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Abstract
The structures that we use to think and talk about inequality influence how we make sense of disparities, and also contribute to political choices and calls for change. While local and national inequalities and perceptions thereof have been widely studied, studies at wider geographic scales are comparatively rare. Here I investigate how teachers in Kenya, Mexico and the UK critique inequality. From group discussions, three main arguments against inequality emerged in each of the three countries: (1) the framing of inequality as an inclusive and relational concept; (2) moral distaste for the coexistence of extreme wealth with poverty; and (3) attributing the causes of inequality to larger political and economic systems. The analysis reveals that when people describe themselves as being connected to, enmeshed within, responsible for, or morally outraged by inequality, their critiques of it tend to be stronger. In contrast, those who offer weaker critiques of inequality position themselves as separate from it, or as having no leverage to challenge it. The strong discourses already in the public sphere offer support for policy interventions aimed at reducing inequality. This identification of stronger and weaker discursive challenges to inequality may be mirrored in public discussions of other global challenges.
Acknowledgements
I thank the editor, reviewers, Clive Oppenheimer, Danny Dorling and Peter Jackson for their encouragement and constructive feedback. Martin Ortiz Gonzalez and Alvaro Crispin Sanchez enabled my work in Mexico. In Kenya I was supported by Elizabeth Nzuki, Kevin Cook and Celia Nyamweru. This research was funded by the ESRC and Dudley Stamp Memorial Trust.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 UNDP, Human Development Report, 1.
2 Wilkinson and Pickett, Spirit Level.
3 ISSC and IDS, Challenging Inequalities, 26.
4 Cornwall and Rivas, “From ‘Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment’”; and Wilkinson and Pickett, Spirit Level.
5 McAdam et al., Dynamics of Contention.
6 Marsh, “Keeping Ideas in Their Place,” 694.
7 White, Equality.
8 Pieterse, Global Inequality: Bringing Politics Back in,” 1024.
9 Wilkinson and Pickett, Spirit Level.
10 Marmot et al., Fair Society, Healthy Lives.
11 Halvorsen, “Spatial Dialectics and the Geography,” 445.
12 Bourdieu, “Conditions Sociales de la Circulation Internationale,” 3–8; Bourdieu and Wacquant, “Nouvelle Vulgate Planétaire”; Reis and Moore, “Elites, Perceptions and Poverties”; and Barford, “Discourses Supporting Socio-Economic Inequality.”
13 UNU-WIDER, “World Income Inequality Dataset.”
14 Marsh, “Keeping Ideas in Their Place”; Tronto, Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument.
15 Grugel and Uhlin, “Renewing Global Governance,” 1704.
16 McAdam et al., Dynamics of Contention, 49.
17 Stevens, “Telling Policy Stories,” 237–255; Lacey, “Universal Basic Income as Development Solution?,” 95; and Standing, “How Cash Transfers Promote the Case,” 26.
18 Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, 471–570; Wilkinson and Pickett, Spirit Level, 229–265; and Barford and Pickett, “How to Build a More Equal American Society.”
19 Tilly, “Anthropology Confronts Inequality.”
20 Koch, “Towards an Anthropology of Global Inequalities,” 254.
21 Wilkinson and Pickett, Spirit Level; Piketty, Capital in the twenty-first century.
22 Béteille, “Inequality and Equality,” 1017–19; D. J. Smith, “Corruption Complaints, Inequality and Ethnic Grievances,” 787–9; Ystanes, “#sosfavelas: Digital Representations of Violence,” 85.
23 Gudeman, Anthropology and Economy, 173.
24 Cornwall and Rivas, “From ‘Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment,’” 397; Ystanes, “#sosfavelas: Digital Representations of Violence,” 85; O’Higgins, Rising to the Youth Employment Challenge; UNDP, Human Development Report.
25 Tilly, “Anthropology Confronts Inequality.”
26 Wilkinson and Pickett, Spirit Level; and Wilkinson and Pickett, Inner Level.
27 Pickett, “Enemy Between Us.”
28 Pogge, World Poverty and Human Rights; Miller, “Feminist Account of Global Responsibility,” 394.
29 Miller, “Feminist Account of Global Responsibility,” 399–405; Tronto, “Care as the Work of Citizens,” 131.
30 Gilligan, “Moral Orientation and Moral Development,” 20.
31 Robinson, Globalizing Care, 41.
32 Fraser, “Reframing Justice in a Globalizing World,” 252–262.
33 Massey, “Geographies of Responsibility,” 8–9.
34 Spivak, Other Asias, 21.
35 Barford, “Representing.”
36 Bourdieu and Wacquant, “Nouvelle Vulgate Planétaire”; A doxa is that which appears self-evident – the unquestioned truths, including what is thinkable, sayable, and what is so obvious it is not stated.
37 Jackson, Maps of Meaning, 49.
38 Durkheim, Division of Labour in Society, 52.
39 Cohen, States of Denial, 9.
40 Engels, “Letter from Engels to Franz Mehring.”
41 Durkheim, Division of Labour in Society.
42 Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice.
