Sociocultural Exclusion Research Articles

Austerity, Ageism, and the Rhetoric of Self-reliance: The Policy Drivers and Socio-cultural Attitudes Contributing to the Loneliness Experienced by Older Residents in an Underprivileged Community in South Wales

Reducing loneliness amongst older people is an international public health and policy priority, with signs of decreasing importance in the UK. A growing body of research on tackling loneliness indicates it is a complex challenge. Most interventions imply they address loneliness, when in fact they offer social connectedness to address social isolation and can inadvertently responsibilise the individual for the causes and solutions for loneliness. This article presents research that explored loneliness in an underprivileged community in South Wales through interviews and focus groups with nineteen older people and eighteen local service providers. Their perspective supports a growing body of evidence that loneliness amongst older people is driven by wider structural and socio-cultural exclusion. Interventions to build social connections will be more effective if coupled with policies that reverse the reduction in public services (including transport and healthcare), and challenge socio-cultural norms, including a culture of self-reliance and ageism.

Determining the social exclusion levels of international students from different regions using the MAIRCA and TOPSIS method

ABSTRACT This study aims to determine the regions of Turkey in which visiting international students experience the highest levels of social exclusion. Based on non-numerical data and expert opinions, in order to help researchers and policymakers to understand this sector is considered the most significant contribution of this study to the field. According to the results obtained in the study, it was determined that the primary group of students coming from the Latin America region, with those from Asia coming in secondarily, experienced the highest levels of social exclusion. Therefore, universities and NGOs should consider forming groups to reduce the social exclusion of Latin America students. Programmes that help international students from Latin America, Asia, and Africa adjust to culture can also reduce social exclusion. In addition, non-governmental groups and formal institutions introducing geographical awareness into scholarship programme planning would reduce international students' economic exclusion. Housing and transportation costs, in addition to tuition or programme fees, are expensive for students from this region and compound their economic exclusion. Institutional measures to reduce sociocultural exclusion are vital for Asia and Africa students because discrimination against international students from this region requires a culturally-sensitive response that involves cooperation between the university and civic society.

Why we break the law and relapse: Exploring the societal factor-recidivism nexus among selected inmates in a custodial center

ABSTRACT Despite consistent literature supporting recidivism, data-based studies that explore the societal factor-recidivism nexus are essentially of Western sources, so only little empirical evidence linking the two variables exists in Nigeria. A cross-section of 38 recidivists were recruited using purposive and snowballing techniques. Thematic method was used to analyze the interview data. Different predictive variables were found, showing their areas of convergence and divergence, in recidivism causation. While lower class, poverty, sociocultural exclusion, inequality, discrimination, and stigmatization accounted for the leading causes, unemployment was not acknowledged as a main and/or direct predictor. The problem has severely impacted prison reforms, criminal justice administration, and norm validation that are aimed at (re)socialization of people within and outside the correctional institutions. Conducting in-depth oral interviews with offenders presents diverse practical pathways toward understanding the dynamics of offending and offenders, as well as missing links in the existing policy, research, and practice with a view to strengthening the evidence base and establishing what works in the real world. Gaining firsthand knowledge and insider information from the recidivists themselves will add to the global call for synergy and mutual reinforcement in both State and community-based policing, justice, and corrections for better performance outcomes.

Sociological Monitoring of the External Policy Orientations of Ukrainian Society in The 2000–2020s

In the 1990s-2000s, in the external orientations of Ukrainian society, polls recorded а balance of two main vectors with a certain predominance of the pro-Russian way. In the territorial viewpoint we could state a distinct polarization – the population of the western macroregion was largely oriented towards the European Union, the east and south regions — towards Russia (and the interstate structures it created), the center – in both directions. Consistent pro-European orientation of the Ukrainian government and almost the entire Ukrainian political class; a comprehensive program of “titling” of public life and socio-cultural exclusion from Russia, as well as a socio-demographic factor (change of generations) worked to gradually strengthen Western geo-civilizational vector in the public consciousness of the country's population. The catalyst for this process was the 2013-2014 socio-political crisis and a number of subsequent events caused by it. In the mid-2010s. the drift of the external political and economic orientations of Ukrainian society towards the European Union and NATO was noticeably accelerating. The beginning of the SMO becomes a new trigger for this systemic transit, recorded by all polls in 2022-2023. However, our analysis of their results suggests that while reliably recording the dynamic trends in public opinion, the polls did not reveal real extent of those shifts, they also did not provide correct information about the population's perceptions on a number of aspects of the political and socio-economic dynamics of Ukraine at all. The radical external convergence of geo-civilizational orientations of the inhabitants of the country macro-regions does not mean an equally tangible reduction of diversities in their collective ideas. It is also significant that polls are not able to assess the level of potential socio-psychological adaptability of individual regional communities in Ukraine, which can surface only with a significant change in social reality.

