The renowned development economist, Jayati Ghosh, offers an eye-opening perspective on the different facets of inequality and the need for systemic change to address them, bringing together her interests in international trade and finance, employment patterns in developing countries, as well as issues related to gender and development. Ghosh argues for the need to redress the power imbalances which are reinforcing socially irrational and unjust policies. Through the prisms of gender inequality, social discrimination, and the global power dynamics between countries, Ghosh looks at how relational inequality impacts the ability of individuals or groups to influence the actions of others, affecting their agency and power. She delves into the undervaluing and under-rewarding of care work, to highlight the lack of power and voice that care workers and unpaid caregivers have in society compared to the significant influence of financial institutions and corporations. Ghosh also critiques the worldwide prevalence of crony capitalism and plutocracy, and - as an antidote to despair - she argues the need for mobilisation and collective action to increase the power of those who need it.
Jayati Ghosh taught economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi for nearly 35 years, and since January 2021 has been Professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is co-chair of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation and a member of the UN Secretary-general’s High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism and the World Health Organization's Council on the Economics of Health for All.
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This episode of SystemShift comes from Greenpeace Nordic and is hosted by Greenpeace campaigner and former Swedish politician and Green MEP, Carl Schlyter, and produced by Alexia Fridén, with additional support from Ariadna Rodrigo, Juliana Costa, Christian Aslund and Attila Kulcsár at Greenpeace.
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