The Edge of Society WSC 2019 Hehe

World Scholars Cup 2019
ON The Edge of Society

Compiled from various resources
Singapore Piaget Academy Solo Raya
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Guide Questions
•What does it mean to belong?

• In terms of the actual dictionary definition, “belong” is a verb that refers to the state
of being someone or something’s property. A secondary definition is when someone
or something is “a member or part of (a particular group, organisation or class).
Nowadays the meaning of the word is about as elastic as the WSC is when it comes
to punctuality. Belonging is more commonly used in society, where people are
excluded or included because of traits that make them “belong” within that social
class.
•What does it mean for a group of people to be marginalized?

• Once again we refer to the dictionary first (as every logical thinker should probably
do) in order to answer this question. Marginalized is a term that refers to the
treatment of people or groups in ways that make them feel insignificant or
peripheral. In this day and age, that term is used to refer to the treatment of groups
who are shunned from normal society and are often left on their own.
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Credits to https://avansalpacaresources.weebly.com/social-studies-2019.html
Guide Questions
•Is it always better to be included than to be excluded?

• Would you rather be included in a group of bullies than be excluded? It depends on
what group you’re being included in and what group you’re being excluded from.
•Who decides who belongs in a certain group?

• The people inside the group itself often do. A common school example is the “popular
people”, who garner attention from everyone and are often defined by their physical
appearance, intelligence or other notable characteristic (including the apparent
necessity to take alcohol and other dangerous substances in the popular group of my
school, which I am very much not in thank goodness).
•Is it always wrong to exclude people from a group?

• Once more: is it wrong to exclude a kind-hearted athletic person from a group of
athletic yet cold-hearted people? It depends on the group and whether inclusion
brings more harm than exclusion. In the case of societies nowadays, we find that
people consider it wrong to exclude minorities or other oppressed groups from the
general public.
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Guide Questions
•Are there any situations in which one might want to be marginalized?

• None that spring to mind, though perhaps a situation where people prefer not being noticed
and being excluded from society would bring this about. Indeed I doubt the uncontacted tribes
living deep in the Amazonian rainforest or remote Pacific islands would enjoy it if society
suddenly included them in our advancements.
•Should people ever be integrated with others against their will?

• One word: colonisation. The process literally involves integrating entire nations worth of people
into another group against their will, just to expand the power and territory of the group that
colonised (great job Europe, your empires are now to blame for marginalisation). In the modern
era people shouldn’t have their will forcefully taken away when it comes to integration, there
are those who prefer being recognised as separate from other groups and we should respect
their choice.
•What is the difference between exclusion and inequality?
• Exclusion refers to the act of making someone or something excluded, denying them access to
a group, place, privilege or other status that those included possess. Inequality refers to the state
of being unequal, when groups have vastly different privileges, statuses or other aspects that
make one more favorable than the other (we do not know of this term in glorious Motherland
fellow comrade!). When it comes to marginalisation, inequality refers to how much say, public
attention, privileges or other rights are unequally balanced amongst groups.
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Guide Questions
Can people ever be “separate but equal”?
Let us take a look at the exact origin of that term. In order to do that we must look at that vile land that brands
itself as the “land of the free” (America, for those of you not politically or historically aware). “Separate but
equal” referred to a legal doctrine in the United States Constitution which stipulated that racial segregation did
not violate the Fourteenth Amendment (equal protection under the law to all people, regardless of race or
class). In 1896 the court case Plessy vs. Ferguson ruled that segregation was not discrimination so long as the
separate facilities were equal (which they were clearly not!). In the later half of the 20th century, this came
under fire from social activists calling for the removal of segregation, it was then that the court realised how
unequal the facilities were, causing for the doctrine to be scrapped.
In the modern age, people can’t really be “separate but equal”, the two somehow appear to be mutually
exclusive. By separating groups and minorities, we are already making them unequal in status to the larger
public. By making them separate, we are giving them less attention and often fewer rights than the general
public along with many more inequalities. Separate but equal should probably be replaced with “United and
Equitable” for the modern era in my opinion.
Are there any valid arguments against inclusiveness as a social goal?

Not to my knowledge (which is limited in this field, I’m not exactly a major social activist). One possible
argument might be the risk of assimilation instead of inclusion. The more we integrate groups and minorities into
society, the more likely we are to strip them of what made them unique in the first place and make them more
like us (sort of an “us vs. them” standoff where one group will siphon all the unique things off the other). Another
argument might be that some groups would prefer remaining separate from general society (this is more
applicable towards actual cultural groups than social niches nowadays).
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Guide Questions
Are there any steps toward increasing inclusiveness with which you would be uncomfortable?
Forcefully including people in society is probably not something we should be aiming for,
neither is shunning other minorities in the interests of increasing the inclusiveness of others.
Are there times when stratification is necessary or beneficial for a society?

Firstly a quick definition: stratification refers to the process of forming layers, classes or
categories (more commonly used in geology to refer to topographical layers). You might
recall a sort of feudal system or socioeconomic class structure where people in a society
were organised based on their wealth, income or job (something Communism attempts
to abolish, for the betterment of society!). For much of history, stratification has been an
inevitable aspect of society (even, regrettably in the USSR). Capitalist consumer policies
and government structures meant that those who couldn’t afford a lot were at the
bottom, working their backs off to feed the coffers of those at the top. In the modern age
we try and avoid social stratification, whereby groups are regarded in lower lights and
given lesser rights due to their characteristics. One of the biggest problems is with females
in society, some countries in the Middle East finds the concept of gender equality
outrageous whilst many western countries find the concept appealing for their future.
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Guide Questions
Are there any steps toward increasing inclusiveness with which you would be uncomfortable?
Forcefully including people in society is probably not something we should be aiming for,
neither is shunning other minorities in the interests of increasing the inclusiveness of others.
Are there times when stratification is necessary or beneficial for a society?

Firstly a quick definition: stratification refers to the process of forming layers, classes or
categories (more commonly used in geology to refer to topographical layers). You might
recall a sort of feudal system or socioeconomic class structure where people in a society
were organised based on their wealth, income or job (something Communism attempts
to abolish, for the betterment of society!). For much of history, stratification has been an
inevitable aspect of society (even, regrettably in the USSR). Capitalist consumer policies
and government structures meant that those who couldn’t afford a lot were at the
bottom, working their backs off to feed the coffers of those at the top. In the modern age
we try and avoid social stratification, whereby groups are regarded in lower lights and
given lesser rights due to their characteristics. One of the biggest problems is with females
in society, some countries in the Middle East finds the concept of gender equality
outrageous whilst many western countries find the concept appealing for their future.
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Guide Questions
•Is the world becoming more inclusive? Is your school? Is your country?
• The world is slowly becoming more inclusive, my school as well and my country too (shortest
answer I’ll ever give in this subject area!).
•Is there a difference between being in the minority and being marginalized?
• There is indeed a difference (though nowadays the two are used interchangeably), being in
the minority refers to being part of something that makes up a lesser part of a whole than the
other parts (for example, minority cultures often have fewer people than the other cultures in
the whole society). While most minorities are marginalised in their treatment, the two are very
different and should not be confused.
•Are different marginalized groups in the same society natural allies, or are they just as likely to turn on
each other?
• Both. While these marginalised groups are often capable of coming tomorrow and uniting to
ensure society hears them, there is always the chance that they can turn on each other and
cause the further marginalisation of one group if they have conflicting
thoughts/interests/beliefs.
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Basic Features
of Social
Groups
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Basic Features of Social Groups
Power Structures
• required to influence the actions of other
members.
• system through which power or authority is
shared or distributed between groups. • An example of a power structure : families where
the parents have a big chunk of the “power”
which in turn influences the action of their
• Power Structures can be found in
children.
government, to offices and even your school.
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power structures | roles | communication structures 12
Roles
• functions or parts played by everyone in a
society
• It is the expectations of a certain status

which is created through norms, values,
behaviours, and characteristics.
• Roles in groups are divided into four

categories
• task roles,
• socio-emotional roles (to maintain all the
emotional needs of a group),
• procedural roles (to make sure rules and
norms are being followed and work is
being done),
• individual roles.
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Communication Structures
• interaction and communication between
the individuals of a group.
• audience to set up an effective

communication structure.
• in families, mothers tend to interact more

with their newborns than older kids.
• marginalised groups tend to get less

communication to other members of
society because they are shunned from
public interaction much more than other
groups.
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Similarity
• ‘having the same things in common’.
• Similarity tend to bring them together

leading them to form groups.
• in a school environment, students with a

common interest in chess and board games
might lead to them forming a chess club.
• a lack of similarity can lead to public

dissonance and societal clashes, as is mostly
the case with marginalized groups or
minorities.
similarity | interdependence | injunctive and proscriptive norms

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Interdependence
• The dependence on the members of group
on each other.
• the buddy cooperation of society. You rely

on someone for something and in exchange
they rely on you for something else.
• Taking one individual out of the equation

would in turn lead to a domino effect all the
other members. Even if two people are
dependent on each other equally, it doesn’t
necessarily create an equal power dynamic.

