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This article considers the implications of the strong poverty focus in the new White Paper for advancing gender equality. Recognizing that there are efficiency arguments in its focus on poor women and some dangers in too rigid a link being made between gender and poverty, it is argued that an equity and empowerment focus nevertheless inform the gender and poverty nexus. This does not necessarily imply that women's subordination is adequately dealt with. Making gender a cross-cutting issue in human rights goes some way towards escaping an anti-poverty approach to women. However, this does not automatically address gender relations and there are some contradictions even within the human rights focus itself. Beyond the principles of the White Paper, the real potential for promoting women's empowerment and advancing gender equity lies in its practice. The commitment to building partnerships needs to be extended to gender equitable partnerships which imply developing skills and new forms of practice among all partners to accommodate the participation of poor women, and recognising that accountability is a two-way street. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are markets in developing and transition economies overregulated or under-regulated? This is a perennial question in the development discourse, but one for which answers appear to come more from preset ideology than from context- specific analysis and evidence. These issues become even more pressing when the debate turns to the links between regulation, deregulation and inequality. The recent experience of rising inequality in many countries has also brought to the fore predictable policy positions. A key aspect of labor regulation in developing countries, and one becoming more prominent in the era of rising inequality, is the minimum wage. The range of issues around regulation, minimum wage and informality was addressed by papers presented to a conference held in New Delhi on December 17-18, 2014. The conference was co-sponsored by the World Bank, UK Department for International Development, Cornell University and Columbia University. The organizers of the conference were Kaushik Basu, Stefan Dercon, Ravi Kanbur and Jan Svejnar. A selection of papers from the conference which passed the usual review procedures of the Review of Development Economics, and a further selection of papers from those submitted to the journal, form this symposium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of commercial‐assisted suicide lives a marginal existence in the bioethical literature, despite its significant presence in popular culture. The practice of commercial‐assisted suicide (CAS) is defined as suicide assistance performed for a financial reward through a contractual agreement between a customer and a service‐provider, who does not necessarily need to be a medical professional. While CAS does indeed offer some potential solutions regarding the moral controversies surrounding physician‐assisted suicide (PAS), I defend the idea that adopting it as policy ultimately proves morally indefensible and practically inefficient. This is due to the fact that the commodification of a given good necessarily implies the creation of a market of said good; as such, what I propose in this paper is a moral and practical evaluation of a market of CAS. In order to do so, I first examine the arguments in favor of CAS as put forward by Roland Kipke, who argues that any liberal defense of PAS necessarily implies a defense of CAS. In the first section, I argue against this idea using the liberal values of autonomy and equality of opportunity. In the second section of the paper, I argue that a market of CAS would be gravely dysfunctional due to one particular characteristic of death, namely, that is not compensable ex post. I conclude by arguing that while the practice of CAS may not prove morally problematic, the inevitable market that it will create should it be legalized most certainly will. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key goal of educational institutions around the world is to provide inclusive, equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all learners. Achieving this requires contextualized approaches to accommodate diverse global values and promote learning opportunities that best meet the needs and goals of all learners as individuals and members of different communities. Advances in learning analytics (LA), natural language processes (NLP), and artificial intelligence (AI), especially generative AI technologies, offer potential to aid educational decision making by supporting analytic insights and personalized recommendations. However, these technologies also raise serious risks for reinforcing or exacerbating existing inequalities; these dangers arise from multiple factors including biases represented in training datasets, the technologies' abilities to take autonomous decisions, and processes for tool development that do not centre the needs and concerns of historically marginalized groups. To ensure that Educational Decision Support Systems (EDSS), particularly AI‐powered ones, are equipped to promote equity, they must be created and evaluated holistically, considering their potential for both targeted and systemic impacts on all learners, especially members of historically marginalized groups. Adopting a socio‐technical and cultural perspective is crucial for designing, deploying, and evaluating AI‐EDSS that truly advance educational equity and inclusion. This editorial introduces the contributions of five papers for the special section on advancing equity and inclusion in educational practices with AI‐EDSS. These papers focus on (i) a review of biases in large language models (LLMs) applications offers practical guidelines for their evaluation to promote educational equity, (ii) techniques to mitigate disparities across countries and languages in LLMs representation of educationally relevant knowledge, (iii) implementing equitable and intersectionality‐aware machine learning applications in education, (iv) introducing a LA dashboard that aims to promote institutional equality, diversity, and inclusion, and (v) vulnerable student digital well‐being in AI‐EDSS. Together, these contributions underscore the importance of an interdisciplinary approach in developing and utilizing AI‐EDSS to not only foster a more inclusive and equitable educational landscape worldwide but also reveal a critical need for a broader contextualization of equity that incorporates the socio‐technical questions of what kinds of decisions AI is being used to support, for what purposes, and whose goals are prioritized in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting with a brief review of why all post-industrial societies tend to be inegalitarian, this paper develops two main themes: (1) how the idea that people are individually responsible for their own fates reduces poverty but impedes redistribution, and (2) how both the loose ties of individuals to their societies and the selective nature of their empathy and pity for others reduces compassion for the poor, making redistribution unlikely. The first theme is elaborated through psychological research on dispositional versus circumstantial attributions, showing their effects on the widely shared belief in a just world and more generally on the prevailing theory of the justice of deserts. The attribution-affect-action model is used to show how dispositional attributions evoke either anger or pity for victims and, if anger, then unwillingness to help. The development of the second theme shows how people divorce their own fates from those of their nations, how the basic tendency to favor the familiar and similar limits support for redistribution, how converting concern regarding deprivations of the self to concern for (fraternal) deprivation of people like the self excludes those who most need help, how envy fails to lead to redistribution, and finally, how people's ideas of the privileged and the disadvantaged reflect market values and often mark the poor and the different as overprivileged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the Government's White Paper on Women's Equality. It attempts to come to grips with the whole problem of discrimination against women by sympathetically recommending legislation which would outlaw the refusal of services and employment on grounds of sex or marriage. It further suggests the setting up of an Equal Opportunities Commission to which those who claimed discrimination could appeal, and which would " identify and deal with discriminatory practices by industries, firms or institutions." Society's demands on women are confused and hence its provision for women to meet those demands is confused and inadequate. Not so long ago an honorific status naturally attached to the production and care of two or three children.

