Political Inclusion Research Articles

Women's empowerment in African societies: Strategies and lessons for U. S. social policy

This scholarly investigation delves into the realm of women's empowerment in African societies, aiming to extract pivotal strategies and lessons to inform and enhance U.S. social policy. The study is anchored in the objective of dissecting the multifaceted concept of women's empowerment within a global context, with a particular focus on the unique dynamics present in African societies. It seeks to understand how these insights can be effectively transposed to the U.S. policy landscape, thereby enriching and diversifying approaches to gender equality and empowerment. Employing a rigorous methodology, the study conducted an extensive literature review and thematic analysis, focusing on peer-reviewed articles that shed light on the intricacies of women's empowerment in African contexts. This approach facilitated a comprehensive understanding of the subject, ensuring the relevance and quality of the sources. The study's methodology was characterized by a systematic search strategy, stringent inclusion and exclusion criteria, and a nuanced thematic analysis of empowerment strategies. The key findings reveal education, economic participation, and political inclusion as critical strategies for women's empowerment, proven effective in African contexts. These strategies, along with the identification of significant research gaps, particularly in understanding cultural influences on empowerment, form the cornerstone of the study's contributions. Conclusively, the study advocates for a holistic, culturally sensitive approach to women's empowerment in U.S. social policy, drawing inspiration from the resilience and diversity of African models. The recommendations emphasize the need for inclusive, comprehensive strategies that resonate with the unique challenges and opportunities presented in different cultural contexts. This study not only fulfills its aim and objectives but also paves the way for future research and policy development, ensuring a continued and enriched journey towards gender equality and empowerment.

Epistemic territories of kawsak sacha (living forest): cosmopolitics and cosmoeducation

ABSTRACT This article aims to present the experience of Kichwa Indigenous peoples of Pastaza in Ecuador, and their agency in enforcing their rights to their ancestral cultures and lands. In their political action, they express the revitalization of their ecological and cultural knowledge as conditional to the protection of their territorial integrity. Including ancestral and land-based knowledge in education supports politics of inclusion, ontological recognition, and revitalization of ecological and cultural knowledge of Indigenous people. It also enforces their political legitimacy and sovereignty over their lands and conservation practices. The theme of education and power in Ecuador has been addressed within the decolonial thinking of modernity/coloniality, placing knowledge and pedagogical designs at the core of political debates between indigenous organizations and the central state. We will discuss Kichwa’s cosmology of Kawsak Sacha (living forest) and the way it inspires both territorial governance and educational practices.

BEYOND BORDERS: UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIETAL AND POLITICAL RAMIFICATIONS OF MIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION IN INDIA

India has been a significant source of human resources for many countries. However, it has also emerged as a destination for migrants from the African continent and neighboring Asian countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar, seeking education and work opportunities. However, this influx of migrants and immigrants has led to various social problems and political challenges that require urgent policy attention. Within the host country, immigrants often face unfavorable conditions, uncertainty, and instability. The social problems resulting from migration and immigration in India encompass poverty, acculturation, education, housing, employment, social adjustment, and family difficulties. These challenges demand a comprehensive understanding and effective policy measures. In addition to the social issues, immigration and migration have significant political consequences. Questions arise regarding political inclusion, political liberties, effects on political stability, and potential implications for conflicts and wars. It is essential to address these political aspects to ensure a harmonious and sustainable social and political environment. This paper delves into a thorough analysis of the social problems and political challenges arising from immigration and migration within India. It takes into account both international immigration and internal migration, providing a holistic perspective on the issue. To tackle the identified social problems and political challenges, this paper proposes policy statements that prioritize the interests of all stakeholders involved, including the host country, the country of origin, local communities, and the immigrants and migrants themselves. The aim is to foster an inclusive and cooperative approach towards addressing these issues effectively.