43 Bourdieu, “Social Structures and Mental Structures.”
44 Urry, Anatomy of Capitalist Societies.
45 Cohen, States of Denial.
46 Urry, Anatomy of Capitalist Societies.
47 Barford, “Discourses Supporting Inequality”.
48 Polet, “Introduction: The Dynamism and Challenges.”
49 Harvey, Enigma of Capital, 215.
50 Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice, 169.
51 Ghosh, “Downside Up.”
52 Thake, Individualism and Consumerism: Reframing the Debate, 7; Corbridge, “Waiting in Line”; Heynen et al., “Conclusion: Unnatural Consequences”; and Ghosh, “Global Inequity Must End.”
53 D. M. Smith, Moral Geographies.
54 Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 40.
55 Fairclough, Language and Globalisation, 163.
56 Yeates, “Social Policy and Politics.”
57 wa Thiong’o, Re-membering Africa; Paz, Labyrinth of Solitude; and Pew Research Centre, “Pew Global Attitudes Project”; Schubert, “Unity, Plurality, and/or Hybridity.”
58 Hamnet, Concise History of Mexico; Harvey, Brief History of Neoliberalism; and Himbara, Kenyan Capitalists, the State, and Development.
59 World Bank, “World Development Indicators.”
60 Martini, “Syrian Wars of Words,” 6; Bourdieu, “Conditions Sociales de la Circulation Internationale”; and Bourdieu and Wacquant, “Nouvelle Vulgate Planétaire.”
61 Goss and Leinbach, “Focus Groups as Alternative Research Practice”; Holbrook and Jackson, “Shopping Around: Focus Group Research”; and Marsh, “Keeping Ideas in Their Place,” 694.
62 Bedford and Burgess, “Focus-Group Experience.”
63 Bourdieu, “Social Structures and Mental Structures.”
64 Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires.
65 Yin, Case Study Research, 39, 44.
66 Goss and Leinbach, “Focus Groups as Alternative Research Practice”; and Wood and Kroger, Doing Discourse Analysis.
67 Burgess, “Focusing on Fear”; Kneale, “Working with Groups”; and Miles and Huberman, Qualitative Data Analysis.
68 Miles and Huberman, Qualitative Data Analysis, 47–48.
69 Noxolo, “My Paper, My Paper,” 61.
70 Ibid., 61; Jazeel and McFarlane, “Limits of Responsibility,” 115, 122.
71 Barford, “Emotional Responses Inequality.”
72 Barford, “Discourses Supporting Inequality”.
73 BBC, “Disgust at new job”; Fred Goodwin was blamed for almost destroying the Royal Bank of Scotland (one of Britain’s biggest banks) at the time of the global financial crisis.
74 Uzzell and Räthzel, “Transforming Environmental Psychology.”
75 Cohen, States of Denial.
76 Barford, “Emotional Responses Inequality.”
77 Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires.
78 Robinson, Globalizing Care; Miller, “Feminist Account of Global Responsibility”; and Tronto, “Care as the Work of Citizens.”
79 Uzzell, “Psycho-Spatial Dimension of Global Environmental Problems.”
80 Ibid.
81 Collier, Bottom Billion.
82 Rowlingson and Connor, “‘Deserving’ Rich.”
83 Strong, “Underclass Ontologies.”
84 Urry, Anatomy of Capitalist Societies.
85 Rowlingson, “What Can We Do to Solve.”
86 Sen, “Reducing Global Injustice.”
87 Daloz, “Political Elites and Conspicuous Modesty,” 200–201.
88 Rowlingson and Connor, “‘Deserving’ Rich”; and Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century.
89 Cohen, States of Denial, 9.
90 Robinson, Globalizing Care, 99.
91 Gilligan, “Moral Orientation and Moral Development,” 20.
92 Barford, “Discourses Supporting Inequality.”
93 Urry, Anatomy of Capitalist Societies.
94 Chomsky, “Remarks on Nominalization”; and Heynen et al., “Conclusion: Unnatural Consequences.”
95 Chatterton and Pickerill, “Everyday Activism and Transitions.”
96 Cameron and Palan, Imagined Economies of Globalization.
97 Chatterton and Pickerill, “Everyday Activism and Transitions.”
98 wa Thiong'o, Re-membering Africa.
99 Spivak, “Other Asias; and Spivak, “Ethics and Politics in Tagore, Coetzee.”
100 Charles, “Decolonising the Curriculum.”
101 Uzzell, “Psycho-Spatial Dimension of Global Environmental Problems.”
102 Gilligan, “Moral Orientation and Moral Development,” 20.
103 Wilkinson and Pickett, Spirit Level; and Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century.
104 Wilkinson and Pickett, Inner Level.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Anna Barford
Anna Barford Social, Economic and Health Geographer. She has a persistent interest in inequality, poverty, and policy. Her current research focuses on (1) the potential for decent work within a more circular economy, and (2) the lack of decent jobs for young people in lower income settings in the context of climate change. Anna is a Prince of Wales Global Sustainability Fellow at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.