Mills 2008 - Globalization and Inequality | Advance reading | Đại học Khoa học Xã hội và Nhân văn, Đại học Quốc gia Thành phố HCM

Introduction to Mills' Work: We will begin by providing an overview of Mills' background and the central themes of his work on globalization and inequality. Understanding the context in which Mills' ideas emerged will help us appreciate the significance of his contributions to the field.

lOMoARcPSD| 40799667
Mills 2008 - Globalization and Inequality
Advanced reading (Đại hc Khoa hc Xã hội và Nhân văn, Đại hc Quc gia Thành
ph H Chí Minh)
lOMoARcPSD| 40799667
European Sociological Review VOLUME 25
NUMBER 1
1
DOI:10.1093/esr/jcn046, available online at www.esr.oxfordjournals.org
Online publication 30 August 2008
Globalization and Inequality
Melinda Mills
Globalization is increasingly linked to inequality, but with often divergent and polarized findings.
Some researchers show that globalization accentuates inequality both within and between
countries. Others maintain that these claims are patently incorrect, arguing that globalization
has disintegrated national borders and prompted economic integration, lifting millions out of
poverty, and closing the inequality gap. This article presents a review of current research that
links globalization to inequality. Core problems behind contra-dictory findings appear to rest in
the operationalization of inequality and globalization, availability and quality of data, population-
weighted versus unweighted estimates; and, the method of income calibration to a common
currency in the study of income inequality. A theoretical model charts the mechanisms linking
globalization to inequality, illustrating how it generates increased inequality within industrialized
nations and decreased inequality within developing economies. The article concludes with a
description of the papers in this special issue and situates them within the broader literature.
Downloaded from http://esr.oxfordjournals.org/
at Cornell
Introduction
The rise of globalization has been accompanied by the
debate of whether it comes at the cost of grow-ing
inequality. Globalization is increasingly linked to
inequality, but with often divergent and polarized
results. Critics of globalization have argued that it
accentuates inequality both within and between coun-
tries (Firebaugh, 2003; Wade, 2004). Although globa-
lization may improve both the relative and absolute
incomes of individuals around the world, some findings
show that there are clear winners and losers. Others
maintain that these claims are patently incor-rect,
arguing that globalization has disintegrated national
borders and prompted economic integration, lifting
millions out of poverty and closing the inequal-ity gap
(Dollar and Kraay, 2002). But which of these findings
are correct? Does globalization lead to higher
inequality? Why are there so many divergent results?
The aim of this introductory article is to present a
review of current research on globalization and inequal-
ity. The first section engages in a critical summary of
the central findings in this area of research, followed by
isolating key conceptual and methodological
problems in the study of inequality. The second section
then defines globalization and develops a theoretical
model to chart the mechanisms that link it to inequality
in industrialized and developing economies. The article
concludes with a description of the papers in this
special issue and situates them within the broader
literature on this topic. Each article is provocative and
challenging in its own right, addressing the many sides
of this topic from different areas of the world and
equally different perspectives within sociology.
Has Inequality Grown?
A Critical Examination
A review of the literature on globalization and
inequality reveals that evidence is vigorously argued in
all directions. Some researchers appear to convinc-ingly
argue that there has been a growth in inequality over
time (Wade, 2004) whereas others adamantly report
stability or even a reverse in the inequality trend over
time (Firebaugh and Goesling, 2004; Milanovic, 2005;
Sala-i-Martin, 2006). The core problem behind these
seemingly contradictory findings appears to be
University Library on December 15, 2014
The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
lOMoARcPSD| 40799667
2 MILLS
a methodological one, related to four key issues:
(i) the operationalization of inequality, (ii) availability
and quality of data, (iii) population-weighted versus
unweighted estimates; and, (iv) in the study of income
inequality, the technique used in the calibration of
incomes into a common currency. These choices result
in different predictions about not only the direction of
inequality, but also the onset of the timing of changes in
inequality trends.
The classic and perhaps most obvious factor related
to the divergent inequality findings is both a concep-
tual and data-related question: How is inequality
operationalized or measured? This is interrelated to the
central research problem or motivation of the research,
but also to the second core issue, which is the
availability and/or quality of data. The majority of the
globalization and inequality literature has focused on
income inequality, often measured as a change in the
Gini coefficient (critically discussed in more detail
shortly) (Alderson and Nielson, 2002). Alternative
measures such as the mean logarithmic deviation of
income (MLD) index of inequality are sometimes used
(Sala-i-Martin, 2006), but the Gini coefficient remains
the dominant choice.
Classic sociological approaches have characterized
inequality as a multidimensional construct based on the
stratifying factors of not only income, but also other
social and cultural domains (Weber, 1958; Mills, 1963;
Dahrendorf, 1979). Studies that deviate or expand upon
inequality beyond income are, however, rare. Sen
(1999) is an exception, maintaining that we need to
examine inequality in personal freedoms. More
recently, Goesling and Baker (2008) introduced a
multidimensional operationalization of inequality, by
examining not only income, but also health and
educational inequality across countries. Beyond the
actual measure, there is also the question of whether
inequality is studied as the unequal distribution of
income within or between countries (Alderson and
Nielsen, 2002; Beckfield, 2006), or a combination of
both (Milanovic, 2005).
A growing body of literature has focused on trends in
within-country income inequality. Here, the Gini index
is the most commonly used measure, which summarizes
the income distribution within a country (Ravallion,
2003). It illustrates the range between a perfectly equal
distribution (a Gini coefficient of 0) to the highest
possible condition of inequality of
where one person would hold all of the income (a Gini
coefficient of 1). Although the Gini measure is widely
applied, there are some serious conceptual,
methodological, and definitional issues that make it
difficult to interpret when engaging in cross-national
comparisons (Ravallion, 2003). The central difference
is whether the measures are calculated as household
consumption-based Gini indexes or using income-based
surveys. The difference is not trivial since con-
sumption-based indices are both more commonly used
in developing economies (e.g. Asia, Africa, Central and
Eastern Europe) and also produce estimates of lower
inequality. The reason that they are often applied in
these countries, as opposed to the income-based mea-
sures often used in developed economies, is attributed
to the fact that the measurement of incomes is often
difficult in these contexts, due to higher levels of self-
employment in agriculture or business (IMF, 2007).
Since consumption is also often self-reported, these
measures likewise suffer from typical methodological
problems such as differences in definitions of con-
sumption; recall problems and variation in the length of
recall period, and other related factors. Income-based
measures also suffer from similar data collection
problems, including the fact that surveys are often not
entirely nationally representative and underreport the
income of high-income groups, thereby under-
estimating inequality. The operationalization of glob-
alization is another related issue, discussed in the next
section.
A third culprit of differences in estimates related to
globalization and inequality is whether countries are
weighted by population size or treated merely as equal
units in cross-national comparisons (Firebaugh, 1999).
Population-weighted studies report that income
inequality has declined, due to the relatively high
weight of China and India, where inequality has sharply
declined over the past 20 years (Milanovic, 2005; Sala-
i-Martin, 2006). These types of results provide a better
picture of global inequality as opposed to variations in
cross-national differences. Unweighted results that treat
each country as equal are more useful to distinguish
between cross-national differences related to
institutional effects such as national eco-nomic policy
or growth (Goesling and Baker, 2008).
A final methodological problem that occurs when
income is used as the central measure is the calibration
of incomes to a common comparative currency. This in
turn produces divergent predictions about the timing or
onset of changes in inequality trends. Two central
techniques used to calibrate incomes into a common
currency across the countries are either via the
purchasing power parity (PPP) or unadjusted foreign
exchange rates. Studies that calibrate incomes using
unadjusted foreign exchange rates, such as
Korzeniewicz and Moran (2007), find that the decline
in inequality did not come about until the 1990s.
