With reference to India; papers presented at workshop held in 2009.

This book provides an overview of marginality or marginalization, as a concept, characterizing a situation of impediments – social, political, economic, physical, and environmental – that impact the abilities of many people and societies to improve their human condition. It examines a wide range of examples and viewpoints of societies struggling with poverty, social inequality and marginalization. Though the book will be especially interesting for those looking for insights into the situation and position of ethnic groups living in harsh mountainous conditions in the Himalayan region, examples from other parts of the world such as Kyrgyzstan, Israel, Switzerland and Finland provide an opportunity for comparison of marginality and marginalization from around the world. Also addressed are issues such as livelihood, outmigration and environmental threats, taking into account the conditions, scale and perspective of observation. Throughout the text, particular attention is given to the context and concept of ‘marginalization’, which sadly remains a persistent reality of human life. It is in this context that this book seeks to advance our global understanding of what marginalization is, how it is manifested and what causes it, while also proposing remedial strategies.

This book takes a new approach on understanding causes of extreme poverty and promising actions to address it. Its focus is on marginality being a root cause of poverty and deprivation. “Marginality” is the position of people on the edge, preventing their access to resources, freedom of choices, and the development of capabilities. The book is research based with original empirical analyses at local, national, and local scales; book contributors are leaders in their fields and have backgrounds in different disciplines. An important message of the book is that economic and ecological approaches and institutional innovations need to be integrated to overcome marginality. The book will be a valuable source for development scholars and students, actors that design public policies, and for social innovators in the private sector and non-governmental organizations.​

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. We must find new and innovative ways of conceptualizing transboundary energy issues, of embedding concerns of ethics or justice into energy policy, and of operationalizing response to them. This book stems from the emergent gap; the need for comparative approaches to energy justice, and for those that consider ethical traditions that go beyond the classical Western approach. This edited volume unites the fields of energy justice and comparative philosophy to provide an overarching global perspective and approach to applying energy ethics. We contribute to this purpose in four sections: setting the scene, practice, applying theory to practice, and theoretical approaches. Through the chapters featured in the volume, we position the book as one that contributes to energy justice scholarship across borders of nations, borders of ways of thinking and borders of disciplines. The outcome will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students studying energy justice, ethics and environment, as well as energy scholars, policy makers, and energy analysts.

Lo c Wacquant's writings have shaken the world of criminology--and social science more generally--to their foundations with a wide-ranging critique of neoliberal governance's approach to crime and poverty and its reorientation of state power from welfare to discipline. The first book to fully engage with Wacquant's work, Criminalisation and Advanced Marginality presents critical but constructive essays on his challenging ideas, focusing on the governance of crime and disorder, welfare, and "diswelfare." It concludes with Wacquant's responses to the authors' comments and critiques.

This volume engages with the renewed focus on various forms of persisting and new marginalities in globalising India. The persistence of hunger in pockets of India; forcible land acquisitions and their impact on deprived sections of society; the effects of urban relocations; material deprivation of minority groups and tribes as a result of conflicts; continuing caste discrimination; reported cases of atrocities against lower castes and tribes; regional disparities; gendered forms of exclusion and those related to disability and many other conditions suggest the need to rethink notions and practices of marginality and exclusion in India. This volume critiques the principal ways of thinking about marginalities, which primarily consist of a focus on normative principles, and brings into focus the chasm between such principles and subjective notions and experiences of marginality and injustice. The uniqueness of this edited volume is that it connects theoretical perspectives with empirical case studies and discussions, and cases of exclusion are discussed within an overall inclusive and integrated framework. This is a valuable resource for researchers, scholars, students, public policy formulators and for social innovators from private sectors and non-government organisations.