This paper explores the cascading influence of revolutionary moments on democracy and inequality, not at home, but across borders. We use data on revolutions and other social upheavals over the past 120 years and examine their cross‐national impact on a range of variables in neighboring countries. Engaging with debates on whether substantial democracy and equality increases require extraordinary circumstances, our research investigates whether revolutionary activities induce consequential spillovers, such as policy concessions from elites in neighboring contexts. In exploring spillover effects, the paper examines how significant events in one nation influence social life in adjacent ones. It encompasses an analysis of 171 countries over two centuries, connecting data on revolution with democracy and equality metrics, and hypothesizing that elite fear of revolutionary contagion may necessitate democracy and equality concessions to mitigate potential uprisings. Findings suggest neighboring revolutions positively impact domestic democracy and equality levels. We observe significant increases in an index of democracy and two indices of economic egalitarianism, although one of the egalitarianism measures is robust to all model specifications. Additionally, we find that isolated “protest‐led ousters” can moderately increase suffrage and one of our indices of egalitarianism, while coups do not seem to impact democracy or inequality variables. By examining various upheaval types and outcomes across time and space, the study illuminates the causal relationship between global mobilizations and local changes, providing insights into how global events inform domestic outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration is considered a meaningful strategy whereby both migrants and nonmigrants can improve their well‐being and their livelihoods. The paper emphasizes the migrants' own perspective and sheds light on movers' noneconomic drivers. The concept of aspirations is treated as a 'missing link' that allows research into migration at its intersection with social inequalities, hierarchies and diversity. The paper's main aim is therefore to elucidate Romanian migrants' aspirations and to illustrate how these aspirations are informed by their agency and reflect their well‐being both during and after the economic recession in Greece. Romanian migration provides sufficient grounds to invoke a more nuanced approach to migrants' well‐being, which takes their 'dreams of fantasy' into account, along with their subjective experiences of inequalities and multiple belonging. This paper frames migrants' well‐being theoretically as a relational process, but also in terms of the socio‐spatial arrangements of migrant mobility/immobility acts. Romanians' narratives are analysed in relation to their social trajectories, spatial movement(s) and settlement patterns during their international and internal journey(s). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to examine dialogical techniques used to establish a relationship of equality between therapist and client in narrative‐based therapy. This paper first introduces a "mutual first‐personalization process" found in dialogue established through the Person‐Centered Approach and "early dialogues," which is a framework that forms the foundation of Open Dialogue, to illuminate the relationship of equality created in these exchanges. The concept of the "middle voice" is then introduced to show that dialogical therapy generates a relationship that does not clearly distinguish between therapist and client, or "to help" and "to be helped," and that equality is a key aspect of narrative‐based therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The geography of school choice critically shapes families' educational opportunities. Residential segregation, social inequalities and the educational marketplace interact in complex ways and produce spatialised educational opportunities for families. This paper analyses the link between these dimensions and how they structure families' educational opportunities in the city of Madrid. Based on several administrative datasets that capture students' residential location, their socio-economic position, the schools they attend and the characteristics of school supply, our analysis reveals the uneven spatial distribution of the different school modalities in Madrid, where advantaged families and neighbourhoods have more diversified and socio-economically homogenous nearby schooling options. The results also depict the way the city is spatially divided along a continuum of 'privileged' residential and educational assets. The paper reflects on how reforms expanding school choice and diversification of the educational market undertaken by the regional government may have increased the link between residential and school segregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Redressing the wrongs of the past has been a central theme in democratic South Africa. The land restitution programme was specifically intended to foster the process of redressing the loss and pain inflicted through racially motivated and violent dispossession of land. After more than two and half decades of implementing the land restitution programme, there are serious questions around how far this programme has contributed to redressing the injustices of the past. This paper, drawing from three land restitution case studies, illustrates that while many victims of colonial and apartheid land dispossession have been compensated, the land restitution process has scored limited success in redressing past injustices. The paper argues that the failure to substantively redress colonial and apartheid land dispossession is partly due to the narrow conceptualization of the restitution programme, which has emphasized procedural aspects, ignoring the need for meaningful redress of the victims of land dispossession. As a result of this, the land restitution programme has not fulfilled its transformative objectives of reconciliation, reconstruction, and reducing land inequalities in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes how economic growth can be caused by changes in the income distribution. Persson and Tabellini (1994, The American Economic Review, 84, 600‐621) argue that productivity‐induced income inequality leads to lower growth since distortionary taxes increase and harm capital accumulation. However, this prediction is often challenged empirically. This paper distinguishes between capital income inequality and inequality induced by differences in labor productivity. Greater capital income inequality leads to lower labor tax rates, leading to higher growth. Using data for OECD countries, subsequent growth is found to be positively related to capital income inequality, and negatively related to labor income inequality, as originally conjectured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the motivations and barriers behind