Whereas those who use the PPP converters show
Downloaded from http://esr.oxfordjournals.org/
at Cornell University Library on December 15, 2014
lOMoARcPSD| 40799667
GLOBALIZATION AND INEQUALITY 3
that population-weighted inequality started to decline
almost 10 years earlier in the early 1980s (Goesling and
Baker, 2008).
Although these measurement problems exist, there
appears to be a general consensus about the trends in
inequality. Among researchers using population-
weighted inequality measures, results show that there
has been a decline in income inequality across coun-
tries (Milanovic, 2005; Sala-i-Martin, 2006). Using
population-weighted income inequality data from 138
countries from 1979 to 2000, Sala-i-Martin (2006), for
example, showed that the level of income inequality
across countries declined sharply over time. However,
when income shares are examined by quintiles, we see
that income inequality has increased mainly in the
middle- and high-income countries, and less so in the
low-income countries (IMF, 2007).
There is also evidence that income inequality across
countries far exceeds that of inequality within coun-
tries and that it has grown across time (Korzeniewicz
and Moran, 1997; Guille´n, 2001). As Goesling and
Baker (2008, p. 184) state: ‘The world’s largest
inequalities are not defined by race, class, or gender, but
by national borders’. Average incomes in the richest
countries in the world far exceed those in the poorest
countries, with estimates of incomes that are 4050
times greater in these countries (Pritchett, 1997). This
reflects the increasing divergence between countries
produced by globalization, not growing convergence
(see also Mills et al., 2008).
An additional area of study is within-country
inequality, which is highly dependent upon the nation
under study. Examining the Gini coefficient of income
inequality, for example, Alderson and Nielsen (2002)
demonstrate that globalization explains the longitudinal
trend of increasing inequality across 16 OECD
countries. By examining the impact of glob-alization
measures such as direct investment outflow, North-
South trade and net migration rate over the period from
1967 to 1992, they find rising inequality within
countries such as the United States, Australia, and
Denmark and declining and then rising inequality in
countries such as Germany, Japan, Great Britain, and
the Netherlands.
The Impact of Globalization on
Inequality
Globalization represents a set of economic, political,
and cultural processes that operate simultaneously and
has suffered from similar operationalization problems
(Held et al., 1999; Guille´n, 2001; Raab
et al., 2008). Globalization can be defined as four
interrelated structural shifts that roughly occurred since
the 1980s of: (i) internationalization of markets and
declining importance of borders for economic
transactions, (ii) tougher tax competition between
countries, (iii) rising worldwide interconnectedness
through new Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs), and (iv) the growing relevance
and volatility
of markets
(Mills and Blossfeld,
2005).
The
mechanisms,
which
link
these
aspects
of globalization to
inequality,
are
outlined
in Figure 1.
A central engine of globalization is the internation-
alization of markets and subsequent decline in the
importance of national borders for all kinds of
economic transactions. This includes changes in laws,
institutions, or practices that make various transactions
(in terms of commodities, labour, services, and capital)
easier or less expensive across national borders, includ-
ing trade. The growth of international regulatory insti-
tutions and political agreements that facilitate capital
flows have generally operated to liberalize and interna-
tionalize financial markets, resulting in more financial
openness (Fligstein, 2002). This includes the deregu-
lation of interest rates, privatization of government-
owned banks and financial institutions, and the removal
of credit controls.
A second interrelated aspect of globalization is the
rise in tougher tax competition, often accompanied by
‘neoliberal’ globalization tendencies. The notion that
capital and labour are increasingly mobile works as a
powerful threat for competition. Countries have mainly
been affected in terms of a modification of the tax
structure rather than through retrenchment of the
welfare state (Massey, 2009). Central neo-liberal
measures to enhance competition include the removal
or relaxation of government regulation of economic
activities (deregulation), a shift towards the reliance on
price mechanisms to coordinate economic activities
(liberalization) and the transfer of ownership and
control over previously public ownership to private
entities (privatization). The core of these transforma-
tions has been to enhance efficiency, productivity and
profitability while simultaneously allowing firms and
nations to be more competitive, flexible and react more
rapidly to change (Montanari, 2001).
World trade, trade integration, and financial openness
have significantly grown since the early 1980s (IMF,
2007). World trade has, in fact, grown five times from
the 1980s to 2005 with trade openness increasing
particularly in the former Eastern bloc and developing
Asian countries (IMF, 2007, p. 33). Integration and
financial openness has also intensified,
Downloaded from http://esr.oxfordjournals.org/
at Cornell University Library on December 15, 2014
lOMoARcPSD| 40799667
4 MILLS
GLOBALIZATION
Internationalization of
Increased competition
New ICTs & increased
Rising relevance and
markets
between nations
interconnectedness
volatility of markets
INCREASES IN:
Financial
Trade
Foreign Direct
ICT capital
Migration and
openness
Investment
investment & use
mobility of
workers
NATIONAL INSTITUTIONAL FILTERS
Education systems
Employment &
Welfare regime
Migration restrictions
industrial relations
systems
INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES
DEVELOPING ECONOMIES
Deindustrialization
Industrialization
Weaker bargaining position of labour
Capital flight/ international relocation of jobs
Capital arrival/new jobs
Increased premium on higher skills for
knowledge-based industries
Increased premium on lower skills for labour-
Shift from higher wages in industrial sector
intensive industries
to lower wages in service sector
Increase in wages for lower-skilled workers
Rise in higher-skilled workers’ incomes
Reduction in higher-skilled workers’ incomes
INCREASE IN INEQUALITY
DECREASE IN INEQUALITY
AGGREGATE OBSERVATIONS OF INEQUALITY
Figure 1 Mechanisms linking globalization to inequality. (Source: Adapted from Mills and Blossfeld, 2005).
Downloaded from http://esr.oxfordjournals.org/
at Cornell University Library on December 15, 2014
particularly between the advanced economies. Trade is
often used as a tangible measure of globalization, using
measures such as international trade, and speci-fically
‘North-South’ trade (Krugman and Lawrence, 1993;
Wood, 1994; Burtless, 1995; Alderson and Nielsen,
2002). As Figure 1 illustrates, trade is one factor of
globalization that has the potential to increase
inequality in industrialized countries due to the fact that
it reduces the average wage and enhances inequalities in
the relative wages between skilled and unskilled
workers. It reduces wages in the North due to the fact
that these workers are suddenly
in competition with low-wage workers in the South
(Wood, 1994). However, some argue that this does not
hold, as the net effect of imports on average wages
appears to be minimal (Krugman and Lawrence, 1993).
In addition to trade, another measure often used to
capture globalization is the level of foreign direct
investment (FDI) and how it in turn impacts the income
distribution of countries (Bornschier, Chase-Dunn and
Rubinson, 1978; Firebaugh, 1992). More intensive
competition and the softening of trade bar-riers opens
new markets for firms based in industri-alized
countries. Globalization prompts a ‘capital flight’
lOMoARcPSD| 40799667
GLOBALIZATION AND INEQUALITY 5
of firms as they engage in FDI to replace domestic
production (Gereffi, 2009). Firms in search of lower
labour costs and/or more lenient tax systems or
employment regulations invest abroad. As a result,
there is a process of deindustrialization in the home
country that weakens the bargaining position of work-
ers and produces rising inequality. This deindustrial-
ization entails a shift away from typically higher wages
in the manufacturing and industrial sector in more
industrialized countries to be replaced by comparatively
lower average wages in service sector jobs, thereby
resulting in increased inequality (Alderson and Nielson,
2002). Conversely, globalization appears to decrease
the level of inequality in many developing economies
via the growth in industrialization, new employment
possibilities, and increase in wages for lower-skilled
labour-intensive workers, accompanied by a subsequent
reduction in the wages of higher-skilled workers. These
factors operate together to decrease the level of
inequality within these countries. The contrasting
impacts of inequality are therefore a key reason why
results differ according to whether countries are
population-weighted or treated as equal units.
It is also not only firms that are mobile. We are
witnessing a growing number of migrant workers, par-
ticularly in light of more lenient mobility regulations in
areas such as the European Union (Feld, 2005).
