Changes In Social Structure Research Articles

Changes in Social Network Structure in Response to Exposure to Formal Credit Markets

Abstract We show that the entry of formal financial institutions can have far-reaching and long-lasting impacts on informal lending and social networks more generally. We first study the introduction of microfinance in 75 villages in Karnataka, India, 43 of which were exposed to microfinance. Using difference-in-differences, we show that networks shrank more in exposed villages. Moreover, links between households that were both unlikely to borrow from microfinance were at least as likely to disappear as links involving likely borrowers. We replicate these surprising findings in the context of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) in Hyderabad, where a microfinance institution randomly selected 52 of 104 neighbourhoods to enter first. Four years after all neighbourhoods were treated, households in early-entry neighbourhoods had credit access longer and had larger loans. We again find fewer social relationships between households in these neighbourhoods, even among those ex-ante unlikely to borrow. Because the results suggest global spillovers, atypical in usual models of network formation, we develop a new dynamic model of network formation that emphasizes chance meetings, where efforts to socialize generate a global network-level externality. Finally, we analyse informal borrowing and the sensitivity of consumption to income fluctuations. Households unlikely to take up microcredit suffer the greatest loss of informal borrowing and risk sharing, underscoring the global nature of the externality.

THE TRANSFORMATIVE EFFECT OF SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY FRAMEWORKS THROUGH THE LENS OF MARGARET ARCHER’S SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPTS

After the end of the apartheid regime, the South African Government and other stakeholders have made several commitments to enhance and transform the nation's educational system, particularly higher education. To achieve this, the government implemented several educational reforms, passed legislation, and established policies. Despite some discussions and debates surrounding educational improvement, there is still a lack of comprehensive analysis that examines the specific contributions, challenges, and potential challenges of these policy frameworks in driving positive transformations. Accordingly, this research examines the transformative impact of South African Higher Education policy frameworks using Margaret Archer's morphogenetic theory as an analytical framework. The study conducts a desktop document analysis of published literature, including policy documents from the South African government, to explore the contributions and challenges of these policy frameworks. The analysis reveals a lack of significant changes in agency, social, and cultural structures, indicating the absence of morphogenesis processes. Furthermore, there is a lack of commitment from various agents to the policy objectives, particularly evident in weaknesses in fulfilling mandates and the resulting institutional instability due to student protests. The study highlights that the anticipated impact of policies, strategies, and financial resources may have fallen short of expectations regarding the transformation process. The findings contribute to understanding the limitations and effectiveness of South African Higher Education policy frameworks, offering insights into the complex dynamics between structure, culture, and agency. This research informs policymakers, educators, and stakeholders involved in higher education by providing recommendations to enhance the transformative potential of these policy frameworks. The research has broader implications for understanding educational improvement and policy frameworks in other contexts, as the insights gained from this study can be applicable and valuable to similar settings facing challenges in educational reforms..

Social, Economic and Health Status of Aging People in Surrounding Areas of Kathmandu

Aging is most recent phenomenon of the world population- none of the countries in the world is excluded from this spectacle. The aging of population in Nepal is growing in acceleration comparing to other segments of human population. As population transition shifts to the aging, it brings changes in social pattern, social structure and social relations. This article brings into discussion about various aspects of socio-economic status of aging people in Nepal, based on outer circle of Kathmandu city. Socio-economic status of aging people is more or less associated with the socio-economic status of family itself and, of course, of a country. Aging is not only associated with age, but also intermingled with various socio-economic factors of different arena of a society. Researches on concerned field has explored that increase of aging population pose challenges to family, society and nation. Moreover, aging people are at the risk because of individual, behavioral and surrounding factors that include level of education, past and present occupation, level of income, youth migration, accessible infrastructure, provisions of social security and many more that is discussed in the following lines. Such and other factors contribute for health risks in aging. In this scenario, this paper accounts socio-economic status of aging people in Nepal in the present context.

Leveraging accessible tourism development through mega-events, and the disability-attitude gap

Able-bodied, and increasingly people with disabilities, represent a key audience for mega-events; occasions that act as crucibles where social problems endemic to host destinations can be exposed and tackled through targeted social policy. Drawing on the social model of disability, the paper examines how Japan utilised Tokyo 2020 as a field configuring event to disrupt systems of ableist thinking and tackle physical and attitudinal barriers restricting Persons with Disabilities (PwD) to accessible tourism. Qualitative evidence reveals national commitments to relegitimise, improve accessibility for - and acceptance toward - PwD in Japanese society, through transformations to the built environment, national awareness, and educational campaigns in the build up to Tokyo 2020. An over-emphasis on physical as opposed to social structural change mean negative attitudes often persist, where disability remains stigmatised, leading to PwD immobility and social exclusion. Our policy recommendations and managerial implications, alongside research directions attend to this disability-attitude gap.

