Projects / Programmes
Structural discrimination as the obstacle in achieving the goal of life in dignity for all.
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 5.07.00 |
Social sciences |
Criminology and social work |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| S215 |
Social sciences |
Social problems and welfare, national insurance |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 5.04 |
Social Sciences |
Sociology |
Vulnerable persons and groups; structural discrimination; systemisation of vulnerability; the gap between the normative and the actual.
Researchers (11)
Organisations (2)
Abstract
In Slovenia, we do not have a holistic picture of structural discrimination; therefore it is difficult to identify all the shortcomings of the normative body and practice of ensuring dignified life for all. The purpose of the proposed project is to fill this gap by employing an interdisciplinary approach that combines the findings of sociology, social work and social policies, as well as legal science. The interdisciplinary research brings together a team of researchers from the Faculty of Social Work and the Faculty of Law of the University of Ljubljana to achieve three main goals:
1. To complete, by means of an analysis of the present situation, the picture on the numbers, exposure, existent classifications and trends in vulnerable individuals and groups in Slovenia;
2. To carry out a detailed examination of the Slovenian, European and international legislation, measures and practices in order to identify the grey areas that are the cause of discrepancies between the actual state of affairs, and the alleviation and regulation measures along the line from solidarity activities, social care practice, and legislative and other regulative norms.
3. To prepare professional, comprehensive and effective guidelines for awareness-raising campaigns; to engage the potential allies in such campaigning (centres of social work, public health institutions, care centres and institutions, the civil society…), thus preparing the groundwork for a renewed and augmented basic understanding of vulnerabilities that occur as a consequence of structural discrimination.
Different sources define the vulnerable groups differently, depending especially on the intersectionality of the people’s personal statuses, and the sociocultural circumstances. This project will adhere to the definition of vulnerable persons as those who find themselves in scarcity of economic, social and cultural resources, and whose depravity is not readily visible; sometimes, it is quite covert and difficult to spot. Due to the economic, social and cultural roles they occupy, members of vulnerable groups continues to undergo new depravities. We shall acknowledge that “vulnerability” is often individualised and pathologized as a permanent label for a person whereby the generative social factors of their predicament are ignored. We shall also take into account that Slovenia, due to its specific post-socialist history after the year 1990, underwent a specific development of the problems of personal and social vulnerabilities. Thus for instance, circumstances inherited from the socialist time
Include a fairly large share of population that was in possession of real estate; a large share of young pensioners; low fertility and therefore a large share of old and aging population; a high ethnic homogeneity, etc. The typical problems of social exclusion, vulnerability and discrimination that are undergoing an accelerated globalisation are therefore new in Slovenia: notably, the precarisation of work, the emergence of the so-called working poor, the growing income and property inequalities, and an increasing gender pay gap. Authors in Slovenia, taking this history into account, predominantly systemise the problem of vulnerability as economic, social and cultural.
International and European law also impose on Slovenia the duty to prevent structural discrimination. Adopting the necessary measures that define the circumstances in which vulnerable groups appear and live can be systemized into three intersectional groups:
a. Economic and old-age protection and protection of the handicapped
b. Socio-cultural, educational and protective measures regarding the ethnically marked groups
c. Measures addressing the problems of gender, family and public health.
The sociological analysis will be carried out by analysing the existent problems of vulnerability, augmented by the holistic documented evidence about the scope, and structure of vulnerability in Slovenia. It will then proceed to test the
Significance for science
By its design, the proposed project involves primarily three social science disciplines: sociology with its special themes (sociology of labour, ethnicity, family...); social policy from the perspective of social work; and law. The design incorporates a plan of efficient interdisciplinary treatment of the problem of structural discrimination, with an attempt to redefine, in the synergy of the sociological and law perspectives, the entire problem field. The aim is to achieve a holistic sociological uptake, and an efficient plan of legal protection To the best of our knowledge, this is the first organised attempt at surpassing the objectifying taxonomies of the vulnerable in Slovenia (the categorisations of victims and survivors of discrimination) and to re-orient the attention to the structural factors and conditions that produce individual and group victims of inequality and discrimination. The methodology, and the interdisciplinary synthesis will be presented in detail to the national and international public in several publications.
Significance for the country
The project is explicitly geared towards the rise of competences, and the effects of the social infrastructure and state administration, whereby the key innovation is the enabling, and involving the civil society engagement. The project will formulate approaches that will yield to standardisation as a toolkit of early detection of emerging, localised or otherwise, structural inequalities and discrimination, improving the public health, amplifying work productivity, nurturing the leadership structures in work collectives and supporting successful leadership models.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2019,
2020
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2019,
2020
