Unequal Practices Research Articles

An Equilibrium of Education Policy by Dr. Ambedkar - A Visionary Aim with Landmark Change Over in India

His words become true, as proved by Dr. Ambedkar with his unstoppable efforts to eradicate the weeds in our country by drafting the Constitution of India and subsidizing various policies and measures. He was the one who paved the way for revolutionary moments on education in India and also believed that “Education is a key to attaining uniformity and regularity to fulfil human needs”. The major obstacles to obtaining the fruit of wisdom were rejected on the grounds of unequal practices and untouchability’s, racialism, upper and lower class people were diverged by the name of case, religion, etc., he is the one who broke up the chain of inequality by framing the “Rule of law” concept under Article 14 - Every person should be treated equally before the law, also by guaranteeing their freedom of expression under Article 19 and protect their right to live with dignity under Article 21 of Indian constitution. He worked tirelessly to provide equal access to education for all Indian people during the constitution's drafting process, free from discrimination or repression. The educational ideas of Dr. Ambedkar, and the laws that were created in accordance with his vision of an ideal society are then the subject of this research paper. Education not only educates the citizens about their rights and how to exercise them, but also about human dignity & justice. Keywords: policy, education, human rights, dignity, and justice.

Low-carbon Energy Transition from the Lens of Feminist Theories

Climate change mitigation pledges require decarbonization of the economy and the creation of a carbon-neutral society. Men and women contribute differently to climate change and have different roles in low-carbon energy transition. Gender roles influence career choices, abilities to invest in low-carbon solutions, power of decision-making, dissimilar mobility and energy consumption demands, and different values and consumption profiles, shaping the individual carbon footprint and behavior. A feminist methodology in gender- just low-carbon energy transformation goes beyond the introduction of certain gender-equal redistribution measures and aims to deal with the core roots of the different unequal practices in all fields of society life. It seeks to rebalance prevailing power arrangements, centering the most marginalized individuals and groups. There are various frameworks developed for the analysis of linkages between climate change and women following the feminist theory, like gender impact assessment (GIA); gender equality training (GET) model, and so on. The paper applies the feminist theory approach to the analysis of low-carbon energy transitions. The main purpose of using a feminist lens in this study is to enable the discovery of how people interact within energy systems and to offer solutions to confront and eradicate oppressive structures for just low-carbon energy transition in the EU.

Inequalities and content moderation

AbstractAs the harms of hate speech, mis/disinformation and incitement to violence on social media have become increasingly apparent, calls for regulation have accelerated. Most of these debates have centred around the needs and concerns of large markets such as the EU and the United States, or the aggressive approach countries such as Russia and China adopt to regulate online content. Our focus in this article is with the rest, the smaller markets at the periphery of the advertising industry, and the deep inequalities that current approaches to content moderation perpetuate. We outline the depth of the unequal practice of moderation, particularly across Africa, and explore the underlying political and economic factors driving this gap. While recognizing content moderation has many limitations, we conclude by underlining potential approaches to increase oversight in content moderation.

Seeing Muslim Men and Women Hermeneutically: A Liberal-Feminist Study on Amina Wadud’s Qur’an Exegesis

Gender inequality became one of the important issues in the US as it intersects with other societal aspects, one of which is religion. In the last century, the US has seen a fast-growing number of believers in Islam, despite its unequal practices based on gender. American Muslim women are not only treated differently due to religious beliefs but also to racial backgrounds. The emergence of Amina Wadud, a female Imam with an African-American background, brings new thoughts on the position of women in Islam. Employing the Post-Nationalist approach combined with Rosemarie Tong’s liberal feminism theory, this article analyzes Wadud’s Qur’an and Women: Re-reading the Sacred Text from a Woman’s Perspective to reveal her thinking in becoming a female Imam in the US, as well as her fights against injustices towards Muslim women. It finds that her background as an African-American woman, a second class in American society, pushes her to put women’s rights in Islam forward, which are not consistent in the Qur’an. She re-interprets it with the hermeneutic method, putting women and men in the same position. While her pro-faith determination for equality drives her to overcome the rejection from the American Muslim community when she became an imam in a mixed congregation of Friday prayers.

NFTs and Value

NFTs and Value

Inequalities in Private Tutoring of English: A Phenomenological Qualitative Study Based on Bangladeshi Higher Secondary Students

This phenomenological qualitative study analyzes the lived experiences of eleven Bangladeshi higher secondary students in mainstream schools to provide insight into their thoughts, feelings, beliefs, values, and assumptions of private tutoring in English (PT-E). The study also focused on PT-E that contribute to inequalities between students who have access to private tutoring and those who do not. Each participant participated in a one-to-one in-depth semi-structured interview. Using phenomenological analysis, 321 significant statements and three themes emerged. The data show that unequal practice, discrimination due to financial capability, and social psyche for PT-E that influences students to widen the negative impacts of PT-E between students, particularly those who do not have an access in private tutoring of English (PT-E).

CHINA’S ENGAGEMENT WITH AFRICA: PROMOTING RENTIERISM? A CASE STUDY OF SINO-NIGERIAN ECONOMIC RELATIONS

This paper seeks to explore the political implications of China's economic relationship with Africa using the case study of Sino-Nigerian economic relations. China – perhaps the most prominent rising economy of the contemporary era – and Nigeria – one of the Africa's largest economies with a fast-growing consumer population – provide an ideal context to study the economic significance of bilateral ties for the ‘Global South.’ Nigeria's prospects of sustained economic growth, through Sino diplomatic relations, could appear relatively bleak considering issues involving its growing debt burden, unequal trade composition and deteriorating governance standards, some of which are attributable to China. This paper explores both sides of the argument before concluding that certain political aspects of Sino-Nigerian bilateral relations do indeed undermine sustainable economic development in the long run. It is argued that unequal economic practices, lack of transparency, disregard for environmental concerns, exclusion of civil society and absence of serious engagement with wider social actors and other checks and balances could indeed nurture elements of rentierism across Africa – particularly in resource-rich countries like Nigeria leaving significant detrimental effects that could well outweigh short-term gains.

La construcción de sujetos en torno a la institucionalización de políticas públicas de género en Chile.

Este artículo analiza cómo se construyen sujetos por parte del Estado en torno a la institucionalización de políticas de género en un contexto neoliberal, sustentada en mi investigación de maestría “La paradoja entre los discursos de igualdad y las prácticas desiguales. La construcción de sujetos en torno al género en Chile: El caso del Servicio Nacional de la Mujer”. Se hace revisión a los condicionamientos estructurales del neoliberalismo y las relaciones entre Estado y política pública en el contexto de institucionalización de las demandas del movimiento feminista “Concertación Nacional de Mujeres por la Democracia”[1] en la creación del Servicio Nacional de la Mujer en 1991.
 [1] A lo largo del texto se utilizará la sigla “CNMD”. This article analyzes how is the State’s subject construction on gender policies institutionalization on a neoliberal context. It’s based on my master's thesis research called “The paradox between equality discourses and unequal practices. Subject’s construction around gender in Chile: The case of the National Women's Service”. It reviews neoliberalism structural conditionings, the relationship between State and public policy on the context of institutionalization of feminist movement “Women`s National Concentration for Democracy” demands on the creation of the National Women's Service on 1991.

‘Whingeing’ husbands: men’s practices of intimacy and inequality in urban China

This article examines different forms of inequality within men’s practices of intimacy in urban China. Focusing on the gloomy side of intimacy described by three husbands, it seeks to unravel what stands behind the language of complaints and dislikes. The data reveals that practices of intimacy do not always entail positive feelings, but can sometimes be experienced unpleasantly. It is argued that practices of intimacy are often implicated in practices of gender, class and culture. By whingeing about how their wives fail to perform proper femininities, these men reaffirm the traditional privileges of husbands and achieve a stronger sense of themselves as the authority figure in the family, as stressed in Confucian Chinese culture. While these men demonstrate varying levels of reflexive negotiations that leave space for more marital equality, their unequal practices of intimacy serve to reinforce the existing gender hierarchy and social structure in contemporary China.

