An Inclusive Linguistic Framework for Botswana: Reconciling the State and Perceived Marginalized Communities

Author(s):  
Kems C. Monaka ◽  
Stephen M. Mutula
Author(s):  
Oonagh Mc Ardle

Abstract At a time when the term ‘radical’ is predominantly associated with intolerance and violence, this article explicitly interrogates its meaning and application in community development praxis. Based on a qualitative inquiry, influenced by community development principles, community workers with rich experience at both micro- and macro-levels in Ireland were interviewed individually, then collectively to elicit their perspectives on the possibilities and challenges for radical community work in Ireland. While specifically located, its conclusions have relevance for community work and community development globally. Findings show that being a professional and a radical are not incompatible. Some radical community workers recognize their dual role in service of the state and their obligation to work with others to change it. Acknowledging that marginalized communities do not have the access to power available to more privileged communities necessitates strategies to maximize influence. At the same time, there is an intimate connection between the methods used to transform society and the nature of the subsequent society. As workers accountable to communities, funders and the profession itself, the strategies engaged with and tactics adopted warrant careful consideration. This article seeks to challenge the dichotomy of either conflict or consensus approaches as overly simplistic. Its suggests that some community workers can hold a radical agenda and conflictual ideology while pro-actively engaging with decision-makers who, although part of systems, which perpetuate inequality, can also be agents of change.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 805-818 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy J. Cohen ◽  
Matthew D. Luttig

What is political knowledge? We argue that the traditional measure of political knowledge is limited, as it represents one domain of facts that people should know about American politics. This domain of knowledge is rooted in the liberal-democratic face of the state and neglects other political knowledge generated from the carceral face of the state. We argue that knowledge of carceral violence, especially against African Americans, represents a separate domain of knowledge that is particularly relevant to marginalized communities, especially black youth. Once we include carceral violence in our measures of political knowledge, established patterns of whites having more political knowledge than Blacks are reversed. Using a novel measurement strategy and based on a nationally representative survey of over 2,000 young people, we find that knowledge of carceral violence is distinct from measures of what has been called general political knowledge. Finally, we find that knowledge of carceral violence has distinct correlates from the standard knowledge battery and its relationship to political participation varies by racial group but tends to depress the political participation of African Americans. Our findings raise the question of what comprises relevant and important political knowledge today and for which communities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-219
Author(s):  
Jitendra Singh

Dalits are mostly seen as a homogeneous category, but the inherent heterogeneity cannot be ignored. Numerous influential constructions of Dalit social and political identity are now emerging and widely circulating in very prominent ways within the public sphere in North India. Dalit assertion in North India, especially in the state of Uttar Pradesh, has become very visible. The Dalit communities are trying to recreate their cultural history and identity. This is true, however, for only a few visible Dalit communities such as Chamar, Dhobi, Jatav, Kori and Pasi. A large section of marginalized communities are left behind. They are suffering from vertical and horizontal marginality, added by regional impediments. These communities are overshadowed by visible and politically strong castes. In Bundelkhand region, there are a few voiceless, powerless and under-represented communities. One such community is the Kuchbandhiya Kanjar. It is a sub-caste of Kanjar. It is essentially nomadic in nature and belongs to the state category of scheduled caste (SC). They do not have a voice to claim their identity. Thus they lack the strength needed to get rid of their invisibility. Our social system makes weak communities who are victims of systematic inequality, in which they are denied opportunities, choices, freedom and dignity. In this research article, I try to highlight why they do not have aspirations and dissent. Why they have no voice in the democratic system? Which process or trajectory has pushed them to the periphery and made them mute? Is there any possibility of their emergence as a counter public?


