Concept Of Stigma Research Articles

The challenge of inclusion for older people with impairments: Insights from a stigma-based analysis

The intersection of disability and aging often presents obstacles and discomfort for older people with disabilities keen to access mainstream opportunities for social participation. Besides individual situations and preferences – disability-based or not – environmental and social factors may limit full access to participation for older people with disabilities. Although ageist and ableist trends of contemporary ideas of aging have been documented, few studies have examined how those discourses are enacted in the field. In the context of participatory action research carried out since 2014 in a seniors' leisure club, we conducted 14 individual interviews with volunteers and seven focus groups with 45 members in order to explore their personal experiences with impairments and disability within the club, whether members who develop impairments can continue to participate and whether prospective new members with different types of impairments would be welcomed. We used an interactionist framework inspired by Goffman's work and based on the concept of stigma to analyze participants' narratives. Results indicate that participation by members with disabilities is seen as unusual, disconcerting and disjunctive. Evidence exposes the stigmatizing practices, encompassing labeling, stereotyping, setting apart and discrimination against members with impairments. Their participation may be acceptable if it does not affect the normal course of activities; otherwise, stigmatizing discourses relegate them to the margins. Because stigma can have an overwhelming impact on the lives and social participation of older people with impairments, stakeholders' awareness should be raised so they can understand it and intervene more effectively.

The Role of Language in Anti-Immigrant Prejudice: What Can We Learn from Immigrants’ Historical Experiences?

Prejudice remains an unpleasant experience in immigrants’ everyday lives, especially for those of stigmatized groups. In the recurring struggle of various immigrant groups, historical and contemporary events reveal the important role of language in the creation, transmission, and perpetuation of anti-immigrant prejudice. Living in an anti-immigrant climate, immigrants are frequently exposed to stigmatizing language in both political and social discourse. This may be a more significant and frequent experience for immigrants since the beginning of the 2016 United States presidential election. Although it has long been understood that language is inextricably linked with prejudice, the investigation of the role of language in creating, transmitting, and perpetuating anti-immigrant prejudice remains undeveloped in social work research. This paper provides a theoretical explanation of anti-immigrant sentiment by discussing how stigmatization has allowed for immigrants to be subjected to various forms of prejudice throughout history. Building upon prior theoretical concepts of stigma, this paper argues that being an immigrant is a stigma. This paper reviews historical and contemporary cases of prejudice against immigrants to provide evidence for how stigmatizing language transmits and perpetuates anti-immigrant prejudice in the United States and building upon prior stigma theories, defines one’s status of an immigrant to be form of stigma itself. The paper concludes with a call for appreciable attention to the role of language in anti-immigrant prejudice and the need for social workers to advocate for immigrants within higher education and in our communities to reduce such stigma though social work practice, education and research.

Changing stigmatisation of leprosy: an exploratory, qualitative life course study in Western Nigeria

IntroductionRenewed interest in health-related stigma has invigorated calls to understand factors and processes underlying stigma. However, few empirical studies explore the influences of structural discrimination and moral status on leprosy-related...

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder diagnoses as ideal types: A reinterpretation of stigma within the context of mainstream education

Children with psychiatric diagnoses such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder/attention-deficit disorder and autism spectrum disorder have often been the topic of heated debate between those who favour the view that the global increase in children who receive these diagnoses is the result of pathologizing and stigmatizing discourses and those who favour the view that attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder are neurodevelopmental disabilities. This conflict leaves the field divided with regard to which educational strategies teachers and education workers should use with these children in mainstream educational contexts. The core of the problem is the extent to which such diagnoses may be considered a help or stigma in the ongoing quest to include these children in state schools on the same footing as every other child. This article approaches this dilemma from a different theoretical standpoint than those that have guided criticism of psychiatric diagnoses since the rise of anti-psychiatry. The consequence of this theoretical standpoint is that both the idea of the relationship between diagnoses and stigma, and the concept of stigma itself, must be altered when seeking to provide fruitful educational strategies for these children in mainstream educational settings such as state schools.

