Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 198
•
Trim: 6⅛ x 9⅜
978-1-5381-0055-4 • Hardback • July 2017 • $103.00 • (£79.00)
978-1-5381-0056-1 • Paperback • July 2017 • $36.00 • (£30.00)
978-1-5381-0057-8 • eBook • July 2017 • $34.00 • (£25.00)
Peter L. Callero is professor of sociology at Western Oregon University. He is the author or co-author of several books, including The Myth of Individualism: How Social Forces Shape Our Lives.
Chapter 1 – What is Social Inequality?Chapter 2 – What does Identity have to do with Inequality?Chapter 3 – How does Identity Contribute to the Reproduction of Inequality?Chapter 4 – How is Identity Used to Resist Inequality?Chapter 5 – What is the Relationship between Micro and Macro Inequality?
Awareness of the profound structural inequalities that haunt the United States and the globe could not be more critical. But structures are abstract, and it can be all too easy for people, both in advantaged and even in marginalized positions, to be blind to the inequalities that social structures create and maintain. In this volume, Peter Callero brings these inequalities to life by telling the stories of individual people, showing how inequalities are organized through and experienced in human identities. As Callero clearly demonstrates, identities play a critical role in both making and breaking societal inequalities. By showing the power of resistance, Callero leaves his readers with hope for a more just world.
— Judith A. Howard, University of Washington
Peter Callero covers a large amount of conceptual ground in a concise and engaging manner. The writing style is exceptionally clear, and the concepts and examples are captivating. Being Unequal is a teaching tool that successfully provides a textbook summary of existing research, but scholars will also read and cite this book.
— Scott R. Harris, Saint Louis University
Linking everything from Jay-Z’s misogynistic lyrics to Emory University’s denial of slave labor, Peter Callero once again shows us why identities matter and how they influence social outcomes, and why he is one of the key social psychologists to read on this topic.
— Rashawn Ray, University of Maryland
Introduces the power of identity categories associated with race, class, gender, and sexuality
Explores the processes of identity formation
Examines social inequality through the lens of identity
Highlights how identity can increase and reproduce inequality, as well as how it can resist and reform it
Shows how social movements in support of racial justice, LGBT liberation, gender equality, and a more democratic economy have altered the power and value of identity categories
Explores both macro and micro social forces of power, dominance, and privilege
Filled with historic and contemporary examples, including discrimination against Native Americans both historically and today, the Civil Rights Act and its legacy, gender equality and whether it has stalled or not, the reasons behind income disparities, the impact of collective action such as WTO protests, and much more
Offers a conceptual framework for identity and inequality rooted in identity theory, symbolic interactionism, and social psychology