Social Marginalization Research Articles

As vagas do Espírito na História da Igreja

Viewed in the long-term perspective, the pentecostal upsurge in Western Christianity is nothing new. It is just another wave of the agitated history of Christianity in which, from time to time and in different ways, it makes itself present. Starting with Montanism in the first millennium and passing through Joaquim de Fiore and the Franciscan spirituals in the Middle Ages until reaching, at the beginning of modernity, Thomaz Müntzer and, in recent modernity, the modern pentecostalism, the text presents a brief overview of the christian groups that centered their experience of faith in the person of the Holy Spirit. In addition to the external phenomena of glossolalia, ecstasies, healings and the casting out of demons, there are some common characteristics: the irruption in times of crisis; social and ecclesial marginality; the desire to return to the sources of Christianity; the radicalism in the Christian experience and the wait for the end of history. The conclusion is that, as a legitimate expression of the christian faith, pentecostalism will remain alive and present in the future of Christianity.

Geographies of marketization: Studying markets in postneoliberal times

This paper is as an invitation to rethink social studies of economization and geographies of marketization at a time when the heydays of neoliberal marketization seem to be over. After briefly summarizing the thrust of the economization/marketization approach, we make two suggestions to develop the perspective further. The first is to make use of economic geography’s heterodox tradition and contribute to the ongoing “provincialization” of the neoclassical market. Second, theorizing actually existing market arrangements as necessarily involving struggles between competing logics and rationalities, we open social studies of economization and geographies of marketization for questions of social inequality, marginalization and exclusion.

THE ROLE OF SYSTEMIC INFLAMMATION IN HEALTH NOW, LATER, AND CHANGE OVER TIME: EVIDENCE FROM MIDUS

Abstract Systemic inflammation is theorized to be a biological pathway through which chronic stressors (e.g., discrimination, social marginalization) contribute to adverse health outcomes and disparities among older adults. Cross sectional research documents associations between inflammation and a broad array of health outcomes. Less is known about whether and how inflammation may influence health longitudinally. This study investigated whether a composite measure of inflammatory burden predicted physical health: a) concurrently, b) approximately 7 years later, and c) changes during that time. Data derive the National Survey of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) participants who provided inflammatory biomarker data (2004-2009 Biomarker study) and health data in MIDUS 2 (2004-2006) and MIDUS 3 (2013-2014) (N=931, Mage 57, 45% male, 91% White). Inflammatory burden reflected the number of inflammatory biomarkers in the highest risk quartile, out of five: C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, fibrinogen, E-selectin, and intracellular adhesion molecule. Three general indicators of physical health were examined: number of commonplace chronic physical health conditions, out of 7; functional limitations; and self-rated physical health. Multivariate regression analyses indicated that inflammatory burden predicted all three concurrent physical health outcomes and the same health outcomes seven years later (p-values <.02). Inflammatory burden was unrelated to changes in these outcomes over time. This study adds to the literature on stress-related biological mechanisms of health and identifies a potential clinical indicator of enduring health problems. It also suggests that while inflammatory burden may demonstrate consistent relationships with physical health over time, other mechanisms may account for health changes and deterioration.

SYSTEMATIC EXCLUSION AT STUDY COMMENCEMENT MASKS EARLIER MENOPAUSE FOR BLACK WOMEN IN THE STUDY OF WOMEN’S HEALTH ACROSS THE NATION (SWAN)

