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Chapter 10

Social Inequality Worldwide

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Stratification(階層化 ) in the World System It is true that technology, the information highway,

and innovations in the telecommunications have all made the world a smaller and more unified place. Yet while the world marketplace is gradually shrinking in space and tastes, the profits of business are not being equally shared. There remains a substantial disparity between the world’s ‘have’ and ‘have-not’ nations.

(e.g., the USA, Japan, Switzerland, and Norway have more than 25,000 USD per capita GNP; the 140 developing nations accounted for 78 % of the world’s population but possessed only about 16% of all wealth.)

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Colonialism, Neo-colonialism, and

World Systems Analysis • Colonialism: the maintenance of political, social,

economic, and cultural dominance over a people by a foreign power for an extended period of time.

• Neo-colonialism: continuing dependence of former colonies on foreign countries.

• World System Analysis: a view of the global economic system as divided between certain industrialised nations that control wealth and developing countries that are controlled and exploited.

• Dependency Theory: an approach that contends that industrialised nations continue to exploit developing countries for their own gain.

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Multinational Corporations• A key role in neo-colonialism today is

played by worldwide corporate giants. The term multinational corporations refers to commercial organisations that are headquartered in one country, own or control other corporations and subsidiaries throughout the world.

(e.g., Coca-Cola, Nokia, Microsoft, Nike, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, MacDonald, etc.)

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• The pool of cheap labour in the developing world prompts multinationals to move factories out of core countries. An added bonus for the multinationals is that the developing world discourages strong trade unions.

• Workers in the USA and other core countries are beginning to recognise that their own interests are served by helping to organise workers in developing nations. As long as multinationals can exploit cheap labour abroad, they will be in a strong position to reduce wages and benefits in industrialised countries.

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Modernisation

• The far-reaching process by which peripheral nations move from traditional or less developed institutions to those characteristic of more developed societies.

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Stratification within Nations: a comparative perspective

At the same time that the gap between rich and poor nations is widening, so too is the gap between rich and poor citizens within nations.

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Distribution of Wealth and Income

• Women in developing countries find life especially difficult. Research shows that women are the most exploited among oppressed people. Women face sex discrimination beginning at birth. They are commonly fed less than male children, are denied educational opportunities, and are often hospitalised only when critically ill. Whether inside or outside the home, women’s work is devalued.

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• When economies fail, as they did in Asian countries in the late 1990s, women are the first to be laid off from work.

• Surveys show a significant degree of female infanticide (the killing of baby girls) in China and rural areas of India.

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Prestige • By ranking the prestige of various

occupations, sociologists can gain a deeper understanding of another aspect of inequality.

• But are perceptions in the USA regarding the prestige of occupations comparable to those held in other societies?

• The following table shows the prestige rankings of occupations in the United States.

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• In the world’s most populous nation– China, research shows that:

• Physicians ranked near the top of the occupational hierarchy, while police officers were near the middle, and garbage collectors were close to the bottom– a finding similar to the results of surveys in the USA. Teachers and professors, received much lower prestige ratings in China, reflecting the low wages they receive relative to other occupations.

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Social Mobility Mobility in industrial nations Studies of intergenerational mobility in industrialised

nations have found the following patterns:

• There are substantial similarities in the ways that parents’ positions in stratification systems are transmitted to their children.

• As in the USA, mobility opportunities in other nations have been influences by structural factors, such as labour market changes that lead to the rise or decline of an occupational group within the social hierarchy.

• Immigration continues to be a significant factor shaping a society’s level of intergenerational mobility.

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Mobility in Developing Nations

Mobility patterns in industrialised countries are usually associated with intergenerational and intra-generational mobility. Within developing nations, macro-level social and economic changes often overshadow micro-level movement from one occupation to another.

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Gender Differences and Mobility Only recently have researchers begun to

investigate the impact of gender on the mobility patterns of developing nations. Many aspects of the development process– especially modernisation in rural areas and the rural-to-urban migration– may result in the modification or abandonment of traditional cultural practices and even marital systems. The effects on women’s social standing and mobility are not necessarily positive.