Dimensions of Inequality and Inclusion – International Political Economy Perspective

Several of the challenges faced today by the world economic order are rooted in various dimensions of inequality and exclusion that persist in global economy and its governance structures. These include the rising income inequalities within countries and regions, gender inequality, unequal access to global value chains for different groups of countries, financial exclusion, limited access to trade financing, to name just a few. Socio-economic inequalities and exclusion patterns that can be found in global trade, finance and development structures can be attributed as major obstacles for pursuing sustainable development and inclusive growth. The possible threats constituted by the rising inequalities and lack of inclusion has been recognized and expressed inter alia in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, or the Buenos Aires Declaration on Trade and Women’s Economic Empowerment. Also the 2019 edition of the Human Development Report will focus on a broad array of issues related to inequalities. In other words, inequality in all its forms has become a “defining global problem and increasingly the defining political problem of our age” (Philips 2017). Its rise in importance in reflected in the growing body of scholarly research on the impact of socio-economic inequalities on development and stability of global economy. Given the above, the goal of the section is to address the problem of inequality in the contemporary global economic order. In particular, the section aims at analyzing the various dimensions of inequality from the International Political Economy (IPE) perspective, and hence at contributing to a better understanding and conceptualization of different dimensions of inequality and inclusion within governance of global economy. The section welcomes papers on topics related to various interpretations of inequality and inclusion global economic order, as well as papers exploring these concepts within the broad framework of International Political Economy.