Globale Ungleichheiten und das Schließen und Öffnen nationaler Grenzen

Global inequalities are typically assessed on the basis of income differentials between countries. Yet, sociological inequality research is not interested in income as such, but in the capabilities that result from financial resources. Capabilities or life chances depend on the relations between resources and contexts in which resources are recognised and valued. Hence, a better sociological understanding of context relations and their impact on global inequalities is required. The struggles about access to contexts and about closure of advantageous contexts is an essential structuring force of global inequalities, here termed as social-spatial autonomy. In the tradition of critical social science, the paper argues that conflicts about border closure as well as the rise of right-wing populism in the Global North can only be understood if the structure of global inequalities and, in particular, the importance of social-spatial autonomy are taken into account.