Despite decades of progress in civil rights, international cooperation, and social policy, inequality remains one of the most persistent and defining challenges of our time. Across the globe, individuals and communities continue to face systemic barriers based on race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic status, physical or mental ability, and nationality. These inequalities are not isolated, they are deeply intertwined and often reinforced by structural systems of power and privilege.

In the past years, the world has witnessed growing calls for justice and equality, from the global resonance of the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements, to renewed attention to gender inequality, indigenous rights, and decolonization. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed and deepened existing inequalities in access to healthcare, education, and income. In many places, economic recovery has been uneven, exacerbating the divide between those who have access to opportunity and those who are left behind.

At the same time, populist rhetoric, the erosion of democratic norms, and rising political polarization have added new layers to the problem of exclusion and discrimination. Digital inequality (unequal access to the internet and to digital literacy) has become another pressing challenge, especially as education, jobs, and services increasingly move online. The effects of climate change, too, are unequally distributed, hitting the most vulnerable hardest and further reinforcing global injustice.

The inequality problem, therefore, is not limited to wealth or income. It is about who is seen, who is heard, and who gets to participate in shaping society. It is about access to resources, services, safety, representation, and dignity. It is about both overt forms of discrimination and subtle, systemic patterns of exclusion.

This challenge invites you to interrogate inequality as a multi-layered, dynamic phenomenon that plays out across legal systems, markets, cultural narratives, health systems, political institutions, and more. You are encouraged to explore how these different layers interact and how they can be dismantled or transformed.

To address the inequality problem holistically, students are invited to investigate how different forms of inequality intersect, and how their persistence is shaped by systems, perceptions, and global developments. This includes but is not limited to economic inequality, health disparities, educational exclusion, social discrimination, and legal and political marginalization.

Your team might explore angles such as:

• Access and affordability of basic needs such as housing, healthcare, education, and legal representation. How do structural inequalities shape who can access high-quality services? What models (e.g. universal basic services, inclusive health insurance schemes, local empowerment initiatives) exist that might be adapted or scaled to reduce exclusion?
• The social psychology of inequality: How do perceptions of fairness or deservingness influence public opinion and policy support? What cognitive biases or group dynamics perpetuate exclusion or prevent empathy across social divides?
• Algorithmic bias and digital exclusion: As governments, businesses, and public services increasingly use algorithms to allocate resources or monitor populations, how are existing inequalities embedded or amplified by these tools? How can technology be designed more equitably?
• Migration and citizenship: How do national borders and legal status create unequal access to rights, protections, and opportunities? What happens when individuals fall outside the legal or social recognition of a state? What alternatives to current models of citizenship might address statelessness or systemic discrimination?
• Wealth accumulation and taxation: How are economic systems and global tax regimes enabling capital to concentrate in the hands of the few? Could new taxation models, like wealth taxes or global corporate tax reform, help redistribute resources more fairly?
• Public health disparities: How do income, geography, education, and race/ethnicity determine differences in health outcomes, life expectancy, and access to care? What role do social determinants play, and how can interventions be designed to close these gaps?
• Labor market inequalities: Consider wage gaps, precarious employment, unpaid care work, and the growing divide between formal and informal economies. How do historical inequalities play out in hiring, promotion, or access to financial capital? What policies (e.g. pay transparency, minimum income, universal childcare) might counteract these patterns?
• Climate justice: Climate change both exposes and worsens global inequalities. Who is most vulnerable to environmental degradation, and who holds decision-making power? What mechanisms could be put in place to ensure a just transition to a sustainable economy?
• Youth, education, and intergenerational inequality: How does unequal access to education and upward mobility affect generational prospects? How do rising living costs, educational debt, and housing precarity impact young people’s ability to participate equally in society?
• Resistance and social movements: From #BlackLivesMatter to #MeToo, climate justice protests to decolonial initiatives, how are contemporary movements reshaping public debates, institutional practices, and legal norms? What can we learn from these efforts, and where are they still falling short?