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Injunctive vs. Proscriptive Norms

• Injunctive norms are perceptions on
behavior that the people of a society
approve of. They help in determining what
is acceptable and unacceptable in a
community. For example staying quiet in the
cinema or in the library is an injunctive norm.
• Proscriptive Norms are behaviors you’re

not supposed to show in a society. For
instance in countries with arranged
marriages as a part of culture, Public Displays
of Affection are considered to be
proscriptive norms.

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Entitativity:
When does a group
think of itself as a
group?
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Entitativity: When does a group think of itself as a group?
Cultural identity groups

• person's self-conception and self-
perception based on a feeling of
belonging (or actual belonging) to
a group.
• For example, African-Americans,

Asian-Americans, Pacific Islanders,
Native Americans and Hispanic
and Latino Americans are all
examples of cultural identity
groups,.
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cultural identity groups | crowds vs. mobs 19
Crowds vs. Mobs

• A crowd is simply a large number of
people gathered together in a
disorganized or unruly way
• A mob is a large crowd of people,

especially one that is disorderly and intent
on causing trouble or violence.
Similarities:
 Both involve large amounts of people
 Disorganized
Differences:
 Intents: crowd has neutral connotations
while a mob is a crowd that aims to cause
disorder and usually has a common goal
(e.g. to revolt)
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cultural identity groups | crowds vs. mobs 20
Tuckman Model Stages

 Forming: When teammates/colleagues
start to know each
• published by Bruce Tuckman in 1965 in an
other(strengths/weaknesses)
article called “Developmental Sequence
in Small Groups
• the stages NEW teams follow to bond and  Storming: When teammates/colleagues
increase their chances of success. get too comfortable with each other and
push each other to their boundaries. This is
where most teams collapse and fail (conflict)
 Norming: When teammates/colleagues

start to resolve their differences and
appreciate each others’ strengths
 Performing: When the team reaches their

maximum effectiveness, without any internal
conflict
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Tuckman Model | Seceder Model | Homans’ Theory 21
Seceder Model
• “Survival of the unfittest”.
• the model shows how the desire to be

different from the “average” in a
population can lead to the
creation of more groups with in
that society. As the “average”
continues to shift depending on the
definition of the word by the sub-groups,
even more groups are created with the
desire to be different from the rest.
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Homans’ Theory
• Homans’ theory is the notion of what
happens when groups form amongst
individuals. (formation of Social behavior)
• It consists of:
 Activities: Assigned tasks for people
in a group to work
 Interaction: Happens when any
person’s activity takes place or is
influenced by theactivity of another
 Sentiments: Feelings and attitudes
toward each other (ex. like or dislike,
approval ordisapproval
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Social Exchange Theory

• studies the social behavior in the
interaction of two parties.
• interactions are fueled by our personal

need to find gratification from others
and as such are determined by the
rewards or punishments
• an interaction which produces more

rewards will likely continue to
occur, whilst an interaction that
produces more punishments will likely
cease to continue.
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social exchange theory | swarm behavior | herd mentality 24
Swarm Behaviour
• Swarm behaviour is exhibited by entities,
particularly animals, of similar size that
combined together to settle or migrate
collectively.
• It could be for self protection, to attack

other groups, or simply for comfort.
• Humans often show this type of mentality

by forming groups subconsciously in
crowded areas and moving in large
formations to avoid being attacked or picked
off.
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Herd Mentality
• Herd mentality is also known as mob mentality
or pack mentality.
• It is just making
decisions based on the
perspective and actions of another
instead of thinking and making the decision
oneself.
• Researchers at the University of Leeds

discovered that it only takes 5% to influence a
whole crowd’s direction, and the other 95% will
subconsciously follow.
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To Follow the
Group,
To Go Astray
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To Follow the Group, To Go Astray
Informational vs Normative vs
Referential Conformity
• Social conformity as a whole is defined as
one’s change of behavior in order to fit the
norm of a group.
• Normative conformity is when one

changes themselves with the desire to
be liked and accepted. This could occur
in a social situation.
 For example, let’s assume you and your friends

were trying to decide what you wanted to order
for lunch. They all want pizza, but you want a
salad. In this scenario even though you may not
want pizza, due to social conformity you choose
to pretend like you do so you don’t stand out.
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informational vs normative vs referential conformity: 28
• Informative conformity on the other hand,
is when one changes themselves with the
desire to be correct.
 Let’s suppose you and your friends were trying to
figure out a hard math problem. They may all
agree that the answer is -1, but the answer you
got is +1. In this situation you may pretend like
your answer is -1 too. However, the motivation of
this wouldn’t be because you want to fit in.
Subconsciously, because all your friends agree
on one answer, you automatically doubt the
validity of yours.
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• Referential conformity (which is not as
‘well-known’, but which occurs just as
commonly) is when one changes themselves in
order to fit the expectations set on them based
on their background/religion/ethnicity.
• For example, an Asian may choose to

concentrate on academics (despite their
love of the arts) because Asian culture
recognizes ‘scholarly’ achievements, while
looking down on the pursuit of the arts.
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Social Identity Theory

• proposed by Henri Tajfel in 1979.
• a person’s sense of identity of who they are
based on their group membership(s).
• Our social groups are a source of pride and
self-esteem, because they give us a sense of
social belonging. Thus, in order to enhance our
social identity, we enhance the status of the
group in which we belong in.
• Of course, we can also enhance our identity by
judging and criticizing other groups. These
groups are known as the in-group (your group),
and the out-group (another group).
• This is base of the social identity theory which
states that the in-group will discriminate against
the out-group in order to enhance their own
image.
https://www.simplypsychology.org/social-identity-theory.html
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social identity theory | self-categorization 31
Self-categorization
• John Charles Turner can claim
credit for this specific theory.
• Simply put, this theory puts forth the

processes by which people create
their social identities by comparing
their own traits against those of
other people both within and out of
the social groups they’ve placed
themselves in.
https://www.simplypsychology.org/social-identity-theory.html
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social identity theory | self-categorization 32
Dominant Culture
A dominant culture is a cultural practice that
is leading in a political/social/economic
entity, in which multiple cultures are present. This
could relate to language, social value/custom or
religion. For example, in USA the dominant culture
is that of white, middle class, Protestant Christian
people of European descent.
Counterculture
A counterculture is a cultural group whose values
and normalities counter that of the social/religious
mainstream. An example of this in history, is the
1960 Hippie movement in USA.
For more information
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dominant culture | counterculture | high-brow vs. low-brow 33
High-Brow Vs. Low-Brow

Something ‘high-brow’ is something highly
cultured and sophisticated. For example, in the
music industry, opera and classical music would
be considered highbrow. As you may have
guessed, anything highbrow is intellectual in
nature, and people who appreciate such things
are naturally considered highbrows as well.
Lowbrow is the opposite of highbrow. Lowbrow

refers to things that are vulgar and less
sophisticated.
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dominant culture | counterculture | high-brow vs. low-brow 34
Asch Paradigm
• experiment conducted by Solomon Asch in 1951 to
investigate the extent in which social pressure can
affect a person to conform.
• 50 male participants from a college in USA
participated in a ‘vision test’. Each participant was
placed in a room with seven actors, who’d previously
agreed on a shared answer to the test. The
participant is not aware of this, and thinks that all
seven others are real participants like himself.
• The participant and the seven actors would then be
asked a simple question, with a clear answer. They
then, took turns in answering the question, with the
participant always answering last. In the 12 trials, the
participants didn’t always change their answers, but
in those 12 trials, the actors gave the incorrect
answer. On average, about 32% of participants
(about a third) conformed. 75% of participants The main takeaway from the Asch Paradigm is that
conformity is somehow natural in human beings
conformed at least once in the 12 critical trials, while
because we fear being singled out and picked at
25% didn’t. There was a control condition where less because of our uniqueness.
than 1% of participants gave the incorrect answers.
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Asch Paradigm | Crutchfield Situation 35
Crutchfield Situation
• developed by Richard Crutchfield
• an attempt the methodology of the Asch Paradigm, which had a

few major flaws. One major flaw is that many accomplices are
needed to study on participant. Participants answer under the
watchful eyes of others, which increases feelings of embarrassment.
• The Crutchfield experiment was able to deceive each participant

without the need of any actors, or any public embarrassment.
• Participants were seated in individual cubicles, and asked to make

opinions based on the things flashed on the screen in front of them
(for example, which shape had the greater area) by flicking a
switch. The answers of all participants are then displayed on their
screens, one by one.
• However, all the participants were in fact being deceived. The

answers being displayed weren’t controlled by the participants, but
by the experimenter. When the participant believed she/he was
seeing the responses of the others, the display was in fact being
controlled.
Crutchfield made each participant believe that they were

answering last, making it easy for him to display that all the others
gave the same incorrect answer.
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Asch Paradigm | Crutchfield Situation 36
Them-ocracy:
Understanding Exclusion
and Rivalry
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Them-ocracy: Understanding Exclusion and Rivalry
Ingroup vs. Outgroup