Abstract Assumptions regarding “normative” aging, including average age at onset of disease, are often based on White populations. However, evidence suggests that Black and Hispanic populations may experience “weathering” or accelerated health declines compared to Whites due to the cumulative impact of social and economic marginalization. If “weathering” leads to a differential probability of inclusion into a cohort study, it will likely misinform understanding of aging in minoritized populations. Using SWAN, a longitudinal multi-ethnic cohort of midlife women, and its cross-sectional screening study, we quantified the extent of potential selection bias at study commencement and re-estimated racial/ethnic differences in age at menopause, the main outcome of SWAN, with adjustment for various forms of potential selection bias. Left truncation was corrected for using inverse probability weighting and right censoring using multiple imputation. Two selection mechanisms were identified, eligibility and participation. Black and Hispanic women had the lowest probability of eligibility stemming from a high prevalence of surgical menopause. Their eligibility rates decreased with increasing age faster than in White women. Correcting for selection biases showed that uncorrected analyses overestimated of the median age of menopause in Black and Hispanic women, thereby underestimating racial/ethnic disparities. After adjustment, Black women had earlier natural and surgical menopause (average 1.2 years) versus White women. Overall, this study found that failure to account for different forms of selection can lead to mis-estimation of racial/ethnic disparities in health and aging. Selection bias is particularly acute at study commencement, and particularly affects minoritized populations.

Resistance and Identity: A Postcolonial Feminist Study of Ismat Chughtai’s Fiction

Postcolonial feminism has streamed out from the mainstream feminism in the latter half of the 20th century. It is a critique too and the reaction against the mainstream feminism. Postcolonial feminism deals with the social, political and economic marginalization of the third world women which has been overlooked and subsided by the European or mainstream Feminism. It disseminates the struggles and resistance of the “doubly marginalized” woman of the colonized nations. The postcolonial female writer believes that the feminist (mainstream) narratives have failed to bring the overall issues of third world women in their discourse. The woman, according to them does not share the common identity globally and there is a deep sense of dissatisfaction among them with patriarchy, colonization, and also with the mainstream feministic narratives. Postcolonial feminism seeks to address colonial oppression and turns down the idea of ‘global sisterhood’ as propagated by Western feminism. Whenever one talks about the feminism or post colonialism, they restrict themselves either to the unfair treatment of patriarchal forces in the western and the oppression of the imperial powers. Further they never paid attention to the ground realities of race, ethnicity, coercion, and intimidation of postcolonial cum patriarchal culture of downtrodden and less educated women of underdeveloped nations. The major concern of this paper is to look into Ismat Chughati’s works in the lens postcolonial feminist. And an attempt to deconstruct the patriarchal culture by looking the socio- political and economic conditions of the women and by reconstructing the lost identity of third world women in her work.

On the way to visibility: the process of creating a cultural memory of the genocide of the Lithuanian Roma

ABSTRACT In this article, we investigate the process of transformation of the Lithuanian Roma genocide in the cultural memory over more than twenty years since the restoration of independence. For many years, the Roma genocide has been ‘an invisible’ part of Lithuanian history, contributing to social, cultural, and historical marginalization of the Roma. We trace how the memory of the genocide is being gradually included into the public discourse, and how it is commemorated in the public spaces. We divide transformation of communicative memory into cultural memory into two periods: the ‘initial period’ (1998–2014); and the ‘period of intensification’ (2015–present) that could be characterized by the type and intensity of undertaken activities, visibility of the commemoration efforts, engagement and type of agents involved, and general socio-political context.

Attitude Toward Lobola in Remarriage Following Divorce in African Communities

AbstractLobola is central to the process of marriage in many African communities. It is an old tradition that historically entailed a gift from the bridegroom’s family to the bride’s family. In some African societies, determinants of lobola include a range of factors, such as the bride’s educational, financial, and social status, the bride’s age, number of children and whether the bride has had any history of divorce. However, attitude toward remarriage and payment of lobola to a divorced woman is often characterized by skepticism. In most instances, the worth of pride price to be paid to the divorced woman’s family is often devalued, decreased, deemed unacceptable, and frowned upon, while male divorcees do not face such prejudices. Overtly or covertly, the social conviction seems to be that there should not be payment of lobola in remarriage after divorce. Consequently, the decision to remarry postdivorce remains particularly difficult for most Black African women due to the stigma attached to divorce. In contrast, men still enjoy the right to divorce and remarry with little or no prejudice. Using bargaining theory, this article examines the body of literature on cultural attitudes toward the payment of lobola following divorce in South Africa. The article argues that the payment of lobola is fundamentally patriarchal and perpetuates most of the social tribulations and marginalization practices against women.