the decision of economically disadvantaged Moldovans to refrain from migrating for better economic prospects. Drawing on 30 qualitative interviews with voluntary stayers, it uncovers a range of individual‐level characteristics that impede migration aspirations. These findings highlight the heightened sensitivity of lower‐wage stayers to their perceived social status abroad, their limited adaptability to new cultures and environments and their lower willpower to endure the challenges of long‐term gains. Moreover, this paper sheds light on their contentment with modest material gains and their aversion to migration risks. At the structural level, it emphasizes how social inequalities act as barriers for specific social groups, particularly the economically disadvantaged. These empirical insights challenge prevailing assumptions about the dominance of economic costs and network abroad in migration decision‐making, offering a fresh perspective on the social factors and costs shaping stayers' choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a study of transnational divorce in Dutch–Moroccan and Dutch–Egyptian families, this paper will analyse the role of ethnicity, social class and difference in transnational divorce narratives. It will show how public narratives on marriage migration, fraudulent marriages and cultural difference influence the stories people tell about their marriage and subsequent divorce and how they make sense of their experiences. These public narratives are not limited to a national context but move across borders, circulating in transnational social fields. By studying at both intra‐ethnic and inter‐ethnic relationships, this paper also aims to further complicate notions of ethnicity in transnational relationships. By studying these two categories of transnational marriage together, it becomes clear how ethnicity intersects with other social inequalities such as social class as well as how differences ascribed to regional origin can produce ethnic differences even within inter‐ethnic marriages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As we planned this special issue, the world was in the midst of a pandemic, one which brought into sharp focus many of the pre‐existing economic, social, and climate crises, as well as, trends of widening economic and social inequalities. The pandemic also brought to the forefront an epistemic crisis that continues to decentre certain knowledges while maintaining the hegemony of Eurocentric ways of knowing and being. Thus, we set out to explore the possibilities that come with widening our ecology of knowledge and approaches to inquiry, including the power of critical reflective praxis and consciousness, and the important practices of repowering marginalised and oppressed groups. In this paper, we highlight scholarship that reflects a breadth of theories, methods, and practices that forge alliances, in and outside the academy, in different solidarity relationships toward liberation and wellbeing. Our desire as co‐editors was not to endorse the plurality of solidarities expressed in the papers as an unyielding methodological or conceptual framework, but rather to hold them lightly within thematic spaces as invitations for readers to consider. Through editorial collaboration, we arrived at the following three thematic spaces: (1) ecologies of being and knowledge: Indigenous knowledge, networks, and plurilogues; (2) naming coloniality in context: Histories in the present and a wide lens; (3) relational knowledge practices: Creative joy of knowing beyond disciplines. From these thematic spaces we conclude that through repowering epistemic communities and narratives rooted in truth‐telling, a plurality of solidarities are fostered and sustained locally and transnationally. Underpinned by an ethic of care, solidarity relationships are simultaneously unsettling dominant forms of knowledge and embrace ways of knowing and being that advances dignity, community, and nonviolence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change will mean cities are exposed to more frequent short‐term shocks such as floods. City‐scale resilience is achieved by understanding how these shocks interact with longer‐term stressors (e.g., social inequality). The Urban Systems Abstraction Hierarchy (USAH) has been developed for this purpose. In this paper, Glasgow (UK) is used as a case study application, to demonstrate how resilience theory can be operationalized through the application of the USAH. Results demonstrate how the USAH can quantify interdependencies between tangible physical entities in the city and intangible outcomes that monitor city stressors, and specifically how these outcomes change in response to a 1:200‐year fluvial flood return period in Glasgow. Resilience concepts such as multifunctionality, redundancy and diversity are applied to interpret the results and their implications for longer‐term resilience in Glasgow. The findings from the application of the USAH show that the outcome Social equality and equity is influential for longer‐term resilience in Glasgow, whilst Reliable communications and mobility is an important outcome for flood resilience. Plain Language Summary: Flood hazards are projected to increase under climate change. Understanding how flood exposure interacts with the urban environment is important for longer‐term resilience planning. A resilience tool called the Urban Systems Abstraction Hierarchy models how city resources (such as train stations, parks, hospitals) enable processes which aggregate over different scales to enable resilient outcomes (such as social equality). In this paper, the tool is applied to Glasgow (UK) and modified for a flood hazard. Interaction analysis reveals which urban processes, tasks and outcomes are impacted by a flood through the application of resilience concepts. Applying the tool to a case study provides a fresh perspective on how cities might respond to hazards, and enables an interdisciplinary framework for resilience planning. Key Points: A resilience tool is applied to capture functional interdependencies between system components in Glasgow across scalesResults show how these interdependencies change as a result of flood exposure, impacting longer‐term resilient outcomesA new perspective is provided for applying resilience theory in flood management [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liberal nationalism has been the subject of increased attention in the wake of the 2010s rise in national populism. It has been seen to offer a concessionary form of national identity which is compatible with the liberal values of inclusivity and egalitarianism. This paper argues that recent attempts to delineate the contours of a specifically liberal national identity fail to highlight much that is distinctively liberal, as opposed to conservative, about its content. The criteria that such attempts propose typically apply almost equally to conservative accounts, thereby overshooting the target. However, further ideological excavation reveals that there is an alternative axis for distinguishing between liberal and conservative conceptions of national identity: democratic inclusivity. The paper further proposes that shifting the emphasis to this dimension, and to liberal and conservative accounts differing aims and formation processes, is conducive to both greater ideological transparency and bridging the gap between theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education has become a key tool for reducing inequality in the postindustrial economy; however, educational reformers must address tensions in goals of efficiency and equality. Cross‐national differences in cultural assumptions about education provide context for countries' choices in resolving tensions between efficiency (developing skills) and equality (ensuring educational access for marginal workers). Cultural frames encourage actors to consider the role of education