Discrimination and Marginalisation: The Wheel of Social Locations

This tool helps us think about the characteristics we have that might make us more or less likely to face discrimination or marginalisation.

Discrimination means being treated in a way that disadvantages you, or where you are treated less well than others.

Being marginalised means being ignored or left out by society, or being treated as less important by society. People who are marginalised might not get the same opportunities, respect, or rights as others.

On the wheel, the closer you are to the centre, the more privilege you have. The further you are from the centre, the more likely you are to face discrimination or exclusion. This wheel was adapted from an original design (Hankivsky & Duckworth) to include experiences in the U.K. and doesn’t include all types of traits that could be marginalised.

If you are going to use this tool, we would encourage you to consider if there are any other characteristics which would be important to include for your context. Intersectionality is a big idea, and this tool is designed to be starting point.