Stigma is a current and relevant concept for understanding multiple phenomena of social exclusion such as racism, homophobia, aporophobia and misogyny, among others. These exclusionary practices can generate multiple physical, psychological and social harms, arising from the reification of the individual bearing an attribute considered contrary to the hegemonic order, which sometimes translates into practices such as forced displacement, torture, slavery, human rights violations, or the extermination of cultural or social ways of life, due to dehumanization, stress, and the lack of recognition of individuals stigmatized because of their ethnic, religious, health, political, social, gender condition, or even their lifestyle habits, age, or physical appearance, among other intersectionalities.
Stigma, as a phenomenon closely linked to stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination and exclusion, functions as a web of dependent and determining relationships marked by individual, social and structural factors that do not necessarily belong to a single one of these categories, since their forms of manifestation do not follow a linear hierarchical distribution, preceding one another, but rather form a complex network in which the relationship among these concepts is woven, interconnecting causes and consequences.
The symposium “Stigma and Struggles for the Recognition of Human Dignity” is conceived as a space for discussion around difference, in which current conceptualizations can be addressed—conceptualizations that, when linked intersectionally with categories such as ethnicity, gender, social class, stress, mental health, among others, perpetuate acts of discrimination and exclusion that limit the guarantee of social rights for stigmatized people.
From Pontifical Bolivarian University, the National University of Córdoba, the Stigma Network, the Latin American Research Network on Stigma and Drugs, and other allied institutions, there is significant theoretical and scientific development, backed by book publications and multicenter research in Ibero-America on stigma toward people with mental health problems, drug use, gender dissidences, obesity and infectious diseases, among others, which represents not only a theoretical contribution to building fairer societies that respect difference, but also provides empirical data for evidence-based decision-making.
The symposium falls within the thematic area “Social Studies and Social Movements” and aims to be a space not only for presenting research results on strategies to reduce stigma toward multiple discriminated conditions or the stress suffered by stigmatized people, but also an opportunity for vulnerable groups to showcase successful experiences of social recognition through activism and political advocacy, with a view to underscoring the need to move toward the real construction and implementation of inclusive public policies that respect human rights and diversity within a framework of equity.
