Disparities In Power Research Articles

Global Inequality Challenge: An Analysis of the Disparities in Wealth and Power

Global inequality is central to the explanation of the disparity between the global North and global South in terms of level of development. World systems theorists have pointed to colonial exploitation of the South by countries in the North as the cause of the disparities in wealth and power between regions. This paper examines global inequality challenges to identify the disparities in wealth and power between the North and the South. The study relied essentially on qualitative data predicated on secondary data. The paper adopted world systems theory as its framework of analysis. The paper showed that the unequal relationship between the global North and the global South was made possible by the colonial exploitation of the South by the North. By adopting the world system theory, the paper revealed how unequal division of labour, terms of trade imbalance, and Bretton Woods Institutions (IMF and World Bank) reinforced global inequality. The study recommended, amongst other things, that the South address internal conditions impeding their development; IMF and World Bank-assisted projects should not be attached with strict conditions.

Nordic Travels

Nordic Travels

Mental health of university students of Pakistan and Germany and the right to health care

PurposePoor mental health in men and women is attributable to disparities in physical traits, social roles, power and health-seeking behaviours. This study aims to examine the gender differences in mental health among Pakistan and German university students and focuses on their right to seek mental health care.Design/methodology/approachData on depression, anxiety and stress symptoms, as well as positive mental health (PMH), resilience, social support and life satisfaction, were gathered from Pakistani and German students.FindingsIn contrast to the Pakistani group, where no such gender differences were seen, women in Germany reported higher degrees of stress, anxiety and depression, as well as a lower level of overall good mental health. In comparison to German men and women, Pakistani women scored equally high on resilience. While gender had no bearing on life happiness in either Pakistan or Germany, women in both countries perceived more social support than men did.Research limitations/implicationsThe study’s strengths include its large sample size and battery of mental health measures. The results of partial weak measurement Invariance (MI) on the stress subscale underlined the importance of using MI in cross-cultural studies. The validity of a direct comparisons on sum score between different language versions or country samples shall be cautious. Still, there are limitations. Firstly, the authors did not differentiate gender and biological sex, and there was no group of non-binary gender. Pakistani (N = 1,840) and German (N = 7,890) students were in unequal numbers. Again, only university students were sampled, so the results cannot be generalised to older (probably less educated) populations. Self-reported data that mainly obtained via online survey were the third limitation. This design is cost-effective and easy to administer for cross-cultural survey research. However, social desirability and memory bias are common in self-report inventories. Fourthly, although English is an official language in Pakistan and the medium of instruction in education, the authors recommend future study to use questionnaires that have been translated and validated into Urdu (Pakistan’s national language) and investigate gender differences in a general population. Fifthly, this is a cross-sectional survey; the authors were not able to explore the causality or risk factors that contribute to the poor mental well-being in Pakistan students in general or the relatively worse mental health in German women. Future studies may investigate the mechanism behind the phenomena observed in this study with longitudinal or experimental design. Last but not least, Germany and Pakistan differ in so many different aspects from culture, religions and history to social structure and economic status, which make it hard to claim whether the observed differences were due to national differences, cultural differences, economic differences, gender inequality differences or other effects. It would be helpful for future studies to include more country samples with clear definitions of different “culture” aspects for a better understanding of gender differences in other countries and in different mental well-being constructs.Practical implicationsThe current study is the first attempt to compare the gender difference patterns in positive and negative mental health between European and South Asian counties and focuses on gender-specific approaches. Although Pakistani university students reported in general worse mental well-being, the differences between the two genders in mental health (e.g. depression, anxiety, general PMH) were not as pronounced as in the German student sample. Gender comparisons in these mental health constructs would help to improve protective factors against mental illness and to develop appropriate management programmes based on cultural differences. The results suggest that the gender differences found in western countries cannot always be directly translated into the South Asian cultural framework. Our results also highlight the importance of improving the general situation of Pakistan (students) instead of focusing on one gender. At the same time, in Germany, prevention and intervention plans are more warranted for women. It could be that once the general situation in Pakistan is improved, the gender-related differences in mental health will be clearly observed.Originality/valueThese findings imply the significance of cultural context when inferring gender variations in mental health. Moreover, it supports the advancement of comprehensive policies to reduce gender-related mental health inequalities and focuses on the equal rights of men and women to get mental health care.

