Search results

This article aims to highlight the stigmatization attached to the unemployment of educated youth in rural regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

The study explicates the subjective experiences of the youth as being unemployed and societal attitudes toward them through an in-depth qualitative approach. A total of 30 unemployed male individuals were interviewed through an interview guide.

The study reveals that unemployed individuals are stigmatized and discriminately treated. They experience the difference in social support from their family and friends during unemployment, which is a discouraging aspect. This finding is in contrast to the existing literature on the subject in which family and friends are described as a major source of social support. As the study is conducted in the rural context, it is observed that local factors coupled with the joint family system have intensified negative attitudes toward the unemployed youth. Subsequently, the negative societal treatment serves as a factor for psychological challenges in their lives.

This article serves the need of exploring the experiences of unemployed individuals precisely in the Pakistani context.

In the 1990s, scientists succeeded in demonstrating the highly positive effects of transformational and charismatic leadership on performance effectiveness, based on a large number of empirical findings. Bass (1985) predicted that this type of leadership would be related to “performance beyond expectations”. This has proved to be true to a very large extent. The so-called “new leadership approach “, however, has not yet succeeded in a close analysis of the interaction and influencing processes between charismatic leaders and their followers. This paper provides such an analysis. After pointing out the main problems with prior theoretical work, we offer an alternative model to help explain the emergence of charisma using social-cognitive and psycho-dynamic theories. Basically, we start from the premise that a focal person may be categorized as a charismatic leader on the basis of evaluative borderline attributes assigned to him or her, which are closely related to characteristics stigmatized by society. These attributes are exhibited consciously or unconsciously by the leader, either by means of social dramatization or by means of social reversion. We then propose a model of charismatic leadership relationships, which deal with both intra-personal and inter-personal feedback processes, based on recent theories of narcissistic behavior. Our overall intent is to help explain and clarify the processes between leadership behavior and the attribution of charisma.

Every employee embodies manifestations of every demographic that attach to him or her different minority and majority statuses at the same time. As these statuses are often related to organizational hierarchies, employees frequently hold positions of dominance and subordination at the same time. Thus, a given individual’s coping strategies (or coping behavior) in terms of minority stress due to organizational processes of hierarchization, marginalization, and discrimination, are very often a simultaneous coping in terms of more than one demographic. Research on minority stress mostly focuses on single demographics representing only single facets of workforce diversity. By integrating the demographics of age, disability status, nationality, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, and religion into one framework, the intersectional model proposed in this chapter broadens the perspective on minorities and related minority stress in the workplace. It is shown that coping with minority stress because of one demographic must always be interpreted in relation to the other demographics. The manifestation of one demographic can limit or broaden one’s coping resources for coping with minority stress because of another dimension. Thus, the manifestation of one demographic can determine the coping opportunities and coping behavior one applies to situations because of the minority status of another demographic. This coping behavior can include disclosure decisions about invisible demographics. Therefore, organizational interventions aiming to create a supportive workplace environment and equal opportunities for every employee (e.g., diversity management approaches) should include more demographics instead of focusing only on few.

This paper aims to explore the experience of living with scars from self-injury; how people who self-injure (SI) make meaning of their scars and how these scars are a part of the identity construction process.

It is observed that 60 entries, from 25 online narrative blogs detailing the experience of living with self-injury scars, were analyzed using a contextualized thematic analysis informed by an embodied perspective.

The analysis generated two dominant themes: temporal aspects of identity; and social stigma and scars.

Far-reaching consequences of self-injury scars on the daily lives of people who SI was found. This included a person’s posture, clothing, choices of career, inclusion in family life, leisure activities and relationships; all of which have corollaries in emotional and psychological well-being. Scars were found to be self-narrative with particular salience given to how scars represented healing. Novel findings included the central role scars played in the resistance of self-injury stigma.

U.S. health policy promotes HIV testing and linkage to care (test-and-treat) with an emphasis on high risk groups such as convicted offenders. We sought to identify whether or not laws for mandatory HIV disclosure to sexual partners are a barrier to HIV testing among offenders under community supervision.

A total of 197 probationers and parolees were surveyed in a closed/item-open-ended item methodology on two reporting days in Alabama. Three main questions were asked: (1) What do offenders know about HIV? (2) What do they know about the law? (3) Do they support mandatory disclosure and HIV testing? Data for the quantitative items were analyzed with SPSS and matched with open-ended responses for explanatory purposes.

Testing and criminalization of non-disclosure were fully supported as key elements of HIV prevention. This support was framed by conceptions of HIV as a killer disease, of people with HIV as potential murderers, and by low self-awareness of HIV risk.

While the study involved only a single group of convicted offenders in a southern state, the results suggest that disclosure laws legitimize HIV stigma and undermine test-and-treat strategies among communities at risk.

The research is the first of its kind to investigate possible links between HIV criminalization and barriers to HIV prevention and care among convicted offenders.

We present a model of reappropriation, the phenomenon whereby a stigmatized group revalues an externally imposed negative label by self-consciously referring to itself in terms of that label. The model specifies the causes and consequences of reappropriation as well as the essential conditions necessary for reappropriation to be effective. To place the concept of reappropriation in proper context, we begin by discussing the roots of stigma and the mediating role played by social categorization and social identity in the realization of stigma’s deleterious effects. We also discuss the strategies available to both individuals and groups by which stigmatized individuals can enhance their devalued social identities. We provide a discussion of two historical cases of reappropriation and some preliminary empirical evidence concerning the consequences of self-labeling and attempting to reappropriate a stigmatizing label. Finally we discuss the implications of the model for groups and teams, both within and outside of organizations.