in solving social problems in strikingly different ways across countries. Britain and Denmark exemplify cross‐national variation in coping with efficiency and equality. I first demonstrate how cultural frames regarding education differ historically in Britain and Denmark in large corpora of literature from 1700 to 1920 (Martin, 2018). I show that British and Danish authors (as producers of culture) differ significantly in their depictions of education with respect to efficiency (skills), equality (perceptions of class and society) and governance (role of the state, assessment and coordination). I then report findings from an online internet survey of 2100 British and Danish young people that demonstrate the continuing divergence in cultural constructions of education in Britain and Denmark today. The survey reveals that the same cross‐national cultural distinctions apparent in the nineteenth‐century continue to resonate in contemporary views of education reform. The paper contributes by adding a cultural perspective to the factors driving diverse country choices about efficiency and equality in education policy, and it reinforces the importance of public opinion in policy choices. Moreover, the paper expands upon our understanding of Nordic social democracy from a historical perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper evaluates spatial, behavioural, and material signalling of social class in African contexts, focusing on Kenya and Zambia. In particular, it draws on notions of mode of class signalling and intersectionality and a vignette of an interaction between urban-based Western educated development agents and local participants in rural Kenya to illustrate how social class is implicated in interactions. The paper shows how significant features of class and dimensions of social inequality may be perceived intersectionally so that positionalities in class structures are negotiated in contexts of interaction, thus illustrating how structural conditions of class may be challenged and questioned. The paper concludes that sociolinguistics needs to identify the various ways in which the marginalized challenge social structures of inequality. Otherwise there is a risk that sociolinguistics will work to validate inequalities as permanent and fixed, and victims of unequal treatment as permanently condemned and never able to rise against oppressive social structures that tyrannize them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past 18 months have delivered a series of "surprising" electoral outcomes. In the USA, the election of Donald Trump confounded expectations. In the UK, the leave result from the EU referendum and the subsequent snap General Election which saw the Conservative Party lose their majority have been heralded as knife‐edge moments and a new period in politics. This paper makes an alternative contention. It posits that the electoral outcomes of 2016 and 2017 were not arbitrary or new occurrences, but instead represent the latest expressions of long‐standing historical trends towards increased inequality across the West. Recognising that the impacts of economic and political restructuring have been unevenly distributed between different groups and geographical areas, the paper makes the case that these electoral outcomes must be seen in the light of policy moves creating a more polarised social and spatial structure. Using the UK as an illustrative case, the paper explores the developments that have reinforced spatial opportunity structures and the reproduction of disadvantage over time. In doing so, the paper contextualises the revanchism resultant from processes of social residualisation and articulates the need to focus on the long‐run effects of rising inequality now being seen to shape voters' choices. This paper critically explores the outcome of the 2016 referendum vote in favour of Britain leaving the EU. With the narrow Brexit majority attributed to long‐standing historical trends towards increased inequality in the UK, the paper makes the case for geographical research to focus on the series of policy moves that have helped widen the gap between rich and poor, leaving an elongated middle group itself experiencing substantial fracturing within. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the pro‐poor bias of trade policy in India by estimating the household welfare effects of removing the current protection structure. The elimination of a pro‐poor trade policy is expected to have a negative differential welfare effect at the low end of the distribution. The paper first constructs trade restrictiveness indexes for household consumption items and industries using both tariffs and non‐tariff barriers. The results indicate that Indian trade policy is regressive through the expenditure channel as it disproportionately raises the cost of consumption for poorer households, while it is progressive through the earnings channel. Based on the net welfare effects, the elimination of the current trade protection structure is estimated to reduce inequality. These results indicate that a trade policy that is progressive through the earnings channel may induce a price effect that is regressive through the expenditure channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capturing the dynamics of population change in urban areas necessitates access to geographically fine‐grained and temporally consistent data for several time points. Such data are generally not available and they must be created using standard population data which cannot usually be compared across time periods. In this paper, the focus is on changing spatial inequalities in Cape Town, South Africa. This paper details an approach to generation of gridded population counts (250 m by 250 m) for two census years – 2001 and 2011. Census data for Small Area Layers (SALs), Spot Building Count (SBC) data, and Open Street Map (OSM) landuse data were used to construct a grid of populated cells to which population counts are then reallocated. The reallocation of population counts from SALs to grid cells was undertaken using area‐to‐point kriging – an approach which is informed by the spatial variation in the population groups of interest as measured using the variogram. A case study based on population grids of unemployment rates shows how the grids can be used to chart changes and also to measure spatial inequalities across the city at two time points. The advantages of grids for capturing fine‐scale complexities and correctly accounting for physical separation between communities are demonstrated and the results show, while the broad patterns of inequality are consistent across time, there are pronounced increases in inequalities in some neighbourhoods. These areas – and what leads some areas to fall further behind – should be the subject of attention by policy‐makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 30 years, governments have sought to give citizens greater choice and control of the public services they utilise. As a result, we have seen the creation of various forms of public sector markets, including through contracting and tendering processes and, more recently, by utilising individualised or 'personalised' care budgets. Under the latter, individuals are given money to purchase services that meet their needs. There is growing evidence that personalisation schemes may actually be entrenching administrative burden, due to their unprecedented emphasis on individual skills and advocacy. Moreover, reviews internationally have found that such schemes tend to be administratively complex. This paper uses a systematic review of existing research to explore experiences of administrative burden within the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). We found that the scheme is administratively cumbersome overall, and that burdens are exacerbated for particular social groups. We apply concepts of habitus and capital from Bourdieu to