Entire Social Groups Research Articles

State violence and target group adaptation: Maintaining social status in the face of repressions in Soviet Russia

How does state-led repression targeting communities influence the social reproduction of victimized groups? Although several excellent studies have explored the sociopolitical consequences of a broad set of conflict-trauma legacies, notably, communal, religious and kinship drivers of responses to state violence, few researchers have explored the mechanisms of social status preservation under violence. The omission of class and social status from conflict research is puzzling considering that millions of people from Cambodia to China and from Russia to Hungary have suffered from state-led violence that targeted entire social groups and communities – from monks and priests with privileged positions in the social hierarchies, to the aristocracy and bourgeoisie. To generate theory about the mechanisms of social submission, adaptation or resistance in the face of group-based repressions, we explored the effects of Soviet repressions on the survival choices and reproduction of the Tzarist educated strata. For our analysis, we deployed subnational data on repressions and social structure and combined this with novel survey evidence and archival sources. We found that, contrary to conventional wisdom, repressions did not prevent the Imperial educated estates from engaging in habitual status- and identity-enhancing pursuits. Throughout the Soviet period, these groups continued to aspire to higher education and professional achievement. What is more, we show that continuity in pursuits was more common in places with more extensive repressions and a larger ‘stock’ of pre-Revolutionary middle classes. We propose that in-group social bonding and permissive political opportunities facilitated social adaptation. Our findings contribute to conflict and social resilience literature.

Papal Nuncios in Prague as Part of the Imperial Court: The Significance of Integration, Sociability, and Credibility of Papal Diplomats at the Turn of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Abstract Papal nuncios at the imperial court in Prague were diplomats who represented their ruler – the sovereign of the Papal States and the head of the Catholic Church. Yet they became a distinctive fixture of the imperial court in the places they served. In order for their integration into the structure of the court to be fluid, their personality traits and character had to fit the universally accepted models that applied to courtiers, namely those pertaining to social background, education, conduct, and disposition. At the same time, they had to possess a sufficient degree of sociability and a capacity to earn trust both in their relationship with the sovereign and with the courtiers. Among the primary instruments of this integration process were a wide variety of social activities, some of which were identical for the entire social group, and others unique to the papal nuncios alone.

Assessing whole-sounder removal versus traditional control for reducing invasive wild pig (Sus scrofa) populations.

Trapping is commonly used as the primary management tool in attempts to reduce invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa), but traditional trapping techniques are often ineffective. However, recently developed traps permit the capture of entire social groups (sounders) of wild pigs, and the strategy of whole-sounder removal may achieve more effective control. Our objective was to experimentally compare traditional control (TC; primarily traditional trapping, but including hunting with dogs, and opportunistic shooting) and whole-sounder removal (WSR) strategies by assessing density reduction and removal rate after 1 and 2 years of treatment. After 1 year of trapping, average wild pig density on WSR units declined 53% and remained stable after the second year, whereas on TC units, pig density did not differ after trapping, although it declined 33% and remained stable after the second year of trapping. The median removal rate (percentage of uniquely marked pigs present at the beginning of each year that were removed) was 42.5% for WSR units and 0.0% for TC units during 2018 and were 29.6% from WSR units and 5.3% from TC units during 2019. WSR removal was more effective at reducing wild pig density than TC, but factors such as previous exposure of this population to traditional traps and the lack of barriers to recolonization from surrounding areas may have reduced WSR efficacy. WSR can effectively reduce wild pig density to a greater extent than TC, but managers should recognize the additional time and expense necessary for implementation. Published 2023. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

The rule of unreason: Analyzing (anti‐)democratic regression

The rule of unreason: Analyzing (anti‐)democratic regression

Политические плакаты эпохи перестройки как социокультурное и коммуникативно-прагматическое единство

The paper is devoted to identifying the features of the interaction between signs belonging to different semiotic systems in the context of Soviet political posters of the perestroika period. The study aims to identify the specific (universal and individual) characteristics of posters of the perestroika period as polycode texts. These texts are considered as special formations that are perceived through the visual communication channel, they combine verbal, graphic and iconic codes. Scientific novelty is accounted for by the fact that Soviet political posters of the perestroika period are little-studied in terms of the structure, extralinguistic basis and the functioning of elements of a heterogeneous (nonlinear) text. The study is novel in that it is the first to choose Soviet political posters of the perestroika period for analysis, as their content provides information about a person’s value attitudes, political preferences and worldview, as a rule, they carry a pragmatic attitude, i.e. they act as an instrument of influence on an individual and entire social groups. As a result, it has been proved that the specificity of these texts is determined by the author’s linguopragmatics and extralinguistic factors.

