Socio-economic Exclusion Research Articles

Social isolation and loneliness among people living with experience of homelessness: a scoping review

Social isolation and loneliness (SIL) are public health challenges that disproportionally affect individuals who experience structural and socio-economic exclusion. The social and health outcomes of SIL for people with experiences of being unhoused have largely remained unexplored. Yet, there is limited synthesis of literature focused on SIL to appropriately inform policy and targeted social interventions for people with homelessness experience. The aim of this scoping review is to synthesize evidence on SIL among people with lived experience of homelessness and explore how it negatively impacts their wellbeing. We carried out a comprehensive literature search from Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Sociological s, and Web of Science's Social Sciences Citation Index and Science Citation Index for peer-reviewed studies published between January 1st, 2000 to January 3rd, 2023. Studies went through title, abstract and full-text screening conducted independently by at least two reviewers. Included studies were then analyzed and synthesized to identify the conceptualizations of SIL, measurement tools and approaches, prevalence characterization, and relationship with social and health outcomes. The literature search yielded 5,294 papers after removing duplicate records. Following screening, we retained 27 qualitative studies, 23 quantitative studies and two mixed method studies. SIL was not the primary objective of most of the included articles. The prevalence of SIL among people with homelessness experience varied from 25 to 90% across studies. A range of measurement tools were used to measure SIL making it difficult to compare results across studies. Though the studies reported associations between SIL, health, wellbeing, and substance use, we found substantial gaps in the literature. Most of the quantitative studies were cross-sectional, and only one study used health administrative data to ascertain health outcomes. More studies are needed to better understand SIL among this population and to build evidence for actionable strategies and policies to address its social and health impacts.

Understanding the interplay of occupational, public health, and climate-related risks for informal workers: A new framework with findings from Zimbabwe and India

Globally, there are 2 billion ‘informal’ workers, who lack access to social protection while facing profound health risks and socioeconomic exclusions. The informal economy has generated most jobs in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), but few studies have explored informal workers' complex health vulnerabilities, including in the face of climate change.This paper will discuss recent action-research in Indore (India), Harare, and Masvingo (Zimbabwe) with informal workers like vendors, waste-pickers, and urban farmers. We conducted qualitative interviews (N = 110 in India), focus group discussions (N = 207 in Zimbabwe), and a quantitative survey (N = 418 in Zimbabwe). Many informal workers live in informal settlements (‘slums’), and we highlight the interrelated health risks at their homes and workplaces. We explore how climate-related threats—including heatwaves, drought, and floods—negatively affect informal workers' health and livelihoods. These challenges often have gender-inequitable impacts. We also analyse workers' individual and collective responses.We propose a comprehensive framework to reveal the drivers of health in the informal economy, and we complement this holistic approach with a new research agenda. Our framework highlights the socioeconomic, environmental, and political determinants of informal workers' health. We argue that informal workers may face difficult trade-offs, due to competing priorities in the face of climate change and other risks. Future interventions will need to recognise informal workers’ array of risks and co-develop multifaceted solutions, thereby helping to avoid such impossible choices. We recommend holistic initiatives to foster health and climate resilience, as well as participatory action-research partnerships and qualitative, intersectional data-collection with informal workers.

The Impact of Economic Exclusion on the Constitutionally Guaranteed Entitlements of Economic Justice, Equality of Opportunity and Right to Live with Human Dignity of the Transgenders

