20181021221918film 20181022034316chapter_9 20181021221858rubric 20181022034316chapter_9
Please write a paper analyzing the film using the concepts from Chapter 8 and 9
This is the film:
https://www.gapminder.org/videos/dont-panic-end-po…
I’ve attached the question and I would like to solve it using text book as one and only resource
Textbook name : Sociology the essentials 9th edition
Please note that i’m an international student and my English level is 6/10 so it shouldn’t so it shouldn’t be a professional English vocabulary but the idea should be delivered correctly,
Make sure : the answers shouldn’t be an essay. answers each one separately
Also I’ve attached the rubric and everything should match proficient required from the rubric
Film Paper #1
Instructions: Please write a paper analyzing the film using the concepts from Chapter 8 and 9.
Please answer the following 4 questions:
1) Write an informative summary of the film in one to two paragraphs.
2) Choose four of the concepts listed below to discuss what you feel are the important themes of
the film.
a. Define each concept;
b. Relate that concept to the film; and
c. Explain why you think this concept is important in the film.
3) Did the film increase your understanding of a particular issue? Did it change your perspective in
any way?
4) Evaluate the merit of the film: the importance of its points, its accuracy, completeness,
organization, and so on. Include a discussion of whether or not you would recommend the film
to others, and why.
Points of consideration in writing your reaction:
1) Proof read your paper for clarity, grammatical errors, and coherent, error-free sentences.
2) Throughout your paper, be sure to use direct quotations to illustrate important ideas.
3) Throughout your paper, reference the textbook where appropriate using page numbers.
4) Support any general points you make or attitudes you express with specific reasons and details.
Statements such as “I agree with many ideas in this film” or “I found the film very interesting”
are meaningless without specific evidence from the film that shows why you feel as you do.
Concepts for “Don’t Panic: How to End Poverty in 15 Years”
• Social Stratification
• Global Stratification
• Life Chances
• Economic Restructuring
• Social Mobility
• Causes of Poverty
• Neocolonialism
• Core countries, peripheral
countries, Semiperipheral
countries (counts as 1 concept)
• World Systems Theory
• Dependency Theory
• Modernization Theory
• Extreme Poverty
• Absolute Poverty
1
Gi
de
on
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9
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
201
!”It takes a village to raise a child,” the saying goes, but it also seems to take a world to make a shirt—or so it seems from looking at the global dimensions of the production
and distribution of goods. Try this simple experiment: Look at
the labels on your clothing. (If you do this in class, try to do so
without embarrassing yourself and others!) What do you see?
“Made in Indonesia,” “Made in Vietnam,” “Made in Malawi”—all
indicating the linkage of the United States to clothing manu-
facturers around the world. The popular brand Nike, as just one
example, contracts with factories all over the world. Most of
Nike’s products are made in hundreds of factories throughout
Asia.
Taking your experiment further, ask yourself: Who made
your clothing? A young person trying to lift his or her family
out of poverty? Might it have been a child? The International
Labour Organization (ILO) distinguishes child labor (those
under age 17) from employed children (such as a teenager
holding a part-time job or babysitting). Child labor specifically
refers to “work that deprives children of their childhood, their
potential, and their dignity and that is also harmful to mental
and physical development” (International Labour Organiza-
tion 2014). The ILO estimates that about 168 million children
around the world are trapped in child labor, almost half of
whom are involved in dangerous work and many of whom
are separated from their families and possibly held in slavery
(International Labour Organization 2014). This does not mean
that a child necessarily made your clothing. In fact, most child
labor occurs in agricultural work, although a significant com-
ponent (25 percent) is in service and manufacturing work.
Data on child labor indicate that our global systems of work
are deeply connected to inequality. Especially in the poorest
countries, trying to survive forces people into forms of work—
or lack of work—that produce some of the world’s greatest
injustices—both for children and for adult women and men. As
we will see in this chapter, nations are interlocked in a system
of global inequality, in which the status of the people in one
country is intricately linked to the status of the people in others.
Recall from Chapter 1 that C. Wright Mills identified the
task of sociology as seeing the social forces that exist beyond
individuals. This is particularly important when studying global
inequality. A person in the United States (or western Europe
Global Stratification
● Define global stratification
and describe its
components
● Compare and contrast
different explanations
of global stratification
● Describe the various
consequences of global
stratification
● Explain the causes and
consequences of global
povert
y
● Summarize the impact
of globalization for social
change
in this chapter, you will learn to:
Global Stratification 202
Theories of Global
Stratification 208
Consequences of Global
Stratification 212
World Poverty 216
Globalization and Social
Change 223
Chapter Summary 224
“
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2 02 CH APTER 9
or Japan) who thinks he or she is expressing individualism by wearing the latest style is actually part of
a global system of inequality. The adornments available to that person result from a whole network of
forces that produce affluence in some nations and poverty in others.
The United States and other wealthy nations are dominant in the system of global stratification.
Those at the top of the global stratification system have enormous power over the fate of other nations.
Although world conflict stems from many sources, including religious differences, cultural conflicts, and
struggles over political philosophy, the inequality between rich and poor nations causes much hatred
and resentment. One cannot help but wonder what would happen if the differences between the wealth
of some nations and the poverty of others were smaller. In this chapter, we examine the dynamics and
effects of global stratification.
Global Stratification
In the world today, there are not only rich and poor peo-
ple but also rich and poor countries. Some countries are
well off, some countries are doing so-so, and a growing
number of countries are poor and getting poorer. There
is, in other words, a system of global stratification in
which the units are countries, much like a system of
stratification within countries in which the units are
individuals or families.
Just as we can talk about the upper-class or lower-
class individuals within a country, we can also talk of the
equivalent upper-class or lower-class countries in this
world system. One manifestation of global stratification
is the great inequality in life chances that differentiates
nations around the world. Simple measures of well-
being (such as life expectancy, infant mortality, access
to education and health, and measures of environmen-
tal quality) reveal the consequences of global inequality.
The gap between rich and poor people is also sometimes
greatest in nations where poverty rates are highest. No
longer can nations be understood without considering
the global system of stratification of which they are a part.
The effects of the global economy on inequal-
ity have become increasingly evident, as witnessed
by public concerns about jobs being sent overseas.
Unions, environmentalists, and other groups have coa-
lesced to protest global trade policies that they think
threaten U.S. jobs, erode workers’ rights, and contrib-
ute to environmental degradation. The global economy
has also further spread McDonaldization, bringing this
form of production and consumption throughout the
world (see Chapter 6). Popular stores such as Gap and
Niketown often have been targets of political protests
because they symbolize the expansion of global capital-
ism. Protestors see the growth of such stores as eroding
local cultural values and spreading the values of unfet-
tered consumerism around the globe. A student-based
movement has also emerged to protest the sweatshop
labor that is often used by companies that manufacture
college logo apparel.
The relative affluence of the United States means
that U.S. consumers have access to goods produced
around the world. A simple thing, such as a child’s toy,
can represent this global system. For many young girls
in the United States, Barbie is the ideal of fashion and
romance. Young girls may have not just one Barbie, but
several, each with a specific role and costume. Cheaply
bought in the United States, but produced overseas,
Barbie is manufactured by those probably not much
older than the young girls who play with her and who
would need all of their monthly pay to buy just one
of the dolls that many U.S. girls collect by the dozens
(Press 1996: 12).
The manufacturing of toys and clothing is an
example of the global stratification that links the
United States and other parts of the world. Global
outsourcing locates jobs overseas even while support-
ing U.S.-based businesses. Many of the jobs that have
been outsourced in this way are semiskilled jobs, such
as data entry, medical transcription, and so forth.
Increasingly, outsourced jobs are also found in high-
tech industries, software design, market research,
and product research activities. Although it is difficult
to measure the extent of global outsourcing, it has
become a common phenomenon—something you
experience when, for example, you engage in a tel-
ephone or Internet transaction, such as getting help
for your computer or arranging a trip. India, China,
and Russia have been major players in the economy of
global outsourcing, but other nations, such as Ireland,
South Africa, Poland, and Hungary, among others, are
increasingly playing an important role. The conse-
quences can be very positive for the economies of the
host nations. The practice of outsourcing also lowers
personnel costs for U.S.-based companies, given the
lower wages in nations where jobs flow. Outsourc-
ing can be at the expense of jobs for workers in the
United States, however (Rajan and Srivastava 2007).
The practice of global outsourcing increasingly links
the economies and social systems of nations around
the world.
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GLOBAL STRATI F ICAT I O N 2 03
Rich and Poor
One dimension of stratification between countries is
wealth. Enormous differences exist between the wealth
of the countries at the top of the global stratification sys-
tem and the wealth of the countries at the bottom. As
you can see in ▲ Figures 9.1 and 9.2, a very small pro-
portion of the world’s population receives a vast share
of all income—a visual reminder of the inequality that
characterizes our world.
You will recall that we looked at the “champagne
glass” of inequality within the United States in Chapter 8.
A similar image can show you the inequality of
income
worldwide (see Figure 9.2). As you can see, a small
Distribution of income
World population
arranged by income
Richest
Poorest
The poorest fifth receiv
es
1.0% of total world income
Each horizontal band
represents an equal fifth
of the world’s people
The richest fifth receives
82.8% of total world
income
9.9% of income
4.2% of income
2.1% of income
1.0% of income
▲ Figure 9.1 World Income
Distribution
Data from: Ortiz, Isabel, and Matthew
Cummins. 2011. “Global Inequality: Beyond
the Bottom Billion.” Social and Economic
Policy Working Paper. UNICEF, April.
www.worldbank.org
percentage of the world’s population
has a very disproportionate share of
world income.
There are different ways to meas-
ure the wealth of nations, but the
most common is to use the per capita
gross national income (GNI). The
GNI measures the total output of
goods and services produced by resi-
dents of a country each year plus the
income from nonresident sources,
divided by the size of the popula-
tion. The GNI does not truly reflect
what individuals or families receive
in wages or pay; it is simply each
person’s annual share of their coun-
try’s income if income were shared
equally. You can use this measure to
get a picture of global stratification
(see ■ Map 9.1).
Per capita GNI is reliable only in countries that are
based on a cash economy. It does not measure infor-
mal exchanges or bartering in which resources are
exchanged without money changing hands. These non-
cash transactions are not included in the GNI calcula-
tion, but they are common in developing countries. As
a result, measures of wealth based on the GNI, or other
statistics that count cash transactions, are less reliable
among the poorer countries and may underestimate
the wealth of the countries at the lower end of the
economic scale.
The per capita GNI of the United States, one
of the wealthier nations in the world (though not
the wealthiest on a per capita basis), was $53,860
Some nations have so much wealth that they actually serve gold as food, such
as these real gold leaves on a dessert in Dubai!
Al
ic
e
Ha
rtl
ey
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
2 0 4 CHA PTE R 9
in 2013. The per capita GNI in Burundi, one of the
poorest countries in the world, was $280. Even com-
pared to other well-to-do, industrialized nations, the
United States’ per capita GNI shows us to be one of
the most affluent nations in the world; GNI per capita
is $46,140 in Japan, $46,100 in Germany, $39,140 in
the United Kingdom, and only $6520 in China (World
Bank 2014b).
Which are the wealthiest nations? ▲ Figure 9.3
shows the ten richest and the ten poorest countries in
the world (measured by the annual per capita GNI).
Monaco is the richest nation in the world on a per
capita basis. Of course, Monaco has a tiny population
compared with the United States. The poorest coun-
try in the world is Malawi, closely tied with Burundi,
but note how many of the poorest nations are in
sub-Saharan Africa, one of the poorest regions of the
world. We will return to this fact in the discussion of
world poverty later in this chapter.
The poorest nations are largely rural, have high fer-
tility rates, large populations, and still depend heavily
on subsistence agriculture. In very poor countries, the
life of an average citizen is meager. Often poor nations
are rich with natural resources but are exploited for
such resources by more powerful nations. Still, they
rank at the bottom of the global stratification system.
GNI per capita,
Atlas method (current US$)
no data
$12,476 or more
$1,025 or less
$1,026–$4,035
$4,036–$12,475
Viewing Society in Global Perspective: Rich and Poor
Most nations are linked in a world
system that produces wealth for
some and poverty for others.
The GNI (gross national income),
depicted here on a per capita basis
for most nations in the world, is an
indicator of the wealth and poverty
of nations.
Source: The World Bank. 2011. Reprinted by
permission. www.worldbank.org
map 9.1
32.6%
18.3%5.7%
4.5%
5.9%
4.1%
19.4%1.2%
1.1%
2.6%
1.4%
1.0%
1.3%
1.7%
2.2%
United States
Japan
Germany
Italy
United Kingdom
France
Spain
Canada
All others
Brazil
Taiwan
Australia
Netherlands
China
Mexico
▲ Figure 9.2 Who Owns the World’s Wealth?
Data from: Davies, James B., Susanna Sandstrom, Anthony Shorrocks,
and Edward N. Wolff. 2008. “The World Distribution of Household
Wealth.” UNU-WIDER, World Institute for Development Economics
Research. Helsinki, Finland.
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
GLOBAL STRATI F ICAT I O N 2 05
Because the poorest nations suffer from extreme
poverty, there is terrible human suffering in these
places. This also produces instability and the potential
for violence, as well as risks to human health. We wit-
nessed this in the Ebola virus outbreak that devastated
some of the countries of western Africa. The nations
most affected are among some of the poorest in the
world—the Central African Republic with a GNI of only
$320; Burundi, $280; and Malawi, $270. Each of these
nations suffers from very high poverty rates, short life
expectancy, and poor water facilities. We will look more
closely at the nature and causes of such world poverty
later in this chapter.
The wealthiest countries, you will see, are largely
industrialized nations or those that are oil-rich. These
countries represent the equivalent of the upper class.
Simply being one of the wealthiest nations in the world
does not mean that all of the nation’s population is well
off. Some, especially the Scandinavian countries, have
low degrees of inequality within. Others, including
the United States, have great inequality within, as we
have seen in the previous chapter on class inequality.
Moreover, inequality between nations has to be seen in
relative terms. For example, a very wealthy person in
India may have the income of someone in the bottom
5 percent of income earners in the United States, but
within India, this can afford the person an expensive
mansion and a highly lavish lifestyle relative to other
Indian people (Milanovic 2010).
Inequality within nations is measured by some-
thing called the Gini coefficient. The Gini coefficient
is a measure of income distribution within a given
population or nation. The figure ranges from zero to
one, with zero representing a population where there is
perfect equality and one indicating a population where
just one person has all the money—in other words, the
greatest inequality. South Africa has the highest Gini
coefficient in the world; the Scandinavian countries,
among the lowest. But the United States ranks very
high in the degree of internal inequality among other
industrialized nations, as you can see from ▲ Figure 9.4.
■ Map 9.2 also gives you a visual image, based on the
Gini coefficient, of inequality within nations through-
out the world.
Monaco
Lichtenstein
Norway
Switzerland
Qatar
Australia
Sweden
Luxembourg
Singapore
United States
$50,000$0 $100,000
The richest nations
$150,000 $200,000
$100$0 $200 $400$300 $500 $600
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Guinea
Madagascar
Niger
Liberia
Congo, Dem.Republic of
Central African Republic
Burundi
Malawi
The poorest nations
▲ Figure 9.3 The Rich and the Poor:
A World View*
Data from: The World Bank. 2014b.
*Measured by GNI per capita, in U.S. dollars, for 2011.
www.worldbank.org
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
2 0 6 CHAPTER 9
Global Networks of Power
and Influence
Global stratification involves nations in a large and
integrated network of economic and political relation-
ships. Power—that is, the ability of a country to exercise
control over other countries or groups of countries—is a
significant dimension of global stratification. Countries
can exercise several kinds of power over other coun-
tries, including military, economic, and political power.
The core countries have the most power in the world
economic system. These countries control and profit
Gini Coeffici
ent
.30–.34
.35–.39
.40–.44
<.25
.45–.49
.50–.54
.55–.59
>.60
No Data
.25–.29
Viewing Society in Global Perspective: The Gini Coefficient
Source: Central Intelligence Agency. 2009.
World Factbook. www.cia.org
map 9.2
NOTE: The larger the Gini coefficient, the greater inequality in family incomes.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
South Africa
Brazil
Costa Rica
Mexico
China
United States
Japan
Ireland
United Kingdom
France
Australia
Germany
Norway
Denmark
Sweden
Canada
▲ Figure 9.4 Gini Coefficient in
Selected Countries How does the
United States compare to western
European nations? Why do you think
this has happened?
Data from: Central Intelligence Agency. 2014.
The World Fact Book. www.cia.gov
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
GLOBAL STRATI F ICATI O N 2 07
Research Question: International migra-
tion is becoming an increasingly common
phenomenon. Women are one of the
largest groups to experience migration,
often leaving poor nations to become
domestic workers in wealthier nations.
What are these women’s experiences in
the context of global stratification? This
is what Rhacel Salazar Parreñas wanted
to know.
Research Method: Parreñas studied
two communities of Filipina women,
one in Los Angeles and one in Rome,
Italy, conducting her research through
extensive interviewing with Filipina
domestic workers in these two locations.
She supplemented the interviews with
participant observation in church set-
tings, after-work social gatherings, and in
Servants of Globalization: Who Does
the Domestic Work?
employers’ homes. The interviews were
conducted in a mixture of both cities.
Research Results: Parreñas found that
Filipina domestics experienced many sta-
tus inconsistencies. They were upwardly
mobile in terms of their home country
but were excluded from the middle-class
Filipino communities in the host nation.
Thus they experienced feelings of social
exclusion in addition to being separated
from their own families.
Conclusions and Implications: The
women Parreñas studied are part of
a new social pattern for transnational
families—that is, families whose mem-
bers live across the borders of nations.
These Filipinas provide the labor for
more affluent households while their own
lives are disrupted by these new global
forces. As global economic restructuring
evolves, it may be that more families will
experience this form of family living.
