Economic Marginalization Research Articles

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a Catalyst for Women Development in Africa

The paper examines the opportunities information and communication technology presents for women in Africa. No doubt that information now flows to African women with less distortion; it equally provides access to same information as their male counterpart on the continent. ICT has proven to create and re-create new opportunities by expanding information horizon and educational thereby making communication more flexible and accessible. Data for this paper came from secondary sources while it adopted the strategic model as its theoretical framework and its core argument is that beyond the opportunity presented by ICT, women must tap into its full advantage. It was discovered that the gap between men and women in terms of access to development-oriented information has been drastically reduced, as such women, voice their opinions, demand for their rights and have more control over their destiny cannot be said to be hidden by the men. ICT today has proven to be a veritable tool in transforming socio-economic and political life globally, African women inclusive. Findings shows that ICT is a Veritable tool for empowering women of all status The conclusion of the paper is that African women now have an opportunity in ICT to maximize their potentials for the overall development of the continent. The paper however recommends among other things that to mitigate further economic marginalization women must wholly embrace all the opportunities presented by ICT.

Empowerment of Rural Women through Entrepreneurial Initiatives

This article highlights the potential for change of economic activity in historically underprivileged regions, focusing into the dynamic areas of rural women's empowerment through entrepreneurial initiatives. Entrepreneurial efforts emerge as effective instruments for building overall empowerment in the face of systemic problems such as restricted access to education, economic marginalization, and gender inequities. This study begins by detailing the particular problems that rural women confront, such as educational limitations, economic marginalization, and strongly established gender stereotypes. These problems set the setting for a more in-depth analysis of how entrepreneurial initiatives might act as positive change drivers. The paper emphasizes the various importance of entrepreneurial efforts in tackling these difficulties. Entrepreneurship becomes a vehicle for skill development, financial inclusion, and community building in addition to economic rewards. Entrepreneurship contributes to altering society narratives and challenging gender stereotypes by giving practical chances for women to break away from defined positions. This article proposes for a holistic strategy to rural empowerment that mixes economic activities with education, skill development, and technology. It hopes to stimulate future study, policy interventions, and grassroots activities that acknowledge the multiple links between entrepreneurship, gender equity, and rural community life. Finally, this investigation enables readers to imagine a future in which entrepreneurial initiatives act as transforming forces, releasing the full potential of rural women and creating resilient, empowered communities.

Metz’s conception of African communal ethics, global economic practices and decolonisation

Metz holds that we can use African communal ethics to constitute global economic practices such as appropriation, production, distribution and consumption in such a way that promotes harmonious relations. In this article, I will show that Metz’s reformist approach to constituting the global economic practices is problematic as it fails to deal with the fundamental problem that pertains to a racialised world order that is structurally configured by coloniality of being. I will show that reformist approaches such as Metz’s use of African communal ethics to constitute global economic practices in a way that promotes harmonious relations are undesirable attempts that are opposed and curtailed by a structural racialised logic/ontology of the world that governs and supervises the evolution of the world economic structures and practices in a way which undermines harmonious relations and in a way which causes economic marginalisation and impoverishment of historically disadvantaged indigenous Africans.

Positive life changes during the COVID-19 pandemic moderate the association between mothers’ COVID-related stressors and psychopathology

BackgroundAmple research has documented the potential of both negative and positive impacts secondary to the COVID-19 pandemic on global mental health in adults and families, but less work has focused on mothers who experience economic marginalization. This longitudinal study aims to assess the impact of positive changes from the pandemic on the association between COVID-related stressors and psychopathology before and after the start of the pandemic. MethodsSeventy-five mothers from low income, economically marginalized backgrounds (mean age=30 years, 80 % Black) completed a pre-pandemic visit (T1;2015-2019) and an online survey (T2;2020-2021) mid-pandemic. The study assessed mother's depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms and lifetime adversity, COVID-19 related stressors, and positive changes associated with the pandemic. ResultsControlling for pre-pandemic psychopathology symptoms, lifetime adversity and educational attainment, there was a significant, positive association between exposure to COVID-19 related stressors and risk for T2 psychopathology. Positive life changes buffered this association, however, such that exposure to COVID-19 related stressors and psychopathology were unrelated for mothers who reported a moderate to high level of positive changes associated with the pandemic. LimitationsThe sample was small and generalizability of results is limited. ConclusionsThe pandemic was associated with an increase in mental health problems and unique stressors, especially among caregivers who are low-income. These findings shine light on how both material and psychological access to positive experiences (e.g., more time with family) can buffer the impact of stressors on mental health symptoms.

