Social Exclusion

In the field of identity politics and cultural identity, the representation of differences plays a crucial role. The extent of the differences a society has determines the social outcomes in divergent ways. Surely, there are other variables that cause social anxiety or communal solidarity such as religious views, socio-political conditions and also gender relations. To the point of departure, the case of homosexuality, or in a general way, the boundaries of sexuality is very controversial field so as to reveal the effects of ideologies, social conditions and historical past where all of these evolved through times. In order to understand and to reach a general view, the experiences of small towns are very decisive and unavoidable parts of such studies. As a basic explanation, that is why Arlene Stein chooses to make an ethnographic study in the USA around 1990s. In this paper, I will try to make a basic analysis of ‘The Stranger Next Door: The Story of a Small Community’s Battle Over Sex, Faith and Civil Rights’ by presenting my reading of this story and through reacting to the general points.

Recent scholarship on belonging examines how temporary transnational low-wage migrant workers find belonging in the host country. While this is possible for some migrant groups, it overlooks those groups who cannot. This study examines how mutually reinforcing socio-spatial processes converge to produce the unequal distribution of belonging experienced by low-wage migrants at the margins of the margin. Drawing from the emotional narratives of forty-four temporary migrant workers from eleven different countries employed in low-wage work in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, the study reveals the exclusionary processes that limit belonging. These processes are rooted in historical hierarchies established by the state and socioeconomic elite along the lines of nationality, race, and ethnicity. The hierarchies are reinforced using socio-spatial disciplinary mechanisms that create and maintain low-wage labor. Social exclusion and the devaluing of certain nationalities are further reinforced within the space of worker accommodation in relation to the stratification of low-wage migrant groups whose behavior replicates society's vertical hierarchies. Analysis focuses specifically on the scale of the room—the cramped, confined space that low-wage migrants share—, how it was experienced spatially, socially, and emotionally, and how it can be a pathway or barrier to accessing a sense of belonging.

Investigations into the political economy of globalization usually concentrate upon three related developments—the expansion of international trade and the growth in transnational production, including the rise of transnational corporations;  the creation of a world-wide market for finance and credit;  and finally, the development of regimes and institutions of global economic governance.  By comparison, the role and significance of labour and labourers tends to be neglected in most studies. Yet, from its very inception, the process of globalization has been marked by the different methods of organizing work and organizing the activity of workers themselves.

This volume goes some way in restoring labour to a proper place in the globalization literature. The title 'Globalizing Labour' has a dual meaning. On the one hand it refers to increasing connectedness of workers and work as the globalization of integrated trade, financial and production systems merges economic activity from around the world. Labour is globalizing in the sense that it is connected to world-wide production and exchange structures. On the other hand, the title refers to the activities of workers themselves as their political and economic activities influence broader globalization structures. Labour is globalizing in the sense that workers are themselves building organizational links between different communities and are engaging global power structures whether they be globalizing corporations or international organizations. This volume introduces the subject of labour and globalization by examining four elements of the relationship. Firstly, the historical relationship between labour and globalization is briefly reviewed. Secondly, the condition of various forms of labour since the end of the Cold War is surveyed. Thirdly, the issue of labour, the state and regulation of globalizing corporations is highlighted. The volume concludes with some thoughts on key issues facing global labour in the twenty-first century.

This chapter explores how social exclusion operates via core social motives: Belonging, Understanding, Controlling, Enhancing Self, and Trusting Others (BUC[K]ET; Fiske, 2010a). Within this framework, we explore how people’s desire to fulfill each motive with the in-group fosters exclusion of people outside the group. Moreover, we delineate the consequences for people who face social exclusion: Because exclusion severely hinders their ability to achieve the core social motives, excluded people may develop shattered assumptions (Janoff-Bulman, 1992) about their social world. This not only undermines excluded people’s physical and mental well-being, but also their ability to survive and thrive in the social world.

