Description
Book SynopsisInequality is not just about the size of our wallets. It is a socio-cultural order which, for most of us, reduces our capabilities to function as human beings, our health, our dignity, our sense of self, as well as our resources to act and participate in the world.
Trade Review"Covering the world, Göran Therborn shows how devastating are his three types of inequality (vital, existential and resource) and their mechanisms of reproduction (distanciation, exclusion and exploitation). Lucid, persuasive and learned
The Killing Fields of Inequality is a must-read for those concerned about the most pressing topic of our time."
Michael Burawoy, University of California, Berkeley "A great book. With a light touch, it provides a brief but comprehensive survey of all the main dimensions of inequality. Written with insight, commitment to social justice, and ability to see what matters, it becomes a book about social progress itself. It ends with a perceptive discussion of the next steps towards a more egalitarian future."
Richard Wilkinson, University of Nottingham
"[A]lways favouring a comparative and global perspective, Therborn's book presents us with a wide and insightful examination of the various dimensions of inequality in a rare combination of theoretical developments, historical substantiation, and empirical evidence […and…] compelling answers to a few of the most inescapable questions about inequalities."
Análise SocialTable of ContentsFigures page vi
Tables vii
Introduction 1
I. The Fields 5
1. Human, Nasty and Short: Life under Inequality 7
2. Behind the Doors of Exclusion 20
II. Theory 35
3. Theoretical Cross-Draught 37
4. Three Kinds of (In)Equality and Their Production 48
III. History 69
5. Inequality and the Rise of Modernity 71
6. A Historical Six-Pack: Three Inequalities in
Global and National History 79
IV. Today’s Unequal World 101
7. Current World Patterns and Dynamics of Inequalities 103
8. Three Puzzles of Contemporary Inequalities 132
V. Possible Futures 151
9. Overcoming Inequality – Yesterday and Tomorrow 153
10. The Decisive Battlefields of Future (In)Equality 166
References 185
Index 202
