Three Worlds of Inequality

Recent inequality scholarship fixates on trends in the amount of inequality and largely ignores trends in the form of inequality. The authors describe three ideal-typical inequality regimes (big-class, microclass, and gradational) and identify the mechanisms driving a shift toward or away from each of them. Using GSS and CPS data on 39 measures of life chances, attitudes, and behaviors, the authors find that big-class inequality is in decline whereas microclass inequality has remained stable. Moreover, big classes are simplifying into largely economic aggregates, whereas microclasses remain more complicated moral configurations that cannot be understood in terms of economic standing.

 

Reference Information

Author: 

Kim A. Weeden ,
David B. Grusky
Publisher: 
The University of Chicago Press
Publication Date: 
May 2012