Societal Groups Research Articles

Shawkat Ali's Short Stories: An Exquisite Tapestry of Subaltern Voices and the Silent Revolt of the Oppressed

Although measuring literature by decades may not be entirely justifiable, Shawkat Ali (February 12, 1936 – January 25, 2018) firmly stands as a prominent figure of the 1960s. His literary journey stemmed from profound contemplation, with fiction emerging as his chosen medium of expression. In his short stories, the lives, customs, and ideologies of society’s underprivileged classes are vividly portrayed. Alongside this, the dynamics of relationships between the upper echelons and the marginalized are intricately woven into his narratives. In the socio-economic and political contexts of the nation, the lower strata of society have historically endured the brunt of neglect and deprivation. Ali's stories resonate with the poignant cries, agonizing despair, and profound helplessness of these marginalized communities. Moreover, he explores the social crises and economic disparities that plagued the nation in the post-independence era. His narratives delve into the experiences of various societal groups, particularly the marginalized. Works such as Unmul Bashona (1968), Lelihan Shadh (1978), Shuno he Lokkhindor (1988), and Baba Apne Jan (1994) offer diverse representations of these social inequalities. Among the aforementioned stories, this essay examines depictions of exploitation and oppression of the lower classes by the elite. These stories, set against the backdrop of Bangladesh, significantly reflect the influence of "Subaltern Theory." This discussion endeavors to analyze the lifestyle, customs, and ideologies of the marginalized under the lens of Subaltern Studies, shedding light on their lived realities and cultural ethos in the context of socio-economic disparity.

Fikih Kontemporer Dalam Dakwah Gus Baha di Media Sosial

This study aims to analyze how Gus Baha's popularity on the YouTube social media platform, the contemporary fiqh istinbat (legal derivation) methods he applies, and his digital preaching characteristics influence public acceptance of Islamic preaching in the digital era. The research employs a qualitative approach using discourse analysis to explore primary data from Gus Baha’s sermons uploaded on YouTube and secondary data from related academic literature. The analysis is conducted to understand the application of contemporary fiqh istinbat methods in Gus Baha’s sermons and their impact on audience reception. The findings indicate that Gus Baha's popularity on YouTube is highly significant, with the keyword "gus baha terbaru" (latest Gus Baha) reaching a search volume of 72,464 per month, reflecting strong public enthusiasm for his content. This popularity is bolstered by his simple, flexible, humorous delivery style and his relevance to contemporary issues such as the Covid-19 pandemic. The istinbat methods employed by Gus Baha emphasize consistency between traditional principles of Islamic law and modern context relevance. This approach prioritizes maslahat (public benefit) and maqashid syariah (the higher objectives of Islamic law), making his sermons widely accepted across diverse societal groups. Gus Baha’s innovative and adaptive digital preaching characteristics, including the integration of scholarly values, Islamic spirituality, and local wisdom, establish him as a significant figure in addressing the challenges of digital-era preaching. His sermons are not only theologically relevant but also contextual, offering practical solutions to the challenges of modern life. This research underscores that technology-based preaching approaches, such as those employed by Gus Baha, not only enhance accessibility but also strengthen public acceptance of Islamic values.

Does financial knowledge affect borrower discouragement among various social categories? Evidence from the United States

AbstractA deficiency in financial knowledge often precipitates costly financial choices, affecting consumers' behavior and decision‐making. We delve into how financial acumen influences borrower discouragement by utilizing data from the U.S. Federal Reserve's Survey of Household Economics and Decision‐Making (2017–2022). Discouraged borrower describes creditworthy individuals who, despite a genuine need for credit, avoid applying due to anticipated rejection. Our research reveals that financial knowledge diminishes the likelihood of borrower discouragement after controlling for various societal groups. However, when we estimate the model separately, its impact is not uniform across these societal segments. Specifically, our study uncovers that the effects of financial knowledge are different on gender, race, and occupational status. Further analyses of various subgroups confirm that race and occupational status are consistent predictors of borrower discouragement, even when accounting for financial knowledge. These insights underscore the importance of providing targeted financial education to address these disparities.

