What would a functionalist think of Walmartsmodel of squeezing vendors to get the absolute lowest prices so it can pass them along to core nation consumers? For more information about global affairs, check the Munk School of Global Affairs website at http://munkschool.utoronto.ca/, Learn more about the anti-globalization movement from Naomi Kleins website: http://www.naomiklein.org/main. Faith has a full-time job and two children. Just as North Americas wealth is increasingly concentrated among its richest citizens while the middle class slowly disappears, global inequality involves the concentration of resources in certain nations, significantly affecting the opportunities of individuals in poorer and less powerful countries. 1960. Hendricks, John. Why or why not? Not surprisingly, the consequences of poverty are often also causes. 2007. 1998. Retrieved January 1, 2012 (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123698646833925567.html). As we consider the global effort to meet these ambitious goals, we can think about how the worlds people have ended up in such disparate circumstances. Definition of Global Inequality. Chang writes, Dongguan was a place without memory., absolute poverty the state where one is barely able, or unable, to afford basic necessities, anti-globalization movement a global counter-movement based on principles of environmental sustainability, food sovereignty, labour rights, and democratic accountability that challenges the corporate model of globalization, capital flight the movement (flight) of capital from one nation to another, via jobs and resources, chattel slavery a form of slavery in which one person owns another, core nations dominant capitalist countries, debt accumulation the buildup of external debt, wherein countries borrow money from other nations to fund their expansion or growth goals, debt bondage when people pledge themselves as servants in exchange for money for passage, and are subsequently paid too little to regain their freedom, deindustrialization the loss of industrial production, usually to peripheral and semi-peripheral nations where the costs are lower, dependency theory theory stating that global inequity is due to the exploitation of peripheral and semi-peripheral nations by core nations, first world a term from the Cold War era that is used to describe industrialized capitalist democracies, fourth world a term that describes stigmatized minority groups who have no voice or representation on the world stage, global feminization a pattern that occurs when women bear a disproportionate percentage of the burden of poverty, global inequality the concentration of resources in core nations and in the hands of a wealthy minority, global stratification the unequal distribution of resources between countries, gross national income (GNI) the income of a nation calculated based on goods and services produced, plus income earned by citizens and corporations headquartered in that country, metropolis-hinterland relationship the relationship between nations when resources of the hinterlands are shipped to the metropolises where they are converted into manufactured goods and shipped back to the hinterlands for consumption, modernization theory a theory that low-income countries can improve their global economic standing by industrialization of infrastructure and a shift in cultural attitudes toward work, peripheral nations nations on the fringes of the global economy, dominated by core nations, with very little industrialization, relative poverty the state of poverty where one is unable to live the lifestyle of the average person in the country, second world a term from the Cold War era that describes nations with moderate economies and standards of living, semi-peripheral nations in-between nations, not powerful enough to dictate policy but acting as a major source of raw materials and providing an expanding middle-class marketplace, subjective poverty a state of poverty subjectively present when ones actual income does not meet ones expectations, third world a term from the Cold War era that refers to poor, nonindustrialized countries, underground economy an unregulated economy of labour and goods that operates outside of governance, regulatory systems, or human protections. 2010. October 12. Global inequality is the unequal distribution of resources, opportunities, and power that shape well-being among the 8 billion individuals on our planet. According to modernization theory, low-income countries are affected by their lack of industrialization and can improve their global economic standing through: Critics point out the inherent ethnocentric bias of this theory. In short, subjective poverty has more to do with how a person or a family defines themselves. After the Rana Plaza disaster, Loblaw signed an Accord of Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh to try to ensure safety compliance of their suppliers. Based on: Walby SylviaGlobalization and Inequalities: Complexity and Contested ModernitiesLondon: SAGE, 2009, 35.99 pbk (ISBN: 9780803985186), 520 pp. Look at the manufacturing industries in Ontario. Also during the Cold War, global inequality was described in terms of economic development. Much of the continents poverty can be traced to the availability of land, especially arable land (land that can be farmed). The second consequence of poverty is its effect on physical and mental health. Social Stratification in Canada, Chapter20. The Feminization of Poverty and Womens Human Rights. Gender Equality and Development Section UNESCO, July. They are skilled workers, but they are paid a fraction of what similar workers are paid in Canada. He cannot afford a television and lives on cheap groceries like dried beans and ramen noodles. Learn how BCcampus supports open education and how you can access Pressbooks. 