Questions to Consider
1. Are there domestic workers in
your community who provide child
care and other household work for
middle- and upper-class house-
holds? What are the race, ethnicity,
nationality, and gender of these
workers? What does this tell you
about the division of labor in domes-
tic work and its relationship to global
stratification?
2. Why do you think domestic labor
is so underpaid and undervalued?
Are there social changes that might
result in a reevaluation of the value
of this work?
Sources: Parreñas, Rhacel Salazar. 2001.
Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration
and Domestic Work. Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press.
doing sociological research
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The gap between the rich and poor worldwide can be staggering. At the same time that many struggle for mere survival,
others enjoy the pleasantries of a gentrified lifestyle.
the most from the world system, and thus they are the
“core” of the world system. These include the power-
ful nations of Europe, the United States, Australia, and,
increasingly, East Asia.
Surrounding the core countries, both structurally and
geographically, are the semiperipheral countries that
are semi-industrialized and, to some degree, represent a
kind of middle class (such as Spain, Turkey, and Mexico).
They play a middleman role, extracting profits from
the poor countries and passing those profits on to the
core countries.
At the bottom of the world stratification system are
the peripheral countries. These are the poor, largely
agricultural countries of the world. Even though they
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
2 08 CHAPT ER 9
are poor, they often have important natural resources
that are exploited by the core countries. Exploitation,
in turn, keeps them from developing and perpetuates
their poverty. Often these nations are politically unsta-
ble. Political instability within poor nations can create
a crisis for core nations that depend on their resources.
Military intervention by the United States or European
nations is often the result.
→ SEE for YOURSELF ←
The Global Economy of Clothing
Look at the labels in your clothes and note where your
clothing was made. Where are the products bearing
your college logos manufactured and sold? Who profits
from the distribution of these goods? What does this
tell you about the relationship of core, semiperipheral,
and peripheral countries within world systems theory?
What further information would reveal the connections
between the country where you live and the countries
where your clothing is made and distributed?
To explore this further, you can read the account by
Kelsey Timmerman who wanted to know where his clothes
came from. Timmerman traveled to Honduras, Bangladesh,
Cambodia, and China, talking to factory workers and their
families about the experiences in making the clothes that
others wear. His journey can teach you a lot about global
production and consumption (Timmerman 2012).
Further resources: www.whereamiwearing.com
Race and Global Inequality
Along with class inequality, there is a racial component
to world inequality. In the richest nations, the popu-
lation is largely White; in the poorest countries of the
world, mostly in Africa, the populations are people of
color. Exploitation of the human and natural resources
of regions populated by people of color has character-
ized the history of Western capitalism, with people of
color being dominated by Western imperialism and
colonialism. The inequities that have resulted are enor-
mous, including malnutrition and hunger.
How did this racial inequality come about? On
the surface, global capitalism is not explicitly racist,
as were earlier forms of industrial capitalism. Yet, the
rapid expansion of the global capital system has led to
an increase in racial inequality between nations. A new
international division of labor has emerged that is not
tied to particular places but seeks cheap labor, usually in
non-Western countries. The exploitation of cheap labor
has created a poor and dependent workforce comprised
mostly of people of color. Profits accrue to wealthy
owners, who are mostly White, resulting in a racially
divided world. Some argue that the exploitation of the
poor peripheral nations by multinational capitalists
has forced an exodus of unskilled workers from the
impoverished nations to the rich nations. The flood of
third-world refugees into the industrialized nations is
thereby increasing racial tensions, fostering violence,
and destroying worker solidarity (Sirvananadan 1995).
The meaning of race, however, varies in different
national settings. South Africa, the United States, and
Brazil each developed different sets of racial catego-
ries. Although all three countries have many people of
mixed descent, race is defined differently in each place.
In South Africa, the particular history of Dutch and
English colonialism led to strongly drawn racial cat-
egories that defined people in four separate categories:
“White,” “Coloured” (including indigenous Khoi and
San people, as well as people of mixed descent), “Black,”
and “Indian.” Black South Africans had no political
representation under apartheid. There were three sepa-
rate parliaments—one for each of the other groups.
Brazil is yet a different case. The Brazilian elite
declared Brazil a racial democracy at the early stages of
national development. Racial differences were thought
not to matter. Yet, instead of creating an egalitarian soci-
ety free of racism, Afro-Brazilians were still of lower social
status and Euro-Brazilians remain at the highest social
status, suggesting that color itself stratifies people—a
sociological phenomenon sometimes referred to as “col-
orism” (Telles 2004; Fredrickson 2003; Marx 1997).
Theories of Global
Stratification
How did world inequality occur? Sociological expla-
nations of world stratification generally fall into three
camps: modernization theory, dependency theory, and
world systems theory (see ◆ Table 9.1).
Modernization Theory
Modernization theory views the economic de velop-
ment of countries as stemming from technological
change. According to this theory, a country becomes more
“modernized” by increased technological development.
Modernization theory sees economic development
as a process by which traditional societies become more
complex. For economic development to occur, mod-
ernization theory predicts, countries must change their
traditional attitudes, values, and institutions. Economic
achievement is thought to derive from attitudes and
values that emphasize hard work, saving, efficiency,
and enterprise. Modernization theory suggests that
nations remain underdeveloped when traditional cus-
toms and culture discourage individual achievement
and kin relations dominate.
As an outgrowth of functionalist theory, moderni-
zation theory derives some of its thinking from the work
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GLOBAL STRATI F ICATI O N 2 0 9
◆ Table 9.1 Theories of Global Stratification
Modernization Theory Dependency Theory World Systems Theory
Economic Development Arises from relinquishing
traditional cultural values and
embracing new technologies
and market-driven attitudes
and values
Exploits the least powerful
nations to the benefit of
wealthier nations that then
control the political and
economic systems of the
exploited countries
Has resulted in a single
economic system stemming
from the development of a
world market that links core,
semiperipheral, and peripheral
nations
Poverty Results from adherence to
traditional values and customs
that prevent societies from
competing in a modern global
economy
Results from the dependence
of low-income countries on
wealthy nations
Is the result of core nations
extracting labor and natural
resources from peripheral
nations
Social Change Involves increasing complexity,
differentiation, and efficiency
Is the result of
neocolonialism and the
expansion of international
capitalism
Leads to an international division
of labor that increasingly puts
profit in the hands of a few while
exploiting those in the poorest
and least powerful nations
of Max Weber. In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit
of Capitalism (1958/1904), Weber saw the economic
development that occurred in Europe during the Indus-
trial Revolution as a result of the values and attitudes of
Protestantism. The Industrial Revolution took place in
England and northern Europe, Weber argued, because
the people of this area were hardworking Protestants
who valued achievement and believed that God helped
those who helped themselves.
Modernization theory can partially explain why
some countries have become successful. Japan and
China are examples of countries that have made huge
strides in economic development, in part because of
a national work ethic. Work ethic alone, however,
does not explain Japan’s success. Modernization
theory may partially explain the cultural context in
which some countries become successful and others
do not, but it is not a substitute for explanations
that also look at the economic and political context
of national development. Cultural attitudes may
impede economic development in some cases, but
you have to be careful not to assume that developed
nations have superior values compared to others.
Blaming the cultural values of a poor nation over-
looks the fact that a nation’s status in the world may
be outside their control. Whether a country develops
or remains poor is often the result of other countries
exploiting the less powerful. Modernization theory
does not sufficiently take into account the interplay
and relationships between countries that can affect a
country’s economic or social condition.
Developing countries, modernization theory says,
are better off if they let the natural forces of competition
guide world development. Free markets, according to
this perspective, will result in the best economic order.
As critics argue, markets do not develop independently
of government’s influence. Governments can spur or
hinder economic development, especially as they work
with private companies to enact export strategies, restrict
imports, or place embargoes on the products of nonfa-
vored nations.
Dependency Theory
Although market-oriented theories may explain why
some countries are successful, they do not explain why
some countries remain in poverty or why some coun-
tries have not developed. It is necessary to look at issues
outside the individual countries and to examine the
connections between them. Keep in mind that many
of the poorest nations are former colonies of European
powers. This focuses your attention on colonization and
imperialism as causes of global stratification.
Dependency theory holds that the poverty of the
low-income countries is a direct result of their political
and economic dependence on the wealthy countries.
Specifically, dependency theory argues that the poverty
of many countries is a result of exploitation by power-
ful countries. This theory is derived from the work of
Karl Marx, who foresaw that a capitalist world economy
would create an exploited class of dependent coun-
tries, just as capitalism within countries had created an
exploited class of workers.
Dependency theory begins with understanding
the historical development of this system of inequality.
As the European countries began to industrialize in
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2 10 CH APTER 9
the 1600s, they needed raw materials for their factories
and places to sell their products. To accomplish this, the
European nations colonized much of the world, includ-
ing most of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Colonialism
is a system by which Western nations became wealthy by
taking raw materials from colonized societies and reaping
profits from products finished in the homeland. Colonial-
ism worked best for the industrial countries when the col-
onies were kept undeveloped to avoid competition with
the home country. For example, India was a British col-
ony from 1757 to 1947. During that time, Britain bought
cheap cotton from India, made it into cloth in British
mills, and then sold the cloth back to India, making large
profits. Although India was able to make cotton into cloth
at a much cheaper cost than Britain, and very fine cloth at
that, Britain nonetheless did not allow India to develop its
cotton industry. As long as India was dependent on Brit-
ain, Britain became wealthy and India remained poor.
Under colonialism, dependency was created by the
direct political and military control of the poor countries
by powerful developed countries. Most colonial powers
were European countries, but other countries, particu-
larly Japan and China, had colonies as well. Colonization
came to an end soon after the Second World War, largely
because of protests by colonized people and the result-
ing movement for independence. As a result, according
to dependency theory, the powerful countries turned to
other ways to control the poor countries and keep them
dependent. The powerful countries still intervene directly
in the affairs of the dependent nations by sending troops
or, more often, by imposing economic or political restric-
tions and sanctions. But other methods, largely economic,
have been developed to control the dependent poor
countries, such as price controls, tariffs, and, especially,
the control of credit. Indeed, the level of debt that some
nations accrue is a major source of global inequality.
The rich industrialized nations, according to
dependency theory, are able to set prices for raw
materials produced by the poor countries at very low
levels so that the poor countries are unable to accu-
mulate enough profit to industrialize. As a result, the
poor, dependent countries must borrow from the rich
countries. However, debt creates only more depend-
ence. Many poor countries are so deeply indebted to
the major industrial countries that they must follow
the economic edicts of the rich countries that loaned
them the money, thus increasing their dependency.
This form of international control has sometimes been
called neocolonialism, a form of control of the poor
countries by the rich countries but without direct politi-
cal or military involvement.
Multinational corporations are companies that
draw a large share of their profits from overseas invest-
ments and that conduct business across national borders.
They play a role in keeping the dependent nations poor,
dependency theory suggests. Although their executives
and stockholders are from the industrialized countries,
multinational corporations recognize no national bound-
aries and pursue business where they can best make a
profit. Multinationals buy resources where they can get
them cheapest, manufacture their products where pro-
duction and labor costs are lowest, and sell their products
where they can make the largest profits.
Many critics fault companies for perpetuating
global inequality by taking advantage of cheap overseas
labor to make large profits for U.S. stockholders. Com-
panies are, in fact, doing what they should be doing in
a market system: trying to make a profit. Nonetheless,
dependency theory views the practices of multination-
als as responsible for maintaining poverty in the poor
parts of the world.
One criticism of dependency theory is that many
poor countries (for example, Ethiopia) were never colo-
nies. Some former colonies have also done well. Two of
the greatest postwar success stories of economic devel-
opment are Singapore and Hong Kong. Both of these
places were British colonies—Hong Kong until 1997—
and were clearly dependent on Britain, yet they have had
successful economic development precisely because of
their dependence on Britain. Other former colonies are
also improving economically, such as India.
World Systems Theory
Modernization theory examines the factors internal to
an individual country, and dependency theory looks to
the relationship between countries or groups of coun-
tries. Another approach to global stratification is called
world systems theory. Like dependency theory, this
theory begins with the premise that no nation in the
world can be considered in isolation. Each country, no
matter how remote, is tied in many ways to the other
countries in the world. However, unlike dependency
theory, world systems theory argues that there is a world
economic system that must be understood as a single
unit, not in terms of individual countries or groups of
countries. This theoretical approach derives to some
degree from the work of dependency theorists and is
most closely associated with the work of Immanuel
Wallerstein in The Modern World System (1974) and
The Modern World System II (1980). According to this
theory, the level of economic development is explained
by understanding each country’s place and role in the
world economic system.
This world system has been developing since the
sixteenth century. The countries of the world are tied
together in many ways, but of primary importance are
the economic connections in the world markets of goods,
capital, and labor. All countries sell their products and
services on the world market and buy products and ser-
vices from other countries. However, this is not a mar-
ket of equal partners. Because of historical and strategic
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GLOBAL STRATI F ICAT I O N 2 11
imbalances in this economic system, some countries are
able to use their advantage to create and maintain wealth,
whereas other countries that are at a disadvantage remain
poor. This process has led to a global system of stratifica-
tion in which the units are not people but countries.
World systems theory sees the world divided into
three groups of interrelated nations: core or first-world
countries, semiperipheral or second-world countries,
and peripheral or third-world countries. This world
economic system has resulted in a modern world in
which some countries have obtained great wealth and
other countries have remained poor. The core countries
control and limit the economic development in the
peripheral countries so as to keep the peripheral coun-
tries from developing and competing with them on the
world market; thus the core countries can continue to
purchase raw materials at a low price.
Although world systems theory was originally devel-
oped to explain the historical evolution of the world sys-
tem, modern scholars now focus on the international
division of labor and its consequences. This approach
is an attempt to overcome some of the shortcomings in
world systems theory by focusing on the specific mecha-
nism by which differential profits are attached to the
production of goods and services in the world market.
A tennis shoe made by Nike is designed in the United
States; uses synthetic rubber made from petroleum from
Saudi Arabia; is sewn in Indonesia; is transported on a
ship registered in Singapore, which is run by a Korean
management firm using Filipino sailors; and is finally
marketed in Japan and the United States. At each of
these stages, profits are taken, but at very different rates.
→THINKING Sociologically
What are the major industries in your community? In what
parts of the world do they do business, including where
their product is produced? How does the international
division of labor affect jobs in your region?
World systems theorists call this global production
process a commodity chain, the network of production
and labor processes by which a product becomes a fin-
ished commodity. By following a commodity through
its production cycle and seeing where the profits go at
each link of the chain, one can identify which country
is getting rich and which country is being exploited. As
an example, the Gap hoodie that you buy in the United
States for about $30 was likely produced from cotton
grown in Uzbekistan where workers are paid 2 cents a
pound, cut and sewn by workers in Russia who are paid
between 39 and 69 dollars a month, and then distributed
and sold in the United States (Gordon and Designs 2001).
World systems theory also helps explain the
growing phenomenon of international migration. An
international division of labor means that the need for
cheap labor in some of the industrial and developing
nations draws workers from poorer parts of the globe.
International migration is also the result of refugees
seeking asylum from war-torn parts of the world or from
countries where political oppression, often against par-
ticular ethnic groups, forces some to leave.
The development of a world economy is also result-
ing in large changes in the composition of popula-
tions around the globe. World cities, that is, cities that
are closely linked through the system of international
commerce, have emerged. Within these cities, families
and their surrounding communities often form trans-
national communities, communities that may be geo-
graphically distant but socially and politically close.
Linked through various communication and trans-
portation networks, transnational communities share
information, resources, and strategies for coping with
the problems of international migration.
International migration, sometimes legal, some-
times not, has radically changed the racial and ethnic
composition of populations not only in the United
States but also in many European and Asian nations.
Over 200 million people now live outside the country
of their birth, some of whom moved because of war and
persecution, but many of whom move as work moves
around the globe (Eitzen 2009). Many such migrants
work in the lowest segments of the labor force. The
work of these low-wage laborers is critical to the world
economy, but they are often treated with hostility and
suspicion, discriminated against, and stereotyped
as undeserving and threatening. The United States
receives the most international migrants of any nation,
but they are common in western Europe, Saudi Arabia,
Iran, and other parts of the world (Koser 2007). In many
nations, the presence of migrants can lead to political
tensions over immigration, even though international
faces in world cities are now a major feature of the
urban landscape.
It is useful to see the world as an interconnected
set of economic ties between countries, and to under-
stand that these ties often result in the exploita-
tion of poor countries. This process of globalization
means that countries that were once at the center of
this world system—England, for example—no longer
occupy such a lofty position. Peripheral countries can
also improve their standard of living with investment
by core countries, although the benefits do not accrue
equally to groups within such nations and investment
by outsiders can also put receiving nations in debt,
thus harming them in the long run. Low-wage factories
may benefit managers, but not the working class. Even
core countries can be hurt by the world system, such
as when jobs move overseas. Who benefits from this
world system is differentiated—in all countries—by
one’s placement, not just in the global class system but
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2 1 2 CH APT E R 9
also in the class system internal to each country within
this global system. World systems theory has provided
a powerful tool for understanding global inequality.
Consequences of Global
Stratification
It is clear that some nations are wealthy and powerful
and some are poor and powerless. What are the con-
sequences of this world stratification system? Basic
indicators of national well-being include such things as
infant mortality, literacy levels, access to safe water, and
the status of women. There are, as we will see, consid-
erable differences in the quality of life based on these
indicators in different places in the world.
Population
One of the biggest differences in rich and poor nations
is population. The poorest countries have the highest
birthrates and the highest death rates. The total fertility
rate—how many live births a woman will have over her
lifetime at current fertility rates—shows that women in
the poorest countries have on average almost five chil-
dren. Because of this high fertility rate, the populations
of poor countries are growing faster than the popula-
tions of wealthy countries. Poor countries therefore also
have a high proportion of young children.
