Reference no: EM132792908

Goran Therborn/Mechanisms of Inequality

Summarize (a minimum of 400 words) 3 kinds of inequality and 4 mechanisms of inequality discussed by Goran

In Week One we discussed three perspectives on globalization (skeptics, globalists, and transformationalist) and their analysis of the global economic, political, and cultural processes. Each one of these perspectives evaluates the world based on certain assumptions about the global economy, political power relations, and the positive and/or negative consequences of globalization. In week Two, we covered lives 'behind the doors of exclusion' and effects of economic inequality (social sundering, economic squandering, political distortion and dictat-ship).

As Goran Therborn, in the Killing Fields of Inequality, indicates:

Inequality is a violation of human dignity; it is a denial of the possibility for everybody's human capabilities to develop. It takes many forms, and it has many effects: premature death, ill-health, humiliation, subjection, discrimination, exclusion from knowledge or from mainstream social life, poverty, powerlessness, stress, insecurity, anxiety, lack of self-confidence and of pride in oneself, and exclusion from opportunities and life chances. Inequality, then, is not just about the size of the wallet. It is a socio-cultural order, which (for most of us) reduces our capabilities to function as human beings, our health, our self-respect, our sense of self, as well as our resources to act and participate in this world (Therborn, 2013, p. 1).

In week Three, we will cover the current world patterns of inequality and continue analyzing different kinds of inequality (vital, existential, and resource).

Vital (in)equality : Life chances of human organisms
-Mortality rates, life expectancy, health expectancy, birth weight, child growth
Existential (In)equality Capability of persons
-Allocations of personal autonomy, recognition & respect, & of their opposites of heteronomy, denial, & humiliation and how they affect one's life situations, including mind and body.
Resource (in)equality: Resources of social actors
-Bases, "capitals", to draw upon
Income, wealth
Culture, education
Social contacts
Power
-Access, to environmental resources & to opportunities
Access to water, sanitation, health & care services
Access to opportunities of mobility & change

Furthermore, Therborn explains the roots, dynamics, and interactions of the three kinds of inequality and how they affect one's life situations, including mind and body. It is crucial to understand that inequalities are socially produced and sustained through dominant power relations (economics, political, and ideological). They are produced and maintained through 'systematic arrangements and processes', and by 'distributive action, individual as well as collective'. Thus, the possible solutions to inequalities are also achievable through social processes and human participation.
Four mechanisms of Inequalities (Table 4):
-Distanciation,
-Exclusion
-Hierarchization
-Exploitation
Four Mechanisms of Equality (Table 5):
-Approximation
-Inclusion
-De-hierarchization
-Redistribution
Goran Therborn leaves us with few fundamental questions to ponder:

• Did world inequality arise mainly because of distanciation at the time of the Industrial Revolution, with the North Atlantic economies running ahead and away?

• Or was it also due to hindering exclusive practices, like the crowding-out of Indian manufacturers by the British rulers, the violent 'opening' of China, the hierarchization of the whole world into a 'civilized' colonizing part and an 'uncivilized' colonized part?

• To what extent was Western European prosperity, and its initial industrial advantage, built upon colonial exploitation, of the Americas in particular?

• Is the recent widening of income differentials in the US and elsewhere due to technological change and to ensuing labour demand shifts, widening the distance between the high and the low-skilled, or is it significantly an effect of the excluding processes of a social and political disorganization of the popular classes? (Therborn, 2013, p. 67)

In the following documentary John Pilger investigates the role of multinational corporation and international financial institutions such as International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) in relation to global poverty and the widening gap between rich and poor nations from within and without. In the documentary by Stephanie Black, Life and Debt - Behind the Lens - the role of international financial institutions are further investigated in Jamaica.

The World Bank Group's mission is carved in stone at our Washington headquarters: "Our Dream is a World Free of Poverty." This mission underpins all of our analytical, operational, and convening work in more than 145 client countries, and is bolstered by our goals of ending extreme poverty within a generation and promoting shared prosperity in a sustainable manner across the globe. There has been marked progress on reducing poverty over the past decades. The world attained the first Millennium Development Goal target-to cut the 1990 poverty rate in half by 2015-five years ahead of schedule, in 2010. Despite the progress made in reducing poverty, the number of people living in extreme poverty globally remains unacceptably high. And given global growth forecasts, poverty reduction may not be fast enough to reach the target of ending extreme poverty by 2030.

• According to the most recent estimates (Links to an external site.), in 2015, 10 percent of the world's population lived on less than US$1.90 a day, compared to 11 percent in 2013. That's down from nearly 36 percent in 1990.
• Nearly 1.1 billion fewer people are living in extreme poverty than in 1990. In 2015, 736 million people lived on less than $1.90 a day, down from 1.85 billion in 1990.

While poverty rates have declined in all regions, progress has been uneven:

• Two regions, East Asia and Pacific (47 million extreme poor) and Europe and Central Asia (7 million) have reduced extreme poverty to below 3 percent, achieving the 2030 target.

• More than half of the extreme poor live in Sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, the number of poor in the region increased by 9 million, with 413 million people living on less than US$1.90 a day in 2015, more than all the other regions combined. If the trend continues, by 2030, nearly 9 out of 10 extreme poor will be in Sub-Saharan Africa.

• The majority of the global poor live in rural areas, are poorly educated, employed in the agricultural sector, and under 18 years of age.

The work to end extreme poverty is far from over, and many challenges remain. In much of the world, growth rates are too slow, and investment is too subdued to increase median incomes. For many nations, poverty reduction has slowed or even reversed. The latest projections show that if we continue down a business-as-usual path, the world will not be able to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030. That's because it is becoming even more difficult to reach those remaining in extreme poverty, who often live in fragile countries and remote areas. Access to good schools, health care, electricity, safe water, and other critical services remains elusive for many people, often determined by socioeconomic status, gender, ethnicity, and geography. The multidimensional view-wherein other aspects such as education, access to basic utilities, health care, and security are included-reveals a world in which poverty is a much broader, more entrenched problem. The share of poor according to a multidimensional definition that includes consumption, education, and access to basic utilities is approximately 50 percent higher than when relying solely on monetary poverty. Moreover, for those who have been able to move out of poverty, progress is often temporary: Economic shocks, food insecurity and climate change threaten to rob them of their hard-won gains and force them back into poverty. It will be critical to find ways to tackle these issues as we make progress toward 2030.