INTERRELATIONSHIP OF INFLATION, EXCHANGE RATE AND INTEREST RATES IN THE CONTEXT OF HUNGARY'S STRATEGIC POLICY

INTERRELATIONSHIP OF INFLATION, EXCHANGE RATE AND INTEREST RATES IN THE CONTEXT OF HUNGARY'S STRATEGIC POLICY

Barriers to providing internet-based home care services for urban older adults in China: a qualitative study of the service providers

BackgroundDue to the increasingly aging population in China and the changes in social and family structure, older adults’ care problems are becoming more and more prominent. To meet the home care needs of urban older adults, the Chinese government has launched Internet-Based Home Care Services (IBHCS). Although this model innovation can significantly relieve care problems, more and more evidence shows that there are many barriers in the process of IBHCS supply. The current literature is mostly from the perspective of the service users, and there are very few studies on the experience of service providers.MethodsIn this study, we took a qualitative phenomenological approach and used semi-structured interviews to investigate service providers’ daily experiences and the barriers they encounter. A total of 34 staff from 14 Home Care Service Centers (HCSCs) were included. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis.ResultsWe identified the barriers that service providers encounter in IBHCS supply: (1) bureaucratic repression: unreasonable policy plans, harsh assessment, excessive paperwork, different preferences of government leaders, and obstacles caused by COVID-19 control lead to a shift of focus in their work; (2) profitability crisis in the market: high service costs, dampened effective demand, government intervention in setting prices, and parent companies’ excessively high sales targets hinder the service supply process; (3) client-related challenges: the crisis of confidence, the dilemma of popularizing new technology, and communication barriers lead to rejection by older adults; (4) job dissatisfaction: low and unstable salary, heavy tasks, poor social acceptance of occupations, and lack of professional value reduce work enthusiasm.ConclusionWe have investigated the barriers faced by service providers when providing IBHCS for urban older adults in China, providing empirical evidence in the Chinese context for the relevant literature. In order to provide IBHCS better, it is necessary to improve the institutional environment and market environment, strengthen publicity and communication, target customer needs, and adjust the working conditions of front-line workers.

The predicament and protection countermeasures of the original ecological village sports inheritance—in the case of Climbing rod in Longlin De 'e Village

Study Aim. At the moment of people's increasingly satisfied material and cultural life, how to meet the spiritual and cultural life has become problematic in rural areas. The original ecological villages have become one of the choices for the people to satisfy spiritual and cultural life. They can improve their physical fitness through the physical exercise of the original ecological villages. They can also learn traditional cultural knowledge, cultivate sentiment, and enhance the inheritance and development of traditional national sports culture.Material and Methods. Therefore, the use of qualitative analysis and quantitative research to describe the current status of the development of the Longlin De 'e Climbing rod， Through literature, field surveys, questionnaire interviews and oral history, and other research methods take the Longlin De 'e Climbing rod as an example to study the status of sports protection in the original ecological village.Results. The conclusion is that the lack of support from government departments in the original ecological village, the weakening of the villagers' sense of recognition of the national culture, and the change in a local social structure made inheritance unsustainable.Conclusions. Therefore, it is recommended that the government should respond to the improvement of the support of the original ecological villages, formulate corresponding measures, enhance the sense of identity in the sports culture of the original ecological village, change the traditional inheritance model, and create a good development and inheritance environment for the sports of the original ecological villages, to achieve the nation Protection of traditional sports culture.

ОСЛОВЉАВАЊЕ У ИЗАБРАНИМ КОМЕДИЈАМА ЛУДВИГА ХОЛБЕРГА

This paper deals with address and forms of address in five selected comedies of the prominent Dano-Norwegian playwright Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754). The primary aim of the paper is to establish and describe the inventory of forms of address, i.e., the linguistic expressions a language can use to address the counterpart. The author then goes on to describe pronominal, nominal, and verbal forms Holberg used in his comedies, establishing the heterogeneity of the so-called V-forms, especially in contrast to modern language use. The author then describes and analyzes the nominal forms of address according to 9 groups, showing that some of the markers are lexically obsolete today, but that others are obsolete due to changes in social structure and culture, with forms of address being inseparable from other forms of cultural communication. The paper analyzes the factors that contribute to symmetry or asymmetry in communication, such as gender, age, social rank, and title (an important factor in a period when social standing was a more pervasive factor than in modern society), as well as context in which given address takes place. Finally, the paper considers comedic elements that specifically employ the culture of address as means of criticizing or making fun of certain societal norms or changes in perceived status that show one’s inadequacies.

