Social Institutions Research Articles

Understanding public opinion formation in Southeast Europe: Exploring social forces and communication dynamics

The article investigates the mechanisms through which social forces, networks, cognitive frames, and institutions shape public opinion in Southeast Europe via communication. Employing a qualitative approach, data was collected through synchronous focus groups conducted in six Southeast European countries. The findings reveal that social networks play a pivotal role in shaping public opinion, with organizational position and relationships influencing communication effectiveness. Cognitive frames significantly impact public perception, with entrenched beliefs guiding interpretation of information. Meanwhile, social institutions, such as language and communication rules, influence the clarity and accessibility of messages, thereby shaping public understanding. The research underscores the need for deeper research, ethical standards, and transparent communication to build and maintain public trust. Continuous engagement with the public and adaptability in communication strategies are essential for fostering mutual understanding and trust. This research emphasizes social forces’ complexity and overlapping nature in shaping public opinion and the strategic approaches required for effective communication in Southeast Europe.

Resource Mobilization, Social Capital, Religion, and Protest across Latin America

What factors predispose an individual to engage in protest? Previous studies argue pre‐existing social institutions provide the social capital and resource mobilization that facilitate collective action and protest movements, but less work has examined how this social capital and resource capacity develops. Utilizing more than 200,000 individuals surveyed across eighteen Latin American countries from the years 2002 through 2018, this study finds institutional decentralization by the Catholic Church is positively associated with individual propensities to engage in protest. Catholic decentralization is theorized to overcome free rider problems and enable the development of grassroots social capital and resources that empower collective action.

Period poverty, menstrual health and menstrual (in)justice in the context of social work – in the opinions of students and graduates of social work

Menstruation, until recently treated as a purely biological phenomenon, is beginning to be perceived as a social phenomenon, becoming the subject of research, scientific theorizing and publications. Third-sector organizations are being formed to tackle period poverty, promote menstrual health and work for menstrual justice. Menstrual poverty and broadly understood menstrual inequalities are often experienced by socially vulnerable individuals, families, groups and communities, who become social welfare institutions and social work service users. The article presents selected results of a survey with participation of social work students (current and graduates) on their perception of the relationship between social work and the elimination of menstrual poverty, the promotion of menstrual health and the prevention of menstrual injustice.

Transforming Social Policies and Institutions in a Capability Perspective: Agency, Voice and the Capability to Aspire

Transforming Social Policies and Institutions in a Capability Perspective: Agency, Voice and the Capability to Aspire

AI content detection in the emerging information ecosystem: new obligations for media and tech companies

The world is about to be swamped by an unprecedented wave of AI-generated content. We need reliable ways of identifying such content, to supplement the many existing social institutions that enable trust between people and organisations and ensure social resilience. In this paper, we begin by highlighting an important new development: providers of AI content generators have new obligations to support the creation of reliable detectors for the content they generate. These new obligations arise mainly from the EU’s newly finalised AI Act, but they are enhanced by the US President’s recent Executive Order on AI, and by several considerations of self-interest. These new steps towards reliable detection mechanisms are by no means a panacea—but we argue they will usher in a new adversarial landscape, in which reliable methods for identifying AI-generated content are commonly available. In this landscape, many new questions arise for policymakers. Firstly, if reliable AI-content detection mechanisms are available, who should be required to use them? And how should they be used? We argue that new duties arise for media and Web search companies arise for media companies, and for Web search companies, in the deployment of AI-content detectors. Secondly, what broader regulation of the tech ecosystem will maximise the likelihood of reliable AI-content detectors? We argue for a range of new duties, relating to provenance-authentication protocols, open-source AI generators, and support for research and enforcement. Along the way, we consider how the production of AI-generated content relates to ‘free expression’, and discuss the important case of content that is generated jointly by humans and AIs.

Availability of Services for Families of Children with Disabilities in Lithuania by View of Heads of Social, Health and Education Institutions in the Alytus Region

Availability of Services for Families of Children with Disabilities in Lithuania by View of Heads of Social, Health and Education Institutions in the Alytus Region

Quality of transition services provided to students with intellectual disabilities in Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT This study assesses the quality of transition services provided to students with intellectual disabilities in Saudi Arabia from the perspective of their teachers. To achieve the study's objectives, a questionnaire was designed consisting of 30 items distributed across six dimensions related to transition: transition planning, family participation, student participation, transition-focused curricula, social institution cooperation, and transition assessment. The questionnaire was completed by 95 teachers of students with intellectual disabilities. The findings showed that the level of quality achieved in the transition services provided to students with intellectual disabilities was generally very high, as the dimensions were arranged in descending order as follows: transition-focused curricula, student participation, family participation, transition assessment, transition planning, and social institution cooperation. The results also indicated that there were no statistically significant differences attributed to the gender variable, the educational qualification variable, or the years of experience variable.

