The Killing Fields of Inequality

Inequality is not just about the size of our wallets. It is asocio-cultural order which, for most of us, reduces ourcapabilities to function as human beings, our health, our dignity,our sense of self, as well as our resources to act and participatein the world. This book shows that inequality is literally akilling field, with millions of people dying premature deathsbecause of it. These lethal effects of inequality operate not onlyin the poor world, but also, and increasingly, in rich countries,as Therborn demonstrates with data ranging from the US, the UK,Finland and elsewhere. Even when they survive inequality, millionsof human lives are stunted by the humiliations and degradations ofinequality linked to gender, race and ethnicity, and class. But this book is about experiences of equalization too,highlighting moments and processes of equalization in differentparts of the world - from India and other parts of Asia, fromthe Americas, as well as from Europe. South Africa illustrates thetoughest challenges. The killing fields of inequality can beavoided: this book shows how. Clear, succinct, wide-ranging in scope and empirical in itsapproach, this timely book by one of the world’s leadingsocial scientists will appeal to a wide readership.