Different countries have diverse levels of migrants,
which likewise contribute to the level of inequality
within each society. Borjas (2000) points to migration
in the United States as a central factor contributing to
inequality. Borjas (2000) argues that immigration is
related to inequality in this context due to the fact that
both rises in immigration and inequality coincide with
one another, and that there is not only a bifur-cation of
low and highly skilled migrants, but also a growth of
lower-skilled immigrants. Alderson and Nielson (2002,
p. 1256) argue that ‘the combination of a high
immigration rate with an immigrant population
characterized by low average skills and high skills
variance has been seen as a certain recipe for increased
inequality’. This can be related to Grusky’s (2001)
work on income disparities as a function of race, class,
and gender and Massey’s (2009) argument in this
volume that the realignment of the U.S. political
economy and tax system is traced to racism in this
country.
A third aspect of globalization is the rising world-
wide interconnectedness through the information and
communication technology (ICTs) revolution, such as
microcomputers, the Internet, new satellite systems and
fiber-optic cables. These accelerate the liberal-ization of
financial transactions and communication
between individuals (Castells, 2001). New ICTs allow
people to share information in order to connect and
create an instant common worldwide standard of
comparison. Although the introduction of technology is
not unique in itself, recent ICTs have fundamentally
altered the scope (widening reach of networks of social
activity and power), intensity (regularized connec-
tions), velocity (speeding up of interactions and
processes), and impact (local impacts global) of
transformations (Held et al., 1999).
New ICTs and technology have sometimes been
included within the definition of globalization or as a
parallel force. One way to measure the impact of ICTs
is by examining the intensification of ICT capital
investment within countries, such as higher national
expenditures on computer hardware and software, and
telecommunications equipment (Jorgenson and Vu,
2005). Others have measured it by examining the level
of socio-technical interconnectedness via measures such
as the number of Internet hosts and users per capita and
other related communication technology availability
and usage within a society (Raab et al., 2008). ICTs,
together with liberalized and internatio-nalized financial
transactions, create a financial ‘super-market’ for global
business-to-business transaction and stock exchanges,
cross-border banking, and finance that stretch across the
world on a real-time basis (Greenspan, 1997; Castells,
2001). New technol-ogy has also prompted a wave of
automation, char-acterized by flexible, and accelerated
production processes. It not only increases production,
but also results in a shift from the demand for lower-
skilled workers to a more highly qualified knowledge-
based labour force (Brown and Campbell, 2002).
A final feature of globalization is the rise in both the
relevance, but also simultaneously, the volatility of
markets. Market prices and their transformations
increasingly convey information and set the standard
for the global demand of various goods, services and
assets, and the relative costs of producing and offering
them (Useem, 1996). Yet these markets are becoming
ever more dynamic and unpredictable. Competition
forces firms to operate in a state of perpetual innovation
and flexibility, which in turn heightens the instability of
markets (Streeck, 1987). New ICTs likewise accelerate
market transactions (Castells, 1996). This in turn makes
long-term developments of globalizing markets
inherently harder to predict. Global prices are also more
liable to fluctuations because worldwide supply,
demand, or both are becoming increasingly susceptible
to random disrup-tions caused somewhere on the globe
(for example, major scientific discoveries, technical
inventions,
Downloaded from http://esr.oxfordjournals.org/
at Cornell University Library on December 15, 2014
lOMoARcPSD| 40799667
6 MILLS
new consumer fashions, major political upsets such as
wars and revolutions, economic upsets, and so on).
Globalization is often presented as a blanket force
impacting all nations in a similar manner. But countries
have very different starting points and varying tendencies
to accept or resist globalization, thereby influencing the
level of within and between country inequalities (Sassen,
1996). National specific institutions, such as employment
and industrial relations systems, education systems, the
degree of decommodification from the welfare regime and
migration restrictions all operate as ‘filters’ of these
globalization pressures (Mills et al., 2008). We know that
there are distinct national variations of occupational
structures and industries, patterns of labour-capital
negotiations, strike frequencies and collective agreements
on wages, job security, labour conditions, and work hours
(Streeck, 1992; Soskice, 1993). Globalization operates to
disperse and fragment these national structures, and via the
threat of compe-tition, pose increased demands and
flexibility on the domestic labour force (Beck and Beck-
Gernsheim, 2009).
Diverse approaches to
‘Globalization and Inequality’
The papers in this special issue are intentionally diverse
and provocative, covering disparate theoretical and
empirical approaches towards the topic of globaliza-
tion, and inequality in addition to coverage in different
areas of world. We start with the extreme example of
the within-country inequality of the U.S. (Massey) and
then move to a discussion of intergenerational or age-
based inequality in Germany (Beck and Beck-
Gernsheim). The focus then shifts to between country
levels of inequality and diverse interpretations of
globalization in Mexico and China (Gereffi). We then
conclude with an overarching paper that explores both
within and between-country inequality across the life
course of individuals in a variety of modern societies
(Buchholz et al., 2009).
The seminal contribution by Massey addresses the
resurgence of income inequality in the United States. In
this study of arguably one of the most unequal societies
in the world, Massey demonstrates how globalization
has resulted in extreme within-country inequality. He
positions these key differences in relation to the unique
institutional filter within this country that exposes
individuals at the bottom of the socioeconomic
hierarchy more overtly to globalization. Massey traces
this inequality to America’s legacy of racism, where the
political system aids the already wealthy to further
enhance their position.
Beck and Beck-Gernsheim propose a new theory of
the ‘global generation’. In comparison to previous
generations, they contend that this group departs from
‘collective action to engage in individualist reaction’. It
is a generation at odds with itself and at its very heart
by definition ‘unpolitical’. They offer the critique of
methodological nationalism and argue that the current
global generation of youth is increasingly not limited to
the borders of its own nation state. This generation, they
argue, takes on a transnational iden-tity, characterized
by growing diversity. Here, the authors enter the heated
debate of migration and the human right to mobility.
They also ponder the frag-mented identities of young
Germans with an immi-grant background and depart
from nation-bound generational constructs to build a
more transnational generational concept of the ‘global
generation’.
The contribution by Gereffi is a strong representa-
tion of the economic approach within this field of
research and highlights the experiences of the emerg-
ing economies of China and Mexico. Although both
countries engaged in export-oriented development
strategies in response to globalization, they experienced
very different outcomes. Mexico took on the ultimate
neo-liberal globalization model, characterized by FDI,
privatization and financial openness. This was in con-
trast to China who even in the light of high levels of
foreign capital inflows and exports, still managed to
maintain a strong state-level approach. Gereffi con-
cludes by reflecting on why China has been so suc-
cessful in the U.S. market in comparison to Mexico,
which he largely attributes to supply-chain cities.
The final article by Buchholz and colleagues
examines the impact of globalization on life course and
employment careers inequalities across industria-lized
societies. It summarizes the results of a large research
project (GLOBALIFE: Life Courses in the
Globalization Process) that used micro-level panel and
retrospective survey data across a variety of countries to
examine inequalities across all phases of the life course.
They found that more highly-skilled mid-career men
were the most protected groups from the forces of
globalization, with young adults being the most
‘exposed’ and thus encountering the most difficulties.
They conclude that globalization does not reduce, but
rather strengthens existing social inequality struc-tures,
which remains highly controlled by national
institutional structures of social inequality.
