Socioeconomic Hierarchy Research Articles

“Settler Maintenance” and Migrant Domestic Worker Ecologies of Care

Oral histories of Latina domestic workers in the United States feature hybrid narratives combining accounts of illness and “toxic discourse”. We approach domestic workers’ illnesses and disabilities in a capacious, extra-medical context that registers multiple axes of precarity (economic, racial, and migratory). We are naming this context “settler maintenance”. Riffing on the specific and general valences of “maintenance” (i.e., as a synonym for cleaning work, and as a term for the practices and ideologies involved in a structure’s upkeep), this term has multiple meanings. First, it describes U.S. domestic workers’ often-compulsory use of hazardous chemical agents that promise to remove dirt speedily, yet that imperil domestic workers’ health. The use of these chemicals perpetuates two other, more abstract kinds of settler maintenance: (1) the continuation of socioeconomic hierarchies between immigrant domestic workers and settler employers, and (2) the continuation of (white) settlers’ extractive relationship to the land qua private property. To challenge this logic of settler maintenance, which is predicated on a lack of care for care workers, Latina domestic workers have developed alternative forms of care via lateral networks and political activism.

Beer, barley, livestock, milk: Who adopts agricultural innovations in rural Rajasthan?

Research conducted in developing countries in the past 50 years generally suggests that most agricultural innovations (whether technological, social, or financial in nature) end up reinforcing existing socio-economic hierarchies based on gender and class. Most of these findings are drawn from the Green Revolution, which focused overwhelmingly on high-yielding varieties of rice, maize, and wheat, along with the introduction or expansion of irrigation and extension services and the use of fertilizers and pesticides. Less is known about how agricultural innovations involving other crops or livestock, especially if introduced in tandem, perform in alleviating poverty or reducing gender inequality. We conducted a study in three agricultural communities in rural Rajasthan, India to understand how the adoption of agricultural innovations for barley cultivation and livestock rearing are influenced by the gender, age, and class background of farmers, and whether such innovations can alleviate poverty and promote gender equality in rural settings. We found that although innovation adoption is influenced by gender, class and age (with gender exerting a stronger influence than class or age), poorer farmers and women can under certain circumstances benefit from agricultural innovations adopted initially by wealthier male farmers.

Friends, neighbors, country, and respect: Status ladders and health behaviors in the United States

Efforts to understand the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and health have expanded beyond traditional indicators of education, income, occupation, and wealth to individuals’ own reports of where they stand. This more contemporary approach has enjoyed considerable success, in that self-reported SES standing, often measured on a ladder representing the entire U.S. socioeconomic hierarchy, is associated strongly with health even when traditional SES indicators are controlled. However, disparities in self-rated health across ladder measures typically are not assessed with regard to health behavior disparities. Here, we draw on two US national probability samples assessing diverse ladder reference groups, as well as a new ladder asking people to report how much respect, honor, or esteem they receive from other people. Respect or honor offers a distinct potential to measure social influence across circles of recognition. We find that U.S.-based ladder status is related to smoking currently or ever and to days of exercise. While friend, neighbor, and respect-based ladders do not relate to health behaviors net of U.S. ladder standing, they show relationships to ever smoking and physical activity, and self-rated health, in their own right. Physical activity accounts for 12–18% of self-rated health disparities by friend, neighbor, or country ladder status. Smoking and drinking do not robustly contribute to ladder-based disparities in self-rated health. Contrasting what is typically found for traditional SES measures, physical activity merits further research, as does the receipt of respect or honor. That status ladder health disparities go largely unexplained by behaviors suggests the potential roles of non-behavioral pathways including inflammation, hopelessness, or classism.

Is being elite the same as living an easy life? Two distinct ways of experiencing subjective socioeconomic status.

Socioeconomic status (SES) predicts a large number of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors; here, we build on these findings to try to paint a comprehensive picture of what people who occupy different SES ranks are like. Existing findings attribute a mixed set of psychological patterns to people who consider themselves near the top of the socioeconomic hierarchy; these individuals are variously portrayed as selfish yet generous, entitled yet happy, and narcissistic yet tolerant. Building on previous efforts to characterize distinct dimensions of SES, we wondered whether there might be distinct but overlapping ways of experiencing one's status in the socioeconomic hierarchy, each linked to a different psychological profile, and each potentially corresponding to a different theoretical approach to the study of SES. We employed a bottom-up, participant-driven approach (total N = 3,338) to identify the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that factor into people's subjective SES. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed that these experiences are best represented by two distinct dimensions-a sense that one belongs to a historical cultural elite (corresponding to SES as early life cultural context) and a sense that one's life is easy (corresponding, though less conclusively, to SES as current rank). We developed scales to measure each dimension and, using these scales, found that the two dimensions help categorize the known correlates of SES into two separate but internally coherent sets of psychological patterns-one magnanimous and one self-focused. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The Size and Structure of the Gender Gap in Economic Evaluations