L’usage du référent chrétien dans le débat public contemporain en France: Essai de typologie

The use of the Christian referent in contemporary public debate in France raises the question of the imaginary to which societies have recourse in order to construct their memory and establish their foundation. The contents of these representations and mental configurations give meaning to collective coexistence and can evolve over time, under the effect of changes in social structures, mobilization strategies carried by elites, and the demands of public opinion. The situation in contemporary France illustrates these changes. Until the 1980s, the “civil religion” produced by the governmental elites in such a way as to consolidate the political bond did not match the “common religion” lived by the populations: Christianity, at least in its Catholic form, remained outside the official mode of representation of society. The situation has changed in recent decades. By a kind of paradox, while the Church sees its social audience regressing, Christianity becomes again central in the image that France intends to give of itself. In this article, we would like to describe, in a typological way, the forms of this newfound alliance, based on public discourse over the last forty years. An immediate examination of contemporary elaborations leads us to identify three essential figures - culturalist, foundationalist, deliberative - of the articulation of politics and religion, distinct from the rationalist paradigm of the Third Republic. The developments in these pages will attempt to test this pluralist hypothesis.

Effects of Technological Revolution on Housing Buying Behavior in Bangkok

Purpose: To study factors affecting attitudes and house-buying behavior caused by disruption of property technology. Theoretical framework: A study on the disruption of technology affecting house-buying behavior in Bangkok consists of theories and concepts: Consumer Behavior, Decision-making Process, and Technology Acceptance. This study employed conceptual frameworks: components of PropTech (Technology, Consumer Behavior, and Real Estate) and Complementary Relationships. Methodology: This study classified property technology into three main groups: Construction Technology, Technology in Property Trading, and Residential Technology. After the data were obtained from the survey through the Google Form, the data were processed and analyzed and the hypothesis was tested through the SPSS and Market Structure Analysis was performed by SWOT Analysis. Findings: The findings revealed that disruption of technology affected house-buying behavior and property business development in a supportive form in terms of satisfaction with the use of PropTech and the tendency for technology acceptance was greater among the population due to the changing social structure and lifestyle, resulting in convenience for more efficient time management and the ability to control expenses and costs which is also a key factor driving the trend in the use of more technology in the future. Research, Practical & Social Implications: The study pointed out that technology benefited property in a supportive way. On the other hand, it indicated that technology is just one factor that affects buying decisions in Bangkok. It is not the main factor as compared to price since PropTech has still not fully involved in the property industry. Originality: The full technological disruption may affect the property business model in the future in terms of production, sales, and after-sales services. Therefore, for property developers, it is necessary to update on whether technology can continue to revolutionize the property industry.

Social control of land and water in the State of São Paulo: the case of the city of Pereira Barreto

The study herein describes and analyzes how State and society exert, in a historic process, the control over land and water resources. A case study is conducted on the historical processes of territorialization that involves land and water in the city of Pereira Barreto, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Water resources have been key strategies to maximize the value of private lands. The ownership of land merges with the ownership of water. The overlapping of land and water places the management of water resources under the care of land owners. With the construction and filling of the reservoirs of Jupiá, Ilha Solteira and Três Irmãos hydroelectric plants, the regional dynamics and management of water resources in the city of Pereira Barreto and region have undergone profound social and economic structure changes. The social control of land and water is then put into practice by UHE Três Irmãos in the city of Pereira Barreto. The Water Basin Committees of the State of São Paulo emerge as social actors who have the social control of water resources and who seek, by means of water resource management, to have control of lands, thus reversing in part the aforementioned initial scenario.

The emergence of word order from a social network perspective

The distribution of word order across languages is skewed with SOV order (e.g., researchers sentences write) and SVO order (e.g., researchers write sentences) being >100 times more common than OSV order (sentences researchers write). It is commonly assumed that cross-linguistic preferences reflect cognitive biases, but it is unknown why some languages exhibit dispreferred patterns, or why languages settle on a specific pattern out of several preferred ones. This paper tests whether larger communities are more likely to rely on cross-linguistically preferred patterns as a way to overcome the greater communicative challenges they encounter. Participants played a communication game in large groups, small groups, or alone. Results support the hypothesis that community size influences word order as well as suggest that SOV and SVO orders are prevalent for different reasons with SVO specifically addressing communicative pressures. The studies thus show how community structure can give rise to cross-linguistic preferences, when these preferences can be overridden, and suggest how language might change with changes in social structure.

