Globalization and Inequalities
Complexity and Contested Modernities
Purchase
eBook
ISBN:
9781473903661
Available from
January 0001
Hardcover
ISBN:
9780803985179
Available from
January 0001
Description
How has globalization changed social inequality? In this groundbreaking book, Globalization and Inequalities, Sylvia Walby examines the many changing forms of social inequality and their intersectionalities at both country and global levels. She shows how the contest between different modernities and conceptions of progress shape the present and future.
The book re-thinks the nature of economy, polity, civil society and violence. It places globalization and inequalities at the center of an innovative new understanding of modernity and progress and demonstrates the power of these theoretical reformulations in practice, drawing on global data and in-depth analysis of the U.S. and EU.
Walby analyzes the tensions between the different forces that are shaping global futures. She examines the regulation and deregulation of employment and welfare; domestic and public gender regimes; secular and religious polities; path dependent trajectories and global political waves; and global inequalities and human rights.
Globalization and Inequalities is essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students and academics of sociology, social theory, gender studies and politics and international relations, geography, economics and law.
Contents
1. Introduction: Progress and modernities
- What is Progress?
- More money or longer life?
- Progress as a contested project
- Economic development
- Equality
- Human Rights
- Human development, well-being and capabilities
- Competing projects: neoliberalism and social democracy
- Contesting conceptions of progress
- Multiple Complex Inequalities
- Multiple and intersecting inequalities
- Complex inequalities: difference, inequality and progress
- Modernity? Postmodernity? Not yet Modern? Varieties of Modernity?
- Modernity or postmodernity?
- Late, second or liquid modernity?
- Multiple modernities?
- Not yet modern?
- Varieties of modernity
- Defining modernity
- Globalization
- Globalization as the erosion of distinctive and separate societies
- Resistant to globalization
- Already global
- Coevolution of global processes with trajectories of development
- Implications of globalization for social theory
- Complexity Theory
2. Theorising multiple social systems
- Multiple Inequalities and Intersectionality
- Regimes and Domains
- System and Its Environment: Over-Lapping, Non-Saturating, Non-Nested Systems
- Societalisation not Societies
- Emergence and Projects
- Bodies, Technologies and the Social
- Path Dependency
- Co-evolution of Complex Adaptive Systems in Changing Fitness Landscapes
3. Economies
- Redefining the Economy
- Domestic Labour as Labour
- State Welfare as part of the Economy
- What are Economic Inequalities? What is Progress in the Economy?
- From Pre-Modern to Modern: The Second Great Transformation
- Global Processes and Economic Inequalities
- What global processes?
- Country Processes
- Varieties of Political Economy
- Varieties of employment relations
- Varieties of Welfare Provision
- Critical turning points into varieties of political economy
4. Polities
- Reconceptualising Types of Polities
- States
- Nations
- Nation-States?
- Organised religions
- Empires
- Hegemon
- Global political institutions
- Polities Overlap and do not Politically Saturate a Territory
- Democracy
- Democracy and modernity
- Redefining democracy
- The development of democracy
5. Violence
- Developing the Ontology of Violence
- Modernity and Violence
- Path Dependency in Trajections of Violence
- Global
6. Civil societies
- Theorising Civil Society
- Modernity and Civil Society
- Civil Society Projects
- Global Civil Societies and Waves
- Examples of waves
7. Regimes of complex inequality
- Beyond Class Regimes
- Gender Regimes
- Ethnic Regimes
- Further Regimes of Complex Inequalities
- Disability
- Sexual orientation
- Intersecting Regimes of Complex Inequality
8. Varieties of modernity
- Neoliberal and Social Democratic Varieties of Modernity
- Path Dependency at the Economy/Polity Nexus?
- Welfare provision
- Conclusions on welfare
- Employment regulation
- Inequality
- Conclusions on political economy
- Path Dependency at the Violence Nexus
- Modernity and path dependency
- Indicators
- Development, inequality and violence
- Gendered violence
- Path dependency of the violence nexus in OECD countries
- Violence, economic inequality and the polity/economy nexus
- Conclusions on violence
- Gender Regime
- Public and domestic gender regimes
- Development and the public gender regime
- Domestic and public gender regimes and gender inequality
- Varieties of public gender regimes
- Democracy and Inequality
9. Measuring progress
- Economic Development
- Equality
- Economic inequality
- Global economic inequality
- Beyond the household
- Economic inequalities and flows
- Economic inequalities in summary
- Inequalities in non-economic domains
- Democracy
- Human Rights
- Human Development, Well-Being and Capabilities
- Key Indicator Sets: What Indicators; What Underlying Concepts of Progress?
- Extending the Frameworks and Indicators of Progress: Where do Environmental
- Sustainability and Violence Fit?