In contrast, the richest countries have a total popu-
lation of approximately one billion people—only 15 per-
cent of the world’s population. The populations of the
richest countries are not growing nearly as fast as the
populations of the poorest countries. In the richest coun-
tries, women have about two children over their lifetime,
and the populations of these countries are growing by
only 1.2 percent. Many of the richest countries, includ-
ing most of the countries of Europe, are actually experi-
encing population declines. With a low fertility rate, the
rich countries have proportionately fewer children, but
they also have proportionately more elderly, which can
also be a burden on societal resources. Different from
the poorest nations, the richest ones are largely urban.
Rapid population growth as a result of high fertility
rates can make a large difference in the quality of life of the
country. Countries with high birthrates are faced with the
challenge of having too many children and not enough
adults to provide for the younger generation. Public ser-
vices, such as schools and hospitals, are strained in high-
birthrate countries, especially because these countries
are poor to begin with. Very low birthrates, as many rich
countries are now experiencing, can also lead to other
problems. In countries with low birthrates, there often
are not enough young people to meet labor force needs,
and workers must be imported from other countries.
Scholars disagree about the relationship between
the rate of population growth and economic develop-
ment. Some theorize that rapid population growth and
high birthrates lead to economic stagnation and that
too many people keep a country from developing, thus
miring the country in poverty (Ehrlich 1968). Yet, some
countries with very large populations have become
developed: China and India come to mind; both are
showing significant economic development. The United
States has the third largest population in the world at
318 million people, yet it is one of the richest and most
Fe
ng
L
i/
Ge
tty
Im
ag
es
E
nt
er
ta
in
m
en
t/
G
et
ty
Im
ag
es
Pe
te
r C
ad
e/
St
on
e/
Ge
tty
Im
ag
es
Global stratification often means that consumption in the more affluent nations is dependent on cheap labor in other less
affluent nations.
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
GLOBAL STRATI F ICAT I O N 2 1 3
developed nations in the world. Scholars now believe
that even though large population and high birthrates
can impede economic development in some situations,
in general, fertility levels are affected by levels of industri-
alization, not the other way around. That is, as countries
develop, their fertility levels decrease and their popula-
tion growth levels off (Hirschman 1994; Watkins 1987).
Health and the Environment
Significant differences are also evident in the basic
health standards of countries, depending on where they
are in the global stratification system. The high-income
countries have lower childhood death rates, higher life
expectancies, and fewer children born underweight.
People born today in wealthy countries can expect to
live about seventy-seven years, and women outlive men
by several years. Except for some isolated or poor areas
of the rich countries, almost all people have access to
clean water and acceptable sewer systems.
In the poorest countries, the situation is completely
different. Many children die within the first five years
of life, people live considerably shorter lives, and fewer people have access to clean water and adequate sani-
tation. In the low-income countries, the problems of
sanitation, clean water, childhood death rates, and life
expectancies are all closely related. In many of the poor
countries, drinking water is contaminated from poor
or nonexistent sewage treatment. This contaminated
water is then used to drink, to clean eating utensils, and
to make baby formula. For adults, waterborne illnesses
such as cholera and dysentery sometimes cause severe
sickness but seldom result in death. Children under age
5 and, especially, those under the age of 1 are highly
susceptible to the illnesses carried in contaminated
water. A common cause of childhood death in coun-
tries with low incomes is dehydration brought on by the
diarrhea contracted from drinking contaminated water.
Degradation of the environment is a problem that
affects all nations, which are linked in one vast environ-
mental system, but global stratification also means that
some nations suffer at the hands of others. Overdevel-
opment is resulting in deforestation, and high popula-
tion and the dependency on agriculture in the poorest
nations contribute to the depletion of natural resources.
In the most industrial nations where the most energy
is used, the overproduction of “greenhouse gas”—
emission of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels—
is resulting in numerous threats to our environment,
including climate change (see also Chapter 16).
Although high-income countries have only
15 percent of the world population, together they
use more than half of the world’s energy. The United
States alone uses 20 percent of the world’s energy,
although it holds only 4 percent of the world’s popula-
tion (see ▲ Figure 9.5). Safe water is also crucial; more
than 700 million people in 43 different countries are
19.6%
4.5%
2.8% 2.2%
2.1%
Global energy use
5.6%
Germany
France
Brazil
India
United States
Everyone else
Russia
China
44.6%18.7%
▲ Figure 9.5 Who Uses the World’s Energy?
Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration. 2012. www.eia.gov
There can be innovative solutions to reduce world poverty,
such as this solar panel delivering energy in southern
Mozambique.
Er
ic
N
at
ha
n
/ A
la
m
y
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2 1 4 CH A PTER 9
experiencing what the World Bank calls “water stress”—
that is, inadequate access to water. The dwindling of
water supplies will only be exacerbated by population
growth and economic development. The World Bank
has, in fact, warned that we are facing a “global water
crisis” (World Bank 2010). Clearly, global stratification
has some irreversible environmental effects that are felt
around the globe.
Education and Illiteracy
In the high-income nations of the world, education is
almost universal, and the vast majority of people have
attended school, at least at some level. Literacy and
school enrollment are now taken for granted in the
high-income nations, although people in these wealthy
nations who do not have a good education stand little
chance of success. In the middle- and lower-income
nations, the picture is quite different. Elementary school
enrollment, virtually universal in wealthy nations, is
less common in the middle-income nations and even
less common in the poorest nations.
How do people survive who are not literate or edu-
cated? In much of the world, education takes place
outside formal schooling. Just because many people in
the poorer countries never go to school does not mean
that they are ignorant or that they are uneducated. Most
of the education in the world takes place in family set-
tings, in religious congregations, or in other settings
where elders teach the next generation the skills and
knowledge they need to survive. This type of informal
education often includes basic literacy and math skills
that people in these poorer countries need for their
daily lives.
The disadvantage of this informal and traditional
education is that, although it prepares people for their
traditional lives, it often does not give them the skills
and knowledge needed to operate in the modern world.
In an increasingly technological world, this can perpet-
uate the underdeveloped status of some nations.
Gender Inequality
The position of a country in the world stratification sys-
tem also affects gender relations within different coun-
tries. Poverty is usually felt more by women than by
men. Although gender equality has not been achieved
in the industrialized countries, compared with women
in other parts of the world, women in the wealthier
countries are much better off.
The United Nations (UN) is one of the organiza-
tions that carefully monitors the status of women
globally. The UN has developed an index to assess
the progress of women in nations around the world.
Called the gender inequality index, the measure is
a composite of three key components of women’s
lives: reproductive health, empowerment, and labor
market status. Each of these three major components
is then measured by particular facts about women’s
status, such as maternal mortality, educational attain-
ment, and labor force participation (see ▲ Figure 9.6).
Given how this index is computed, nations with the
lowest gender inequality index have the greatest
equality between women and men (see ◆ Table 9.2).
Based on this index, the United Nations has con-
cluded that, around the world, reproductive health—
or lack thereof—is the greatest contributor to gender
inequality (United Nations 2010).
M
aternal m
ortality
Adolescent fertillity
Parliam
entary representation
Educational attainm
ent
(secondary level and above)
Labor force participation
Labor m
arket
Em
powerm
ent
Reproductive
health
Five indicators
Three dimensions
Gender
Inequality
Index
▲ Figure 9.6 The Gender Inequality Index
Source: United Nations Development Programme. 2010. “Components of the Gender Inequality Index.” http://hdr.undp.org. Reprinted with permission.
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GLOBAL STRAT I F ICATI O N 2 1 5
Reports indicate mixed news with regard to wom-
en’s status around the world. On the one hand, women’s
poverty has declined in some of the nations where it
has been extreme, particularly in India, China, and
some parts of Latin America. In sub-Saharan Africa,
women’s poverty has increased. Around the world,
women have achieved near equality in levels of primary
education, but large gaps remain in the secondary and
higher education of women and men. This fact has huge
implications for women’s work, especially because the
global economy increasingly demands educational
skills (Inter-parliamentary Union 2012).
Perhaps most distressing is the global extent of
violence against women. Violence takes many forms,
including violence within the family, rape, sexual har-
assment, sex trafficking and prostitution, and state-
based violence. The United Nations has concluded that
“violence against women persists in every country in
the world as a pervasive violation of human rights and
a major impediment to achieving gender equality”
(United Nations 2006: 9).
Several factors put women at risk of violence, rang-
ing from individual-level risk factors (such as a history
of abuse as a child and substance abuse) to societal-
level factors, such as gender roles that entrench male
dominance and societal norms that tolerate violence as
a means of conflict resolution (see ◆ Table 9.3). Clearly,
the inequalities that mark global stratification have par-
ticularly harmful effects for the world’s women.
War and Terrorism
The consequences of global stratification are also found
in the international conflicts that bring war and an
increased risk of terrorism. Although global inequality is
certainly not the only cause of such problems, it contrib-
utes to the instability of world peace and the threat of ter-
rorism. Global stratification generates inequities in the
distribution of power between nations. Moreover, glo-
balization has created a world-based capitalist class with
unprecedented wealth and power. This is a class that
now crosses national borders; some have defined it as
a “transnational capitalist class” (Langman and Morris
2002). Coupled with the enormous poverty that exists, the
◆ Table 9.2 Gender Inequality Index in Selected
Countries (2011)
Gender
Inequality
Index
Rank (most equal
being first out of
187 countries)
Sweden 0.049 1
Netherlands 0.052 2
Denmark 0.060 3
Switzerland 0.067 4
Korea 0.099 18
Israel 0.145 22
China 0.209 38
United States 0.299 47
Libya 0.314 51
Haiti 0.599 123
India 0.617 129
Saudi Arabia 0.646 135
United Nations Development Programme. 2010. “Components of the
Gender Inequality Index.” http://hdr.undp.org. Reprinted with permission.
◆ Table 9.3 Risk Factors for Violence against Women: A Global Analysis
The United Nations has studied the frequent use of violence against women in the world and identified the factors that put
women at risk. These factors are found at various levels.
Individual Level: Community Level:
● Frequent use of alcohol and drugs ● Women’s isolation and lack of social support
● Membership in marginalized communities ● Community attitudes that tolerate and legitimate male violence
● History of abuse as a child ● High levels of social and economic inequality, including poverty
● Witnessing marital violence in the home
Family/Relationship Level: Societal Level:
● Male control of wealth ● Gender roles that entrench male dominance and women’s subordination
● Male control of decision making ● Tolerance of violence as a means of conflict resolution
● History of marital violence ● Inadequate laws and policies to prevent and punish violence
● Significant disparities in economic, educational,
or employment status
● Limited awareness and sensitivity on the part of officials and social
service providers
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2 1 6 CH APTER 9
visibility of this class and its association with Western
values leads to resentment and conflict. Furthermore,
attempts by wealthier nations to control access to the
world’s natural resources, such as oil, generate much
political conflict. The same power and affluence that
makes the United States a leader throughout the world
makes it a target by those who resent its dominance.
In the Middle East, for example, oil production has
created prosperity for some and exposed people in these
nations to the values of Western culture. When people
from different nations, such as those in the Middle East,
study at U.S. universities and travel on business or vaca-
tions, they are exposed to Western values and patterns
of consumption. As one commentator has noted, “Even
those who have remained at home have not escaped
exposure to Western culture. In most of the countries of
the modern Middle East, Western cultural influences are
pervasive. They see Western television programs, they
watch Western movies, they listen to Western music, fre-
quently wear Western clothes, and visit Western websites.
Even Western foods are locally available. McDonald’s are
now found in many of the major cities” (Bailey 2003: 341).
The sexual liberalism of Western nations and the relative
equality of women also add to the volatile mix of nations
clashing (Norris and Inglehart 2002).
As a result, some traditional leaders, including
religious clerics, define Western culture as a source of
degeneracy. Countries such as the United States, where
consumerism is rampant, then become the target of
those who see this as a threat to their traditional way of
life (Ehrlich and Liu 2002). In this sense, global stratifica-
tion and the dominance of Western culture are insepa-
rable (Bailey 2003). Clashing religious values and the
growth of extremist views certainly are a major cause
of terrorism, but the global dominance of some nations
over others is also a factor.
Terrorism can be defined as premeditated, politi-
cally motivated violence perpetrated against noncomba-
tant targets by people or groups who use their action to try
to achieve their political ends (White 2002). Terrorism can
be executed through violence or threats of violence and
can be executed through various means—suicide bombs,
biochemical terror, cyberterror, or other means. Because
terrorists operate outside the bounds of normative behav-
ior, it is very difficult to prevent. Although rigid safeguards
can be put in place, such safeguards also threaten the
freedoms that are characteristic of open, democratic soci-
eties. The fact that terrorism is so difficult to stop contrib-
utes to the fear that it is intended to generate.
Inequality is also connected to the context in which
terrorism emerges. For example, research on al Qaeda
terrorists finds that the leaders tend to come from mid-
dle-class backgrounds, although they often recruit those
who are young, poorly educated, and economically
disadvantaged to carry out suicide missions. Families
of suicide bombers often receive large cash payments;
at the same time, they can feel they have served a sacred
cause (Stern 2003). Improving the lives of those who
feel collectively humiliated could provide some protec-
tion against terrorism.
World Poverty
One fact of global inequality is the growing presence and
persistence of poverty in many parts of the world (see
■ Map 9.3). There is poverty in the United States, but very
few people in the United States live in the extreme levels
of deprivation found in some of the poor countries of the
world, as seen in ■ Map 9.4. We have seen in Chapter 8
how the poverty line in the United States is calculated. The
definition of poverty in the United States identifies relative
poverty, that is, a measure of poverty relative to the rest of
society. Households living in poverty in the United States
are poor compared with other Americans, but this would
be an inaccurate measure in a worldwide context because
of such huge differences in the standard of living.
The World Bank and United Nations measure world
poverty in two ways: Absolute poverty is defined by the
amount of money needed in a particular country to
meet basic needs of food, shelter, and clothing. Extreme
poverty is defined as living on less than the equivalent
of $1.25 per day. Any way you measure it, it is difficult
for most Americans to imagine this standard of living.
Extreme poverty has been declining in the world, but 18
percent of the world’s population—1.2 billion people—
still live at this level of destitution (World Bank 2014 b).
However, money does not tell the whole story
because many people in poor countries do not always
deal in cash. In many countries, people survive by rais-
ing crops for personal consumption and by bartering or
trading services for food or shelter. These activities do
not show up in calculations of poverty levels that use
amounts of money as the measure. Accordingly, the
United Nations also defines what it calls the multidi-
mensional poverty index (see ▲ Figure 9.7).
The multidimensional poverty index measures
the degree of deprivation in three basic dimensions of
human life: health, education, and standard of living.
These different components are then used to create a
measure of poverty, including such indicators as nutri-
tion, child mortality, educational attainment, and the
availability of water, electricity, plumbing, cooking fuel—
and even whether one has a floor in one’s living quarters.
Measured by the multidimensional poverty index,
the United Nations concludes that poverty is higher than
when measured by income alone, as is the case with
measuring absolute and extreme poverty. The multi-
dimensional poverty index also points more directly to
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GLOBAL STRAT I F ICATI O N 2 1 7
Nutrition
Child m
ortality
Years of schooling
Children enrolled
Assets
Floor
Electricity
W
ater
Toilet
Cooking fuel
Living
standards
Education
Health
Ten indicators
Three dimensions
Multidimensional
Poverty
Index
▲ Figure 9.7 The Multidimensional Poverty Index*
Source: United Nations Development Programme. 2010. “Components of the Multidimensional Poverty Index.” http://hdr.undp.org. Reprinted with
permission.
*Based on 1995 data.
0–15
16–30
31–61
61–76
76–91
Population below
poverty line
Viewing Society in Global Perspective: World Poverty
Source: Central Intelligence Agency. 2009.
World Factbook. www.cia.org
map 9.3
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2 1 8 CH APTER 9
interventions to reduce poverty, such as making health
clinics and running water available—projects that can
significantly improve the lives of millions.
Who Are the World’s Poor?
As we have seen, about one-fifth of the world’s popula-
tion lives in poverty, forming what the United Nations
calls a global underclass. Although world poverty has
been decreasing, it still afflicts a huge proportion of
the world’s people. In a world with a population over
seven billion, about one billion live in extreme pov-
erty. The decline in world poverty is largely accounted
for by the economic growth in East Asia, which histori-
cally has been one of the poorest areas of the world.
Now East Asia leads the world in poverty reduction.
China alone has seen a decline of 400 million people
moving out of poverty since the 1980s. As you can see
in ▲ Figure 9.8, two-thirds of the world’s poor live in
one of five countries.
The causes of poverty differ around the globe. In
Asia, the pressures of large population growth leave many
without sustainable employment. As manufacturing
has become less labor intensive with more mechanized
NOTE: Two-thirds of the world’s poor live in one
of five countries.
China
India
The Democratic
Republic of Congo
Rest of the world
Bangladesh
Nigeria
36%
33%
13%
7%
6%
5%
▲ Figure 9.8 Where Do the World’s Poor Live? As
you are learning, poverty is unevenly distributed throughout
the world. Why do you think so many of the world’s poor live
in these five countries?
Source: World Bank. 2014 b. Prosperity for All/Ending Extreme Poverty.
New York: World Bank. www.worldbank.org
Viewing Society in Global Perspective: The World As Seen through
the Distribution of Wealth
This map shows what the world
would look like were geographical
boundaries formed by the wealth
held by different nations. What
perspective does this give you on
global stratification?
Source: © Copyright 2006 SASI Group
(University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman
(University of Michigan), www.worldmapper
.org/posters/worldmapper_map169_ver5
map 9.4
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GLOBAL STRATI F ICATI O N 2 1 9
production, the need for labor in certain industries has
declined. Even though new technologies provide new
job opportunities, they also create new forms of illit-
eracy because many people have neither the access nor
the skills to use information technology. In sub-Saharan
Africa, the poor live in marginal areas where poor soil,
erosion, and continuous warfare have created extremely
harsh conditions. Political instability and low levels of
economic productivity also contribute to the high rates
of poverty in some nations. Solutions to world poverty
in these different regions require sustainable economic
development, as well as an understanding of the diverse
regional factors that contribute to high levels of poverty.