The beginner’s odyssey: ethics, participant observation and its challenges in native ethnography

Classic anthropological fieldwork emphasized working „abroad‟ – that is, doing fieldwork in societies that were culturally and geographically distant from that of the ethnographer. More recent discussions of anthropological fieldwork have drawn attention to significance of working „at home‟ – including paying attention to the forms of social differentiation and marginalization present in the society to which the ethnographer belongs. There are arguments that native anthropologists are better qualified to study issues involving their group than outsiders are. This paper discusses the researcher’s field experience conducting native ethnography among the Nrobo of Southeastern Nigeria. This study adopted ethnographic methods of participant observation – adopting chitchatting and semi-structured interviews. Also, focus group discussion (FGD) was used to cross-check the validity of data from the other instrument. This study found among other things, that conducting native ethnography is a challenge to the ethnographer. The mutual intelligibility does not guarantee quick rapport instead it sets up suspicion. Furthermore, ethical issues in ethnographic research are culturally relative. The Nrobo case stipulates time value and as such reward is expected for every task that takes up their time. Also security threat poses challenges to native ethnography. This study, to the best of my knowledge, is the first attempt to conducting native ethnography among this group. As such it adds to the corpus of ethnographies on the Igbo of Southeastern Nigeria.

Annemarie Sorescu-Marinković, Thede Kahl, and Biljana Sikimić, eds. Boyash Studies: Researching “Our People”

Annemarie Sorescu-Marinković, Thede Kahl, and Biljana Sikimić, eds. <i>Boyash Studies: Researching “Our People”</i>

An archetypal approach to treating combat post-traumatic stress disorder

Jungian model of psychotherapeutic work with veterans is presented. Universal – archetypal – topics evident in the traditions of many warrior cultures are singled out: acceptance of one’s destiny as a warrior, making peace with the dead or killed, restoration of honour to the enemy, etc.; moral and spiritual traumas of war are discussed. A relatively low value of emotional catharsis in the clinical perspective of trauma is stressed – together with the importance of witnessing the experience of trauma from the side of a non-joudgmental and devoted person. Concentration on a mere eradication of a symptom is shown as a reductionist attidude of a professional and such that is experienced as disrespectful and immoral from the side of a veteran. The task of a health care professional is described as acceptance of a «shadow» side of a warrior’s drives, of the reality of evil and destruction but beyond the context of epistemologic or psychiatric frames. Meanwhile, being diagnosed with PTSD leads, in the author’s opinion, to social marginalization of a veteran together with civil society impotence as «a psychic disease» is to be treated by health care professionals. Posttraumatic symptoms are viewed in the context of a psychic function that they can play as well as a call to «the warrior’s path», a moral and spiritual journey of a veteran to a deepened and more engaged life. Following Jung, the author offers to use the experience of individuation that includes psychological spaciousness, self-acceptance, greater responsibility for their conduct, and a meaningful position in the wider society. The understandable, but misguided strategy evident in the western society to adoin discussions about war is highlighted. The author warns that undivided traumatic experience may influence the warrior indirectly causing intergenerational breakdown and persistent dissociated trauma.

A Case Study on the Impact of Digital Relationships on Unaccompanied Minors during the COVID-19 Lockdown

The exploratory study investigates how unaccompanied minors (UAMs) in Italy dealt with social isolation at the time of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Have they suffered from the effects of the lockdown? How did their relationships change? What feelings characterised their experience? What factors helped them? Did ICT help them, or did it increase their social and economic marginalisation? Very little research has investigated the issues of UAMs, socialisation, technologies, and pandemics together. The data were collected through a purpose-built questionnaire that obtained an excellent Cronbach Alpha index (0.91) for internal consistency, which was administered to the migrant students of a school in North-East Italy. The answers indicated that they perceived the change in their social relations; but they coped with it, thanks to their internal resources, such as resilience and self-efficacy, and external ones, including digital devices and social support from family and teachers. Their friendship networks are regrettably fragile, and the youths do not rely much on them. On the other hand, the results show the crucial role of adults for the UAMs’ well-being: everyone, from the developers of policies to teachers, should take this aspect into account. Providing teenagers with appropriate communication technologies, ensuring the support of caregivers and teachers, and organising activities that strengthen peer networks are the actions of paramount importance, to ensure their welfare.

