Egalitarian Relationships Research Articles

“You Started the Dispute” – an Essential Argument in Controversies Typical of Oral Cultures and the Discoursive Blueprint of the "Iliad"

The paper argues that in the imagery found in the narrative context of the Iliad, the image of public debates is involved. Especially the argument “you started the dispute” is emphasized because it is connected with the concept of blame attributed to Paris and all the Trojans. Under the influence of such works like Graeber and Wengrow (2021), that shed a new light on the prehistory of mankind, I postulate a change in the paradigm of the interpretation of the Homeric world. I believe it would be much more comprehensible if interpreted as expressing egalitarian relations. After all, social and political circumstances described in the Iliad correspond to the phase in which hierarchy is only an increasing tendency. Comparisons drawn from other egalitarian cultures indicate how significant it is who started the dispute and how this argument can be cancelled. In the blueprint of the Iliad, however, Paris’ blame defines the meaning of the Trojan story and, therefore, the indictment that it was Alexander who started the dispute plays a paramount role.

Exploring the Relationship Needs of Service Users During Crisis Interventions: A Qualitative Study

AbstractPeople in crisis sometimes seek professional support, and the relationship between service users and professionals is crucial in overcoming the crisis. To understand the relationship needs of people in crisis, 29 semi-structured interviews with service users were conducted and analyzed using a grounded-theory approach. The findings reveal that people in crisis seek a professional who is there for them, recognizes the crisis as an emergency and a solvable situation, treats them with respect, and offers individual support. Furthermore, there needs to be a general fit between professionals, the support services, and service users for a supportive relationship to be established. However, two main aspects were discovered where service users differ depending on the resources they can access during the crisis: While people with access to many resources seek a rather distant and egalitarian relationship, those with access to fewer resources prefer more intimate and hierarchical relationships with professionals.

From men's violence to an ethic of care: Ecofeminist contributions to green criminology

Green criminology has made important contributions to criminological inquiry by highlighting the destructive impact of humans on the more-than-human world. However, it often adopts a gender-neutral lens that overlooks the disproportionate role of men and masculinities in perpetrating green harms. This paper places green criminology into critical dialogue with ecofeminism, arguing that harms against the environment and nonhuman animals are inextricably gendered and should be understood as interconnected forms of men's violence. Ecofeminist insights reveal that violence against the more-than-human world is rooted in hierarchical dualisms, whereby humans are placed separate from and above nature, and the masculine is defined as superior to the feminine. This hierarchical logic enables men to view others in detached, instrumental ways and serves to legitimise acts of men's violence. But just as ecofeminism provides green criminologists with a productive framework for understanding men's violence against the environment and nonhuman animals, it also provides a means of moving beyond this violence. It does this by advocating for an ethic of care that unravels hierarchical modes of thinking and promotes more harmonious relationships between humans and the more-than-human world. By building caring, egalitarian relationships with other living beings (and with their own emotional selves), it is harder for men to act in violent, dominating ways towards others, providing the foundation for more sustainable, interdependent ways of being.

Identifying Key Concepts of the Language of Desire and the Language of Ethics in Dialogic Literary Gatherings

Given the high prevalence of gender violence among adolescents and youth, research has underscored the importance of preventing it from an early age. The literature has clarified that the prevention of gender violence requires the union of the language of desire and of ethics to promote egalitarian relationships as desirable. Nevertheless, there is a need for a more in-depth and extensive analysis of the key concepts that emerge in DLG, implemented in diverse contexts to better understand their potential as a space for the prevention of gender violence. To contribute to filling this gap, this study explores key concepts of desire and ethics that adolescents surface in DLG implemented in 5 Learning Communities have in common. To that end, 26 observations in 9 different DLG groups with students aged 10-15 and 45 interviews with students and teachers were conducted. Results show one key concept of desire and ethics in these DLG: many students reject violence and peer pressure. Implications of these findings for the prevention and overcoming of gender violence are discussed.