theorise why burdens are experienced differently by different groups, and how to address this in practice. In doing so, we can see that addressing exclusion within the NDIS requires us to move away from problematising individuals to including those individuals in different stages of the design and implementation of administrative systems. There is growing evidence that personalisation schemes may actually be entrenching administrative burden, due to their unprecedented emphasis on individual skills and advocacy. This paper uses a systematic review of existing research to explore experiences of administrative burden within the NDIS, using concepts from Bourdieu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how gendered perceptions of risk drive gender inequality. It does so by applying an Intersectional Risk Theory (IRT) framework to new empirical data on gender equality initiatives in the Canadian screen industries. The paper shows (1) that gendered risk perceptions constrain women directors' work opportunities; (2) that the construction of gendered risk perceptions ("doing risk") is shaped by the screen industry context and social inequalities generally; and (3) that practices of constructing risk perceptions can be disrupted and changed, which creates opportunities for a "re‐doing" or "un‐doing" of gendered perceptions of risk and offers new analytical perspectives onto the efficacy of gender equality initiatives. By interrogating how perceptions of risk inform decision‐making, the paper contributes new understandings of the drivers of systemic and intersectional inequality as a defining characteristic of work and labor markets in the screen industries and in the creative industries more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper establishes that the worldwide distribution of political instability has its deep historical roots in genetic diversity, predetermined over the prehistoric course of the exodus of Homo sapiens from East Africa tens of thousands of years ago. It proposes that the relationship between prehistorically determined genetic diversity and contemporary political instability follows a U‐shaped pattern. More specifically, genetic diversity at first reduces the persistence of political instability by increasing the opportunity cost of engaging in riots and revolts. However, genetically fragmented societies tend to suffer from interpersonal mistrust and the under‐provision of public goods, which plausibly undermine the establishment of politically stable regimes. Using an ancestry‐adjusted index of predicted genetic diversity, this paper consistently finds precise estimates that genetic diversity imparts a U‐shaped influence on different measures of political instability and the probability of observing the occurrence of riots and revolts across 141 countries. Furthermore, the contribution of genetic diversity to political instability is at least partially mediated through income/productivity levels, the provision of public goods, income inequality and social trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of linguistic capital in production and reproduction of social inequalities drawing on 20 in‐depth qualitative interviews with Chinese international students in a German university. The paper highlights that while studying abroad can provide advantages when it comes to learning a new foreign language, it can also bring some disadvantages for those who are educated in a foreign language. It underscores that being proficient in a foreign language is not solely about the ability to communicate, but also about assigning a social value to it for some speakers such as international students. Moreover, the contexts of countries of origin and education are essential. The findings indicate that being educated in a foreign language can lead to various difficulties for international students, such as feeling excluded from social circles, facing academic challenges, and encountering obstacles when trying to find a job while studying. However, despite these challenges, education in a foreign language and particularly in Germany is perceived as advantageous because it helps students to accumulate linguistic and cultural capital, which they believe will benefit them in the labour market upon their graduation. Therefore, this paper stresses the importance of not only the advantages of linguistic capital, but also the ways in which it can simultaneously function as both an advantage and a disadvantage, thereby perpetuating inequalities within and across borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates how ideology plays a major, but previously neglected role in Rousseau's treatment of politics in the Social Contract. Specifically, it shows how a number of key elements in his line of argument come close to ideology criticism as it is conceived in Louis Althusser's theory of ideological state apparatuses. This is the case not just in relation to the distinction between general will and particular will, but also in relation to such concepts as property and social contract. However, the paper also demonstrates how this pre‐Marxist understanding of ideology co‐exists in the text with a different and more primitive understanding of ideology which is incompatible with Marxism and which points back to Rousseau's previous discourse on the origins of inequality. The paper concludes that while there are definitely elements in Rousseau's text which point toward a future development of the theme of ideology in Marxist theory, the Social Contract on the whole is characterized by heterogeneity on this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an invited response to Bracken and Mawdsley's 2004 paper '"Muddy glee": Rounding out the picture of women and physical geography fieldwork'. It offers a personal account of fieldwork experiences with particular emphasis on embodied gendered experiences of a Disabled geographer. It calls for a holistic approach to access and inclusion in fieldwork. A discussion around issues of access, inclusion, and equality in fieldwork from the embodied perspective of a Disabled woman geographer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Tailored sexuality education for adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities is a crucial, yet unmet, need as this population is particularly at risk for sexual abuse and victimisation. However, there are no evidence‐based interventions to specifically address this need. This paper presents the development of an intervention framework to address equity in sexuality education and support adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities to understand and provide sexual consent, a foundational aspect of sexuality education and sexual health. Methods: The Sexual Health Equity Project team used a Community‐Based Participatory Research approach to develop a four‐module sexual consent intervention for adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We leveraged a diverse, interdisciplinary team in a suburban Midwestern school district, and used Backward Design to create objectives and assessments which were rooted in findings from qualitative data by special education teachers. Results: The resulting sexual consent intervention, Ask Me First—Choices, is comprised of four modules covering topics including definition of sexual consent; decision‐making strategies and practice; communicating consent and refusal, identifying situations of consent and non‐consent; and legal issues surrounding consent. Each module is divided into five components for content delivery: (1) introduction, (2) lecture, (3) supplemental activity, (4) assessment, and (5) conclusion. We detail the intervention's unique aspects, emphasising areas where we used Universal Design for Learning principles to support teachers' instruction and students' learning. Conclusion: Our efforts to create a sexual consent intervention directly address sexuality education equity