The Meaning of Social Inequality in the Crisis of Integration: a Look from the Binary Narrative

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-868-4_47How to use a DOI?

Keywords

School dropout; digital public policy; digital literacy; digital emotions

Abstract

This article explores the social meaning of inequality in the context of modern capitalist societies, especially since the crisis of the welfare state and the rise of neoliberalism. It is argued that inequality cannot be understood solely on the basis of material indicators such as income or wealth, but responds to forms of symbolic domination that are perpetuated by binarized social narratives such as inclusion/exclusion. From a theoretical and qualitative approach, three main forms of inequality are analyzed: by position, by merit and multiple inequality. The paper draws on critical and cultural sociology to demonstrate that these forms of inequality not only erode collective solidarity, but also lead to a destructuring of the social fabric. In particular, it examines how the neoliberal model transforms collective responsibility into individual responsibility, generating new forms of conflict and symbolic and material violence.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Miguel Ángel Vite Pérez
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/10/22
TI  - The Meaning of Social Inequality in the Crisis of Integration: a Look from the Binary Narrative
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Communication and Applied Technologies 2025 (ICOMTA 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 515
EP  - 521
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-868-4_47
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-868-4_47
ID  - Pérez2025
ER  -