Graduate Medical Education Training and the Health of Indigenous Peoples.

Graduate Medical Education Training and the Health of Indigenous Peoples.

Reconceptualising Feminism in International Relations: A Critical Analysis of Masculinized Paradigms and Disparities in Leadership, Politics, and Power

International Relations (IR) as an academic field has its roots in predominantly masculinized perspectives, where traditional notions of power, dominance, and war shaped the international discourse. The article sought to explore and critically analyze how feminist theory addresses the disparities in leadership, politics, and power within the context of international relations. The article delved into the historical development of IR as a discipline, examining how traditional theoretical frameworks have inadvertently perpetuated gender biases. The article highlighted the multifaceted contributions of feminist scholars in challenging the conventional norms and striving for gender equality within the international political arena. The subsequent sections of this article discussed the evolution of feminist thought within IR. They emphasized the relevance and importance of feminist theory in reshaping the discourse of IR, making it more inclusive, and promoting gender equality in the article and practice of IR. By recognizing the significance of feminism within IR, this research sought to contribute to the ongoing efforts to transform the field and make it more reflective of diverse voices and experiences. The article used Realism and Liberalism feminist theorists. Desktop research review method was utilized by exploring secondary data from published articles. The article concludes that the oppression of women is rooted in unequal power dynamics that exist at all levels of society, from the individual to the political. International politics will remain a male domain and privilege as long as there are not enough powerful women to tip the scales.

Editorial: Why Free Speech?

Many of us struggle to make sense of what is without doubt a deepening global socio-economic and political crisis, and at the heart of this crisis lies an unprecedented and multi-directional assault on freedom of speech. But what is free speech? How should it be exercised and to what ends? These are more difficult questions to navigate in contexts of growing divisions in society, the crises of state governabilities, people’s governmentalities and disparities in power and wealth. Debates about freedom of speech are not new; however, the form they take now seems particularly vindictive and violent. Across the world, we are witness to disturbing moves to curtail free speech in liberal democracies and totalitarian states alike and among left wing as well as right wing movements. As recent events show, free speech is the first casualty of all forms of authoritarianism including religious fundamentalism. And from this flow a range of other crackdowns on civil society and serious human rights violations that cannot be challenged. This is why the debate on freedom of speech has become increasingly urgent.

Explaining How Community Music Engagement Facilitates Social Cohesion through Ritualised Belonging

The flourishing society envisioned by the South African government’s National Development Plan 2030 is based on nation-building and social cohesion. With the recent civil unrests, calls for healing a nation characterised by poverty, inequality and violence through social cohesion have again been made. Community music engagement is uniquely positioned to achieve social cohesion since the discipline engages disparities of power and privilege whilst aiming to cultivate an environment of unconditional welcoming. The purpose of this theoretical framework is to explain how community music engagement can facilitate social cohesion through community music engagement. Community music engagement promotes spiritual experiences since it fosters relationships. This relational theoretical framework will be derived from a thematic analysis of the 21 chapters in the book Ritualised Belonging: Musicing and Spirituality in the South African Context and related theories. Our findings indicate that joyful musicking rituals serve as the catalyst for hope. Hope, in turn, motivates people to engage in community musicking, which requires a bodily co-presence, fosters mutual focus of attention and promotes cooperation and trust. Musickers who share values, challenges, culture, and identity experience a joyful sense of belonging. Furthermore, joy is key to spirituality since it is self-expansive, self-transcendent and other-embracing and transcends different religions. Joy moves musickers to build bonding and bridging social capital. Social capital improves individuals’ and communities’ quality of life and ultimately promotes social cohesion.

