Table of Contents

List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface and Acknowledgments
Part I. Considering Inequality: Conceptualization and Comparison
1: Understanding Inequality: A Comparative Introduction
2: Conceptualizing Equality: Four Ideals
Part II. Measuring Inequality: Non-Material and Material Indicators
3: Material Indicators of Inequality: Poverty, Income, Wealth, and Life Chances
4: Non-Material Indicator of Inequalities: Rights and Entitlements
Part III. Explaining Inequality: Theoretical Approaches
5: Legitimating Inequality: Sociobiological, Functionalist, and Culturalist Accounts
6: Challenging Inequality: Power and Conflict Account
References
Index

About the Author

Gregg M. Olsen is professor of sociology at the University of Manitoba. He specializes in the study of social inequality and its political causes.

Reviews

"An excellent and timely book for Canadians. As the world continues to adjust with short-run measures to the financial turmoil of the fall of 2008, Gregg Olsen shows us why there is a deeper and more sustained crisis of growing inequality in the most advanced democracies. By comparing Canada, the US, and the UK with Sweden, Norway, and Finland, he shows that .... higher degrees of social equality and individual freedom not only are possible but already
exist."

--Ed Broadbent, author of Democratic Equality: What Went Wrong?
"A superb text, comprehensive in its attention to the material forms of inequality-income, wealth, health, poverty rates, etc.-as well as the non-material forms-dignity, recognition, rights and entitlements. It combines clear and engaging accounts of philosophical and social-scientific theories with rich empirical analysis, and makes excellent use of cross-national comparisons between Nordic and Anglo countries of the North Atlantic."'

--William K. Carroll, University of Victoria
"Power and Inequality is a very welcome addition to the inequality literature. Its contribution is greatly enhanced through an effectively justified and executed comparative cross-national focus. . . . While the book is broad-ranging in scope, it is concise and introduces very effectively the key issues, conceptual tools, debates, and key contributors to theory and research on inequality."

--Julia S. O'Connor, University of Ulster
"A comprehensive, accessible, and even-handed text that consolidates many strains of sociology. Bridging theoretical, empirical, and methodological levels, this book provides an insightful understanding, explanation, and documentation of inequality in its many guises. . . . This is good sociology."

--Wallace Clement, Carleton University
"An important overview, given that most discussions of equality are marred by superficial notions, prevalent among far too many students, that equality means we must all be the same."

--Larry Patriquin, Socialist Studies
"An engrossing and persuasive cross-cultural analysis of how equality and inequality are defined and practiced."

--Choice