This brief review of globalization and inequality
demonstrated the importance of understanding the oper-
ationalization of concepts, choice of data, population-
weighted or unweighted analyses, and the method of
income calibration in interpreting the seemingly
Downloaded from http://esr.oxfordjournals.org/
at Cornell University Library on December 15, 2014
lOMoARcPSD| 40799667
GLOBALIZATION AND INEQUALITY 7
contrasting results in this area of research. Via a conceptual
model, this article also highlighted the potentially
divergent inequality outcomes in industrial versus
developing economies that emerge because of
globalization. Although globalization remains an
inherently broad and complex construct, it is possible to
partially operationalize and examine the impact of this
macro-level force on different nations and the individuals
within them. Just as with inequality, however, it is key to
transparently express how global-ization is measured. Of
course, we must also contend that other exogenous factors
are present and that direct causality is often difficult to
definitively establish. Regardless, there is evidence that
large changes in many societies across the world such as
internationalization, financial openness, new ICTs and
migration are generating specific patterns of inequality in
industria-lized, and developing economies. The challenge
for the future will be handling the consequences of these
increases (and decreases) in inequality and striving to
create not only a more globally balanced society, but facing
the large inequalities within our own countries.
References
Alderson, A. S. and Nielsen, F. (2002). Globalization
and the great U-turn: income inequality in 16
OECD countries. American Journal of Sociology,
107, 12441299.
Beck, U. and Beck-Gernsheim, E. (2009). The global
generation and the trap of methodological nation-
alism. For a cosmopolitan turn in the sociology of
youth and generation. European Sociological
Review, 25, in press.
Beckfield, J. (2006). European regional integration and
income inequality. American Sociological Review,
71, 964985.
Borjas, G. J. (ed.) (2000). Issues in the Economics of
Immigration, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bornschier, V., Chase-Dunn, C. and Rubinson, R.
(1978). Cross-national evidence of the effects of
foreign investment and aid on economic growth and
inequality: A survey of findings and a reanalysis.
American Journal of Sociology, 84, 651683.
Brown, C. and Campbell, B. A (2002). The impact of
technological change on work and wages. Industrial
Relations, 41, 133.
Buchholz, S., Hofa¨cker, D., Mills, M., Blossfeld, H.-P.
et al. (2009). Life courses in the globalization
process: The development of social inequalities in
modern societies. European Sociological Review,
25, in press.
Burtless, G. (1995). International trade and the rise in
earnings inequality. Journal of Economic
Literature, 33, 800816.
Castells, M. (1996). The information age: Economy,
society and culture, Volume 1, Oxford: Blackwell.
Castells, M. (2001). The Internet Galaxy. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Dahrendorf, R. (1979). Life Chances. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Dollar, D. and Kraay, A. (2002). Spreading the wealth.
Foreign Affairs, 81, 120133.
Feld, S. (2005). Labor force trends and immigration in
Europe. International Migration Review, 39, 637
662.
Firebaugh, G. (1992). Growth effects of foreign and
direct investment. American Journal of Sociology,
98, 105130.
Firebaugh, G. (1999). Empirics of world income
inequality. American Journal of Sociology, 104,
15971630.
Firebaugh, G. (2003). The New Geography of Global
Income Inequality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
Firebaugh, G. and Goesling, B. (2004). Accounting for
the recent decline in global income inequality.
American Journal of Sociology, 110, 283312.
Fligstein, N. (2002). The Architecture of Markets:
An Economic Sociology of Twenty-First-Century
Capitalist Societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press.
Gereffi, G. (2009). Development models and industrial
upgrading in China and Mexico. European
Sociological Review, 25, in press.
Goesling, B. and Baker, D. P. (2008). Three faces of
international inequality. Research in Social
Stratification and Mobility, 26, 183198.
Greenspan, A. (1997). The globalization of finance. The
Cato Journal, 17, 18.
Grusky, D. B. (Ed.) (2001). Social Stratification: Class,
Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective.
Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Guille´n, M. (2001). Is globalization civilizing, destruc-
tive or feeble? A critique of five key debates in the
social science literature. Annual Review of
Sociology, 27, 235260.
Held, D., McGrew, A., Goldblatt, D. and Perraton, J.
(Eds) (1999). Global Transformations, Stanford.
CA: Stanford University Press.
International Monetary Fund (IMF). (2007). World
Economic Outlook 2007: Globalization and
Inequality. Washington, D.C.: IMF.
Downloaded from http://esr.oxfordjournals.org/
at Cornell University Library on December 15, 2014
lOMoARcPSD| 40799667
8 MILLS
Jorgenson, D. W. and Vu, K. (2005). Information
technology and the world economy. Scandinavian
Journal of Economics, 107, 631650.
Korzeniewicz, R. P. and Moran, T. P. (1997). World-economic
trends in the distribution of income, 1965 1992. American
Journal of Sociology, 102, 10001039.
Krugman, P. and Lawrence, R. Z. (1993). Trade, Jobs
and Wages. Working Paper No. 4478, Washington,
D.C.: National Bureau of Economic Research.
Massey, D. (2009). Globalization and inequality:
explaining American exceptionalism. European
Sociological Review, 25, in press.
Milanovic, B. (2005). Worlds Apart: Measuring
International and Global Inequality. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
Mills, C. W. (1963). The sociology of stratification. In
Horowitz, I. L. (Ed.), Power, Politics and People:
The Collected Essays of C. Wright Mills. New York:
Oxford University Press, pp. 305323.
Mills, M. and Blossfeld, H.-P. (2005). Globalization,
uncertainty and the early life course: a theoretical
framework. In Blossfeld, H.-P., Klijzing, E., Mills,
M. and Kurz, K. (Eds), Globalization, Uncertainty
and Youth in Society. London and New York:
Routledge, pp. 124.
Mills, M., Blossfeld, H.-P., Buccholz, S., Hofa¨cker, D.
et al. (2008). Converging divergences? An interna-
tional comparison of the impact of globalization on
industrial relations and employment careers.
International Sociology, 23, 563697.
Montanari, I. (2001). Modernization, globalization and
the welfare state: a comparative analysis of old and
new convergence of social insurance since 1930.
British Journal of Sociology, 52, 469494.
Pritchett, L. (1997). Divergence, big time. Journal of
Economic Perspectives, 11, 317.
Raab, M., Ruland, M., Scho¨nberger, B., Blossfeld, H.-
P. et al. (2008). GlobalIndex A sociological
approach to globalization measurement.
International Sociology, 24, 599634.
Ravallion, M. (2003). The debate on globalization,
poverty and inequality: why measurement matters.
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No.
3038, Washington, D.C.: World Bank.
Sala-i-Martin, X. (2006). The world distribution of
income: falling poverty and . . . convergence,
period. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 121,
351397.
Sassen, S. (1996). Losing Control? Sovereignty in an
Age of Globalization. New York: Columbia
University Press.
Sen, A. (1999). Development as Freedom. New York:
Knopf.
Soskice, D. (1993). The institutional infrastructure for
international competitiveness: a comparative anal-
ysis of the UK and Germany. In Atkinson, A. B.
and Brunetta, R. (Eds), The Economics of the New
Europe. London: Macmillan.
Streeck, A. (1987). The uncertainties of management in
the management of uncertainties: employees, labor
relations and industrial adjustment in the 1980s.
Work Employment and Society, 1, 281308.
Streeck, W. (1992). Social Institutions and Economic
Performance: Studies in Industrial Relations in
Advanced Capitalist Economies. London: Sage.
Useem, M. (1996). Investor Capitalism. New York:
Basic Books.
Wade, R. H. (2004). Is globalization reducing poverty
and inequality? World Development, 32, 567589.
Weber, M. (1958). In Gerth, H. H. and Wright Mills, C.
(Eds), From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. New
York: Oxford University Press.
Wood, A. (1994). North-South Trade, Employment, and
Inequality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Author’s Address
Department of Sociology/ICS, Faculty of Behavioural
and Social Sciences, University of Groningen,
Grote Rozenstraat 31, 9712 TG, Groningen, The
Netherlands. Email: m.c.mills@rug.nl
Downloaded from http://esr.oxfordjournals.org/
at Cornell University Library on December 15, 2014
| 1/9

Preview text:

lOMoAR cPSD| 40799667
Mills 2008 - Globalization and Inequality
Advanced reading (Đại học Khoa học Xã hội và Nhân văn, Đại học Quốc gia Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh) lOMoAR cPSD| 40799667 European Sociological Review
VOLUME 25 NUMBER 1 2009 1–8 1
DOI:10.1093/esr/jcn046, available online at www.esr.oxfordjournals.org
Online publication 30 August 2008 Globalization and Inequality Melinda Mills
Globalization is increasingly linked to inequality, but with often divergent and polarized findings.
