Globalization and Changes in Social Inequality in Modern Societies. A Summary of the Results from the GLOBALIFE-Project

This article deals with the effects of globalization on individual life courses & employment careers & the resulting changes in patterns of social inequality in modern societies. Empirically, we draw back to results from the international research project GLOBALIFE which studied the effects of globalization on modern life courses for the first time. The results show that the effects of globalization on individual life courses show marked differentiation with regards to specific life course phases: while especially the employment of mid-career men remained considerably stable under globalization , the careers of young adults, mid-career women as well as late-career workers underwent significant alterations. At the same time, results from the GLOABLIFE study indicate that the changes induced by globalization have not yet led to identical results at the national level. Globalization appears to be differentially filtered by deeply embedded & path-dependent national institutions. These "institutional packages" entail variable forms of labor market "flexibilization" which themselves differentially shape patterns of social inequality in modern societies: While Scandinavian countries have largely succeeded in limiting an increase in social inequality under globalization through active public welfare engagement, globalization has led to a significant amplification of social inequalities in other regime types, either between labor market insiders & outsiders (in conservative & Southern European countries) or between individuals with different human capital resources (in liberal countries). Tables, Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.