Durable Inequality

by Charles Tilly

Charles Tilly, in this eloquent manifesto, presents a powerful new approach to the study of persistent social inequality. How, he asks, do long-lasting, systematic inequalities in life chances arise, and how do they come to distinguish members of different socially defined categories of persons? Exploring representative paired and unequal categories, such as male/female, black/white, and citizen/noncitizen, Tilly argues that the basic causes of these and similar inequalities greatly resemble one another. In contrast to contemporary analyses that explain inequality case by case, this account is one of process. Categorical distinctions arise, Tilly says, because they offer a solution to pressing organizational problems. Whatever the "organization" is—as small as a household or as large as a government—the resulting relationship of inequality persists because parties on both sides of the categorical divide come to depend on that solution, despite its drawbacks. Tilly illustrates the social mechanisms that create and maintain paired and unequal categories with a rich variety of cases, mapping out fertile territories for future relational study of durable inequality.

Genres: Sociology, Politics, Nonfiction, Economics, Political Science, Social, Class

313 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Charles Tilly was an American sociologist, political scientist, and historian renowned for his pioneering contributions to the study of social change, state formation, and contentious politics. A prolific scholar, Tilly authored over 600 articles and more than 50 books, shaping disciplines ranging from sociology and history to political science. His research was grounded in large-scale, comparative historical analysis, exemplified by his influential works Coercion, Capital, and European States, Durable Inequality, and Dynamics of Contention.
Tilly began his academic career after earning his doctorate in sociology from Harvard University, where he studied under noted figures like George C. Homans and Barrington Moore Jr. He taught at several major institutions, including the University of Michigan, The New School, and ultimately Columbia University, where he held the Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professorship of Social Science.
He developed a distinctive theoretical approach that rejected simplistic, static models of society, instead emphasizing dynamic processes and relational mechanisms. Tilly’s theories of state formation, particularly his provocative comparison of war-making and state-making to organized crime, remain central in political sociology. He also played a key role in the evolution of historical sociology and the relational sociology movement, especially through his collaborations and influence on the New York School.
A leading theorist of social movements, Tilly outlined how modern protest became structured around campaigns, repertoires of contention, and public displays of unity, worthiness, numbers, and commitment. His work with scholars like Sidney Tarrow and Doug McAdam further redefined the field by linking social movements to broader political processes.
Tilly received numerous honors, including membership in the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as multiple honorary doctorates. His legacy endures through awards bearing his name and through continued influence on generations of social scientists.

Reviews

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

there are inequalities in life chances between various categories of persons: male/female, black/white, citizen/foreigner, and so on. for each pair, you could attempt to give a pair-specific explanation of the inequality, something to do with its historical origins and how the inequality is persisting through time. what tilly is doing here is different: he is offering a *general* explanation that purports to cover all durable categorical inequalities. as you'd imagine, it's quite abstract. here in block-quote is one bit where he outlines the theory:

[begin quote]
Humans invented categorical inequality millennia ago and have applied it to a wide range of social situations. People establish systems of categorical inequality, however inadvertently, chiefly by means of these two causal mechanisms:

• Exploitation, which operates when powerful, connected people command resources from which they draw significantly increased returns by coordinating the effort of outsiders whom they exclude from the full value added by that effort.

• Opportunity hoarding, which operates when members of a categorically bounded network acquire access to a resource that is valuable, renewable, subject to monopoly, supportive of network activities, and enhanced by the network’s modus operandi. [...]

Two further mechanisms cement such arrangements in place:

• Emulation, the copying of established organizational models and/or the transplanting of existing social relations from one setting to another; and

• Adaptation, the elaboration of daily routines such as mutual aid, political influence, courtship, and information gathering on the basis of categorically unequal structures.

Exploitation and opportunity hoarding favor the installation of categorical inequality, while emulation and adaptation generalize its influence.
[end quote]

[Andrej · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una tesis que bien pudo ser explicada en 50 páginas o menos. Si bien la tesis de los mecanismos de la desigual categorial resulta práctica, el autor no recurre a evidencia dura, sino a referencia anecdoticas sin datos duros.

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eyeopener!

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very useful concepts and theory. I could have done without Tilly unnecessarily complicating some very basic ideas.

[Jaein Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool.