Perceptions of Economic Inequality in Colombian Daily Life: More Than Unequal Distribution of Economic Resources
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García-Sánchez, Efraín; Willis Sánchez, Guillermo Byrd; Rodríguez Bailón, Rosa María; García Castro, Juan Diego; Palacio Sañudo, Jorge; Polo, Jean; Rentería Pérez, EricoEditorial
Frontiers Media
Materia
Perceptions Economic inequality Framing Content analysis (Communication) Colombia
Date
2018-09-06Referencia bibliográfica
García-Sánchez E, Willis GB, Rodríguez-Bailón R, García-Castro JD, Palacio-Sañudo J, Polo J and Rentería-Pérez E (2018) Perceptions of Economic Inequality in Colombian Daily Life: More Than Unequal Distribution of Economic Resources. Front. Psychol. 9:1660.
Sponsorship
This project was funded as a scholarship to pursue a doctoral degree given to EG-S COLCIENCIAS-679 (Colombia), and the PSI2016-78839-P MINECO (Spain) grant given to GWand RR-B.Abstract
Research on perceptions of economic inequality focuses on estimations of the
distribution of financial resources, such as perceived income gaps or wealth distribution.
However, we argue that perceiving inequality is not limited to an economic idea but
also includes other dimensions related to people’s daily life. We explored this idea by
conducting an online survey (N = 601) in Colombia, where participants responded to an
open-ended question regarding how they perceived economic inequality. We performed
a content analysis of 1,624 responses to identify relevant topics and used network
analysis tools to explore how such topics were interrelated. We found that perceived
economic inequality is mainly represented by identifying social classes (e.g., the elites
vs. the poor), intergroup relations based on discrimination and social exclusion, public
spaces (e.g., beggars on streets, spatial segregation), and some dynamics about the
distribution of economic resources and the quality of work (e.g., income inequality,
precarious jobs). We discuss how different perceptions of economic inequality may
frame how people understand and respond to inequality.