Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Intersectional Praxis and Disability in Higher Education
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7085
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7085
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 362-372
Author-Name: Marie Sépulchre
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Work, Lund University, Sweden
Abstract: This article explores whether intersectional praxis can be discerned in the provision of disability/accessibility resources in higher education in Sweden and the United States. Analysing interviews with administrative staff based on hypothetical scenarios (vignettes) that could qualify as situations of disability discrimination, this article identifies several situations of (missed) opportunities for intersectional praxis. It then proceeds with a discussion of participants’ conceptions of disability and organisational possibilities for collaborations with other offices at their university or college. Although opportunities for intersectional praxis are generally absent or missed in both countries, the article argues that American participants were closer to such critical praxis because they tended to consider disability in terms of barriers and as a structural issue, and advocated for the recognition of disability as diversity. By contrast, the Swedish participants seemed further away from an intersectional praxis because they tended to view disability as a difficulty that requires individualised support measures and as a situational issue regarding the learning environment. The article proposes that these differences are connected to differences regarding disability and anti‐discrimination politics in both countries. In the US, disability politics have been characterised by a civil rights and social justice approach, while in Sweden disability politics have been conceived in terms of welfare services and a relational approach to disability. This article concludes that the conception of intersectionality as a critical praxis offers an original lens to gain new insights into how disability inclusion is promoted in different contexts.
Keywords: accommodations; anti‐discrimination; disability; diversity; equity; higher education; inclusion; intersectionality; praxis; Sweden; United States
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:362-372

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Person‐Centred Planning in Centres of Activities for Inclusion
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7068
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7068
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 350-361
Author-Name: Lénia Carvalhais
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Psychology and Education, Portucalense University, Portugal
Author-Name: Ana Rita Fernandes
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Psychology and Education, Portucalense University, Portugal
Author-Name: Lígia Almeida
Author-Workplace-Name: Iberoamerican Observatory of Health and Citizenship, Health Sciences Centre of the Federal University of Paraíba, Brazil
Abstract: Person‐centred planning includes the active social participation of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and is the fairest path towards assuring human rights and citizenship among people with IDD. Semi‐structured interviews were undertaken with four technicians from centres of activities in Portugal, four family members, and four adults with IDD to observe the best practices that facilitate/hinder the implementation of person‐centred interventions. Several discrepancies were identified regarding inclusive practices in centres of activities and capacity building, associated with the sense of mission, vision and perspective of technical structures, the bureaucratic weight that conditions the transition between intervention models, the participation and positioning of families regarding their representation of the centres, as well as the investment these centres make concerning effective and fair inclusion in surrounding communities. Still far from successful implementation, a person‐centred approach must be considered and include all participants’ perspectives to build robust and integral life projects.
Keywords: CACI; capacity building centres; diversity; inclusion; intellectual disability; organisations; person‐centred planning; Portugal
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:350-361

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Latin American Perspectives on Parenthood and Disability: Vulnerability, Risk, and Social Inclusion
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7046
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7046
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 338-349
Author-Name: Laura Sanmiquel-Molinero
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Psychology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
Author-Name: Joan Pujol-Tarrés
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Psychology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
Author-Name: Marisela Montenegro
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Psychology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
Abstract: Despite the growing recognition and acceptance of disabled people’s sexuality, there are barriers to parenthood anchored in metaphors of vulnerability and risk. The social inclusion of disabled parents seems both desirable and risky, making disabled parenthood one of the current frontiers of inclusion for the disabled body. The interest in disabled parenting in Anglo-Saxon academic literature has barely been considered related to Latin American production. This article aims to address this gap by exploring the Latin American scientific community’s understanding of parenthood and disability. To do so, we conduct a pragmatic discourse analysis of Latin American scientific articles in Web of Science (in English) and RedALyC and SciELO (in Spanish). Our findings show how the Latin American scientific community draws on different models of disability—in some cases introducing an intersectional perspective—that reproduce metaphors of vulnerability/risk regarding parenthood. We conclude by highlighting the importance of establishing dialogues between critical perspectives on disability from the Anglo-Saxon and Latin American contexts to address the complexities of the reproduction processes of disabled people. These dialogues can contribute to problematising the metaphor of vulnerability/risk currently associated with disabled parenthood.
Keywords: critical disability studies; disabled parenthood; Latin America; risk; vulnerability
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:338-349

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Intersecting Disability and Poverty in the Global South: Barriers to the Localization of the UNCRPD
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7246
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7246
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 326-337
Author-Name: Shaun Grech
Author-Workplace-Name: CBM, CBID Initiative, Germany / Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Author-Name: Jörg Weber
Author-Workplace-Name: CBM, CBID Initiative, Germany / Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Author-Name: Sarah Rule
Author-Workplace-Name: CBM, CBID Initiative, Germany
Abstract: The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) remains in place as the major disability rights instrument recognising that all persons with disabilities must enjoy human rights and freedoms as every other person. However, the CRPD does not automatically confer realization of these rights. In practice, its implementation is met by multiple hurdles, most pronounced at the local level in the Global South, where disability and poverty intersect. This article reports on findings from a study in five countries (Kenya, Philippines, Jamaica, Guatemala, and South Africa) looking at the extent to which the CRPD is being implemented locally in contexts of poverty, and the factors and processes impacting this localization. The findings highlight multiple barriers, becoming more pronounced in local rural areas. These include weak and fragmented organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs), political and legal issues, and a siloed approach where disability is marginalised in mainstream areas, including development. These barriers are accentuated as intersectional dimensions are factored in, including indigeneity, age, gender, race, and ethnicity. Overall, each local context is left to its own devices, with urban stakeholders, unknowing of what life in poverty is like and how this reframes the CRPD in discourse and practice at the forefront. Our study concludes that there is a profound need for an informed, contextualized, intersectional, and geopolitical analysis where poverty is kept sharply in focus. This is essential to move beyond unrealistic assumptions about disability rights frameworks and to work towards truly localized and transformative efforts.
Keywords: disability rights; Global South; human rights; localization; UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; poverty
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:326-337

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Disability, Religion, and Gender: Exploring Experiences of Exclusion in India Through an Intersectional Lens
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7129
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7129
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 314-325
Author-Name: Stephen Thompson
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK
Author-Name: Brigitte Rohwerder
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK
Author-Name: Dolon Mukherjee
Author-Workplace-Name: Independent Researcher, India
Abstract: Despite the existence of national and international laws and conventions to avoid discrimination in India, exclusion due to an intersection of disability, gender, and religious identity continues, resulting in marginalisation from society. This article investigates the lived experiences of people by exploring how aspects of their identity intersect to influence their inclusion or exclusion within society. Narrative interviews were undertaken with 25 participants with disabilities in the states of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. This qualitative methodology was employed to allow the participants to recount their experiences (both positive and negative) in their own words. A thematic analysis of the data provided rich evidence of the complex social structure in India, manifested by the multifaceted intersectional nature of social inclusion and exclusion. Our research found that for our participants disability was the main factor upon which discrimination was based, but that this discrimination is often compounded for people with disabilities due to their minority religious status, or gender. Marginalisation of people with disabilities is shown to be exacerbated when these identities intersect. Action is needed to ensure the human rights of people with disabilities are realised and that discrimination and marginalisation are avoided for those who have different identities compared to the majority of the population.
Keywords: disability; gender; inclusion; India; intersectionality; marginalization; narrative interviews; religion
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:314-325

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Women and the Federation of Disability Organizations in Malawi: Experiences of Struggle and Solidarity
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7116
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7116
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 303-313
Author-Name: Sarah Huque
Author-Workplace-Name: Counselling, Psychotherapy & Applied Social Sciences, University of Edinburgh, UK
Abstract: Women with disabilities are among the most marginalised members of the Federation of Disability Organizations in Malawi (FEDOMA), facing particular challenges related to sexual and gender‐based violence and family/home life; women with disabilities are both abused because of their embodied womanhood and denied many socially‐valued “traditional women’s roles.” However, women within Malawi’s disability rights movement transgress the boundaries of these social restraints. In this article, I share stories of women disability activists, drawn from an interview and participant observation‐based project, co‐designed with FEDOMA to explore the experiences of grassroots activists. In telling their stories, the women of FEDOMA detailed processes of empowerment and change, combatting their own and others’ experiences of violence, abuse, and exclusion. I discuss the ways in which women activists embodied roles that altered their communities and built activist networks, supporting one another in expressing agency, strength, and solidarity. Their work highlights a politics of care that emphasises the “traditional” and the “modern,” incorporating individualised human rights discourse into an ethics of community caring and expanding this collective inclusion to the oppressed and marginalised. In focusing on the experiences of Malawi’s women disability activists, we gain a more complex understanding of mechanisms of marginalisation, resistance, and empowerment.
Keywords: activism; advocacy; Afro‐centric disability studies; disability; feminine politics of care; hybridity; Malawi; women’s resistance
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:303-313

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Halin ai: Intersectional Experiences of Disability, Climate Change, and Disasters in Indonesia
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7105
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7105
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 291-302
Author-Name: Desy Ayu Pirmasari
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Geography, University of Leeds, UK
Author-Name: Katie McQuaid
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Geography, University of Leeds, UK
Abstract: <em>Halin ai</em> centres the lived experiences of climate change and disasters of people living with disabilities in two urban sites in Indonesia—Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan and Mataram in West Nusa Tenggara. We call for an intersectional and decolonial approach to better understand how disabilities intersect with social and structural injustices in urban settings to shape diverse responses to climate change and disasters. We highlight the economic, socio‐cultural, and embodied challenges that increase vulnerability to—and ability to recover from—disasters including urban flooding and earthquakes. We draw on ethnographic and visual data from our research, including a comic illustrated by Ariel and Zaldi and sketches by Rizaldi, to centre diverse lived experiences of structural vulnerabilities and socio‐cultural marginalisation, particularly concerning education and livelihoods. Foregrounding life stories in this way serves to challenge the absence of meaningful engagement of people with disabilities in disaster risk reduction and climate change actions and decision‐making. Our article highlights disability as a site of both discrimination and critical embodied knowledge, simultaneously a product of structural, socio‐cultural, political, and environmental injustice while also a source of innovation, resilience, and agency.
Keywords: climate change; decolonial; disability; disasters; hazards; Indonesia
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:291-302

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Disabled People and the Intersectional Nature of Social Inclusion
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7798
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7798
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 287-290
Author-Name: Alexis Buettgen
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, McMaster University, Canada
Author-Name: Fernando Fontes
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Author-Name: Susan Eriksson
Author-Workplace-Name: Juvenia Center of Youth Research and Development, South‐Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, Finland
Abstract: This editorial introduces a thematic issue of Social Inclusion focusing on disabled people and the intersectional nature of social inclusion. This thematic issue includes transnational and transdisciplinary studies and expressions of lived experiences facing disabled people, their families, and allies across the globe from a social, human rights, and/or disability justice perspective. The articles comprising this issue include an explicit recognition and discussion of intertwined and socially constructed identities, labels, power, and privilege as explicated by pioneering Black feminists who introduced the concept of intersectionality. Taken together, the articles within this issue identify and articulate the powerful ideological forces and subsequent policies and practices working against transformational action. As such, we are not calling for the inclusion of disabled people into society as it is today—wrought with social, economic, and environmental crises. Rather, we seek a transformation of the status quo whereby disabled people are respected as an inherent part of human diversity with gifts and worthiness untangled from a capitalist and colonial system of exploitation, extraction, and oppression. This means that achieving social justice and inclusion requires radically reordering our economic and political systems. This thematic issue illuminates the impacts and root causes of exclusion to foment critical thinking about the possibilities for social inclusion from the perspective of those who are marginalized by the status quo.
Keywords: disability; disability justice; human rights; intersectionality; social model
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:287-290

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Digitalization Boost of the Covid‐19 Pandemic and Changes in Job Quality
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7082
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7082
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 274-286
Author-Name: Teresa Sophie Friedrich
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Germany
Author-Name: Basha Vicari
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Employment Research (IAB), Germany
Abstract: The Covid‐19 pandemic caused a digitalization boost, mainly through the rise of telework. Even before the pandemic, advancing digital transformation restructured the way of working and thereby changed the quality of jobs—albeit at a different pace across occupations. With data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), we examine how job quality and the use of digital technologies changed during the first pandemic year in different occupations. Building on this, we analyze change score models to investigate how increased workplace digitalization connects to changes in selected aspects of employees’ subjective job quality. We find only a weak association between the digitalization boost in different occupational fields and the overall decrease in subjective job quality. However, telework—as one aspect of digitalization—is connected to a smaller decrease in work–family reconciliation and conformable working hours. Thus, it may buffer some detrimental pandemic effects on job quality. In addition, telework is connected to increased information overload, creating a new burden for specific employee groups.
Keywords: digitalized workplaces; information overload; job quality; occupations; telework; work autonomy
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:274-286

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Domestic Cleaners in the Informal Labour Market: New Working Realities Shaped by the Gig Economy?
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7119
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7119
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 262-273
Author-Name: Laura Wiesböck
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Advanced Studies Vienna, Austria
Author-Name: Julia Radlherr
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Advanced Studies Vienna, Austria
Author-Name: Mai Linh Angelique Vo
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Advanced Studies Vienna, Austria
Abstract: Previous studies show that gig economy‐based work opens up new ways in which inequalities are (re)produced. In this context, it is particularly important to look at female cleaners in private households, where gender inequalities intersect with other axes of disadvantage such as class, migratory experience, or ascribed ethnicity. This spatially and linguistically fragmented group presents challenges for scientific research, which is reflected in insufficient data available to date. The aim of the project GigClean—from which research for this article is drawn—is to address this gap. The guiding research question is: How do domestic cleaners in the informal labour market experience working in the gig economy? The methodological design consists of 15 problem‐centred interviews with platform‐based cleaning labourers in private households in Vienna, who predominantly operate in the informal economy. Our results suggest that undeclared domestic work via online plat‐forms is associated with increased power gaps between workers and clients as well as changing working conditions to the detriment of cleaners. Specifically, three recurring themes could be identified: reserve army mechanisms; lookism, objectification, and sexual harassment; and information asymmetry and control.
Keywords: digitalisation; domestic cleaning; gender; gig economy; household labour; informal economy; labour market; platform work; social reproduction; Vienna
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:262-273

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Dependency and Social Recognition of Online Platform Workers: Evidence From a Mixed‐Methods Study
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7186
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7186
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 251-261
Author-Name: Dominik Klaus
Author-Workplace-Name: Health Economics and Policy, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria
Author-Name: Barbara Haas
Author-Workplace-Name: Department Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria
Author-Name: Maddalena Lamura
Author-Workplace-Name: Health Economics and Policy, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria
Abstract: This article is about those who need or want to make a living from working on online platforms. Moreover, questions of financial dependence are related to why this work is done and what social recognition the workers expect from it. Our mixed‐methods approach captures this heterogeneous field of online platform work by dividing it into three categories: (a) microwork, (b) mesowork, and (c) macrowork. Microwork involves offering short, repetitive tasks to an anonymous crowd, such as human intelligence tasks. Macrowork consists of market‐based freelance platforms offering highly skilled professionals complex and more extensive tasks. In between, mesowork covers platforms offering specialized tasks such as software testing or content creation. While income opportunities and working conditions vary widely between these platforms, common features include self‐employment and the ability to work from anywhere. Quantitative results show that only for a few highly skilled workers does income from platform work account for a crucial share of their household income. Surprisingly, workers’ household incomes do not differ by skill level. Qualitative results complement this picture by giving us a more contextual understanding of the significant variation among workers. We find cases in which monetary remuneration is not the only reason for doing platform work. So, despite all the criticism of precarious working conditions, platform work does have some positive aspects and can also hold the potential for the social inclusion of people who cannot participate in traditional labor markets. This article contributes to these discussions by providing workers’ perspectives on the risks and challenges of online platform work, acknowledging their different living situations, socioeconomic status, and health issues.
Keywords: clickwork; occupational health; online freelancers; online platform work; platform economy; qualitative interviews; social precarity; social recognition; well‐being
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:251-261

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Assessing Inclusivity Through Job Quality in Digital Plat‐Firms
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7043
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7043
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 239-250
Author-Name: Davide Arcidiacono
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Catania, Italy
Author-Name: Giorgio Piccitto
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy
Abstract: A great deal of the literature has underlined how job quality is a key element in individual well‐being. However, the rise in platform work challenges this issue, since not only do “plat‐firms” play an increasingly important role in job matching, work organization, and industrial relations, but they also increase the risks of a poorly inclusive socio‐technical system in terms of the quality of working conditions and accessibility. In this sense, the platform economy is intertwined with multiple forms of social exclusion by acting on pre‐existing inequalities that stratify workers within the labor market. This is particularly true in Italy, a country with a strongly dualistic labor market, which leads to a remarkable gap between insider and outsider workers. Therefore, the goal of our analysis is to evaluate the impact of the platform model on job quality in the Italian context. This will be accomplished by adopting an integrated and multidimensional perspective through the application of the OECD Job Quality Framework. The analysis identifies how job quality is differently affected by the type of platform work involved in terms of creating differentiated patterns of social inclusion/exclusion in the case of platform workers.
Keywords: digital ethnography; digital labor; peripheral labor market; platform economy; well‐being; working conditions
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:239-250

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Digitalisation as a Prospect for Work–Life Balance and Inclusion: A Natural Experiment in German Hospitals
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7117
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7117
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 225-238
Author-Name: Sebastian Schongen
Author-Workplace-Name: GESIS–Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Germany / School of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim, Germany
Abstract: Digitalisation has a wide range of impacts on the workplace, such as enabling new work models with flexible work schedules, changing work content, or increasing workplace control. These changes directly affect not only individuals’ work but also their private lives. Scholars theorise that digitalisation either enables or impedes workers’ ability to maximise their work–life balance, which in turn fosters or inhibits the social inclusion of some societal groups and reduces or reproduces social inequalities. Focusing on the German healthcare sector, I explore the impact of using networked digital technologies on work–life balance, and whether it influences gender and educational inequalities. Pressured by government, economic concerns, and medical innovation, this sector is undergoing a transformation process that is expediting the introduction of new networked digital technologies. Thus, it provides an ideal setting for empirical investigation, as one core assumption about digitalisation is that technological innovation at work has societal consequences that must be individually mastered. To assess the relationship between digitalisation and work–life balance, I use survey data from hospital employees on the use of networked digital technologies and individual outcomes. The research is designed as a natural experiment. The treatment group comprises employees at a university hospital equipped with cutting‐edge networked digital technologies (N = 1,117); the control group comprises employees at several church‐owned hospitals (N = 415) with a level of digitalisation corresponding to the average for the sector. I first discuss confounders and then employ quantitative methods to establish a link between digitalisation and work–life balance, assess its direction, and address gender and educational inequalities.
Keywords: digitalisation; Germany; healthcare; social inclusion; social inequality; work–life balance
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:225-238

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Work‐Related ICT Use and the Dissolution of Boundaries Between Work and Private Life
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7128
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7128
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 211-224
Author-Name: Ines Entgelmeier
Author-Workplace-Name: Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), Germany
Author-Name: Timothy Rinke
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Work, Skills and Training (IAQ), University of Duisburg‐Essen, Germany
Abstract: Information and communication technologies (ICTs) promote flexible forms of work. Based on analyses of data from the German BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey 2018, this article shows that ICT (computer/internet) use is associated with both overtime and better temporal alignment of work and private life. Additional analyses show that these associations differ by gender and parenthood. Especially if also working from home, men with and without children do more overtime when they use ICTs than women with and without children. Better temporal alignment is found only among men without children who use ICTs and work from home compared to women without children.
Keywords: gender; ICTs; overtime; parenthood; temporal alignment of work and private life; working from home (WFH)
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:211-224

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Digital Communication and Work–Life Supportive Supervisor Behaviors in Europe
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7084
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7084
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 198-210
Author-Name: Anja-Kristin Abendroth
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University, Germany
Author-Name: Antje Schwarz
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University, Germany
Abstract: The spread of digital communication in the employee–supervisor exchange relation has increased the risks of blurred boundaries between life domains and, subsequently, the need for work–life supportive supervisor behaviors (WLSSB). However, media richness and social presence theory indicate that WLSSB is simultaneously at risk because close bonds with supervisors are more difficult to develop and challenges in integrating work and personal life are more difficult to be signaled and understood. Following social network theory in the argument that it is not only the characteristic of the medium that is of importance but also the social embeddedness of its use, this research asks to what extent the association of digital communication with one’s supervisor and perceived WLSSB is context‐dependent. The overall results based on the European Social Survey (round 10) reveal that in‐person communication is more strongly associated with WLSSB than digital communication. However, more nuanced investigations suggest that this is not necessarily driven by the richness of the mode of communication. We find that the meaning of digital communication with one’s supervisor gains importance in size and significance (a) where it complements seldom in‐person communication, (b) where the organizational norm of high work devotion is weak, and (c) where work–life supportive state policies are pronounced. We conclude that the implications of digital communication for WLSSB are dependent on the centrality of digital communication in opportunities for the exchange of WLSSB and dependent on supervisors’ interest and agency to enact WLSSB in digital work communication.
Keywords: digital communication; family policy; flexible working; ideal worker norm; isolation; supervisory support; telework; virtual work; work–family relation; work–life; work–life supportive supervisor behaviors
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:198-210

