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SYMPOSIUM: "Rich man, poor (wo)man". Inequalities in Health and Wellbeing Re-examined

Symposium, "Rich man, poor (wo)man"

350-ÅRSJUBILEUM. Welcome to this symposium on Wednesday March 8th, where we look at poverty development in Sweden during the last 100 years & trends in men & women's incomes in Africa.

Life expectancy in the Western world, like in Sweden, has expanded linearly by about 25 years during the 20th century, a bit more for women than men. At the same time, living standards have improved tremendously. In the beginning of the century less than one out of ten persons reached a living standard above today’s poverty line.

Surprisingly enough, while we are richer and social transfers are greater than ever before, and medication is almost free, inequality in adult health, and also income, has increased rapidly in recent decades. Inequalities in the face of increasing living standards exist also with respect to gender. Meanwhile, these rising inequalities are also discernible in emerging economies.

Whereas absolute poverty or indigence has decreased around the world, relative poverty remains largely stagnant. Today, some 73 per cent of the world's poor live in middle-income countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, agriculture and  rural development  have been at the forefront of development policy since the turn of the Millennium; yet, improvements have in  several cases been accompanied by growing inequality between men and women.

This symposium is co-organized by the Faculty of Social Sciences and the School of Economics and Management.

The event is open for the public and no registration is necessary.

Schedule

13.00 – 13.15 Magnus Jerneck (Professor in Political Science, Lund University): Introduction

13.15 – 13.40 Birgitta Jansson (PhD in Economic History, Gothenburg University): Poverty in Sweden during the last 100 years.

13.45 – 14.10 Erik Bengtsson (PhD in Economic History, Lund University): The (un)equal history of Sweden since 1750?

14.15 – 14.40 Tommy Bengtsson (Professor in Demography and Economic History, Lund University): Can wealth buy health? Similarities and differences in health in Sweden over centuries.

14.40 – 15.10 Break with refreshments 

15.15 – 15.40 Johan Sandberg (Director of studies at LUMID, Lund University): - Who is poor? Trends and challenges of poverty measurement and classification in a global perspective.

15.45- 16.10 Agnes Andersson Djurfeldt (Professor in Human Geography, Lund University): Are livelihoods improving in rural Africa - longitudinal perspectives on gender?

16.15 – 17.45 Panel discussion moderated by Magnus Jerneck

 

For more information, please visit the symposium website!