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Aims: Dermatology treatments require adherence for safe and effective use. Real‐world healthcare databases can reveal drug utilization patterns and uncover inappropriate or unexpected use. This study aimed to analyse dermatology drug utilization patterns using epidemiological and inequality measures, leveraging Danish nationwide registries. It also assessed the feasibility of this method for detecting aberrant drug use. Methods: We formed a 2019 cohort of all patients treated for skin conditions through Danish healthcare registries. We calculated prevalence, incidence rates and treatment duration for dermatological drugs. Inequality in drug utilization was assessed using Lorenz curves, Gini coefficients and other measures. Results: The study encompassed 1 021 255 patients using 94 dermatology drugs. Most usage aligned with 'expected clinical use', but we detected inequality, with some drugs having high Gini coefficients and disproportionate consumption by the top percentile of users. Notable findings included potential inappropriate antibiotic use, excessive topical corticosteroid use and unexpected drug use duration. Conclusions: In Denmark, dermatology drugs are used primarily as anticipated, with minimal unexpected patterns. Specific follow‐up is required to draw conclusions about inappropriate use. This approach demonstrates broad applicability for screening aberrant drug utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased inequalities around the globe have led social researchers to invent innovative methodologies to study how people subjectively perceive inequality and imagine society. This article presents the development of an arts-informed method, 'drawing of society', applied to a multi-sited ethnography of everyday inequalities in two major post-industrial cities of Russia. It contributes to the debate on lay perceptions of social structure by looking at moral and symbolic signifiers of inequality. Building on multi-sensory data, I argue that workers and professionals tend to imagine Russian society as divided between a small group of the rich and a large group of the poor and as consisting of social classes. Ordinary people self-identify with the poor and perceive their position as being at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Depending on their lived experiences, research participants express their sense of inequality through the narrative strategies of compliance, inversion and subversion of power hierarchies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article makes the case that electric micromobilities (EMMs) are the site of a moral panic and employs the lens of mobility justice to explain it. Through analysis of scholarly and media discourse, interviews with, and social media content produced by, EMM riders (eriders), and the auto ethnographic experiences of the lead author as an electric unicycle rider in daily life, as a participant in online and offline "erider" communities, and as a food delivery worker, we reinforce the conclusion that alternate mobilities face an uphill battle in gaining legitimacy and inclusion in transportation policy and infrastructure. While this is not a new finding—alternate mobilities have a long history of being demonized and excluded—this article offers insight into how individuals who find themselves unwitting scapegoats in conflicts over public space consciously engage in deliberate actions to resist EMM panic and achieve greater mobility justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid increases in apartment construction have ignited concerns about design quality. Lower income populations could be disproportionately impacted by poor design as they are more likely to live in apartments and have fewer resources to mitigate design problems. We examined whether there was a socioeconomic gradient in contemporary apartment design by measuring the implementation of quantifiable policy-specific requirements in buildings (n = 172) sampled from relatively low, mid, and high socioeconomic neighbourhoods within Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth. Findings suggest the presence (or absence) of detailed policy instruments interacts with local market conditions to impact apartment design quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Abbé Sieyès is usually portrayed as a thoroughly modern thinker and a critic of the nostalgic Classical Republicanism of some of his contemporaries, in favour of a "modern republicanism", founded upon the division of labour and commercial sociability in a nation composed of equal labourers and producers. But Sieyès's unpublished manuscripts suggest he, in fact, regarded modern labourers as unskilled "Machines du Travail", dulled by work and incapable of exercising the duties of citizenship, a critique grounded in a critical account of commercial society as compared to the ideal republican polity. Where most scholars regard this as either a simple contradiction or a passing juvenile nostalgia, this paper argues that, influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Sieyès consistently sought to counteract the degrading effects of the inequalities generated by commercial society and the division of labour. It was on this basis that Sieyès sought to construct a new political system which would reconcile participatory politics with representative government, enabling all citizens to enjoy a life of Active Citizenship. Based on these insights, this paper reinterprets Sieyès's political project as an attempt to reconcile the classical conception of citizenship with the demands of a commercial society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People frequently assume that attitudes towards the government's involvement in the economy differentiate left- from right-wing politics. This paper compares this idea to a version of acceptance of inequality theory, where acceptance of inequality is the principal element of left–right competition, but the specific inequality motivating individuals' left–right choice may differ. Using multilevel regression models with survey data from the World Values Survey, as well as two case studies, this paper finds that: (a) acceptance of inequality is a better context-independent predictor of left-right self-placements around the world; and (b) in the Netherlands and Denmark, the correlation between acceptance of an inequality (regarding class or immigration) and right-wing self-placement is stronger when the specific issue dimension is salient to citizens. However, the paper finds no equivalent interaction effect for attitudes towards economic statism. The evidence thus supports the view that the left–right dimension concerns acceptance of inequality, rather than economic interventionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes a "then and now" perspective on social and cultural issues in the Journal of Consumer Research. The author had conversations with preeminent scholars who reflected on theoretical developments over time, what we know, and what we should be most concerned with now and in the future. This article can be used as a call to action for future consumer research dealing with society and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research enriches the field's perspective on value and argues that to seriously address inequality during the next 50 years, consumer research must explore processual aspects of value hierarchy and consider its relationship to inequality. Doing so recognizes the duality of structures as embodying outcomes and agency, as well as the need to view value not only as what it is but also