Sociology › Section J · Global inequality › Topic J.3
Theories of global stratification
In the early 1960s South Korea and Ghana had broadly similar incomes; today one is a high-income industrial power and the other a lower-middle-income country. Theories of global stratification offer competing explanations for gaps like this, and for what poorer countries can do about them.
In this topic
- The puzzle of divergent paths
- The three sociological lenses
- Modernisation theory
- Criticisms of modernisation theory
- Dependency theory
- Worked example: falling terms of trade
- Criticisms and the world-systems revision
- Institutions and the 2024 Nobel Prize
- Worked example: South Korea and Ghana
- Comparing the theories
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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