Community-powered urban stream restoration: A vision for sustainable and resilient urban ecosystems

Urban streams can provide amenities to people living in cities, but those benefits are reduced when streams become degraded, potentially even causing harm (disease, toxic compounds, etc.). Governments and institutions invest resources to improve the values and services provided by urban streams; however, the conception, development, and implementation of such projects may not include meaningful involvement of community members and other stakeholders. Consequently, project objectives may be misaligned with community desires and needs, and projects may fail to achieve their goals. In February 2020, the 5th Symposium on Urbanization and Stream Ecology, an interdisciplinary meeting held every 3 to 5 y, met in Austin, Texas, USA, to explore new approaches to urban stream projects, including ways to maximize the full range of potential benefits by better integrating community members into project identification and decision making. The symposium included in-depth discussion about 4 nearby field case studies, participation of multidisciplinary urban stream experts from 5 continents, and input from the Austin community. Institutional barriers to community inclusion were identified and analyzed using real-world examples, both from the case studies and from the literature, which clarified disparities in power, equity, and values. Outcomes of the symposium have been aggregated into a vision that challenges the present institutional approach to urban stream management and a set of strategies to systematically address these barriers to improve restoration solutions. Integrating community members and other stakeholders throughout the urban restoration process, and a transparent decision-making process to resolve divergent objectives, can help identify appropriate goals for realizing both the ecological and social benefits of stream restoration.

The relationship between health and political ideology begins in childhood

We investigate whether childhood health status influences adult political ideology and whether health at subsequent life-stages, adolescent personality traits, or adolescent academic aptitude mediate this relationship. Using a national longitudinal cohort sample, we found that better health among children under age 10 was positively related to conservative political ideology among adults over age 64. Children with excellent health compared to very poor health were 16 percentage points more likely to report having a conservative political ideology in adulthood. Children with excellent health compared to very poor health were 13 percentage points less likely to report having a liberal political ideology in adulthood. Adults who had excellent health as children were 30 percentage points more likely to report conservative ideology than liberal ideology. However, the difference in ideological position for adults who had very poor childhood health was negligible. That is, the health and ideology relationship is being driven by those who were healthier early in life, after controlling for family income and material wealth. No evidence was found for mediation by adolescent heath, adult heath, adolescent personality traits, or adolescent academic aptitude. The magnitude of the coefficient for childhood health was substantively and statistically equivalent across race and sex. We discuss the possibility that, instead of being mediated, childhood health may actually be a mediator bridging social, environmental, and policy contexts with political ideology. We also discuss the potential of social policy to influence health, which influences ideology (and voting participation), which eventually circles back to influence social policy. It is important to understand the nexus of political life and population health since disparities in voice and power can exacerbate health disparities.

Who’s in the driver’s seat? Gender and the division of car use in auto-deficit households

• Practical necessity—the amount of time spouses that spend on household-serving or work-related activities—is the primary determinant of automobile use for both men and women. • Women are more likely to be the primary houseworker than men. • Women have substantially more exclusive access to the household vehicle than their male partners. • The findings reflect the persistence of the gender division of household labor and the role of the car in its maintenance. • The use of alternative modes of transportation is high among spouses who travel when the vehicle is in use by their partners. We examine the role of gender in access to household resources, in particular the household automobile. Drawing on data from the 2012 California Household Travel Survey, we isolate the determinants of vehicle use within dual-earner, dual-driver, heterosexual households in which drivers share a single vehicle. We test four gender-related hypotheses: the role of disparities in economic power, practical necessity related to the household division of labor, gender norms, and gender preferences. We find that practical necessity—the amount of time that spouses spend on household-serving or work-related activities—is the primary determinant of automobile use for both men and women. In contrast to previous research, we find that women have substantially more exclusive access to the household vehicle than their male partners. Rather than a measure of equality, this finding reflects the persistence of the gender division of household labor and the role of the car in its maintenance. The study underscores the broader need for policies to equalize gender roles both within and between the home and the workplace, as well as a role for transportation policies that serve the needs of household members who do not have primary use of the household car.

Situating memory(ies) and promoting public pedagogy in Al sur de la Alameda: diario de una toma

Recently Chile has undergone significant socio-economic and geopolitical changes following efforts to forge sustainable pathways challenging disparities in power and wealth in the country. In 2006 secondary-school students launched the Penguin Revolution to protest inequalities in the educational system resulting from policies implemented during and after Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973-1990) and to critique the cause of economic differences that allowed the wealthy to prosper and marginalized the poor. This article explores the contributions of the novel Al sur de la Alameda: diario de una toma (2014) to the memory-building exercise undertaken by the Penguin Revolution, situating it in the context of memory activism over the last thirty years. Furthermore, it examines the novel’s promotion of public pedagogy in the context of its production, aligning it with the goals of the Penguin Revolution and argues that it is the polyphonic narrative and intermedial storytelling process that facilitate the novel’s socio-historical contributions.

