In the social sciences, the conventional unit of analyses of inequality has been the structures and processes within nation-states. With the onset of the current phase of globalization in the post–Cold War period, the tripartite division of the world into First, Second and Third has become obsolete and the notion of `one world’ has gained wide currency. However, the specificities of local and national social reality don’t disappear under the emerging common layer of global social reality. This book is an attempt to demonstrate this proposition.

Rejecting the obsolete methodology of comparisons between categories, the essays in this volume analyse both general and specific features of the phenomenon of inequality by looking at comparisons within as well. This is facilitated by the fact that the eight authors are equally drawn from two different social contexts: a `developed’ European country (Germany) and a `developing’ South Asian country (India). The vast scope of this study includes factors such as historicity, culture, social structure, level of economic development and the nature of the political regime.

This rich inquiry into the very notion of inequality vis-à-vis globalization will be of great interest to students, scholars of social science, policymakers and the general reader alike.