ИСПРАВЛЕНИЕ И РЕСОЦИАЛИЗАЦИЯ: К ВОПРОСУ О КОНЦЕПТУАЛЬНОЙ ЯСНОСТИ

The article analyzes the problems of correction and re-socialization of convicts and former convicts. According to the author, many issues of correction and re-socialization remain open, there is a lack of conceptual clarity in understanding these processes. The conclusion is proposed for discussion that in the process of re-socialization of convicts and former convicts, two stages can be distinguished – social readaptation and internalization. It is proved that social readaptation as an adaptation of convicts and persons who have served their sentences to new or restored norms and values, social roles can be expressed in obtaining general or additional education, vocational training, advanced training, involvement in paid work, development of mutual assistance among convicts, restoration and (or) development of ties with relatives, friends, colleagues, etc. It is noted that at the second independent stage of re-socialization, the acquired experience, values are reinteriorized with the help of other people, social institutions: they are assimilated, incorporated into the inner world of individuals, turning into a kind of reflex. The article substantiates the position that the process of re-socialization should be implemented through individual social rehabilitation programs and act in accordance with international acts as a way to achieve the main goal – the reintegration of convicts into society. It is concluded that the focus of penal enforcement policy should not be on absolute theories with ideas of retribution, which represent «the criminal as a rational agent weighing the costs and benefits of crime,» but on correctional concepts that see the criminal as a person amenable to correction and in need of support and treatment.

The Impact of Digital Transformation on Business Performance in the Social Security Institution: The Mediating Role of Green Innovation

Over the last decades, digital transformation has dramatically grown affecting approximately every discipline and business in the planet. With the increasing observation of climate change and global warming issues worldwide, concepts of sustainability and green businesses have recently emerged. Nonetheless, the available literature does lack such concepts, particularly the critical impacts of digital transformation mediated by green innovation. Accordingly, this paper is performed to classify main beneficial imapcts and relevant practicalities of digital transformation on the business performance at social security institution mediated by green innovation. To accomplish the research objective, a cross-sectional descriptive quantitative approach was implemented. Survey questionnaires were prepared and distributed to the study sample that was identified by a random sampling strategy. Relying on the statistical data analysis, which was carried out by the SmartPLS4® software, it was found that the arithmetic mean score for digital transformation was 3.596, with a standard deviation of 0.605, having a a medium rank of importance. Green innovation had a mean of 3.763 and a standard deviation of 0.671, reflecting a high rank of importance. Business performance had a mean of 3.632 and a standard deviation of 0.560 with a medium importance rank. Additionally, it was discovered that a strong positive influence of digital transformation does exist on the business performance at the social security institution. The digital transformation can significantly influence business performance of the SSI. Digital transformation had a significant positive impact on the green innovation. Green innovation can significantly mediate the impact of the digital transformation on the business performance at the social security institution.

Trust in Legal Institutions: An Examination of the Philippines

AbstractWhile studies have examined the correlates of institutional trust across Asian countries, few studies have analyzed public attitudes toward two major social control institutions, the police and courts, in the Philippines. This study fills this gap in the literature by exploring the connections between social trust, institutional performance, media exposure and consumption, and trust in the police and courts. Using recent survey data from the Asian Barometer Survey, regression models were employed to assess and compare whether these factors are predictive of police and court trustworthiness. Results reveal the importance of social trust and institutional performance in predicting Filipinos’ trust in the police and courts. However, media exposure and consumption were largely ineffective in predicting police and court trust. Given the Philippines’ unique historical and political context, these findings contribute to existing literature and provide implications for future research and policy.

K problematice stejnopohlavních vztahů: Manželství a partnerství

The article is based on the differentiation between marriage as the institutional dimension and partnership as the relational dimension of an intimate relation of two people. While marriage is a historically changing and multiform social institution, an intimate partnership is a phenomenon permanently present in the history. Based on the modern deeper understanding of human nature including homosexuality as an “other normal”, the article shows that the category of partnership can and should be opened to same-sex relations as well. These – as any other intimate relationships – cannot be reduced to sexual dimension only. And precisely therefore, it is not possible to apply any biblical mentions of same-sex intercourse to this debate, because the biblical testimonies do not know homosexuality in the contemporary meaning and speak only about same-sex intercourse without any relational framing. From the perspective of today’s responsible theological stance, there is thus no argument that would hinder to support the same-sex relations and their formal institutional framing also by the churches.

