Inequality Reexamined

Celebrating Christopher "Sandy" Jencks
And the 40th anniversary of Inequality

An Inequality & Social Policy event
October 11, 2013, at the Harvard Kennedy School.

• Read Claude Fischer's highlights in the Boston Review.

• View program booklet
• See who joined us
• Jump to videos

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION: INEQUALITY REEXAMINED
Kathryn Edin | Harvard Kennedy School.
The occasion and aims of this conference.


I.  REFLECTIONS ON THE WORK OF CHRISTOPHER JENCKS [9:05-9:30 AM]
Two longtime colleagues assess the significance of Christopher Jencks’s defining contributions for our understanding of inequality and social policy.

Christopher Winship | Sociology, Harvard University.
Inequality: A Reassessment of the Effect of Family and Schooling in America, by Christopher Jencks, Marshall Smith, Henry Acland, Mary Jo Bane, David Cohen, Herbert Gintis, Barbara Heyns, and Stephan Michelson. Basic Books, 1972.

II. WHAT DISCIPLINE “X” CAN TEACH US ABOUT INEQUALITY  [9:30-11:30 AM]
What are the most important recent insights about inequality and social policy from different branches of the social sciences?  What are the biggest unsolved problems and the most promising avenues for future research in each discipline?  

• ECONOMICS
  Lawrence F. Katz | Economics, Harvard University.
  View slides
   
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
  Ian Shapiro | Political Science, Yale University.
  View white paper
   
• SOCIOLOGY
  Katherine S. Newman | James B. Knapp Dean of the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Johns Hopkins University.
  View white paper
   
• PSYCHOLOGY
  Eldar Shafir | Psychology, Princeton University.
  View white paper

SESSIONS III, IV, AND V—VIDEO

To our tremendous disappointment, all footage from the morning sessions I and II has been lost due to a failure of the camera's memory card. This includes the reflections on Sandy's work by Christopher Winship and William Julius Wilson, as well as the morning panel with Bruce Western, Lawrence Katz, Ian Shapiro, Katherine Newman, Eldar Shafir, and David Ellwood. In the absence of video, we have posted their slides and prepared remarks above.

Thankfully, all footage from the afternoon, beginning with Sandy's midday remarks, is intact. Sessions III, IV, and V continue below.

III. NEW EMPIRICAL FINDINGS
Three new empirical papers.

IV. TEN BIG IDEAS
Ten big ideas in inequality and social policy. From 10 social scientists. In 10 minutes each.

V.  CELEBRATING SANDY
Stories, toasts, and more—including the film premiere: 'Unequaled: The Incomparable Sandy Jencks.'