Poverty, Inequality and Social Mobility
Poverty, unemployment, and inequality (the so-called ‘triple threat”) are usually presented as societal features that we need to ameliorate or eradicate. Often research, as well as public and political commentary on these issues, focuses only on describing how bad the situation is, and how it has changed over time. Rarely does research or policy consider the processes that enable people to move out of poverty, or that reduce inequality over time. In the context of the GCR – which is potentially a ladder of prosperity, but one that not everyone manages to climb – projects in this theme look to understand the processes and underlying structural conditions that enable or inhibit social mobility. It asks the question, how do we ensure that residents of the GCR have meaningful opportunities to improve their lives? Or, as Raj Chetty, speaking from the position of a successful journey up the class ladder, once put the question: “Who are all the people who are not here, who would have been here if they’d had the opportunities?”