Dimensions Of Social Structure Research Articles

"The Hotel of 10,000 Stars": The Impact of Social-Structural Determinants of Health Among Im/migrant Shrimpers in the Gulf of Mexico.

Objectives. To identify appropriate interventions to prevent injury, we conducted a qualitative study among commercial shrimp fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico. Methods. Using qualitative and participatory research methods, including interviews, photovoice, and workplace observations in southeast Texas and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, we examined the social‒structural dimensions that contribute to physical and psychological injury. Results. We found that multiple layers of vulnerability and danger exist among shrimpers with interacting themes: (1) recognizing risk, (2) precarious employment, and (3) psychological distress. Conclusions. Our results add to the growing body of knowledge that emphasizes the negative health impacts of underregulated, high-risk, and physically demanding work performed primarily by im/migrants. Public Health Implications. Our findings highlight the larger social‒structural conditions and context of hardships endemic to migrant labor and suggest implications for practice and policy interventions. (Am J Public Health. 2024;114(8):824-832. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307696).

Cross-cultural nursing care for immigrant women during pregnancy and childbirth: experiences and vulnerabilities.

To understand the experiences and vulnerabilities for cross-cultural nursing care for immigrant women during pregnancy and delivery. Exploratory, qualitative research, in the light of the Theory of Diversity and Universality of Cultural Care, in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, through interviews with eight postpartum woman and 18 nurses, between February and September 2022. The interpretation of meanings was adopted for analysis. The categories of analysis emerged: Experiences, vulnerabilities and acculturation of immigrant women during pregnancy and delivery; Cross-cultural care and vulnerabilities experienced by immigrants in Brazilian health services. Vulnerabilities were identified in Cultural and Social Structure Dimensions expressed in access to work, low socioeconomic conditions, lack of family and social support and specific services for this population. The potentialities experienced included good care provided by health services, quality of the multidisciplinary team and appreciation of professional knowledge, however, the understanding of expectations and cultural aspects needs to be deepened. Understand that immigrant women experience situations of vulnerability in pregnancy and childbirth, in the Brazilian context, mainly related to social and programmatic dimensions. However, potentialities were also experienced, evidenced by positive aspects in cross-cultural nursing care in Brazil.

African returnees in international knowledge transfer: A social capital perspective

African returnees in international knowledge transfer: A social capital perspective

THE SOCIOLOGY OF AGING AND SOCIAL GERONTOLOGY: CRITICAL TENSIONS AND NECESSARY DISTINCTIONS

Abstract This paper argues that the sociology of ageing has been diverted from developing a clearly sociological approach to ageing and old age by its entanglement with social gerontology. Dominated by social and health policy and advocacy on behalf of older people, the sociological analysis of later life has taken second place. The rise of critical gerontology and cultural gerontology have put further distance between sociology and the sociology of ageing. The changes to ageing and old age challenge the residualisation of ageing within the wider sociological community and set up new tasks for a sociology of ageing which resonates with contemporary later life. We argue that to achieve those tasks requires not only separating the sociology of ageing from social gerontology, but also employing contemporary sociological theory can enable the sociology of ageing to move beyond the ‘problem’ of old age. This involves an analysis of the social structural dimensions of contemporary ageing, its symbolic representations and the embodied and agentic experiences of people becoming older. We conclude that a re-envisioned sociology of ageing can also better equip social gerontology with more effective tools to understand the ‘new ageing’.

Physics Teacher Agency for Physics Education

In the field of middle and high school physics education, teachers must succeed in both “physics education” and “physics as education.” This is because the school classroom is not just a time for learning physics, but also a time for connecting physics to students’ lives “Right here Right now” as an education. Physics teachers are actively interpreting and reconstructing the field with students who change rapidly in society and creating the context of physics education. In this personal and social context, teacher agency is exerted.1) Teacher agency is not just the personal ability of individual teachers to implement policies sincerely or the policies promoted by higher institutions. Teacher agency as a change agent is achieved by creating an environment in which teachers can actively demonstrate their expertise with their own beliefs in a context that encompasses both the personal and social structural dimensions of teachers.2) In order to promote the emergence of physics teacher agency, educational administrative agencies should focus not only on promoting education policies that focus on the individual competencies of teachers, but also on creating a structural context around teachers and teacher networks as important agent in the development and implementation of education policies. The Korean Physical Society, which plays an important role in the development of physics education, needs to expand opportunities for participation in physics education by physics teachers to help expand the network of physics teachers, who are important actors in the network of physics education.

