Main Social Actors Research Articles

Categorising inclusive education and disability narratives, actors and expertise on Instagram, YouTube and Twitter

Social networks play a relevant role in the construction of narratives on disability and inclusive education. This paper categorises the themes of the most viral publications on Instagram, YouTube and Twitter X, with a twofold objective: to identify the social actors associated with them and to comparatively analyse the value of thematic use for the three digital platforms. Social listening techniques developed using the Twitter X API and web scraping techniques for Instagram and YouTube are applied to store the publications with the keywords education, inclusion and/or disability in Spanish and English. The database consists of 100,091 posts captured from October 2021 to September 2022, a full year. Subsequently, the 100 most viral publications from each social network are selected and a content analysis is applied. The results show a tendency towards thematic specialisation: Instagram defines the demand for rights and disseminates empathetic attitudes; YouTube collects experiences of good practices in informal contexts with a reflective function; Twitter X disseminates reports on the barriers and prejudices experienced by people with disabilities with a critical tone. The main social actors are diverse and varied with different profiles, therapists, politicians and parents with children with disabilities, among others. The impact of the narratives to face the new educational challenges that require an understanding of the network to establish long-term strategies for building a critical digital citizenship is discussed.

Women of protest: main social actors, motives for participation, expected results of women’s strike protests in Poland

W artykule przedstawiono częściowy socjologiczny portret kobiet, które wzięły udział w ogólnopolskich protestach społecznych przeciwko ograniczeniu aborcji w Polsce – ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem motywów uczestnictwa i oczekiwanych rezultatów. Artykuł może stać się punktem odniesienia do wskazania, kim jest aktywna obywatelka, jakie posiada cechy socjodemograficzne i jakie motywacje determinują zaangażowanie obywatelskie.

The Social Drivers of Inclusive Workplaces scale: a preliminary validation of the questionnaire

PurposeDrawing on Shore and colleagues' model of inclusive workplaces (2018) and the perceptions of social context framework (Borgogni et al., 2010), this study aims to develop and provide a preliminary validation of the Social Drivers of Inclusive Workplaces (SDIW) scale.Design/methodology/approachUsing inductive and deductive approaches, items were developed. The resulting pool of 28 items was administrated to 1,244 employees using an anonymous online survey. The factor structure of the SDIW scale was tested through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Reliabilities were estimated. Alternative models were tested through CFAs. Nomological validity and measurement invariance across gender were explored.FindingsThe EFA revealed a three-factor structure, including inclusive colleagues, supervisors and top management. This solution was confirmed by the CFA and outperformed all alternative models, showing good reliabilities. Measurement invariance across gender was confirmed. Correlations indicated that the SDIW total score and each dimension were positively associated with belongingness needs satisfaction and affective commitment, while negatively related to interpersonal strain, negative acts and turnover intention.Practical implicationsThis study provides practitioners with a reliable tool to map social drivers of inclusion within workplaces in order to design tailored interventions.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the inclusion literature, as it is the first to provide a scale that simultaneously measures employees' perceptions of inclusive behaviours enacted by the three main social actors within the workplace.

“It wasn’t the priority”: Non-binary Children Experiences and Professional Discourse on Public Service Care During the First Wave of COVID-19

Abstract Introduction The lockdown associated with COVID-19 has had a different impact on LGBTI people compared to their heterosexual and cisgender peers, with an even greater impact on children and youth. This study aims to identify the level of satisfaction amongst non-binary children with the attention received from the main social actors during the first wave of the pandemic in Spain, analyse the role of key people, levels of trust, and children’s main concerns and needs. Furthermore, it also aims to understand professional responses to the challenges presented by non-binary children and young people during the first wave of the pandemic. Methods A mixed design has been applied to the collection of quantitative and qualitative data during 2022. A survey of children aged 9 to 17 (n = 1216, in which there were 32 non-binary children) as well as 30 interviews with professionals in the sector were used during the academic year 2021–2022. Results The results of the study show how non-binary children and young people have significantly less satisfaction than their peers who identified as a boy or a girl with respect to the care received, how gender identity played a fundamental role in their experiences during the lockdown and how professional responses have not had the proper tools to adequately address the challenges that non-binary children and young people posed to services and resources. Conclusions Adversities such as pandemics reproduced and intensified patterns of invisibility, discrimination and social exclusion in most walks of life for children who are outside of the dominant sexual and gender logic. Policy Implications This piece of work allows us to highlight the needs of non-binary children and young people as well as those of psychosocial care professionals in order to support sexual and gender diversity in post-pandemic conditions.

