ABSTRACT
This chapter will explore the inequalities which exist within the European Union, a region which is often seen as constituting one of the cores of the contemporary global economy and also, as discussed in Chapter 5, a potential candidate for geopolitical dominance. Central to the issue of what inequalities exist is the question of what is meant by inequality. We must be careful not to confuse inequality with distinction, for inequality does not mean ‘difference’ in the way that cultures differ or social groups crave to pronounce their ‘uniqueness’ (Bourdieu 1984). Inequality implies distinctiveness along a dimension where one position is graded as better, bigger, larger or somehow superior to another. But what are the key dimensions of inequalities?
