Seminar Series
The DIGCLASS seminar series is expected to facilitate the exchange of cutting-edge ideas and debates between JRC researchers and social science academics from research institutions worldwide.
With the DIGCLASS seminar series, we want to push this discussion beyond the boundaries of the JRC community by attracting external scholars, policy-makers and a general audience.
Areas of interest:
- Social inequality, social stratification
- Labour economics
- Political economy, political behaviour
Seminars take place once monthly on Tuesdays from 15.00 to 16.00 CET in a fully open-access online format. We will publish further details on sessions’ access and contents below and on the JRC EU Science Hub events in due time.
If you want to subscribe to the DIGCLASS seminar series mailing list to stay tuned, please drop us an email to JRC-CAS-DIGCLASS
ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (subject: Enquirey%20on%20DIGCLASS%20%28JRC%20sub-site%29) (JRC-CAS-DIGCLASS[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)
Session 1. October 24th, 2023 - 15:00-16:00 (CET)
- Topic: "Societal implications of income inequality" (click for more info)
- Speaker: Richard Wilkinson, University of Nottingham Medical School
- Link to the recorded session
Session 2. November 28th, 2023 - 15:00-16:00 (CET)
- Topic: "Gender backlash" (click for more info)
- Speaker: Eva Anduiza, Autonomous University of Barcelona
- Link to the recorded session
Session 3. December 19th, 2023 - 15:00-16:00 (CET)
- Topic: "Lifestyle distinction(s) and inequality" (click for more info)
- Speaker: Mads Meier Jaeger, University of Copenhagen
- Link to the recorded session
Session 4. January 23rd, 2024 - 15:00-16:00 (CET)
- Topic: "Brief history of equality" (click for more info)
- Speaker: Thomas Piketty, Paris School of Economics & World Inequality Lab
- Link to the recorded session
Session 5. February 20th, 2024 - 15:00-16:00 (CET)
- Topic: "Limitarianism" (click for more info)
- Speaker: Ingrid Robeyns, Utrecht University
- Link to the recorded session
Session 6. March 19th, 2024 - 15:00-16:00 (CET)
- Topic: "Ethnic discrimination and segregation" (click for more info)
- Speakers: Mirna Safi, Sciences Po
- Link to the recorded session
Download the programme here (PDF):
Session 1. October 25th, 2022 - 15:00-16:00 (CET)
- Topic: "Challenges to the welfare state" (click for more info)
- Speaker: Silja Häusermann, University of Zurich
- Link to the recorded session
Session 2. November 29th, 2022 - 15:00-16:00 (CET)
- Topic: "Global carbon inequality" (click for more info)
- Speaker: Lucas Chancel, World Inequality Lab, Paris School of Economics
- Link to the recorded session
Session 3. December 20th, 2022 - 15:00-16:00 (CET)
- Topic: "College admission policies" (click for more info)
- Speaker: Caterina Calsamiglia, Institute of Political Economy and Governance
- Link to the recorded session
Session 4. January 24th, 2023 - 15:00-16:00 (CET)
- Topic: "Health inequities" (click for more info)
- Speaker: Michael Marmot, University College London
- Link to the recorded session
Session 5. February 21st, 2023 - 15:00-16:00 (CET)
- Topic: "Technological change and new work" (click for more info)
- Speaker: Anna Salomons, Utrecht University & IZA
- Recorded session non-available
Session 6. March 28th, 2023 - 15:00-16:00 (CET)
- Topic: "Technological change and (un)employment" (click for more info)
- Speakers: Giorgio Presidente, Oxford Martin School
- Link to the recorded session
Session 7. April 26th, 2023 - 15:00-16:00 (CET)
- Topic: "Legal and ethical issues in AI and robots" (click for more info)
- Speaker: Aída Ponce Del Castillo, European Trade Union Institute
- Link to the recorded session
Session 8. May 30th, 2023 - 15:00-16:00 (CET)
- Topic: "Wealth and opportunity" (click for more info)
- Speaker: Fabian Pfeffer, University of Michigan
- Link to the recorded session
Session 9. June 27th, 2023 - 15:00-16:00 (CET)
- Topic: "Deindustrialisation and political consequences" (click for more info)
- Speaker: Anne-Marie Jeannet, University of Milan
- Link to the recorded session
Read the summary report
Download the programme here (PDF):
Session 1. October 26th, 2021
- Topic: "The measurement of socioeconomic position" (click for more info)
- Speaker(s): Carlo Barone, Florian Hertel & Oscar Smallenbroek, Sciences Po & University of Hamburg
- Time: 15.00-16.00 (CET)
- Link to the recorded session
Session 2. November 30th, 2021
- Topic: "Intergenerational mobility and vote" (click for more info)
- Speaker: Macarena Ares, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB)
- Link to the recorded session
Session 3. December 21st, 2021
- Topic: "Genotyping technologies and social inequality" (click for more info)
- Speaker: Kathryn Paige Harden, The University of Texas at Austin
- Link to the recorded session
Session 4. January 25th, 2022