as what it does. To begin to address limitations in the literature, we use empirical evidence from an investigation of the cancer care market from 1970 to 2021 to understand how value hierarchy shapes and manifests as inequality. This is conceptualized as: distribution of multilevel resources, consolidation of consumer power, stratification of consumer agency, and (de)credentialization of worthiness. Building on each of these, we discuss a research agenda for future JCR inquiries and introduce "value hierarchy as inequality" as a big-tent issue for consumer research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I discuss the gendered‐racialised interactional and contextual dynamics hindering the socialisation of ethnic minoritised women (EMW) within Belgian higher education. Based on in‐depth interviews, I develop the concept of 'socialisation climates' to explain the key aspects that determine EMW's socialisation process. Three socialisation climates are identified: integration, negotiation and interrogation. Findings show that insiders play a crucial role in hindering or facilitating EMW's socialisation. Developmental relationships are gendered‐racialised relations in which EMW's identity impacts supervisor and peer support. The departmental context in terms of hierarchy, an Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion culture, and team composition is relevant to their socialisation process. EMW are able to socialise rapidly only in a context that is (radically) inclusive which is still rare in academia. This paper informs higher education institutions to be aware of the gendered‐racialised climate and interactions that influence EMW's socialisation and increase the risk of pushing them out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We empirically examine the impact of social public spending on human development distribution in a sample of 82 developed and developing countries over the period 2010–2021. • We focus on the Human Development Index (HDI) and the Inequality-Adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI). • Social public spending (health, education and social protection) reduces the loss of HDI caused by inequality. • Social public spending has an important redistributive impact with regards to human development outcomes related to life expectancy, years of schooling and income per capita. In this article, we empirically analyse the impact of social public spending on human development distribution in a sample of 82 developed and developing countries over the period 2010–2021. Specifically, we focus on the impact of the three components of social spending (health, education and social protection) on the distribution of human development as measured by the Human Development Index (HDI) and its dimensions (health, education, and income). Applying data panel analysis, our empirical evidence shows that the three components of social expenditure reduce the loss of HDI caused by inequality. Hence, public resources allocated towards social spending have an important redistributive impact with regards to human development outcomes related to life expectancy, years of schooling and income per capita. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies suggest that right-wing populist parties (RWPPs) appeal to people in communities that have fallen behind in material terms. However, it remains open which benchmark communities apply as they become politically discontented. We argue that the structure of territorial inequalities influences the benchmarks used by people in regions falling behind. Panel data regressions using subnational election results in EU states from 1990 to 2018 reveal a sharp contrast between the economic geographies of right-wing populism in core and peripheral EU member states. We find a strong association between falling behind the richest region of the country and RWPP support within core EU countries, while in peripheral EU states falling behind the EU core is associated with regional support for RWPPs. This suggests that RWPP voters in peripheral countries cue on how they are faring relative to the EU core, while RWPP supporters in core countries cue on how they are faring relative to dynamic regions of their own country. Our analysis also shows that increased manufacturing employment reinforces the effect of falling behind the richest region in core EU member states, while we find no strong evidence that regional economic stagnation is important to the electoral performance of RWPPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article advances the literature on the spatial patterns of EU support by arguing that the relationship between regional inequality and EU trust is not linear. We posit that, to fully understand this relationship, we should systematically investigate three dimensions of regional inequality, i.e., regional wealth status, regional wealth growth, and regional wealth growth at different levels of wealth status. Using individual-level survey data for EU27 countries and the UK from 11 Eurobarometer waves (2015–2019), we show that a non-linear association exists whereby poor and rich European regions tend to trust the EU more compared to middle-income regions, and that within-region over-time growth is associated with higher levels of EU trust. We demonstrate that the association between growth and EU trust is more pronounced among poor and middle-income regions compared to rich regions. Our findings have implications about the nature of public Euroscepticism and the ways in which to address it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The personal futures of older adults are continually in mind, motivating goals, desires and plans. People approach the near and long term with differing agentic traits and dispositions, and they face forward, as well, from differing standpoints according to socio-economic position. This is a study of how persons who are economically privileged diverge in their future thought from persons of modest means, asking how income level qualifies the capacity to imagine, and foresee affecting, the future. We draw upon interviews conducted with 42 older, community-dwelling individuals in the Midwestern United States of America, a sample that was partitioned into two groups, one with below-median incomes versus one with incomes above 200 per cent of median. Interviews disclosed various foci of future thought with common contents among the two groups. Three foci, however, confirmed between-group differences in confidence about handling possible material and support needs, and also in enacting idealised norms of retirement. The underlying theme of these foci – financial security, long-term supports and services, and trips and travel – was the perceived affordability of the future. We conclude that there is indeed a material basis for imagination of and proactivity toward the future. When paradigms about later life set expectations that idealise lifestyle choice, consumption and prudential preparation for the future, these are prospects towards which some can reach more readily than others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A production boundary consistent with Marx's theory of value may be drawn around labor that is quantitatively predicated by output at the point of exchange, as opposed to being merely causally predicated. The key difference between that production boundary and received Marxist doctrine on unproductive labor is that all other labor is excluded, rather than only such other labor that also falls to be treated as forming part of the "sphere of circulation." Alternatively put, both sides of the "smile curve" are