Objective: The objective of the paper is to examine and explain how the constitutionally guaranteed entitlements notably the various facets of right to equality, right to life and preambular assurance of justice: social, economic and political will remain unachievable and meaningless for the transgenders till their economic exclusion and marginalisation continues. The present paper shall examine the important aspects of legal provisions and economic policy which can ensure that the constitutional mandates enshrined under Articles 14, 15, 16 and 21 become a reality for transgender through their economic empowerment. Theoretical Framework: The Constitution of India recognises and rests firmly on the fundamental principles of liberty, equality, fraternity and justice. Transgender people have always been the part of every society, nation and culture since ages but unfortunately their very existence has been negated at every level of society. This marginalised section and highly disadvantaged group has consistently and continuously been subjected to social stigma, discrimination and exclusion from all kinds of socio-economic and political undertakings. The insensitivity and the apathy of the public at large are still the biggest challenges in mainstreaming the transgenders and eliminating all forms of socio-economic exclusion against them. The extreme discrimination and exclusionary practices against the transgender people at every level in the work place, from job rejection to privacy violation and even sexual harassment, disproportionately affects their physical and mental wellbeing. The socio-economic marginalisation and denial of any gainful employment opportunity puts them in depression, pessimism and forces them to engage in unlawful activities and become drug suppliers, sex workers and even low-income entertainers. Method: The present paper focuses on the constitutionally guaranteed entitlements namely “economic justice” and “equality of opportunity” of the transgender people while taking up the issue of their economic exclusion and marginalisation and intends to explore how the economic exclusion has adverse and severe implications on transgender rights. Results and Discussion: The cost of economic exclusion of transgender people in India cannot be undermined. Such discrimination and unaccepting environments are capable of psychologically depressing transgender people and adversely affecting their incentive to get training and education. This turns into a vicious circle that translates into low investment in human capital and suboptimal opportunities for them resulting in lower productivity of overall economy. Conclusion: With very limited employment opportunities, transgender’s education, health and living standard are abysmally low and therefore, in order to achieve the constitutional mandate enshrined under Articles 14, 15, 16 and 21 of the Constitution of India, the objectives of the government should be to allow reasonable participation of most of the transgender population in the national economy.

Collective reincorporation of FARC-EP and social and solidarity economies: beyond moral imagination

ABSTRACT Collective productive projects are an effective strategy to bring reconciliation and development to the most remote parts of the national territory. Incipient rural development was recognised in the peace agreement, signed between the Colombian government and the Armed Forces of Colombia People’s Army (FARC-EP), as one of the causes of the armed conflict. However, social margins and precarious conditions are not exclusive to the countryside; exclusion also occurs in urban centres. Using ethnographic methods, we visited three areas of reincorporation to identify the socio-economic practices of collective productive projects. The findings suggest that the social solidarity economy is a promising alternative led by FARC-EP ex-combatants and host communities to resist socio-economic exclusion.

Navigating danger through nuisance: Racialized urban fears, gentrification, and sensory enskilment in Amsterdam

AbstractIn this article, I employ the notion of sensory enskilment to investigate the embodied relations through which White Dutch middle‐class residents of the Indische Buurt, a rapidly gentrifying multicultural neighborhood in the east of Amsterdam, learn to tune in to sensory nuisance to discern safe and unsafe bodies and places in their surroundings. The analysis involves examining those institutional and interactional avenues of (unwitting) sensory learning through which habituated perceptual patterns of stigmatization that conflate the everyday sensory order of Moroccan‐Dutch youths with feelings of urban insecurity are cultivated, produced, and consolidated. Studying the ways in which sensory knowledge is implicated in the reproduction of socioeconomic exclusions in contested urban territories can shed new light on discussions around urban sensory politics and draw attention to the enrolment of the senses in revanchist urban renewal.

Inclusivity of ICT Based Solutions to Public Transportation Problems: Challenges and Opportunities for Bloemfontein

Promoting information and communication technologies as mobility and transportation accessibility solutions in efforts to achieve sustainable transportation excludes socioeconomic vulnerability. ICT-related efforts do not meet the mobility and accessibility needs of every single group in society, resulting in socioeconomic exclusion for specific groups of people. Social exclusion disadvantages vulnerable social groups in society's mobility, while limited mobility reduces access to activities for disadvantaged groups; travel for job hunting, education, work, and health facilities further increases these groups' physical isolation. The need to travel for activities, services, and basic goods for human consumption such as food, water, and medication must be addressed by developing inclusive transportation systems. Through tele-activities, e-payments, security and surveillance, among other components adaptable to travel and mobility, technological solutions have been at the forefront of prescriptions to transportation problems. However, they remain inaccessible to some of society. The study investigates whether inclusive, sustainable public transportation can be fully realized in developing countries by utilizing technology-based travel behavior solutions. It also investigates the effectiveness of ICT solutions to travel, mobility, and accessibility issues in a South African city with a relatively traditional public transportation system. The study considers socioeconomic travel processes as well as travel behavior constructs to inclusivity in order to weigh the prospects of equitable provision of ICT-enabled public transportation services in the developing world. This study discovered that travelers have smartphone access; however, the purposes of smartphones are not directly related to travel and transportation. Furthermore, public transportation service providers do not have an online presence. Overall, for ICT-enabled public transportation to thrive in developing countries, accessible technologies such as calls and SMS that do not require internet access must be considered.