Rethinking the Relationship between German- and Yiddish-Language Culture

Rethinking the Relationship between German- and Yiddish-Language Culture Matthew Johnson Poetische Selbstbilder. Deutsch-judische und Jiddische Lyrikanthologien 1900-1938. By Carmen Reichert. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2019. Pp. 350. Cloth €75.00. ISBN 9783525573150. Yiddish Writers in Weimar Berlin: A Fugitive Modernism. By Marc Caplan. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2021. Pp. 394. Cloth $95.00. ISBN 9780253051981. Jewish Primitivism. By Samuel J. Spinner. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2021. Pp. 272. Cloth $65.00. ISBN 9781503628274. It Could Lead to Dancing: Mixed-Sex Dancing and Jewish Modernity. By Sonia Gollance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2021. Pp. 296. Cloth $65.00. ISBN 9781503613492. Despite their linguistic closeness, German and Yiddish have most often been studied apart. Since the beginning of the Haskalah, or the Jewish Enlightenment, in the late eighteenth century, German and Yiddish came to be associated with divergent and even opposed trajectories of Jewish modernity, and their relative value became the object of intense debate. Indeed, in the wake of the Haskalah, the two languages were often understood as representing either side of a series of charged dichotomies, such as West and East, Germanness and Jewishness, assimilation and dissimilation, or, at the level of script, writing from left to right and right to left, in the Latin and Hebrew alphabets. This divergence was a consequence of a number of complex factors, including migration, acculturation, nationalization, and different forms of capital (i.e., economic, cultural, and social). Its implications were far-reaching and remain [End Page 363] only partially understood. The historian Aya Elyada notes, for example, that "the language shift from Yiddish to German, which took place in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, was likely the most crucial development in the cultural history of German Jews, at least since the late Middle Ages."1 In recent decades, however, scholars have begun to explore alternatives to this history of divergence, reconsidering the medieval and early modern past and its afterlives, turning attention to regions where language contact remained common (e.g., Habsburg Bukovina and Galicia), and utilizing comparative approaches that bring these languages into proximity without effacing their differences and without denying their disparities in power. In 1986, Sander Gilman published an influential study, Jewish Self-Hatred: Anti-Semitism and the Hidden Language of the Jews, which examines "how a group defined as different by society as well as by itself responds to one very specific stereotype, the image of its language and discourse."2 Gilman explores "the history of anti-Jewish attitudes in Germany from this relatively narrow perspective and [autopsies] the resultant acceptance (or rejection) of this perception."3 In large parts of his study, he considers the relationship between German and Yiddish, albeit in ways that foreground their antagonism and embroilment in stereotypes. In subsequent decades, a number of scholars have considered this linguistic relationship beyond what Gilman himself admits is his "relatively narrow perspective" (ix). Marion Aptroot, Aya Elyada, Jerold Frakes, Astrid Lembke, and Erika Timm, among others, have provided nuanced accounts of the interplay between Yiddish and German in the medieval and early modern periods. In The Discourse on Yiddish in Germany: From the Enlightenment to the Second Empire (2000) and, more recently, in a series of important articles, Jeffrey A. Grossman has shed light on what he calls the "Yiddish-German connection."4 Furthermore, building on the formative work of Paul Mendes-Flohr, Steven Aschheim, and Michael Brenner, a number of scholars, including Delphine Bechtel, Allison Schachter, Rachel Seelig, and Nick Block, have highlighted the generative encounter between German- and Yiddish-speaking Jews during World War I and the interwar period. David Groiser, Armin Eidherr, Thomas Soxberger, Efrat Gal-Ed, Lea Schäfer, and Kalman Weiser have further explored topics such as the "problem" of translating from Yiddish into German, the place of Yiddish culture in Austria-Hungary, the phenomenon of linguistic imitation, and the fraught history of Yiddish linguistics in Germany. Taken together, these diverse (and not always cohesive) groupings of scholars have created an open field of interdisciplinary research—what might be termed "German-Yiddish Studies"—that participates in a larger multilingual turn pioneered by scholars such as Dan Miron, Benjamin Harshav, and Chana Kronfeld in the academic study...

