"The problem of inequality is not so much a matter of technical economics. It's really a problem of practical politics."

In both developing and developed nations, the gap between the rich and the rest is spiraling out of control - a haunting reality that according to Joseph Stiglitz is neither accidental nor inevitable. Globalisation and rapid technological change coupled with the disappearing safety net of the welfare state have left many struggling to get by.

These are challenges that Nobel Prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz – author, academic and perhaps the closest thing in the world to a celebrity economist – sets out to solve.

In this talk marking his 2018 Sydney Peace Prize win, Joseph Stiglitz explains which ideas about wealth distribution and taxation should be discredited or revived, how the economic status quo ties in with the recent upsurge in populism, and what economic scholarship should do to help bring policies in step with today’s economic transformations.

This talk was hosted by the Sydney Policy Lab, the School of Economics at the University of Sydney and the Sydney Peace Foundation.

Joseph Stiglitz on tackling inequality: what's next?

"... the terrain of struggle for justice is happening in the city and in the countryside, and it's beginning to link." - Eric Holt-Giménez

In response to the social inequities and ecological damage wrought by the industrial and globalising food system, a growing food movement that champions food and farm justice, sovereignty and democracy is driving social, economic and political change across the globe.

This industrial food system not only creates food and farm insecurity, but it also reformulates rural/urban relations, city to rural migrations and vice versa, and the social and political networks in cities – even what it means to be a citizen.

In this episode, we're talking to Eric Holt-Giménez about la Via Campesina, a global women's rights movement. He examines these issues "...because most of the farmers in the world are women unless we have food sovereignty, we can't ensure women's rights. And from the point of view of la Via Campesina, because most of the farmers in the world are women, we can't have food sovereignty until we end all violence against women." 

Eric Holt-Giménez has been Executive Director of Food First since 2006. He is the editor of the Food First book, Food Movements Unite! Strategies to Transform Our Food Systems; co-author of Food Rebellions! Crisis and the Hunger for Justice with Raj Patel and Annie Shattuck; and author of the book Campesino a Campesino: Voices from Latin America’s Farmer to Farmer Movement for Sustainable Agriculture and of many academic, magazine and news articles.

Of Basque and Puerto Rican heritage, Eric grew up milking cows and pitching hay in Point Reyes, CA, where he learned that putting food on the table is hard work. After studying rural education and biology at the University of Oregon and Evergreen State College, he travelled through Mexico and Central America, where he was drawn to the simple life of small-scale farmers.

This episode is a part of a series called The Democratic Experiment. In this series, we're searching far and wide for the places and spaces where democracy happens, from urban alliances and schools to community gardens and museums. Where better to lead our experiment than cities, where we live side by side, at once connected and divided by inequality, shifting balances of power, and our yearning to belong?

This series is a partnership between City Road and The Sydney Policy Lab at the University of Sydney.

The Sydney Policy Lab exists to break down the barriers between researchers, policymakers, campaigners and the community at large. At the Sydney Policy Lab people of all backgrounds are coming together to strengthen our democracy, reduce spiralling inequality and help to empower communities to shape their own future.

Episode 3 - Food And Cities

Policy Lab

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