Search Results (363)

This study explores the motivations, choices, and constraints shaping tourism behavior among transgender individuals living in Italy. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the research begins with quantitative data collection and analyses, followed by qualitative insights to uncover the multifaceted reasons that drive transgender individuals to engage in tourism. These motivations range from seeking personal authenticity to cultural exploration and community connection. This study also examines the intricate interplay of choice and constraint in shaping transgender travelers’ tourism experiences, highlighting the challenges they face and the strategies they use to cope with the obstacles they face within the tourism context. Given Italy’s persistent stereotypes and prejudices against gender and sexual minorities, this research provides a critical examination of the intersectionality of gender identity and tourism within a challenging cultural and legal landscape. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of transgender travelers’ tourism experiences and offer valuable implications for industry stakeholders, policymakers, and scholars. By amplifying the voices of Italian transgender travelers, this study aims to foster greater inclusivity and recognition of their diverse needs and experiences within the tourism sector. Full article

The literature on migration shows that legal status in receiving countries shapes immigrant experiences. While these studies effectively address the impact of precarious legal statuses on immigrant experiences, they often examine women’s labor in public and private spheres separately. Yet, women’s lives have long involved a continuum of paid and unpaid labor. The COVID-19 pandemic brought this continuum into sharp focus by spotlighting the influence of home and work dynamics. This study explores how immigrant women’s labor in both public and private spheres are interconnected. Drawing on 18 initial interviews with Venezuelan mothers in NYC from 2020, and 13 follow-up interviews in 2024, we examine the impacts of structural forces on these women’s labor arrangements and their strategies to navigate these impacts during and after the pandemic. Our findings reveal that while pandemic restrictions disrupted traditional labor market dynamics, they simultaneously intensified women’s engagement in domestic roles. Despite this, the mothers exercised agency by exiting the labor market and engaging in patriarchal bargaining at home. Post-pandemic, they lost access to the coping strategy, and their improved legal status did little to alleviate their labor struggles. This study highlights the significance of a “gendered labor continuum” in contexts that lack institutional support and undervalue immigrant women’s labor. Full article

Disabled people face many social problems in their lives, as outlined by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. These problems often increase when disabled people also belong to another marginalized identity. The first aim of this study was to report on the extent and what intersectionalities are mentioned in academic abstracts in conjunction with disabled people. Various intersectional concepts are used to discuss intersectionality-related issues. The second aim was to ascertain the use of intersectionality-based concepts to discuss the intersectionality of disabled people. The field of intersectional pedagogy emerged to discuss the teaching of intersectionality linked to various marginalized identities. The third aim was to ascertain the coverage of how to teach about the intersectionality of disabled people in the intersectional pedagogy-focused academic literature we covered. Ability judgments are a general cultural reality. Many ability judgment-based concepts have been developed within the disability rights movement, disability studies, and ability-based studies that could be used to discuss the impact of ability judgments on the intersectionality of disabled people and enrich the area of intersectional pedagogy. The fourth aim was to ascertain the use of ability judgment-based concepts to analyze the intersectionality of disabled people. To obtain data for the four aims, we performed a manifest coding and qualitative content analysis of abstracts obtained from SCOPUS, the 70 databases of EBSCO-HOST and Web of Science, and an online survey in which we ascertained the views of undergraduate students on social groups experiencing negative ability-based judgments. As to the 34,830 abstracts that contained the term “intersectionality”; the 259,501 abstracts that contained the phrase “intersection of”; and the 11,653 abstracts that contained the 35 intersectionality-based concepts, the numbers for these abstracts that also contained the disability terms we used for our analysis were 753, 2058, and 274 abstracts, respectively, so 2.16%, 0.79%, and 2.35%, indicating a low academic engagement with the intersectionality of disabled people. We found many different intersectionalities mentioned in conjunction with disabled people, but most were mentioned only once or twice, with the main ones mentioned being race and gender. The literature covered made little use of most of the 52 intersectionality-based concepts we looked at (35 identified before the study and 17 more identified during the analysis). The literature covered also did not link to the area of intersectional pedagogy. Of the 25 ability judgment-based concepts, only the term ableism was used. As to the surveys, most students saw many of the social groups experiencing negative ability judgments, suggesting that the ability judgment-based concepts might be a useful tool to discuss intersectional consequences of ability judgments, such as intersectional conflict. Our data might be useful for intersectionality studies, intersectional pedagogy, disability studies, ability-based studies, and other academic fields that engage with intersectionality or with disability issues. Our study might also be useful for academics covering various topics to engage with the intersectionality of disabled people as part of their inquiries. Full article

