Economic Hierarchy Research Articles

Cash Cows and Dogs with Dentures: Prostheses for Animals in Nineteenth-Century British Culture

Abstract This article shows how the history of prostheticized animals is much deeper and richer than one might think. Investigating the interest in fitting animals with prostheses throughout the nineteenth century in Britain, this article explores the emergence of animal prostheses in bovine agriculture through to their use in late Victorian pet keeping. The key concern of this piece is the varied responses to prostheticized animals in print culture. As this article shows through an analysis of magazine and newspaper contributions, reactions to animal prostheses varied from admiration and amazement to annoyance and disgust. By analysing this coverage, the article reveals how representations of animal prostheses brought into collision a surprising variety of important social discourses, including those related to economic productivity, prosthesis access, food adulteration, professional recognition, social norms, class hierarchies, and gender relations. Animal prostheses proved a novel yet apt image that distilled a wide variety of societal concerns. Redirecting the critical momentum established by recent scholarship that unites disability studies and critical animal studies, this article uses nineteenth-century animal prostheses as a case study to demonstrate how the concepts of disability, ableism, classism, and misogyny have been extended by humans across species boundaries and how our approaches to nonhuman care are impacted by them. It therefore establishes a new field of inquiry within Victorian studies for scholarship on the interface between discourses of disability and nonhuman animals.

Time and Place for Counter-Storytelling as Liberatory Theory and Collective Healing Practice in Academia: A Case Example of a Black Feminist Psycho-Socio Cultural Scholar-Artivist

The institution of slavery engineered racialized gendered capitalism that locks Black women in multiple social identity-labeled boxes on the sociocultural and economic hierarchy. Acts of cultural invasion have produced controlling images and oppressive narratives to maintain the status quo of white male wealth and power. Critical race theory scholars have offered counter-storytelling as a theorizing method to study the impact of intersectional oppression on Black women and to develop strategies for resistance and healing for those who are at the margins of society. This manuscript weaves the voices of Black feminists with a creative arts methodology to explore resistance and healing practice rooted in lived experience and provides a case example of counter-storytelling in a predominantly white academic space. For future directions, there is a need for guidelines on how to navigate the use of counter-storytelling to safely engage and protect the Black woman’s humanity and not be a tool for public displays of Black pain or for trauma voyeurism.

Sensing a Twenty-First-Century Commons in the Theater: Relationality in a Climate of Distrust and Destruction

Abstract Conceptualizations of a “commons” have recently been gaining traction in theorizations of specific locations, gatherings, and activism in and beyond the arts. A theater-based commons that adopts a planetary and relational approach to selfhood, interaction, and future survival on Planet Earth tends to focus on breaking with social, political, economic, and aesthetic hierarchies. I will first introduce how notions of relationality have been integrated in theorizations of solidarity, humanitarian action, and a commons. Then, I will discuss these theorizations within the contexts of theater as communication and action that involves both theater-makers and audience members as actants. Finally, I intend to show how these conceptualizations can be meaningfully applied to unraveling the artistic strategies of a broad array of plays associated with the biannual theater festival Climate Change Theatre Action, which has been taking place before and after the United Nations Conference of the Parties climate conferences since 2015. The examples from the corpus of 250 five-minute plays are to illustrate the intervention of climate-change theater in potentially insurgent commons-based engagement and thinking which tries to avoid virtue signaling and other self-promoting forms of supposed solidarity.

Exploring social justice dialogues in EFL conversation clubs: discursive moves and affordances

ABSTRACT There has recently been a growing interest in social justice language education, with the goal of challenging entrenched social, cultural and economic hierarchies within educational institutions and the society at large. Contributing to this line of research, the present study focused on an online conversation club that aimed to develop EFL learners’ communicative skills and critical literacy through the discussion of social justice issues which have traditionally been deemed ‘taboo’ and ‘controversial’. Data were collected online via demographic information survey, the recordings of the conversation club sessions, facilitator’s field notes and reflective journals, and student interviews. The results revealed several discursive moves adopted by EFL learners, which mostly revolved around that's our responsibility vs others in relation to environmental issues; and that’s the government’s-job when it comes to themes related to immigration. The findings illustrated the potential of social justice-oriented conversation clubs to foster diverse perspectives and authentic conversation in language classrooms, and to cultivate EFL learners’ critical literacy. The study provides insights into how language educators can integrate social justice issues into the language curriculum in ways that help language learners question their already-existing beliefs and take action for a socially just world.