Towards the end of the first decade of the new millennium ‘Bollywood’ can be seen as having gained unprecedented cultural legitimacy in India and worldwide. This is even apparent on the level of official representations of India, with stars dancing to film songs at the closing ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Australia. With the new extension of legitimate culture beyond the boundaries of classical or folk into the realm of the popular, there is a sense that the culture of ‘the people’, ‘the masses’, is embraced, validated, approved. However, that 75,000 ‘bar girls’ who danced to Bollywood numbers in beer bars in Mumbai were made redundant in August 2005 following a virulent moral campaign indicates that areas of Bollywood culture exist that are by no means legitimised. Beginning with an examination of the Bollywood dance craze that has become one of the trendiest parts of globalised India and then moving onto ‘other’ arenas of Bollywood dance starting with the bar girls, this chapter seeks to problematise the question of ‘the people’ in Indian popular culture through an examination of hierarchies and processes of inclusion and exclusion at work within the popular sphere.

People with disabilities are most vulnerable and deprived segment of the population in Bangladesh having limited opportunities of education, training and employment. Most of them are isolated from mainstream society, stigmatized, mistreated and marginalized. However, inclusion of people from all segment of the society including people with disability in the mainstream development activities is necessary for achieving sustainable development and minimizing inequalities. Appropriate employment opportunities can minimize marginalization, expedite the inclusion process and enhance mainstreaming of people with disabilities. In Bangladesh, public sector is the larger provider of employment opportunity. People with disabilities encounter difficulties to access to the public sector employment although 10 percent quota for third and fourth grade and 1 percent quota for first and second grade jobs are reserved for them. In addition, there is a constitutional and legal obligation to ensure equal opportunities and participation in health education and employment for persons with disabilities. However, share of persons with disabilities in the public sector employment in Bangladesh is less than 1 percent although they represent more than 10 percent of the total population. The present study examines the causes why are persons with disabilities in Bangladesh not enjoying equal access to public sector employment in Bangladesh. The paper argues that Bangladesh could not ensure equal opportunity for disabled people in the public sector employment because of the negative perception of Bangladeshi elites towards disadvantaged and marginalized communities including disabled people, lack of political commitment, negative attitude of community people, misunderstanding of employers about the capacity and skills of disabled persons and absence of inclusive education, although the country adopted UN convention and enacted laws for creating equal opportunity in all aspects of life including employment.

El ser humano, permeado por las dinámicas sociales cambiantes de la modernidad, se ve obligado a asumir unos espacios, territorios y formas de vida particulares; razón por la cual este artículo plantea una reflexión acerca del habitante de calle en el contexto urbano, cómo es abocado por éste, cómo es su rostro según los planteamientos de Salcedo (2006) y cuáles condiciones lo ponen en el límite de su existencia.  Así mismo, se presenta la exclusión como un factor potenciador de la problemática que divide el mundo en dos: los aceptados e inaceptados, los de adentro y afuera, los incluidos y excluidos; condición que los ubica, según Moreno (2003), en estado de “exclusión” debido a que sus estilos de vida son reprobados por la “sociedad”.  Para finalizar, se propone un acercamiento a la teoría de las representaciones sociales desde los planteamientos de Moscovici y Araya Umaña (2002), como herramienta que puede generar una comprensión humana de los habitantes de calle y desde este con...

The paper compares the experience of unem-ployment in Britain with that in three former state socialist societies – Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, countries with relatively recent welfare systems, providing a low level of coverage for the unemployed. The analysis ...

Social programmes in Peru have been plagued historically by a culture of dependency, clientelism and corruption. Juntos, a conditional cash transfer programme targeting children under the age of 14, was initiated in 2005 to provide a new model for social protection provision and tackle the country's widespread childhood poverty. Its design largely follows that of counterpart Latin American programmes and seeks to address the risks to children's future human capital development that stem from inadequate access to basic services and various forms of social exclusion. An innovative dimension of Juntos is its explicit focus on populations most affected by the country's political violence during the 1980s and 1990s. Drawing on document analysis and qualitative fi eld research, this independent assessment considers the impacts of the programme on childhood poverty, the strengths and weaknesses of a conditional approach, and changes in intra-household and community dynamics as well as state-citizen relations. It concludes by discussing policy challenges and directions for future research.