Sibling and best friend conflict resolution strategies among Mexican-origin youth

Sibling relationships evolve into a more egalitarian relationship dynamic resembling friendships during adolescence, potentially facilitating the transfer of interpersonal skills across relationships. This study investigates cross-relationship associations in conflict resolution strategies with siblings and friends. Research on family-peer linkages, largely focused on White populations, often overlook the role of siblings in other ethnoracial contexts. Drawing on social learning theory, we examined mean-level differences on conflict resolution strategy use with siblings versus friends and how conflict resolution strategies with siblings were related to those with friends. Participants were older ( M = 15.48; SD = 1.57) and younger siblings ( M = 12.55; SD = .60) in 246 Mexican-origin families. Adolescents reported on their use of solution-oriented, nonconfrontational, and controlling strategies with one another and their best friends, which reflect varying considerations for oneself, others, and their relationship. Multilevel ANOVAs suggest that adolescents typically use more adaptive strategies with friends than with siblings. Actor-Partner Interdependence Models revealed significant positive associations between actor-reported conflict resolution strategies with siblings and friends, even when accounting for relationship intimacy and conflict, expressive personality characteristics, and familism values, suggesting congruence across relationships. Cross-strategy analyses indicated that controlling strategies with siblings were correlated with all strategies with friends, while nonconfrontational strategies with siblings negatively related to solution-oriented strategies with friends. These findings highlight how sibling and friend experiences shape adolescents’ interpersonal skills and suggest avenues for future research on the enduring impact on social development.

Relational Egalitarianism and Aesthetic Equality

Relational Egalitarianism and Aesthetic Equality

Egalitarian cooperation linked to central oxytocin levels in communal breeding house mice

Relationships between adult females are fundamental to understanding diversity in animal social systems. While cooperative relationships between kin are known to promote fitness benefits, the proximate mechanisms underlying this are not well understood. Here we show that when related female house mice (Mus musculus domesticus) cooperate to rear young communally, those with higher endogenous oxytocin levels have more egalitarian and successful cooperative relationships. Sisters with higher oxytocin concentrations in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus weaned significantly more offspring, had lower reproductive skew and spent more equal proportions of time in the nest. By contrast, PVN oxytocin was unrelated to the number of weaned offspring produced in the absence of cooperation, and did not vary in response to manipulation of nest site availability or social cues of outgroup competition. By linking fitness consequences of cooperation with oxytocin, our findings have broad implications for understanding the evolution of egalitarian social relationships.

Equality, efficiency and hierarchy in the workplace

Abstract Relational egalitarians argue that workplace hierarchy is wrong or unjust. However, even if workplace hierarchy is morally deficient in one respect, the efficiency of hierarchical cooperation might vindicate hierarchy. This paper assesses the extent to which relational egalitarians must make concessions to workplace hierarchy for the sake of efficiency. I argue that considerations of hierarchy provide egalitarians with reasons that make workplace hierarchy tolerable despite being unjustified, and, moreover, that under a predominantly hierarchical status quo, the practical import of egalitarian reasons is unlikely to be undercut. This can be the case even if social hierarchy sometimes constitutes social cooperation.

Three Injustices of Adaptation Finance - A Relational Egalitarian Analysis

This primarily diagnostic paper offers, from the perspective of relational egalitarianism, a normative analysis of three major injustices in the context of adaptation finance. Adaptation finance includes payments provided by the affluent countries of the Global North to low-income countries in the Global South, countries particularly exposed to the harms of climate change. Relational egalitarianism is the normative view that interactions between people and between institutions have to respect the equal moral status of every human being. The first injustice, from this perspective, consists in the sheer fact that adaptation measures are required at all to deflect harm from people who did not significantly contribute to the causes of climate change. The second injustice consists in the persisting, even increasing adaptation finance gap, as countries of the Global North do neither provide adequate financial means to reduce climate risks, nor even fulfil their commitments to adaptation finance pledged in the Copenhagen Accord in 2009. The third injustice emerges from current procedures to determine criteria for distributing scarce financial resources that consolidate structural injustice. The paper concludes by providing the contours of a practical response to these injustices that respects the demands of relational egalitarianism.

Loss and Damage, and Addressing Structural Injustice in the Climate Crisis

ABSTRACT The paper offers a normative analysis of the new Loss & Damage Fund supporting vulnerable countries grappling with climate change-related harms. This fund is primarily financed by affluent nations, often identified as historical polluters. However, the perspective of relational egalitarianism highlights persistent structural injustices in the background of the fund. Addressing them necessitates conceptualizing the fund not merely as an act of cooperative solidarity but as compensation for the consequences of historical and ongoing structural injustices. Properly conceived, the fund manages adverse climate effects and simultaneously tackles their underlying root causes, including the unjust distribution of advantages and power.

