{ "model": { "rank": 7961, "code": "thing-q5431887", "model_id": "vr.tr.social-inequality", "name": "social inequality", "purpose": "Let an agent explain social inequality and how it is measured, present data with sources, describe causes and policy responses with attribution, and support analysis without partisan framing.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.STA", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q5431887/", "tier": 2, "score": 53, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "transit desert", "transit desert in Poland", "wage inequality", "barriers to work", "power asymmetry", "sexual inequality", "inequality of bargaining power", "wealth inequality", "income inequality", "housing inequality", "racial inequality in the United States", "Sentencing disparity", "spatial inequality", "structural inequality", "attention inequality", "transport divide", "digital divide", "wage gap", "food gap" ], "aliasCount": 19, "merged": 19, "knownIn": 53, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q5431887", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5431887", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T22:57:41Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 2, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q5431887", "registryId": "vr.tr.social-inequality", "name": "social inequality", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.STA" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q5431887/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.social-inequality", "name": "social inequality", "purpose": "Let an agent explain social inequality and how it is measured, present data with sources, describe causes and policy responses with attribution, and support analysis without partisan framing.", "definition": "The unequal distribution of resources, opportunities, power and status among individuals and groups in a society, including wage and wealth inequality, inequalities by gender, ethnicity, class, disability and place, barriers to work and services, and power asymmetries such as transit deserts; social inequality is measured by indicators, studied across the social sciences and addressed by policy, with causes and remedies debated.", "what_it_is_for": "Unequal distribution in society.", "affordances": [ "explain dimensions of inequality", "present data and measures", "describe causes and responses with attribution", "support analysis" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Structural", "Multi-dimensional", "Measurable", "Contested causes" ], "appearance": "Not physical; patterns in data and lived experience.", "visual_identification": [ "Unequal distribution of resources, opportunities and power", "Multiple dimensions", "Difference alone is not inequality unless it concerns valued resources or opportunities" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "economic inequality of income and wealth", "gender and sexual inequality", "ethnic and racial inequality", "inequality of access such as transit deserts and barriers to work", "power asymmetry" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "inequality", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "disparity", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "car dependency", "why": "transport access inequality" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "hunger", "why": "food access inequality" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Statistical measures such as the Gini coefficient", "Anti-discrimination and equality law", "International development goals on inequality" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Partisan framing", "Misreading measures", "Deterministic or stigmatising claims about groups" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "Dimensions of inequality.", "rationale": "Concepts.", "layers": [ { "id": "dimensions", "name": "Dimensions", "description": "Kinds of inequality.", "findings": [ { "id": "dimensions-finding", "name": "Dimensions", "description": "Dimensions.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the main dimensions of social inequality, and how do they intersect?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "What are barriers to work, transit deserts and power asymmetry as forms of inequality?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "measure", "name": "Measure", "description": "Measuring inequality.", "findings": [ { "id": "measure-finding", "name": "Measure", "description": "Measurement.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is inequality measured, with indicators such as the Gini coefficient, ratios and access measures?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "What are the limits of each measure?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "data", "name": "Data", "description": "Inequality in this place.", "rationale": "Sources.", "layers": [ { "id": "figures", "name": "Figures", "description": "Data.", "findings": [ { "id": "figures-finding", "name": "Figures", "description": "Data.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do official and international data show about inequality here, and how has it changed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How does it compare internationally?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "groups", "name": "Groups", "description": "Inequality between groups.", "findings": [ { "id": "groups-finding", "name": "Groups", "description": "Groups.", "questions": [ { "text": "What disparities are documented between groups by gender, ethnicity, disability or place, and what causes do researchers attribute them to?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation free of deterministic claims?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "causes", "name": "Causes", "description": "Causes and responses.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "causes", "name": "Causes", "description": "Explanations.", "findings": [ { "id": "causes-finding", "name": "Causes", "description": "Explanations.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do different theories and studies say about the causes of social inequality, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which findings are contested?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "policy", "name": "Policy", "description": "Policy responses.", "findings": [ { "id": "policy-finding", "name": "Policy", "description": "Policy.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which policies address inequality, and what does evidence say about their effects, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "learn", "name": "Learn", "description": "Study and history.", "rationale": "Education.", "layers": [ { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History of inequality.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How has inequality changed over history, according to economic and social historians?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "teach", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "findings": [ { "id": "teach-finding", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can social inequality be taught with data and case studies?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which misconceptions arise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each dimension be a separate entry?", "How should data sources be linked?", "How should debates be attributed?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a social inequality, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain social inequality and how it is measured, present data with sources, describe causes and policy responses with attribution, and support analysis without partisan framing.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: transit desert, transit desert in Poland, wage inequality, barriers to work, power asymmetry, sexual inequality, inequality of bargaining power, wealth inequality, income inequality, housing inequality, racial inequality in the United States, Sentencing disparity.", "19 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 53 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a social inequality, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "transit desert", "transit desert in Poland", "wage inequality", "barriers to work", "power asymmetry", "sexual inequality", "inequality of bargaining power", "wealth inequality", "income inequality", "housing inequality", "racial inequality in the United States", "Sentencing disparity" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 53 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 19 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one social inequality from another, and a social inequality from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a social inequality, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a social inequality, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a social inequality is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a social inequality, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a social inequality, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a social inequality is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a social inequality sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a social inequality, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a social inequality, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a social inequality is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a social inequality from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a social inequality, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a social inequality, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a social inequality is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a social inequality passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a social inequality between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a social inequality, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a social inequality, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a social inequality is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a social inequality, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a social inequality is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a social inequality, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a social inequality, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a social inequality is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What social inequality is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of social inequality are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is social inequality operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of social inequality and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of social inequality?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as social inequality?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a social inequality came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a social inequality and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a social inequality, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a social inequality, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a social inequality is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a social inequality is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a social inequality, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a social inequality, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a social inequality is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }