Social Inequality: Patterns and Processes

by Marger, Martin

• ISBN13: 9780073528304
• ISBN10: 0073528307
• Edition: 5th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-29
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages

Summary

Highly readable and comprehensive,Social Inequality: Patterns and Processespresents an introduction to key concepts, research findings, trends, and theories in the major forms of social inequality: class, racial/ethnic, gender, and political. Students are encouraged to develop an awareness of the subtle and often unseen ways in which inequality is structured and how it impinges on virtually all facets of individual and group life. Although the focus is primarily directed toward American society, the text presents numerous cross-national illustrations that compare income, wealth, poverty, mobility, gender, and other dimensions of stratification in the U.S. to other societies. Emphasis is placed on the interweaving nature of the different forms of social inequality and on the role of public policy and ideology in shaping and sustaining inequality.

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: An Introduction to the Study of Social Inequality

Chapter 2: Theories of Class and Social Inequality

Chapter 3: The American Class System

Chapter 4: The Upper Class and the Power Elite

Chapter 5: The Middle Classes

Chapter 6: Poverty and the Poor

Chapter 7: Stratification Systems and Social Mobility

Chapter 8: Ideology and the Legitimation of Inequality

Chapter 9: Public Policy and the Class System

Chapter 10: Racial/Ethnic Differentiation

Chapter 11: Racial/Ethnic Stratification

Chapter 12: Gender Inequality

Chapter 13: Political Inequality

Glossary

References

Index