Some researchers show that globalization accentuates inequality both within and between
countries. Others maintain that these claims are patently incorrect, arguing that globalization D o
has disintegrated national borders and prompted economic integration, lifting millions out of w n l
poverty, and closing the inequality gap. This article presents a review of current research that o ade
links globalization to inequality. Core problems behind contra-dictory findings appear to rest in d fr
the operationalization of inequality and globalization, availability and quality of data, population- o m
weighted versus unweighted estimates; and, the method of income calibration to a common h ttp
currency in the study of income inequality. A theoretical model charts the mechanisms linking ://es
globalization to inequality, illustrating how it generates increased inequality within industrialized r. o x
nations and decreased inequality within developing economies. The article concludes with a fo rd
description of the papers in this special issue and situates them within the broader literature. j o u rn al s.org/ at Cornell Introduction
problems in the study of inequality. The second section U n i
then defines globalization and develops a theoretical v er s
The rise of globalization has been accompanied by the
model to chart the mechanisms that link it to inequality ity
debate of whether it comes at the cost of grow-ing
in industrialized and developing economies. The article L ib
inequality. Globalization is increasingly linked to
concludes with a description of the papers in this rar y
inequality, but with often divergent and polarized
special issue and situates them within the broader on
results. Critics of globalization have argued that it
literature on this topic. Each article is provocative and D e
accentuates inequality both within and between coun-
challenging in its own right, addressing the many sides cem
tries (Firebaugh, 2003; Wade, 2004). Although globa-
of this topic from different areas of the world and b er
lization may improve both the relative and absolute
equally different perspectives within sociology. 1 5 ,
incomes of individuals around the world, some findings 2 0 1
show that there are clear winners and losers. Others Has Inequality Grown? 4
maintain that these claims are patently incor-rect,
arguing that globalization has disintegrated national A Critical Examination
borders and prompted economic integration, lifting
millions out of poverty and closing the inequal-ity gap
A review of the literature on globalization and
(Dollar and Kraay, 2002). But which of these findings
inequality reveals that evidence is vigorously argued in
are correct? Does globalization lead to higher
all directions. Some researchers appear to convinc-ingly
inequality? Why are there so many divergent results?
argue that there has been a growth in inequality over
The aim of this introductory article is to present a
time (Wade, 2004) whereas others adamantly report
review of current research on globalization and inequal-
stability or even a reverse in the inequality trend over
ity. The first section engages in a critical summary of
time (Firebaugh and Goesling, 2004; Milanovic, 2005;
the central findings in this area of research, followed by
Sala-i-Martin, 2006). The core problem behind these
isolating key conceptual and methodological
seemingly contradictory findings appears to be
The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org lOMoAR cPSD| 40799667 2 MILLS
a methodological one, related to four key issues:
comparisons (Ravallion, 2003). The central difference
(i) the operationalization of inequality, (ii) availability
is whether the measures are calculated as household
and quality of data, (iii) population-weighted versus
consumption-based Gini indexes or using income-based
unweighted estimates; and, (iv) in the study of income
surveys. The difference is not trivial since con-
inequality, the technique used in the calibration of
sumption-based indices are both more commonly used
incomes into a common currency. These choices result
in developing economies (e.g. Asia, Africa, Central and
in different predictions about not only the direction of
Eastern Europe) and also produce estimates of lower
inequality, but also the onset of the timing of changes in
inequality. The reason that they are often applied in inequality trends.
these countries, as opposed to the income-based mea-
The classic and perhaps most obvious factor related
sures often used in developed economies, is attributed
to the divergent inequality findings is both a concep-
to the fact that the measurement of incomes is often
tual and data-related question: How is inequality
difficult in these contexts, due to higher levels of self- D
operationalized or measured? This is interrelated to the
employment in agriculture or business (IMF, 2007). o w
central research problem or motivation of the research,
Since consumption is also often self-reported, these n lo
but also to the second core issue, which is the
measures likewise suffer from typical methodological ade
availability and/or quality of data. The majority of the
problems such as differences in definitions of con- d fr
globalization and inequality literature has focused on
sumption; recall problems and variation in the length of o m
income inequality, often measured as a change in the
recall period, and other related factors. Income-based http
Gini coefficient (critically discussed in more detail
measures also suffer from similar data collection ://es
shortly) (Alderson and Nielson, 2002). Alternative
problems, including the fact that surveys are often not r. o
measures such as the mean logarithmic deviation of
entirely nationally representative and underreport the x fo
income (MLD) index of inequality are sometimes used
income of high-income groups, thereby under- rd jo
(Sala-i-Martin, 2006), but the Gini coefficient remains
estimating inequality. The operationalization of glob- u rn the dominant choice.
alization is another related issue, discussed in the next al s.o
Classic sociological approaches have characterized section. rg/
inequality as a multidimensional construct based on the
A third culprit of differences in estimates related to at C
stratifying factors of not only income, but also other
globalization and inequality is whether countries are o rn
social and cultural domains (Weber, 1958; Mills, 1963;
weighted by population size or treated merely as equal ell
Dahrendorf, 1979). Studies that deviate or expand upon
units in cross-national comparisons (Firebaugh, 1999). U n i
inequality beyond income are, however, rare. Sen Population-weighted studies report that income v er s
(1999) is an exception, maintaining that we need to
inequality has declined, due to the relatively high ity
examine inequality in personal freedoms. More
weight of China and India, where inequality has sharply L ib
recently, Goesling and Baker (2008) introduced a
declined over the past 20 years (Milanovic, 2005; Sala- rar y
multidimensional operationalization of inequality, by
i-Martin, 2006). These types of results provide a better on
examining not only income, but also health and
picture of global inequality as opposed to variations in D ecem
educational inequality across countries. Beyond the
cross-national differences. Unweighted results that treat
actual measure, there is also the question of whether
each country as equal are more useful to distinguish b er
inequality is studied as the unequal distribution of between cross-national differences related to 1 5 ,
income within or between countries (Alderson and
institutional effects such as national eco-nomic policy 201
Nielsen, 2002; Beckfield, 2006), or a combination of
or growth (Goesling and Baker, 2008). 4 both (Milanovic, 2005).
A final methodological problem that occurs when
A growing body of literature has focused on trends in
income is used as the central measure is the calibration
within-country income inequality. Here, the Gini index
of incomes to a common comparative currency. This in
is the most commonly used measure, which summarizes
turn produces divergent predictions about the timing or
the income distribution within a country (Ravallion,
onset of changes in inequality trends. Two central
2003). It illustrates the range between a perfectly equal
techniques used to calibrate incomes into a common
distribution (a Gini coefficient of 0) to the highest
currency across the countries are either via the
possible condition of inequality of
purchasing power parity (PPP) or unadjusted foreign
where one person would hold all of the income (a Gini
exchange rates. Studies that calibrate incomes using
coefficient of 1). Although the Gini measure is widely unadjusted foreign exchange rates, such as applied, there are some serious conceptual,
Korzeniewicz and Moran (2007), find that the decline
methodological, and definitional issues that make it
in inequality did not come about until the 1990s.
difficult to interpret when engaging in cross-national
Whereas those who use the PPP converters show lOMoAR cPSD| 40799667 GLOBALIZATION AND INEQUALITY 3
that population-weighted inequality started to decline
et al., 2008). Globalization can be defined as four
almost 10 years earlier in the early 1980s (Goesling and
interrelated structural shifts that roughly occurred since Baker, 2008).
