for understanding inequality and effect real change through policy and advocacy.

Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that we would exceed our ambitions in less than a decade. But we have – despite the impact of the Covid lockdowns that severely disrupted our planned activities, especially the hosting of international academic conferences to encourage new research. Today, the SCIS is a prominent, well-respected driver of academic research and international research collaborations, and influencer of policy and opinion on inequality.

Challenging the dominance of the global North

A key motivation for the SCIS was the need to understand how inequality is produced and reproduced in the global South, and how to address inequality through structural reforms of the economy and society. At the time, the study of inequality was growing in importance globally but was being driven almost exclusively by universities in the global North. There was a need for research from the global South, where inequality is more severe and different in character from the global North.

Despite being a relatively new research centre, the SCIS’s research has already made an impact. Just two years after opening (in 2019), the Centre produced the Inequality Studies in the Global South book, which is currently being updated. Staff members have also been invited to write a book on wealth inequality and to commission the Routledge Inequality book series.

The SCIS has pioneered interdisciplinary inequality research in, of and for the global South, opening up new areas of research and inquiry. The Centre is recognised for its innovative and distinctively Southern approaches and for contributing valuable, high-quality and original knowledge.

Building strong networks

In 2018, the initial small SCIS team met with international organisations (mostly from the global North) to discuss potential research collaborations and partnerships. Joint research projects, funded partnerships and a range of joint projects resulted, with many of these organisations remaining active collaborators today.

A major achievement was receiving funding from the Ford Foundation to participate in the Emerging Political Economies (EPE) Network, which is a network of centres at 16 universities around the world, including six in the global South. In addition to the EPE Network, in six years, the SCIS has tripled its international partnerships with academic, research and nongovernment entities.

The strengthening of local, continental and international partnerships continues to be a key goal, achieved through conducting research visits and engagements with Southern scholars to develop global South epistemologies, and regularly hosting conferences for Southern researchers.

Producing new knowledge for understanding inequality

The ultimate objective of the SCIS research work is a comprehensive and broadly shared understanding of how inequality is produced and reproduced in South Africa, and the identification of the sources of power that can address and overcome this inequality. Our work was founded on four approaches that find expression in the SCIS’s research projects which seek to fill gaps in the global research agenda.

Nurturing a new generation of inequality scholars

As a university-based research centre, the SCIS recognised the critical contribution that it could make towards the teaching and development of a new cohort of inequality scholars. This is achieved through an MCom in Inequality Studies (since 2023), an internship programme and a PhD fellowship programme.

The SCIS is a leading, established and recognised Centre

The SCIS began with a single grant of US$50,000 from the Ford Foundation and two staff members (one full-time and one part-time). Today the SCIS has 29 full-time staff members, visiting researchers who are part of the Centre’s diversified network of collaborators, and a range of funders. By growing its funding base and securing institutional funding, the SCIS has strengthened its long-term strategic focus.

Most importantly, the SCIS is having an impact and influences policy.

Social impact of research

The SCIS’s overall aim is to understand inequality, which is detrimental to people’s wellbeing. The SCIS uses participatory action research, dialogue, socially engaged research and advocacy as vehicles for influencing in pursuit of improving the wellbeing of people.