A democratic trend in the development of the public administrative sphere in Ukraine in the post-war period

Problem setting. Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine sows death and destruction; threatens all spheres of socio-economic development of society. It also aims to destroy civilizational achievements in education, science, and culture, as well as to ruin the democratic foundations of Ukrainian society. Threats of curtailment of democratic reforms and restrictions on social transparency may also be due to internal reasons, such as the introduction of norms of the legal regime of martial law and its formal interpretation. Taking into account the above-mentioned present peculiarities, an attempt to systematically analyze the democratic trend in the development of the public administrative sphere in Ukraine and substantiate the means of its uncontested implementation in the post-war period becomes a requirement of time. Paper main body This paper determines the main achievements of the democratic development of Ukrainian society as a change in the essential features of the public administrative sphere, as well as its individual most obvious manifestations. The paper considers the content of threats posed by the aggressive war of the Russian Federation and the need to develop the public administrative sphere in Ukraine on a democratic basis in the post-war period. Democratic development is defined as a trend – a vector of changes, the achievement of which is not uncontested and which opposes the totalitarian regime. The main differences between democratic and totalitarian societies, which are classified according to four spheres and sixteen criteria correspondingly, are revealed. The characteristics provided not only demonstrate the opposite of totalitarianism and democracy but also define a system of tasks to be implemented to ensure further progressive development. It is substantiated that the efficient factor in transforming the democratic trend of development into a specific reality lies in the joint activity of social actors, the synergistic effect of which depends on the adherence to the single paradigm of modernization of the public administrative sphere. The paradigmatic unity of the activity is revealed as the realization of a conceptually conscious model of development, from a defined strategy to the specific tactical steps and technical means of their practical implementation. Conclusions and suggestions. The scientific substantiation proves that the democratic development of Ukrainian society in present conditions should be viewed as a trend not realized with absolute necessity. Its practical application in the public administrative sphere can be guaranteed by mutually coordinated activities of main social actors who consciously implement requirements of the democratic paradigm. Accordingly, proposals for the compliance of these requirements in specific directions are outlined.

Cambios y retos en las relaciones laborales México 2018-2022

In December 2018, a new progressive government administration took office in Mexico. From this, a different labor policy was developed, which included reforms to the laws and regulations in this area. This tended to modify labor relations in the country, in particular, strengthening its bilateral character, starting from restoring the legitimacy of the union organization, which had different meanings and challenges for the main actors. The objective of this article is to analyze the changes in the regulatory framework of labor relations in Mexico in the last four years and discuss their scope and challenges, considering the characteristics of the labor market and the responses of the main social actors, in the context of the pandemic.

Директорът – водещ социален актьор в инспектирането на качеството на българското образование

Inspecting the quality of education is an innovative social phenomenon in the Bulgarian education system and presents the director with the challenges of two opposite roles: "assessed" and "assessing", as in the leading role of a participant in quality management. The article analyzes the social roles of the director of the educational institution, as well as some of the methods, concepts and tools of the evaluation of the quality of education. They are presented through the variety of social processes, and activities and interactions in the main stages of the inspection: preparatory, actual and final, which the director must know as a leading participant in the process of inspecting the quality of education. Under the social spotlight, the changes in the duties and responsibilities of the director as the main social actor in the society of the educational institution in planning, organizing, facilitating the inspection in the complex compilation of the social roles performed by him/her, of evaluator, evaluated, self-evaluator and finally, together with the inspection team, a direct participant in the quality management of the educational institution.

