Dimensions of Inequality
Dimensions of inequality refer to the various aspects in which unequal distribution of resources, opportunities, and power can be observed within a society. These dimensions can include economic inequality, social inequality, gender inequality, racial inequality, and more. Understanding these dimensions is crucial for addressing and combating the systemic disparities that exist within a society.
7 Key excerpts on "Dimensions of Inequality"
eBook - ePubMultidimensional Inequalities
International Perspectives Across Welfare States
- Bent Greve(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter(Publisher)
...Social exclusion is generally difficult to measure, but this is in principle also part of a multidimensional understanding of the degree of equality in a given society. Different degrees of options for having access to welfare state resources might thus also be an issue interlinking educational attainment with options for goods and services. As will be discussed in Chapter 6, this can imply a variation in the inequality with regard to quality of health and life-expectancy. But besides the issue of available data, a key question is how should different positions in the distribution be included when assessing how large the inequality is and in which way it is moving? For example, should the same weight be given to whether it is seen as a stronger problem related to inequality for those at the bottom or at all places in the distribution, as long as the Pigou-Dalton criterion is fulfilled, i. e. a transfer from a person with a better position to a person with a less favourable position will increase the degree of equality (see also below). Therefore, there are a number of different indicators for measuring inequality, which in different ways give a picture of the degree of inequality in a society. The following is a closer look at some of these, with the purpose in particular of looking at the types of measurements that are most commonly used, whereby and also whether it is possible in a simple way to find data to describe the development and in a comparable way across nations. There are three criteria that are important for an inequality measurement tool: Must be scale-independent. Must be independent of population size. Must fulfil the weak distribution principle. Why must it be scale-independent? The simple explanation is that otherwise it will not be possible to compare across countries or over time...
...As Sandra Fredman points out, most ‘groups which suffer discrimination on status grounds are disproportionately represented among people living in poverty’ (2011: 567). In addition to structural inequalities, it considers how poverty is experienced at the two ends of the life-course – a notion that captures the complexity of individuals’ passage through a lifetime and is of particular relevance to a gendered understanding of poverty (Bennett and Daly, 2014; Bennett, 2015; Dermott and Pantazis, 2018) – childhood and old age. In practice, individual social divisions intersect and interact with one another and with phases of the life-course either to reinforce or to mitigate their individual impact (Bassel and Emejulu, 2018; Dermott and Main, 2018); but for ease of analysis they will be discussed separately here. The final dimension considered is spatial. This also raises an issue about the levels at which poverty is lived simultaneously: most basically, as an individual of a particular gender, ‘race’, ethnicity, religion, social class, age, sexual orientation and with or without disabilities; plus, in many cases, within a family or multiperson household, which can affect the degree and nature of poverty; and finally within the wider neighbourhood and the physical and social environment created by it (Burchardt et al., 2002). Moreover, power is exercised at these levels and beyond – from the micro-household to the macro-national/global – to exclude individuals and groups from access to adequate resources (Jordan, 1996). Inequality, social class and polarization John Scott has analysed this process of exclusion through the representation of deprivation and privilege as ‘polarised departures from the normal range of lifestyles that are enjoyed by the citizens of a society’ (1994: 173)...
eBook - ePubExploring Social Inequality in the 21st Century
New Approaches, New Tools, and Policy Opportunities
- Jennifer Jarman, Paul Lambert(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...They were asked to consider questions regarding the conceptualisation and measurement of social inequality, as well as the direct and indirect costs of social inequality. Most submitted empirically based studies. One scholarly essay has also been included (Penn, 2016). The bases for social inequality explored here include age, ethnicity, gender and social class. While most of the authors would likely agree that social inequality is a phenomenon in which many people experience multiple levels of disadvantage at the same time – what some have called a matrix of domination – (Anthias, 2013; Collins, 2000), most of these articles develop from an analytical decision to use a particular base of inequality as the starting point for analysis. Which particular base, or combination of bases, of inequality forms the starting point for research varies throughout the collection. The authors also reach different conclusions about which variables account for the most important variations in the data they analysed. Four of the articles adopt a general or cross-national focus. Five of the articles in this special issue explore aspects of social inequality in the United Kingdom, and one focuses on Italy...