Coalitional communication is a dwelling amidst non-dominant differences that requires introspective, complex communicative philosophy and practice. My concern is with differentiation in hierarchies. They are understood and shaped by colonial modernity. They are historical logics and practices of settler colonialism, enslavement, and citizenship. My perspective is feminist, decolonial critiques of modern, capitalist social systems. The analysis is grounded in communicative philosophy in intercultural contexts where folks intend justice and equality. For example, in political democracies, localized social alliances actually harm one another being hegemonic by taking routes of familiarity through structures of linguistic and practical cultural systems. Communicative projects of liberation across oppressions (with monologic and single-axis perceptions) tend to miss intersections of our raced and gendered experiences. The result is unintelligibility among us. In this state, one can sense in the body the space of the liminal—with both a communicative impasse and opening. Rather than aligning liberation and domination in the impasse, I describe the creativity of liminal space as a communicative opening. The opening is a recognition of multiplicity and a refusal to assimilate each other’s lived experiences into familiar, complex codes of habituated thought and action. Examining communication hostilities in oppressed–oppressing relations is a necessary condition for coalition. Thus, coalitional communication is a call to engage a full sense of listening to one another as relevant. Ways that decipher codes and signals of resistance come to constitute the project of creating relevant intelligibility together. Praxis as critical, dialectical, and intersectional thinking is part of this method. Full article

Food insecurity (FI) is a critical issue in developing countries, particularly in low-resource settings, where it can worsen women’s mental health. Psychosocial factors such as low household income, limited education, multiparity, and vulnerability are linked to depressive symptoms during pregnancy. Additionally, the family environment influences parental practices, which may impact mental health. This study evaluates the association of socioeconomic factors, parental practices, FI risk, and home visit frequency with depressive symptoms in pregnant women enrolled in the Happy Child Program (Programa Criança Feliz—PCF) in the Federal District, Brazil. In this cross-sectional study, 132 pregnant women monitored by PCF from May to July 2023 were assessed using a self-administered questionnaire for socioeconomic data, the two-item Triage for Food Insecurity (TRIA) instrument for FI risk, the Scale of Parental Beliefs and Early Childhood Care Practices, and the Beck Depression Inventory-II for depressive symptoms. Most participants were multiparous (87.9%), had low income (under 200 USD/month; 80.8%), presented depressive symptoms (67.4%) and were at risk of FI (81.8%). About half demonstrated adequate parental practices (50.8%) and received four home visits per month during pregnancy (54.5%). Women who received four PCF home visits had a lower prevalence of depressive symptoms compared to those with fewer visits (PR 0.76, 95% CI 0.59–0.98). No significant association was found between FI or parental practices and depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that the PCF home-visiting program may strengthen vulnerable families, support social networks, and improve mental health during pregnancy. Additionally, the results of this study highlight the need for targeted interventions aimed at reducing food insecurity and promoting mental health during pregnancy, particularly among socially vulnerable populations. Furthermore, they reinforce the importance of expanding access to home-visiting programs as an effective strategy to improve maternal mental health and well-being, while fostering healthier prenatal environments for both mothers and their children. Full article

A conceptualisation of the COVID-19 pandemic through the analytic lens of a ‘necropolitics as evil’ brings to the fore Hannah Arendt’s theorisation that evil is both an expression of, and a threat to, humanity and its plurality as an intersectional assemblage, and by extension as freedom in political action. Arendt accepts that while evil—as an expression of our humanity—can never be eradicated, it must—as a threat to our common humanity—be confronted. From this perspective, the functioning of race, gender, and wider structural inequalities as operational hinges of COVID-19 capitalism required spaces for resistance and change within the political economy of global inequalities during the recent pandemic. This (concept) paper explores such a conceptualisation through stories of the pandemic and with a particular focus on Indigenous people, marginalised groups such as migrants and asylum seekers, as well as the homeless. It is through the viral logics of cytopathic COVID-19 capitalisms that we confront and resist theoretical pathologies by re-theorising evil as conceptual currency to confront this conjuncture, critique limitations, and meaningfully translate the current societal landscape through this lens. This allows for engaging in a particular kind of reading of Arendt that is contextualised in terms of the stakes of the paper: the importance of thinking about convivialising solidarities in the ongoing pandemic that has been perpetuated by ‘evil political formations/evil governance’ under capitalism, and as such, the structural pathologies that exacerbate COVID-19’s deathly effects. Full article

