90/10 income inequality ratio: the wage or salary income earned by individuals at the 90th percentile (those earning more than 90 percent of other workers) compared to the earnings of workers at the 10th percentile (those earning higher than the bottom 10 percent)

Apartheid: a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race

cultural globalization: the cross-border exchange of ideas, attitudes, meanings, values and cultural products.

dependency theory: a sociological theory which  views global inequality as primarily caused by high-income nations exploiting middle-income and low-income nations, which creates a cycle of dependence (Hendricks 2010).

economic globalization:  the global expansion of international capitalism, free markets and the increase in international trade.

fair trade: a movement that emerged to respond to the negative effects of globalization on more economically vulnerable people in poorer nations. It means buying goods at a fair price from people who produce them.

feminization of poverty: the concept that in almost all societies, women have higher rates of poverty than men.

Gini Coefficient: a  measure of internal income inequality.  A country in which every resident has the same income would have a Gini coefficient of 0 (or 0 percent).

global stratification: the unequal distribution of economic and social resources among the world’s nations

globalization: the growing interdependence of the world’s economies, cultures, and populations due to cross-national exchanges of goods and services, technology, investments, people, ideas, and information.

gross domestic product (GDP): the total value of all goods and services produced by a nation’s citizens within its borders.

gross national income (GNI): the total amount of money earned by a nation’s people and businesses. It is used to measure and track a nation’s wealth from year to year.

gross national product (GNP):  the total value of goods and services produced by a country no matter the location of the earners.

Human Development Index (HDI):  a composite measure that combines a nation’s GDP with many other important quality of life considerations, such as life expectancy at birth as a measure of health, security, the adult literacy rate and enrollment in primary, secondary, and higher education as measures of education, and the effects of environmental degradation people experience.

income: a household’s disposable income consisting of earnings, self-employment and capital income

internally displaced persons:  people who are forced to leave their home but who remain within their country’s borders.

International Poverty Line: a measurement of poverty in which the percentage of people who survive on less than $1.90 per day

land grabs: land acquisitions that are in violation of human rights, without prior consent of the preexisting land users, and with no consideration of the social and environmental impacts (International Land Coalition 2011)

life expectancy:  the number of years a person can expect to live

Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI): an indicator which  measures severe poverty across more than 100 developing countries with three dimensions: health, education, and standard of living.

modernization theory: a sociological theory which argues that  low-income countries are affected by their lack of industrialization and can improve their global economic standing through an adjustment of cultural values and attitudes around work and industrialization and other forms of economic growth (Armer and Katsillis 2010).

neoliberalism: ​​a political and economic philosophy that emphasizes free trade, deregulation, globalization, and a reduction in government spending.

One-percent: the people at the top of the income and wealth distributions in the world.

optimist-globalists: proponents of globalization

pessimist globalists: the people who point to globalization as the root cause of many of our global ills

political globalization:  the growth of a worldwide political system, both in size and complexity. This includes both governance systems and civil society systems.

wealth: the financial assets or physical possessions which can be converted into a form that can be used for transactions.

world systems analysis: a sociological theory which  describes the global economy as a complex system that supports an economic hierarchy

one-percent; those at the top of the income and wealth distributions in the world