Despite the fact that the globalization process tends to reinforce existing inequality
structures and generate new areas of inequality on multiple levels systematic analyses on this
very important field remain scarce. Hence this book approaches the complex question of
inequality not only from different regional perspectives covering Africa Asia Europe Latin
and Northern America but also from different disciplinary perspectives namely cultural
anthropology economics ethnology geography international relations sociology and
political sciences.The contributions are subdivided into three essential fields of research:
Part I analyzes the socio-economic dimension of global exclusion highlighting in particular
the impacts of internationalization and globalization processes on national social structures
against the background of theoretical concepts of social inequality. Part II addresses the
political dimension of global inequalities. Since the declineof the Soviet Union new regional
powers like Brazil China India and South Africa have emerged creating power shifts in
international relations that are the primary focus of the second part. Lastly Part III
examines the structural and transnational dimension of inequality patterns which can be
concretized in the rise of globalized national elites and the emergence of multinational
networks that transcend the geographical and imaginative borders of nation states.