Expanding understanding of brand value co-creation on social media from an S-D logic perspective: Introducing structuration theory

Brands are increasingly seen in light of collaborative, value creation activities of a firm and all of its stakeholders. This is strongly influenced by the emergence and dominant role that social media plays in societies globally. With challenges presented for brand management and marketing scholarship more generally, to understand and react to the social implications presented for brand value creation. Accordingly, this study builds on the principles of S-D logic to expand understanding of the co-creation of brand value on social media. We introduce social construction theories, focusing on structuration theory. A conceptual model and propositions apply a structuration perspective to provide new insights into how brand value is socially constructed by multiple stakeholders using social media. The focus is on how stakeholder-brand interactions play out across three dimensions of social structure: meaning; norms; and power. We consider how brand meaning (and thus value), emerges out of consensus and dissensus between various stakeholders—brand loyalists and brand rebels—using social media to interact with brands. And how norms of behavior and structures of power guide and legitimize their social media use to reinforce, or potentially transform, brand meaning. Importantly, we consider how brand management can recognize the interactive opportunities provided by different social media platforms and the positions and roles of stakeholders and their social context in considering the social construction of brand value.

Restoring the missing person to personalized medicine and precision psychiatry.

Precision psychiatry has emerged as part of the shift to personalized medicine and builds on frameworks such as the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health Research Domain Criteria (RDoC), multilevel biological "omics" data and, most recently, computational psychiatry. The shift is prompted by the realization that a one-size-fits all approach is inadequate to guide clinical care because people differ in ways that are not captured by broad diagnostic categories. One of the first steps in developing this personalized approach to treatment was the use of genetic markers to guide pharmacotherapeutics based on predictions of pharmacological response or non-response, and the potential risk of adverse drug reactions. Advances in technology have made a greater degree of specificity or precision potentially more attainable. To date, however, the search for precision has largely focused on biological parameters. Psychiatric disorders involve multi-level dynamics that require measures of phenomenological, psychological, behavioral, social structural, and cultural dimensions. This points to the need to develop more fine-grained analyses of experience, self-construal, illness narratives, interpersonal interactional dynamics, and social contexts and determinants of health. In this paper, we review the limitations of precision psychiatry arguing that it cannot reach its goal if it does not include core elements of the processes that give rise to psychopathological states, which include the agency and experience of the person. Drawing from contemporary systems biology, social epidemiology, developmental psychology, and cognitive science, we propose a cultural-ecosocial approach to integrating precision psychiatry with person-centered care.

A computational framework for modelling infectious disease policy based on age and household structure with applications to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The widespread, and in many countries unprecedented, use of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) during the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for mathematical models which can estimate the impact of these measures while accounting for the highly heterogeneous risk profile of COVID-19. Models accounting either for age structure or the household structure necessary to explicitly model many NPIs are commonly used in infectious disease modelling, but models incorporating both levels of structure present substantial computational and mathematical challenges due to their high dimensionality. Here we present a modelling framework for the spread of an epidemic that includes explicit representation of age structure and household structure. Our model is formulated in terms of tractable systems of ordinary differential equations for which we provide an open-source Python implementation. Such tractability leads to significant benefits for model calibration, exhaustive evaluation of possible parameter values, and interpretability of results. We demonstrate the flexibility of our model through four policy case studies, where we quantify the likely benefits of the following measures which were either considered or implemented in the UK during the current COVID-19 pandemic: control of within- and between-household mixing through NPIs; formation of support bubbles during lockdown periods; out-of-household isolation (OOHI); and temporary relaxation of NPIs during holiday periods. Our ordinary differential equation formulation and associated analysis demonstrate that multiple dimensions of risk stratification and social structure can be incorporated into infectious disease models without sacrificing mathematical tractability. This model and its software implementation expand the range of tools available to infectious disease policy analysts.

Balancing Act: Precision Medicine and National Security.

