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.

Each volume in this valuable reference series provides a comprehensive profile of social change in an industrialized national society during the period 1960 to 1990. The subjects examined range from kinship to computerization and from perceptions of the future to societal values.

The series is prepared by the International Research Group for the Comparative Charting of Social Change, an international body of scholars working in national teams. This collaborative effort aims at preparing a comprehensive, numerically grounded description of recent social trends in industrialized societies; identifying similarities and differences among these societies with respect to ongoing social trends and subjecting these similarities and differences to comparative analysis; developing a non-traditional model of social change to accommodate these data; and establishing benchmarks for future tracking of social change. All volumes in the series consist of seventy-eight trend reports grouped under seventeen main topics. Each of the reports has four sections: an abstract of findings, an explanatory text, a collection of statistical charts, and a bibliography of sources.

A firm grounding in fact is fundamental to this series. The information presented on recent and current trends is verifiable and assertions about future trends are supported by empirical data. The tendencies documented in these national profiles, however, are not merely interpretations of statistical information: they reflect an understanding of social theory and social reality that goes far beyond the raw data.