Socioeconomic Dynamics in Kathmandu Valley: A World-System Perspective

The socioeconomic dynamics of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, are analyzed through the lens of World-System Theory, providing insights into its position within the global economic hierarchy. This theoretical framework, pioneered by Immanuel Wallenstein, categorizes nations into core, semi-peripheral, and peripheral regions based on their economic and structural positions in the global system. The Kathmandu Valley's spatial distribution of economic resources illustrates core-periphery dynamics, with urban centers like Kathmandu emerging as core areas boasting robust economic activities, while peripheral regions face marginalization and limited access to economic opportunities. Disparities in infrastructure development further highlight these dynamics, as core areas benefit from superior infrastructure, while peripheral regions contend with limited development, exacerbating urban-rural inequalities. Migration patterns within the Kathmandu Valley reflect responses to economic imbalances perpetuated by the global capitalist system, with rural residents migrating to urban centers in search of opportunities, straining urban infrastructure and widening disparities. Additionally, globalization's impact on cultural dynamics contributes to the homogenization of cultures, eroding traditional practices and identities in favor of Western consumer culture. Social stratification within Nepali society is reinforced by the hierarchical structure of the world-system, perpetuating cycles of privilege and disadvantage. Understanding these dynamics through World-System Theory highlights the interconnectedness of global and local processes, emphasizing the need for systemic change to address disparities and foster equitable development in the Kathmandu Valley.

Reproductive Justice, Race, and the Prescience of the Past

The question of control—over bodies, knowledge, narrative, and nation—interweaves throughout Dana Medoro’s Certain Concealments: Poe, Hawthorne, and Early Nineteenth-Century Abortion and Stephanie Peebles Tavera’s (P)rescription Narratives: Feminist Medical Fiction and the Failure of American Censorship. Medoro focuses on discourses of life and women’s (non)reproductive sexuality in Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s fiction. She establishes that the two authors were deeply skeptical of medicolegal definitions of life that created racial and economic hierarchies; through focal characters and indirect, playful prose, they critique discourses of life that valued some lives over others in the creation of Anglo-American nationalism. Tavera investigates late-nineteenth-century woman-authored medical fiction as directly engaging many of the same concepts Medoro explores. (P)rescription Narratives calls attention to the ways that Comstock-era censorship colluded with race science, medicine, and the law to limit women’s sexual and reproductive autonomy. It demonstrates literature’s agential capacities as the writers it addresses explicitly refute and redirect objectifying narratives. Combined, these texts show that questions of what “counts” as life, and by what (and whose) paradigms those lives can be lived, are hardly theoretical musings. Rather, they determine, systemically and corporeally, “life’s legibility and reproduction … in the name of American citizenship” (Medoro 19). These texts, in other words, are highly relevant and important as literary and cultural scholarship, making a powerful argument for the study of the humanities. But they are also important because they document the subversive and agential power of the written word to discern, document, and possibly heal—to affect change for today and the future.

Hewers of wood and drawers of water: English subaltern education from the charity schools to the neoliberal meritocracy of widening participation

British educational ideas and policies towards working-class and minority youth show continuous preoccupations with social status and preparation for labour. In examining this, we link educational discourses and practices in England from the Charity Schools to the contemporary higher education policy Widening Participation (WP). We argue that WP is heir to successive educational programmes that explicitly fit poor and marginalised youth to labour and, contrary to its asserted aims, legitimates social and economic hierarchies. Using major government reports, promotional narratives and data on university expansion and tuition fees, we argue that the ‘disadvantaged student’ in WP is a currency for higher education institutions and student debt is the price of a ticket to ‘success’ within an imagined neoliberal meritocracy. The novelty is that whereas in the past, the costs of subaltern education were covered by philanthropy, today's ‘disadvantaged students’ indebt themselves to maintain their positions in society.

