Social Privilege Research Articles

Confronting and (Re)constructing “Conquest Culture” in Outdoor Adventure: A Critical Analysis of #Microadventure Content on Facebook and Instagram

Underpinned by Romantic wilderness ideals and American settler colonialism, recurring themes of “conquest culture” in outdoor adventure—social privilege, individualism, and exploitation—are carried out on social media. This study explores how an emerging topic, microadventures, may reinforce or resist these dominant discourses in outdoor adventure. Facebook and Instagram posts tagged “#microadventure” were collected and analyzed using a qualitative critical social media content analysis informed by Hall’s (1973) Theory of Encoding and Decoding. We found that half of the posts reinforced conquest culture, while the other half resisted. The discussion of our findings, framed as a critique of neoliberalism, seeks to interrogate, from a U.S. perspective, how conquest culture is perpetuated by representations of adventure across the global social media landscape. Our findings suggest the need to deconstruct market-driven, colonial tendencies in outdoor social media by (1) confronting dominant conquest discourses and (2) (re)constructing neoliberal tendencies in the outdoor field.

Language-in-Education Planning for Foreign Languages in Morocco: Analyzing the Historical and Structural Impacts of History, Social Class, Ideology, and Power Dynamics

The present paper analyzes language-in-education planning for foreign languages within the Moroccan educational system. These policies have been adopted and/or implemented as part of three successive educational reforms that the state has undergone in the last 25 years (e.g., the National Charter 1999, the Emergency Program 2008, and the Strategic Vision 2015). Despite the state’s advocacy for varying foreign language instruction, these policies have been marked by a consolidation of French instruction as a primary foreign language and a shift to using it as a medium of instruction for science and technology subjects in middle and secondary education as part of language alternation pedagogy. The study adopts Tollefson’s (1991) Historical-Structural Approach as a conceptual framework to analyze how the constructs of history, class structures, ideology, and power dynamics have influenced language-in-education planning to perpetuate the social, economic, and political privileges of a francophone-oriented elite. The latter have employed their economic and political power to influence the indecisive aspect of the language-in-education policies—both covertly and overtly—to increase socioeconomic inequalities and injustices, including linguistic disparities between the elite and lower social classes. This dominant position of French within the educational system has also been motivated by external influences, manifested in the heavy political and economic relationship with France, the former colonizer.

Intersectionality shapes the access to various adaptive resources in climate-vulnerable contexts

Abstract Intersectional approaches are becoming essential to understanding the differential impacts of climate change and the heterogeneity of adaptive capacities. Varying factors of social and economic privileges and inequalities synergistically shape the local power structure, ultimately determining disproportionality and unequal access to adaptive resources. Using empirical data from coastal Bangladesh, which is part of the Ganges Delta, and one of the world’s -most climate-vulnerable regions, this study shows how religion, gender, and ethnicity intersect with patterns in (i) farm and non-farm incomes, (ii) land conflicts, (iii) the size of farms, and (iv) access to critical sources of weather information. The study highlights that multilayered identity, which is shaped by various structural determinants, including local power structure, can determine gendered dimensions of access to various adaptation resources. It also shows that if policymakers and development partners partially understand or do not understand the complex landscape of local vulnerability or unequal power structures including the adaptive capacity of the vulnerable populations, they would not be able to provide critical support in times of crisis. The concept of intersectionality is therefore critical in addressing adaptation and risk management challenges for regions like the Ganges Delta and other parts of the world, where people are struggling with similar social and environmental challenges.

Reflecting (on) power?Critical reflections by healthworkers in Germany on racial power and privilege

