Online Quiz

Question 1

What are the 7 R’s?

Answer 1

Respect
Rights
Responsibility
Reciprocity
Relatedness
Resilience
Resonance

Question 2

United Nations Declaration of
Human Rights - 1948

Answer 2

Article 1: All human beings
are born free and equal in
dignity and rights

Article 2: Everyone is entitled
to all the rights and freedoms
set forth in this Declaration,
without distinction of any kind,
such as race, colour, sex,
language, religion, political or
other opinion, national or
social origin, property, birth or
other status.

Question 3

Who spoke about social group formation?

Answer 3

Iris Marion Young

Question 4

Who spoke about Identity and the politicisation of difference?

Answer 4

Lena Dominelli

Question 5

Who spoke about Social (In)Justice ?

Answer 5

Nancy Fraser

Question 6

Diversity is:

Answer 6

Differences in “characteristics … related
to culture, race ethnicity, religion,
gender, sexual identity or disability”

Question 7

Diversity that matters

Answer 7

Diversity that matters
* Has social significance
* Makes ‘real differences to people’s
lives’

Gives rise to social inequities,
injustices and oppression
Linked to unequal power and
oppression
* People are viewed as ‘other’ by
dominant society

Question 8

Social Groups Formation.
Social groups are:

Answer 8

• Are identifiable by their difference from at least one other group;
• Are intertwined with the identities of their members;
• Have consequences for how people see themselves and others.

Groups are an expression of social relations and develop as a result of social processes:
* Group develop in encounter and interaction between people who
experience some differences in their way of life.

Question 9

Being a member of a group means sharing:

Answer 9

– A sense of identity;
– A certain social status;
– A common history

Members of a group are drawn to one another because of
similar experiences or ways of life.

Question 10

Social group and individual identities are intertwined with:

Answer 10

• Culture, society and history
  – People’s sense of who or what they are;
  – People’s ways of expressing their thoughts, feelings and making sense of the world

Question 11

Groups and Identity

Answer 11

“one first finds a group identity as given, and then takes it up in
a certain way”.

“These meanings have been either forced upon them or
forged by them or both”.

Groups exist in relation to other groups

Individuality transcends group membership

Question 12

Groups, social (in)justice
and oppression

Answer 12

Social injustices and oppression are the outcome of different levels of power between groups

Social injustices and oppression would not disappear simply as a result of disregarding difference and of regarding ourselves and
one another as “the same”;

Equity and social justice must be promoted at the same time as we remain respectful of diversity and difference

Question 13

The politicisation of difference

Answer 13

Lena Dominelli - Anti-Oppressive social work theory and practice (2003)
- Identity formation uses difference
- ‘Differences become politicised by being used to differentiate
between people on the basis of a superior-inferior polarity’

Question 14

Binary Opposition - Dominant society views people as ‘other’

Answer 14

• Dichotomous
• Universalises and essentialises (stereotypes)
• Them-us
• Dominant vs outsiders

Question 15

Tactical Fixedness

Answer 15

‘identity is a fluid and constantly changing terrain
which can be fixed in a temporary sense ot
achieve particular purposes’ (Dominelli, 2003,
p. 39)

e.g. Black lives matter movement

Question 16

Social Justice

Answer 16

Nancy Fraser (2005)
Reframing Justice in a Globalized World

“The most general meaning of justice is parity of
participation.”

“Overcoming injustice means dismantling institutionalised
obstacles that prevent some people from participating on a
par with others, as full partners in social interaction”

Question 17

Obstacles to social justice include:

Answer 17

• Economic inequities;
• Patterns of social positions and power relations

Question 18

Fraser’s Social Justice Model
1. WHAT is at stake?

Answer 18

• Economic Dimension - Just distribution of rights
  opportunities and resources;
• Cultural and Legal Dimension - Just recognition of
  differences - equal respect irrespective of group memberships
  and identities
• Political Dimension - Just representation – equal opportunity
  of voice

Question 19

Fraser’s Social Justice Model
2. WHO counts as a subject (issues of frame and scope

Answer 19

Political dimension – (mis)framing – people are denied
membership of a community/society/institution

Question 20

Fraser’s Social Justice Model
3. HOW strategies for membership are applied (matter of
process)

Answer 20

Political dimension - How voices can be attained for
people who don’t have them

Question 21

To further the ends of justice in the face of diversity, human and social service professions have a role and need to:

Answer 21

• Be attentive to when and in what ways service users – and their broader communities – may be denied equal access to rights, opportunities and resources, just recognition and just
  representation,
• Be attentive to who might be excluded altogether;
• Consider ways in which just distribution, recognition, representation - and framing of membership – can be advanced.

