Reducing Social Inequality – Strategies at Local Level

5-6 November 2020
University Club Bonn | ONLINE

All over the globe, the coronavirus pandemic reveals and aggravates problems of social inequality. Slum dweller, for example, face the highest infection risks due to lack of space and poor infrastructure. Lockdowns and other policy measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 disproportionally affect those with low incomes or unsecure jobs. At the same time, many local communities and city governments take innovative and extraordinary steps to strengthen social cohesion, for example by coordinating and sponsoring neighbourhood initiatives or by transforming traffic areas into improvised playground and public parks.

What are lessons learned from these initiatives? How can we build on them to make our communities integrative and fair on a larger scale? What are best practices that cities of different world regions can share and replicate? What is our vision of social justice and equality at the local level in 2030? These questions were discussed by local policymakers, scientists and activists at the Bonn Symposium 2020 on 5/6 November.

Video Clips

Kirsten Wilkins on public space and inequality

Gregory Randolph on platform economy in developing countries

Dr Marta Mazurek on how to promote women in local politics

Video Recordings

Professor Frances Stewart (Oxford University) on social inequality, what it is and why it matters

Dr Isabell Kempf (UNRISD) on the linkage between climate change, environmental risks and social inequality

Matthew Klein (New York City Government) on evidence-based and innovative policies to reduce social inequality in New York City

Talk between Professor Astrid Ley (Urban Planning Institute, University of Stuttgart), Sieghard Lückehe (Executive Director Urban Housing Association Bremerhaven) and Kirsten Wilkins (Managing Director, Open Streets Cape Town)