Shaping Fairness and Equality after the Recession - Report

In keeping with our long history of helping advance the art and practice of human relations, and in particular our commitment to developing thinking and practice in equality and diversity, ORC were delighted to sponsor two thought provoking seminars held in London in late 2009 in conjunction with the Equality and Diversity Forum (EDF). The focus of the seminars which attracted policy makers, academics, employers etc was the issues arising from the impact of the recession and the implications for fairness, equality and social justice.

The attached report summarises the discussion at the seminars and draws out some of the key questions raised, including:

• The importance of raising public awareness of the facts about inequality and poverty.
• Are equality, fairness, social mobility and diversity the same or different?
• The current lack of consensus on what fairness means in practice.
• Is there a long term global trend to increasing economic inequality?
• Are social hierarchies and segregation growing?
• The importance of ensuring equality legislation achieves its objectives.
• The relationship between the benefits system and inequality.

Click here to download the report.

Many of these issues are regularly discussed at the Vanguard and Breakthrough networks which bring together senior equality and diversity professionals. For further information please contact: Deirdre.Golden@orcww.com