Powerless Groups Research Articles

Accountability from a social justice perspective: Criticism and proposals

When seen in a positive light, accountability systems are understood as a means for promoting transparency, improvement, responsibility and commitment to valuable goals, thus ensuring that State funding is invested in initiatives that are beneficial to all citizens. However, in education, there is extensive evidence about the negative effects of predominant accountability systems, which call their expected positive impacts into question. Some of the detrimental effects of these systems involve unequal distribution of knowledge as well as discrimination and stigmatisation of vulnerable students, minorities and powerless groups, and of the schools that serve them. This evidence, along with emerging demands for social justice in terms of participation and recognition, highlights the need to analyse the shortcomings of current accountability systems in connection to ideals of social justice in education. On the basis of a review of relevant literature that connects the areas of social justice, education and assessment and accountability systems, this paper aims at illustrating some of the significant challenges and potential new avenues for the development of more just and, therefore, more intelligent accountability systems.

Climate Catastrophe and Stanley Milgram’s Electric Shock “Obedience” Experiments: An Uncanny Analogy

Awareness of impending climate catastrophe has greatly increased over the last 30 years. Increasing awareness, however, has not translated into decreasing but instead increasing greenhouse gas emissions. This paper aims to shed new light on this perplexing and ultimately destructive positive correlation. It does so by applying a new interpretation of Milgram’s Obedience to Authority “electric shock” experiments to the problem of climate catastrophe. This paper reveals that both the Obedience Studies and climate catastrophe share a crucial common denominator: both involve powerful figures utilising manipulative techniques of bureaucratic organisation to push and pull the functionary helpers below them into contributing to preconceived goal achievement. In both cases, for the functionary helpers to achieve the goals of the powerful, all must agree to contribute to the infliction of harm on a powerless group. Nearly all helpers choose to make their harmful contributions because they not only stand to personally benefit, they also suspect that—with so many other links in the chain participating in goal achievement—they can probably do so with total impunity. It is argued that this comparison may help to better understand the complex, self-reinforcing, yet ultimately destructive relationship shared between fossil fuel corporations, the ideological pursuit of economic growth, political impotence, rapacious consumer demand, and impending climate catastrophe.

LIMPRINT: A Sociological Perspective on "Chronic Edema".

Background: Chronic edema is a condition that is biologically complex, distressing for patients and sociopolitically weak. Like many other complex and chronic conditions, it has a low status within health care. The result is that it has a low priority in health policy and consequently is undervalued and undertreated. While evidence-based practice promotes a hierarchy of evidence, it is also the case that clinical practice is influenced by a hierarchy of social status. These are as much political as they are scientific.Methods and Results: This article will provide an explanation for why chronic edema is a low priority. It will do this through a critical review of the literature. We examine this through the theoretical lens of Pierre Bourdieu. The sociology of Bourdieu frames an understanding of power relations through habitus, field, and capital. We will employ these theoretical tools to understand the way that chronic edema is situated within the policy arena. We identify a number of social mechanisms that affect the status of chronic edema, including diagnostic uncertainty, social capital, scientific capital, cultural capital and economic capital.Conclusion: We argue that a whole system approach to care, based on human need rather than unequal power relations, is a prerequisite for the delivery of good health care. The specialty of chronic edema is not a powerless group and we identify some of the ways that the social mechanism that acts as barriers to change, can also be employed to challenge them.