14. Three areas of global inequality in society today would be around development measures related to health, wealth and education. While global inequality is nothing new, several factors, like the global marketplace and the pace of information sharing, make it more relevant than ever. It was clearly in line with Cold War ideology, but it also echoed widely held beliefs about the idea of social progress as an evolutionary process. Further, African poverty is worsened by civil wars and inadequate governance that are the result of a continent re-imagined with artificial colonial borders and leaders. Global Wealth and Poverty 10.3. Many clothing corporations have shut down their Canadian factories and relocated to China. Check the label of your jeans or sweatshirt and see where it was made. Paris, France. World Bank. 1979. Capital flight refers to the movement (flight) of capital from one nation to another, as when General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler close Canadian factories in Ontario and open factories in Mexico. In fact, most poverty is concentrated in South Asia. Introduction to Global Inequality Weve examined functionalist and conflict theorist perspectives on global inequality, as well as modernization and dependency theories. Global Stratification and Classification Central Intelligence Agency. This, therefore, refers to inequalities between individuals, at a worldwide scale, with its primary source of information being direct population surveys . Social Movements and Social Change, 10.1. Nevertheless, the purchase of a T-shirt involves us in a series of social relationships that ties us to the lives and working conditions of people around the world. Itsells goods to the workers at inflated prices, offers house rentals for twice what a mortgage would be, and makes sure to always pay the workers less than they need to cover food and rent. B| 8. Background Note: China. Retrieved January 3, 2012 (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/18902.htm#econ). The World Bank defines low-income countries as nations having aGNI of$1,005 per capita or less in 2010. Global Stratification and Classification Population, Urbanization, and the Environment, Chapter21. 11. What motivates companies to globalize? When this nomenclature was developed, capitalistic democracies such as the United States, Canada, and Japan were considered part of the first world. Global inequality refers to the unequal distribution of resources among individuals and groups based on their position in the social hierarchy. In short, slavery refers to any time people are sold, treated as property, or forced to work for little or no pay. The majority of economically active women in peripheral nations are engaged in the informal sector, which is somewhat buffered from the economic downturn. This means that as emerging economies create their own industrial zones, global companies see the opportunity for existing infrastructure and much lower costs. A functionalist might focus on why we have global inequality and what social purposes it serves. But before we delve into the complexities of global inequality, let us consider how the three major sociological perspectives might contribute to our understanding of it. interested in it. The True Cost of a T-Shirt [B1] Toronto Globe and Mail. income inequality, in economics, significant disparity in the distribution of income between individuals, groups, populations, social classes, or countries. When you see a homeless person, is your reaction different if he or she is seemingly content rather than begging? As a symbolic interactionist would do, Chang examines the daily lives and interactions of Min and Chunmingtheir workplace friendships, family relations, gadgets, and goodsin this evolving global space where young women can leave tradition behind and fashion their own futures. The World Bank defines high-income nations as having a GNI of at least $12,276 per capita. Consider the concept of subjective poverty. Compare and contrast modernization theory, dependency theory, and globalization theory. C| 13. Modernization theory suggested that societies moved through natural stages of development as they progressed toward becoming developed societies (i.e., stable, democratic, market oriented, and capitalist). What do the driver of an unlicensed speedy cab in St. Catharines, a piecework seamstress working from her home in Mumbai, and a street tortilla vendor in Mexico City have in common? A group of people who live in a defined geographic area, who interact with one another, and who share a common culture is what sociologists call a society. Even in the areas that made gains, the successes are tenuous. The chapter that addresses globalisation and the global dimensions of inequality is a strength, in particular the way it problematises the subjective nature of inequality on a global scale. Nations that practise this female circumcision procedure defend it as a longstanding cultural tradition in certain tribes and argue that the West should not interfere. Nearly 200 countries signed on, and they worked to create a series of 21 targets with 60 indicators, with an ambitious goal of reaching them by 2015. You might feel you are poor if you cant afford cable television or your own car. While those in relative poverty might not have enough to live at their countrys standard of living, those in absolute poverty do not have, or barely have, basic necessities such as food. What is their relationship like? Foreign Debt Dynamics in Middle Income Countries. Paper presented January 4, 2007 at Middle East Economic Association Meeting, Allied Social Science Associations, Chicago, IL. Social inequality is the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society. And with the global recession having slowed both institutional and personal funding, the attainment of the goals is very much in question (United Nations 2010). Who is living in absolute poverty? Again, as with the ongoing inequality, the effects of poverty on mental and physical health become more entrenched as time goes on. 2010. France might be classified as which kind of nation? Tiessen, Kaylie. Castells, Manuel. Child slavery, which may include child prostitution, is a form of chattel slavery. Effectively, we no longer live and act in the self-enclosed spaces of national states. U.S. Department of State. Statistics such as infant mortality rates and life expectancy vary greatly by country of origin. Chang, Leslie T. 2008. 