Understanding Social Inequality

This is a book that should be read by anyone interested in class, inequality, poverty and politics. Actually, probably more importantly it should be read by people who think that those things do not matter! It provides a wonderful summation of the huge amount of work on these topics that now exists and it also offers its own distinctive perspectives on a set of issues that are - despite the claims of some influential commentators - still central to the sociological enterprise and, indeed to political life.

• Chapter 1: IntroductionChapter 2: Modernity, Postmodernity and GlobalizationThe end of certaintyThe Enlightenment ′project′, modernity and postmodernityGlobalizationModels of globalizationGlobalization and migrationChapter 3: The Collar Line and Urban BoundariesCollars and classesWork and stratification in post-war BritainClass theory in British post-war sociologyThe Marxist response to sociologyUrban boundariesChapter 4: The Aftermath of AffluenceDual labour marketsMarxism and the labour processRestructuring and the collapse of workThe new space economyEmerging spatial divisions of labour and capitalist transformationsWhatever happened to the collar line?Chapter 5: New Spatial and Social Divisions of LabourWorld citiesLos Angeles and the ′LA School′Social polarizationGentrification and the urban-seeking middle classesThe ghetto and the urban underclassMethodology and urban social polarizationChapter 6: Poverty, Social Exclusion and the Welfare StateWelfare state regimesPoverty and social exclusionPoverty in the United StatesPoverty and social exclusion in BritainPoverty and social exclusion in EuropeTowards a liberal welfare convergence?Chapter 7: New Work and New WorkersNew workFast food workers - flipping burgers in the globally branded restaurantCall centres - taking calls in the interactive service factoryPaid domestic workers - caring and cleaning in global citiesCash-in-hand jobs - informal work in marginal localitiesYoung people - working and playing in a restructured regionChapter 8: Class IdentityClass interestsFrom class consciousness to class identityThe French connection - BourdieuDebating class identityIdentity and organization