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Jobless and Burnt Out: Digital Inequality and Online Access to the Labor Market
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7017
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7017
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 184-197
Author-Name: Stefano De Marco
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Communication, University of Salamanca, Spain
Author-Name: Guillaume Dumont
Author-Workplace-Name: OCE Research Center, Emlyon Business School, France
Author-Name: Ellen Johanna Helsper
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
Author-Name: Alejandro Díaz-Guerra
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Psychobiology and Methodology for Behavioral Sciences, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Author-Name: Mirko Antino
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Psychobiology and Methodology for Behavioral Sciences, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Author-Name: Alfredo Rodríguez-Muñoz
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social, Work and Differential Psychology, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Author-Name: José-Luis Martínez-Cantos
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Applied, Public and Political Economy, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Abstract: This article examines how inequalities in digital skills shape the outcomes of online job‐seeking processes. Building on a representative survey of Spanish job seekers, we show that people with high digital skill levels have a greater probability of securing a job online, because of their ability to create a coherent profile and make their application visible. Additionally, it is less probable that they will experience burnout during this process than job seekers with low digital skill levels. Given the concentration of digital skills amongst people with high levels of material and digital resources, we conclude that the internet enforces existing material and health inequalities.
Keywords: burnout; digital exclusion; digital inequality; digital skills; online job‐seeking; Spain
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:184-197

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Discourses of Digitalisation and the Positioning of Workers in Primary Care: A Norwegian Case Study
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7121
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7121
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 172-183
Author-Name: Monika Nerland
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education, University of Oslo, Norway
Author-Name: Mervi Hasu
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education, University of Oslo, Norway
Author-Name: Miria Grisot
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway
Abstract: Primary health services are subjected to intensified digitalisation to transform care provision. Various smart and assistive technologies are introduced to support the growing elderly population and enhance the opportunities for independent living among patients in need of continuous care. Research has shown how such digitalisation processes evolve at the intersection of different and often competing discourses, oriented towards service efficiency, cost containment, technological innovation, client‐centred care, and digital competence development. Often, increased technology use is presented as a solution to pressing problems. However, how discourses are negotiated in work contexts and their mechanisms of social inclusion/exclusion in evolving work practices have received less attention. This article examines how care workers in the primary health sector are discursively positioned when care technologies are introduced in the services. We employ a perspective on discourses and subject positions in analysing strategic documents and interviews with care workers in a large Norwegian city. We show how managerial discourses that focus narrowly on the implementation and mastery of single technologies provide limited spaces for workers to exert influence on their work situations, while discourses that emphasise professional knowledge or broader technological and organisational aspects provide a variety of resources for workers’ agency. The way care workers adopt and negotiate subject positions varies based on their tasks and responsibilities in the organisation. We discuss the need to move beyond “solutionism” in efforts to digitalise care work in order to provide inclusive spaces supporting the contributions of various worker groups.
Keywords: care work; digitalisation; discourse; Norway; primary care; subject positioning; welfare technology
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:172-183

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: A Circulatory Loop: The Reciprocal Relationship of Organizations, Digitalization, and Gender
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7056
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7056
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 160-171
Author-Name: Lene Baumgart
Author-Workplace-Name: Chair of Sociology of Organization and Administration, University of Potsdam, Germany
Author-Name: Pauline Boos
Author-Workplace-Name: Chair of Sociology of Organization and Administration, University of Potsdam, Germany
Author-Name: Katharina Braunsmann
Author-Workplace-Name: Chair of Sociology of Digital Societies, Leibniz University Hannover, Germany
Abstract: In the digitalization debate, gender biases in digital technologies play a significant role because of their potential for social exclusion and inequality. It is therefore remarkable that organizations as drivers of digitalization and as places for social integration have been widely overlooked so far. Simultaneously, gender biases and digitalization have structurally immanent connections to organizations. Therefore, a look at the reciprocal relationship between organizations, digitalization, and gender is needed. The article provides answers to the question of whether and how organizations (re)produce, reinforce, or diminish gender‐specific inequalities during their digital transformations. On the one hand, gender inequalities emerge when organizations use post‐bureaucratic concepts through digitalization. On the other hand, gender inequalities are reproduced when organizations either program or implement digital technologies and fail to establish control structures that prevent gender biases. This article shows that digitalization can act as a catalyst for inequality‐producing mechanisms, but also has the potential to mitigate inequalities. We argue that organizations must be considered when discussing the potential of exclusion through digitalization.
Keywords: digitalization; gender bias; gender inequalities; organizations
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:160-171

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Digitalization of Working Worlds and Social Inclusion
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7686
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7686
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 156-159
Author-Name: Alice Melchior
Author-Workplace-Name: Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (GESIS), Germany
Author-Name: Simone Haasler
Author-Workplace-Name: Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
Abstract: Digitalization is engendering profound societal transformation that is significantly restructuring our working lives. For society, and the world of work in particular, digitalization presents a major challenge, as the digital transformation of work does not simply relate to technological innovation; rather, it involves a complex sociotechnical process that is socially prepared, technically enabled, and discursively negotiated, and that ultimately must be individually mastered. As a result, the ongoing digitalization of “working worlds” is characterized by multiple dimensions and processes that evolve and proceed unevenly. These processes interact in complex ways, not uncommonly contradicting each other. Against this background, this thematic issue explores some of the implications and dynamics of the digital transformation of work concerning social inclusion.
Keywords: digital transformation of work; digitalization; social inclusion; sociotechnical processes; world of work
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:156-159

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Social Inclusion Through Multilingual Assistants in Additional Language Learning
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7337
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7337
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 145-155
Author-Name: Oliver St John
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Örebro University, Sweden
Abstract: The aim of this study is to evaluate and explore the deployment of adult migrants’ first languages (L1s) by multilingual assistants (MAs) in additional language (AL) learning for the opportunities they afford to include students. The context is Sweden’s Swedish for Immigrants programme, in which a teacher team appointed MAs to support their students’ efforts to learn Swedish. In this context, MAs aremultilingual school personnel employed to support the students in their Swedish language development by, among other means, using the students’ L1s. The ensuing research study set out to investigate and develop MA and teacher roles in promoting Swedish language development through L1 use. The quest to include the students permeated this investigation. Action research provided a framework for the teachers to study their classroom interaction with MAs as a basis for professional development. Group interviews complemented video data. Different dimensions of inclusion and Bakhtin’s thinking about other‐orientedness offer theoretical support. The results are presented as four cardinal contributions made by MAs with significant potential to include adult migrants in AL education. The teachers’ conception of dialogic activity specifies inclusion as a transsubjective enterprise that, through instructional restraint and translingual space, allows students to explore language and achieve progressively coherent responsive understanding. The MAs’ socioemotional work of reassuring, affirming, and imparting faith in student capabilities to communicate in and learn Swedish posits inclusion as an equilibrium between the demands of instructional situations and the psychological fortitude to manage them. MAs key role in contextualizing content illustrates the way inclusion can be realized by transferring language form and content to the students’ personal experiences, extensive knowledge, and everyday communicative realities. The teacher’s plan to entrust the MAs with the task of making their formative feedback accessible to students projects inclusion as increasing students’ capacity to regulate their AL learning themselves.
Keywords: additional language; dialogue; inclusion; language use; multilingual assistants; second language learning
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:145-155

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Migrants’ Inclusion in Civil Societies: The Case of Language Cafés in Sweden
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7177
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7177
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 132-144
Author-Name: Ali Reza Majlesi
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education, Stockholm University, Sweden
Author-Name: Gunilla Jansson
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Swedish Language and Multilingualism, Stockholm University, Sweden
Author-Name: Silvia Kunitz
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Culture and Society, Linköping University, Sweden
Abstract: This article investigates the role of language cafés as venues where newly arrived migrants to Sweden can socialize and practice the target language. More specifically, we aim to explore how café organizers and volunteers orient to social inclusion as they are interviewed about the goals of the local café and engage in talk‐in‐interaction with the visitors during video‐recorded café sessions. At the methodological level, we rely on ethnomethodologically informed ethnography and conversation analysis, through which we adopt an emic approach to data analysis by taking into account the members’ interpretation of their social world and the actions they accomplish in it. Our analysis uncovers the organizers’ and volunteers’ conceptualization of social inclusion, which they articulate in terms of fostering a sense of belonging and empowerment; they also perceive the mutual benefits derived from the encounters with the migrants at the local café. Overall, the migrants’ views dovetail with the concept of “everyday citizenship,” which highlights the dimensions of belonging, rights, and access to resources for social participation as constitutive of social inclusion. These findings highlight the perceived role of language cafés as a way to act on the existing social reality to transform the local community into an inclusive, equal, and integrated society.
Keywords: civic activities; civil societies; emic perspective; language café; migration; social inclusion; Sweden
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:132-144

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Constructing the “Good Citizen”: Discourses of Social Inclusion in Swedish Civic Orientation
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7060
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7060
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 121-131
Author-Name: Simon Bauer
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Swedish, Multilingualism, Language Technology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Author-Name: Tommaso M. Milani
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Swedish, Multilingualism, Language Technology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Author-Name: Kerstin von Brömssen
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Behavioural Studies, University West, Sweden
Author-Name: Andrea Spehar
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Abstract: Sweden has long been described as a beacon of multiculturalism and generous access to citizenship, with integration policies that seek to offer free and equal access to the welfare state. In this article, we use the policy of Civic Orientation for Newly Arrived Migrants as a case with which to understand how migrants’ inclusion is discursively articulated and constructed by the different constituencies involved in interpreting the policy and organising and teaching the course. We do this by employing Foucault’s closely interrelated concepts of technology of self, political technology of individuals, and governmentality. With the help of critical discourse analysis, we illustrate how migrants’ inclusion is framed around an opposition between an idealised “good citizen” and a “target population” (Schneider &amp; Ingram, 1993). In our analysis, we draw on individual interviews with 14 people involved in organising civic orientation and on classroom observations of six civic orientation courses. Firstly, we show how migrants are constructed as unknowing and in need of being fostered by the state. Secondly, we illustrate how social inclusion is presented as being dependent upon labour market participation, both in terms of finding work and in terms of behaving correctly in the workplace. Lastly, we show how migrant women are constructed as being problematically chained to the home and therefore needing to subject themselves to a specific political technology of self to be included.
Keywords: citizenship; civic orientation; critical discourse analysis; Foucault; migration
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:121-131

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Adult Migrants’ Endeavours for a Life as Included
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6992
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.6992
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 111-120
Author-Name: Sofia Nordmark
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Culture and Society, Linköping University, Sweden
Author-Name: Helena Colliander
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Sweden
Abstract: In many European countries, Sweden included, social inclusion of adult migrants has come to mean second language learning and labour market establishment. This understanding of social inclusion has been problematised by previous research as it reinforces a deficit discourse where migrants are depicted as lacking skills or incentives, and social inclusion is seen merely as a matter of adjusting to society. This study aims to examine migrants’ positioning in relation to language learning and social inclusion. It is based on a longitudinal interview study with adult migrants, first when being enrolled in second language education, and later in the continuing process of making a life in a new country. We analyse five migrant narratives, drawing on the concepts of positioning, agency, rights, duties, and capital in relation to their past, present, and future aspirations. The results show that the position of the “good migrant” taking responsibility for language learning and job seeking is prominent. At the same time, positioning is also constructed in relation to individual aspirations and opportunities, depending on one’s circumstance of life and capital, such as previous education or social networks. Thus, inclusion is closely related to being recognised, not primarily as a migrant, but as the person one strives to be, both professionally and personally.
Keywords: adult education; labour market; learning; migrants; narratives; positioning; recognition; social inclusion
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:111-120

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: “Small Tragedies of Individuals’ Lives”: London’s Migrant Division of Labour and Migrant Language Educational Settings
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7127
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7127
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 101-110
Author-Name: Silke Zschomler
Author-Workplace-Name: UCL Social Research Institute, University College London, UK
Abstract: This article highlights the lived experience of migrants who have come to London to set up a new life and are learning English to facilitate this process. Drawing on my ethnographic research with a heterogenous group of adult migrants within and beyond the institutional boundaries of a migrant language educational setting in London, I tease out the often painful experiences and effects of deskilling my participants are confronted with as they are trying to make their lives in the city. Language proficiency is commonly seen as a key factor that accounts for migrants’ disparities regarding their labour market participation and linguistic competence often acts as a crucial gatekeeping mechanism to social inclusion, which is additionally impeded by wider structural constraints. In this context, my research highlights the ways in which my interlocutors find themselves caught up in entrenched forms of intersecting inequalities, unequal power relations, and the dynamics and conditions of London’s migrant division of labour. I shed light on how my participants deal with and navigate these complex processes whilst questing for the “right” linguistic competence to somehow propel their lives forward despite being aware that this might not necessarily come to fruition. I draw particular attention to the emotional cost of deskilling and being bumped down and show how this not only leaves an imprint on migrants themselves but also on those who are teaching them in order to increase migrants’ employability and social mobility.
Keywords: adult migrants; critical pedagogy; deskilling; employability; global city; learning English; London; migrant division of labour
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:101-110

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Directing Paths Into Adulthood: Newly Arrived Students and the Intersection of Education and Migration Policy
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6825
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.6825
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 91-100
Author-Name: Maria Rydell
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Swedish Language and Multilingualism, Stockholm University, Sweden
Author-Name: Sofia Nyström
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Sweden
Author-Name: Magnus Dahlstedt
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Culture and Society, Linköping University, Sweden
Abstract: This article is centred on the tendency to align education for newly arrived students with migration policy. Drawing on an in-depth analysis of interviews with four adult migrant students, we aim to investigate how the participants’ experiences of studying and how they imagine their future intersect with their immigration status. The interviews were conducted when they were first studying a language introduction programme, and then three years later. We focus on the participants’ narratives about transitions within the education system and later into the labour market. Using Sara Ahmed’s approach to the orientation of subjects in time and space, the analysis shows that all students expressed a desire to “be in line,” meaning finishing their studies and finding employment. Students with temporary and conditional residence permits were directed towards specific vocational tracks and sectors of the labour market. Migrant students are a heterogenous group and, based on the findings presented, we argue that immigration status constitutes a crucial part of this heterogeneity, influencing how students imagine their future in a new society.
Keywords: education and migration policy; immigration status; language introduction programmes; migrant students; Sweden; the Upper Secondary School Act
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:91-100

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: No(r)way? Language Learning, Stereotypes, and Social Inclusion Among Poles in Norway
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7112
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7112
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 80-90
Author-Name: Anne Golden
Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan (MultiLing), University of Oslo, Norway
Author-Name: Toril Opsahl
Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan (MultiLing), University of Oslo, Norway
Abstract: This study recognizes the diversity and heterogeneous nature of a migrant group that long has been portrayed and perceived in a limited way, for instance in Norwegian media, without considering the multifaceted nature of the group in question. Drawing on data from focus group interviews, we apply narrative analysis to shed light on the impact stereotypes surrounding Poles have on Polish adult migrants’ striving for social inclusion and professional success in Norway. Being the largest migrant group in Norway, speaking a first language (L1) structurally different from Norwegian, and representing a former Eastern Bloc country, Poles constitute an important case to gain better knowledge of the interplay between language, labour, and social inclusion. Through our study, we aim to gain emic insights into parts of the process of settling in Norway. Our analysis centres on a case study of two focus group participants’ reactions to stereotypical portrayals of Polish (professionals) in Norwegian media, experiences with language learning, and the advice they would give to newcomers, as well as the importance of a sense of community for gaining the “small talk” competence necessary to ease social inclusion. The analysis draws on the key concepts of agency, investment, and well‐being. We show how the tension that occurs when second language (L2) participants are confronted with stereotypes may create a discursive space for empowerment and agency through the opportunity to contest and re‐create (professional) expectancies. The study also demonstrates that there most likely are ways forward to more inclusive practices for Polish migrants in Norway.
Keywords: agency; investment; narratives; Norway; Polish work migrants; social inclusion; stereotypes; well‐being
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:80-90

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Adult Migrants’ Language Training in Austria: The Role of Central and Eastern European Teachers
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7220
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7220
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 69-79
Author-Name: Ildikó Zakariás
Author-Workplace-Name: HUN‐REN Centre for Social Sciences, MTA Centre of Excellence, Hungary
Author-Name: Nora Al-Awami
Author-Workplace-Name: Independent Researcher, Austria
Abstract: Language has gained increasing importance in immigration policies in Western European states, with a new model of citizenship, the <em>ius linguarum</em> (Fejes, 2019; Fortier, 2022), at its core. Accordingly, command of the (national) languages of host states operates both as a resource and as an ideological framework, legitimating the reproduction of inequalities among various migrant and non‐migrant groups. In this article, we analyse the implications of such processes in the context of state‐subsidised language teaching for refugees and migrants in Austria. Specifically, the article aims to explore labour migration, namely that of Central and Eastern European (CEE, including EU and non‐EU citizen) professionals—mainly language teachers who enter the field of adult language teaching in Austria seeking a living and career prospects that they cannot find in the significantly underpaid educational sectors of CEE states. This article shows that the arrival of CEE professionals into these difficult and precarious jobs is enabled first by historical processes linking the CEE region to former political and economic power centres. Second, it is facilitated by legal, administrative, and symbolic processes that construct CEE citizens as second‐order teachers in the field of migrant education in Austria. Our article, based on ethnographic fieldwork and qualitative interviews, highlights nuanced ways in which historically, economically, and politically embedded language geographies contribute to the reproduction of hierarchies of membership, inclusion, and exclusion in present‐day immigration societies.
Keywords: adult education; Central and Eastern Europe; governing through language; imperial genealogies; language ideologies; language teaching; native speakerism; precarity; refugee and migrant services; segmented labour market
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:69-79

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: “The Door You Can Walk Through to Society”: Social Inclusion and Belonging in Vocational Programmes for Immigrants
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7087
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7087
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 58-68
Author-Name: Hedda Söderlundh
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Culture and Education, Södertörn University, Sweden
Author-Name: Maria Eklund Heinonen
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Culture and Education, Södertörn University, Sweden
Abstract: This article presents a qualitative, empirical study of two educational programmes for immigrants that integrate language instruction and vocational training. In the context of migration, social inclusion is often conceptualised as access to social capital. Proficiency in the national language is considered key for employment and fast integration into working life has become a primary goal in Swedish migration policies. This article examines the two programmes from the perspective of inclusion into an (imagined) future professional community of practice (CoP), focusing specifically on the participants’ possibilities to invest in a professional linguistic repertoire. The article is dedicated to empirical analyses and positive factors, recognising the need for research. Data consists of interviews with students and teachers, observations, and video recordings of course activities. Organisational aspects of the courses, such as the teachers’ backgrounds and the courses’ proximity to future CoPs, as well as relational aspects of the learning environments, are considered essential for the participants’ inclusion in a future professional CoP. Analyses of the programmes’ content demonstrate that participants are assumed to lack context‐specific, vocational knowledge, including professionally related vocabulary. The article contributes to knowledge on how inclusion can be managed in practice in educational settings for adult immigrants and promotes an understanding of how vocationally adapted courses can assist immigrants in becoming members of a future professional CoP.
Keywords: adult learning; community of practice; inclusion; migration; second language learning
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:58-68

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Critical Social Inclusion of Adult Migrant Language Learners in Working Life: Experiences From SFI and LINC Programs
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7154
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7154
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 47-57
Author-Name: Tobias Pötzsch
Author-Workplace-Name: Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki, Finland
Author-Name: Sanna Saksela-Bergholm
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Abstract: How can integration education programs facilitate the more seamless inclusion of migrant newcomers into working life and civil society? Traditionally, integration policy and practice have been framed within a nation‐state discourse in which views of migrant incorporation are grounded within a bordered nationalism embodying a native–migrant dichotomy that reifies the view of the “migrant other” as a subject defined by its “lack” in competence and agency. In our qualitative multiple case study, we explored the bridging potential of integration programs in facilitating the inclusion of migrant students within working life in Helsinki and Edmonton. We examined the “inclusectionalities,” referring to the intersections of inclusion and exclusion that position adults enrolled in SFI (Swedish for Immigrants) and LINC (Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada) language integration programs in the liminal spaces between belonging and othering. Guided by an understanding of critical social inclusion where migrants set the boundaries for interactions with authorities based upon their own needs and interests, we propose a transformational approach. Here migrant learners participate in a structural process where the fluid nature of social, political, and economic arrangements is consistently renegotiated on principles of egalitarianism and the full exercise of critical agency, herein envisioned as deliberate action resisting the social domination of racialized minorities by challenging and redefining institutional structures.
Keywords: adult migrant student; critical social inclusion; inclusectionality; working life integration
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:47-57

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Agency and Investment in L2 Learning: The Case of a Migrant Worker and a Mother of Two Children in South Korea
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7062
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7062
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 35-46
Author-Name: Jinsil Jang
Author-Workplace-Name: Dongshin University, Republic of Korea
Abstract: Given the call for more research on migrant workers’ L2 investment and agency, this five‐year longitudinal case study followed the Korean language learning experiences of Iroda, a migrant worker who moved from Uzbekistan to South Korea, focusing on how and why she exercises her agency and invests in her L2 learning. Drawing upon the conceptual frameworks of agency, “the socioculturally mediated capacity to act” (Ahearn, 2010, p. 28), and investment, which leads to an increase in an individual’s social power and cultural capital (Darvin &amp; Norton, 2015), data was collected from various sources and inductively analysed over five years by using the constant comparative method and the individual‐level logic model. The findings show that Iroda agentively and voluntarily seeks out resources to expand her linguistic repertoire, devoting entire weekends to learning the Korean language while balancing her efforts with her weekday job. As her Korean proficiency grows, she endeavours to apply for a graduate programme at a Korean university to enhance her social status, career prospects, and earning potential for herself and her children. Notably, the findings suggest that her purposeful and agentic investment in L2 learning is driven by the growing acceptance and recognition of her potential within the target society.
Keywords: agency; investment; L2 learning; female migrant worker; Korean as a second language
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:35-46

