Brotherhood of St Laurence lunchtime research seminar - Making sense of inequality as we ‘move forward’

In this presentation I will draw on a recent paper delivered at the International Sociological Association World Congress in Sweden.  In that paper I looked at the ideas of Amartya Sen and Pierre Bourdieu and how they can help make sense of inequality. As Sen has observed, the tension between approaches arises only if we have room for “at most one idea” (Sen 2009, p308).  In this seminar I suggest that there is room for more than one idea, and that the capability approach can be usefully complemented by Bourdieu’s concepts which can provide more finely grained insights into the processes and experience of inequality.  This presentation will also draw on my recent trip to the UK and Sweden to highlight some of the challenges and opportunities that face researchers, analysts and advocates as we work towards an Australia free of poverty.

Dr Dina Bowman joined the Brotherhood of St Laurence in 2009 as a Research & Policy Manager, In and Out of Work. Dina has a background in higher education, private enterprise and the community sector. She holds a PhD from Swinburne University, Post-Graduate Diploma in Policy and Law from La Trobe University, and is an Honorary Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne.  Current research projects include employment retention and advancement of disadvantaged jobseekers, balancing trust and control in the provision of employment services and comparing outcomes for disability employment service users, vocational training and employment, support  for disadvantaged jobseekers with  mental health issues, and Labour market disadvantage and mature age workers.