Disadvantaged Groups (disadvantaged + groups)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


A Strategic Approach to Multistakeholder Negotiations

DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 2 2001
David Edmunds
Environment and development practitioners increasingly are interested in identifying methods, institutional arrangements and policy environments that promote negotiations among natural resource stakeholders leading to collective action and, it is hoped, sustainable resource management. Yet the implications of negotiations for disadvantaged groups of people are seldom critically examined. We draw attention to such implications by examining different theoretical foundations for multistakeholder negotiations and linking these to practical problems for disadvantaged groups. We argue that negotiations based on an unhealthy combination of communicative rationality and liberal pluralism, which underplays or seeks to neutralize differences among stakeholders, poses considerable risks for disadvantaged groups. We suggest that negotiations influenced by radical pluralist and feminist post-structuralist thought, which emphasize strategic behaviour and selective alliance-building, promise better outcomes for disadvantaged groups in most cases, particularly on the scale and in the historical contexts in which negotiations over forest management usually take place. [source]


International Perspectives on the Legal Environment for Selection

INDUSTRIAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2008
BRETT MYORS
Perspectives from 22 countries on aspects of the legal environment for selection are presented in this article. Issues addressed include (a) whether there are racial/ethnic/religious subgroups viewed as "disadvantaged," (b) whether research documents mean differences between groups on individual difference measures relevant to job performance, (c) whether there are laws prohibiting discrimination against specific groups, (d) the evidence required to make and refute a claim of discrimination, (e) the consequences of violation of the laws, (f) whether particular selection methods are limited or banned, (g) whether preferential treatment of members of disadvantaged groups is permitted, and (h) whether the practice of industrial and organizational psychology has been affected by the legal environment. [source]


Retrenching or renovating the Australian welfare state: the paradox of the Howard government's neo-liberalism

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WELFARE, Issue 1 2009
Philip Mendes
Most conventional studies of the former Australian Liberal,National Coalition government refer to its neo-liberal ideological agenda: its concern to reduce government interference with free market outcomes by restricting access to social security payments. That analysis suggests a substantial retrenchment of the Australian welfare state based on redirecting responsibility for the disadvantaged from government to corporations, private individuals and families. Yet there is increasing evidence from reliable sources that the government has not reduced social expenditure, and that increasing resources have been directed, particularly via the family payments system, towards some disadvantaged groups such as low-income families and the aged. Utilising the theory of the US political scientist Paul Pierson, this article explores the joint paradox of Australian neo-liberalism: the punitive treatment of some disadvantaged groups such as the disabled and lone parents versus the generosity towards other groups and, more generally, the growth rather than decline in social expenditure. The author asks what this paradox tells us about the likely future of the welfare state in Australia and elsewhere. [source]


The Relationship Between Self-Rated Health and Mortality in Older Black and White Americans

JOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 10 2007
Sei J. Lee MD
OBJECTIVES: To determine whether the association between self-rated health (SRH) and 4-year mortality differs between black and white Americans and whether education affects this relationship. DESIGN: Prospective cohort. SETTING: Communities in the United States. PARTICIPANTS: Sixteen thousand four hundred thirty-two subjects (14,004 white, 2,428 black) enrolled in the 1998 wave of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a population-based study of community-dwelling U.S. adults aged 50 and older. MEASUREMENTS: Subjects were asked to self-identify their race and their overall health by answering the question, "Would you say your health is excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor?" Death was determined according to the National Death Index. RESULTS: SRH is a much stronger predictor of mortality in whites than blacks (c -statistic 0.71 vs 0.62). In whites, poor SRH resulted in a markedly higher risk of mortality than excellent SRH (odds ratio (OR)=10.4, 95% confidence interval (CI)=8.0,13.6). In blacks, poor RSH resulted in a much smaller increased risk of mortality (OR=2.9, 95% CI=1.5,5.5). SRH was a stronger predictor of death in white and black subjects with higher levels of education, but differences in education could not account for the observed race differences in the prognostic effect of SRH. CONCLUSION: This population-based study found that the relationship between SRH and mortality is stronger in white Americans and in subjects with higher levels of education. Because the association between SRH and mortality appears weakest in traditionally disadvantaged groups, SRH may not be the best measure to identify vulnerable older subjects. [source]


Poverty decline, agricultural wages, and nonfarm employment in rural India: 1983,2004

AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2009
Peter Lanjouw
Poverty; Agricultural labor; India; Nonfarm employment Abstract We analyze five rounds of National Sample Survey data covering 1983, 1987/1988, 1993/1994, 1999/2000, and 2004/2005 to explore the relationship between rural diversification and poverty. Poverty in rural India has declined at a modest rate during this time period. We provide region-level estimates that illustrate considerable geographic heterogeneity in this progress. Poverty estimates correlate well with region-level NSS data on changes in agricultural wage rates. Agricultural labor remains the preserve of the uneducated and also to a large extent of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. We show that while agricultural labor grew as a share of total economic activity over the first four rounds, it had fallen back to the levels observed at the beginning of our survey period by 2004. This all-India trajectory also masks widely varying trends across states. During this period, the rural nonfarm sector has grown modestly, mainly between the last two survey rounds. Regular nonfarm employment remains largely associated with education levels and social status that are rare among the poor. However, casual labor and self-employment in the nonfarm sector reveals greater involvement by disadvantaged groups in 2004 than in the preceding rounds. The implication of this for poverty is not immediately clear,the poor may be pushed into low-return casual nonfarm activities due to lack of opportunities in the agricultural sector rather than being pulled by high returns offered by the nonfarm sector. Econometric estimates reveal that expansion of the nonfarm sector is associated with falling poverty via two routes: a direct impact on poverty that is likely due to a pro-poor marginal incidence of nonfarm employment expansion; and an indirect impact attributable to the positive effect of nonfarm employment growth on agricultural wages. The analysis also confirms the important contribution to rural poverty reduction from agricultural productivity, availability of land, and consumption levels in proximate urban areas. [source]


Barriers to Managing Diversity in a UK Constabulary: The Role of Discourse

JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 7 2002
Penny Dick
The literature on diversity management has tended to obfuscate some of the theoretical and methodological shortcomings associated with research in this area. Specifically, the literature tends to make a number of rather naïve assumptions about the experiences and aspirations of disadvantaged groups. This paper seeks to problematize the universalist and partisan tendencies that typify much of the diversity literature by focusing on the issue of ,resistance'. Using a form of discourse analysis informed by Foucauldian principles, the paper explores how ,resistance' to diversity initiatives is expressed by both ,dominant' and ,subordinated' groups in a UK police force. It is argued that ,resistance' is better thought of as a discursive resource that can be drawn upon to justify or account for one's own organizational experiences and, in turn, the need to both justify and account for one's experiences is located in broader discursive fields that reproduce dominant ideologies of liberal democracies. The theoretical implications of this position are discussed and a case is presented for more critical and theoretical approaches in the diversity management literature. [source]


Serial Cohabitation and the Marital Life Course

JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, Issue 4 2008
Daniel T. Lichter
Using cohort data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this paper tracks the experiences of serial cohabitors. Results indicate that only a minority of cohabiting women (about 15% , 20%) were involved in multiple cohabitations. Serial cohabitations were overrepresented among economically disadvantaged groups, especially those with low income and education. They also were less likely than single-instance cohabiting unions to end in marriage rather than dissolve. If serial cohabitors married, divorce rates were very high , more than twice as high as for women who cohabited only with their eventual husbands. The results suggest the need to balance the government's current preoccupation with marriage promotion with greater support of "at risk" unions that marriage promotion initiatives have helped create. [source]


Mortality Heterogeneity and the Distributional Consequences of Mandatory Annuitization

JOURNAL OF RISK AND INSURANCE, Issue 4 2008
Guan Gong
This article investigates the distributional consequences of mandatory annuitization. Using Health and Retirement Study (HRS) data and accounting for longevity risk pooling within marriage and preannuitized wealth, we find substantial redistribution away from disadvantaged groups in expected utility terms. Using HRS data on subjective survival probabilities, we construct a subjective life table for each individual in the HRS. We calculate the value each household would place on annuitization, based on the husband and wife's subjective life tables, and the household's degree of risk aversion and proportion of preannuitized wealth. A significant minority would perceive themselves as suffering a loss from mandatory annuitization. [source]


Subtle, Pervasive, Harmful: Racist and Sexist Remarks in Public as Hate Speech

JOURNAL OF SOCIAL ISSUES, Issue 2 2002
Laura Beth Nielsen
Using field observations and 100 in-depth interviews with participants recruited from public places in Northern California, this article documents the experience of being the target of hate speech in public places. Focusing on racist and sexist hate speech (as participants define the phenomenon), I show that there is a range of experiences with hate speech and that it is often quite subtle, leaving all but intended victims unaware that it occurs. These data also show that such interactions occur with regularity and leave targets harmed in significant ways. There can be little doubt that members of traditionally disadvantaged groups face a strikingly different reality on the street than do members of privileged groups. Although the legal status of hate speech remains ambiguous, its harms are not. [source]


Birthweight and paternal involvement predict early reproduction in British women: Evidence from the National Child Development Study

