Social Marginalization Research Articles

SOCIAL AND PEDAGOGICAL SUPPORT OF CERTAIN CATEGORIES OF CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS IN THE CONDITIONS OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

The article deals with the theoretical foundations of socio-pedagogical support of children with limited functional capabilities in the conditions of inclusive education. The concept of inclusive education, support, social support, socio-pedagogical support is analyzed. The main categories of children with special needs who need socio-pedagogical support in the conditions of inclusive educational institutions are highlighted. It has been proven that inclusive education as a modern educational system requires the creation of appropriate conditions and the development of a system of socio-pedagogical support for children with special educational needs.
 The rules of socio-pedagogical support of children with limited functional capabilities in the conditions of inclusive education have been formulated. Special attention is paid to the description of the features of socio-pedagogical support of educational activities of children with intellectual disabilities, with autism, cerebral palsy, visual and hearing impairments. It was noted that the forced stay in the institutions of the special educational system violates basic human rights and freedoms, however, with improper organization of inclusive education, the inability of children with special educational needs to adapt successfully to the existing conditions of educational institutions leads to their social exclusion and marginalization. They do not even receive the help and services that they would receive in the special educational system.
 The need to take into account the educational difficulties of the main categories of children enrolled in inclusive education and determine the level of their support is emphasized. The main difficulties of certain categories of children with different nosologies in the conditions of inclusive education are described, the consideration of which will contribute to increasing the effectiveness of the organization of education in the inclusive class. The legislative basis for the organization of inclusive education and the creation of a socio-pedagogical support team has been analyzed. It was concluded that the effectiveness of the educational process in an inclusive educational institution depends on the productive interaction of the teacher, the teacher's assistant, and the child's assistant.
 Further research into the problem of socio-pedagogical support of certain categories of children with special needs in the conditions of inclusive education will be aimed at identifying an effective interaction mechanism of all members of the socio-pedagogical support team. There is a need to specify the description of interaction mechanisms and the distribution of functional responsibilities for different nosologies, special educational difficulties and different levels of socio-pedagogical support.

Swahili translation and validation of the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) in adolescents and adults taking part in the girls’ education challenge fund project in Tanzania

BackgroundThe Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) is validated for measuring mental wellbeing in populations aged 11 + and has been translated into 30 + languages. The aims of this study were a) to translate and validate WEMWBS for use in Swahili-speaking populations to facilitate measurement and understanding of wellbeing, evaluation of policy and practice, and enable international comparisons; and b) to examine sociodemographic characteristics associated with higher and lower mental wellbeing in participants in the Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC) project in Tanzania.MethodsA short questionnaire including WEMWBS and similar scales for comparison, socio-demographic information, and self-reported health was translated into Swahili using gold standard methodology. This questionnaire was used to collect data from secondary school students, learner guides, teacher mentors and teachers taking part in the GEC project in Tanzania. Focus groups were used to assess acceptability and comprehensibility of WEMWBS and conceptual understanding of mental wellbeing. These were audio-taped, transcribed and analysed thematically. Internal consistency of WEMWBS, correlation with comparator scales and confirmatory factor analysis were completed as quantitative validation. Finally, multivariable logistic regression was used to explore associations between individual characteristics and ‘high’ and ‘low’ mental wellbeing, defined as the highest and lowest quartile of WEMWBS scores.Results3052 students and 574 adults were recruited into the study. Participants reported that WEMWBS was understandable and relevant to their lives. Both WEMWBS and its short form met quantitative standards of reliability and validity, were correlated with comparator scales and met the criteria to determine a single factor structure. For students in the GEC supported government schools: mental wellbeing was higher in students in the final two ‘forms’ of school compared with the first two. In addition: being male, urban residence, the absence of markers of social marginality and better self-reported health were all significantly associated with better mental wellbeing. For adults, urban residence and better self-reported health were associated with better mental wellbeing.ConclusionsThe Swahili translation of WEMWBS is available for use. Further work to explore how to intervene to increase mental wellbeing in vulnerable GEC participants is needed.