- Environmental sustainability
- Violence
- Achievement of Visions of Progress: Comparing Neoliberalism and Social Democracy
- Economic development: neoliberalism vs. social democracy
- Equality: neoliberalism vs. social democracy
- Human rights: neoliberalism vs. social democracy
- Human development, well-being and capabilities: neoliberalism vs. social democracy
- Trade offs or complementary?
10. Comparative paths through modernity: neoliberalism and social democracy
- Political Economy
- Violence
- Gender Transformations: The Emergence of Employed Women as the New Champions of Social Democracy
- Employed women as the new champions of social democracy
- Dampeners and Catalysts of Economic Growth: War and Gender Regime
- Transformations
- Conclusions
11. Contested futures
- Financial and Economic Crisis 2007-9
- Contesting Hegemons and the Future of the World
12. Conclusions
- The Challenge of Complex Inequalities and Globalization to Social Theory
Additional materials
Description
How has globalization changed social inequality? In this groundbreaking book, Globalization and Inequalities, Sylvia Walby examines the many changing forms of social inequality and their intersectionalities at both country and global levels. She shows how the contest between different modernities and conceptions of progress shape the present and future.
The book re-thinks the nature of economy, polity, civil society and violence. It places globalization and inequalities at the center of an innovative new understanding of modernity and progress and demonstrates the power of these theoretical reformulations in practice, drawing on global data and in-depth analysis of the U.S. and EU.
Walby analyzes the tensions between the different forces that are shaping global futures. She examines the regulation and deregulation of employment and welfare; domestic and public gender regimes; secular and religious polities; path dependent trajectories and global political waves; and global inequalities and human rights.
Globalization and Inequalities is essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students and academics of sociology, social theory, gender studies and politics and international relations, geography, economics and law.
Contents
1. Introduction: Progress and modernities
- What is Progress?
- More money or longer life?
- Progress as a contested project
- Economic development
- Equality
- Human Rights
- Human development, well-being and capabilities
- Competing projects: neoliberalism and social democracy
- Contesting conceptions of progress
- Multiple Complex Inequalities
- Multiple and intersecting inequalities
- Complex inequalities: difference, inequality and progress
- Modernity? Postmodernity? Not yet Modern? Varieties of Modernity?
- Modernity or postmodernity?
- Late, second or liquid modernity?
- Multiple modernities?
- Not yet modern?
- Varieties of modernity
- Defining modernity
- Globalization
- Globalization as the erosion of distinctive and separate societies
- Resistant to globalization
- Already global
- Coevolution of global processes with trajectories of development
- Implications of globalization for social theory
- Complexity Theory
2. Theorising multiple social systems
- Multiple Inequalities and Intersectionality
- Regimes and Domains
- System and Its Environment: Over-Lapping, Non-Saturating, Non-Nested Systems
- Societalisation not Societies
- Emergence and Projects
- Bodies, Technologies and the Social
- Path Dependency
- Co-evolution of Complex Adaptive Systems in Changing Fitness Landscapes
3. Economies
- Redefining the Economy
- Domestic Labour as Labour
- State Welfare as part of the Economy
- What are Economic Inequalities? What is Progress in the Economy?
- From Pre-Modern to Modern: The Second Great Transformation
- Global Processes and Economic Inequalities
- What global processes?
- Country Processes
- Varieties of Political Economy
- Varieties of employment relations
- Varieties of Welfare Provision
- Critical turning points into varieties of political economy
4. Polities
- Reconceptualising Types of Polities
- States
- Nations
- Nation-States?
- Organised religions
- Empires
- Hegemon
- Global political institutions
- Polities Overlap and do not Politically Saturate a Territory
- Democracy
- Democracy and modernity
- Redefining democracy
- The development of democracy
5. Violence
- Developing the Ontology of Violence
- Modernity and Violence
- Path Dependency in Trajections of Violence
- Global
6. Civil societies
- Theorising Civil Society
- Modernity and Civil Society
- Civil Society Projects
- Global Civil Societies and Waves
- Examples of waves
7. Regimes of complex inequality
- Beyond Class Regimes
- Gender Regimes
- Ethnic Regimes
- Further Regimes of Complex Inequalities
- Disability
- Sexual orientation
- Intersecting Regimes of Complex Inequality
8. Varieties of modernity
- Neoliberal and Social Democratic Varieties of Modernity
- Path Dependency at the Economy/Polity Nexus?