Throughout the history of management theories, masculine ideals have dominated the development of organisational leadership structures, often leading to a belief in the inherent superiority of men in leadership roles. Despite progress, many organisations still operate under the assumption that women are somehow deficient compared to men in leadership capabilities. The research objective was to investigate the difficulties Black African women encounter in leadership positions in Kenyan and South African banks, specifically concerning how society views women in leadership roles. The study conducted semi-structured interviews and focus groups involving 41 Black African women managers from the banking sectors of both countries, employing an inter-categorical intersectionality approach. The research revealed a perceived lack of fit for top executive leadership positions among African-Black women. A comparison between masculine and feminine leadership styles underscored the gendered sex-role stereotypes that hindered the advancement of Black African women into top executive roles within the banking sector. In summary, the findings emphasise that, as long as ‘think manager, think male’ persists in leadership, Black African women will continue to encounter obstacles in attaining top executive positions within the banking sectors of Kenya and South Africa. The study’s practical implications are that it emphasises the understanding of women and leadership and its role as an obstacle for Black women managers in the Kenyan and South African banking sectors. The originality of this study is that it contributes to the understanding of women and leadership literature in the banking sectors of Kenya and South Africa, as well as sub-Saharan African countries. Full article

Healthy community assessment standards significantly influence community design and planning and are an important measure of a community’s ability to support health and well-being. Previous studies have mostly focused on built-environment indicators. However, building a healthy community is a complex issue involving multiple dimensions and factors. The consideration of the full range of health promotion factors is the key to determining their potential impact on individuals’ health. It is necessary to consider multiple perspectives to deepen the understanding of community health influences and enhance the effectiveness of the implementation of the assessment standards. The socio-ecological model (SEM) provides a critical framework for understanding the multiple influences on individual health. In this study, a two-dimensional interdisciplinary analytical framework of “socio-ecological factors–development goals” is developed by integrating development goals that summarize building considerations in assessment standards. Contextual analysis is used to examine the provisions of the following assessment standards: Assessment Standard for Healthy Community (ASHC), Assessment Standard for Healthy Retrofitting of Existing Residential Area (ASHRERA), WELL Community Standard (WELL), and Fitwel Certification System of Community (Fitwel). The results show that community and organization factors are used more than interpersonal and policy factors among the four standards. Humanistic constructions lack attention in the ASHC and ASHRERA standards compared with the other standards. The differences between the four standards indicate that there is a need to focus on regional features and develop locally adapted interventions. This study offers a novel exploration of the potential effectiveness of healthy community assessment standards from a multidisciplinary perspective. The results of this study support standard-setters and planners in the development of interventions to improve building healthy communities using intersectionality frameworks. Full article

This study aims to enhance our understanding of the diverse nature of social–emotional development and explore the demographic disparities and intersectionality of social determinants among children, with an emphasis on underserved populations of children in low-resource environments. Young children living in low-income families are exposed to a wide array of social and systemic risks that increase the propensity for poor learning and social–emotional development. Using data from the Head Start Family and Childhood Experiences Survey (FACES, this study focuses on the social–emotional development of a nationally representative sample of young children enrolled in the Head Start program (n = 1921, 50.18% male). Employing a person-centered approach, we assessed teacher-rated social–emotional competence, including approach to learning, social cooperation, aggression, hyperactivity, and anxiety/depression/withdrawal, to classify young children’s social–emotional development. This study identified four distinct social–emotional profiles—Adaptive, Average, Moderate Risk, and High Risk—through latent profile analysis. Furthermore, multinomial regression analysis revealed demographic disparities within each social–emotional profile, and significant intersectionality was found between race/ethnicity, age, and disability status in the social–emotional profiles. This research provides valuable insights for better supporting each child’s unique needs. Full article