Signalling in groups: New tools for the integration of animal communication and collective movement

Abstract Investigations of collective movement and animal communication have often followed distinct, though complementary, trajectories. Both subfields are deeply concerned with how information flows between individuals and shapes subsequent behaviour. Collective movement has largely focused on the dynamics of passive, cue‐mediated group coordination, while animal communication has primarily examined the content and function of active dyadic signal exchanges in sender–receiver frameworks. However, in many social groups, network‐wide signalling and collective movement decisions are tightly linked. Here we discuss opportunities afforded by using multi‐sensor tracking tags to simultaneously monitor the fine‐scale movements and vocalisations of entire social groups. We highlight how such data can elucidate the role of vocal signals in individual and collective movement while illuminating the structures of entire vocal‐interaction sequences at previously unexamined timescales and across entire communication networks. We identify practical and analytical challenges associated with these new tools and datasets, and present avenues for addressing them. We specifically address issues associated with the deployment and synchronisation of multiple tags, the processing and interpretation of resulting multidimensional datasets, and the benefits of combining tag‐based data collection with experimental approaches. Finally, we argue that a comparative approach employing consistent methodologies across a range of environments, populations and systems is needed to shed light on the evolutionary ecology of communication and collective behaviour.

Fear, disgust, hate: negative emotions evoked by animals in ancient literature.

Ancient literature contains thoughts, observations and opinions about animals causing fear, disgust or hate that can be of great interest to scientists researching the problem of phobias, fears and anxieties in history. So in this article, it is argued that we can go as far back as ancient times in the research on the history of animal phobias (or, speaking more generally, in research on the entire spectrum of negative emotions evoked by animals in individuals or in entire social groups or societies). In that period, the phenomenon was observed and described in an anecdotal form, and attempts to establish the causes of this phenomenon were undertaken. This article discusses these early ideas about phobias, fears and anxieties related to animals.

Life Writing, Identity, and the Classroom: Perspectives from Social and Educational Psychology

The attractiveness of life writings stems from its promise of exceptional intimacy with a writer. Yet that intimacy can come at a cost, especially in relation to writers from marginalized backgrounds. As many of them have noted, they can feel expected to produce vulnerable versions of themselves on the page for the vicarious satisfaction of white audiences. Such satisfactions can become especially problematic in the classroom when life writing by one author is allowed to stand for the experience of an entire social group. This article details strategies for de-essentializing the use of life writing in the classroom by underscoring the complexities both of race and of the classroom reading experience.

Education of persons with disabilities in the context of strategic communications in the face of uncertainty

The article is devoted to the problem of building a new worldview discourse in the consideration of issues of education of persons with disabilities. The conditions of the pandemic pose a certain risk of reducing the level of social interactions and educational opportunities for persons with disabilities due to the limitations that are characteristic of this entire social group as a whole. One of the new ways of solving this problem is the rationale for strategic communications, the purpose of which is to prevent or minimize threats that may reduce the quality of education of this social group. Based on a new worldview discourse, the authors of the article distinguish two types of strategic communications, where the first type, from the standpoint of humanistic approach, involves external interactions and is focused on creating social conditions for the education of persons with disabilities, as well as on preventing social threats. The second type of strategic communications, internal, is associated with the use of a system-structural approach to an educational institution, is considered as a complex of internal interactions directly related to the educational process of persons with disabilities. It is taken into account that the content of supporting the educational process within the framework of an educational institution for a student with a disability in a pandemic is insufficient. It is supposed to activate external interactions that create additional social conditions for full-fledged complex support, including the necessity of using social advertising. The problem of complex socio-pedagogical and psychological support for persons with disabilities in the conditions of using the potential of a metropolis is posed and substantiated. The inclusion of a student with a disability in such a broad social context gives him or her the opportunity to more fully acquire of subjectivity through participation in socially meaningful activities. The choice and justification of strategic communications in the field of education of persons with disabilities can not only contribute to the development of social activity, success in learning, but also creates conditions for professional growth and promotes social creativity of persons with disabilities.