Women and Children in Poverty
There is no country in the world in which women are
treated as well as men. As with poverty in the United
States, women bear a larger share of the burden of world
poverty. Some have called this double deprivation—in
many of the poor countries, women suffer because of their
gender and because they disproportionately carry the
burden of poverty. For instance, in situations of extreme
poverty, women have the burden of taking on much of
the manual labor because the men in many cases have
left to find work or food. The United Nations concludes
that strengthening women’s economic security through
better work is essential for reducing world poverty.
Because of their poverty, women tend to suffer
greater health risks than men. Although women outlive
men in most countries, the life expectancy gap between
women and men is less in the poorest countries. This
is explained by several factors that put women at
special risks. For one, fertility rates are higher in poor
countries. Giving birth is a time of high risk for women,
and women in poor countries with poor nutrition, poor
maternal care, and the lack of trained birth attendants
are at higher risk of dying during and after the birth.
The U.S. State Department estimates that 12.3 million people
worldwide are enslaved in human trafficking. This includes
sexual servitude, forced labor, forced child labor, and other
forms of coercive treatment. Human trafficking is a modern
form of slavery in which people are used for commercial
gain through the use of force, coercion, or fraud (U.S. State
Department 2012).
There are many ways to think about human trafficking—
including as a moral wrong, as a criminal act by corrupt
individuals, and as a human rights issue. As a sociological issue,
human trafficking is a complex social structure that is inte-
grally connected to international trade, the social structure of
tourism, and the racial, class, and gender inequality that
crosses national borders.
Sexual trafficking is a particular form of human trafficking in
which women and, often, young girls are bought and sold in an
international system of prostitution. Sociologists argue that the
male-dominated character of state institutions plays a part in
the tolerance of sexual trafficking. Sexual trafficking and sexual
tourism are part of a culture in which women’s bodies are
treated as a commodity. Racial and ethnic inequality also play
a part as women of color are sexually exploited based on the
racial/gender stereotypes that define them as exotic but also
available for the pleasure of men.
An antitrafficking movement has developed that involves
a coalition of feminists, various voluntary organizations,
the United Nations, some politicians, and others who have
organized to stop this practice (Limoncelli 2010).
Human Trafficking
what would a sociologist say?
Sex trafficking, particularly of young girls, is a common part
of the system of global stratification.
Au
ro
ra
P
ho
to
s
/ A
la
m
y
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2 2 0 CH A PT ER 9
High fertility rates are also related to the degree of
women’s empowerment in society—an often neglected
aspect of the discussion between fertility and poverty.
Societies where women’s voices do not count for much
tend to have high fertility rates as well as other social
and economic hardships for women, including lack of
education, job opportunities, and information about
birth control. Empowering women through providing
them with employment, education, property, and vot-
ing rights can have a strong impact on reducing the fer-
tility rate (Sen 2000).
Women also suffer in some poor countries because
of traditions and cultural norms. Most (though not all)
of the poor countries are patriarchal, meaning that men
control the household. As a result, in some situations
of poverty, the women eat after the men, and boys are
fed before girls. In conditions of extreme poverty, baby
boys may also be fed before baby girls because boys
have higher status than girls. As a result, female infants
have a lower rate of survival than male infants.
A distressing number of children in the world
are also poor, including in the most industrialized
and affluent nations. As you can see in ▲ Figure 9.9,
Mexico
United States
New Zealand
Ireland
Portugal
United Kingdom
Canada
Australia
Japan
Spain
Poland
Greece
Austria
Germany
Netherlands
Luxembourg
Hungary
Belgium
France
Czech Republic
Switzerland
Sweden
Finland
Norway
Denmark
Italy
Percent living below national poverty line
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
▲ Figure 9.9 Child Poverty in the Wealthier Nations
Source: UNICEF. 2000. Child Poverty in Rich Countries 2005. Florence, Italy: United Nations Children’s Fund. www.unicef.org.
When children are poor, they may turn to child labor to
help support their families. Such is the case with this child
collecting trash for potential sale or use in a municipal
dump in Phnom Penh.
Da
n
Vi
nc
en
t/
Al
am
y
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GLOBAL STRATI F ICATI O N 2 2 1
poverty among children in the United States exceeds
that of other industrialized nations and is second only
to Mexico. Children in poverty seldom have the lux-
ury of an education. Schools are usually few or non-
existent in poor areas of the world, and families are
so poor that they cannot afford to send their children
to school. Children from a very early age are required
to help the family survive by working or performing
domestic tasks such as fetching water. In extreme situ-
ations, even very young children may work as beggars
(Boo 2012). Young boys and girls may end up working
in sweatshops. Families may have to sell young girls
into prostitution. This may seem unusually cruel and
harsh by Western standards, but it is difficult to imag-
ine the horror of starvation and the desperation that
many families in the world must feel that would force
them to take such measures to survive. In poor coun-
tries, families feel they must have more children for
their survival, yet having more children perpetuates
the poverty.
Estimates are that 168 million children under
age 17 are in the labor force throughout the world. Most
of the children are in Asia, though some are also in
sub-Saharan Africa (International Labour Organization
2014). Many of these children work long hours in dif-
ficult conditions and enjoy few freedoms, making prod-
ucts (soccer balls, clothing, and toys, for example) for
those who are much better off.
Another problem in the very poor areas of the
world is homeless children (Mickelson 2000). In many
situations, families are so poor that they can no longer
care for their children, and the children must go with-
out education or be out on their own, even at young
ages. Many of these homeless children end up in the
streets of the major cities of Asia and Latin America.
In Latin America, it is estimated that there are thirteen
million street children, some as young as six years old.
Alone, they survive through a combination of begging,
prostitution, drugs, and stealing. They sleep in alleys
or in makeshift shelters. Their lives are harsh, brutal,
and short.
DEBUNKING Society’s Myths←
Myth: There are too many people in the world, and there
is simply not enough food to go around.
Sociological Perspective: Growing more food will not
end hunger. If systems of distributing the world’s food
were more just, hunger could be reduced.
Poverty and Hunger
Poverty is also directly linked to malnutrition and hun-
ger because people in poverty cannot find or afford
food. It is estimated that about 805 million people
(12 percent of the world population) are malnourished.
Experts attribute the increase to a number of factors,
including poverty, lack of agricultural development,
displacement and war, instability of economic markets,
climate and weather, and wasting food (United Nations
World Food Programme 2014).
Hunger stifles the mental and physical devel-
opment of children and leads to disease and death.
Although the food supply is plentiful in the world and is
actually increasing faster than the population, the rate
of malnutrition remains dangerously high.
Is there not enough food to feed all the people in
the world? In fact, plenty of food is grown in the world.
The world’s production of wheat, rice, corn, and other
grains is sufficient to adequately feed all the people in
the world. Much grain grown in the United States is
stored and not used. The problem is that the surplus
food does not get to the truly needy. The people who
are starving lack what they need for obtaining adequate
food, such as arable land or a job that would pay a living
wage. In the past, people in most cases grew food crops
and were able to feed themselves, but much of the best
land today has been taken over by agribusinesses that
grow cash crops, such as tobacco or cotton, and sub-
sistence farmers have been forced onto marginal lands
on the flanks of the desert where conditions are difficult
and crops often do not grow.
Clearly, poverty is a cause of malnutrition, but
there are other causes as well. Violence and war within
a nation can displace people, leading to large numbers
of refugees crowding places where food may not be
available to all. Disasters can leave people without food
and water—a situation complicated when a nation
is already poor. Even climate change can threaten to
create hunger, especially if farming practices can-
not adjust to drought, floods, and extreme changes in
weather patterns.
Causes of World Poverty
What causes world poverty, and why are so many
people so desperately poor and starving? More to the
point, why is poverty decreasing in some areas but
increasing in others? We do know what does not cause
poverty. Poverty is not necessarily caused by rapid
population growth, although high fertility rates and
poverty are related. In fact, many of the world’s most
populous countries—India and China, for instance—
have large segments of their population that are poor,
but even with very large populations, these countries
have begun to reduce poverty levels. Poverty is also not
caused by people being lazy or disinterested in work-
ing. People in extreme poverty work tremendously hard
just to survive, and they would work hard at a job if they
had one. It is not that they are lazy; it is that there are
no jobs for them.
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2 2 2 CH APT ER 9
Poverty is a result of a mix of causes. For one, the
areas where poverty is increasing have a history of
unstable governments or, in some cases, virtually no
effective government to coordinate national develop-
ment or plans that might alleviate extreme poverty and
starvation. World relief agencies are reluctant to work
in or send food to countries where the national govern-
ments cannot guarantee the safety of relief workers or
the delivery of food and aid to where it should go. Food
convoys may be hijacked or roads blocked by bandits
or warlords.
In many countries with high proportions of poverty,
the economies have collapsed and the governments
have borrowed heavily to remain afloat. As a condi-
tion of these international loans, lenders, including the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, have
demanded harsh economic restructuring to increase
capital markets and industrial efficiency. These eco-
nomic reforms may make good sense for some and can
improve the standard of living in these countries, but
imposed reforms have also harmed people, especially
the poor, when reforms also call for drastically reduced
government spending on human services.
Poverty is also caused by changes in the world
economic system. Although poverty has been a long-
term problem and has many causes, increases in
poverty and starvation in Africa can be attributed in
part to the changes in world markets that have favored
Asia economically but put sub-Saharan Africa at a
disadvantage. As the price of products declined with
more industrialization in places such as India, China,
Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand, com-
modity-producing nations in Africa and Latin America
suffered. In Latin America, the poor have flooded to
the cities, hoping to find work, whereas they did the
opposite in Africa, fleeing to the countryside hoping
to be able to grow subsistence crops. Governments
often had to borrow to provide help to their citizens.
Some governments collapsed or find themselves in
such great debt that they are unable to help their own
people. This has created massive amounts of poverty
and starvation.
An often unrecognized cause of poverty is war.
War disrupts the infrastructure of a society—its
roads, utility systems, water, sanitation, even schools.
For countries already struggling economically, this
can be devastating. Food production may be dis-
rupted and commerce can be threatened as it may
be difficult, even impossible, to move goods in and
out of a country. The loss of life and major injury can
mean that there are fewer productive citizens who
can work, thus threatening family and community
“In 2003, surgeons were forced to amputate both
of Ali Ismaeel Abbas’s arms after an errant U.S. bomb
slammed into his Baghdad home during the opening phase
of the Iraq war. Pictures of the twelve-year-old, who lost
his parents in the attack, soon appeared on TV screens and
in newspapers around the world. Since then, Abbas, who
was treated in Kuwait, has come to represent a grim real-
ity: All too often the victims of war are innocent children”
(McClelland 2003: 20).
UNICEF estimates that over two million children have died
in war, with even more injured, disabled, orphaned, or forced
into refugee camps (Machel 1996). One estimate is that of
all the victims of war, 90 percent are civilian—half of those,
children (McClelland 2003).
Because children are seen as innocent, the trauma of war
for children seems especially tragic to people. When children
witness the violence of war or are forced to leave their homes,
they experience a range of difficulties: loss, depression, injury,
and other troubling results. In the aftermath of war, children
are also highly vulnerable to outbreaks of disease (Cook and
Wall 2011).
War, Childhood, and Poverty The United Nations has passed resolutions prohibiting the
use of children under age 18 in combat. It has linked the threats
to children from violence with high rates of poverty around
the world. Although reducing poverty would not eliminate the
threat of war, it would go a long way toward improving chil-
dren’s lives in war-torn regions.
understanding diversity
War, though it may seem remote to some, affects millions in
both the United States and in war-torn countries. Many of
those most affected are children.
M
OH
AM
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ED
A
BE
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Ge
tty
Im
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
GLOBAL STRAT I F ICATI O N 2 23
well-being (Pathways to Peace 2009). Moreover, the
billions of dollars spent each year on military strug-
gle rob societies of the resources that could be used
to address humanitarian needs. Add to this the fact
that wars are more likely to occur in nations that are
already poor, and you see the impact that war has on
world poverty.
In sum, poverty has many causes. It is a major
global problem that affects the billions who are liv-
ing in poverty, but also affects all people in one way or
another. In some areas, poverty rates are declining as
some countries begin to improve their economic situ-
ation. In other areas of the world, however, poverty is
increasing, and countries are sinking into financial,
political, and social chaos.
Globalization and Social
Change
Globalization is, in some ways, not a new thing.
Nations have long been engaged through a global sys-
tem of trade, travel, and tourism. What is new about
globalization is the extent to which it permeates daily
life for people all over the world and the pace with
which globalization is developing. New technologies
now allow for extraordinarily fast transactions across
tremendous distances, both linking people together
in new ways and transferring goods, cultural sym-
bols, and communication systems in ways that were
unimaginable not that long ago (Eitzen and Baca
Zinn 2012).
Globalization is thus ushering in social changes—
some good, some not—that will continue to evolve in
the years ahead. As we have seen, globalization has
meant that many countries in the world are becoming
better off, but many countries remain persistently poor,
some very poor. Is the world getting better or worse?
What will happen in the future?
There is some good news. In some areas of the
world, particularly East Asia, but also in Latin America,
many countries have shown rapid growth and are
emerging as stronger nations. Examples include South
Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, and Singapore. In
these countries, the governments have invested in
social and economic development, sometimes with
help from other nations and corporations. Because
some of these countries have large populations, their
success demonstrates that economic development
can occur in heavily populated countries. China,
for example, has embarked on an aggressive policy
of industrial growth, and India is also improving
economically.
Yet, for all the success stories that globalization
has generated, many nations are suffering, including
nations on all continents. In many cases, governments
have collapsed or are corrupt, the economy is bankrupt,
the standard of living is poor, and people are starving. In
many areas of the world, ethnic hatred has led to mass
genocide and forced millions from their homes, creat-
ing huge numbers of refugees.
Globalization has also brought the expansion of
the system of capitalism, including to nations once
hostile to capitalist economics, such as China. This has
opened new markets, increased global trade, but also
expanded the reach of multinational corporations.
The development of such world financial markets may
bring prosperity and wealth to many nations and indi-
viduals, and it can allow some formerly poor countries
to share in the world’s wealth. Economic prosperity
does not usually filter down to the people at the lower
levels of society, and it can force nations into huge
amounts of debt, thus allowing poverty and hunger to
continue—or even worsen. Although market econo-
mies create opportunities for some to become wealthy,
many nations and individuals do not benefit from this
global transformation.
Globalization is a strong force that will continue
to shape the future of most nations. Some see glo-
balization simply as the expansion of Western mar-
kets and culture into all parts of the world. Western
civilization brings positive new values (including
democracy and more equality for women), but it
can also bring values that may not be seen as posi-
tive changes—such as increased consumerism or a
change in the nation’s sexual mores. Globalization
certainly brings new products to remote parts of the
world (movies, clothing styles, and other commercial
goods), but some see this as a form of imperialism—
that is, the domination of Western nations. Resistance
to Western globalization and imperialism produces
Population overcrowding strains various natural resources.
xP
AC
IF
IC
A/
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tty
Im
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es
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
2 24 CH APT ER 9
some of the international problems now dominating
U.S. and world history, as evidenced in the hostility
felt by militant fundamentalist Islamic groups toward
the United States.
Globalization has created great progress in the
world—including trade, migration, the spread of diverse
cultures, the dissemination and sharing of new knowl-
edge, greater freedom for women, travel, and so forth.
Globalization has not simply extended the values and
knowledge of Western culture. Many of the things we
now take for granted in our culture originated in non-
Western cultures. For example, the decimal system—
fundamental to modern math and science—originated
in India between the second and sixth centuries and
was soon further developed by Arab mathematicians.
Western societies certainly get credit for the develop-
ment of science and technology, but the credit is not
theirs alone (Sen 2002).
What is global stratification?
Global stratification is a system of unequal distribu-
tion of resources and opportunities between coun-
tries. A particular country’s position is determined by
its relationship to other countries in the world. The
countries in the global stratification system can be cat-
egorized according to their per capita gross national
income or wealth. The global stratification system can
also be described according to the economic power
countries have.
How do systems of power affect different
countries in the world?
The countries of the world can be divided into three
levels based on their power in the world economic sys-
tem. The core countries are the countries that control
and profit the most from the world system. Semiperiph-
eral countries are semi-industrialized and play a mid-
dleman role, extracting profits from the poor countries
and passing those profits on to the core countries. At
the bottom of the world stratification system are the
peripheral countries, which are poor and largely agri-
cultural, but with important resources that the core
countries exploit. Most of these nations are populated
by people of color, perpetuating racism as part of the
world system.
What are the theories of global stratification?
Modernization theory interprets the economic devel-
opment of a country as the result of cultural attitudes
and values that promote economic development.
Dependency theory draws on the fact that many of
the poorest nations are former colonies of Euro-
pean colonial powers that keep colonies poor and
do not allow their industries to develop, thus creat-
ing dependency. World systems theory argues that
no nation can be seen in isolation and that there is a
world economic system that must be understood as
a single unit.
What are some of the consequences of global
stratification?
The poorest countries have more than half the world’s
population and have high birthrates, high mortality
rates, poor health and sanitation, low rates of literacy
and school attendance, and are largely rural. The rich-
est countries have low birthrates, low mortality rates,
largely urban populations, better health and sanita-
tion, high literacy rates, and high school attendance.
Although women in the wealthy countries are not com-
pletely equal to men, they suffer less inequality than do
women in poor countries.
How do we measure and understand world
poverty?
Relative poverty means being poor in comparison to
others. Absolute poverty is the amount of money needed
in a particular country to meet basic needs of food, shel-
ter, and clothing. Extreme poverty is defined as the situ-
ation in which people live on less than $1.25 a day. The
United Nations has developed a multidimensional pov-
erty index—a measure that accounts for health, educa-
tion, and standard of living. Poverty particularly affects
women and children. Children in the very poor coun-
tries are forced to work at very early ages and do not
have the opportunity for schooling. Street children are a
growing problem in many cities of the world. Starvation
is also a consequence of the global stratification system.
What is the future of global stratification?