Lack of a Dedicated Focus on Dalit in Corporate Social Responsibility Projects: A Qualitative Exploration of Mandated CSR in India

The concepts of caste discrimination and corporate social responsibility are not novel. They have existed for decades in social, political and academic discourses, albeit as separate concepts. Notably, how CSR engages with Dalit issues in India has not been explored, especially in mandated CSR. This article explores why corporates do not cater devoutly to the needs of Dalits in CSR projects. The article adopts a qualitative approach to interviewing participants from corporates, NGOs and external consultants from research and academic organizations. The author adopted the thematic analysis method and arrived at four major themes about the lack of a dedicated focus on Dalits in CSR projects. These are corporate boards’ caste-blindness, the design of CSR projects, the adoption of the umbrella target category—‘poor’ and the changing character of NGOs. These findings suggest larger structural issues with the way CSR projects are planned, designed and implemented, excluding the scheduled castes (SC). The findings underline a glaring gap and the need for corporates to understand the issues faced by SCs, resulting in inequality, poverty and socioeconomic exclusion. There is a crucial need for corporates to direct, design and implement their CSR projects with a dedicated focus on empowering the Dalit population.

How has the Olympic legacy transformed the heart of East London? Understanding socio-economic exclusions and disproportionate COVID-19 impact on minoritised communities through a rights-based perspective.

This research paper explores the experience of British-Bangladeshi and Black African Caribbean communities living in the areas surrounding London's Olympic Park, in terms of how they are appropriating the legacy-led socio-spatial changes, applying Lefebvre's right to the city perspective. Highlighting the top-down legacy-led regeneration process, the empirical evidence suggests that the games-led regeneration is contributing to an unjust trade-off between pre-existing minoritised ethnic residents and wealthier gentrifiers, ignoring the real needs of the socially and economically disadvantaged ethnic minority communities in East London. The findings provide a further understanding of factors such as housing and health-related inequalities and sub-standard living conditions, which may have contributed to the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on the Bangladeshi and African Caribbean people living in East London boroughs. Given the scale of the pandemic, the paper argues that a greater understanding of the socio-structural problems and barriers arising out of poverty and deprivation is needed in order to formulate appropriate policy interventions to reduce disproportionate social, economic and health-related impacts on some minoritised communities, which could be achieved through residents' active participation and appropriation at different stages of the legacy-led regeneration process.

“When I think about my future, I just see darkness”: How youth exiting homelessness navigate the hazy, liminal space between socioeconomic exclusion and inclusion

ObjectivesThe overarching objective of this mixed methods longitudinal study was to understand whether and how rent subsidies and mentorship influenced socioeconomic inclusion outcomes for youth exiting homelessness. The focus of this paper is on the qualitative objectives, which evolved from a primary focus on exploring how study mentorship was working as a facilitator of socioeconomic inclusion to focusing on how participants navigated the hazy, liminal space between socioeconomic exclusion and inclusion.MethodsThis was a convergent mixed methods study scaffolded by community-based participatory action axiology. The quantitative component is reported elsewhere and involved a 2-year pilot randomized controlled trial where 24 participants received rent subsidies and 13 were randomly assigned a study mentor; proxy indicators of socioeconomic inclusion were measured every 6 months for 2.5 years. Qualitative objectives were explored using a qualitative descriptive design and theoretically framed using critical social theory. The lead author interviewed 12 participants every 6 months for 2.5 years. Qualitative interviews were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis with an emphasis on critical interpretation.ResultsNavigating the liminal space between socioeconomic exclusion and inclusion was complex and non-linear, and the way youth navigated that journey was more strongly associated with factors like informal mentorship (naturally occurring “coach-like” mentorship) and identity capital (sense of purpose, control, self-efficacy, and self-esteem), rather than whether or not they were assigned a formal study mentor.ConclusionA holistic approach integrating coaching and attention to identity capital alongside economic supports may be key to helping youth exiting homelessness achieve socioeconomic inclusion.