Perspectives on Gender in Science, Technology, and Innovation: A Review of Sub-Saharan Africa's Science Granting Councils and Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Africa's focus on science, technology, and innovation (STI) has grown over the last decade, with emerging examples of good practice. There are however numerous challenges to sustainable development in Africa; for example, inequalities within and among African countries are rising and enormous disparities of opportunity, wealth, and power persist. While policy makers and organizations have put increasing emphasis on integrating gender into STI policies and initiatives as a means to achieve gender equality for all women and girls, inequality remains a key challenge to continental sustainable development. STI funders such as the Science Granting Councils (SGCs) in Africa are key players in national innovation systems. They advise and facilitate policy and program development, disburse funds, build research capacity, set and monitor research agendas, manage bilateral and multilateral STI agreements, and assess the communication, uptake, and impact of research. They, therefore, have a major role to play in enabling countries to achieve SDG5. This study assessed the current actions in gender mainstreaming across the SGCs and the status of gender research and collaboration in participating countries. Our findings provide evidence of uneven progress in promoting gender equality in the operations of the SGCs, including funding research and promoting the integration of gender dimensions in research content and curricula. All SGCs emphasized national commitments to gender, and the importance of gender in STI, but acknowledged that at the structural and institutional levels there was a misalignment between policy and practice. As expected, more men than women were employed across most levels at the SGCs and held positions of seniority and decision making. Most of the SGCs had very limited or no gender-related funding programs to promote gender and STI or to eliminate the barriers that women scholars face. This resulted in persistent inequalities in who received funding, the size of the grants they received, and in the knowledge production, collaboration, and the impact on their country's gender-related research. These findings suggest that SGCs need to strengthen their actions to mainstream gender if they are to achieve success with SDG5.

A novel optimization-based power quality enhancement using dynamic voltage restorer and distribution static compensator

The power assurance <span lang="EN-US">for distinct purchaser in the nation must be guaranteed through electric power distribution (EPD) system, subsequently EPD must be reliable, and well facilitating with power quality (PQ) in distribution framework. It will be much significant to keep up with PQ in power distribution (PD) framework for service continuity. The PQ issue basically emerge in distribution framework are voltage swell, sag, harmonics, and disparities in power. In this manuscript, the PQ development in photovoltaic (PV) PD framework for IEEE 33 and 57 bus frameworks is deliberated as the aim. The improvement is satisfied with FACTS pay gadgets of dynamic voltage restorer (DVR) and distributed static compensator (DSTATCOM). The butterfly optimizer (BO) and gray wolf optimizer (GWO) framework is deliberated for suggested work that implies a switching gadget and it compares the yield signal of DSTATCOM and DVR. In this proposed system DVR is compensated with an advanced GWO and DSTATCOM with BO for optimal location of FACTS devices in IEEE 33 and 57 bus systems are discussed like in the conventional paper as 13th bus for IEEE 33 system & 30th bus for IEEE 57 system.</span>

The meaning of Madingley: Anglo-American commemorative culture at the Cambridge American Military Cemetery

On completion in 1956, the design of the Cambridge American Military Cemetery at Madingley intentionally downplayed individual sacrifice in favour of an emphasis on government-led collective endeavour to uphold national ideals. The design commemorated the defeat of the Axis but in the Cold War also reaffirmed these ideals to allies and ideological enemies alike. Yet from the beginning, the meaning of Madingley has been fluid, negotiated and transcendent of the original fixed design. This article explores the impact of major social and cultural change, the rhetorical activity of politicians, institutional imperatives and the desires of local host communities on the meaning of this major node of Anglo-American commemorative culture. In doing so, it traces the growth of an emphasis on individual service and sacrifice that has replaced the original focus on government-led national enterprise with a more portable meaning able to support the desires of different commemorative constituencies. American politicians have used this to garner support for their policies, institutions have used it as a survival strategy and the host nation has used it as a comforting mask to obscure awkward disparities in national power. Although the commemorative meaning of the site has changed radically, it remains a window on the wider conservative dynamics of Anglo-American commemorative culture.