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Socio‐Occupational Integration of Chinese Migrant Women in Andalusia Through Spanish Language Training
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7021
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7021
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 24-34
Author-Name: Esther Cores-Bilbao
Author-Workplace-Name: Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Isabel I, Spain
Author-Name: Mariló Camacho-Díaz
Author-Workplace-Name: Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de Huelva, Spain
Abstract: The present article explores the perceived role of work and proficiency in a second or additional language(s) among a group of Chinese migrant women learning Spanish in Andalusia. The enrolment of Chinese adult learners in language upgrading programmes in immersion contexts is relatively low, as Chinese expatriates tend to establish close‐knit, socio‐culturally elusive communities whose interactions with local residents are often limited to work‐related purposes. The distinctiveness of this ethnographic work lies in its focus on women who, having resided in southern Spain for extended periods and aiming to emancipate themselves from male family referents, have only recently sought greater inclusion in Spanish society. Through in‐depth interviews, these women’s prospects for professional advancement and self‐employment are also identified, albeit subsidiarily, among the reasons for pursuing higher levels of linguistic competence. The results point to a desire to develop higher levels of competence in linguistic, civic, and socio‐cultural literacies to expand their social networks and engage more actively in the communities where they currently live. Avoiding vulnerability to potential deception in the workplace and administrative settings, coupled with the need to participate in better‐informed decision‐making at the personal level, is also highlighted as contributory factors to their willingness to pursue multiliteracies in linguistic, civic, and occupational areas. The conclusions point to a mismatch between the training aspirations of these women and the curricula of the courses available to them within a Chinese educational organisation, whose focus lies almost entirely on the development and reinforcement of linguistic skills.
Keywords: Chinese migrant women; linguistic inclusion; migrant women; multiliteracies; Spanish L2
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:24-34

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: “We Kiss Everyone’s Hands to Get a Permanent Job, but Where Is It?”: The Failure of the Social Inclusion Narrative for Refugees
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6944
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.6944
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 13-23
Author-Name: Hanna Svensson
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Humanities, Media and Creative Communication, Massey University, New Zealand
Abstract: Humanitarian migrants, while required to prove their vulnerability to gain entry to a country of settlement, rapidly become subject to an integration narrative where self‐sufficiency is the primary aim. In the integration narrative, language learning is conceptualised as an individual endeavour that will inevitably lead to employment, while linguistic fluency and social inclusion tend to be presented as the inevitable outcomes of engagement in the labour market. Lack of success is attributed to individual failures and is typically addressed through policies designed to incentivise the individual to try harder. Drawing on a qualitative study involving refugees, language teachers and settlement brokers in New Zealand and Sweden, this article critiques the integration narrative by contrasting it with the voices of those who have sought to conform to the ideal narrative yet failed to reach the idealised outcomes. Using M. M. Bakhtin’s notions of monologue and epic dis‐ courses, it challenges the view of language learning and integration as “a test of virtuosity” (Sullivan, 2012, p. 49) which the deserving are guaranteed to pass. Instead, it argues that a range of exclusions prevents successful language acquisition, labour market entry, and social engagement and that incentives, while potentially increasing the individual’s desire for success, are insufficient unless structural inequalities are addressed.
Keywords: dialogism; employment; language learning; refugees; social inclusion
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:13-23

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Social Inclusion Beyond Education and Work: Migrants Meaning‐Making Towards Social Inclusion
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6984
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.6984
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 5-12
Author-Name: Sofia Nyström
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Behaviour Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Sweden
Author-Name: Andreas Fejes
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Behaviour Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Sweden
Author-Name: Nedžad Mešić
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Behaviour Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Sweden
Abstract: In public discourse, the social inclusion of migrants is often regarded as a challenge demanding migrants to increase their engagement in adapting to the new host country. Such imaginaries commonly declare migrants as being unwilling to acquire language skills and specific cultural values. In parallel, formal education is often proposed as the single most important remedy to inclusion, which generally solely implies labor market participation. However, there is a range of other, often neglected, practices that migrants themselves regard as important for their social inclusion in society. This article aims to analyze what practices are assigned meaning by newly arrived migrants in Sweden on their path toward social inclusion in the country. This is a longitudinal interview study with 19 newly arrived adult migrants that were interviewed on two occasions, three years apart. Drawing on a sociocultural perspective, we understand social inclusion as an ongoing process by which individuals become members of different communities. The result shows that important for social inclusion is access to valuable relationships and close social ties. These relations are important in all communities in which the migrants participate. The analysis illustrates three different communities, outside of formal education and employment, that migrants ascribe meaning to concerning language learning and social inclusion. These communities are sports, internships, and civil society engagements. Through its longitudinal design, this study also illustrates how migrants’ narratives and their meanings shift with time and how migrants relate to these communities over time.
Keywords: meaning‐making; migrants; narratives; social inclusion; Sweden
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:5-12

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Adult Migrants’ Language Learning, Labour Market, and Social Inclusion
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7583
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i4.7583
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 4
Pages: 1-4
Author-Name: Andreas Fejes
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Sweden
Author-Name: Magnus Dahlstedt
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Culture and Society, Linköping University, Sweden
Abstract: In this thematic issue, we present up‐to‐date research from authors who problematise the various links between adult migrants’ language learning, education, the labour market, and social inclusion. Some contributions are more focused on the relation between education and social inclusion, while others emphasise links between language learning, the labour market, and social inclusion. Together, authors in this thematic issue point to the multiple challenges migrants face when trying to establish themselves in a new country.
Keywords: adult education; adult learning; host countries; inclusion; labour market; migrants; second language learning; work
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:4:p:1-4

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Tilting at 5G Towers: Rethinking Infrastructural Transition in 2020
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6741
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6741
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 332-341
Author-Name: Rory Sharp
Author-Workplace-Name: Communication and Culture, York University, Canada
Abstract: 5G has the potential to expand the horizons of digital inclusion by providing higher speeds, lower latency, and support for more devices on a given network. However, mis‐ and disinformation about 5G has proliferated in recent years and stands to be a persistent barrier to the adoption of this generation of wireless technologies. After rumours linking 5G to Covid‐19 emerged in the wake of the pandemic, isolated actors attempted to disrupt infrastructure with a perceived connection to 5G. Media coverage of these incidents inadvertently spread such claims, engendering lasting uncertainty about 5G. Infrastructure scholars have long held to the maxim that “the normally invisible quality of working infrastructure becomes visible when it breaks” (Star, 1999, p. 482), but efforts to interpret the uptake of mis‐ and disinformation have struggled to define the technical difference 5G makes and describe diffused acts of anti‐5G sentiment that exploited its slippery symbolic associations. What broke to make 5G so visible? This article reassesses interference with infrastructure through the lens of a literary metaphor derived from Miguel de Cervantes’ epic novel Don Quixote. Using the Don’s famed joust with windmills, I examine what efforts to disrupt the development of 5G in 2020 can tell us about infrastructural transition. With reference to Quixote’s tilt, I contend that the disruptions of 2020 illustrate conflicting imperatives of inclusion and exclusion underlying neoliberal schemes of telecommunication development.
Keywords: 5G; conspiracy theory; Covid‐19; disinformation; infrastructure; misinformation; standardization; technical standards; telecommunications
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:332-341

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Transformation of the Digital Payment Ecosystem in India: A Case Study of Paytm
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6687
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6687
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 320-331
Author-Name: Aditi Bhatia-Kalluri
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, Canada
Author-Name: Brett R. Caraway
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Communication, Culture, Information & Technology, University of Toronto, Canada
Abstract: Paytm is a payment app in India providing e‐wallet services; it is also the most prominent mobile e‐commerce app in the world’s third‐largest economy. This article uses Paytm as a case study to better understand the global platform economy and its implications for social and economic inequities. We contextualize the emergence of Paytm by drawing attention to its relationship with India’s developing digital infrastructure and marginalized populations—many of whom are part of the platform’s user base. We use a political economy lens to investigate Paytm’s market structure, stakeholders, innovations, and beneficiaries. Our research is guided by the question: What resources, infrastructures, and policies have given rise to India’s digital payment ecosystem, and how have these contributed to economic and social inequities? Accordingly, we audited the international and Indian business press and Paytm’s corporate communications from 2016 to 2020. Our analysis points to the tensions between private and public interests in the larger platform ecosystem, dispelling notions of platforms as neutral arbiters of market transactions. We argue that Paytm is socially beneficial to the extent that it reduces transaction costs and makes digital payments more accessible for marginalized populations; it is detrimental to the time that it jeopardizes user data and privacy while suppressing competition in the platform economy.
Keywords: digital wallet; financial inclusion; multi‐sided market; network effects; platforms
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:320-331

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Bidi Bidi Creativity: The Liminality of Digital Inclusion for Refugees in Ugandan Higher Education
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6686
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6686
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 309-319
Author-Name: Michael Gallagher
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Research in Digital Education, University of Edinburgh, UK
Author-Name: Rovincer Najjuma
Author-Workplace-Name: College of Education and External Studies, Makerere University, Uganda
Author-Name: Rebecca Nambi
Author-Workplace-Name: College of Education and External Studies, Makerere University, Uganda
Abstract: Educational inclusion for refugees is increasingly being framed through digital technologies. This is problematically characterised at the macro level by global and national narratives that portray the digital as an external and universal force capable of radical transformation and inclusion, and at the micro level with more nuanced accounts that acknowledge an already‐present political economy of technology of everyday practices of (non)adoption and use. Particularly for refugees, inclusion is further characterised by a persistent liminality with its attendant experiences of transition and tentativeness. Digital inclusion becomes an ongoing act of managing these liminal experiences, noting where barriers exist that stall efforts at further assimilation, and developing practices or workarounds that attempt to move refugees away from the margins of social inclusion. Such management is inherently precarious, and one made even more precarious in digital spaces, where inclusion is increasingly intertwined with systems of control and surveillance. To illustrate this, this article presents findings from a project exploring educational participation by refugee students in Ugandan universities. It notes the subtle tensions that emerge from the expectations of participation in university life, and Ugandan life more broadly, amidst digital structures and narratives that complicate inclusion. In this article, we argue that more nuanced conceptualisations of digital inclusion, ones rooted in liminal experiences, are needed to anchor digital technologies in refugee communities.
Keywords: digital inclusion; higher education; liminality; mobile technology; refugees; Uganda
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:309-319

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Dispatches From Eeyou Istchee: Cree Networks, Digital, and Social Inclusion
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6797
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6797
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 298-308
Author-Name: Tricia Toso
Author-Workplace-Name: Communication Studies, Concordia University, Canada
Author-Name: Scott Foward
Author-Workplace-Name: James Bay Cree Communications Society, Canada
Abstract: This article offers a fragmentary, partial history of the successes and challenges the Cree of Eeyou Istchee have encountered as they’ve developed the capacity to offer their region and communities a range of traditional, analogue, and digital services through the development and maintenance of different yet interconnected networks. Using social construction of technology (SCOT) and social shaping of technology (SST) theories as a framework, these dispatches offer a glimpse of the complexity and layeredness of two Cree networks as they come into contact and/or overlap with those of extractive colonialism, Canadian settler policies, and traditional Cree law and policy.
Keywords: digital inclusion; digital inequity; Indigenous networks; settler‐colonial communications policy
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:298-308

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Indigenous Community Networking in Hawai’i: The Pu‘uhonua o Waimānalo Community Network
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6638
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6638
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 286-297
Author-Name: Rob McMahon
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Alberta, Canada
Author-Name: Wayne Buente
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication and Information, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, USA
Author-Name: Heather E. Hudson
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Alaska Anchorage, USA
Author-Name: Brandon Maka’awa’awa
Author-Workplace-Name: Nation of Hawai’i
Author-Name: John Kealoha Garcia
Author-Workplace-Name: Nation of Hawai’i
Author-Name: Dennis “Bumpy” Kanahele
Author-Workplace-Name: Nation of Hawai’i
Abstract: Shaping digital inclusion policy and practice to meet community-defined goals requires more than access to digital devices and connectivity; it must also enable their effective design and use in situated local settings. For the Nation of Hawai’i, a <em>Kānaka Maoli</em> (Hawai’ian) sovereignty organization with a land base in Pu‘uhonua o Waimānalo on the island of Oahu, these activities are closely associated with broader goals of Nation-building and sovereignty. Recognizing there are many different approaches to sovereignty among diverse Kānaka Maoli, in this paper we document how the Nation of Hawai’i is conceptualizing the ongoing evolution of their community networking project. We suggest that the Pu‘uhonua o Waimānalo initiative reflects one Indigenous organization’s efforts to frame community networks as a means to generate a “sovereignty mindset” among members of the Nation, as well as share resources and experience among local community members and with other communities in Hawai’i and beyond.
Keywords: community networks; digital divide; digital inclusion; digital inequalities; Indigenous media; Indigenous peoples; Indigenous sovereignty; Native Hawaiians; rural broadband
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:286-297

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Power of Emotions: The Ethics of Care in the Digital Inclusion Processes of Marginalized Communities
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6623
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6623
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 275-285
Author-Name: Isabel Pavez
Author-Workplace-Name: Universidad de los Andes, Chile
Author-Name: Teresa Correa
Author-Workplace-Name: Universidad Diego Portales, Chile
Author-Name: Catalina Farías
Author-Workplace-Name: Northwestern University, USA
Abstract: Digital inclusion research has focused on the conditions, practices, and activities necessary to ensure that all individuals and communities, including the most marginalized populations, can access and use digital technologies. The complexities of Internet appropriation that enable digital inclusion have traditionally been approached from a macro‐level perspective that focuses on access infrastructure policies. Although motivations and social, economic, and cultural capital have been part of the analysis at the individual level, there are still questions about how this process unfolds at the community level. Specifically, little is known about how dynamics and interactions among marginalized groups with weaker online skills and limited Internet access influence technological appropriation. The ethics of care offers complementary insights into this phenomenon, allowing scholars to look at how emotions can trigger actions that lead to the technological involvement of those on the digital periphery. Drawing on 71 in‐depth interviews conducted in person with Internet users in 16 rural and urban communities in Chile, we discuss how care sets the stage for organizing, helping, and teaching others. Our results show that emotions such as empathy, powerlessness, and frustration were vital to giving and receiving forms of care that facilitate digital activities. The findings also suggest that digital assistance is more prevalent in tightly‐knit marginalized communities with more trusting communication patterns.
Keywords: digital inclusion; emotions; ethics of care; Internet; rural communities; urban communities
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:275-285

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Managing Accessibility Conflicts: Importance of an Intersectional Approach and the Involvement of Experiential Experts
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7150
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.7150
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 271-274
Author-Name: Karen Mogendorff
Author-Workplace-Name: Independent Researcher, The Netherlands
Abstract: In this commentary, I reflect on how digital communication technology and products are both an opportunity and a threat to the inclusion of disabled people. Drawing on my personal and professional experiences with research and user‐led empowerment projects, I argue that a life course intersectional approach, together with early involvement of disabled people in technology and product development, may prevent accessibility conflicts and further participation and inclusion.
Keywords: accessibility conflicts; age; de‐ableism; disability; life course intersectional approach
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:271-274

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Examining Aspects of Digital Inclusion Among National Samples of US Older Adults
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6890
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6890
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 251-270
Author-Name: Amy M. Schuster
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice, Clemson University, USA
Author-Name: Shelia R. Cotten
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice, Clemson University, USA
Abstract: We live in a world where we are constantly connected to devices (e.g., smartphones, computers, tablets) and are encouraged to go online to find information about most things in society. This constant digital connection provides the means whereby many individuals communicate and exchange social support. For most demographic groups, this results in being online and connected to devices multiple times each day. Older adults have been slower to adopt and use emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs). Their digital divide in comparison to other age groups may not be an accurate representation of their technology use and the reasons for this use. This descriptive study examines this view of digital inclusion by focusing on older adults and their uses of technology. We provide an overview of technology usage by different older adult age groups in the United States using existing national‐level data. We utilize life course and aging theoretical perspectives to help articulate how older adults use a wide variety of ICTs and whether they are constantly connected, and we note that while a constant connection to devices may be normative for younger age groups, this may not, and perhaps should not, be the case for older adults. The article concludes with a discussion of the social construction of digital inclusion and emphasizes the significant variation that exists in this construct, measurement of technology use in large‐scale datasets, and variation in technology use across older adult life course groups.
Keywords: digital divide; digital inclusion; Internet; life course; older adults; technology use
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:251-270

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Catching the Digital Train on Time: Older Adults, Continuity, and Digital Inclusion
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6723
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6723
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 239-250
Author-Name: Cora van Leeuwen
Author-Workplace-Name: imec‐SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium / CoLab for eInclusion and Social Innovation, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa
Author-Name: An Jacobs
Author-Workplace-Name: imec‐SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium
Author-Name: Ilse Mariën
Author-Workplace-Name: imec‐SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium
Abstract: As society has become more reliant on digital technology, it has changed the perception of the ageing experience to now include a digital component. However, not every older adult perceives digital technology as essential to their way of ageing. In this article, we asked 76 older adults with different patterns of digital technology use how they experience and perceive the role of digital technology in the context of their ageing. The thematic analysis results point to a more nuanced understanding of the importance of familial support, the role of personal history or continuity in older adults’ digital inclusion, and how they see the role of age in relation to digital technology. Furthermore, our findings show that ageism is both a barrier and a motivational factor for older adults. When ageism is based on the level of digital inclusion, it can cause a different ageing experience, one that is perceived as superior by those using digital technology. This leads to a precarious situation: It becomes essential to maintain digital skills to avoid the non‐digital ageing experience even as it becomes more difficult to maintain their skills due to the evolution of technology. Prior to the study, we created a conceptual framework to understand ageing in a more digitalised world. We used the findings of this study to test the conceptual framework and we conclude that the framework can clarify the role (or lack) of digital technology in the ageing experience of older adults.
Keywords: ageism; continuity theory; digital inclusion; digital technology; older adults; social support; thematic analysis
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:239-250

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Global Digital Peripheries: The Social Capital Profile of Low‐Adopter Countries
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6808
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6808
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 225-238
Author-Name: Katalin Füzér
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, University of Pecs, Hungary
Author-Name: Bence Völgyi
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, University of Pecs, Hungary
Author-Name: Dávid Erát
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, University of Pecs, Hungary
Author-Name: László Szerb
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Pecs, Hungary
Abstract: As digital transformations have the potential to reinforce longstanding inequalities and create novel ones within and among societies, it is vital to understand how this process is socially embedded. This article contributes to the study of macro‐level patterns of cross‐country differences in digitalization by providing a global comparative analysis of 76 countries in three different clusters, with a focus on the almost 30 countries with the lowest rates of adoption. Going beyond the “access, use, outcome” perspective of the digital divide approach, this empirical analysis addresses the social embeddedness of digitalization in the framework of the three types of social capital. In contrast to the digitalized and the digitalizing country clusters, the findings on the social capital profile of low‐adopter societies reveal their consistently low status on bridging and linking social capital, as well as their strengths in the trust and ties dimensions of bonding social capital. These results have alarming implications for digital inclusion in low‐adopter societies.
Keywords: bonding social capital; bridging social capital; cross‐country analysis; digital divide; digital transformation; linking social capital; low‐adopter; social embeddedness; trust
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:225-238

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Expanding the Boundaries of Digital Inclusion: Perspectives From Network Peripheries and Non‐Adopters
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7395
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.7395
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 220-224
Author-Name: Rob McMahon
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Alberta, Canada
Author-Name: Nadezda Nazarova
Author-Workplace-Name: Nord University Business School, Norway
Author-Name: Laura Robinson
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Santa Clara University, USA
Abstract: In this thematic issue, we present research from authors who seek to contest, challenge, and reimagine what digital inclusion is and what it might be. Authors present work from understudied vantage points and “hard to reach” terrains, such as communities that remain geographically, technically, socially, economically, and metaphorically “disconnected”—sometimes by choice. Through their attention to the role of intangible factors like relationality, social capital, emotion, sovereignty, and liminality, the articles collectively push against and expand the boundaries of digital inclusion research and practice.
Keywords: broadband access; digital divides; digital equity; digital inclusion; digital inequalities; network society; technology adoption
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:220-224

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Critical Post‐Humanism and Social Work in the City: About Being Entangled as Researcher and Professional
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6786
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6786
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 210-219
Author-Name: Marina Richter
Author-Workplace-Name: School for Social Work, University of Applied Sciences (HES‐SO Valais/Wallis), Switzerland
Abstract: Social work has a long history of dealing with social issues and working towards an inclusive city. The complexity of these issues requires conceptual thinking that goes beyond “the human” and encompasses spatiality, materiality, as well as non‐human beings and their connectedness. I propose to explore “post”‐theories for this purpose, which constitute a major reconfiguration of thinking in the field of social work and research on social inclusion in general. This article outlines important elements of “post”‐theories that connect with major claims of social work such as the aim of social justice, empowerment, and ethical stances towards research and practice. It further outlines in which sense these elements connect with social work and what that could mean for analysing social problems and how to approach them. The contribution provides thoughts on how post‐humanism might provide inspiration to think as researchers and act as professionals concerning questions of social justice and inclusion.
Keywords: assemblage; critical post‐humanism; ethics; new materialism; social work
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:210-219

