Inequality: A Contemporary Approach to Race, Class, and Gender

Inequality: A Contemporary Approach to Race, Class, and Gender offers a comprehensive introduction to the topics animating current sociological research focused on inequality. Contemporary, engaging, and research-oriented, it is the ideal text to help undergraduate students master the basic concepts in inequality research and gain a deeper understanding of the ways in which race, class, and gender interact with systems of social stratification. Following an introduction to theories and research methods used in the field, the authors apply these concepts to areas that define inequality research, including social mobility, education, gender, race, and culture. The authors include up-to-date quantitative evidence throughout. The text concludes by examining policies that have facilitated inequality and reviewing the social movements that in turn seek to reshape those structures. Though primarily focused on the United States, it includes a chapter on stratification across the globe and draws on cross-national comparisons throughout.

Lisa A. Keister is Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Duke University and an affiliate of the Duke Network Analysis Center and the Duke Population Research Initiative. Her current research focuses on organization strategy, elite households, the processes that explain extremes in wealth and income inequality, and on group differences in the intergenerational transfer of assets. She is currently completing a book on America's wealthiest families, the one percent. Keister has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in inequality at Duke University, the University of California at Santa Barbara, Ohio State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Darby E. Southgate is Professor of Sociology at Los Angeles Valley College. She has contributed to educational policies and is an applied sociologist having worked with organizations such as the Center for Urban Research and Learning, Los Angeles Unified School District and the Los Angeles Housing Service Authority. Her primary research interests are stratification and education with an emphasis on culture. She has taught a variety of graduate and undergraduate sociology courses that include stratification, education, classical theory, and class, gender, and race in mass communications at the California State University, Ohio State University, and Columbus State Community College.