The future of global stratification is varied and depends
on the country’s position within the world economic
system. Some countries, particularly those in East
Asia—commonly referred to as newly industrializing
countries—have shown rapid growth and emerged as
developed countries. Many nations, though, are not
making it. Governments collapse, countries suffer eco-
nomic bankruptcy, the standard of living plummets,
and people starve.
Chapter Summary
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GLOBAL STRATI F ICAT I O N 2 25
absolute poverty 216
colonialism 210
commodity chain 211
core countries 206
dependency theory 209
extreme poverty 216
gender inequality
index 214
Gini coefficient 205
global stratification 202
gross national income
(GNI) 203
international division
of labor 208
modernization
theory 208
multidimensional poverty
index 216
multinational
corporations 210
neocolonialism 210
peripheral countries 207
relative poverty 216
semiperipheral
countries 207
terrorism 216
world cities 211
world systems theory 210
Key Terms
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- Ch 9: Global Stratification
Global Stratification
Theories of Global Stratification
Consequences of Global Stratification
World Poverty
Globalization and Social Change
Chapter Summary
1
Gi
de
on
M
en
de
l/H
i
s
to
ric
al
/C
or
bi
s
9
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201
!”It takes a village to raise a child,” the saying goes, but it also seems to take a world to make a shirt—or so it seems from looking at the global dimensions of the production
and distribution of goods. Try this simple experiment: Look at
the labels on your clothing. (If you do this in class, try to do so
without embarrassing yourself and others!) What do you see?
“Made in Indonesia,” “Made in Vietnam,” “Made in Malawi”—all
indicating the linkage of the United States to clothing manu-
facturers around the world. The popular brand Nike, as just one
example, contracts with factories all over the world. Most of
Nike’s products are made in hundreds of factories throughout
Asia.
Taking your experiment further, ask yourself: Who made
your clothing? A young person trying to lift his or her family
out of poverty? Might it have been a child? The International
Labour Organization (ILO) distinguishes child labor (those
under age 17) from employed children (such as a teenager
holding a part-time job or babysitting). Child labor specifically
refers to “work that deprives children of their childhood, their
potential, and their dignity and that is also harmful to mental
and physical development” (International Labour Organiza-
tion 2014). The ILO estimates that about 168 million children
around the world are trapped in child labor, almost half of
whom are involved in dangerous work and many of whom
are separated from their families and possibly held in slavery
(International Labour Organization 2014). This does not mean
that a child necessarily made your clothing. In fact, most child
labor occurs in agricultural work, although a significant com-
ponent (25 percent) is in service and manufacturing work.
Data on child labor indicate that our global systems of work
are deeply connected to inequality. Especially in the poorest
countries, trying to survive forces people into forms of work—
or lack of work—that produce some of the world’s greatest
injustices—both for children and for adult women and men. As
we will see in this chapter, nations are interlocked in a system
of global inequality, in which the status of the people in one
country is intricately linked to the status of the people in others.
Recall from Chapter 1 that C. Wright Mills identified the
task of sociology as seeing the social forces that exist beyond
individuals. This is particularly important when studying global
inequality. A person in the United States (or western Europe
Global Stratification
● Define global stratification
and describe its
components
● Compare and contrast
different explanations
of global stratification
● Describe the various
consequences of global
stratification
● Explain the causes and
consequences of global
povert
y
● Summarize the impact
of globalization for social
change
in this chapter, you will learn to:
Global Stratification 202
Theories of Global
Stratification 208
Consequences of Global
Stratification 212
World Poverty 216
Globalization and Social
Change 223
Chapter Summary 224
“
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2 02 CH APTER 9
or Japan) who thinks he or she is expressing individualism by wearing the latest style is actually part of
a global system of inequality. The adornments available to that person result from a whole network of
forces that produce affluence in some nations and poverty in others.
The United States and other wealthy nations are dominant in the system of global stratification.
Those at the top of the global stratification system have enormous power over the fate of other nations.
Although world conflict stems from many sources, including religious differences, cultural conflicts, and
struggles over political philosophy, the inequality between rich and poor nations causes much hatred
and resentment. One cannot help but wonder what would happen if the differences between the wealth
of some nations and the poverty of others were smaller. In this chapter, we examine the dynamics and
effects of global stratification.
Global Stratification
In the world today, there are not only rich and poor peo-
ple but also rich and poor countries. Some countries are
well off, some countries are doing so-so, and a growing
number of countries are poor and getting poorer. There
is, in other words, a system of global stratification in
which the units are countries, much like a system of
stratification within countries in which the units are
individuals or families.
Just as we can talk about the upper-class or lower-
class individuals within a country, we can also talk of the
equivalent upper-class or lower-class countries in this
world system. One manifestation of global stratification
is the great inequality in life chances that differentiates
nations around the world. Simple measures of well-
being (such as life expectancy, infant mortality, access
to education and health, and measures of environmen-
tal quality) reveal the consequences of global inequality.
The gap between rich and poor people is also sometimes
greatest in nations where poverty rates are highest. No
longer can nations be understood without considering
the global system of stratification of which they are a part.
The effects of the global economy on inequal-
ity have become increasingly evident, as witnessed
by public concerns about jobs being sent overseas.
Unions, environmentalists, and other groups have coa-
lesced to protest global trade policies that they think
threaten U.S. jobs, erode workers’ rights, and contrib-
ute to environmental degradation. The global economy
has also further spread McDonaldization, bringing this
form of production and consumption throughout the
world (see Chapter 6). Popular stores such as Gap and
Niketown often have been targets of political protests
because they symbolize the expansion of global capital-
ism. Protestors see the growth of such stores as eroding
local cultural values and spreading the values of unfet-
tered consumerism around the globe. A student-based
movement has also emerged to protest the sweatshop
labor that is often used by companies that manufacture
college logo apparel.
The relative affluence of the United States means
that U.S. consumers have access to goods produced
around the world. A simple thing, such as a child’s toy,
can represent this global system. For many young girls
in the United States, Barbie is the ideal of fashion and
romance. Young girls may have not just one Barbie, but
several, each with a specific role and costume. Cheaply
bought in the United States, but produced overseas,
Barbie is manufactured by those probably not much
older than the young girls who play with her and who
would need all of their monthly pay to buy just one
of the dolls that many U.S. girls collect by the dozens
(Press 1996: 12).
The manufacturing of toys and clothing is an
example of the global stratification that links the
United States and other parts of the world. Global
outsourcing locates jobs overseas even while support-
ing U.S.-based businesses. Many of the jobs that have
been outsourced in this way are semiskilled jobs, such
as data entry, medical transcription, and so forth.
Increasingly, outsourced jobs are also found in high-
tech industries, software design, market research,
and product research activities. Although it is difficult
to measure the extent of global outsourcing, it has
become a common phenomenon—something you
experience when, for example, you engage in a tel-
ephone or Internet transaction, such as getting help
for your computer or arranging a trip. India, China,
and Russia have been major players in the economy of
global outsourcing, but other nations, such as Ireland,
South Africa, Poland, and Hungary, among others, are
increasingly playing an important role. The conse-
quences can be very positive for the economies of the
host nations. The practice of outsourcing also lowers
personnel costs for U.S.-based companies, given the
lower wages in nations where jobs flow. Outsourc-
ing can be at the expense of jobs for workers in the
United States, however (Rajan and Srivastava 2007).
The practice of global outsourcing increasingly links
the economies and social systems of nations around
the world.
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GLOBAL STRATI F ICAT I O N 2 03
Rich and Poor
One dimension of stratification between countries is
wealth. Enormous differences exist between the wealth
of the countries at the top of the global stratification sys-
tem and the wealth of the countries at the bottom. As
you can see in ▲ Figures 9.1 and 9.2, a very small pro-
portion of the world’s population receives a vast share
of all income—a visual reminder of the inequality that
characterizes our world.
You will recall that we looked at the “champagne
glass” of inequality within the United States in Chapter 8.
A similar image can show you the inequality of
income
worldwide (see Figure 9.2). As you can see, a small
Distribution of income
World population
arranged by income
Richest
Poorest
The poorest fifth receiv
es
1.0% of total world income
Each horizontal band
represents an equal fifth
of the world’s people
The richest fifth receives
82.8% of total world
income
9.9% of income
4.2% of income
2.1% of income
1.0% of income
▲ Figure 9.1 World Income
Distribution
Data from: Ortiz, Isabel, and Matthew
Cummins. 2011. “Global Inequality: Beyond
the Bottom Billion.” Social and Economic
Policy Working Paper. UNICEF, April.
www.worldbank.org
percentage of the world’s population
has a very disproportionate share of
world income.
There are different ways to meas-
ure the wealth of nations, but the
most common is to use the per capita
gross national income (GNI). The
GNI measures the total output of
goods and services produced by resi-
dents of a country each year plus the
income from nonresident sources,
divided by the size of the popula-
tion. The GNI does not truly reflect
what individuals or families receive
in wages or pay; it is simply each
person’s annual share of their coun-
try’s income if income were shared
equally. You can use this measure to
get a picture of global stratification
(see ■ Map 9.1).
Per capita GNI is reliable only in countries that are
based on a cash economy. It does not measure infor-
mal exchanges or bartering in which resources are
exchanged without money changing hands. These non-
cash transactions are not included in the GNI calcula-
tion, but they are common in developing countries. As
a result, measures of wealth based on the GNI, or other
statistics that count cash transactions, are less reliable
among the poorer countries and may underestimate
the wealth of the countries at the lower end of the
economic scale.
The per capita GNI of the United States, one
of the wealthier nations in the world (though not
the wealthiest on a per capita basis), was $53,860
Some nations have so much wealth that they actually serve gold as food, such
as these real gold leaves on a dessert in Dubai!
Al
ic
e
Ha
rtl
ey
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2 0 4 CHA PTE R 9
in 2013. The per capita GNI in Burundi, one of the
poorest countries in the world, was $280. Even com-
pared to other well-to-do, industrialized nations, the
United States’ per capita GNI shows us to be one of
the most affluent nations in the world; GNI per capita
is $46,140 in Japan, $46,100 in Germany, $39,140 in
the United Kingdom, and only $6520 in China (World
Bank 2014b).
Which are the wealthiest nations? ▲ Figure 9.3
shows the ten richest and the ten poorest countries in
the world (measured by the annual per capita GNI).
Monaco is the richest nation in the world on a per
capita basis. Of course, Monaco has a tiny population
compared with the United States. The poorest coun-
try in the world is Malawi, closely tied with Burundi,
but note how many of the poorest nations are in
sub-Saharan Africa, one of the poorest regions of the
world. We will return to this fact in the discussion of
world poverty later in this chapter.
The poorest nations are largely rural, have high fer-
tility rates, large populations, and still depend heavily
on subsistence agriculture. In very poor countries, the
life of an average citizen is meager. Often poor nations
are rich with natural resources but are exploited for
such resources by more powerful nations. Still, they
rank at the bottom of the global stratification system.
GNI per capita,
Atlas method (current US$)
no data
$12,476 or more
$1,025 or less
$1,026–$4,035
$4,036–$12,475
Viewing Society in Global Perspective: Rich and Poor
Most nations are linked in a world
system that produces wealth for
some and poverty for others.
The GNI (gross national income),
depicted here on a per capita basis
for most nations in the world, is an
indicator of the wealth and poverty
of nations.
Source: The World Bank. 2011. Reprinted by
permission. www.worldbank.org
map 9.1
32.6%
18.3%5.7%
4.5%
5.9%
4.1%
19.4%1.2%
1.1%
2.6%
1.4%
1.0%
1.3%
1.7%
2.2%
United States
Japan
Germany
Italy
United Kingdom
France
Spain
Canada
All others
Brazil
Taiwan
Australia
Netherlands
China
Mexico
▲ Figure 9.2 Who Owns the World’s Wealth?
Data from: Davies, James B., Susanna Sandstrom, Anthony Shorrocks,
and Edward N. Wolff. 2008. “The World Distribution of Household
Wealth.” UNU-WIDER, World Institute for Development Economics
Research. Helsinki, Finland.
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
GLOBAL STRATI F ICAT I O N 2 05
Because the poorest nations suffer from extreme
poverty, there is terrible human suffering in these
places. This also produces instability and the potential
for violence, as well as risks to human health. We wit-
nessed this in the Ebola virus outbreak that devastated
some of the countries of western Africa. The nations
most affected are among some of the poorest in the
world—the Central African Republic with a GNI of only
$320; Burundi, $280; and Malawi, $270. Each of these
nations suffers from very high poverty rates, short life
expectancy, and poor water facilities. We will look more
closely at the nature and causes of such world poverty
later in this chapter.
The wealthiest countries, you will see, are largely
industrialized nations or those that are oil-rich. These
countries represent the equivalent of the upper class.
Simply being one of the wealthiest nations in the world
does not mean that all of the nation’s population is well
off. Some, especially the Scandinavian countries, have
low degrees of inequality within. Others, including
the United States, have great inequality within, as we
have seen in the previous chapter on class inequality.
Moreover, inequality between nations has to be seen in
relative terms. For example, a very wealthy person in
India may have the income of someone in the bottom
5 percent of income earners in the United States, but
within India, this can afford the person an expensive
mansion and a highly lavish lifestyle relative to other
Indian people (Milanovic 2010).
Inequality within nations is measured by some-
thing called the Gini coefficient. The Gini coefficient
is a measure of income distribution within a given
population or nation. The figure ranges from zero to
one, with zero representing a population where there is
perfect equality and one indicating a population where
just one person has all the money—in other words, the
greatest inequality. South Africa has the highest Gini
coefficient in the world; the Scandinavian countries,
among the lowest. But the United States ranks very
high in the degree of internal inequality among other
industrialized nations, as you can see from ▲ Figure 9.4.
■ Map 9.2 also gives you a visual image, based on the
Gini coefficient, of inequality within nations through-
out the world.
Monaco
Lichtenstein
Norway
Switzerland
Qatar
Australia
Sweden
Luxembourg
Singapore
United States
$50,000$0 $100,000
The richest nations
$150,000 $200,000
$100$0 $200 $400$300 $500 $600
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Guinea
Madagascar
Niger
Liberia
Congo, Dem.Republic of
Central African Republic
Burundi
Malawi
The poorest nations
▲ Figure 9.3 The Rich and the Poor:
A World View*
Data from: The World Bank. 2014b.
*Measured by GNI per capita, in U.S. dollars, for 2011.
www.worldbank.org
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
2 0 6 CHAPTER 9
Global Networks of Power
and Influence
Global stratification involves nations in a large and
integrated network of economic and political relation-
ships. Power—that is, the ability of a country to exercise
control over other countries or groups of countries—is a
significant dimension of global stratification. Countries
can exercise several kinds of power over other coun-
tries, including military, economic, and political power.
The core countries have the most power in the world
economic system. These countries control and profit
Gini Coeffici
ent
.30–.34
.35–.39
.40–.44
<.25
.45–.49
.50–.54
.55–.59
>.60
No Data
.25–.29
Viewing Society in Global Perspective: The Gini Coefficient
Source: Central Intelligence Agency. 2009.
World Factbook. www.cia.org
map 9.2
NOTE: The larger the Gini coefficient, the greater inequality in family incomes.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
South Africa
Brazil
Costa Rica
Mexico
China
United States
Japan
Ireland
United Kingdom
France
Australia
Germany
Norway
Denmark
Sweden
Canada
▲ Figure 9.4 Gini Coefficient in
Selected Countries How does the
United States compare to western
European nations? Why do you think
this has happened?
Data from: Central Intelligence Agency. 2014.
The World Fact Book. www.cia.gov
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
GLOBAL STRATI F ICATI O N 2 07
Research Question: International migra-
tion is becoming an increasingly common
phenomenon. Women are one of the
largest groups to experience migration,
often leaving poor nations to become
domestic workers in wealthier nations.
What are these women’s experiences in
the context of global stratification? This
is what Rhacel Salazar Parreñas wanted
to know.
Research Method: Parreñas studied
two communities of Filipina women,
one in Los Angeles and one in Rome,
Italy, conducting her research through
extensive interviewing with Filipina
domestic workers in these two locations.
She supplemented the interviews with
participant observation in church set-
tings, after-work social gatherings, and in
Servants of Globalization: Who Does
the Domestic Work?
employers’ homes. The interviews were
conducted in a mixture of both cities.
Research Results: Parreñas found that
Filipina domestics experienced many sta-
tus inconsistencies. They were upwardly
mobile in terms of their home country
but were excluded from the middle-class
Filipino communities in the host nation.
Thus they experienced feelings of social
exclusion in addition to being separated
from their own families.
Conclusions and Implications: The
women Parreñas studied are part of
a new social pattern for transnational
families—that is, families whose mem-
bers live across the borders of nations.
These Filipinas provide the labor for
more affluent households while their own
lives are disrupted by these new global
forces. As global economic restructuring
evolves, it may be that more families will
experience this form of family living.
Questions to Consider
1. Are there domestic workers in
your community who provide child
care and other household work for
middle- and upper-class house-
holds? What are the race, ethnicity,
nationality, and gender of these
workers? What does this tell you
about the division of labor in domes-
tic work and its relationship to global
stratification?
2. Why do you think domestic labor
is so underpaid and undervalued?
Are there social changes that might
result in a reevaluation of the value
of this work?
Sources: Parreñas, Rhacel Salazar. 2001.
Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration
and Domestic Work. Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press.
doing sociological research
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The gap between the rich and poor worldwide can be staggering. At the same time that many struggle for mere survival,
others enjoy the pleasantries of a gentrified lifestyle.
the most from the world system, and thus they are the
“core” of the world system. These include the power-
ful nations of Europe, the United States, Australia, and,
increasingly, East Asia.
Surrounding the core countries, both structurally and
geographically, are the semiperipheral countries that
are semi-industrialized and, to some degree, represent a
kind of middle class (such as Spain, Turkey, and Mexico).
They play a middleman role, extracting profits from
the poor countries and passing those profits on to the
core countries.
