Wealth Inequality
The SCIS chose to focus on wealth inequality, which is more extreme than income inequality. It was a different approach to most research, which viewed inequality through the lens of the labour market. The work links wealth distribution and elite studies and focuses on inequality of income and opportunities, recognising that the distribution of wealth reflect and reinforce how power is held in society.
Since 2019, with the publishing of a paper that calculated the level of wealth inequality in South Africa, the SCIS has defined and driven the research agenda and leads multidisciplinary research on wealth inequality and elites with researchers across the global South.