• Polish social psychologist Henri Tajfel in
formulating the social identity theory,
• may also be known as us and them.
• An "ingroup" is a social group which a person

self categorises to be a part of
• "outgroup" is a social group to which we do not

identify to be a part of. We tend to segregate
ourselves according to race, age, religion,
social class and more- although this is mostly
done subconsciously, it has been found that
this is associated with a wide range of
psychological phenomena!
ingroup vs. outgroup | outgroup homogeneity | trait ascription

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Outgroup Homogeneity
• Also known as Outgroup Bias
• normally a bias members of in-groups have

due to which they view the members of an
outgroup as the same while they view
members of their in-group as different. “They
are alike, we are diverse.”
• It’s where your brain believes that people of the out-

group are more similar to each other than the
people of your in-group.
• Asian community (in-group) acknowledge each
other’s differences ,perhaps to Americans (out-
group) they might all be the same which in turn
contributes to stereotypes being formed (similar
themes revised in What Kind of An Asian Are
You)
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Trait Ascription
• the tendency that we consider others to behave in

a perfectly predictable way while we regard
ourselves to be completely unpredictable, thus
leading to the formation of stereotypes.
• Jones and Nisbett were among the first to argue

that people are biased in how they tend to ascribe
traits and dispositions to others that they would not
ascribe to themselves.
• Motivated by the classic example of the student
explaining poor performance to a supervisor (in
which the supervisor might superficially believe the
student's explanations but really thinks the
performance is due to "enduring qualities": lack of
ability, laziness, ineptitude, etc.).

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Intergroup Interactions
In 1966, Muzafer Sherif defined intergroup interactions
as follows: "Whenever individuals belonging to one
group interact, collectively or individually, with
another group or its members in terms of their group
identification, we have an instance of intergroup
behavior".
Therefore interactions of ingroup members with

outgroups could be taken as an example of
intergroup interactions. Consequently, such
interactions normally give rise to stereotypes and
biases such as outgroup homogeneity.
Perhaps if the popular kids in my school were to spend an hour trapped with the nerds, some interesting
things could happen. I’d much rather see the antisocial people (myself included) locked up with the social
creatures of my year for an hour though, what torture that would be.
Intergroup interaction l Social Comparisons I Social Invisibility

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Social Comparison
individuals evaluate themselves and determine
their worth by comparing themselves to others
and seeing how they stack up to them.
Comparing themselves to others is taken as a

way of self-improvement and self-motivation.
However such a phenomena usually sparks up
judgmental, biased, over-competitive and
superior attitudes towards others. There are two
types of social comparisons:
 Upward social comparison: where we

compare ourselves we people who we think
are better than ourselves
 Downwards social comparison: where we
compare ourselves with people who we think
are worse than us.

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Social Invisibility
those people who have been overlooked or

marginalized by society.
Since the general society doesn’t pay

attention to them or usually acts like “they’re
not their”, these people become socially
invisible. Examples of such people include
the elderly, minorities, migrant workers etc.
It’s because of this that they are considered invisible from

society, their opinions and voices mattering little in actual
affairs.

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Amity-Enmity Complex
Introduced by Sir Arthur Keith in his book, “The New
Theory of Human Evolution”,
all humans evolved as opposing races, tribes, and

cultures, exhibiting patriotism, morality, leadership and
nationalism. Those who belong to these and exhibit
them are all in-group members. All other classes are
out-groups and are subject to opposition.
amity-enmity complex | internalized oppression

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Internalized Oppression
Oppression means hatred or dislike towards a group
which is upheld by public policy and private action.
Soon the people who are the target of such

discrimination and hatred ‘get used to it’. They start to
believe the lie they are in fact inferior and less worthy.
This is internalized oppression. Internalized oppression
is like….
● believing a lie
● taking dishonesty as the truth;
● having faith that persons or institutions that are not
trustworthy should be trusted
There are 3 main subcategories of this: internalized racism,

internalized homophobia and internalized sexism. All three can
occur commonly in today’s society and it should be our priority to
cease this type of behavior, for it can even divide marginalised
groups who are already receiving enough pressure from external
sources.
amity-enmity complex | internalized oppression

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Black Sheep Effect

Originally coined by José Marques
likable group members will be judged more positively

by ingroup members compared to being judged by outgroup
members.
Similarly when a person will do something unlikable,undesirable or

deviant, then they will be judged more harshly by ingroup
members compared to being judged by outgroup members.
It happens because (it’s an extension on the social identity theory)

in group members want a positive image of their group, and
because of this the groups positive social identity may be
threatened by members who don’t follow the norms thus they feel
more negative towards those in their ingroup who don’t create a
positive self image of their ingroup.
black sheep effect | Robber’s Cave | Stanford Prison Experiment 46

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Robbers Cave
This study clearly shows that conflict between groups can trigger prejudice attitudes and discriminatory
behavior. This experiment confirmed Sherif's realistic conflict theory.

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Stanford Prison Experiment
Conducted in 1971 by Philip Zimbardo,
As Zimbardo put forward: "Suppose you had only kids who were normally healthy,
psychologically and physically, and they knew they would be going into a prison-like
environment and that some of their civil rights would be sacrificed. Would those good
people, put in that bad, evil place—would their goodness triumph?"
● Participants and Setting: A mock prison was set up in the basement of Stanford
University’s psychology building and 24 undergraduate students were chosen as participants
with the half of them serving as prison guards and half of them as prisoners.
● Procedure: Prisoners were to remain in the mock prison 24-hours a day during the study.
Guards were assigned to work in three-man teams for eight-hour shifts. After each shift,
guards were allowed to return to their homes until their next shift. Researchers were able to
observe the behavior of the prisoners and guards using hidden cameras and microphones.
● Results: While the Stanford Prison Experiment was originally slated to last 14 days, it had
to be stopped after just six due to what was happening to the student participants. The
guards became abusive, and the prisoners began to show signs of extreme stress and
anxiety. The interactions between guards and prisoners became hostile and in some cases,
dehumanizing.
According to Zimbardo and his colleagues, the Stanford Prison Experiment demonstrates
the powerful role that the situation can play in human behavior. Because the guards were
placed in a position of power, they began to behave in ways they would not usually act in
their everyday lives or other situations. The prisoners, placed in a situation where they had
no real control, became passive and depressed.

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Mechanics of
Marginalization
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Mechanics of Marginalization
Discrimination
• when someone treats another person
with prejudice and injustice based off
their race, age, gender, etc.
For instance, when someone donates to an orphanage
but donates less to black children as a racist act. As a
result, this restricts these specific group from receiving the
same privileges and opportunities as everyone else.
3 Types of Discrimination
 Realistic competition: describes an
individual obtaining material/resources for
a certain type of group due to self interest.
 Social competition is driven by the need of
self-esteem, aim for a positive social status.
 Consensual competition is like favoring for
a high status in-group because of its high
hierarchy.
Discrimination| colonialism | slavery | hegemony

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• Types
Colonialism • Settler colonialism: involves large-scale
• practice or policy to extend a countries immigration by a foreign nation that aims to replace
the original population of an area
authority over foreign peoples and territories, • Exploitation colonialism: involves fewer colonists
and focuses on the exploitation of natural resources
• Objective: or labor; signified by the domination of an
• opening new trade opportunities indigenous people by a foreign minority
• siphoning off the colonised’s wealth • Surrogate colonialism: describes a colonization
• power to strengthen themselves. project supported by a colonial power in which the
colonists come from a different ethnic group

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Hegemony
• Greek term for “over dominance”

ruling class has the ability to manipulate as
influence the value system of other society
• It is the dominance of one group

over another, often backed up with
norms and ideas.
The great powers meant to establish
European hegemony over Asia and Africa.
• How does it happen?

