Greater Equality Research Articles

Solidarity in Place? Hope and Despair in Postpandemic Membership

AbstractInitially portrayed as the “great equalizer,” the COVID-19 pandemic has proved anything but. This essay recounts the sobering social disparities and vulnerabilities that the pandemic has exposed, especially when it comes to the inequalities that are baked into existing membership regimes, before turning to narratives of hope and democratic renewal. My discussion shines a spotlight on the relationship between borders, (im)mobility, and struggles for recognition and inclusion that have long been central to the practice of citizenship. Focusing on pathways to the acquisition of full membership status for those who are currently denied it, I will deploy logics and policies that have already begun to take shape in different parts of the world, with the goal of amplifying their effects and multiplying their scale. I identify three possible trajectories for postpandemic recovery, two of which offer ways to enhance equality of status and public standing by enlarging the circle of membership: first, through contribution (or what I will term “jus contribuere”), and second, by highlighting what we might call “solidarity in place.” The third reaction, which we might call the “stratification of membership,” pulls in the opposite direction by sharply redrawing the lines—legal, economic, social—that have distinguished insiders from outsiders, and exacerbated patterns of stratification and inequality of status and opportunity that predate the pandemic.

The cult of the Santa Muerte in Mexico

The article examines the peculiarities of the development of the cult of the Santa Muerte, which emerged in Mexico in the late XX century as a result of a combination of popular Catholicism and a modern reinterpretation of pre-Columbian beliefs. The cult of the Santa Muerte is loosely institutionalized and is primarily a reflection of individual religiosity. Adherents of the cult worship the Death as the great equalizer and the one who can provide assistance to her devotees. The cult has several million followers, most of whom continue to consider themselves Catholics. The cult of the Santa Muerte is viewed negatively by the government, which associates it with the narcoculture. If successfully enculturated, the Cult of the Santa Muerte or elements of it could transcend the boundaries of the ethnic community of Mexicans.

Virus korona - globalni rebalans ili konačni prag za Zapad?

The years 2018 and 2019, for international relations and global trade, were wavering from a trade war between the two largest superpowers today, which caused a significant drop in world growth and that redefined the strategy for both China and for the United States: between multilateralism and protectionism, reconfiguring new alliances, but finally, generating a truce between both countries that ended in the signing of an agreement in early 2020. However, the optimism at the beginning of this year quickly ended with the appearance of a virus - baptized as COVID-19 - which, although it originated in the city of Wuhan, in China, has been one of the great global equalizers. Unlike humans, viruses don't care where their victims come from, what religion they follow, or what ideology they believe in. Everyone is at risk, and as economies close and resources are depleted, the dynamics of international power may see a shift in the coronavirus era.

Do Parents Matter for Student Loan Repayment after Graduation?

Previous studies suggest that a college degree is the great equalizer leveling the playing field. However, the rapidly growing educational debt of college graduates might restrict their life chances throughout adulthood, particularly for those raised in socioeconomically disadvantaged families. This study uses data from the National Survey of College Graduates to examine whether parents’ socioeconomic status is related to their children’s student loan repayment after graduation. Holding the amount borrowed for completing higher education constant, college graduates with less educated parents hold a larger amount of educational debt in adulthood compared with their counterparts with more educated parents. The association between family background and student loan repayment remains significant with the addition of controls for various covariates related to college graduates’ education, occupation, income, and other labor market outcomes. This study suggests that educational debt burdens imposed on individual college graduates limit the meritocratic power of higher education.

Russia - Latin America Economic Cooperation: Insights from EU - CELAC Sustainable Development Concept

The article considers cooperation patterns between the European Union (EU) and CELAC (Community of Latin America and the Caribbean) in the context of creatively applying this experience to a broader topic of Russia - Latin America multilevel cooperation. The concept of sustainable development, which implies interaction in accordance with its three main dimensions: environmental, social and economic, is adopted on the global level. The interaction between EU and CELAC contributes to the progress in achieving the goals of sustainable development, where a lot of attention is paid to the green economy, alternative energy, and social aspects, since the environmental aspects constraints are providing the most significant impetus to structural changes in the existing development paradigm. This in return is expected to create a model that ensures economic growth based on a green economy, alternative energy, with greater equality and social inclusiveness. At supranational level in the European Union an effective and systemic policy has been formed in the field of nature conservation and combating climate change, which without a doubt can be considered one of the most progressive ones in the world, which creates potential for sharing these experiences with less developed and fortunate nations. European programs for Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries have become an important factor in the development of interregional cooperation in environmental protection, biodiversity conservation, and countering natural disasters. The article also focuses on the most recent changes that have occurred in the sphere of interaction between CELAC and EU in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. Massive structural and conceptual changes that have seriously reshaped the priorities and funding of joint programmers between two organizations reflects new priorities for sustainable development in general when it comes to new world realities in post-pandemic world, and could be useful for Russian model for the relations with this region.