Are poor people poorly heard?

AbstractA growing body of literature shows that the preferences of poorer groups in society are less well represented than the preferences of the rich. This paper scrutinises one possible explanation of inequality in representation: that politicians hold biased perceptions of what citizens want. We conducted surveys with citizens and politicians in four countries: Belgium, Switzerland, Canada and Germany. Citizens provided their preferences regarding concrete policy proposals, and then politicians estimated these preferences. Comparing politicians’ estimates with the actual preferences of different social groups, the paper shows that politicians’ perceptions are closer to the preferences of the richer than to those of poorer people for issues that matter most for economic inequality: socio‐economic issues. Further, we find that especially right‐wing politicians tend to think about the preferences of richer societal groups when estimating the preferences of their partisan electorates on socio‐economic matters.

Regulating Cryptocurrency and Decentralized Finance for an Inclusive Economy

The evolution of cryptocurrency and decentralized finance (DeFi) marks a significant shift in the financial landscape, making it more accessible, inclusive, and participative for various societal groups. However, this transition from traditional financial institutions to DeFi demands a meticulous policy framework that strikes a balance between innovation and safeguarding consumer interests, security, and regulatory compliance. In this script we explore the imperative need for regulatory frameworks overseeing cryptocurrencies and Decentralized Finance (DeFi), aiming to leverage their potential for inclusive economic advancement. It underscores the prevalent challenges within conventional financial systems, juxtaposing them with the transformative potential offered by these emergent financial paradigms. By highlighting the pivotal role of robust regulations, we examine their capacity to ensure user security, fortify market resilience, and spur innovative strides. We aim to proffer viable strategies for formulating regulatory structures that harmonize the twin objectives of fostering innovation and upholding fairness within financial ecosystems.

Social and knowledge diversity in forest education: Vital for the world's forests.

A global assessment of the status of tertiary, vocational, and technical forest education and training found deficits in inclusion of knowledge and student diversity. Coverage of forest services and cultural and social issues was characterized as weak in the curricula of many programs. The inclusion of traditional and Indigenous knowledge was frequently poor or absent. Gaps were found in enrollment at tertiary education levels with respect to diversity by gender, race/ethnicity, and other societal groups. If unaddressed, forest researchers, professionals, and workers will continue to lack familiarity with different knowledge systems and the importance of inclusive representation. Improvements in forest education related curricula, research, monitoring, policy, recruitment, and promotion are recommended. Without remedial action to build a representative, skilled, and knowledgeable workforce, prospects for forests to meet local, national, and global goals are at risk. Improved social and knowledge diversity in forest education is paramount for the future of forests.

Return of Illiberalism: The Results of the 2023 General Election in Slovakia

After a general overview of the context of the 2023 general election in Slova- kia, the article provides a detailed analysis of the electoral results and support for political parties. Using both aggregate and individual level data, we show that the results were influenced by a combination of long-term features defin- ing electoral support and voting behaviour in Slovakia and a more recent trend including weaker ideological attachment and the increased importance of leadership personality for political party preference. Also, it seems that the illib- eral mobilization may be traced in the dynamic of electoral shifts in the context of different behaviour of various societal groups. Moreover, the return of illib- eral actors to power in Slovakia seems to have been characterized by a surge of votes for conservative or populist left-wing forces in the larger Slovak cities. Although this is not reflected in the turnout, at the individual level we can as- sume that liberal voters turned out in smaller numbers, while Smer voters may have been more mobilized, or some voters may have switched from other po- pulist parties such as OĽaNO

Merit-based recruitment in the South African Public Service: Challenges and opportunities