Trans-border Mobility and Security in the Sahel: Exploring the Dynamics of Forced Migration and Population Displacements in Burkina Faso and Mali.

Burkina Faso and Mali have been grappling with multiple security threats including jihadist challenge, military coup d'état, violent extremism, and poor governance. These complex security problems have escalated into national conflicts, state failure, internal displacements, and forced migration. This paper examined the changing patterns of the drivers and enablers of these security threats and how these forces feed into the protracted challenges of forced migration and population displacements. Using qualitative methods and documentary evidence, the paper found that poor governance, lack of state-building measures, and socio-economic exclusion of local populations contributed to the worsening crises of forced migration and population displacements in Burkina-Faso and Mali. The paper emphasised the human security perspectives hinged on good governance principles through effective leadership in Burkina-Faso and Mali particularly in the areas of industrialization, employment creation, reduction of poverty, and provision of adequate security for the people.

Romaphobia in the UK Right-Wing Press: racist and populist discourse during the Brexit referendum

ABSTRACT This article investigates contemporary expressions of racism toward Roma in the context of growing populism in the UK. We focus on how and why Romaphobia becomes widespread in times of socio-political crises, especially during the 2016 referendum when the UK voted to leave the European Union. Drawing on content analysis and Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis, we provide an in-depth account of how Roma migrants have been represented in two British newspapers during the 2016 so-called “Brexit” Referendum campaign and subsequent vote. The textual and visual analysis demonstrates how racist tropes about Roma identity and culture are embedded into populist rhetoric, often taking subtle forms of expression, yet simultaneously manage to avoid accusations of racism. We argue that the scapegoating and demonisation of Roma migrants in the media contributed to shaping negative attitudes towards Eastern European immigrants and by proxy, to the EU. This plays out in a context of rising nativism and populism where Roma communities come to embody the perceived ills of the European integration project and are regarded as a threat to the fabric of the British nation. We draw attention to the danger of these representations which condemn an already vulnerable community to further socio-economic exclusion.

Roma and the First Wave of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Income Loss and Its Effects Across Roma Communities in Seven Non-EU Countries

This article focuses on income loss and its knock-on effects experienced by Roma communities in seven non-EU states during the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent lockdown measures in the first half of 2020. Roma communities in Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Ukraine were all facing socio-economic exclusion and marginalisation before the COVID-19 pandemic, thus international organisations were warning very early on that Roma communities were at serious risk during lockdowns, including in the fields of employment or loss of income. This article uses primary data collected across the seven states from a survey of 440 Roma individuals and 53 in-depth interviews with Roma stakeholders, in order to add empirical evidence to an under-researched area. The main findings include that almost 73% of those surveyed experienced a reduced income, and the major reason for this was due to access to or demand for informal work which was hindered by the lockdowns. The knock-on effects of this included 32% of those surveyed declaring an inability to afford food and everyday essentials or to pay bills. Most Roma who needed to borrow money did so through private means (family and friends) rather than through official or state institutions. Finally, there was some geographic variance between the seven countries, with Roma communities in Albania and Ukraine faring worst.

