Foster Social Research Articles

How Does Community-Based Housing Foster Social Participation in Older Adults: Importance of Well-Designed Common Space, Proximity to Resources, Flexible Rules and Policies, and Benevolent Communities

ABSTRACT As supporting active and healthy aging calls for different community-based housing alternatives, integrated knowledge of their impacts on older adults’ social participation is required. This study aimed to explore how community-based housing fostered social participation in older adults. A scoping review was used to systematically identify relevant studies according to 32 keywords in 8 electronic databases. Published during 2000–2021, the 46 studies were carried out in North America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia, documenting older adults’ social participation in six community-based housing models. Targeting different clienteles, these models mainly promote older adults’ social participation by providing: 1) accessible common space in a design favorable to social interactions; 2) proximity to resources; 3) flexible rules and policies that facilitate residents’ interactions with not only co-residents but community neighbors; and 4) benevolent communities. These results highlight the interactions between the physical and social environments; they suggest the importance of building benevolent communities as well as of sharing resources among residences and local communities to create a supportive living and neighborhood environment for active and healthy aging. Future studies should further explore the role of different stakeholders in developing benevolent communities by considering the dynamics between the person and the environment.

Realizing Recovery: the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Efforts to Foster Social Inclusion

For nearly 20 years, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has fostered social inclusion for Americans with mental and/or substance use disorders. SAMHSA has done this by promoting the recovery paradigm, an approach predicated on a positive, strength-based, and person-centered view of those with behavioral health conditions. SAMHSA has provided leadership by promoting policies, programs, practices, and public awareness initiatives that advance recovery, recovery support services, and recovery-oriented service delivery systems. SAMHSA’s approach has been participatory, engaging a variety of stakeholders, and comprehensive, focusing on multiple strategies in targeted priority areas.

Integrating Mindfulness in Public and Nonprofit Education Programs to Foster Social Equity

As a discipline, the path forward for Public Administration from its role in creating, maintaining, and perpetuating systemic racism and social inequities is to promote social equity as part of the 4Es—engagement, empathy, equity, and ethics. This article proposes a fusion of mindfulness with the treatment of social equity, diversity, and inclusion (SEDI) in public and nonprofit administration as a promising strategy for improving the training of professionals to be competent in social equity. The goal is to encourage faculty to incorporate mindfulness principles and practices in their pedagogy, course design, course policies, and course activities in ways that foster mindfulness and social equity. To meet this challenge, faculty will need to (1) identify and reflect on the guiding principles of the field, and (2) incorporate mindful awareness in how professional values are conveyed by faculty within a subject matter where the intent is not to and the impact does not result in (a) alienating, shaming, or oppressing those with uninformed and/or stereotypical deeply held ideologies, while (b) simultaneously challenging students to intentionally tackle difficult conversations and ideologies.

Perceptions of People with Special Needs Regarding Autonomous Vehicles and Implication on the Design of Mobility as a Service to Foster Social Inclusion

Worldwide, more than one billion people live with disabilities. People with disabilities (PWD) have needs in terms of autonomy, social participation and inclusion. Mobility is one condition for them to be included in society and participate in social life. Autonomous vehicles (AVs) can be part of the concept of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) that enables us to rethink the policy of mobility. However, the way these new autonomous mobility services are designed could exclude PWD. To prevent that, universal design principles and inclusive design could help policymakers and public transport companies design new means of transport that are accessible to all. However, perceptions of PWD regarding MaaS in general and AVs are not well documented. This article presents qualitative research about these perceptions. Eight semi-directive interviews were thus carried out on the subject. Based on these findings, we developed an integrative model to accompany and orchestrate such AV design developments. This integrative model will help policymakers and public transport companies rethink mobility concepts while incorporating AVs and make them accessible to ensure the social inclusion of PWD.