Rethinking Political Power in Judicial Review

For decades, scholars have argued that the proper judicial response when democratically enacted laws burden politically powerless minority groups is more aggressive judicial review. This political process approach, however, has fallen on deaf ears at the Supreme Court since the 1970s. Justice Scalia was thus accurate (if not politic) when he derided political process theory as an “old saw” of constitutional law. There is a different role that political power may yet play. The key to seeing it is to focus on the other side of the political power spectrum. Courts can be attentive to situations when the groups burdened by a law are politically powerful, not just when they are powerless. Political power’s presence, I want to suggest, can be a good reason for judges to defer to democratically enacted laws, even if one thinks its absence is a bad reason to strike laws down. This Article advances a positive and normative case for an approach to judicial review that is attuned to political power. As a positive matter, it turns out the Supreme Court has employed such an approach in a number of decisions, including in opinions joined by seven of the nine current Justices. And as a normative matter, treating political power as a reason for judicial deference may help unlock the democratic and institutional benefits of leaving contested constitutional questions to the political branches without sacrificing the role of courts in safeguarding individual rights. The Article concludes by applying these insights to five contemporary disputes in constitutional law: the rise of First Amendment Lochnerism, gun control and the Second Amendment, same sex marriage, due process limits on punitive damage awards, and the closely-regulated industries exception to the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement.

When Do the Dispossessed Protest? Informal Leadership and Mobilization in Syrian Refugee Camps

Refugees are often considered to be among the world’s most powerless groups; they face significant structural barriers to political mobilization, often including extreme poverty and exposure to repression. Yet despite these odds refugee groups do occasionally mobilize to demand better services and greater rights. In this paper I examine varying levels of mobilization among Syrian refugees living in camps and informal settlements in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan in order to explain how marginalized and dispossessed groups manage to develop autonomous political strength. I explain the surprisingly high levels of mobilization in Jordan’s Za’atari Camp compared to the relative quiescence of refugees in Turkish camps and Lebanese informal settlements as the product of a set of strong informal leadership networks. These networks emerged due to two unique facets of the refugee management regime in Jordan: the concentration of refugees in the camp, and a fragmented governance system. In Turkey and Lebanon, where these two conditions were absent, refugees did not develop the strong leadership networks necessary to support mobilization. I develop this argument through structured comparison of three cases and within-case process tracing, using primary source documents from humanitarian agencies, contentious event data, and 87 original interviews conducted in the summer of 2015.

Peasant Resistance beyond the State: Peasant–NGO Interactions in Post Wenchuan Earthquake Reconstruction, China

ABSTRACTStudies on peasant resistance in China have been typically associated with antagonistic actions against the state. This article examines a new form of peasant resistance nested in interactions between peasants and a non-governmental organization (NGO). Through the lens of a post-earthquake reconstruction programme in which peasants cannot be simply regarded as subordinates or a powerless group, it offers an alternative view on theories of ‘rightful resistance’ and ‘everyday forms of resistance’. With rural relations become more complex, the authors argue that contextually sensitive analyses which include multilateral interactions are needed for more in-depth understanding of diverse peasant resistance in contemporary China.

Development of spatial representation of power in children

Systematic evidence demonstrates that power is mentally represented as vertical space by adults. However, little is known about the developmental progress of such representation. Using the explicit power evaluation task, this study investigated the development of the spatial representation of power. Participants were Chinese children (5–7 years old) and adults. The results revealed that vertical motor responses interfered with responding for all age groups; that is, they responded to words representing powerless groups faster with the down cursor key than with the up cursor key (and vice versa for powerful groups). More important, the size of the effect did not show much developmental change. The findings suggest that even children aged 5 years have developed a spatial representation of power once they understand the power concept.

Making Transportable Identities Relevant as a Persuasive Device. The Case of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 Concession Speech

Transportable identities are often extraneous in discourse, but they can be brought to the surface and made relevant, also as a means to persuade an audience. I discuss the case of the concession speech Hillary Rodham Clinton gave on June, 7th 2008 after she lost against Barack Obama in the Democratic Primaries. In order to successfully reposition herself from an opponent to a supporter of Obama, Clinton draws on several aspects of her transportable identity to stress the similarity between herself and Obama. Next to focusing on the fact that they are both Democrats, Americans and human beings, she zooms in on their membership of two powerless groups: namely that of women and African Americans. Both from a historical and a personal perspective, these two categorizations of herself and Obama are presented in a highly persuasive way and create unity between the two former opponents. As such, I not only show how identity, which relates to the concept of ethos in classical rhetorical terms, is discursively constructed in a speech, but also how it serves the argumentational goal of repositioning oneself entirely.