From “Carrier” to “Creator”: The re-construction of national identity in more inclusive terms

ABSTRACT Background The sociocultural turn redefined learning in terms of shifting identities. In recent years, learning scientists have explored the connections between learning and various types of identities, including disciplinary identity, gender, race, and more. In this article we focus on national identity, to understand how it is constructed and how it might be made more inclusive through learning. Methods Drawing on sociolinguistics and discourse analysis methods, we present a telling case study aimed at elucidating previously obscure theoretical relations by providing a rich and detailed account of a single student whose national identity shifted over the course of a school year. Findings Our analysis shows how Joshua, a 9th grade secular Jewish-Israeli student, constructed his national identity. Joshua’s identity developed across three stages, which were marked by a shift from an essentialist disposition to a constructionist one and by an increasing sense of belonging. Contribution We highlight a connection between learners’ views on the continuum between essentialism and constructionism and their degree of belongingness. Our findings suggest that a constructionist approach to identity can translate into a greater sense of belonging and help ameliorate some cases of social marginalization.

LIVING ON THE MARGINS: The Socio‐spatial Representation of Urban Internally Displaced Persons in Ethiopia

AbstractIn cities in the global South, internally displaced persons (IDPs) often end up in marginalized places created by uneven processes of urbanization. While IDPs experience similar disadvantages to the urban poor living in these places, they face additional vulnerabilities related to their displacement. Building on insights from urban studies and forced migration studies, we argue in this article that a multidimensional understanding of urban marginality is a useful analytical lens with which to examine the conditions of urban IDPs. Based on multi‐sited ethnographic research in Kersa and Sululta IDP settlements of Ethiopia, this study reveals how IDPs experience similar spatial, social and symbolic marginality in different urban contexts. Our findings show the relational manifestation of segregation, social distance and stigmatization that impede IDPs’ access to urban space and services. This study also highlights how these dimensions of marginality interact and reproduce an additional layer of marginality. Our research suggests the need for inclusive urban governance in which IDPs contribute to and benefit from urbanization as citizens.

Racism: Eroding the health of Black communities.

Even in the context of major advances in medicine, racial minorities continue to suffer worse medical outcomes. Although race is defined as a social, nonscientific construct, researchers have continued to use it as proxy to explain genetic and evolutionary differences among patients. Poorer health outcomes among Black Americans are known to be related to the psychosocial and physiological stress of racism. Black communities experience premature health deterioration because of the cumulative effects of social, economic, and political oppression and marginalization. Additionally, recent assertions that racism is best seen as a chronic disease has added value to understanding the effect of racism on the health of Black people. Using evidence-based information to assess the health of Black patients is a key step to assist clinicians in promptly addressing this chronic threat to the health of Black patients.

Promoting Social Participation and Recovery Using Virtual Reality-Based Interventions Among People With Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders: Qualitative Study.

People with mental health disorders (MHDs) and substance use disorders (SUDs) are a highly vulnerable group, particularly affected by social exclusion, marginalization, and disconnectedness. Virtual reality technology holds a potential for simulating social environments and interactions to mitigate the social barriers and marginalization faced by people recovering from MHDs and SUDs. However, it is still unclear how we can harness the greater ecological validity of virtual reality-based interventions targeting social and functional impairments in individuals with MHDs and SUDs. The aim of this paper was to explore how service providers in community-based MHD and SUD health care services perceive the barriers to social participation among adults recovering from MHDs and SUDs to provide a broader understanding of how learning experiences can be modeled to promote social participation in virtual reality environments. Two semistructured, open-ended, and dual-moderator focus group interviews were conducted with participants representing different community-based MHD and SUD health care services. Service providers were recruited from their MHD and SUD services in our collaborating municipality in Eastern Norway. We recruited the first participant group at a municipal MHD and SUD assisted living facility for service users with ongoing excessive substance use and severe social dysfunctionality. We recruited the second participant group at a community-based follow-up care service aimed at clients with a broad range of MHDs and SUDs and various levels of social functioning. The qualitative data extracted in the interviews were analyzed, using reflexive thematic analysis. The analysis of the service providers' perceptions of the barriers to social participation among clients with MHDs and SUDs revealed the following five main themes: challenging or lacking social connections, impaired cognitive functions, negative self-perception, impaired personal functioning, and insufficient social security. The barriers identified are interrelated in a cluster of cognitive, socioemotional, and functional impairments, leading to a severe and diverse complex of barriers to social participation. Social participation relies on people's capability to use their present social opportunities. Promoting basic human functioning is key to promoting social participation among people with MHDs and SUDs. The findings in this study indicate a need to address cognitive functioning, socioemotional learning, instrumental skills, and complex social functions to meet the complexity and diversity of the identified barriers to social functioning in our target group. Virtual reality-based interventions for promoting social participation should be sequenced into distinct scenarios dedicated to specific learning goals to build complex learning in a step-by-step process based on successively more complex levels of human and social functioning.