2012. The other is the stratification of the world's people into rich and poor countries, or inequality among countries. Think of people among your family, your friends, or your classmates who are relatively unequal in terms of wealth. Exacerbating the problem, 2011 saw a drought in northeast Africa that brought starvation to many in the region. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Life for the women factory workers in Dongguan is an adventure, compared to their fate in rural village life, but one characterized by gruelling work, insecurity, isolation, and loneliness. But over the last two decades of globalization, Canadian consumers have become increasingly tied through popular retail chains to a complex network of outsourced garment production that stretches from China, through Southeast Asia, to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Social inequality in education is universally observed in countries in which children are brought up in unequal families; they enter school with unequal linguistic, cognitive, and cultural assets and attain unequal levels of achievement. It separates out the OECD (Organisation for Economic and Co-operative Development) countries, a group of 34 nations whose governments work together to promote economic growth and sustainability. The wages earned in most underground economy jobs, especially in peripheral nations, are a pittancea few rupees for a handmade bracelet at a market, or maybe 250 rupees (around C$4.50) for a days worth of fruit and vegetable sales (Barta 2009). Global Stratification and Classification Dependency theory was created in part as a response to the Western-centric mindset of modernization theory. Throughout the 1990s, data indicated that while overall poverty rates were rising, especially in peripheral nations, the rates of impoverishment increased nearly 20 percent morefor womenthan for men (Mogadham 2005). Such themes involve economics. Although Changs study is based in a town many have never heard of (Dongguan), this city produces one-third of all shoes on the planet (Nike and Reebok are major manufacturers here) and 30 percent of the worlds computer disk drives, in addition to a wide range of apparel (Chang 2008). Introduction to Sociology - 1st Canadian Edition by William Little and Ron McGivern is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Centuries of struggle over land ownership have meant that much useable land has been ruined or left unfarmed, while many countries with inadequate rainfall have never set up an infrastructure to irrigate. Retrieved January 17, 2012 (http://www.globalissues.org/print/article/4). This most closely resembles ______________. But some dependency theorists would state that it is in the best interests of core nations to ensure the long-term usefulness of their peripheral and semi-peripheral partners. Globalization theory approaches global inequality by focusing less on the relationship between dependent and core nations, and more on the international flows of capital investment and disinvestment in an increasingly integrated world market. As mentioned above, capital flight describes jobs and infrastructure moving from one nation to another. 38 (1): 77-114. 2011. It supposes all countries have the same resources and are capable of following the same path. One is among the rich and the poor worldwide, as Oxfam has noted in its reports, that is, inequality among people. In other words, the GNI of a country includes not only the value of goods and services inside the country, but also the value of income earned outside the country if it is earned by foreign nationals or foreign businesses. The painful rebirth of a self-ruled Africa has meant many countries bear ongoing scars as they try to see their way toward the future (World Poverty 2012a). 1. The difference may often be simply a basis for socially imposed inequalities, as with ethnicity and gender, or it may be a real cause . Social inequality results from a society organized by hierarchies of class, race, and gender that unequally distributes access to resources and rights. global stratification : The unequal distribution of resources between countries. The extreme concentration of money, power, and influence of a few at the very top has pernicious effects on the rest of us. Data. Retrieved December 22, 2011 (http://www.worldbank.org). Sociologists note that the world capitalist system generates two interwoven forms of inequality. Why is Africa in such dire straits? Some of these countries include Canada, the United States, Germany,and the United Kingdom (World Bank 2011). A major concern when discussing global inequality is how to avoid an ethnocentric bias implying that less developed nations want to be like those who have attained postindustrial global power. town, a mining company owns all the stores and most of the houses. Having a global perspective on wealth and poverty allows members of society to . 2011. Although the United States differs from most European . Poverty in Latin America, Foreign Aid Debt Burdens. Retrieved January 2, 2012 (http://world-poverty.org/povertyinlatinamerica.aspx). In 2010, the average GNI of a low-income nation was $528 and the average population was 796,261,360, with 28 percent located in urban areas. D| 4. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal discusses the challenges, parameters, and surprising benefits of this informal marketplace. 2012. Key Takeaways A basic definition of economic inequality refers to the disparities in incomes and wealth in a society. 