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Knowledge Actors Engaging in “Everyday Planning” in Rapidly Urbanizing Peripheries of the Global South
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6802
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6802
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 199-209
Author-Name: Swetha Rao Dhananka
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Work Fribourg, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES‐SO), Switzerland
Abstract: This article presents original research based on the premise that inclusive urban planning is about different types of knowledges coming together, a process that enables the participation of diverse knowledge actors. In India, the urgency of peri‐urbanization is reflected in the massive transformation and roaring real estate speculation that is being unleashed through the conversion of agricultural land into profit‐making urban zones. It is the praxeology of an everyday planning modality by actors that interpret the possibility of real estate speculation at different scales that drive the rapid emergence of the peri‐urban built environment around the metropolis of Bangalore in Southern India. At the outset, I present a conceptual framework that articulates territorial‐financial mechanisms at the macro‐level with the praxiology of planning actors and their networks at the meso‐level through spatial knowledges. Then I describe the methods used. In the empirical part, this article first describes a particular site at the periphery of the city of Bangalore. Then, I delineate the prescriptive knowledge given by the local planning law. I present the praxiology of the different knowledge actors that explain the modality of peri‐urbanization, followed by a discussion of the rationales of the actors that shape everyday practices of planning. Finally, I discuss how social workers could get more involved in the urban planning process and contribute to shaping more inclusive cities because of the profession’s grounding in principles and ethics that supports human well‐being and development in cities for people and not for profit.
Keywords: Global South; governmentality; social work; spatial knowledge actors; urban planning
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:199-209

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: A Residential Area at the Gates of the City: Controversies Surrounding “Quality of Life”
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6846
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6846
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 186-198
Author-Name: Arnaud Frauenfelder
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Work, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland (HES‐SO), Switzerland
Author-Name: Nasser Tafferant
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Work, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland (HES‐SO), Switzerland
Author-Name: Monica Battaglini
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Work, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland (HES‐SO), Switzerland
Abstract: This article looks at the different meanings of the argument for “quality of life” used in support of an urban densification project in Geneva destined for a suburban area located at the gates of the city. It sheds light on the different values that underline this argument and stresses the dangers of using the term “quality of life” in the promotion of inclusive and sustainable cities to justify socially burdensome choices framed by both ecological and rationalist debates without taking into sufficient account the underlying social realities and concerns of the different parties involved. This article analyzes the controversies surrounding an urban densification project, showing how they refer to differentiated visions of “quality of life,” more or less socially and morally legitimized.
Keywords: moral controversies; quality of life; residential area; social and ecological justice; territorial regeneration; urban densification
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:186-198

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Caminante, No Hay Camino, Se Hace Camino al Andar: On a Creative Research Project in Urban Planning
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6798
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6798
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 175-185
Author-Name: Laurent Matthey
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography and Environment, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Author-Name: Simon Gaberell
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES‐SO), Switzerland
Author-Name: Alice Chenais
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES‐SO), Switzerland
Author-Name: Jade Rudler
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES‐SO), Switzerland
Author-Name: Aude Seigne
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES‐SO), Switzerland
Author-Name: Anne-Sophie Subilia
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES‐SO), Switzerland
Author-Name: Daniel Vuataz
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES‐SO), Switzerland
Author-Name: Matthieu Ruf
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES‐SO), Switzerland
Abstract: This article looks back at a creative research project conducted in Geneva, Switzerland, which, by experimenting between art and science, sought to understand how citizen narratives can participate in the making of an urban plan. The approach presented here brought together geographers, architects, and novelists. Citizen narratives produced at writing workshops imagined the city of the future in ways that significantly contrasted with visions gathered from events organised by public authorities. These narratives were taken up by the novelists, who helped produce a piece of fiction containing the power to reveal the qualities of the present. This piece has since become a novel. By discovering what their future city could be, participants in this project were led to identify the places that should be preserved. Their narratives thus helped identify an ordinary heritage that could be included in an urban planning document. This reflective look at a project that gradually took shape could be useful to anyone wishing to conduct creative research in urban planning, particularly from the perspective of a more inclusive city.
Keywords: art; creative research; fiction; inclusion; inclusive city; narrative; urban planning; urban policy
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:175-185

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Exploring Inclusive Cities for Migrants in the UK and Sweden: A Scoping Review
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6858
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6858
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 162-174
Author-Name: Niroshan Ramachandran
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Law, Criminology and Policing, Edge Hill University, UK
Author-Name: Claudia Di Matteo
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Work, Lund University, Sweden
Abstract: In recent years, social work with migrants and ethnic minorities has developed as a field of research and practice. Further, it is recognised in the literature that the increased processes of human mobility in today’s societies have driven a growing focus on inclusive cities, especially in larger urban areas where ethnic diversity and cultural heterogeneity can be found alongside newly arrived migrants seeking a better quality of life, safety, and sanctuary. There is a strong link between individuals’ well‐being and their relationship with spaces, institutions, and resources. Cities and their urban environment have been increasingly identified as key arenas where social, economic, and ecological societal challenges should be addressed. In the context of migration, municipalities have invested in dealing with both inclusive and sustainable policies. However, cities are not uniformly experienced by all. This scoping review seeks to answer how an inclusive city is conceptualised in the Swedish and the UK’s social work literature concerning migration. Using social exclusion and inclusion as the theoretical points of view, we conduct analysis using Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) six‐stage methodological framework. Despite social work playing a major role in the social inclusion of immigrant minorities in cities, through promoting participation, there is a lack of knowledge and research on social work engagement with social inclusion, both in the fields of social policy and practices. This article contributes to an enhanced understanding of what an inclusive city is, and the role of social work in defining and developing social policies and professional interventions for inclusive cities to support the integration of migrants with distinct needs. We offer a much‐needed review of the similarities and differences between the two geographies by analysing the social work perspectives from Sweden and the UK.
Keywords: inclusive cities; migration; social work; Sweden; United Kingdom
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:162-174

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The European Ideal of an Inclusive City: Interculturalism and “Good Social Practices” in Barcelona
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6793
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6793
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 150-161
Author-Name: Beniamino Peruzzi Castellani
Author-Workplace-Name: Sociology and Political Science, Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy
Abstract: Within the contemporary debate about what could be broadly called the “challenge of inclusion,” three major interrelated trends can be identified: First, a growing dissatisfaction with the traditional approach known as multiculturalism, which in Europe led to the emergence of interculturalism as a new approach to managing cultural diversity; second, the shared acknowledgment that the concept of diversity must be reconsidered in terms of super‐diversity and properly understood through an intersectional lens; third, the emergence of cities as pivotal new players in a multi‐level framework. Notwithstanding the growing interest in the topic of inclusion, the theoretical level is still limited by strong barriers among different disciplines, and the practices of promotion of social inclusion often result in a few specific projects characterized by an episodic nature and, consequently, by very limited impact in the middle‐ to long‐term. This article critically analyzes how Barcelona is re‐conceptualizing and developing its understanding of interculturalism as the basis for building its self‐image as a European model of an inclusive city. After a brief overview of the formulation of interculturalism as a contemporary approach to managing diversity at the city level, I analyze the development and implementation of interculturalism in Barcelona. Finally, by focusing on some initiatives selected in the project Bones Pràctiques Socials, I critically discuss some of the main opportunities and challenges for the promotion of social inclusion stemming from the cooperation between municipal institutions and social actors in Barcelona.
Keywords: city governance; cultural diversity; European ideal; inclusive city; interculturalism; social inclusion
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:150-161

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: What Would an Inclusive City for Gender and Sexual Minorities Be Like? You Need to Ask Queer Folx!
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6937
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6937
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 138-149
Author-Name: Karine Duplan
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Sciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland / School of Social Work Geneva, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES‐SO), Switzerland
Abstract: From fights against racism to women’s inclusion, from access to education to integration of migrants: “Inclusion” and the “inclusive city” have been used in many ways and at different scales, running the risk of becoming a kind of catchall. Following increasing use by public authorities, media, and urban professionals, the inclusive city now serves as a normative framework for urban development. Although it is aimed at social cohesion, one nevertheless wonders whether it has not become more of a buzzword that obfuscates the reproduction of power relations. Moreover, while being somehow mainstreamed into institutional discourses, the inclusive city has been quite overlooked so far by academics, and an effort is needed to clarify its conceptualisation and democratic potential. This article provides a theoretical and critical perspective on how the concept of inclusion is used in urban public policies in relation to gender, by examining the public these policies address. Using a multiscalar analysis and drawing on Warner’s framework of publics and counterpublics, I examine more specifically which public is targeted in inclusive policies, concerning gender and sexualities, and how this participates in the reshaping of (urban) citizenship and sense of belonging, as well as the implications this has for social justice. Thus, I argue that while the inclusive city has become a normative idiom imbued with the neoliberal grammar of public politics, it also offers a paradoxical framework of democratic cohesion that promotes consumption‐based equality. A focus on (counter)publics serves to highlight the need for a more queerly engaged planning practice—one that draws on insurgent grassroots movements—to seek to destabilise neoliberalism’s attempt at pacification in its use of inclusion and citizen participation.
Keywords: feminism; gender equality; inclusion; LGBTQ+ rights; participatory planning; public space; queer critique; social justice
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:138-149

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Distinctive and Distinguished Gay‐Friendliness in Park Slope, New York City
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6733
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6733
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 128-137
Author-Name: Sylvie Tissot
Author-Workplace-Name: Political Science Department, University of Paris 8, France
Abstract: In this article, I argue that a new norm has emerged in former gay and now gentrified neighborhoods. Straight upper‐middle‐class residents claim to be gay‐friendly—an attitude that has not erased hierarchies, but has both displaced and instituted boundaries. Based on fieldwork in Park Slope, a neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City, this article highlights that gay‐friendly markers signal acceptance as much as they work to establish heterosexuals’ moral authority and social privileges. Sociability between neighbors and friends is characterized by exchanges and interactions that have an impact on heterosexuals, yet remain primarily checked and filtered by them. In the domestic sphere, which is still structured by heterosexual (and gender) norms, significant restrictions on homosexuality persist. By analyzing progressiveness in relation to class and race, this study brings to light persistent power relations. It thus aims to contribute to the discussion about the extent, limits, and lingering ambivalences of a growing acceptance of homosexuality, which constitutes a significant dimension of so‐called inclusive cities.
Keywords: gay neighborhoods; gay‐friendliness; gentrification; heterosexuality; homosexuality; tolerance
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:128-137

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Social Workers and Irregular Migrants in the Assistance Circuit: Making Sense of Paradoxical Inclusion
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6764
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6764
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 116-127
Author-Name: Maxime Felder
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Public Administration and Sociology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Sahar Fneich
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Social Sciences, Lebanese University, Lebanon
Author-Name: Joan Stavo-Debauge
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Health Sciences (HESAV), University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland (HES‐SO), Switzerland
Abstract: Despite restrictive policy frameworks, cities sometimes provide support to irregular migrants. Scholars have analysed these forms of inclusion, focusing on policies and tensions between inclusionary approaches by local or urban actors and exclusionary approaches by national or supranational authorities. This article seeks to shift the focus to the street level, examining how support is delivered, how it is experienced by different categories of irregular migrants, and how frontline social workers make sense of their work and foster “paradoxical inclusion.” To this end, the article first analyses the experiences of young North African irregular migrants in Geneva, Switzerland. Based on ethnographic research, we describe their everyday life in the “assistance circuit,” which forces them to follow a daily routine determined by the services offered at fixed times in different places. Over time, the young men develop a sense of entrapment and alienation, as well as escape strategies. Secondly, by examining the perspective of social workers, we show that the constraints associated with the assistance circuit reflect a social work paradigm that aims to keep people on the move, limit dependency and promote autonomy. This paradigm coexists with another, conflicting one, which can be described as palliative, but which also seems paradoxical to the irregular migrants who aspire to full participation in social and economic life. Overall, our study suggests an alternative interpretation of the limitations and paradoxes surrounding irregular migrants’ inclusion that complements policy‐oriented approaches.
Keywords: Geneva; Harragas; inclusion; irregular migration; local level; social work; Switzerland
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:116-127

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Contradictions Within the Swedish Welfare System: Social Services’ Homelessness Strategies Under Housing Inequality
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6787
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6787
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 105-115
Author-Name: Matilda Sandberg
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Urban Studies, Malmö University, Sweden
Author-Name: Carina Listerborn
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Urban Studies, Malmö University, Sweden
Abstract: Sweden has seen a rise in homelessness alongside its strained housing market. References are increasingly being made to structural problems with housing provision, rather than individual issues. Housing has been organized through the local social services, which are responsible for supporting homeless people. With a foundation in housing studies, this article analyzes the Swedish social services’ challenges and actions in a time in which affordable housing is in shortage, and housing inequality a reality, through the lens of social services. The focus is on the intersection between the regular housing market and housing provision (primary welfare system), the social services needs‐tested support (secondary welfare system), and the non‐profit and for‐profit organizations (tertiary welfare system), with emphasis on the first two. The article is based on interviews with people working for the City of Malmö and illustrates how the housing shortage problem is moved around within the welfare system whilst also showing that social services’ support for homeless individuals appears insufficient. Social services act as a “first line” gatekeeper for those who have been excluded from the regular housing market. Moreover, recently implemented restrictions aim to make sure that the social services do not act as a “housing agency,” resulting in further exclusion from the housing market. The article highlights how the policies of the two welfare systems interact with and counteract each other and finally illustrates how homeless individuals fall between them. It highlights the need to link housing and homelessness in both research and practice to gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of housing markets and how homelessness is sustained.
Keywords: homelessness policy; housing inequality; housing provision; social services; Sweden; welfare systems
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:105-115

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Youth in Zurich’s Public Spaces: Hanging Out as an In/Exclusive Way of Taking Their Place in the City
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6782
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6782
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 93-104
Author-Name: Annamaria Colombo
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Work Fribourg, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES‐SO), Switzerland
Author-Name: Claire Balleys
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Sciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Author-Name: Marc Tadorian
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Work Fribourg, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES‐SO), Switzerland
Author-Name: Marianna Colella
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Sciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Abstract: Based on the preliminary results of an ongoing research project focused on the social and cultural practices of young people in physical and virtual public spaces across four urban areas in Switzerland, this article explores the everyday spatial behavior of youth who hang out in Zurich’s public spaces. It highlights how everyday activities provide these young people with a means of coming to terms with the inclusive and exclusive potential of the urban public spaces they appropriate and how, in turn, they adopt spatial practices that can prove more or less inclusive. Some of these practices may be provocative or even subversive; and whereas others are more discreet (sometimes involving unconscious behavior or passing unnoticed), we argue that they are no less political. The subtle ways in which young people progressively take their place in the city could best be described as “micropolitical.”
Keywords: adolescence; micropolitics; public spaces; socialization; urban cohabitation
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:93-104

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Policing the In/Exclusion of Social Marginality: The Preventive Regulation of Public Space in Urban Switzerland
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6716
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6716
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 82-92
Author-Name: Esteban Piñeiro
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Work, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Switzerland
Author-Name: Nathalie Pasche
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Work, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Switzerland
Author-Name: Nora Locher
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Work, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Switzerland
Abstract: Urban spaces are always contested and, as such, permeated by processes of inclusion and exclusion. Since the 2000s, new types of governmental public order services have been established in Switzerland specialized in dealing with socially marginalized individuals, groups, or areas. Without having police powers, they proceed with socio‐communicative methods typical in outreach social work. Based on our ethnographic research and drawing on Foucault‐inspired governmentality studies we elucidate the socio‐preventive risk management of two types of order services: While the welfare type aims to protect public spaces of attractive urban centers from social marginality, the neighborhood watch type is concerned with improving the coexistence of residents of marginalized housing developments. As the former wants to keep socio‐spatial in/exclusion of social marginality in motion and prevent its fixation in certain places, the latter works towards the inclusive socio‐spatial entrenchment of residents in segregated housing developments. Both dynamics—inclusion and exclusion—are closely intertwined and utilized for the governance of public spaces. The “inclusive city” should not be celebrated as a dull ideal and must be confronted with its own socio‐spatial mechanisms of exclusion.
Keywords: governmentality; inclusive city; nudging; order service; policing; public space; social marginality; social work
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:82-92

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Shaping the Inclusive City: Power Relations, Regulations, and the Role of Social Work
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7389
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.7389
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 77-81
Author-Name: Karine Duplan
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Work Geneva, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES‐SO), Switzerland / School of Social Sciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Author-Name: Monica Battaglini
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Work Geneva, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES‐SO), Switzerland
Author-Name: Milena Chimienti
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Work Geneva, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES‐SO), Switzerland
Author-Name: Marylène Lieber
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Sciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Abstract: While being celebrated as the ideal of inclusiveness, cities also constitute the place of different types of discrimination, which some public policies intend to tackle. The “urban” has also been pointed out as the locus where vice and lust concentrate, leading public policies to develop regulations for public space aiming to maintain the social order of the city. This, in turn, contributes to the definition of the contours of urban moral economies, which are continuously shaped by processes of in/exclusion. Hence, crucial is the need to further explore how cities can be welcoming to their dwellers and newcomers, as well as the role public policies (have to) play in the vision of the future of an open and inclusive city. In so doing, social work is certainly called upon to play a major role based on its historical presence in cities and its know‐how in accompanying transitions. How does social work contribute to the definition of an inclusive city? By presenting new and original research that draws on various case studies as well as theoretical reflections across disciplines, this thematic issue aims to provide answers to this question to better understand the role of social work in the shaping of an open and inclusive city.
Keywords: exclusion; inclusion; inclusive city; planning; power relations; public policies; public space; regulation; social work
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:77-81

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Collaborative Writing as Bio‐Digital Quilting: A Relational, Feminist Practice Towards “Academia Otherwise”
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6616
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6616
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 65-76
Author-Name: Petra Vackova
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, The Open University, UK
Author-Name: Donata Puntil
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Science, History & Philosophy, Birkbeck University of London, UK
Author-Name: Emily Dowdeswell
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, The Open University, UK
Author-Name: Carolyn Cooke
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, The Open University, UK
Author-Name: Lucy Caton
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education and Psychology, The University of Bolton, UK
Abstract: In this article, we explore how quilted poetry as methodology, through the practice of collaborative writing, can help us to attune to and think with what is un/seen, un/heard, and un/spoken in our bio‐digital ways of working, as a way of resisting normative, exploitative practices in the neoliberal academia. We are a group of academics with different journeys and localities, connected by a common interest in the effects of boundaries, the dynamics of power, and the desire to do things differently. Drawing on our daily mundane encounters with/in both virtual and physical spaces of academia, including Teams meetings, Outlook emails, Google documents, and Miro board collaborations, we write quilted poetry with fragments of precarious matter: silences, messages, rhythms, feelings, and materialities. We attend to the entanglement of our bodies and their enmeshment in technology and share how bringing relational, feminist theories and the bio‐digital together has helped us to both materialise new patterns of relations and enact a more ethical approach to working in academia.
Keywords: academia otherwise; assemblage; bio‐digital; diffraction; post‐digital; precarious kin; quilted‐poetry; relations; response‐ability
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:65-76

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Co‐Creatively Producing Knowledge With Other‐Than‐Human Organisms in a (Bio)Technology‐Controlled Artistic Environment
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6609
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6609
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 51-64
Author-Name: Antje Jacobs
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Sociological Research, KU Leuven, Belgium
Author-Name: Steven Devleminck
Author-Workplace-Name: Research Group Intermedia, LUCA School of Arts, Belgium
Author-Name: Karin Hannes
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Sociological Research, KU Leuven, Belgium
Abstract: Along with the increasing awareness about the destructive force of humankind on nature, existential questions about how to create a more sustainable relationship with the natural world have emerged. To acquire a more eco‐friendly attitude, we need to go beyond the well‐established knowledge cultures that highlight a nature versus culture dichotomy. This study focuses on bio art as an epistemic vehicle to re‐imagine our understanding of and connection to the natural world. Drawing on the theoretical stance of philosophical posthumanism, we discuss how artistic co‐creation processes involving humans and other‐than‐humans hold the potential to introduce a shift in our worldview from anthropocentric to ecocentric. We further question what this shift might imply for how we approach the complex relationship between humans and other‐than‐humans in our own research. We conducted a within‐case and cross‐case analysis of five bio art projects that previously won the Bio Art &amp; Design Award (2018–2020). To analyze the data, we used a combined approach of visual and context analysis and material semiotics. Qualitative interviews were used as a data collection technique to investigate the lived experiences of both artists and scientists involved in the projects. Our findings suggest that bio art’s epistemic significance can primarily be found in its multispecies perspective: By following the wills and ways of bio‐organisms, bio art makes the invisible connection between nature and culture visible. Bio art can provoke our thinking about how to include and approach other‐than‐human agency in the context of socially engaged research practices.
Keywords: bio art; ecocentrism; epistemology; other‐than‐human agency; posthumanism
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:51-64