Section 195 (i) of South Africa’s Constitution mandates that public administration must reflect the nation's diversity, with recruitment and personnel management practices based on competence, fairness, and impartiality, while addressing historical inequalities to ensure broad representation. This creates a dual obligation for public administration: to foster inclusivity and equity while ensuring merit-based recruitment. Merit-based recruitment is crucial for meeting the public service's human resource needs and achieving employment equity by making opportunities accessible to all societal groups. While the practical application of merit-based recruitment presents opportunities, it still encounters considerable obstacles, such as political interference, and fragile institutional structures. This paper explored both the challenges and opportunities of merit-based recruitment in the South African public service through an analysis of government reports, academic literature, and policy reviews. The findings reveal that while the concept of merit-based recruitment is embedded in policy, its execution is hampered by political interference, nepotism, a lack of institutional capacity, skills shortages, and tensions between affirmative action and meritocracy. The paper recommends strengthening monitoring and evaluation measures employed by the Public Service Commission (PSC) to effectively promote and oversee the implementation of merit-based recruitment processes in the public service.

Gender-Imbalanced Well-Being

The generally accepted notion that democratization yields positive outcomes for well-being may not be correct for all societal groups within a country. And outcomes may not be equal across countries with different levels of development, especially in the current era of the weakening of democracy and the rise of autocracy. This research focuses on the effects of weak democracy on the well-being of one of the disfranchised groups—women, who typically have lower socioeconomic status than men in most societies. The situation of women has profound effects on the health, economics, educational achievement, and work opportunities of the next generation. Women, therefore, serve as an ideal marker for other disadvantaged groups when we consider the effects of weakening democracy and growing autocracy on well-being and countries’ sustainable futures.

Lived values and modal choices in Sweden: an approximation to potential losses from the low-carbon transition in the transport sector

To meet the goals set in the Paris Agreement, the transport sector requires transformative changes, not only in terms of prevailing technologies but also with regards to reducing the need for fossil-based transport and increasing the share of public and active transport modes. Policies to enable this transformation are likely to have differentiated impacts on quality of life across society and have the potential to reproduce or deepen existing inequalities. When identifying potential losers from the low-carbon transition, it is important to consider a diverse set of loss categories, including social support networks and attachments a person has to particular people, material things, places and traditions. A key assumption here is that individuals’ perceptions of loss derive from their lived values, i.e., what they consider important in their life. Through a mixed-method approach consisting of a literature review and a survey, this study explores modal choices for realizing activities central to quality of life in Sweden, with a particular focus on societal groups at disadvantage in the transport transition. This article provides new insights on potential losses associated with the low-carbon transition in the transport sector and their distribution across society and reflects on the implications for transitional assistance policy.

Unveiling the Interconnections Between Art, Politics, and Society in the Soviet System Through Art: A Case Study of the Exhibition “1972. Breaking Through the Wall”

Summary This article is dedicated to analysing the exhibition “1972. Breaking Through the Wall” from several perspectives: the curator, the viewers, and the exhibition architect tasked with creating an environment for the art exhibition in an unconventional setting. The article examines the curators’ choices, discusses the work of the exhibition architect within the context of heritage conservation requirements, and presents the results of a viewer survey. This exhibition raised the issue of the significance of alternative creativity, opposed to the official narrative, in a non-free society. It focused on Lithuanian art from the 1960s to the 1980s that countered the official Soviet cultural course. The exhibition’s prehistory includes the historical fact that in the spring of 1972, a young man self-immolated in Kaunas in protest against the lack of freedom. These events had direct and indirect reverberations in the arts, although they were not exhibited at the time due to fear of repression. This difficult experience has left its mark on Lithuanian culture and collective memory. The exhibition highlighted the role of various societal groups in opposing the ruling authorities and establishing personal and creative freedom as the highest value. The art display, composed of works from professionals (fine arts, theatre) and amateurs (rock and big beat musicians) from the 1960s to 1980s who resisted official Soviet art, clearly demonstrated how Kaunas – the capital of Lithuania from 1920 to 1940 – was influenced by the city’s prominent pre-war modernism (environment and lifestyle) and the Soviet ideology imposed on the entire country. The clash of two diametrically opposed ideological stances and artistic principles in Soviet Lithuania led to the emergence of an alternative culture. For the first time in the history of Lithuanian exhibitions, this exhibition showed how the social and the arts were affected by the pressure exerted by the official authorities. The visitor survey showed that the positive reactions to the exhibition were also due to socio-political events that have become embedded in the nation’s memory. The events stored in the collective memory of the nation correlated with specific creative artefacts and historical details, which the younger generation saw for the first time. Noteworthy was the symbiosis of emotional experiences among visitors of different ages, observing exhibits with both artistic and historical value. As indicated by the visitor survey, the exhibition facilitated the establishment of a closer connection between generations. The exhibition’s display in a cultural heritage site – the former post office building (by architect Feliksas Vizbaras, 1932) – was a complex task creatively resolved by contemporary architects.

