Taking an unconventional stance on globalization, this study argues that searching in the slums of big western cities for social inequality is no longer adequate. Instead, patterns of social inequality are increasingly fluid, and their extension beyond national borders and the global circulation of capital, products, people, and ideas are making it necessary to examine inequality on global, national, local, and domestic levels in order to truly confront it. Offering a broad overview of traditional and contemporary theories of inequality, the book seeks to advance the notion that issues surrounding democracy, citizenship, elite power, gender gaps, and racial divisions are now the crucial topics for continued research and analysis.About the Author: Jan Pakulski is dean of arts at the University of Tasmania and the coauthor of The Death of Class, Postcommunist Elites and Democracy in Eastern Europe, and Postmodernization.