The Transnational Social Question: an Update (2021)

Abstract

The point of departure for a discussion of the transnational social question isa growing awareness of cross-border interdependence along crucial issues of social inequalitiesand theirimplications not only for the global Southbut beyond. The contention around inequalities refersto international conventions declaring social rights, actually existing social standards, and moral convictions. Surveyingthe normativeand political-sociological theories capable ofcapturingthe new transnational questionyields insights into the framing of social inequalities. Such an analysis must also include a new aspectof the social question - climate and environmental destruction - in what could be called the socio-ecological question. This reviewraises the question whether concepts such as social rights and citizenship are adequate to describe contemporary social inequalitiesandthe ways in which thesecan be addressed.