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Global Social Inequalities

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Global Handbook of Inequality

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Abstract

Global inequalities are often studied as between-country inequalities. The chapter references empirical work on between-country inequalities but argues for a more nuanced empirical and theoretical perspective. As country averages obscure massive inequalities within a country, innovating economists describe global inequalities by studying country percentiles and ranking them globally. Theorists of the capitalist world-system and postcolonial studies scholars give diverging causal explanations for inequalities both within and between countries. The chapter explains these theoretical approaches and the controversies between them. Controversies concern the location of and potential for political agency, causal relations between globalization and inequalities, concepts and measurement of inequality, and geographical scale. In the last section, the “flat globalism” of some macro-social approaches is criticized. Conceptual alternatives are fields, sociocultures, and systems. Capabilities depend on a person’s resources, but access to enabling contexts is pivotal, too. A comprehensive concept of socio-spatial autonomy considers physical access to well-endowed contexts, citizenship-based political inclusion and exclusion, and the pragmatic ability to connect socially. In conclusion, the chapter pleads for more nuance in the study of global inequalities.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany

    Anja Weiß

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  1. Anja Weiß
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Correspondence to Anja Weiß .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru Univ, New Delhi, Delhi, India

    Surinder S. Jodhka

  2. Institute for Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Boike Rehbein

Section Editor information

  1. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Daniel Bultmann

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Weiß, A. (2023). Global Social Inequalities. In: Jodhka, S.S., Rehbein, B. (eds) Global Handbook of Inequality. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97417-6_103-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97417-6_103-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-97417-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-97417-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Social SciencesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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