At the bottom of the world stratification system are
the peripheral countries. These are the poor, largely
agricultural countries of the world. Even though they
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
2 08 CHAPT ER 9
are poor, they often have important natural resources
that are exploited by the core countries. Exploitation,
in turn, keeps them from developing and perpetuates
their poverty. Often these nations are politically unsta-
ble. Political instability within poor nations can create
a crisis for core nations that depend on their resources.
Military intervention by the United States or European
nations is often the result.
→ SEE for YOURSELF ←
The Global Economy of Clothing
Look at the labels in your clothes and note where your
clothing was made. Where are the products bearing
your college logos manufactured and sold? Who profits
from the distribution of these goods? What does this
tell you about the relationship of core, semiperipheral,
and peripheral countries within world systems theory?
What further information would reveal the connections
between the country where you live and the countries
where your clothing is made and distributed?
To explore this further, you can read the account by
Kelsey Timmerman who wanted to know where his clothes
came from. Timmerman traveled to Honduras, Bangladesh,
Cambodia, and China, talking to factory workers and their
families about the experiences in making the clothes that
others wear. His journey can teach you a lot about global
production and consumption (Timmerman 2012).
Further resources: www.whereamiwearing.com
Race and Global Inequality
Along with class inequality, there is a racial component
to world inequality. In the richest nations, the popu-
lation is largely White; in the poorest countries of the
world, mostly in Africa, the populations are people of
color. Exploitation of the human and natural resources
of regions populated by people of color has character-
ized the history of Western capitalism, with people of
color being dominated by Western imperialism and
colonialism. The inequities that have resulted are enor-
mous, including malnutrition and hunger.
How did this racial inequality come about? On
the surface, global capitalism is not explicitly racist,
as were earlier forms of industrial capitalism. Yet, the
rapid expansion of the global capital system has led to
an increase in racial inequality between nations. A new
international division of labor has emerged that is not
tied to particular places but seeks cheap labor, usually in
non-Western countries. The exploitation of cheap labor
has created a poor and dependent workforce comprised
mostly of people of color. Profits accrue to wealthy
owners, who are mostly White, resulting in a racially
divided world. Some argue that the exploitation of the
poor peripheral nations by multinational capitalists
has forced an exodus of unskilled workers from the
impoverished nations to the rich nations. The flood of
third-world refugees into the industrialized nations is
thereby increasing racial tensions, fostering violence,
and destroying worker solidarity (Sirvananadan 1995).
The meaning of race, however, varies in different
national settings. South Africa, the United States, and
Brazil each developed different sets of racial catego-
ries. Although all three countries have many people of
mixed descent, race is defined differently in each place.
In South Africa, the particular history of Dutch and
English colonialism led to strongly drawn racial cat-
egories that defined people in four separate categories:
“White,” “Coloured” (including indigenous Khoi and
San people, as well as people of mixed descent), “Black,”
and “Indian.” Black South Africans had no political
representation under apartheid. There were three sepa-
rate parliaments—one for each of the other groups.
Brazil is yet a different case. The Brazilian elite
declared Brazil a racial democracy at the early stages of
national development. Racial differences were thought
not to matter. Yet, instead of creating an egalitarian soci-
ety free of racism, Afro-Brazilians were still of lower social
status and Euro-Brazilians remain at the highest social
status, suggesting that color itself stratifies people—a
sociological phenomenon sometimes referred to as “col-
orism” (Telles 2004; Fredrickson 2003; Marx 1997).
Theories of Global
Stratification
How did world inequality occur? Sociological expla-
nations of world stratification generally fall into three
camps: modernization theory, dependency theory, and
world systems theory (see ◆ Table 9.1).
Modernization Theory
Modernization theory views the economic de velop-
ment of countries as stemming from technological
change. According to this theory, a country becomes more
“modernized” by increased technological development.
Modernization theory sees economic development
as a process by which traditional societies become more
complex. For economic development to occur, mod-
ernization theory predicts, countries must change their
traditional attitudes, values, and institutions. Economic
achievement is thought to derive from attitudes and
values that emphasize hard work, saving, efficiency,
and enterprise. Modernization theory suggests that
nations remain underdeveloped when traditional cus-
toms and culture discourage individual achievement
and kin relations dominate.
As an outgrowth of functionalist theory, moderni-
zation theory derives some of its thinking from the work
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GLOBAL STRATI F ICATI O N 2 0 9
◆ Table 9.1 Theories of Global Stratification
Modernization Theory Dependency Theory World Systems Theory
Economic Development Arises from relinquishing
traditional cultural values and
embracing new technologies
and market-driven attitudes
and values
Exploits the least powerful
nations to the benefit of
wealthier nations that then
control the political and
economic systems of the
exploited countries
Has resulted in a single
economic system stemming
from the development of a
world market that links core,
semiperipheral, and peripheral
nations
Poverty Results from adherence to
traditional values and customs
that prevent societies from
competing in a modern global
economy
Results from the dependence
of low-income countries on
wealthy nations
Is the result of core nations
extracting labor and natural
resources from peripheral
nations
Social Change Involves increasing complexity,
differentiation, and efficiency
Is the result of
neocolonialism and the
expansion of international
capitalism
Leads to an international division
of labor that increasingly puts
profit in the hands of a few while
exploiting those in the poorest
and least powerful nations
of Max Weber. In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit
of Capitalism (1958/1904), Weber saw the economic
development that occurred in Europe during the Indus-
trial Revolution as a result of the values and attitudes of
Protestantism. The Industrial Revolution took place in
England and northern Europe, Weber argued, because
the people of this area were hardworking Protestants
who valued achievement and believed that God helped
those who helped themselves.
Modernization theory can partially explain why
some countries have become successful. Japan and
China are examples of countries that have made huge
strides in economic development, in part because of
a national work ethic. Work ethic alone, however,
does not explain Japan’s success. Modernization
theory may partially explain the cultural context in
which some countries become successful and others
do not, but it is not a substitute for explanations
that also look at the economic and political context
of national development. Cultural attitudes may
impede economic development in some cases, but
you have to be careful not to assume that developed
nations have superior values compared to others.
Blaming the cultural values of a poor nation over-
looks the fact that a nation’s status in the world may
be outside their control. Whether a country develops
or remains poor is often the result of other countries
exploiting the less powerful. Modernization theory
does not sufficiently take into account the interplay
and relationships between countries that can affect a
country’s economic or social condition.
Developing countries, modernization theory says,
are better off if they let the natural forces of competition
guide world development. Free markets, according to
this perspective, will result in the best economic order.
As critics argue, markets do not develop independently
of government’s influence. Governments can spur or
hinder economic development, especially as they work
with private companies to enact export strategies, restrict
imports, or place embargoes on the products of nonfa-
vored nations.
Dependency Theory
Although market-oriented theories may explain why
some countries are successful, they do not explain why
some countries remain in poverty or why some coun-
tries have not developed. It is necessary to look at issues
outside the individual countries and to examine the
connections between them. Keep in mind that many
of the poorest nations are former colonies of European
powers. This focuses your attention on colonization and
imperialism as causes of global stratification.
Dependency theory holds that the poverty of the
low-income countries is a direct result of their political
and economic dependence on the wealthy countries.
Specifically, dependency theory argues that the poverty
of many countries is a result of exploitation by power-
ful countries. This theory is derived from the work of
Karl Marx, who foresaw that a capitalist world economy
would create an exploited class of dependent coun-
tries, just as capitalism within countries had created an
exploited class of workers.
Dependency theory begins with understanding
the historical development of this system of inequality.
As the European countries began to industrialize in
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2 10 CH APTER 9
the 1600s, they needed raw materials for their factories
and places to sell their products. To accomplish this, the
European nations colonized much of the world, includ-
ing most of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Colonialism
is a system by which Western nations became wealthy by
taking raw materials from colonized societies and reaping
profits from products finished in the homeland. Colonial-
ism worked best for the industrial countries when the col-
onies were kept undeveloped to avoid competition with
the home country. For example, India was a British col-
ony from 1757 to 1947. During that time, Britain bought
cheap cotton from India, made it into cloth in British
mills, and then sold the cloth back to India, making large
profits. Although India was able to make cotton into cloth
at a much cheaper cost than Britain, and very fine cloth at
that, Britain nonetheless did not allow India to develop its
cotton industry. As long as India was dependent on Brit-
ain, Britain became wealthy and India remained poor.
Under colonialism, dependency was created by the
direct political and military control of the poor countries
by powerful developed countries. Most colonial powers
were European countries, but other countries, particu-
larly Japan and China, had colonies as well. Colonization
came to an end soon after the Second World War, largely
because of protests by colonized people and the result-
ing movement for independence. As a result, according
to dependency theory, the powerful countries turned to
other ways to control the poor countries and keep them
dependent. The powerful countries still intervene directly
in the affairs of the dependent nations by sending troops
or, more often, by imposing economic or political restric-
tions and sanctions. But other methods, largely economic,
have been developed to control the dependent poor
countries, such as price controls, tariffs, and, especially,
the control of credit. Indeed, the level of debt that some
nations accrue is a major source of global inequality.
The rich industrialized nations, according to
dependency theory, are able to set prices for raw
materials produced by the poor countries at very low
levels so that the poor countries are unable to accu-
mulate enough profit to industrialize. As a result, the
poor, dependent countries must borrow from the rich
countries. However, debt creates only more depend-
ence. Many poor countries are so deeply indebted to
the major industrial countries that they must follow
the economic edicts of the rich countries that loaned
them the money, thus increasing their dependency.
This form of international control has sometimes been
called neocolonialism, a form of control of the poor
countries by the rich countries but without direct politi-
cal or military involvement.
Multinational corporations are companies that
draw a large share of their profits from overseas invest-
ments and that conduct business across national borders.
They play a role in keeping the dependent nations poor,
dependency theory suggests. Although their executives
and stockholders are from the industrialized countries,
multinational corporations recognize no national bound-
aries and pursue business where they can best make a
profit. Multinationals buy resources where they can get
them cheapest, manufacture their products where pro-
duction and labor costs are lowest, and sell their products
where they can make the largest profits.
Many critics fault companies for perpetuating
global inequality by taking advantage of cheap overseas
labor to make large profits for U.S. stockholders. Com-
panies are, in fact, doing what they should be doing in
a market system: trying to make a profit. Nonetheless,
dependency theory views the practices of multination-
als as responsible for maintaining poverty in the poor
parts of the world.
One criticism of dependency theory is that many
poor countries (for example, Ethiopia) were never colo-
nies. Some former colonies have also done well. Two of
the greatest postwar success stories of economic devel-
opment are Singapore and Hong Kong. Both of these
places were British colonies—Hong Kong until 1997—
and were clearly dependent on Britain, yet they have had
successful economic development precisely because of
their dependence on Britain. Other former colonies are
also improving economically, such as India.
World Systems Theory
Modernization theory examines the factors internal to
an individual country, and dependency theory looks to
the relationship between countries or groups of coun-
tries. Another approach to global stratification is called
world systems theory. Like dependency theory, this
theory begins with the premise that no nation in the
world can be considered in isolation. Each country, no
matter how remote, is tied in many ways to the other
countries in the world. However, unlike dependency
theory, world systems theory argues that there is a world
economic system that must be understood as a single
unit, not in terms of individual countries or groups of
countries. This theoretical approach derives to some
degree from the work of dependency theorists and is
most closely associated with the work of Immanuel
Wallerstein in The Modern World System (1974) and
The Modern World System II (1980). According to this
theory, the level of economic development is explained
by understanding each country’s place and role in the
world economic system.
This world system has been developing since the
sixteenth century. The countries of the world are tied
together in many ways, but of primary importance are
the economic connections in the world markets of goods,
capital, and labor. All countries sell their products and
services on the world market and buy products and ser-
vices from other countries. However, this is not a mar-
ket of equal partners. Because of historical and strategic
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GLOBAL STRATI F ICAT I O N 2 11
imbalances in this economic system, some countries are
able to use their advantage to create and maintain wealth,
whereas other countries that are at a disadvantage remain
poor. This process has led to a global system of stratifica-
tion in which the units are not people but countries.
World systems theory sees the world divided into
three groups of interrelated nations: core or first-world
countries, semiperipheral or second-world countries,
and peripheral or third-world countries. This world
economic system has resulted in a modern world in
which some countries have obtained great wealth and
other countries have remained poor. The core countries
control and limit the economic development in the
peripheral countries so as to keep the peripheral coun-
tries from developing and competing with them on the
world market; thus the core countries can continue to
purchase raw materials at a low price.
Although world systems theory was originally devel-
oped to explain the historical evolution of the world sys-
tem, modern scholars now focus on the international
division of labor and its consequences. This approach
is an attempt to overcome some of the shortcomings in
world systems theory by focusing on the specific mecha-
nism by which differential profits are attached to the
production of goods and services in the world market.
A tennis shoe made by Nike is designed in the United
States; uses synthetic rubber made from petroleum from
Saudi Arabia; is sewn in Indonesia; is transported on a
ship registered in Singapore, which is run by a Korean
management firm using Filipino sailors; and is finally
marketed in Japan and the United States. At each of
these stages, profits are taken, but at very different rates.
→THINKING Sociologically
What are the major industries in your community? In what
parts of the world do they do business, including where
their product is produced? How does the international
division of labor affect jobs in your region?
World systems theorists call this global production
process a commodity chain, the network of production
and labor processes by which a product becomes a fin-
ished commodity. By following a commodity through
its production cycle and seeing where the profits go at
each link of the chain, one can identify which country
is getting rich and which country is being exploited. As
an example, the Gap hoodie that you buy in the United
States for about $30 was likely produced from cotton
grown in Uzbekistan where workers are paid 2 cents a
pound, cut and sewn by workers in Russia who are paid
between 39 and 69 dollars a month, and then distributed
and sold in the United States (Gordon and Designs 2001).
World systems theory also helps explain the
growing phenomenon of international migration. An
international division of labor means that the need for
cheap labor in some of the industrial and developing
nations draws workers from poorer parts of the globe.
International migration is also the result of refugees
seeking asylum from war-torn parts of the world or from
countries where political oppression, often against par-
ticular ethnic groups, forces some to leave.
The development of a world economy is also result-
ing in large changes in the composition of popula-
tions around the globe. World cities, that is, cities that
are closely linked through the system of international
commerce, have emerged. Within these cities, families
and their surrounding communities often form trans-
national communities, communities that may be geo-
graphically distant but socially and politically close.
Linked through various communication and trans-
portation networks, transnational communities share
information, resources, and strategies for coping with
the problems of international migration.
International migration, sometimes legal, some-
times not, has radically changed the racial and ethnic
composition of populations not only in the United
States but also in many European and Asian nations.
Over 200 million people now live outside the country
of their birth, some of whom moved because of war and
persecution, but many of whom move as work moves
around the globe (Eitzen 2009). Many such migrants
work in the lowest segments of the labor force. The
work of these low-wage laborers is critical to the world
economy, but they are often treated with hostility and
suspicion, discriminated against, and stereotyped
as undeserving and threatening. The United States
receives the most international migrants of any nation,
but they are common in western Europe, Saudi Arabia,
Iran, and other parts of the world (Koser 2007). In many
nations, the presence of migrants can lead to political
tensions over immigration, even though international
faces in world cities are now a major feature of the
urban landscape.
It is useful to see the world as an interconnected
set of economic ties between countries, and to under-
stand that these ties often result in the exploita-
tion of poor countries. This process of globalization
means that countries that were once at the center of
this world system—England, for example—no longer
occupy such a lofty position. Peripheral countries can
also improve their standard of living with investment
by core countries, although the benefits do not accrue
equally to groups within such nations and investment
by outsiders can also put receiving nations in debt,
thus harming them in the long run. Low-wage factories
may benefit managers, but not the working class. Even
core countries can be hurt by the world system, such
as when jobs move overseas. Who benefits from this
world system is differentiated—in all countries—by
one’s placement, not just in the global class system but
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2 1 2 CH APT E R 9
also in the class system internal to each country within
this global system. World systems theory has provided
a powerful tool for understanding global inequality.
Consequences of Global
Stratification
It is clear that some nations are wealthy and powerful
and some are poor and powerless. What are the con-
sequences of this world stratification system? Basic
indicators of national well-being include such things as
infant mortality, literacy levels, access to safe water, and
the status of women. There are, as we will see, consid-
erable differences in the quality of life based on these
indicators in different places in the world.
Population
One of the biggest differences in rich and poor nations
is population. The poorest countries have the highest
birthrates and the highest death rates. The total fertility
rate—how many live births a woman will have over her
lifetime at current fertility rates—shows that women in
the poorest countries have on average almost five chil-
dren. Because of this high fertility rate, the populations
of poor countries are growing faster than the popula-
tions of wealthy countries. Poor countries therefore also
have a high proportion of young children.
In contrast, the richest countries have a total popu-
lation of approximately one billion people—only 15 per-
cent of the world’s population. The populations of the
richest countries are not growing nearly as fast as the
populations of the poorest countries. In the richest coun-
tries, women have about two children over their lifetime,
and the populations of these countries are growing by
only 1.2 percent. Many of the richest countries, includ-
ing most of the countries of Europe, are actually experi-
encing population declines. With a low fertility rate, the
rich countries have proportionately fewer children, but
they also have proportionately more elderly, which can
also be a burden on societal resources. Different from
the poorest nations, the richest ones are largely urban.
Rapid population growth as a result of high fertility
rates can make a large difference in the quality of life of the
country. Countries with high birthrates are faced with the
challenge of having too many children and not enough
adults to provide for the younger generation. Public ser-
vices, such as schools and hospitals, are strained in high-
birthrate countries, especially because these countries
are poor to begin with. Very low birthrates, as many rich
countries are now experiencing, can also lead to other
problems. In countries with low birthrates, there often
are not enough young people to meet labor force needs,
and workers must be imported from other countries.
