Synonyms
Definition
To marginalize people is to fail to accord them the full rights and status of citizens – to define them as falling short of the norm and so disempower them and exclude them from the mainstream of society.
Overview
Social inclusion is full membership of a society (see Abbott et al. 2016, Chap. 4). To the extent that people are denied human or civil rights on the basis of how they are categorized and treated by others, they are socially excluded. Older people are described as marginalized when they are seen as not having the mental or physical capacity to survive as independent agents (See Ableism and Ageism). This is often (though not always) the case with older people in industrial and postindustrial societies – old age is seen as a life stage, like childhood, in which people are not fully capable. This is not a medical process but a social discourse embodying a stereotype of older people and their worth to which their circumstances force them to...
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Abbott, P., Sapsford, R. (2020). Marginalization. In: Gu, D., Dupre, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_501-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69892-2_501-1
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