Economic Development, Political Development, and Inequality

This chapter augments Chapter 1’s foundations with detail on political and economic development, inequality, their interactions, and associated CAPs. Development entails sustained, widespread improvement of economic and political capabilities. Economic development includes steady growth in per capita income, education, health care, and infrastructure, with attention to deprivation, poverty, broader inequities, and associated avenues and barriers to achievement. It also involves creating functional economic institutions. Political development entails steady augmentation of a state’s ability to provide public goods and services; protect economic, political, and civil rights; and create and enforce impartial rules (a rule of law). It also involves broad access to political decision making, limiting authority, mobilizing public participation, and enhancing the legitimacy of underlying procedures. Inequality has multiple dimensions (income, wealth, access); achieving equity along one dimension often compromises that for another. Multiple types of inequality are both outcomes of and conditions that shape development. Multiple CAPs ensue.

Stereotyping as a Major Barrier to Achievement of Interprofessional Education Competencies: A Narrative Literature Review

Purpose: A major advancement in interprofessional(IP) practice and education has been the introduction of the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) core competencies. The purpose of this study is to explore stereotyping as a barrier to achievement of the IPEC competencies. Methods: There has been research into barriers to interprofessional collaboration and some barrier themes have occurred. But to this point, nothing has been studied on barriers to the use of the IPEC core competencies. This study aims to show barriers to achievement of the IPEC competencies through a narrative literature review. Articles were selected from three databases: CINAHL, Medline and ERIC were utilized in this review using the search terms “Interprofessional collaboration” and “Stereotyping”. Results: In articles used to review barriers to interprofessional collaboration, an underlying theme of negative stereotyping about different professions appears to be in place. Themes include: Differences in history and culture, fears of diluted professional identity, differences in language and jargon, and concerns regarding clinical responsibility. Conclusion: A literature review of studies on implementation of interprofessional activities, with correlations to the IPEC core competencies as a framework suggest that stereotyping may be a major barrier to implementation and achievement of the IPEC competencies.

Euthymia in Diabetes

Euthymia, or optimal mood, is an integral part of health. A diagnosis of diabetes poses multiple challenges to mental and emotional health and may lead to psychological and psychiatric dysfunction. Such conditions influence glycaemic control negatively and may act as barriers to achievement of desired biomedical outcomes. This article describes the concept of euthymia in diabetes and calls for euthymia to be accepted as a target, as well as a tool, in modern diabetes care.

STUDYING WHILE BLACK

How should we explore the relationship between race and educational opportunity? One approach to the Black-White achievement gap explores how race and class cause disparities in access and opportunity. In this paper, I consider how education contributes to thecreationof race. Considering examples of classroom micropolitics, I argue that breakdowns of trust and trustworthiness between teachers and students can cause substantial disadvantages and, in the contemporary United States, this happens along racial lines. Some of the disadvantages are academic: high achievement is more difficult when one faces mistrust, ego depletion, effort pessimism, and insult. And within a knowledge economy, exclusion from knowledge work makes one vulnerable to injustice. But the problem goes deeper than achievement, for schools are contexts in which we develop self-understandings and identities that situate us as members of society. If students of color are systematically denied full participation in trusting conversations that create shared knowledge—especially, knowledge that holds power within the dominant culture—they are unjustly deprived resources to form flourishing selves that are suited to the positions of power and authority. The argument suggests that knowledge is not best understood simply as a commodity to be distributed, and opportunity is not just a matter of access. Moreover, even if access is granted, those who are motivated and talented can fail: they drain their willpower by coping with insults, or reasonably lose optimism about their efficacy. Over time, motivation may shift away from achievement, and under the circumstances this can be a rational response. The barriers to achievement are many, but true opportunity is impossible without trust and trustworthiness.

The Lifeworld of Youth in the Information Society

Media is now central to how youth form their identities. Media also shapes the cultural background of much of young people’s action and decision making and the institutional framework of social interaction. This article explores this mediated “lifeworld” of young people by examining rates of current media use and the infiltration of media into conventional forms of socialization such as schools, family, and peers. The authors argue that increasing media use coincides with a larger structural shift to an information-based society wherein social relationships are constituted and reinforced through a cycle of “networked individualism” and growing “risk” among youth. The authors illustrate the cycle of media use, individualization, and risk by briefly examining (a) rising economic insecurity among all Americans and American youth in particular, and (b) the contradictions minority youth face in navigating structural barriers to achievement. The authors conclude by discussing the implications of their work and suggesting policy directions for youth in a media-saturated society.