Disparities in School Performance in Romania. A Geostatistical Analysis of Baccalaureate Results between 2015-2022

This study analyses the evolution of the main indicators of students’ high school performance at the high school graduation exams (Romanian Baccalaureate) from a geographical perspective. Both participation and pass rates fluctuate depending on the type of high school, gender and place of residence. Behind these quantifiable characteristics there are significant disparities in (in)equality of educational opportunities influenced by the questionable efficiency of the education system in providing quality education to every student, regardless of their parents’ financial background. Although the upper cycle of secondary school (11-12th grades) is not legally compulsory, successful graduation is essential for the economic, social and cultural insertion of the future adults in a functioning society. The lack of performance of some high schools and vulnerable groups of students, who face problems of accessibility, motivation, opportunity, and financial support, as well as the worrying numbers of exam absentees, must be brought baccalaureate to the permanent agenda of the policy makers, not exclusively during the exam period. The complexity of the official data from 2015-2022 has allowed the geostatistical analysis of school performance, highlighting the deep discrepancies within the system, specifically between urban and rural students, the administrative and economic hierarchy of the locality and the prestige of the high school attended. The insights of this analysis can be used to identify optimal solutions to enhance the research about educational disparities.

Women Empowerment Gaining Right Trajectory: A Perspective from MSME, Odisha, India

In traditional male-dominated society women generally enjoy secondary status in familial and social hierarchy. The widespread condition of gender disparity may be attributed to a lack of gainful employment and fixed wages with a regular source of livelihood. The majority of women are left out of the ambit of the decision-making process due to their inferior social and economic conditions. The status of women can be raised and gender equality can be achieved through MSME which empowers women with upward movement in economic, social and political hierarchy. MSME facilitates women entrepreneurs to utilise their entrepreneurial skills and talent and to play leadership roles to improve the conditions of women folk. The present study focuses on the role of leading women entrepreneurs of Puri district Odisha towards the objective of empowering women. The data gathered through questionnaires, surveys, person to person interaction during field visits/workshops/seminars/presentations form the basis for developing this article. During interaction all points raised, views expressed by respondents, and suggestions gathered were recorded to organize this article. It has been observed MSME sectors have largely contributed to improving women's status through employment, skill upgradation, innovations, and encouraging participative and collaborative decisions. However, simplifying and streamlining activities related to registration, products, production, financing, training, and marketing would enhance further value addition by MSME. The insights earned during the study about ground realities, problem areas, and steps towards a solution will help the researchers, NGOs, SHGs, field agencies, donors, bankers, government institutions, corporate houses, and planners to fine-tune their approach towards women empowerment.

Occupational Prestige: The Status Component of Socioeconomic Status

The relationship between life outcomes and an individual’s standing in the social and economic hierarchy of society is an important topic across the social sciences. Foundational to this work is assessing an individual’s standing in this hierarchy, often referred to as socioeconomic status (SES). One component of an individual’s SES, often overlooked in the psychological literature, is occupational prestige – the amount of status accorded to them based on their occupational role. In this research, we collected and validated a new index of occupational prestige for 1029 specific occupations, including all jobs in the US Department of Labor’s O*NET database, and 22 broader occupational families. In Study 1, we collected a comprehensive set of occupational prestige ratings from an online convenience sample, and demonstrated their high reliability. In Study 2, we developed a crosswalk between the ratings collected in Study 1 and prior ratings of occupations listed in the US Census and show convergent validity with previous indices. In Studies 3 and 4 we used additional data to evaluate the construct validity of occupational prestige more broadly. In Study 3, we established convergent and discriminant validity with other indicators of SES: income and educational attainment. In Study 4, we use the O*NET database to identify the characteristics of occupations most strongly associated with prestige. These results support the validity of the index and suggest occupations with high prestige require skills traditionally emphasized in liberal arts education (e.g., critical thinking, reading comprehension).