Women (Not) Troubling “the Family”: Exploring Women’s Narratives of Gendered Family Practices

This article is concerned with examining the ways in which young women make choices about their family lives and in so doing reproduce traditional unequal gender norms and family practices. In a time when it is (supposedly) increasingly easy to live alternative lives (living apart together, for example), a significant number of young people continue to marry and live together in heteronormative family units. By exploring the narratives produced in interviews with 22 young, heterosexual British women, this article aims to understand why unequal gender norms continue to guide behavior regarding sexuality in relationships, name-changing on marriage, and household divisions of labor. Exploring how decisions are made in a bricolage of reflexive, habitual, and taken-for-granted ways, this article concludes that by piecing together ideas from past and present, constraint is reconfigured as choice in order to provide legitimacy and power over life decisions bounded by gendered expectations and inequalities.

“It's the bride's day”: The paradox of women's emancipation

The white wedding is a traditional ritual, governed by heteronormative conventions, which (re)produces stereotypical and patriarchal gender norms. In this study 10 white, South African, middle-class, heterosexual, newlywed couples were interviewed about their wedding ceremonies. The interviews were analysed using Parker's (2005) framework for discourse analytic reading. This helped us analyse two related discourses, the “fairy-tale” and “bride's day” discourse that allowed couples to justify gender unequal practices. The findings suggest that wedding discourses encourage (1) the objectification of women and their treatment in a benevolently sexist manner, (2) the unequal distribution of wedding labour between the bride and groom and, ultimately, (3) the perpetuation of women's subordination in heterosexual relationships. Participating in the rituals of the white wedding maintains taken-for-granted heteronormative discourses that undermine gender equality and, ultimately, women's emancipation.

Why do conflicts over money occur between partners? Exploring the explanations of childbearing adults in Finland

ABSTRACT Compared to other sources of couple conflicts, disputes over finances are more difficult to resolve than other types of arguments. Still, little is known about what causes these disputes and how partners experience them. This study uses Huston’s (2000) social ecological framework to explore how individuals explain conflicts over finances in their current romantic relationship. The study involved semi-structured interviews with individuals currently living in an intimate relationship. The key findings suggest that individuals explain conflicts in their relationships with macroenvironmental factors (feelings of economic pressure or a challenging life phase), issues concerning their relationship interactions and practices (troubles in communication, dissatisfaction with unequal practices), and individual characteristics and experiences (spousal differences concerning views on money and consuming, life history and past experiences). As such, all of these levels should be taken into account to understand the financial conflicts which occur between spouses, and in professional work that aims to help couples to tackle these issues.

Rehabilitation capital: a new form of capital to understand rehabilitation in a Nordic welfare state

ABSTRACTSocial, educational and health related equality is an ideal in the Nordic welfare states. However studies have shown that well-positioned patients achieve better treatment and more services, for example time and examinations, than others do. This article examines how patients and relatives mobilise resources in decision-making in a stroke unit. In particular, it focuses on the challenges in optimising the rehabilitation process faced by patients and relatives, and the strategies they use. Data were generated using participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Qualitative content analysis was applied to investigate the patients’ and relatives’ experiences of decision-making. We present a field-specific form of capital: An individual or a family's resources that are valued in the field of rehabilitation as physical, behavioural and cognitively embedded attitudes and practices. Rehabilitation capital consists of four closely interrelated components: Performative Participation (Cognitively Embedded Performance and Self-initiating Activities), Bodily Progression, Institutional Acceptance and Institutional Potential. It is a resource potentially benefitting patients and relatives during inpatient rehabilitation and may provide patients with an advantage, to ensure the best rehabilitation. The possession of Rehabilitation capital (high or low) contributes explanations for unequal practices and treatments at a micro-level in healthcare institutions.

Colombia’s nationwide EFL policy and the construction of equity in policy documents

The Colombia Bilingüe (Colombia Bilingual)1 program was introduced by the Ministry of Education (MEN) in 2004 with aims of increasing the teaching and learning of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) at primary, secondary and tertiary education level. However, this program has failed to reach its set language goals and has come under strong criticism. Scholars suggest that Colombia Bilingual has not only been unsuccessful in improving English skills but has resulted in unequal practices by favoring language instrumentation, marketization of language services and stratification of people. This paper offers a Critical Discourse Analysis of seven policy papers set forward by the government that have introduced and given continuation to this program. I will argue that the construction of equity in Colombia’s EFL policy is framed within a limited interpretation that has mainly given priority to improving Colombia’s international competitiveness while overlooking other important elements of equity such as autonomy, identity, and equality. I will conclude that the presence of social efficiency messages in the policy documents substantiates previous studies’ criticism and highlights the importance of policy documents towards reaching more equitable language learning practices.

