Larger Social System Research Articles

Guest Editorial: Large-Scale Multimedia Content Analysis on Social Media

Recent years have witnessed the emerging and booming of social platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Flickr etc.), where people record, share/broadcast, and comment on media content, i.e., images and videos, leading to an accelerated proliferation of social media on the Internet. The rapid increase of social media has raised numerous new research challenges to multimedia content analysis. On the other hand, the availability of massive social media has also presented many exciting opportunities and challenges to attack in particular within the field of multimedia content analysis. This special issue aims to report recent research on large-scale social multimedia analysis and presents papers dealing with the various topics in this field. After rigorous reviewing, 11 papers were accepted for publication in MTAP. These papers cover most aspects for social media analysis. In particular, the papers of this issue concern (i) feature description and indexing for social media content, (ii) semantic understanding of social media, (iii) efficiency strategy for large scale practical social media analysis systems, (iv) social multimedia enabled applications, (v) social image processing and finally (vi) evaluations for social video content analysis. They are briefly discussed as follows. Multimed Tools Appl (2016) 75:1365–1369 DOI 10.1007/s11042-016-3255-z

If Parsons had Pajek: The Relevance of Midcentury Structural-Functionalism to Dynamic Network Analysis*

Abstract Social network analysis has been one of the most influential scientific revolutions of the past century. Its success has been due, in part, to its methodological sophistication and the emphasis it places on identifying and clearly depicting features of social structure. As such, social network analysis is often viewed in stark contrast to the structuralist paradigm that dominated the social sciences prior to its rise – structural–functionalism - in the mid-20th century. In this paper, we highlight important connections that exist between the key assumptions of social network analysis and the key tenets of some of the most influential structural-functional theories – especially those of Robert K. Merton and Talcott Parsons and their collaborators and followers. We reveal a substantial affinity between some of their most influential ideas and contemporary analysis of social network dynamics, in particular, and several ways in which their work could inform promising advances in this line of research. Our ultimate goal is to highlight the prospect of using these theories to guide future analyses of the dynamics of large social systems and the sequences of real-time action that compose them.

Temporal fidelity in dynamic social networks

It has recently become possible to record detailed social interactions in large social systems with high resolution. As we study these datasets, human social interactions display patterns that emerge at multiple time scales, from minutes to months. On a fundamental level, understanding of the network dynamics can be used to inform the process of measuring social networks. The details of measurement are of particular importance when considering dynamic processes where minute-to-minute details are important, because collection of physical proximity interactions with high temporal resolution is difficult and expensive. Here, we consider the dynamic network of proximity-interactions between approximately 500 individuals participating in the Copenhagen Networks Study. We show that in order to accurately model spreading processes in the network, the dynamic processes that occur on the order of minutes are essential and must be included in the analysis.

On the discovery of social roles in large scale social systems

The social role of a participant in a social system is a label conceptualizing the circumstances under which she interacts within it. They may be used as a theoretical tool that explains why and how users participate in an online social system. Social role analysis also serves practical purposes, such as reducing the structure of complex systems to rela- tionships among roles rather than alters, and enabling a comparison of social systems that emerge in similar contexts. This article presents a data-driven approach for the discovery of social roles in large scale social systems. Motivated by an analysis of the present art, the method discovers roles by the conditional triad censuses of user ego-networks, which is a promising tool because they capture the degree to which basic social forces push upon a user to interact with others. Clusters of censuses, inferred from samples of large scale network carefully chosen to preserve local structural prop- erties, define the social roles. The promise of the method is demonstrated by discussing and discovering the roles that emerge in both Facebook and Wikipedia. The article con- cludes with a discussion of the challenges and future opportunities in the discovery of social roles in large social systems.