• One has more material than
another
• More powerful military power
• Controls raw materials and
natural resources

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Nepotism
• the practice among those with power and
influence of favoring relatives and
friends, typically by handing out jobs or
positions of power within an organization or
government.
• Nepotism can occur across all sorts of fields:

politics, sports, religion and business (very
common), among other ers.
Examples
• Italy- Nepotismo “nepos” nephew
• Catholic Popes assigning their relatives to positions
• Pope Callixtus III made nephew cardinal
• Pope Alexander VII made Alessandro Farnese (mistress of
brother) - cardinal
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nepotism | endogamy | xenophobia | rankism 54
Endogamy
• marrying within a specific social group, caste,
or ethnic group.
• rejects others who are unsuitable for marriage

or other close personal relationships.
• form of self-segregation to avoid merging with

others and make sure that their community
stay homogenous.
• can result to the group’s extinction due

genetic disorder
eg. Urapmin: a small tribe in Papua New Guinea

A small community in south Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha
practices endogamy due to his geographic location. Many
people in this community suffer from glaucoma and asthma
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Xenophobia
• fear of people from other countries.
• It can involve perceptions of an ingroup
towards an outgroup
So despite the fact you may not be racist against

blacks, you might be xenophobic against Rwandans
(whose majority-black population can cause you
being labelled racist when in reality you’re
xenophobia
An example of xenophobic sentiment in Western

culture is the Ancient Greek denigration of foreigners
as "barbarians". Studies attribute the hatred of
foreigners to a various causes: the fear of loss of social
status and identity; a threat, perceived or real, to
citizens’ economic success
5/19/2019
Rankism
• The act of discriminating others due to their
rank in a particular hierarchy
• Abuse of rank is experienced by victims as an

affront to their dignity.
• promoted a social movement to the creation
of a dignitarian society targeted to racism and
sexism.
• Examples of Rankism include:

• Abusing a position of power (corruption).
• Uses rank to get away from humiliation.
• Superior value to others due to social class.
5/19/2019
Sexism
• one sex is superior to/more valuable
than another
• imposes limits on what men and women are

allowed to do.
• Originally, the idea was meant to raise

awareness about the oppression women
faced. However, it can also apply to all other
sexes. This includes intersexual and
transgender people.
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sexism | racism | ageism | ableism | elitism 58
Racism
• Racism is the belief that one race is more

superior than the other.
• Examples of racist events include: the

holocaust, apartheid regime in South
Africa, and slavery.
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Ageism
• For older people, ageism is an everyday

challenge.
• Overlooked for employment, restricted from

social services and stereotyped in the media,
• ageism marginalises and excludes

older people in their communities.
• The World Health Organization states that 80%

of people over 60 will live in low and middle-
income countries by 2050.
5/19/2019
Ableism
Ableism is the discrimination against

individuals without able bodies.
Why?
This term emerged in the 1960s and ’70s, when
disability activists placed disability in a political
context. Disabled persons may experience
labeling, altered expectations, and
discrimination in the context of eugenics.
Hitler’s motives correlate to eugenics and

ableism since he believed that certain groups
were superior. He scorned those who were
disabled and deemed them inferior.
5/19/2019
Elitism
• people who form an elite—a select
group of people with a certain ancestry,
intrinsic quality, high intellect, wealth, special
skills, or experience—are more likely to
be constructive to society.
• Belonging to the elite means that you

deserve greater influence and
authority over the rest of society. One’s
elitist status is usually attained through being
recognized for high achievements. But
sometimes we’re just lucky- maybe you were
integrated into the elite by being born into a
wealthy family.
5/19/2019
Bullying
• the use of force, threat, or coercion to assert

dominance over other individuals.
• Those who bully do it repetitively- almost like a

habit.
• It is important to note that an imbalance of

power (not necessarily physical) will be
present.
• Bullying often comes with the implied message of a

serious power imbalance.
• The bully dominates any interaction with the person
being bullied, who has little or no power to stop this
interaction
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bullying | victimization | social dominance orientation 63
Victimization
• being made a victim.
• Lifestyle/Exposure Theory
• It depends heavily upon their
lifestyle.
• Most people are victimized
at night, meaning that
those who go out to high-
risk places often will be
more vulnerable to
victimization.
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Social Dominance Orientation

• SDO measures how much someone prefers to
have a social system with a hierarchy, where
domination over lower-status groups is present
• It is a predisposition toward anti-egalitarianism.

• Egalitarianism: the doctrine that all people are
deserving of equality (applicable to human
rights, opportunities, etc).
• Individuals who score high in SDO desire to

maintain increase the differences between
social statuses of different groups, as well as
individual group members.
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Poverty and Social
Stratification
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Poverty and Social Stratification
Gini Index
• Also known as the Gini coefficient,
• measures inequality in terms of distribution of

income in a country.
• Inequality is measured between 0 (everybody

has the same income) and 1 (all the money
earnt is by one person only).
• The ‘Line of Equality’ shows the perfect

distribution of income, and the Lorenz Curve
shows the actual distribution of income.
• The further away the curve is from the ‘Line of

Equality’, the more unequal the distribution is.
Gini index | Great Gatsby curve | Poverty Gap Index

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Great Gatsby Curve

• A chart which shows the connection between
inequality in one generation, and
intergenerational social mobility.
• Horizontal axis - the Gini coefficient

measure of a nation’s wealth distribution.
• Vertical axis- as the “intergenerational

elasticity of income”. Basically this refers to
how much a percentage increase in your
family’s income • Rather frightening is the fact that some of the most developed
nations in the world, the United States and United Kingdom for
example; have very low scores when it comes to social mobility
thanks to their high inequality. Unsurprisingly, we find that
Scandinavian countries such as Denmark or Norway are at the
bottom of the curve, with their low inequality meaning that social
mobility is a perfectly possible occurrence.

5/19/2019 68
Poverty Gap Index

This is a measure of ‘the intensity’ of poverty, how
far the poor are below the poverty line (on
average).
The poverty line is the minimum level of income

thought to be acceptable in that country, and
the headcount ratio (an old method of
calculating poverty) is the percentage of
population below that poverty line.
The lower the PGI, the closer the poor people’s
income is to the poverty line, and the higher the
PGI, the more intense the poverty.
A country has 25 million citizens and a poverty line of $750 a year, along with a
poverty gap index of 10%. The average increase of $75 per year per individual
would eliminate poverty from this nation, with the total amount of money required
for the entire populace to no longer be in poverty standing at $1,875,000,000 (good
luck getting your country out of poverty, government officials).

5/19/2019 69
Social class
Social class is a concept of

dividing society based on
someone’s economic or
social status, based on
social stratification- most
often lower, middle, and
upper class.
Historically, this may have taken the form of feudalism in Medieval Europe (where
kings and priests were at the top, followed by knights and other soldiers and so
forth). In Industrial Revolution Europe, this shifted towards a more economic lens,
where the upper classes paid the lower classes to do their work for them. The
emergence of a middle class during this time also expanded the social classes. In
the modern society, our positions and income still dictate which part of the social
strata we fit into, though our rights and privileges aren’t exactly hampered as much
as they might’ve been in the past due to our position.
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social class | social mobility | dissimilarity | division of labor 70
Social mobility
This refers to the movement
of people between social
classes in a society. There
are many different types of
social mobility: horizontal
mobility, vertical mobility,
intergenerational mobility…
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Dissimilarity
This refers to difference, variance

and diversity. The index of
dissimilarity is a demographic
measure of how groups of people
are spread over a geographical
area.
5/19/2019
Division of Labour
This is the separation of tasks in any type

of working system, so that people may
specialize in them, and the effectiveness
of that task rises. This often raises the
output per person as the person
becomes competent with the repetition
of doing a task, and also lowers the
supply per cost unit, which in turn lowers
the prices for the consumers.
o The concept has given rise to cheap labour costs and lower retail prices as a result. The assembly line is a form of division of labour,
eliminating the need for skilled craftsmen who knew how to assemble every component of a product, instead replacing them with low-
skill workers who can repeat the same mind-numbing task day in day out. Henry Ford is a common name used here, for it was he who first
proposed the assembly line and division of labour on his car production lines. Instead of giving 1 car to a skilled craftsmen to make (which
could take days or even weeks!), the conveyor belt was used to speed up work and divide the tasks between “sub-groups” of workers (i.e
engine technicians could work on installing the engine, before chassis engineers worked on tweaking the body of the car).
5/19/2019
Just-World Fallacy
This is the assumption that the world is a
meritocracy, that someone’s actions will
bring fitting consequences to them, and
that good people will get rewarded, and
eventually evil people will get punished.
This is obviously untrue as life is just a
game of luck, and poor people do not
always deserve their poverty.
o If a criminal is convicted for a robbery that they committed poorly, most people would say
that they have deserved this punishment for their actions. That is the just-world fallacy. For all
you know, that robbery could’ve been against a corrupt business or a lying person and that
this was the only way that person could feed his family. The just-world fallacy is the belief that
people who are winning at the game of life have done something to deserve those rewards,
whilst does who are losing have done something to deserve those punishments.
just-world fallacy | redlining | Davis-Moore hypothesis

5/19/2019 74
Redlining
Redlining is denying to serve specific residential

areas, which is most often to do with racism. This
could be done either directly or raising the prices
for that neighbourhood. The term comes from
the presumed practice of mortgage lenders
drawing red lines on a map around areas that
they won’t loan money to- redlining based on
race is now illegal.
o If a criminal is convicted for a robbery that they committed poorly, most people would say that they have
deserved this punishment for their actions. That is the just-world fallacy. For all you know, that robbery
could’ve been against a corrupt business or a lying person and that this was the only way that person
could feed his family. The just-world fallacy is the belief that people who are winning at the game of life
have done something to deserve those rewards, whilst does who are losing have done something to
deserve those punishments.