unproductive of value, rather than just the right-hand side. This conclusion substantiates the analytical nexus as between material production and global inequality to be found in critical global value chain literature. JEL Classification : B51, D43, D46, F66, O34 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the rise of "Guard Labor"—defined as occupations devoted to labor extraction—at the commuting zone level in the United States. Between 1950 and 2017 the share of the labor force employed in guard labor increased from 19.5 percent to 29.4 percent. We explore the local labor market correlates of guard labor and validate several predictions of the labor discipline model, while extending the model to the context of contemporary racial capitalism. The share of the labor force employed in guard labor is positively correlated with the household income Gini coefficient, negatively correlated with the fraction of the labor force in a union, and positively correlated with contemporary measures of local racial animosity. Consistent with the labor discipline model, an increase in the share of the labor force employed in supervisory occupations has a significant negative effect on nonsupervisory wages. JEL Classification: O17, P16, Z13, B51, B52 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the impact of education on inequality using the recentered influence function regression and standard inequality measures. Results indicate that between 2005 and 2010, the returns to education declined from the 10th to the 50th percentiles, but increased at the upper tail of the distribution. Inequality is lower in the counterfactual education-equalising distribution, revealing the inequality increasing effect of education in the actual distribution. This implies that educational expansion widens inequality relative to educational equalisation. As such, policies that target disadvantaged groups in terms of educational attainment should be a key focus for policy interventions than educational expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have paid considerable attention to the impact on a child's primary education of attending pre-primary school. Researchers have asserted that early educational intervention can compensate for the effects of poverty and inadequate learning environments on child development and school success. This study analyzes the relationship between pre-primary education and student reading and mathematics achievement in the sixth grade, focusing on disadvantaged children, in countries that participated in the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) III project. The results show that the achievement of children who attended pre-primary education is higher than that of those who did not. The achievement of children who have many home resources for learning is better than that of children who have a few such resources. In almost all countries, disadvantaged children's achievement is increased when they attend pre-primary education. However, the contribution of pre-primary education to ameliorating social inequalities is different in the various contexts of different countries. These findings contribute to the discussion on the importance of early childhood care and education, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people have faced some of the hardest social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns. Taking a critical Youth Studies perspective, we draw on research with nearly 1000 16-to-30-year olds in North East England in order to rectify the 'structured absence' of young people's viewpoints in national media and political commentary about the pandemic. Our findings contradict narratives about young people as lockdown 'rule breakers' and demonstrated the immediate pressures that they faced vis-à-vis family and social life, well-being, and education and employment. Going further than most recent COVID-19 research – and in disagreement with the notion of a so-called COVID generation – we locate these pressures of the moment within the already hostile social-economic conditions that existed for young people in the UK pre-COVID and a discussion of the pressures to come, particularly in terms of longer-term labour market conditions and outcomes. Amidst very rapidly changing political and economic circumstances in the UK, continuing precarity for young people seems to be one certainty. We conclude by identifying some important priorities for youth research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the heterogeneous impacts of minimum wages, which could affect low-income workers’ earnings and employment opportunities, on crime rates across neighboring communities. Using geo-tagged reported crime incident data from 18 major U.S. cities, we find that minimum wage increases reduce violent crime rates notably more in low-income communities than in high-income ones. On average, a one-dollar real minimum wage increase narrows the disparity in quarterly violent crime rates between low- and high-income communities by 12%. The impact varies considerably across different types of cities. The income effect resulting from raising the minimum wage is the main contributing factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent report by G. Clark points to a sustained persistence of social status in England that extends vertically across several generations and horizontally across many levels of kinship. We seek to put his findings in historical perspective. We do so by relating them to two lines of thinking related to biological inheritance. One predated the rediscovery of Mendel’s work and led to the field of quantitative genetics, which dealt on the whole with quasi-continuously varying traits. The other is based on the rediscovery itself and led to a reconciliation between quantitative genetics and discrete Mendelian elements of heredity. Both were enmeshed with the supposed need for, and societal consequences of, eugenics and assortative mating. Also on both issues, the significant ideas can be traced to R. A. Fisher, inspired in one case by F. Galton and in the other by J. A. Cobb, with strong support for Galton and Cobb coming from Karl Pearson. Clark’s findings point to societal stratification, and assortative mating for wealth is a straightforward hypothesis to account for it. However, it should be noted that the findings support, but do not prove, the hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seminal models in political economy imply that rising economic inequality should lead to growing public demand for redistribution. Yet, existing empirical evidence on this link is both limited and inconclusive – and scholars regularly doubt it exists at all. In this research note, we turn to data from the International Social Survey Programme's (ISSP) Social Inequality surveys, now spanning the period from 1987 to 2019, to reassess the effect of rising inequality on support for redistribution. Covering a longer time series than previous studies, we obtain robust evidence that when income inequality rises in a country, public support for income redistribution tends to go up. Examining the reaction across income groups to adjudicate between different models of how rising inequality matters in a second step, we find that rising inequality increases support for redistribution within all income groups, with a marginally stronger effect among the well‐off. Our results imply that insufficient policy responses to rising inequality may be less about absent demand and more about a failure to turn demand into policy, and that scholars should devote more attention to the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite the positive impact of trade liberalization on food availability in India, severe inequality in nutrition consumption at the district level persists. Empirical evidence on the relationship between trade liberalization and nutrition consumption inequality often offers a country-level perspective and generates disputed outcomes. The study aimed to explore the effects of trade liberalization on inequality in nutrition consumption at the district level in India and to examine the heterogeneity of the impact on different nutrition consumption. Methods: Our study employed the Gini Index to measure nutrition consumption inequality of 2 macronutrients and 5 micronutrients at the district level in India during 2009–2011, utilizing the comprehensive FAO/WHO individual food consumption data. The import tariff was adopted as a proxy for trade liberalization, as its externally imposed nature facilitates a causal interpretation. We further identified the direct causal relationship between food trade liberalization and inequality in nutrition consumption using a fixed effects model. Results: The results show that more than 50% of the individuals in the survey districts did not meet the dietary standards for both macronutrients and micronutrients. Food trade liberalization hindered the improvement of inequality in nutrition consumption. As import tariffs were reduced by 1%, the inequality in intake of calories, zinc, vitamin B1, and vitamin B2 increased significantly by 0.45, 0.56, 0.48, and 0.66, respectively, which might be related to food market performance. The results also highlight the positive role of the gender gap, female-headed households, and caste culture on inequality in nutrition consumption in India. Conclusions: To ease the shock of liberalization and minimize its inequality effects, complementary measures should be adopted, such as improving food logistic conditions in poor areas, and nutrition relief schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe presence of gender disparity in de jure rules across the world is relatively well-known. Many studies show that this disparity is detrimental to female labor participation. Our focus is different in that we examine whether firms with females amongst ownership experience elevated time costs and burdens associated with government regulations relative to their male-owned counterparts. In this sense, we are interested in both de facto and de jure differences in governmental regulation. Using firm-level data and two alternative matching methods, our results suggest that firms with at least one female owner report that senior management spends a larger percentage of their time dealing with regulations. We also find that construction permits take approximately 4–7 days longer to obtain for these same firms. Lastly, we find that female-owned firms perceive labor regulations to be a larger obstacle to business operations. In all cases, these effects tend to be largest in countries with the most disparity in de jure rules. However, the gap remains even in the most de jure equal countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the effect of exports on local income inequality in developing countries? To respond to this question, we combine data on exports with a panel of welfare indicators for 2000 Mexican municipalities, and implement an instrumental variable approach to address endogeneity concerns. Our results show that a 10 per cent increase in the exports per worker reduces local income inequality, measured by the Gini coefficient, by 0.17 points (using a 0 to 100 scale). This is driven by income growth among households at the bottom of the income distribution. We also find that although exports do raise the total amount of labour incomes at the municipal level, average labour incomes do not change. This occurs because municipalities with growing exports also experience an increase in employment and working-age population driven by inflows of returning migrants and lower emigration outflows. Remittances also decline in response to rising exports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term ‘left behind’ has come to connote political disaffection, alongside social and spatial inequalities in wealth and opportunity. Yet the term is also widely contested, often prioritising a regional and economic perspective at the expense of a more local and nuanced approach. In response, we argue that neighbourhood context is integral to understanding and identifying ‘left behind’ places. Building a neighbourhood classification of ‘left behindness’ for England, we evaluate the extent to which the neighbourhood trajectory contributes to our understanding of a range of multidimensional individual‐level outcomes. Our findings reveal a geography of neighbourhoods that are systematically disadvantaged over time, concentrated in major urban conurbations, and post‐industrial and coastal towns. The magnitude and impact is highlighted through poorer economic, health, social and political outcomes for those living in ‘left behind’ areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In response to the harm caused by tobacco use worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) World Health Assembly actioned the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2005. To help countries meet their FCTC obligations, the WHO introduced in 2008 the MPOWER policy package and by 2020 the FCTC had been ratified by 182 parties. The package consists of six evidence-based demand reduction smoking cessation policies to assist countries to achieve best practice. We used published evaluation results and replicated the published model to estimate current policy achievement and demonstrate the impact and equity of the MPOWER policy package in reducing the global number of smokers and smoking-attributable deaths (SADs) between 2007 and 2020. Methods: We replicated an evaluation model (the Abridged SimSmoke model) used previously for country impact assessments and validated our replicated reduction in SADs for policies between 2014 and 2016 against the published results. The replicated model was then applied to report on the country level SADs averted from achieving the highest level of implementation, that is best practice in MPOWER policies, between 2016 and 2020. The latest results were then combined with past published results to estimate the reduction in SADs since the commencement of the MPOWER policy package. Country level income status was used to investigate the equity in the uptake of MPOWER policies worldwide. Results: Identical estimates for SADs in 41 out of 56 MPOWER policies implemented in 43 countries suggested good agreement in the model replication. The replicated model overestimated the reduction in SADs by 159,800 (1.5%) out of a total of 10.5 million SADs with three countries contributing to the majority of this replication discrepancy. Updated analysis estimated a reduction of 8.57 million smokers and 3.37 million SADs between 2016 and 2020. Between 2007 and 2020, 136 countries had adopted and maintained at least one MPOWER policy at the highest level which was associated with a reduction in 81.0 million smokers and 28.3 million SADs. Seventy five percent of this reduction was in middle income countries, 20% in high income and less than 5% in low income countries. Conclusions: Considerable progress has been made by MPOWER policies to reduce the prevalence of smokers globally. However, there is inequality in the implementation and maintenance, reach and influence, and the number of SADs averted. Future research to modify the model could provide a more comprehensive evaluation of past and future