Developments in genetics, pharmacology, biomarker identification, imaging, and interventional biotechnology are enabling medicine to become increasingly more precise in "personalized" approaches to assessing and treating individual patients. Here we describe current scientific and technological developments in precision medicine and elucidate the dual-use risks of employing these tools and capabilities to exert disruptive influence upon human health, economics, social structure, military capabilities, and global dimensions of power. We advocate continued enterprise toward more completely addressing nuances in the ethical systems and approaches that can-and should-be implemented (and communicated) to more effectively inform policy to guide and govern the biosecurity and use of current and emerging bioscience and technology on the rapidly shifting global stage.

Orality, literacy and the “great divide” in cultural values

PurposeBuilding on the “Great Divide” thesis (Goody, 1977; Ong, 1982), this study analyzes the conceptual relationships between the two main communication modes (orality/literacy) and cultural values.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts a purely conceptual approach to connect orality and literacy with nine cultural dimensions adopted from Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s (1961), Hall’s (1976) and Inglehart’s (1997) frameworks.FindingsThe analyses suggest that orality is associated with values such as high-context communication, poly-chronic time, public space proxemics, collectivism, hierarchical social structure, subjugation, past orientation, religiousness/traditionalism and survival cultural dimensions. Literacy is associated with opposing values, including low-context communication, mono-chronic time, private space proxemics, individualism, egalitarian social structure, dominance, future orientation, secularity/rationality, and self-expression cultural dimensions. The paper relies on modernization theory to explain the socio-economic implications and organizes the nine pairs of cultural dimensions according to the great divide between orality and literacy.Originality/valueTheoretically, this study conceptualizes orality and literacy, analyzes their salient differences and examines their relationships with cultural values. While many studies have tried to explain the differences in cultural values from an economic perspective, this study offers an alternative view of cultural values’ variations across the world.

Experimental (Re)structuring: The Clinical Trial as Turning Point Among Medical Research Participants.

Amid the growth of addiction medicine randomized controlled trials (RCTs), scholars have begun examining participants' study experiences, highlighting facilitators and barriers to enrollment. However, this work can overlook the interplay between trial participation and social-structural dimensions among people with substance use disorders linked to the social nature of use, socioeconomic marginalization, and time demands of substance procurement and use. To effectively conduct RCTs with this unique population, it is necessary to examine the broader social context of study participation. We conducted nested qualitative interviews with 22 participants involved in an RCT testing a treatment for alcohol and opioid use disorders in HIV clinics. Thematic analyses revealed social-structural circumstances shaping RCT participation as well as how participation constitutes a turning point, prompting individuals to reconfigure social networks, reorient to spatial environments, and reorganize day-to-day life-with implications for how substance use disorder RCTs should be approached by researchers.

Theories Informing eHealth Implementation: Systematic Review and Typology Classification.

BackgroundTheory-guided approaches to implementation science have informed translation efforts and the acceptance of eHealth (digital health) interventions in clinical care. However, there is scarce evidence on which theories are best suited to addressing the inherent complexity of eHealth implementation.ObjectiveThe objectives of this systematic review are to identify theories that inform and explain eHealth implementation and to classify these theories using the typology by Sovacool and Hess for theories of sociotechnical change.MethodsAn electronic search was conducted in the PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, Scopus, Sociological Source Ultimate, Web of Science, ABI/INFORM, EBSCO, and ProQuest databases in June 2019. Studies were included if they were published between 2009 and June 2019; were written in English; reported on empirical research, regardless of study or publication type; reported on one or more theories in the context of eHealth implementation; and were published in a peer-reviewed journal. A total of 2 reviewers independently assessed the titles, abstracts, and full texts. Theories identified were classified using a typology for theories of sociotechnical change, which was considered a useful tool for ordering and analyzing the diverse theoretical approaches as a basis for future theory building.ResultsOf the 13,101 potentially relevant titles, 119 studies were included. The review identified 36 theories used to explain implementation approaches in eHealth. The most commonly used approaches were the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (n=33) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) (n=32). These theories were primarily concerned with individual and interpersonal elements of eHealth acceptance. Less common were theories that reflect the various disorderly social processes and structural dimensions of implementation, such as the normalization process theory (n=17) and the structuration theory (n=6).ConclusionsTheories currently informing the implementation of eHealth interventions predominantly focus on predicting or explaining end-user acceptance. Theoretical perspectives that capture the dense and intricate relationships and structures required to enact sustainable change are less well represented in the eHealth literature. Given the growing acknowledgment of the inherent complexity of eHealth implementation, future research should develop and test models that recognize and reflect the multidimensional, dynamic, and relational nature of this process.