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY, Issue 2 2010
Daniel Nettle
There is considerable interest in the mechanisms maintaining early reproduction in the most socioeconomically disadvantaged groups in developed countries. Previous research has suggested that differential exposure to early-life factors such as low birthweight and lack of paternal involvement during childhood may be relevant. Here, we used longitudinal data on the female cohort members from the UK National Child Development Study (n = 3,014,4,482 depending upon variables analyzed) to investigate predictors of early reproduction. Our main outcome measures were having a child by age 20, and stating at age 16 an intended age of reproduction of 20 years or lower. Low paternal involvement during childhood was associated with increased likelihood of early reproduction (O.R. 1.79,2.25) and increased likelihood of early intended reproduction (O.R. 1.38,2.50). Low birthweight for gestational age also increased the odds of early reproduction (O.R. for each additional s.d. 0.88) and early intended reproduction (O.R. for each additional s.d. 0.81). Intended early reproduction strongly predicted actual early reproduction (O.R. 5.39, 95% CI 3.71,7.83). The results suggest that early-life factors such as low birthweight for gestational age, and low paternal involvement during childhood, may affect women's reproductive development, leading to earlier target and achieved ages for reproduction. Differential exposure to these factors may be part of the reason that early fertility persists in socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. We discuss our results with respect to the kinds of interventions likely to affect the rate of teen pregnancy. Am. J. Hum. Biol., 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


When Being Different Is Detrimental: Solo Status and the Performance of Women and Racial Minorities

ANALYSES OF SOCIAL ISSUES & PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 1 2002
Mischa Thompson
Individuals experience solo status when they are the only members of their social category (e.g., gender or race) present in an otherwise homogenous group. Field studies and surveys indicate that members of socially disadvantaged groups, such as women and racial minorities, have more negative experiences as solos than do members of privileged groups, such as Whites and males (Kanter, 1977; Niemann & Dovidio, 1998). In this article, we review research showing that the public performance of women and African-Americans is more debilitated by solo status than that of Whites and males. We also show that this effect is exacerbated when negative stereotypes about the performer's social group seem relevant to their performance, and we discuss the contributing roles of lowered performance expectancies and feelings of group representativeness. We discuss how findings from social psychological research can be applied towards the goal of reducing the decrements typically associated with being the only member, or one of few members, of one's race and/or gender in the environment. [source]


How much does health care contribute to health gain and to health inequality?

AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 1 2009
Trends in amenable mortality in New Zealand 198
Abstract Objective: To estimate the contribution of health care to health gain, and to ethnic and socio-economic health inequalities, in New Zealand over the past quarter century. Method: Amenable and all-cause mortality rates by ethnicity and equivalised household income tertile from 1981,84 to 2001,04 were estimated from linked census-mortality datasets (the New Zealand Census-Mortality Study). Amenable mortality (deaths under age 75 from conditions responsive to health care) was defined using a classification recently developed for use in Australia and New Zealand. The contribution of health care to the observed improvement in population health status was estimated by the ratio of the difference in amenable to the difference in all-cause mortality over the observation period. Results: Trends in amenable causes of death were estimated to account for approximately one-third of the fall in mortality over the past quarter century, for the population as a whole and for all income and ethnic groups except Pacific peoples, for whom there was no reduction in amenable mortality. In 2001,04, amenable causes accounted for approximately one quarter of the mortality gap between all ethnic groups compared to the European/Other reference. Discussion: Our finding provides one indicator of the social impact of health care over this period. More importantly, that Pacific peoples seem to have benefited less than other ethnic groups calls for urgent explanation. Also, our finding that amenable causes account for about one quarter of current mortality disparities, clearly indicates that improvement in access to and quality of health care for disadvantaged groups could substantively reduce health inequalities. [source]


The association between socioeconomic status and exposure to mobile telecommunication networks in children and adolescents

BIOELECTROMAGNETICS, Issue 1 2010
Silke Thomas
Abstract A potential association between socioeconomic status (SES) and self-reported use of mobile phones has been investigated in a few studies. If measured exposure to mobile phone networks differs by SES in children, it has not yet been studied. Interview data of 1,481 children and 1,505 adolescents on participants' mobile phone use, socio-demographic characteristics and potential confounders were taken from the German MobilEe-study. Sociodemographic data was used to stratify participants into three "status groups" (low, middle, high). Using a personal dosimeter, we obtained an exposure profile over 24,h for each of the participants. Exposure levels during waking hours were expressed as mean percentage of the reference level. Children with a low SES were more likely to own a mobile phone (OR 2.1; 95% CI: 1.1,3.9) and also reported to use their mobile phone longer per day (OR 2.4; 95% CI: 1.1,5.4) than children with a high SES. For adolescents, self-reported duration of mobile phone use per day was also higher with a low SES (OR: 3.4; 95% CI: 1.4,8.4) compared with a high SES. No association between SES and measured exposure to mobile telecommunication networks was seen for children or adolescents. Mobile phone use may differ between status groups with higher use among disadvantaged groups. However, this does not result in higher overall exposure to mobile telecommunication networks. Whether short duration of own mobile phone use or the small numbers of participants with a low SES are causal, have to be investigated in further studies. Bioelectromagnetics 31:20,27, 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]