This article argues that current iterations of solutions for preventing school segregation are constrained by an overreliance on particular representations of justice, in which the other is perceived as the responsible other. Studying the grounds for a decision to close a suburb school in Sweden, this article engages partly in an analysis on what implicit conception of justice that manifests itself, partly in exploring a conception of justice open towards a multiple and open-ended spatiality. It is argued that in order to imagine and construct such a spatiality, a majoritarian approach to justice must be abandoned in favour of a minoritarian one. Doing so, justice further needs to abandon a distribution of blame and responsibility and instead seek to pluralize forces flowing through different spatialities. A minoritarian approach to justice, I argue, can be envisioned by applying the concept of segmentarity as developed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari.

osa hanno in comune gli insediamenti per persone rom, voluti e costruiti dalle amministrazioni pubbliche italiane con le istituzioni totali studiate da Goffman? Anche se a prima vista possono sembrare contesti molto lontani, ed in effetti per molti aspetti lo sono (ad iniziare dal fatto che dagli insediamenti, a differenza delle istituzioni totali, si può entrare ed uscire liberamente), sono molti gli elementi che li accomunano. Al di là delle indubbie differenze, i campi rom pensati e costruiti dalle istituzioni pubbliche italiane e le istituzioni totali condividono il tentativo di tenere ai margini e porre in isolamento dal resto del
corpo sociale soggetti ritenuti indesiderabili.

Over the past few years, the number of schools with relatively high numbers of immigrants' children seems to have increased sharply in certain suburbs of Brussels. No ethnic group is in favor of strongly homogeneous concentration schools, whether they be Turks, Moroccans, or French-speaking Belgians. Despite their poor knowledge of the schooling system, the Turks, Moroccans and unskilled Belgians perceive education as the ultimate vehicle for social integration and social mobility. They also are fully aware that concentration schools are not the answer to social exclusion, nor a path to social integration. Here we are confronted with a situation of involuntary ethnic homogenization through socio-ethnic strati"cation. (L. De Rycke) 0883-0355/99/$ -see front matter 1999 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 8 8 3 -0 3 5 5 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 0 5 -1

The Economist (UK) invited me to participate in their periodic online debate series with World Bank economist, Wolfgang Fengler, about the need for industrialization in Africa. The 3-part series was posted online during March 12 – 22, 2013. Readers votes determine the winner.

Whilst stigma and shame are central features of the experience of poverty in capitalist societies, we know relatively little about crucial aspects of these phenomena, particularly how these experiences differ according to variety of capitalist formation. This article draws on the available empirical literature to examine these relational aspects of poverty in two very different societies, the UK and Japan. Through comparing these literatures, we are able to comment on the ways in which stigma is manifest in differing social, personal and institutional contexts and, therefore, is internalised as shame in similar and divergent forms in these respective societies. We note the very different social values and forms of welfare that constitute these societies which are at times responsible for contrasting experiences of shame, yet conclude that stigma and shame perform important functions within capitalist societies as a means to legitimate the continued existence of poverty within these ...

The slave trade of the 1700s constituted a triangular trade in human cargo. Critically, there is a contemporary triangular trade, the three limbs of which are neoliberal polity; the reproduction of social insecurity; and the modernised transformation of criminal justice and penal policy in the direction of exclusionary punishment and prison. Additionally, the contemporary triangular trade converges in a double fist of negation: the first is the expulsive consequences of the neoliberal order; the second is the response of the criminal justice domain exemplified in retributive punishment and expanding prison populations. The original and timely contribution of this article juxtaposes the two trades, separated by over three hundred years, to allow the former to reach into the present to advance new insights into the latter.