progress in tobacco control policies, worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disadvantaged students in higher education are significantly underrepresented in study abroad programs. Existing research has explored this socioeconomic disparity in student mobility, primarily by comparing mobile and non-mobile students. However, these studies often overlook the extensive selection process students undergo to join a mobility program, encompassing application phases, eligibility assessments, and ability evaluations. This study investigates how these selection steps contribute to the unequal uptake of higher education mobility in Europe, focusing on the European Union’s most popular study-abroad program ‘Erasmus’. Additionally, it explores how the program organization at the degree course level is associated with socioeconomic disparities in student mobility. Using administrative population data from a large Italian university, covering 46,000 graduates, the study finds that, on average, 90% of socioeconomic disparities in Erasmus mobility are due to disadvantaged students shying away from the application, while ability selection is only marginally important. Additionally, degree-level characteristics, particularly the social segregation across fields of study, matter. Although the study is based on data from a single university in Italy, it has implications for an international audience in countries with similar institutional settings for international student mobility, as it demonstrates for the first time the impact of the selection process and degree course organization on the socioeconomic gap in study abroad program participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is unusual in that it provides a graphical summary of various aspects of the longer‐term crisis that appeared to cumulate in 2022 through to at least early 2024 in terms of especially poor economic and social outcomes for the UK. The article was submitted for consideration in a special issue in the Journal of Social Policy and Administration on diverse perspectives and innovative approaches to addressing the cost of living crisis. This special issues focuses on areas such as financial insecurity, inequalities, food insecurity, food access, policy analysis and the variety of responses there have been. This articles highlights the significant challenges posed by the cost of living crisis in the United Kingdom—the widespread impact on poverty rates, health and well‐being, food insecurity, inequality, and social justice. It does so by presenting a series of images that were mostly produced but not used in print to illustrate the book ‘Shattered Nation’ (Dorling, 2023). These 23 images were not included in the book, but most were posted on the book website. A few are more recent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participatory programmes in theatres typically aim to amplify the voice of people less commonly involved in ‘mainstream' theatre. Past scholarship has evaluated their impact on participants but paid less attention to the reciprocal impact on the internal culture and ‘diversity climate' of theatres. Drawing on exploratory research at two leading UK theatre companies, the National Theatre and the Young Vic, we reflect first on what this tells us about the relationship between participatory programmes and the institution’s diversity climate, and second on what this might tell us about efforts to become diverse and inclusive more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We address the issue of inequalities in educational achievements among social groups, within the framework of Sustainable Development Goal 10 (SDG10). Despite efforts to distribute resources equitably and implement affirmative government actions, educational inequalities remain a significant challenge, partially due to the continuing impact of social group dynamics. Previous studies have emphasized the possibility of improving individual capabilities to address this issue. However, the quantitative studies that examine this issue are underexplored. We utilize data from the Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS) 2011–12 to examine the effect of individual capabilities and social group affiliations on educational achievements. We employ ordered logit regression, decomposition analysis, and instrumental variable approach to analyze the data. The findings of our study indicate that while government interventions and policies have had some impact, a more focused approach and policy change on individual capability is necessary. We propose a policy framework emphasizing early identification and development of key capabilities. These are mass media exposure, parental participation of professional groups, and good physical health, especially for marginalized sections. The study advocates for equipping schools with digital and mass media resources, establishing community programs for financial literacy, and engaging families to understand the importance of these capabilities. This dual approach aims to enhance individual capabilities and reduce the influence of social group dynamics, contributing to more equitable and inclusive educational outcomes and broader societal sustainability. The findings offer valuable insights for policymakers and contribute to the global debate on sustainable development and educational equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper, the authors introduce two notions, the normalized remainders, or say, the normalized tails, of the Maclaurin power series expansions of the sine and cosine functions, derive two integral representations of the normalized tails, prove the nonnegativity, positivity, decreasing property, and concavity of the normalized tails, compute several special values of the Young function, the Lommel function, and a generalized hypergeometric function, recover two inequalities for the tails of the Maclaurin power series expansions of the sine and cosine functions, propose three open problems about the nonnegativity, positivity, decreasing property, and concavity of a newly introduced function which is a generalization of the normalized tails of the Maclaurin power series expansions of the sine and cosine functions. These results are related to the Riemann–Liouville fractional integrals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do beliefs about fairness interact with past experiences of labor market shocks to condition redistributive preferences? In a large-scale survey experiment, we investigate the effect of informing individuals that growth in automation could disrupt labor markets in ways that are (possibly) viewed as unfair. We then exploit the COVID-19-induced labor market shock to test for an interaction between treatments and shock exposure. We find that beliefs interact with shock exposure to increase redistributive preferences and commitments to donate potential prize winnings. Our findings suggest this may be motivated by respondents' concerns about their vulnerability to future labor market shocks. • Fairness and inequality concerns increase demand for redistribution. • Lived experience of job loss amplifies informational treatment effects. • Information about luck resonates with experiences of labor shocks. • Personal shock history informs future economic anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An ongoing question in capability research is how to incorporate the value of freedom into the measurement of inequality. This article proposes an approach to answering this question in the housing domain and its operationalisation. The approach places an evaluation focus to the conditions constraining