Gender gaps in partisanship, vote choice, and opinion are well documented in the American electorate. In 2016, men’s and women’s subjective economic evaluations—of their own circumstances and the broader economy—also diverged considerably. We investigate the size, structure, and explanations of this gap. Drawing on cross-sectional and panel data, we show that the gap widened to historic levels following Trump’s election, driven by increased optimism among white men and decline among women of color. Though partisan and objective economic differences across race-gendered groups contribute, they do not fully explain the widening divide. We hypothesize that Trump’s election altered Americans’ understanding of the socioeconomic hierarchy, producing new divides in subjective status perceptions. Gendered and racialized divides in subjective perceptions combined with partisanship and economic circumstances to re-open the gender gap in economic attitudes.

Introducing the Social Constructions of Race, Gender, and Socioeconomic Class in a Health Sciences Curriculum

This paper discusses approaches to teaching an introductory social science course geared toward students majoring in health sciences programs. Using the methodologies and scholarship of history, sociology, anthropology, and political science, the course explores the ways in which conceptions of human identity—namely the categories of race, gender, and socioeconomic class—are socially and culturally meaningful. The authors discuss specific classroom strategies for highlighting the historical role of the natural sciences and the health professions in erecting and reifying social structures of racial, gender, and socioeconomic class hierarchy and oppression and suggest primary sources and classroom exercises to illustrate how the social construction of identity relates and contributes to ongoing health disparities. As instructors, we urge students to consider how they, as future health care providers, might apply these concepts in clinical settings to mitigate harm and promote health equity.

BLPCA-ledger: A lightweight plenum consensus protocols for consortium blockchain based on the hyperledger indy

An examination of different distributed real-time applications operating on the blockchain platform is conducted. These applications can be broadly classified into three types: permissionless public, permissioned private, and consortium chains. In order for a decentralized network to function independently, consensus mechanisms are needed to facilitate the delivery of transactions and keep track of them in a ledger. But the fundamental idea behind Blockchain technology is the use of several consensus protocols, like Proof of Stake, Proof of Elapsed Time, etc., which requires greater processing power. In order to arrange transactions, it increases the demand for buying more computing units. Furthermore, present consortia blockchain consensus mechanisms lack a policy to collect socio-economic financial levies, including monies for charitable donations, education, and social activities. To collect socio-economic taxes, this study suggests a lightweight Plenum consensus algorithm called "BLPCA" for consortium blockchains built on Hyperledger Indy. The Byzantine Fault Tolerance concept combined with optimization is used in the suggested BLPCA systems to manage large-scale decentralized traffic of socioeconomic hierarchy. Because there are no transaction costs, BLPCA encourages government analysts to review funds using fewer resources. By including a multithreading heterogeneous technique, the BLPCA can effectively handle multi-transaction needs and execute this protocol in an industrial setting that operates in real-time. It is observed from the simulations that even in the worst-case network scenario—such as a fork—the suggested consortium blockchain does not crash a single transaction. In order to guarantee node scalability, a high propagation speed is determined. Furthermore, the BLPCA shows an excellent average time while constructing socioeconomic transaction blocks.

‘That is because we are alone’: A relational qualitative study of socio-spatial inequities in maternal and newborn health programme coverage in rural Uttar Pradesh, India

ABSTRACT This qualitative study was conducted in Uttar Pradesh state, India to explore how interrelated socio-economic position and spatial characteristics of four diverse villages may have influenced equity in coverage of community-based maternal and newborn health (MNH) services. We conducted social mapping and three focus group discussions in each village, among women of lower and higher socio-economic position who recently gave birth, and with community health workers (n = 134). Data were analysed in NVivo 11.0 using thematic framework analysis. The extent of socio-economic hierarchies and spatial disparateness within the village, combined with distance to larger centers, together shaped villages’ level of socio-spatial remoteness. Disadvantaged socio-economic groups expressed being more often spatially isolated, with less access to infrastructure, resources or services, which was heightened if the village was physically distant from larger centers. In more socio-spatially remote villages, inequities in coverage of MNH services that disadvantaged lower socio-economic position groups were compounded as these groups more often experienced ASHA vacancies, as well as greater distance to and poorer perceived quality of health services nearest the village. The results inform a conceptual framework of ‘socio-spatial remoteness’ that can guide public health research and programmes to more comprehensively address health inequities within India and beyond.