Platinum resistance: The great prognostic equalizer? Association between early disease characteristics and survival after diagnosis of platinum resistance in ovarian cancer

Platinum resistance: The great prognostic equalizer? Association between early disease characteristics and survival after diagnosis of platinum resistance in ovarian cancer

Socioeconomic Status, Time Scarcity and Well-Being in Retirement

We tend to think of retirement as a great equalizer when it comes to relief from the pernicious time scarcity characterizing the lives of many individuals in the labor force. Puzzlingly, this is not entirely the case. Using data from the MTUS (N=15,390) in combination with long-term participant observation (980 hours) and in-depth interviews (N=53), I show that socioeconomic characteristics are important determinants of retiree time scarcity. Neighborhood disadvantage gets under the skin via time exchanges that are forged by both neighborhood and peer network characteristics. The SES-based ‘time projects of surviving and thriving’ undergirding the experience of time scarcity lead to divergent strategies of action and differing consequences for well-being. For the advantaged, the experience of time scarcity is protective for well-being in later life, as it emerges from the ‘work of thriving’ and managing a relative abundance of choices. For the disadvantaged, the later life experience of time scarcity is shaped by cumulative inequality, further exacerbating inequalities in well-being. The final section of the article offers an analysis and interpretation of these results, putting retiree time scarcity in conversation with the broader literature on socioeconomic status and well-being.

Caregiver Services: Needs, Benefits, and Best Practices

Just under 1 in 5 Americans (19.2%) are caregivers for adults with chronic illnesses. Caregiving is the great equalizer as caregiving remains an activity that occurs among all generations, racial/ethnic groups, income or educational levels, family types, gender identities, and sexual orientations. This presentation will provide a snapshot of the current status of caregiving in the United States. It will explore why caregiver services are needed and will highlight the impacts many caregivers face as a result of their stepping up to help family and friends. In addition, this presentation will discuss what is considered best practice in caregiver services and how the public and private sectors can work together to develop solutions to support family caregivers and those under their care.

Not the great equalizers: Covid-19, 1918–20 influenza, and the need for a paradigm shift in pandemic preparedness

Despite common perceptions to the contrary, pandemic diseases do not affect populations indiscriminately. In this paper, we review literature produced by demographers, historians, epidemiologists, and other researchers on disparities during the 1918–20 influenza pandemic and the Covid-19 pandemic. Evidence from these studies demonstrates that lower socio-economic status and minority/stigmatized race or ethnicity are associated with higher morbidity and mortality. However, such research often lacks theoretical frameworks or appropriate data to explain the mechanisms underlying these disparities fully. We suggest using a framework that considers proximal and distal factors contributing to differential exposure, susceptibility, and consequences as one way to move this research forward. Further, current pandemic preparedness plans emphasize medically defined risk groups and epidemiological approaches. Therefore, we conclude by arguing in favour of a transdisciplinary paradigm that recognizes socially defined risk groups, includes input from the social sciences and humanities and other diverse perspectives, and contributes to the reduction of health disparities before a pandemic hits.

Gender and Pan-Species Democracy in the Anthropocene

There are diverse historical trajectories in human societies’ relationships with the non-human world. While many small place-based groups have tried to retain egalitarian partnerships with other species and ecosystems, larger societies have made major transitions. In religious terms, they have moved from worshipping female, male or androgynous non-human deities, to valorising pantheons of deities that, over time, became semi-human and then human in form. Reflecting Durkheimian changes in social and political arrangements, movements towards patriarchy led to declining importance in female deities, and the eventual primacy of single male Gods. With these changes came dualistic beliefs separating Culture from Nature, gendering these as male and female, and asserting male dominion over both Nature and women. These beliefs supported activities that have led to the current environmental crisis: unrestrained growth; hegemonic expansion; colonialism, and unsustainable exploitation of the non-human world. These are essentially issues of inequality: between genders, between human groups, and between human societies and other living kinds. This paper draws on a series of ethnographic research projects (since 1992) exploring human-environmental relationships, primarily in Australia, the UK, and New Zealand, and on a larger comparative study, over many years, of a range of ethnographic, archaeological, theological, and historical material from around the world. It considers contemporary debates challenging Nature-Culture dualism and promoting ‘rights for Nature’ or—rejecting anthropocentricity to recognize an indivisible world—for the non-human communities with whom we co-inhabit ecosystems. Proposing new ways to configure ethical debates, it suggests that non-human rights are, like women’s rights, fundamentally concerned with power relations, social status, and access to material resources, to the extent that the achievement of ‘pan-species democracy’ and greater equality between living kinds goes hand-in-hand with social, political and religious equality between genders.