Digital Storytelling as a Solution to Destigmatize Products: Case of Women Lingerie from India

Purpose- The objective of the study is to develop a framework explaining digital storytelling as a solution to communicating about stigmatized products. In this study, women's lingerie was taken as the stigmatized product category. Method- The study was conducted in three phases; the first phase included an in depth study of websites and online communication of lingerie brands, the second phase comprised of netnography where the women consumers were studied and the third phase included in depth interviews of women consumers along with projective techniques. Findings- The major contribution of this research is the creation of a comprehensive framework based on stigmatization and storytelling. This study demonstrates the process of storytelling and how every part of the story can be managed with the stigma associated with the product. Additionally, the study also provides the features that each stage of the story should imbibe and manage different elements of the stigma. Limitations- The study is qualitative in nature. Hence, for generalizability, another quantitative research can be conducted. Further, the present study was undertaken in the collectivistic culture in the Indian context. Thus, different research can be conducted to understand the varied culture and the values of the consumers. Implications/recommendations- The study would help the brand communicate effectively to the consumers and destigmatize the products. Further, it will also help understand the way in which every feature of the story needs to be managed and issues be addressed effectively by the brand. The study has also proposed a theoretical framework by using the concepts of stigma and storytelling. Hence, the study has helped add to new knowledge in allied areas. Originality/contribution- Storytelling is a partly historical form of learning which facilitates communication. This storytelling is used by brands and organizations to connect with the consumers primarily by digital platforms. Thus, digital narratives and stories are developed which are relevant for the consumers. There is a dearth of literature on digital storytelling primarily in the context of stigmatized products such as lingerie for women. There are a few papers on digital storytelling and stigmatized products. But, there is no research that integrates these two areas and provides a comprehensive solution for this important dimension.

From the Brazilian Senzala to the Japanese Buraku: Naturalism, Stigma, and the Rise of Human Rights Discourse in Aluísio Azevedo and Shimazaki Tōson

article proposes a comparative analysis of Brazilian and Japanese Naturalism with a focus on two seminal novels, O Mulato (1881), by Aluisio Azevedo (1857-1913), and Hakai (1907), by Shimazaki Tōson (1872-1943), which are regarded as each country’s starting points for Naturalism. These novels gave rise to conflicting critical interpretations, being charged both with reproducing the biases of social Darwinism and Eurocentric scientificism, and with voicing the condition of oppression in authoritarian societies. This article discusses both sides of the debate and reads these foundational works based on the concepts of stigma and abjection. Such a reading will suggest that what the detractors of Naturalism perceived as its prejudiced stance, identified in its crude descriptions of social pathologies, could in fact be interpreted as a portrayal of social injustice and a call for social change. This article’s reading of Naturalism that recognizes it as socially progressive gives rise to a discussion of the relation between its aesthetic innovations and the rise of human rights discourse in Brazil and Japan, approached from the standpoint of the political and intellectual implications existing between Naturalism and Abolitionism in Brazil, and between Naturalism and the Buraku Liberation Movement in Japan.

Medidas de salud pública y estigma.

Moltes mesures de salut publica poden tenir un impacte important en determinades classes o grups socials desfavorits. Aixo pot atenuar, almenys temporalment, les desigualtats socials en salut, en la mesura en que aquests grups tenen una prevalenca major de les condicions que les mesures de salut publica volen afrontar, pero tambe pot estigmatitzar-los, la qual cosa a la llarga conduiria a exacerbar de nou les inequitats en salut. Es descriuen els conceptes de classe social, classisme i estigma. S'analitzen diferents corrents de pensament que han concebut el paper de l'estigma dins de la salut publica. S'accepta que en condicions excepcionals es poden defensar algunes mesures de salut publica amb certs efectes estigmatitzadors com una consequencia indesitjada, pero mai de forma deliberada, com a component nuclear o exclusiu de la intervencio. Finalment, es comenten diverses condicions que han de complir-se per evitar o minimitzar l'estigma en les actuacions de la salut publica: la participacio de les classes i grups socials involucrats en la presa de decisions; la supervisio etica independent; defugir la individualitzacio dels problemes de salut publica i posar l'emfasi en que son problemes predominantment col·lectius; la compensacio suficient a les persones i grups perjudicats; i l'esforc per afrontar i corregir les causes profundes i estructurals de les desigualtats en salut.

HTLV: a stigmatizing infection?