The effects of gender political inclusion and democracy on environmental performance: Evidence from the method of moments by quantile regression

AbstractMotivated by the difficulty of ensuring gender equality and the chaotic state of democracy, we analyze the effects of gender political inclusion and democracy on environmental policy performance. The study uses a panel of 45 African countries over the period 2012–2018 and employs the method of moments by quantile regression. The results show that gender political inclusion and democracy positively affect environmental performance in all quantiles. These positive effects tend to be stronger at higher quantiles. The magnitude is larger for gender political inclusion. When performance is decomposed into the sub‐indices of environmental health and ecosystem vitality, positive effects of gender political inclusion and democracy are observed in all quantiles. The effects are larger for the gender dimension than for the democracy dimension, regardless of the sub‐index used.Related ArticlesBingham, Natasha. 2016. “Fighting for Our Cause: The Impact of Women's NGOs on Gender Policy Adoption in Four Former Soviet Republics.” Politics & Policy 44(2): 294–318. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12155.Hankivsky, Olena. 2013. “Gender Mainstreaming: A Five‐Country Examination.” Politics & Policy 41(5): 629–55. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12037.Nchofoung, Tii, Simplice Asongu, Vanessa Tchamyou, and Ofeh Edoh. 2022. “Gender, Political Inclusion, and Democracy in Africa: Some Empirical Evidence.” Politics & Policy 51(1): 137–155. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12505.

Gender political inclusion and inclusive finance in Africa

At the 2010 G20 Summit, the use of formal financial services was recognized as one of the main pillars of the global development agenda. At the same time, the fifth goal of the Sustainable development agenda outlined the importance of gender inclusion for sustainable development. Empirical research on the effect of gender inclusion on inclusive finance has however been limited to micro level studies. This study aims to verify the effect of gender political inclusion on financial inclusion on a sample of 37 African countries from 2004–2020. The empirical methodology involves the OLS, the Tobit regression and the System GMM methodologies. The results from these methods show that gender political inclusion is enhancing on financial inclusion in Africa, and this finding is robust across alternative specifications of gender inclusion and inclusive finance. Besides, governance exhibits a positive synergy effect with gender political inclusion on inclusive finance. Policy implications are discussed.

Discourse, digitisation and women’s rights groups in Nigeria and Ghana: Online campaigns for political inclusion and against violence on women and girls

This study examines aspects of online activism by women’s rights groups in Nigeria and Ghana, especially by exploring their online campaign approaches. Applying the new social movement theories and methods in linguistic pragmatics and discourse analysis, the study examines and analyses how gender issues such as political participation and violence against women and girls are mediated discursively. The study further assesses the roles of social media in the campaign programmes of the women’s rights groups. Two groups each from Nigeria and Ghana are selected for the study. These are among the most active ones in the two countries with an efficient online presence. Findings show that the women movements adopt discourse-pragmatic acting strategies such as reporting, directing, demanding and identifying with women’s rights to seek redress to perceived gender injustice.

What Is Psychological and What Is Neurological? A Political and Phenomenological Exploration of Neurodivergent Identity and Encounters With Thirdness

The authors, colleagues who are both neurodivergent, reflect on neurodiversity, diagnosis (both formal and informal), and their lived experiences as therapists and clients. They invite readers to think with them about the politics of identity and inclusion and ask whether neurodivergence is a disability, a difference, or both. They offer a bespoke approach to neurodivergence and consider the fine line between neurological and psychological understandings. The authors call for a decentering of neuronormativity in theories and practice and a liberation from the allure of normalcy. They place this within transactional analysis (TA) and its principles of OKness, social justice, openness, and mutuality. Finally, they highlight some limitations of the application of TA for neurodiversity and offer thoughts on an expanded treatment approach focused on phenomenology.

Fragile Democracy: Media Freedom and Radical Polarisation in Ethiopia

Fragile states are conditioned by the politics of interests, which oscillates between social, ethnic, factional, political and economic agitations. The politics of interest impairs shared identity and creates a tense coexistence between already fragmented communities. Ethiopia presents an example of the erosion of democratic norms despite the constitutionally imposed politics of ethnically and regionally based societies. Fragile states defy theoretical wisdom, as the media and elections might, in certain circumstances, produce negative results by creating a fractured society rather than resolving the legitimacy crisis. This article analysed academic literature and reflected on theories of the media in democracy to deconstruct the role of the legacy and new media in radical polarisation and nation-building in Ethiopia. Furthermore, illustrations were drawn from incidents and developments to clarify conditions that can help the mass media refrain from actions that deliberately or inadvertently impede socio-economic growth and worsen political conditions in fragile democracies. This article asserts that without context adaptation, the liberal norms of media autonomy and political inclusion might be incompatible with other forms of democracy beyond affluent democracies. It concludes by proposing theoretical visions of a ‘democratic mirror’, ‘vigilantism and fraternisation’ and the ‘therapeutic’ function of the media in fragile democracies.

