Social Stratification

Citation

Jackson, M., Dahir, N., Daviss, C., & Grusky, D. B. (Eds.). (2027). Social Stratification (5th ed.). Routledge.

Chapter Summary

This is an edited reader of about 250 numbered selections in more than 1,500 pages. Routledge describes the fifth edition as all new, with each piece "presented in readable, distilled form". It is divided into an introduction and sixteen parts, several of which are subdivided into themed clusters. The summary below follows those parts.

Introduction: The March of Inequality; The Laws of Inequality

Two chapters written by the four editors frame the volume. The first concerns the rise of inequality; the second sets out general regularities of inequality, and between them they give the reader a map before the selections begin.

Part I: Inequality in Comparative Perspective

Two selections place inequality in a comparative setting: Peter Hall on varieties of capitalism and Andrew Walder on state socialism and what followed.

Part II: Forces of History behind Inequality

The longest theoretical part is arranged in clusters. Under capitalism and power are Marx (the Communist Manifesto and the Preface to the Critique of Political Economy), Wallerstein, Du Bois on Marxism and the "Negro problem", Hartmann and Markusen on Marxism and feminism, Larry Diamond on the global democratic recession, and Jackson and Grusky on "The Loss Society". Rationalization brings in Weber, Schofer and Meyer, and Fourcade and Healy. Division of labour pairs Adam Smith and Durkheim with Jackson on specialization and Acemoglu and Johnson on AI. The race cluster runs from Du Bois and Omi and Winant to Wilson, Alba and Nee, Portes, Bonilla-Silva and work on Native American inequality; the gender cluster runs from He Zhen and Angela Davis to Goldin, England and Ridgeway.

Part III: Normative Theories of Inequality

Eight selections on what equality requires: Rawls, Nozick, Sen, Nussbaum, Roemer, Dworkin, Elizabeth Anderson and Peter Singer.

Parts IV–V: Income and Wealth Inequality; Class

Part IV gathers work on economic growth, global inequality, top incomes, the race between education and technology, unions, minimum wages, CEO pay, and wealth, including Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century. Part V returns to class with Marx, Weber's "Class, Status, Party" and "Status Groups and Classes", Parkin's critique of Marxist class theory, Bourdieu on forms of capital and in Distinction, Bukodi and Goldthorpe on class analysis, Lareau's Unequal Childhoods, and pieces on the psychology of class and the measurement of occupational prestige.

Parts VI–VII: Race and Ethnicity; Gender

Part VI starts with Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk and moves through racial identity, group-position theory, boundary processes, discrimination (including the audit study "Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?") and ethnic differences in academic achievement. Part VII covers gender as a social structure, intersectionality, transgender and sexuality research, the motherhood penalty, the pay gap, occupational segregation and sexual violence and harassment.

Parts VIII–XI: Elites; Poverty; Neighborhoods and Segregation; Inequality, Law, and Punishment

Part VIII covers elites, from Mosca's The Ruling Class and Mills's The Power Elite through Domhoff, Walder on China and Gouldner to studies of an adolescent elite and of the anxieties of the affluent. Part IX treats global and American poverty, welfare policy, eviction and the administrative burden of policy. Part X covers segregation, housing and neighbourhood effects. Part XI links inequality to policing, sentencing, incarceration, monetary sanctions and felony disenfranchisement.

Parts XII–XIV: Education; Labor Market Institutions; Who Gets Ahead?

Part XII covers schools, cultural reproduction, achievement gaps, desegregation, tracking and higher education. Part XIII turns to employment: automation, trade shocks, precarious work, employer power over wages and the role of social networks, including Granovetter's "The Strength of Weak Ties". Part XIV, on mobility, is divided into theory and measurement and trends and mechanisms.

Parts XV–XVI: Inequality's Broad Reach; What Can Be Done?

Part XV follows inequality into the environment, health, politics and social movements. Part XVI closes with policy: predistribution, taxes and transfers, public goods, the racial wealth gap, gender inequality policy, and "othering" and belonging.

Key Concepts

Introduction and Parts I–III

• Varieties of capitalism: Peter Hall's comparative lens on how national economic institutions shape inequality.
• Rationalization: Weber's term, and the cluster of Part II that applies it to stratification.
• Division of labor: the Part II cluster linking Smith and Durkheim to contemporary specialization.
• Capabilities and equality of what: the normative debate among Sen, Nussbaum, Dworkin and Anderson in Part III.

Parts IV–VII

• Top incomes and wealth concentration: the subject of the readings on top incomes and on Piketty's argument.
• Forms of capital; class, status, party: the classic frames for class analysis in Part V.
• Intersectionality: the title of Kimberlé Crenshaw's selection in Part VII.
• Discrimination: studied through field experiments and surveys in Part VI.

Parts VIII–XVI

• Neighborhood effects and segregation: Part X.
• Cultural and social reproduction: the title of Bourdieu's selection in Part XII.
• Social capital and weak ties: in Part XIII.
• Intergenerational mobility: Part XIV's central topic.
• Predistribution and redistribution: the vocabulary of Part XVI.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Breadth of the field in one place. The sixteen parts run from classical class theory and normative philosophy through income, wealth, race, gender, poverty, space, punishment, education, work and mobility, and on to health, climate and politics. Few single volumes put so many literatures side by side.
• Mixed vintage. The contents combine foundational texts (Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Du Bois, Smith) with studies from recent years, so a reader sees how current work responds to older arguments.
• Interdisciplinary reach. The publisher stresses economics, psychology, data science and sociology, and the contributors confirm it: philosophers, economists, sociologists and legal and policy scholars appear throughout.
• Policy closure. A final part on what can be done keeps the volume from being only a diagnosis.

Limitations

• Condensed selections. Each piece is described as distilled, so these are not the full articles or book chapters; anything you cite should be checked against the original.
• Scale. At roughly 1,500 pages and 250 selections, the volume cannot be read straight through, and it does not provide a narrative that connects the selections for a beginner.
• Weight of the United States. Many of the selection titles refer to American cases, institutions or data, with comparative and global pieces concentrated in parts such as I, IV and IX.
• Prior knowledge. The publisher says the book is "not for the faint of heart" and is meant for readers who want to master the field.

Where It Fits in the Course

This is the largest and most comprehensive book on the class and inequality list. Social Class in the 21st Century and Dennis Gilbert's The American Class Structure are the narrative introductions: the first draws on the Great British Class Survey, the second is a textbook model of American class structure. Manza and Sauder's Inequality and Society is a smaller undergraduate reader with editorial introductions, which makes it a gentler way to learn the same genre.

Erik Olin Wright's Understanding Class is a single-author treatment of class analysis that complements Part V, and Annette Lareau's Unequal Childhoods is a single-author work that also appears in the reader's own contents (Part V includes a selection from Lareau's book), so Social Stratification can serve as a sampler from which to choose a full book to read next. Omi and Winant's Racial Formation in the United States (Part II) and Bourdieu's Distinction (Part V) are also represented by selections, as are classic texts by Marx, Weber and Durkheim.

How to Use This Book

It is built for graduate students, advanced undergraduates and researchers who want to master the field rather than skim it. Read the two introductory chapters first, then choose parts that match your course or project: Part II for historical theory, Parts IV and V for the core of economic and class analysis, and Parts VI to XIV for specific institutions and groups.

Do not attempt to read every selection. A workable plan is to read a few pieces per part, always one classic and one recent, and to record what each measures and what data it uses. Follow up the pieces you intend to cite by reading the original work. Part XVI works well as a final seminar discussion once the diagnostic parts are done.