- Welfare provision
- Conclusions on welfare
- Employment regulation
- Inequality
- Conclusions on political economy
- Path Dependency at the Violence Nexus
- Modernity and path dependency
- Indicators
- Development, inequality and violence
- Gendered violence
- Path dependency of the violence nexus in OECD countries
- Violence, economic inequality and the polity/economy nexus
- Conclusions on violence
- Gender Regime
- Public and domestic gender regimes
- Development and the public gender regime
- Domestic and public gender regimes and gender inequality
- Varieties of public gender regimes
- Democracy and Inequality
9. Measuring progress
- Economic Development
- Equality
- Economic inequality
- Global economic inequality
- Beyond the household
- Economic inequalities and flows
- Economic inequalities in summary
- Inequalities in non-economic domains
- Democracy
- Human Rights
- Human Development, Well-Being and Capabilities
- Key Indicator Sets: What Indicators; What Underlying Concepts of Progress?
- Extending the Frameworks and Indicators of Progress: Where do Environmental
- Sustainability and Violence Fit?
- Environmental sustainability
- Violence
- Achievement of Visions of Progress: Comparing Neoliberalism and Social Democracy
- Economic development: neoliberalism vs. social democracy
- Equality: neoliberalism vs. social democracy
- Human rights: neoliberalism vs. social democracy
- Human development, well-being and capabilities: neoliberalism vs. social democracy
- Trade offs or complementary?
10. Comparative paths through modernity: neoliberalism and social democracy
- Political Economy
- Violence
- Gender Transformations: The Emergence of Employed Women as the New Champions of Social Democracy
- Employed women as the new champions of social democracy
- Dampeners and Catalysts of Economic Growth: War and Gender Regime
- Transformations
- Conclusions
11. Contested futures
- Financial and Economic Crisis 2007-9
- Contesting Hegemons and the Future of the World
12. Conclusions
- The Challenge of Complex Inequalities and Globalization to Social Theory
Additional materials
Reviews
August 2009 | 520 pages | Sage UK
| Format | Published Date | ISBN | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardcover | 31/03/2026 | 9780803985179 | $234.00 |
| Paperback | 31/03/2026 | 9780803985186 | $130.00 |
| 180 Day Ebook | 28/03/2023 | 9781473903661 | $77.00 |
| Lifetime | 28/03/2023 | 9781473903661 | $111.00 |
How has globalization changed social inequality? In this groundbreaking book, Globalization and Inequalities, Sylvia Walby examines the many changing forms of social inequality and their intersectionalities at both country and global levels. She shows how the contest between different modernities and conceptions of progress shape the present and future.
The book re-thinks the nature of economy, polity, civil society and violence. It places globalization and inequalities at the center of an innovative new understanding of modernity and progress and demonstrates the power of these theoretical reformulations in practice, drawing on global data and in-depth analysis of the U.S. and EU.
Walby analyzes the tensions between the different forces that are shaping global futures. She examines the regulation and deregulation of employment and welfare; domestic and public gender regimes; secular and religious polities; path dependent trajectories and global political waves; and global inequalities and human rights.
Globalization and Inequalities is essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students and academics of sociology, social theory, gender studies and politics and international relations, geography, economics and law.
Table Of Contents:
- 1. Introduction: Progress and modernities
- What is Progress?
- More money or longer life?
- Progress as a contested project
- Economic development
- Equality
- Human Rights
- Human development, well-being and capabilities
- Competing projects: neoliberalism and social democracy
- Contesting conceptions of progress
- Multiple Complex Inequalities
- Multiple and intersecting inequalities
- Complex inequalities: difference, inequality and progress
- Modernity? Postmodernity? Not yet Modern? Varieties of Modernity?
- Modernity or postmodernity?
- Late, second or liquid modernity?
- Multiple modernities?
- Not yet modern?
- Varieties of modernity
- Defining modernity
- Globalization
- Globalization as the erosion of distinctive and separate societies
- Resistant to globalization
- Already global
- Coevolution of global processes with trajectories of development
- Implications of globalization for social theory
- Complexity Theory
- 2. Theorising multiple social systems
- Multiple Inequalities and Intersectionality
- Regimes and Domains
- System and Its Environment: Over-Lapping, Non-Saturating, Non-Nested Systems
- Societalisation not Societies
- Emergence and Projects
- Bodies, Technologies and the Social
- Path Dependency
- Co-evolution of Complex Adaptive Systems in Changing Fitness Landscapes
- 3. Economies
- Redefining the Economy
- Domestic Labour as Labour
- State Welfare as part of the Economy
- What are Economic Inequalities? What is Progress in the Economy?
- From Pre-Modern to Modern: The Second Great Transformation
- Global Processes and Economic Inequalities
- What global processes?
- Country Processes
- Varieties of Political Economy
- Varieties of employment relations
- Varieties of Welfare Provision
- Critical turning points into varieties of political economy
- 4. Polities
- Reconceptualising Types of Polities
- States
- Nations
- Nation-States?