Breaching Frames, Expanding Horizons in Internal and External Worlds: Response to Stuart A. Pizer and Donnel B. Stern

Authentic emotional responsiveness, intersubjective validation, and mutual recognition breached rigid internal experiential frames in my analysis with Raphael, steering us from confrontation to negotiation. That collaboration led us to relax, stretch, and broaden the frame of the analysis itself, even to include larger social systems. Also, unexpected exigencies of life brought us into each other’s world in ways that neither of us expected when we embarked on our strained journey together. This ever-broadening frame raised many issues. What is the frame in contemporary analysis? When is participation in the analyst’s and/or patient’s circle of life warranted, and when is it suspect? How does one insure against a “wild analysis”? This article grapples with these quandaries.

Virtual Teams: Benefits & Challenges

Although the current language of business speaks of ‘collaboration’ it does not speak of ‘virtual collaboration’ but of virtual teams. This is useful because not all teams work in a collaborative way with a common cause.
 A team can be defined as a collection of individuals who are interdependent in their tasks, who share responsibility for outcomes, who see themselves and who are seen by others as an intact social entity embedded in one or more larger social systems, and who manage their relationship across organisational boundaries. A team therefore has a unity of purpose, a social structure, and its members share a common responsibility for outcomes which is not necessarily a common cause.
 Probably the most comprehensive survey of virtual team adoption currently available was undertaken by the Economist Intelligence Unit in late 2009.
 The main reasons quoted in the report for establishing virtual teams were:
 Improve collaboration with other business units;Tap into a larger pool of expertise;Improve competitiveness through a faster response to opportunities;Cost reduction, especially travel costs and the need for internal meeting spaces;Improve collaboration with customers, suppliers and partners.
 The challenges of working in virtual teams were seen as:
 Misunderstandings due to differences in culture, language and an inability to read people’s expressions;Difficulty in leading teams remotely;Difficulty in building camaraderie and trust;Difficulty in managing the productivity of virtual teams;Managing information overload.

Linking the levels: network and relational perspectives for community psychology.

In this article, we assert that relationships and networks are of paramount importance for understanding and improving settings, neighborhoods, communities, and larger social systems. Despite previous acknowledgements of their relevance, relational and social network perspectives and analyses remain underrepresented in community psychological research and action. Here, we claim that network and relational perspectives can provide conceptual and empirical 'links' between levels of analysis, more fully reflecting a transactional view. We also describe some of the sophisticated methodologies that can be employed in empirical studies drawing on these perspectives. Additionally, we contend that core concepts in community psychology such as health promotion, empowerment, coalition building, and dissemination and implementation can be better understood when employing relational and network perspectives. As an introduction to this special issue of American Journal of Community Psychology, we draw out themes and key points from the articles in the issue, and offer recommendations for future advancement of these perspectives in the field.

“An African way of doing things”: reproducing gender and generation

In this article I draw on ethnographic research conducted in the townships of Nyanga East and Khayelitsha, South Africa, to suggest a link between normative ideals about the relations between children and adults, normative practises around the care of children, and the high rates of early child bearing. I argue that the attempt to uphold these ideals is what creates fertile ground for the occurrence of a pregnancy during the teenage years. My investigation of the occurrence and management of teenage pregnancy draws attention to a marked and persistent discrepancy between normative ideals and practices. It suggests that the normative practices around the management of a teenage pregnancy and the care of children that have emerged contribute to the reproduction of a larger social system that allows for a pregnant teenager's successful moral transition to motherhood in the township.

Logic, language, and values of co-operation versus competition in the context of recreating sustainable community systems

The article highlights the paradox in the language, logic, and values of the larger social system vis-à-vis the market economy system. It observes that the language, logic, and values of co-operation have gradually undergone transformation over time and have been mainstreamed today to that of industrial production and organizations in a competitive market economic system. The article argues that the confusions and tensions today in the theory, practice, and policy for recreating sustainable systems essentially arise out of a lack of conceptual clarity and an inability to distinguish the values, logic, and language of competition from that of co-operation. Based on an action research project during 2008–2013 on developing transitional strategies for rebuilding a sustainable community system from within the existing competitive market economy system, the paper provides a way forward for restructuring the organizational design and institutional architecture on the principles of deep relationships, trust, and co-operation for long-term sustainability.