Disability, Human Rights and Vulnerability in Linda McLean’s Any Given Day

Linda McLean’s Any Given Day (2010) delineates the act of violence inflicted on the characters with learning disability by touching on its physical, emotional, and psychological impacts. The violence directed at disabled characters is motivated by social alienation, which renders disabled characters vulnerable and fragile, as well as a lack of responsibility and care. The incidence of violence reveals the complex facets of the relationship between the abled and the disabled in a particular cultural arena where preconceived notions of the body operate to determine their social interactions, their experiences of their bodily impairment, and the distribution of health care and justice. This essay, therefore, aims to analyze McLean’s play in the context of debates concerning disability violence, human rights, and vulnerability, and what abuses of disability rights speak about the social and cultural margins that place disabled individuals in a vulnerable and powerless position. Furthermore, it examines the ways violations of disability rights reveal the insufficiency of care and lack of social responsibility which hugely affect how disabled characters experience an embodied life.

The legacy of afrophobia and white supremacy in the plight of African migrants in South Africa

A state of disaster, is, by definition, aimed at addressing widespread natural and/or public health issues faced by society and although the COVID-19 pandemic has instigated a worldwide state of disaster, it cannot be said that the effects thereof have been equally felt throughout the world, particularly within South Africa. Singularly, the plight of African migrants has worsened with many of them facing various human rights violations through increased social marginalisation and political exclusions. The marginalisation of African migrants in particular also brings to attention the different manifestations of Afrophobia and how this has led to the territorial exclusion of African migrants. This article seeks to discuss the parallels between the plight of African migrants in South Africa and the manifested ideologies of Afrophobia and White supremacy and proposes transformative constitutionalism and structural reform as remedies to the prevailing issues faced by African migrants in South Africa.

Environmental governance of butiazais (Butia catarinensis) on the south coast of Brazil

Butiazais are palm groves of the Butia genus. Traditional communities in the states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul (Southern Brazil) use their fruits and leaves for in natura consumption, processing, and handicrafts. We analyzed the environmental governance of palm groves of Butia catarinensis, an “Endangered” small palm tree endemic to the Restinga, as a Socio-ecological System (SES). We collected data by conducting (i) a legal document survey, (ii) 64 semi-structured interviews with protectors, extractivists, and butiá traders, and (iii) direct observation of instant messages over an application in butiá protection groups. Butiá extraction is the only income for 45% of the respondents in the extractivists or traders category, and supplementary income for 55%. The initiatives to protect the butiá palm groves are disintegrating, and almost 90% of the extractivists are unaware of them, reinforcing their social marginalization. Even though most of the respondents (54%) are optimistic regarding the future of the butiá palm groves, we identified the following threats: fires, urbanization, increased extractivism, monocultures of exotic species (such as eucalyptus), and logging of specimens. The regional planning of ecological corridors of butiá palm groves through the creation of municipal protected areas is the main strategic action to increase the governance of the butiá palm groves’ SES.

Does gender moderate the association between socioeconomic status and health? Results from an observational study in persons with spinal cord injury living in Morocco.