The Formation of "Half the Sky" of Catholicism in the Ming-Qing Dynasties and Its Religious Space: Take Candida Xu as Center

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Catholicism spread from foreign countries to China. Missionaries conformed to women’s role of "Social Marginality" at that time and adopted adaptive women's group missionary strategy, which provided suitable soil and favorable conditions for the formation of "Half the Sky" phenomenon of female believers. With further investigation, it is found that female believers are the main basis for the prosperity and sustainable development of the "Half the Sky" phenomenon, which is closely related to the special religious space that ancient women had under the positioning of "Social Marginality". Among the female believers in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the most exemplary character is "Female Pillar" Candida Xu, who is well-known in both China and the West. Her historical records are the most comprehensive and detailed, making up for the collective "Aphasia" of female believers in the Ming and Qing Dynasties to a certain extent. Candida Xu made full use of her different kind of free religious activity space, built a women's religious network with herself as the axis, and promoted the establishment of a sizable nursery for girls, which became a key part and an important support of "Half the Sky", and finally made outstanding contributions to the formation of "Half the Sky" of Catholicism in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the expansion of its religious space.

“I’m Gay With an Asterisk”: How Intersecting Identities Influence LGBT Strengths

ABSTRACT Research attributes health disparities between sexual minority (those whose sexual orientation and/or practices differ from society, [SM]) and heterosexual populations to social marginalization. LGBT strengths (e.g., resiliency derived from LGBT identity) may reduce the impact of social marginalization. However, it is unclear how LGBT strengths are impacted by SMs’ other identities (e.g., racial/ethnic and/or gender). To address this knowledge gap, the present study examined data from the LGBT Stress/Strength project, a qualitative research study investigating minority stress and LGBT strengths in relation to drinking. Participants (N = 22) were self-identified SMs in the northeastern U.S. Transcripts from in-depth interviews were coded using thematic analysis. Participants reported social support from other SMs and empathy toward others were forms of LGBT strength. Sampled SMs assigned female at birth had more intergenerational friendships and relied more on social support than those assigned male at birth. In addition, Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) participants described social marginalization from within the LGBT community, which reduced their reliance on social support. Our results suggest that LGBT strengths are influenced by LGBT community members intersecting identities. More research can expand upon these results by investigating how the confluence of SMs identities and LGBT strengths impact health disparities.

Representations of disaster victimhood: Framing suffering and loss after the 1934 Bihar-Nepal earthquake

AbstractThis article seeks to address a thematic thread that remains relatively unexplored in historical disaster research—victimhood—through an analysis of publications by disaster relief funds and their supporters in the aftermath of the 1934 earthquake in Bihar in northern India. By examining the representations of victimhood, I aim to explore the historical significance of perceptions and constructions of victimhood in the late colonial period. Based on photographs, illustrations, and descriptions of suffering in images and texts, the article suggests that constructions of victimhood effectively relied on imagery that contained, on the one hand, an absence of bodies and, on the other, a feminized anthropomorphization of suffering. The narratives underlying such depictions of earthquake victims are based on a constitution of victimhood that relied on contemporary historical and culturally founded imageries. The analysis of images and texts focuses on how representations of disaster victims were effective in communicating suffering to audiences. I tentatively argue that historically and culturally founded tropes of what constituted a victim formed along two narratives of victimhood that appealed to a colonial and a nationalist readership respectively. These conceptualizations of victimhood formed the basis for collecting aid for relief and reconstruction, rather than the loss of life, dispossession, social marginalization, and displacement suffered by victims of the earthquake.