文化大革命 시기 廣西 武宣縣의 파벌투쟁과 食人

In this article, I explored that the political causes of cannibalism in Wuxuan, Guangxi, China between spring and summer 1968. Wuxuan’s cannibalism was not just the result of the decisions of some leaders in the center of the Chinese Communist Party or intermediate leaders of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. In addition, it cannot be seen only by the decision of the perpetrators, such as cadres of Wuxuan County and each district, and members of ''the Alliance Command''. It should be understood as a result of the interaction between the central and autonomous districts, prefectures, and districts on the literary situation of Guangxi Autonomous Region at the time. The center of China stimulated slaughter and cannibalism by defining the forces that denied the Revolutionary Committee as "enemies" of the counter-revolution and justifying attacks on them. In addition, the leaders of Preparation Group of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Revolutionary Committee and Armed Forces Department attempted to achieve important ideological or political purposes by inducing many people to participate in attacks against those perceived as "class enemies" by stigmatizing political rivals by fabricating the "Anti-Communist National Salvation Army in Guangxi". In the meantime, the perpetrators of Wuxuan devised slaughter and cannibalism as the final solution that was very effective in preventive suppression of the current entire social group or members. Therefore, the strategic goals of the leaders of the central and Guangxi autonomous districts of China and the situational pressure of Wuxuan County interacted, acting as a strong motive for Wuxuan cannibalism in 1968.

Food resources affect territoriality of invasive wild pig sounders with implications for control

Interest in control methods for invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa) has increased due to their range expansion, population growth, and an improved understanding of their destructive ecological and economic effects. Recent technological advances in traps for control of pig populations facilitate capture of entire social groups (sounders), but the efficacy of “whole-sounder” trapping strategies is heavily dependent on the degree of territoriality among sounders, a topic little research has explored. We assessed territoriality in wild pig sounders on the Savannah River Site, South Carolina, USA, and examined whether availability of food resources provided by a municipal-waste landfill affected among-sounder territoriality. We estimated utilization distribution overlap and dynamic interactions among 18 neighboring sounders around a landfill. We found that although neighboring sounders overlapped in space, intensity of use in shared areas was uniformly low, indicating territorial behavior. Neighbors tended to share slightly more space when closer to the landfill waste cells, indicating availability of a super-abundant resource somewhat weakens the degree of territoriality among sounders. Nevertheless, we conclude that sounders behaved in a generally territorial manner, and we discuss implications for whole-sounder trapping programs, particularly near concentrated resources such as landfills and crop fields.

The Politics of Memory and the Refashioning of Communism for Young People: The Illustrated Guide to Romanian Communism

This paper analyzes the contents of a pocket-sized booklet entitled Ghidul ilustrat al comunismului românesc (The Illustrated Guide to Romanian Communism), which was published to counter growing nostalgia for the communist era that is popular among Romania’s young people. Influenced by family members and the media, the postmemory of Romanian communism among the country’s youth tends to focus on the positive aspects of the communist period and ignore the crimes of the postwar regime. The guide provides a selective reading of the history of Romanian communism and identifies repression as its main feature. The critical visual analysis of the images in the guide identifies the various forms that repression took during communist rule. It targeted not only individuals but also entire social groups, who faced imprisonment on political grounds. At the same time, the repression took quotidian form as the regime extended its control over people’s private lives and even their habits of consumption. DOI: 10.14712/23363231.2021.10

Illness: Narratives, Imagery, and Politics

The article uses the review of a seminar, an exhibition, and a graduate conference, which took place at Tallinn University in the 2020–2021 academic year, as an occasion to reflect on the different ways in which illness has been represented in literature, the arts, and film across the history of Western culture. The specific focus of the article is on the theoretical contribution of the humanities to a more complex and adequate understanding of the phenomenon of illness. The study of illness narratives reveals different patterns and strategies of constructing the illness experience into a coherent and meaningful story, but also the resistance that the disruptive impact of illness on our everyday lives poses to narrativisation. The complex historical imagery which endows the biological fact of being sick with additional cultural and social meaning has also to be critically investigated in the humanities and social sciences. Metaphors about illness and the use of illness as a socio-political metaphor have often had a nefarious impact on sick people as well as entire social groups and communities. This is why the article also considers illness in its relations with politics and power and describes various attempts to empower sick people in their relations with medical institutions and their social environment. The article ends with a review of the “Illness: Narratives, Imagery, Politics” graduate conference (27–28 January 2021), which is a good illustration of the many literary and artistic works and of the plurality of methods that can be used in the study of the illness phenomenon from a humanities perspective.