The Distributive Demands of Relational Egalitarianism

AbstractThe article outlines the distributive demands of relational equality in the form of a dynamic corridor of legitimate distributive inequality. It does so by complementing the already widely accepted sufficientarian floor with a limitarian ceiling, leading, in a first step, to a "corridor" of limited distributive inequality as a necessary condition for relational equality. This corridor alone, however, only provides necessary distributive conditions for relational equality and still allows for degrees of distributive inequality that would risk undermining egalitarian relations. Thus, in a second step, intra-corridor distributive inequalities must be regulated by two further constraints: a (context- dependent) ratio between the best- and worst-off, and a demand for equality of opportunity so that inequalities result from people’s responsible choices. This set of demands spells out the distributive conditions that are not only necessary, but sufficient to provide a sound distributive basis for relational equality. After presenting this view, the article defends it against several objections.

Intergenerational Cooperation and Justice between Age Groups

In this paper, I bring together the problems of justice between age groups and intergenerational cooperation in light of real-life demographic trends. I begin by presenting a simple model of intergenerational cooperation based on indirect reciprocity and show how cooperation can break down due to exogenous factors, including demographic change. I use the model to make the argument that principles for justice between age groups must be sensitive to the stability of intergenerational cooperation. I illustrate my thesis by considering the debate between distributive and relational egalitarians on justice between age groups.

Theology Gone Pink

Abstract Gerwig’s Barbie film addresses social concerns regarding sexism and responds to interpretations of Genesis and the roles of men and women. The film argues that women should not rely on or find fulfilment with a man. However, while Ken and Barbie each forge their own paths at the film’s end, the real world continues to suffer from underground patriarchy and Barbie Land resumes functioning like a matriarchy. Gerwig draws attention to the social reform needed for true gender equality to exist, yet the film’s ending shows a distancing from the problem rather than a leaning into it. The Genesis account is often rejected because it is incorrectly interpreted as a patriarchal structure of man’s dominion over women; however, when viewed as an example of an egalitarian relationship, it offers positive visions for society. This requires resisting a narrative of hyper-individualism to right social wrongs and instead adopting a posture of egalitarian goodwill that bolsters the common good.

"I Am Not Taking Sides as a Female At All": Co-Facilitation and Gendered Positioning in a Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Program.

The facilitation of domestic abuse perpetrator programs (DAPPs) by mixed gender co-facilitation pairs brings different facilitator perspectives and enables the modeling of egalitarian and respectful male-female relationships. This study analyzed 22 video and audio recordings of community-based DAPP groups featuring male participants, and male and female facilitators. Using thematic analysis, we aimed to understand how facilitators engaged participants and whether the facilitator's gender affected this. We found an asymmetry in the positioning of the facilitators. Group participants challenged both facilitators, but especially the female facilitators. Facilitator strategies toward behavior change included softening direct challenges (female facilitators) and mobilizing the shared category of men (male facilitators). Implications from this study are for reflective practice in facilitator management and supervision specifically focused on gendered power dynamics. Skilled facilitation is key to behavior change and the gendered interplay within groups may be a crucial element in the reduction of interpersonal violence and abuse.

What Relational Egalitarians Should (Not) Believe

Relational egalitarianism is a theory of justice according to which justice requires that people relate as equals. According to some relational egalitarians, X and Y relate as equals if, and only if, they (1) regard each other as equals; and (2) treat each other as equals. In this paper, we argue that relational egalitarians must give up 1.

“Nobody puts Baby in a corner” placing attractiveness in dancing coupled with alternative masculinities and affective-sexual relationships in Dirty Dancing film

ABSTRACT The success and popularity of the film Dirty Dancing (1987) placed it at the center of research interest. Many articles have been published about it, including supposedly critical analyses interpreting it as classist and sexist (Giroux, 1989). However, none of these analyses present evidence about femininity and masculinity models and affective-sexual relationships developed in the film. In this paper, the main protagonist, Johnny, and his antagonist, Robbie, are analysed in the scenes in which they interact with the protagonist, Baby, and the secondary characters, Penny and Lisa. The results show that Robbie’s character corresponds mainly to a toxic model of masculinity while the protagonist Johnny’s character corresponds mainly to an alternative model of masculinity. The affective-sexual relationships they establish are also reported. In her relationship with Robbie, Penny has an unwanted pregnancy and is depicted by him. Conversely, Johnny introduces Baby in dancing, they start a relationship, and she evolves in the film in improving security and self-esteem. Dancing as an attractive key issue in the film is placed in this last relationship. Finally, the article discusses the possible role of the film in promoting the attractiveness of dance coupled with more egalitarian relationships and alternative models of masculinity.

