Socio-Economic Contradictions Of Capitalism: The Nature Of Social Stratification and Inequality Today

Sources of contemporary social problems are seen more rarely from the perspective of the direct (or even indirect) causes, because thinking in terms of effects have become a standard analysis of contemporary social reality. By examining current systems of social stratification and forms of inequality especially in developed countries, one can easily fall into the "universalist" pattern of thinking, where divisions and tensions are seen as dysfunctional elements that need to be addressed on the one hand, but not necessarily looking for their sources on the other. Referring to Daniel Bell's The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, I want to extend the area of the contradictions of the capitalist economic formation by taking into account socio-economic factors, which in my opinion are the basis of unequal allocation of opportunities in modern societies in two dimensions (Harman 2009; Harvey 2006, 2010, 2012; Husson 2011; Therborn 2006; Wallerstein 2001). The first one concerns the distinction between developed countries and their peripheral quasi-partners (e.g. Amin 2011), and the other – often overlooked – focused on rich societies. The consequences of capitalist relations of production together with a system of socio-political representation are crucial not only for the situation of the distribution of social opportunities (stratification systems), but also for the social relationships that may in the future develop a more egalitarian forms of production and governance (Sen 2010, 1992).