The ILD centres engage in seven themed areas of work, each led by our seven Institute centres.
The Centre for Inequalities is one area of our themed work and delivers research and interventions that embrace diversity and promote social justice, inclusion and integration.
Our vision
The Centre for Inequalities focuses on exploring, understanding and reducing inequalities in education, health, communities and workplaces, and other domains. Our members provide interdisciplinary research and practical interventions, which promote equality, integration and social justice across the lifespan. We cover a variety of issues, including disability rights in the workplace, educational achievement in students from a minority ethnic background, inter-group relations, conflict and prejudice, and the challenges faced by refugees and other displaced communities.
We aim to:
- Provide high quality impactful research for understanding and tackling inequality, and develop and evaluate interventions, ensuring they are evidence-based.
- Train individuals and organisations to embrace and implement EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion) principles across the domains of health, education, community and workplaces.
- Work with third and public sectors to create fluent pathways of communication between policy-makers, practitioners, educators and researchers, to allow a more global perspective on EDI issues.
- Support the development of researchers, professional practitioners and wider organisations working on inequality issues at every stage of their career.
- Ensure the findings from our research and knowledge exchange activities are published and accessible to all.
Our impact on the world
The world today faces major challenges, including religious, ethnic and class conflict, gender and ethnic inequality, immigration and large-scale refugee crises. By exploring these issues from multiple perspectives, researching individual motivations, as well as underlying social, political and economic structures, the Centre for Inequalities seeks to develop new, impactful and sustainable interventions that can make a positive difference.
Our research and practice contributes to many of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Examples include:
- Our work on intimate partner violence and the issue of sexual consent among different social groups, which supports Gender Equality (SDG5).
- Our explorations of prejudice and inequality faced by disabled people, refugees, and other marginalised groups in schools across Europe, and the subsequent development and implementation of theory-driven interventions, which supports Reduced Inequality (SDG10).
- Our research on the lived experience of people from warzones and post-conflict societies, such as Cyprus and Kosovo, informing initiatives to strengthen institutions and promote peace, which supports Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (SDG16).
Who we are
An interdisciplinary approach
The Centre for Inequalities draws on the expertise of researchers from multiple disciplines and professions, including psychologists, educationalists, social workers, and health practitioners (e.g., nurses, health visitors, pharmacists, public health experts), business experts, sociologists and historians. We believe that this interdisciplinary, methodologically robust, and participatory approach is vital for tackling an issue as complex and multidimensional as inequality. An intellectual humility, and an openness to other perspectives and voices are required. Regardless of background, however, all members share a commitment to addressing inequality around the world.
You can find out more about the Centre for Inequalities on their webpage.