Getting in Touch with the Out of Reach: Fieldwork Strategies in Research on Women and Politics (South-West of Nigeria)

Researching women’s political representation in legislative policymaking provides an interesting lens to understand women’s struggle for political inclusion. Factors which could impede a systematic study of this subject include limited access to politicians who often become almost invisible once they get elected to public office on the one hand, and poor record-keeping culture of legislative assemblies which could restrict the traceability of past events and transparency of the current decision-making process on the other hand. In this article, I analyse the study of three sub-national legislative assemblies in the South-West of Nigeria, namely: Ekiti State House of Assembly (EKSHA), Lagos State House of Assembly (LSHA) and Ogun State House of Assembly (OGSHA). I give an account of how both formal and informal entries helped facilitate the gathering of data for the understanding of women’s struggle for power and their legislative policymaking activities in Nigeria. I begin by presenting my positionality as a male graduate student from a working-class background researching gender/women issues and the implication of this situation on the type of data I generate. Thereafter, I provide insights into how I navigated these assemblies to gain access to these lawmakers by articulating the kind of information I had hoped to get and what I eventually got. Then, I discuss women’s struggle for political inclusion, agency and their activities in legislative policymaking. I conclude by reflecting on the complementary roles of both formal and informal entries and how they shaped and enhanced the data gathering process.

Imagining Eastern Europe - representations of Eastern Europe in 21st century French Vampire bandes dessinées

ABSTRACT In the process of forging (Western) modernity, Eastern Europe has been constructed as an uncivilised Other of the West. The Vampire Narrative was created to represent the divide between ‘us’ and ‘the others’, including the fundamental divide between West and non-West. It has evolved over the years, reflecting the processes of inclusion. This article demonstrates that the political inclusion (into the European Union) of some countries of Eastern Europe (self-called ‘Central European’) has not actually led to the cultural inclusion of Eastern Europe in the social Western European imagery. To discover the full meanings of the 21st-century French Vampire Narrative, the study employs a complementary combination of structural analysis, deconstruction, and resistant reading. Vampire bandes dessinées (BDs) are chosen as research material due to their popularity in French culture and their two-dimensionality as graphic and literary works. The chosen analytic corpus encompasses remediations and adaptations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, diverse versions of Vlad Dracula Tepes’ (hi)story, and perfectly new vampire tales. The representation of Eastern Europe in BDs reveals itself to be surprisingly in line with the 19th-century Vampire Narrative: Eastern Europe is a disturbing, un-real, exotic space of radical Otherness or an in-between ‘Secondary Empire’.

“Among the French People”: The Departmentalization of Mayotte and the Colonial Politics of Inclusion

Abstract With its 2011 change in administrative status, Mayotte, a small island colony in the Mozambique Channel, became the only contemporary French department with an indigenous African Muslim population. Mayotte's departmentalization required restructuring a colonial local legal system influenced by Islamic, Swahili, and Malagasy legal practices. By putting legislation and public discourse concerning Mayotte's status into conversation with earlier political movements within the French Empire and scholarship on French colonial governance, I show how Mahoran politicians, writers, and activists advocating for departmentalization invoked claims to racialized notions of belonging “among the French People.” These claims were joined by demands that France fulfill its Republican promise by granting juridicopolitical inclusion to a colonial population. These distinct but related political discourses illuminate central features of the mutually constitutive relationship between law, race, and citizenship in the French Republic.

Democratic Conundrum: Introspecting Complexities and Dynamics in Pakistan's Political Landscape

Research Problem: This research aims to explore the main obstacles hindering Pakistan's democratic transition, including weak economic policies, structural imbalances, and military interference, all of which have led to insecurity, conflict, and the oppression of civilian rule. In addition, this research also aims to understand Pakistan's political culture which combines autocratic and democratic ideologies, as well as how political satisfaction with different regimes impacts the acceptance of military regimes and the inability of marginalized groups to express their opinions under authoritarian rule. Research purposes: The aim of this research is to identify and analyze the main challenges facing Pakistan's democracy, including issues of partisanship and segregation practices, as well as to understand historical and current issues that can help identify changes needed to strengthen democracy in Pakistan. Research methods: This research uses a descriptive-analytical approach by collecting data through literature reviews and analysis of official documents, such as government reports and international agency reports. Interdisciplinary analysis is used to understand the impact of historical and socio-cultural factors on the development of democracy in Pakistan. Results and Discussion: The research results show that the main challenges to Pakistan's democracy include fraudulent electoral processes, political centralization, segregation, and biased party politics. The lack of a dynamic civil society and military domination of civilian government are contributing factors to the failure of democracy in Pakistan. Discussions of history and current issues also provide insight into the changes needed to improve democracy in the country. Research Implications and Contributions: This research has important implications for policymakers and stakeholders interested in improving democracy in Pakistan. By understanding and identifying the challenges faced, this research can provide guidance for developing appropriate strategies and measures to strengthen democracy and promote political inclusion in Pakistan.

