The Making of Global Inequality: A Conceptual History, 1945-1980

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Making of Global Inequality

T2 - A Conceptual History, 1945-1980

AU - Christiansen, Christian O.

PY - 2021/12

Y1 - 2021/12

N2 - This article is a history of postwar discourse on an unequal world. This discourse was profoundly shaped by new influences: quantitative data and an expanding inequality research infrastructure, the “birth of development,” decolonization, human rights, the global Cold War, and theories of the world as one integrated global system. Examining academic journal articles written in English, this article traces the emergence of global inequality in the aftermath of the World Food Crisis of 1972–1975. Originally, global inequality was as much about power as about income differentials, mainly referring to multiple inequalities between the so-called Third World and the First. However, even as the late 1960s and the 1970s saw an increased politicization of the discourse on an unequal world, global inequality did not become a key concept in the 1970s.

AB - This article is a history of postwar discourse on an unequal world. This discourse was profoundly shaped by new influences: quantitative data and an expanding inequality research infrastructure, the “birth of development,” decolonization, human rights, the global Cold War, and theories of the world as one integrated global system. Examining academic journal articles written in English, this article traces the emergence of global inequality in the aftermath of the World Food Crisis of 1972–1975. Originally, global inequality was as much about power as about income differentials, mainly referring to multiple inequalities between the so-called Third World and the First. However, even as the late 1960s and the 1970s saw an increased politicization of the discourse on an unequal world, global inequality did not become a key concept in the 1970s.

KW - development

KW - global inequality

KW - international inequality

KW - poverty

KW - world food crisis

KW - 1970s

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85130128427&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3167/choc.2021.160205

DO - 10.3167/choc.2021.160205

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1807-9326

VL - 16

SP - 83

EP - 107

JO - Contributions to the History of Concepts

JF - Contributions to the History of Concepts

IS - 2

ER -