Student Support and Transition Through a Buddy Programme to Foster Social Integration

The University of Pretoria (UP) began offering formal academic student support in 2011 when the first faculty student advisor (FSA) was appointed. Although many more FSAs were subsequently appointed, assistance to all the students in need of support remained insufficient. However, financial assistance through the collaboration grant received from the Department of Higher Education and Training in 2018 made it possible to explore new areas of support. The UP was able to pilot four innovations due to the availability of additional funds. These included generic workshops across faculties; the creation of a hub in the library, which served as a common contact point for students requiring assistance; the appointment of peer advisors; and a Buddy Programme for first-year students. This article explains the Buddy Programme as perceived by the senior students who mentored the first-year students. The mentors are known as “big buddies”. Our work on this programme is based on Tinto’s (1975) ideas about social integration. The Buddy Programme was introduced to assist first-year students in their transition from school to university life. This paper highlights the challenges that first-year students faced and it explains how the concepts could become institutionalised once university activities have been normalised in the post-pandemic future.

Unus Terra: Developing a Serious Game to Foster Social Distancing During the Pandemic

Unus Terra: Developing a Serious Game to Foster Social Distancing During the Pandemic

How Well can Education Foster Social Reform: Seeking Insights from the African American Experience

Journal of Education and Social Sciences (JESS) is a blind peer-reviewed, bi-annual research journal freely available online. The purpose of this Journal is to publish quality research work in the disciplines of Education and Social Sciences defined in the classical sen

The Role of Translation in Citizen Science to Foster Social Innovation.

Citizen science has become a world-wide phenomenon. Especially for citizen science projects that have a global reach, translation is crucial to overcome language and cultural barriers to reach members of the public. Translation, understood as the transfer of meaning (of a text) from one language into another language, is crucial for the transmission of information, knowledge and (social) innovations. Therefore, this paper examines the role of translation and terminology used in citizen science projects and how translation can foster (or impede) social innovation through citizen science activities. Based on a set of predefined criteria derived from the social innovation literature, this paper analyzes the factors that contribute to (social) innovation in citizen science by means of translation. A specific focus of the case study is on the aspects of agency, institutions, and social systems. The results demonstrate that translation in citizen science may support a change of social practices as ingredients of social innovations. Additional research is needed to further understand the implications of translation in citizen science and its effects on social innovation. Nevertheless, this work has been one of the first attempts to examine the relation between translation, citizen science and social innovation.

Social Innovation in Education and Social Service Organizations. Challenges, Actors, and Approaches to Foster Social Innovation

Social innovation became a widely discussed topic in politics, research funding programs, and business development. Recent European and US economic and science policies have set aside significant funds to generate and foster social innovation. In view of current challenges such as digitization, Work 4.0, inclusion or migrant integration, the question of how organizations can be empowered to develop new and innovative approaches and service models to social challenges is becoming increasingly urgent. This especially applies to organizations in the fields of education and social services. In education, implementing new ideas and concepts is usually discussed as educational reform, which mostly addresses changes in policy agendas with consequences for national and international education systems. The concept of social innovation however has a different starting point: the source of new ideas and services are identified new, emergent needs in society or re-conceptualized. Such need-based perspectives might bring new impulses to the field of education. Therefore, this paper identifies important existing strands of social innovation research, which need to be considered in the emerging academic discourse on social innovation in education. Looking at social innovation through an education research lens reveals the close relation between learning, creativity, and innovation. Individuals, teams, and even organizations learn, engage in creative problem solving to create new and innovative products and services. From an organizational education perspective, the questions arise, how social innovation emerges and even more important, how the process of developing social innovation can be supported. After a brief introduction in the concept of social innovation, the paper discusses therefore the sites, where social innovation emerges, social innovators, approaches to foster social innovation as well as promoting and hindering factors for social innovation.

Addendum: Säumel, I., et al. Edible City Solutions—One Step Further to Foster Social Resilience through Enhanced Socio-Cultural Ecosystem Services in Cities. Sustainability 2019, 11, 972

The authors would like to make the following corrections to the published paper [...]