A Systematic Review of Tourism Governance: Sustainable Tourism Governance Model Post COVID-19

This study aims to examine and categorise themes and concepts related to the study of tourism sustainability governance during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study of tourism governance is becoming a big topic since the emergence of COVID-19, especially from the management point of view, the role and contribution of policy actors, the economy, and changes in social structures. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis with the help of software, VOSviewer and NVivo12+ obtained 78 Scopus-indexed articles relevant to the study. The articles were collected from various publishers, namely Elsevier, SAGE, MDPI, and Taylor and Francis. The results showed 71 concepts in the study of tourism governance, which the researchers categorised into 6 clusters-related to the discussion of the dominant themes, namely tourism development, economic recession, world change, ecology, and policy. The significance of this research is the discovery of the concept of sustainable tourism governance during the COVID-19 pandemic, which can assist in developing a conceptual framework for future studies related to the tourism sector. While the limitations of this study are reviewed are only articles obtained from the Scopus database, there is no comparison. Therefore, it is necessary to use a comparative approach involving the Scopus database and Web of Science (WoS) for further research

Social Structure and Cultural Change in Humanities: A Review

Social Structure and Cultural Change in Humanities: A Review

Koyō kankei to shakaiteki fubyōdō: Sangyōteki shitizunshippu keisei tenkai to shite no kōzō hendō (Employment Relations and Social Inequalities: Social Structural Changes Shaped by the Development of Industrial Citizenship)

Labour reforms have been implemented in Japan since the 1990s, and the resulting inequalities between regular and non-regular employees have become the core of the inequality problems in Japan in the 21st century. Thus, it is important to ask certain questions. What was the economic, political, and institutional background for the increase in non-regular employees? Why have the inequalities between regular and non-regular employees not been reduced? How will the employment system of Japanese companies change in the future? One may find answers to all these questions in this book. Using new institutionalism in sociology as the basic methodology, this treatise by Imai Jun explains the labour reforms that have taken place over the last three decades and their impact on social inequalities in Japan. It attempts to bridge institutional and social stratification studies. This book is based on one of Imai’s previous publications (Imai 2011) but is not merely a Japanese translation of the same. Four new chapters have been added, and the chapters based on the previous book have been substantially revised. This new book is worth reading, even for readers of the previous work.

A comparative study of balamoola kashayam pana with and without karpasyadhi taila nasya on apabhabuka with a special reference to frozen shoulder

Introduction and Aim: When changes in lifestyle, environment, and social structure occur throughout time with a predominance of certain symptoms and virulence, diseases arise. Whatever the illness, it becomes a serious issue for society and affects both social and professional activity. One such symptom that has afflicted people since the dawn of time is pain. There are many distinct places where pain can appear and come from. An estimated 16% to 26% of shoulder discomfort cases are self-reported. The goal is to find a treatment that will lessen a person's discomfort, decrease their level of dependency, and improve their quality of life by increasing their mobility and reducing their disability. Frozen shoulder is one of these clinical conditions where nasya with oral medication can be prescribed.
 
 Materials and Methods: In this study patients in Group B received balamoola kashaya pana with karpasyadhi taila as nasya, in contrast to those in Group A who received balamoola kashaya pana only.
 
 Results: After completion of 30 days, it was observed that the effect of treatment in Group B is more significant against most of the clinical parameters taken to assess the efficacy of treatment with p value <0.001.
 
 Conclusion: After trial it can be concluded that nasya along with balamoola kashaya pana is more effective in the management of Apabahuka (Frozen shoulder).

Feminist Critique of Ghana’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Policies

Women’s entrepreneurship is an important medium for poverty reduction, economic growth and development. Nonetheless, it faces critical challenges that limit it from realizing its full potential. Feminist theories bring to the fore the diverse conundrums of women’s entrepreneurship and how to address them. This paper aimed to examine Ghana’s women’s entrepreneurship policies from feminist theoretical perspectives to determine how the policies address gendered barriers and support women’s entrepreneurship efforts. Premised on the transformative research paradigm, the paper involves content analysis of 14 purposively-sampled Ghana’s public policy documents. Consistent with policy expectations of the feminist theories, it was found that there are policies that seek to address gendered discourses, promote change of social structures in support of women’s venturing and enhance women entrepreneurs’ access to resources. Nonetheless, there are still areas that need further attention in all the three theoretical perspectives, particularly in pursuit of change in social structures and gender equality in access to resources. Although the policies justifiably tilt more towards the informal sector, inadequate attention to women operating in the formal sector could serve as a disincentive to the growth and development of their ventures and a deterrent to the graduation of more informal enterprises into the formal economy.