Abstract Background Healthcare users have increasingly reported on experiences of racial discrimination in healthcare encounters in Germany (Aikins et al. 2020). While research on the experiences of racialised users predominates, examining the perspectives of white professionals, especially those holding positions of authority, regarding their internalised stereotypes and discriminatory practices is also crucial. This study therefore investigated the prevalence of conscious or unconscious biases related to critical whiteness and anti-racism among healthcare workers (doctors, nurses and therapists) and how these attitudes shaped their professional practice. Methods Problem-centred expert interviews (Döringer 2021) with 20 healthcare professionals from medicine, nursing, and therapeutic professions working in hospitals or rehabilitation facilities across three German federal states. Data were analysed using documentary method (Bohnsack 2002). Results Respondents exhibited varying degrees of reflective abilities, and there are limited opportunities for structured self-reflection focused on recognizing and addressing racism. The research interview constituted a much-needed space for such reflection. Those who are sensitised about their own positions of privilege often are so due to external influences and personal trajectories (teenaged children, trade union activism) rather than through the values or structures of their institutions. Unconscious racism nonetheless still manifests, demonstrating the need to create more inclusive environments where critical self-reflection on racism is encouraged. Conclusions To effectively combat racism, German healthcare institutions must systematically implement anti-racist and intersectional interventions. This also entails creating spaces for reflection where staff can openly examine and acknowledge their own biases, fostering an environment conducive to collective action for promoting anti-racist workplace practices. Key messages • Opportunities for self-reflection critical of racism should also be offered across institutions in order to ensure trusting, non-hierarchical spaces. • Reflections on one’s own social positioning and privileges are not common in all circles, so the necessity of this attitude should be communicated in an error-friendly manner.

Contested role boundaries and professional title: Implications of the independent review of podiatric surgery in Australia.

In October 2023, the Podiatry Board of Australia commissioned an independent review of the regulation of podiatric surgery in Australia, with a remit to re-evaluate the regulatory framework, identify any risks to patient safety and recommend improvements to public protection. It reported in March 2024 and set out 14 key recommendations. The review was prompted by a number of complaints about podiatric surgeons but also reflected calls for reform by the medical profession and several critical media reports. This paper sets out to examine the review report, alongside the concerns of the medical profession and the media articles expressed within it, through the lens of an established sociological framework focused on interprofessional conflict and the contested use of professional titles. As a review rather than the research paper, the Independent Review of Podiatric Surgery (the 'Paterson Report') served as data for the sociological analysis, adopting a Neo-Weberian and Bordieuan framework to examine the strategies adopted by the medical profession and media reports cited in the report, consistent with the exercise of professional power. The sociological analysis provides insights into the ways in which professions seek to maintain symbolic, social, cultural and economic privileges and rewards through the exclusion of competitors, using strategies such as social closure, symbolic violence, symbolic devaluation, gatekeeper roles, and jurisdictional disputes. The review report acknowledges the influence of the medical profession and its opposition to the practice of podiatric surgery and use of the title 'podiatric surgeon'. The arguments made and strategies deployed are consistent with those found in the wider literature. In light of these findings, the implications for the future of podiatric surgery are considered in terms of professional practice, use of professional title, and access to public funding.

Subverting oppressive structures: on kelinhood, solidarity and feminist research in the bazaars

ABSTRACT Feminist principles in research emphasize acknowledging differences to address power imbalances. Taken at face value, discussions on positionality tend to prioritize differences, often turning into mere declarations of the researcher’s social privilege. To counterbalance this tendency, I highlight the critical importance of also focusing on shared experiences between the researcher and research participants. Based on my feminist ethnographic fieldwork, this research note reflects on my positionality as an Uzbek musofir (migrant) kelin (daughter-in-law) conducting doctoral research on the lived experiences of women in Tashkent’s bazaars. It illustrates how my complex, intertwined identity as a locally raised and foreign-educated musofir kelin initially posed challenges in accessing the field and building trust with participants. Yet, it also highlights how, in addition to the shared experience of musofirchilik, the oppressive experience of kelinhood can be subverted to build solidarity and rapport with the women in the bazaars, transforming an oppressive experience into subversive solidarity.

Large language models, social demography, and hegemony: comparing authorship in human and synthetic text

Large language models have become popular over a short period of time because they can generate text that resembles human writing across various domains and tasks. The popularity and breadth of use also put this technology in the position to fundamentally reshape how written language is perceived and evaluated. It is also the case that spoken language has long played a role in maintaining power and hegemony in society, especially through ideas of social identity and “correct” forms of language. But as human communication becomes even more reliant on text and writing, it is important to understand how these processes might shift and who is more likely to see their writing styles reflected back at them through modern AI. We therefore ask the following question: who does generative AI write like? To answer this, we compare writing style features in over 150,000 college admissions essays submitted to a large public university system and an engineering program at an elite private university with a corpus of over 25,000 essays generated with GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 to the same writing prompts. We find that human-authored essays exhibit more variability across various individual writing style features (e.g., verb usage) than AI-generated essays. Overall, we find that the AI-generated essays are most similar to essays authored by students who are males with higher levels of social privilege. These findings demonstrate critical misalignments between human and AI authorship characteristics, which may affect the evaluation of writing and calls for research on control strategies to improve alignment.