or expanding housing choices in the dimensions of opportunity, security, and ability. For operationalisation, the study designed a measurement of multidimensional housing disadvantages (MHDs) using the Alkire-Foster method and data from the Netherlands. Indicators include the entitlement to housing tenure options, vulnerability in housing cost payments, and ability to plan finance for housing. The measurement outcome demonstrates that the MHDs measurement can provide information on whose housing choices are more intensely constrained, thus having a lower capability for housing, and whose current housing situation is likely a result of coerced choices. The findings indicate that adults living with housemates or family (latent households), youths, and those with precarious jobs have a significantly lower capability for housing compared to other population groups. This article also compares the freedom-oriented measure of MHDs with functioning-oriented and other conventional measures and discusses its distinguishing properties. This comparison suggests a need to revisit current policy priorities in addressing housing inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we developed a XGBoost-based algorithm to downscale 2 km-resolution land surface temperature (LST) data from the GOES satellite to a finer 70 m resolution, using ancillary variables including NDVI, NDBI, and DEM. This method demonstrated a superior performance over the conventional TsHARP technique, achieving a reduced RMSE of 1.90 °C, compared to 2.51 °C with TsHARP. Our approach utilizes the geostationary GOES satellite data alongside high-resolution ECOSTRESS data, enabling hourly LST downscaling to 70 m—a significant advancement over previous methodologies that typically measure LST only once daily. Applying these high-resolution LST data, we examined the hottest days in Chicago and their correlation with ethnic inequality. Our analysis indicated that Hispanic/Latino communities endure the highest LSTs, with a maximum LST that is 1.5 °C higher in blocks predominantly inhabited by Hispanic/Latino residents compared to those predominantly occupied by White residents. This study highlights the intersection of urban development, ethnic inequality, and environmental inequities, emphasizing the need for targeted urban planning to mitigate these disparities. The enhanced spatial and temporal resolution of our LST data provides deeper insights into diurnal temperature variations, crucial for understanding and addressing the urban heat distribution and its impact on vulnerable communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper was to assess the effects of social inequality, democracy, and economic growth on the climate justice performance of a nation. To achieve this goal, the research technique Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS‐SEM) was applied to a sample of 133 countries selected based on indicators available in international databases in 2019. The main results of the analysis were: (a) the effect of democracy on the performance of climate justice is positive; (b) the moderating effect of inequality on the relationship between democracy and climate justice is negative; and (c) economic growth has a U‐shaped relationship with climate justice performance, which indicates the existence of a Kuznets curve for climate justice performance. Based on these results, the main theoretical implications of this study were the discoveries that: (a) the weakening of democratic institutions may be associated with increased social inequality, which reduces the implementation of climate policies aimed at guaranteeing justice; (b) forms of cooperation and financing of climate actions at the global level may be ineffective only if the quality of democracy in vulnerable countries is observed, which can be explained by the persistence of high social inequality; (c) allowing women access to income, education and health might be ways of reducing gender inequality and improving the level of adaptation of countries vulnerable to climate challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The simplification of the political landscape in terms of ‘left’ and ‘right’ is common across most democracies, if not most of the world. This would suggest that the terminology has a shared core meaning in different political contexts. While no such stable element has been established in the political science literature, various potential dividing lines that may form the core meaning have been proposed. This paper is the most extensive comparative study to our knowledge that evaluates these proposals by studying responses to open-ended survey questions on what voters associate with the terms ‘left’ and ‘right’. Data from eight different democratic political contexts are analysed using quantitative text analysis methods. The results demonstrate varied support for the different explanations. Evidence is found in all contexts for the hypothesis that acceptance of inequality divides left- from right-wing politics. That the left-right dimension is a divide between those for and against government intervention in the economy, or between those for change and against change, is mostly congruent with our findings. We find less evidence that either secular/religious divisions, or different conceptions of equality, consistently differentiate left from right. Our findings point towards the existence of a context-independent underlying dimension of left-right competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, scholars of global politics have shown that issues of race and white supremacy lie at the centre of international history, the birth of the field of International Relations, and contemporary theory. In this article, I argue that race plays an equally central role in the 21st century's current and future crises: the set of systemic risks that includes intensifying climate change, deepening inequality, the endemic instabilities of capitalism, and migration. To make this argument, I describe the contours of the current crisis and show how racism amplifies its effects. In short, capitalism's winners and losers and the effects of climate change fall along racial lines, amplifying both direct and indirect racial discrimination against non-white migrants and states in the Global South. These interdependent crises will shape the next 50 years of international politics and will likely perpetuate the vicious cycle of global racial inequality. Accordingly, this article presents a research agenda for all IR scholars to explore the empirical implications of race in the international system, integrate marginalised perspectives on global politics from the past and present into their scholarship, and address the most pressing political issues of the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fewer than half of America's college students complete their bachelor's degrees. To many, cost seems to be the crucial barrier. Sociologists of education have long argued, though, that inequalities start before costs matter. Entrenched "sort and sieve" processes apportion outcomes to family background. The whole system of grading, testing, and selecting some students while rejecting others makes a degree much more likely for students from higher status families—and that system was in place long before states limited appropriations and tuition skyrocketed. Analyzing longitudinal data from three cohorts of high school students, we find only small changes in the college graduation rate as of 1988, 1998, and 2010. Second, baseline socioeconomic and racial disparities in college completion were just as high in 1988 as in 