issues. We offer commentary on our design process and decisions, as well as recommendations for future groups who want to develop sexual health interventions in similar contexts for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Next steps include further testing and validation of the sexual consent intervention to build the evidence‐base of sexuality education for adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative well‐being is an increasing field of interest to which biomedical and social sciences have made uneven contributions. The instrumental value of culture and its subsequential public investment is grounded in the interplay of social, cultural and economic capital to attain and preserve wellbeing and health and foster social mobility. The current evidence addresses the effectiveness of arts interventions in improving illnesses. Little attention has been paid to the social value of creative wellbeing for the general population. This paper is a rapid review and evidence synthesis that aims to answer the question, ‘What is the social value of place‐based arts and culture interventions at individual (wellbeing) and community (social inequalities) levels in the UK and Europe?’. After a systematic search of five databases, search engines, and a call for evidence in August 2022, 14 out of 974 sources met the inclusion criteria. Studies were organised into three themes (Community, Events, Museums), and outcomes were analysed considering the indicators and dimensions of wellbeing (Office for National Statistics). The review evidenced that creative wellbeing leads to improvements in wellbeing outcomes and can contribute to alleviating social determinants of health. However, considering their impact on the underlying causes of structural social inequalities requires caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Methods Results Discussion The medical school selection literature comes mostly from a few countries in the Global North and offers little opportunity to consider different ways of thinking and doing. Our aim, therefore, was to critically consider selection practices and their sociohistorical influences in our respective countries (Brazil, China, Singapore, South Africa and the UK), including how any perceived inequalities are addressed.This paper summarises many constructive dialogues grounded in the idea of he er butong (和而不同) (harmony with diversity), learning about and from each other.Some practices were similar across the five countries, but there were differences in precise practices, attitudes and sociohistorical influences thereon. For example, in Brazil, South Africa and the UK, there is public and political acknowledgement that attainment is linked to systemic and social factors such as socio‐economic status and/or race. Selecting for medical school solely on prior attainment is recognised as unfair to less privileged societal groups. Conversely, selection via examination performance is seen as fair and promoting equality in China and Singapore, although the historical context underpinning this value differs across the two countries. The five countries differ in respect of their actions towards addressing inequality. Quotas are used to ensure the representation of certain groups in Brazil and regional representation in China. Quotas are illegal in the UK, and South Africa does not impose them, leading to the use of various, compensatory ‘workarounds’ to address inequality. Singapore does not take action to address inequality because all people are considered equal constitutionally.In conclusion, medical school selection practices are firmly embedded in history, values, societal expectations and stakeholder beliefs, which vary by context. More comparisons, working from the position of acknowledging and respecting differences, would extend knowledge further and enable consideration of what permits and hinders change in different contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of rising energy prices and the cost of living crisis, some have claimed that climate policies are at odds with citizens' more pressing everyday living concerns. Critics challenge these simplifying narratives that shorter term economic and social wellbeing priorities and ‘longer term’ decarbonization policies are in tension with one another and argue that effective policies must treat them as interconnected. Evidence regarding how citizens think about climate policy mostly focus on policy acceptability, highlighting the role of perceptions of effectiveness and fairness, but there is a quite limited conceptualization of contexts of social inequality, and even more limited engagement with the views of marginalized groups whose buy‐in is seen as crucial for effective net zero transitions. This paper reviews the evidence and analyses new data from a small exploratory study with citizens from low income and marginalized backgrounds. In group discussions several participants emphasized the importance of tackling both social hardships and climate priorities, seen by some as interlinked. Further, many described wider societal unfairness relating to experiences of poverty, exploitation, a lack of voice or even recognition and a keen sense of disconnect between politics and their own everyday concerns and lived experiences. I argue that climate policy making should engage more fully with contexts of social inequality and that social wellbeing and systematic action on climate change need to be treated by policy makers and politicians as profoundly interlinked challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Philosophical work on self‐respect has distinguished between various kinds of self‐respect. In this paper, Shiying Li begins by introducing important kinds of self‐respect and exploring the conceptual and empirical relations among them. She then discusses the value and political significance of social bases of self‐respect for both individuals and society. While political theory on this topic, especially from the Rawlsian tradition, has focused on the social bases of self‐respect in a well‐ordered society, Li takes on the task of uncovering the social bases of self‐respect in an unjust society marked by structural injustices such as racism, sexism, social stigmas, and economic and other social inequalities. She provides arguments, including public reason arguments, for the political priority and urgency of securing robust self‐respect for all in an unjust society, and thus paves the way for a discussion of the role that education, especially schooling, can and should play in securing robust self‐respect. Li concludes by offering reasons to direct special attention to specific aspects of schooling and by making suggestions regarding a curriculum and pedagogy aimed at securing robust self‐respect for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Philosophical work on self‐respect has distinguished between various kinds of self‐respect. In this paper, Shiying Li begins by introducing important kinds of self‐respect and exploring the conceptual and empirical relations among them. She then discusses the value and political significance of social bases of self‐respect for both individuals and society. While political theory on this topic, especially from the Rawlsian tradition, has focused on the social bases of self‐respect in a well‐ordered society, Li takes on the task of uncovering the social bases of self‐respect in an unjust society marked by structural injustices such as racism, sexism, social stigmas, and economic and other social inequalities. She provides arguments, including public reason arguments, for the political priority and urgency of securing robust self‐respect for all in an unjust society, and thus paves the way for a discussion of the role that education, especially schooling, can and should play in securing robust self‐respect. Li concludes by offering reasons to direct special attention to specific aspects of