Ethnicity In Social Context – Issues Of Inclusion And Exclusion

Ethnicity

Discuss about the Ethnicity in Social Context.

A very simple explanation of ethnicity is the state of being part of a common group or cultural tradition. When a group of people share a common distinct culture, religion or language, then it is known as an ethnic group. In terms of social existence there are various factors which influence both ‘social inclusion’ as well as ‘social exclusion’. Social inclusion signifies the process where various groups or individuals are given the chance to engage in several economic, political and social systems. On the contrary social exclusion is the process when individuals or groups are relegated to the fringe of the society. In this study an in depth understanding will be gained on the inclusion and exclusion in the society with reference to the ethnicity of an individual or group. An attempt will be made to identify the issues related to inclusion and exclusion in the ethnicity context and also describe the anti-oppressive practices, and that how it might impact one’s own practice and relationship with the client. This way it will help in understanding how effective counseling can build good relationships even in a cross cultural context.

In this study to explain ethnicity the Scottish culture will be taken. Scots are a native group found in Scotland. If the emergence of the group is traced back in history it will be seen that this group emerged when ‘Picts’ and ‘Gaels’ merged to form the kingdom of Scotland. People of Scottish descent are spread all across the globe, majorly in the country of Canada (De Kock et al., 2015). The three major languages spoken by the Scots are English, Scots and Gaelic. In terms of religion, the faith that majority of people in Scotland practice is Christianity. The Scots basically means painted people as they have a custom of painting or tattooing their bodies. Hence this provides a clear picture on the ethnicity of the Scottish people and how different it is from the people of New Zealand. They possess a deep rooted culture with rich mythology, very different art form and also performing arts (Marquardt & Herrera, 2015)

It is often seen in a social context that an individual is judged on the basis of his national identity. This is often decided by the fact whether claims of that particular individual is regarded by the society. Hence it can be said that ethnicity often makes an individual an ‘outsider’. It ultimately leads to social inclusion or exclusion (Kastoryano & Schader, 2014).. Since ethnicity or racism is still a subject of taboo in most countries hence there are very few studies relating to the role played by ethnicity or race in social exclusion and inequality. The four major premises on which ethnicity works are: language, region, religion and caste.

Ethnicity in a social context

Religion is one of the common factors which can give rise to lot of issues within the social paradigm. This is specially seen in places where there is existence of several religions being practiced by the population. The stress of the religion based identities often lead to communal riots (Clammer,  2017).. The communal riots again can cause marginalization in the society. This leads to exclusion in the society. Probably that is the reason it is often stated that religion is the most critical point that attacks a particular culture. Religion has thus often been coined as the first sense that builds the feeling of community. But religion should never be perceived as a social security card. Since religion also refers to social inclusion, many wants to grasp it as a tool to adhere to the cream of the society, but that should not be the case. As ethnicity which incorporates religion in itself is not a differentiating factor.

Apart from religion the other aspect that often creates many challenges or issues is languages. Linguistic aspirations often act as a threat in unity and integrity of any social system. Not only language but dialects often can cause a point of differentiation in the society (Steed, 2015). In the History of India it has often been seen that the concern of most political and social uprising has been due to linguistic differences. This has also caused both social inclusion and social exclusion as a result. Such region based ethnic objectives have been the cause of several social movements.  The relationship of language and society has many issues ranging from international relations to interpersonal relationships. Another good example can be the language attitudes in America with respect to the English language. Studies of status of different languages across different countries will give a macro level understanding of social relations and culture (Hunting et al., 2015). An alternative approach to language and society, points out situations when usage of language is an activity altogether. In this context, for example, addressing a person by the prefix ‘Mr.’ or ‘Mrs.” is not a case of knowing simple vocabulary.  It is also about the relationship and also the social status of the person concerned. Similarly usage of sentence alternatives is not a matter of just simple sentence construction. Choosing the correct construction involves cultural values like politeness, status and deference. Hence this gives a much clearer idea as to hoe linguistic differences creates social barriers leading to social exclusions.

Religion

Since time immemorial it has been that all civilizations irrespective of the time, has structured society in a particular pattern. A good example is stratification like feudal lords and serfs, ‘capitalist’ and ‘proletariat’ (Wright & Stickley, 2013). Hence it can be inferred that there is no existence of any society without stratification. Societies are stratified on the basis of class, status, caste and also income groups. The word caste had its origin in the Spanish word ‘Casta’ which meant breed or race. In India caste was the basis of stratification of society since the age of the Rig Veda. There were several issues of caste which led to oppression among the people in the society.  This oppression led to marginalization I the society. Even political issues were spurred using this as a tool. Region based demarcation in the society is also common all across the globe (Sacco et al., 2014). Inter regional conflicts have often led to demarcation in the society as a whole creating or inviting social inclusion.

The simple explanation of oppression is the utilization of power to marginalize silence or subordinate otherwise any social group or category in order to benefit the oppressor. Social oppression generally does not require a very formal organizational support; the desired effect can be made by mere focused individual actions. Anti oppression practices seeks to first identify the oppression that exists and then attempts to mitigate its effects trying to balance the power ij the society (Barak 2016). There are groups in the society and communities that is more powerful than the others based on the membership of that group. A good example can be the group of CEOs of major companies. It would be noticed that this group is dominated by ‘White Males’. On the contrary most fast food workers are dominated by women of colour. But when a close look is taken at social assistance or state aid, it will be seen most of it is received by aged or disable people. There are hardly available for oppression dominated b y ethnicity. Anti oppressive practices does not consist of any established structure or mode (Rajé, 2017). It is a continuous process involving innovation. An attempt is being made in recent times about how using a range of anti oppressive ideas like poetry and creativity can break through the traditional modes and confront systematic oppression. Anti oppression has a much wider purview than just combing a bunch of categories of oppression. Anti oppressive stances or practices goes beyond any categorization. The most simple way or method of anti-oppression is to practice minimization of power hierarchies in the social structure. This can be best achieved by building the power of those who hold a marginalized identity in society and reducing the unfair power of those who are the so called privileged class in the society. In a larger context, emergence of anti oppression practices refers to deepening of globalization and the rise of the policies of neo liberalism. Hence attempts are being made by social workers all across the globe to clinically orient anti oppression with counseling (Luchies, 2015). Anti oppression practices embodies a philosophy that is person centered, an egalitarian value system that is working on reducing the deleterious effects of inequalities of structure upon a person’s life. Hence the focus now is on correcting all injustices, building power of the less powered people and centering the needs of all those communities that have marginalized identities. The UN has specified human rights that work on mitigating social injustice. This helps students and other social workers in practicing theories and skills to uphold these obligations and fulfill the requirement of anti oppression practice.