Of Heat & Arctic Blasts - The Risks to Human Health

The run-up to the FIFIA World Cup football tournament in Qatar and the significant rise in fuel costs has focussed the world’s attention on the environmental impact of climate change on human health. While it is true that the health impact of working outdoors in extreme heat is indeed harmful to human health and leads in increase mortality, what has been less in the news is (1) that the impact of even moderately cold environmental temperatures is by far much larger (9:1) on environmental determinants of mortality for vulnerable sections of the population, even in high-income countries such as UK or USA, and (2) that multi-factorial deprivation, fuelled by a legacy of imperialism, racism, oppression of migrants and socio-cultural exclusion in all societies vastly amplifies the adverse impact on health.
 Considerable attention has focused on institutional racism but less on how the intersection of cultural values, frameworks, and meanings shapes institutional policies and practices. [1] This article explores the impact of environmental temperatures on human health, the influence of socio-cultural inequalities, the current interventions and the case for a policy approach that includes the voice of professional and voluntary groups representing minority groups.

Exclusion of Scheduled Tribes in Access to Digital Services in India: Bottlenecks and the Way Forward

The digital India initiative was launched in 2015 with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. Digital India strives to bring inclusive growth and bridge the digital divide by leveraging technology solutions that are low cost, developmental, and transformative and designed to empower ordinary Indians. However, digital services are not being uniformly distributed and accessible to all segments of the society. Some communities, the Scheduled Tribes (STs) in particular-face considerable obstacles in accessing digital services and are either completely or partially excluded. ‘Exclusion’ in the socio-political context may be defined as the process through which individuals or groups are wholly or partially excluded from full participation in the society in which they live. The ST population represents one of the most economically backward and socially excluded groups in India. As per 2011 Census, ST population constitute 8.6% of the total population of the India. They generally live in remote areas mainly forests, hills and inaccessible areas and speak a different language. The tribes have been confined to low status and are often physically and socially isolated. The process of social exclusion in STs are closely associated with the factors like geographical isolation, high level of poverty, low level of education, economical exclusion, socio-cultural exclusion, socially least awareness, miss out government services and welfare programmes, less exposure in society, etc,. In this backdrop, the present paper is to analyse major issues and challenges faced by Indian tribal community in access to digital services and digital platforms.

Being Small and Outnumbered: Service and Sociocultural Exclusion Among Older Linguistic Minorities in Finland

Our study aims to analyze the social exclusion of older Swedish and Finnish speakers living as linguistic minorities in bilingual municipalities in Finland, where municipal authorities are required to offer services in both languages. Data was taken from the 2016 Language Barometer Survey, measuring the quality of language services in bilingual municipalities (n=33). For the purposes of our study, we focused on 2,030 people between the ages of 60 and 84. We included four different language groups, unilingual Swedish and Finnish speakers and Finnish-Swedish bilinguals and examined two social exclusion domains: service and sociocultural exclusion. The results showed that living as a regional minority poses a greater challenge when it comes to social inclusion for the unilingual and bilingual Swedish minority, as opposed to the Finnish-speaking minority. We conclude that linguistic rights seem to be achieved in the most egalitarian way in bilingual municipalities where Swedish is the majority language.