Философия в современном университете: проблемы методики преподавания и перспективы в условиях новой образовательной модели «2+2+2»

The change in the status of philosophy in a modern university forces a critical review of the existing practices of its teaching and sets the task of finding modern and more effective ways of mastering philosophical thought. It is shown that their development should be preceded by a new formulation of the question of the mission of the modern university and the goals that society sets before it, in the form of requirements for its graduates from the main social actors – the state, business and civil society. The article highlights and discusses the main strategies for teaching philosophy in Russian universities, their advantages and disadvantages. It is shown that the most productive strategy that contributes to the emergence of a desire among future specialists to analyze social phenomena not only on the basis of personal life experience, today is a problem-oriented strategy, which initially involves a debatable discussion of philosophical problems. An analysis of the existing teaching practices shows that, despite the fundamental differences, all of them somehow face similar methodological difficulties, which many see as the way to overcome them in the search for a new "systematic". Without addressing questions about the fundamental possibility of its creation, the article substantiates the need to reach conventions on what a university course of philosophy should include in a mandatory plan for non-philosophical specialties, and to build its matrix structure on this basis. In search of a "new universality" and taking into account the expectations of modern students from philosophy, a practical approach should become the key in building the course program today. This approach makes it possible to outline the general architectonics of a university philosophy course aimed at developing critical thinking in the context of the transformation of higher education in accordance with the 2+2+2 model. The new logic of the organization of the bachelor's degree, which is based on the idea of delayed choice and conscious self-determination of students, will make it possible to solve the problem of developing critical thinking much more successfully. Setting the formation of critical thinking as a key goal of teaching philosophy can fulfill the role of the desired systematizing factor.

Contrastive language policies: a comparison of two multilingual linguistic landscapes where Spanish coexists with regional minority languages

ABSTRACT This study compares two linguistic landscapes and the concurrent language policies of two scenarios where minority languages coexist with Spanish. On one hand, in the Archipelago of San Andres, Colombia, Spanish is in contact with an English-based Creole (Raizal Creole). Similarly, Valencian (Spain) coexists with Spanish as a national language. This work examines over 1200 pictures of public signs to reveal the extent to which these regional languages are represented in the public sphere by their main social actors in comparable domains: touristic sites and urban centres. Results showed that Raizal Creole is associated with signs authored by the community, while Spanish is the language of choice of the government and private sector. In contrast, Valencian is maintained in written signs in both settings. Despite having analogous language laws, only Valencian enjoys substantial governmental recognition. This situation sheds light on the de facto language policies and language maintenance in multilingual settings where Spanish is the national language.

Media portrayal of hackers inChina DailyandThe New York Times: A corpus-based critical discourse analysis

This study draws on a synergy of Corpus Linguistics and Critical Discourse Studies to scrutinize the portrayal of hackers in China Daily and The New York Times in the 21st century (2001–2020), primarily revolving around the main social actors and targets in hacking. This study demonstrates that both media share a positive transformation of the image-building of hackers in the 21st century. Besides, countries are salient social actors in hacker media discourse and the two media differ in their ways of constructing them. The New York Times tends to have a negative other-representation and categorical otherness of specific countries through such discursive strategies as negative other-representation and group categorization, whereas China Daily is prone to insist on opposing the US hacking allegations in a defensive manner. Regarding major targets, China Daily highlights government websites whereas The New York Times emphasizes government websites, officials’ emails, large technology companies, and election infrastructure. The analysis shows that the two media’s different ways of framing hackers are underpinned by the ideologies behind them and the Chinese and US socio-political landscapes. This study can provide insights into how hacker discourse in media is represented in the 21st century and how national identities are constructed in the media representations of hackers.

Sustainable Tourism, Social and Institutional Innovation—The Paradox of Dark Sky in Astrotourism

Astrotourism is an emerging type of sustainable tourism based on the observation of the dark sky, free of light pollution, and of all the experiences that have developed around it. The views and perceptions of the main social actors and their constellations and interactions are considered. Both the public decision-makers concerning astrotourism and the civil society involved were analysed in this research through a case study in Aragon, an inland Spanish region. New institutionalism in sociology based on the actors provides a coherent structural framework and explanation of the most relevant aspects in astrotourism in Aragon as well as help to understand the social and institutional innovation, in the sense that civil society has organised itself for many years to show and bring astronomy closer to the social majority; in light of this social reality, institutions have had to respond appropriately, taking and allowing for the participation of astronomical associations, in order to develop tourist experiences in relation to the appropriate dissemination of this science. Even more so, we studied the socioeconomic dynamics and territorial impacts. Thanks to the application of a qualitative method, specifically, semi-structured interviews with relevant informants in the territory, we discovered a hidden relevant social situation around astrotourism. Is the so called “paradox of dark sky” that emerges in communities where social welfare gains such as widespread access to artificial light are jeopardised by a new collective approach to artificial light control and light pollution that prevents high-impact emotional experiences around the dark sky, but takes into account that astrotourism is an opportunity for the endogenous and sustainable socioeconomic development of these forgotten areas.