Language

Community power and culture are associated with the maintenance of the equality in the organization and in the society. Identification of the relationship between the society and the associated ethnic group are concerned with the maintenance of the alignment with the diversity in the range of family concern and political beliefs (Ali & Lees, 2013).. It has been found that the closed people group may safeguard and reinforce a specific ‘culture’, in any case, they lessen the encounters accessible to individuals, and they might be extremely defenseless against misconception, preference, persecution and even assault from those outside. Mill and Gwyne in the year 1972 have depicted the impact of institutional watch over disable.

In this context, the application of anti-oppressive concern is associated with managing the client or individual from the extent of diverse treatment in the society (Baines, 2013). Anti-oppressive social work rehearses is a way to deal with training that includes a comprehension of the complexities and sources of the mistreatment that exists in our general public and effect on people. It incorporates numerous hypotheses including, however not constrained to “radical, basic, women’s activist, against bigot, basic, and liberator systems”.  With the application of the anti-oppressive concern it has been found that the social workers are ensuring benefits with the development and application of the following client concern management-

The application of anti-oppressive application is helping the social workers to maintain the high quality service for the clients.

The workers are striving towards the enhancement and maintenance of the professional knowledge for the development of the skills for the client (Mattsson, 2014).  

Social workers are associated with showing the care for the interest of the client and safety of the practices for the areas of demonstrating the competence

On the other hand, during the management of the client with the help of anti-oppression activities; it is essential for the workers to focus towards some of the relevant concerns as following

Maintaining the awareness regarding the social differences

Linking of the personal and political concern towards the development of the understanding

Power related applications for the practice of mutual involvement from the end of client towards the society.

Open doors for change are made by the procedure of the challenge. Difficulties are not generally effective and are frequently excruciating for the individual or gathering being tested or testing. Thus, application of anti-oppression is helping in understanding the challenges and suitable application to overcome the situation effectively (Danso, 2015).

Conclusion

This study clearly brings out the stratification in society that happens in the context of various cultural aspects; ethnicity being one of them.  It also wonderfully explores how ethnicity can cause various situations that in turn bring about social inclusion as well as exclusion. These are all examples of oppressive practices that tend to marginalize particular groups, hence the study also discusses the various aspects of anti-oppression practices and how these have impacted the relationship of an individual with its surrounding and clients. The concept of counseling such relationships have been brought up so that these can eventually bridge the gap of stratification and nurture more of social inclusion rather than social exclusion.

Ali, A., & Lees, K. E. (2013). The therapist as advocate: Anti?oppression advocacy in psychological practice. Journal of clinical psychology, 69(2), 162-171.

Baines, S. (2013). Music therapy as an anti-oppressive practice. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 40(1), 1-5.

Barak, M. E. M. (2016). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications.

Clammer, J. (2017). Performing ethnicity: Beyond constructivism to social creativity. Social Alternatives, 36(1), 30.

Danso, R. (2015). An integrated framework of critical cultural competence and anti-oppressive practice for social justice social work research. Qualitative social work, 14(4), 572-588.

De Kock, C., Decorte, T., Vanderplasschen, W., Schamp, J., Derluyn, I., Hauspie, B., … & Sacco, M. (2015). Studying ethnicity and substance use: ontological considerations and methodological implications. In Ethnic minority youth: drugs, gangs and street life.

Hunting, G., Grace, D., & Hankivsky, O. (2015). Taking action on stigma and discrimination: An intersectionality-informed model of social inclusion and exclusion. Intersectionalities: A Global Journal of Social Work Analysis, Research, Polity, and Practice, 4(2), 101-125.

Kastoryano, R., & Schader, M. (2014). A comparative view of ethnicity and political engagement. Annual Review of Sociology, 40, 241-260.

Luchies, T. (2015). Towards an insurrectionary power/knowledge: Movement-relevance, anti-oppression, prefiguration. Social Movement Studies, 14(5), 523-538.

Marquardt, K. L., & Herrera, Y. M. (2015). Ethnicity as a variable: an assessment of measures and data sets of ethnicity and related identities. Social Science Quarterly, 96(3), 689-716.

Mattsson, T. (2014). Intersectionality as a useful tool: Anti-oppressive social work and critical reflection. Affilia, 29(1), 8-17.

Rajé, F. (2017). Transport, demand management and social inclusion: The need for ethnic perspectives. Routledge.

Sacco, D. F., Bernstein, M. J., Young, S. G., & Hugenberg, K. (2014). Reactions to social inclusion and ostracism as a function of perceived in-group similarity. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 18(2), 129.

Steed, K. (2015). Social inclusion and exclusion. Culturescope, 106, 28.

Wright, N., & Stickley, T. (2013). Concepts of social inclusion, exclusion and mental health: a review of the international literature. Journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing, 20(1), 71-81.