Equality

Equality shapes how states, groups and individuals interact — in trade, in development and in security. Inequality destabilises politics and falls hardest on the people least able to absorb it. The challenge overlaps heavily with rights, justice, development and diversity.

Where to look

• The Rohingya in Myanmar — inequality written into law and institutions.
• Black Lives Matter — a local movement that became a global one, and what changed when it did.
• "Zero flags" campaigns — art used to argue for the decriminalization of homosexuality.
• Racial discrimination in Mexico — the problem officially described as invisible.

Concepts this challenge pulls on

Legitimacy — an unequal order has to be justified to survive — and power in its structural form: the inequality that no one decided and everyone maintains.

Connections worth making

Identity — most institutionalised inequality is organised around an identity category. Poverty — related but not identical; keep the distinction sharp in an essay. Health — the clearest measurable trace inequality leaves.