- Topic: "Rising income inequality and polarisation" (click for more info)
- Speaker: Markus Gangl, Goethe University Frankfurt
- Link to the recorded session
Session 5. March 29th, 2022
- Topic: "Ethnic and racial discrimination in employment" (click for more info)
- Speaker: Javier Polavieja, Universidad Carlos III
- Link to the recorded session
Session 6. April 26th, 2022
- Topic: "Intergenerational persistence of income" (click for more info)
- Speakers: Per Engzell, University of Oxford, and Carina Mood, Stockholm University
- Link to the recorded session
Session 7. May 31st, 2022
- Topic: "Technological change and political preferences" (click for more info)
- Speaker: Alexander Kuo, University of Oxford
- Link to the recorded session
Session 8. June 28th, 2022
- Topic: "Gender and social status ranking" (click for more info)
- Speaker: Klarita Gërxhani, European University Institute
- Link to the recorded session
Real Utopias for a Social Europe
Real Utopias for a Social Europe consists of a series of technical debate-type workshops on various bold and innovative social policy proposals. Leading academic experts and policy-makers assess and discuss the feasibility, distributional impact, costs, and scalability of these policy proposals through evidence-based on various designs such as pilots, field experiments, microsimulation exercises, and real policy experiences. The objective is to bolster a hivemind that can provide scientifically rigorous yet creative tools to tackle growing socioeconomic inequalities and the green transition in the context of major social transformations ahead.
The third online workshop in the series will focus on Redistributing Power and Workplace Democracy. This event will bring together specialists from diverse fields, delving into key areas such as participatory management and co-determination, the interplay of platform cooperativism and the gig economy, and the emerging field of algorithmic democracy. This event aligns with the European Commission's goal of fostering equitable work environments.
The second workshop in the series addressed Working Time Reduction and the Four-Day Week, which took place online on 27th-28th October. This high-level event brought together selected experts to discuss the pros and cons of these measures, and their potential social, environmental and economic impacts from a policy-oriented and evidence-based point of view.
The first workshop in the series addressed two types of universal benefits, namely universal inheritance (UI) and universal basic income (UBI). This high-level event, with more than 40 participants, brought together 30 high-profile international experts on different aspects of such policies. This workshop closely fits the European Commission’s priority of dealing with an economy that works for people.
Thematic Workshops
Thematic workshops on innovative contributions to social stratification and inequality research in the context of the digital revolution.
This international workshop was held at JRC-Seville on 4-5 December 2023, aiming to explore innovative contributions to social stratification and inequality research in the context of the digital revolution. The workshop comprised interdisciplinary academics and cutting-edge research on the following themes: Class measurement, Class inequality, Intergenerational transmission mechanisms, Technology and labour market inequality, Technology and politics, Policy responses, and Political behaviour. Click the link above for further details on the programme and watch the recorded webstreaming.
Kick-off Workshop
The Kick-off Workshop of the Social Classes in the Digital Age (DIGCLASS) project was held on the 21-22 of September 2021. The kick-off workshop was a high-level event with more than 100 participants that brought together 13 high-profile international experts on social inequality from different social science disciplines to discuss technological change and inequality, two topics directly under the European Commission’s priorities. The objective was to generate synergies with leading experts and institutions globally on these two key areas to feed the policy process relevant for the Commission. The programme was structured around four overarching questions: 1. Are existing systems of social protection adequate for the digital age? 2. Are contemporary societies still class-based? 3. How are digital technologies transforming the social structure? 4. Does socioeconomic position still drive political outcomes? Each of the questions were addressed by three to four experts in a round table format, offering a stimulating debate on the implications of technological change for social inequalities and aiming to promote collaboration between the CAS and leading experts and institutions globally, in order to help shape and inform policy making of the Commission.