Beyond prejudice : dehumanization as an ideological epistemology of inequality

Šumi, Irena (author)

This article reconceptualizes dehumanization as an ideological epistemology of inequality, a modular grammar through which social hierarchies appear moral, natural, and inevitable. It argues that structural inequality produces the dehumanizing ideologies required for its own legitimation: these belief systems transform domination into moral order. By tracing how such ideologies become institutionalized, the article shifts the analysis from individual prejudice to the structural organization of belief. It concludes that overcoming inequality requires dismantling the epistemological frameworks that make dehumanization intelligible and justifiable.

• Language: English
• Keywords: dehumanization, structural inequality, ideological epistemology, stigma and hierarchy, diversity regimes
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FSD - Faculty of Social Work
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.01.2026
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 227-241
• Numbering: [Št.] 63
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-181376
• UDC: 316.647.82
• ISSN on article: 0353-6777
• DOI: 0.3986/2026.1.10
• COBISS.SI-ID: 274138627
• Publication date in RUL: 03.04.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Dve domovini : razprave o izseljenstvu
• Shortened title: Dve domov.
• Publisher: Inštitut za slovensko izseljenstvo, = Institute for Slovene Emigration Research
• ISSN: 0353-6777
• COBISS.SI-ID: 3025930

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Onkraj predsodkov: dehumanizacija kot ideološka epistemologija neenakosti

Abstract

Avtorica v prispevku na novo opredeli razčlovečenje kot ideološko epistemologijo neenakosti – modularno slovnico, prek katere družbene hierarhije delujejo kot moralne, naravne in neizogibne. Zagovarja tezo, da strukturna neenakost sama proizvaja razčlovečevalne ideologije, potrebne za lastno legitimizacijo: ti miselni sistemi spreminjajo prevlado v moralni red. Sledenje institucionalizaciji teh ideologij premakne analizo z individualnih predsodkov na strukturno organizacijo prepričanja. Sklene, da je za odpravo neenakosti potrebna razgradnja epistemoloških okvirov, ki razčlovečenje delajo razumljivo in upravičeno.

• Keywords: dehumanizacija, strukturna neenakost, ideološka epistemologija, stigma in hierarhija, režimi raznolikosti