“Presidents of Color,” Globalization, and Social Inequality

2009 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Germain
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Reverse Discrimination ◽  
Racially Diverse ◽  
Underrepresented Groups ◽  
Presidential Appointments ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Shapes

In this era of globalization, social inequality based on racial attributes is increasingly perceived as anachronistic. Moreover, citizens of racially diverse countries have gained a new consciousness, which occasionally translates into electing a president from a racially underrepresented group. However, although members of these racially underrepresented groups have obtained presidential appointments, racism and social inequality persist. This article sheds light on the trans-national discourses of reverse discrimination that result from the election of “presidents of color.” It suggests that while these discourses take different shapes and forms, they aim to minimize the continuities of racialized relations, thereby painting utopian pictures of modern societies. The article also reveals the extent to which these leaders can reduce the social inequalities and racism plaguing their countries. By examining the legacy of Nelson Mandela in South Africa and the presidency of Bolivia’s Evo Morales, this article argues that to accomplish these intertwined goals, Barack Obama and other presidents from racially underrepresented groups must enact local policies that contradict the logics of globalization, which is based on the free movement of labor and capital.

Social Inequalities

2019 ◽  
pp. 646-652
Author(s):  
Raj Kollmorgen
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Relative Deprivation ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact

Social inequality means the existence of social status groups and, therefore, a normatively embedded structure of social stratification. This chapter deals with social inequalities and their dynamics as conditional and causal factors and as results of processes of radical change. Concerning the first aspect, the chapter discusses social class inequalities and dynamics of (absolute) impoverishment, relative deprivation, and rising expectations among certain social groups that may determine ‘transformative’ pressure or even revolutionary situations. Regarding the impact of social transformations on social inequalities, the chapter suggests that the more radical and complex the social transformations, the greater are their effects on social structures and regimes of social inequality. This thesis is underpinned by providing empirical findings on social mobility and income inequality in different historical waves and (sub-)types of transformation. Finally, the chapter identifies seven crucial bundles of factors determining the extent of income inequality as an outcome of current societal transformations and their characteristics.

scholarly journals HIV/AIDS in South Africa: an overview

2002 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 651-660 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Gilbert ◽  
Liz Walker
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
One Dimension ◽  
Environmental Model ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Aids Epidemic ◽  
Societal Response ◽  
The Social ◽  
Hiv Aids

This paper presents an overview of the development of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, taking into consideration the social context and analyzing the factors most likely to have influenced its spread as well as the societal response to it. The authors argue that macro factors such as social and political structures, in addition to behavioral ones, have combined to shape the course of the epidemic. Since various factors linked to social inequalities have combined to shape the pattern and growth of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa, it is inappropriate to focus on only one dimension in an attempt to combat the epidemic. Following the psycho-socio- environmental model, all potential contributing elements need to be addressed simultaneously. This calls for a true interdisciplinary and multi-sectorial approach. It also requires great commitment as well as strong political will.

scholarly journals Social Inequality in Every Day Laughing Discourse of Modern Russia

2012 ◽  
pp. 186-194
Author(s):  
N. N. Zarubina
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Everyday

This article deals with the everyday discourse of the social inequality. The author analyses the ways in which humor is used to interpritate the social inequalities and the emergence of new privileged strata.

Health, Social Inequality and Taxation: How Ireland's Schizmogenic Social Model Undermines the Well-Being of the European Body Politic

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-40
Author(s):  
Carmen Kuhling ◽  
Kieran Keohane
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Model ◽  
The Social ◽  
Tiered System ◽  
The Eu

Before the recent economic recession Ireland had become one of the most affluent societies in the world, and the so-called Irish social model of low taxes and low public services provision was seen as one to be emulated, particularly amongst the accession states to the EU. However, Ireland has also become one of the most unequal societies in the OECD, and one of the unhealthiest, measured by all of the standard morbidity and epidemiological indicators, and the social gradient of health corresponds closely with social inequality. Ireland's healthcare system, always relatively underdeveloped in comparison to most European countries, reflects social inequality; it is a two-tiered system wherein a minority with private health insurance enjoy access to good care and facilities, while the rest make do with an underdeveloped, under-resourced and overstretched public health system and subsidise the private services. The Irish social model is schizmogenic, generating and amplifying social inequalities. This is clearly visible in the domain of health, which has become a crucible of public de-legitimation and political foment. Ireland's problems are problems for the health and well-being of the European body politic, insofar as other members emulate the Irish model, cutting corporate taxes and reducing public services in a race to the bottom away from the Rhinish and Nordic social models.

scholarly journals The Social Inequality Portrayed on Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite Movie

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-334
Author(s):  
Nurmala Dewi ◽  
Amelia Amelia ◽  
Tati Mardewi ◽  
Furi Indriyani
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
The Social ◽  
Work Education ◽  
The Impact

This study aims to analyze the social inequality portrayed in the Parasit movie directed by Bong Joon Ho. For research method, a qualitative approach is chosen to be applied which is content analysis as research design. In collecting the data, the writers use the Parasite movie as an object of the research, and search a lot of references from the internet and libraries to support the theories as baselines of analysis. Parasite movie depicts the two families’ lives, Park's family and Kim's family, where the social conditions and the daily lifestyles are very contrastive; the first family is rich and wealth and the later one is poor and deprivation. These social inequalities reflect a social phenomenon in the real world which becomes the motives for fraudulent and greedy character and gradually leads to criminal actions. The gaps between both families are demonstrated in some aspects, such as economy and work, education, house, food, and fashion. And the disparities shown by those elements indicate where the social class they belong and what the impact to their life.