Aljamiado retellings of the Hebrew Bible

Stories from the Hebrew Bible were popular among the Iberian Peninsula’s Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Beginning in the fourteenth century, Muslims and Moriscos retold these stories in Aljamiado texts in Spanish or Aragonese written in Arabic characters. These fictionalised retellings drew on vernacular language and literary forms common to Christians and Muslims, and are a lens through which to study the cultural life of late Spanish Islam in its negotiation with the dominant Christian culture. The vernacular language and culture shared by Moriscos and Christians was a powerful medium for creating fictional Biblical storyworlds, mental models of the reality represented by the Biblical narratives. These retellings both exalt Islamic beliefs, traditions, rituals, and doctrines in the face of social marginalization and persecution, while at the same time validating their experience as speakers of Spanish and Aragonese and as participants in a vernacular culture shared between Moriscos and Christians.

Gender, mobility, and Socio-Economic differences among Arab communities in Jordan and Israel

Mobility is a multifaceted phenomenon intertwined with the allocation of material and social resources in modern societies. Studies conducted in Western contexts have linked limited mobility to other forms of social marginalization, often based on class and gender divisions. However, little is known about gender factors shaping mobility patterns in non-Western contexts, especially the Arab world. I investigate this issue in a Jordanian community (n = 200) and compare the results to three Arab communities in Israel (n = 300). These communities share a language and culture but have developed in different institutional contexts. The results show that men are more mobile than women in both countries, but the nature of gendered differences and their magnitude varies. Israeli-Arab women are more likely to shop than their male counterparts, but this pattern is reversed in Jordan. Jordanian women are more educated than Israeli women but are less likely to work. Therefore, demographic and socio-economic factors have a significant effect on the diversity of daily activity patterns; nonetheless, these variables are not sufficient to explain these gender disparities. Thus, effective policy interventions must be considered. Increasing job opportunities within the towns along with efficient PT may be considered more appropriate for women from a normative perspective but at the same time might allow women to maintain their traditional household chores.

Study Selection Bias and Racial or Ethnic Disparities in Estimated Age at Onset of Cardiometabolic Disease Among Midlife Women in the US

Racial disparities in cardiometabolic health are consistently observed in cohort studies. However, most studies neither evaluate differences in age at onset nor account for systematic exclusion stemming from "weathering" (accelerated health declines for minoritized groups due to structural social and economic marginalization). To evaluate racial or ethnic disparities in age at onset of 4 cardiometabolic outcomes (hypertension, isolated systolic hypertension [ISH], insulin resistance [IR], and diabetes), accounting for multiple forms of potential selection bias. This cohort study used data from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation longitudinal cohort (1995-2016) and a cross-sectional screening sample (1995-1997). Data were analyzed from July 2019 to October 2021. Participants were eligible for the cohort if they were aged 42 to 52 years, had not received hormone therapy in the past 3 months, were not pregnant, had an intact uterus and at least 1 ovary, and were premenopausal or early perimenopausal (most recent menses ≤3 months). Self-reported racial or ethnic group (Black, Chinese, Hispanic, Japanese, or White). The main outcomes were hypertension (systolic blood pressure [BP] ≥140 mm Hg and diastolic BP ≥90 mm Hg or use of antihypertensive medication), ISH (systolic BP ≥140 mm Hg and diastolic BP <90 mm Hg or use of antihypertensive medication), IR (homeostasis model assessment for IR value >5.9 or insulin use), and diabetes (fasting serum glucose level ≥126 mg/dL [to convert to mmol/L, multiply by 0.0555], use of insulin or oral antidiabetic medication, or physician diagnosis). Selection into the cohort was addressed via inverse probability weighting and interval-censored survival models and selection out via multiple imputation. Accelerated failure time models were used to examine racial or ethnic differences in age at disease onset and estimate the median age at onset. A total of 3302 women were included in the study, with a median age of 46.2 years (range, 42-52 years) at baseline. In the sample, 42.6% had a bachelor's degree or higher and 36.3% self-rated their health as "very good" at baseline; 23.9% had hypertension, 43.7% had ISH, 13.5% had IR, and 4.6% had diabetes at baseline. Hypertension occurred a median of 5.0 years (95% CI, 5.4-5.5 years) earlier and metabolic outcomes (diabetes and IR) a median of 11.3 years (95% CI, 9.7-12.9 years) earlier for Black and Hispanic women vs White women; ISH occurred a median of 7.7 years (95% CI, 7.3-8.1 years) earlier for Black women vs White women. Adjustment for selection was associated with a mean 20-year decrease in estimated median age at onset, with greater decreases among Black and Hispanic women. In this multiracial cohort of midlife women, failure to account for selection biases, especially at study onset, was associated with falsely high estimates of age at cardiometabolic onset, with greater misestimation among Black and Hispanic women. The results suggest that hypertension and metabolic interventions, particularly for Black and Hispanic women, should be targeted to women aged as young as 30 years for hypertension and 40 years for metabolic interventions. Considering the timing of disease and fully addressing inherent selection biases in research are critical to understanding aging and disease risk, especially for racial and ethnic minoritized populations.