Инклюзивное совершенство: новая модель университета в XXI веке на основе универсального дизайна обучения

<p>Affordable high-quality university education is a moral and legal imperative today. At the same time, there are still numerous barriers to get this university education. The orientation of higher education towards world rankings and economic efficiency indicators contradicts with inclusive values and goals. Inclusive politics needs radical revision and updating. The aim of this research is to design an inclusive university model based on universal educational design. The research method is a review and theoretical analysis of scientific publications devoted to inclusive higher education and published on the platforms SpringerLink, PubMed, Frontiers and Taylor & Francis Group. The paper examines the concepts of inclusive excellence and universal design for learning and provides a theoretical analysis of the possibility of using these approaches to transform a modern university. The authors propose a model that takes into account: organizational culture, indicators of inclusive excellence, principles of transformation of the educational environment, external factors, global and national context and the process of transformation (involvement, representation, action through a plurality of means and environments based on agency). The expected result is of high importance for Russian and world science and is in the trend of key scientific research of education and its transformation, focused on the values of social justice, accessibility and equal opportunities, and also responds to the crisis situation in the humanities.</p>

Islamism in Transition

Abstract This article examines the political inclusion of Islamist groups in the Middle East, beginning with a general overview of Islamism’s typologies. It is argued that Islamist movements are multifaceted not just conceptually and practically, but also in terms of moderation, dogmatism and their adaptation to contemporary trends for self-preservation and the desire for political power, for example. The essential Islamic teachings, subject to various interpretations, are a foundation for the diversity of these movements. Islamic groups have proven they are capable of developing effective political strategies for social and political activities. Nonetheless, certain organisations have utilised the disparity in authority between civil and religious institutions to their advantage. The article examines how Islamist parties may succeed in achieving their political objectives and how this might affect strategic possibilities and constraints. It concludes with a discussion of the integration of Islamist groups into mainstream politics and their future prospects.

Insecurity and Support for Female Leadership in Conflict States: Evidence from Afghanistan

Abstract While women's political inclusion is central to international conflict resolution efforts, public attitudes in conflict states towards women's political inclusion remain understudied. We expect insecurity to depress support for female political leadership in conflicts where women's political inclusion is violently contested. Citizens wanting security through force prefer male leaders because of stereotypes privileging men's military prowess. However, citizens wanting security through reconciliation also favour men for fear that female leadership would provoke more violence. We assess these expectations with experimental and observational data from the former Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. In the survey experiment, priming respondents to think about insecurity decreases support for female leadership, but only among women. In observational data, insecurity correlates with more polarized attitudes towards women's political representation in some regions and greater support for female leaders in others. Insecurity's impact on public support for female leadership in conflict states may be highly heterogeneous.

Rethinking Political Inclusion Beyond Moderation: Strategic Relational Pluralization in Tunisian Islamist Politics

Abstract This article explores the complex dynamics shaping the integration of the Tunisian Islamist party Ennahdha into the instituted political game. Drawing on a strategic relational approach, the analysis highlights the simultaneous, mutually reactive, and often conflicting relationships of Ennahdha party with three types of actors: political secular forces (allied or antagonist), political and religious Salafi actors, and faith-based associations. Based on extensive field research and 33 in-depth interviews conducted with key players involved, we propose to capture these dynamics at the macro (regime), meso (organizations), and micro levels, through the notion of strategic pluralization, by which we mean a reconfiguration of Ennahdha’s relations with various Islamic actors under the pressure of secular forces. Going beyond institutional-structural approaches and monolithic interpretations of the Islamist constellation, we argue that Ennahdha’s integration in relational economies has formed the basis of the party’s strategy to secure its political inclusion in the post-revolutionary scene.