Much negative public and media attention in Germany focuses on Muslim immigrants, particularly those with guest
worker backgrounds. A study based on 5 years of ethnographic fieldwork with 55 second-generation male Muslim
immigrants in Germany who engaged in drug dealing provides major new insights into how they try to make sense
of the negative stereotypes of Muslim immigrants prevalent in German society, into distinctive forms of exclusion
they face in the public education system, and into the effects on them of a restrictive and unwelcoming
naturalization system. The exclusion the young men face significantly limits their opportunities for social and
economic success, shapes their opinions about Germany, and provides them with rationales for explaining and
legitimizing their drug dealing activities.

The plight of young children with disabilities who live in rural communities remains unsolved issue in many developing countries. Culturally, many people have negative beliefs regarding the causes of disabilities. Disability may be associated with punishment by gods, ancestral spirits resulting from mother’s promiscuity during pregnancy, witchcraft, or evil spirits. This article focuses on challenges and opportunities of young children with disabilities who live in the rural communities of Eswatini and Zimbabwe, and related to accessing early childhood development (ECD) education services. Lessons drawn between the two countries reveal that in Eswatini, the Disability Unit which caters for disability issues is under the Social Welfare Department and is accommodated in the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office. In Zimbabwe, Chikwature, Oyedele and Ntini (2016) noted that an inclusive education policy is still yet to be drafted. Disability issues are still not fully represented constitutiona...

Centre for Effective Services 9 Harcourt Street Dublin 2 Ireland tel: +353(0) 1 416 0500 email: office@effectiveservices.org www.effectiveservices.org and 65-67 Chichester Street Belfast, BT1 4JD Northern Ireland tel: +44 (0) 2890 438 433 email: nioffice@effectiveservices.org www.effectiveservices.org John Bamber, Stella Owens, Heino Schonfeld Deborah Ghate and Deirdre Fullerton The Centre for Effective Services is one of a new generation of organisations focusing on the emerging science of implementation in human services. The overarching mission of the Centre is to connect the design and delivery of services with scientific and technical knowledge of what works, in order to improve outcomes for children and young people and the families and communities in which they live. Our daily work is to provide technical and organisational expertise to support the design, implementation and ongoing review and development of evidence-informed services for children, youth and families.

This chapter  analyses  two parallel citizens' initiatives for the right to water in Slovenia. Although Slovenia became the first EU country recognising the right to water in its Constitution, the new constitutional right has yet to improve water access for Romani communities. The paper also points out that contrary to constitutional campaing's claims that public ownership will guarantee the right to water for all, public authorities continue blocking the water supply for Roma.

Epilepsy is one of the most prevalent neurological conditions and it knows no age, racial, social class, geographic, or national boundaries. The impact of epilepsy rests not only on the individual patient, but also on the family and indirectly on the community. The burden of epilepsy may be due to the physical hazards of epilepsy resulting from the unpredictability of seizures; the social exclusion as a result of negative attitudes of others toward people with epilepsy; and the stigma, as children with epilepsy may be banned from school, adults may be barred from marriage, and employment is often denied, even when seizures would not render the work unsuitable or unsafe. Furthermore, epilepsy is a disorder associated with significant psychological consequences, with increased levels of anxiety, depression, and poor self-esteem compared with people without this condition. Here we discuss some of the aspects of the global burden of epilepsy.

Taking as its vantage point a citation from the critical educationalist Thomas Popkewitz, "double gestures of inclusion and exclusion," the aim of this article is to describe and contextualize the project of inclusion in Swedish educational and vocational guidance, and to identify and to analyze the potentially excluding discourses that may be inherent in that project. Empirically, the article starts with an account of how career counselors describe the desired learning outcomes of their professional activities. The accounts are given in interviews where they comment on the conditions for migrant youth in the transition from school to work, and the professional considerations that follow from these conditions. Among these desired learning outcomes, learning to be an autonomous individual capable of informed choosing is the most central. The emphasis of autonomy and informed choosing is in several ways related to the goal of work life and societal inclusion; on the other hand, a perceived lack of autonomy during the process of choosing secondary education is allegedly ascribed to the category of immigrants, and the immigrant condition. Thus, in the project of inclusion, a potentially excluding way of describing the migrant other is articulated, and "the double gestures of inclusion and exclusion" are hence performed. Still, it is also held that the pursuit of autonomyas an end goal for the counseling and guiding processis not unconditional, and it is recognized that certain conditions call for the development of other counseling strategies and learning outcomes.