Scholars disagree about the relationship between
the rate of population growth and economic develop-
ment. Some theorize that rapid population growth and
high birthrates lead to economic stagnation and that
too many people keep a country from developing, thus
miring the country in poverty (Ehrlich 1968). Yet, some
countries with very large populations have become
developed: China and India come to mind; both are
showing significant economic development. The United
States has the third largest population in the world at
318 million people, yet it is one of the richest and most
Fe
ng
L
i/
Ge
tty
Im
ag
es
E
nt
er
ta
in
m
en
t/
G
et
ty
Im
ag
es
Pe
te
r C
ad
e/
St
on
e/
Ge
tty
Im
ag
es
Global stratification often means that consumption in the more affluent nations is dependent on cheap labor in other less
affluent nations.
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
GLOBAL STRATI F ICAT I O N 2 1 3
developed nations in the world. Scholars now believe
that even though large population and high birthrates
can impede economic development in some situations,
in general, fertility levels are affected by levels of industri-
alization, not the other way around. That is, as countries
develop, their fertility levels decrease and their popula-
tion growth levels off (Hirschman 1994; Watkins 1987).
Health and the Environment
Significant differences are also evident in the basic
health standards of countries, depending on where they
are in the global stratification system. The high-income
countries have lower childhood death rates, higher life
expectancies, and fewer children born underweight.
People born today in wealthy countries can expect to
live about seventy-seven years, and women outlive men
by several years. Except for some isolated or poor areas
of the rich countries, almost all people have access to
clean water and acceptable sewer systems.
In the poorest countries, the situation is completely
different. Many children die within the first five years
of life, people live considerably shorter lives, and fewer people have access to clean water and adequate sani-
tation. In the low-income countries, the problems of
sanitation, clean water, childhood death rates, and life
expectancies are all closely related. In many of the poor
countries, drinking water is contaminated from poor
or nonexistent sewage treatment. This contaminated
water is then used to drink, to clean eating utensils, and
to make baby formula. For adults, waterborne illnesses
such as cholera and dysentery sometimes cause severe
sickness but seldom result in death. Children under age
5 and, especially, those under the age of 1 are highly
susceptible to the illnesses carried in contaminated
water. A common cause of childhood death in coun-
tries with low incomes is dehydration brought on by the
diarrhea contracted from drinking contaminated water.
Degradation of the environment is a problem that
affects all nations, which are linked in one vast environ-
mental system, but global stratification also means that
some nations suffer at the hands of others. Overdevel-
opment is resulting in deforestation, and high popula-
tion and the dependency on agriculture in the poorest
nations contribute to the depletion of natural resources.
In the most industrial nations where the most energy
is used, the overproduction of “greenhouse gas”—
emission of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels—
is resulting in numerous threats to our environment,
including climate change (see also Chapter 16).
Although high-income countries have only
15 percent of the world population, together they
use more than half of the world’s energy. The United
States alone uses 20 percent of the world’s energy,
although it holds only 4 percent of the world’s popula-
tion (see ▲ Figure 9.5). Safe water is also crucial; more
than 700 million people in 43 different countries are
19.6%
4.5%
2.8% 2.2%
2.1%
Global energy use
5.6%
Germany
France
Brazil
India
United States
Everyone else
Russia
China
44.6%18.7%
▲ Figure 9.5 Who Uses the World’s Energy?
Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration. 2012. www.eia.gov
There can be innovative solutions to reduce world poverty,
such as this solar panel delivering energy in southern
Mozambique.
Er
ic
N
at
ha
n
/ A
la
m
y
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2 1 4 CH A PTER 9
experiencing what the World Bank calls “water stress”—
that is, inadequate access to water. The dwindling of
water supplies will only be exacerbated by population
growth and economic development. The World Bank
has, in fact, warned that we are facing a “global water
crisis” (World Bank 2010). Clearly, global stratification
has some irreversible environmental effects that are felt
around the globe.
Education and Illiteracy
In the high-income nations of the world, education is
almost universal, and the vast majority of people have
attended school, at least at some level. Literacy and
school enrollment are now taken for granted in the
high-income nations, although people in these wealthy
nations who do not have a good education stand little
chance of success. In the middle- and lower-income
nations, the picture is quite different. Elementary school
enrollment, virtually universal in wealthy nations, is
less common in the middle-income nations and even
less common in the poorest nations.
How do people survive who are not literate or edu-
cated? In much of the world, education takes place
outside formal schooling. Just because many people in
the poorer countries never go to school does not mean
that they are ignorant or that they are uneducated. Most
of the education in the world takes place in family set-
tings, in religious congregations, or in other settings
where elders teach the next generation the skills and
knowledge they need to survive. This type of informal
education often includes basic literacy and math skills
that people in these poorer countries need for their
daily lives.
The disadvantage of this informal and traditional
education is that, although it prepares people for their
traditional lives, it often does not give them the skills
and knowledge needed to operate in the modern world.
In an increasingly technological world, this can perpet-
uate the underdeveloped status of some nations.
Gender Inequality
The position of a country in the world stratification sys-
tem also affects gender relations within different coun-
tries. Poverty is usually felt more by women than by
men. Although gender equality has not been achieved
in the industrialized countries, compared with women
in other parts of the world, women in the wealthier
countries are much better off.
The United Nations (UN) is one of the organiza-
tions that carefully monitors the status of women
globally. The UN has developed an index to assess
the progress of women in nations around the world.
Called the gender inequality index, the measure is
a composite of three key components of women’s
lives: reproductive health, empowerment, and labor
market status. Each of these three major components
is then measured by particular facts about women’s
status, such as maternal mortality, educational attain-
ment, and labor force participation (see ▲ Figure 9.6).
Given how this index is computed, nations with the
lowest gender inequality index have the greatest
equality between women and men (see ◆ Table 9.2).
Based on this index, the United Nations has con-
cluded that, around the world, reproductive health—
or lack thereof—is the greatest contributor to gender
inequality (United Nations 2010).
M
aternal m
ortality
Adolescent fertillity
Parliam
entary representation
Educational attainm
ent
(secondary level and above)
Labor force participation
Labor m
arket
Em
powerm
ent
Reproductive
health
Five indicators
Three dimensions
Gender
Inequality
Index
▲ Figure 9.6 The Gender Inequality Index
Source: United Nations Development Programme. 2010. “Components of the Gender Inequality Index.” http://hdr.undp.org. Reprinted with permission.
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GLOBAL STRAT I F ICATI O N 2 1 5
Reports indicate mixed news with regard to wom-
en’s status around the world. On the one hand, women’s
poverty has declined in some of the nations where it
has been extreme, particularly in India, China, and
some parts of Latin America. In sub-Saharan Africa,
women’s poverty has increased. Around the world,
women have achieved near equality in levels of primary
education, but large gaps remain in the secondary and
higher education of women and men. This fact has huge
implications for women’s work, especially because the
global economy increasingly demands educational
skills (Inter-parliamentary Union 2012).
Perhaps most distressing is the global extent of
violence against women. Violence takes many forms,
including violence within the family, rape, sexual har-
assment, sex trafficking and prostitution, and state-
based violence. The United Nations has concluded that
“violence against women persists in every country in
the world as a pervasive violation of human rights and
a major impediment to achieving gender equality”
(United Nations 2006: 9).
Several factors put women at risk of violence, rang-
ing from individual-level risk factors (such as a history
of abuse as a child and substance abuse) to societal-
level factors, such as gender roles that entrench male
dominance and societal norms that tolerate violence as
a means of conflict resolution (see ◆ Table 9.3). Clearly,
the inequalities that mark global stratification have par-
ticularly harmful effects for the world’s women.
War and Terrorism
The consequences of global stratification are also found
in the international conflicts that bring war and an
increased risk of terrorism. Although global inequality is
certainly not the only cause of such problems, it contrib-
utes to the instability of world peace and the threat of ter-
rorism. Global stratification generates inequities in the
distribution of power between nations. Moreover, glo-
balization has created a world-based capitalist class with
unprecedented wealth and power. This is a class that
now crosses national borders; some have defined it as
a “transnational capitalist class” (Langman and Morris
2002). Coupled with the enormous poverty that exists, the
◆ Table 9.2 Gender Inequality Index in Selected
Countries (2011)
Gender
Inequality
Index
Rank (most equal
being first out of
187 countries)
Sweden 0.049 1
Netherlands 0.052 2
Denmark 0.060 3
Switzerland 0.067 4
Korea 0.099 18
Israel 0.145 22
China 0.209 38
United States 0.299 47
Libya 0.314 51
Haiti 0.599 123
India 0.617 129
Saudi Arabia 0.646 135
United Nations Development Programme. 2010. “Components of the
Gender Inequality Index.” http://hdr.undp.org. Reprinted with permission.
◆ Table 9.3 Risk Factors for Violence against Women: A Global Analysis
The United Nations has studied the frequent use of violence against women in the world and identified the factors that put
women at risk. These factors are found at various levels.
Individual Level: Community Level:
● Frequent use of alcohol and drugs ● Women’s isolation and lack of social support
● Membership in marginalized communities ● Community attitudes that tolerate and legitimate male violence
● History of abuse as a child ● High levels of social and economic inequality, including poverty
● Witnessing marital violence in the home
Family/Relationship Level: Societal Level:
● Male control of wealth ● Gender roles that entrench male dominance and women’s subordination
● Male control of decision making ● Tolerance of violence as a means of conflict resolution
● History of marital violence ● Inadequate laws and policies to prevent and punish violence
● Significant disparities in economic, educational,
or employment status
● Limited awareness and sensitivity on the part of officials and social
service providers
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2 1 6 CH APTER 9
visibility of this class and its association with Western
values leads to resentment and conflict. Furthermore,
attempts by wealthier nations to control access to the
world’s natural resources, such as oil, generate much
political conflict. The same power and affluence that
makes the United States a leader throughout the world
makes it a target by those who resent its dominance.
In the Middle East, for example, oil production has
created prosperity for some and exposed people in these
nations to the values of Western culture. When people
from different nations, such as those in the Middle East,
study at U.S. universities and travel on business or vaca-
tions, they are exposed to Western values and patterns
of consumption. As one commentator has noted, “Even
those who have remained at home have not escaped
exposure to Western culture. In most of the countries of
the modern Middle East, Western cultural influences are
pervasive. They see Western television programs, they
watch Western movies, they listen to Western music, fre-
quently wear Western clothes, and visit Western websites.
Even Western foods are locally available. McDonald’s are
now found in many of the major cities” (Bailey 2003: 341).
The sexual liberalism of Western nations and the relative
equality of women also add to the volatile mix of nations
clashing (Norris and Inglehart 2002).
As a result, some traditional leaders, including
religious clerics, define Western culture as a source of
degeneracy. Countries such as the United States, where
consumerism is rampant, then become the target of
those who see this as a threat to their traditional way of
life (Ehrlich and Liu 2002). In this sense, global stratifica-
tion and the dominance of Western culture are insepa-
rable (Bailey 2003). Clashing religious values and the
growth of extremist views certainly are a major cause
of terrorism, but the global dominance of some nations
over others is also a factor.
Terrorism can be defined as premeditated, politi-
cally motivated violence perpetrated against noncomba-
tant targets by people or groups who use their action to try
to achieve their political ends (White 2002). Terrorism can
be executed through violence or threats of violence and
can be executed through various means—suicide bombs,
biochemical terror, cyberterror, or other means. Because
terrorists operate outside the bounds of normative behav-
ior, it is very difficult to prevent. Although rigid safeguards
can be put in place, such safeguards also threaten the
freedoms that are characteristic of open, democratic soci-
eties. The fact that terrorism is so difficult to stop contrib-
utes to the fear that it is intended to generate.
Inequality is also connected to the context in which
terrorism emerges. For example, research on al Qaeda
terrorists finds that the leaders tend to come from mid-
dle-class backgrounds, although they often recruit those
who are young, poorly educated, and economically
disadvantaged to carry out suicide missions. Families
of suicide bombers often receive large cash payments;
at the same time, they can feel they have served a sacred
cause (Stern 2003). Improving the lives of those who
feel collectively humiliated could provide some protec-
tion against terrorism.
World Poverty
One fact of global inequality is the growing presence and
persistence of poverty in many parts of the world (see
■ Map 9.3). There is poverty in the United States, but very
few people in the United States live in the extreme levels
of deprivation found in some of the poor countries of the
world, as seen in ■ Map 9.4. We have seen in Chapter 8
how the poverty line in the United States is calculated. The
definition of poverty in the United States identifies relative
poverty, that is, a measure of poverty relative to the rest of
society. Households living in poverty in the United States
are poor compared with other Americans, but this would
be an inaccurate measure in a worldwide context because
of such huge differences in the standard of living.
The World Bank and United Nations measure world
poverty in two ways: Absolute poverty is defined by the
amount of money needed in a particular country to
meet basic needs of food, shelter, and clothing. Extreme
poverty is defined as living on less than the equivalent
of $1.25 per day. Any way you measure it, it is difficult
for most Americans to imagine this standard of living.
Extreme poverty has been declining in the world, but 18
percent of the world’s population—1.2 billion people—
still live at this level of destitution (World Bank 2014 b).
However, money does not tell the whole story
because many people in poor countries do not always
deal in cash. In many countries, people survive by rais-
ing crops for personal consumption and by bartering or
trading services for food or shelter. These activities do
not show up in calculations of poverty levels that use
amounts of money as the measure. Accordingly, the
United Nations also defines what it calls the multidi-
mensional poverty index (see ▲ Figure 9.7).
The multidimensional poverty index measures
the degree of deprivation in three basic dimensions of
human life: health, education, and standard of living.
These different components are then used to create a
measure of poverty, including such indicators as nutri-
tion, child mortality, educational attainment, and the
availability of water, electricity, plumbing, cooking fuel—
and even whether one has a floor in one’s living quarters.
Measured by the multidimensional poverty index,
the United Nations concludes that poverty is higher than
when measured by income alone, as is the case with
measuring absolute and extreme poverty. The multi-
dimensional poverty index also points more directly to
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GLOBAL STRAT I F ICATI O N 2 1 7
Nutrition
Child m
ortality
Years of schooling
Children enrolled
Assets
Floor
Electricity
W
ater
Toilet
Cooking fuel
Living
standards
Education
Health
Ten indicators
Three dimensions
Multidimensional
Poverty
Index
▲ Figure 9.7 The Multidimensional Poverty Index*
Source: United Nations Development Programme. 2010. “Components of the Multidimensional Poverty Index.” http://hdr.undp.org. Reprinted with
permission.
*Based on 1995 data.
0–15
16–30
31–61
61–76
76–91
Population below
poverty line
Viewing Society in Global Perspective: World Poverty
Source: Central Intelligence Agency. 2009.
World Factbook. www.cia.org
map 9.3
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2 1 8 CH APTER 9
interventions to reduce poverty, such as making health
clinics and running water available—projects that can
significantly improve the lives of millions.
Who Are the World’s Poor?
As we have seen, about one-fifth of the world’s popula-
tion lives in poverty, forming what the United Nations
calls a global underclass. Although world poverty has
been decreasing, it still afflicts a huge proportion of
the world’s people. In a world with a population over
seven billion, about one billion live in extreme pov-
erty. The decline in world poverty is largely accounted
for by the economic growth in East Asia, which histori-
cally has been one of the poorest areas of the world.
Now East Asia leads the world in poverty reduction.
China alone has seen a decline of 400 million people
moving out of poverty since the 1980s. As you can see
in ▲ Figure 9.8, two-thirds of the world’s poor live in
one of five countries.
The causes of poverty differ around the globe. In
Asia, the pressures of large population growth leave many
without sustainable employment. As manufacturing
has become less labor intensive with more mechanized
NOTE: Two-thirds of the world’s poor live in one
of five countries.
China
India
The Democratic
Republic of Congo
Rest of the world
Bangladesh
Nigeria
36%
33%
13%
7%
6%
5%
▲ Figure 9.8 Where Do the World’s Poor Live? As
you are learning, poverty is unevenly distributed throughout
the world. Why do you think so many of the world’s poor live
in these five countries?
Source: World Bank. 2014 b. Prosperity for All/Ending Extreme Poverty.
New York: World Bank. www.worldbank.org
Viewing Society in Global Perspective: The World As Seen through
the Distribution of Wealth
This map shows what the world
would look like were geographical
boundaries formed by the wealth
held by different nations. What
perspective does this give you on
global stratification?
Source: © Copyright 2006 SASI Group
(University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman
(University of Michigan), www.worldmapper
.org/posters/worldmapper_map169_ver5
map 9.4
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GLOBAL STRATI F ICATI O N 2 1 9
production, the need for labor in certain industries has
declined. Even though new technologies provide new
job opportunities, they also create new forms of illit-
eracy because many people have neither the access nor
the skills to use information technology. In sub-Saharan
Africa, the poor live in marginal areas where poor soil,
erosion, and continuous warfare have created extremely
harsh conditions. Political instability and low levels of
economic productivity also contribute to the high rates
of poverty in some nations. Solutions to world poverty
in these different regions require sustainable economic
development, as well as an understanding of the diverse
regional factors that contribute to high levels of poverty.
Women and Children in Poverty
There is no country in the world in which women are
treated as well as men. As with poverty in the United
States, women bear a larger share of the burden of world
poverty. Some have called this double deprivation—in
many of the poor countries, women suffer because of their
gender and because they disproportionately carry the
burden of poverty. For instance, in situations of extreme
poverty, women have the burden of taking on much of
the manual labor because the men in many cases have
left to find work or food. The United Nations concludes
that strengthening women’s economic security through
better work is essential for reducing world poverty.
Because of their poverty, women tend to suffer
greater health risks than men. Although women outlive
men in most countries, the life expectancy gap between
women and men is less in the poorest countries. This
is explained by several factors that put women at
special risks. For one, fertility rates are higher in poor
countries. Giving birth is a time of high risk for women,
and women in poor countries with poor nutrition, poor
maternal care, and the lack of trained birth attendants
are at higher risk of dying during and after the birth.
The U.S. State Department estimates that 12.3 million people
worldwide are enslaved in human trafficking. This includes
sexual servitude, forced labor, forced child labor, and other
forms of coercive treatment. Human trafficking is a modern
form of slavery in which people are used for commercial
gain through the use of force, coercion, or fraud (U.S. State
Department 2012).
