1. Discuss ways that countries and individuals can be classified within global stratification.
    
2. Describe forms of global stratification, including the global digital divide, health inequalities, and gender stratification.
    
3. Identify ways that countries’ positions within the global stratification structure might be improved.
    
4. Discuss structural/functional and conflict/critical theories of global stratification.
    
5. Explain some of the relationships between consumption and global stratification.

Summary

Global stratification refers to the hierarchical differences and inequalities among countries and individuals across the world. This stratification can be conceptualized in terms of the oppression and domination of the Global South by the Global North; in terms of differences among upper-, middle-, and low-income countries; or in terms of the differences between the richest and poorest (the “bottom billion”) individuals in the world. Global economic inequalities take many forms. For example, there is a large and persistent global digital divide, meaning that people in some countries have low levels of access to and use of the Internet. Differences in wealth also lead to global health inequalities, including vastly different life expectancies, levels of nutrition, and disease rates. Those in poor countries often deal with the dangerous waste produced by those in wealthy countries, and they do it for little economic reward. While gender stratification exists throughout the world, it is more pronounced in some countries. This includes men having greater access to employment, high-pay and high-status occupations, and wealth, while women are more likely to attain low-skill jobs that offer less pay and status. While global inequalities are highly persistent, it is possible for countries to develop economically and, sometimes, change their positions within the global stratification system. Some economists argue that while poor countries can compete to offer the lowest wages possible (the race to the bottom) in order to attract further development, in doing so they risk not ever moving beyond the lowest and cheapest forms of labor. Another strategy countries may focus on industrial upgrading, in which nations, firms, and even workers take on progressively more complex and higher-value production activities. Foreign aid may also be offered to countries as a means of encouraging development and improving social welfare, but its use can be fraught with problems. The dominant structural/functional theory of global stratification is modernization theory, which argues that technological and cultural factors explain countries’ varying levels of economic and social development. In contrast to these factors, conflict theorists argue that rich countries oppress and exploit poor countries, thus keeping them poor. Theories of colonialism, imperialism, and post-colonialism, as well as world-systems theory, seek to explain global stratification in these terms. Global stratification is related to consumption in several ways. For example, different levels of economic wealth enable different levels of consumption and standards of living. Conflict/critical theorists, however, emphasize that global consumer culture seduces people into defining themselves through consumer goods and helps to reinforce mass consumption and existing power structures. Fair trade is one way in which people try to use “ethical consumption” to address global power imbalances.