Socioeconomic status (SES) and gender are well-known social determinants of health. However, their impact on health in populations with physical disabilities in low-resource countries is still lacking. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate associations of individual SES with health and the moderating effect of gender on this association in a Moroccan population with a physical disability, namely spinal cord injury. Cross-sectional survey data from 385 participants with spinal cord injury living in Morocco were analyzed. SES was operationalized by education level, household income, financial hardship, and subjective social status. Health indicators included secondary conditions, pain, vitality, quality of life, and general health. Associations between SES and health indicators were investigated using linear and logistic regressions. To test the potential moderation of gender, interaction terms between SES and gender were introduced in regression models. Financial hardship and lower subjective social status were associated with poorer health outcomes in four out of five indicators in the total sample. In contrast, education and income were inconsistently associated with health. Overall, gender did not moderate the association between SES and health, except that educational inequalities in general health were more pronounced in women, and the observation of a trend for a stronger negative effect of subjective social status on men's than woman's health (p > 0.05). This study revealed that subjective indicators of SES negatively impact on health, whereas evidence for the moderating role of gender in this association was weak. These findings underline the importance to reduce social marginalization and poverty in populations with disabilities in low-resource countries to reduce their double burden of living with a disability and encountering social disadvantages through low SES.

Training Educators to Foster Inclusion and Resilience: Lessons From Ukraine

The implementation and development of inclusive education are one of the goals of Ukraine’s educational reform, thus training and professional development of teachers involves building skills to teach students with special educational needs and disabilities in inclusive settings. Over the past five years, there has been a significant increase in the enrollment numbers of students with special educational needs, so the quality training of educators with the understanding and capacity to organize a safe and inclusive learning environment should be a priority of education policy. The paper analyses the consequences of the military invasion of the Russian Federation and the humanitarian crisis it caused that deteriorate and disrupt educational services for all categories of students, including those with disabilities. Still, notwithstanding air raids, targeting civilian infrastructure, war crimes, violations of basic human rights, and forced migration, the Ukrainian state and its educational system display signs of resilience. It is highlighted that being a result and a process of positive adaptation to adverse circumstances, resilience should be studied in the context of resistance and vitality of Ukrainian society during the war and post-war recovery. It is found that diverse reactions to stressful and traumatizing factors can be determined and caused by multiple dynamic interactions at the personal and systemic levels. Psychological resilience as the ability to resist a traumatic impact may vary individually; however, it can be effectively developed within the socio-ecological system framework. Its application involves understanding that the development is influenced by a combination of interactions at the micro-, meso-, exo-, macro-, and chrono-system levels. Thus, teacher training in universities and colleges, being conducted at the organizational system level, can build individual resilience and, consequently develop community, society, national and global resilience at the present and in the future.
 It is emphasized that developed individual resilience can eliminate the appearance of behavioral and mental disorders (ADHD, PTSD, anxiety syndrome, deviant behavior) in children and social marginalization, aggression, and mental disorders in adults who were exposed to traumatic war events. Thus, it is important to analyze resilience at all levels during the acute phase of the conflict and to develop mechanisms for the development of individual and national resilience in the post-war period. The paper presents the findings of the inclusion and resilience awareness survey among pre-service teachers. The hypothesis has been proposed that the application of inclusive practices contributes to building resilience and enforces national resistance to aggression. The author substantiates the introduction of narrative speech, art and performance techniques, inclusive community leadership, and building soft skills in the professional training of educators. The ideas and practices of including persons with disabilities, veterans and those affected by the war should be applied while developing models of assessment, monitoring, and building resilience. Thus, teacher training can provide invaluable resources for an inclusive and resilient society.

Examining the correlation between sexual and reproductive health stigmatization level and gender perception: a case of a university in Turkey - a descriptive cross-sectional study.

Stigmatization, which emerges depending on the sexual behavior of young individuals, leads to negative health and social outcomes, such as shame, social marginalization, violence, and mental health morbidity. This study aimed to examine the correlation between the level of sexual and reproductive health stigma and gender perception in female university students. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at the Faculty of Health Sciences of a university in Turkey. The data of this study were collected from digital media between July and October 2020 from a study population of 385 students. The data were collected using the Personal Information Form, including the socio-demographic characteristics of students, the Sexual and Reproductive Health Stigmatization Scale in Young Women and the Perception of Gender Scale. Descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test, analysis of variance, and Pearson's correlation test were used to assess the data. It was determined that there was a negative correlation between the Sexual and Reproductive Health Stigmatization Scale in Young Women and the Perception of Gender Scale (r = -0.173, P = 0.001). It was determined that as the gender perception in the young women who participated in the study increased, the sexual and reproductive health stigmatization level decreased. The sexual and reproductive health stigmatization levels of the participants were at an above average level, and gender perception was at a medium level.