Canadian epidemiological data suggest an increasing number of HIV infections among people from HIV-endemic countries, including sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, there are few studies that focus on the lived experience of HIV illness among Canadian residents of African ancestry. The purpose of this paper is to study the lived experiences of African immigrants living with HIV in Canada, using narrative inquiry methodology.

This qualitative study focussed on the experiences of sub-Saharan African immigrants living with HIV in Alberta, Canada. Using the philosophical underpinnings of narrative inquiry methodology (Clandinin, 2013), three African immigrants living with HIV in Alberta contributed to this study over an extended period of time. Between five and six interviews were conducted with each participant, over a period of 12 months. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed, and negotiated with each participant during analysis to uncover the experience and meaning of living with HIV as African immigrants in Canada.

The researchers found several narrative threads related to: stigma, social, and family exclusion; as well as HIV illness as a complex personal, familial, and social experience. Also, narratives across different geographic and social spaces shaped the complex experience among African immigrants living with HIV in their new host country of Canada.

The authors recognize that the sample size, though appropriate for narrative inquiry study, was small. The intention with this research was not to generalize findings to the broader African immigrant community that is affected by HIV illness in Canada. Rather, the intent was to demonstrate a deeper understanding of lived experience, among African immigrants living with HIV in Canada.

The findings show the complex personal, familial, and societal factors that shape the experience of living with HIV and HIV-related stigma among African immigrants. It is important to understand such factors and the experience of HIV-related stigma because such experiences impact access to health and social services, as well as health and social outcomes of immigrants living with HIV.

This is the first Canadian study to examine lived experience of African immigrants living with HIV in Canada. This study demonstrates a deep understanding of lived experience, among African immigrants living with HIV in Canada. Complex personal, familial, and societal factors shape the experience of living with HIV and HIV-related stigma. Based on the findings of this study, further research is needed to: study more closely the familial contexts of African families affected by HIV in Canada; explore the social and political landscapes that impact the experience of HIV illness and related stigma in Canada, in the context of migration and settlement; and examine the relationship between these experiences and the health and social outcomes of African immigrants living with HIV in Canada.

The basic family unit is an important institution whose scope and function has changed greatly over the past one hundred years. The contemporary form of the family is understood as “conjugal and nuclear.” This implies a greater emphasis than previously on individual roles and relationships within the private sphere of the contemporary family. Additionally, the family is understood to have lost many of its former functions, further separating itself from the external world. The separation has further stripped the family from many of the roles it once had, with traditional familial functions performed by other institutions.

The stigmatisation of COVID-19 patients or suspected cases is a matter of grave concern across the world, including India. Today, COVID-19 patients or suspected cases are being stigmatised or labelled as “corona carrier” and “corona spreader” because of which they are facing social rejection, mental torture, abusive behaviour and violence in the society. The objectives of the present study are to examine the nature of stigma construction in Indian society during COVID-19 pandemic and to explore its outcome on the well-being of corona-affected people.

The study uses content analysis method to explain the COVID-19 stigma. The data have been collected from various Indian newspapers and magazines. The researchers have analysed the content of the news items related to social stigma which were collected from March to September 2020.

The study finds that COVID-19 patients or suspected cases are insulted and discriminated rudely by their family members and neighbours, and in many cases, they are not allowed to enter the house or the neighbourhood. The study has also pointed out that many COVID-19 patients or suspected cases have committed suicide as a result of being stigmatisation. Finally, the study explores that this social stigma is spreading due to fake news, lack of awareness and fear of corona infection.

This is an original paper which is based on content analysis. The present study focuses on the social stigma in Indian society during COVID-19. Basically, the present study has applied the theory of Erving Goffman which is based on stigma to examine the nature and problem of social stigma during COVID-19. The study has found that there are three types of social stigma during the corona pandemic: self-made stigma, family-made stigma and society-made stigma.

Racialized minority and newcomer communities are over-represented in positive HIV cases in Canada. Stigma has been identified as one of the barriers to HIV prevention, testing, and treatment. Faith, media, and social justice sectors have historically served a vital role in promoting health issues in these communities. However, they have been relatively inactive in addressing HIV-related issues. The purpose of this paper is to report on the results of an exploratory study that engaged faith, media, and social justice leaders in the African-Caribbean, Asian, and Latino communities in Toronto.

This study used a qualitative interpretive design and focus groups to explore the challenges and opportunities in addressing HIV stigma. A total of 23 people living with HIV and 22 community leaders took part in seven focus groups. Intersectionality was used as an analytical lens to examine the social processes that perpetuate HIV stigma.

This paper focuses on the perspectives of community leaders. Five themes were identified: misconception of HIV as a gay disease; moralistic religious discourses perpetuate HIV stigma; invisibility of HIV reinforces community denial; need to promote awareness and compassion for people with HIV; and the power of collective community efforts within and across different sectors.

Although affected communities are faced with many challenges related to HIV stigma, effective change may be possible through concerted efforts championed by people living with HIV and community leaders. One important strategy identified by the participants is to build strategic alliances among the HIV, media, faith, social justice, and other sectors. Such alliances can develop public education and HIV champion activities to promote public awareness and positive emotional connections with HIV issues, challenge HIV stigma and related systems of oppression, and engage young people in HIV championship.