Accessible summary • There are a growing number of parents with learning disabilities living in the community. • Parents sometimes have a hard time with housing, money and support. • Parents with learning disabilities sometimes do not have their children living with them. • People with learning disabilities can be good parents with proper support. • Advocacy helps parents with learning disabilities have their voices heard.

PREVIEW

Año: 2015

Autora: Norma Constanza Castaño Cuéllar

Esta investigación corresponde al campo de la enseñanza de la biología, pues adopta una postura crítica frente a perspectivas universalistas e idealistas que inciden en la invisibilización de los conocimientos de comunidades diversas y generan exclusión e inequidad. Se plantea que es necesario establecer relaciones entre las formas políticas contemporáneas, la educación y la búsqueda de alternativas posibles en contexto, para gestar propuestas alternativas en enseñanza de la biología que involucren a todos los sectores de la sociedad, como un ejercicio de libertad y solidaridad humana.

Revitalizace se v posledních letech stala termínem, kterým je označováno ozdravení lokality, někdy též zaměňováno s procesem tzv. krajinné rekultivace. Naopak termín regenerace se používá pro proces přeměny na nové využití, někdy však pod něj spadají i oba dříve jmenované procesy. Dále do procesu regenerace spadá rovněž tzv. konverze či rekonverze, v závislosti na způsobu naložení s původními stavbami. 2 Kocmánková, L. (2011): Vojenská brownfields v České republice -regionální přehled. Bakalářská práce. Brno: ESF MU. 3 Zákon č. 172/91 Sb. o přechodu některých věcí z majetku ČR do vlastnictví obcí

The social cooperative is the opportunity for social and professional reintegration of people threatened with social exclusion:
Reintegration tool; The objectives of the social cooperative; The threefold nature of the social cooperative; Is it worth it to assume social co-operatives?

Homeless people, social exclusion and John Milbank on Charity.

In this paper I want to address two issues.  The first is that homeless people are ‘socially excluded’; marginal to mainstream society and in need of transformation or re-integration. The second is the common presumption that this is an incorporation that charities, to various degrees, can engender. For ‘Third-Way’ and ‘Big Society’ one can now read ‘Blue Labour’ and ‘Red Tory’, all of which endorse the charitable sphere as an emancipatory zone.

Using the work of the theologian John Milbank I will contend that both the obviousness of charitable solutions and the presumed location of homeless people (excluded) stem from a common root - a widespread social imaginary, or social topography - that envisions our society as fundamentally riven by difference. In short: political atomism. This modern account of public space, which Milbank describes as ‘univocal’ or ‘secular’ (and I will briefly outline), sources and sustains the organisation of our bodies (the hard working and home buying subject vs feckless and idle degenerate) and gives coherence to our altruistic proclivities and activities.

However as the paper progresses I will also suggest that this topography has its aporias. Firstly, construing homeless people as ‘excluded’ fails to account for the way homeless people are utilised as a way of defining those in the center. In an analogous fashion altrusim, I will contend, needs poverty as the occasion of its demonstration. In both cases the homeless are not external but overdetermined; not too far, but too close.

Purpose-This paper is an effort to identify the difference between government and private primary schools in terms of physical infrastructure, schooling costs and student's performance. Further, the paper assessed the role of physical infrastructure and schooling costs on the performance of students. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach-This study used India Human Development Survey (IHDS) data. Bivariate, trivariate, x 2 and ANOVA test, factor analyses and Theil index are used as methods of analyses. Findings-The results present a distinct picture of government and private primary school education in India in terms of physical infrastructure standards, schooling cost and performance of students. In all the three selected indicators, private primary schools remained a forerunner or outperform the government primary schools in India. Besides this, the physical infrastructure and schooling cost found to have effect on performance of students both in private and public schools. Practical implications-Since government primary schools hold more than 70 percent of total students, there is an urgent need to improve the standards of primary education in these schools. Further, efforts are needed to reduce the gaps between private and public schools in terms of its basic physical facilities and performance of students in the country. Originality/value-The paper used the IHDS to examine the existing differentials between government and private primary schools. The analysis is purely an original work.