College as a Great Equalizer? Marriage and Assortative Mating Among First- and Continuing-Generation College Students.

College has been hailed as a "great equalizer" that can substantially reduce the influence of parents' socioeconomic status on their children's subsequent life chances. Do the equalizing effects of college extend beyond the well-studied economic outcomes to other dimensions, in particular, marriage? When and whom one marries have important implications for economic and family stability, with marriage acting as a social safety net, encouraging joint long-term investments, and potentially producing dual-earner families. I focus on the marriage timing and assortative mating patterns of first- and continuing-generation college graduates to test whether college acts as an equalizer for marriage against alternative hypotheses. Using discrete-time event-history methods and data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, I find small differences between first- and continuing-generation graduates in marriage timing, but larger differences in assortative mating, particularly for women. First-generation women have a substantially lower likelihood of marrying another college graduate than do continuing-generation women, and a higher likelihood of marrying a noncollege graduate. These findings highlight the importance of examining noneconomic outcomes when studying social mobility and offer insight into how inequality may persist across generations, especially for women, despite apparent upward mobility.

‘…but not gagged’: Responding to Covid‐19 and its control measures in France, Italy and the USA

The beginning of the Covid‐19 pandemic was far from the ‘great equalizer’ sometimes described by the media. This article shares themes emerging from research conducted in 2020 in France, Italy and the USA concerning responses to the pandemic and its social effects. The authors analyze how the pandemic elicited varied reactions within the three countries where they conducted anthropological fieldwork. They propose that narratives of the Covid‐19 response can shed light on how individuals navigate social and political relationships in each context.

Special Issue Introduction: Thinking Through “Being in the COVID‐19 World” and Bright Spots for our Food Futures

Special Issue Introduction: Thinking Through “Being in the COVID‐19 World” and Bright Spots for our Food Futures

Sustainable development: Investigating the correlations between park equality and mortality by multilevel model in Shenzhen, China

• Multilevel regression model was used to correlate the mortality and park equality. • Park accessibility has stronger correlation with mortality compared to green space. • The greater park accessibility is associated with a lower mortality. • This negative correlation disappears when accessibility exceeds 47.72 m 2 /person. • Moderate park constructions are suggested for balancing public health and land use. Numerous studies have revealed that accessible parks are associated with better health outcomes. This interdisciplinary study focuses the spatial equality of local parks in Shenzhen, China, and aims to investigate its correlation with the summation of mortalities for the top four causes of non-accidental death. The paper consists of two parts: firstly, the spatial equality of parks was assessed by several criteria including the Gini index and accessibility calculated by the Gaussian-based two-step-floating catchment area (G2SFCA) method, and then multilevel regression analysis was novelly used to explore the correlation between the equality of park and mortality integrated with geodemographic and economic factors. The results show that the residents living in city centre experience higher accessibility and more equality of parks. There is greater equality regarding neighbourhood parks provision than urban parks provision. Parks that are walking accessible have stronger correlations with mortality compared to all types of green spaces. Most importantly, the greater park accessibility is associated with a lower mortality whereas this relation no longer exists when the accessibility exceeds 47.72m 2 /person, which is concluded that building parks moderately is suggested to balance the health benefits and land scarcity for the sustainable development of cities.

The great leveller? COVID-19's dynamic interaction with social inequalities in the UK.

It has been claimed that the global pandemic is a ‘great equaliser’ that creates a sense of cohesion, however, this is problematic since COVID-19 has revealed the stark divisions in our societies. For instance, in the UK COVID-19 has hit northern cities particularly hard. Therefore, by focusing on the north of England, and Bradford especially, this paper offers suggestions which may help us see clearly through COVID-19, creating a future that is more equitable.

