Extreme Inequality Research Articles

Social inequality and news media repertoires in seven MENA countries

Social inequality shapes peoples’ chances and strategies to keep informed about current affairs. We study citizens’ news media repertoires – individual patterns of combining selected news media – in a world region of extreme social inequality within and between countries: the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA). We report a secondary analysis of a large-scale survey in seven MENA countries to develop news user typologies. We explore how digital forces shape news media repertoires to determine the influence of social inequality on the population’s information routines regarding current affairs, and investigate the diversity of the inhabitants’ media repertoires.

Global climate governance inequality unveiled through dynamic influence assessment

This study defines the concept of major and minor countries and establishes a multidimensional and dynamic assessment system to evaluate the influence of countries participating in global climate governance. We systematically calculate 45 indicators for 53 countries across 9 global climate negotiation interest groups over the seven years. Our findings indicate a significant difference in influence between major and minor countries. This gap is particularly significant regarding losses incurred from climate disasters, with a more than fourfold difference between the top 25% and the bottom 25% in the influence rankings. The influence-climate disaster Index Gini coefficient further indicates that climate governance is characterized by extreme inequality. We argue that this phenomenon arises because those with more decisive influence in global climate governance do not bear losses from climate disasters commensurate with their influence. Therefore, their willingness to participate in climate governance is lower than those who suffer greater consequences.

A Cross-Sectional Survey Investigating Māori and Non-Māori Cancer Patients' Views on Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy in Aotearoa New Zealand.

People with cancer experience higher rates of psychological dysfunction than the general population, with extreme inequity among indigenous people. Psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) is a reemerging area with promising evidence as a treatment for mental health difficulties. The current study aimed to investigate the perceptions of PAT in indigenous (Māori) and non-indigenous cancer patients in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Eighty-five cancer patients (Māori n = 32, non-Māori n = 53) completed a brief anonymous survey assessing demographics, psychological factors, and awareness and perceptions of PAT. Participants were recruited online (via social media and cancer support e-mail lists) and in person at Auckland City Hospital. Maori had significantly poorer psychological well-being than non-Māori. All participants had low awareness of this novel treatment and held largely neutral attitudes. Regression analyses revealed that predictors of more favorable attitudes toward PAT included greater awareness of psychedelics, advanced cancer stage, younger age, poorer holistic well-being, greater demoralization, and prioritizing treatment effectiveness over possible risks and uncertainty. The current study provides a foundational step in exploring perceptions toward PAT in indigenous and non-indigenous groups. These results have the potential to shape future research trials investigating PAT and further highlight the importance of indigenous involvement in the psychedelic research space.

Effect of police enforcement and extreme social inequalities on violence and mental health among women who sell sex: findings from a cohort study in London, UK

Objectives To examine legal and social determinants of violence, anxiety/depression among sex workers. Methods A participatory prospective cohort study among women (inclusive of transgender) ≥18 years, selling sex in the last 3 months in London between 2018 and 2019. We used logistic generalised estimating equation models to measure associations between structural factors on recent (6 months) violence from clients or others (local residents, strangers), depression/anxiety (Patient Health Questionnaire-4). Results 197 sex workers were recruited (96% cisgender-women; 46% street-based; 54% off-street) and 60% completed a follow-up questionnaire. Street-based sex workers experienced greater inequalities compared with off-street in relation to recent violence from clients (73% vs 36%); police (42% vs 7%); intimate partner violence (IPV) (56% vs 18%) and others (67% vs 17%), as well as homelessness (65% vs 7%) and recent law enforcement (87% vs 9%). Prevalence of any STI was 17.5% (17/97). For street-based sex workers, recent arrest was associated with violence from others (adjusted OR (aOR) 2.77; 95% CI 1.11 to 6.94) and displacement by police was associated with client violence (aOR 4.35; 95% CI 1.36 to 13.90). Financial difficulties were also associated with client violence (aOR 4.66; 95% CI 1.64 to 13.24). Disability (aOR 3.85; 95% CI 1.49 to 9.95) and client violence (aOR 2.55; 95% CI 1.10 to 5.91) were associated with anxiety/depression. For off-street sex workers, financial difficulties (aOR 3.66; 95% CI 1.64 to 8.18), unstable residency (aOR 3.19; 95% CI 1.36 to 7.49), IPV (aOR 3.77; 95% CI 1.30 to 11.00) and alcohol/drug use were associated with client violence (aOR 3.16; 95% CI 1.26 to 7.92), while always screening and refusing clients was protective (aOR 0.36; 95% CI 0.15 to 0.87). Disability (aOR 5.83; 95% CI 2.34 to 14.51), unmet mental health needs (aOR 3.08; 95% CI 1.15 to 8.23) and past eviction (aOR 3.99; 95% CI 1.23 to 12.92) were associated with anxiety/depression. Conclusions Violence, anxiety/depression are linked to poverty, unstable housing and police enforcement. We need to modify laws to allow sex workers to work safely and increase availability of housing and mental health services.

