Just 19 years into democracy, ‘development’ and ‘transformation’ continue to be buzzwords in South Africa. Both terms fit equally well into the conversation around the country’s inclusion in the BRICS group of emerging national economies and the G20. There’s no arguing with the figures related to South Africa’s economic growth […]

Agnes Namagembe is one of 4.2 million Ugandans living in urban areas. Like the majority of Uganda’s urban dwellers, Agnes lives in the capital, Kampala. Like many other African cities, Kampala is informally divided between up market and low market residences. The rich live in upmarket areas of the town […]

  Valentyna is in her 70s. She sells used books on the street right under an old rusty fence. I come closer and pick up an extremely old copy of Boccaccio’s “Decameron”. She doesn’t mind a bit of a chat with me and says that she has been in this […]

Recently voted the world’s most liveable city, Melbourne is known for its food, festivals and football. Poverty is not a theme often attributed to Australia’s second largest city. However as the city rapidly expands – three of the country’s fastest growing postcodes are in Melbourne’s north – not everyone is […]

This post was produced for the Global Economic Symposium 2013 to accompany a session on “Social Norms and Moral Principles to Reduce Poverty and Improve Equity.” Read more at http://blog.global-economic-symposium.org. Although recent social protests in Latin America have not reached the level of those in other parts of the world, where […]