Life narratives of individuals with psychosis in ethnic minority and migrant communities in Canada and the Netherlands

AbstractBackground Increased psychosis risk has long been reported for some migrant and ethnic minority populations, a finding has been replicated in different parts of the world, with risk seeming to persist for further generations. Several explanations such as genetic liability or selective migration, higher cannabis-use or higher exposure to neurodevelopmental risk factors were considered unlikely explanations. Rather, exposure to adversity experiences found to be a determinant of psychotic disorders, such as parental separation, social and economic disadvantage, discrimination, social exclusion and marginalization. Additionally, migrants often live in cities, where high population density, low social cohesion and social fragmentation and deprivation, combined with lack of green space and urban stress increase the psychosis risk. Although previous research work has emphasized the quantitative exploration of social-environmental determinants of psychosis, qualitative studies allow for the generation of innovative, rich and nuanced understandings about a given phenomenon, being an ideal approach in face of complex social dynamics and contexts. Concretely, the associations are established, however, the underlying mechanisms and experiences remain largely unknown. This study aims to address several research gaps identified in research on the issues of psychosis, socio-environmental determinants of mental health, migration and ethnicity, and inequalities by exploring the life narratives and experiences of service-users with first psychosis with distinct ethnic, racial and migrant backgrounds.Methods Participants aged between 18 and 35 years old, who have been diagnosed with a first psychosis are recruited in Montreal, Canada, and in the Netherlands. The aim is to recruit at least 20-25 individuals from each site, but recruitment is still ongoing. Qualitative interviews of about an hour are being held, and transcripts will be analyzed with Nvivo, software for qualitative data. Categories and clusters will be formed from the narratives, resulting in common themes that are important to the patients, in their understanding of the development of their psychosis, and the help they have received.ResultsPreliminary data show that the patients have predominantly African or (Eastern)European background, moved around a lot, and experiences inequities. Help and care were not always available for them, not always beneficial. Participants experiences a lot of isolation and deplacement, together with socio-economic disadvantages. Common themes as to by which mechanisms these aspects play a role will further be explored.DiscussionThese findings will be discussed in light of the quantitative data already existing. Implications for prevention and interventions will be discussed.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Nostalgia and Stories of Early Arrival Amongst the Turkish Diaspora in Broadmeadows

This article discusses how Turkish people in the suburb of Broadmeadows in Melbourne, Australia, construct nostalgia for their earlier days as migrants. Furthermore, it highlights the didactic and ethical role this nostalgia plays within the Turkish community. Turkish migrants began to manifest nostalgia for the earlier days in Australia after the dream of returning to the homeland began to wane. This nostalgia presents an image of the ideal Turk to the younger generations in Australia and therefore helps to preserve the Turkish identity. This nostalgia also enables Turks to distance themselves from negative images of the contemporary homeland, allowing them to present themselves as authentic Turks; it also helps Turkish Australians to cope with their economic marginality in Australia. Nostalgia for the early days in Australia therefore has many purposes for Turkish Australians today.

European Union Funds – Application Perspective

The result of an effective management of the redistribution of European Union funds should be a reduction of disparities between EU regions by guaranteeing their comprehensive and harmonious development and supporting the economic and social cohesion of member countries. A poorly-conducted programming process of financial interventionism, the source of which is EU funds, may result in divergence between regions, the direct effect of which would be their social and economic marginalisation. For this reason, it is important to skillfully manage those funds. The main aim of this article is to present the factors affecting the decision-making process of the use of EU co-financing, and that includes the pandemic as an external variable being a threat to the implementation of investments from the EU’s structural funds. To explain the multivariate associations between explanatory variables and the binary outcome variables, logistic regression was employed. Based on the tests’ results, significant associations were observed between the dependent variable and (a) participation in training co-financed by EU funds, (b) receiving information regarding additional EU funds as pandemic support, and (c) the suspension of planned investments using EU funds due to the pandemic situation. A comprehensive distribution of respondents according to the response categories in the analysed variables within the entire sample (N = 950) was presented. Corresponding associations were evident within a sub-sample (N = 303). The model showed that all significant independent variables explain the use of EU funds, but the model explains just 28.6% of the decision to use the funds. Thus, the following study indicates directions that require further research.

