Book excerpt: Fragments of Inequality merges sociological, geospatial, and economic explanations of global inequality into a grand synthesis of the subject that breaks new ground by stressing the phenomenon's spatial foundations. Concentrating on inequality within and between regions, the book demonstrates that spatial inequality has increased in recent years. It employs modified evolutionary principles (i.e., punctuated equilibrium; not entirely smooth and linear in terms of chronological development) rather than the more abstract ones of rationality and self-interest that economists use, and on a fragmented rather than abstract conception of space. Global in its empirical coverage, it also addresses the current impact of economic globalization.