한국 서원의 원생과 서양 중세 대학 학생의 성격 비교 - 원생과 학생의 특권을 중심으로

This thesis is a comparative review of students in Korea’s Seowon and medieval university students of the West with the focus on special privilege. The institutions of the two sides were one of the highest education institutions for respective region to educate the national elites. Therefore, the national and regional powers provided social and economic special privilege to the students in respective institution. However, there are extremely clear differences in the special privilege granted to the specific class on the level of influence on the actual national advancement and development into modern educational institution. First of all, those students in medieval western universities had taken the extremely public benefit position regarding the functions of universities. Namely, those medieval universities were the self-autonomous organization of students who had strong drive on academic freedom and professional occupation, not as a facility of church or state power. The kept demanding on right of self-autonomy to the Pope and kings, and such demands were materialized due to the realistic needs. Such self-autonomy of universities and special privilege of students were symbolized as so-called ‘freedom of university’, and it was the foundation to establish them to grow into professional education institution to accommodate diversified academic fields after the modern era. On the other hand, the special privilege of Seowon students of Korea was distanced from the educational efficacy. Those special privileges granted for the purpose of encouraging the academic endeavors had turned into a mean to secure social and economic interests that are represented as an avoidance of national duties. Under the situation, the educational function of Seowon was greatly declined after the 17th century, but the special privilege represented for exemption of military service. In such aspect, it would be attributable as one of important factors that Seowon was unable to transit or advance as a modern educational institution in Korea.

조선조 서원과 중세 대학의 출현과정과 그 이념적 토대

The similarities between Confucianism, the ideological foundation of Seowon, and Thomism, the ideology of medieval universities, have already been of interest to academics for a long time. Medieval universities in the 13th century newly interpreted and accepted Aristotle's philosophy, and the active discussion culture of the universities at the time became the driving force behind Thomas Aquinas' unique ‘metaphysics of being.’ These two medieval thoughts share the belief that the fundamental order of the world can be understood and the ultimate reality can be understood through the light of reason. Nevertheless, it is difficult to view the Li that Toegye sought in Seowon education as being equivalent to the Li as a ‘causa exemplaris’ in Thomism. In other words, the characteristics of Seowon education can be read in that the boundary of ‘saintly life’ that Confucian scholars strive to reach is distinct from God as defined in Thomism Looking at specific history, the 16th century Joseon's Seowon has many similarities with the monastic system that appeared from the late 4th century, if only in terms of its moral orientation or religious inclination. Of course, in that a monk pursues an apostolic life (Vita Apostolica) pursuing the spirituality of God, it is strictly distinguished from the Seowon that rejects transcendent divinity. However, there is a consensus in the attitude of valuing abstinence and piety in daily life and valuing practical studies low. On the other hand, medieval universities were the product of an ‘urban institution.’ Cathedral schools and city schools also had secular intentions to meet the needs of society due to population growth and urbanization. In contrast, H. Grundmann, a researcher on medieval universities, views early universities from a more conservative perspective. According to him, early universities were established purely for academic purposes. Scholars with these conservative views say that “universities functioned as houses where ‘wisdom’ could reside on its own.” Meanwhile, the Seowon system is a product of the rural economy. What is outstanding about the early Seowon system is that it neatly presents an intellectual blueprint for finding the ‘true self’ through introspection. The literati’s(⼠) are pursuing a life of seeking ‘sanctity’, which is practical study beyond wisdom. The Seowon functioned as the optimal space to regain the true nature of the human mind through study, to restore one's true self, and finally to reach the world of a saint. Meanwhile, Western society was much more flexible in terms of the possibility of status mobility through school. The fact that intellectuals or readers were granted social privileges was a common phenomenon in the East and West. In medieval Europe, in the early days of the formation of universities, university members were granted privileges equivalent to clergy. However, it is noteworthy that there were a significant number of citizens and farmers who were not nobles. In communes and autonomous cities, representatives of guilds gathered together to run the cities jointly, so universities were naturally under the strong influence of guilds. There were also a significant number of people from paupers. In addition, the fact that universities secured their own autonomy early on helped various academic developments. It is worth noting that students were subject to the jurisdiction of the university, regardless of church law, state law, or city law.

