Between Fault Lines and Front Lines: Shifting Power in an Unequal World [Paperback]

Inequality is one of today's greatest challenges, obstructing poverty reduction and sustainable development. As the power of elites grows and societal gaps widen, institutions representing the public good and universal values are increasingly disempowered or co-opted, and visions of social justice and equity side-lined.

This book explores the roles of elites and institutions of power in the deepening of social and economic cleavages across the globe, by asking how inequalities have reshaped structures from the local to the transnational level, and what consequences they have wrought. In addition, the contributors present examples of peaceful processes of policy change that have made societies greener and more socially just, levelled out social stratification, and devolved power and resources from elites to non-elites, or towards marginalized or discriminated groups. Based on cutting-edge empirical research, the chapters in this volume bring together conceptual thinking and a number of case studies from the Global North and South, combining different levels of analysis and a range of qualitative research methods to present solutions for closing the inequality gap.

Katja Hujois Senior Research Coordinator at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Switzerland.

Maggie Carteris Senior Research Analyst at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Switzerland.

Explosive, essential and urgent.Between Fault Lines and Front Linesexposes how the spiraling inequality we are witnessing is not a bug but a feature. It reveals that the key political challenge is not how to rescue people who get left behind, but rather how to break up the racketspushingpeople behind. It shows that empowering the displaced requires displacing the powerful. It demonstrates practical ways in which courageous policy-makers and determined social movements can together pull power away fló%