Minor in Inequality Studies

A minor gives you the opportunity of having a second specialization in your degree. The minor is a bundle of three to four electives that can be chosen separately but if chosen together rewards a minor.

The Inequality Studies minor is structured around three electives that can be selected separately but if chosen together constitute a minor.

Since the publication of Thomas Pikkety’s (2014) book Capital in the 21st Century, inequality has become one of the most important and contested topics of academic and political debate across the globe – and with good reason. Over the last four decades the increasingly intense globalization of the world economy and processes of deregulation have created winners and losers. The gulf between those at the top and those at the bottom has grown in many countries. The economic gap has in turn exacerbated other cleavages most notably those based upon race, ethnicity and gender.

Alongside these processes, and although there are intense debates about the scale of global inequality, the gap between the rich, western countries and poorer countries on the African continent is as wide as ever, and new global challenges are emerging, not least in the form of large flows of migration – which have major ramifications not just in the home countries but also in the west.

Nonetheless, although it might be argued that a number of these global challenges call for global solutions, high and rising economic inequality has contributed to the growth of populist and nationalist movements in the west and a turn towards more inward-looking policies aimed at reversing globalizing processes and retreating from supranational forms of governance.

The Inequality Studies minor will survey all these trends and developments. It will be both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary insofar as it will explore inequalities through different disciplines including economics, politics, sociology and philosophy but also seek to integrate the different approaches so as to offer an in-depth and comprehensive understanding of the subject. 

The Inequality Studies minor provides a one semester introduction to the economic, political, social and philosophical dimensions of the inequalities associated with income, wealth and markets. The courses address a key contemporary issue and offer an opportunity to draw upon, deepen and apply the knowledge and skills that students may have acquired earlier in their studies.

The below table lists the structure and the ECTS credits of the individual courses. The course descriptions are available in the online course catalogue. Direct links are inserted in the below table.

The minor consists of the examinations listed below. The learning objectives and the regulations of the individual examinations are prescribed in the online course catalogue. Direct links to the individual examinations are inserted in the table below.

Minor coordinator

Eddie Ashbee, Department of Business and Politics, (ea.dbp@cbs.dk)

Study Board

The Inequality Studies minor and its constituent courses are organized in close collaboration with the CBS Business in Society Inequality platform and sponsored by the BSc & MSc International Business and Politics (IBP) Study Board.

How to sign up

If you want to sign up for the minor in Inequality Studies, you should select CPOLM4000U Minor in Inequality Studies when you sign up for electives. You will then be signed up for all three courses. You do not need to select all three courses individually.