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Inequality in America

Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Edited by Barbara Hahn & Kerstin Schmidt in collaboration with Jasmin Falk.

Ten essays address inequality in America from a variety of perspectives, ranging from literary and cultural studies, sociology, economics, political science, history, geography, as well as museum studies. - In the United States, income inequality has increased significantly. For decades, wage growth has been especially slow for the middle class, whereas the top 10% of earners has benefitted the most from the economic upswing. The same is true for distribution of wealth. According to an analysis by the Pew Research Center, the wealth gap between America's upper-income and lower-income families has reached its highest level. There are not only disparities between regions of the United States, but also huge differences within American cities themselves that are often caused by urban governance and housing policies. All this is true for Canada and other countries of the Americas as well, but to differing degrees. By the same token, racial and ethnic inequalities, as well as inequalities along gender lines, leave a deep mark on different countries of the Americas and are often the result of a lack of social justice, equality of opportunity, or access to education and health services. This wide range of systemic and structural inequalities is also negotiated in cultural practices, as novels, plays, short stories, or artistic productions thematize differences between individuals and groups of society, often along the "color line". - From the Table of Contents: Barbara Hahn and Kerstin Schmidt: Inequality in America. An Introduction. - Colin Gordon: American Inequality. A Primer. - Susanne Pickel: Unequal Democracies in Europe. Modes of Participation, Understanding, and Perception of Democracy. - Lisa Keister: Why Don’t Americans Care About Inequality? - Axel R. Schäfer: Inequality, Ethnopolitics, and Social Welfare. US Health Care Reform in the World War I Era. - David Wilson: Creeping Commodification and Resistance to its Inequalities. Chicago’s South Side Blues-Scape. - Eberhard Rothfuß: On a Paradox of Urban Inequality. The Brazilian Favela between Spatial Visibility and Social Invisibility. - Julia Faisst: Moving In and Out, Up and Down. Real Estate in Twenty-First Century Drama. - Shirley Elizabeth Thompson: Making Black Lives Matter at the (New) Nadir. The Legacy of Charles Chesnutt for Black Activism in the New Millennium. - Rinaldo Walcott: After "Black Lives Matter". Black Death, Capitalism, and Unfreedom. - Jodi Giesbrecht: Exhibiting Inequality at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. 168 Seiten mit 10 Farb- und 13 s/w-Abb., gebunden (Publikationen der Bayerischen Amerika-Akademie/Publications of the Bavarian American Academy; Band 19/Universitätsverlag Winter 2017)