This unique collection of original essays brings a comparative perspective to issues of social inequality. First-rate sociologists from around the world have contributed to this exciting and rigorous volume, drawing upon their own research in the fields of race and ethnicity, class and inequality, and gender and sexuality.

• Contains original essays by first-rate scholars on issues of social inequalities around the world
• Features research and examples from the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, France, Portugal, Finland, and Japan
• Reviews research on issues of social inequalities from the fields of race, class, and gender
• Reflects on methodological issues and the strengths of qualitative research
• Provides students with an important overview of the development of social stratification studies

Fiona Devine is Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester. She is the author of Affluent Workers Revisited (1992), Social Class in America and Britain (1997), and Class Practices: How Parents Help Their Children Get Good Jobs (2003). She is the co-author, with Sue Heath, of Sociological Research Methods in Context (1999).

Mary C. Waters is Professor and Chair of the Sociology Department at Harvard University, and co-director of The New York Second Generation Project. Her publications include Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America, (1990); the award-winning Black Identities: West Indian Immigrant Dreams and American Realities (1999); The New Race Question: How the Census Counts Multi-Racial Individuals (with Joel Perlmann, 2002); and The Changing Face of Home: The Transnational Lives of the Second Generation (with Peggy Levitt, 2002). Professor Waters was a Guggenheim Fellow (1993-94) and a Visiting Scholar at Russell Sage (1991-92).