Equality and Economy: The Global Challenge

(Paperback)

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Anthropologist Michael Blim identifies equality as the key global issue of our time, as the value above others that will improve human wellbeing. Using it as a measure for policy, he demonstrates how taking equality seriously will change how our economies could function to provide greater wellbeing both in the United States and worldwide. His book will be valuable to readers concerned with transnational economies, global anthropology, and the study of work and labor. Visit our website for sample chapters!

Reviews

Dr. Blim's book is written as an engaged introduction to the nature of the contemporary global economy. He argues for the centrality of equality as the key value in a world where economic growth has failed to decrease levels of inequality, and that such a situation is morally indefensible and requires a consideration of alternative forms of economy and society that would allow for considerable movement towards equality. -- Alan Smart, University of Calgary
The book is written beautifully and sincerely. The argument is supported by an impressive array of empirical evidence and theoretical reasoning. In light of recent shifts in world trade and economy, this book will be a timely salvo against reigning theories of social melioration by economic means, and a salve to readers seeking a more humane solution to the inequalities engendered, exacerbated, or ignored by capitalism. Blim's conclusions are theoretically and morally inescapable. -- Kalman Applbaum, Universtiy of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
In this very well informed and original analysis Blim presents a powerful appeal for a more just world. This is applied anthropology at its best. Blim combines his very sophisticated understanding of relevant history and theoryof capitalism, power and globalizationwith a sensitivity to and detailed knowledge of the everyday realities of life in a wide range of communities throughout the world. The thoroughness, the clarity, and the grasp of material from a range of disciplines and perspectives will make this a very effective book for use in a variety of courses including anthropological theory, applied anthropology, globalization, equality and inequality, social and cultural change, and social problems. -- Frances Rothstein, Towson University
Thus while many of the details have changed since Blim's book was written, its underlying arguments have been reinforced, made more explicit, and even become more generally accepted. * Anthropology of Work Review *
In Michael Blim's Economy and Equality, economic justice returns to anthropology on a grand scale. Blim offers an extraordinary anthropology of the world community that asks big questions about us as a community. I cannot wait to teach from it. It will provoke discussion among both students and scholars about international development, international organizations, and what it means for each of us to be a citizen of the world. -- Doug Porpora, Drexel University

Author Bio

Michael Blim is Associate Professor of Anthropology at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. His interests include the study of global capitalism, social theory, and aesthetics. He has done field research in Italy and the United States. Blim is the author of Made in Italy: Small-scale Industrialization and Its Consequences, and co-editor of Anthropology and the Global Factory.