EX-TERRORISTS REINTEGRATION PROGRAMS ON CONDITIONAL RELEASE PERIOD BY FORMERS FOUNDATION YAYASAN LINGKAR PERDAMAIAN (YLP)

Ex-terrorist reintegration must be carried out in an integrated way from in-prison empowerments with post-release program initiatives. The involvement of formers in reintegration has received considerable attention in recent years. The involvement of formers foundations in the assistance and supervision is to build a social support to prevent recidivism. Usually, ex-terrorist experience inherent post-release risks and challenges such as stigmatization, mistrust and socioeconomic exclusions. Transition period is a crucial in determining the success of prevention program. Formers foundation initiates community-based assistance and supervision by encouraging financial independence, changing perspectives towards moderation through discussion and dialogue and ensuring community acceptance in the first place. This study uses a descriptive qualitative method to describe the intervention of formers foundation in reintegration scheme by emphasizing the crucial risks of the transition period. Social Bond Theory is used to find out the elements of preventing ex-terrorist from re-committing terrorism. This research found that Yayasan Lingkar Perdamaian as formers foundation provides assistance on moral and material for ex-terrorist on their conditional release. Yayasan Lingkar Perdamaian also ensures acceptance of community for ex-terrorist reintegration in their area.

Crowdsourcing Women’s Experiences of Space: Empowerment, (In)Visibility, and Exclusions – A Critical Reading of Safetipin Map

As a crowdsourced visual-based technique, participatory mapping has generally been lauded as an innovative method to identify place-based inequities and shape a more inclusive urban world. In the context of sexual violence in public spaces, there is a growing number of mapping initiatives that aim to advocate for spatial justice by involving women in collaborative map production. These initiatives train women to use geographic information system (GIS) to visualise women’s spatial knowledge grounded in their experience of navigating public spaces. Using Safetipin, an Indian-based mapping initiative, as a case study, I seek to challenge the simplistic reading that the crowdsourced map provides a transparent pathway to understanding spatial patterns of gender violence in urban space. I argue that this street-level mapping is a performative technique insofar as it materialises our experiences in different ways. Most importantly, it renders an imagination of space as operational—that is, calculable and malleable space that can be operated upon to prevent sexual violence. Significantly, as its visualisation of spatial distribution of safety reterritorialises public spaces, it reproduces other forms of socio-economic exclusion. This article thus argues for a reading of the crowdsourced map not as an inherently politically transformative project. Instead, it calls for an acknowledgment of hegemonic regimes of knowledge production that feminist activism like the Safetipin map is intimately bound up with and may help reproduce. Consequently, this involves attending to diverse regimes of (in)visibilities and marginalisation that such projects may stage.

The Stakeholder Capitalism: Organizations’ Capabilities Promoting Individuals’ Freedom

How do organizations’ capabilities promote individuals’ freedom? Studies have typically focused on public policy as the key driver to remedy poverty, whereas the critical role of organizations is often overlooked. In this theoretical article, we argue that organizations are essential to free people from socio-economic exclusion, using their resources and capabilities – e.g. duty, design, governance – to produce an inclusive approach towards disenfranchised stakeholders. We develop a model based on the “poverty traps” literature that explains how organizations may pull these individuals out of what we call “the exclusion traps” to a superior equilibrium, guaranteeing individual freedom, generating collective prosperity, and fostering socio-economic development. We demonstrate the economic benefits of a stakeholder-oriented approach through an adapted Prisioners’ dilemma game, in which we incorporate stakeholders’ payoffs into the organizations’ payoff. Our analysis shows that organizations’ best response is to be inclusive when stakeholders’ payoffs are considered. We answer a recent call for “Stakeholder Capitalism paradigm” framework, contributing to relocating organizations’ importance for individuals emancipation studies.

INVESTIGATION OF THE TRAINING NEEDS, KNOWLEDGE, AND SKILLS OF PRESCHOOL TEACHERS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

Early childhood is a critical period for learning and development and an opportunity to prevent possible delays and difficulties. Children's participation in preschool education has a significant positive effect on their cognitive, social and emotional development. Therefore, early childhood is vital to ensure access to quality inclusive education for all children and especially for children at risk of socio-economic exclusion, children at risk of development and children in disadvantaged environments. The new human rights approach to inclusive education requires a change of mentality and a different pedagogical approach and support systems should aim to increase the capacity/empowerment of schools to meet the diversity of students’ needs. There is a need to transform the education system, so that all students are welcome and have the opportunity to belong, to participate actively and to learn. In this article, we report a study on the investigation of the training needs, knowledge and skills of preschool teachers in Greece for the implementation of inclusive education. Quantitative data obtained through a questionnaire were supplemented by preschool teacher interviews. The focus was on the investigation of the training needs of preschool teachers in Greece and the analysis of a number of factors and conditions that seem to be effective in inclusive practices. The findings can contribute to the improvement of inclusive practices in preschool education and influence the policy and practice of inclusive education in Greece.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0949/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Development Challenges in South Asia: A Contemporary Discussion on Gender Inequality