Across Latin America, online and digitally mediated racist speech directed at Afro-descendant youth has intensified existing racial stigma and contributed to the marginalization of minority groups in both online and offline contexts. Racist speech is not a new phenomenon in the region. However, such speech is often amplified through digital media platforms, including social media, and some claim its increasing prevalence may be contributing to the normalization of racism.

While racist speech online is prominent in both Brazil and Colombia, studies focused on Latin America are extremely limited and have addressed the overarching theme of online hate speech. Through interviews with leaders of civil society organizations (CSOs) and a review of existing literature, this study discusses efforts and interventions that CSOs have employed to counter racial stigma faced by the collective population of Afro-descendant youth in an attempt to understand and examine signs of impact related to hate speech in Brazil and Colombia, distinct from existing overarching studies of online hate speech.

Informed by in-depth conversations with practitioners working in the field, and working closely with collaborating institutions that directly serve Afro-descendent youth, the case study presents an over- view of the environment and context within which Afro-descendent youth impacted by racist speech exist. The interviews illustrate that most CSOs view digital racism as an extension of historical racial inequality. This case study documents the efforts of CSOs in the region who are helping to support the actions of young Afro-descendants to occupy roles historically denied to them, thereby deconstruct- ing negative perceptions and re-claiming representations of their identities and realities.

Educationists in Europe have an established tradition of exploring educational disadvantage from a socio-cultural perspective, as indicated by the focus on social justice in education. Their concerns have been with relatively small-scale phenomena: the context in which particular disadvantaged groups are educated, leading to specific recommendations for local areas. Policy-makers, in contrast, are concerned with combating social exclusion at the national or Europe-wide level, primarily as a means of reducing unemployment and social unrest. The initiatives they set in motion necessarily take a wider perspective and pay little heed to diverse needs, aspirations and goals among the socially excluded. There is a need for European educationalists to increase their own awareness of the European context—not simply the national context—in which they work. They need also to develop perspectives on major European initiatives to combat social exclusion, the effects of which will remain otherwise unexplored by a community of educationalists with a history of interest in and commitment to challenging educational disadvantage.

Partiendo de la exploracion de los vinculos que se establecen entre las variables movilidad cotidiana, pobreza y exclusion social en un contexto de profunda segregacion funcional y socio espacial, este articulo analiza, para la ciudad de Lima (Peru), la eficiencia social del sistema de transporte colectivo como instrumento de integracion y cohesion social para las personas que viven en situacion de pobreza.

«¿Yo qué gano con esto?» Esas fueron las palabras del chico cuando le dije que quería escuchar su historia educativa, pero la promesa de conversar sobre su vida resultó más que suficiente. La medida de aislamiento en la celda del reformatorio le volvía loco, en realidad, llevaba años aislado. Un educador me contó que habría necesitado un maestro que lo escuchara… Así empezó a contarme sus avatares: «Yo he vivido demasiado para la edad que tengo. Tengo 17 años y me llamo José».

Durante las siguientes semanas, José Medina me habló de su padre, de cómo aprendió a leer en la cárcel y de su relación con el alcohol. Me contó que su madre casi siempre había limpiado en casas de señoras, que su barrio no era de señoritos, que le expulsaron del colegio por las junteras que tenía y por la fama, que acaba pesando demasiado. Me habló de maestros sin rostro, de asignaturas sin sentido, de vidas en la calle, de robos y drogas… Me regaló algunas lecciones de sinceridad, de buen corazón, de valentía, resistencia y sueños.