A Model Study Based on Social Network Relational Dimensions and Structural Dimensions

Abstract This paper uses the data of China’s venture capital industry in the CVSource and Zero2IPO databases from 1999 to 2018 as a research sample. By using UCINET software to build the entire network of venture capital industry for social network analysis, I calculate the group tie density based on network interaction, status heterogeneity and faults based on network centrality, to analyse whether those group network characteristics affect the complementarity effect. Based on this, I use probit model regression test to carry on an examination.

The Pattern of the Teaching of Multiculturalism-Based Civics Education: A Case Study at Higher Education Institutions

<p style="text-align:justify">This research aims to reveal the pattern of the multiculturalism-based civics education at higher education institutions in Surakarta, Indonesia. It applied the descriptive qualitative method with the dual case study approach, conducted at State University of Sebelas Maret and Slamet Riyadi University in Surakarta. The data were collected through observation and interviews to find the answers to the research questions in the field. The data were analysed using the interactive technique, consisting of data collection, data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. The result shows that the teaching of multiculturalism-based civics education at State University of Sebelas Maret and Slamet Riyadi University has almost the same pattern, that is media-assisted teaching pattern and is always conducted by considering the material integration dimension, knowledge construction dimension, prejudice minimization dimension, equal rights to education dimension, and the dimension of school culture empowerment and social structure from the planning stage to teaching implementation and evaluation stages. The research findings suggest that the students of universities in Surakarta should be able to implement the goal of the teaching of civics education in universities, and the lecturers should always improve the materials, content, method, and strategies of the teaching of multiculturalism-based civics education.</p>

A Scoping Review and Conceptual Model of Social Participation and Mental Health among Refugees and Asylum Seekers.

Social participation plays a key role in the integration of refugees and asylum seekers into their host societies, and is also closely tied to the mental health of those populations. The aim of this scoping review was to study how the concept of social participation is described in empirical research, and how it is associated with mental health outcomes. Methods: In total, 64 studies were identified through searches in PubMed, PsycInfo, and Sociological s. These studies describe various forms of social participation among refugees and asylum seekers, and 33 of them also addressed various forms of mental health outcomes. Results: The identified studies described forms and conditions of social participation—both in the host country and transnationally—that could be synthesized into three broad dimensions: (1) Regulatory frameworks, conditions and initiatives; (2) Established societal organizations and social structures; and (3) Community organized groups. Each of these consisted of several sub-domains. The identified dimensions of social participation were also associated with psychosocial well-being and decreased psychological distress. Conclusions: There is a need for policies to enable and support the participation of refugees and asylum seekers in various dimensions of social structures in host societies. Social participation enhances resilience, re-establishes social lives, and acts as a protective factor against poor mental health outcomes.

The intersectional risk environment of people who use drugs

Current conceptual models for examining the production of risk and harm (e.g. syndemics, 'risk environment') in substance use research have been fundamental in emphasizing broader environmental factors that shape health outcomes for people who use drugs (PWUD). However, the application of these frameworks in ways that highlight nuance and complexity has remained challenging, with much of this research focusing on select social positions (e.g. race, gender) and social-structural factors (e.g. poverty, drug policies). It is crucial that we move to better accounting for these relations in the context of substance use research to enhance equity in research and ensure understanding of diverse and complex needs. Building on the risk environment framework and complementary approaches, this article introduces the 'intersectional risk environment' as an approach to understanding the interconnected ways that social locations converge within the risk environment to produce or mitigate drug-related outcomes. This framework integrates a relational intersectional lens to examine how differential outcomes across populations of PWUD are produced in relation to social location and processes operating across social-structural dimensions. In doing so, the intersectional risk environment highlights how outcomes are products of processes and relations that are embodied, reflected, and challenged while situated within social, historical, and geographic contexts. Incorporating this framework into future research may improve understandings of health outcomes for PWUD and better orient structural interventions and public health approaches to address differential risks and experiences of PWUD.