2010. Third, mediation analysis shows that half of the socioeconomic disparities work through pre-college factors such as grades and curriculum choices. The other half reflect higher graduation rates at selective colleges. Fourth, the only notable change concerned community colleges; the potential disadvantage of starting at one declined after the 1980s. Our analysis affirms sociologists' focus on persistent aspects of academic sorting, not recent changes, as the root of inequality of opportunity in American higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past 20 years, divorce has increased in Indonesia. Indonesian statistics show that divorces initiated by women exceed those by men. One issue that is often neglected is how socioeconomic differences also play a role in this matter. Drawing on our collaborative research on Muslim divorces in Indonesia, this paper focuses on the interplay between divorce strategies and socioeconomic differences among Muslim couples. Our in-depth interviews with 93 Muslim men and women and 19 judges from Islamic courts show that class differences shape distinctive dynamics of divorce among Muslim Indonesians. Couples from less educated, lower-income backgrounds accept marriage dissolution more easily, with women becoming much less tolerant of men's behaviors such as infliction of domestic violence, infidelity, and failure to provide financial support. Educated, middle-class urban couples divorce for similar reasons but tend to experience a lengthier process accompanied by complex layers of conflict. Many educated women's narratives emphasize their ability to support themselves through working, and a desire to be free of a bad marriage at any cost. Class and education thus contribute to significant differences in the experience and trajectories of divorce in Indonesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For poor women in rural areas, land is the most critical economic resource. It is essential to have policies that facilitate access to and effective control of land and other natural resources to achieve inclusive growth and eradicate poverty. It is the weaker variants of inequalities that stifle tenure security, reduce land use, and threaten food security for those who depend on the land. Women's access to land and land resources has been a contested right and is still a serious concern in many countries. A mixedmethod case study methodology involving questionnaires, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions was used to collect data. The study find that women were not allowed to take part in any land-related decision-making process, women's access to land resources was determined by other structural mechanisms and factors such as capital, labour and social relations not solely related to their relationships with their male counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Revisiting the concept of the social movement society, we see the development of new media and datafication creating unanticipated challenges and constraints, in effect, new and different opportunities. The wired world reduces the costs of spreading information and mobilizing action, but also creates additional risks. I review the premises and blindspots of the 'social movement society' hypothesis, initially offered by David S. Meyer and Sidney Tarrow,' and then consider how new technologies affect strategies and possibilities for activists, as well as stakes and targets of activists. The conclusion raises issues of inequality and representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, youth researchers have reported increased inequalities between young people, but the social processes that drive these changes are not well understood. In this paper, we draw on rich longitudinal interview data following the same participants from a year before and into the midst of national lockdown during the pandemic in Norway to explore the unfolding of classed and gendered responses that were triggered in young people across the class spectrum. We find that advantaged, ambitious youths engaged in self-resourcing practices with support from their family that could make them even better positioned after the crisis. Youths that were socially vulnerable before the pandemic dealt with the situation alone and in highly gendered ways that seemed to amplify their insecure position in the peer group and community. Thriving youths from working-class communities engaged in lockdown practices that connected them deeper to the family and resourced them for gender traditional, local lives. Illuminating how a crisis prompts practices that increased emerging differences along classed and gendered lines, the paper shows that to grasp inequalities in the making, researchers must consider the importance and changing nature of resources – including relational resources in the family – over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the renovation of housing governed by two tenure forms in Sweden, rental and cooperative housing. Based on a relational approach, we argue that despite requiring a similar need of maintenance at regular intervals, renovation in rental housing takes a substantially different form compared to cooperatives, regarding the extent of the work, the involvement of, and the outcome for, the residents. With the concept of predatory housing commodification, we aim at examining how the process of housing renovation is organized, what driving forces motivate renovations, along with how it impacts affected residents. Our contribution is twofold: firstly, we conceptualize renovation of housing as a commodifying process, within the realm of financialization, most often carried out brutally and contributing to housing inequality; secondly, our contribution is empirical as it covers housing renovation from a relational and contrasting perspective in a field that is still under-studied in the Scandinavian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sámi people stand out as the only Indigenous minority in an egalitarian European context, namely the Nordic Countries. Therefore, inequalities that they may face are worth closer inspection. Drawing on the distinction between inequalities among individuals (vertical) and between groups (horizontal), we investigate how different types of inequalities affect the Sámi today. We formulate a series of hypotheses on how social, economic, cultural, and political inequalities are linked with discrimination experience, and test these with original data from a population survey conducted in northern Norway and northern Sweden simultaneously in 2021. The findings show that Sámi ethnic background increases the probability of experiencing discrimination. While individual-level economic inequality is also pertinent, this does not directly materialise as between-group inequality. Instead, minority language use is a strong predictor of discrimination experience, revealing the socio-cultural nature of ethnic inequalities. Cross-country differences are only reflected in the effect of minority language use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The students’ socioeconomic background effect on the educational outcomes makes it more difficult to find real equality of opportunity within the educational system. In this paper, we analyse the relationship of career guidance at school with cognitive skills, and also with expectations and motivation for a sample of more than 188,000 15-year-old students in 29 different countries, using the OECD PISA 2018 data. We apply a propensity score matching procedure with a novel multilevel second stage. We provide novel evidence of the positive influence of