schooling and by making suggestions regarding a curriculum and pedagogy aimed at securing robust self‐respect for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post‐pandemic recovery must address the systemic inequality that has been revealed by the coronavirus crisis. The roots of this inequality predate the pandemic and even the global financial crisis. They lie rather in the uneasy relationship between labor and capital under conditions of declining economic growth, such as those who have prevailed in advanced economies for almost half a century. This paper explores the dynamics of that relationship using a simple stock‐flow consistent (SFC) macroeconomic model of a closed economy. It examines in particular the role of two key factors—the savings rate and the substitutability (elasticity of substitution) between labor and capital—on the severity of systemic inequality under conditions of declining growth. The paper goes on to test the efficacy of three redistributive measures—a graduated income tax, a tax on capital and a universal basic income—under two distinct structural scenarios for an economy with a declining growth rate. We find that none of these measures is sufficient to control structural inequality when institutions aggressively favor capital over labor (hyper‐capitalism). Taken in combination, however, under conditions more favorable to wage labor (proto‐socialism), these same measures have the potential to eliminate inequality, almost entirely, even as the growth rate declines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Happiness has become a high‐profile goal for national governments, city authorities, and technology developers finding new ways to map and measure emotions through happiness economics, urban management, and digital emotion‐sensing. This paper advances critical geographical analysis of the neglected rationales, mechanisms, and implications of promoting the emotion of happiness. Researchers, policy‐makers, and publics alike are intrigued and troubled by how a growing concern with mapping and monitoring human happiness can co‐occur with increasing levels of social inequality, human suffering, anxiety, and sadness. The paper outlines the intersection between three key trajectories (economisation, spatialisation, and technologisation) in order to demonstrate how particular assumptions about space, time, scale, and subjectivity are implied in the framing of happiness as an objective scientific construct to be measured, and as a problem of government. These trajectories combine to create what I term a new spatial science of emotions, which is yet to be defined, empirically documented, and critically analysed. It considers what kind of economic futures and contested knowledge practices are laid out by this new spatial science of emotions. By bringing together insights from critical economic geographies of neuroscientific and behavioural forms of governance, geographies of well‐being, and social theories of embodied technologies, the paper challenges researchers to shift attention from subjective well‐being to public well‐being. Happiness has become a high‐profile goal for national governments, city authorities and technology developers finding new ways to map and measure emotions through happiness economics, urban management and digital emotion sensing. This paper advances critical geographical analysis of the neglected rationales, mechanisms and implications of promoting the emotion of happiness. It challenges researchers to shift attention from subjective wellbeing to public wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1917, the Bolsheviks took power in Russia under the banner of equality. Within the city, their aspiration to eliminate the core‐periphery sociospatial disparities resulted in dividing Moscow's privileged historic centre among its peripheral districts. This attempt to design districts of similar socio‐economic composition was short‐lived. Already in the 1930s, corresponding with the rise of the Stalinist state, the city centre partially re‐appeared in the form of the newly established smaller sectorial districts that were eliminated only after Stalin's death. Utilizing previously classified archival data of the 1939 population census, this paper sheds light on the sociospatial differentiation of Stalinist Moscow by comparing its central districts to the rest of the city as well as to the Bolshevik zoning of the 1920s. This analysis posits that the Bolshevik ideal of territorial equality was not achieved: politically, ethnically and socially, Stalinist Moscow in the late 1930s remained spatially unequal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper assesses how top incomes biases affect the estimation of income inequality in the United States using the Current Population Survey (the March Annual Social and Economic Supplement) and two alternative correction methods – a stochastic approach based on reweighting and a semi‐parametric approach based on replacing observations. Consistently with previous studies, both methods and their joint application show that income inequality in the United States between 1979 and 2014 has been consistently underestimated by several percentage points. The level of underestimation is positively and significantly associated with mean income, non‐response rates and the initial level of inequality. Reweighting is found to address top incomes biases – specifically those related to unit and item non‐response – consistently and more effectively than replacing, possibly because widely used parametric distributions do not represent US top incomes accurately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends the study of passing to a privileged identity. From qualitative interviews, we examine Norwegian professors' everyday self‐presentation. When in new encounters, like meeting other parents through their children's leisure activities, our respondents' leave their occupation and especially title undisclosed before cautiously negotiating possible disclosure. The existing literature mostly highlights passing that happens for self‐protection. While (soft) self‐protection is one concern for professors, they also pass for additional reasons: protecting interactants from insecurity or discomfort and preventing imbalance and "fuss." Theoretically, we combine Goffman's treatise of passing with interaction ritual and facework. We discuss whether this analytical model may also help clarify instances of stigma passing and consider the consequences of privilege passing for social inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we reassess the impact of inequality on growth. The majority of previous papers have employed (system) GMM estimation. However, recent simulation studies indicate that the problems of GMM when using non‐stationary data such as GDP have been grossly underestimated in applied research. Concerning predetermined regressors such as inequality, GMM is outperformed by a simple least‐squares dummy variable estimator. Additionally, new data have recently become available that not only double the sample size compared to most previous studies, but also address the substantial measurement issues that have plagued past research. Using these new data and an LSDV estimator, we provide an analysis that both accounts for the conditions where inequality is beneficial or detrimental to growth and distinguishes between market‐driven inequality and redistribution. We show that there are situations where market inequality affects growth positively while redistribution is simultaneously beneficial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on equality, diversity and inclusion in the Chinese context is insufficient. This paper fills part of the research gap by examining the role of the institutional actors in shaping the equality and inclusion discourse, policy and reality in contemporary China. In particular, it highlights the crucial role of the