Social Inclusion
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion
Social Inclusion is a quarterly peer-reviewed open access journal, which provides academics and policy-makers with a forum to discuss and promote a more socially inclusive society.Cogitatio Pressen-USSocial Inclusion2183-2803<p>All manuscripts are published under a Creative Commons license: Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY).</p><p>Authors retain the copyrights of their published works and allow others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.</p><p>Authors are free to use, reuse and share their articles without any embargo period, provided that the journal is acknowledged as the original venue of publication. This freedom includes, for example, posting the article in an institutional repository or publishing it in a book.</p><p>Authors are also permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to, during, and after the submission process and publication of the article.</p>Policy Silences and Poverty in Ireland: An Argument for Inclusive Approaches
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7737
Policy documents shape and inform policy but they are not neutral objects. Policy documents can also silence through the exclusion and omission of discrete knowledges transmitted through testimony and lived experience. Even where steps are taken to ensure inclusion, policies can be underpinned by a policy making process that also potentially omits and silences through a narrow conception of how to include the voices of those directly affected by policy in the policy making process. This article will address the phenomenon of “policy silences” in the following ways: Firstly, by taking inspiration from Bacchi’s (2009) policy analysis framework—which asks of policy documents “what is the problem represented to be?” (the WPR approach)—and focusing on question no. 4 of the WPR framework—which asks, in part, “where are the silences?”—the Irish policy document <em>Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020‐2025</em> will be briefly reviewed. Following this, the approach taken in a creative, arts‐based, participatory research project which included, mapping, photography and walking interviews as a means of exploring the lived experiences and hidden geographies of poverty will be presented as a way of demonstrating inclusive research practice and as a means of tacitly problematizing and further critiquing an anaemic understanding of inclusion which potentially creates “policy silences.” Finally, an argument for forms of inclusion that go beyond current practices to include, in creative ways, the voices of those directly affected by policy in the policy making process will be put forth.Joe Whelan
Copyright (c) 2024 Joe Whelan
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2024-02-082024-02-081210.17645/si.7737Silent Processes in Higher Education: Examining Ableism Through an Ability‐Critical Lens
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7752
Universities are regarded as critical institutions that shape society, which on the one hand have a great influence on (successful) social processes, but on the other, are traditionally very privileged and exclusive places of education. Despite various demands to open up to plural perspectives, they are still strongly characterized by powerful, meritocratic, and discriminatory structures, cultures, and orders. (Social) inclusion efforts are always linked to the need to analyze processes of exclusion. This article therefore examines the question: Which ableist practices and culture of silence are revealed in the context of higher education and how can these be linked to the findings of postcolonial studies on the topic of silence? On the one hand, established perspectives (lecturers and students), but above all the perspectives of marginalized and unheard (groups of) people (lecturers with (learning) disabilities) are involved. The results from two group discussions (N = 9) with perspectives from these three different positions are presented to work out implicit and explicit processes of silence. The (power) theoretical reference is the concept of ableism, which is linked with (postcolonial) perspectives on the ideas of “silence” according to Brunner (2017a). This article emphasizes that, in addition to formal access restrictions to university education, there are also implicit barriers oriented towards non‐transparent ableist expectations of ability, which in turn (re‐)produce processes of silence. The case study concerns one German university and shows that formal access to higher education is only one aspect of reducing ableism; above all, it is the creation of transparent structures with regard to set ability expectations, critical‐reflective spaces, and a culture of “unlearning” biographically characterized ableist notions of normality. This article therefore focuses on the connection between ableist experiences and the findings of postcolonial discourses of silencing.Nico Leonhardt
Copyright (c) 2024 Nico Leonhardt
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2024-02-082024-02-081210.17645/si.7752Breaking the Silence About Compulsory Social Measures in Switzerland: Consequences for Survivor Families
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7691
So‐called compulsory social measures (CSM) represent a dark chapter in Swiss history. Hundreds of thousands of children and adolescents from families affected by poverty were placed in foster families and homes, or used as labourers on farms. These decisions could hardly be appealed. Many minors suffered traumatic violence in out‐of‐home placements. In 1981 the relevant laws were redrafted and the practice of CSM was officially stopped. Nevertheless, CSM were considered taboo for decades in Swiss politics and society. Often survivors even concealed their experiences from their own partners and children. It was not until 2013 that a major political and social reappraisal began. Against this background, we analyse how the state breaking its silence on the issue, through the initiating of public reappraisal, changed the way families deal with their parents’ history regarding CSM. To this end, six biographical interviews with adult descendants of survivors were analysed using grounded theory methodology. The results show that the public reappraisal triggered processes of revealing secrets from parental history in families, which also enabled emotional rapprochement between family members. However, it also opened up new areas of family tension and found expression in new constellations of silence. Overall Switzerland’s state action had ambivalent consequences for survivor families.Nadine GautschiAndrea Abraham
