What is a marginalized community?
The denial of societies or different groups of societies due to any reason has been there always at times. It impacts the whole society or community. This marginalization is based on social, political, religious, economic, cultural, or other factors. Everywhere, for whatsoever reason, societies are being marginalized for years. This is mostly due to unequal power relationships among people across different dimensions (social, cultural, religious, geographical, economic, political, etc.) Marginalization, in general terms, is the name of an act or process in which a specific group in society is confined or limited to a lower point or excluded. For example, in the case of individual marginalization, it can be seen that in the welfare reforms of the 1900s, single mothers were excluded from this reformed system. This thing creates new minimal groups in society with a new school of thought. Marginalization is of so many types, and it brings more and more people into it. To a great extent, societies and communities are discriminated against and dispossessed of their livelihoods, local lands, or any type of support on a social basis.
Marginalized Communities Examples
At first, there is the social marginalization of people. It refers to giving people living in a society social disadvantage, inequality, and disconnection from all society's social elements. The theories of Karl Marx and other socialists are filled with the concept of social marginalization examples. The term social is used across Education, gender, skills, and technological background also. Social marginalization can be of any type of element at the individual or collective level in society. It is a chronic illness and existing there for a long time.
Secondly,
societies are being marginalized or discriminated against based on cultural
elements. A small group of populations with different cultures from overall society
is marginalized or discriminated against based on small differences. This type
of marginalization also promotes rebellion or the negative reactions of
individuals. One group of people rejects the cultural lifestyle of others and
promotes their own culture. This thing advances the failure of cultures, hence,
produces high stress and discriminatory behavior. This high stress and
distinguish behavior lead to suicide and abusive thoughts on an individual or
collective level.
Thirdly,
there is religious marginalization in societies. In integration and
inclusion, religion matters a lot. Any diversity in the religious beliefs of
two persons changes them into opposite groups. Religion is not only a word;
rather, it is a sentiment and emotion. It is the name of the whole lifestyle
and psychological mindset of a person. Religious diversity matters a lot as
religious agency matters. The union of a group in population on the basis of
religion is stronger than any other bond. Likewise, the marginalization of a group
of people in society has stronger impacts than any other marginalization.
Fourthly, there is economic marginalization in society. Economically,
people are divided into classes and divisions in a community. This economic marginalization weakens the roots of society and makes it unsustainable.
Consequently, the institutions of government start looking for new policies and strategies. According to research in 2017, the World Bank's Equality Project started a campaign to look into this matter and to highlight this problem. As a result, the World Bank published this answer;
"Social inclusion matters because exclusion is too costly. These costs are social, economic, and political, and are often interrelated."(World Bank)
Fifthly,
there is political marginalization in the communities. On the basis of politics,
people are included or excluded from dangerous communities. It originates from more
political parties and interest groups. Politically, there is a marginalized
youth group, disable people group, and LGBTI communities. All these people are
politically disintegrated from each other. Such societies never progress where
minorities are degraded and excluded from welfares. Politically integrated
groups cause conflicts among other groups, and it leads to bigger clashes as
time passes. Such politically ethnic groups like a pandemic in societies and
communities because they only promote themselves.
Last but not least, geographical marginalization is there in societies and communities. Geographically, some areas are excluded from the whole. It has many reasons behind it. Sometimes it's due to political reasons. Others include cultural, religious, economic, social, or any other reason. It also creates divisions and sub-divisions in a small place. Geographically marginalized people are also considered excluded from the overall welfare projects. They are not allowed to participate in any mission regarding community welfare or decision-making. Only the included groups can actively participate. Furthermore, such areas are not given chances and opportunities to avail of that specific society's resources.
Knowledge Power Definition
Power
refers to a person or group's ability to make decisions and use resources
according to their will. Knowledge refers to understanding and gaining
different experiences in life. Michel Foucault, in this book Power Knowledge
Nexus, discusses the response of power and knowledge, as discourse, on social,
political, religious, cultural, and legal institutions of a society. With his
work on power and knowledge, Foucault transformed human beings into a subject.
He analyzed this thing on three levels; globalization, African situation, and
Ethiopian Education. If critically analyzed the relationship between power and
knowledge in this context, there are many highlights. In Africa, Ethiopian
Education is colonized and marginalized. The power of knowledge they have is
suppressed by the global trends and dominant, powerful groups there. They also
have a problem with race discrimination. Adding to this, the Education they
have as power is insufficient to some extent. The traditional values of mutual
respect understanding are also faded that could be the best
Knowledge does not equate to power if you are from a marginalized community
Who said knowledge is power? Marginalized communities are still
lacking behind because knowledge there cannot be equated to power.
The example is given above, regarding Africa, supports the argument that
knowledge itself is insufficient to provide power. If more powerful factors of
society have marginalized any group, the knowledge gained by that group is of
no use. The equality of knowledge and power requires the inclusion of a person
in society also. An excluded person or
group van does nothing for his society. If digitally analyzed, the marginalized
communities are not included in the data. This thing weakens the advocacy of
these minimal groups for their rights. Now, state and non-state actors have
more dependent on the marginalization of minimal groups of society. Knowledge,
on the whole, has increased, and technology also has advanced. Still, the
technological resources are un-assessable and incapable of finding minimal
groups' data, marginalized from big societies.
The equality knowledge and power, and the concept of knowledge as power or the knowledge is power philosophy is dependent on the inclusion or exclusion of a person or group from a community. It is also important for global support or voice on an international level. The reason is that if marginalized communities are not recorded on the data of the global index, they will remain invisible in the eye of the whole world. Knowledge regarding this illegal thing cannot give them equality or power at all. Such minimal groups should promote themselves and their power of knowledge to include in the big marginalized communities in India, for instance. Until they are marginalized and not seen on the global data, they cannot mark their presence in the world. In 2016, the World Development Report said that technologies are still unable to retrieve the data of many minimal places in the world. Either such population is full of immigrants or disable people; they are excluded from the main communities. So their data is difficult to find out. This shows that marginalization and social exclusion need to be banned for equality on a global level. Otherwise, the power of knowledge of marginalized populations is only a utopia for them. There is also Foucault's theory of power pdf on the internet, for deep analysis, in this case.
Power is Everywhere (Foucault)
Causes of marginalization,
discrimination, differentiation, and exclusion based on different agendas are
not a modern trend. For a long time, civil wars are against these powerful
groups who dominate societies and excluded few populations. In the modern era,
technology is the biggest power to promote something. Despite this biggest
power, the roots of strong and dominant states are still more impactful. These
states' rejected or denied areas are not even visible on the global population
data. This can be a valid and reasonable point to understand the relationship between power and knowledge and that knowledge
itself is not equal to power if that knowledge belongs to marginalized or
rejected communities. So, how is knowledge power? what does knowledge is power mean? In the present era, a lot more factors are there for
Conclusion
To conclude, marginalization is the biggest thing in engulfing minority groups' rights on a global level. Knowledge of anything or knowledge is power quote cannot equate to anything's power until the person is excluded from society or community. There is a big relationship between power structure of society and knowledge. Like Africa, many other states in the world are marginalized due to different reasons. These states are not shown on the global index data of the population. Despite technological advancement, it is proved from researches and reports that marginalized communities are lacking behind in many things. But, they are not given legal rights. The power of knowledge in these communities is suppressed by political, regional, social, cultural, religious, geographical, or other factors. In the real world, marginalized communities need knowledge and power to highlight themselves on the global index. For their legal rights, such marginalized communities need to equate their knowledge with bigger communities' power. Only social inclusion can help them in getting power. There also need policies addressing the needs of marginalized groups.