Where Do We Go From Here? An Examination of the Relationship Between Changes in Social Structure and Strategic Priorities in Cross-Sector Collaborative Organizations

Cross-sector collaborative organizations are increasingly viewed as an effective means of addressing multifaceted health and social challenges. Given their dependence on volunteers to develop and implement strategy, members’ perceptions of future strategic priorities is a critical concern for leaders and sponsors of these organizations. Research set in more hierarchical, single-sector organizations acknowledges the important relationship between structure and strategy; however, relatively little research has explored these relationships in the context of collaborative organizations. We examined these relationships using multiple rounds of an Internet survey. All three dimensions of social structure (locus of decision making, formalization, and integration) had independent associations with participant’ perceptions of different strategic priorities, suggesting there is more than one approach to influencing the perceived priorities of the alliance. However, some dimensions of the social structure changed more than other dimensions over time, highlighting differential opportunities for influencing strategic priorities.

Re-thinking aspirations through habitus and capital: The experiences of British-born Bangladeshi women in higher education

Since the turn of the century, young people’s aspirations have featured prominently in UK education policy and practice. Governments of all sides have espoused a rhetoric and enacted initiatives which have tended to focus on somehow ‘correcting’ the aspirations of students of working-class and minority ethnic origins. This paper applies a Bourdieusian framework to the analysis of the education and career aspirations of British-born young women of Bangladeshi heritage in higher education. In doing so, it advances a theoretically informed understanding of aspirations, which accounts for the multiple factors that contribute to shape them as well as for the relative implications in terms of future pathways. Drawing on interviews with 21 female undergraduate students, and building on Bourdieu’s notions of habitus and capital, I conceptualise aspirations as an aspect of habitus. I argue that this conceptualisation allows light to be shed on the ways in which multiple, intersecting dimensions of social identity and social structures play out in the shaping, re-shaping and possibly fading of aspirations. Additionally, it enables us to examine the mutually informing influences of aspirations and capital on practice. Findings indicate that the valuing of education and social mobility expressed by those of Bangladeshi and other minority ethnic origins are integral to collective constructions of ‘what people like us do’, which are grounded in diasporic discourses. They also illuminate the significance of social and cultural capital for young people’s capacity to aspire and actualise aspirations, as these contribute to delineate their ‘horizons for action’. This suggests that by failing to adequately recognise how structural inequalities inform differential access to valued capital, prevailing policy and practitioners’ approaches attribute excessive responsibility to students and their parents. The notion of ‘known routes’ is in this respect put forward as a way to make sense of aspirations, expectations and pathways, and the role of institutions in forging possible futures is highlighted.

Complementary or contradictory? The effects of structural holes and status on innovation

This study focuses on the joint effects of the firms’ access to structural holes within social networks and their status within social hierarchy on their innovation performance. The interactions between the firms’ positions in different dimensions of social structures have been rarely examined in prior research despite the fact that they jointly determine the firms’ opportunities and constraints for acquiring important resources, such as knowledge and information, for their innovation activities. In particular, we argue that the effects of structural holes and status contradict, rather than complement, each other because one tends to interfere with the other. We empirically test our theory and hypotheses by analysing the patterns of patent applications and strategic alliances in the US biotechnology industry between 1981 and 2006. While the results support the positive relationship between status and innovation, it is shown that access to structural holes does not significantly affect the biotech firms’ innovation performance on average. Our findings show that the positive effects of structural holes tend to be relatively stronger among lower-status firms, whereas the negative effects become stronger as the firms’ status increases. Finally, we discuss the implications and contributions of this study.

Reflecting on criminalizing male violence against women under human rights and human security discourses: a feminist legal and policy analysis

Abstract Violence against women is an established issue of concern under international law as well as in the international security domain. More in general, it is contended that issues related to gender-based violence need to be countered with strategies aimed at fighting sexual hierarchies and structural discrimination affecting women at different levels and in different contexts. Despite this, international legal and policy responses to male violence against women are increasingly turning to criminal law enforcement with a strict focus on perpetrators’ individual accountability. The article critically analyzes this trend within the two international legal and policy frameworks that in the past decades have most consistently integrated the issue of violence against women, that is, human security and human rights. The article contends that the increasing focus on criminalization that has emerged in both these frameworks risks obfuscating and downsizing the collective and “public” dimension of States’ responsibility with regards the social phenomenon of violence. Indeed, criminalization strategies allow States to circumvent their duty to work on the social, political and economic structural dimensions at the root of this severe form of violation women’s human rights.