Fragments of Inequality: Social, Spatial, and Evolutionary Analyses of Income Distribution

Aims to answer the most fundamental questions on inequality and income distribution. This book argues that social fragmentation and spatial fragmentation are the principal sources of income inequality, and shows how these factors change and thereby effect changes in distributional patterns. One of the key concerns of all social scientists is inequality. It is not only one of the central problems of human existence, but an enormously complex phenomenon that is continuously changing. Using an interdisciplinary framework, "Fragments of Inequality" answers the most fundamental questions on inequality and income distribution. Author Chakravorty argues that social fragmentation and spatial fragmentation are the principal sources of income inequality, and shows how these factors change and thereby effect changes in distributional patterns. The first book-length treatment of a social theory of income distribution and the of an evolutionary approach to distributional analyses, Chakravorty's work shifts the discourse from a historical linear to historicized punctuated equilibrium models, from individuals to groups, and from abstract to fragmented space in order to culminate in a fundamental shift from economic to social theories of inequality. A key text, this volume will be of interest to sociologists, geographers, and development economists, and is appropriate for use in graduate-level and upper-level undergraduate courses in inequality, economics, international studies, globalization and sociology.