The Role of Identity Prioritization

Abstract Social Identity Theory suggests that individuals are motivated to support/oppose policies and politicians that benefit/harm members of their ingroup as a means of protecting their social status. Since the Republican Party’s rhetoric against immigrants in recent decades has often been viewed as an assault upon those of Latinx descent, it is not surprising that strong majorities oppose restrictionist immigration policies and support the Democratic Party. However, the existing literature has overlooked why a sizeable minority of Latinx voters express support for restrictionist immigration policies and the politicians who espouse them. Our analysis of Latinx voters with the 2012 and 2016 American National Election Studies (ANES) demonstrates that the degree to which individuals prioritize their US American identity over their Latinx identity has a significant influence over support for conservative immigration policies and GOP candidates. This relationship emerges above and beyond partisanship, ideology, and other key explanatory factors. Such attitudes likely represent an individual social mobility strategy in which members of a social group attempt to “pass” as a member of a higher-status group. Prioritizing a US American identity, supporting the Republican Party, and expressing hostility toward the interests of undocumented immigrants are a means of distinguishing themselves from a social group that has become increasingly associated with negative stereotypes. In contrast, those who are unwilling or unable to make this transition are likely pursuing a collective social mobility strategy (e.g., linked fate) whereby they attempt to enhance their individual status by elevating that of the entire social group.

Age and sex-associated variation in the multi-site microbiome of an entire social group of free-ranging rhesus macaques

BackgroundAn individual’s microbiome changes over the course of its lifetime, especially during infancy, and again in old age. Confounding factors such as diet and healthcare make it difficult to disentangle the interactions between age, health, and microbial changes in humans. Animal models present an excellent opportunity to study age- and sex-linked variation in the microbiome, but captivity is known to influence animal microbial abundance and composition, while studies of free-ranging animals are typically limited to studies of the fecal microbiome using samples collected non-invasively. Here, we analyze a large dataset of oral, rectal, and genital swabs collected from 105 free-ranging rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta, aged 1 month-26 years), comprising one entire social group, from the island of Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico. We sequenced 16S V4 rRNA amplicons for all samples.ResultsInfant gut microbial communities had significantly higher relative abundances of Bifidobacterium and Bacteroides and lower abundances of Ruminococcus, Fibrobacter, and Treponema compared to older age groups, consistent with a diet high in milk rather than solid foods. The genital microbiome varied widely between males and females in beta-diversity, taxonomic composition, and predicted functional profiles. Interestingly, only penile, but not vaginal, microbiomes exhibited distinct age-related changes in microbial beta-diversity, taxonomic composition, and predicted functions. Oral microbiome composition was associated with age, and was most distinctive between infants and other age classes.ConclusionsAcross all three body regions, with notable exceptions in the penile microbiome, while infants were distinctly different from other age groups, microbiomes of adults were relatively invariant, even in advanced age. While vaginal microbiomes were exceptionally stable, penile microbiomes were quite variable, especially at the onset of reproductive age. Relative invariance among adults, including elderly individuals, is contrary to findings in humans and mice. We discuss potential explanations for this observation, including that age-related microbiome variation seen in humans may be related to changes in diet and lifestyle.4_dARqKdohA9mAZyu7q9YNVideo abstract

To be a TikToker in COVID-19 Era: An Experience of Social Influence

Social networks are able to interface technological innovation and communication with sociality, thus redesigning the forms, practices, purposes of access and its relationship with everyday life, especially at a time when technology becomes the only way to feel part of a social group, like the COVID-19 period. The general objective of the research is to understand the experience of fruition of the social network Tiktok in the sample of participants, heterogeneous and representative of the reference population. The aim is to assess how the user or the entire social group lives the experience of the social because it is assumed that the result of the above experience can become a new form of social influence. The study aims to answer the following research questions: 1. How do people experience this new social media? 2. Is fun the new form of social influence? The methodology used is quantum-qualitative. It is, in fact, proposed first a Netnographic Analysis of observation and description of the social, and then use an automatic Content Analysis supported by Diatextual Analysis (the qualitative part). The results allow to theorize a different form of social influence, or “fun”, which becomes characteristic of the social network and the period.