Tunnels of power: The cultural politics of the Beijing subway

AbstractThis article investigates the cultural politics of the Beijing subway. Drawing on diverse sources, we trace the evolution of the subway over the last half-century to reveal that it transcends its fluctuating, time-specific practicalities to serve as a potent conduit through which the Chinese state consistently shapes subjecthood. The article begins with the subway’s Cold War inception as a military enterprise, spotlighting its deliberate concealment to safeguard the echelons of power and obscure both international and domestic tensions. The second section delves into the subway’s rebirth in the wake of China’s opening-up reform and rapid economic rise, as it transforms into a mobile gallery of political aesthetics that extols China’s cultural heritage and triumphs, cultivating national pride under siege from unleashed market and social forces. The final section dissects the subway’s orchestration of undesirable passengers, sculpting a socioeconomic hierarchy in the city’s commuting system. As a multifaceted prism, the Beijing subway encapsulates a range of covert and overt, pragmatic and aesthetic, and inclusive and exclusive elements in the cultural politics of Chinese infrastructure at large; and it illustrates the sustained centrality of state power in shaping individual subjectivities and defining the cultural and representational significance of Chinese infrastructure, albeit amid growing contestation.

Unravelling the deficit ideologies in English language education in Pakistan: A decolonial perspective

AbstractIn this study the author combines translingualism and raciolinguistic perspectives to analyze the language ideologies and idealized listening/reading subject positions that undergird discourses on English language teaching in Pakistan. Drawing on data from national policy documents, the national curriculum for English, and English proficiency assessment reports, he shows how discourses on English as a medium of instruction, the English language curriculum, and assessment in Pakistan are fraught with deficit ideologies that emphasize a particular view of English proficiency that serves as an imaginary line of demarcation between proficient and deficient English teachers and reinforce linguistic and socioeconomic hierarchies. Instead of reified, Anglo‐normative orientations to English proficiency, the author proposes a translingual orientation that places students' multilingual identities at the center of English language teaching (ELT) practices. He concludes with a call for ELT practitioners and critical language scholars to develop organic links between classroom translingualism and political activism in order to dismantle socioeconomic hierarchies.

“We’re not fully us without our languages”: multilingual Latina educators and raciolinguistic ideological clarity

ABSTRACT Ideological clarity has been defined as a process in which one struggles to identify dominant society’s explanations for existing societal socioeconomic hierarchies and then juxtapose them with one’s own. In this paper, ideological clarity is used to analyze the ability of multilingual Latina educators to identify, name, and disrupt dominant raciolinguistic narratives and their effects on the students they teach. We present the anécdotas – short, illustrative stories frequently used for teaching and learning – of five K-12 multilingual Latina educators to show how they have developed and employed raciolinguistic ideological clarity. Our findings demonstrate that, in identifying, naming, and disrupting dominant raciolinguistic narratives through both their words and their actions, they actively dismantle racial injustice and construct educational possibilities for language minoritized students of color.

Socioeconomic Attributes and Barriers to Healthcare Access: A Perspective of Dependency

It is well documented that people in a low socioeconomic hierarchy have lesser healthcare access than those higher on the hierarchy. However, cases of non-access to healthcare are also observed among those who are at the top of the socioeconomic hierarchy. The main reason is their dependency on others and therefore, healthcare access also needs to be studied from the perspective of dependency on others. The study discusses healthcare access from the perspective of dependency in the context of socioeconomic attributes and barriers. The discussion is mainly based on the existing literature. The attributes such as ‘age’, ‘gender’ and ‘disability’ and the related four kinds of individuals such as children, disabled men, old age men, and women with threshold levels of best socioeconomic attributes at which the dependency still prevents them from healthcare access. Therefore, two corrective measures are necessary here. First, the family and social support and second, the government intervention. Hence, the sociological and behavioural approaches are necessary to incorporate into health policy along with institutional supports like quality health infrastructure and financial protection provisions for equitable healthcare for all.

