Unveiling Inequality: A World-Historical Perspective

by Roberto Patricio Korzeniewicz, Timothy Patrick Moran

Despite the vast expansion of global markets during the last half of the twentieth century, social science still most often examines and measures inequality and social mobility within individual nations rather than across national boundaries. Every country has both rich and poor populations making demands―via institutions, political processes, or even conflict―on how their resources will be distributed. But shifts in inequality in one country can precipitate accompanying shifts in another. Unveiling Inequality authors Roberto Patricio Korzeniewicz and Timothy Patrick Moran make the case that within-country analyses alone have not adequately illuminated our understanding of global stratification. The authors present a comprehensive new framework that moves beyond national boundaries to analyze economic inequality and social mobility on a global scale and from a historical perspective. Assembling data on patterns of inequality in more than ninety-six countries, Unveiling Inequality reframes the relationship between globalization and inequality within and between nations. Korzeniewicz and Moran first examine two different historical patterns―"High Inequality Equilibrium" and "Low Inequality Equilibrium"―and question whether increasing equality, democracy, and economic growth are inextricably linked as nations modernize. Inequality is best understood as a complex set of relational interactions that unfold globally over time. So the same institutional mechanisms that have historically reduced inequality within some nations have also often accentuated the selective exclusion of populations from poorer countries and enhanced high inequality equilibrium between nations. National identity and citizenship are the fundamental contemporary bases of stratification and inequality in the world, the authors conclude. Drawing on these insights, the book recasts patterns of mobility within global stratification. The authors detail the three principal paths available for social mobility from a global within-country mobility, mobility through national economic growth, and mobility through migration. Korzeniewicz and Moran provide strong evidence that the nation where we are born is the single greatest deter-mining factor of how we will live. Too much sociological literature on inequality focuses on the plight of "have-nots" in wealthy nations who have more opportunity for social mobility than even the average individual in nations perennially at the bottom of the wealth distribution scale. Unveiling Inequality represents a major paradigm shift in thinking about social inequality and a clarion call to reorient discussions of economic justice in world-historical global terms.

Genres: Social Science

216 pages, Hardcover

First published November 25, 2009

Reviews

[Gabe Schwartz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unveiling Inequality, while utterly fascinating, is one of many social science books that suffer from a severe lack of editing. It's language was overcomplicated and obtuse, and it took a lot of concentration to read. Granted, the subject matter is pretty heady, but out of its 130 or so pages, about 25 of them were necessary. On the other hand, this is a pretty indispensable book for anyone interested in the topic of global inequalities; it should be required reading for every citizen in the Global North. This book might just have a hand in changing how the world is run. Just be ready to scratch your head for a little while trying to figure out why.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extremely important book allowing us to reconstruct the way we look at inequality in the world. Korzeniewicz and Moran discuss the world-historical perspective that looks at the entire world system as the unit of analysis as opposed to individual nation states. This book will change the way you view inequality, more work needs to be done on this perspective and this book should be read by everyone concerned with bringing equality to the world.