PEDEC workshopScholars, activists and practitioners met at Queen Mary, University of London on 15 December under the auspices of the PEDEC Research Network at a workshop to discuss the implications of the current economic downturn for the promotion of equality and diversity.
Participants from a range of disciplines and areas of practice engaged with a number of key issues, including the historical patterns of earlier recessions, the changing political landscape and ideologies underpinning current policies, data on gender and employment patterns, changes to work-life balance policies and practices and the challenges of intersectionality at a time of economic pressure.
The QM PEDEC research network, funded by the AHRC, is run by Professor Lizzie Barmes and Professor Kate Malleson together with colleagues from Geography and the Centre for Research on Equality and Diversity in the School of Business and Management. It seeks to bring together scholars, practitioners and activists from the UK, Europe and the US through a series of workshops to explore the implications of the economic downturn, and coming cuts in public spending, for maintaining and progressing equality and diversity standards and for including marginalized groups in economic recovery.
More information on the Network and the workshops, including a podcast of the first workshop, can be found on the website www.geog.qmul.ac.uk/pedec