HTLV is a virus that affects human T-cells. Brazil is the country of the world with the largest absolute number of HTLV cases. Estimates by the Ministry of Health point to 700,000 to 2 million infected Brazilians. The majority are asymptomatic carriers, but some persons may develop degenerative neurological conditions such as tropical spastic paraparesis, in addition to leukemia and lymphoma. The forms of transmission and clinical manifestations such as progressive motor incapacity, genitourinary disorders, in addition to restriction of maternal breastfeeding, impact daily life and can lead to social discrimination and stigma. The stigma denotes violation of social norms and reinforces prejudice and inequalities. This article aims to discuss the concept of stigma and its repercussions on persons living with HTLV. The discussion is based on a literature review on the theme and the authors' experience with care for persons affected by the infection and illness. The study found that both HTLV carrier status and HTLV-related illness can be stigmatizing for individuals, who feel inferior for being infected with a potentially serious and even fatal disease, although incompletely understood and loaded with derogatory stereotypes. This situation can have negative repercussions on access to health services, treatment adherence, and pursuit of rights. Public policies should help mitigate such stigmatization, ensuring the rights of individuals in a situation of vulnerability due to HTLV in order from them to live as protagonists in the exercise of their civil rights.

The Stigma of Tenure Denied: An Exploration of Individual and Institutional Implications

Although tenure denial is a familiar feature of the faculty profession, the dearth of specific research on the subject indicates that it is a phenomenon not sufficiently understood. The analyses that do exist are largely a-theoretical and unsystematic. In this qualitative study, we employed Goffman’s social psychological concepts of stigma and moral career to examine whether tenure denial is stigmatizing, and if so, how individuals navigate the personal, social, and professional implications of this undesirable label. Findings highlight the implicit burden of responsibility placed solely on individuals for their tenure denial, the challenge of managing social and professional situations, and the factors that contribute to or mitigate against the establishment of a new sense of self. We argue that just as the profession is learning that non-tenure track faculty should be treated with respect without regard for their non-traditional professional status, so tenure denial, although painful, need not be stigmatic. Rather, individuals may become advocates, activists, and employees (faculty or otherwise) who are able to serve with greater professional clarity and self-understanding as a result of their tenure denial experience.

A model for predicting prejudice and stigma expression by understanding target perceptions: The effects of visibility, politicization, responsibility, and entitativity

AbstractThe study of hostile orientations toward outgroups is divided into three main domains: (i) overt (explicit, old‐fashioned, or hostile) prejudice; (ii) veiled (implicit, modern, aversive, or subtle) prejudice, and (iii) stigma. To date, there is no systematic account of which form of hostility is likely to be expressed toward members of particular target groups. We propose a model that integrates the two forms of prejudice and the concept of stigma into a single framework. The contingency model of stigma and prejudice expression postulates that overt or veiled prejudice is a function of an interaction of prevailing perceptions of target groups within their cultural context. There are four major target perceptions that influence prejudice expression through increasing threat perception: visibility, target politicization, responsibility, and entitativity. These target perceptions describe the process and the qualitative conditions that determine the expression of prejudice toward members of different groups and social categories.

Crafting weight stigma in slimming classes: A case study in Ireland

ABSTRACTThe persistence of dominant social and cultural representations of weight loss renders it as normative and necessary, especially for women. One setting in which the goal of weight loss is relentlessly pursued is the slimming class. Drawn from the analysis of the ethnographic data from a larger one-year narrative inquiry study in four slimming classes in Ireland, this article demonstrates that while slimming is narrated as a positive intervention in the “care of the self,” the crafting of weight stigma is central to the dominant weight loss storyline constituted in the classes. Theoretically, the study weaves insights from the feminist expansion of Foucault’s work on disciplinary power and governmentality, Goffman’s concept of stigma, and narrative inquiry. Three main findings are discussed: the construction of slimming as a quest, slimmer identity, and the overt stigmatizing of fatness. The quest narrative produces a limited set of narrative resources (stories/characters/temporality) that make it very difficult to speak outside the narrative of weight loss. In an Irish context, where the historical circumscription of women’s bodies was pervasive, the findings illustrate aspects of the contemporary mechanisms through which such bodily circumscription endures.