Political party offers of representation for minority voters: advertising in Chinese-language newspapers in New Zealand

For reasons of both electoral competitiveness and democratic legitimacy, political parties in diverse democracies increasingly compete for the votes of immigrant and ethnic minority voters. A considerable literature has examined the effects of electoral advertising on the partisanship and turnout of targeted groups. Little attention has been given, however, to the nature of the representational offers contained in advertising that targets ethnic minorities. Do party advertisements offer descriptive representation, by featuring ethnic candidates? Do they offer geographic representation, by focusing on districts where ethnic minorities live? Do they offer to represent ethnic minorities’ specific interests or experiences? Where ethnic minorities are internally diverse, what efforts do parties make to address such diversity in their advertising? How parties answer these questions affects the scope and inclusivity of the representational offers extended to ethnic minority voters, with consequences for their political inclusion and representation. We examine how these questions have been answered in New Zealand, a country characterised by high rates of inward migration and the enfranchisement of resident non-citizens. Using data from a novel study of New Zealand political parties’ election advertisements targeting Chinese voters, we assess the quantity and character of representational offers made to this internally diverse minority group. Our findings suggest that, even as the main political parties are increasingly making specific representational offers to Chinese New Zealanders, these offers vary across the political spectrum in their quantity, scope and inclusiveness.

Citizenship Violence, Illegality, and Abolition in the Undocumemoir

Abstract: This essay contributes a study of the undocumemoir to existing scholarship on undocu literature. I define the undocumemoir as an evolving literary form that transgresses literary boundaries and is distinguished by three defining characteristics: an engagement with immigration law and policy, a narrative arc of illegality, and the adoption of one or more generic conventions of established literary forms. I provide a reading of three recent undocumemoirs and argue that the undocumemoir departs from discussions of legal citizenship as full legal and political inclusion and show, instead, what I call citizenship violence and define as legal citizenship’s function as a mechanism to criminalize and contain migrants. I interpret the undocumemoir’s critique of citizenship violence as an incipient abolitionism invested in the creation of a borderless world that both echoes Black abolitionist and recent immigrant rights advocates’ critiques of legal citizenship, and invites a consideration of the liberatory potential in the rejection of legal citizenship.

A Theoretical Approach to School Success within the Framework of Multicultural Schools

A multicultural school is meant to promote inclusive politics and equitable learning opportunities and that in the framework of the winding quest for high educational outcomes for each and every student, regardless of ethnicity and socio-economic backgrounds. School success is not merely the salient knowledge span, it encompasses a set of life skills, parental support, brain power and a myriad of attitudes meant to allow the school leaver not only to avoid depletion, but also to achieve high performance goals and, what’s more, to ensure fair treatment to all. Equipped with fortitude, resilience and a team spirit, the school leaver finds thus attainment by taking different educational pathways, from the theoretical to the vocational one. School success is ultimately about finding fulfilment, about leading a quality life and feeling integrated wherever one may be. Taking on challenges in exchanges among the different ethnic groups, making practical use of soft sills to stay connected and agile in such a community, grappling with the link between the school curriculum and the practicalities of the world around, all these might be the tipping point to be analyzed and addressed by the present article. Yet, in a multicultural learning environment attachment to one’s cultural values with its spillover implications is far from enough, it must align with keeping all lines of communication open for cultural exchange, even to the point where the exchanges become goals and social and emotional learning go hand in hand with academic achievement.

Like parent, like child: how attitudes towards immigrants spill over to the political inclusion of their children

ABSTRACT Across Europe, citizenship is traditionally attributed at birth through descent only. As immigrant populations grow, policy-makers have come under pressure to extend citizenship rights to the children of immigrants born in the country. While such inclusive measures often counter political opposition, public attitudes on this question remain remarkably underexplored. In this study, we report on the results of an original choice-based conjoint survey experiment designed to examine which parental attributes affect respondents’ willingness to grant citizenship to newborns. We implement the survey experiment in Italy, where over one million children do not have Italian citizenship, yet reform proposals have so far been unsuccessful. In line with our pre-registered expectations, we find that respondents are more likely to support birthright citizenship for children born to parents who are economically, legally and socially integrated in society. These attitudes vary little by political background, education and age-category of respondents. Our findings suggest that incorporating immigration-related conditionality in birthright citizenship proposals is key to convincing sceptical publics of the legitimacy of such measures.