the 1980s of: (i) internationalization of markets and
Although these measurement problems exist, there
declining importance of borders for economic
appears to be a general consensus about the trends in
transactions, (ii) tougher tax competition between
inequality. Among researchers using population-
countries, (iii) rising worldwide interconnectedness
weighted inequality measures, results show that there through new Information and Communication
has been a decline in income inequality across coun-
Technologies (ICTs), and (iv) the growing relevance
tries (Milanovic, 2005; Sala-i-Martin, 2006). Using and volatility of markets (Mills and Blossfeld,
population-weighted income inequality data from 138 2005). The mechanisms, which link these
countries from 1979 to 2000, Sala-i-Martin (2006), for
aspects of globalization to inequality, are outlined
example, showed that the level of income inequality in Figure 1.
across countries declined sharply over time. However, D
A central engine of globalization is the internation- o w
when income shares are examined by quintiles, we see
alization of markets and subsequent decline in the n lo
that income inequality has increased mainly in the
importance of national borders for all kinds of ade
middle- and high-income countries, and less so in the
economic transactions. This includes changes in laws, d fr
low-income countries (IMF, 2007). o
institutions, or practices that make various transactions m
There is also evidence that income inequality across
(in terms of commodities, labour, services, and capital) h ttp
countries far exceeds that of inequality within coun-
easier or less expensive across national borders, includ- ://es
tries and that it has grown across time (Korzeniewicz
ing trade. The growth of international regulatory insti- r. o
and Moran, 1997; Guille´n, 2001). As Goesling and
tutions and political agreements that facilitate capital x fo
Baker (2008, p. 184) state: ‘The world’s largest
flows have generally operated to liberalize and interna- rd jo
inequalities are not defined by race, class, or gender, but
tionalize financial markets, resulting in more financial u rn
by national borders’. Average incomes in the richest
openness (Fligstein, 2002). This includes the deregu- al s.o
countries in the world far exceed those in the poorest
lation of interest rates, privatization of government- rg/
countries, with estimates of incomes that are 40–50
owned banks and financial institutions, and the removal at C
times greater in these countries (Pritchett, 1997). This of credit controls. o rn
reflects the increasing divergence between countries
A second interrelated aspect of globalization is the ell
produced by globalization, not growing convergence U
rise in tougher tax competition, often accompanied by n i
(see also Mills et al., 2008). v
‘neoliberal’ globalization tendencies. The notion that er s
An additional area of study is within-country
capital and labour are increasingly mobile works as a ity L
inequality, which is highly dependent upon the nation
powerful threat for competition. Countries have mainly ibrar
under study. Examining the Gini coefficient of income
been affected in terms of a modification of the tax y
inequality, for example, Alderson and Nielsen (2002)
structure rather than through retrenchment of the on
demonstrate that globalization explains the longitudinal
welfare state (Massey, 2009). Central neo-liberal D ecem
trend of increasing inequality across 16 OECD
measures to enhance competition include the removal
countries. By examining the impact of glob-alization
or relaxation of government regulation of economic b er
measures such as direct investment outflow, North-
activities (deregulation), a shift towards the reliance on 1 5 ,
South trade and net migration rate over the period from
price mechanisms to coordinate economic activities 2 0 1
1967 to 1992, they find rising inequality within
(liberalization) and the transfer of ownership and 4
countries such as the United States, Australia, and
control over previously public ownership to private
Denmark and declining and then rising inequality in
entities (privatization). The core of these transforma-
countries such as Germany, Japan, Great Britain, and
tions has been to enhance efficiency, productivity and the Netherlands.
profitability while simultaneously allowing firms and
nations to be more competitive, flexible and react more
rapidly to change (Montanari, 2001).
The Impact of Globalization on
World trade, trade integration, and financial openness Inequality
have significantly grown since the early 1980s (IMF,
2007). World trade has, in fact, grown five times from
Globalization represents a set of economic, political,
the 1980s to 2005 with trade openness increasing
and cultural processes that operate simultaneously and
particularly in the former Eastern bloc and developing
has suffered from similar operationalization problems
Asian countries (IMF, 2007, p. 33). Integration and
(Held et al., 1999; Guille´n, 2001; Raab
financial openness has also intensified, lOMoAR cPSD| 40799667 4 MILLS GLOBALIZATION
Internationalization of Increased competition New ICTs & increased Rising relevance and markets between nations interconnectedness volatility of markets INCREASES IN: Financial Trade Foreign Direct ICT capital Migration and openness Investment investment & use mobility of D workers o w n lo ad e
NATIONAL INSTITUTIONAL FILTERS d fr o m Education systems Employment & Welfare regime Migration restrictions h tt industrial relations p : / systems /es r. o x fo rd j o u rn
INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES DEVELOPING ECONOMIES al s Deindustrialization  Industrialization .or g
Weaker bargaining position of labour / a
Capital flight/ international relocation of jobs  Capital arrival/new jobs t C o
Increased premium on higher skills for rn knowledge-based industries
Increased premium on lower skills for labour- ell
Shift from higher wages in industrial sector intensive industries U n
to lower wages in service sector
Increase in wages for lower-skilled workers iver
Rise in higher-skilled workers’ incomes
Reduction in higher-skilled workers’ incomes si ty L ibrar y INCREASE IN INEQUALITY DECREASE IN INEQUALITY o n D ecem
AGGREGATE OBSERVATIONS OF INEQUALITY b e r 1 5 , 201
Figure 1 Mechanisms linking globalization to inequality. (Source: Adapted from Mills and Blossfeld, 2005). 4
particularly between the advanced economies. Trade is
in competition with low-wage workers in the South
often used as a tangible measure of globalization, using
(Wood, 1994). However, some argue that this does not
measures such as international trade, and speci-fically
hold, as the net effect of imports on average wages
‘North-South’ trade (Krugman and Lawrence, 1993;
appears to be minimal (Krugman and Lawrence, 1993).
Wood, 1994; Burtless, 1995; Alderson and Nielsen,
In addition to trade, another measure often used to
2002). As Figure 1 illustrates, trade is one factor of
capture globalization is the level of foreign direct
globalization that has the potential to increase
investment (FDI) and how it in turn impacts the income
inequality in industrialized countries due to the fact that
distribution of countries (Bornschier, Chase-Dunn and
it reduces the average wage and enhances inequalities in
Rubinson, 1978; Firebaugh, 1992). More intensive
the relative wages between skilled and unskilled
competition and the softening of trade bar-riers opens
workers. It reduces wages in the North due to the fact
new markets for firms based in industri-alized
that these workers are suddenly
countries. Globalization prompts a ‘capital flight’ lOMoAR cPSD| 40799667 GLOBALIZATION AND INEQUALITY 5
of firms as they engage in FDI to replace domestic
between individuals (Castells, 2001). New ICTs allow
production (Gereffi, 2009). Firms in search of lower
people to share information in order to connect and
labour costs and/or more lenient tax systems or
create an instant common worldwide standard of
employment regulations invest abroad. As a result,
comparison. Although the introduction of technology is
there is a process of deindustrialization in the home
not unique in itself, recent ICTs have fundamentally
country that weakens the bargaining position of work-
altered the scope (widening reach of networks of social
ers and produces rising inequality. This deindustrial-
activity and power), intensity (regularized connec-
ization entails a shift away from typically higher wages
tions), velocity (speeding up of interactions and
in the manufacturing and industrial sector in more
processes), and impact (local impacts global) of
industrialized countries to be replaced by comparatively
transformations (Held et al., 1999).
