Globalisation and social policy

In this chapter, we outline the ways in which social policy in the modern world is integrally linked to the whole process of globalisation and invariably to its politics. In addition, globalising processes have contributed to widening gaps in inequality between the rich and the poor. For the purposes of this chapter we are directly concerned with the inter-relationship between globalisation and social policy and between globalised capitalism and social policy issues. The first part of the chapter discusses the role of global social and economic institutions. The second section is concerned with the uneven wealth and income distribution between rich and poor and between the majority and minority world. This is followed in section three by an examination of the part played by another key actor in the globalised economy and political sphere – transnational corporations (TNCs). The final section of the chapter looks at anti-globalisation movements, looking both at resistance in the minority (Global North) and the majority (Global South) world.