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desiguALdades.net addresses social inequalities in Latin America that are characterized by growing transregional and global interdependencies. Around 70 outstanding researchers from area studies and different disciplinary perspectives on social inequalities jointly work on phenomena of social inequalities that need to be analyzed within theoretical and methodological frameworks going beyond the nation state. By putting the emphasis on the interdependencies between different world regions, desiguALdades.net aims at overcoming the methodological nationalisms that until now have dominated research on social inequality. From such a perspective, Latin America is a highly interesting and relevant region to be studied. First of all, Latin America has been characterized by severe and highly persisting forms of social, economic, and cultural inequalities throughout its history. Simultaneously, the subcontinent as a whole and the phenomena of social inequality in particular are affected by profound dynamics of transregionalization, related to different phases of globalization. Last but not least, it is the dynamism of Latin American research on social inequality itself that makes Latin America a privileged region for developing a network on transregional phenomena of social inequalities. desiguALdades.net concentrates on two central research questions: (1) To what extent is the distribution of resources and the access to aspired social positions in Latin America shaped by global and transregional interdependencies, in addition to local, regional, and national ones? (2) To what extent does the embeddedness of social inequalities into transregional interdependencies create enduring power differences and unequal opportunities for the social, economic, and political participation of the respective individuals, communities, or societies? desiguALdades.net also aims at promoting a systematic transatlantic dialogue between epistemic communities on social inequality and Latin American area studies in Germany and Latin America. The current Latin American debates focus on (1) the phenomenon of ongoing persistence and even accentuation of socio-economic inequalities despite a general economic growth, (2) a shift from a purely economic understanding of social inequality towards one that acknowledges the multiple forms of power asymmetry by integrating non-economic dimensions of social inequality, such as culture, ethnicity, ‘race’, and gender, and (3) the link between the ques
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