scholarly journals One or two nation projects? Discourse on inequalities and equality-related policies in South Africa and Brazil

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (55) ◽  
pp. 35-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard Leubolt
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Social Production ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The Social ◽  
Historical Heritage

AbstractThis contribution focuses on the social production and reproduction of social inequalities in Brazil and South Africa. It aims at interlinking different theoretical perspectives and applying them to a comparative analysis of inequality-related policies. Resorting to strategic-relational institutionalism, the historical heritage of discourse formation and the institutionalization of inequality regimes in the two countries to inform the analysis of the more recent conjuncture will be analysed. While South Africa is an example of formal racist discrimination, the Brazilian inequality regime worked on more informal patterns. The different historical heritage influences current foci of equality-related policies, which tend to be dominantly anti-racist in South Africa, while focusing on poverty reduction in Brazil during the recent years. The latter experience tended more towards a discourse of a ‘common interest’ and was better able to institutionalize policies to reduce income inequalities. South Africa is still discursively divided into ‘two nations’. Social uplifting for Africans linked to the governing parties was only partially accompanied by improved living conditions for the poor majority of Africans. Both countries are significantly structured by the respective historical heritage concerning both the creation and the reduction of inequalities. The Brazilian ‘one nation’ discourse was more successful in promoting equality-related policies than its ‘two nations’ counterpart in South Africa. Despite important improvements, both countries are now in critical junctures and societal contradictions are beginning to create new crisis tendencies.

Editorial: The shadows of enlargement: Theorising mobility and inequality in a changing Europe

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Amelina ◽  
Andreas Vasilache
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Geographic Mobility ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Migration Studies ◽  
European Studies ◽  
Introductory Article ◽  
The Social ◽  
Societal Context

This introductory article of the special issue is based on the criticism of the sedentarist lens used in migration studies on social inequalities. It is organised around two questions: In what ways have forms of inequality and patterns of migration in the enlarged Europe been changed, and how should the nexus between migration and social inequality be rethought after the ‘mobility turn’ in the social sciences? First, the article proposes that the mobility turn and transnational sociology be combined to approach varieties of geographic mobility in the current Europe and that inequality analysis be conceptualised from a ‘mobile perspective’, meaning that forms of mobility and patterns of inequality be considered as mutually reinforcing. Second, Europe is considered as a fragmented and multi-sited societal context, which is co-produced by current patterns of mobility. The article discusses recent societal shifts such as supranationalisation and the end of socialism in the Eastern part of Europe (among many others) and identifies the concept of assemblage as a useful heuristic tool both for migration studies and European studies. Third, the final part illustrates how the contributions collected in this special issue address the challenges of the sedentarist lens and provide conceptual solutions to the analytical problems in question.

scholarly journals The Turn to Sabotage by The Congress Movement in South Africa*

2019 ◽  
Vol 245 (1) ◽  
pp. 221-255
Author(s):  
Simon Stevens
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
The Other ◽  
Guerrilla Warfare ◽  
Extended Phase ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Nelson Mandela ◽  
The Social ◽  
Violent Action

Abstract Why did leaders of the Congress movement in South Africa abandon their exclusive reliance on non-violent means in the struggle against apartheid, form an armed unit (Umkhonto we Sizwe), and launch a campaign of spectacular sabotage bombings of symbols of apartheid in 1961? None of the earlier violent struggles from which Congress leaders drew inspiration, and none of the contemporaneous insurgencies against white minority rule elsewhere in southern Africa, involved a similar distinct, preliminary and extended phase of non-lethal symbolic sabotage. Following the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, Congress leaders feared the social and political consequences of increased popular enthusiasm for using violence. Nelson Mandela, Joe Slovo, and the other founders of Umkhonto we Sizwe did not launch their sabotage campaign because they believed it would prompt a change of heart among white South Africans, nor because they believed urban sabotage bombings were a necessary prelude to the launch of rural guerrilla warfare. Rather, the sabotage campaign was a spectacular placeholder, a stopgap intended to advertise the Congress movement's abandonment of exclusive non-violence and thus to discourage opponents of apartheid, both inside and outside South Africa, from supporting rival groups or initiating ‘uncontrolled violent action themselves.

scholarly journals Meritocracy a myth? A multilevel perspective of how social inequality accumulates through work

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 240-269
Author(s):  
Hans van Dijk ◽  
Dorien Kooij ◽  
Maria Karanika-Murray ◽  
Ans De Vos ◽  
Bertolt Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequality ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Conventional View ◽  
The Social ◽  
Multilevel Perspective ◽  
Dyadic Network ◽  
Unequal Opportunities ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Over Time

Work plays a crucial role in rising social inequalities, which refer to unequal opportunities and rewards for different social groups. Whereas the conventional view of workplaces as meritocracies suggests that work is a conduit for social equality, we unveil the ways in which workplaces contribute to the accumulation of social inequality. In our cumulative social inequality in workplaces (CSI-W) model, we outline how initial differences in opportunities and rewards shape performance and/or subsequent opportunities and rewards, such that those who receive more initial opportunities and rewards tend to receive even more over time. These cumulative social inequality dynamics take place via nine different mechanisms spanning four different levels (individual, dyadic, network, and organizational). The CSI-W indicates that the mechanisms interact, such that the social inequality dynamics in workplaces tend to (a) exacerbate social inequalities over time, (b) legitimate social inequalities over time, and (c) manifest themselves through everyday occurrences and behaviors.

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