The human development index (HDI) ranking and its value indicate the development challenge in South Asia, where the region is performing impressively in terms of economic growth. However, social development is still perceived in terms of the worst scenario. The South Asian region continues the policy of socio-economic exclusion on the basis of caste, ethnicity, religion and gender. According to the study, the international organisations and the countries of the region are following the development indicator adopted by the United Nations and its institutions. The background of South Asia is like a battleground for a cycle of conflicts; religious, ethnic, and caste conflict cause people to be economically marginalised due to these tensions. The political tension between India and Pakistan results in a constantly fragile situation. In this context, the article explores contemporary development challenges and gender inequality in South Asia.

Loneliness and Social Networks in Europe

The paper analyses social causes of loneliness in Europe using cross-national data from the 2017 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) module “Social Networks and Social Resources” from 13 countries categorised as Northern Europe, Continental Europe, and Central and Eastern Europe. The paper aims to examine loneliness with regard to three specific groups of predictors, related to network, sociocultural and sociostructural aspects. The results suggest that sociability patterns and personal networks are the most important predictors of loneliness. While the frequency of contacts with family members and close friends and the overall number of contacts showed significance, loneliness was primarily related to the quality of personal relationships. Considering sociocultural factors, the obtained findings showed that social trust is consistently associated with lower levels of loneliness. Furthermore, people from Continental Europe were, in general, less lonely than North and East Europeans. Age was an important factor here as respondents from younger age groups were lonelier in Nordic countries than in the other two blocs of countries, while older respondents were lonelier in Central and East European countries. Finally, sociostructural indicators in general showed less predictive value compared to sociability patterns and sociocultural variables. However, when it came to socioeconomic exclusion, this aspect showed a stronger connection with loneliness for the individuals from the Nordic group of countries. The findings of this paper contribute to the vibrant field of contemporary scholarship on loneliness with a fresh perspective based on comparing three large blocs of European countries and an integrated approach to various predictors of loneliness.

Enduring the COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Imperatives in the Defense of Black Lives in Brazil

For the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brazil and the United States were both under the rule of right-wing conservatives who focused on the pandemic’s impact on the economy, pushing for a reopening of “business as usual” while disregarding the deadly impact of COVID-19 on those considered essential workers. In light of racialized colonial legacies, the large majority of this labor force are people of color, who belong to the most vulnerable sectors of the population. In both countries, Black and Indigenous peoples have been disproportionally bearing the brunt of this pandemic in comparison to whites. This article illustrates how Black communities in Brazil have crafted strategies and created alliances in order to overcome the challenges posed by the pandemic. Afro-Brazilians resist and provide alternative responses to the barriers posed by decades of colonial violence and state negligence, which set up complex and layered preexisting structural conditions of socioeconomic exclusion and disenfranchisement. Moreover, this article provides a critical framework for understanding the pedagogies of everyday resistance and the multifaceted strategies communities have forged in order to survive and respond to the social and racial impact of the pandemic.

Fitting Social Enterprise for Sustainable Development in Vietnam

Drawing on aspects of both commercial and not-for-profit organisational structures, social enterprises strive to become financially sustainable in order to support efforts to address various societal problems, including poverty and socio-economic exclusions. This study documents the experiences of 20 social entrepreneurs regarding the fit between their leadership practices, social enterprises and the Vietnamese societal ecosystem. Results from semi-structured go-along interviews foreground the importance of fit between the societal eco-system, key cultural values and relational practices, entrepreneur leadership and the structure and functioning of social enterprises in achieving their pro-social missions. This article contributes to emerging literature on the sustainability of social enterprises in emerging economies and is currently being drawn upon in the development of policy responses in Vietnam.