Educational Robotics to Foster and Assess Social Relations in Students' Groups

Robotics has gained, in recent years, a significant role in educational processes that take place in formal, non-formal, and informal contexts, mainly in the subjects related to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Indeed, educational robotics (ER) can be fruitfully applied also to soft skills, as it allows promoting social links between students, if it is proposed as a group activity. Working in a group to solve a problem or to accomplish a task in the robotics field allows fostering new relations and overcoming the constraints of the established links associated to the school context. Together with this aspect, ER offers an environment where it is possible to assess group dynamics by means of sociometric tools. In this paper, we will describe an example of how ER can be used to foster and assess social relations in students' group. In particular, we report a study that compares: (1) a laboratory with robots, (2) a laboratory with Scratch for coding, and (3) a control group. This study involved Italian students attending middle school. As the focus of this experiment was to study relations in students' group, we used the sociometric tools proposed by Moreno. Results show that involving students in a robotics lab can effectively foster relations between students and, jointly with sociometric tools, can be employed to portrait group dynamics in a synthetic and manageable way.

Affective and Cognitive Theory of Mind in Children With Intellectual Disabilities: How to Train Them to Foster Social Adjustment and Emotion Regulation?

Affective and cognitive Theory of Mind (ToM) is known to be deficit or delayed in children with intellectual disabilities (IDs), when compared with typically developing children matched for developmental age. Yet, little is known about causal contribution of affective and cognitive ToM on emotion regulation or social adjustment in these children. Studies that aimed to answer this problematic, implemented training focusing on the nine mental states – mainly on beliefs and emotions – and in toddlers and adolescents’ samples, rarely compared to control group. The present study aims at testing whether training ToM abilities notably affective and cognitive mental states in children with IDs could foster ToM, but also their emotion regulation and social adjustment. 30 children with mild or moderate IDs functioning at preschool developmental age, took part in a pre-test session involving measures on cognition and ToM. Teachers and/or parents completed questionnaires evaluating children’s emotion regulation and social adjustment. Secondly, children were allocated to control or experimental group which benefits from the specific “ToM program for children”. It was delivered in eight sessions, by an experimented searcher to sub-groups of three children. Finally, all children took part in a post-test session. Results showed significant improvement of affective and cognitive ToM abilities in children with IDs in experimental groups. After ToM training, they displayed a better understanding of cognitive mental states and of consequences of emotions. In post-tests, they are perceived as more socially adjusted by teachers.

Virtual Reality to Foster Social Integration by Allowing Wheelchair Users to Tour Complex Archaeological Sites Realistically

People with disabilities encounter numerous barriers when dealing with the simplest and most usual things in their daily lives. This is even more remarkable when they are faced with archaeological heritage buildings or environments. People with reduced mobility come too often upon architectural barriers that stop them from enjoying their visits to sites and monuments. This paper introduces a virtual reality (VR) experience developed to provide people in wheelchairs with the most realistic sensations while virtually touring some archaeological sites. To this end, the remote sensing of the site enables the production of a realistic 3D model leading to the creation of a virtual world that the user will explore. This VR application has been developed to traverse one of the most important monumental buildings in Spanish Protohistory, the site of Cancho Roano (Zalamea de la Serena, Spain).

Theory of Mind or Social Information Processing Training: Which Is the Better Way to Foster Social Adjustment?

Theory of Mind (ToM) and Social information processing (SIP) are key sets of social cognition skills to develop good competences in social interactions and adjustment. In children with intellectual disabilities (IDs), socio-emotional competences are deficient and impaired their social inclusion. While it is known that some ToM or SIP trainings could be effective in population with IDs, no study investigated the transfer effects between ToM and SIP and the differentiated effect of ToM and SIP trainings on social adjustment. To address these goals, 45 elementary school children with IDs were recruited. They were randomly allocated to either one of the two experimental groups (ToM or SIP group) or to the control group. Each child and his or her parents completed measures at pre- and post-test to assess cognitive abilities, ToM and SIP skills and social adjustment. Results demonstrated a transfer effect varying depending on the nature of the understanding of mental states (affective or cognitive ToM) and of social situations (positive or negative) eliciting SIP. Findings give psychoeducational guidelines for interventions that aimed at fostering socio-emotional competences in children with IDs.