“You Didn’t Have to Pay Me”: The Meanings of Monetary Incentives in Interview Research

This paper explores the social meanings of monetary research incentives and the ramifications of their use in interview research. I argue that monetary incentives produce complex social meanings that significantly and diversly shape the relationship between interview researchers and participants and, as such, impact the types and volume of data that interviews produce. I discuss three distinct social meanings that emerged in my qualitative research interviews with forty-four low-wage freelance refugee interpreters in Canada. First, I show that in research with low-income workers, incentives can be interpreted as symbols of cross-class allyship that place the researcher in trusting and highly cooperative relationships of solidarity with participants. Second, the use of research incentives may also, and somewhat paradoxically, deepen socio-economic hierarchies by placing researchers and participants in relations resembling those between employers and employees. Third, research incentives may also be used by participants to resist social hierarchies and establish relations of benevolent and charitable equivalence in the interview encounter. Thus, the various social meanings of monetary incentives are productive of distinct interpersonal dynamics that shape the process of data collection as well as recruitment.

Lalon: A Non Sectarian Man and Reformer in Philosophy

This paper focuses on the personal life of the remarkable non-Sectarian philosopher, reformer, and musician Fakir Lalon Sah, who opposes caste, class, gender, and all forms of socioeconomic hierarchy as well as identity politics based on race and nationality. He rejected the notion of class, patriarchy, religion, nation, “path” (hierarchies and the partition of social space that determines who is allowed to accept food and water from whom), and “Jat” (caste). This article reveals spiritualism, mysticism, and human love as a non sectarian man and reformer in his Philosophy. Additionally, this study is a remarkable display of Fakir Lalon’s incredible abilities. Nearly all of his songs, which have a very subtle and concealed significance that lingers with philosophic thinking, showcase his powerful talents.

Sömürgeciliğin İkiyüzlülüğü: This Earth of Mankind Adlı Romanda Irkçılık ve Kimlik Kavramları

This Earth of Mankind, by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, is a moving literary masterpiece that looks into the complexity of identity and the lingering impacts of colonial subjugation. The novel's analysis of oppression reveals the deep web of power relations inherent in colonial countries. The novel illuminates the enormous inequalities between the colonizers and the colonized, as well as the racial and socioeconomic hierarchies that sustain the systemic oppression of the indigenous population. It follows Minke, a Javanese native protagonist, as he struggles with his multiple identities as an educated man finding his way through Dutch-dominated society and as a representation of his indigenous culture. In this regard, this article emphasizes the varied nature of identity creation in a colonial situation through an in-depth investigation of major characters and their relationships. Additionally, the article focuses on how the authoritarian colonial system impacts and constrains the identities of other individuals in the novel. Drawing upon postcolonial theories and historical context as well, this article also sheds light on the recurring themes of identity negotiation, cultural assimilation, and resistance within This Earth of Mankind. It aims to foster a better understanding of the psychological, social, and cultural impacts of colonialism on both the colonizers and the colonized. Ultimately, this article aims to contribute to the ongoing discourse on decolonization, identity politics, and the legacy of colonialism through an in-depth analysis of Toer's masterpiece.

Relational Marginalisation: Comparing Scheduled Tribe Gaddi in Himachal Pradesh and Bhils in Maharashtra, India

The socio-economic condition of Scheduled Tribe (ST) groups of India has been a key academic concern since the administrative category was established by Constitutional Order in 1950. This article explores the integration of ST groups into the present-day Indian capitalist economy along with the social and political forces that have shaped this process of inclusion from the colonial period onwards. Specifically, it compares experiences of residual poverty and relational inequality among two groups administratively classified as ST—Gaddi in Himachal Pradesh and Bhils in Maharashtra. Recognising that Gaddi and Bhils remain rooted at the bottom of socio-economic hierarchies we ask why this remains the case despite affirmative action programmes aimed at ensuring ST inclusion in educational institutions, government jobs and elected bodies along with many welfare schemes. Against the backdrop of booming India, the article documents how Bhils and Gaddis struggle to negotiate the obstacles which block paths to economic and social mobility.

The Moral Matrix of Capitalism: Insights from Central and Eastern Europe

This special section aims to shed light on moral milieus and agencies in contemporary capitalist central and eastern Europe. Drawing on case studies from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania, and Russia, it offers insight into changing perceptions of proper economy and practice amongst a broad range of actors—from landfill workers to business managers and the super-rich. The contributors explore how actors at various scales morally construct, contest, and defend ideas of justice, (re-)distribution, and social worth, as well as socio-economic hierarchy, inequality, and harm. They analyse the capitalist moral transformation and order in the region and examine the local appropriation of and buy-in to (as well as critique of) aspects of neoliberal moral orders—a topic sidelined in much of the existing moral economy scholarship. Exploring a broad range of moral economic phenomena, the contributors move beyond the conventional definition of morals as prosocial norms and action, approaching morals as a broader empirical phenomenon of economy and politics. They examine the actions, practices, and reasoning of different actors in relation to shifting notions of acceptable and unacceptable, just and unjust, and praiseworthy and blameworthy behaviour. As such, this collection makes the case for widening the empirical object and analytical purchase of moral economy to include the study of not only moral critiques and resistance to capitalism but also the diverse moral agencies, milieus and orders of capitalism, and the ways in which the advancement and embedding of the capitalist moral order has shaped economic life in the region.