Young adulthood - ages approximately 18 to 26 - is a critical period of development with long-lasting implications for a person's economic security, health and well-being. Young adults are key contributors to the nation's workforce and military services and, since many are parents, to the healthy development of the next generation. Although 'millennials' have received attention in the popular media in recent years, young adults are too rarely treated as a distinct population in policy, programs, and research. Instead, they are often grouped with adolescents or, more often, with all adults. Currently, the nation is experiencing economic restructuring, widening inequality, a rapidly rising ratio of older adults, and an increasingly diverse population. The possible transformative effects of these features make focus on young adults especially important. A systematic approach to understanding and responding to the unique circumstances and needs of today's young adults can help to pave the way to a more productive and equitable tomorrow for young adults in particular and our society at large. Investing in The Health and Well-Being of Young Adults describes what is meant by the term young adulthood, who young adults are, what they are doing, and what they need. This study recommends actions that nonprofit programs and federal, state, and local agencies can take to help young adults make a successful transition from adolescence to adulthood. According to this report, young adults should be considered as a separate group from adolescents and older adults. Investing in The Health and Well-Being of Young Adults makes the case that increased efforts to improve high school and college graduate rates and education and workforce development systems that are more closely tied to high-demand economic sectors will help this age group achieve greater opportunity and success. The report also discusses the health status of young adults and makes recommendations to develop evidence-based practices for young adults for medical and behavioral health, including preventions. What happens during the young adult years has profound implications for the rest of the life course, and the stability and progress of society at large depends on how any cohort of young adults fares as a whole. Investing in The Health and Well-Being of Young Adults will provide a roadmap to improving outcomes for this age group as they transition from adolescence to adulthood.

This book examines the causes and consequences of marginalization of social groups and the state of democratic decentralization in India in the unfolding context of globalization and changing perspectives of development models and institutions. The first of its kind, it correlates macro-and micro-level issues to understand social exclusion and inclusion and the level of participation of democratic institutions at the grassroots level since economic liberalization (1991) and the 73rd Constitution Amendment Act of 1992, marking three decades since granting constitutional status to the Panchayati Raj Institutions. The study looks at the linkages between certain key themes: the neoliberal model of development, growth, and distributive justice; the role and mandate of grassroots-level public institutions enshrined in the Constitution, inclusive growth, and the Indian State; the role of political executives from marginalized communities; factors involved in people’s active participation in the development process; and challenges in current political structures, inclusion of marginalized communities in governance and development, and real empowerment of local bodies and institutions. The book argues that legislative enactments, constitutional status, reservation of seats to marginalized communities, and so on can only empower local bodies and their leadership symbolically. The success of these provisions depends on the overall development model of the country; the support of national and state governments; the socio-economic and political environment of the institutions; and effective service and accountability. Topical and rich in empirical data, including case studies, this book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of political science, development studies, governance, public administration, sociology, public policy, and also for government agencies, administrators and bureaucrats, policymakers, international organizations, think tanks, and NGOs working in the area.

As cities sprawl across Latin America, absorbing more and more of its people, crime and violence have become inescapable. From the paramilitary invasion of Medell¡n in Colombia, the booming wealth of crack dealers in Managua, Nicaragua and police corruption in Mexico City, to the glimmers of hope in Lima, this book provides a dynamic analysis of urban insecurity. Based on new empirical evidence, interviews with local people and historical contextualization, the authors attempts to shed light on the fault-lines which have appeared in Latin American society. Neoliberal economic policy, it is argued, has intensified the gulf between elites, insulated in gated estates monitored by private security firms, and the poor, who are increasingly mistrustful of state-sponsored attempts to impose order on their slums. Rather than the current trend towards government withdrawal, the situation can only be improved by co-operation between communities and police to build new networks of trust. In the end, violence and insecurity are inseparable from social justice and democracy.

This book explores the emergence of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) as an alternative political force in Uttar Pradesh. It focuses on the historical continuity of Dalit social justice movements and organizational politics from pre- to post-colonial India and its subsequent institutionalization as a political force with the rise of the BSP in the state since the 1980s. The volume discusses the new age Dalit–Bahujan politics and its ethnicization of caste groups to create a bahujan samaj. The book analyzes the focused political leadership of Kanshiram and Mayawati, the strong party organization, and how they evolved an empowered Dalit ideology and identity by grassroots mobilization and championing Dalit icons and history. The author also explores the party’s strategies, slogans and alliances with other political parties and communities and its political manoeuvrings to retain its influence over the electorate. The book also effectively identifies the reasons for the political marginalization of the BSP in present times in the context of the phenomenal rise of the BJP in the state. The book will be of great interest to researchers and scholars of political science, sociology, Dalit and subaltern studies, exclusion studies and those working on the intersectionality of caste and class. It will also be useful for policy makers, think tanks and NGOs working in the domain of caste, marginality, social exclusion and identity politics.