Theorists and Thieves

From 1972 to 1989, an obscure sect of Danish Maoists developed a unique synthesis of orthodox Marxism-Leninism, theories of imperialism and unequal exchange, and legal and illegal practice that distinguishes it from any other group then active in Europe or North America.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Avoiding Unwarranted Segregation of Students With Behavioral Needs: Lessons Learned

Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 requires that state and local agencies refrain from the discrimination of individuals with disabilities by providing them with services in the most integrated setting appropriate. Despite this mandate, state and local education agencies across the country engage in practices that could be characterized as providing unwarranted segregation and unequal education practices. One such example is a U.S. Department of Justice investigation of the Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Services. The Department of Justice issued guidelines for appropriate program modifications, including proper evaluation procedures, appropriate entrance and exit standards, effective behavioral and mental health education services, and equal education and extracurricular opportunities. Implications for practitioners, in light of these suggested guidelines, are detailed.

Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power ed. by Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker

Reviewed by: Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power ed. by Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker Thanet Aphornsuvan1 Unequal Thailand: Aspects of Income, Wealth and Power Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker (eds) Singapore: NUS Press, 2016. 208pp. ISBN: 978-981-4722-00-1 This is a book about the political economy of Thailand in the globalized era, focusing especially on the sensitive and much concerned issue plaguing the nation for a long time: inequality. What makes Thailand so conspicuous on this issue is the central theme of the book. The authors studied sources of money income and the social structure, which generate a kind of power that enables the privileged to be richer and more powerful while spelling an unfortunate future [End Page 161] for the working population. The book chapters are the fruits of a research project on ‘Towards a More Equitable Thailand: A study of Wealth, Power, and Reform’. In the tumultuous years during which the nation was divided into two colours of yellow and red with sharp differences in political ideologies, the authors of these chapters were moved to take a more serious look at the phenomenon of inequality in Thai society. Unequal Thailand persuasively argues that the increase in inequality is a product of oligarchy, the rule of the few, one that involves the political system as well as the driving of economic forces creating a new and modern society in which people’s lives have improved in many ways. Yet the small elite were, and are, in control of the vision and reality of the future of the country. In this timely and much-needed book on the sensitive issue of inequality in Thailand, the authors analyse unequal practices and the policies and politics that reproduce the Thai oligarchy. The editors of Unequal Thailand, Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit are well-known scholars of Thai political economy and political history. Their meticulous approach to the study of political economy and careful analyses of the connections between economy and politics in Thailand are evident here in the first chapter. The introductory chapter gives the volume cohesion and persuasively argues that the increase in inequality has been a product of oligarchy, the rule of the few. Based upon the Gini index (a measure of income distribution in which a higher figure means greater inequality), Thailand became one of the most unequal countries in thirty years of economic development from the 1969s to 1990s with the index rising from 0.413 to 0.536. The prominent factors which contributed to this trend included government policies that favoured capital while repressing working people, the concentration of growth mainly in and around Bangkok, the prices, profits, and salaries for some adjusted towards international levels as well as the increase in value of property as globalization enveloped Thailand. From the mid-1970s onwards, world agricultural prices fell relentlessly, bringing down farmers’ income. On top of these factors Thailand lacked strong political will to resolve this growing problem of inequality among the country’s political and bureaucratic leaders. The rest of the book has eight chapters, which make use of government data to show how inequality in economics, politics, and education is sustained in Thailand. The second chapter by Duangmanee Laovakul on ‘Concentration of Land and Other Wealth in Thailand’ is a revelation about the main problem of equity and social justice in a country where agriculture has dominated the economy for so long. Land has been the most fundamental means of production in Thai society since at least the beginning of the formation of the Bangkok Empire under the Chakri dynasty in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Historically, the Ayutthaya king was the ‘lord of the land’ and ‘lord of people’s lives’ to whom all land in the kingdom belonged; no individual ownerships were ever granted to the nobility and phrai (commoners) of the kingdom except usufruct rights or use rights over designated land. The fact that the researcher of the chapter accessed data from the Land Department, a first in the study of land ownership, also tells us about the nature of politics and power involving the management of land in Thailand. The study clearly...