Structural violence and the perpetuation of women's poverty: exploring the issue of child maintenance in South Africa

ABSTRACT Child maintenance is not just a fundamental right but a crucial human need, essential for meeting the basic requirements of children. It also plays a vital role in preventing single mothers from carrying the sole burden of parenthood, which can exacerbate poverty and marginalisation. Against this backdrop, this study examines how social systems and institutions perpetuate structural violence, disproportionately impacting women. Specifically focusing on child maintenance in East London, South Africa, this research sheds light on how existing structures may compound the difficulties encountered by single mothers in securing financial support for their children. The research objective is to understand how structural violence contributes to women's poverty in child maintenance cases. Employing an exploratory qualitative design with a purposive sample of 54 participants, the study reveals that women already facing structural inequalities are most affected by a lack of child support. This forces them to rely on their limited income to raise their children, pushing them further into poverty.

Trust Us—We Are the (COVID-19 Misinformation) Experts: A Critical Scoping Review of Expert Meanings of “Misinformation” in the Covid Era

Since the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic, prominent social actors and institutions have warned about the threat of misinformation, calling for policy action to address it. However, neither the premises underlying expert claims nor the standards to separate truth from falsehood have been appraised. We conducted a scoping review of the medical and social scientific literature, informed by a critical policy analysis approach, examining what this literature means by misinformation. We searched academic databases and refereed publications, selecting a total of 68 articles for review. Two researchers independently charted the data. Our most salient finding was that verifiability relied largely on the claims of epistemic authorities, albeit only those vetted by the establishment, to the exclusion of independent evidentiary standards or heterodox perspectives. Further, “epistemic authority” did not depend necessarily on subject matter expertise, but largely on a new type of “expertise”: in misinformation itself. Finally, policy solutions to the alleged threat that misinformation poses to democracy and human rights called for suppressing unverified information and debate unmanaged by establishment approved experts, in the name of protecting democracy and rights, contrary to democratic practice and respect for human rights. Notably, we identified no pockets of resistance to these dominant meanings and uses. We assessed the implications of our findings for democratic public policy, and for fundamental rights and freedoms.

Time as a Category in Survivors' Reports About Child Sexual Abuse: An Explorative Approach to Lifetime Abuse.

Since the 1990s, cases of serious violence and abuse, particularly sexual abuse in educational and social institutions of the Catholic Church, have been reported in numerous countries, including Ireland, the United States, and Australia. In many countries, commissions have been set up to investigate the widespread cases of abuse that could not be prosecuted under criminal law. The testimonies of survivors and other witnesses are used by the commissions of inquiry in their work. Since 2016 the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in Germany has collected more than 2,500 reports from survivors of child sexual abuse. Forty-four testimonies were analyzed in a study seeking to understand more about lifetime abuse. In an explorative analysis, aspects of time as a key category in the reports were identified using the structured content analysis method. The results highlight the importance of time in the reports and during all phases of the survivors' lives. Overall, four themes are relevant: (a) the identification of turning points, (b) time to make sense of what happened, (c) the practice of waiting, and (d) time-bound experiences of testifying.

The Image of the US Army in American movies: The Soft Power of American Cinema

The formation of the army's image has acquired newfound significance in our time. Paradoxically, alongside the spread of humanist ideology, the number of violent conflicts worldwide is increasing. These stimulates the need for propaganda aimed at shaping the image of the army and enhancing the attractiveness of service. As one of the world's largest military forces, the US army has engaged in a diverse array of conflicts with over 750 military bases in approximately 80 countries (Kohli 2020). A diverse range of tools is employed to shape the image of the US army, including media, recruitment campaigns, social media, public events, etc. Among these tools, movies have their specific role. While traditionally intended for entertainment, movies have been used for over a century as a means to shape public opinion. This article delves into the main attributes of the US Army as a social institution, analyzing its four fundamental characteristics: the Militia Tradition, Mobilization Miracles, Man-Mindedness, Maritime Influence, the weapon and the enemy as distinctive attributes. Additionally, it features the seven core values of the US Army: Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage. The article provides a detailed analysis of how various components of movie production tools communicate the attributes and core values of the US Army and contribute to shaping its image, examining a high-viewership movie “Interceptor” (2022). The goal of the study was to find out the image of the US Army that “Interceptor” projects and to identify the verbal and visual communicative means it uses for this purpose. The content analysis made it possible to distinguish verbal and visual elements of the movie, encompassing human voice, mise-en-scène, as well as film editing techniques, to identify and highlight the messages and ideas conveyed about the attributes of the US Army.

Gender-Based Violence in the Lives of Somali Women With Refugee Status: A Framework for Analysis and Action.

Gender-based violence (GBV) poses a significant threat to women with refugee status. Following our analysis based on a previously published scoping review, we introduce a conceptual framework based on postcolonial feminist theory to inform research, policy, and practice that addresses the unique risk factors faced by Somali women with refugee status experiencing GBV and encountering barriers to care. The framework synthesizes existing literature, incorporates findings from previous work with Somali women, and emphasizes the importance of understanding structural and sociocultural factors influencing help-seeking. By developing women-centered interventions, health care and social service institutions can play a pivotal role in addressing GBV for Somali women with refugee status.