5/19/2019 75
Davis-Moore Hypothesis
This is a hypothesis/theory that attempts to
explain social stratification. Every society sorts its
members into different positions and classes- the
more inequality in a society, the more productive
it is.
A system of unequal rewards (status or wealth) is
necessary. Higher level jobs are more important,
thus the people doing these jobs deserve to
receive higher compensation for them.
Without social stratification, society will break
down. Meritocracy is less productive than caste
systems.

5/19/2019 76
Homelessness
This is a situation where someone doesn’t have a
permanent home. This is often due to a lack of
income, or unsafe situations at home.
Slums
Slums are overcrowded urban streets or districts
inhabited by lower income people.
Favelas
This is a Brazilian-Portuguese word for slum.
Favelas are situated in a low-income densely
populated urban areas in Brazil. The first favela
was created towards the end of the 1800’s, and
was built by soldiers who had no homes after a
war.
homelessness | slums | favelas | shanty towns | skid row

5/19/2019 77
Shanty Towns
A shanty town is a settlement of improvised
housing, inhabited by poorer people.
‘Housing’ is known as shanties, or shacks, and is
made from scraps such as plywood or metal
sheets.
Skid Row
This refers to an impoverished area (usually
urban) in Los Angeles. People who live there are
‘on the skids’, which refers to in general people
forgotten by society
homelessness | slums | favelas | shanty towns | skid row

5/19/2019 78
Race and Ethnicity
5/19/2019 79
Race and Ethnicity
Segregation Self-Segregation
Segregation is the act of separating Self-segregation is when a community
groups of people based on race and separates itself from society at large,
ethnicity in everyday life. For examples: possibly to preserve customs and traditions.
• Caste system in India Examples:
• Apartheid in South Africa • Sweden - High-income, high-education
• Systemic discrimination against Arabs individuals prefer to live away from non-
in Israel european migrant neighbourhoods. i.e.
• Indirect segregation in most of the Though they are positive to
developed world multiculturalism, they prefer not being an
ethnic minority
• USA - College campuses often self-
segregate into groups based on
ethnicities.
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segregation | self-segregation | ethnocentrism 80
Race and Ethnicity
Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism is the act of judging the contents
of another ethnic culture through the lenses of
your own. Comes with the implicit idea that
one’s culture is the highest form of culture.
Examples:
• A Buddhist judging an extravagant Hindu
wedding for the importance it attaches
tomaterial wealth.
• British colonialists believing that the

importance of superstitions in Indian
cultureshows a lack of rational thought.
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segregation | self-segregation | ethnocentrism 81
Race and Ethnicity
Tribalism
• respecting the tribal way of life, which

includes small groups, generally less
technologically advanced than larger
groups.
• In the social context, the term is used to refer

to people who focus more on their own
social groups than other factors. Such as
extreme political partisanship, or an
obsession with injunctive and proscriptive
norms.
tribalism | supremacism | reverse racism | eugenics

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Race and Ethnicity
Supremacism
Supremiacism is an ideology that states a
certain group is not only superior to others, but
has the right (or even obligation) to subjugate
and dominate other groups. Ahem colonialism
ahem
This can range from anything between religion, age, sex, cultural
background, nationality or even appearance. Perhaps two of the
most notable examples of supremacism were “The White Man’s
Burden”, the belief in the 19th century that it was white people’s
responsibility to teach the “inferior races” how to be civil and more
humane. The second example is in Nazi Germany, where Adolf Hitler
advocated the belief of the Aryan Herrenvolk (Aryan Master Race) in
his dictatorial ruling over the German people.

5/19/2019 83
Race and Ethnicity
Reverse Racism
the concept of minorities discriminating against the
majority. This can be anything from racist slurs like
“cracker”, or jokes about white people not being
able to handle spice. Contextually, it also refers to
the concerns that majority groups have about
actions such as affirmative action.
Eugenics
Eugenics is a set of beliefs related to a field of
science focused on exemplifying the genetic
‘superiority’ of the human race. Generally, this
consists of removing ‘undesirable’ genes, and
promoting ‘desirable’ genes.
This was the basis of the Nazi ideology relating to the
Aryan brotherhood, and was generally accepted as
a legitimate science throughout the history of
colonialism, and even before it.

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Race and Ethnicity
Institutionalized Racism “Race Traitor”

This is when social and political This is directly related to proscriptive
institutions subtly discriminate against norms. When a member of a race is
individuals on the basis of ethnicity, perceived to be acting opposite to the
religion etc. A hot button example is interests of the race. A great example is
police brutality in the USA, wherein colonized Indian individuals that
some claim that security forces adopted European customs being told
actively discriminate against African- they’re ‘traitors to India’.
Americans.
“Passing”
Individuals being regarded as part of a group
that they don’t belong to.
For example, an Arab ‘passing’ for a respected
English gentleman in times of colonialism.
Reparations
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institutionalized racism | “race traitor” | “passing” | 85
Race and Ethnicity
Reparations
When a group has lost land, lives, wealth or even
dignity at the hands of another group, they may seek
symbolic redresses.
Example: Shashi Tharoor, an Indian politician suggests
that the British provide India with a £1 per year
symbolic reparation for 200 years.
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Reparations 86
Gender and Sexism
5/19/2019 87
Gender and Sexism
Institutional Sexism Objectification
This may refer to practices in workplaces, Objectification describes the act of seeing a
governments, public institutions, financial human being as an object. Sexual
institutions etc. which derive from systematic objectification is the act of treating a person as
sexist beliefs that men are superior to an object of sexual desire without regard to
women. A great example: the gender pay their personality or dignity. Both men and
gap, which will be explored below. women can be subjects of sexual
objectification, but the objectification of
women is an idea that is commonly addressed
and explored in many feminist groups. This is
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institutional sexism | objectification | masculinity vs femininity 88
Gender and Sexism
Masculinity vs femininity
• both describe gender identities and do not map onto biological sex.
• What gets defined as feminine or masculine may be defined by social
and cultural factors, and differs by region, religion, social class etc.
• Masculinity refers to a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated

with boys and men,
• femininity refers to that of girls and women.
• Hofstede, a Dutch psychologist, defines them as follows:

“Masculinity stands for a society in which social gender roles are clearly
distinct: Men are supposed to be assertive, tough, and focused on
material success; women are supposed to be more modest, tender, and
concerned with the quality of life.”
“Femininity stands for a society in which social gender roles overlap: Both
men and women are supposed to be modest, tender, and concerned
with the quality of life.”
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institutional sexism | objectification | masculinity vs femininity 89
Gender and Sexism
 Mansplaining:
o Mansplaining is essentially behaviour
whereby a man explain a concept, idea or
other thing to a girl in a manner regarded
as condescending or patronising.
Apparently society thought there was a
need for this specific term, since it's a
reflection of our cultural and gender norms
on males knowing more than females (not
at all true by the way).
This is seen as problematic as it reinforces gender