2022 ◽  
pp. 120633122110655
Author(s):  
Diah Kusumaningrum ◽  
Ayu Diasti Rahmawati ◽  
Jennifer Balint ◽  
Nesam McMillan

The collaborative “Sites of Violence, Sites of Peace” project seeks to transform the relational landscape of Yogyakarta by enabling new intergenerational conversations about the 1965 politicide in Indonesia and further injustices with other marginalized communities. This community-engaged project developed walking tours of (largely unacknowledged) sites of historic violence: a colonial fort turned national museum, a derelict office building, a refurbished bank. Through these tours, sites of past suffering are activated by unheard survivor testimonies, making visible historical injustice and its contemporary and enduring significance. Unsettling the dominant spatial arrangement of Yogyakarta, the tours rewrite the city as a space where injustice and persecution are experienced. Crucially, the tour is also a relational encounter, facilitating intergenerational conversations that challenge social and political exclusionary norms. It, thereby, enables a form of relational justice, which requires active involvement from fellow citizens, not solely redress from the state.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kasi Eswarappa

The terms ‘livelihoods’, ‘poverty’ and ‘development’ have different meanings in different societies and people. Development implies a better quality of life and enahancement of opportunities, and better access to assets and services to marginal communities: particularly the Adivasis, women and other marginalized communities. Developing its theoretical framework around the existing literature on the issues, this article argues that prevailing factional politics and apathy on the part of the governing agency are preventing the marginalized groups from adequately benefitting from the developmental interventions. Keeping in view the aforementioned argument, an empirical study was conducted in a tribal settlement in South India in order to understand the implications of different developmental interventions initiated both by the state and NGOs to improve the lives and livelihoods of marginalized groups. On the basis of this argument, this article has sought to raise policy questions pertinent to both the policymakers and practitioners on the efficacy of policies related to vulnerable groups.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Malay Mishra

Marginalization is a socio-political reality and is visible amongst communities deemed marginalized according to accepted standards of social and economic exploitation. - Notwithstanding their geo-spatial and contextual differences such communities are widely spread. - Marginalization has for centuries been intimately linked to poverty, degradation and superficial superior-inferior constructs based on race, religion, status and nationality - Marginalized communities (in this case Roma and Dalits) could learn from their respective experiences with the support of their own governments, and such experience-sharing could go towards their eventual empowerment and inclusion in the society. - A positive approach in recognizing their strengths and respecting them as equal members of the society could go a long way in recognizing their value and advocating their cause for empowerment. - Inclusive community development and participatory grassroots governance are the most potent answers to develop the skills of these communities by themselves and provide them agency and advocacy. - Corruption and lack of proper management of funds disbursal are anti-growth factors. Unless suitably curbed, they could seriously hamper developmental efforts made for the marginalized communities and the status quo can never change. - An alternative knowledge path of recognising and appreciating their cultural and social capital to the previously seen historical or anecdotal approach could lay the foundation for a better understanding of the cause of the malaise and the means for redressal of the problems on the ground. - Identity is an important marker for marginalized communities though at times such communities, when they get beyond a certain threshold of marginalization and start to integrate with the mainstream population, tend to voluntarily dissociate themselves from their original ethnic identity. Notwithstanding such occasional deviational behaviour, both group and individual identity are means of sustenance and security for these groups in the face of dominance by socially powerful bodies. - While several studies have come out on the historiography of narratives about the Roma, cross-cultural references to other similarly placed marginalized communities has been seriously lacking in social science research. By assessing the ‘comparability’ of the Roma with the Dalits of India despite their geo-political differences through suitable contextualisation, a serious step has been taken in initiating comparative studies of various marginalized communities in other parts of the world. - Such an approach could foster inter-culturalism as against the rising trend of authoritarianism and the concomitant spread of radicalism from extreme-left and right forces. The best way to go forward would be for the state to initiate a dialogue of cooperation with mutual respect and understanding with such marginalized communities who otherwise have the potential of creating disturbance in the society because of sheer cul-de-sac frustration and justifiable clamour to meet their economic needs. - Integration of the needs and well-being of all sections of the society, and particularly of the most vulnerable, could work towards ushering a rules-based system ensuring overall development, security and resilience as a firewall against fissiparous and divisive factors of terrorism and forced migration which could potentially rupture the fabric of the state and disrupt inter-state relations.


Author(s):  
T. A. Welton

Various authors have emphasized the spatial information resident in an electron micrograph taken with adequately coherent radiation. In view of the completion of at least one such instrument, this opportunity is taken to summarize the state of the art of processing such micrographs. We use the usual symbols for the aberration coefficients, and supplement these with £ and 6 for the transverse coherence length and the fractional energy spread respectively. He also assume a weak, biologically interesting sample, with principal interest lying in the molecular skeleton remaining after obvious hydrogen loss and other radiation damage has occurred.


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