Relational Inequality Theory
Relational Inequality Theory
This chapter is an introduction to relational inequality theory (RIT). In RIT resources are generated and pool in organizations. Actors with legitimated claims gain access to those resources. Some people and potential trading partners are denied access to organizational resources through processes of social closure. Others appropriate organizational resources based on their ability to exploit weaker actors in production and exchange relationships. Actors are more or less powerful in these claims-making processes to the extent that they have cultural, status, and material advantages in resource-distributing relationships. These power-generating resources tend to be associated with categorical distinctions such as ownership, occupation, gender, education, citizenship, and race. Which categorical distinctions are the basis for claims-making are institutionally and organizationally variable. Markets as well as institutional fields influence, but do not determine, action and opportunities. Rather, actors use cultural and other tools to invent local strategies of action.
Keywords: categorization, intersectionality, organization, institution, claims-making, status, power, economic rent, closure, resource pooling
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