Estas páginas recuperan aquellas sobrecogedoras narraciones. No cuenta con sesudas elaboraciones teóricas, sino con la valiosa experiencia de un chico real que desmonta con sus vivencias algunas ilusiones y falacias que imperan en la sociedad. El protagonista se abre en canal para que otros podamos entender que la escuela fabrica el fracaso escolar, y que ha de cambiar para construir justicia social y liberar a las personas de sus situaciones de opresión y exclusión. El formato biográfico del texto, el lenguaje cotidiano que utiliza, y la trepidante y compleja vida del protagonista hacen que esta obra sea de interés para cualquier persona interesada por la infancia, y de gran utilidad para estudiantes e investigadores de cualquiera de las ramas educativas, la sociología y la psicología. Unas páginas que no dejan indiferentes y nos invitan a luchar por las personas.

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” —William Butler Yeats (1889)

Welcome to our course, “Race and Ethnicity”!  These are not, needless to say, normal circumstances. This is the first time in four decades of teaching that I am doing so “online.”  It may be a new experience for you as well.  There are bound to be glitches (not to mention Murphy’s Law) as we adapt to the new conditions and challenges... but I have no doubt that we will overcome them together.  Our course, which begins on March 31, 2020, is being held in the context of the historic crisis we are all engulfed in, a once-in-a-century global pandemic that is not only bordering on a public health apocalypse but shaking all aspects of our lives and of our worlds (interpersonal, educational, occupational, financial, economic, political, residential, medical, social, cultural, psychological, familial)—requiring adaptations to rapidly changing and unpredictable circumstances.  (Like this online course, for instance!)  It is precisely in such moments of crisis—which shake our taken for granted notions and routines to their foundation, revealing the artifices of our social constructions of “reality” (including what we construct as “race” and “ethnicity”)—that a sociological imagination flourishes.  A folk saying has it that “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”  I look forward to making sociological lemonade with you this quarter.  The pandemic will not hit everyone alike, but will be patterned along hard lines of social and economic inequality and disadvantage—including race and ethnicity and immigration status.  Not everyone can “stay at home.”  Harsh realities are being exposed anew by this public health catastrophe... including the fact that SYSTEMIC RACISM IS A PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE... along with possibilities to reshape the structure of our societies in the calamitous aftermath. (But as Frederick Douglass famously said long ago: “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”)

We will read 1 book during our 11-week course: Race in America, by Matthew Desmond and Mustafa Emirbayer.
This is one of the very best textbooks on the subject that I have seen. The book is made up of 11 chapters, each about 40 pages (including many images, maps and graphics); you’ll be reading a chapter a week on average. 
The first 2 chapters spell out key concepts and address the historical invention and institutionalization of “race.” The next 8 core chapters (#3-10) focus on separate (but interconnected) fields of social life: political, economic, residential, legal, educational, aesthetic, associational, and intimate spheres (family, self, identity).  The last one, chapter 11, looks to the future: “Toward Racial Democracy.” In addition to the text, you will read a few supplementary readings, listed in the syllabus and course agenda.  In tandem with the course readings, over the next ten weeks I will regularly email you selected articles, reports, and analyses seeking to connect what you are studying to the breaking news of the day; while we cannot know now what may come in the coming months, we can be pretty certain that the issues addressed by our course will be at the heart of the historic crisis (or crises) that will engulf us.  By the end of the class you will have effectively a “curated” set of such accompanying relevant readings.

Tuesday March 31 is the start of our class.  Saturday April 4 marks the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.  As I do every year at that time, as well as on the anniversary of his birth on January 15, I send my students an annual message of remembrance.  Please take time to read and reflect on it.