A Sociological Study of Transgression of Basic Guarded Rights of Transgenders & Hurdles in Finding their Gender Identity in Socio-Cultural Context ( A Case Study of Segregated Localities of Multan)

This article deals with the study of the problems faced by transgenders, in regards of their guarded rights being transgressed,both from the familial and socio-cultural context. This study is amid, to explore socio-cultural behavior of individuals who surround a trans either from his/her family or society. Questions have already emerged about sociological problems and cultural adjustment as a human being and its related casual factor related to a transgender. It is one of the emerging issues of our society that directly influences the identity of those people who are facing gender disapproval from their surroundings. This research work tried to discover the factors that influence the discrimination faced generally and particularly by trans. The article reveals the social and cultural norms that stigmatize socio-cultural exclusion of trans human beings from the society and how continuous banishment from society makes their life more tough after being rejected from their home/family. The present study analyzed the continuous deprivation of trans people rights from family to community having no secure rights of education, health and professional life conducting interviews from a group of trans residing in segregated areas of Multan, Pakistan. The findings also revealed the consequences of banishment, throws their life away from mainstream of a life a normal human being must have. The data in this paper has been collected by using qualitative research technique with participant observation and in-depth interviews.

Contested everyday cultural citizenship: “Mixed race” children and their ethnicized citizenship in South Korea

ABSTRACT This article examines how the everyday cultural citizenship of “mixed race” children of one Korean parent and one immigrant parent is contested. This study transposes the concept of ethnicized citizenship to mixed race children and their everyday practices of citizenship based on ethnicity and parent(s). Relying primarily on the personal narratives of mixed race children, derived from essay competitions, this research comparatively analyzes the experiences of three categories of mixed race children: co-ethnic (with a Korean father and ethnic Korean mother from China), inter-Asian (Korean father and Asian [non-Korean] mother), and multiracial (one Korean parent and one European or African American parent). This article argues that the ethnicized citizenship of an immigrant mother operates as a mechanism for institutional and socio-cultural exclusion of mixed race children.

Social disadvantage, linguistic distance, ethnic minority status and first-episode psychosis: results from the EU-GEI case–control study

Ethnic minority groups in Western countries face an increased risk of psychotic disorders. Causes of this long-standing public health inequality remain poorly understood. We investigated whether social disadvantage, linguistic distance and discrimination contributed to these patterns. We used case-control data from the EUropean network of national schizophrenia networks studying Gene-Environment Interactions (EU-GEI) study, carried out in 16 centres in six countries. We recruited 1130 cases and 1497 population-based controls. Our main outcome measure was first-episode ICD-10 psychotic disorder (F20-F33), and exposures were ethnicity (white majority, black, mixed, Asian, North-African, white minority and other), generational status, social disadvantage, linguistic distance and discrimination. Age, sex, paternal age, cannabis use, childhood trauma and parental history of psychosis were included as a priori confounders. Exposures and confounders were added sequentially to multivariable logistic models, following multiple imputation for missing data. Participants from any ethnic minority background had crude excess odds of psychosis [odds ratio (OR) 2.03, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.69-2.43], which remained after adjustment for confounders (OR 1.61, 95% CI 1.31-1.98). This was progressively attenuated following further adjustment for social disadvantage (OR 1.52, 95% CI 1.22-1.89) and linguistic distance (OR 1.22, 95% CI 0.95-1.57), a pattern mirrored in several specific ethnic groups. Linguistic distance and social disadvantage had stronger effects for first- and later-generation groups, respectively. Social disadvantage and linguistic distance, two potential markers of sociocultural exclusion, were associated with increased odds of psychotic disorder, and adjusting for these led to equivocal risk between several ethnic minority groups and the white majority.

ADDRESSING THE SOCIO-CULTURAL EXCLUSION: A CRITICAL STUDY OF GUNASEKARAN’S VADU (SCAR)

Gunasekaran’s Vadu(scar), an autobiography, explores caste domination, suppression, inequality, caste conflicts that made the Dalit undergo a socio-cultural alienation. His autobiography mainly focuses on how inequality plays a major role in the society and makes the society the dominant and the dominated. The paper deals with how the author reveals the exclusion and alienation he and his community experienced and how the socio-cultural exclusion imposed by the caste –hindus is questioned back.

