Sociology
The beginning of the book gives stories of different people around the world and explains how these people are affected by their existence in a "global village". These examples are given for two reasons. The first is to show how the entire world is connected and the second is to show the disparity between different parts of the "village". Early on we are challenged to question the things we take for granted or assume to be a part of everyday life. Bradshaw and Wallace take the idea of an unequal world even further when they begin to give statistical data that roves their point. One example of this is the rate of children dying before the age of five per 1000 births as of 1992. In poor countries the rate is 156.66, in middle-income countries it is 47.03, and in rich countries it falls to 9.41. They also explore the correlation between freedom/democracy and wealth. Global trends are discussed as a way of predicting the future and understanding the contemporary world. One of these trends is the increasing number of formal political structures becoming fragmented. Reasons for this include economic differences, ethnic diversity, and terrorism. The book then gives two competing theories that explain the history and future of
The fact that a very small percentage of the people control most of the wealth in most of the countries does not surprise me. Their lack of a "modern" society (including economy, culture, and institutions) is said to cause their underdevelopment. In almost every situation discussed in the Global Inequalities book there is one side wanting one thing and another side wanting something entirely the opposite. The first theory is the Modernization Theory. The poorest rich people are, in some regions, seven times wealthier than the richest poor people, and the gap is growing. It brings back the attitude of, "We can get only so far alone, but together anything is possible. The last section deals with Asia in a theoretical way. The second contribution this book makes is to fill in the holes left by the first two theories. The main idea here is the struggle to balance development and environment. The next few sections give examples of the decline in Africa. This element is the idea that social change, no matter how successful at the micro-level, must be accepted on the macro-level to ever really change anything. Move beyond external and internal characteristics to also include regional and community factors. He begins by emphasizing the destructiveness of egoism. They talk about civil strife and the lack of a strong moral government in most places.
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