The Bretskyan hierarchy, multiscale allopatry, and geobiomes—on the nature of evolutionary things

AbstractThe process of evolution and the structures it produces are best understood in the light of hierarchy theory. The biota traditionally is described by either the genealogical Linnaean hierarchy or economic hierarchies of communities or ecosystems. Here we describe the Bretskyan hierarchy—a hybrid eco-genealogical hierarchy that consists of nested sets of different-sized, usually polyphyletic communities of interacting individuals separated from other such communities in space and time at multiple scales. The Bretskyan hierarchy consists of elements that have both genealogical and economic properties and functions—situated between, and connecting the elements of, the economic hierarchies (Vernadskyan) and the genealogical (Linnaean) hierarchy. The described hierarchy at lower tiers is populated by holobionts, individuals composed of multiple polyphyletic lineages integrated by functional interactions or biotically fabricated structures, such as membranes. At larger spatial tiers and longer time scales, the members of the Bretskyan hierarchy are of a more diffuse nature, partially due to the small size and relatively short duration of us as observers of larger and longer-lasting structures, here described as geobiomes. Their individuality is externally forced and directly tied to the spatial and temporal physical structures of our planet. These are sub-bioprovinces and bioprovinces—large and effectively isolated spatiotemporal structures of biota integrated internally by coevolution and individuated externally by a hierarchy of barriers. Gaia is here understood as the largest eco-genealogical individual compartmentalized by the outer space of the Earth and integrated at long time scales by biotic interactions and plate tectonic mixing of biota. The existence of a hierarchy of barriers and multilevel allopatry suggests that geographic isolation takes part not only in individuating species lineages, but also in producing coherent complexes of separate lineages forming bioprovinces at multiple space and time scales. The sizes, configurations, and durations of Bretskyan units are directly tied to geodynamics, demonstrating the central role of the physical planet in the processes of individuation and merging of geobiomes and the control of coevolution, and all its ramifications, at multiple space and time scales. The Bretskyan hierarchy also allows the integration of previously unconnected themes—“egalitarian” major transitions in individuality (e.g., eukaryogenesis) and some of the megatrajectories in the history of life—into a single theoretical framework of spatial and temporal scaling of eco-genealogy. The pervasive scaling of geodynamical processes and the direct connection of geodynamics to the dynamics of Bretskyan units allows us to formulate conjectures on the scales and limits of spatial and temporal contingency and competitiveness of biotas in evolution.

The economic and political development of African states in the historical context of the decolonization process

The study of decolonization has long been dominated by political history, focused on formal emancipation of nations at the turn of the 19th and 20th century, societies subject to European colonial administration. The article reveals the reasons for the emancipation of colonised nations and the construction of a new social and economic order in the world. It also presents the relationship between decolonisation and the new global economic hierarchy. In fact, decolonisation did not change anything in the economic and political relations between former metropolises and former colonies, similarly at the cultural level, where the language of the coloniser still dominates in the official sphere and in education.

Information infrastructure construction and optimization of resources allocation among firms: Evidence from “Broadband China” strategy

The construction of information infrastructure stands at the forefront of current digital strategies aimed at fostering high-quality economic growth. However, misallocation of resources severely constrains the sustainable economic growth of developing countries. Using the firm-level data from the National Tax Survey database over the time period 2009 to 2016, this paper examines the impact of information infrastructure on the misallocation of resources among firms by utilizing the city-level “Broadband China” strategy as a quasi-natural experiment. We find that information infrastructure construction can significantly mitigate resource misallocation among firms by reducing information costs and breaking down market barriers, and that plays a crucial role in improving China's aggregate total factor productivity (hereafter, TFP). Furthermore, this mitigating effect of information infrastructure on misallocation is more significant in cities with higher economic development and administrative hierarchy, and it can alleviate the resource misallocation caused by scale discrimination. These findings enrich the research on information infrastructure construction and resource allocation efficiency and also offer valuable insights for developing countries seeking practical guidance.

