Social inequality

Abstract

Social divisions are found in all social, historical and cultural settings, as Best (2005) sustains. These divisions can be material, cultural and social in nature. Social differences are usually utilized to legitimate the differential control and allocation of material, political and cultural resources. Social divisions are evident on a global basis. These global social divisions are promoted through economic, cultural and political factors (Best, 2005). These factors have helped to hierarchically rank supranational entities such as NAFTA, OPEC and EU. The nation states that are members of these entities are also hierarchically categorized. While supranational entities and nation states are ranked on a global, macro basis, further ranking categories are used on a micro level within the nation-state. Some categorization systems used include social class, sexuality, gender, age, race and ethnicity, marital status and physical and mental disability among others. The focus of this paper is on the location of the Maltese Islands within the global community, and how this affects micro divisions on a local basis when taking some of these social divisions into consideration.