The social class determinants of income inequality and social cohesion

The authors argue that Wilkinson's model omits important variables (social class) that make it vulnerable to biases due to model mis-specification. Fu rthermore, the culture of inequality hypothesis unnecessarily "psychopathol ogizes" the relatively deprived while omitting social determinants of disea se related to production (environmental and occupational hazards) and the c apacity of the relatively deprived for collective action. In addition, the hypothesis that being "disrespected" is a fundamental determinant of violen ce has already been refuted. Shying away from social mechanisms such as exp loitation, workplace domination, or classist ideology might avoid conflict but reduce the income inequality model to a set of useful, but simple and w anting associations. Using a nonrecursive structural equation model that te sts for reciprocal effects, the authors show that working-class position is negatively associated with social cohesion but positively associated with union membership. Thus, current indicators of social cohesion use middle-cl ass standards for collective action that working-class communities are unli kely to meet. An erroneous characterization of working-class communities as noncohesive could be used to justify paternalistic or punitive social poli cies. These criticisms should not detract from an acknowledgment of Wilkins on's investigations as a leading empirical contribution to reviving social epidemiology at the end of the century.