Nostalgia and Stories of Early Arrival

This article will discuss how Turkish people in the suburb of Broadmeadows in Melbourne, Australia, construct nostalgia for their earlier days as migrants. Further, it will highlight the didactic and ethical role this nostalgia plays within the Turkish community. Turkish migrants began to manifest nostalgia for the earlier days in Australia after the dream of returning to the homeland began to wane. This nostalgia presents an image of the ideal Turk to the younger generations in Australia and therefore helps to preserve the Turkish identity. This nostalgia also enables Turks to distance themselves from negative images of the contemporary homeland, allowing them to present themselves as authentic Turks; it also helps Turkish Australians to cope with their economic marginality in Australia. Nostalgia for the early days in Australia therefore has many purposes for Turkish Australians today.

Introduction—Building Infrastructural Lives: Mobile and Creative Livelihoods in India and Vietnam

Articles in this special issue compare and contrast how secondary roads and wireless communication devices shape mobility and connectivity for four communities affected by economic, political, and ethnic marginalisation in socialist Vietnam and democratic India. Drawing on the concept of ‘infrastructural lives’, two urban case studies explore the ways by which marginalised migrant communities in India’s Hyderabad and Vietnam’s Hanoi use, adapt, or resist their states’ desires for all residents to embrace secondary roads, greater internet and cellphone interconnectivity, and digital monitoring. In parallel, and by comparing the realities of the Sino-Indian and Sino-Vietnamese borderlands, two rural case studies explore whether upland ethnic minority groups similarly modify or adapt their livelihoods to the expanding secondary roads and wireless communication technologies across the rural highlands of northern India and Vietnam. Taken together, this issue asks: How do the creative engagements of marginalised communities with these infrastructures shape infrastructural lives?

Integrating context in the examination of pubertal timing effects on disordered eating among Black and Latinx girls.

Earlier pubertal onset has been associated with increased disordered eating symptoms in cisgender girls. Although this finding has been replicated across studies of disordered eating, most studies have focused on white samples. The lack of studies is surprising given that early pubertal timing may impact disordered eating risk in Black and Latinx girls differently due to trends of earlier pubertal onset in these groups and increased stressors related to interpersonal and structural racism and economic marginalization. Current methods of examining pubertal timing among Black and Latinx girls may also not fully capture their experience. Contextual factors (e.g., neighborhood and school racial/ethnic composition) may influence how minoritized girls both perceive and are affected by their pubertal timing. Moreover, factors such as ethnic-racial identity development and experiences of discrimination may be important mechanisms explaining the association between pubertal timing and disordered eating risk. This paper aims to provide a brief overview of studies examining pubertal timing and disordered eating risk among Black and Latinx girls in the US and to discuss recommendations for future research that integrate contextual factors in the examination of pubertal timing and its effects. PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE: Early pubertal timing has been associated with increased risk of disordered eating symptoms among cisgender girls; however, studies have been limited due to the use of predominantly white samples. The article provides a brief overview of findings related to pubertal timing effects among Black and Latinx girls, discusses considerations for the measurement of pubertal timing, and highlights the need for inclusion of contextual factors in future research.

