Changing Structures of Inequality: A Comparative Perspective

The international sociological community has recently engaged in a controversial discussion on social inequality. There is a vigourous debate on whether the traditional concepts of social class and social stratification are still useful. Some researchers argue that social classes still offer a key explanation to social inequalities while others challenge the long-standing tradition of class analysis. New approaches have been proposed to describe recent social changes in the stratification system: vanishing middle class, two-thirds societies, cosmographic inequality, and classless society, among others.

Changing Structures of Inequality examines these questions in a new comparative perspective, covering five national societies - Canada, France, Germany, Spain, and the United States. The authors offer a deep analysis of country-specific research traditions in the fields of class analysis and social stratification, revealing important conceptual differences that have consequences for the diagnoses. They present the results of substantial comparative studies on different aspects of inequality in developed societies - the inequality of income and wealth, educational inequalities, status crystallization, migration and inequality, gender inequality and the structuring effect of social class - highlighting similarities as well as substantial differences between the societies under examination. The authors offer a nuanced conclusion that puts in perspective the different topics of this contemporary debate. Developed societies are now characterized by more dynamic and pluralistic structures of inequalities, where classes have lost some of their previous importance but still have some place. Contributors include Howard M. Bahr, Mathias Bös, Gary Caldwell, Salustiano del Campo, Theodore Caplow, Louis Chauvel, Michel Forse, Wolfgang Glatzer, Richard Huaser, Paul W. Kingston, Denise Lemieux, Laura Maratou-Alipranti, and Marion Mohle.