Marginalization, Vulnerability and Economic Dynamics in COVID-19

Abstract COVID-19, caused by the coronavirus family SARS-CoV-2 and declared a pandemic in March 2020, continues to spread. Its enormous and unprecedented impact on our society has evidenced the huge social inequity of our modern society, in which the most vulnerable individuals have been pushed into even worse socioeconomic situations, struggling to survive. As the pandemic continues, we witness the huge suffering of the most marginalized populations around the globe, even in developed, high-income latitudes, such as North America and Europe. That is even worse in low-income regions, such as Brazil, where the public healthcare infrastructure had already been struggling before the pandemic. Cities with even more evident social inequity have been impacted the most, leaving the most socioeconomically disadvantaged ones, such as slum residents and black people, continuously inflating the statistics of COVID-19 sufferers. Poverty, marginalization, and inequity have been well-known risk factors for morbidity and mortality from other diseases. However, COVID-19 has deepened our society's wound. It is up to us to heal it up. If we really care for the others and want to survive as a species, we must fight social inequity.

Indigenous people of Paraná and Covid-19: 2020 overview

The coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented global crisis. From the economic scenario until the Indigenous people’s lifestyle, including the typically capitalist society, has been significantly reshaped. As invisible characters in History, the Indigenous people of Paraná have been socially isolated and may be under non-measurable inequalities, misleading statistics, and limited support by the health institutions. This study aimed to analyze the vulnerabilities and resilience responses of the Indigenous people of Paraná to the Covid-19 pandemic and discuss the underreporting and inconsistency of data on confirmed cases and deaths by Covid-19 based on state and national health institutions. This research consists of descriptive and qualiquantitative analysis conducted online that lasted ten months in which: (i) data from two governmental health institutions responsible for monitoring Covid-19 among the Indigenous people of Paraná and two Indigenous were collected and compared;and (ii) perceptions from the Indigenous people of Paraná through interviews and responses to the considered problem at indigenous organizations. As non-conclusive results, it is mentioned: (a) the confirmed cases and deaths by Covid-19 among Indigenous people of Paraná were discrepant according to the considered health institutions;(b) the Indigenous people of Paraná have probably got limited access to health services, including the lack of Covid-19 testing that may be influencing on the underreporting data, and (c) the transparency of methods of data collection and publishing has been inadequate among the studied health institutions. © 2022 Universidade Federal do Parana. All rights reserved.

Examining Predictors and Outcomes of Decent Work among Korean Workers.

The goal of the present study is to examine the psychology of working framework/theory with a sample of Korean workers. This study examined the structural model of sociocultural factors (i.e., economic constraints and social marginalization), psychological variables (i.e., work volition and career adaptability), and outcomes of decent work based on the psychology of working framework. This study assumed that decent work helps all workers attain a sense of self-respect, dignity, experience freedom and security in the work environment and provides an opportunity for workers to contribute to society. Data were collected from 420 Korean workers, with an average age of 39.13 years (SD = 9.26). We used a hypothesis model that did not assume a direct path from economic constraints and social marginalization to decent work and work volition and career adaptation to job satisfaction and life satisfaction. We also employed an alternative model that assumed all of its paths and compared the models' goodness of fit based on prior studies. Results indicated that alternative models have higher goodness of fit than hypothesis models. All path coefficients were significant except for the direct path from social marginalization to work volition and career adaptability to life satisfaction. Additionally, work volition and career adaptability mediated both the relationship between social marginalization and job satisfaction and between marginalization and life satisfaction. This study enabled the comprehensive examination of the relevance of various social environments and psychological and occupational characteristics that should be considered when exploring job or life satisfaction in the process of career counseling.