Economics for the People: Inside Inequality
Engage in Global Challenges, Economy
Is it becoming harder to afford a decent life in Canada—or does it simply feel that way?
What role do wealth and its distribution play in shaping a good and fair society? Is the growing gap between the 1% and the 99% inevitable?
Join us for a lively, accessible, and thought-provoking evening with SFU’s Mohsen Javdani, Associate Professor of Economics and Public Policy. Together, we will examine current trends in economic inequality and consider their far-reaching consequences.
Through storytelling, interactive polls, compelling data, and open discussion, the event explores how inequality shapes communities, democratic life, and everyday experiences, while also considering practical responses. Moving beyond a technical economics lecture, this event presents economics as a shared language—and a tool for collective understanding, imagination, and action.
Participants are invited to learn, question, and reflect on the kind of society we want, and what it may take to achieve it.
This community dialogue is organized by the SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue and SFU Public Square. It is also the first event of When the Map is Useless: Conversations for a World in Transition series, supported in part by the North Family Foundation.
Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Doors Open: 6:00pm
Event: 6:30-9:00pm
SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue
Exploring critical community issues through dialogue: this annual event programming engages the community at large with academics to explore innovative approaches to local issues through cross-sectoral dialogue.
The Bruce and Lis Welch Community Dialogue is a signature event of SFU's Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue. The 2026 event is supported by SFU Public Square.
Learn more and explore past Community Dialogues on SFU's Centre for Dialogue website.
Featured Speakers
Mohsen Javdani is an associate professor of economics in the School of Public Policy and Urban Studies Program at Simon Fraser University. Prior to joining SFU in 2020, he was a faculty member in the Department of Economics, Philosophy, and Political Science at the University of British Columbia (Okanagan Campus).
Mohsen’s research interests are varied, spanning applied/empirical economics, labour economics, and economic inequality (especially labour market inequalities and discrimination experienced by women, immigrants, and racial minorities). More recently, he has also been interested in examining different aspects of the mainstream economics, including views among economists and economics students, and the role of ideological bias in shaping these views. He is currently involved in a related large-scale research project in collaboration with Dr. Ha-Joon Chang from the University of Cambridge and funded by SSHRC. He is also a co-investigator on a multidisciplinary academic-community SSHRC partnership grant to collaboratively generate and mobilize new knowledge about precarity in and beyond employment in British Columbia (BC) to address its impacts and advance policy solutions.
Despite varied research interests, one identifiable theme in Mohsen’s work is understanding and challenging the mechanisms and processes that hinder plurality and produce inequality, injustice, exclusion, and marginalization.
Moderator
Dr. Aftab Erfan (she/her) is Executive Director of SFU Centre for Dialogue and Associate Member at SFU School of Public Policy. Previously, she served as the City of Vancouver’s inaugural Chief Equity Officer, and Director of Dialogue and Conflict Engagement at UBC. She holds a PhD in planning from UBC, a Masters in planning from McGill University, and a BSc in environmental sciences from UBC. Aftab has extensive experience as a process designer and facilitator, specializing in hosting dialogues on contentious issues with warmth and creativity. Her experience spans 15 years and five continents. She holds numerous honours, including BC500 most influential business leaders in BC (Business in Vancouver), Research for a Better Life: The Storytellers Challenge (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council), and Best Published Paper Award Shortlist (Association of European Schools of Planning).