Contesting legitimacy in China’s crisis communication: a framing analysis of reported social actors engaging in SARS and COVID-19

The study provided a framing analysis of China Daily in its coverage of the SARS and COVID-19 pandemics. By understanding social actors as a particular frame element, the study introduced word-frequency-based cluster analysis as a method of corpus collection and generation for qualitative frame analysis. The study identified four main social actor groups and 14 news frames during the two pandemics. The discursive centrality of the Chinese government among other social actors from China Daily and the persistent positive portrait of the government’s institutional performance under the responsibility-solution frame is discussed. The results imply that China’s crisis communication did not experience much change from reporting SARS to reporting COVID-19. In particular, the drop in frame diversity and the focus on information uniformity in reporting the pandemic may have limited the effectiveness of the Chinese news media in accessing international awareness and contributing to the global meaning construction of the unfolding crisis.

Identifying stakeholders and discussing a strategy for the participatory management of a protected area: the case of Engenho Pequeno, in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil.

This paper identifies the potential main social actors involved in and affected by the conservation and use of the Environmental Protection Area (EPA) of Engenho Pequeno, in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, and discusses how environmental education can be shaped to engage them in participatory, socially progressive and environmentally sustainable management for that area. Therefore, semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals and entities related to the EPA. The snowball method complemented the mapping of non-official social actors. The discussion was based on the critical approach of environmental education, polycentric governance, adaptive management, environmental advocacy and case studies about education in protected areas. Results showed nine key stakeholders to be considered in a network program for the EPA’s participatory management, including government, schools, local and nearby residents and religious groups. In the end, we recommend the hosting of a one day workshop, built around existing local and national environmental goals, as an entry point for trust building and the search for shared interests.

The role of stakeholder to support the development of competitive commodities on peatlands: case study in Pulang Pisau Regency, Central Kalimantan Province

In developing a food security business model, support from various related stakeholders is required. The success of this program cannot be done by a single actor but should be a collaboration among actors. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze stakeholders and their roles in developing a partnership model to support the development of competitive commodities in peatland area. This study was conducted in 2020 at the villages of Buntoi and Mantaren 1, Pulang Pisau Regency, Central Kalimantan Province. Data analysed are primary and secondary which are collected through in-depth interviews and online questionnaires. The data are analyzed using stakeholder analysis. The result of the study shows that several actors have the potentials to become key players in the development of superior commodities in peatland area, there are five actors at the district level (Official of Agriculture, Official of Food Crops, Official of Regional Planning and Development, Official of Trade, Cooperatives, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, and Official of Community and Village Empowerment), two actors at the provincial level (Official of Food Crops Services and Official of The Food Security, an actor at the site level (Forest Management Unit (FMU/KPH)), and one institution at the village level (the joint business group (Kelompok Usaha Bersama/KUB) or the social forestry business group (Kelompok Usaha Perhutanan Sosial/KUPS). KUB or KUPS can be the main social actor of the village to support the development of value chains for competitive products. The Village Government can form BUMDes to accommodate KUB, KUPS, or the other farmer groups in managing their business for both marketing and financing purposes. The local government plays an important role in being the leader in supporting the developments along the value chain for the products. In addition, it also requires good cooperation with other institutions such as financial institutions, industries, and universities.

Качество высшего образования: операционализация понятия

The purpose of the study is to operationalize the concept of “quality of higher educationˮ in sociological discourse. The methodological basis of the research is represented by modern sociological theories, within the framework of which the understanding of the problems of higher education development is carried out.   Research results. The social and scientific relevance of the study of the stated problem is determined, the signs of the quality of higher education are identified, its resources (social, material, technical and informational) are established, the separation from related concepts is carried out, and finally an instrumental definition that can be used in scientific polemics in the new emerging discourse initiated by the on-lineization of the social institute of higher school is given. It is concluded that in real educational practices, access to an understanding of the higher education quality is possible only through the coordination of the views of the main social actors of higher education institution.    Prospects of the study are in further understanding and empirical verification of the quality problems of modern higher education.