Copyright (c) 2024 Nadine Gautschi, Andrea Abraham
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2024-02-272024-02-271210.17645/si.7691Intergenerational Social Exclusion, Silences, and the Transformation of Agency: An Oral History Approach
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7781
This oral history article, inspired by research conducted among minorities, explores the interrelations between intergenerational disadvantage, experience of social exclusion, and silence within family histories. During the fieldwork, 13 study participants shared their transgenerational family stories that shed light on intergenerational disadvantage, including substance abuse, trauma, violence, emotional coldness, neuropsychiatric characteristics, and mental health concerns. Study participants had experienced active and passive social exclusion, such as discrimination within service systems, exclusion from the job market, bullying, and discriminatory attitudes. They also believed that their previous generations had experienced social exclusion. This study shows that silence is often a result of the social exclusion experienced by people who deviate from the assumed norm and suffer from disadvantage. To protect themselves from social exclusion, people remain silent. Silence deepens social inequalities by keeping people in weak positions apart and preventing them from acting together to redress power dynamics. Today, however, there are more opportunities than in the past to work on silence and social exclusion, making it possible for these people to shift their positions from being others to being closer to the sources of power.Anna-Maria Isola
Copyright (c) 2024 Anna-Maria Isola
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2024-03-072024-03-071210.17645/si.7781Systemic Silencing Mechanisms in Autism/Autistic Advocacy in Ontario, Canada
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7747
This article reveals how systemic ableism operates within grassroots organizations in Ontario, formulating a normative standard for being an autistic person. In‐depth interviews were conducted with 50 participants in the years 2021 and 2022, triangulated with document analysis from 2018 and 2022. The study participants consisted of autistic adults, parents, disability advocates, organizers of grassroots organizations, social workers, policy insiders, and academics. The findings show that most autistic adults are pressured to choose sides, either to join autism advocacy that is parent‐led or expert‐led or to become self‐advocates in autistic advocacy. This article offers an original finding that the value policy of pro/anti‐ABA of two grassroots organizations in the field of autism/autistic advocacy contributes to identity politics. Ableism operates through Pierre Bourdieu’s symbolic power, excluding autistic adults who do not fit into these two main categories of advocacy. Social oppression becomes multi‐directional as identity politics takes the stage and diverts from the original goals of social inclusion in advocacy. The concept of a grey area is introduced in theory building, to trouble the essentialist categories of autism/autistic advocacy and invite readers to commit to disability solidarity by moving beyond the dichotomy of sameness and difference.Cheuk Ming Tsang
Copyright (c) 2024 Cheuk Ming Tsang
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2024-03-262024-03-261210.17645/si.7747Diversity in White: An Autoethnographic Case Study of Experienced Diversity and (Un‐)Silencing
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7780
Drawing on Sara Ahmed’s observation that the one who files a complaint ultimately becomes perceived as the problem, this article exposes the processes of silencing that occur within academia—particularly regarding issues of diversity, racism, and equality, while also exploring how un‐silencing can occur in such a context. Despite committing to diversity and equality, academic institutions and their decision‐making mechanisms are still largely led by white middle‐class individuals with little understanding of intersectional inequalities, thus (re)producing mechanisms that silence those who experience discrimination and inequality. I apply methods such as autoethnography and interpretive textual analysis to challenge dominant (diversity) narratives that perpetuate silencing. Based on memory notes and (in)formal correspondence, the article describes the long process of silencing after an initial experience of discrimination to reveal common institutional patterns and how complainants feel trapped in a labyrinth and consequently forced to “give up.”Faime Alpagu
Copyright (c) 2024 Faime Alpagu
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2024-03-262024-03-261210.17645/si.7780Agency in Silence: The Case of Unaccompanied Eritrean Refugee Minors in the Netherlands
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7704
Following the so‐called refugee crisis, unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) from Eritrea were portrayed negatively in Europe. Although such portrayals are often amplified by media and policy discourses, the main reasons for this negative view were a lack of understanding of URMs’ subjectivities, the institutional silencing process they face in their everyday lives, and the ways they show agency in such precarity. This article addresses institutional silencing practices that Eritrean URMs encounter and the various ways they engage with them. Using data gathered during 2016–2018 from Eritrean URMs in the Netherlands, we explore how participants navigate the exclusionary processes they encounter in relation to institutions, such as refugee reception centres, refugee protection organizations, immigration authorities, and schools. Inspired by Sherry Ortner’s and Saba Mahmood’s work, we show the importance of less dominant forms of agency (delayed or docile forms) in how URMs engage with the power of institutional silencing practices. We then show the (often unseen) agency of these young people as the desire of the “less powerful” or “less resourceful” to “play their own serious games even as more powerful parties seek to devalue and even destroy them” (Ortner, 2006, p. 147).Nebil KusmallahHalleh Ghorashi
