As an international research network on interdependent inequalities, desiguALdades.net brings together experts on social inequalities and experts on Latin America. The network involves scholars from a wide variety of disciplines from universities and non-university research institutions in Latin America, Europe and North America. Putting special focus on the multidimensionality and interdependencies of social inequalities, scholars address the roots and dynamics of persistent inequalities in the region.

Within the framework established by the network, during the first phase (2009-2014) of the project, knowledge on a wide variety of topics related to interdependent inequalities affecting Latin America was produced and a network of researchers on social inequalities was consolidated in order to analyze the global structuration und multidimensionality of interdependent social inequalities in Latin America. In the second phase (2014-2016), desiguALdades.net focused on the discrepancies between these global configurations and national scenarios of bargaining processes concerning social inequalities.

As of May 1, 2016, desiguALdades.net moves into its third phase. In the first two phases (Nov. 2009 – April 2014 and May 2014 – April 2016, respectively), funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) provided countless opportunities in the form of doctoral training programs, fellowships for scholars at all career stages, workshops, public lectures, conference panel presentations, Summer Schools, and international conferences.

Although the funding from the BMBF has ended, the Lateinamerika-Institut of Freie Universität Berlin will continue to provide support for the network through Executive Secretary and the desiguALdades.net web site, as well as serving as a platform for related events and for hosting visiting scholars.

The other participating institutions - the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut, Deutsche Institut für Entwicklungspolitik/German Development Institute, and the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies - will also continue to work on the themes developed in the desiguALdades.net project.