inequality by reinforcing gender stereotypes about
women’s presumed lesser knowledge and
intellectual ability. In an article for BBC, Kim Goodwin
identified three main
27
factors to identify whether a man is mansplaining,
illustrated in the chart above (courtesy of Kim
Goodwin and BBC).
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mansplaining | pay gap | gendercide | heteronormativity | glass ceiling
Gender and Sexism
Pay Gap
The pay gap or ‘gender pay gap’, is the
median salary of women who work full-time
and the year-round compared to the median
salary of a similar cohort of men. No matter
how you evaluate it, the gender pay gap is
very real and concerning for the economic
security of women. The gender pay gap is the
result of many factors, including occupational
segregation, bias against working mothers, and
direct pay discrimination. Additionally, such
things as racial bias, disability, access to
education, and age come into play.
Consequently, different groups of women
experience very different gaps in pay.
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Gender and Sexism
Gendercide
First coined by Mary Allen Warren in 1985, the term
gendercide refers to the systematic killing of a
specific gender. While femicide and gynocide
have been used to refer to the wrongful killing of
woman, gendercide is a sex neutral term and
therefore can be used to indicate the killing of both
male or female genders. One such case is
Srebrenica, the subject of renewed analysis –
although it shouldn't take a news story to remind us
of it – after the capture of Karadzic last week. It is
widely acknowledged that the killing of 8,000
Bosnian men and boys was part of a policy to kill as
many non-combatant males as possible, in order to
reduce the pool of possible enemy soldiers.
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Gender and Sexism
Heteronormativity
Popularised in 1991 in one of the first major works in
queer theory, heteronormativity refers to a
system that normalises behaviours and societal
expectations with the assumption that everyone
is heterosexual and adheres to a gender binary.
A lot of things that appear to be common in
everyday life are actually examples of
heteronormativity: acknowledging the existence of
only male and female and nothing else (gender
binary), assuming that “old school” gender roles are
correct and should be followed (patriarchal gender
roles), only viewing marital/sexual relations to be
legitimate they involve heterosexual individuals,
assuming that being monoamorous, monogamous,
cisgender and having reproductive sex with one’s
partner is the only way to go (simply put,
monogamy), among many others.
Heteronormativity is said to bring about many
problems in our modern society.
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Gender and Sexism
Glass ceiling
Coined by feminists who noticed the barriers
in the careers of high-achieving
women, the glass ceiling is a metaphor
for an invisible barrier that obstructs a
certain group within a demographic (in
this context, referring to women) from
rising beyond a certain level in
hierarchy. Many individuals are trying to
break through the “glass ceiling”, and a fair
amount have succeeded. Others have sought
alternatives, such as starting their own
businesses.
Research about the “mommy track” from the
late 1900s and how it relates to the glass ceiling
effect.
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Gender and Sexism
Gender identities
One’s internal perception of their gender and
how they label themselves is known as gender
identity. Contrary to societal beliefs, more than
two genders exist- a person can identify as
male, female, transgender, gender neutral,
non-binary, agender, pangender,
genderqueer, two-spirit, third gender, and all,
none or a combination of these.
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gender identities | LGBTQ+ | toxic masculinity | intersexuality
Gender and Sexism
LGBTQ+
Sometimes known as LGBTTTQQIAA. This is an ● Questioning: a person who is questioning may be
initialism for a community involving the unsure or exploring their own gender, sexual identity
following groups: and sexual orientation who may be concerned
● Lesbian: a female withromantic or sexual about applying a social label to themself for various
attraction to other females. reasons.
● Gay: a male with romantic or sexual ● Intersex: a variation in sex characteristics including
attraction to other males chromosomes, gonads, or genitals that do not allow
● Bisexual: an individual who experiences an individual to be distinctly identified as male or
romantic attraction, sexual attraction or female.
sexual behavior toward both males and ● Asexual: a lack of sexual attraction to anyone, and
females, a low/absent interest in sexual activity.
● Transgender: people who identify to a
different gender identity than their biological
/ assigned gender are known as
transgender.
● Queer: an umbrella term for all individuals
who are sexual and gender minorities.
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Gender and Sexism
Toxic Masculinity
• social expectations for the masculine gender
role to be violent, unemotional, sexually
aggressive, and so forth.
• This term first came to use when the

psychologist Shepherd Bliss in the 1980s and
1990s sought to separate the negative traits
of men from the positive traits, and used the
term “toxic masculinity” as a means of
making the distinction.
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Gender and Sexism
Intersexuality
individuals born with a reproductive or sexual
anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical
definitions of female or male.
According to the Intersex Society of North America,

