Abstract
The issue of inequality has a long tradition of analysis in the Social Sciences. By the end of the twentieth century, economic inequality predominated in these discussions. Since then, inequality became deemed as a multi-dimensional subject, although the study of unequal distribution of income, wealth and capital remains relevant. The seminal work of the French economist, Thomas Piketty, "Capital in the 21st Century", published in 2013, in France, and in 2014 in Brazil, raises new questions on the current state and the future of economic inequality. This review aims to present Piketty's main contributions to the public and academic debate within the political economy. Moreover, it aims to consider an agenda for the current critical sociology, based on the need to understand the genesis and legitimating mechanisms of the reproduction of inequality of opportunities in the present time.
Keywords:
Thomas Piketty; Economic inequality; Sociology.