Pandemic and the Figure of Philosopher

The article explores the philosophical discourse that has formed in the context of the development of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The role of philosophy in evaluating a number of socio-political problems caused by this pandemic is evaluated and various forms of attitude to the pandemic among philosophers are analyzed. It was shown that the coronavirus pandemic gave impetus to rethinking the foundations of philosophy and was used as an informational occasion and a tool for conceptualizing and promoting a number of philosophical ideas, in particular, such as “camp”, “state of emergency”, and “biopolitics” (in particular, this is characteristic for the position of J. Agamben). At the same time, in the context of the pandemic, the position of suspending philosophical expert judgments was articulated, due to the limited knowledge of the pandemic and the particular rooted philosophy in important “eternal questions”, but not able to respond urgently to urgent (G. Harmann), and the relevance of the moral act of silence, expressing solidarity with the people who took the blow of the tragic situation (K. Malabo). In addition, the article explores the problem of revising philosophical concepts that were especially common during the coronavirus pandemic. The polysemantic complexity of the concept of “exception” is noted. In particular, broad connotations of the concepts of “exclusion” and “exclusivity” were considered. It is demonstrated that the practice of exclusion causes a process of biopolitical isolation. Exception transgresses into self-exclusion, and it, in turn, echoes the concepts of racial, caste, ethnic purity. An exception in the biopolitical sense, considered in the narrow context of quarantine measures taken and provoking protest from J. Agamben, may be adjacent to the existing violent mechanisms of sociocultural exclusion and ontological exclusion. Consideration of the various positions of philosophers made it possible to explicate in the context of the emerging discourse on a pandemic an association associated with the well-known thought experiment, the “Mary's room” by F. Jackson, widely discussed among representatives of the philosophy of consciousness.

Framing heuristics in inclusive education: The case of Uganda's preservice teacher education programme.

BackgroundRecent education-related research has raised concerns about the persistent exclusion of vulnerable learners in Uganda. The Revised Primary Teacher Education Curriculum of 2013 marked an ambitious yet inconclusive attempt to advance the implementation of inclusive education but has encountered deeply entrenched sociocultural exclusionary practices among education experts.ObjectivesThis study aimed to explicate education practitioners’ interpretations of Uganda’s flagship inclusive education programme in preservice primary teacher education.MethodDrawing on the conceptual vocabulary of frame analysis and the qualitative analysis of individual and group interviews and classroom observations, the interpretations of inclusive education implementation in preservice primary teacher education in Uganda were examined. The participants included policy design experts, curriculum design experts and classroom practitioners.ResultsThree main findings emerged. Firstly, interpretations of inclusive education displayed a narrow framing heuristic of inclusive education as a perfunctory, daily practice rather than a pathway for reflective, inclusive pedagogical engagement. Secondly, the heuristic encouraged the treatment of inclusive pedagogy as a ‘label’ under a specific rubric referring to sensory impairments or disabilities – a historical device for sociocultural exclusion. Thirdly, inclusive education was a praxis but was misframed from its original intentions, causing tension and resentment among practitioners. These findings contribute to the debates on the sustainability of inclusive education beyond preservice teacher education.ConclusionUganda’s flagship inclusive education programme in preservice primary teacher education was fraught with tensions, ambiguities and an overt, urgent need for change.

Socio–Cultural Exclusion and Inclusion of Trans-genders in India

With an increasing issues in India, one of the major social issues concerning within the country is the identity of transgender. Over a decade in India, the issue of transgender has been a matter of quest in both social and cultural context where gender equality still remains a challenging factor towards the development of society because gender stratification much exists in every spheres of life as one of the barriers prevailing within the social structure of India. Similarly the issue of transgender is still in debate and uncertain even after the Supreme of India recognise them as a third gender people. In this paper I express my views on the issue of transgender in defining their socio – cultural exclusion and inclusion problems and development process in the society, and Perceptions by the main stream.Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 5, Issue-1: 10-17