The goal of this class is to broaden your intellectual horizons; to study stress, not to cause it; to invite you to a memorable sociological adventure amid a global crisis that you and I will still be talking about many years from now.  And remember: Our course will end in June, but not our role and responsibility as members of the polis, as citizens as well as sociologists confronted by historic crises.  The critically informed citizen—whose voice is heard, who acts and votes and remains civically engaged—is racism’s worst enemy.  Becoming a critically informed citizen, ending racial domination and making a more just world is a lifetime commitment that never ends.  Silence is not an option at this (potential) turning point in the history of American democracy and racial justice, even amid a once-in-a-century pandemic.  Know that history.  Voice that history.  Read-think-write... and act.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere... Justice too long delayed is justice denied." —Martin Luther King, Jr.,  Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963)

Re es su um me en n: : Este artículo pretende aportar elementos para la reflexión en torno a la función y situación actual de la educación pública en un contexto de globalización como el que nos envuelve, incidiendo principalmente en la cuestión de la participación de la comunidad educativa en la misma, la atención a las diferencias en nuestro entorno multicultural y los procesos de exclusión social y educativa que conlleva la puesta en práctica de políticas educativas que no contemplen el fenómeno de la desigualdad, ni fomenten procesos interculturales como elementos clave para el futuro de la calidad de la educación en una sociedad plural y democrática.

S'inspirant des études sociologiques sur l'exclusion sociale, les études rassemblées dans cet élégant volume, publié dans l'excellente collection « Haut Moyen Âge », analysent les différentes manifestations de l'exclusion dans la société européenne, de la fin de l'Empire romain jusqu'au XI e siècle, en insistant surtout sur l' « individu » plutôt que la collectivité. Le volume est constitué de quatorze contributions d'experts reconnus (sept en français, six en anglais, et une en italien), groupées en trois sections (« Exclusion et justice », « Exclusion et Christianisme : Hors du monde des vivants et hors du monde des morts » et « Exclusion, genre et sexe »), en plus de l'introduction (des éditrices Sylvie Joye et Cristina la Rocca), de la conclusion (de Régine Le Jan), et des index de fin de volume. Les chapitres sont tous de haut niveau et tout lecteur intéressé par l'exclusion sociale (sauf pour l'excommunication, qui fut le sujet d'un autre volume dans la même collection : Exclure de la communauté chrétienne : sens et pratiques sociales de l'anathème et de l'excommunication (IV e-XII e siècle), éd. G. Bührer-Thierry et S. Gioanni, « Haut Moyen Âge » 23) y trouvera d'ample matériel pour la réflexion et le point de départ d'études ultérieures.

The current dominant discourse on social exclusion and youth work depicts inclusion in youth work as an instrument for inclusion in other more pivotal institutions of society. Recent studies have shown, however, that the participation of socially vulnerable young people does not necessarily yield the anticipated inclusions. Suggestions are subsequently been put forward to bring more structure into youth work initiatives. In this article, we assert that this technical reasoning fails to acknowledge the complexity of social reality. By means of a social pedagogical case study of the coming into being of a Flemish youth work field, we show how youth work actors in Flanders have come to reinforce the social exclusions they were so eager to solve. Our findings raise questions about individualistic fallacies and cultural biases in youth work practices and policies that have relevance well beyond the Flemish context.

Powerful moral, social justice and political arguments have convinced parents that it is their democratic right to place their children on the autism spectrum into mainstream educational environments so that their children may eventually take up their rightful place in a mainstream adult life. But what is really happening for some of these parents when they try to gain and maintain an appropriate education for their child in these mainstream contexts and beyond? What is the educational experience like for these families who are in the midst of this generational change from historical exclusion to inclusion? Current research indicates that while islands of excellent mainstream inclusive practice do exist the educational experience for many students on the autism spectrum can often be one of hostility, inconsistency and unreliability. Without appropriate understanding of best practice educational methods, these students can present an inordinate educational challenge to both parents and educators alike. How do parents deal with such complex educational profiles? How do they continue to maximize their children’s development over time? What are the barriers that hinder their quest? What are the facilitators that help their quest? To answer these questions, this book provides an in-depth, recent examination of the real life journeys of families who attempted to gain an appropriate education for their children on the autism spectrum including the areas of diagnosis, early intervention, mainstream schooling, home education, segregated schooling and transition to work and further study.