The Ronald F. Inglehart Honorary Lecture 2023

Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Wegq87fpS4W7kBq0em3EAg

The Global Segregation of the Poor

How economic segregation continues to increase despite the obvious potential threats to capital? Further, why is segregation growing in this historical period? And what are the underlying structural conditions that contribute to these rising levels of economic segregation? Using a variety of data, including night-light satellite-based segregation scores, census data from the US and UK, and public opinion data from the Middle East and the US, Amaney Jamal demonstrates that societies that have a racialized cleavage are more likely to be economically segregated. Structurally, legacies of racialization facilitate the processes and infrastructure underlying the economic segregation of both minority and non-minority poor individuals. The author argues that social psychological mechanisms, based on the theory of ‘downward social comparison’, reinforce dominant group advantage over minorities. In racialized settings, these psychological processes help sustain the segregation equilibrium and reduce the probability of collective action against the elite. The author challenges the view that economic segregation is a natural byproduct of growing levels of inequality and forces us to contend with the economic consequences of racialized hierarchies across the globe.

Professor Amaney Jamal

Amaney A. Jamal is Dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Politics, and Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. She is the former Director of the Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice. Jamal also directs the Workshop on Arab Political Development and the Bobst-American University of Beirut Collaborative Initiative. Jamal is the co-Principal of the Arab Barometer Project (Winner of the Best Dataset in the Field of Comparative Politics (Lijphart/Przeworski/Verba Dataset Award 2010).