Investigating the perceived versus actual gastrointestinal nematode challenge on extensive sheep farms

Extensive farming systems form an integral part of sheep production systems across Europe. However, with innate production handicaps, declining sheep numbers and narrow economic margins, production is becoming increasingly challenging threatening the future sustainability of the industry. Gastrointestinal nematodes (GINs) are a significant cause of production losses to the global sheep industry, with well-established resistance to the major anthelmintic groups. Traditionally, extensive farming systems are not thought to have a significant parasite challenge compared with intensive farms, but there is a need to identify the scale and importance of GINs on extensive farms to inform the need for sustainable control strategies. In this study, a questionnaire of extensive farmers (n=34) was conducted and parasitological data were collected from nine study farms to investigate the perceived versus actual GIN and anthelmintic resistance challenge faced by extensive farms. The results showed a production-limiting challenge on most farms, with a higher GIN challenge observed on improved pastures. Furthermore, over half of the extensive farmers perceived anthelmintic resistance to be a greater problem for intensive farmers, with only 20% of respondents reporting known anthelmintic resistance. However, all study farms had evidence of resistance to at least one group of anthelmintics. Consequently, this study has demonstrated that despite the traditional perception of parasitism on extensive farms, there is a need to increasingly consider its impact and take a proactive approach to sustainable control, with solutions tailored to their unique management.

Assessment and comparison of thermochemical pathways for the rice residues valorization: pyrolysis and gasification.

Lignocellulosic biomass conversion applying thermochemical routes has been postulated as an alternative for generating renewable energy. This research compares energy-driven biorefineries based on two thermochemical routes addressed to upgrade rice husk and rice straw produced in the Department of Sucre-Colombia. Initially, this research analyzes the physico-chemical and structural characterization of the rice residues. Four different scenarios were proposed to compare the energy-driven biorefineries based on fast pyrolysis and gasification considering technical, economic, and environmental metrics. These biorefineries were simulated using the Aspen Plus V.14.0 software. The novelty of this research is focused on the identification of the biorefinery with the best techno-economic, energetic, and environmental performance in the Colombian context. Economic and environmental analyses were done by using economic metrics and emissions. From an economic perspective, the stand-alone gasification process did not have a positive economic margin. In contrast, the fast pyrolysis process has the best economic performance since this process has a positive profit margin. Indeed, scenario 1 (fast pyrolysis of both rice residues) presented an economic margin of 13.75% and emissions of 2170.92 kgCO2eq/kg for 10years. However, this scenario was not energetically the best, holding second place due to the feedstock requirements, compared to gasification. The biorefinery scenario 1 has the best performance.

Normalized Expendability: Navigating Immigrant Legal Status During A Global Pandemic

Using longitudinal qualitative data, we examine how undocumented immigrants in Florida navigated the first year of the COVID pandemic. Building on the concepts of compounded vulnerability and legal violence, we demonstrate how heightened exposure to COVID shaped immigrants’ well-being by virtue of being overrepresented among frontline workers, underserved by the healthcare industry, and excluded from government pandemic aid. We demonstrate how immigrants’ anxieties overlay onto existing vulnerabilities facing those without legal status; although undocumented immigrants were often at even greater risk for negative outcomes related to the pandemic, access to mitigation efforts was denied to them because of policies and laws that allow for—and normalize—the unequal treatment of noncitizens. Findings demonstrate that undocumented immigrants and their families experienced legal violence through the mechanisms of restricted government aid, for which they were ineligible, in addition to bureaucratic delays in immigration paperwork renewals that resulted in expiring work permits for some with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. These experiences further compounded their economic and social marginalization, rendering immigrants an expendable social group. We identify coping strategies that allowed immigrants to persevere in the face of uncertainty and distress and discuss how policies can diminish some of these vulnerabilities and improve their well-being.

AgriVoltaics: Economic Viability of a Synergistic System in the Sugarcane Bioenergy Sector in Brazil

This study presents an analysis of the economic viability of AgriVoltaics (AV) applied in the sugarcane-bioenergy sector in a hypothetical plant in the central region of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, using modal values and performance parameters typical of the 2019/2020 harvest season. The objective is to verify the economic viability, considering the technical aspects of the project, and agronomic, operational, and systemic requirements. The obtained results show a substantial increase in the combined economic margin, at 33,5%, a land use efficiency ratio (LER) of 108,6%, and a payback of investments around 9 years. The approach proved feasible for energy prices above US$ 49.21 MWh-1 . The greater operational gain was due to the optimization of land use, and the sharing of costs with the existing thermoelectric generation that uses residual sugarcane biomass, which allowed centralized management and a substantial increase in electrical generation. The higher relative incremental cost was resulting from the AgriVoltaics installation, adapted appropriately to the specific agronomic management practices required by sugarcane crops. The cost of the adapted AgriVoltaics installation found was US$ 0.96 per Watt peak. The approach proved economically viable, respecting the agronomic conditions of the crop and the optimized use of biomass-driven electrical thermalgeneration infrastructure.