Single motherhood: A growing sociological and economic existential concern for global communities

Single motherhood as a living condition has become one the greatest alternative family structures in the world, only second to couples living together. For the case of poorer communities, the challenge seems to be greater because women are among the most affected members of society as compared to their male counterparts, when it comes to social and economic privileges. These women who are often left to fend for their families after the death of their husbands, divorced and some never married, struggle with meeting their economic and parental obligation. This causes a lot of challenges that include but are not limited to, homelessness, school dropouts, prostitution, early pregnancies and delinquent behaviors in children, etc. The premise of this article argues the case for single mothers as an express necessity and concern for society, church, and government. The single mothers, being found in these circumstances are exposed to suffering through neglect but also not given due attention as far as economic privileges are concerned. Purpose: whereas it is clear that the world is rallying on the agenda for couples and marriage as the norm for raising children in an ideal environment, it has become increasingly undeniable as to the number of marriages that are ending some in divorce and other societal challenges. Annually as others have posited, 30% of all marriages worldwide end in divorce, others lose their spouses to death and others have never been married before. This article seeks to create an appreciation of the current situation which is not only conspicuous but also undeniable. For societies faced with challenges of economic inequality between males and females, it has become a necessity to create awareness in bridging the knowledge gap in society and provide solutions for the challenge.

When Less Is More: The Semiotic Privilege of Status Downplay

Why do affluent people drive used cars, elite chefs praise basic ingredients, and upper‐middle couples arrange backyard weddings? What makes senior professors feel comfortable dressing down and allows men to bring their kids into the office? This article takes a formal sociological approach to explore the cultural phenomenon of “Status Downplay”—a paradoxical type of status display, where more social status is signaled through a subtraction of status symbols. The trans‐contextual analysis of diverse manifestations of status downplay uncovers the inverted cultural presumptions of “doing” and “being” and the hierarchical classifications underlying such parodical presentation of self. The proposed semiotic model articulates the social privilege of unmarked actors' performative flexibility: the social license of those considered “normals” to deviate from the performative norm. Under this asymmetrical structure, status underdoings are revealed as markers of cultural dominance.

Association of Racial and Economic Privilege on Postoperative Outcomes Among Medicare Beneficiaries

BackgroundSocial determinants of health (SDOH) can play an important role in patients’ health. Privilege is a right, benefit, advantage, or opportunity that can positively affect all SDOH. We sought to assess variations in the prevalence of privilege among patient populations and define the association of privilege on post-operative surgical outcomes. MethodsMedicare beneficiaries who underwent elective coronary artery bypass grafting, abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, total hip arthroplasty, total knee arthroplasty, colectomy, and lung resection were identified. The Index of Concentration of Extremes (ICE), a validated metric of both social spatial polarization and privilege was calculated and merged with county-level data obtained from the American Community Survey. Textbook outcome (TO) was defined as absence of post-operative complications, extended length of stay, 90-day mortality and 90-day readmission. Multivariable regression analysis was performed to assess the relationship between ICE and TO. ResultsAmong 1,885,889 Medicare beneficiaries who met inclusion criteria, 655,980 (34.8%) individuals resided in areas with the highest privilege (i.e., White, high-income homogeneity), whereas 221,314 (11.7%) individuals resided in areas of the lowest privilege (i.e., Black, low-income homogeneity). The overall incidence of TO was 66.2% (n = 1,247,558). On multivariable regression, residence in the most advantaged neighbourhoods was associated with a lower chance of surgical complications (odds ratio (OR) 0.90, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.88-0.91), a prolonged length of stay (OR 0.81, 95% CI 0.79-82), 90-day readmission (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.92-0.95) and 90-day mortality (OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.68-0.74) (all p<0.001). Residence in the most privileged areas was associated with 19% increased odds of achieving TO (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.18-1.21), as well as a 6% reduction in Medicare expenditures versus individuals in the least privileged counties (OR 0.94, 95%CI 0.94-0.94) (both p<0.001). ConclusionPrivilege, based on the ICE joint measure of racial/ethnic and economic spatial concentration, was strongly associated with the likelihood to achieve an “optimal” TO following surgery. As healthcare is a basic human right, privilege should not be associated with disparities in surgical care.