Contact-based social contagion in multiplex networks

We develop a theoretical framework for the study of epidemiclike social contagion in large scale social systems. We consider the most general setting in which different communication platforms or categories form multiplex networks. Specifically, we propose a contact-based information spreading model, and show that the critical point of the multiplex system associated with the active phase is determined by the layer whose contact probability matrix has the largest eigenvalue. The framework is applied to a number of different situations, including a real multiplex system. Finally, we also show that when the system through which information is disseminating is inherently multiplex, working with the graph that results from the aggregation of the different layers is inaccurate.

The Community as Patient: Recovery-focused Community Mobilization in Philadelphia, PA (USA), 2005–2012

The concept of recovery within the addictions arena has historically referred to the resolution of severe alcohol and other drug (AOD) problems at a personal or family level. Larger social systems can also be wounded by and experience recovery from the prolonged effects of AODs and related problems. This article explores the concept of community recovery, posits a set of preliminary principles related to community recovery, presents a case study of community recovery, and outlines current strategies used in the City of Philadelphia to promote processes of community recovery.

Diagnosis as Part of a Large Social Emotional System

This article examines the diagnosis of mental illness as part of a process that can be more clearly understood if envisioned as part of a larger system that goes on in most social encounters. These encounters can go in three directions: Labeling, Enabling, and Normalization. Labeling is equivalent to stigmatization, the awarding of a shameful status. Enabling awards a prideful status: “There is nothing wrong with you.” Normalization takes a middle ground: you have a problem, but it's not shameful. These ideas are discussed as depicted in the film Lars and the Real Girl (2007). The film teaches a powerful lesson: how a community might manage mental illness without the social side-effects.

English

In many developing countries including Nigeria, prison conditions are far from being humane, and prison health is yet to be seen as a profitable social project. This is often displayed in the various forms of social interactions obtainable among prisoners, prison staff and the larger social system. Prisons in Nigeria over the past years have been in deplorable conditions with increase in disease burden among inmates. The worrisome part is not the governments’ willingness to join the global drive towards realising access to health care service, but the slowness in attitude in addressing the health needs of prisoners; yet prison health remains paramount. In the light of the above background, the paper therefore, attempts a sociological discourse of prison health in Nigeria within the context of the dynamics of social structures on prison health as well as suggest plausible strategy through which optimum prison health in Nigeria could be realised. Key words: Inmates, punishment, prison staff, prison health, prison condition.

Organizational Leadership For Building Effective Health Care Teams

The movement toward accountable care organizations and patient-centered medical homes will increase with implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA will therefore give further impetus to the growing importance of teams in health care. Teams typically involve 2 or more people embedded in a larger social system who differentiate their roles, share common goals, interact with each other, and perform tasks affecting others. Multiple team types fit within this definition, and they all need support from leadership to succeed. Teams have been invoked as a necessary tool to address the needs of patients with multiple chronic conditions and to address medical workforce shortages. Invoking teams, however, is much easier than making them function effectively, so we need to consider the implications of the growing emphasis on teams. Although the ACA will spur team development, organizational leadership must use what we know now to train, support, and incentivize team function. Meanwhile, we must also advance research regarding teams in health care to give those leaders more evidence to guide their work.

School Reform: Community, Corporatism, and the Social Good

Paradigms are important. Since the early part of the 20th century, a corporatist paradigm has influenced education policy and structure. A corporatist view is based on two assumptions: Schools are like businesses; therefore, sound business practices will improve schools. Another paradigm that has received only minimal attention in formulating education policy in the United States is a community paradigm, which envisions education as a comprehensive endeavor and the integration of students into the larger social system as the paramount goal. Both paradigms have views about the social good, and in my article, I attempt to outline each paradigm, its assumptions, and its potential impact on schooling in the United States.