Ukryte/niewidoczne niepełnosprawności a polityka tożsamości i etykietowania w życiu codziennym

Artykuł podejmuje zagadnienie ukrytych/niewidocznych niepełnosprawności oraz kwestii tożsamości jednostek posiadających tego typu niepełnosprawność. Autorki wykorzystują koncepcję piętna Ervinga Goffmana (2005) i wskazują na jej użyteczność dla zrozumienia zjawiska zarządzania informacją o sobie oraz zarządzania stygmatyzacją przez osoby z niewidoczną/ukrytą niepełnosprawnością. Akcentują również użyteczność odkrywania piętna w kontekście polityki tożsamości. Wnioski końcowe dotyczą kwestii formułowania polityki tożsamości i jej wpływu na zinstytucjonalizowane działania publiczne.

The potential stigmatizing effect of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

ABSTRACTOn July 7, 2017, seventy-two years after the start of the nuclear era, 122 states concluded the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW, or “ban treaty”). The treaty forbids the development, production, acquisition, possession, transfer, testing, use, and threat of use of nuclear weapons. Advocates of the TPNW understand that it will not automatically lead to a world without nuclear weapons. The treaty’s main goal is to stimulate a societal and political debate inside the nuclear-armed states and their allies by strengthening the antinuclear norm and by stigmatizing nuclear weapons and their possessors. This article assesses to what extent this process of stigmatization might take place. It starts by elaborating on the concepts of stigma and stigmatization. It then matches the concept of stigma with nuclear weapons, and with the humanitarian initiative behind the momentum that led to the TPNW. The article concludes by looking to different stigma-management approaches that can be used by the nuclear-armed states and their allies.

O racismo como uma “identidade social virtual”

The present work intends from readings by authors like Thomas E. Skidmore, Kabengele Munanga, Mariza Correa, Amanda Braga and others, to contextualize the historical period where racialist theories developed, and the implications of these theories on the black population. Thus, the work intends to analyze through the concept of stigma of the American sociologist Erving Goffman as the racialist theories developed during the second half of the nineteenth century, collaborated for the corporal, moral and tribal stigmatization of the black people, causing what Goffman will call of virtual social identity to the detriment of real social identity.

Stigma and Its Intersections

The goal of this symposium is to further unpack the concept of stigma in relation to other types of social evaluation in the context of organizations and professions. Stigmatized actors are labeled by salient audiences as having a fundamental, deep-seated flaw (Devers, et al., 2009). This stigma discredits the actors, discouraging others from engaging with it. By discouraging engagement with the organization, the stigmatizing audience is able to exert social control over the stigmatized actor. Stigma is one of only a few negative social evaluations that have been examined in the management literature, and there is significant work to be done to both disentangle it from other evaluations and to build conceptual clarity around the intersections among various social evaluations. More specifically, we aim to make a first step towards understanding the differences and connections among the concepts of stigma, status, legitimacy, and reputation. Stigma and Status Hierarchies: Micro-Occupational Communities in the Sex Work Industry Presenter: Madeline Toubiana; U. of Alberta Presenter: Trish Ruebottom; Brock U. Organizational responses to stigma and social categorization processes Presenter: David Moura; Florida Atlantic U. Presenter: Bryant A. Hudson; IESEG School of Management The Cultural Contingency of Law: Evidence from the Introduction of the Automobile Safety Law Presenter: Simona Giorgi; U. of Bath Presenter: Massimo Maoret; IESE Business School When Stigma Doesnt Stick: Predicting Factors in Stigma Erosion Presenter: Karen Diane Walker Patterson; U. of New Mexico Presenter: Jo-Ellen Pozner; Santa Clara U.

Stigma Avoidance and the Delay of Foreign Exits of Emerging Economy Multinational Enterprises

When a foreign subsidiary fails to meet expectations, how quickly will investors pull the plug and withdraw? We argue that the phenomenon of stigma avoidance induces some types of emerging market multinational enterprises to delay divestments of foreign operations. Specifically, we argue that the risk of a stigma of failure creates pressures on managers to retain a business, even at the expense of profitability. Integrating the concept of stigma with institutional theory, we explore variations across firms in different ownership types. A stigma of failure is more likely to be damaging to managers in state-controlled firms (compared to private enterprises) and in family firms (compared to individual-controlled firms). In these types of firms, the impact of stigma avoidance is magnified by ownership concentration, status awareness of the chief executive officer (CEO), and the importance of status in the national culture.