Medico-legal evaluation of occupational skin diseases and occupational skin cancer.

The medico-legal evaluation of occupational skin diseases is one of the core competencies of dermatology. As a neutral medical expert, the dermatologist has a different role to that of a treating physician. In Germany, the so-called Bamberg Recommendation (Bamberger Empfehlung) provides a scientifically based assessment basis to ensure equal treatment of all persons undergoing medico-legal evaluation. In addition to dermatological expertise, knowledge of insurance law and legal terminology is essential for the medical expert. Dermatologists provide legal and administrative decisions of social courts and social insurance institutions with their qualified expert opinions. In this way, dermatology makes an important contribution to social security.

Organizing activities of student associations in higher education institutions of Russia and China

Introduction. Student associations of higher education institutions contribute to successful socialization and early professionalization. The relevance of the study lies in the fact that designing educational and upbringing programs for future bachelors and masters of social work at the university, great importance is to be attached to professionally focused student associations. The study aims to develop and test the authors' practice-oriented methodology for training future specialists in social work in the context of student associations of higher education institutions using the example of Russia and China. Materials and methods. To determine the readiness of students for professional activities in the context of student associations, the authors conducted a survey based on the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education Kostroma State University; it lasted from September to December 2023 and involved 1-4 year students (100 people) specializing in social work. Research methods and techniques were: content analysis of documents, frequency analysis, observation, survey, questionnaires and experience generalization. Results. The authors’ methodology for organizing student associations activities was developed; psychological and pedagogical conditions necessary for the training of future bachelors of social work were experimentally tested and clarified. The authors conducted a comparative analysis of how student associations activities in universities in Russia and China are organized. The abovementioned authors' methodology helps students form meanings and values: professional experience (23.25%); communication with friends (19.77%); social support and assistance to people in difficult life situations (15.11%); participation and organization of work forms related to professional activity (12.79%); obtaining new knowledge (9.30%), emotions (4.65%); teamwork (6.98%); visiting professionally focused institutions (3.49%). Conclusion. The ‘Social Work’ educational program includes practices of the following student associations: Abilympics, PROVICH, Studaktiv, Student Scientific Community in the Social Work Training Program ‘#SR’, and Chinese Student Association of Kostroma State University. Organizing activities of student associations is held in accordance with the following pedagogical conditions: assistance of the head of the student association in searching for variability in professional self-determination; psychological and pedagogical conditions; organizational and pedagogical conditions (external): internal environment of student association’s activities (pedagogical potential: managerial, educational, existential); the level of comfort students enjoy when working in the student association program; external environment of the student association (social partners, employers, social protection institutions, etc.); as well as internal psychological and pedagogical conditions (subjective conditions that contribute to the formation of personal psychological mechanisms of professional development).

Competing Visions and Converging Realities? Justice and Security Governance in Post-Conflict Bougainville and Solomon Islands

This article examines narratives and practices of post-conflict recovery in Bougainville and Solomon Islands respectively, with particular emphasis on the governance of justice and security. The original visions and pathways to recovery differed markedly in each case. Drawing on local strengths, including traditional leadership and customary practices of reconciliation, was integral to Bougainville’s aspirations for peacebuilding and the shaping of its post-conflict social and political order. Under the auspices of a major Australian-led regional intervention, Solomon Islands followed a more conventional state building approach that made few concessions to the significance of local non-state social institutions and actors in relation to justice and security. Despite these initial divergences, recent years have seen growing areas of convergence in both places, notably around acknowledging the importance of practical hybridity between state and non-state forms of justice and security governance.

Developing Sustainable Islamic Boarding Schools Economic Model: A Case Study from Indonesia

Islamic boarding schools as educational institutions as well as social institutions have a strategic role in building community independence. In reality, people often underestimate the role of Islamic boarding schools, assuming that Islamic boarding schools can only produce thinkers in traditional sciences, religionists and/or preachers. The aim of this research is to describe the role, economic activities, economic role and economic model of Islamic boarding schools in Indonesia. The analytical method used to achieve several research objectives is the descriptive method. It is stated that the descriptive method is a method for examining the status of a group of people, an object, a set of conditions, a system of thought or a class of events in the present. The aim of this research is to create a systematic, factual and accurate description, picture or painting of the facts, properties and relationships between the phenomena being investigated. The results show that Islamic boarding schools have a very important role in people's lives in Indonesia. Islamic boarding schools have educational, social and economic roles. In the economic field, Islamic boarding schools have a significant role in creating jobs, increasing people's income, welfare and quality of life in the form of education and health. Some Islamic boarding schools have their own economic models that can be adopted and used as Islamic boarding school economic models that create independence.