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consumer and the non-Western recipient can be accused of legitimating or obscuring the profound global inequalities that underpin it, and the literature on ethical consumption tends to critique it in these terms, accusing it of a disingenuous morality that ‘celebrates a culture of global capitalism while sympathising with its victims’, 2 and that constitutes a ‘therapeutic discourse of the West, a
All empires governed different people differently. Through the process of incorporating new territories and peoples into the overarching structure of empire, European powers deliberately maintained and exacerbated diversity and inequalities. 1 Fiscal history is a revealing lens through which to examine this phenomenon. In a frequently quoted phrase, the fiscal sociologist Rudolf Goldscheid described fiscal history as revealing the ‘skeleton of the state’. 2 Who were the colonial taxpayers
. Defying this convention, Brototi moved to Calcutta, India, to pursue a degree in economics, because she wanted to understand and address the socioeconomic inequalities she saw in her country. Straight away she became uncomfortable with what she was being taught without yet understanding why. Here we turn to explore the source of that discomfort, which so many economics students
minorities; and cultural change left them behind in terms of liberal and cosmopolitan progress on gender, race, and sexual values. This chapter builds on the work of Gurminder Bhambra and Robbie Shilliam to show how the ‘left behind’ discourse emerged from the shifting meaning of inequality. 7 In the pre-crash years of never-ending boom, income and wealth inequality could be justified as the legitimate outcome of meritocratic competition. The austerity period was legitimated by a more extreme of this
neighbourhood in the case of Kensington. In both examples, the reputation of these urban spaces to some extent obscures a recognition of difference, which we explore by digging under the surface of their popular images. Both unravel contingencies and peculiarities that provide a re-balancing of mainstream narratives, ultimately highlighting the situated nature of spatial inequalities. Peaks and troughs in Kensington Among world cities, London stands out for its high level of economic inequality, due in particular to the growing influx
Proposal #18: fight economic inequality and introduce a universal basic income On Wednesday, 20 December 2017, the American House of Representatives voted on a new tax bill, which gave companies a massive permanent tax break and temporary tax breaks to individuals. On the same day, the bill was hailed by Trump in a tweet with the text: “We are delivering HISTORIC TAX RELIEF for the American people.” The tweet was accompanied by a picture of a Christmas present box. When the box opened the text “TAX CUTS for CHRISTMAS” appeared. The American president was
Imperial Inequalities takes Western European empires, and their legacies, as the explicit starting point for discussion. It addresses the institutional and fiscal processes involved in the modes of extraction, that is, taxation, and hierarchies of welfare distribution across Europe’s global empires. It looks at the ways in which particularities of economic governance across European empires have shaped forms of inequality in the present and their ongoing implications for contemporary political economy. Specifically, it examines the ways in which European empires mobilised forms of taxation across the territories they governed and addresses how this was understood, both in the metropole and the imperial hinterlands. The volume further addresses the different forms of welfare provided within the imperial polity in terms of who contributed, who had access, and how this was differentiated across its broader reaches. The relationship between taxation and welfare can be regarded as central to the dynamics of modern nation-states, yet the role of imperialism has rarely been addressed. Nor has the relationship been discussed within the literature addressing issues of economic governance across imperial domains. The volume culminates by looking at the various taxation regimes in operation in different European empires and how their postcolonial legacies continue to shape our world. In sum, the volume provides historical insights into the shaping of structures of inequality through an examination of the complex interplay between forms of extraction and differential redistribution which continue to have repercussions in the present.
16 Marco Oberti and Edmond Préteceille Urban segregation, inequalities and local welfare: the challenges of neoliberalisation The central argument of this chapter is twofold: the transformation of social structures and that of welfare-state regimes have to be considered together; urban inequalities and segregation are crucial in relating these two processes. The first part discusses the relevance of social class analysis in the face of the fragmentation produced by changing work relations, the growth of the service sector, the expansion of the middle classes
modern reality of urban American life; television was the cultural site of exchange for a more-than-Dickensian sociological imagination. 5 The Wire’s exploration of sociological themes is truly exceptional. Indeed, I do not hesitate to say that it has done more to enhance our understandings of the challenges of urban life and urban inequality than any other media event or scholarly publication, including studies by social scientists … The Wire develops morally complex characters on each side of the law, and with its scrupulous exploration of the inner workings of
diabetes alone. In this way, class, race and gender are absently present, intersecting in ways that become simultaneously (if selectively) both highly visible and invisible. This strategic (in)visibility around intersecting axes of social inequality is the focus of this final chapter. Throughout the book I have highlighted multiple points where the wider social, economic, cultural and political contexts of sugar consumption are blurred into the background in the rush to target sugar. In this chapter, by focusing on the