Performing multispecies studies in Southern Africa: historical legacies, marginalised subjects, reflexive positionalities

Multispecies studies are known for tackling human exceptionalism. Whilst the field has seen a remarkable increase in popularity amongst scholars in the humanities and social sciences, critiques argue that it neglects inequalities and consequential differences amongst humans and between humans and other-than-humans. These critiques are especially relevant in the context of Southern Africa, where extreme inequalities amongst humans persist whilst wildlife is often perceived to enjoy a favoured position in the region‘s prominent conservation industries. As four researchers working in a multispecies study project focusing on the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area in Southern Africa, we pose the question of what a politicised multispecies studies might look like. In this article, we share our thoughts and reflections on working in this complex political landscape. Using insights from our own fields, we share some of the persistent concerns encountered during fieldwork and discuss and contextualise these by drawing on multispecies literature that deals with similar concerns. We identify three salient themes that should inform and politicise multispecies work in postcolonial conservation landscapes: historical legacies, reflexive positionalities and marginalised subjects.

The Role of Single Motherhood in America's High Child Poverty

Many claim a high prevalence of single motherhood plays a significant role in America's high child poverty. Using the Luxembourg Income Study, we compare the “prevalences and penalties” for child poverty across 30 rich democracies and within the United States over time (1979–2019). Several descriptive patterns contradict the importance of single motherhood. The U.S. prevalence of single motherhood is cross-nationally moderate and typical and is historically stable. Also, child poverty and the prevalence of single motherhood have trended in opposite directions in recent decades in the United States. More important than the prevalence of single motherhood, the United States stands out for having the highest penalty across 30 rich democracies. Counterfactual simulations demonstrate that reducing single motherhood would not substantially reduce child poverty. Even if there was zero single motherhood, (1) the United States would not change from having the fourth-highest child poverty rate, (2) the 41-year trend in child poverty would be very similar, and (3) the extreme racial inequalities in child poverty would not decline. Rather than the prevalence of single motherhood, the high penalty for single motherhood and extremely high Black and Latino child poverty rates, which exist regardless of single motherhood, are far more important to America's high child poverty.

Post‐tropical cyclone Fiona and Atlantic Canada: Media framing of hazard risk in the Anthropocene

AbstractPost‐tropical cyclone Fiona made landfall in Nova Scotia, Canada, in September 2022 with the force of a Category 2 hurricane. Using ‘risk society’ as an analytical framework, and Thomas A. Birkland's ‘focusing event’ concept, this paper seeks to understand how publics construct risk in the context of climate change and how institutions engage with those narratives. A qualitative content analysis of 439 newspaper articles from across Canada reveals that most media provide a superficial description of hazard impacts. When media are critical, they connect Fiona to climate change, other extreme events, social vulnerability, and systemic inequality. In response to Fiona and industry trends, insurance representatives indicate a withdraw from covering low‐probability, high‐consequence events owing to ambiguity in risk analysis and financial interests, complicating hazard relief. Political actors' rhetoric is strong—delivering relief in unprecedented ways and offering new adaptive policy. However, a history of unfulfilled political promises to act on climate change elicits scepticism from media sources.

The socioeconomic dimensions of racial inequality in South Africa: A social space perspective.