Hypothetical analysis of mediating roles of cultural identity on drug problem control in Nigeria: Managerial and policy implications for stakeholders

Illegal narcotic drugs flow from different hidden sources within and outside a territory. Over the years, national, regional and global organizations have documented a wide variety of drugs including cannabis, heroin, pharmaceutical opioids, cocaine, tranquilizers and sedatives, amphetamines, methamphetamine, ecstasy, hallucinogens, solvents and inhalants, and cough syrups as being commonly misused. Literature is equally replete with several studies on how stakeholders are addressing the challenge with mixed outcomes. This study joins the conversation by investigating the mediating roles of severe personal and social marginalization as well as economic and educational inequalities on drug problem control in Nigeria. A Hypothetical approach, with the adoption of system dynamics and quantum-like model as research methods, was employed for the examination of the relationship between these cultural identities and drug problem control. The findings provide valuable insights for policymakers, practitioners, and other stakeholders working to address the issue of drug abuse in Nigeria, and contribute to the broader understanding of the complex dynamics of drug problem control in the context of cultural identity theory of drug abuse.

PLATFORMS AND THE PRECARITY OF CREATOR (IN)VISIBILITY

This panel examines the tension between visibility and invisibility in the platform-creator relationship with a focus on highly precarious areas of cultural production, including online sex workers, body activists, and LGBTQ+ content creators. Together, the panelists consider: what kinds of creators are made visible on platforms? Conversely, who remains invisible? How do platforms and their algorithms afford (in)visibility to marginalized and stigmatized creators? How do these groups resist top-down (in)visibility regimes? Finally, how do such (in)visibility regimes challenge or reaffirm other forms of social marginalization? Primarily drawing on interviews with creators on a variety of social media and webcam sex platforms, the panelists examine the complex dynamic between visibility and invisibility. The first paper studies the role of algorithmic labor and capital in the wider hierarchies that structure the contemporary creator economy. In turn, the second paper further develops this inquiry, studying how people of size grapple with their datafied presence and develop strategies for safely navigating algorithmically mediated hyper(in)visibility. The third paper focuses on performers on webcam sex platforms, showing how these performers engage with visibility beyond that provided by platform algorithms, while simultaneously seeking invisibility, where possible. Finally, the fourth paper—drawing on an interface analysis of 50 high-traffic webcam sex platforms—analyzes the information and affordances available to performers. Taken together, the panelists show how platforms shape the kinds of (in)visibility afforded to precarious laborers, while also showing how they seek to resist this erasure and challenge the vulnerabilities of being “seen.”

Social support and marginalization as determinants of prenatal care in women with social security in Mexico

Social support and marginalization as determinants of prenatal care in women with social security in Mexico

Tactical strangers: Mobility, trade, and gendered strangerhood in West Africa

AbstractMande women in West Africa unable or unwilling to conform to patriarchal gender expectations risk being evicted from social and kinship support structures. Some nonconformist women from Mali respond to this predicament by engaging in tactical strangerhood: they choose to remain on the social margins, capitalizing on their situation as strangers by working as foreign traders in Dakar (Senegal). Tactical strangerhood entails only partial inclusion into patriarchal family and social structures and constitutes one of the nonconformist ways in which women in West Africa enact gender roles. Long‐distance trade and travel by Mande women have led to new forms of gendered strangerhood, challenging—and potentially transforming—dominant ideologies of gender differentiation in this part of West Africa. By engaging in tactical strangerhood, women develop new forms of gendered subjectivity. Tactical strangerhood can therefore be considered an implicitly feminist and emancipatory exercise.

Pandemic distress associated with segregation and social stressors.