“Though we speak of intersex as an inborn condition,
intersex anatomy doesn’t always show up at birth.
Sometimes a person isn’t found to have intersex
anatomy until she or he reaches the age of puberty,
or finds himself an infertile adult, or dies of old age
and is autopsied. Some people live and die with
intersex anatomy without anyone (including
themselves) ever knowing.” Intersex is a socially
constructed category that reflects real biological
variation- societal necessity sometimes leads us to
make such distinctions.
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Second-class citizen Dehumanization
A second-class citizen is a citizen whose rights Dehumanization is a process in which the target is
and opportunities are not regarded as highly, considered and treated as sub-human, or lacking
nor upheld equally compared with other qualities of a human.
members in a given society. Such citizens Examples: slaves, Hitler’s reference to Jews as
have limited, or non-existent entitlement of vermin and rats, or Trump accusing Democrats of
rights to education, healthcare, movement, allowing immigrants to infest the U.S.
ownership of property, among others. They It is used to express anger, disgust, or hatred of the
may face discrimination in both legal and target, therefore often serves as a justification for
social contexts. violence and precursor to more discrimination.
Examples: burakumin, several minorities in
Bosnia & Herzegovina Alien: An extraterrestrial being of unknown origin. Just
kidding, in this context an “alien” refers to an entity or
individual which is foreign to a country and as such is
 Vagrant: A person without a settled home who referred to by the term when in customs or immigration.
wanders around from place to place, begging for
money to the general public who pass by him/her.
Vagrants was (and still is) a derogatory term used by
 Untouchable: In the Indian caste system,
untouchables were the lowest band of people. They
society to denote people of “unclean” origin in were unable to own property, drink from public wells,
addition to beggars who appear to not understand partake in public events and at times were killed simply
human etiquette. for stepping on someone’s shadow (apparently it was
believed that this desanctified the person).
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second-class citizen | dehumanization | vagrant | alien | untouchable
Homo sacer
Definition: A figure of Roman law (also called the
accursed/sacred man), who can be killed without legal
consequence, but may not be sacrificed.
- As a person ‘beyond human and divine law’, a homo sacer
may have violated an oath, among other reasons.
Lumpenproletariat
In Marxist ideology, this term refers to the most inferior
group within the working class, who are indifferent to
revolution or even susceptible to being manipulated by
counter-revolutionary forces. This term was used
extensively by the Social Democratic Party of Germany.
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homo sacer | lumpenproletariat | baekjeong | burakumin
Baekjeong
The usage of this term originated from the Buddhist Goryeo
period in Korea, referring to a group of people without any
obligations to the state, and therefore no claim to
citizenship. These people belong in the cheonmin (vulgar
commoner) class, and suffered grave discrimination. Those
in this class may engage in numerous occupations, the most
relevant to its current use being butchery (regarded as
religiously unclean).
Burakumin
Meaning ‘hamlet people,’ it refers to the outcasts of the
traditional Japanese society who dwell in ghetto-like
communities. It is also related to eta (literally ‘pollution
abundant’) - a derogatory term. It is used for people with
impure or death-related occupations (executioner, butcher,
and undertakers, among others) The Emancipation Act of
1871, during the Meiji period, formally abolished the class.
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homo sacer | lumpenproletariat | baekjeong | burakumin
Cagot
Definition: a persecuted minority of outcasts on the
Pyrenees, Béarn, Brittany, and Gascony provinces, as well
as Northern Spain. A phenomenon rooted in religion, cagots
are ostracized by outside society, which cite reasons (which
are often baseless or used as an excuse) such as:
unorthodox views, inherent evilness, mental instability, or
even cannibalism. They are heavily discriminated: they live
in separate cagoteries with limited career choices,
separated in religious practice. It is a hereditary status,
hence there is no intergenerational mobility.
Ragyabpa
Definition: the untouchable social class in Tibet society,
performing ritually unclean work. Divided into several
layers, some being less berated than others - nevertheless
all considered to be ‘polluting and polluted.’ This status is
inescapable and hereditary.
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cagot | ragyabpa | bui doi | tanka | osu | akhdam | bitlaha
Bui doi / Bụi đời
Literally meaning ‘the dust of life’ in Vietnamese, it can refer
to either (1) the hardships of life, (2) the vagrant children on
the streets, or (3) Amerasian children in Vietnam after the
Vietnam War. They are victims of social stigmatization and
ostracization by society, the government, and sometimes by
their own family members.
Many settled in the U.S. with the passing of the 1988
Amerasian Homecoming Act, granting immigrant status to
these people and their kin.
Tanka
Also known as boat people, they are a group of marine
settlers in the marine territory of Southern China, Hong
Kong and Macau, living on junks. Referred to as outcasts,
and dwindling in population; only a small proportion still
lives onshore. They are gradually experiencing assimilation
due to loss of language.
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Osu
This involves a caste system in Igboland (Nigeria) that Akhdam
encourages discrimination of the osu (outcast in Igbo). Meaning ‘servants’ in Arabic, it refers to the
Individuals labeled osu, historically, committed great crimes untouchables in the Yemeni caste system. They often
or disobeyed the king, and was banished or sacrificed to carry out ‘impure’ work, such as being servants,
deities to prevent the wrath of the earth Deity. Being magicians, or music-performing, according to this
regarded as inferior, even until today, osu in Igboland face article, and they are characterized by extreme social
heavy discrimination and stigmatization, especially in stigmatization and poor living conditions.
marriage.
Bitlaha
This is a concept used by Santals of India and Satars of
Nepal (called ‘hod’), used to punish those that transgress
rules about marrying those inside/outside their sect. Bitlaha
means outcast, the status given to violators, who either live
exiled from the community and the hod, or be reinstated
with the help of the pancha (a male politician in the society)
and the payment of a hefty fine. It is also used to punish
sexual misconduct.
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Consider the so-called Asch Conformity Experiments and the conclusions drawn from them
about how and why people might conform to the opinions of those around them. Are there
ways in which you might critique the original experiment or the resulting paradigm? Discuss
with your team: when, if ever, is it good to conform?
o There are several critiques I would make about the original experiment and the resulting paradigm
The first is the heavy reliance on stooges, people who were in on the “correct answer” that would
pressure the naive participant to conform. In reality, we don’t have a large number of people who
know what they’re going to conform to as one collective unit, rather the Asch Experiment should
have experimented on only 2 or 3 stooges at most (not 7!). Another critique is the necessity of the
participants to declare their answers out loud, something very rare in society (how often do you find a
person who shouts out what store and product they’re going to?). In short there are many criticisms of
the Asch Experiment and it is no way a definite paradigm that we should apply to today’s society
(remember, back then the concepts of the internet, mobile phone and applications didn’t exist!).
o Conformation is one of those activities which we humans undertake naturally (you might’ve
conformed to your peers by following their example of reading this website, for which I thank you!).
There aren’t many cases of when conforming might be the “right thing” to do that I can think of.
Since conforming relies on the assumption that the people you’re conforming to are correct or that
this will prevent any negative consequences; there is no 1 type of situation in which conforming is
guaranteed to prevent harm.
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Look into the work of Project Implicit. Should its findings be applied in everyday
life, and, if so, how? How might someone critique their work? If you have time,
try taking one of the tests on this page, and, if you feel comfortable sharing the
results, discuss the experience with your team afterward.
So far, we’ve explored how conscious processes can lead to social strata placement and
marginalisation. Project Implicit however, deals with what lies beneath the surface of our
thoughts. As the name implies, the initiative by several researchers from different US
universities aims to collect data about the hidden cognitive biases and processes which
impact our attitudes toward certain groups. The findings of this project are indeed capable
of being applied in everyday life. If societies were to understand why they seem to
“naturally” bias against or towards a certain group, then their levels of empathy, sympathy
and even tolerance to that group might prevent further oppression. In order to critique their
work, one might bring up the fact that the range of questions is very limited in terms of racial
scope (the basic races and groups are included, but not enough are there to fully scope out
a person’s biases).
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Fashion (voluntary and involuntary) is strongly linked to group formation and
membership. Does the rise of the often unisex “normcore” movement in recent
years point toward a more inclusive fashion industry, or is it just another way for
the “ingroup” to spend money to differentiate itself? Discuss with your team:
does fashion perpetuate perceived differences between genders, races, and
cultures?
5/19/2019 109
Have you ever known someone who didn’t want to dance—whom someone else tried to force
onto the dance floor? Consider this article by the scientist Henry Reich, then discuss with your
team: when is it right to encourage someone to do something they don’t want to do? Would
you ever pressure someone to go to a party? Should we always let people opt out of social
activities, or are there times when it is appropriate to intervene “for their own good”? You may
also want to look at expectations around cosmetics, marriage, and vacation days.
o Practically every WSC Ball, I’ve seen someone who refused to strut their stuff on the dance floor, before being
promptly dragged onto said dance floor by their peers and pressured into showing off their moves (all of which
range from doing the Daniel to world-class performance level). The article written by Henry Reich is a rather
provocative and eye-opening one and I wholly suggest that you read it thoroughly before continuing on this
page. There are some times when we need to encourage people to do something they don't want to do. If
their current actions will cause harm to some, then perhaps they need to be made aware of that so they
realise the consequences of their choices. I would never pressure someone to go to party, seeing as I myself
would probably not attend that party in the first place. That person’s schedule and choice when it comes to
their recreation are not mine to control (fun fact: I see more benefit and fun in studying for WSC than going to a
party). People should be allowed to opt out of social activities, we should not impose a restriction on how long
they need to stay before they can leave, there are times when your brain simply says that you’ve had enough
socialisation and some alone time would be highly valued. There probably aren’t times when intervening at
social functions is “for the greater good”.
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Consider schools dedicated to the education of highly gifted children—such as the Mirman
School in California, which admits only children with IQs of at least 145, and its many highly
selective counterparts around the world, from Kazakhstan to Israel. Then, discuss with your
team: should high-achieving learners be separated, in whole or part, from other students? Is
there a difference between exclusion and exclusivity, and is one more acceptable than the
other? Are people too quick to judge programs of this kind - and, if so, what might be
motivating their judgments?
What an interesting notion: separate the more capable among us to learn more so that they can
lead the rest of us when they grow up. A ridiculous notion whose creator I would very much like to sit
down and talk with (though perhaps the Mirman school director will suffice). High-achieving learners
shouldn’t be separated from their peers, instead they should be given more extensions in addition to
the encouragement to teach their own peers (we get to the finish line together, or we don’t get
there at all). Sure they can have their own unique classes within their schedule that allow them to
exploit their increased intellect, but they should never be detached fully from their school community
just to enhance their own experience. Exclusion refers to the act of excluding people from a certain
community, whilst exclusivity refers to the state of something being reserved for a certain group of
people (basically the two are opposites, one shuns groups whilst another only accepts them).
Exclusivity is generally more acceptable than exclusion since the latter generally involves more
aggressive actions to achieve itself.
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Consider the phenomenon of self-segregation on school campuses. Do you see it at your own
school? Is it something administrators should take measures against, and, if so, what kinds of
measures? Does it matter what the reason for the self-segregation is—for instance, among
gender, ethnicity, religion, age, or other values?
o Self-segregation is one of those events which our society needs to prevent from happening. We
need to avoid people of already marginalised groups from segregating themselves in environments
that are meant to be inclusive and accepting of all. As my school is an international school, this
doesn’t happen at all and we encourage people of minorities or unique races, religions and
ethnicities to express themselves instead of shunning their unique heritage. School administrators
should be taking action on this, probably by preventing it when it occurs and promoting groups
(such as service ones) which bring to light the experiences of these people.
5/19/2019 112
For every superstar in the NBA, a player is warming the bench. Do such players deserve more
credit than they receive—and is it ever right for them to ask for more recognition or for more
playing time? Are there similar hierarchies in other sports, or in the professional world, and are
they ever unfair? Discuss with your team: should special talents lead to special treatment?
Such players are probably getting the credit they deserve, it does take a certain amount of
skill and practice (as the website suggests) to be a bench player in a professional game of
any sport. It might be right for them to ask for more recognition or play time, especially if the
coaches have ignored them for several games in a row (or if they made an amazing
comeback while no longer being on the bench). Such hierarchies exist in many other sports
as well, you probably don’t remember the caddies or drivers who give those golfers the
clubs and locations they need, nor does society celebrate the referees or other supervising
officials who make sure the game is fair and honest. They aren’t unfair so to speak, indeed
society has far more unfair hierarchies.
Special talents might lead to special treatment, but not exclusive attention. Just because
someone is extremely skilled at handling a football does not mean they need to enter a
specific class of highly-skilled athletes. Likewise, people with an inability to handle a ball
shouldn’t need to be placed in a lower class to learn the basic throwing and catching skills
(it’s their choice whether or not this treatment is right for them).
5/19/2019 113
Explore social programs in countries with very low rates of homelessness and destitution, such as
Finland, Denmark, and Japan. What is particularly effective about their approaches? How would
you advise countries—or cities, such as San Francisco—that are experiencing very high rates of
homelessness?
Social Programs in Finland, Denmark and Japan mainly centre around preventing
homelessness by ensuring those who are at risk of losing their homes earn enough money to
keep them. The government does not have to rely on setting up “homeless shelters” so
much as the US has had to, instead they can afford to pay adequate pensions or provide
housing programs for the elderly, jobless or invalids to ensure they can live under a safe roof.
I’d probably advise countries such as San Francisco to apply the same philosophical
approach: stop the problem at its root. It doesn’t matter that the city mayor has proposed
opening hundreds more shelter beds, the number of homeless people will just keep rising as
long as they aren’t given decent retirement pensions, social welfare privileges or immediate
job placement priority.
5/19/2019 114
Toward an Integrated World
Some researchers have concluded that companies (and even countries) are more likely to select women for
positions of leadership when they are already in decline—making it more likely that these women will fall off
what they term the “glass cliff” of failure. Discuss with your team: to avoid such a phenomenon, should
companies and countries be required to alternate regularly between male and female leaders?
Let’s get into this somewhat precariously dangerous explanation. The “glass cliff” is an economic term and
social phenomenon that occurs when companies which are already in decline (either facing mass job layoffs,
store closures or stock plummets) assign woman to positions of leadership in their workplace. As a result of
their downward trend, the woman have more pressure to somehow salvage the company and turn it around,
causing many to crack and the company to fail even more. Thus while the “glass ceiling” prevents woman
from moving any higher in the hierarchy of job positions, the “glass cliff” puts woman in the greatest positions
of power, yet the precarious situation means they’re more likely to fall back down to where they started. The
term was first coined by Michelle Ryan and Alexander Haslam in 2003, researches at the University of Exeter
who were investigating whether women leaders had a negative impact on company performance. What’s
even more amazing is that the women who do fall victim to the “glass ciff” are more likely to take huge risks in
the world of business to make sure they (or their company) doesn’t fall from its current situation.
To prevent such a phenomenon from occurring, companies should pool together the collective know-how of
woman and men on the team of executives, as opposed to simply resorting to the failsafe of giving women
the top decision making spots.
5/19/2019 115
Is Canada really inclusive, or does it just have excellent branding? Discuss with your team: what is the best way
to measure the inclusiveness of a country or society? What countries would you consider to be the most
inclusive, and what do you think has made them that way?
Ah Canada, that land which is stereotyped for not having any stereotypes in its everyday lingo and yet is still
regarded as one of it not the most inclusive place in the world. Canada’s inclusiveness has always been a
trademark of the country and this is technically still true, thought there are some who continue to live on the
margins in the society, they aren’t as nearly oppressed or ignored as those in say the United States or
continental Europe. Yet the country still faces challenges, wealth inequality amongst the people still creates a
“rich and the rest” environment. Youth unemployment figures still stand at a somewhat concerning amount.
I’d say that Canada isn’t entirely inclusive, but simply does a better job of normalising the gaps in society to
the rest of the world while at the same time making efforts to eradicate those gaps. There isn’t exactly one
way to measure the inclusiveness of a country or society, merely looking at a conglomerate of statistics will
give you a rough idea of how well a country is doing in terms of allowing all groups in its society to participate
in economic, political and social activities.
5/19/2019 116
In a world in which many countries (including the United States) are highly religious, atheists—non believers—
arguably encounter challenges fitting in with mainstream culture. Consider this article about the rise of
an atheist rights movement, then follow up on its claims. Is such a movement justified?
It seems somewhat shocking that members of our society have been marginalised, harmed and even killed
over the simple fact that they choose to follow no religion and believe in no god. The fact that something as
seemingly normal and acceptable as atheism is now becoming a rallying banner for another civil rights
movement, similar to LGBTQ communities or feminist activists. Such a movement might be justified with the
current state of the world, with so many countries being majority Christian, Hindu, Muslim or Jew populations
(surprisingly, the most populated country in the world has the highest percentage of people who are
atheists).
5/19/2019 117
Ancient Greeks mocked people with physical differences; today, we have disability rights movements and
disability studies. How have people with disabilities such as deafness, blindness, and lack of mobility advocated
for inclusion in mainstream society? Discuss with your team: do you support those who may wish to resist that
inclusion?
Simply by continuing to exist and by refusing to be put down, these people who were born (or were medically
affected) with special conditions have managed to advocate for their inclusion in mainstream society. Once
scientists and doctors found the “cures” to their conditions, they could now become normal members of
society with the same social mobility and opportunities that others had around them. Of course there are
those who think that their condition makes their life more unique and in some cases more enjoyable and have
resisted being assimilated into normal society through the use of implants and other medical technologies.
Their wishes are to be respected, for it is their own lives whom we might be corrupting or ruining
unintentionally in some way.
5/19/2019 118
Are women held to different standards than men in the pursuit of elected office? Discuss with your team: can
elections ever be counted on to produce fair results, if people have underlying prejudices toward one or more
groups?
Women are indeed held to different standard than men in the pursuit of elected office and other political
positions. Not just their clothes (as the Vox article linked suggests), but also by their own abilities in
congressional debate, ability to keep their emotions in check or even their ability to fall in line with what their
populist nation has to say. Elections have always been touted as the way for a government to produce fair
results, so that the people can be lead by a government that was nominated for their own benefit. Now
however, with the inclusion of more groups into society, the political sphere is still resisting the assimilation of
more groups (minorities, genders, races and even ages). Elections for now will have to do, but candidates with
prejudices against them will likely find their journey to the ruling party laden with more obstacles.
5/19/2019 119
In India, a woman just scaled a mountain that until now had been reserved for men only. Discuss with your
team: is it ever right to restrict access to a place to members of one gender? How about to one age group, or to
one religion or culture? If your answers are different for different categories, what makes one restriction okay
and another not?
Is is somewhat unsettling to find that our people have found some sort of theological reason to ban others
from certain natural or man-made sites. Indeed certain library sections in the US were off-limits to blacks
during segregation, whilst temples in Ancient civilisations were off-limits to women. It never seems right to
restrict access to a place to members of any group, gender, religion or culture. We humans need to share this
planet (as hard as that seems and as harder as its getting!) and by being born here we have the right to any
accessible location. Our maps and travels should not need to be drawn by our race, religion, culture or
gender.
5/19/2019 120
Sometimes, people are excluded from society for (ostensibly) the common good; for example, criminals are
placed in prisons. In some of Norway’s prisons, however, the criminal justice system aims to keep prisoners as
part of society. Discuss with your team: to what degree should we prioritize reintegrating prisoners with the rest
of the world?
I seriously suggest looking at the article. The photos attached are stark in contrast and extremely eye-opening
when it comes to how different societies treat their criminals. Norway, Sweden and Denmark have been
praised for their rehabilitation concepts and the resulting humane design of prison (if I was ever convicted for
a crime, I’d enjoy my time in a Norwegian prison). We should highly prioritize reintegrating prisoners with the
rest of the world. These people were probably misguided in their actions or simply the victim of an
unfortunate series of events. They are still humans, still members of society and still capable of making up for
their crimes. Prisons should not treat them as if though they are an abomination from the forces of evil itself,
instead they should attempt to rehabilitate and serve as a place where these people can continue to live and
learn the error of their ways. Perhaps with enough time and the correct facilities (such as those in Norway),
these convicted persons can see the light of day and the norms of society once again.
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The Edge of Society WSC 2019 Hehe