There are many ways to think about human trafficking—
including as a moral wrong, as a criminal act by corrupt
individuals, and as a human rights issue. As a sociological issue,
human trafficking is a complex social structure that is inte-
grally connected to international trade, the social structure of
tourism, and the racial, class, and gender inequality that
crosses national borders.
Sexual trafficking is a particular form of human trafficking in
which women and, often, young girls are bought and sold in an
international system of prostitution. Sociologists argue that the
male-dominated character of state institutions plays a part in
the tolerance of sexual trafficking. Sexual trafficking and sexual
tourism are part of a culture in which women’s bodies are
treated as a commodity. Racial and ethnic inequality also play
a part as women of color are sexually exploited based on the
racial/gender stereotypes that define them as exotic but also
available for the pleasure of men.
An antitrafficking movement has developed that involves
a coalition of feminists, various voluntary organizations,
the United Nations, some politicians, and others who have
organized to stop this practice (Limoncelli 2010).
Human Trafficking
what would a sociologist say?
Sex trafficking, particularly of young girls, is a common part
of the system of global stratification.
Au
ro
ra
P
ho
to
s
/ A
la
m
y
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2 2 0 CH A PT ER 9
High fertility rates are also related to the degree of
women’s empowerment in society—an often neglected
aspect of the discussion between fertility and poverty.
Societies where women’s voices do not count for much
tend to have high fertility rates as well as other social
and economic hardships for women, including lack of
education, job opportunities, and information about
birth control. Empowering women through providing
them with employment, education, property, and vot-
ing rights can have a strong impact on reducing the fer-
tility rate (Sen 2000).
Women also suffer in some poor countries because
of traditions and cultural norms. Most (though not all)
of the poor countries are patriarchal, meaning that men
control the household. As a result, in some situations
of poverty, the women eat after the men, and boys are
fed before girls. In conditions of extreme poverty, baby
boys may also be fed before baby girls because boys
have higher status than girls. As a result, female infants
have a lower rate of survival than male infants.
A distressing number of children in the world
are also poor, including in the most industrialized
and affluent nations. As you can see in ▲ Figure 9.9,
Mexico
United States
New Zealand
Ireland
Portugal
United Kingdom
Canada
Australia
Japan
Spain
Poland
Greece
Austria
Germany
Netherlands
Luxembourg
Hungary
Belgium
France
Czech Republic
Switzerland
Sweden
Finland
Norway
Denmark
Italy
Percent living below national poverty line
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
▲ Figure 9.9 Child Poverty in the Wealthier Nations
Source: UNICEF. 2000. Child Poverty in Rich Countries 2005. Florence, Italy: United Nations Children’s Fund. www.unicef.org.
When children are poor, they may turn to child labor to
help support their families. Such is the case with this child
collecting trash for potential sale or use in a municipal
dump in Phnom Penh.
Da
n
Vi
nc
en
t/
Al
am
y
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
GLOBAL STRATI F ICATI O N 2 2 1
poverty among children in the United States exceeds
that of other industrialized nations and is second only
to Mexico. Children in poverty seldom have the lux-
ury of an education. Schools are usually few or non-
existent in poor areas of the world, and families are
so poor that they cannot afford to send their children
to school. Children from a very early age are required
to help the family survive by working or performing
domestic tasks such as fetching water. In extreme situ-
ations, even very young children may work as beggars
(Boo 2012). Young boys and girls may end up working
in sweatshops. Families may have to sell young girls
into prostitution. This may seem unusually cruel and
harsh by Western standards, but it is difficult to imag-
ine the horror of starvation and the desperation that
many families in the world must feel that would force
them to take such measures to survive. In poor coun-
tries, families feel they must have more children for
their survival, yet having more children perpetuates
the poverty.
Estimates are that 168 million children under
age 17 are in the labor force throughout the world. Most
of the children are in Asia, though some are also in
sub-Saharan Africa (International Labour Organization
2014). Many of these children work long hours in dif-
ficult conditions and enjoy few freedoms, making prod-
ucts (soccer balls, clothing, and toys, for example) for
those who are much better off.
Another problem in the very poor areas of the
world is homeless children (Mickelson 2000). In many
situations, families are so poor that they can no longer
care for their children, and the children must go with-
out education or be out on their own, even at young
ages. Many of these homeless children end up in the
streets of the major cities of Asia and Latin America.
In Latin America, it is estimated that there are thirteen
million street children, some as young as six years old.
Alone, they survive through a combination of begging,
prostitution, drugs, and stealing. They sleep in alleys
or in makeshift shelters. Their lives are harsh, brutal,
and short.
DEBUNKING Society’s Myths←
Myth: There are too many people in the world, and there
is simply not enough food to go around.
Sociological Perspective: Growing more food will not
end hunger. If systems of distributing the world’s food
were more just, hunger could be reduced.
Poverty and Hunger
Poverty is also directly linked to malnutrition and hun-
ger because people in poverty cannot find or afford
food. It is estimated that about 805 million people
(12 percent of the world population) are malnourished.
Experts attribute the increase to a number of factors,
including poverty, lack of agricultural development,
displacement and war, instability of economic markets,
climate and weather, and wasting food (United Nations
World Food Programme 2014).
Hunger stifles the mental and physical devel-
opment of children and leads to disease and death.
Although the food supply is plentiful in the world and is
actually increasing faster than the population, the rate
of malnutrition remains dangerously high.
Is there not enough food to feed all the people in
the world? In fact, plenty of food is grown in the world.
The world’s production of wheat, rice, corn, and other
grains is sufficient to adequately feed all the people in
the world. Much grain grown in the United States is
stored and not used. The problem is that the surplus
food does not get to the truly needy. The people who
are starving lack what they need for obtaining adequate
food, such as arable land or a job that would pay a living
wage. In the past, people in most cases grew food crops
and were able to feed themselves, but much of the best
land today has been taken over by agribusinesses that
grow cash crops, such as tobacco or cotton, and sub-
sistence farmers have been forced onto marginal lands
on the flanks of the desert where conditions are difficult
and crops often do not grow.
Clearly, poverty is a cause of malnutrition, but
there are other causes as well. Violence and war within
a nation can displace people, leading to large numbers
of refugees crowding places where food may not be
available to all. Disasters can leave people without food
and water—a situation complicated when a nation
is already poor. Even climate change can threaten to
create hunger, especially if farming practices can-
not adjust to drought, floods, and extreme changes in
weather patterns.
Causes of World Poverty
What causes world poverty, and why are so many
people so desperately poor and starving? More to the
point, why is poverty decreasing in some areas but
increasing in others? We do know what does not cause
poverty. Poverty is not necessarily caused by rapid
population growth, although high fertility rates and
poverty are related. In fact, many of the world’s most
populous countries—India and China, for instance—
have large segments of their population that are poor,
but even with very large populations, these countries
have begun to reduce poverty levels. Poverty is also not
caused by people being lazy or disinterested in work-
ing. People in extreme poverty work tremendously hard
just to survive, and they would work hard at a job if they
had one. It is not that they are lazy; it is that there are
no jobs for them.
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2 2 2 CH APT ER 9
Poverty is a result of a mix of causes. For one, the
areas where poverty is increasing have a history of
unstable governments or, in some cases, virtually no
effective government to coordinate national develop-
ment or plans that might alleviate extreme poverty and
starvation. World relief agencies are reluctant to work
in or send food to countries where the national govern-
ments cannot guarantee the safety of relief workers or
the delivery of food and aid to where it should go. Food
convoys may be hijacked or roads blocked by bandits
or warlords.
In many countries with high proportions of poverty,
the economies have collapsed and the governments
have borrowed heavily to remain afloat. As a condi-
tion of these international loans, lenders, including the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, have
demanded harsh economic restructuring to increase
capital markets and industrial efficiency. These eco-
nomic reforms may make good sense for some and can
improve the standard of living in these countries, but
imposed reforms have also harmed people, especially
the poor, when reforms also call for drastically reduced
government spending on human services.
Poverty is also caused by changes in the world
economic system. Although poverty has been a long-
term problem and has many causes, increases in
poverty and starvation in Africa can be attributed in
part to the changes in world markets that have favored
Asia economically but put sub-Saharan Africa at a
disadvantage. As the price of products declined with
more industrialization in places such as India, China,
Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand, com-
modity-producing nations in Africa and Latin America
suffered. In Latin America, the poor have flooded to
the cities, hoping to find work, whereas they did the
opposite in Africa, fleeing to the countryside hoping
to be able to grow subsistence crops. Governments
often had to borrow to provide help to their citizens.
Some governments collapsed or find themselves in
such great debt that they are unable to help their own
people. This has created massive amounts of poverty
and starvation.
An often unrecognized cause of poverty is war.
War disrupts the infrastructure of a society—its
roads, utility systems, water, sanitation, even schools.
For countries already struggling economically, this
can be devastating. Food production may be dis-
rupted and commerce can be threatened as it may
be difficult, even impossible, to move goods in and
out of a country. The loss of life and major injury can
mean that there are fewer productive citizens who
can work, thus threatening family and community
“In 2003, surgeons were forced to amputate both
of Ali Ismaeel Abbas’s arms after an errant U.S. bomb
slammed into his Baghdad home during the opening phase
of the Iraq war. Pictures of the twelve-year-old, who lost
his parents in the attack, soon appeared on TV screens and
in newspapers around the world. Since then, Abbas, who
was treated in Kuwait, has come to represent a grim real-
ity: All too often the victims of war are innocent children”
(McClelland 2003: 20).
UNICEF estimates that over two million children have died
in war, with even more injured, disabled, orphaned, or forced
into refugee camps (Machel 1996). One estimate is that of
all the victims of war, 90 percent are civilian—half of those,
children (McClelland 2003).
Because children are seen as innocent, the trauma of war
for children seems especially tragic to people. When children
witness the violence of war or are forced to leave their homes,
they experience a range of difficulties: loss, depression, injury,
and other troubling results. In the aftermath of war, children
are also highly vulnerable to outbreaks of disease (Cook and
Wall 2011).
War, Childhood, and Poverty The United Nations has passed resolutions prohibiting the
use of children under age 18 in combat. It has linked the threats
to children from violence with high rates of poverty around
the world. Although reducing poverty would not eliminate the
threat of war, it would go a long way toward improving chil-
dren’s lives in war-torn regions.
understanding diversity
War, though it may seem remote to some, affects millions in
both the United States and in war-torn countries. Many of
those most affected are children.
M
OH
AM
M
ED
A
BE
D/
Ge
tty
Im
ag
es
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
GLOBAL STRAT I F ICATI O N 2 23
well-being (Pathways to Peace 2009). Moreover, the
billions of dollars spent each year on military strug-
gle rob societies of the resources that could be used
to address humanitarian needs. Add to this the fact
that wars are more likely to occur in nations that are
already poor, and you see the impact that war has on
world poverty.
In sum, poverty has many causes. It is a major
global problem that affects the billions who are liv-
ing in poverty, but also affects all people in one way or
another. In some areas, poverty rates are declining as
some countries begin to improve their economic situ-
ation. In other areas of the world, however, poverty is
increasing, and countries are sinking into financial,
political, and social chaos.
Globalization and Social
Change
Globalization is, in some ways, not a new thing.
Nations have long been engaged through a global sys-
tem of trade, travel, and tourism. What is new about
globalization is the extent to which it permeates daily
life for people all over the world and the pace with
which globalization is developing. New technologies
now allow for extraordinarily fast transactions across
tremendous distances, both linking people together
in new ways and transferring goods, cultural sym-
bols, and communication systems in ways that were
unimaginable not that long ago (Eitzen and Baca
Zinn 2012).
Globalization is thus ushering in social changes—
some good, some not—that will continue to evolve in
the years ahead. As we have seen, globalization has
meant that many countries in the world are becoming
better off, but many countries remain persistently poor,
some very poor. Is the world getting better or worse?
What will happen in the future?
There is some good news. In some areas of the
world, particularly East Asia, but also in Latin America,
many countries have shown rapid growth and are
emerging as stronger nations. Examples include South
Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, and Singapore. In
these countries, the governments have invested in
social and economic development, sometimes with
help from other nations and corporations. Because
some of these countries have large populations, their
success demonstrates that economic development
can occur in heavily populated countries. China,
for example, has embarked on an aggressive policy
of industrial growth, and India is also improving
economically.
Yet, for all the success stories that globalization
has generated, many nations are suffering, including
nations on all continents. In many cases, governments
have collapsed or are corrupt, the economy is bankrupt,
the standard of living is poor, and people are starving. In
many areas of the world, ethnic hatred has led to mass
genocide and forced millions from their homes, creat-
ing huge numbers of refugees.
Globalization has also brought the expansion of
the system of capitalism, including to nations once
hostile to capitalist economics, such as China. This has
opened new markets, increased global trade, but also
expanded the reach of multinational corporations.
The development of such world financial markets may
bring prosperity and wealth to many nations and indi-
viduals, and it can allow some formerly poor countries
to share in the world’s wealth. Economic prosperity
does not usually filter down to the people at the lower
levels of society, and it can force nations into huge
amounts of debt, thus allowing poverty and hunger to
continue—or even worsen. Although market econo-
mies create opportunities for some to become wealthy,
many nations and individuals do not benefit from this
global transformation.
Globalization is a strong force that will continue
to shape the future of most nations. Some see glo-
balization simply as the expansion of Western mar-
kets and culture into all parts of the world. Western
civilization brings positive new values (including
democracy and more equality for women), but it
can also bring values that may not be seen as posi-
tive changes—such as increased consumerism or a
change in the nation’s sexual mores. Globalization
certainly brings new products to remote parts of the
world (movies, clothing styles, and other commercial
goods), but some see this as a form of imperialism—
that is, the domination of Western nations. Resistance
to Western globalization and imperialism produces
Population overcrowding strains various natural resources.
xP
AC
IF
IC
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Ge
tty
Im
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es
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
2 24 CH APT ER 9
some of the international problems now dominating
U.S. and world history, as evidenced in the hostility
felt by militant fundamentalist Islamic groups toward
the United States.
Globalization has created great progress in the
world—including trade, migration, the spread of diverse
cultures, the dissemination and sharing of new knowl-
edge, greater freedom for women, travel, and so forth.
Globalization has not simply extended the values and
knowledge of Western culture. Many of the things we
now take for granted in our culture originated in non-
Western cultures. For example, the decimal system—
fundamental to modern math and science—originated
in India between the second and sixth centuries and
was soon further developed by Arab mathematicians.
Western societies certainly get credit for the develop-
ment of science and technology, but the credit is not
theirs alone (Sen 2002).
What is global stratification?
Global stratification is a system of unequal distribu-
tion of resources and opportunities between coun-
tries. A particular country’s position is determined by
its relationship to other countries in the world. The
countries in the global stratification system can be cat-
egorized according to their per capita gross national
income or wealth. The global stratification system can
also be described according to the economic power
countries have.
How do systems of power affect different
countries in the world?
The countries of the world can be divided into three
levels based on their power in the world economic sys-
tem. The core countries are the countries that control
and profit the most from the world system. Semiperiph-
eral countries are semi-industrialized and play a mid-
dleman role, extracting profits from the poor countries
and passing those profits on to the core countries. At
the bottom of the world stratification system are the
peripheral countries, which are poor and largely agri-
cultural, but with important resources that the core
countries exploit. Most of these nations are populated
by people of color, perpetuating racism as part of the
world system.
What are the theories of global stratification?
Modernization theory interprets the economic devel-
opment of a country as the result of cultural attitudes
and values that promote economic development.
Dependency theory draws on the fact that many of
the poorest nations are former colonies of Euro-
pean colonial powers that keep colonies poor and
do not allow their industries to develop, thus creat-
ing dependency. World systems theory argues that
no nation can be seen in isolation and that there is a
world economic system that must be understood as
a single unit.
What are some of the consequences of global
stratification?
The poorest countries have more than half the world’s
population and have high birthrates, high mortality
rates, poor health and sanitation, low rates of literacy
and school attendance, and are largely rural. The rich-
est countries have low birthrates, low mortality rates,
largely urban populations, better health and sanita-
tion, high literacy rates, and high school attendance.
Although women in the wealthy countries are not com-
pletely equal to men, they suffer less inequality than do
women in poor countries.
How do we measure and understand world
poverty?
Relative poverty means being poor in comparison to
others. Absolute poverty is the amount of money needed
in a particular country to meet basic needs of food, shel-
ter, and clothing. Extreme poverty is defined as the situ-
ation in which people live on less than $1.25 a day. The
United Nations has developed a multidimensional pov-
erty index—a measure that accounts for health, educa-
tion, and standard of living. Poverty particularly affects
women and children. Children in the very poor coun-
tries are forced to work at very early ages and do not
have the opportunity for schooling. Street children are a
growing problem in many cities of the world. Starvation
is also a consequence of the global stratification system.
What is the future of global stratification?
The future of global stratification is varied and depends
on the country’s position within the world economic
system. Some countries, particularly those in East
Asia—commonly referred to as newly industrializing
countries—have shown rapid growth and emerged as
developed countries. Many nations, though, are not
making it. Governments collapse, countries suffer eco-
nomic bankruptcy, the standard of living plummets,
and people starve.
Chapter Summary
Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
GLOBAL STRATI F ICAT I O N 2 25
absolute poverty 216
colonialism 210
commodity chain 211
core countries 206
dependency theory 209
extreme poverty 216
gender inequality
index 214
Gini coefficient 205
global stratification 202
gross national income
(GNI) 203
international division
of labor 208
modernization
theory 208
multidimensional poverty
index 216
multinational
corporations 210
neocolonialism 210
peripheral countries 207
relative poverty 216
semiperipheral
countries 207
terrorism 216
world cities 211
world systems theory 210
Key Terms
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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
- Ch 9: Global Stratification
Global Stratification
Theories of Global Stratification
Consequences of Global Stratification
World Poverty
Globalization and Social Change
Chapter Summary