The spatial representation of power in children.

Previous evidence demonstrates that power is mentally represented as vertical space by adults. However, little is known about how power is mentally represented in children. The current research examines such representations. The influence of vertical information (motor cues) was tested in both an explicit power evaluation task (judge whether labels refer to powerless or powerful groups) and an incidental task (judge whether labels refer to people or animals). The results showed that when power was explicitly evaluated, vertical motor responses interfered with responding in children and adults, i.e., they responded to words representing powerful groups faster with the up than the down cursor key (and vice versa for powerless groups). However, this interference effect disappeared in the incidental task in children. The findings suggest that children have developed a spatial representation of power before they have been taught power-space associations formally, but that they do not judge power spontaneously.

Distributive Politics under Institutionalized Authoritarianism: Evidence from China's Subnational Land Finance

In this research we advance a theory to explain the distributive politics under an institutionalized single-party regime. We argue that the need of support from below, and therefore the need of support-buying, varies with the degree of power concentration among the authoritarian leadership. Compared with the scenario in which a few leaders have concentrated more power in their hands, when power are dispersed more evenly among political leaders, they face more competition, more uncertainties and risks, providing them with greater incentive of dispensing benefits to their constituents in exchange of their loyalty and support. To test the theory, this study uses a provincial-year panel data spanning 2003-2012 to examine how provincial power concentration in a provincial leadership is related with land finance within its jurisdiction, a policy practice that tilts the interest distribution disproportionately towards local politicians at the costs of the marginalized and powerless groups. The empirical results robustly show the less (more) power concentrated in the provincial leaders, the greater (less) extent the province will allow the practice of land finance to please the local officials.

Participation of Youth in Community Development Programs in Uganda. A Comparative Study of Naads and HPI Programs in Bungokho Subcounty, Mbale District, Uganda

The youth, especially in developing countries have not been successfully integrated into civil society, decision-making frameworks and the general development process, which affect their present and future livelihoods. Youth in Uganda continue to dominate ranks of most vulnerable and most powerless groups in the labour market and decision making spheres. It is therefore imperative to explore the dynamics of youth’s involvement in the development process. The study evaluated participation of the youth aged 15-30 years in community development programs in Uganda by comparing NAADS and HPI programs in Mbale district. The study used sample survey design to collect data from 165 individual households and 20 key informant interviews and 4 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with female and male youth were conducted. Quantitative data was analysed using Statistical Package for social Scientist (SPSS) version 18. Qualitative data was analysed according to themes and sub themes of the study. The information gathered was utilized in identifying the level of youth involvement, benefits that accrue to youth through participation and the challenges associated with participation of youth in community development programs. Findings indicated limited involvement of youth in development process at all stages, save for implementation stage where 83% confirmed that they are involved. Through participation in community development programs, youth benefit from direct and indirect employment, acquisition of knowledge and skills, increased incomes, increased ownership of household assets/resources and improved family nutrition. The challenges for youth participation in community development (both NAADS and HPI) programs included lack of leadership and management skills among the youth, group regulatory barriers and impediments, development programs not targeting youth, irregular involvement of the youth, lack of information about development programs, youth holding negative attitude about the development programs, design and implementation challenges. There is a weakness in the lack of a comprehensive and consistence framework by both NAADS and HPI to ensure effective participation of youth at various levels of development process. It is therefore important for development actors to design youth engagement approaches and strategies to integrate youth in the development process right from program design stage. Also NAADS and HPI need to design special packages i.e. consider youth development needs and interests separate from the general community development needs and interests to attract youth to effectively participate in the process.

