Glenn W. Muschert

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BOOK REVIEWpublished: 04 February 2019doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2019.00004Frontiers in Sociology | www.frontiersin.org 1 February 2019 | Volume 4 | Article 4Edited and reviewed by:Jane Ann Hardy,University of Hertfordshire,United Kingdom*Correspondence:Glenn W. Muschertglenn.muschert@ku.ac.aeSpecialty section:This article was submitted toWork, Employment and Organizations,a section of the journalFrontiers in SociologyReceived: 15 October 2018Accepted: 16 January 2019Published: 04 February 2019Citation:Muschert GW (2019) Book Review:Deep Inequality: Understanding theNew Normal and How to Challenge It.Front. Sociol. 4:4.doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2019.00004Book Review: Deep Inequality:Understanding the New Normal andHow to Challenge ItGlenn W. Muschert*Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, United ArabEmiratesKeywords: inequality, stratificati on, neoliberahsation, new normal economy, narrative analysisA Book Review onDeep Inequality: Understanding the New Normal and How to Challenge ItEarl Wysong and Robert Perrucci, (Boulder, CO: Rowman & Littlefield), 2018, 224 pages, ISBN978-1-4422-6645-2.Deep Inequality: Understanding the New Normal and How to Challenge It is Earl Wysong andRobert Perrucci’s latest book to examine trends in class relations, including the declining lifechances of American workers in the last decade. The focus of Deep Inequality is a narrativeanalysis of the “new normal,” defined as a corporate media narrative that explains persistent andexpanding economic inequalities in America since the Great Recession of 2008. The classic rockband The Who famously declared: “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss,” within the contextof protestations that, we “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” Unfortunately, as argued adroitly in DeepInequality, it nonetheless seems that economically squeezed Americans have, for the past decade,adjusted to the seemingly inevitable “new normal,” while economic prospects, hopes for theirchildren, job security, and retirement outlooks have declined.Unfortunately, to the extent that Americans direct their outrage about their declining economicprospects away from the ruling economic class and their minions, they have indeed been fooledagain. Deep Inequality clarifies the origin and development of an ideology known as the “newnormal,” which is an elite-driven rhetoric of explaining and justifying economic hardships andchallenges experienced in the last decade by the 80 per cent of Americans who occupy the bottomof the stratification hierarchy. Meanwhile, the top 1 per cent (the wealthiest Americans) andtheir minions in the next 19 per cent (executives, senior management, and highly-credentialedprofessionals) continue to capture nearly all of the benefits of economic growth experienced in thelast decade, while the other 80 per cent (salaried professionals, wage workers, the self-employed,and the economic underclass) continues to struggle to stay afloat.The heart of the book is a coherent explication of the rhetorical development and expansionover time of the new normal ideology. The discussion draws heavily on key statements about thenew normal derived from corporate media, political discourse, and public relations organizations(whether private or public sector), all of which come to clarify that the new normal is structurallyinevitable, that there is no option but to adjust, and that such economic struggle is often the resultof individual failures. The explicit goal of the book, largely met by the authors, is to clarify thedevelopment of the new normal ideology as a way of justifying the status quo of economic relations.The authors also point out that there is indeed an alternative rhetoric in existence that contradictsthe new normal ideology, which they term the “structural realities analysis.” This alternative to thedominant new normal discourse is one which views inequality as emerging from the institutionaland organizational inequalities present in society as a whole, including those reflected in media,education, healthcare, and employment structures. This description of the new normal and thestructural realities ideologist are the focus of Chapter 1.Muschert Book Review of Deep InequalityIn Chapter 2, the authors proceed to describe income andwealth inequality more generally, as they describe the new classstructure as a double diamond with a small privileged class(20 per cent) above a larger new working class (80 per cent).After discussing the new normal and new class structure, thebook moves through a number of more focused discussionsof aspects of economic reality, including the new national andglobal economy (Chapter 3), the new reality of work andthe workplace (Chapter 4), the political sphere (Chapter 5),educational institutions (Chapter 6), and in information andculture industries (Chapter 7). As long as readers are cognizant ofthe discussion in the first two chapters, the focused discussions inthe