- Organised religions
- Empires
- Hegemon
- Global political institutions
- Polities Overlap and do not Politically Saturate a Territory
- Democracy
- Democracy and modernity
- Redefining democracy
- The development of democracy
- 5. Violence
- Developing the Ontology of Violence
- Modernity and Violence
- Path Dependency in Trajections of Violence
- Global
- 6. Civil societies
- Theorising Civil Society
- Modernity and Civil Society
- Civil Society Projects
- Global Civil Societies and Waves
- Examples of waves
- 7. Regimes of complex inequality
- Beyond Class Regimes
- Gender Regimes
- Ethnic Regimes
- Further Regimes of Complex Inequalities
- Disability
- Sexual orientation
- Intersecting Regimes of Complex Inequality
- 8. Varieties of modernity
- Neoliberal and Social Democratic Varieties of Modernity
- Path Dependency at the Economy/Polity Nexus?
- Welfare provision
- Conclusions on welfare
- Employment regulation
- Inequality
- Conclusions on political economy
- Path Dependency at the Violence Nexus
- Modernity and path dependency
- Indicators
- Development, inequality and violence
- Gendered violence
- Path dependency of the violence nexus in OECD countries
- Violence, economic inequality and the polity/economy nexus
- Conclusions on violence
- Gender Regime
- Public and domestic gender regimes
- Development and the public gender regime
- Domestic and public gender regimes and gender inequality
- Varieties of public gender regimes
- Democracy and Inequality
- 9. Measuring progress
- Economic Development
- Equality
- Economic inequality
- Global economic inequality
- Beyond the household
- Economic inequalities and flows
- Economic inequalities in summary
- Inequalities in non-economic domains
- Democracy
- Human Rights
- Human Development, Well-Being and Capabilities
- Key Indicator Sets: What Indicators; What Underlying Concepts of Progress?
- Extending the Frameworks and Indicators of Progress: Where do Environmental
- Sustainability and Violence Fit?
- Environmental sustainability
- Violence
- Achievement of Visions of Progress: Comparing Neoliberalism and Social Democracy
- Economic development: neoliberalism vs. social democracy
- Equality: neoliberalism vs. social democracy
- Human rights: neoliberalism vs. social democracy
- Human development, well-being and capabilities: neoliberalism vs. social democracy
- Trade offs or complementary?
- 10. Comparative paths through modernity: neoliberalism and social democracy
- Political Economy
- Violence
- Gender Transformations: The Emergence of Employed Women as the New Champions of Social Democracy
- Employed women as the new champions of social democracy
- Dampeners and Catalysts of Economic Growth: War and Gender Regime
- Transformations
- Conclusions
- 11. Contested futures
- Financial and Economic Crisis 2007-9
- Contesting Hegemons and the Future of the World
- 12. Conclusions
- The Challenge of Complex Inequalities and Globalization to Social Theory
Recent Product Reviews:
In this wide-ranging book, Sylvia Walby deploys her vast knowledge and wealth of research to break from inherited paradigms and to tackle the major challenges of globalization.
Michael Burawoy, University of California, Berkeley
What an important book this is! By using the tools complexity theory offers, Walby dismantles the conservative versions of systems theory and provides a new way of approaching the dynamics of intersectional change. Her view of system environment interactions with both stabilizing and destabilizing feedback loops is itself theoretically rich. Walby then uses this model to generate significant insights into the contested nature of modernity and the diverse ways that social democratic and liberal states have constructed equality and inequality. Her theoretical model will prove to be an essential resource for researchers concerned with understanding and steering social change.
Myra Marx Ferree, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Though as critical about the feminist critiques of social theory as she is about social theory itself, in this landmark work Sylvia Walby does not stop at outlining the mistakes in both. Aside from unpacking the conflations that hinder our understanding of the social and political world, she presents an intricate, comprehensive new social theory and explains its major premises and innovations carefully and precisely. She focuses on the dynamics and complexities of social relations, integrating in these dynamics the role of complex inequalities (class, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation). Then, as a grand dessert, the book not only delivers a convincing first empirical test to Walby's new theory, but also dares to take a normative position, all without resorting to hegemony... Enabling innovative understandings of age-old complexities through brand-new empirical and normative questions and answers, this book will and should affect all research in social sciences.
Mieke Verloo, Radboud University Nijmegen and IWM Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna
Having read her book, one can't help but see what was thought to be clear in new ways. Globalization and Inequalities is an impressive example of creativity realized on the one hand and a provocation to further creativity on the other... A major accomplishment.
Devorah Kalekin-Fishman, International Sociology Review of Books
An ambitious and complex book, in which Walby proposes solutions for some enduring problems in sociological theory; in particular, problems in theorizing large complex systems, such as whole societies.
Joan Acker, Work, Employment & Society