Question 22

Dimensions of social justice

Answer 22

• Fair distribution <-> Maldistribution
• Equal recognition <-> Misrecognition
• Just representation(voice) <-> Misrepresentation
• Just framing <-> Misframing

Question 23

POWER

Answer 23

As Michel Foucault suggests:
Power does not just refer to the
relationship between a ruler and a
subject

BUT
‘as the effect of often liberal and
“humane” practices of education,
bureaucratic administration,
production, and distribution of
consumer goods, medicine, and so
on. The conscious actions of many
individuals daily contribute to
maintaining and reproducing
oppression, but those people are
usually simply doing their jobs or
living their lives, and do not
understand themselves as agents
of oppression.’ (Young, 1990, p. 6)

Question 24

What is Oppression?

Answer 24

1. Situations where a powerful person or group exerts a
   tyrannical influence over others …
2. Structural injustices, which arise from (often)
   unintentionally oppressive assumptions and interactions …
   as the result of institutional and social customs, economic
   practices and rules.

• Oppression thus operates at both structural and personal
  levels at the same time.

‘Its causes are embedded in unquestioned norms, habits, and
symbols, in the assumptions underlying institutional rules and the
collective consequences of following those rules.’

Question 25

Definitions of Oppression

Answer 25

In the most general sense, all oppressed people suffer some inhibition of their ability to develop
and exercise their capacities and express their needs, thoughts, and feelings.’

Question 26

Systems/types of Oppression

Answer 26

Racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, transphobia, colonialism, ableism

• Systemic, directional power relationships among social identity groups, in which one group benefits at the expense of other groups (Adams, Bell, & Griffin, 2007)
• multiple, interlocking and have complex, not additive, interactions (Crenshaw in Shlasko, 2015, p.350)

Question 27

Levels of Oppression

Answer 27

identifies the scales at which oppression operates:
* among individuals
* embedded in institutions, and
* permeating cultures

Question 28

Young’s Methodology

Answer 28

Her definition comes out of ‘its use by
new social movements in the United
States’ since 1960s

• ‘My starting point is reflection on the
  conditions of the groups said by these
  movements to be oppressed: among
  others women, Blacks, Chicanos, Puerto
  Ricans and other Spanish speaking
  Americans, American Indians, Jews,
  lesbians, gay men, Arabs, Asians, old
  people, working-class people, and the
  physically and mentally disabled.’
• ‘aim to systematize the meaning of the
  concept of oppression as used by these
  diverse political movements, and to
  provide normative argument to clarify
  the wrongs the term names.’

Question 29

Five faces of oppression

Answer 29

• Group differentiation and diversity are not
  oppressive in themselves.
• Whether a group is oppressed, and its members experience injustice, depends on whether they are subjected to one or more of the following conditions:
   Exploitation;
   Marginalisation;
   Powerlessness;
   Cultural imperialism;
   Violence.
  (Young 1990, pp.47-48)

Question 30

Exploitation

Answer 30

• Capitalist societies promote a belief in the freedom and
  equality of all persons …
• However,
  ‘Some people exercise their capacities under the control,
  according to the purposes, and for the benefit of other people …’

‘Not only are powers transferred from workers to capitalists, but
….Workers suffer material deprivation and a loss of control, and
hence are deprived of important elements of self respect’

Exploitation enacts a structural relation between social groups
So long as long as institutionalised practices and structural
relations remain unaltered, the injustices of exploitation cannot
be eliminated by redistribution of goods.

Question 31

Exploitation cont.

Answer 31

• The injustice of class division does not consist only in the fact that some people have great wealth while most people have little. It also lies in social rules concerning work in modern societies.
• Social rules about –
   What work is,
   Who does what for whom,
   How work is compensated, and so on
  …
• …enact relations of power and
  inequality.
  E.g. Gender exploitation: unpaid reproductive
  and invisible labour;
  Racialised oppression/exploitation of migrant workers

Question 32

Marginalisation

Answer 32

 Increasingly … oppression occurs in the form of marginalisation rather than exploitation.

 Marginals are people the system of labour cannot or will not
use …People on the margins of society are often there due to their
race, cultural background but also age, sexual and/or gender diversity, single mothers, people with disabilities.

 Marginalisation is perhaps the most dangerous form of oppression.

