Studying equality

How should we now construct the intellectual project of the left? In this paper, I
argue for one answer to this question, by setting out the case for the field of
equality studies as it has developed in the Equality Studies Centre at University
College Dublin. In the first section, I argue that equality is an appropriate
focus for leftist enquiry. In the second section, I characterize equality studies in
terms of its central questions and emancipatory research paradigm. The third
section compares equality studies with some other progressive and
interdisciplinary projects. I finish by returning to the relationship between
equality studies and egalitarian politics. My overall aim is to encourage
progressives to look at their own work from an equality studies perspective and
thereby to encourage them to develop their own forms of interdisciplinary
cooperation along similar lines.