Social Inequality: Patterns and Processes

About this book

Highly readable and comprehensive Social Inequality: Patterns and Processes presents 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.