The Potomac Ploy: George Washington’s Secret Scheme That Shaped the Nation’s Capital

For over 200 years, historians have glossed over blemishes on George Washington’s reputation, transforming the president into an almost mythological figure of the United States’ national identity. This paper brings into focus one of the more overlooked narratives about the president, revealing that his choice of Washington DC and the Potomac River as the location for the national capital was driven by financial self-interest and not by a prescient vision of future national unity. Overwhelming evidence demonstrates that Washington knew the Potomac River could not serve as a national waterway; he was well aware of impassible rapids, sudden drops that totaled 874 feet, and large mountains that completely obstructed the river. Despite this, Washington continued to pursue development along the Potomac for personal financial gain. By the early 1790s, the country had sent thousands of dollars to his private river company, promoted settlement in areas near Washington’s land holdings, and begun the creation of a major city within walking distance of Mount Vernon. The revelation of Washington’s true motivations for choosing this location for the national capital complicates the myth of this founding father as the epitome of a perfect leader. It calls into question the legitimacy of the political, racial, and economic hierarchies that have transformed a self-interested slaveholder into a centerpiece of modern democracy.

Abolition Economics

Over the past several decades, Law & Economics has established itself as one of the most well-known branches of interdisciplinary legal scholarship. The tools of L&E have been applied to a wide range of legal issues and have even been brought to bear on Critical Race Theory in an attempt to address some of CRT’s perceived shortcomings. This Article seeks to reverse this dynamic of influence by applying CRT and related critical perspectives to the field of economics. We call our approach Abolition Economics. By embracing the abolitionist ethos of “dismantle, change, and build,” we seek to break strict disciplinary habits of modelling and identification, destabilize value systems implicit in mainstream economics, model society more fully as made up of interconnected humans, and develop a richer and more realistic understanding of racialized economic inequality, hierarchy, and oppression. We argue that, contrary to accepted disciplinary conventions, such an endeavor does not introduce new (inappropriate) ideological content into (objective) economics; rather, this endeavor is necessary to fully reveal the ideological content already embedded in mainstream economics as it is currently practiced, and the consequences of that embedding in supporting the functioning of systems of racial capitalism and racial injustice. We believe that imagining the possibility of a different economics—an Abolition Economics—can be an act not only of resistance but, crucially, of freedom-making.

Feminists, popular feminists, and transfeminists: young Argentine activists define their own identities

ABSTRACT From Iran to Uruguay, young feminist activists have taken to the streets in unprecedented numbers demanding changes to the gender status quo and its intersections with a host of oppressive social and economic hierarchies. This study addresses a foundational aspect of the upsurge of young feminist mass mobilization: feminist identity itself. To understand the feminism of this highly motivated younger generation, we ground our explorations in the lived experience of young Argentine feminists. We employ a mixed-method approach based on 31 in-depth qualitative interviews to ask: What do they consider to be the fundamental dimensions of their feminist identity? And what have been their pathways to feminism? Their interviews reveal three distinct identities, namely, feminists, popular feminists, and transfeminists, each one feeding into their intersectional and collective orientation, as well as different pathways for feminist becoming. Because of its global relevance and regional contagion effect, an analysis based on Argentina promises key theoretical insights about how youth around the world construct new meanings of who the feminist subject is and, by extension, what feminism as a movement entails.

