Adultism at the Root of Youth Maltreatment in A. S. King’s Still Life with Tornado

While child abuse and neglect have been explored at length, less attention has been paid to the role of contemporary realist Young Adult Literature (YAL) in denouncing abusive treatments of young people in conjunction with adultism. It is hereby suggested that age inequality is at the core of youth maltreatment, and it is this intersectionality that should lead attempts to confront this global problem. YAL offers a bottom-up approach to deal with these social issues through first-hand experiences of oppressed, yet cognizant protagonists. This article foregrounds the voice of Sarah, the lead character featured in A. S. King’s Still Life with Tornado (2016), in addressing the drastic outcomes of ageist stereotypes at the family level. The emphasis on the perspective of young people provides an informative understanding of youth subordination, parental power, and adultist discrimination in an effort to challenge such practices.

Pastoral And Theological Responses To The Effects Of Witchcraft Beliefs In Ghana

The prevalence of witchcraft beliefs in Ghana is not without effect in the milieu as violence and abuses have been the bane for the people. The interpretive paradigm was the perspective that heralded this qualitative study. The study explored the views of 50 respondents from the Akan and Konkomba context. Some of the effects of witchcraft beliefs as discussed in the study are gender and age inequality, poverty, exploitation of the weak and the vulnerable, violence, abuses and others. The effects were evaluated in the light of Ghanaians progress and their linkage to how ideas or beliefs can have grim consequences on a nation. Pastoral and theological responses have been recommended for the chauvinistic paradigm. The study contributes to knowledge on curbing the effects of witchcraft beliefs in Ghana.

Status Aspect of Age: Opportunities and Restrictions

One of the most interesting aspects of the problem of age is that it is considered as an objective characteristic. The article discusses the main aspects of social restrictions related to age. The category of age inequality is analyzed. However, the category of age contains in itself an extremely large amount of semantic load, age-related social expectations, stereotypes of perception, and ways of self-identification. Despite the fact that aging is determined by biological processes, the age category itself has acquired a social dimension. At the same time, a set of social conventions associated with age can have both a positive value, associated with the expansion of opportunities and the acquisition of a favorable status, and a negative value. A negative manifestation of social age is to limit the range of opportunities available to members of society and to form a number of age restrictions. Within the framework of the system of social conventions, there are explicit and unwritten prescriptions, which together determine the decline in social activity, in fact, self-exclusion of the elderly from social life.

Poverty upsurge in 2015 and the rising trend in regional and age inequality among the poor in Brazil

Summary The aim of this article is threefold. Firstly, to present income-based poverty and extreme poverty indicators for 2015, when the macroeconomic crisis led to a generalized deterioration affecting all areas and regions. The second aim is to discuss long-term evolution, emphasizing the period since 2004, when sustained improvement of income indicators as well as convergence of regional and area results began. Considering the period from 2004 to 2014/2015, the third aim is to show that the reduction in poverty and extreme poverty was parallel to increased inequality in poverty regarding two critical aspects: the regional aspect, since inequality among the five regions became higher, thus reinforcing the dichotomy between the North/Northeast versus the Centre-South; the age aspect, because the recent improvements since 2004 have not sufficiently benefited children as to reverse their disadvantaged position, so much so that in 2015 children still had a share in poverty that was twice their share in the total population. The last section concerns policy measures that may reduce the impact of the crisis on the poor.