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Digital Divide and Futurist Imaginings of Zelle‐ous Resistors
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6867
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6867
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 41-50
Author-Name: Daniela Peluso
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Anthropology & Conservation, University of Kent, UK
Abstract: The “digital divide” is widely acknowledged as exacerbating inequality by leaving some people on one side or the other of a knowledge divide without access to appropriate tools for the future and all the opportunities that digital technology promises. Attempts to understand this gap tend to focus on issues of trust, levels of financial education, and digital skills, mainly seeking to understand why some individuals and groups—who are mostly assumed to have minimal financial know-how and digital skills—do not trust either online financial institutions or exclusively app‐based finance. Considering the large investment in fintech solutions driven by these industries, and the practical features designed in part to make the user’s life easier and user experience more intuitive and reassuring, it is worth noting that such queries are inclined to conclude that these untapped users cannot imagine a digital future due to their own lack of digital skills and lack of exposure to tech. This article suggests that, for a portion of this population, many of whom are digital natives, this is not the case. instead, they can invest in understanding and adapting to technology and do so. Yet they are uncomfortable with the “instantaneousness” of some transactions because this doesn’t allow them enough time to address a problem or have recourse for anything unforeseeable. Furthermore, their interest in fintech’s inclusive platforms is foreshadowed by their vivid futurist understandings and imaginations. Indeed, they envision precisely the kind of digital significance that is often assumed that they do not. However, this article argues that the key difference is that many envision the future as a digital dystopia and are resisting what Lauren Berlant refers to as “cruel optimism.” These types of imaginings motivate many to resist the vulnerabilities that they believe can make them overly dependent on technology in ways that they believe can potentially place them at risk. This article focuses on the US multi‐bank‐owned Zelle payment system and its online and app‐based banking features as a case study to illustrate these points. It further argues that the inclusivity that online digital banking platforms aspiringly offer is often viewed by potential users not as a portal toward equality but rather as “a leap of faith” toward digital dependency and future vulnerability.
Keywords: cash; cruel optimism; data privacy; digital divide; dystopia; financial inclusivity; fintech; future imaginaries; glitches; hacking; P2P payments; scams; trust; Zelle
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:41-50

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Intersecting Positionalities and the Unexpected Uses of Digital Crime and Safety Tracking in Brooklyn
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6615
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6615
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 30-40
Author-Name: Alice Riddell
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Digital Anthropology, University College London, UK
Abstract: Citizen is a live crime and safety tracking app in New York City that uses AI to monitor police scanners for incidences that are relevant to “public safety,” whilst also utilizing user‐recorded footage, as users near a crime, fire, or accident are encouraged to “go live” and film unfolding events. Users comment additional information and post expressive emojis as incidences unravel. In sharing information across a digital network, Citizen functions as both a form of social media and a peer‐to‐peer surveillance app. Through this lens, my ethnographic research investigates the impact of the digitization of crime and safety as an everyday experience in increasingly gentrified neighbourhoods in Brooklyn. The question of whether technology is a marker of simultaneous inclusivity and exclusivity speaks to the dialectical nature of digital technology, as producing concurrent “good” and “bad” effects. This article explores the ways that Citizen exemplifies these tensions: The app makes users feel safer but also more anxious; Citizen is a place for community information sharing to both productive and pejorative effects, it is used to both surveil one’s neighbourhood, instilling fear and mistrust, and to sousveil law enforcement and circumnavigate the NYPD at protests, producing accountability and a sense of safety. Through ethnographic examples, this article further navigates the cultural and local specificities of use, the complex positionalities that are mediated by the app and the consequences this has for those who experience social inclusion and exclusion.
Keywords: community and inclusivity; lateral surveillance; protests and resistance; racial injustice; sousveillance
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:30-40

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The StoryMapper: Piloting a Traveling Placemaking Interface for Inclusion and Emplacement
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6619
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6619
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 15-29
Author-Name: Hanne Vrebos
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Sociological Research, KU Leuven, Belgium
Author-Name: Paul Biedermann
Author-Workplace-Name: Research[x]Design, KU Leuven, Belgium
Author-Name: Andrew Vande Moere
Author-Workplace-Name: Research[x]Design, KU Leuven, Belgium
Author-Name: Koen Hermans
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Sociological Research, KU Leuven, Belgium
Author-Name: Karin Hannes
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Sociological Research, KU Leuven, Belgium
Abstract: As aresponse to traditional (top‐down) urban planning processes, placemaking engages local citizens in the process of shaping the form, social activity, and meaning of places around them. However, placemaking practices similarly face political challenges regarding inclusion and emplacement. These challenges relate to who participates, facilitation through linguistic discourse, and place engagement itself. Attempting to address these challenges, this article (based on a pilot study) reports on the design and deployment of the StoryMapper, a traveling placemaking interface that uses a participant‐driven “chain of engagement” recruiting process to invite participants to create emplaced “morphings” (i.e., visually produced stories superimposed on public space) to spark dialogue on a digitally facilitated living map. This pilot study took place within a larger placemaking project that engages citizens to share their ideas regarding the reconversion of a community church. Plugging the Storymapper into this larger project, we discuss preliminary findings relating to the role of placemaking facilitators in citizen‐driven recruitment and the role of multimodality in placemaking processes. This pilot study suggests that inclusion should not only be evaluated based on who participates and who does not, but also on how the tool itself, in its capacity to engage participants to visualize complex emplaced ideas, may facilitate inclusion of different publics.
Keywords: citizen participation; cultural heritage; design; emplacement; inclusion; mapping; pilot study; placemaking
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:15-29

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Increasing Participation of Persons With Intellectual Disabilities With Smart Socio‐Technical Arrangements
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6618
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.6618
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 5-14
Author-Name: Verena Wahl
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Applied Research, Catholic University of Applied Sciences Freiburg, Germany
Author-Name: Florian Kiuppis
Author-Workplace-Name: Inclusive Education Centre, Catholic University of Applied Sciences Freiburg, Germany
Abstract: “Smart devices” and “smart applications” open up a wide range of opportunities for the individual. Today, the vast majority of the population in Europe uses electronic devices with a multitude of “smart applications” as an aid in everyday life. One part of society that could arguably benefit more from these types of technology is that part comprised of persons with disabilities. Statistics show that persons with disabilities, especially those with intellectual disabilities, own and use fewer electronic devices than other parts of the population. Several authors have addressed this issue, referring to it as the “digital divide.” In this argumentative article, we advocate a social‐relational understanding of disability and conceptualise “smartness” as an attribute for situations (and neither for devices and applications nor for people). Through what we call “smart socio‐technical arrangements,” persons with intellectual disabilities potentially gain a higher level of activity and more independence. It appears that an individualised technology environment can contribute to the enablement and increase of participation of each person. The article links up with an applied research project analysing the establishment of socio‐technical arrangements not only for, but also with persons with intellectual disabilities. Our main question here is how to adequately conceptualise the “smartness” of situations for persons with intellectual disabilities. We argue that the use of devices as components of socio‐technical arrangements can optimally lead to smart situations in which persons with intellectual disabilities are more active and less restricted in their activities and participation. “Smartness” then is a synonym for functioning and an antonym of disability.
Keywords: intellectual disabilities; participation; smart applications; smart devices; smart situations; smart socio‐technical arrangements; smartness; technology use
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:5-14

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: A Technological Smartness All Over the Place: Small‐Scale Thing‐Power Experiments With Wider Inclusive Ambitions
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7387
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i3.7387
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 3
Pages: 1-4
Author-Name: Karin Hannes
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Sociological Research, KU Leuven, Belgium
Author-Name: Frederik Truyen
Author-Workplace-Name: Cultural Studies Research Group, KU Leuven, Belgium
Abstract: We live in a societal realm where robotics, artificial intelligence, and digitalization are strongly reshaping our futures. Technological progress has created multiple possibilities. However, the unequally divided impact of technological progress reminds us of the danger of an uncontrolled detonation of technological smartness in society. Some of its experienced and anticipated effects are most likely undesirable. In this thematic issue, we present a compilation of small‐scale experiments that help us think through the multiple challenges of a fast‐evolving techno‐mediated society. It sits on the cross‐road between resisting technology or insisting on it in order to create a more socially inclusive sustainable society. The technological “smartification” of our society reshapes our notion of what it means to be human in the complex assemblage with non‐human and other‐than‐human agents we are currently involved in. But it is also a catalyst for intelligent acts of human creativity that will strongly shape our collective future.
Keywords: digitalization; inclusive design; relational ontology; smart technology
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:3:p:1-4

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Dear Reviewer n: An Open Letter on Academic Culture, Structural Racism, and the Place of Indigenous Knowledges, With a Question From One Indigenous Academic to the Decolonising Academics Who Are Not
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7245
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.7245
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 232-234
Author-Name: Scott Avery
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University, Australia
Abstract: This is an open letter on academic culture, structural racism, and the place of Indigenous knowledges.
Keywords: Indigenous knowledge; sovereignty; structural racism
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:232-234

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Making and Shaping of the Young Gael: Irish‐Medium Youth Work for Developing Indigenous Identities
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6474
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.6474
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 223-231
Author-Name: Eliz McArdle
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Youth Research and Dialogue, Ulster University, UK
Author-Name: Gail Neill
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Youth Research and Dialogue, Ulster University, UK
Abstract: Identity exploration and formation is a core rumination for young people. This is heightened in youth where flux and transition are characteristic of this liminal state and intensified further in contexts where identity is disputed and opposed, such as in Northern Ireland. In this post‐colonial setting, the indigenous Irish language and community recently gained some statutory protections, but the status and place of the Irish‐speaking population continue to be strongly opposed. Drawing on focus group data with 40 young people involved in the emerging field of Irish‐medium youth work, this article explores how informal education offers an approach and setting for the development of identities in contested societies. Principles of emancipation, autonomy, and identity formation underpin the field of youth work and informal education. This dialogical approach to learning and welfare focuses on the personal and social development of young people and troubles those systems that marginalise and diminish their place in society. This article identifies how this youth work approach builds on language development to bring to life a new social world and space for Irish‐speaking young people. It identifies political activism and kinship development as key components in strengthening individual and collective identity. This article proposes a shift in emphasis from the language‐based formal education sector to exploit the under‐recognised role of informal education in the development of youth identity, cultural belonging, and language revitalisation.
Keywords: Gaelic; identity; Indigenous; informal education; Irish language; Northern Ireland; youth work; youth
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:223-231

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Truth Will Set You Free? The Promises and Pitfalls of Truth‐Telling for Indigenous Emancipation
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6491
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.6491
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 212-222
Author-Name: Sarah Maddison
Author-Workplace-Name: The Australian Centre, University of Melbourne, Australia
Author-Name: Julia Hurst
Author-Workplace-Name: The Australian Centre, University of Melbourne, Australia
Author-Name: Archie Thomas
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Advancement of Indigenous Knowledges, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Abstract: First Nations in Australia are beginning to grapple with processes of treaty‐making with state governments and territories. As these processes gain momentum, truth‐telling has become a central tenet of imagining Indigenous emancipation and the possibility of transforming relationships between Indigenous and settler peoples. Truth, it is suggested, will enable changed ways of knowing what and who “Australia” is. These dynamics assume that truth‐telling will benefit all people, but will truth be enough to compel change and provide an emancipated future for Indigenous people? This article reports on Australian truth‐telling processes in Victoria, and draws on two sets of extant literature to understand the lessons and outcomes of international experience that provide crucial insights for these processes—that on truth‐telling commissions broadly, and that focusing specifically on a comparable settler colonial state process, the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The article presents a circumspect assessment of the possibilities for Indigenous emancipation that might emerge through truth‐telling from our perspective as a team of Indigenous and non‐Indigenous critical scholars. We first consider the normative approach that sees truth‐telling as a potentially flawed but worthwhile process imbued with possibility, able to contribute to rethinking and changing Indigenous–settler relations. We then consider the more critical views that see truth‐telling as rehabilitative of the settler colonial state and obscuring ongoing colonial injustices. Bringing this analysis into conversation with contemporary debate on truth‐telling in Australia, we advocate for the simultaneous adoption of both normative and critical perspectives to truth‐telling as a possible way forward for understanding the contradictions, opportunities, and tensions that truth‐telling implies.
Keywords: Australia; Canada; Indigenous–settler relations; reconciliation; truth and justice; truth and reconciliation; truth commissions; truth‐telling
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:212-222

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: La Lucha Continua: A Presentist Lens on Social Protest in Ecuador
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6496
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.6496
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 198-211
Author-Name: Julia Schwab
Author-Workplace-Name: Chair of Peace Studies, Justus‐Liebig University Giessen, Germany
Abstract: Ecuador has one of the most progressive constitutions in Latin America. It defines the state as plurinational and guarantees collective rights to Indigenous people and even to Nature itself. At the same time, the oil sector has been of strategic importance and “national interest” to both right‐ and left‐wing governments for the last decades, contributing with its rents and revenues to around one‐third of the state coffers. Therefore, the extractivist model remains unchallenged and still promises development—while reproducing systemic inequalities and a “continuum of violence.” In June 2022, the Indigenous movement called for a nationwide strike to draw attention to the socio‐economic crisis following the pandemic. The authorities harshly repressed the mobilization and a racializing media discourse demarcated the “Indigenous” agenda from the needs of “all Ecuadorians,” classifying the protesters as “terrorists” and thus, a threat to the nation. Drawing on ethnographic research, this article discusses the role of extractivism in social mobilization. Exploring the future of social protest in Ecuador in the face of new pressures like climate change and the energy transition, it argues that extractivist patterns will change globally and amplify social discontent and mobilization.
Keywords: Amazon; climate change; CONAIE; energy transition; extractivism; Indigenous movement; rentier society; violence
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:198-211

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Between Legal Indigeneity and Indigenous Sovereignty in Taiwan: Insights From Critical Race Theory
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6514
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.6514
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 187-197
Author-Name: Scott E. Simon
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies, University of Ottawa, Canada
Author-Name: Awi Mona
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Law, National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan
Abstract: Taiwan, home to over 580,000 Indigenous people in 16 state‐recognized groups, is one of three Asian countries to recognize the existence of Indigenous peoples in its jurisdiction. Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples remember their pre‐colonial lives as autonomous nations living according to their own laws and political institutions, asserting that they have never ceded territory or sovereignty to any state. As Taiwan democratized, the state dealt with resurgent Indigenous demands for political autonomy through legal indigeneity, including inclusion in the Constitution since 1997 and subsequent legislation. Yet, in an examination of two court rulings, we find that liberal indigeneity protects individuals, while consistently undermining Indigenous sovereignty. In 2021, the Constitutional Court upheld restrictive laws against hunting, seeking to balance wildlife conservation and cultural rights for Indigenous hunters, but ignoring Indigenous demands to create autonomous hunting regimes. In 2022, the Constitutional Court struck down part of the Indigenous Status Act, which stipulated that any child with one Indigenous parent and one Han Taiwanese parent must use an Indigenous name to obtain Indigenous status and benefit from anti‐discrimination measures. Both rulings deepen state control over Indigenous lives while denying Indigenous peoples the sovereign power to regulate these issues according to their own laws. Critical race theory (CRT) is useful in understanding how legislation designed with good intentions to promote anti‐discrimination can undermine Indigenous sovereignty. Simultaneously, studies of Indigenous resurgence highlight an often‐neglected dimension of CRT—the importance of affirming the nation in the face of systemic racism.
Keywords: critical race theory; Indigenous sovereignty; legal indigeneity; Taiwan
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:187-197

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Anishinaabe Law at the Margins: Treaty Law in Northern Ontario, Canada, as Colonial Expansion
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6497
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.6497
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 177-186
Author-Name: Tenille E. Brown
Author-Workplace-Name: Bora Laskin Faculty of Law, Lakehead University, Canada
Abstract: In 1850, 17 years before the Dominion of Canada was created, colonial officers in representation of Her Majesty the Queen, concluded Treaty Numbers 60 and 61 with the Anishinaabe Nation of Northern Ontario. The Robinson Treaties—so named after William Benjamin Robinson, a government official—include land cessions made by the Anishinaabe communities in return for ongoing financial support and protection of hunting rights. The land areas included in the treaty are vast territories that surround two of Canada’s great lakes: Lake Superior and Lake Huron. These lands were important for colonial expansion as settlements began to move west across North America. The treaties promised increased annual annuity payments “if and when” the treaty territory produced profits that enabled “the Government of this Province, without incurring loss, to increase the annuity hereby secured to them.” This amount has not been increased in 150 years. This article reviews Restoule v. Canada, a recent Ontario decision brought by Anishinaabe Treaty beneficiaries who seek to affirm these treaty rights. A reading of the Robinson Treaties that implements the original treaty promise and increases annuity payments would be a hopeful outcome of the Restoule v. Canada decision for it would be the implementation of reconciliation. In addition, the Restoule decision has important insights to offer about how Indigenous law can guide modern‐day treaty interpretation just as it guided the adoption of the treaty in 1850. The Robinson Treaties are important for the implementation of treaty promises through Indigenous law and an opportunity to develop a Canada in which Indigenous peoples are true partners in the development and management of natural resources.
Keywords: Anishinaabe Nation; Canada; Restoule; Indigenous law; Northern Ontario; Robinson Treaties; treaty law
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:177-186

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Indigenous Emancipation: The Fight Against Marginalisation, Criminalisation, and Oppression
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7164
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.7164
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 173-176
Author-Name: Grace O’Brien
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Author-Name: Pey‐Chun Pan
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Work, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
Author-Name: Mustapha Sheikh
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of Leeds, UK
Author-Name: Simon Prideaux
Author-Workplace-Name: Independent Researcher, UK
Abstract: This thematic issue addresses the challenges faced by Indigenous peoples in protecting their rights and maintaining their unique cultures and ways of life. Despite residing on all continents and possessing distinct social, cultural, economic, and political characteristics, Indigenous peoples have historically faced oppression and violation of their rights. Measures to protect Indigenous rights are gradually being recognized by the international community, but ongoing issues such as illegal deforestation, mining, and land clearances continue to desecrate sacred sites and oppress Indigenous peoples. Indigenous women and youth are particularly vulnerable, facing higher levels of gender‐based violence and overrepresentation in judicial sentencing statistics. Land rights continue to be threatened by natural resource extraction, infrastructure projects, large‐scale agricultural expansion, and conservation orders. There is also a heightened risk of statelessness for Indigenous peoples whose traditional lands cross national borders, leading to displacement, attacks, killings, and criminalization.
Keywords: criminalisation; displacement; Indigenous emancipation; Indigenous rights; justice; marginalisation; oppression; settler‐ colonialism
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:173-176

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: &lt;O/ No Power but Deaf Power \O&gt;: Revitalizing Deaf Education Systems via Anarchism
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6534
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.6534
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 159-172
Author-Name: Michael Skyer
Author-Workplace-Name: Theory and Practice in Teacher Education, University of Tennessee, USA
Author-Name: Jessica A. Scott
Author-Workplace-Name: College of Education & Human Development, Georgia State University, USA
Author-Name: Dai O'Brien
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Education, Language and Psychology, York St. John University, UK
Abstract: Deaf education is an incoherent macrosystem whose sub‐systems—e.g., biomedical vs. sociocultural institutions—contradict. Unreconciled tensions cause stagnation, not regeneration, and harmful dissensus in deaf educational sub‐systems. To revitalize deaf education, address these contradictions, and eliminate incoherence, we posit that a deafled systemic transformation of deaf education is necessary; furthermore, we argue it may best be realized through theories and actions constitutive of anarchism. To this end, we synthesize four thematic loci where anarchism overtly aligns with constructs immanent in deaf communities. First, collectivism is necessary for survival in anarchist and deaf communities toward shared goals including equity in education, social labor, and politics. Second, mutual aid is integral—like anarchists who work arm‐in‐arm, deaf individuals and groups exhibit uncanny solidarity across political, cultural, technological, linguistic, and geographical boundaries. Third, direct action tactics overlap in both groups: When facing internal or external threats, both communities effectively rally local mechanisms to affect change. Finally, both groups exhibit a stubborn, existential refusal to be subdued or ruled by outsiders. Reframing systemic dilemmas in deaf education via anarchism is a novel, beneficial praxis that’s only been tangentially explored. Centering anarchism in deaf education also generates succor for ongoing struggles about sign language in deaf communities. Toward the horizon of radical equality, our staunchly anarchist analysis of deaf education argues that to guide deaf‐positive system change neoliberalism is inert and neo‐fascism anathema.
Keywords: anarchist studies; anarchism; deaf education; deaf studies; democracy and dissensus; disability studies
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:159-172

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Performing Agency in Shrinking Spaces: Acting Beyond the Resilience–Resistance Binary
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6446
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.6446
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 147-158
Author-Name: Soumi Banerjee
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Work, Lund University
Abstract: Civil society occupies a significant space in any dynamic political landscape. However, in recent years, governments worldwide have attempted a shift away from activism and advocacy among civil society organisations (CSOs), favouring the apolitical service‐driven organisations while disabling those perceived as “political.” This process has incapacitated civil society of its political habits, tendencies, and potentials and turned CSOs into infinitely malleable and adaptive subjects, tamed and governed by institutions. Not only has this functioned to create a discursive expansion and valorisation of the concept of “civil society resilience” as an alternative political vision for “resistance,” but it has also led to the inclusion of CSOs in the political system on conditions of their exclusion from political participation. Using the case of India as an example of a shrinking welfare state—with its burgeoning poverty, repressed civic space, international non‐governmental organisations (INGOs) banned, and NGOs abrogated from foreign funding on “anti‐national,” “anti‐developmental” charges—this article captures the rapid symptomatic depoliticisation of civil society, its resource dependency on CSOs, and their potential political exclusion and disengagement. The research builds on a qualitative exploration of the transformative journey of ten highly‐influential INGOs in India to offer a distinct perspective toward effecting systemic change by repoliticising CSO resilience as an enhanced strategy of practicing resistance. In doing so, the article bridges the gap between the neoliberal manifestation of resilience and resistance by reconceptualising how and if CSOs co‐exist and navigate between competing visions of resilience (as institutionalised subjects of neoliberalism) and resistance (as political subjects of change).
Keywords: civil society; development; politics; exclusion; inclusion; India; neoliberalism; resilience; resistance
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:147-158