Book Forum on Ivan Kalmar's White but Not Quite: Central Europe's Illiberal Revolt

This book forum discusses Ivan Kalmar´s pivotal book on the position of “Central Europe” in the racialized hierarchies of “West”/“Europe” and their not-quite-white Others. The authors debate the main contributions and potential blind spots of the book and its key concepts. The concepts of racism and whiteness answer the not-so-new question on Central Europe and Europe's “East” anew: How come that the populations of and in this diverse region happen to repeatedly find themselves in the very same marginal position in European historical orders? This question has very contemporary manifestations; Europe's persistent East-West socio-economic and socio-cultural hierarchies, among others, co-produce the local populations' marginalized or marginalizing positioning vis-à-vis each other and the rest of Europe or the world. In this honest discussion, the authors chart new intellectual pathways for utilizing racism and whiteness to help us better understand this question and its many manifestations from within and outside the region.

A longitudinal study of perceived social position and health-related quality of life

BackgroundA large body of evidence suggests that there is a social gradient in the association between perceived social position and various health outcomes. Yet only a fraction of this research uses longitudinal data, and these studies usually rely on two data points in time, consider a single health outcome measure, overlook non-linear effects of perceived social position, and come almost exclusively from the Western welfare democracies. MethodsUsing data for 1921 individuals from three waves (2008, 2013, 2018) of the Polish Panel Survey (POLPAN), we fit between- and within-individuals hybrid-effects models with cluster-robust standard errors to investigate the association between one's perceived social position (self-placement on a socioeconomic hierarchy scale varying 1 to 10) and subsequent health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measured using the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) and its six components. ResultsWe find that the association between perceived social position and health-related quality of life is larger when estimated between individuals than within individuals, yet in fixed- and hybrid-effects models perceived social position remains significantly and negatively linked with both the aggregated NHP measure as well as with its components such as emotional reaction, physical abilities, sleep, and social isolation. We also identify that starting to perceive oneself at the lower end of the social hierarchy is associated with a deteriorating health-related quality of life but a change at the top of the perceived social hierarchy is not linked with an improvement in NHP scores. ConclusionsWe provide new evidence on the significant and non-linear links between perceived social position and health-related quality of life and highlight possible pathways linking these two aspects of individuals’ lives.

Surgeon Understanding and Perceptions of Social Determinants of Health

IntroductionSocial determinants of health impact surgical outcomes. Characterization of surgeon understanding of social determinants of health is necessary prior to implementation of interventions to address patient needs. The study objective was to explore understanding, perceived importance, and practices regarding social determinants of health among surgeons. MethodsSurgical residents and attending surgeons at a single academic medical center completed surveys regarding social determinants of health. We conducted semi-structured interviews to further explore understanding and perceived importance. A conceptual framework from the World Health Organization (WHO) Commission on Social Determinants of Health informed the thematic analysis. ResultsSurvey response rate was 47.9% (n = 69, 44 residents [63.8%], 25 attendings [36.2%]). Respondents primarily reported good (n = 29, 42.0%) understanding of social determinants of health and perceived this understanding to be very important (n = 42, 60.9%). Documentation occurred seldom (n = 35, 50.7%), and referrals occurred seldom (n = 26, 37.7%) or never (n = 20, 29.0%). Residents reported a higher rate of prior training than attendings (95.5% versus 56.0%, P < 0.001). Ten interviews were conducted (six residents, four attendings). Residents demonstrated greater understanding of socioeconomic positions and hierarchies shaped by structural mechanisms than attendings. Both residents and attendings demonstrated understanding of intermediary determinants of health status and linked social determinants to impacting patients' health and well-being. Specific knowledge gaps were identified regarding underlying structural mechanisms including the social, economic, and political context that influence an individual's socioeconomic position. ConclusionsSelf-reported understanding and importance of social determinants of health among surgeons were high. Interviews revealed gaps in understanding that may contribute to limited practices.