Percepción de estudiantes universitarios sobre algunos aspectos de su construcción social genérica

El artículo presenta percepciones que tienen estudiantes universitarios varones y mujeres acerca de prácticas genéricas que asimilan como equitativas e inequitativas en su círculo primario de socialización; qué papeles genéricos se les asignaron en su familia y en los juegos de su infancia, teniendo en cuenta que las construcciones culturales, impuestas, binarias y convencionales influyen en la construcción de la identidad de género de los sujetos y sienta las bases de las normas de funcionamiento de la sociedad; sin embargo, se sustenta que éstas no son definitivas, pues como toda construcción, pueden cambiar. En esta lógica, se muestran conjuntamente las manifestaciones con las que estos sujetos han tomado distancia de lo que se les enseñó sobre cómo debería ser una mujer y cómo debería ser un hombre, acompañadas de sus reflexiones que intentan romper en el entorno cotidiano con relaciones de género desiguales y la posible transformación de prácticas inequitativas en favor de prácticas equitativas. El artículo forma parte de una investigación más amplia sobre percepciones de estudiantes universitarios respecto a la equidad de género.

Da sentença de Atouguia (1307) ao regimento de Tomé de Sousa para o Brasil (1548): semelhanças e novidades nas relações entre o poder régio e senhorial em Portugal

Esta breve comunicação tem por objetivo estabelecer semelhanças e diferenças entre dois momentos e dois processos de "senhorialização" e "centralização do poder régio" em espaços geográficos muito distantes: um, no já bem definido território europeu do reino de Portugal, no tempo de D. Dinis; outro, no espaço imenso e indefinido do Brasil recém descoberto, na época de D. João III. A comparação é delicada (e mesmo discutível) se não se tiver em conta que são séculos diferentes, espaços geográficos díspares e decorre de textos de duas instâncias jurídicas e políticas desiguais: uma sentença judicial e um regimento de governo. Por outro lado, o texto visa avaliar até que ponto é pertinente a expressão Idade Média brasileira (1521-1580), dada como título a um dos volumes da conhecida História da Colonização Portuguesa do Brasil, coordenada por Carlos Malheiro Dias e editada entre 1921-1924 para comemorar em Portugal e no Brasil o primeiro centenário da independência da antiga colónia. Comparando os tipos de regime económico, os modelos de sociedade senhorial e as formas de articulação com o poder régio, chama-se a atenção para a falta de estudos de carácter económico e social de que aquela história enferma e que é uma das suas maiores lacunas. Finalmente, pretende-se fazer um apelo à leitura crítica de uma obra monumental (se bem que incompleta) da historiografia da Expansão portuguesa, relativamente ostracizada e esquecida, mas que, paradoxalmente, é bastante utilizada e citada não se ocultando totalmente a discrição com que se faz serventia da riqueza da documentação transcrita nos seus apêndices e de algumas das suas sínteses.

A qualitative examination of safety-related compliance challenges for global manufacturing

Globally operating machine manufacturing companies need practices for recognising local safety requirements, as well as for designing the products for, and delivering them to, wider markets. This study aimed to determine (1) companies’ product delivery strategies for managing product safety compliance and conformity in their supply chains, (2) the problems that arise in managing the product safety-related requirements and (3) how companies tackle these problems. The study comprised interviews with 25 representatives of 2 large internationally operating European companies manufacturing machines for use at work. The companies’ strategies for decoupling the local safety requirements from their standard products covered make-to-stock, assemble-to-order, make-to-order and engineering-to-order. The problems were experienced mostly in systematic discovering and processing of the requirements, responsibility issues and unequal practices within global organisation. To tackle these problems, a company must have tools and practices to manage the information needs and understand the concepts of product delivery strategies.Relevance to human factors/ergonomics theoryCompanies must have tools to integrate the design of safe and ergonomic products into engineering design process. This article discusses the safety design of machines intended for use at work from the compliance management and supply chain management perspectives. The topics are not new per se, but they can create a novel combination in the safety research for the scientific community. This article provides novel information for the safety researchers regarding safety-related challenges within global business as well as the applicability of adapted theories in safety research. As a conclusion, the authors give recommendations to better tackle the issue of manufacturing-compliant products cost-effectively for differing customers and markets.