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The University and Social Work Under Neoliberalism: Where’s the Social Inclusion for Disabled Faculty?
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6241
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.6241
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 136-146
Author-Name: Cameron McKenzie
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada
Author-Name: Maryam Khan
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada
Abstract: There is an urgent need to increase the social inclusion of postsecondary faculty with disabilities by reducing the need to adapt to ableist and sanist neoliberal standards. In this article, two social work faculty with disabilities argue that their social exclusion is inevitable under systemic neoliberal priorities of individualism, efficiency, and productivity. We engage in a systems analysis of how educational institutions, namely universities, engage in practices and processes of social exclusion of faculty with disabilities through neoliberal ideologies, policies, and practices. Using an autoethnographic case study method, guided by an intersectional and disability justice theoretical framing, the authors challenge the ahistorical and non‐relational tendencies of neoliberalism in its many forms. Using lived experience as data, the authors elucidate strategies to promote social inclusion aimed at universities and at the discipline of social work. In conclusion, the authors advocate for change at the structural level for the social work profession and for postsecondary institutions.
Keywords: disability; disabled faculty; neoliberalism; postsecondary education; social work; university
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:136-146

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Inclusive Policy? An Intersectional Analysis of Policy Influencing Women’s Reproductive Decision‐Making
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6427
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.6427
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 124-135
Author-Name: Greer Lamaro Haintz
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University, Australia
Author-Name: Hayley McKenzie
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University, Australia
Author-Name: Beth Turnbull
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Public Health, La Trobe University, Australia
Author-Name: Melissa Graham
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Public Health, La Trobe University, Australia
Abstract: Policy can be used and experienced as a tool for social inclusion or exclusion; it can empower or disenfranchise. Women’s reproductive decision‐making and health is impacted by policy, and women’s experiences of diverse and intersecting marginalised social locations can influence their experiences of policy. This research aimed to explore how intersectionality is considered within Victorian state government policies that influence and impact women’s reproductive decision-making. A systematic search of Victorian (Australia) government policy instruments was undertaken, identifying twenty policy instruments. Policies were analysed using an intersectional policy analysis framework using a two‐stage process involving deductive coding into the domains of the framework, followed by inductive thematic analysis within and across domains. Findings reveal inconsistencies within and across policies in how they consider intersecting social relations of power in the representation of problems, women’s positionings, policy impacts, and policy solutions. These gaps could exclude and marginalise individuals and groups and contribute to systemic inequities in women’s reproductive decision-making and the outcomes of those decisions, particularly among already marginalised groups. The lack of women’s voices in policy further excludes and marginalises those impacted by the policy and limits the representation of all women in policy. Policy development needs to meaningfully involve women with diverse and intersecting marginalised social locations, and critical reflexivity of all stakeholders, to ensure policies can better account for the experiences of, and impacts upon, women who are marginalised and effect change to promote social inclusion and equity in women’s reproductive decision‐making.
Keywords: intersectionality; policy analysis; reproductive decision‐making; social inclusion; women
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:124-135

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Towards Inclusion: Systemic Change Through Organizational Education
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6443
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.6443
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 115-123
Author-Name: Stefan Köngeter
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Social Work and Social Spaces, OST Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland
Author-Name: Timo Schreiner
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Work, Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Abstract: This article discusses inclusion in social work from an organizational perspective and suggests that organizational education (a new discipline and profession focusing on learning organizations) opens up new perspectives for organizing inclusion. In making this argument, the authors start with a notion of social inclusion that is connected to theories of social justice, social exclusion, and democracy. Against the background of historical and recent research on child and youth care in Germany and Switzerland, it is shown how organizations place clients in powerless positions. To this day, diversity in society is viewed as problematic for organizations, particularly when it comes to interpreting clients’ situations. However, learning can only take place in organizations if clients have a chance to articulate their experiences with organizations and participate in decision‐making from more powerful positions. The authors therefore plea for organizations in social work and other social services to become more democratized, to further a form of inclusion that leads to more social justice.
Keywords: critical diversity management; organizational education; social inclusion; social justice
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:115-123

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Social and Curricular Inclusion in Refugee Education: Critical Approaches to Education Advocacy
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6376
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.6376
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 104-114
Author-Name: Alexandra Greene
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands
Author-Name: Yến Lê Espiritu
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California – San Diego, USA
Author-Name: Dan Nyamangah
Author-Workplace-Name: Social Advocates for Youth (SAY) San Diego, USA
Abstract: Recognizing refugee students, families, and communities as a source of knowledge and social change, this article offers two case studies of innovative, deliberative, and labor‐intensive practices toward meaningful social inclusion of refugee parents and students in education. The first example focuses on the multiyear effort by the Parent‐Student‐Resident Organization (PSRO) in San Diego, California, an education advocacy group organized and led by local parents to institutionalize social inclusion programs for refugees and other systemically excluded students. The second example analyzes the Refugee Teaching Institute in Merced, California, organized with the Critical Refugee Studies Collective (CRSC), to work with teachers to create a refugee‐centered curriculum. In both case studies, organizers depart from deficit models of refugee education by foregrounding student and parent empowerment and bringing together diverse stakeholders to generate and implement a shared vision for teaching and learning. Through sharing insights glimpsed from participant observation and extended conversations with participants in each case study, this article shifts the reference point in refugee education from that of school authorities to that of refugees themselves. Through reflecting on the challenges of effecting systemic change, we argue for a model of educational transformation that is ongoing, intentionally collaborative, and cumulative.
Keywords: critical refugee studies; cultural humility; curricular inclusion; refugee education advocacy; refugee teaching; social inclusion; systems change
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:104-114

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Exclusion to Inclusion: Lived Experience of Intellectual Disabilities in National Reporting on the CRPD
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6398
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.6398
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 94-103
Author-Name: Laufey Elísabet Löve
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education and Diversity, University of Iceland, Iceland
Abstract: This article critically examines the application of an innovative project aimed at developing a mechanism for people with intellectual disabilities to provide input to the Icelandic government’s report on its implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (CRPD). The project was undertaken to comply with the CRPD’s obligation to ensure the participation of disabled people in the review process and to respond to the recognized need for changes to consultation processes to accommodate the needs of people with intellectual disabilities. The project was successful in producing its intended outcome, to facilitate meaningful input by people with intellectual disabilities to the national review process. However, the research reveals that effective use of the outcome report by the authorities, which had both funded the project and praised its work, was lacking. These findings draw attention to the need to address unspoken norms and biases, and to take assertive steps to institutionalize a more structured and transparent process of co‐creation to ensure that the voices of marginalized groups are in fact heard and effectively taken into account in outcome processes. The research this article draws on is qualitative, comprised of data gathered through document analysis, as well as in‐depth interviews with representatives of disabled people’s organizations and the authorities.
Keywords: Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities; effective participation; inclusion; intellectual disabilities; marginalization
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:94-103

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Effecting Systemic Change: Critical Strategic Approaches for Social Inclusion
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7183
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.7183
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 90-93
Author-Name: Nick J. Mulé
Author-Workplace-Name: York University, Canada
Author-Name: Luann Good Gingrich
Author-Workplace-Name: York University, Canada
Abstract: This thematic issue focuses on critical, insightful, and innovative strategic approaches to social inclusion through a change in social systems. Contributions propose effective and responsive approaches, principles, practices, and/or models for impactful systemic change towards meaningful and practical social inclusion in our institutions, communities, and societies, adopting a systemic view—a wide‐angle lens—to explore opportunities for transformation.
Keywords: civil society organizatons; disabilities; health policy; refugees; social services; systems analysis; systems change; women’s reproduction
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:90-93

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Confronting Racialised Power Asymmetries in the Interview Setting: Positioning Strategies of Highly Qualified Migrants
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6468
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.6468
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 80-89
Author-Name: Elisabeth Scheibelhofer
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, University of Vienna, Austria
Author-Name: Clara Holzinger
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, University of Vienna, Austria
Author-Name: Anna-Katharina Draxl
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, University of Vienna, Austria
Abstract: Based on our longitudinal, in‐depth qualitative research focusing on the social construction of deskilling among highly educated migrants from Central and Eastern European (CEE) member states of the European Union, we will discuss in this article the positioning of the interview partners within the interview situation as interrelated to societal racialised power asymmetries. In this contribution, we exemplify that critical migration research can only be carried out when we reflect on our methods accordingly. To do so, we discuss actual evidence from this ongoing research project: While we see that many of our interview partners from new EU member states are reluctant to point to negative experiences in our conversations, we want to highlight that the potentiality of discrimination is part of the interview setting in our research and thus co‐constructs the empirical data. By analysing a variety of discursive positioning strategies employed by our interview partners that can be understood as strategies to avoid anticipated discrimination, we aim to fulfil the promise of methodological reflexivity and thus contribute to the quality of interview research in the context of migration studies. The aim of this contribution is thus twofold: We want to contribute to methodological discussions as well as refine current research focussing on the racist experiences of CEE migrants.
Keywords: discrimination; everyday experiences; highly skilled; interviewing analysis; migration; positioning
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:80-89

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Refugee Women’s Volunteering as Resistance Practices to Micro‐Aggressions and Social Exclusion in the UK
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6309
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.6309
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 69-79
Author-Name: Carolynn Low
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Southampton, UK
Author-Name: Bindi V. Shah
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology, University of Southampton, UK
Abstract: In an increasingly hostile environment for refugees in the UK and the “everyday bordering” that creates exclusionary effects for refugees and migrants, this article examines how refugee women of diverse backgrounds enact resistance practices through volunteering to challenge everyday microaggressions and social exclusion. We draw on in‐depth qualitative research with members of a support group for refugee women established by a local charity in England. We find that the support group not only allows the refugee women to foster a strong sense of solidarity in the face of everyday microaggressions; it also facilitates the women’s volunteering activities in the local community. Applying the concept of “differentiated embedding,” we argue that such activities enable these women to build wider social connections and skills for future employment and, crucially, develop emotional and linguistic resources to critique dominant exclusionary discourses and policies towards refugees through the idea of “contribution” and “giving back.” In so doing, we contribute to renewed interest in the concept of integration to highlight the agency of refugee women in creating differentiated embedding in a hostile environment.
Keywords: critical incorporation; differentiated embedding; hostile environment; integration; microaggression; racism; refugees; resistance; volunteering
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:69-79

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Reinscribing Migrant “Undeservingness” and “Deportability” Into Detention Centres' Visiting Rooms
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6472
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.6472
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 59-68
Author-Name: Oyku Hazal Tural
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, University of Edinburgh, UK
Abstract: Despite a growing literature that addresses racial connections in detaining immigrants for deportation purposes, research on how race and race‐making operate in detention centres remains scant. This research draws on interview data collected from volunteers visiting detention facilities across the UK and bridges a Foucauldian analytics of power with a relational perspective on race and racism to explore ways in which race operates and is experienced and resisted by actors involved in everyday relations of the space. Findings illuminate everyday workings and interactional dynamics that characterise detention centres and varied interpretations of visitors about race and race‐making in those spaces of confinement. Despite differences in interpretations, visitors’ accounts commonly point to the centrality of racialising ideas of migrant “undeservingness” and “deportability” in shaping embodied, affective, and experiential realities of the visiting rooms of detention centres, and various ways in which actors resist those identifications.
Keywords: everyday racism; immigration detention; racialisation; power
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:59-68

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Processes of Discrimination and Humiliation Experienced by Ecuadorian Immigrant Workers in Spain
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6352
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.6352
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 48-58
Author-Name: David Ortega‐Jiménez
Author-Workplace-Name: Departament of Psychology, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (UTPL), Ecuador
Author-Name: Luis Alvarado
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Psychological Sciences, University of Guayaquil, Ecuador
Author-Name: Alejandra Trillo
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Psychology, University of Granada, Spain
Author-Name: Francisco D. Bretones
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Psychology, University of Granada, Spain
Abstract: The workplace is currently one of the main places of discrimination for socially vulnerable groups such as immigrant workers, who are often required to take on highly stigmatized, menial jobs under supervisors who subject them to daily mistreatment and racism. This study adopted a qualitative approach to 42 semi‐structured interviews of Ecuadorian immigrant workers residing in Spain to explore the processes of discrimination these laborers feel in their everyday workplaces. The findings clearly indicate that immigrant workers can be victims of daily discrimination, which is evidenced by the higher degree of scrutiny and lower levels of trust they suffer compared to their Spanish counterparts, and by their supervisors’ lack of compliance with contractual agreements. As these immigrants are obliged to take on less qualified jobs, they suffer from a lack of recognition and a sense of being undervalued. This analysis also gathered evidence of interviewees’ daily humiliations imparted by their supervisors—and even, at times, by work colleagues—in the form of racial slurs, verbal abuse, and unequal treatment, leaving them feeling powerless and helpless. Most of our respondents in fact find themselves in a predicament they do not know how to confront and cannot reject. All of these factors lead to feelings of humiliation and lack of independence.
Keywords: discrimination; everyday racism; humiliation; workplace; Ecuadorian workers; Spain
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:48-58

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Racial Microaggressions and Ontological Security: Exploring the Narratives of Young Adult Migrants in Glasgow, UK
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6266
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.6266
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 37-47
Author-Name: Marcus Nicolson
Author-Workplace-Name: Economics and Law, Glasgow Caledonian University, UK
Abstract: This study investigates the lived experiences of racial microaggressions faced by young adult migrants in everyday life in Glasgow, UK. The personal stories reported in this study are a direct challenge to the dominant political narrative that Scotland does not have a racism problem. When faced with this discord between narrative and reality, young adultmigrants in Scotland must negotiate both their own lived experiences and biographical narratives to achieve a sense of security. A narrative enquiry methodology is used to explore mundane and everyday interactions for four young adult migrants who have settled in Glasgow over the last 10 years. These accounts of daily life offer a unique view into the everyday racism and racialmicroaggressions faced by this group. Additionally, the opinions of selected Scottish politicians have been collected to gather an additional viewpoint on racism in Scotland. A theoretical perspective stemming from ontological security theory contributes to the racial microaggressions literature in unpacking how individual migrants negotiate traumatic experiences of racism and manage their identities. The analysis explores how migrant individuals may employ coping mechanisms and adopt distinct behaviours to minimise the daily trauma of racism and microaggressions experienced in Scotland. This study, therefore, highlights the potential for interdisciplinary research on racism, narrative, and security studies, and the opportunities for bringing together these distinct perspectives.
Keywords: identity; microaggressions; narrative; ontological security; racism; Scotland
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:37-47

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: “I’m Told I Don’t Look Like a Foreigner”: Everyday Racism in Contemporary Italy
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6451
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.6451
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 27-36
Author-Name: Fabio Quassoli
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milano‐Bicocca, Italy
Author-Name: Marta Muchetti
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milano‐Bicocca, Italy
Author-Name: Monica Colombo
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milano‐Bicocca, Italy
Abstract: In our article, we aim to explore the experience of everyday racism of young people with migrant parents in Italy. Drawing on the analysis of 20 interviews, we seek to reconstruct the overall dynamics of racial microaggressions, highlighting how the context in which microaggressions occur and the interplay between ethnic background, gender, and somatic features influences the interpretations and reactions of the victims. We highlight the boundary work and identity negotiation process carried out in everyday encounters. We also show that participants’ experience oscillates between the claim of not-taken‐for‐granted citizenship, the feeling of being confined within ethno‐cultural imaginaries, and the experience of overt manifestations of racism. Finally, we highlight both the process by which victims come to recognise racial microaggressions and the obstacles they face in coping with them.
Keywords: everyday racism; intersectionality; Italy; racial microaggressions; second‐generation migrants
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:27-36

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Exploring Racial Microaggressions Toward Chinese Immigrant Women in Greater Boston During Covid
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6405
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.6405
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 16-26
Author-Name: Kelly Wing Kwan Wong
Author-Workplace-Name: Fletcher School of Law of Diplomacy, Tufts University, USA
Abstract: This study was an initial qualitative exploration to (a) capture varied experiences of racial microaggressions directed at Chinese immigrant women before and during Covid and (b) investigate different forms and levels of microaggressions based on socioeconomic status, age, and other characteristics. Racial microaggressions were examined by interviewing 12 foreign‐born, Chinese immigrant women aged 23 to 80 years old, with most of the participants identified as middle class or above. Building upon previous scholarship on racial and gendered microaggressions, an analytical framework was developed using 12 major themes to identify and interpret discriminatory behaviors. Our main findings suggest that the research sample encountered more blatant hate incidents and expressed heightened concern over their physical safety in the post‐Covid period. Young women, compared to their older counterparts, were more inclined to report microaggression episodes and distinguish more subtle forms of discrimination. These findings could serve as preliminary evidence for future research.
Keywords: Anti‐Asian; anti‐Blackness; Chinese immigrant women; Covid‐related stigmatization; internalized racism; model minority myth; racial microaggression; racism; scapegoating; yellow peril
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:16-26

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Moving Beyond Obfuscating Racial Microaggression Discourse
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6403
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.6403
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 5-15
Author-Name: Johnny E. Williams
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Trinity College, USA
Author-Name: David G. Embrick
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Africana Studies, University of Connecticut, USA
Abstract: In this article, we argue that the concept of racial microaggression is a white supremacy construct that is an ideological and discursive anti‐Black practice. We discuss how microaggressions’ reduction of historical and hegemonic white supremacy to everyday relations that are merely performative, not integral to sustaining such larger forces, is an analytical shortcoming. We contend that without the adequate heft of historical white supremacy as a part of capitalist and colonial expansion, genocide, and Indigenous erasure, microaggression scholars will remain enthralled with the idea that individual behavior changes can eradicate anti‐Black violence.
Keywords: microaggression; racism; systemic racism; white supremacy
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:5-15

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Post‐Migration Stress: Racial Microaggressions and Everyday Discrimination
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6980
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i2.6980
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 2
Pages: 1-4
Author-Name: Fabio Quassoli
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milano‐Bicocca, Italy
Author-Name: Monica Colombo
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milano‐Bicocca, Italy
Abstract: In 1991, Philomena Essed highlighted the importance of studying contemporary racism, focusing on the interplay between the macro‐social dimension and its constant reactivation in everyday interactions. Later, psychologists redefined the pervasive experience of racism in everyday encounters in terms of racial microaggressions. Migrants and asylum seekers today constitute “ideal” candidates for this kind of experience. This is due to the persistent historical processes that harken back to Western colonialism and imperialism, as well as the growing hostility towards people migrating from the Global South. This hostility has been brewing for several decades in Western countries, and it manifests in both everyday informal interactions and institutional contexts, where migrants and asylum seekers constantly face racist attitudes.
Keywords: discrimination; everyday racism; migrants; racial microaggressions; refugees; social exclusion
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:2:p:1-4

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Gender Differences in Epidemic Everyday Scenarios: An Exploratory Study of Family Life in Slovenia
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/5953
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.5953
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 324-336
Author-Name: Alenka Švab
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Author-Name: Tanja Oblak Črnič
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Abstract: The article focuses on the changed dynamics of family life due to the first wave of Covid-19—starting in the spring of 2020—and the consequent longstanding social lockdown in the fall of 2020. We employ the concept of “forced nuclearisation” to describe the process that required a rapid reorganisation of otherwise self-evident and established social patterns and relationships, above all new adjustments of care relations both inside and outside the private sphere. The focus is on new demands in the intertwined spheres of work, school, and family obligations, especially because the private sphere has been assigned several additional functions, otherwise carried out by educational and daycare institutions. Based on an extensive dataset from a quantitative exploratory online survey conducted in two time periods, first in April 2020 and then in October 2020, this article discusses, from a comparative perspective and with a focus on gender inequalities, the main changes in practices and everyday routines such as shopping, housework, childcare, work obligations, and caring for other family members. The research aimed to identify the most obvious distinctions in family scenarios and, in particular, to point to the main social inequalities and potentially vulnerable groups within the population, who faced the forced and unexpected nuclearisation of everyday life.
Keywords: Covid-19; epidemic scenarios; family; forced nuclearisation; gender; lockdown; quantitative analysis; social inequalities; survey research
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:324-336

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Coping With Covid‐19: Older Europeans and the Challenges of Connectedness and Loneliness
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6072
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.6072
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 310-323
Author-Name: Ronny König
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Author-Name: Bettina Isengard
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Abstract: Social networks are important for well‐being and healthy aging. However, older adults are more likely to have less social contact with others than their younger counterparts due to significant changes in their lives, such as retirement or age‐related losses, along with declining health and mobility. Consequently, with increasing age, a growing proportion of people experience feelings of loneliness. This becomes even more important during pandemics when social contact should be minimized. Therefore, this article examines the extent and patterns of loneliness before and during the first two years of the Covid‐19 pandemic and how social contact and the type of communication affected levels of loneliness during the pandemic. To investigate loneliness, social contact, and their association during the pandemic, this study uses representative data from 27 countries from SHARE (Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe). The analyses are based on a balanced panel covering three consecutive waves with 28,448 respondents aged 50 years or older. The results indicate that three out of ten Europeans face loneliness in later life. While loneliness has increased for a significant part of the elderly in the wake of the pandemic, there has also been a reverse trend in terms of a decrease in feelings of loneliness for an almost equal proportion of people. Additionally, multivariate analyses highlight that nonpersonal communication cannot substitute face‐to‐face interaction and can potentially increase feelings of loneliness.
Keywords: communication; Covid‐19; Europe; healthy aging; loneliness; pandemic scenario; SHARE; social contact; social isolation; social networks; well‐being
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:310-323