It is well evidenced that South Africa is characterised by extreme socioeconomic inequality, which is strongly racialised. We offer an original sociological perspective, which departs from established perspectives considering the dynamics of vulnerability and poverty to focus on the structuring of classed and racialised privilege. We map how stocks of economic, cultural, and social capital intersect to generate systematic and structural inequalities in the country and consider how far these are associated with fundamental racial divides. To achieve this, we utilise rich, nationally representative data from the National Income Dynamics Study and employ Multiple Correspondence Analysis to construct a model of South African 'social space'. Our findings underscore how entrenched racial divisions remain within South Africa, with White people being overwhelmingly located in the most privileged positions. However, our cluster analysis also indicates that forms of middle-class privilege percolate beyond a core of the 8% of the population that is white. We emphasise how age divisions are associated with social capital accumulation. Our cluster analysis reveals that trust levels increase with economic and cultural capital levels within younger age groups and could therefore come to intensify social and racial divisions.

The Effect of Uncertainty on Inflation: Evidence in ASEAN

This article examines the relationships between extreme poverty, economic growth, and inequality, assesses if changes in inequality dampen the impact of income on extreme poverty, and determines the magnitude of the inequality growth trade-off index in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras. A country-specific ARDL bound regression was conducted. The findings indicate the presence of direct and indirect dampening impacts of changes in inequality on income growth and extreme poverty reduction. The magnitude of the inequality growth trade-off- index indicates whether to prioritize growth and/or inequality reducing policies. This means that the higher the inequality, as in Honduras, the higher the economic or average income growth rate required to compensate for the increase in inequality to achieve a given level of extreme poverty reduction. Accordingly, there is no one-size-fits-all policy approach to tackling extreme poverty.

Poverty and Inequality Dynamics: Measuring Dampening and IGTI in Three CAFTA-DR Countries

This article examines the relationships between extreme poverty, economic growth, and inequality, assesses if changes in inequality dampen the impact of income on extreme poverty, and determines the magnitude of the inequality growth trade-off index in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras. A country-specific ARDL bound regression was conducted. The findings indicate the presence of direct and indirect dampening impacts of changes in inequality on income growth and extreme poverty reduction. The magnitude of the inequality growth trade-off- index indicates whether to prioritize growth and/or inequality reducing policies. This means that the higher the inequality, as in Honduras, the higher the economic or average income growth rate required to compensate for the increase in inequality to achieve a given level of extreme poverty reduction. Accordingly, there is no one-size-fits-all policy approach to tackling extreme poverty.

Inequalities: The Economic Foundation

Inequality takes many forms, but it starts with inequality of wealth and incomes. From that flows inequality is social mobility, life expectancy, educational attainment and even happiness. And the inequality of wealth and income is very extreme – both withing countries and between rich and poor countries. The gaps are hardly narrowing, if at all. Behind extreme inequality is the concentration of the bulk of wealth in the form of the ownership of productive capital in just a few adults in the world – no more 1% of 8bn people. That concentration has arisen because of the economic structure of the capitalist mode of production as it has spread across the world in the last century. While that basic structure remains in place, redistribution policies for income and wealth will be inadequate. A fundamental change in the social and economic formation of modern economies is required.

Städte als Knotenpunkte von Konflikten. Die Rolle transnationaler Konzerne in städtischen Konflikten um Lieferketten und Logistik

AbstractMuch conflict studies scholarship on cities has focused on post-war urban reconstruction. However, high rates of violence and perceptions of urban insecurity, particularly in Latin America, have diluted the clear distinction between armed conflict and peace. From a different perspective, logistics studies have pointed out the conflictive impacts of goods movement on urban communities where efficient supply chains are the ultimate priority. This contribution offers an explorative reading of the 2021 protests in Colombia (‘paro urbano’) as the manifestation of a conflict in supply chain urbanism, and foregrounds the role of TNCs (transnational corporations) in escalating the conflict. Particularly in the city of Cali, protesters blocked roads and access for businesses for weeks. While contesting the national government and highlighting the extreme urban inequality exacerbated by policies primarily catered to TNCs and direct investments, they employed the role of the city as an essential logistics node as leverage in the conflict.