Justice and Egalitarian Relations, written by Christian Schemmel

Justice and Egalitarian Relations, written by Christian Schemmel

Between Man and Machine: A Posthumanist Analysis of I, Robot

In Isaac Asimov’s groundbreaking anthology, I, Robot, the intricacies of human and robotic interactions take center stage, delving deep into questions of consciousness, right, morality. Characterized by Asimov’s unique blend of science fiction and philosophical pondering, the stories establish a framework to reflect on the evolving dynamics of an advanced technological society in space. Robots are capable to interact with human, to interpret complicate orders and act automatically, to help human with dull or dangerous works such as calculating and mining, even replacing the workers. Asimov also raised Three Laws of Robotics to make sure that all robots function in order. Through the lens of posthumanism, the anthology is examined for its portrayal of the blurred boundaries between human and artificial intelligences. Robots and human co-exist in the society. However, due to the limitation of “Three Laws of Robotics”, some logical contradictions inevitably appears and lead to the dysfunction of robots. As a result, I, Robot emerges as a poignant critique of humanity’s ethical and existential challenges in the face of rapid technological advancements. Building on existing research, this article attempts to forge a new perspective by reflecting on the broader implications of the artificial intelligence in Asimov’s works through the lens of post-humanism. It considers the existential questions of AI on a consciousness level, explores the egalitarian relationship between humans and machines from a rights perspective, and analyzes the concepts of “humanity” and “human-like” from a moral and ethical standpoint. It encourages readers to recognize that robots are not mere slaves to humans; instead, humans should view AI with equality and reverence towards the advancements of the era’s technology. Humanity should step away from anthropocentrism, not solely viewing humans as the measure of all things in this rapidly evolving era of AI, and properly handle the relationship between humans and non-humans. Currently, with rapid advancements in science and technology, the world of human-machine coexistence depicted by Isaac Asimov is increasingly becoming a reality. The emergence of artificial intelligences like AlphaGo and ChatGPT constantly reminds us of the advent of a post-human era. This article aims to examine the connections between AI and humans, discussing the dynamic interaction and mutual shaping between robots and human society. This article hopes to provide new thoughts and strategies for understanding and addressing the challenges brought by the age of artificial intelligence.

Reducing the Divorce Rate in the Religious Courts Through Cultivating Egalitarian Relationships

The income factor is often the reason for divorce by petition, a phenomenon of high divorce rates in Indonesia. Furthermore, this problem has resulted in various analytical results. It is very embarrassing that all these analyses tend to blame one party, namely that often, the wife is blamed without presenting writings about wise efforts to resolve relationship problems that lead to mutualism. Apart from that, previous researchers were still trapped in understanding the husband-and-wife relationship as a relationship that was nothing more than a matter of the rights and obligations of husband and wife, which were considered absolute. Even though the perspective of interdependence as something prescribed in Islam has begun to be discussed, there has yet to be a study or offer on how to improve the pattern of interdependence in the lives of husbands and wives. This research aims to provide a practical way to create an egalitarian relationship between husband and wife by first uncovering the causes of the difficulty of implementing an egalitarian pattern in husband-and-wife relationships, which is a factor in the increase in divorce cases due to income reasons. This research uses an empirical or psychological phenomenological approach based on Gary Chapman's "Five Main Love Languages" theory. In selecting subjects, researchers used purposive sampling. Researchers conducted interviews with four ex-husband and wife couples in cases of divorce for reasons of livelihood in the jurisdiction of the Kediri City Religious Court. The result is a vacuum of emotional affection between husband and wife, which causes the wife to resist and be unable to give up her desire to fulfill household needs, a form of contextual and egalitarian role division. Instead of creating an egalitarian husband and wife relationship, the relationship ended in divorce. Thus, a sufficient husband and wife's love tank is the primary condition for carrying out their roles contextually and egalitarian.

Social Equality and Wrongful Discrimination: Introduction to the Special Issue on Moreau's Faces of Inequality

AbstractIn this introduction, I briefly summarize Sophia Moreau's Faces of Inequality. I situate her monograph within two highly contemporary bodies of literature — relational egalitarianism and discrimination theory — to show how it provides important insights for understanding both what it means to treat others as equals in society and how to define wrongful discrimination. Moreau's work on discrimination is of great relevance for philosophers and socio-legal theorists alike as the commentaries from the symposium contributors demonstrate, including Dale Smith, Pablo Gilabert, Andrea Sangiovanni, Daniel Viehoff, Jessica Eisen, Alysia Blackham, and Iyiola Solanke.