ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the inequalities which exist within the European Union, a region which is often seen as constituting one of the cores of the contemporary global economy. Class conceptions are widely derived from Marxist ideas about a person's position with regard to processes of employment. According to Coates et al. social well-being refers to a family of overlapping concepts that include level of living, quality of life, social satisfaction, social welfare and standards of living. An intriguing inconsistency that has been identified for voting behaviour in the UK is the manner in which relationships between social class and ballot-box decisions have weakened over time at the level of individual voters, but have strengthened at the constituency level. Expressed in terms of gross domestic product per head, the wealth map of the European Union reveals a pattern of extremely low ratings in the South, with a band running from northern Italy through Austria and southern Germany as high spots.