 A whole category of people is expelled from useful participation in social life and thus –

 Potentially subjected to severe material deprivation and
deprivation of conditions for exercising capacity
(Young 1990, p.53)

Question 32

Powerlessness

Answer 32

• Powerlessness means being situated such as to –
   Not regularly participate in making decisions that affect your life
  and actions
   Lacking autonomy
   Take orders and rarely having the right to give them …
   Enjoy little opportunity to develop and exercise skills …

The powerless have little cultural capital (‘respectability; –
Young)

The state of powerless is perhaps best described negatively:
Powerless means lacking authority, status and sense of self
worth.
(Young 1990, p.57)
Powerlessness in terms of misframing.

Question 33

Cultural Imperialism

Answer 33

To experience cultural imperialism means to experience how –
 The dominant discourses and practices in a society render the
particular perspective of one’s own group invisible
 At the same time as they stereotype one’s group and mark it out as
Other.

The culturally dominated … are both
marked out by stereotypes and rendered
invisible. These stereotypes –
 Are often attached in some way to
people’s bodies, and which thus
cannot easily be denied …
 So permeate the society that they do
not seem contestable …

 Those living under cultural imperialism find
themselves defined from the outside.
(Young 1990, p.59)
E.g. Muslim cultures in Western Society

Question 34

Violence

Answer 34

Violence can be defined as –
 Any relation, process, or condition that violates the physical, social
and/or psychological integrity of a particular person or group.

-At the personal level, violence is relatively easy to detect and
control because –
 It usually involves direct action in which the act of violence and its
consequences are observable …

-At the structural level, violence is a complex and higher-order
phenomenon.
 It is a feature of social structures and social institutions.

-The social processes, relations, and practices associated with
structural injustices –
 Often span generations;
 Are deeply engrained in people and dominate everyday living

Question 35

Violence continued

Answer 35

Covert structural oppression can be found in all the major
areas of an individual’s life in Western democratic nations
…

• [Members of] oppressed groups generally will suffer directly from –
   Lack of adequate employment,
   Low income and poverty,
   Inadequate housing,
   Discrimination in the retail market,
   Lack of educational opportunities,
   Inferior health care, and
   An over-representation within the criminal justice system.

These inequities are part of structural violence in that people who
experience them in turn suffer from –
- Disproportionate levels and incidences of stress, anguish, frustration, alienation, exclusion, all of which can, in turn, result in –
- Differential rates of mortality, morbidity, incarceration, homicide,
suicide and infant mortality.

Question 36

Why characterise oppression?

Answer 36

 Social injustices and oppression are the outcome of
different levels of power between groups

 Social injustices and oppression would not
disappear simply as a result of disregarding
difference and of regarding ourselves and one
another as “the same”;

 ‘Social justice requires not the melting away of
differences, but institutions that promote
reproduction of and respect for group differences
without oppression.’

 ‘Oppression has often been perpetrated by a
conceptualization of group difference in terms of
unalterable essential natures that determine what
group members deserve or are capable of, and that
exclude groups so entirely from one another that
they have no similarities or overlapping attributes.
To assert that it is possible to have social group
difference without oppression, it is necessary to
conceptualize groups in a much more relational
and fluid fashion.’
(Young, 1990, 12)

Question 37

Transformative Action

Answer 37

A ‘political project’ is then to
persuade people that oppression
is central to social injustice and
‘that the discourse of oppression
makes sense of our social
experience

Question 38

Why study privilege?

Answer 38

‘For each oppressed group there is a corresponding group that is
privileged in relation to that group and generally benefits in tangible
ways from the presence of oppression.’ (Young, 1990)

• We cannot address oppression without addressing
  privilege.
• Practice – Critical Self Reflection

Question 39

Mapping Privilege

Answer 39

Diane J. Goodman

Question 40

Key attributes of privileged groups

Answer 40

a) Normalcy
b) Superiority
c) Cultural and institutional power and domination
d) Privilege systems/systemic advantages

Question 41

Effects of privilege on people’s attitudes, thinking &
behaviour

Answer 41

a) Lack of consciousness
b) Denial and avoidance of oppression
c) Sense of superiority and entitlement
d) (Multiple identities & experiences of privilege see Intersectionality)
e) Resistance to seeing oneself as privileged

Question 42

Privilege - Definition

Answer 42

‘The invisible advantage and resultant
unearned, unasked for benefits afforded to
dominant groups of people because of a
variety of sociodemographic traits.’