Ridesourcing platforms thrive on socio-economic inequality

Limited available market share data seems to suggest that ridesourcing platforms benefit from, even thrive on, socio-economic inequality. We suspect that this is associated with high levels of socio-economic inequality allowing for cheap labour as well as increasing the share of travellers with a considerably above-average willingness to pay for travel time savings and comfort. We test the relation between inequality and system performance by means of an agent-based simulation model representing within-day and day-to-day supply-demand interaction in the ridesourcing market. The model captures travellers’ mode choice with a heterogeneous perception of relevant time components, as well as job seekers’ participation choice with heterogeneous reservation wage. Our experiments cover scenarios for the entire spectrum ranging from perfect equality to extreme inequality. For several of such scenarios, we explore alternative platform pricing strategies. Our analysis shows a strong, positive relationship between socio-economic inequality and ridesourcing market share. This is the outcome of the combination of cheap labour and time-sensitive ridesourcing users, reinforced by network effects inherent to ridesourcing markets. We find that driver earnings are minimal in urban areas with large socio-economic inequality. In such contexts, drivers are likely to face a high platform commission, and yet, fierce competition for passengers.

Glitterati and Grit: The Perils and Possibilities of Sports Mega-Event Research

Amid the whirling swirl of overlapping global crises—from extreme inequality and climate change to unaccountable elite power and securitized violence at the international and domestic levels—sport studies may, on their surface, appear superfluous. However, this article argues that critical academic scholarship on sports mega-events like the Olympic Games and soccer World Cup can, due to these events’ cultural power and global scope, be an effective way to simultaneously address the socio-structural problems that mark the 21st century. In this article, I argue that research on the cultural politics of sport can wedge open discursive space to challenge the hegemonic normative order and to potentially reap material gains from below. To that end, I delineate possible research avenues that sports mega-events stimulate, explicating the leverage they could achieve. Along the way, I argue for doing research and writing that is explicitly political. Last, leaning on recent examples of scholarship in sport studies and beyond, I assert the importance of concept building at the theoretical middle-level as well as writing critical descriptive histories.

La mujer, la mujer negra y el tiempo de los hombres: una breve reflexión interseccional

In colonial Brazil, the prevailing thought was that women were evil creatures with demonic tendencies and for that very reason should be controlled by men in the family and by the clergy. With modernity, patriarchy was institutionalized and from then on, in addition to men in the family and the Church, women also owed obligations over themselves, their lives and bodies, to the State. Even though the condition of inferiority affected all women, black women were subjected to even more degrading evaluations and living conditions, because gender prejudices were added, and still are added, by race. In line with this perception, data from the “Pnad Contínua 2021” show that the worst socioeconomic indicators are those related to black women. Faced with such indicators, this article proposes a brief reflection on the possible connections of such elements with the formation of extreme contemporary inequalities that affect women and, even among them, unevenly depending on their socioeconomic status, race, and gender. There is urgency of designing and implementing public policies that address not only issues related to gender, but also the intersectionality of such issues with race.

Scaling in local to global condensation of wealth on sparse networks.

The prevalence of wealth inequality propels us to characterize its origin and progression via empirical and theoretical studies. The yard-sale (YS) model, in which a portion of the smaller wealth is transferred between two individuals, culminates in the concentration of almost all wealth to a single individual, while distributing the rest of the wealth with a power law of exponent one. By incorporating redistribution to the model, in which the transferred wealth is proportional to the sender's wealth, we show that such extreme inequality is suppressed if the frequency ratio of redistribution to the YS-type exchange exceeds the inverse of the population size. Studying our model on a sparsely-connected population, we find that the wealth inequality ceases to grow for a period, when local rich nodes can no longer acquire wealth from their broke nearest neighbors. Subsequently, inequality resumes growth due to the redistribution effect by allowing locally amassed wealth to move and coalesce. Analyzing the Langevin equationsand the coalescing random walk on complex networks, we elucidate the scaling behaviors of wealth inequality in those multiple phases. These findings reveal the influence of network structure on wealth distribution, offering a novel perspective on wealth inequality.