eBook - ePub- D. John Grove(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...It involves the assessment of three things: distributional inequality; relational asymmetry (i.e., interactional hierarchy); and covariation or positional congruence between the two. This is the case if one includes as part of the concept of social inequality the extent of social mobility across social positions or rank categories, for example. It is also the case if social inequality refers in part to the degree of unequal exchange, or the regularly asymmetric flow of value such as through labor exploitation, between and among social “positions”. Similarly, if differences in the extent of dependence of various actors on one another is implicitly a part of the concept of social inequality, then reference is to organizational features of the system and hence to inequality in the broad, structural sense. Said conversely, if one restricts empirical assessment (i.e., measurement) to distributional inequality as is typically the case, one is not reflecting directly on social inequality in the broad structural sense even though conceptual/theoretical discussion might be cast in those terms. That is, measures of attributes, possessions, or realizations alone cannot be relied upon to determine social stratification. Because distributional inequality of possessions can be expected to covary only imperfectly with relational asymmetry, measures of the former do not adequately inform about aspects of the organization of the system, such as mobility, unequal exchange, or differential dependence within it. Strata, as relational or structural phenomena, cannot be determined by measuring inequality in wealth, health, education, or any other attribute. This is an important point because all too frequently verbal theoretical discussion focuses on hierarchy or relational asymmetry while measurement focuses on distributions of goods...
eBook - ePub- Bernd Baldus(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...If they were the founding fathers of the new field of sociology, inequality was its founding problem. They created the archetypical explanations of social inequality as a result of domination and power, as a reflection of inherited differences or biological advantages, or as a functional response to societal needs. These views laid the groundwork for later, more specialized debates: whether inequality was a product of social conflict or impersonal imperatives, whether it was a functional structure of empty spaces waiting for competent applicants or a segmented labor market shaped by economic and political power, whether it was based on material differences or on identity and status, or whether in modern societies class divisions were replaced by a fluid post-modern diversity. An Outline of the Book This book offers a comprehensive new theoretical analysis of the nature of social inequality in human societies. There are two reasons for such a project. First, theories matter because they guide our research. They tell us what evidence to collect and what questions to ask of it. They can lead us to important features of the social world but can also obstruct our view. If we think that social processes are governed by laws, we are unlikely to see the causal role of chance in human affairs. If we presume that human actions are shaped by external determinants or rational constraints, we will not have much interest in creative or non-rational behavior. If we assume that the long-term effects of inequality are beneficial or inevitable, we will see harmful outcomes as transient and unimportant and dismiss the search for more egalitarian social structures as pointless. Such assumptions are reflected in research. Scientific journals overwhelmingly publish articles reporting strong relationships between variables, whereas only a small portion of those that find null (chance) results are written up and submitted, and few of these are accepted (Mervis 2014)...
eBook - ePubEquality and Power in Schools
Redistribution, Recognition and Representation
- Anne Lodge, Kathleen Lynch(Authors)
- 2004(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Their low cultural status may also contribute to their economic marginalisation and subordination (Phillips 1999). Attempts to respond to inequality in education by focusing on one manifestation of inequality alone are not likely to produce much by way of social change. Different forms of inequality are deeply implicated with one another, and their resolution requires a multi-faceted response. This is especially the case for large internally diverse groups such as women. Women experience inequalities in education that are economically, politically and culturally generated in relatively equal measure. Resolving these means working on a range of political, economic and cultural sites both within and without schools simultaneously. Although class inequalities require resolution in terms of distributive justice, the class problem is not solely a distributive one; it also involves redressing power relations between working-class families and schools, and status considerations relating to class cultures and values. Equally while children and young people in school experience their primary inequality problem as power-related, the factors that exacerbate their powerlessness such as low legal status, and economic dependency, also need to be reconsidered. What this points to also is that while inequalities may be reproduced in the education site they are also reproduced and generated in the fields of economic, socio-cultural and political relations outside of school. School is a major player in the inequality game but by no means the only one....
eBook - ePubEducation, Inequality and Social Class
Expansion and Stratification in Educational Opportunity
- Ron Thompson(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...3 PATTERNS OF INEQUALITY IN EDUCATION This chapter presents quantitative evidence on patterns of inequality in educational opportunity, drawing on research from the United Kingdom and on international comparative studies. The chapter begins with a discussion of how educational inequality is to be conceived and measured, followed by an overview of research findings based on this conceptual framework and relating particularly to the transitions between lower secondary, upper secondary and higher education. Although it is mainly concerned with class-based inequality, the chapter discusses the use of eligibility for free school meals (FSM) as a social background variable. Debates on the relationship between cognitive ability, educational attainment and social background are also briefly outlined. The chapter concludes with a discussion of educational inequalities related to gender and ethnicity. Measuring inequality of educational opportunity In his book Education, Opportunity and Social Inequality, Raymond Boudon (1974, p. xi) makes the following definition: By inequality of educational opportunity (IEO) I mean the differences in level of educational attainment according to social background … Thus a society is characterized by a certain amount of IEO if, for instance, the probability of going to college is smaller for a worker’s son than for a lawyer’s. This definition can be extended in obvious ways to inequalities of race and gender. However, it is incomplete without specifying how attainment and social background should be measured. There is no single answer to this question, and the practicalities of data collection and analysis will influence how IEO is made operational in a particular piece of research. More fundamentally, decisions about how to capture attainment and social background may be grounded in a conception of social justice, as well as taking into account factors such as policy concerns and objective features of the educational systems being studied...
