How Has Globalisation Affected Inequalities Between Societies?

Stratification is not only something that happens inside a country. The world itself is layered, with a handful of rich societies at the top and many poorer ones below, and globalisation, the growing flow of people, money, goods and ideas across borders, is reshaping that global order every day. Does it lift poorer societies up by spreading trade, technology and investment, or does it keep them down by draining their wealth into the rich world? Sociologists are sharply divided, and that argument is the heart of this lesson.

You will learn why people migrate and what migration does to the societies they leave and join, how giant transnational companies shape the fortunes of whole countries, and how climate change, pollution and rapid city growth hit the poorest hardest. You will then meet the two great theories of global inequality, modernisation and dependency, and see how Marxist ideas of exploitation, the legacy of colonialism and feminist ideas of patriarchy fit in. By the end you will be able to argue whether globalisation narrows or widens the gap between societies.