Theatre and Capital Once Again: An Essay on an Informal Archive

Abstract: This essay reviews Theatre Journal articles that examine the intersections of theatre and capital, to highlight the challenge of analyzing neoliberal transformations of global and glocal economies, in particular, the trend to financial speculation to the detriment of investment in public resources, and the impact on theatre and performance. Commentators in the “global” North can better understand the scale of transformation—the concentration of wealth for a few and the loss of public revenue for the precarious majority—by examining strategies deployed by this majority in the South, especially Africa, to deal with extreme inequality exacerbated since the 1990s by structural adjustment and reduced aid from the North. The essay briefly notes a critical response to the impact of capital on performance by an African scholar, and a performative illumination of its US impact by an American practitioner. In the first case, David Donkor’s Spiders of the Market analyzes the glocal pressure of financialization on social welfare and performative practices in Ghana while offering critical insights that apply to increasing inequality in the North. In the second, Paul Durica and Pocket Guide to Hell’s site-responsive reenactments illuminate historic conflicts between U.S. capital and labor from the 1886-7 Haymarket Trial to the 2011 Occupy Movement and attempt to clarify the obscure workings of capital as an economic and cultural force in contemporary Chicago, whose nineteenth-century markets were the first to develop derivatives and other instruments that have spawned financial speculation to the present time.

Do public healthcare programs make societies more equal? Cross-country evidence on subjective wellbeing

BackgroundUniversal health coverage (UHC) aims to provide quality healthcare services and safeguard the population from the financial burden of catastrophic health expenditure. Its primary objectives are to improve longevity and enhance overall quality of life. This study investigates the relationship between UHC and the inequality in subjective wellbeing (SWB) and explores whether public health programs can reduce social inequality. By employing SWB inequality as a measure, we go beyond the conventional income-centric approach to assess social inequality.MethodsThe SWB data used in this study are derived from the repeated cross-sectional survey obtained from the European Values Study (EVS) and the World Values Survey (WVS). We adopt an observational study design and employ statistical techniques, such as ordinary least squares, Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition, and the recentered influence function (RIF). The RIF, in particular, allows us to characterise the entire distribution of SWB, rather than focusing on a single point.ResultsUHC programs are negatively associated with SWB inequality (-0.070, significant at 5%). The negative association is observed at the 5th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of the SWB distribution, whilst the association becomes positive at the 95th percentile. UHC programs do not contribute to the SWB inequality gap.ConclusionsUHC programs exhibit an inequality-reduction property when the inequality is not severe or when countries are more equal. However, their effectiveness diminishes in the presence of extreme inequality. Health programs do not contribute to the existing SWB inequality gap between developed and developing countries. Strengthening the two dimensions of the UHC program (i.e., service coverage and financial protection) will ensure better health and wellbeing for all, and potentially foster a more equal and inclusive society.

Oligarchic Politics in the Context of a Democratic Rule of Law in Relation to the Principle of Expediency

Abstract Indonesia, which is a democratic country, is not necessarily free from the practice of ownership of a handful of groups that influence the course of the National constitution. Oligarchy begins with the fact that extreme material inequality produces extreme political inequality. Although in a democracy, position and access to the political process are interpreted as equal, the enormous wealth in the hands of a small minority creates a significant excess of power in the political sphere for that group. The practice of oligarchic politics in Indonesia has been prominent and widespread since the New Order era. Oligarchy has undermined the philosophical meaning of democracy, which is political power or government run by the people, and for the people. Freedom in the political field certainly does not mean legalizing all means but remains in the corridor as contained in Pancasila as the basic ideology of the Indonesian nation. The good and bad of the law must be measured by the good and bad consequences produced by the application of the law, meaning that legal provisions can be considered good and provide benefits if the consequences resulting from their application are good, maximum happiness, and reduced suffering.

Shaping Conditions for Recovery: A narrative on a Homeless Man with Severe Mental Illness in a Modern Welfare State

AbstractDespite extensive research, interdependent problems such as severe mental illness and homelessness cause extreme disparities and health inequity. Handling complexity in careseeker–caregiver networks remains challenging. The local public health services in a Dutch city were enriched with a specialized team. An ethnographic policy evaluation was conducted to identify the essentials of an effective approach. We use the narrative of a homeless man who experiences psychoses for an in-depth analysis of the team’s functionality. The narrative data shows the challenges of caregiver networks and underlines the need to integrate care. It demonstrates how normal behavior, personal skills, and a socio-ecological system strategy merge into collaborative networks with the ability to diversify care and keep focus on recovery. This paper demonstrates the failure of the linear handicap model and the costs of overspecialized care systems. Building on socio-ecological recovery literature, it provides insight how care networks successfully can foster recovery.