The Concept of Socioculture and Theorizing Inequality

This chapter explores how the analytical concept of ‘socioculture’ can help to gain an understanding of how structures of social inequality in different world regions have been shaped and maintained through time. Current patterns of inequality reflect those of the past, despite the fact that several transformations have led to social changes. After laying out the meaning of the concept of socioculture, a cursory outline of sociocultures in the major world regions is undertaken. First the precolonial, colonial and postcolonial development of sociocultures in the Global South is rendered, before turning to those of the Global North. How the conceptual tool of socioculture can be applied to concrete cases is shown by two country studies—one on South Africa and one on Indonesia.