Health equity is an important aspect of wellbeing and is impacted by many social determinants. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is a testament to the lack of health equity and the many health inequity issues based on social determinants experienced by disabled people. The health equity/health inequity situation of disabled people is even worse if their identities intersect with those of other marginalized groups. Many societal developments and discussions including discussions around the different sustainability pillars can influence the health equity/health inequity of disabled people. The general aim of this study was to better understand the academic engagement with the health equity and health inequity of disabled people beyond access to healthcare. To fulfill our aim, we performed a scoping review of academic abstracts using a hit count manifest coding and content analysis approach to abstracts obtained from SCOPUS, the 70 databases of EBSCO-HOST, Web of Science, and PubMed. Health equity and health inequity abstracts rarely cover disabled people as a group, less with many specific groups of disabled people, and even less or not at all with the intersectionality of disabled people belonging to other marginalized groups. Many social determinants that can influence the health equity and health inequity of disabled people were not present. Ability-based concepts beyond the term ableism, intersectionality-based concepts, and non-health based occupational concepts were not present in the abstracts. Our qualitative content analysis of the 162 abstracts containing health equity and disability terms and 177 containing health inequity and disability terms found 65 relevant abstracts that covered problems with health equity disabled people face, 17 abstracts covered factors of health inequity, and 21 abstracts covered actions needed to deal with health inequity. Our findings suggest a need as well as many opportunities for academic fields and academic, policy, and community discussions to close the gaps in the coverage of health equity and health inequity of disabled people. Full article

In this article, I address the inadequacies in how we currently conceptualize spaces for dialogue and debate around issues involving race and religion. Even in a climate where many organizations now acknowledge equity, diversity, and inclusion requirements, there are still numerous challenges, particularly for racialized individuals, including those who may experience overlapping forms of oppression. Drawing on concepts such as intersectionality, muted group theory, and the public sphere, I suggest that many existing channels and approaches are especially inadequate for academics and activists who are racialized or belong to religions that are marginalized in Western societies, such as Islam. These avenues do not allow for an articulation of the complex, sometimes contradictory realities lived by these individuals, where choosing a seemingly progressive side consistently and publicly may mean disowning or disadvantaging one’s own family or community members. Ultimately, I argue both that we must reconsider the potential for education and dialogue enabled by seemingly one-way platforms, such as film and television, and that the platform is less important than the approach we bring to using it, since increasingly we must prioritize windows for empathy within any mediated spaces we employ for learning or dialogue. Full article

There are few studies on the representation of older people regarding aids and assistive devices and even fewer that incorporate more inclusive views (gender, emotions, anti-ageist, territorial or land approach) as well as virtual or land ethnography or artificial intelligence. The general objective was to evaluate digital images of aids and assistive aids in the older population, from the perspectives mentioned above. Method. A descriptive and cross-sectional study that searched, observed and analyzed images. An evaluation of intentionally selected images from Freepik, Pixabay, Storyblocks, Splitshire, Gratisography and ArtGPT, included in an original database constructured by several authors of this article, was carried out in the context of the ENCAGEn-CM project (2020–2023, financed by the CAM and FSE). This base was updated and expanded in October and November 2023. In addition, an image generation process was carried out using artificial intelligence, and this was also part of the analysis (ArtGPT). Finally, algorithms were used to solve and retrain with the images. Results. Of the total final images included in the expanded database until November 2023 (n = 427), only a third (28.3%, 121/427) included the aids and assistive aids label. Representations of mixed groups predominated (38.8%) and, to a lesser extent, those of women. A large proportion of the devices were ‘glasses’ (74.6%) and the ‘use of a cane’ (14.9%). To a lesser extent, ‘wheelchairs’ (4.4%) or ‘hearing aids’ (0.9%) and the presence of more than one device (simultaneously) (5.3%) were noted. The main emotions represented were ‘joy’ (45.6%) and ‘emotion not recognized’ (45.6%), with, to a lesser extent, ‘sadness’ (3.5%), ‘surprise’ (4.4%) and ‘anger’ (0.9%). Differences by sex were found in the represented emotions linked to aids and assistive aids. The representation of images of the built environment predominated significantly (70.2%), and it was observed that older women were less represented in natural environments than men. Based on the previous findings, a method is proposed to address stereotypes in images of older individuals. It involves identifying common stereotypical features, like glasses and hospital settings, using deep learning and quantum computing techniques. A convolutional neural network identifies and suppresses these elements, followed by the use of quantum algorithms to manipulate features. This systematic approach aims to mitigate biases and enhance the accuracy in representing older people in digital imagery. Conclusion. A limited proportion of images of assistive devices and older people were observed. Furthermore, among them, the lower representation of images of women in a built environment was confirmed, and the expressions of emotions were limited to only three basic ones (joy, sadness and surprise). In these evaluated digital images, the collective imagination of older people continues to be limited to a few spaces/contexts and emotions and is stereotyped regarding the same variables (sex, age, environment). Technology often overlooks innovative support tools for older adults, and AI struggles in accurately depicting emotions and environments in digital images. There is a pressing need for thorough pretraining analysis and ethical considerations to address these challenges and ensure more accurate and inclusive representations of older persons in digital media. Full article