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World Scholars Cup 2019

ON The Edge of Society

•What does it mean to belong?

•What does it mean for a group of people to be marginalized?

•Is it always better to be included than to be excluded?

•Who decides who belongs in a certain group?

•Is it always wrong to exclude people from a group?

•Are there any situations in which one might want to be marginalized?

•Should people ever be integrated with others against their will?

Are there any valid arguments against inclusiveness as a social goal?

Are there times when stratification is necessary or beneficial for a society?

Are there times when stratification is necessary or beneficial for a society?

• It is the expectations of a certain status

• Roles in groups are divided into four

• audience to set up an effective

• in families, mothers tend to interact more

• marginalised groups tend to get less

• ‘having the same things in common’.

• Similarity tend to bring them together

• in a school environment, students with a

• a lack of similarity can lead to public

similarity | interdependence | injunctive and proscriptive norms

• the buddy cooperation of society. You rely

• Taking one individual out of the equation

similarity | interdependence | injunctive and proscriptive norms

Injunctive vs. Proscriptive Norms

• Proscriptive Norms are behaviors you’re

similarity | interdependence | injunctive and proscriptive norms

Cultural identity groups

• For example, African-Americans,

Crowds vs. Mobs

• A mob is a large crowd of people,

Tuckman Model Stages

 Norming: When teammates/colleagues

 Performing: When the team reaches their

• “Survival of the unfittest”.

• the model shows how the desire to be

Social Exchange Theory

• interactions are fueled by our personal

• an interaction which produces more

• It could be for self protection, to attack

• Humans often show this type of mentality

• Researchers at the University of Leeds

• Normative conformity is when one

 For example, let’s assume you and your friends

• For example, an Asian may choose to

Social Identity Theory

• Simply put, this theory puts forth the

High-Brow Vs. Low-Brow

Lowbrow is the opposite of highbrow. Lowbrow

• an attempt the methodology of the Asch Paradigm, which had a

• The Crutchfield experiment was able to deceive each participant

• Participants were seated in individual cubicles, and asked to make

• However, all the participants were in fact being deceived. The

Crutchfield made each participant believe that they were

Ingroup vs. Outgroup

• may also be known as us and them.

• An "ingroup" is a social group which a person

• "outgroup" is a social group to which we do not

ingroup vs. outgroup | outgroup homogeneity | trait ascription

• Also known as Outgroup Bias

• normally a bias members of in-groups have

• It’s where your brain believes that people of the out-