Meanings for Case Protagonists of the Informing Process Occurring During Case Production and Discussion: A Phenomenological Analysis

This study is concerned with how the protagonists of case studies —carried out by researchers of business schools with commitment to the case method— experience the informing process occurring during case production and discussion. The focus is both on how protagonists personally experience this informing process as well as on how protagonists interpret its impact on their relation with the larger social system. This was explored through in-depth interviews with two managers who had been co-protagonists in a case study produced by a well-known Latin American business school in 2004. A descriptive phenomenological method was used for data analysis. Results show that for protagonists, the informing experience was more emotional than intellectual, more significant for its symbolic meaning than its rational content; they also show that in the lived experience of the protagonists, the informing process increased their legitimacy and authority in the face of other stakeholders located in their relevant field of action. Finally, in the interpretation of the researchers, the protagonists related the informing flows from the case production and discussion to the evolution of their own practice.

Emergence of Influential Spreaders in Modified Rumor Models

The burst in the use of online social networks over the last decade has provided evidence that current rumor spreading models miss some fundamental ingredients in order to reproduce how information is disseminated. In particular, recent literature has revealed that these models fail to reproduce the fact that some nodes in a network have an influential role when it comes to spread a piece of information. In this work, we introduce two mechanisms with the aim of filling the gap between theoretical and experimental results. The first model introduces the assumption that spreaders are not always active whereas the second model considers the possibility that an ignorant is not interested in spreading the rumor. In both cases, results from numerical simulations show a higher adhesion to real data than classical rumor spreading models. Our results shed some light on the mechanisms underlying the spreading of information and ideas in large social systems and pave the way for more realistic diffusion models.

Chapter 4 - Embracing covariation in brain evolution: Large brains, extended development, and flexible primate social systems

Brain size, body size, developmental length, life span, costs of raising offspring, behavioral complexity, and social structures are correlated in mammals due to intrinsic life-history requirements. Dissecting variation and direction of causation in this web of relationships often draw attention away from the factors that correlate with basic life parameters. We consider the "social brain hypothesis," which postulates that overall brain and the isocortex are selectively enlarged to confer social abilities in primates, as an example of this enterprise and pitfalls. We consider patterns of brain scaling, modularity, flexibility of brain organization, the "leverage," and direction of selection on proposed dimensions. We conclude that the evidence supporting selective changes in isocortex or brain size for the isolated ability to manage social relationships is poor. Strong covariation in size and developmental duration coupled with flexible brains allow organisms to adapt in variable social and ecological environments across the life span and in evolution.

Pediatric Prevention and Intervention in the Community

The health of children is largely influenced by the factors in their immediate environment, including their families, schools, and neighborhoods. However, according to Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, children are also influenced by larger social systems that indirectly effect development, like the school system and the cultural values and traditions of the larger society. This issue of the Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community highlights research that investigates the importance of the various ecological systems on child health. Three articles focus on issues with particular relevance in pediatrics, including tobacco prevention, injury prevention, and sexually transmitted infection treatment. Two articles focus on community-engaged intervention programs to treat chronic childhood issues. Finally, one article focuses on the interaction between culture and pediatric health beliefs.

Systems Theory and the Development of Sexual Identity for Individuals with Intellectual/Developmental Disability

The purpose of this paper is to examine social systems theory as it relates to the inclusion of disenfranchised populations into the larger social system by enabling these populations to receive education and resources which can allow them to develop skills needed to achieve inclusion. Specifically this study is concerned with using elements of social systems theory to develop a sexual education program for a population identified with an Intellectually/Developmentally Disability (ID/DD). In order to do this, it is necessary to work within the family or caregiver system where these individuals live and function. Caregivers must be helped to recognize the potential for inclusion in this area of life for this population, and educational tools appropriate to the developmental and cognitive levels of the participants must be made available. Acknowledgment of the individual’s role within the system and understanding of the individual’s experience of that systems interaction with the environment and with other systems is primary in developing effective programming which can increase the quality of the participants’ interactions and relationships, making life a more productive and more satisfying experience.