How Social Media Can Foster Social Innovation in Disadvantaged Rural Communities

Social innovation has received widespread attention in the rural development field, especially its contribution to future rural sustainability. Social innovation revolves around social networks. Rural areas, however, can be relatively disadvantaged by their geographical peripherality. Social media, therefore, has strong potential to foster social innovation by enabling remote communication, but in rural areas, social media use may be low because of an aging and decreasing population. This study examined community-level adoption and use of social media in rural areas in Japan, with a focus on Facebook, for the purpose of sharing community information and facilitating networking with a variety of actors to promote rural social innovation. The study involved a comprehensive search and case studies targeting 139,063 rural communities and 10,922 rural joint-communities, all of which are legally designated agricultural communities throughout Japan. The search found that disadvantaged rural communities’ adoption of Facebook was scarce, and most of the communities that had adopted Facebook did not expand their social networks. Furthermore, investigation into the communities that had adopted social networking to a larger extent revealed that external supporters or migrants had essential roles in successful networking. Based on the obtained findings, this study has provided insights for future policy design.

Implementing the Comfortable Cafeteria Program to Foster Social Participation of Students with and without Hearing Impairments: A Look at the Outcomes

ABSTRACTStudents with hearing impairments often have difficulty participating in age-appropriate occupations among peers due to hearing, communication, and social skill deficits. This pilot study aims to determine the effects social skills intervention has on the social participation of the hearing-impaired population using the Comfortable Cafeteria program. Using a mixed method design, the Social Profile: Children’s Version was used to gather pre- and posttest quantitative data in the school cafeteria. Qualitative perceptions of the research assistants who implemented the program were also gathered. Results demonstrated clinically important gains in social participation levels in students with and without hearing impairments.

Can Crime Foster Social Participation as Conflict Can?*

ObjectiveRecent literature indicates that exposure to conflict can foster participation. Scholars often point to the social dynamics related to conflict to explain this finding. This article examines individual coping as alternative explanation. It should influence victims of violence independently of the origin of victimization.MethodsUsing data from four survey waves in Colombia conducted between 2013 and 2015 (N = 5,536), victims of conflict actors are compared to victims of common delinquency with fixed effects regression analysis.ResultsBoth conflict and crime victims show elevated levels of participation in social organizations across a series of model specifications.ConclusionTheories related to the social dynamics of conflict cannot explain why crime victims show similarly elevated levels of participation as conflict victims. Individual coping theory provides an alternative. According to this theory, victims of violence seek support and participation to deal with emotional stress independent of the source of victimization.

Edible City Solutions—One Step Further to Foster Social Resilience through Enhanced Socio-Cultural Ecosystem Services in Cities

Nature-based solutions have not been able to actively involve citizens and to address successfully food security, poverty alleviation, and inequality in urban areas. The Edible City approach promises a strategic step towards the development of sustainable, livable, and healthy cities. We introduce the conceptional framework of Edible City Solutions (ECS), including different forms of urban farming combined with closed loop systems for sustainable water, nutrient, and waste management. We review scientific evidence on ECS benefits for urban regeneration and describe the status quo of ECS in Rotterdam, Andernach, Oslo, Heidelberg, and Havana as case studies. We provide an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) to explore the capacity of ECS to enhance multifunctionality of urban landscapes with special focus on social cohesion and quality of life. Based on this we identify and discuss strategies for fostering socially relevant implementations for the case study cities and beyond.

Modelo para Establecer Estrategias que Fomenten la Economía Social d las Comunidades Rurales en Áreas Naturales Protegidas en la República Dominicana

Modelo para Establecer Estrategias que Fomenten la Economía Social d las Comunidades Rurales en Áreas Naturales Protegidas en la República Dominicana

Co-Producing Narratives on Access to Care in Rural Communities: Using Digital Storytelling to Foster Social Inclusion of Young People Experiencing Psychosis (Dispatch)

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