Balancing Consistency and Flexibility: Challenges and Opportunities in Conducting a Cross-Country Longitudinal Study with Youth Participants in Work-Integration Social Enterprises

Longitudinal studies conducted within the social economy have the potential to provide useful insights by tracing participant experiences and illuminating long-term outcomes of program interventions. However, longitudinal studies are challenging, not only due to retention of participants, but also when a longitudinal study covers a broad geographic area. The authors collaborated in a five-year pan-Canadian longitudinal study following youth participants in work-integration social enterprise (WISE) training programs. This article traces the experiences of study teams in Ontario and Greater Vancouver, providing accounts of the approaches and challenges encountered when working in geographically and socio-economically diverse locales over time with youth participants facing social marginalization. This article highlights three aspects of data collection—recruitment, retention, and research methods and logistics—offering insights into how each team devised its own strategies to fit with local circumstances while maintaining consistency across research sites.

Inclusion and exclusion in later life learning

ABSTRACT The concept and practices associated with learning in later life provide a broad context for understanding the articles published in the IJLE. The main aim of this review is to identify dominant aspects in discourses on older learners in the IJLE and how they have changed over the decades. Hence, we identify and briefly discuss historical trends in the lifelong learning/education literature before focusing on emergent themes from IJLE articles from 1982 to 2020. In the first part, we present an overview on the development of research on later life learning to provide a historical frame for the contributions dedicated to that topic. In comparison with the international development of research on later life learning, this topic has been somewhat delayed in the IJLE. Selected articles are discussed in the second section to illustrate and analyse the different approaches to learning in later life, as represented in the IJLE. The analysis shows that aspects of inclusion and exclusion – social marginalisation, exclusion from paid work, health resources, digitisation – are very central in many contributions. Thus, we identify different aspects of inclusion and exclusion in later life and discuss the role of education and learning in this context within the IJLE contributions.

What makes Chinese rural migrants self-employed: a qualitative perspective

This study scrutinizes the causes, configuration, and consequences of rural migrants’ motivations for becoming self-employed. It aims to solve two main problems in the current literature. The first is that previous studies primarily explain migrants’ self-employment through economic variables when other factors (e.g., autonomy, meaningfulness, and work environment) might be more important. Second, no study has been conducted to qualitatively understand migrants’ self-employment outcomes. By drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with rural-to-urban migrant workers conducted in four regions of China, this article provides insights into the pecuniary and nonpecuniary motivations of rural migrants’ employment decisions. Notably, it finds that most rural migrant workers in wage employment sectors are not in a position to exercise free choice regarding their working arrangements. In contrast, the prospect of achieving a higher level of income, greater autonomy, and more flexibility and freedom is important and attractive aspects of self-employment, with apparent gender differences. Nevertheless, migrants’ self-employment often involves self-sacrifice and economic and social marginalization. Therefore, it is unlikely that migrants select self-employment as an effective means for status acquisition.