The prevalence and determinants of unmet healthcare needs in Bulgaria

Self-reported unmet healthcare needs are a useful indicator of access to healthcare, but there is little research from low- and middle-income countries. This study sought to investigate the prevalence and determinants of unmet needs arising from wait times, distance/transportation and financial affordability in Bulgaria using European Health Interview Survey data. We explored associations between individual characteristics and the probability of reporting unmet need by fitting logistic regression models to the data. Unaffordability-related unmet needs were the most cited barrier to access. The largest proportion of people reported unmet dental care needs (14%) or unmet needs due to unaffordability of medicines (8%); distance/transportation problems were the least cited reason (3%). People with poor physical and mental health had a substantially higher probability of experiencing unmet needs. Those with a disability, less disposable income, less social support and lower educational attainment were also more likely to report unmet healthcare needs. People who lived in rural areas experienced specific barriers to access, most notably from distance or transportation issues. Unmet healthcare needs lead to inefficiencies for the healthcare system and are more prevalent among already disadvantaged societal groups. Ensuring better access to healthcare is therefore important from both the efficiency and equity perspectives.

Examining the Behavior of LLM Architectures Within the Framework of Standardized National Exams in Brazil

The Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio (ENEM) is a pivotal test for Brazilian students, required for admission to a significant number of universities in Brazil. The test consists of four objective high-school level tests on Math, Humanities, Natural Sciences and Languages, and one writing essay. Students' answers to the test and to the accompanying socioeconomic status questionnaire are made public every year (albeit anonymized) due to transparency policies from the Brazilian Government. In the context of large language models (LLMs), these data lend themselves nicely to comparing different groups of humans with AI, as we can have access to human and machine answer distributions. We leverage these characteristics of the ENEM dataset and compare GPT-3.5 and 4, and MariTalk, a model trained using Portuguese data, to humans, aiming to ascertain how their answers relate to real societal groups and what that may reveal about the model biases. We divide the human groups by using socioeconomic status (SES), and compare their answer distribution with LLMs for each question and for the essay. We find no significant biases when comparing LLM performance to humans on the multiple-choice Brazilian Portuguese tests, as the distance between model and human answers is mostly determined by the human accuracy. A similar conclusion is found by looking at the generated text as, when analyzing the essays, we observe that human and LLM essays differ in a few key factors, one being the choice of words where model essays were easily separable from human ones. The texts also differ syntactically, with LLM generated essays exhibiting, on average, smaller sentences and less thought units, among other differences. These results suggest that, for Brazilian Portuguese in the ENEM context, LLM outputs represent no group of humans, being significantly different from the answers from Brazilian students across all tests. The appendices may be found at https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.05035.

