Organizations as the building blocks of social inequalities

Abstract

Most contemporary inequalities emerge in and are constituted through organizations. In this article, we review research at the intersection of organizations and inequalities, bringing the organizational literature and social stratification literature into conversation with one another. In doing so, we outline an emerging theoretical perspective, Relational Inequality Theory (RIT), that helps to make sense of how inequalities emerge within and between organizations. RIT places social relations within organizational contexts as constitutive of inequalities in access to organizational resources such as income, jobs, and respect. Much research supports theorizing inequalities as emerging through social relations within organizations, and we suggest comparative organizational designs as the key methodological strategy to study organizational inequalities.

How Do Low-Income People Form Survival Networks? Routine Organizations as Brokers

“…While research on urban poverty has traditionally focused on either the individual or the neighborhood, researchers have recently rediscovered the role of organizations in many aspects of the urban condition, including how concentrated poverty affects life chances; how people decide where to live and work; and how information, goods, and other resources are distributed across networks (Marwell 2007; Allard 2009, 2017; Small 2009; Sampson 2012; Allard and Small 2013; see Galaskiewicz and Marsden 1978; Warren 1978). A similar recognition is evident among students of social inequality, who have argued that organizations are central to differences in resource access, to the development of status distinctions, and to the functioning of relational inequities (Tilly 1998; Small 2009; Avent-Holt and Tomaskovic-Devey 2019). Organizations are equally central to the formation of social ties among urban poor populations, and the processes through which they operate remain undertheorized and poorly understood.…”

“…The theoretical motivation of our study is the need for clearer theories of how organizational processes play a role in both urban poverty and social inequality (Marwell 2007; Small 2009; Wacquant 2009; Sampson 2012; Avent-Holt and Tomaskovic-Devey 2019). While research on urban poverty has traditionally focused on either the individual or the neighborhood, researchers have recently rediscovered the role of organizations in many aspects of the urban condition, including how concentrated poverty affects life chances; how people decide where to live and work; and how information, goods, and other resources are distributed across networks (Marwell 2007; Allard 2009, 2017; Small 2009; Sampson 2012; Allard and Small 2013; see Galaskiewicz and Marsden 1978; Warren 1978).…”

The organizational inclusion turn and its exclusion of low-wage labor

“…In connecting the dominant conceptualizations of organizational inclusion to different relationships relevant in contemporary work organizations – self-work, employer-employee and organization-environment (cf. Avent-Holt and Tomaskovic-Devey, 2019; Tomaskovic-Devey, 2014) – lies our second contribution. Our analysis shows that an organization’s environment hardly plays a role in organizational inclusion research (for exceptions see Fujimoto et al, 2014; Mor Barak, 2014).…”

“…Third, we engage with the organization-environment relationship in order to acknowledge the current embedding of work organizations in an increasingly globalized labor market. Such a focus on the organizational environment is lacking in the inclusion themes of Shore et al (2018), however, we deem it all the more important as social inequalities tend to be reflected in and further fuel organizational inequality regimes (Acker, 2006b; Avent-Holt and Tomaskovic-Devey, 2019) and thus substantially influence the possibilities and limits to create organizational inclusiveness.…”

Privilege and burden of im‐/mobility governance: On the reinforcement of inequalities during a pandemic lockdown

“…Second, paid work is not only still a hugely significant enabler and indicator of one’s inclusion but also a necessity in order to cover the needs of daily life (Levitas, 1996). Third, how paid work is organized, its connected forms of rewards as well as the opportunity to work are fundamentally prestructured by class, gender and migration relations (Acker, 2006; Avent‐Holt & Tomaskovic‐Devey, 2019).…”