subsequent chapters are highly accessible and readable. Theeighth and final chapters bring a number of threads together,and outlines what the authors predict could be the future ofinequality in America. Chapter 8 presents a description ofincreasing political polarization and political gridlock, in whichpartisan issues seem to drive all policy discussion and action,while leading to inaction due to the seeming unwillingness ofparties to reach compromise. This is explored via the topic ofclimate change, and how the issue was handled at the end ofthe Obama administration and into the early months of theTrump administration. These points are solidly argued within asociological context melding a variety of conceptual perspectivesincluding, cultural Marxism (e.g., Althusser), framing, and socialconstructionism. The analysis also draws on the scholarship ofNoam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, and C. Wright Mills.The most significant accomplishment of the book is to clarifythe origin and development of the new normal, and to point outthat this ideology is a rhetorical tool of elites to “explain away”the economic hardships caused by structural inequalities in socialinstitutions. The authors clearly and convincingly reassert thesocial in social inequality, as they argue that stratification emergesfrom social structural relations, not as a result of individualshortcomings or failings or abstract notions of globalizationaffecting economic relations. They also convincingly remind thereader that the new normal ideology is not just a constructionof conservatives such as Republicans, but rather is used byDemocrats and Republicans alike, as the new normal is featuredin a variety of rhetorical venues such as those typically viewed asconservative as well as those considered more progressive.Engaging this volume may lead a reader to understandthe tension between the new normal and the structuralrealities narratives, however this cognitive dissonance remainsunleveraged. The reader might wish for more discussion andclarity about how to resist the new normal both as individualsand collectively. While the title of the volume implies suchdiscussion of how to challenge the new normal, this discussionis limited in the text to generalities. The question of “What isto be done?” remains largely unexplored in a practical sense.Admittedly, expecting a road map for displacing the new normalwith a progressive alternative may be a tall order, but afterreading Deep Inequality the reader might be ready to considera plan for concrete action. While it is possible to see thedominance of the new normal as a reason for pessimism aboutthe future of inequalities in America, it is worth pointing outthat the structural realities narrative persists despite the vastimbalance of funding in favor of those promulgating the newnormal. A case in point is that the structural realities approachexists and persists, despite the fact that corporate media, privatepublic relations, and politicians backed by lobbying groupsgenerally express their views of inequalities via the new normalnarrative.Wysong and Perrucci’s Deep Inequality is very readable,and contributes to the contemporary discussion of economicinequalities and the ideologies used to justify them. It willbe suitable, in whole or in part, as a supplementary text forundergraduate and postgraduate courses in social stratification.It is also accessible to the general educated reader seekinga critical view of contemporary economic inequalities. DeepInequality provides a solidly sociological view of the currentstatus and ideology of inequality in contemporary America.The final section of the book calls for the creation of aprogressive “new, new normal,” yet to be articulated, butwhich would be an antidote to the status quo. Indeed thisbook clarifies the dominant contemporary rhetoric justifyingthe status quo, and armed with this knowledge, the readercan engage in a search for such new ideologies and practicalsolutions.AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONSThe author confirms being the sole contributor of this work andhas approved it for publication.Conflict of Interest Statement: The author declares that the research wasconducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that couldbe construed as a potential conflict of interest.Copyright © 2019 Muschert. This is an open-access article distributed under theterms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distributionor reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s)and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication inthis journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use,distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with theseterms.Frontiers in Sociology | www.frontiersin.org 2 February 2019 | Volume 4 | Article 4

Book Review: Deep Inequality: Understanding the New Normal and How to Challenge It

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Book Review: Deep Inequality: Understanding the New Normal and How to Challenge It

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