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are a group of chronic infectious diseases of poverty affecting over one billion people globally. Intersections of NTDs, disability, and mental ill-health are increasingly evidenced but are rarely studied from a mixed-methods perspective. Here, we advance syndemic understandings by further assessing and contextualising the syndemic relationship between NTDs (particularly their associated disability) and mental distress in Liberia. Participatory qualitative methods, including body mapping (56 participants), social mapping (28 participants), and in-depth interviews (12) provided space for persons affected by NTDs to narrate their experiences. Simultaneously, 201 surveys explored experiences of common mental health conditions among persons affected by skin NTDs. An intersectionality approach was applied within the analysis for both qualitative and quantitative methods informed by Meyer’s minority stress model, adapted for NTDs. Qualitative data was analysed thematically and gender-disaggregated, univariable and multivariable analyses were applied to survey data for the outcome measures depression (PHQ-9) and anxiety (GAD-7). Disability was associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety (p < 0.001). An interaction between disability and being a women increased incidence risk ratio of depression (p < 0.001). In alignment with qualitative findings, persons affected experienced additional generalised (financial concerns), external (experience of stigma) and internal (experience of pain and physical symptoms) minority stressors, to varying degrees, which contributed towards their mental distress, and mental health conditions. These findings were used to co-develop a syndemic-informed person-centred health system response to address the suffering associated with NTDs and mental distress, including a focus on strengthening relationships between formal and informal community health actors and the broader health system. Full article

This article documents and explores the history of the e-scooter ban in Toronto, Ontario, Canada as a pathway to examining broader issues concerning the eradication of accessibility barriers in public spaces for pedestrians with disabilities and respectful uses of consultation to develop disability-inclusive regulations. The use of e-scooters poses a particular dilemma to accessibility for persons with disabilities. On the one hand, the concept of disability contemplates attitudinal and environmental barriers, as noted, for example, in the Preamble of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Attitudinal and environmental barriers have traditionally stemmed from interests that are inherently opposed to the collective interests of disabled persons. Examples include attitudes that project stigma against persons with disabilities or a focus on seeking to preserve historical features of the built environment for their aesthetics, without consideration for their accessibility or functionality for disabled persons. They have also generally originated in periods of historical marginalization or exclusion of persons with disabilities. By contrast, e-scooter debates and connected debates regarding the regulation of micromobility vehicles, contain at least one dimension that could very well be shared with persons with disabilities—that is, the preservation of the environment. E-scooters are also a phenomenon of contemporary disability exclusion: policies concerning environmental sustainability, including those promoting e-scooters, are being developed contemporaneously with growing international and national legal recognition of disability rights. These factors render arguments over appropriate regulation of the use of public spaces more complex as, within those arguments, one sees two competing positive policy directions that need to be addressed: the rights of pedestrians with disabilities and environmental sustainability. This article concludes with theoretical and practical suggestions for strengthening regulatory policymaking to address these and other complex intersectional issues of accessibility policy design. Full article

Despite the strict rejection of casteism by the Sikh faith, caste-based hierarchies are still a prevalent factor amongst Sikh diasporas within the UK. On the basis of ethnographic fieldwork amongst women whose caste is considered to occupy a lower status, this paper examines their experiences and explores how, over time, this has contributed to the construction of their identity. This article situates the women within a nexus of complex social and cultural factors, illuminating the representations of caste, gender and intergenerational change within Nottingham. An intersectional standpoint provided an analytical value in accentuating the sites where gender, caste and the mediation of honour intersected. The research shows a heterogeneity in the self-positioning of women vis-à-vis caste identity and shows a marked difference in attitudes between generations, denoting a depreciation in the significance of caste. Ultimately, while the respondents were conscious of their caste and of the historical prejudice against their caste, it is significant that they did not live their lives through it, as they internalised Sikhi as their core identity. Full article