The Unforgettable and Invisible Truth: A Study of Acquaintance Rape in Yejide Kilanko’s Daughters Who Walk This Path

The outstanding contribution of feminism is that it highlighted the issue of women’s mental health instigated by hidden but common abuse of women and children. Yejide Kilanko has presented an incidence of sexual aggression by a violent male figure, which results in severe negative consequences in a fragile girl of fifteen. The invisible truth of unforgettable experience overshadows her being. The disclosure leads to varied reactions from the public—ranging from surprise, pity, disappointment to supportive and compassionate care. The concept of social stigma makes life miserable for the victim who feels sadness and humiliation. However, by inculcating hope within the traumatized individual, profound marks embedded in the psyche of the victim are deciphered, but the violent experience remains alive until the time of the victim’s burial. This study promotes the possibility for alteration in cultural and socio-political ideologies, which sustain trauma and the perpetrators of trauma.

Resituating Erving Goffman: From Stigma Power to Black Power

This article offers a critical re-reading of the understanding of stigma forged by the North American sociologist Erving Goffman in his influential Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity (1963). One of the most widely read and cited sociologists in history, Goffman was already famous when Stigma was published in 1963. His previous books were best-sellers and Stigma alone has sold an astonishing 800,000 copies in the 50 years since its publication. Given its considerable influence, it is surprising how little sustained engagement there has been with the historicity of Goffman’s account. This article resituates Goffman’s conceptualisation of stigma within the historical context of Jim Crow and the Black freedom struggles that were shaking ‘the social interaction order’ to its foundations at the very moment he crafted his account. It is the contention of this article that these explosive political movements against the ‘humiliations of racial discrimination’ invite revision of Goffman’s decidedly apolitical account of stigma. This historical revision of Goffman’s stigma concept builds on an existing body of critical work on the relationship between race, segregation and the epistemology of sociology within the USA. Throughout, it reads Goffman’s Stigma through the lens of ‘Black Sociology’, a field of knowledge that here designates not only formal sociological scholarship, but political manifestos, journalism, creative writing, oral histories and memoirs. It is the argument of this article that placing Goffman’s concept of stigma into critical dialogue with Black epistemologies of stigma allows for a timely reconceptualisation of stigma as governmental technologies of dehumanisation that have long been collectively resisted from below.

Mental Health Related Stigma as a 'Wicked Problem': The Need to Address Stigma and Consider the Consequences.

Recent reviews on the evidence base for mental health related stigma reduction show that under certain conditions interpersonal contact is effective in promoting more positive attitudes, reduced desire for social distance, and increased stigma related knowledge (knowledge which disconfirms beliefs based on stereotypes). Short-term interventions may have effects that are attenuated over time; longer term programmes may support sustained improvements, but research following up long-term interventions is scarce. However, the effectiveness of these interventions should not obscure the nature of stigma as a social problem. In this article we describe stigma as a ‘wicked problem’ to highlight some implications for intervening against stigma and evaluating these efforts. These include the risks of unintended consequences and the need to continually reformulate the concept of stigma, to ensure that tackling stigma at the structural, interpersonal, and intrapersonal levels become part of the core business of stakeholder organisations. We compare the main targets of anti-stigma programmes with what is known about the sources of stigma and discrimination and their impacts to identify targets for future intervention. In some cases, interventions have been directed at the interpersonal level when structural level intervention is also needed; in others, systematic reviews have not so far identified any interventions.

A Community-Based Approach to HIV Prevention in Rural Guatemala

HIV is one of the primary causes of death in Guatemala, and during the period 2005 to 2013, Guatemala exhibited a 95% increase in such deaths. HIV transmission rates are nearly 3 times higher among the indigenous Mayan population than nonindigenous Guatemalans. Guided by the community-based participatory research approach, this article demonstrates the iterative formative research process necessary to develop a deeper and more informed understanding of HIV prevention attitudes and behaviors in the priority population. This project extends preliminary formative research that demonstrated the applicability of the health belief model (HBM) in examining risk, stigma, and barriers and facilitators to condom use and HIV testing. Using an integrated mixed-method design, data were collected from heterosexual adults 18- to 25 years old ( N = 250), including 50 in-depth interviews and 200 rapid assessment surveys. HBM concepts of risk and stigma were confirmed. Data also revealed low rates of condom negotiation and high embarrassment in purchasing and discussing condom use. Furthermore, data yielded very low uptake rates and reduced levels of comfort with getting tested. This research informs refinement of a culture-specific intervention prioritizing indigenous Mayans. We highlight how community-based research and engagement enhance community health promotion.