• Privileged groups create “systems and structures
  that reflect [their] values, embody [their] charac
  teristics, and advance [their] interests”;
• ‘Unequal power systems are sustained by shaping
  people’s worldviews, controlling resources, and
  constraining opportunities.

Question 43

WHO?

Answer 43

White, Christian, middle-class, heterosexual norms pervade our culture’ (Goodman, 2011)

Question 44

HOW? - STRUCTURES

Answer 44

(schools, workplace, family, cultural representations, beauty, media,
bureaucracy)

Question 45

Attribute - Normalcy

Answer 45

‘Dominant cultural and societal norms
are based on the characteristics of …
privileged group[s]’

‘Dominant group[s] become points
of reference against which other
groups are judged’ i.e. dominant
groups set standards of normalcy.

These ‘standards of normalcy’ are ‘used to define what is
good and right’.

‘These cultural norms become institutionalised
and establish policy and practice’.

• ‘We often become aware of the norms when we are exposed to the
  reverse or an exception.’
• ‘We tend to indicate the identity of individuals only when they are not what we consider the norm, otherwise their social identity is
  assumed and unnamed.’
• A group that is part of the norm ‘tends to get seen and see themselves as “objective” and “neutral”; it is the others who have biases and agendas.
• ‘Normalcy gets internalised.’

Question 46

Attribute - Superiority

Answer 46

‘Differences get converted into better/worse’, or superior/inferior, ‘with the attributes of the dominant groups the winners.’

This sense of superiority of dominant groups influences how people are viewed and treated.
disadvantaged groups are ‘generally labelled as substandard or aberrant’,
Individuals members seen as ‘less capable, with innate defects or deficiencies.’

This world view then allows privileged groups ‘to rationalise the systemically unfair treatment of people from oppressed groups and to feel entitled to power and privilege.’

Question 47

Attribute - Power & Domination

Answer 47

If … oppression involves unequal social power T
Domination means the ability for some social groups to systematically subjugate, control, manipulate and use other people for their own ends.

Social power and domination are created and maintained through interpersonal, institutional and cultural forces.
Public policies AND institutional practices AND individual attitudes help create and maintain regimes of social injustice.

‘A structural perspective on inequality recognizes the role of public policies and institutional practices, not simply individual attitudes, in developing and perpetuating societal inequality. People are increasingly using the term “White supremacy”, not to refer to racial extremists, but to describe how notions of White superiority are embedded in our institutions and ideology.’

Question 48

Attribute - Power & Domination

Answer 48

“When privileged groups have greater institutional power, it allows them to establish policies and procedures that can provide, deny or limit opportunities and access to resources and social power.’

Question 49

Attribute - Systemic Advantages

Answer 49

Systems of advantage:
‘Bestow on members of privileged groups greater access to power, resources and opportunities that are denied to others and usually gained at their expense.’

Privilege systems:
Unearned ‘benefits or advantages systematically afforded to people simply because of their group membership.’

Privileges can be both material and psychological;

Oppression is maintained both by increasing privileges for some and by disadvantaging others.

Distinguish unearned privileges or advantages that Should be a right; from those that Reinforce present hierarchies.

Question 50

Effect - Lack of Consciousness

Answer 50

People from privileged groups generally do not think about their dominant group identities:

People from privileged groups tend to have little awareness of –
Their own dominant identity,
The privileges it affords them,
The oppressions suffered by Others/the corresponding disadvantaged groups, and –
Their contribution to perpetuating it.

It is because of the unequal power relations that define relationships between members of dominant and oppressed groups that –
Members of dominant groups are often deprived of feedback about their behaviour from members subordinate groups.

Privilege to remain innocent/ Wilful Innocents “privileged irresponsibility” (Tronto, 1993)

Because privileges are things we usually take for granted, members of privileged groups tend to –
See themselves as individuals, not as part of a group that has social power and privilege;
See themselves as either succeeding or failing on account of merit, rather than on account of systemic advantages;
Be unaware of how their privileges are tied to the oppression of others;
Do not realise that something is a privilege until they compare it with the experiences of disadvantaged groups;

The ability to deny that privilege exist is an integral part of privilege itself (Johnson, 2005).

Question 51

Effect - Denial and Avoidance

Answer 51

Wilful innocence: There is a fine line between –
Recognising that some privileges may be less obvious and therefore easy to overlook and choosing not to see or look out form them;
Lacking an awareness of the extent of social injustice and deciding not to acknowledge it.