10.1. Barta, Patrick. After all, its members do not pay taxes, do not take out loans to grow their businesses, and rarely earn enough to put money back into the economy in the form of consumer spending. However, every part of Asia has felt the global recession, from the poorest countries whose aid packages were hit, to the more industrialized ones whose own industries slowed down. But it is true that you might feel poor if you are living without a car to drive to and from work, without any money for a safety net should a family member fall ill, and without any extras beyond just making ends meet. Development has been redefined from the model of nationally managed economic growth to participation in the world market according to the World Banks World Development Report 1980 (cited in McMichael 2012, pp. The globalization of production makes it difficult to follow the links between the purchasing of a T-shirt in a Canadian store and the chain of agents, garment workers, shippers, and agricultural workers whose labour has gone into producing it and getting it to the store. Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. Retrieved January 3, 2012 (http://www.amnesty.org/en/sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity). Inequality: Causes and Consequences. Annual Review of Sociology 33:335357. Amnesty International. A| 7. New York: Random House. McMichael, Philip. Chapter4. March 14. They are not on factory floors or in traditional sweatshops; they are educated, speak at least two languages, and usually have significant technology skills. Inequality of outcome among parents, and the choices made by them, therefore condition the inequality of opportunity experienced by their children. Global Stratification and Classification, 10.3. In addition, it assumes that the goal of all countries is to be as developed as possible (i.e., like the model of capitalist democracies provided by Canada or the United States). 2011. People often disparage keeping up with the Jonesesthe idea that you must keep up with the neighbours standard of living to not feel deprived. In fact, many believe that Chinas success in recent times has much to do with its draconian population control rules. Shah, Anup. Global Stratification and Classification, 10.3. Goals related to poverty, education, child mortality, and access to clean water have seen much progress. Inequalities within countries and societies - regional differences, racial . It was in this context that Bangladesh went from having a few dozen garment factories to several thousand. Neckerman and Torches third consequence of poverty is the prevalence of crime. Gross national income equals all goods and services plus net income earned outside the country by nationals and corporations headquartered in the country doing business out of the country, measured in U.S. dollars. She has enough money for the basics and can pay her rent each month, but she feels that, with her education and experience, her income should be enough for her family to live much better than they do. Chances are if you have called the tech support line for your cell phone or internet provider, you have spoken to someone halfway across the globe. And certainly when you are shopping for a cheap T-shirt, you probably do not turn over the label, check who produced the item, and then research whether or not the company has fair labour practices. It is harder for females to get credit to expand businesses, to take the time to learn a new skill, or to spend extra hours improving their craft so as to be able to earn at a higher rate. Rather, as we saw in the example of the garment industry, capital circulates on a global scale, leading to a global reordering of inequalities both between nations and within nations. That means the world is more equal now than at any point since about 1875. 1 in 3 Black familes have zero or negative wealth. The majority of the poorest countries in the world are in Africa. Our individual stories play out amidst these major global changes and inequalities and it is these circumstances that largely determine how healthy, wealthy, and educated each of us will be in our own lives. But Changs focus is less centred on this global phenomenon on a large scale and more concerned with how it affects these two women. World Poverty. For example, Wallerstein contends that the United States is an economic powerhouse that can support or deny support to important economic legislation with far-reaching implications, thus exerting control over every aspect of the global economy and exploiting both semi-peripheral and peripheral nations. Further, the theory states that since core nations, as well as the World Bank, choose which countries to make loans to, and for what they will loan funds, they are creating highly segmented labour markets that are built to benefit the dominant market countries. Global Wealth and Poverty Social inequality is the state of unequal distribution of valued goods and opportunities. Global Wealth and Poverty While the majority of the worlds poorest countries are in Africa, the majority of the worlds poorest people are in Asia. Critical sociologyfocuses on the creation and reproduction of inequality. Globally, inequality has also increased with 62 of the world's richest people owning as much wealth as half of the world's population in 2015. Terms such as developing (nonindustrialized) and developed (industrialized) imply that nonindustrialized countries are somehow inferior, and must improve to participate successfully in the global economy, a label indicating that all aspects of the economy cross national borders. Maya is a 12-year-old girl living in Thailand. Or does it mean the distended bellies of the chronically malnourished throughout the peripheral nations of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia? Mental health is also detrimentally affected by the emotional stresses of poverty, with relative deprivation carrying the strongest effect. Ontario has been the traditional centre of manufacturing in Canada since the 19thcentury. Retrieved January 2, 2012 (http://usas.org). In the analysis of inequality, there is a great deal of complexity (and potential for ambiguity) in the empirical operationalization of broad concepts like power, status, income, or wealth. B | 2. Power and Dependence Perspectives on Outsourcing Decisions.European Management Journal 27:402417. As the name suggests, debt accumulation is the buildup of external debt, when countries borrow money from other nations to fund their expansion or growth goals. There, two ethnic groups cohabited with their own system of hierarchy and management until Belgians took control of the country in 1915 and rigidly confined members of the population into two unequal ethnic groups. The second worldwas the socialist world or Soviet bloc: industrially developed but organized according to a state socialist or communist model of political economy. 