The biomedicalization of pregnancy prevention, neoliberal feminism, and college women's experiences of the contraceptive paradox

Research examining the “contraceptive paradox” has illuminated how contraception can be a source of empowerment for some and oppression for others. This study advances theorizing of the contraceptive paradox by illustrating how 45 young women experience contraception as both liberating and constraining due to a confluence of biomedicalization processes, gender inequality, and neoliberal feminism. Drawing on focus group data, we find that the biomedicalization of pregnancy prevention and neoliberal feminist discourse, in combination with experiences of social and economic privilege and gender inequality in fertility work, shape participants’ interpretation of contraceptive technology as a key resource for individually liberating themselves from undesired pregnancy. At the same time, their experiences indicate prescription contraception plays an oppressive role in their lives. In addition to blaming themselves and their bodies for negative contraceptive side effects, participants take for granted that assuming sole responsibility for contraceptive use in their relationships with men is the price they must pay to feel free. The findings indicate that addressing a social problem using an individualized biomedical solution obscures the power that structural inequalities exert over pregnancy-capable people, including relatively privileged young women. As an expression of biopower, these dynamics prompted participants to emphasize distributive justice over social justice, foreclosing their engagement in collective action.

The British Royals in Australia

The British Royals in Australia

Whiteness, Mestizaje, and social equity

This article discusses the relationship between Whiteness and Mestizaje–the idea of a ‘race made of the mixture of other races’–in the context of Mexican public administration. It argues that Mestizaje promotes a raceless or ‘color-evasive’ narrative that has historically prevented the discussion of race and ethnoracial inequalities in Mexico; sustains Whiteness in public organizations, and creates the conditions for White supremacy, as an uneven distribution of social privileges and penalties along ethnoracial lines benefitting White people. Ultimately, these three aspects of the Mestizaje ideology and its connection with Whiteness could be preventing the advancement of social equity in Mexico. Moreover, the reflections presented here are potentially insightful for other contexts in which raceless and/or color-evasive narratives are prevalent as well.

Intersecting Inequities in COVID-19 Vaccination: A Discourse Analysis of Information Use and Decision-Making Among Ethnically Diverse Parents in Canada.

Little is known about how intersecting social privilege and disadvantage contribute to inequities in COVID-19 information use and vaccine access. This study explored how social inequities intersect to shape access to and use of COVID-19 information and vaccines among parents in Canada. We conducted semi-structured interviews on COVID-19 vaccination information use with ethnically diverse parents of children ages 11 to 18years from April to August 2022. We purposefully invited parents from respondents to a national online survey to ensure representation across diverse intersecting social identities. Five researchers coded transcripts in NVivo using a discourse analysis approach informed by intersectionality. Our analysis focused on use of vaccine information and intersecting privileges and oppressions, including identifying with equity-denied group(s). Interview participants (N = 48) identified as ethnically diverse non-Indigenous (n = 40) and Indigenous (n = 8) Peoples from seven Canadian provinces. Racialized minority or Indigenous participants reflected on historical and contemporary events of racism from government and medical institutions as barriers to trust and access to COVID-19 information, vaccines, and the Canadian healthcare system. Participants with privileged social locations showed greater comfort in resisting public health measures. Despite the urgency to receive COVID-19 vaccines, information gaps and transportation barriers delayed vaccination among some participants living with chronic medical conditions. Historicization of colonialism and ongoing events of racism are a major barrier to trusting public health information. Fostering partnerships with trusted leaders and/or healthcare workers from racialized communities may help rebuild trust. Healthcare systems need to continuously implement strategies to restore trust with Indigenous and racialized populations.

