Durable Inequality

Charles Tilly

Published by University of California Press 1998

Durable Inequality

Charles Tilly

https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520924222

Overview
Contents

About this book

Charles Tilly, in this eloquent manifesto, presents a powerful new approach to the study of persistent social inequality. How, he asks, do long-lasting, systematic inequalities in life chances arise, and how do they come to distinguish members of different socially defined categories of persons? Exploring representative paired and unequal categories, such as male/female, black/white, and citizen/noncitizen, Tilly argues that the basic causes of these and similar inequalities greatly resemble one another. In contrast to contemporary analyses that explain inequality case by case, this account is one of process. Categorical distinctions arise, Tilly says, because they offer a solution to pressing organizational problems. Whatever the "organization" is—as small as a household or as large as a government—the resulting relationship of inequality persists because parties on both sides of the categorical divide come to depend on that solution, despite its drawbacks. Tilly illustrates the social mechanisms that create and maintain paired and unequal categories with a rich variety of cases, mapping out fertile territories for future relational study of durable inequality.

Author / Editor information

Tilly Charles :

Charles Tilly is Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science at Columbia University and former Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Studies of Social Change at the New School for Social Research. Among his recent books are Roads from Past to Future (1997), Work Under Capitalism (with Chris Tilly, 1997), Popular Contention in Great Britain (1995), and European Revolutions (1993).

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
1. Of Essences and Bonds Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. From Transactions to Structures Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
3. How Categories Work Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	74
4. Modes of Exploitation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
6. How To Hoard Opportunities Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
6. Emulation, Adaptation, and Inequality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	170
7. The Politics of Inequality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
8. Future Inequalities Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	247
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	291

Language: English
Publisher: University of California Press
Pages
- Main content: 310

eBook

Published: March 2, 1998
ISBN: 9780520924222