“Empathy for children is often missing”: a mixed methods analysis of a German forum on COVID-19 pandemic measures

BackgroundThe pandemic and its preventive measures disrupted daily routines and posed unforeseen obstacles for families. Users of public online forums chronicled these challenges by freely expressing their sentiments in unrestricted text-length formats. We explored a German COVID-19 forum to understand family perspectives and experiences of pandemic measures, particularly in terms of testing and vaccinating children. Our findings aim to inform future epidemic health policies.MethodsWe retrieved all 11,207 entries from a COVID-19 forum during its lifespan (June 2020 - December 2021), posted during the height of the pandemic. We classified the entries into topic clusters including general pandemic situation, testing, or vaccination using state-of-the-art text embeddings and clustering algorithms. The clusters were selected based on the research’s aims and analysed qualitatively using a health policy triangle framework.ResultsUsers generally appreciated pandemic public health safety measures for everyone’s protection, yet voiced concerns about inconsistent policies and disproportional disadvantages for children compared to other societal groups, like the elderly. Non-compliers were overwhelmingly regarded with skepticism and critiqued. Users found COVID-19 (exit) strategies and information about the benefits of vaccination unclear. This created hurdles for parents and caregivers in navigating their children’s school and social life. Users endorsed vaccinating children mainly for “normalising” children’s lives rather than for their physical health benefits. Some users suggested prioritising teachers and early childhood educators on the vaccination eligibility list to speed up a return to “normality”.ConclusionsDuring pandemics, governments should prioritize addressing the societal and mental health needs of children by implementing participatory and family-oriented public health measures for schools and kindergartens. Clear communication coupled with consistent design and implementation of safety measures and regulations, would be crucial for building trust in the general population and for ensuring compliance regarding testing and vaccination. Communicating the benefits and risks of vaccinating children is of paramount importance for informed decision-making among parents. In future epidemics, computer-aided analysis of large online qualitative data would offer valuable insights into public sentiments and concerns, enabling proactive and adaptive epidemic responses.

Political Economy of Agriculture and Food Policy in Africa

This article reviews the literature on the political economy of agricultural and food policy in sub-Saharan Africa. In doing so, it first presents a conceptual framework highlighting that agricultural and food policy decisions are contingent on the intersection between governance structures, the preferences and pressures from societal interest groups, and international dynamics. The interrelations among these three factors are then examined across several different sets of policy instruments that have been the focus of traditional political economy research in the region: trade, tax, and marketing policies; public investments and regulations; input and food subsidies; and cross-cutting policies for value chain development. Recognizing several broader demographic, technology, and governance transitions in the region, the article also highlights key areas for future analysis that examine the role of cities in food policy, the possibilities presented by expanded mobile phone and Internet access, and the efficacy of new public administration modalities for policy implementation.

Community Engagement in Development Planning in Jabon District

Background: Community participation is essential for effective development planning in rural areas. Specific Background: This study examines participation in development planning within a particular village. Knowledge Gap: Although existing literature recognizes community involvement, disparities in participation among different societal groups remain underexplored. Aims: The research aims to analyze community participation levels and highlight engagement differences. Results: Findings reveal uneven participation in oversight processes, with certain groups more engaged, potentially sidelining the interests of less active segments. Novelty: This study emphasizes the need for inclusive strategies to ensure diverse community voices are heard. Implications: Results call for initiatives that promote broader engagement in oversight activities, facilitating equitable representation and effective development planning that addresses the challenges of marginalized groups. Highlights : Engagement Disparities: Participation levels vary significantly among community groups. Inclusive Strategies: Effective planning requires ensuring all voices are heard. Representation Challenges: Underrepresented segments may have their interests overlooked. Keywords: community participation, development planning, oversight processes, engagement disparities, inclusive strategies

A Systematic Literature Review on Energy Efficiency Analysis of Building Energy Management