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Reshaping Social Capital During the Pandemic Crisis: Age Group Differences in Face‐to‐Face Contact Network Structures
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6002
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.6002
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 295-309
Author-Name: Beáta Dávid
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Sociology, Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary / Institute of Mental Health, Semmelweis University, Hungary
Author-Name: Boglárka Herke
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Sociology, Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary
Author-Name: Éva Huszti
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science and Sociology, University of Debrecen, Hungary
Author-Name: Gergely Tóth
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Humanities, Károli Gáspár University of the Reform Church, Hungary
Author-Name: Emese Túry-Angyal
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Sociology, Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary
Author-Name: Fruzsina Albert
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Sociology, Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary / Institute of Mental Health, Semmelweis University, Hungary
Abstract: This article presents findings about the impact of the first Covid‐related lockdown on the face‐to‐face (FTF) interpersonal contact networks of the Hungarian adult population. Our primary objective is to understand how the size, composition, and quality of such networks have changed. We base our analysis on the contact‐diary method. Our data were collected from two representative surveys of the Hungarian adult population: one in 2015 (N = 372) and one in May 2020 (N = 1001) during the first wave of the Covid‐19 epidemic. No decline in the overall bonding social capital can be detected; however, social isolation has increased. A restructuring has occurred: a considerable increase manifests in the proportion of kin ties, especially children, and a decrease in the importance of non‐kin ties, with a particularly sharp decline in friendships. FTF contacts indicate an increased emotional intensity (except for non‐kin, non‐household members) and an increase in the length of conversations, but there is a decrease in the frequency of meeting alters. The changes wrought different effects on different age groups, with the restrictions most negatively affecting the size of FTF contact networks for respondents aged 60 years or older. Our findings point to the stability and resilience of close family relations, yet the doubling of social isolation as early as May 2020 underlines fears about the pandemic’s potentially detrimental effects on social connectedness. The decline in friendship ties (and most probably in other weak ties) may lead to a reduction not only in the amount and scope of accessible social capital but also to a weakening social integration.
Keywords: age groups; contact diary method; Covid‐19; epidemic‐specific social capital; face‐to‐face contacts; social isolation
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:295-309

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Family Climate in Pandemic Times: Adolescents and Mothers
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6007
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.6007
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 282-294
Author-Name: Thomas Eichhorn
Author-Workplace-Name: Life Situations and Lifestyles of Families Research Group, German Youth Institute, Germany
Author-Name: Simone Schüller
Author-Workplace-Name: Life Situations and Lifestyles of Families Research Group, German Youth Institute, Germany / CESifo, Germany / Institute of Labor Economics, Germany / Research Institute for the Evaluation of Public Policies, Italy
Author-Name: Hannah Sinja Steinberg
Author-Workplace-Name: Life Situations and Lifestyles of Families Research Group, German Youth Institute, Germany
Author-Name: Claudia Zerle-Elsäßer
Author-Workplace-Name: Life Situations and Lifestyles of Families Research Group, German Youth Institute, Germany
Abstract: In this article, we examine changes in family climate during the first Covid‐19‐related lockdown in Germany. We compare the perspectives of mothers and adolescents to explore whether the factors of perceived changes in family climate are systematically and significantly different between these groups. We measure family climate as positive emotional climate, a sub‐dimension of the family environment scale, to capture a feeling of cohesion and emotional openness within the family. Based on family system theory and the family stress model, we expect an overall deterioration in family climate due to increased environmental adaptation in the pandemic. Furthermore, we expect family climate to deteriorate less when families have economic and social resources available. On the other hand, we assume that being employed and/or primarily responsible for family care relates to a stronger decline in the family climate. We employ longitudinal survey data (AID:A) from around 300 German families with children aged nine to 17 and apply individual fixed effects models to investigate changes in family climate from 2019 to 2020. Almost half of our respondents report a decrease in family climate. For mothers, the share of unpaid care work at home is the only significant predictor: Mothers doing more than 80% of the chores and childcare feel a greater decrease in family climate. For adolescents, however, being at risk of poverty and having less frequent family activities are important predictors of stronger decreases in family climate. In summary, our results illustrate the relevance of distinguishing between the perspective of children and parents in family studies.
Keywords: adolescents; AID:A; Covid‐19; family climate; Germany; lockdown; mothers
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:282-294

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Growing Pains: Can Family Policies Revert the Decline of Fertility in Spain?
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6141
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.6141
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 269-281
Author-Name: Begoña Elizalde-San Miguel
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Social Work, Public University of Navarre, Spain
Author-Name: Vicente Díaz Gandasegui
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Analysis, University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain
Author-Name: María T. Sanz
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Didactics of Mathematics, University of Valencia, Spain
Abstract: This article aims to analyze the capability of family policies to reverse the sharp decline in fertility that has been observed in Spain in recent decades. The analysis was carried out by applying two mathematical techniques: the genetic algorithm and the strategic scenarios. Firstly, a mathematical model was designed and validated adjusting the combined performance of fertility and family policies during the 2008–2019 period. Subsequently, this model was applied to the future (2020–2060) to extrapolate the evolution of fertility considering different models of family policies. The results demonstrate that a model of family policies that is coherent with other socially desirable objectives, such as gender and social equality, will be insufficient to reverse the current downward trend in fertility. Therefore, these outcomes point to the need to articulate and harmonize diverse public policies considering the principles of equality and well‐being to modify the recent decline in fertility. An increase in fertility must therefore be identified as a socially desirable goal and public policies must be adapted to this objective, in the understanding that fertility not only requires family policies but also their coherence with the employment and educational policies and work–life balance mechanisms offered by public institutions.
Keywords: family policies; fertility; genetic algorithms; Spain; strategic scenarios
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:269-281

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Three‐Generation Households in a Central and Eastern European Country: The Case of Hungary
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/5968
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.5968
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 256-268
Author-Name: Judit Monostori
Author-Workplace-Name: Hungarian Demographic Research Institute, Hungary
Abstract: Using data from censuses and a microcensus between 1980 and 2016, this study examines the trends in three‐generational living arrangements, along with the factors that determine the prevalence and characteristics of the phenomenon in Hungary. Apart from the period between 1990 and 2001, the proportion of three‐generation households declined in all periods among households with children. In the decade after 1990, the rate increased due to the post‐transition economic recession and the severe housing shortage. The factors predicting a higher risk of three‐generation households were fairly consistent across the period considered, and the direction of the effect remained stable. However, some of those factors became more relevant over time (e.g., the education level of parents and single parenthood) and some became less relevant (e.g., rural residence). Meanwhile, three‐generation living is increasingly linked to social disadvantage, which is also the leading cause of poverty. This living arrangement is strongly associated with a stage in life where young people start to have children. Using data from the Hungarian Generations and Gender Survey, we determine that three‐generation living affects a significant proportion of families with children at a particular, relatively brief stage in their lives.
Keywords: grandchildren; grandparents; Hungary; living arrangements; three‐generation households
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:256-268

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Intergenerational Representation of Old Age in the Transition to Frailty: An Empirical Analysis in Italy
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6027
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.6027
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 246-255
Author-Name: Donatella Bramanti
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore–Milan, Italy
Abstract: The results presented here are part of the outcome of a research project titled Redesign—Frail Elderly, Intergenerational Solidarity and Age-Friendly Communities (https://redesignanziani.com) funded by Fondazione Cariplo and coordinated by the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, in collaboration with Università degli studi di Verona and Università degli studi del Molise (2019–2022). The research aims to co-acquire knowledge of the transition to old age in vulnerable situations, to develop and implement new community networks of care, and thus promote health and well-being, active ageing, and intergenerational solidarity in eight Italian municipalities. The analysis of the dyadic interviews, conducted with the NVivo software, will provide the image of ageing and old age emerging from an intergenerational dialogue. By analysing results, it will therefore be possible to identify some specific types of representation of old age in relation to the dyad, the stressful events that occurred to the interviewees and in relation to the ways of living the transition. The representation of old age seems closely connected with the quality and intensity of relationships, the environment of associative and local life that the interviewees relate to, and the stressful events that have recently occurred to them.
Keywords: ageing; dyadic interviews; intergenerational solidarity; qualitative research; representation of old age
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:246-255

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Siblings as Overlooked Potential for Care and Support Across Households and Borders
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6062
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.6062
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 234-245
Author-Name: Irma Budginaitė‐Mačkinė
Author-Workplace-Name: Vilnius University, Lithuania
Author-Name: Irena Juozeliūnienė
Author-Workplace-Name: Vilnius University, Lithuania
Abstract: The growing numbers of Lithuanian families living across borders have prompted the reflection on family relations through the lens of the need for care and support of dependent children and elderly parents. The authors of this article expand the analysis of family lives in the migration context beyond child–parent relationships and shift the attention to understudied areas where sibling relationships are located. Sibling relationships are considered embedded within the family and the wider network of personal relationships. This article builds on the personal networks approach to examine the position of siblings in the personal networks of Lithuanian family members and draws on a toolbox of analytical concepts provided by the solidarity approach to disclose how sibling relationships could come into play in the case of need. The analysis of statistical data and two surveys carried out in Lithuania as part of the research project funded by the Research Council of Lithuania enabled the authors to uncover different layers of involvement of siblings in “doing families” across households and borders and to highlight the gendered patterns of support expectations towards siblings if/when the need of elderly or child care would arise in the migration context. The research data provide empirical evidence that sibling relationships could be affected by differentiated mobility experiences of family members and the re‐definition of family roles due to newly emerging multi‐local interactions. Cross‐border family practices create new patterns of family relationships and an “intimate, but different” type of solidarity, common to Lithuanian residents with prior migration experience.
Keywords: intergenerational solidarity; migration; personal networks; siblings; support expectations; support flows; transnational families
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:234-245

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Sources of Loneliness for Older Adults in the Czech Republic and Strategies for Coping With Loneliness
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6185
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.6185
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 225-233
Author-Name: Marcela Petrová Kafková
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Czech Republic
Abstract: In this article, issues of loneliness and exclusion from social relations in old age are examined from the perspective of older men and women. Our focus is on sources of loneliness they themselves perceive and what strategies they use to cope with it. Twenty‐nine interviews with older adults at risk of loneliness in the Czech Republic and their models of social convoys are analyzed. Surprisingly small gender differences in feelings of loneliness are found. A major source of loneliness for both men and women is the loss of a life partner. Perceptions of loneliness and the shape of social networks differ substantially in the case of lifelong singles and childless people. A second significant source for feelings of loneliness includes unsatisfactory relationships with close family. Based on the participants’ accounts, three strategies for coping with loneliness are identified.
Keywords: gender; loneliness; marital status; older adults; social exclusion; social relations
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:225-233

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: “Empathetic Egoist” and “Obedient Individualist”: Clash Between Family Practices and Normative Images of Children
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/5987
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.5987
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 214-224
Author-Name: Małgorzata Sikorska
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Sociology, University of Warsaw, Poland
Abstract: <p class="Domylne">The initial aim of this article is to analyze the clash between everyday family practices and parents’ normative images of perfect children. I identified five sets of features and behaviors of the actual child that mirror daily parents–children interactions (including parental socialization strategies) and three sets of features and behaviors that reflect parents’ perceptions of a perfect child. The analysis revealed two “dimensions of contradiction”: egoism vs. empathy and obedience vs. independence. Investigating how family practices combine with parents’ normative images results in insights into parents’ ambivalent attitudes toward children. The second aim is to identify the social sources of these clashes. The Polish case appears to be intriguing due to a particularly rapid systemic transformation, resulting in overlapping patterns of everyday practices, divergent social norms, variant meanings, and contradictory discourses. This article’s contribution is to illustrate the hypothesis that systemic transformation might have a more immediate effect on changing social norms, meanings, and discourses on parenthood and childhood (and thus change parents’ normative images of children), while family practices are transformed with parents’ resistance. The concept of family practices developed by David H. Morgan is employed as a theoretical framework and starting point for the study. The analysis draws on qualitative data and in‐depth interviews with 24 couples of parents and six single parents.</p>
Keywords: Eastern European families; family practices; parents’ normative images of children; Poland; qualitative research
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:214-224

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Family in Challenging Circumstances: Ways of Coping
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6804
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.6804
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 210-213
Author-Name: Jacques‐Antoine Gauthier
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Author-Name: Vida Česnuitytė
Author-Workplace-Name: Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania
Abstract: The aim of the thematic issue Family Supportive Networks and Practices in Vulnerable Contexts is to provide a cross‐national perspective on the current state of caregiving and support practices within family networks in Europe. The articles featured in this volume were selected from among the presentations made in 2021 at two conferences promoted by the research network Sociology of Families and Intimate Lives of the European Sociological Association (ESA RN13). Authors of the most promising, topical, and up‐to‐date research papers were invited to contribute to this thematic issue.
Keywords: family functioning; international perspective; networks; practices; vulnerability
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:210-213

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Wealth Accumulation and De‐Risking Strategies Among High‐Wealth Individuals
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6136
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.6136
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 200-209
Author-Name: Donna Carmichael
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
Abstract: The emergence of the asset economy in advanced capitalist countries has enabled significant asset accumulation by high‐wealth individuals, and the rise of finance has provided new, profitable investment vehicles for those with investable capital. This accumulation process has been described as a form of compensatory logic to achieve protection from future risks, especially in the current neoliberal environment with governments reducing state pensions while promoting tax‐deductible private investments as a substitute for state provision. This article reports the results of qualitative research into the private wealth accumulation attitudes and behaviours of high‐wealth individuals and their worries about achieving a comfortable retirement despite their substantial wealth holdings. Although the interviewees reside within the top 5% of the wealth distribution in the UK and would be expected to feel confident that their wealth will be sufficient to support their retirement needs, they convey a sense of uneasiness and concern that they will still not have enough to support their expected retirement lifestyles. In response to this perceived risk, these high‐wealth individuals engage in a variety of what I call “de‐risking” behaviours with the goal of mitigating the risk of insufficient wealth to support retirement. The article contributes to our understanding of the processes utilised by high‐wealth individuals to help ensure they have sufficient wealth to support their desired comfortable retirement by engaging in strategies intended to de‐risk their financial lives.
Keywords: de‐risking; financialisation; high‐wealth individuals; inequality; perceived risk; retirement; wealth accumulation
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:200-209

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Financial Solidarity or Autonomy? How Gendered Wealth and Income Inequalities Influence Couples’ Money Management
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6005
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.6005
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 187-199
Author-Name: Agnieszka Althaber
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany / Collaborative Research Centre TRR 294 “Structural Change of Property,” Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany
Author-Name: Kathrin Leuze
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany / Collaborative Research Centre TRR 294 “Structural Change of Property,” Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany
Author-Name: Ramona Künzel
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Neurology, University Hospital Jena, Germany
Abstract: It is well established that women have lower income and wealth levels than men. These inequalities are most pronounced within heterosexual couples and grow once partners get married and have children. Nevertheless, equality in controlling money within couples is highly valued and might ameliorate women’s disadvantages in income and wealth ownership. Previous research has focused on explaining gender wealth inequalities at the household level; less is known about the possible consequences of these inequalities on how couples manage their money. In this article, we investigate how income and wealth inequalities among couples are associated with joint or independent money management. In theoretical terms, we perceive money management systems as representing two different norms of reciprocity within couples for buffering income and wealth inequalities between partners, depending on the transferability of resources and their institutional regulation. We apply pooled logistic regression models to data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel Study. Our findings confirm that income and wealth are relevant but have opposite associations with couples’ money management strategies. While couples with unequal income constellations tend to pool their money, couples with unequal wealth constellations manage their money independently. Accordingly, couples seem to use labour income to buffer gender inequalities by sharing resources, thereby following the norm of partnership solidarity. In contrast, gender wealth inequalities are reproduced by keeping resources separate, thus representing the norm of financial autonomy.
Keywords: couple households; gender inequality; Germany; income; money management; wealth
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:187-199

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Wealth and Welfare: Do Private and Public Safety Nets Compensate for Asset Poverty?
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/5937
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.5937
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 176-186
Author-Name: Severin Rapp
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria
Author-Name: Stefan Humer
Author-Workplace-Name: Financial Literacy Division, Austrian Central Bank, Austria
Abstract: Economic shocks test the resilience of families around the world. Lockdowns, extended periods of unemployment, and inflation challenge the capabilities of private households to maintain their living standards whilst keeping their budgets in balance. Asset poverty is a concept invoked frequently to measure the capacity of private households to mitigate income loss by relying exclusively on their savings. In contrast to conventional asset poverty measures, we quantify the combined cushioning effect of private and public safety nets. Highlighting the importance of public safety nets and familial networks, this article devises a modified concept of asset poverty: Rather than purely simulating a household’s asset decumulation without replacement income, the modified indicator accounts for replacement income in a static setting. The empirical assessment of modified asset poverty in Europe and America combines harmonised microdata on household finances with simulations of institutional rules set by social insurance systems. Our results reveal how differences in social relations and institutional rules shape cross‐country variation in the vulnerability of private households. We find that, in contrast to the US, where the asset poverty of families is particularly low, households in most European countries are less vulnerable because generous social security systems coexist with low private assets. However, in some European countries, benefit generosity decreases the longer income losses last, exposing time dynamics in vulnerability. Complementing social insurance mechanisms, in countries such as Greece, households are more likely to receive financial support from family or friends. Cross‐national heterogeneity in vulnerability suggests that a shock may have different implications across countries.
Keywords: family networks; financial buffers; private wealth; safety nets; social insurance; vulnerability; welfare state
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:176-186

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Is Property an Insurance or an Additional Burden? Financial Stress Among Homeowners in Europe
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/5875
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.5875
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 163-175
Author-Name: Martin Heidenreich
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Social Sciences, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany
Author-Name: Sven Broschinski
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Social Sciences, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany
Abstract: A crucial function of wealth is to protect individuals from the consequences of adverse life events. However, sometimes wealth also implies additional financial risks. In addition to the insurance function of homeownership (the most common form of wealth), we therefore also examine financial squeezes that reflect the indebtedness and social embeddedness of homeowners and limit their options for dealing with social risks. A third hypothesis expects a trade‐off between social protection and homeownership. Taking the example of unemployment, we examine the effects of short‐term unemployment on the perceived financial situation of households based on data derived from EU‐SILC for 27 European countries. It can be shown that debt‐free homeownership reduces financial stress in the case of unemployment compared to tenants and indebted owners. A debt‐free home thus offers an additional buffer and insurance against the financial consequences of unemployment. However, indebted homeowners are particularly hard hit by unemployment because they have to use all their financial resources to pay off their mortgages. Finally, we did not find a trade‐off but a cumulation of advantages due to homeownership and generous unemployment benefits in countries with high net replacement rates.
Keywords: financial stress; homeownership; mortgage; unemployment; wealth inequality
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:163-175

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Buffer Function of Wealth in Socioemotional Responses to Covid‐19 in Italy
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/5976
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.5976
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 148-162
Author-Name: Davide Gritti
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Italy
Author-Name: Filippo Gioachin
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Italy
Author-Name: Anna Zamberlan
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Italy
Abstract: The social stratification of material consequences of individual‐level disruptive events is a widely researched topic. Less is known about the stratification of psychological outcomes in response to contextual‐level disruptive events. We aim to fill this gap by investigating the aftermath of the Covid‐19 pandemic on individuals’ dispositional optimism and the stratification based on unequal wealth resources. The study focuses on Italy, the first European country to be strongly hit by Covid‐19, and one characterised by high levels of private savings and homeownership. Theoretically, we draw on the conventional social inequalities framework informed by insights from the literature on natural disasters, positing that wealth‐related resource disparities may have stratified the socioemotional response to the pandemic. Empirically, we leverage a combination of individual‐level longitudinal survey data (Bank of Italy’s Special Survey of Italian Households) and municipality‐level official statistics on excess mortality (Italian National Institute of Statistics), covering the first 17 months of the Covid‐19 pandemic in Italy. Results indicate overall negative consequences of severe exposure to risks associated with the pandemic on optimism. However, we found evidence in line with a post‐traumatic growth scenario, as optimism slightly increased over the course of the pandemic. The insurance function of wealth emerges in the higher optimism of individuals with more resources. Nevertheless, resource disparities are not translated into stark differences in susceptibility to risk exposure or post‐traumatic growth. Overall, our findings support a limited insurance function of wealth in the socioemotional sphere.
Keywords: Covid‐19; disruptive events; excess mortality; Italy; risk exposure; social inequality; socioemotional responses; wealth
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:148-162

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Insured Privately? Wealth Stratification of Job Loss in the UK
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6095
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.6095
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 135-147
Author-Name: Selçuk Bedük
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Policy & Intervention, University of Oxford, UK
Abstract: Job loss is a significant income shock that can lead to declines in living standards and satisfaction. Wealth can provide a key resource in stratifying the risk and the consequences of such an event. In this article, I examine the extent to which wealth stratified the experience of job loss in the UK from 1991 to 2008. I distinguish between different wealth groups using information on homeownership and home value of primary residency, and then study whether these groups face different risks and/or consequences of job loss. The results show that renters were a significantly disadvantaged group compared to homeowners during the observation period. Not only did they faced a significantly higher risk of job loss, they also experienced greater declines in earnings, household income, and life satisfaction, and larger increases in income poverty in the year of job loss. Among homeowners, the risk and consequences of job loss were similar. In a country like the UK with minimal public insurance for unemployment, homeownership appears to provide a significant source of stratification for job loss.
Keywords: homeownership; home value; insurance function; job loss; welfare stratification
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:135-147

