The contributions in this book highlight,contextualize and analyze different aspects of social inequality. What are thevarious cause and effects of inequality? How have these changed over recentdecades? Which social policies might be best able to intervene? Written byauthors from a variety of disciplines and geographical regions, thesecontributions provide a rich account of inequality within contemporary society.The role of the state, the media and the market in exacerbating and alleviatingpatterns of equality are all accessed alongside analysis of changing patternsof exclusion and hierarchy.