Full Citation
Title: Inequality: Historical and Disciplinary Approaches
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2017
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Abstract: This essay calls for historians leadership in assembling social-science scholarship to clarify the global social crisis of inequality. Its critique of economists focus on income and wealth calls for study of inequality in the social, cultural, health, and climate arenas. It links the crisis of social inequality to that of environmental degradation, arguing that programs of economic growth bring threats of ecological disaster. To document this argument, interdisciplinary research is underway at the Collaborative for Historical Information and Analysis (CHIA), testing three hypotheses: that inequality arises mainly from social construction (e.g., the building of physical and metaphorical walls), that natural factors add somewhat to inequality, and that inequality is more harmful than beneficial to social welfare. The article enumerates the major technical and interpretive challenges that have so far prevented social scientists from effective analysis of global patterns. Broader collaboration is proposed with the scientific groups studying ecological change and the human genome. Historical and other scholars are urged to contribute by submitting historical data to the CHIA archive through its data submission link, to join in the collaborative analysis that can develop knowledge to be proposed for policy implementation.
Url: https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article/122/1/1/2967165/Inequality-Historical-and-Disciplinary
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Authors: Manning, Patrick
Periodical (Full): The American Historical Review
Issue: 1
Volume: 122
Pages: 1-22
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Methodology and Data Collection, Other
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