Constitucionalismo feminista: por uma dogmática constitucional de mulheres africanas

This article demonstrates the failure of African constitutionalism to accompany the evolution of women's civil and political rights on the continent in an equal manner, to the extent that the law has presented itself as an instrument for maintaining power. It guarantees social and political privileges to men, who use cultural pretexts to reaffirm their hegemonic position as the only universal subject and who, at the same time, determine ways of legitimizing patriarchal, sexist and misogynist normativity, conveyed by a phallocentric discourse that limits various rights to women, victims of a policy and legal narrative linked to compulsory maternity, the reducibility of negative freedoms and the non-inclusion of women in the democratic process. This situation ends up affecting reproductive rights, the right to development, the right to work, the right to political participation and the right to participate at state level. On the other hand, there is a naturalization of androcentric and macho culture, which has contributed to high levels of domestic and sexual violence. The article calls for legislative, hermeneutic and public policy communication that can be triggered by African constitutionalism, with a view to achieving gender justice in African states, reversing the structural dimension of naturalized sexism.

Familialization of the ‘deviant’: a hindrance to queer community building?

Abstract Familial acceptance of queer relationships has long been at the centre of the same-sex marriage discourse in India. This is no coincidence since in India family as an institution represents caste, religious, class and other social privileges. Developing on Bordieu’s work on family, this paper examines three Hindi films—Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To Aisa Laga (2019), Shubh Mangal Zaada Savdhaan (2020) and Badhaai Do (2022)—to formulate the ‘ideology of familialization’ as the basis of the queer narratives in these popular film texts. Through narrative analysis of these texts, this paper argues that these narratives function at two levels: one, at the level of inducting the erstwhile subjects of developmentalist economy into the neoliberal economy; and two, they selectively transform the familial space of these subjects to make it conducive to integrate LGBTQ persons. The narratives perpetuate a consensus about the importance of selective co-option of queer individuals within the socially dominant traditional families, to keep the cycle of social privilege undisturbed by producing what Bordieu calls ‘unproblematic inheritors’. This, I argue, prevents the individual queer characters from building a modern queer community, a radical collective with intersectional politics at its heart, at the cost of alienating those who do not come from such caste/class privilege. This serves the interest of both the neoliberal market/State and the Hindu upper caste dominated social, perpetuating the Ideology of Familialization which eventually has the power to function as a governmental tool of transforming the ‘deviant’ lovers into ‘model’ queer citizens.

More Diverse and Equal: Insights on Moving From "Real-Life" to "Remote" Practicum Experiences and Career Development From Undergraduate Global Public Health Students During COVID-19.

A key facet to typical undergraduate or graduate global public health programs is an applied practice experience (a practicum) that culminates in shared results and public presentations (e.g., research posters, conference and working papers, needs assessments). Requirements vary by program but may be between 80 and 200 hours of experiential learning. While not required by all undergraduate programs in global public health, a practicum occurs as part of a semester of coursework or internship experience after students have declared the major/minor or have completed an expected number of courses. Some students report that the practicum experience, while essential to their career development and future opportunities, presents certain challenges in terms of access. Practicum opportunities can be rife with assumptions that social networks, privilege, and implicit bias affect and even predict the ability to secure an effective, doable, and career-advantageous project. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic meant that much of the applied and experiential aspects of a practicum were necessarily shifted from "realworld" experiences to virtual and "remote" contexts. This article highlights insights from students enrolled in undergraduate global public health programs who were planning "real-life", more "traditional" practicum experiences, and had to necessarily move to "remote" and online engagement. These cases suggest that participation in virtual fieldsites is seen as legitimate, fulfilling for students and stakeholders, and can increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in the public health curricula; fostering best practices in career development.

Soufisme et Chérifisme. La généalogie discutée d’une famille vénérée : les chorfa Baqqālī

Abstract The return of the chorfa, especially the Idrīsids, on the social and political scene in Morocco from the 14th century onwards, and the advantages and privileges they acquired thanks to their symbolic capital, led to a vast polemic on the authenticity of their prophetic descent, at a period that saw the emergence of many individuals and families claiming to be genealogically linked to the Prophet. This is why the Baqqālī family, of Idrīsid origin, suffered the rejection of their sharifian nasab, especially after having left the rural world for Tétouan, a city where other sharifian families had settled. The controversy grew between the intellectual elite and the people in charge of verification (ahl al-tawṯīq), and its echo touched historiography, since this sharifian family also represented Sufi sanctity, combining spiritual influence with elements of domination and social privilege.