Training of a future social professional for the formation of safe adolescent behavior in social networks

The article analyzes different approaches to the definition of «social networks» as technological complexes of organization and management of electronic information exchange among the subjects of social relations, united by common interests, information needs and skills. Based on the analysis of the scientific literature the essential characteristics of social networks that affect the formation and development of the adolescent's personality are revealed. Role of social networks at the present stage of development of society, which is manifested in the representation of interests not only of social groups but also of entire social groups, is defined in the article. The negative impact of social networks on the personality of the adolescent, which is manifested in the expansion of adolescents in cyberspace, the desire for independence and adulthood, selfexperimentation, which leads to risky activities both on the Internet and in real life are revealed. Concept of safe behavior in social networks as a set of actions of the individual when using the Internet, helping to meet the needs and at the same time prevent the possibility of causing damage to physical, mental, social well-being and property of man and others is analyzed. The basic rules of safe behavior in social Internet communities are highlighted. The structural components of safe behavior of adolescents in social networks are singled out: cognitive, motivational and actionreflexive; the concept of «professional training of future social professionals for the formation of safe behavior of adolescents in social networks» is revealed. Readiness is revealed as a result of the process of training future social specialists for professional activity on the formation of safe behavior of adolescents in social networks; the author's definition of the concept «readiness of future social professionals to form safe behavior of adolescents in social networks» is given. Components of readiness of future social workers to form safe behavior of teenagers in social networks, such as cognitive, motivational-personal and activity, are described.

Development of proposals to overcome discriminatory attitudes in representatives of various communities

The provision of psychological assistance to the population is the central mission of a psychologist. This question is especially topical when it comes to the behaviour of subjects determining negative psychoemotional and somatic consequences for both the individual and for entire social groups. One such manifestation is discriminatory behavior based on deeply formed discriminatory attitudes. This article is devoted to the development of practice-oriented proposals to overcome the discriminatory attitudes in representatives of various communities. This material is based on both fundamental developments demonstrating their effectiveness over a rather long period of time, and modern empirical data from the field of the psychology of discrimination, identified and developed by a team of authors of Chernyshevsky Saratov State University. The analysis conducted by the author allows stating that the greatest effect can be achieved by the practice of behavioural and cognitive orientation. Highlighting the features of working with discriminatory attitudes, the article spells out the principles, goals and objectives of psychologists. The stages and directions of activities aimed at overcoming discriminatory attitudes are identified. As an example, for each direction, methodological tools and specific exercises are indicated. In conclusion, a thematic plan of contact work aimed at overcoming discriminatory attitudes is given. It is concluded that the elimination of discriminatory attitudes is a long process, requiring along the way to work out a number of underlying problems associated with past experience of the subjects.

Excluding Agency

Excluding Agency

The Sense of Security of the Prison Service Offi cers

The concept of security is presented ambiguously depending on the scientific discipline. From a sociological point of view, it means an objective state of no threat, integrally associated with subjective, emotional, psychological deprivation of space as safe, otherwise referred to as a sense of security. In turn, in legal terms, it means all conditions and social institutions protecting the state and citizens against phenomena dangerous to the legal order and to the life and health of citizens. From a psychological point of view, the need for security is one of the fundamental needs of both individual individuals and entire social groups. Its satisfaction provides a sense of confidence and a guarantee of lack or minimal risk threatening valuable values such as life, health, optimal living standards and material goods. Everyone, to fulfil their tasks assigned to the social role, must feel safe. This is particularly important in the case of people who, because of their profession, are supposed to protect security and other people, and such a professional group is the Prison Service. The paper presents the results of the research carried out using the Uchanst’s Sense of Security Questionnaire of the Confederation of National Defence among officers of the Prison Service who undergo vocational training at the Central Training Centre of the Prison Service in Kalisz. The research has shown a optimal level of general sense of security and factors which make up the sense of security syndrome, which is, the sense of closeness, stability and mutual trust.