The Facts of Inequality
Abstract This review essay looks at two important recent books on the empirical social science of inequality, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett's The Spirit Level and John Hills et al.'s Towards a More Equal Society?, situating these books against the important work of Michael Marmot on e...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2010
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| In: |
Journal of moral philosophy
Year: 2010, Volume: 7, Issue: 3, Pages: 397-409 |
| Further subjects: | B
Domination
B STATUS B PICKETT B Health B INEQUALITY B WILKINSON B HILLS B MARMOT B EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE B EPIDEMIOLOGY B SOCIAL POLICY B SELF-RESPECT |
| Online Access: |
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| Summary: | Abstract This review essay looks at two important recent books on the empirical social science of inequality, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett's The Spirit Level and John Hills et al.'s Towards a More Equal Society?, situating these books against the important work of Michael Marmot on epidemiology and health inequalities. I argue that political philosophy can gain a great deal from careful engagement with empirical research on the nature and consequences of inequality, especially in regard to empirical work on the relationship between socioeconomic inequality, status, self-respect, domination, autonomy, the quality of social relations, and societal health outcomes. The essay also raises some methodological questions about the approach taken by Wilkinson and Pickett, as well as questioning the ways in which their argument is (or is not) best understood as being fundamentally egalitarian in character. It concludes with some reflections, prompted by Hills et al., on the lessons that should be learned by egalitarians from the experience of the Blair and Brown governments in the UK. |
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| ISSN: | 1745-5243 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of moral philosophy
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/174552410X511383 |