There needs to be greater equality within Indonesia’s diasporic communities if their strengths are to be properly realised

There needs to be greater equality within Indonesia’s diasporic communities if their strengths are to be properly realised

Shrinking capitalism: components of a new political economy paradigm

Abstract The climate emergency, rising inequality, and pandemic diffusion have raised the question: for what purpose is capitalism fit? Implementing new policies and institutions to meet these challenges will require a realignment of political forces on a scale similar to that achieved by neoliberal policies and ideas over the past four decades. We suggest that a successful new paradigm must provide the basis of a dynamic and sustainable economy and be constituted by a synergistic set of ethical commitments, economic models, emblematic policies, and a new vernacular economics by which people understand and seek to improve their livelihoods and futures. We illustrate these four components by reference to the classical liberal, Keynesian-social democratic, and neoliberal paradigms. Using an expanded space for policies and institutions that integrates markets, states, and civil society, we propose elements of a new paradigm, including diminished space for capitalism and greater equality not only of economic endowments but also of dignity and voice.

The impact of ethnic segregation on neighbourhood-level social distancing in the United States amid the early outbreak of COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been argued to be the 'great equaliser', but, in fact, ethnically and racially segregated communities are bearing a disproportionate burden from the disease. Although more people have been infected and died from the disease among these minority communities, still fewer people in these communities are complying with the suggested public health measures like social distancing. The factors contributing to these ramifications remain a long-lasting debate, in part due to the contested theories between ethnic stratification and ethnic community. To offer empirical evidence to this theoretical debate, we tracked public social-distancing behaviours from mobile phone devices across urban census tracts in the United States and employed a difference-in-difference model to examine the impact of racial/ethnic segregation on these behaviours. Specifically, we focussed on non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic communities at the neighbourhood level from three principal dimensions of ethnic segregation, namely, evenness, exposure, and concentration. Our results suggest that (1) the high ethnic diversity index can decrease social-distancing behaviours and (2) the high dissimilarity between ethnic minorities and non-Hispanic Whites can increase social-distancing behavior; (3) the high interaction index can decrease social-distancing behaviours; and (4) the high concentration of ethnic minorities can increase travel distance and non-home time but decrease work behaviours. The findings of this study shed new light on public health behaviours among minority communities and offer empirical knowledge for policymakers to better inform just and evidence-based public health orders.

The politics of ageing: how to get policymakers to support lifecourse policies

Abstract Background Given that there is not much evidence that ageing imperils the finance and provision of health care, why do so many policymakers act like it does? Methods We break conventional wisdom down into myths and realities, identifying the evidence against them. Results A first myth is that ageing produces unsustainable health care costs, which in turn, creates intergenerational conflict over public policy. A second myth is that older people behave as a single group, always pursuing policies that benefit themselves. The final myth is that decisions about policy are made by politicians who pander to that elderly block. The first reality is that most of the problems ascribed to inequality between generations (intergenerational equity) are actually problems of inequality within society as a whole that span across age groups (intragenerational equity). The second reality is that policies that address these broader inequalities are built on the life-course perspective, which focuses on identifying the policies which can make people happier and healthier at all ages by drawing on the context and circumstances under which aging occurs. The third reality is that it is possible to construct coalitions of politicians and interests that can develop and support sophisticated life-course policies that lessen the burdens of ageing and health on everybody. Conclusions Intergenerational inequality is not, and need not be, a significant problem for rich countries. It is substantially a product of current and past intragenerational inequality, and in fact inequality between generations often goes with inequality within generations. Intergenerational conflict is a distraction from policies that promote greater equality within and between generations, and talk of an ageing crisis is frequently just another version of longstanding arguments against public social investment from cradle to grave.

Climate as the Great Equalizer of Continental‐Scale Erosion

AbstractCentral Asia hosts the most extensive and highest topography on Earth, which is the result of the feedbacks among rock uplift, atmospheric circulation and moisture transport, and erosion. Here, we analyze 2,511 published low‐temperature thermochronometric ages as a proxy of the regional‐scale erosion of Central Asia. We compare these ages to tectonic and climate proxies, and state‐of‐the‐art paleoclimate simulations to constrain the influences of climate and tectonics on the topographic architecture of Central Asia. We observe a first‐order relationship between younger cooling ages in areas of high precipitation and older ages (Mesozoic) in areas that have been sheltered from precipitation, despite high strain rates. Thus, we suggest that climate enhances erosion in areas where rock uplift produces significant orographic gradients, whereas in the continental interior, areas which are tectonically active but have been sheltered from significant precipitation record older ages and a longer erosional history.