Jason Hickel: Growing Economic and Environmental Inequality

Despite prevalent claims that economic well-being has been on the rise in recent decades globally, the post-colonial period has been one of increasing, not decreasing, inequality between the Global North and Global South. Growing economic and social inequality is a driving factor in a range of major problems, from poor health to political fragmentation, but also deeply manifest in the climate and broader environmental crisis. In this episode of the "Great Unraveling?" series, Jason Hickel joins Laurie Laybourn-Langton to explore the state of economic and environmental inequality today and its implications for the future.
Dr. Jason Hickel is an economic anthropologist, a Senior Lecturer at Goldsmiths University of London, and serves on the Statistical Advisory Panel for the UN Human Development Report 2020. His research focuses on global inequality, political economy, post-development, and ecological economics, which are the subjects of his two most recent books: The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions (2017), and Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World (2020).