An equity‐driven ecological model for internationalizing doctoral student research training

AbstractThe global academic community is increasingly connected, which has implications for the internationalization of doctoral education. In our previous work, we presented a theoretical approach to doctoral student research training using an ecological theory that provided considerations for individual and programmatic practice. Though our proposed model for doctoral research training is still relevant and valuable, we recognize there is missing a layer of criticality in that framework that would allow for more nuance in doctoral research preparation for international contexts. In this chapter, we apply an equity‐driven lens to our model that accounts for a critical global perspective that was absent in our previous writing. We argue that power and privilege are inherent in all relational aspects of ecological theories and must be included in doctoral research preparation. Thus, we offer recommendations for addressing these issues for the individual doctoral student as well as the faculty and programs that train them and guide their research endeavors.Practical Takeaways Inequities are ingrained in all aspects of higher education; thus, we must critically examine how we approach research and scholarship through each system in the ecology of doctoral education. Faculty have a responsibility to prepare students to respond to global challenges, including how racial, colonial, political, and economic hierarchies inform current international research practices. We advocate for the application of an equity‐driven lens to an ecological model for doctoral student international research training. We recommend an equity‐driven, global ecological perspective in approaches to doctoral education broadly, including discipline‐specific courses, mentoring relationships, and graduate assistantships.

Fighting Hate and Hate Speech: Raising Anti-Hate Awareness through Critical Analysis of Popular Cultural Texts on an Undergraduate Course

Central to the understanding of hate is an apprehension of the complexities of various hate-motivated social attitudes, which include Othering and the production of social, economic, and political hierarchies of domination. While hate speech is endemic both online and offline in contemporary society, Korean youths have difficulties recognizing its structural forces. The present study aims to offer an instructional model of a college-level course for identifying and countering hate in everyday life. As participants in this course, students read popular cultural texts thematizing hate, wrote critical reviews, and held group discussions to develop anti-hate critical thinking and raise awareness about online hate speech and hate-motivated social behavior. They showed significant progress in the surveys, which measured anti-hate critical thinking, as well as during the course, as they proceeded from observing and identifying hate speech to formulating and articulating proactive strategies to challenge it. This study provided an opportunity for college students to develop good citizenship in reading hate speech and representations of hate in popular cultural texts with a critical eye, and to reflect on the problem of hate in society.

The economic hierarchy, linkage, and directions between the three northeastern provinces of China and Russian Far East

AbstractThe economic hierarchy index, economic linkage model, and economic membership model are used to study the economic hierarchy, linkage, and direction of Northeast China and Russian Far East from 2005 to 2020, using the three northeastern provinces of China and 11 Far East federal subjects of Russia as the research objects. The findings are as follows: (1) There is a major polarization effect between developed affluent economic regions and stagnant isolated backward regions in the economic rankings in the 11 Russian Far East federal subjects from 2005 to 2020. (2) The three northeastern provinces of China have more economic linkages with their near Russian neighbors— the east‐oriented Primorsky Territory, the north‐oriented Amur Region, and the north‐oriented Khabarovsk Territory, than with their farther neighbors— the Chukotka Autonomous Area, Magadan Region, and Kamchatka Territory. (3) From 2005 to 2020, the Primorsky Territory has been serving as the focal point of economic linkages between Russian Far East and Northeast China, showing the expanding outward pattern resembling the concentric circles.

Local Currency Bond Markets in Africa: Resilience and Subordination

ABSTRACTThis article examines the development and implications of local currency bond markets (LCBMs) in African countries in the context of international financial subordination (IFS). Despite the promotion of LCBMs as a solution to debt vulnerability, there is a dearth of research that offers a systematic empirical examination of their actual benefits along with conceptual explanations as to when and why such benefits may or may not materialize. This is especially true for countries at the bottom of the global economic hierarchy. To explore how the subordination in global production and financial systems shapes LCBM development, the article offers an empirical analysis of selected African countries that combines interviews with policy makers, officials and experts with statistical data. The findings suggest that while LCBMs offer some benefits, such as mitigating risks associated with foreign currency debt, their potential is limited by the structural processes created by IFS, such as their dependence on the global financial cycle, the relatively higher costs of this debt and the sustained constraint on macroeconomic policy making. However, there are also domestic factors which shape how these structural constraints are mediated in the context of LCBM development — in particular, historically developed financial structures of developing countries, the political economy of the state and the structure of production. This study thus contributes to the debate about the developmental benefits of domestic debt market development and the emerging research agenda on IFS.