Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book agrees with Thomas Piketty's diagnosis of global economic inequality and with his call for a better sociological understanding of it. The book seeks to explore how sociocultures and the capitalist transformation combine to form structures of inequality in different nation-states. It also compares these structures in order to find similarities and differences and to draw more general theoretical conclusions. Each social class has a culture, which predisposes its members for specific institutions, institutional segments and functions in the division of work. On the basis of empirical research in four world regions, a new approach to the understanding of inequality has been developed. The life-course interview comprised questions in six categories: family background, childhood, education, leisure time and/or professional life, social life and perspectives for the future. The respondents were only interrupted if vital information was missing from their discourse.