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Wealth Stratification and the Insurance Function of Wealth
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6680
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.6680
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 128-134
Author-Name: Nora Müller
Author-Workplace-Name: Department for Data and Research on Society, GESIS–Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Germany
Author-Name: Klaus Pforr
Author-Workplace-Name: Department for Data and Research on Society, GESIS–Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Germany
Author-Name: Jascha Dräger
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Education, University of Strathclyde, UK
Abstract: This thematic issue examines the insurance function as a mechanism to underlie wealth effects on various outcomes. The articles in this issue shed an innovative light on the insurance function of wealth concerning a range of topics relevant to social stratification and social policy researchers. This editorial provides an overview of the contributions of this thematic issue and highlights some gaps and remaining open questions. Altogether, the contributions suggest that wealth can provide insurance against adverse life events in various contexts. However, this insurance effect depends on welfare state characteristics, wealth portfolios, and the way families handle their wealth.
Keywords: asset poverty; assets; Covid‐19; debt; housing; negative life events; social security; welfare state
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:128-134

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Remnants of Community: What I Learned in the First Year of the Pandemic
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6613
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.6613
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 125-127
Author-Name: David Bolt
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Sciences, Liverpool Hope University, UK
Abstract: This commentary reflects briefly on 10 of the many lessons that defined the Covid‐19 pandemic. These reflections are taken from one disabled person’s experience but resonate with many. As such they give a flavour of the thematic issue as a whole, while offering a highly personal contribution to the publication project.
Keywords: ableism; activism; coronavirus; disability; silencing; social change
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:125-127

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: How Did Children With Disabilities Experience Education and Social Welfare During Covid-19?
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/5896
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.5896
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 113-124
Author-Name: Kjetil Klette-Bøhler
Author-Workplace-Name: University of South-Eastern Norway, Norway
Author-Name: Dagmara Bossy
Author-Workplace-Name: Norwegian Social Research (NOVA), OsloMet, Norway
Author-Name: Vyda Mamley Hervie
Author-Workplace-Name: Norwegian Social Research (NOVA), OsloMet, Norway / University of Ghana, Ghana
Abstract: Research suggests that children with disabilities have been systemically marginalised during the Covid-19 pandemic as contamination measures complicated some social policies. School closure, quarantine, and the increased use of social media in remote schooling have placed children with disabilities in a vulnerable situation. This article explores the subjective consequences of such processes through the analysis of qualitative interviews with parents who had children with disabilities. To contextualise our analysis, we also draw on expert interviews with bureaucrats and social workers and data from a survey that was sent out to parents who had children with disabilities. Taken together, these data sources provide a rich empirical context to study how the pandemic influenced the access of children with disabilities to education and social services in Norway. We also pay attention to how the pandemic influenced parents’ perception of social welfare in Norway and discuss how issues of race, class, and socio-economic background were reflected in their experiences. Both interview data and survey data were gathered during the pandemic. Conceptually we take inspiration from the capability approach with a particular focus on theoretical work on “conversion factors.” These theoretical perspectives invite us to identify and analyse specific mechanisms that prevented and/or enabled children with disabilities to live a life according to their own visions and values during the pandemic. Through this study of how children with disabilities experienced education and social welfare in Norway during the pandemic, we shed new light on how one of the world’s most advanced welfare states operates during a time of crisis.
Keywords: capability; children with disability; education; Norway; pandemic; social welfare
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:113-124

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Vulnerable Students, Inclusion, and Digital Education in the Covid‐19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Case Study From Austria
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/5850
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.5850
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 102-112
Author-Name: Lisa-Katharina Möhlen
Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Teacher Education, University of Vienna, Austria / Department of Educational Sciences, Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany
Author-Name: Susanne Prummer
Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Teacher Education, University of Vienna, Austria
Abstract: Worldwide, more than 1.5 billion students had to switch to distance learning in 2020. Education took place at home, where parents attended to their children, and teachers taught their students in digital mode, while minors were physically and socially isolated from their peers. Concerning the situation in Austria, several quantitative studies expose two central challenges: First, the comprehensive lack of digital infrastructure disrupted (digital) distance learning. Second, the Covid‐19 pandemic particularly affected vulnerable students and extended educational inequality. The state of the art emphasizes a lack of qualitative studies demonstrating different perspectives on the educational situation of vulnerable students in general and with SEN in particular during the pandemic. This leads to the following research question: How do professional actors map the situation of inclusive and digital education during the Covid‐19 pandemic in Austria? To research this unprecedented situation, four focus groups with diverse stakeholders (teachers, principals, psychologists, and school board employees) discussed their experiences in the school years 2019–2020 and 2020–2021. Data were analyzed according to the Grounded Theory method of the postmodern approach referred to as “situational analysis.” The study visualizes various parallel discourses and voices within the situation of (digital distance) learning during the Covid‐19 pandemic. The theoretical context of the intersection of inclusive and digital education frames the empirical findings. Central findings relate to missing or discriminatory guidelines and policies, a lack of digital infrastructure, and altered professional‐pedagogical support that minimized or disrupted inclusive education during (digital) distance learning.
Keywords: Austria; Covid‐19 pandemic; digital divide; distance learning; exclusion; inclusive education; SEN
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:102-112

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Putting on Intersectional Glasses: Listening to the Voice of the Vulnerable
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/5759
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.5759
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 92-101
Author-Name: Seyda Subasi Singh
Author-Workplace-Name: Bertha von Suttner Private University, Austria
Abstract: Many share the concern that the Covid-19 pandemic has had devastating impacts on the vulnerable who are already disproportionately at risk of social exclusion. The health-related risks that the pandemic entailed and the challenges that resulted from the associated measures have led to new vulnerabilities for specific groups such as persons with disabilities, persons from a (forced) migrant background, and women/girls. This article will discuss the complexity of the multiple vulnerabilities during the Covid-19 pandemic by relying on data collected from immigrant women with disabilities. To this end, data from two women with disabilities who are members of the historically marginalized Turkish immigrant group in Austria were analyzed with regard to their experiences during the pandemic. Their accounts are analyzed from an intersectional perspective in order to document the effects of peri-post-pandemic measures on the lives of people with multiple disadvantages. The interviews and audio diaries by two immigrant women with disabilities recorded over seven months are used to delve into latent oppression structures and overlapping mechanisms of difficulties embedded in their experiences. The findings show how the multiple identities and struggles of the two women were affected during the pandemic by building upon each other.
Keywords: disability; gender; immigrant; intersectionality; pandemic; vulnerabilities
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:92-101

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Pandemic Lived Experience, Crip Utopias, and Dismodernist Revolutions: For a More‐Than‐Social Model of Disability
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/5754
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.5754
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 82-91
Author-Name: Arianna Introna
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Open University, UK
Abstract: At its height, the Covid‐19 pandemic dispersed across society a perception of bodyminded contingency that ushered in modes of “building community” that were unimaginable in pre‐pandemic times, alongside an intensification of health and social inequalities. From the start, disabled people intervened on social media to stress the considerable extent to which the pre‐pandemic knowledge derived from their lived experience, disability theory, and disability rights’ organising could contribute both to the critique of how in pandemic times people were made differentially disposable and to the creation of new relationalities, mostly online, around the principle of accessibility. This article explores how a critical perspective rooted in the lived experience of disability builds on these interventions to excavate the role played by the lived experience of bodyminded contingency and vulnerability during the pandemic in generating a radical transformation of modes of living (together). First, it will suggest that this radical transformation powerfully resonated with the politics of accessibility associated with disability politics. It will do so by delineating the critical significance of commentary produced during the pandemic by disability theorists and activists, as well as the relationship between the perception of widespread bodyminded contingency and vulnerability and the development of “crip utopias of accessibility” and “dismodernist revolutions” during the pandemic. It will then locate this experiential spread of bodyminded contingency and vulnerability at the core of pandemic infrastructural sensibilities. I will conclude by reflecting on its relevance for the development of a “more‐than‐social” model of disability which attends to the crip world‐making power of disability as fundamentally entangling the social and the biological.
Keywords: Covid; crip; dismodernism; infrastructures; lived experience; models of disability; more‐than‐social; posthuman; revolution; utopia
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:82-91

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: National Theatre in My Kitchen: Access to Culture for Blind People in Poland During Covid-19
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/5741
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.5741
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 72-81
Author-Name: Monika Dubiel
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Artes Liberales, University of Warsaw, Poland
Abstract: This article reflects on the phenomenon of the virtualization of culture and its significance in providing accessibility to people with visual impairment. From this point of view, virtual culture becomes a space of negotiation between social inclusion and exclusion. By examining the experiences of participants in cultural events and the planners of such events, I try to identify possible advantages as well as dangers related to the process of transferring cultural life to the Internet. The scope of my research embraces accessible cultural events offered by selected institutions and non-governmental organizations in Poland. Research data was collected by interviewing both employees and participants of events with visual impairment. I have also drawn upon my own experiences as a blind admirer of culture and a worker in the sector of cultural accessibility. My main research question is: Does the virtualization of culture make events more accessible for people with visual impairment, or does it increase already-existing barriers? A further issue is explored—namely new solutions that are appearing in the accessible remote events on offer. The theoretical framework for this study includes accessibility studies and disability studies.
Keywords: culture; disability studies; virtualization; visual impairment
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:72-81

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Neurodiversity, Networks, and Narratives: Exploring Intimacy and Expressive Freedom in the Time of Covid‐19
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/5737
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.5737
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 60-71
Author-Name: Kerri Betts
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of Leeds, UK
Author-Name: Louise Creechan
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of English Studies, Durham University, UK / Institute for Medical Humanities, Durham University, UK
Author-Name: Rosemarie Cawkwell
Author-Workplace-Name: Independent Researcher, UK
Author-Name: Isabelle Finn‐Kelcey
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education, University of Winchester, UK
Author-Name: C. J. Griffin
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick, UK
Author-Name: Alice Hagopian
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Modern Languages, University of St Andrews, UK
Author-Name: David Hartley
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Creative Writing, University of Manchester, UK
Author-Name: Marie Adrienne R. Manalili
Author-Workplace-Name: Division of Language and Communication Science, University College London, UK
Author-Name: Inika Murkumbi
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, UK
Author-Name: Sarinah O’Donoghue
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, UK
Author-Name: Cassandra Shanahan
Author-Workplace-Name: Department Literature and Creative Writing, Macquarie University, Australia
Author-Name: Anna Stenning
Author-Workplace-Name: School of English, University of Leeds, UK
Author-Name: Alyssa Hillary Zisk
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Neuroscience, University of Rhode Island, USA / AssistiveWare, The Netherlands
Abstract: The Narratives of Neurodiversity Network (NNN) is a neurodivergent academic, creative, and educator collective that came together with allies during the Covid‐19 pandemic to create a network centred around emerging narratives about neuro-diversity and exploring new ways of learning and socialising. The network focuses on exploring the roles of written, spoken, and visual narratives across cultural locations about neuro‐atypical experiences in generating improved agency and self‐advocacy for those who have been subject to pathologization through neuro‐normativity and intersecting oppression. During the last year, widening access to digital platforms has provided a space to explore these issues outside of traditional academic spaces. We run a monthly “Salon,” our mixed‐media “reading, listening, and watching” group, in an effort to find positive representation within contemporary culture. Discussions have moved beyond mimesis and into a consideration of how narrative and storyworlds can question the supposed naturalness of certain ways of being in and perceiving the world. This article interrogates the network’s core principles of nonhierarchical co‐production, including the roles of creativity, community, identity, and emancipatory research which were animated by the new techno‐social context. We consider the cultural lives of neurodiversity in the West and beyond, including ethical and aesthetic dimensions. We share a faith in the power of storytelling to inform new social identities for neurodivergent people and to inform scientific understandings of atypical cognition. In exploring this, we speak through a porous first‐person plural narrator, to unsettle the idea that there is a hegemonic “we” speaking on behalf of all neurodivergent people.
Keywords: autism; collaboration; narratives; neurodivergence; neurodiversity; online community; self‐advocacy; social networks
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:60-71

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Re‐Imagining Inclusion Through the Lens of Disabled Childhoods
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/5722
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.5722
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 48-59
Author-Name: Alice-Simone Balter
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Family Relations & Applied Nutrition, University of Guelph, Canada
Author-Name: Laura E. Feltham
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Early Childhood Studies, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada
Author-Name: Gillian Parekh
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education, York University, Canada
Author-Name: Patty Douglas
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education, Brandon University, Canada
Author-Name: Kathryn Underwood
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Early Childhood Studies, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada
Author-Name: Tricia van Rhijn
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Family Relations & Applied Nutrition, University of Guelph, Canada
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to contribute new insights to critical disability and disabled children’s childhood studies that center on the valuing of disabled children’s lives—a guiding purpose in the disability justice movement. We use published findings from the Inclusive Early Childhood Service System project, a longitudinal, institutional ethnography of the ways that families and children are organized around categories of disability, which show social inclusions and exclusions before and during the pandemic. These findings illuminate: (a) institutional flexibility for the purpose of social inclusion and isolation during the pandemic as a result of institutional organization; (b) the impact of institutional decisions around closures, remote programs, and support on families’ choices and self‐determination; and (3) the ways safety is differently applied and rationalized for disabled children allowing institutions to exclude disabled children and families. We use critical disability studies and disabled children’s childhood studies to interpret these findings and position the valuing of disabled children’s lives with a call for disability justice actions.
Keywords: critical disability studies; disability justice; disabled children’s childhood studies; pandemic; social exclusion
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:48-59

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Disabled People’s Experiences of the Coronavirus Pandemic: A Call to Action for Social Change
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/5721
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.5721
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 38-47
Author-Name: Stuart Read
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Education, Bath Spa University, UK
Author-Name: Anne Parfitt
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Education, Bath Spa University, UK
Author-Name: Tanvir Bush
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Education, Bath Spa University, UK
Author-Name: Ben Simmons
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Education, Bath Spa University, UK
Author-Name: Martin Levinson
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Education, Bath Spa University, UK
Abstract: <p>The Coronavirus pandemic has caused significant disruption and change in most aspects of society, and there are concerns that disabled people may be particularly disadvantaged. This article, written by disabled activists and non‐disabled allies, shares data extrapolated from focus groups regarding the lived experiences of twelve disabled people and disability allies during the Covid‐19 pandemic, eleven of whom were based in the UK, and one based in Iraq. We describe the key issues and learning points from this data, arguing that the measures taken by the government and organisations to protect the public during the pandemic have instead brought to the fore long‐standing ableist narratives regarding which bodies are valuable in society. This ableist agenda has acted to control and silence the voices of disabled people by objectifying disability and defining “pre‐existing health conditions” as being more expendable, and therefore less worthy of attention during the pandemic. In presenting our position for change and call to action, we will argue that it is only when disabled people’s experiences and voices are heard in decision‐making that policymakers can begin to learn from the inequalities that have been demonstrated through the pandemic. Here, we will introduce our Wellcome Trust‐funded “We Are the People” Disability Research Collective programme (2021–2026). This programme develops a new disability activist‐led research network, whereby disabled people can conduct research into topics that are important to them.</p>
Keywords: ableism; activism; Coronavirus; disability; silencing; social change
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:38-47

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: “Vulnerable” or Systematically Excluded? The Impact of Covid-19 on Disabled People in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/5671
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.5671
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 26-37
Author-Name: Vera Kubenz
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Education, University of Birmingham, UK
Author-Name: Dina Kiwan
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Education, University of Birmingham, UK
Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected disabled people across the globe. This review article maps the impact of the pandemic on disabled people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICS) during the first ten months of the pandemic, based on a semi-systematic review of 113 articles of empirical and “grey” literature. We highlight the multiple exclusions faced by disabled people across the sectors of health, education, economy, community, and pandemic management. Following this, we discuss the broader issues arising from the literature, including the systematic de-prioritisation of disabled people in emergency planning, the ongoing framing of disability as a medical rather than a social or human rights issue, a recognition of how the complexity of societal structures creates systematic disadvantage, and local, national, and global policymakers’ lack of engagement with disabled people during pandemic management. We identify the need for both stronger quantitative evidence on disability in LMICs to inform planning and policy processes, and the need for equitable collaboration with disabled people from LMICs across research, policy, and development programming, in the spirit of “Nothing About Us Without Us.”
Keywords: community; Covid-19; development; disability; disabled people; economy; education; Global South; health; low- and middle-income countries
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:26-37

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Same Old New Normal: The Ableist Fallacy of “Post-Pandemic” Work
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/5647
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.5647
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 16-25
Author-Name: Alexandra "Xan" C. H. Nowakowski
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geriatrics, Florida State University College of Medicine, USA / Department of Behavioral Sciences and Social Medicine, Florida State University College of Medicine, USA
Abstract: The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has catalyzed long-needed changes in accessibility and flexibility for work tasks. Disabled and chronically ill people have often experienced unprecedented inclusion during this time. As someone who is both disabled and chronically ill, I have experienced this firsthand. My work as a medical educator, public health program evaluator, and community advocate has been more accessible in recent months than at any prior time. As the pandemic escalated in early 2020, people readily embraced a “new normal” that would allow them to sustain their own livelihoods while staying as safe as possible. Yet even as Covid-19 cases increase sharply both locally and nationally with the spread of the Delta virus variant, many abled people from both my institution and others increasingly demand a return to pre-pandemic practices. The “normal” state for which abled individuals ardently long violates the basic human rights of disabled and chronically ill people. This desire for “normalcy” is fueled by false notions of the pandemic being over. It remains preferred by many for the sake of their own comfort—even though sustaining the inclusive approaches to collaboration introduced during the pandemic often requires little effort and offers advantages for abled people as well. This experiential piece describes ableist implications of seeking “post-pandemic” work environments—and how these constitute “generic processes” in the reproduction of ableism—using both oral history from the author and emerging literature from fellow scholars. In response, it recommends inclusive strategies for anti-ableist work collaboration that achieve justice in accessibility while fostering a welcome sense of normalcy for all.
Keywords: accessibility; chronic illness; Covid-19; disability; inequality; justice; work
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:16-25

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Risky Obliviousness Within Fragmented Services: Experiences of Families With Disabled Children During the Covid‐19 Pandemic
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/5642
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.5642
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 5-15
Author-Name: Hrafnhildur Snæfríðar- Gunnarsdóttir
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education and Diversity, University of Iceland, Iceland
Author-Name: Tinna Ólafsdóttir
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education and Diversity, University of Iceland, Iceland
Author-Name: Kristín Björnsdóttir
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education and Diversity, University of Iceland, Iceland
Abstract: Living on an island in a pandemic has its obvious advantages. However, in a globalised economy, border restrictions cannot keep the COVID‐19 virus completely at bay. Despite coordinated efforts at infection control and extensive vaccination, Iceland, a sparsely populated island in the north, was placed among the countries in the highest risk category by the ECDC. In this article, wereport a qualitative study carried out at the peak of the fourth COVID‐19 wave in 2021, when the pandemic had severely hit the Icelandic social and healthcare system, with a record‐breaking number of infections. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with parents with seven disabled children. Guided by feminist standpoint theory and critical disability studies, we focused on how service structures affected and shaped parents’ and children’s experiences during the first waves of the pandemic. The findings suggest that the pandemic intensified the already precarious position of the families. During the pandemic, the gaps in the already fragmented services widened, and the families were left to navigate this new reality on their own. Preventive measures enforced by municipalities and healthcare services centred on non‐disabled people’s experiences and needs. Unprepared service systems distanced themselves from the families while maintaining governance and supervision over defining their need for support.
Keywords: Covid‐19; disabled children; family support; Iceland; social inequality
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:5-15

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Disability and Social Inclusion: Lessons From the Pandemic
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/6612
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/si.v11i1.6612
Journal: Social Inclusion
Volume: 11
Year: 2023
Issue: 1
Pages: 1-4
Author-Name: Owen Barden
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Sciences, Liverpool Hope University, UK
Author-Name: Ana Bê
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Sciences, Liverpool Hope University, UK
Author-Name: Erin Prtichard
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Sciences, Liverpool Hope University, UK
Author-Name: Laura Waite
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Social Sciences, Liverpool Hope University, UK
Abstract: The coronavirus pandemic necessitated rapid, radical changes to global systems, structures, and organisations across all areas of life, including education, healthcare, and social services. These changes were something of a double‐edged sword. On the one hand, widespread adoption of the kinds of remote‐working technologies long advocated for by disabled people opened up possibilities for inclusion. On the other, some people’s inability to access such technologies, together with increased social isolation, exacerbated forms of exclusion. This thematic issue considers what lessons can be learned from the pandemic in striving to design a future which is more inclusive for all. In this editorial, we provide a brief overview of some of the major challenges the pandemic created for disabled people, who were disproportionately negatively affected by it. We also suggest that a disability rights lens is a useful way of highlighting both the contingency of disability and the need for more responsive and humane healthcare systems. The editorial goes on to outline the opportunities to challenge entrenched ableism and create a “new normal” the pandemic afforded. It concludes by offering a thematic overview of the articles in this thematic issue, which together reveal a complex pattern of inclusions and exclusions, interdependence, and intersectionality.
Keywords: ableism; coronavirus; Covid; education; intersectionality; technology
Handle: RePEc:cog:socinc:v11:y:2023:i:1:p:1-4