career guidance on the variables of interest, but only for disadvantaged students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractIn recent years, policymakers and researchers have shown increased interest in subjective well-being across countries. While previous research primarily focused on country averages, measuring the distribution of subjective well-being through standard deviation has become more frequent. This article introduces a new approach to assess subjective well-being: focusing on the “worst off," or the group with the lowest levels of well-being. Based on several ethical and political theories, this measure is deemed the most relevant when assessing well-being levels in society. The study constructs new measures of low subjective well-being (the bottom 10%) to evaluate differences across countries, changes over time, and associations with economic growth, using data from 33 European countries from 2002 to 2018. The findings indicate significant variations in well-being for the worst off across countries, with improvements observed in almost all countries studied, particularly in Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic. Improvements are generally larger for the worst off compared to the general population. Furthermore, both GDP per capita and financial satisfaction are positively associated with the subjective well-being of the worst off, both over time and when countries are compared cross-sectionally. The implications of these findings for future research and benchmarking quality of life are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractWidening participation outcomes in admissions to UK medical schools have not changed 2007–2018, partly due to inequity in selection. This study models the effects of changing selection, using a novel method of contextualising applicants, on widening participation. We studied 1084 English school leaver applicants to a single medical school over two years, using data from their public exams taken 2 years pre-application (GCSE) and recent admissions test (UCAT). Widening participation was defined by postcode. We modelled two shortlists for a pre-determined number of 500; one ranked on UCAT total score, and the other on a metric that contextualised applicants’ GCSE grades against their schools’ average GCSE performance. There was a significant difference in the postcode-defined widening participation characteristics of the two shortlists; 46% by contextualisation and 32.2% by UCAT (Chisquare p < 0.00001). As widening participation covers 42% of postcodes, the “contextualise everyone” method achieves equity. Conventionally, contextual admissions identify individuals belonging to under-represented groups and gives them preferential treatment. Changing the rules for everyone, by using a relative attainment instead of simple absolute attainment metric, benefits from treating applicants equally; and could promote equity through widening participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mental health problems and financial difficulties each increase the risk of social exclusion. However, few large studies representing a broad age range have investigated the combined social effect of having both difficulties. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine associations of mental health problems, financial difficulties, and the combination of both with social exclusion. Methods: This analysis was based on responses from 28,047 adults (age > 18 years) from the general population participating in The Norwegian Counties Public Health Survey 2019. Respondents answered questions about their financial situation, mental health problems, and social exclusion. Social exclusion was measured as a lack of social support, low participation in organized social activities, low participation in other activities, missing someone to be with, feeling excluded, and feeling isolated. Adjustments for sex and age were made in multivariable logistic regression analyses. Results: Having mental health problems or financial difficulties was associated with various measures of social exclusion (odds ratios [ORs] with 95% confidence intervals [CIs]: 1.33 [1.23–1.43] to 12.63 [10.90–14.64]). However, the odds of social exclusion strongly increased for respondents who reported a combination of mental health problems and financial difficulties compared with those who did not report either (ORs [CIs]: 2.08 [1.90–2.27] to 29.46 [25.32–34.27]). Conclusions: Having the combination of mental health problems and financial difficulties is strongly associated with increased risk for social exclusion, far beyond the effect of either factor alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gig workers are classified as independent contractors, a designation often accompanied by limited rights – a recurring theme within employment laws across diverse jurisdictions. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the necessity for enhanced protections and benefits for gig workers. Many in this category have been disproportionately affected by the economic downturn and health risks associated with their work. Amidst evolving case law and legislative efforts, the recognition has grown that gig workers may require additional safeguards. There is an increasing argument that platforms should bear a measure of responsibility to ensure social protections for gig workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Suicide represents a major public health concern, affecting a significant portion of individuals. However, there remains a gap in understanding the age and sex disparities in the occurrence of suicide. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the sex-related inequalities in suicide rates in Ghana from 2000 to 2019. Methods: We utilized data from the WHO Health Equity Assessment Toolkit (HEAT) online software. We analysed sex differences in both crude and age-standardized suicide rates in Ghana spanning from 2000 to 2019. Crude and age-adjusted suicide rates were calculated based on the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) definition and coding of suicide mortality. We measured inequality in terms of sex. Two inequality indicators were used to examine the suicide rates: the difference (D) and the ratio (R). Results: Age-standardized and crude suicide rates in Ghana were higher among men from 2000 to 2019. Between 2000 and 2007, the age-standardized suicide rate for women rose steadily and declined slightly between 2008 and 2019. Age-standardized suicide rates for men increased consistently from 2000 to 2010, then declined steadily from 2011 to 2019. The crude suicide rates among men and women followed similar patterns. The widest absolute inequality in crude suicide rates (D) was recorded in 2013 (D=-11.91), while the smallest difference was observed in 2000 (D=-7.16). We also found the greatest disparity in age-standardized rates in 2011 (D=-21.46) and the least in 2000 (D=-14.32). The crude suicide rates increased with age for both men and women aged 15–54 years and 55–85+ years respectively. However, the increased rate was higher in men than in women across all age groups surveyed. A similar pattern was observed for relative inequality in both crude and age-standardized rates of suicide. Conclusion: The suicide rate in Ghana has declined over time. Suicide is more common among older men. Inequalities in suicide rates, in both absolute and relative terms, are similar. There is a need to monitor suicide trends in Ghana, especially among older men. Moreover, the findings could serve as a basis for future studies on suicide in Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]