Racial/ethnic minorities are disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as they are more likely to experience structural and interpersonal racial discrimination, and thus social marginalization. Based on this, we tested for associations between pandemic distress outcomes and four exposures: racial segregation, coronavirus-related racial bias, social status, and social support. Data were collected as part of a larger longitudinal national study on mental health during the pandemic (n = 1,309). We tested if county-level segregation and individual-level social status, social support, and coronavirus racial bias were associated with pandemic distress using cumulative ordinal regression models, both unadjusted and adjusted for covariates (gender, age, education, and income). Both the segregation index (PR = 1.19; 95% CI 1.03, 1.36) and the coronavirus racial bias scale (PR = 1.17; 95% CI 1.06, 1.29) were significantly associated with pandemic distress. Estimates were similar, after adjusting for covariates, for both segregation (aPR = 1.15; 95% CI 1.01, 1.31) and coronavirus racial bias (PR = 1.12; 95% CI 1.02, 1.24). Higher social status (aPR = 0.74; 95% CI 0.64, 0.86) and social support (aPR = 0.81; 95% CI 0.73, 0.90) were associated with lower pandemic distress after adjustment. Segregation and coronavirus racial bias are relevant pandemic stressors, and thus have implications for minority health. Future research exploring potential mechanisms of this relationship, including specific forms of racial discrimination related to pandemic distress and implications for social justice efforts, are recommended.

Identify Critical Factors for Adopting Modern Technology: A Case Study of Gujrat

Modern methods of construction (MMC) are advised in order to address the incertitude that construction frequently presents to clients and contractors. For instance, consider time, faults, safety, environmental impact, costs, income, and lifecycle performance. But does MMC really make these doubts lessen? Additionally, MMC include intrinsic hazards from the previous century, such as substandard quality and social marginalization, and alter the frames of reference of stakeholders. Instead of reducing ambiguity, MMC can make it worse. In addition to institutional reports from India and the UK and recent research from the best construction management periodicals, these problems are explored in this thesis. The properties of MMC are assessed in terms of their ability to reduce the inherent uncertainties of traditional construction. uncertainty, affecting both clients and contractors. Conclusions drawn from the review indicate that, when completely implemented, the industrialized construction process does reduce uncertainty by being more predictable in terms of time schedules, prices, and working conditions. Keywords: Barriers, Construction Method, Highrise building, innovation, Modern method

Low Job Market Integration of Skilled Immigrants in Canada: The Implication for Social Integration and Mental Well-Being

Skilled immigrants are critical assets to the social and economic dynamism of Canada. However, they are less likely to find employment matching their skillset due to a lack of inclusive post-immigration professional integration policies and support. They generally earn less and often live below the low-income cutoff relative to their Canadian-born counterparts. This paper aims to review the current situation of low job market integration (LJMI) of skilled immigrants in Canada and its implications on their social integration and mental well-being. Skilled immigrants continue to face disparities in getting desired jobs, despite having sufficient skills and credentials similar if not superior to that of Canadian-borns. Based on the existing literature, this study demonstrates that low job market integration limits skilled immigrants’ productivity, and they experience a lower level of social integration and deteriorated mental well-being. Therefore, initiatives from multidisciplinary and multisector stakeholders are necessary to improve skilled immigrants’ mental well-being by providing equal opportunities devoid of social exclusion and marginalization.

Entangled Impurities in Contemporary Sindh: Some Evidence from Law and Bureaucracy

Abstract This article lays out a framework for conceptualizing how religious differences and hierarchical, hereditary inequality consolidate in contemporary Sindh. I argue that the terms Hindu, Dalit, and hari are often conflated due to their entangled trajectories. Addressing this conflation sheds light on how structural inequality and discrimination function in Sindh. The article begins by focusing on a government document that limits potential applicants for a sanitation job to “non-Muslims.” Next, it explores how the religious category of Hindu has become, over time, susceptible to ritual stigmas, social marginalization, caste oppression, and hierarchization. Last, it addresses a legal judgment that hinges on recognizing caste inequality but cannot say so. Analysis of the decision reveals how the entanglement of Hindu, Dalit, and hari legal categories produces certain citizen-subjects as perpetual legal minors requiring the state’s paternalistic protection. Throughout, the article illustrates how the production of multiple hierarchies in the social fabric of Sindh and Pakistan broadly operates through the deployment of caste stigma as a public secret.