15. 2000. Examining social stratification requires a macrosociological perspective in order to view societal systems that make inequalities visible. Yet the topic is complex and uncertain. The underground economy has never been viewed very positively by global economists. As mentioned in the introduction, power, inequality and conflict have been central themes of sociology, including inequality in wealth and income. Many models of modernization and development are functionalist, suggesting that societies with modern cultural values and beliefs are able to achieve economic development while traditional cultural values and beliefs hinder development. However, as the cost of Chinese labour has incrementally increased since the 1990s, the Chinese have moved into the role of connecting Western retailers and designers with production centres elsewhere. World Poverty. Semi-peripheral nations are in-between nations, not powerful enough to dictate policy but nevertheless acting as a major source for raw material. Official statistics before the 2008 worldwide recession posit that the underground economy accounted for over 50 percent of non-agricultural work in Latin America; the figure went as high as 80 percent in parts of Asia and Africa (Chen 2001). How is it the same or different in peripheral nations? (Credit: Alicia Nijdam/Wikimedia Commons) Chapter Outline 10.1 Global Stratification and Classification 10.2 Global Wealth and Poverty This ultimately led to a repressive government and genocide against Tutsis that left hundreds of thousands of Rwandans dead or living in diaspora (U.S. Department of State 2011c). 4. Researchers try to understand global inequality by classifying it according to factors such as how industrialized a nation is, whether it serves as a means of production or as an owner, and what income it produces. The result is that when a store like Loblaw places an order, it usually works through agents who in turn source and negotiate the price of materials and production from competing locales around the globe. These disparities have the expected consequence. There are two major issues facing high-income countries: capital flight and deindustrialization. As expected, global companies move their industrial processes to the places where they can get the most production with the least cost, including the costs for building infrastructure, training workers, shipping goods, and, of course, paying employee wages. 2009. Women in particular benefit from the informal sector. However the bigger problem seems to originate with our desire to be able to purchase a T-shirt for $5 in the first place. 1. How we understand the cause of global inequality in these indicators depends on how we understand development and . 2011c. Inequality is deadly for the future of our world. Wallersteins (1979) world systems approach uses an economic and political basis to understand global inequality. Social inequality can be related to: differences in incomes. According to sociologists Neckerman and Torche (2007) in their analysis of global inequality studies, the consequences of poverty are many. 10. A sociologist working from a symbolic interaction perspective would ____________________________________. Since the introduction of the North American free trade agreements (the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in 1988 and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994), the ending of the tariff system that protected branch plant manufacturing in Canada has enabled U.S. companies to shift production to low-wage regions south of the border and in Mexico. How would you manage the necessitiesand how would you make up the gap between what you need to live and what you can afford? What does it mean to be poor? Development and underdevelopment were not stages in a natural process of gradual modernization, but the product of power relations and colonialism. In 2000, the world entered a new millennium. Stratification refers to the gaps in resources both between nations and within nations. There are two dimensions to this stratification: gaps between nations and gaps within nations. As part of the growing population of young people who are leaving behind the homesteads and farms of rural China, these female factory workers are ready to enter the urban fray and pursue an income much higher than they could have earned back home. Theoretical Perspectives on Global Stratification. March. There are also those who run informal businesses, like daycares or salons, from their houses. This means that a family subsisting on a few dollars a day in Nepal might think of themselves as doing well, within their perception of normal. Cross-nationally, crime rates are higher, particularly with violent crime, in countries with higher levels of income inequality (Fajnzylber, Lederman, and Loayza 2002). Those who evaluate global inequality and consider it to violate human rights may advocate for solutions to inequality using the language of social justice. More broadly measuring global inequality is done in relation to social and economic indicators. Retrieved December 29, 2011 (http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/home). 5. Introduction to Global Inequality; 10.1 Global Stratification and Classification; 10.2 Global Wealth and Poverty; 10.3 Theoretical Perspectives on Global Stratification; Key Terms; Section Summary; Section Quiz; Short Answer; Further Research; References
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