Date of publishing:

25.9.2017

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.21104/CL.2017.3.04

Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International. The Český lid provides open access to all of its content under license
Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International.

Abstract:

The author discusses the issues of social exclusion from a neurobiological point of view. Exploring them at all facets she illustrates trajectory of human body trapped in a vicious circle of violence, suggesting that human body in the process of enculturation, if consistently excluded, transorms itself into a disempowered, submissive and traumatised body. The only valid way to break this vicious circle is to evoke empathy in human beings based not only on affective emotions, but on sensory feelings as well. The concept of “situated cognition” as an approach to fight against social exclusion is unfolded. The author’s arguments are based on her fieldowork experiences among street children in Tanzania that inextricably have intermingled with her own lifespan trajectory.

Keywords

neurobiology, social exclusion, everyday trauma, situated cognition, racism, empathy

Article Text

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