Understanding the Dynamics of Global Inequality

Despite the fact that the globalization process reinforces existing inequality structures and generates new areas of inequality on multiple levels systematic analyses on this very important field are scarce. Hence this compilation approaches the complex question of inequality not only from different regional local perspectives (Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America) but also from different disciplinary perspectives (economics, political sciences, sociology, ethnology etc.). The contributions are subdivided into three essential fields of research. Part I analyzes the socio-economic dimension of global exclusion. In particular, the impacts of internationalization and globalization processes on national social structures are highlighted and discussed against the background of the theoretical concepts of social inequality. Part II approaches the political dimension of global inequalities. Since the decline of the Soviet Union new regional powers like Brazil, China, India or South Africa have emerged. The power shifts within the area of international relations are the coherent element of the contributions of the second part. Part III examine the structural and transnational dimension of inequality patterns which can be concretized in the rise of globalized national elites or the emergence of multinational networks which transcend the geographical and imaginative borders of nation states.