Pre-COVID respiratory sinus arrhythmia moderates associations between COVID-19 stress and child externalizing behaviors: Testing neurobiological stress theories.

Exposure to stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic contributes to psychopathology risk, yet not all children are negatively impacted. The current study examined a parasympathetic biomarker of stress sensitivity, respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), as a moderator of the effects of exposure to pandemic stress on child internalizing and externalizing behaviors in a sample of children experiencing economic marginalization. Three to five years pre-pandemic, when children were preschool-aged, RSA during baseline and a challenging parent-child interaction were collected. Mid-pandemic, between November 2020 and March 2021, children's exposure to pandemic stress and internalizing and externalizing behaviors were collected. Results demonstrated that children who, pre-pandemic, demonstrated blunted parasympathetic reactivity (i.e., no change in RSA relative to baseline) during the dyadic challenge exhibited elevated risk for externalizing behaviors mid-pandemic. Further, this risk was greatest for children exposed to high and moderate levels of pandemic stress. Consistent with diathesis stress and polyvagal frameworks, these conditional effects suggest that blunted parasympathetic reactivity in response to stress in early childhood may escalate the development of externalizing behaviors following stress exposure at school age.

Prevalence of Discrimination and the Association Between Employment Discrimination and Health Care Access and Use - National HIV Behavioral Surveillance Among Transgender Women, Seven Urban Areas, United States, 2019-2020.

Transgender women experience discrimination in many settings, including in employment. Because employment and health insurance are intertwined in the United States, employment discrimination might be related to lower health insurance coverage and health care use, including gender-affirming care. This analysis used data from transgender women (N = 1,608) in seven urban areas in the United States collected during 2019-2020 to present the prevalence of six discrimination types (employment, housing, bathroom, businesses, health care, and abuse) and to measure the association between employment discrimination (defined as trouble getting a job or fired due to being transgender) and sociodemographic characteristics, health care access, and health care use. Log-linked Poisson regression models were conducted to estimate adjusted prevalence ratios and 95% CIs. Seven in 10 transgender women experienced at least one type of discrimination during the past 12 months. During the same period, 9.9% of transgender women were fired and 32.4% had trouble getting a job because of being transgender. Employment discrimination was associated with younger age and lower socioeconomic status. Having trouble getting a job was associated with health care access and health care use factors, including having no health insurance or having Medicaid only, having an unmet medical need because of cost, never having transgender-specific care, and having an unmet need for gender-affirming procedures. These findings suggest that employment discrimination contributes to transgender women's economic marginalization and their ability to obtain adequate health insurance coverage and achieve their transition goals. These findings might help guide efforts that protect transgender women's right to pursue their work, health, and life goals without discrimination.

Nonprescription Hormone Use Among Transgender Women - National HIV Behavioral Surveillance Among Transgender Women, Seven Urban Areas, United States, 2019-2020.

Certain transgender women who seek gender-affirming hormone treatment (GAHT) face economic and social barriers that limit or prevent access to medically supervised GAHT. Transgender women facing such barriers might acquire GAHT without prescription, potentially without proper dosage, administration, and health monitoring in the absence of medical supervision. For this report, survey data were analyzed from 1,165 transgender women in seven urban areas in the United States to examine associations between self-reported use of nonprescription GAHT and known correlates of nonprescription GAHT, including cost, insurance coverage for GAHT, homelessness, receiving money or drugs in exchange for sex during the past 12 months (exchange sex), lack of comfort discussing gender with provider, and lack of health care use. After controlling for complex sampling design, transgender women who reported recent health care use or insurance coverage for GAHT were less likely to report nonprescription GAHT, and those reporting recent exchange sex or recent homelessness were more likely to report nonprescription GAHT. Findings suggest that transgender women were more likely to use GAHT without a prescription in situations of economic and social marginalization (e.g., disengagement from health care, lack of insurance or trans-specific health care, homelessness, or engagement in sex work). Public health professionals can use these results to design effective interventions to facilitate prescribed hormone use among transgender women in the United States, although access to housing, trans-affirming health care, and insurance coverage might be needed to prevent nonprescription use.