The hijras of India: A marginal community with paradox sexual identity

Transgender people in India, commonly known as the Hijras, who claim to be neither male nor female, are socially excluded in Indian society. The uniqueness of Hijras lies not only in their existence beyond social structure but also in Indian society's historical acceptance of that position. This study aims to understand the sociocultural exclusion of Hijras, depending on their gender identity disorder and their paradox sexual appearance. An exploratory cum descriptive research design with a nonrandom purposive sampling including the snowball technique was adopted, to collect information from 51 Hijras at Kharagpur town from the state of West Bengal, India. The study shows that although Hijras have a sort of sanctioned and visible place in Hindu society, but in the contemporary Indian context, it is the gender nonconformity of the Hijra that has a major impact besides lack of a gender recognition, sexual expression, employment, decent housing, subsidized health-care services, and as well as the violence they suffer, especially when they choose to take up formal works. Therefore, Hijras are controversial and minacious community in Indian society and their existence disrupts essential ideas about sex or gender. They need to be recognized as having a space on society's gender continuum. Vertical interventions of rights are greatly needed to address the unique needs of this marginalized group and recognizing them as equal citizens of India.

Saga Cigana: narrativas (auto) biográficas intergeracionais na comunidade do bairro Sumaré no município de Sobral-CE

Who are, as they live, what the members of several gypsy generations think? What do we know about them are transmitted by themselves or by the filter of prejudice, discrimination and stigma? To what extent does intercultural dialogue permeate society's vision of the Roma community? Therefore, this article describes and analyzes three autobiographical intergenerational gypsy narratives composed by a family organized in father, daughter and uncle, that will be denominated of: SUN, MOON and STAR, respectively. The gypsy community under study is located in the Sumare neighborhood, in the municipality of Sobral, Ceara. Oral narratives were collected in the form of semi-structured interviews. The main result of the research reveals that the gypsy community is still involved in prejudice, stigmatization. We realize in the research that the community makes its history to face situations of stigma and socio-cultural exclusion, with attitudes of resistance, maintaining their customs and way of being. Finally, we understand that listening to the gypsy community, their voices, to serve as amplifiers of their resistance, makes it possible to maintain and recover their cultural identities, with respect to their origins.

Insurgency and Inaccessibility

A widely held belief within policy and practice contends that rough terrain and other physical obstacles to power projection hinder public surveillance, lower counterinsurgency capability, and generally constitute an important facilitator of rebellion. Likewise, sociocultural exclusion and alienation from the core are widely assumed to increase latent conflict risk through their influence on identity formation and perception of collective grievances. However, there is no scientific consensus on the empirical strength or significance of such a relationship, and many quantitative studies fail to find a robust link between a country's geographical or ethno-demographic characteristics and its estimated conflict risk. This paper represents a first comprehensive evaluation of how physical and sociocultural inaccessibility relate to contemporary civil wars. Drawing on recent advances in geographic information systems and georeferenced indicators of terrain, settlement patterns, ethno-political status, and armed conflict, we put the purported causal relationship to empirical test. A statistical analysis of civil-conflict events across post-Cold War Africa gives considerable support to the proposed theoretical framework, revealing that the various dimensions of inaccessibility all exert significant and substantive effects on local conflict risk. We find weaker evidence for the notion of substitutability; the inaccessibility indicators largely retain their individual effects when included in the same regression model.

