Social structure and inequality

Abstract

Focuses on the meaning and effects of social inequality from a structural perspective, i.e. how life chances are based on wealth and income in populations distributed demographically according to such features as education, age, ethnicity, locality and nationality. Social class based patterns and dimensions of stratification that define young people’s life chances in the US and Europe characterise neo-liberal digital societies in which inequality is rising, threatening social cohesion. The book shows how Germany and England are marked by such ‘path-dependent’ inequalities that structure privileged and precarious youth transitions. In addition, inequality is impacted by such factors as globalisation, and migration showing how national economic and social policies respond. Social mechanisms structuring unequal youth transitions are also outlined.