lower average wages in service sector jobs, thereby
New ICTs and technology have sometimes been
resulting in increased inequality (Alderson and Nielson,
included within the definition of globalization or as a
2002). Conversely, globalization appears to decrease D
parallel force. One way to measure the impact of ICTs o w
the level of inequality in many developing economies
is by examining the intensification of ICT capital n lo
via the growth in industrialization, new employment
investment within countries, such as higher national ade
possibilities, and increase in wages for lower-skilled
expenditures on computer hardware and software, and d fr
labour-intensive workers, accompanied by a subsequent
telecommunications equipment (Jorgenson and Vu, o m
reduction in the wages of higher-skilled workers. These
2005). Others have measured it by examining the level h ttp
factors operate together to decrease the level of
of socio-technical interconnectedness via measures such ://es
inequality within these countries. The contrasting
as the number of Internet hosts and users per capita and r. o
impacts of inequality are therefore a key reason why
other related communication technology availability x fo
results differ according to whether countries are rd
and usage within a society (Raab et al., 2008). ICTs, jo
population-weighted or treated as equal units. u
together with liberalized and internatio-nalized financial rn al
It is also not only firms that are mobile. We are
transactions, create a financial ‘super-market’ for global s.o
witnessing a growing number of migrant workers, par-
business-to-business transaction and stock exchanges, rg/
ticularly in light of more lenient mobility regulations in
cross-border banking, and finance that stretch across the at C
areas such as the European Union (Feld, 2005).
world on a real-time basis (Greenspan, 1997; Castells, o rn
Different countries have diverse levels of migrants,
2001). New technol-ogy has also prompted a wave of ell
which likewise contribute to the level of inequality
automation, char-acterized by flexible, and accelerated U n i
within each society. Borjas (2000) points to migration
production processes. It not only increases production, v er s
in the United States as a central factor contributing to
but also results in a shift from the demand for lower- ity
inequality. Borjas (2000) argues that immigration is
skilled workers to a more highly qualified knowledge- L ib
related to inequality in this context due to the fact that
based labour force (Brown and Campbell, 2002). rar y
both rises in immigration and inequality coincide with on
one another, and that there is not only a bifur-cation of
A final feature of globalization is the rise in both the D ecem
low and highly skilled migrants, but also a growth of
relevance, but also simultaneously, the volatility of
lower-skilled immigrants. Alderson and Nielson (2002,
markets. Market prices and their transformations b er
p. 1256) argue that ‘the combination of a high
increasingly convey information and set the standard 1 5 ,
immigration rate with an immigrant population
for the global demand of various goods, services and 2 0 1
characterized by low average skills and high skills
assets, and the relative costs of producing and offering 4
variance has been seen as a certain recipe for increased
them (Useem, 1996). Yet these markets are becoming
inequality’. This can be related to Grusky’s (2001)
ever more dynamic and unpredictable. Competition
work on income disparities as a function of race, class,
forces firms to operate in a state of perpetual innovation
and gender and Massey’s (2009) argument in this
and flexibility, which in turn heightens the instability of
volume that the realignment of the U.S. political
markets (Streeck, 1987). New ICTs likewise accelerate
economy and tax system is traced to racism in this
market transactions (Castells, 1996). This in turn makes country.
long-term developments of globalizing markets
A third aspect of globalization is the rising world-
inherently harder to predict. Global prices are also more
wide interconnectedness through the information and
liable to fluctuations because worldwide supply,
communication technology (ICTs) revolution, such as
demand, or both are becoming increasingly susceptible
microcomputers, the Internet, new satellite systems and
to random disrup-tions caused somewhere on the globe
fiber-optic cables. These accelerate the liberal-ization of
(for example, major scientific discoveries, technical
financial transactions and communication inventions, lOMoAR cPSD| 40799667 6 MILLS
new consumer fashions, major political upsets such as
Beck and Beck-Gernsheim propose a new theory of
wars and revolutions, economic upsets, and so on).
the ‘global generation’. In comparison to previous
Globalization is often presented as a blanket force
generations, they contend that this group departs from
impacting all nations in a similar manner. But countries
‘collective action to engage in individualist reaction’. It
have very different starting points and varying tendencies
is a generation at odds with itself and at its very heart
to accept or resist globalization, thereby influencing the
by definition ‘unpolitical’. They offer the critique of
level of within and between country inequalities (Sassen,
methodological nationalism and argue that the current
1996). National specific institutions, such as employment
global generation of youth is increasingly not limited to
and industrial relations systems, education systems, the
the borders of its own nation state. This generation, they
degree of decommodification from the welfare regime and
argue, takes on a transnational iden-tity, characterized
migration restrictions all operate as ‘filters’ of these
by growing diversity. Here, the authors enter the heated
globalization pressures (Mills et al., 2008). We know that
debate of migration and the human right to mobility.
there are distinct national variations of occupational
They also ponder the frag-mented identities of young D o w
structures and industries, patterns of labour-capital
Germans with an immi-grant background and depart n lo
negotiations, strike frequencies and collective agreements
from nation-bound generational constructs to build a ade
on wages, job security, labour conditions, and work hours
more transnational generational concept of the ‘global d fr
(Streeck, 1992; Soskice, 1993). Globalization operates to generation’. o m
disperse and fragment these national structures, and via the
The contribution by Gereffi is a strong representa- h ttp
threat of compe-tition, pose increased demands and
tion of the economic approach within this field of ://es
flexibility on the domestic labour force (Beck and Beck-
research and highlights the experiences of the emerg- r. o Gernsheim, 2009).
ing economies of China and Mexico. Although both x fo rd
countries engaged in export-oriented development jou Diverse approaches to
strategies in response to globalization, they experienced rn al
very different outcomes. Mexico took on the ultimate s
‘Globalization and Inequality’ .o
neo-liberal globalization model, characterized by FDI, rg/
privatization and financial openness. This was in con- at C
The papers in this special issue are intentionally diverse
trast to China who even in the light of high levels of o rn
and provocative, covering disparate theoretical and
foreign capital inflows and exports, still managed to ell
empirical approaches towards the topic of globaliza-
maintain a strong state-level approach. Gereffi con- U n i
tion, and inequality in addition to coverage in different
cludes by reflecting on why China has been so suc- v er s
areas of world. We start with the extreme example of
cessful in the U.S. market in comparison to Mexico, ity
the within-country inequality of the U.S. (Massey) and
which he largely attributes to supply-chain cities. L ib
then move to a discussion of intergenerational or age- rar
The final article by Buchholz and colleagues y
based inequality in Germany (Beck and Beck-
examines the impact of globalization on life course and on
Gernsheim). The focus then shifts to between country
employment careers inequalities across industria-lized D ecem
levels of inequality and diverse interpretations of
societies. It summarizes the results of a large research
globalization in Mexico and China (Gereffi). We then project (GLOBALIFE: Life Courses in the b er
conclude with an overarching paper that explores both
Globalization Process) that used micro-level panel and 1 5 ,
within and between-country inequality across the life
retrospective survey data across a variety of countries to 2 0 1
course of individuals in a variety of modern societies
examine inequalities across all phases of the life course. 4
(Buchholz et al., 2009).
They found that more highly-skilled mid-career men
The seminal contribution by Massey addresses the
were the most protected groups from the forces of
resurgence of income inequality in the United States. In
globalization, with young adults being the most
this study of arguably one of the most unequal societies
‘exposed’ and thus encountering the most difficulties.
in the world, Massey demonstrates how globalization
They conclude that globalization does not reduce, but
has resulted in extreme within-country inequality. He
rather strengthens existing social inequality struc-tures,
positions these key differences in relation to the unique which remains highly controlled by national
institutional filter within this country that exposes
institutional structures of social inequality.
individuals at the bottom of the socioeconomic
This brief review of globalization and inequality
hierarchy more overtly to globalization. Massey traces
demonstrated the importance of understanding the oper-
this inequality to America’s legacy of racism, where the
ationalization of concepts, choice of data, population-
political system aids the already wealthy to further
weighted or unweighted analyses, and the method of enhance their position.
income calibration in interpreting the seemingly lOMoAR cPSD| 40799667 GLOBALIZATION AND INEQUALITY 7
contrasting results in this area of research. Via a conceptual
modern societies. European Sociological Review,
model, this article also highlighted the potentially 25, in press.
divergent inequality outcomes in industrial versus
Burtless, G. (1995). International trade and the rise in developing economies that emerge because of earnings inequality. Journal of Economic globalization. Although globalization remains an
Literature, 33, 800–816.