Because privileges tend to be to their advantage AND attached to membership in socially powerful and dominant groups, it is easy to –
Claim that if something isn’t an issue from their perspective, then it isn’t an issue at all;
Claim “rotten apples” rather than structural, institutional problems;
Particularly insidious about the privilege/oppression dynamic is that members of privileged groups–
Can choose to remain silent;
Tend to benefit from remaining silent;
Can be victimised for speaking or acting out against social injustices.

Question 52

Effect - Sense of Superiority and Entitlement

Answer 52

Being part of the norm/member of a dominant group/beneficiary of (invisible) privileges can leads to a sense of superiority and entitlement or internalised superiority/domination, including the following:
A feeling that exceeds a healthy self-esteem or comfort with one’s own identity;
An expectation that one’s needs are met – even if this is at the expense of others;

This sense of superiority often becomes evident when people from an advantaged group encounter someone from a disadvantaged group in a position of expertise or authority over them.

Question 53

Effect - Resistance

Answer 53

It can be very difficult and discomforting to think about oneself as privileged:
The terms privilege, superiority and domination have negative connotations;
It is hard to accept being privileged when one is unaware of one’s privileges or feels they have been earned;
Even members of dominant groups often don’t feel privileged;
Experiences of privilege/disadvantage are relative;
Members of privileged groups have learnt to seem themselves as individuals, rather than the members of particular groups;
There may be feelings of disadvantage and resentment about affirmative action policies;
Intersectionality is real:
Not all people in particular advantaged groups are similarly situated;
People tend to focus on their subordinated identities

Question 54

Defining Intersectionality

Answer 54

Earlier theories of oppression – single strand and parallel
Intersectionality is the study of the intersections between forms or systems of oppression, domination or discrimination (Garneau, 2015). Some authors refer to these as “interlocking systems of oppression” (Pease, 2009).

It was developed and introduced to mainstream political and academic debate by second-wave feminism, particularly Black Marxist, and radical feminists. The probably most well-known theorist of intersectionality is Kimberlé Crenshaw (Garneau, 2015).

Theories of intersectionality are concerned particularly with “the interplay of race, class and gender and the way this results in multiple dimensions of disadvantage” (Macionis & Gerber, cited by Garneau, 2015).

Question 55

An intersectional model

Answer 55

An intersectional model recognises that different oppressions are distinct, but acknowledges that they are interrelated and mutually reinforcing.

No one form of oppression can be addressed on its own.
Different forms of privilege intersect with each other AND with other forms of oppression.

Many authors write about the importance of exploring the interconnection between different forms of oppression,
However, we have yet to be able to explain exactly how different forms of oppression interact.
Pease (2009)

Question 56

Not additive

Answer 56

The effects of race, class and gender etc. cannot simply be added on to one another to make sense of people’s lives.
BUT they interact in complex ways.
E.g. if someone is a lower-income woman from a non-English speaking background, this person is not likely to experience the single negative effects of being female, migrant or on a lower income.
Rather, her experience is an outcome of the interrelationship between these different dimensions of her life as well as her individual preferences and inclinations.
Pease (2009)

Question 57

Difference and context

Answer 57

We should be careful not to suggest that any one system of domination is more important than another, AND we need to look at people’s particular circumstances.

This is because in different historical contexts, settings or situations,
One (dis)advantage may be more visible and/or dramatic than another;
We may be more aware of one (dis)advantage than another.

Question 58

Intersectional Privilege

Answer 58

Mostly focussed on intersections of oppression. Other uses include analyse of:
Positions of both privilege and oppression,
The multi-privileged.

Many people experience both oppression and privilege;
Not all men, for example benefit equally from patriarchy;
Not all white persons benefit equally from racism;

Most people cannot be categorised solely as privileged or oppressed; they may have access to some forms of privilege and not others.

Question 59

Application

Answer 59

Different dimensions of privilege and oppression can be more easily revealed through an intersectional analysis.

In most people’s thinking about oppression, people are either privileged or subordinated, and they ignore complexities and contradictions.

This can lead to the tendency to excuse abusive practices by oppressed groups and, consequently, diminish their responsibility to address it.

Groups who are oppressed in one dimension need to acknowledge their complicity with relations of domination and subordination in another.

Question 60

Application: Intersectional privilege

Answer 60

Diversity and difference within privileged groups are complex. For example:
Challenging white privilege doesn’t always acknowledge hierarchies within whiteness.
Confronting the white domination within a workplace - require recognition of the fact that white workers also belong to subordinate groups
Intersectional analysis
Deals with complexity
Acknowledges heirarchies in privileged groups.