New radiocarbon dates and the prehistoric human occupation at the Lake Qinghai Basin, northeast Tibetan Plateau

The Tibetan Plateau is known as the rooftop of the planet. Its hypoxic atmosphere in low oxygen partial pressure, extreme seasonal climate variation, and aridity poses severe challenges as harsh living environments for prehistoric human to occupy in such high-altitude niches. However, the Lake Qinghai is the largest lake on the Tibetan Plateau and the basin has rich water, mineral, and wild food resources, and prehistoric human occupied the Lake Qinghai Basin long before local farming was in practice. In this paper we present results of faunal assemblages associated with variable stone artifacts and pottery shards with bone collagen accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (AMS 14C) dates from 3 new archaeological sites to investigate human occupation history in the southern Lake Qinghai Basin. The AMS 14C dating results reveal that the occupation occurs intermittently from the late Glacial to entire Holocene. Through compilation and synthesis of regional archaeological records, we found that prehistoric humans went through 3 phases of subsistence strategies: 1) hunting large and medium ungulates; 2) hunting medium ungulates; 3) foraging small size mammals with birds and fish diets. At the end, prehistoric humans increasingly adapted to forage and consume caprinaes species (goat), which represents a precursor of domestication or semi-domestication of wild animals in the Lake Qinghai Basin. We further attribute the utilization of caprinaes animal resources to the lower limbs of toe and phalange bones with low nutritious values to advanced social organization that implied prehistoric humans separated hunting activity from protein processing practices. Our investigation of zooarchaeology with reliable bone collagen AMS 14C dates could become a novel approach to study adaptation strategy and social structure changes of prehistorical Tibetan humans.

Urban development and peri-urbanization in the Hodna Region. Fragmentation of urban space; City of M'sila

The shift and changes that are happening in the world—and Algeria in particular—is rooted in urban existence. The significant changes in social structures and lifestyles have resulted in rapid, vast, and even violent urbanisation during the past few decades. The urbanisation of our cities is no longer a reality that can be proven, claim the many studies looking into the issue. The periphery developed as a result of urban expansion, which allowed these cities to expand past the boundaries that colonisation left behind after independence.In this regard, it was considered worthwhile to present this paper that challenges the structure of the Algerian city using the example of the city of M'sila, which is located in the Hodna region and has a structural framework characterised by discontinuities and a spatial expansion. Moreover, typo-morphological; the term "suburbanization" has been used increasingly commonly to describe this tendency. The question of urban fragmentation is fundamentally raised by this type of "fragmented" urbanisation. The obvious question is: How are the cities distributed? Is the spread unified in both time and place?

ЖІНОЧЕ ЛІДЕРСТВО ЯК ІНДИКАТОР ЗМІН ПОЛІТИКО-ГЕОГРАФІЧНОГО СЕРЕДОВИЩА У КРАЇНАХ ЛАТИНСЬКОЇ АМЕРИКИ

In this article we address the phenomenon of the spreading female leadership in Latin American politics. Stressing the overall importance of gender studies in geography, we pay special attention to theories and methodological approaches in regional and country studies with the focus on gender issues. Based on the data from international organizations, including the World Bank we discuss the general trends in gender balance in Latin America against the average background of the world and other macro-regions, and then we analyze differences among individual Latin American countries. We compare women’s representation in national parliaments, specifically focusing on the women’s proportion growth rate. Then we discuss individual biography and political course cases of the female presidents of Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and Costa-Rica as those countries can shed more light onto the overall social and political context, in which women take the highest political positions in Latin American region. Those cases demonstrate that women in all four countries have opportunities to develop a full-fledged political career and their ascendance to power is not accidental. The cases of Michelle Bachelet in Chile and Laura Chinchilla in Costa-Rica contradict patrimonial stereotypes common for Latin America’s countries in regard to women in politics being protégés of powerful male politicians. We come to the conclusion that growing women’s representation in national level legislative bodies and presidential posts reveal more profound changes in social structure and values in Latin American societies. In particular, we believe that the culture of “machismo” or masculinity gives way to the changes caused by modernization and shifts in social and economic development of Latin American countries, shifting towards semi-periphery of the world-system.