Introduction

Economic thought has chosen a detour to arrive at the topic of inequality. Economics, in turn, can teach sociology the aim of drawing a broader picture and the recognition of the inevitably political character of a topic like inequality. The discourse is dominated by economists, even though inequality has formed the core of sociology ever since its emergence in the nineteenth century. The esoteric character of contemporary sociology is connected to two other reasons for the domination of economics in visible inequality discourses. Economics is presenting us a broad and impressive account of inequality. For instance, this is true not only for the Thomas Piketty book, Capital in the Twenty-first Century, but also for the White Paper of David Autor and Lawrence Katz, Grand Challenges in the Study of Employment and Technological Change, focusing on polarization, another way of tackling inequality. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.