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN SEVEN DIMENSIONS THROUGH SELF HELP GROUPS IN ARUNACHALPRADESH: A CASE STUDY

Women are the nucleus of our civilization. They have different roles to play in the ever changing social set-up. Women’s development is directly related with the nation development. With the dawn of independence our constitution guaranteed gender equality and a large number of schemes and programs have been initiated for women’s development. Women usually falls under the powerless group which necessitates the programmes ensured empowerment of women. Now a days; empowerment especially women empowerment has become a buzz word especially in the context of development of rural poor and women. Empowering the poor for their development is one of the top most prioritized agenda in development paradigm of every developing and underdeveloped country. Empowerment of women may normally mean equal access to & control over important productive resources. Women empowerment, therefore, may normally describe as a process by which women would be able to develop their confidence level & increase their inner strength & self reliance to decide and determine their important choices in life. The socio-economic empowerment of women achieved through SHG may be divided into dimensions of Economic, Social, Political, Personal, Institutional, Organisational, and Familial.

Vertical position of Chinese power words influences power judgments: Evidence from spatial compatibility task and event-related Potentials

The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to explore the influence of vertical position on power judgments. Participants were asked to identify whether a Chinese word represented a powerful or powerless group (e.g., “king” or “servant”), which was presented in the top or bottom of the screen. The behavioral analysis showed that judging the power of powerful words were significantly faster when they were presented at the top position, compared with when they were presented at the bottom position. The ERP analysis showed enhanced N1 amplitude for congruent trials (i.e., the powerful words in the top and the powerless words in the bottom of the screen) and larger P300 and LPC amplitude for incongruent trials (i.e., the powerful words in the bottom and the powerless words in the top of the screen). The present findings provide further electrophysiological evidence that thinking about power can automatically activate the underlying spatial up-down (verticality) image schema and that the influence of vertical position on the power judgments not only occurs at the early perceptual stage of power word processing, but also at the higher cognitive stage (i.e., allocation of attention resources, conflict solving and response selection). This study revealed the neural underpinnings of metaphor congruent effect which have great significance to our understanding of the abstract concept power.

Policy-making for immigration and integration in Québec: degenerative politics or business as usual?

ABSTRACTPolicy Design Theory (PDT) predicts that the distribution of the costs and benefits of governmental intervention depends on the social construction and level of power of target groups. The case of Québec, Canada, which recently went through acrimonious policy debates on immigration and integration issues, does not correspond to this pattern. Degenerative politics – that is, the stigmatization of powerless groups and an unequal distribution of the costs and benefits of governmental intervention to the detriment of the most vulnerable – did not occur even if the conditions were seemingly in place to produce it. Using Québec as a ‘most likely’ case, I show that the policy-making sphere remained immune to the degenerative dynamics that took hold in the media and the legislature. More precisely, I argue that three interrelated factors explain the results: past policies and their unintended consequences, an implementation structure committed to the needs of immigrants, and the specific incentive structure facing political actors. The results question the transferability of PDT outside of the institutional setting of the USA, where it was first developed and applied.

Using arts-based research to help visualize community intervention in international aid

This article discusses the advantages of arts-based research specifically for high-context, culturally diverse, power-infused, and chaotic or diffuse research settings as often found in international aid. It points to the ability of arts to concretize abstract concepts and to situate them within specific socio-cultural locations, enabling powerless groups to self-define and to adjust resilience-enhancing interventions to their own perceptions. The arts-based method as an indirect form of communication is shown to be effective in changing stands of power holders and experts, enabling a dialogue that creates culturally sustainable aid. The model used in this article is demonstrated and discussed.

Third party interaction in the medical context: Code-switching and control

The purpose of this paper is to examine the micro-interactional co-construction of power within Spanish language concordant medical consultations in California involving a third party family member. Findings indicate the third party instigates code-switching to English on the part of medical providers, a language that the patient does not understand, rendering the patient a non-participant in the medical consultation. In these consultations involving a third party family member, monolingual Spanish-speaking patients are stripped of control in ways that are similar to other powerless groups in medical consultations. Implications include the need to further examine how micro-level interactions reproduce societal ideologies and shape policy on the ground.

Burden of obstetric fistula: from measurement to action.

Burden of obstetric fistula: from measurement to action.