S/m/othering

Recent scholarship in art education has introduced complex discourses of mothering, m/othering curriculum (Hoeptner-Poling, Guyas, & Keys, 2012; Springgay & Freedman, 2009, 2010), (m)others (Eisenhauer, 2009), m(other)work (Hoeptner-Poling, Guyas, & Keys, 2013), family structures that confront myths of the nuclear family (Rhoades, 2009), non-Western motherhoods (Richmond-Saravia, 2011), and disability (Derby, 2011; Eisenhauer, 2007). Feminist artists and activists have long confronted cultural constructions of motherhood and the pregnant, post-partum, and lactating body in their work (e.g., Kelly, 1973-1979; Opie, 2003; Redman, 1964; Ukeles, 1969). Yet, bodies rendered infertile through either biological or sociocultural exclusion from parenting and the loss(es) associated with infertility remain largely invisible in both artistic practice and academic discourse. This absence is s/m/othering. It perpetuates misunderstandings of the complex reality of mothering and parenting experiences in all their expressions. It at best condones and at worst reproduces discriminatory institutional practices such as routine exclusion of fertility treatments and of benefits for adoptive families from health insurance plans, limiting possibilities for pursuing parenthood. Following the inclusive precedent set by scholars and artists in art and art education (e.g., Eisenhauer, 2007,2010), I argue for both a presence for the experience of infertility along with an expansion of images of motherhood and parenthood within art and art education. I propose a framework for inclusion of the infertility experience within four primary contexts.First, contemporary feminist scholars (e.g., Gupta, 2006) have described a polarization of the discourses surrounding infertility and especially New Reproductive Technologies (NRTs), including invitro fertilization (IVF). This dichotomy represents women as either victims whose selves and bodies are subjected to patriarchal, medicalized surveillance or as capable agents who exercise choice within the context of reproductive rights that align with broader and historical feminist arguments. These binary discourses are pedagogically significant because they reproduce cultural and institutional practices that continue to render infertility hidden and encourage silence and lack of disclosure, diminish cultural support for the grief associated with infertility, limit the choices available to individuals who wish to pursue parenthood, conflate womanhood with motherhood, and reify patriarchal notions about who and what a family is and how that family comes to be (e.g., Throsby & Gill, 2004).Second, globalized medical and economic practices and transnational feminisms (Gupta, 2006) intersect with this polarized view. These junctures further complicate the relationship between access to reproductive care through insurance and national health programs; the quasi-legal selling, renting, regulating, and destroying of human body parts; and the interests of multi-national pharmaceutical corporations, (local, state, and national) governments, and their constituents that include public educational institutions and insurance carriers. Contemporary feminist scholars and artists must address this complexity and work to make the affective and embodied experience of all those experiencing infertility, engaging in the fertility economy, and building alternative family structures not only visible but also central rather than peripheral or anecdotal. For example, contemporary artist Marilee Talkington performed The Creative Process: An IVF Living Art Piece from May through June 2013. In the work, she publicly injected herself with the hormonal drugs necessary for IVF in multiple locations including the San Francisco MOMA, the de Young Museum, and the Golden Gate Bridge. Her injections were live-streamed for online viewers, and she invited others going through IVF to inject with her. Talkington's piece both publicizes the private aspects of the IVF process (including learning to inject oneself with medications) and invites other participants in the process to claim it by making it visible. …

Determinants Of Social Exclusion: A Sociological Analysis Of Pakistani Women

The current study, “Effects of Socio-cultural Exclusion and Community Level factors on Reproductive Health Behavior of Pakistani women” was predicated on the household survey. By using probability sampling, primary data for this study was collected from five villages and one urban community through administering individual and community level survey questionnaire. The data was gathered by interviewing 622 ever-married women in both rural and urban areas in Kasur and Lahore district respectively. The present research focuses on the socio-economic determinants of social exclusion of women living in rural and urban areas of Pakistan. It was assumed that social exclusion of women is prevalent and it’s predicated on dominant-subordination relationship of men and women. This relationship is assumed as commonly accepted amongst the various social strata of Pakistani society. A multitude of factors have come to play their respective roles in determining this dominant-subordination relationship that further anchors social exclusion of women from the mainstream social reconstruction program and regeneration of society on egalitarian determinants of power relations. Social exclusion can be measured through different benchmarks, it was measured by taking into account the level of participation of women in main socio-economic stream of life. Various indicators were identified to measure social exclusion of women namely: consultation in decision making process, political participation, participation in religious activities, and access to health services and right to cast votes during electioneering process.

Dalit Movement in India: In the light of four Dalit literatures

History testifies the presence of cleavages in every society, characterized by atrocities, discrimination, exploitation and subordination that raised peoples demand for justice and equality. It is this idea of equality that forced people to protest in the form of movements. The Dalit Movement also began as a protest movement in India. The Dalits, also called as Atisudra, Panchama or Outcasts, at present constitute one of the most depressed and marginalized sections of Indian society. Socio-cultural exclusion, economic deprivation and political exploitation of centuries made them to break out of such kinds of age-old prejudices. Hence, they began to protest with the help of literatures, or forming organization like the Dalit Panthers, which came to be recognized as the Dalit Movement. This paper is an attempt to bring forth the various aspects of Dalit's lives that led to the movement, in the radiance of four Dalit literatures.