A methodological path to foster inner peripheries’ sustainable and resilient futures: A research experience from Southern Italy

The future of inner peripheries, suffering a demographic decline (ESPON, 2017) that threatens the survival of their relevant environmental and cultural heritage, represents an important challenge for the whole of Europe. The urgency to address some long-lasting problems affecting inner peripheries (depopulation, population ageing, limited accessibility, economic marginality) has been recognized and partially addressed through European and national strategies. However, some crucial issues must be still addressed: reversing the rhetoric of inner peripheries as marginal areas, by focusing on their potential; strengthening communities’ engagement in shaping their own future; better addressing the complex urban-rural relationships. The RI.P.R.O.VA.RE. Project11RI.P.R.O.VA.RE. is the acronym of “Riabitare i Paesi. Strategie Operative per la valorizzazione e la Resilienza delle Aree Interne” (Re-inhabiting Villages. Operational strategies for the enhancement and resilience of inner areas). developed a three-step methodological path to trigger development processes based on a multidisciplinary and multiscale approach and the engagement of local communities in co-designing visions and strategies for a resilient and sustainable development. The proposed methodological path, tested on some areas in South Italy, can be easily replicated in other European contexts that, according to the EU cohesion policy 2021–2027, aim at reducing territorial and socio-economic imbalances to foster sustainable development.

SustainableTech – A Holistic Framework for Integrated Techno-Economic and Sustainability Assessments

A methodology is proposed to perform integrated techno-economic and life-cycle assessments of new technologies and processes. The methodology consists of a framework for decision-support considering both economic and environmental aspects in a streamlined way. This can support decision-makers to identify optimal value chains for products and activities with the aim of yielding improved economic margins and good environmental performance. Further, because of its holistic and systematic approach, the framework may provide customers with an increased awareness of trade-offs between environmental indicators and economic earnings along the value chains for different market scenarios. The developed methodology is applied to a case study involving the optimal planning for sustainable energy generation in buildings. The research expanded the original case study by incorporating additional 16 life-cycle assessment midpoint impact categories, using an updated background database, and improved techno-economic assumptions. Through this expanded analysis, alternative solutions were identified, Specifically targeting improvements in the climate change impact by exploring different permissible variances from the economic optimum.

Study on the Development Path of Cultural, Sports, Tourism and Education Integration in West Sichuan in the Context of High Quality Development of Regional Economy Supported by Big Data

Abstract West Sichuan has long been affected by factors such as geographic location, transportation conditions, economic base and political and economic marginalization, resulting in a general lag in economic development. Based on the mechanism of coordinated development of culture-sports-tourism-education, this paper constructs the evaluation index system of coordinated development of the four systems. Using the TOPSIS entropy weight comprehensive evaluation method can measure the development index of each system of culture, sports, tourism and education in western Sichuan, and using the coupled coordination degree model GWR spatial analysis method, the spatial and temporal differentiation characteristics of the integrated and coordinated development of culture-sports-tourism-education in the four regions of western Sichuan, namely, Ya’an City, Aba Prefecture, Ganzi Prefecture, and Liangshan Prefecture, are studied. The results show that the education subsystem in western Sichuan has the largest increase from 0.258 in 2008 to 0.573 in 2022, indicating that western Sichuan has continued to strongly support education in recent years. However, it is also found that the region with the largest change is Aba Prefecture, with an increase of 0.287, and the smallest is only 0.112, which shows that there is a certain degree of variability in the development of the regions in western Sichuan. This study analyzes the development status and characteristics of the regions in western Sichuan, which is of guiding significance for the construction and development of these regions.