The Mainstreaming of Global Inequality, 1980–2020

in Contributions to the History of Concepts
Author:
Christian Olaf Christiansen Associate Professor, Aarhus University, Denmark idecoc@cas.au.dk

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Abstract

This article maps the conceptual history of global inequality from its marginal status in the 1980s, its minute mainstreaming within research and globalization discourse from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s, until its popularization, politicization, and “economization” in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, recession, and the publication of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century in 2014. Asking when, why, and how global inequality became a key concept, it draws upon quantitative and qualitative analysis of global inequality in scientific articles, books, and public media. It traces transformations in the term's temporal and spatial meanings and situates these in the contexts of rising within-nation and declining between-nation inequality, inequality research, inequality in public media, and broader discursive fields.

Contributor Notes

Christian Olaf Christiansen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and History of Ideas at Aarhus University, Denmark. ORCID: 0000-0002-8949-9092. E-mail: idecoc@cas.au.dk

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