Government agencies, energy consumers, and other societal groups have all shown concern and attention for the energy management of buildings. Relevant statistical data, however, indicate that most public buildings continue to consume large amounts of energy overall and that the issues of low energy usage and energy waste have not materially improved. As a result, this study reviewed the state of progress and potential directions for future research in the field of building energy management in public buildings using a data-driven approach. Relevant studies were obtained from three databases—Web of Science, Scopus, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure—based on certain search phrases. The text mining program VOS viewer was then used to examine the material. We provide a thorough examination of the study techniques and material, as well as a visual representation of the keywords and current state of the field. According to this study, the range of data processing outcomes; the flexibility of research system standards; and the availability of a comprehensive, unified assessment system are the main factors contributing to the practical issues facing building energy management today. Based on the geographic distribution and state of energy development, this study is the first to examine possible research avenues for building energy management in public buildings through cross-fusion research on passive energy-saving design and subjective behavioral energy-saving. It offers a foundation for developing the building energy management system best practice model in the future.

Political rule (vs. opposition) predicts whether ideological prejudice is stronger in U.S. conservatives or progressives.

People see societal groups as less moral, warm, and likable if their ideology is more dissimilar to the ideology of the self (i.e., ideological prejudice). We contribute to the debate on whether ideological prejudice in the United States is stronger in conservatives, progressives, or neither. Investigating the American National Election Studies, we found that between 1972 and 2021, ideological prejudice was stronger in conservatives. However, investigating studies conducted to develop the agency-beliefs-communion model, we found that between 2016 and 2021, ideological prejudice was stronger in progressives. We report various analyses of both research programs and two new studies that rule out several explanations for this contradiction. Additional analytic and experimental evidence suggests that political rule (vs. opposition) may explain the robust heterogeneity in asymmetric ideological prejudice. Ideological prejudice shifted toward being stronger in conservatives when the United States was governed by Democrats and toward being stronger in progressives when the United States was governed by Republicans. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

An empirical investigation of ethnic-cultural procedural fairness effects and their boundary conditions among three societal groups in South Africa

ABSTRACT Ethnic-cultural procedural fairness refers to the perception that societal actors use fair and unbiased procedures to make decisions vis-à-vis one’s ethnic-cultural group. Prior research using ethnic-cultural minority samples has convincingly shown that such perceptions are associated with a range of desirable outcomes. Yet, this body of evidence has so far limited its scope to European and North American samples. Moreover, more research is needed on the underlying psychological processes. Therefore, the central aim of the present study was to investigate ethnic-cultural procedural fairness effects among three societal groups in South Africa. In Study 1 (N = 326 black South Africans), we observed relationships between ethnic-cultural fairness perceptions and positive institutional and intergroup attitudes. Institutional and social trust respectively mediated these associations. Study 2 (N = 747) replicated these findings among white (n = 595), but not among coloured South Africans (n = 152). Notably, across both studies, we also obtained evidence for moderation. That is, procedural fairness effects on institutional attitudes were significantly smaller among socioeconomically burdened black participants, and procedural fairness effects on intergroup attitudes were fully curbed among white participants who reported high levels of perceived group discrimination. Taken together, our results call for enhanced attention to procedural fairness obstacles outside of typical WEIRD settings.

Left populism and foreign policy: Bernie Sanders and Podemos

Abstract This article analyses how populism is conceptualized and studied in International Relations (IR) and argues that it should be seen as a political logic instead of a political ideology. It does so by demonstrating that ‘populist foreign policy’ looks radically different in analyses of the populist left, refuting the possibility of any distinctly ‘populist’ foreign policy positions. We argue that large parts of IR scholarship practise a form of concept-stretching that undermines the quality of analysis as well as the ability to make meaningful policy recommendations. Using the empirical case-studies of the politician Bernie Sanders in the United States and the political party Podemos in Spain, the article demonstrates that populism does not translate into any shared ideological positions, but is a way of formulating and performing—in these cases—leftist politics through which political actors can interpellate and mobilize different societal groups and demands behind their political projects. In particular, the analysis debunks common assumptions about populism's alleged effects on foreign policy and dangers to pluralist democracy, and shows that populism neither necessarily opposes multilateralism, migration and global public good provision nor formulates an authoritarian claim to power.