The Distance from Marginalization to Rank and Privilege

Thomas K¹*

1. Centre for International Health, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

A primary challenge for participative practice is engaging those who are marginalized. The sense of citizen alienation and disengagement that is endemic in the general community is intensified in disadvantaged populations. Researchers commonly focus on individual level explanatory models such as attitude, motivation or locus of control to explain this phenomenon and rarely consider the effect of power differentials on the willingness of marginalized groups to engage.

This research explored the impact of differences in power on engagement using contextualist methodology within an ethnographic framework. A cross-sectional sample was taken from three organizations with random stratified sampling conducted within each organization. A multiple interview case study approach was utilized with 98 participants from all rank levels. The data was compared within and across ranks and organizational groupings. The findings were that privilege has an insulatory effect which can impede understanding of, and communication with, lower rank groups and that the relational distance created by differences in rank and access to resources also has an inhibitory effect on the capacity of lower power groups to engage.

Effective governance requires strategies that acknowledge and effectively address the impact of rank differences. Understanding the effects of differences in rank, resources and privilege is critical to the design of participation models that can achieve higher levels of engagement with and from marginalised groups.