This book provides detailed coverage of the key dimensions of the nature and extent of inequality and difference in Australian society. As well as incorporating arguments about the effects of globalisation on inequality and difference in Australia, it also features arguments about the role of culture in the social reproduction of hierarchy and difference. Arguments about the nature of inequality are ‘tested’ against empirical evidence, and case studies in each chapter provide examples to aid student understanding.

• New approach reflects the most current thinking. ‘The cultural turn’ is the underlying argument throughout the book and is the focus of Part 3.
• Includes consideration of ‘the political’ as a key sphere that shapes the field.
• Strong on theoretical and empirical content, but written in an engaging style and includes a glossary of key terms to aid understanding.
• Explores the 5 key questions that are prevalent in this area of study:

Part 1: Theorising Social Inequality
1. Social inequality: A short history of an idea
2. Classical theories of inequality and their modern developments
3. Transformations of class theory: From class to identity
4. Poverty, social exclusion and the welfare state
Part 2: Spheres of inequality
5. The material sphere
6. The political sphere
7. The cultural sphere
Part 3: Sites of inequality
8. Knowledge, education and technology
9. The labour market
10. The family
11. Place and space: Locational inequality
12. The body
Part 4: Conclusion
13. Australia at the crossroads: Clustering and complex inequalities

Daphne Habibis – Senior Lecturer, School of Sociology and Social Work, University of Tasmania

Maggie Walter – Senior Lecturer, School of Sociology and Social Work, University of Tasmania