Counter-discourse corpora, ethical subjectivity and critique of argument: An alternative critical discourse analysis pedagogy

In the article I model an alternative critical discourse analysis (CDA) pedagogy which is based on an ethical subjectivity instead of a political subjectivity. Aimed at undergraduates, it facilitates critical purchase on arguments which attack the standpoint of relatively powerless groups/organizations (who seek political change). Via corpus linguistic analysis of appropriate web-based data, I show how the analyst can rigorously find out at scale the recurrent key concerns of a relatively powerless Other with whom they were previously unfamiliar. They use this counter-discourse information as a lens on an argument which criticises the relatively powerless group, ascertaining whether or not the argument has distorted the group’s key concerns. Should this be the case, I highlight how the analyst can go on to explore whether any mischaracterisation has implications for the argument’s credibility because it loses coherence relative to the outlook of the Other. The approach is grounded in Jacques Derrida’s ‘ethics of hospitality to the Other’. It is in being hospitable to the outlook of a relatively powerless Other, and adopting it for purposes of argument evaluation, that the analyst effectively creates an ethical subjectivity. That said, the ethical and political are, in principle, relatable with this method as I indicate. Keywords: absences; argumentation; change.org; corpus linguistics; counter-discourse; critical discourse analysis; ethical subjectivity; Jacques Derrida; online comments; text cohesion.

Did Your Mother Go To Bimbo School?: Naming Schools, Power, and Politics in Canada’s Prairie West

Naming converts space to place. Place names are often the manifestation of military and political power. The victors write history and embed their culture and power in the landscape by naming and renaming places. In Canada’s Prairie West, after 1870, Aboriginal place names were submerged beneath a tide of British imperial nomenclature bestowed by major corporations. Agricultural immigrants from Europe found it difficult to mark their presence in the landscape by naming settlements, but school names were generally assigned locally. By naming schools, otherwise powerless groups from Eastern Europe marked their presence in the rural landscape. Naming or renaming them reflected the strength of community power, the community’s weltanschaaung , and fluctuations in the influence of the Anglophone elite. L’acte de nommer convertit l’espace en un lieu. Le nom des lieux (toponyme) sont souvent la manifestation du pouvoir politique et militaire. Les vainqueurs écrivent l’histoire et intègrent leur culture et pouvoir dans le paysage en nommant et en renommant des lieux. Après 1870, dans la région des Prairies de l’Ouest du Canada, les toponymes autochtones ont été submergés sous une marée de nomenclature impériale Britannique conférée par les grandes entreprises commerciales. Les immigrants agricoles en provenance d’Europe ont trouvé difficile de marquer leur présence dans le paysage en nommant des villages. Toutefois, cela n’était pas le cas pour le nom des écoles qui était généralement attribué localement. L’acte de nommer leurs écoles a permis à des groupes d’Europe de l’Est de marquer leur présence dans le paysage rural. Ainsi, nommer ou renommer les écoles reflète le pouvoir de la communauté, l’weltanschauung de la communauté, et les fluctuations de l’influence de l’élite anglophone.

Counter-discourse corpora, ethical subjectivity and critique of argument

In the article, I model an alternative critical discourse analysis (CDA) pedagogy which is based on an ethical subjectivity instead of a political subjectivity. Aimed at undergraduates, it facilitates critical purchase on arguments which attack the standpoint of relatively powerless groups/organizations (who seek political change). Via corpus linguistic analysis of appropriate web-based data, I show how the analyst can rigorously find out at scale the recurrent key concerns of a relatively powerless Other with whom they were previously unfamiliar. They use this counter-discourse information as a lens on an argument which criticises the relatively powerless group, ascertaining whether or not the argument has distorted the group’s key concerns. Should this be the case, I highlight how the analyst can go on to explore whether any mischaracterisation has implications for the argument’s credibility because it loses coherence relative to the outlook of the Other. The approach is grounded in Jacques Derrida’s ‘ethics of hospitality to the Other’. It is in being hospitable to the outlook of a relatively powerless Other, and adopting it for purposes of argument evaluation, that the analyst effectively creates an ethical subjectivity. That said, the ethical and political are, in principle, relatable with this method as I indicate.