state, and the emergence and maintenance of privileged social groups. This is because the construction of public discourse on inequality and inclusion is necessarily a political and social process, with social policy implications. Public discourse not only reflects the political ideals and moral standards of the nation at a given time, but also impacts the vested interests of different social groups, and their acquisition and maintenance of power. This paper reveals the entrenched, disadvantaged positions of rural migrant workers and other lower social groups, and of women and persons of disability at workplaces, and calls for policy and management intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase in the number of never‐married and not‐cohabiting singles, or "effective singles," was first observed in Japan and Southern Europe. In Northern and Western Europe and North America, increased singlehood was due largely to increased cohabitation. Existing sociological theories of singlehood, however, are formulated based on the observations of the latter, and fall short in explaining why more individuals remain unpartnered. The wealth of data from singlehood research in Japan suggest that many singles desire marriage yet drift into singlehood, facing structural, cultural barriers in a rapidly changing social context. The impact of gender inequality is salient, but existing theories focus on women's advancement and egalitarianism. This paper proposes an alternative theoretical framework for explaining causes of singlehood, incorporating sociological and feminist perspectives and Emile Durkheim's theory of anomie, and calls for shifting the center to observations from non‐Western societies for better theorization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novel forms of assisted gestation—uterus transplantation and artificial placentas—are highly anticipated in the ethico‐legal literature for their capacity to enhance reproductive autonomy. There are also, however, significant challenges anticipated in the development of novel forms of assisted gestation. While there is a normative exploration of these challenges in the literature, there has not yet, to my knowledge, been empirical research undertaken to explore what reproductive rights organisations and advocates identify as potential benefits and challenges. This perspective is invaluable. These organisations/individuals have an awareness not only of the needs of individuals but also of the political landscape in which regulatory decisions are made and which individuals navigate when seeking reproductive assistance. In this study, data was generated from two semi‐structured focus groups (n = 11). Reflective thematic analysis was used to examine the views raised by study participants in these focus groups. This paper explores two of the themes constructed in the data. First, the equality‐enhancing potential of assisted gestation exploring the multifaceted ways in which assisted gestation has structural benefits for marginalised groups. Second, realising the equality‐enhancing potential of assisted gestation explores the intersecting barriers to access to reproductive technologies and how they may impede the benefits of these technologies in practice. These results can enhance conceptual understanding of the importance of novel forms of assisted gestation and ensure that attention is paid to practical barriers in further normative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that there are good reasons to limit the scope of luck egalitarianism to co‐existing people. First, I outline reasons to be sceptical about how "luck" works intergenerationally and therefore the very grounding of luck egalitarianism between non‐overlapping generations. Second, I argue that what Kasper Lippert‐Rasmussen calls the "core luck egalitarian claim" allows significant intergenerational inequality which is a problem for those who object to such inequality. Third, luck egalitarianism cannot accommodate the intuition that it might be required to leave future generations better off than we are, even if it would come at no cost to ourselves. Finally, I argue that following another, broader, version of luck egalitarianism would require us to level down future generations and possibly even ourselves, which is a problem for those persuaded by the levelling‐down objection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Geographer is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper studies the influence of different aspects of gender equality or female empowerment on income inequality. A key question addressed is: Are there positive spillovers from gender equality to income equality? Using data drawn from 162 nations over the years 1985–2019, results show that nations with a long history of women's suffrage, greater representation of women in the government, lower fertility rates and better overall gender equality experienced lower income inequality, ceteris paribus. These results are largely supported in several robustness checks, including different model estimation strategies to address potential reverse‐causality issues, considering alternative measures of income inequality, and considerations of persistence and nonlinearities in the gender inequality measures. The spillovers from some dimensions of gender equality are found to be sensitive to existing income inequality. Policymakers ignoring the payoffs from gender empowerment on income distribution might be underinvesting in initiatives to empower women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Review of Sociology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Changes in the structure of work and families over the last four decades have increased many labour market inequalities. Growing earnings inequality, adverse labour market 'shocks' for the low‐educated, and geographically concentrated pockets of deprivation are among the most evident of these in Britain. The decade since the financial crisis has brought these inequalities into sharper focus, and the Covid‐19 pandemic has further exacerbated labour market inequality. The object of this paper is to highlight the key role played by poor wage progression for lower‐ and middle‐educated workers in understanding inequality in the labour market and for designing effective policy responses. It is unlikely that we can address all the concerns about low wages, wage progression and earnings inequality through the tax and welfare system alone. The challenge is how best to balance tax and welfare benefit policy with other policies, such as human capital policies, the minimum wage and labour market regulation. The results point to a mix of policies that aim to enhance wage progression for the lower‐educated within a welfare system that supports low‐earning families and provides a minimum wage floor for hourly wages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rights that guarantee public passage across private land are known as rights of way. In this paper, we argue that rights of way are a literal manifestation of a politics of space. The paper's purpose is to suggest rights of way are central to issues surrounding social and spatial inequality, specifically with regards to public access to urban and rural space. They are a neglected topic in geographical research, despite their relevance to many sub‐branches, including landscape studies, urban natures, GIS, and open‐source geospatial research. Rights of way in England and Wales are currently facing their biggest legal threat to date. On 1 January 2026, unregistered rights of way are set to be extinguished. Path extinguishment threatens thousands of kilometres of footpaths, bridleways, restricted byways, and byways open to all traffic. The paper concludes by examining how geographical approaches help reveal the cultural and historical value of two at‐risk footpaths in Coventry, England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]