Dialogue within and dialogue between: a duoethnography of two researchers in the field of North Korean refugee education

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to document dialogic reflections of two researchers (Shin Ji and Eun-Young) who had conducted collaborative projects on education for youth with North Korean refugee backgrounds. By employing duoethnography, conversations were conducted on the following questions: What are the experiences that impacted our researcher identities? What is the transformative learning emerged from our engagement in NK research? How do we become more holistic researchers through duoethnography? During a series of facilitated dialogues both within and between Shin Ji and Eun-Young, they learned that their personal experiences of marginalisation served as an experiential and emotional foundation for their increased critical awareness of North Korean refugee students: the disparities in position, power and access that the students experienced in the process of resettlement in South Korea. Participating in the duoethnogrphy, the authors also experienced qualitative transformation as they made sense of the ways their identities and NK research were feeding each other. The authors thus concluded that the duoethnography created a third space for them in that it was a personally therapeutic and professionally productive engagement that was able to secure transparency that represents unique insights from each researcher.

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF LEFT AND RIGHT POPULISM

AbstractThe deepening distrust in democracy has grown out of a decade of low growth and cuts to public spending, which in turn has consolidated wage decline while also fuelling a wider sense of economic insecurity. As poverty and inequality intensify, social mobility is in reverse and the social contract is under growing strain. Support for populists has recently receded, but the inability of democratic systems to address deep-seated problems sows the seeds for future populist revolts. Both left- and right-wing governments have responded to increasing anger and alienation with policies that exacerbate existing inequalities of income and wealth, combined with disparities of decision-making power and social status. These are ethical as much as economic questions and they demand a much more robust response than technocratic administration. Otherwise, ethical social democracy and communitarian conservatism will fail to defeat the authoritarianism of both radical-right national populists and the tech-utopianism of far-left populists.

Employing AI to Better Understand Our Morals

We present a summary of research that we have conducted employing AI to better understand human morality. This summary adumbrates theoretical fundamentals and considers how to regulate development of powerful new AI technologies. The latter research aim is benevolent AI, with fair distribution of benefits associated with the development of these and related technologies, avoiding disparities of power and wealth due to unregulated competition. Our approach avoids statistical models employed in other approaches to solve moral dilemmas, because these are “blind” to natural constraints on moral agents, and risk perpetuating mistakes. Instead, our approach employs, for instance, psychologically realistic counterfactual reasoning in group dynamics. The present paper reviews studies involving factors fundamental to human moral motivation, including egoism vs. altruism, commitment vs. defaulting, guilt vs. non-guilt, apology plus forgiveness, counterfactual collaboration, among other factors fundamental in the motivation of moral action. These being basic elements in most moral systems, our studies deliver generalizable conclusions that inform efforts to achieve greater sustainability and global benefit, regardless of cultural specificities in constituents.

Exploring digital sustainability of/through Estonia’s e-residency: Africa’s case and the importance of culture for sustainability

PurposeThis paper aims to take the lead from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 9 and 10 – foster “resilient infrastructures and inclusive innovation” and “reduce disparities of opportunities, income and power” – as key for digital sustainability. Moving beyond existing research, here this paper conceptualise “digital sustainability” as a framework for analysing the sustainability of digital services.Design/methodology/approachCombining different works, this paper identifies five dimensions: social, economic, institutional, environmental and technical. The framework is then tested on Estonia’s e-residency program, of which, in this way, this paper explores the potential digital sustainability. By allowing anyone to run location-independent businesses as if virtually in Estonia, the e-residency program aligns to what SDGs 9 and 10 prescribe in terms of socio-economic inclusiveness and inclusive innovation. As such, the program is particularly valuable for citizens from developing countries in that it gives them access to European markets. Hence, to explore e-residency’s digital sustainability, this paper focuses on the experiences of African e-residents.FindingsIn-depth interviews highlight a series of criticalities involving one or more dimensions of the framework. This is because of the program having a global outreach by default but not accommodating contextual diversity by design.Originality/valueSuggestions for improving the program are provided, alongside the recommendation to also include the cultural dimension into the conceptualisation of digital sustainability.

The Facts of Science & the Values of Social Justice

The Facts of Science & the Values of Social Justice