Copyright (c) 2024 Nebil Kusmallah, Halleh Ghorashi
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2024-03-262024-03-261210.17645/si.7704Challenging Silencing in Stigmatized Neighborhoods Through Collaborative Knowledge Production
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7706
Researchers are always potential traitors when they represent what they see or hear. This is of particular concern in the case of people in subaltern positions, who lack the power to challenge possible misrepresentations. This article deals with an old dilemma in critical social science: How to use language when research objects are silenced through dynamics of domination? Is it possible for research to create space for marginalized people to speak for themselves? This was one of the questions of the Université Populaire, a group initiative by actors in a marginalized social housing neighborhood in Grenoble. The community‐based people’s education initiative was created in a double context of violence and silence. As a result of incidents of violence, media coverage participates in depicting the neighborhood as a place of danger and otherness, which impedes voices from the neighborhood from being heard. The initiative of the Université Populaire made space for speech in this marginalized and racialized area of Grenoble dealing with the consequences of terrorist violence in France. It is an initiative the author has been involved in since its inception in 2015. This article explains how the author sought ways to reduce power asymmetry in research relationships, why she steered away from using interviews for data collection and organized public debates instead, and how this made space for speech.Claske Dijkema
Copyright (c) 2024 Claske Dijkema
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2024-03-262024-03-261210.17645/si.7706Fighting for Space Within the Cis‐ and Heteronormative Public Sphere: An Analysis of Budapest Pride
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7808
The article presents the urban space use of the LGBTQI+ community in a post‐socialist and illiberal country, Hungary, by focusing on the historical development of Pride marches within the capital. Examining these events’ routes, current regulations, and resistance related to Pride, the article observes acts of silencing and the disruption of silencing concerning the LGBTQI+ community. First, we rely on sexual and intimate citizenship studies (e.g., Plummer, 2003; Richardson, 2017) to highlight the public/private divide and related (in)visibility and human rights issues associated with the LGBTQI+ community within a cis‐ and heteronormative environment. Second, queer geography and the geography of sexualities are used to better understand the cis‐ and heteronormative environment within which sexual and gender minorities exist and operate. Regarding the Hungarian context, we assume that “a gradual extension of public space use” is present concerning the public events of the LGBTQI+ community in Hungary (Takács, 2014, p. 202). The article analyzes three aspects concerning the Pride parades held in Budapest through the 3R analytical lens and connected silencing and the disruption of silencing: the spatial routes of the Budapest Pride, related regulations, and the resistance to and of LGBTQI+ visibility in an urban setting. First, through maps, we visualize the routes of the Budapest Pride parades from 1997 to 2022 to understand how the visibility of LGBTQI+ and allies is constricted and regulated in the spatial dimension. Second, following the regulatory approach of the Budapest Pride organization, we focus on how the police ensure these events’ and attendees’ safety and whether cordons—physical symbols of division between participants, police, and bystanders or protesters—are necessary. The third aspect elucidates the resistance against and toward the visibility of LGBTQI+ people in the urban setting.Alexandra SiposMárton Bagyura
Copyright (c) 2024 Alexandra Sipos, Márton Bagyura
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2024-03-262024-03-261210.17645/si.7808Unpacking Silencing to Make Black Lives Matter: Ethnographies of Racism in Public Space
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/7841
This article focuses on the debates surrounding decolonisation and antiracism in the wake of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests in Switzerland. They sparked new discussions within Swiss institutions, particularly city governments, about racism, colonialism, and physical changes to the material environment for which activists have advocated. Based on an empirical example in Zurich, the article examines the dynamics of (un)silencing when city governments respond to demands by local antiracist groups who ask for the removal of racist street names in public spaces. We draw on postcolonial and subaltern studies to examine practices of silencing and being heard, combining it with Rancière’s understanding of depoliticisation. The empirical case study shows that the actions and voices of people directly affected by racism were key in advocating for institutional change as well as addressing colonial remnants in urban spaces. This case shows how the demands of social movements can amplify marginalised voices and how they can also lead to new forms of silencing. This article explores the complexity of silencing practices that disregard the plurality of voices, and political movements focusing on the depoliticising of interpretations of antiracism in public debates while simultaneously neglecting the diversity of voices affected by racism. It contributes to debates on how racism is voiced and silenced in progressive and liberal urban institutions.Claudia WilopoClaske Dijkema
Copyright (c) 2024 Claudia Wilopo, Claske Dijkema
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2024-03-262024-03-261210.17645/si.7841Accomplices to Social Exclusion? Analyzing Institutional Processes of Silencing
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/8318
The editorial notes contextualize the theme of “silencing” and processes of un‐silencing before briefly outlining the central arguments of the different contributions assembled in this thematic issue.Emily Mitchell-BajicUlrike M. Vieten
Copyright (c) 2024 Emily Mitchell-Bajic, Ulrike M. Vieten
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2024-03-262024-03-261210.17645/si.8318