2025-2026 Fall Seminar II
Date and Time
The Weatherhead Research Cluster on Comparative Inequality and Inclusion draws on expertise from across disciplines to gain international and comparative perspectives on how to extend cultural membership to the greatest number in society, to gain a better understanding of the social and cultural processes behind recognition gaps, and to determine how social scientists and policy makers can better respond to help make societies more inclusive.
Advanced industrial societies have become increasingly characterized by two trends: growing inequality and an increasing recognition gap. As the distribution of wealth and income have grown more unequal, a growing number of groups are making claims for recognition as the poor, workers, immigrants, Muslims, LGBTQ people, and various ethnoracial and religious minority groups experience stigmatization. This double tension will serve as a fruitful point of entry for future multidisciplinary inquiries into the conditions for collective well-being.
A major challenge for contemporary societies is to extend cultural membership to the greatest number. Thus we need to gain a better understanding of the social and cultural processes behind recognition gaps, and determine how social scientists and policy makers can better respond to help make societies more inclusive.
This seminar brings together cluster affiliates and colleagues across departments to share their published and in-progress work in an effort to find responses to the timely questions related to inequality and the recognition gap. For more information, please check the seminar’s upcoming events.
Presenters:
Gülce Şafak Özdemir (Weatherhead Scholars Program)
“Cities, Migrants, and the Politics of (In)Visibility”
Abstract: This presentation bridges my doctoral and postdoctoral research on the governance and lived experiences of illegalised migrants(IMs) in urban contexts. My PhD dissertation investigated how European cities respond to irregular migrants through a multi-scalar and multi-method approach. The first part developed a typology of urban solidarity, revealing a spectrum of transformative practices and diverse contestations. A fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) of 13 cities identified local government–civil society alliances and political discrepancy with national governments as essential conditions for inclusive municipal activism. Ethnographic case study research further illuminated the (in)visibility paradox, showing how institutional logics, marginalization, and intersectional identities shape migrants’ strategies of visibility and invisibility. Building on these insights, my postdoctoral project, VIMUS, supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, expands the lens beyond Europe to cities such as Boston, Birmingham, Barcelona, and Madrid. Integrating perspectives from migration studies, critical race theory, postcolonial feminism, and urban studies, VIMUS investigates how legal and policy infrastructures intersect with race, gender, and class to shape the (in)visibility of illegalised migrants. Together, these projects contribute to advancing theoretical, methodological, and empirical understandings of urban (in)visibility, offering new perspectives on inequality and guiding more inclusive policymaking.
Paulus Wagner and Barbara Wolfram
Synopsis: The trucking company LKW Kovacs, where Walter works, undergoes digitalization - worlds and worldviews collide soon. A faulty cooling system disrupts Walter’s routine and delays throw off his tight schedule. Consultant Stephanie Novàkovà, overseeing the process, also struggles to find her footing. On the day of his daughter Jenny’s soccer final, Walter’s route is changed last-minute, so he takes a fatal decision. That evening, he’s suspended via app and without pay. After days of uncertainty, his wife Petra urges him to fight for his job. The short film is based on 150 biographical interviews with manual workers in Austria and Germany, conducted between 2019 and 2022 as part of Paulus Wagner’s PhD research.
Dean Ray (York University)
“Settler-Colonial Structure and Indigenous Agency: Drawing on the Sociological Canon to Theorize Structure and Agency in Settler-Colonial Theory”
Abstract: This article examines the structure-agency debate within settler-colonial theory, drawing on sociological insights to theorize Indigenous agency. While Patrick Wolfe (1999) famously argued that settler-colonialism is a total structure, scholars have increasingly sought to theorize Indigenous resistance, resurgence, and self-determination. Settler-colonial theory’s emphasis on structure has obscured a fuller picture of how Indigenous Peoples exert agency both within and against colonial systems. By incorporating William Sewell Jr.'s (1992) conceptualization of structure as the interplay between cultural schemas and resources, this article reconceptualizes settler-colonialism as a dynamic and contested formation rather than an immutable structure. Drawing on the growing literature around racialized emotions, I argue that Indigenous agency is realized for Indigenous communities by empowering emotions as cultural schemas—particularly by empowering emotions like resentment, anger, and love. By applying sociological insights to settler-colonial theory, this article not only clarifies the conditions of Indigenous agency but also expands sociological understandings of race, colonialism, and social change. Ultimately, it calls for a sociological framework that attends to both settler-colonial domination and Indigenous resilience, highlighting the ongoing negotiation of power and the possibilities for transformation within settler-colonial societies.