inherently broad and complex construct, it is possible to
Castells, M. (1996). The information age: Economy,
partially operationalize and examine the impact of this
society and culture, Volume 1, Oxford: Blackwell.
macro-level force on different nations and the individuals
Castells, M. (2001). The Internet Galaxy. Oxford:
within them. Just as with inequality, however, it is key to Oxford University Press.
transparently express how global-ization is measured. Of
Dahrendorf, R. (1979). Life Chances. Chicago:
course, we must also contend that other exogenous factors University of Chicago Press.
are present and that direct causality is often difficult to
Dollar, D. and Kraay, A. (2002). Spreading the wealth. D
definitively establish. Regardless, there is evidence that
Foreign Affairs, 81, 120–133. o w
large changes in many societies across the world such as
Feld, S. (2005). Labor force trends and immigration in n lo
internationalization, financial openness, new ICTs and
Europe. International Migration Review, 39, 637– aded
migration are generating specific patterns of inequality in 662. fr o
industria-lized, and developing economies. The challenge
Firebaugh, G. (1992). Growth effects of foreign and m h
for the future will be handling the consequences of these
direct investment. American Journal of Sociology, ttp
increases (and decreases) in inequality and striving to 98, 105–130. ://es
create not only a more globally balanced society, but facing
Firebaugh, G. (1999). Empirics of world income r. o x
the large inequalities within our own countries.
inequality. American Journal of Sociology, 104, fo rd 1597–1630. jo u rn
Firebaugh, G. (2003). The New Geography of Global al s References .
Income Inequality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard o rg/ University Press. at C
Alderson, A. S. and Nielsen, F. (2002). Globalization
Firebaugh, G. and Goesling, B. (2004). Accounting for o r
and the great U-turn: income inequality in 16 n
the recent decline in global income inequality. ell
OECD countries. American Journal of Sociology,
American Journal of Sociology, 110, 283–312. U n 107, 1244–1299. i
Fligstein, N. (2002). The Architecture of Markets: v er
Beck, U. and Beck-Gernsheim, E. (2009). The global
An Economic Sociology of Twenty-First-Century s ity
generation and the trap of methodological nation-
Capitalist Societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton L ib
alism. For a cosmopolitan turn in the sociology of University Press. rar y
youth and generation. European Sociological
Gereffi, G. (2009). Development models and industrial on Review, 25, in press.
upgrading in China and Mexico. European D ecem
Beckfield, J. (2006). European regional integration and
Sociological Review, 25, in press.
income inequality. American Sociological Review,
Goesling, B. and Baker, D. P. (2008). Three faces of b er 71, 964–985. international inequality. Research in Social 1 5 ,
Borjas, G. J. (ed.) (2000). Issues in the Economics of
Stratification and Mobility, 26, 183–198. 2 0 1
Immigration, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Greenspan, A. (1997). The globalization of finance. The 4
Cato Journal, 17, 1–8.
Bornschier, V., Chase-Dunn, C. and Rubinson, R.
Grusky, D. B. (Ed.) (2001). Social Stratification: Class,
(1978). Cross-national evidence of the effects of
Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective.
foreign investment and aid on economic growth and Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
inequality: A survey of findings and a reanalysis.
Guille´n, M. (2001). Is globalization civilizing, destruc-
American Journal of Sociology, 84, 651–683.
tive or feeble? A critique of five key debates in the
social science literature. Annual Review of
Brown, C. and Campbell, B. A (2002). The impact of
Sociology, 27, 235–260.
technological change on work and wages. Industrial
Held, D., McGrew, A., Goldblatt, D. and Perraton, J. Relations, 41, 1–33.
(Eds) (1999). Global Transformations, Stanford.
Buchholz, S., Hofa¨cker, D., Mills, M., Blossfeld, H.-P.
CA: Stanford University Press.
et al. (2009). Life courses in the globalization
International Monetary Fund (IMF). (2007). World
process: The development of social inequalities in
Economic Outlook 2007: Globalization and
Inequality
. Washington, D.C.: IMF. lOMoAR cPSD| 40799667 8 MILLS
Jorgenson, D. W. and Vu, K. (2005). Information
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No.
technology and the world economy. Scandinavian
3038, Washington, D.C.: World Bank.
Journal of Economics, 107, 631–650.
Sala-i-Martin, X. (2006). The world distribution of
Korzeniewicz, R. P. and Moran, T. P. (1997). World-economic
income: falling poverty and . . . convergence,
trends in the distribution of income, 1965– 1992. American
period. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 121,
Journal of Sociology, 102, 1000–1039. 351–397.
Krugman, P. and Lawrence, R. Z. (1993). Trade, Jobs
and Wages. Working Paper No. 4478, Washington,
Sassen, S. (1996). Losing Control? Sovereignty in an
D.C.: National Bureau of Economic Research.
Age of Globalization. New York: Columbia University Press.
Massey, D. (2009). Globalization and inequality:
Sen, A. (1999). Development as Freedom. New York:
explaining American exceptionalism. European Knopf.
Sociological Review, 25, in press. D
Soskice, D. (1993). The institutional infrastructure for o w
Milanovic, B. (2005). Worlds Apart: Measuring
international competitiveness: a comparative anal- n lo
International and Global Inequality. Princeton, NJ:
ysis of the UK and Germany. In Atkinson, A. B. ad Princeton University Press. e
and Brunetta, R. (Eds), The Economics of the New d fr
Mills, C. W. (1963). The sociology of stratification. In
Europe. London: Macmillan. o m
Horowitz, I. L. (Ed.), Power, Politics and People:
Streeck, A. (1987). The uncertainties of management in htt
The Collected Essays of C. Wright Mills. New York:
the management of uncertainties: employees, labor p ://
Oxford University Press, pp. 305–323. es
relations and industrial adjustment in the 1980s. r. o
Mills, M. and Blossfeld, H.-P. (2005). Globalization,
Work Employment and Society, 1, 281–308. x fo
uncertainty and the early life course: a theoretical rd jo
framework. In Blossfeld, H.-P., Klijzing, E., Mills,
Streeck, W. (1992). Social Institutions and Economic u rn
M. and Kurz, K. (Eds), Globalization, Uncertainty
Performance: Studies in Industrial Relations in al s.
and Youth in Society. London and New York:
Advanced Capitalist Economies. London: Sage. o rg Routledge, pp. 1–24. /
Useem, M. (1996). Investor Capitalism. New York: at C
Mills, M., Blossfeld, H.-P., Buccholz, S., Hofa¨cker, D. Basic Books. o r
et al. (2008). Converging divergences? An interna-
Wade, R. H. (2004). Is globalization reducing poverty n ell
tional comparison of the impact of globalization on
and inequality? World Development, 32, 567–589. U n
industrial relations and employment careers. iver
International Sociology, 23, 563–697. s
Weber, M. (1958). In Gerth, H. H. and Wright Mills, C. ity
Montanari, I. (2001). Modernization, globalization and
(Eds), From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. New L ib
the welfare state: a comparative analysis of old and
York: Oxford University Press. rar
new convergence of social insurance since 1930.
Wood, A. (1994). North-South Trade, Employment, and y on
British Journal of Sociology, 52, 469–494.
Inequality. Oxford: Oxford University Press. D ecem
Pritchett, L. (1997). Divergence, big time. Journal of
Economic Perspectives, 11, 3–17. Author’s Address b er
Raab, M., Ruland, M., Scho¨nberger, B., Blossfeld, H.- 1 5
P. et al. (2008). GlobalIndex – A sociological , 2
Department of Sociology/ICS, Faculty of Behavioural 0 approach to globalization measurement. 1 4
and Social Sciences, University of Groningen,
International Sociology, 24, 599–634.
Grote Rozenstraat 31, 9712 TG, Groningen, The
Ravallion, M. (2003). The debate on globalization,
Netherlands. Email: m.c.mills@rug.nl
poverty and inequality: why measurement matters.