Anti-gender politics and the authoritarian turn in Brazil

In 2018, Jair Bolsonaro, a former captain and congressman known for his racist, sexist, and homophobic remarks, was elected president of Brazil. His election shocked political analysts, representing the major setback in the Brazilian democracy since the end of the military rule in the 1980’s. The present work analyses the social actors and the political processes behind the rise of Bolsonaro to power. It focuses on the role of anti-gender politics in the recent authoritarian turn. Borrowing some insights from the Protest Event Analysis methodology, the work explores the dynamics of the anti-gender protest events, their main social and political actors, repertoires of actions and demands. It also review the recent debate on the crisis of democracy and the rise of extreme right-wing movements and parties, focusing on the centrality of opposition to gender equity and LGBTQI+ rights in the rhetoric and action of conservative and far-right groups.

The Alliance for Progress in Uruguay: Political Dynamics, Legacy and Lessons Learned

During the first half of the 1960s, under the auspices of the Alliance for Progress, Uruguay carried out the most ambitious planning effort of its history. The government set up an office to design the plans: the Technical Secretariat of the Commission on Investment and Economic Development (CIDE, in Spanish). In late 1965, the CIDE made available to the government its most important product, the National Economic and Social Development Plan (1965-1974). In early 1966, the government formally approved the plan, but never implemented it. However, both economic and social information and reform proposals generated by CIDE deeply permeated the political debate and the positions of the main social and political actors. This experience confirms the main conclusions of the research and policy “nexus” literature but, at the same time, invites us to devise and put forward new hypotheses.

Incarceration as a result of the play of interests in the Polish judicial system

Abstract The main aim of this article is to show one of the social trap of the Polish justice system. Using Mertonian category of 'unforeseen consequences' the authors show how the constellations of interests of the main social actors in Polish courts leads to far-from-optimal effects. Inside the system, judges, court staff, lawyers, defendants and others fall into the trap of unforeseen consequences. At the same time, from the macro-social perspective, the effects imply increasing fragmentation of society, instead of cohesion, for increasing which the whole judicial system is constructed.

The Scripture of Filial Piety [Revealed] by Wenchang: A Bibliographical Study

This article discusses the date of the Scripture of Filial Piety [Revealed] by Wenchang (Wenchang xiaojing 文 昌孝經). The central claim of this contribution is that the Scripture appeared during the Ming-Qing transition, being a product of the ritualisation of the Classic of Filial Piety (Xiaojing 孝經). By examining more than twenty different editions, this article identifies at least three different lines of textual transmission, each connected to distinctive commentaries and reprints. Confucian literati were the main social actors responsible for the creation, reproduction, redaction, and annotation of the extant editions.

THE ARAB SPRING ONLINE NEWS COVERAGE: CORPUS-BASED ANALYSIS OF THE TUNISIAN AND EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION KEYWORDS

In 2011, the Arab world had become the centre of attention once again after the emergence of the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ in December 2010. This historical event in the modern history of the Arab region has brought significant social and political reform to the Arab world. The wave of Arab uprising begins in Tunisia at the end of 2010, rapidly separated into other neighbouring countries such as Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Bahrain, and Sudan. Since the early stage of protest, which mainly participated by locals, mass media has comprehensively reported this historical event, which brought down many Arab leaders in power for decades. Thus, Arab Spring has become the headline of many international media outlets, and the media are still discussing the significant impact of the event until now. Hence, the main objective of the study is to examine the event's Arabic online news discourse by focusing on the keywords and prominent social actors in the news reports surrounding the Arab Spring. This will indicate what has been included and excluded or highlighted and marginalised in the news coverage. The data is consist of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) online news published by four prominent news outlets namely with different origin and background: Al-Arabia of Saudi Arabia, Al-Jazeera of Qatar, BBC Arabic of the UK and CNN of the USA. These well-established news outlets were selected for their comprehensive international coverage aims at various Arabic readers worldwide. The study employs corpus linguistics analytical tools by using corpus data mining software ‘AntConc 3.4’. Then, the quantitative results of corpus data will be analysed using a qualitative approach based on the textual-oriented Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of Fairclough (1992) and Wodak (2001). The result shows that news coverage of the event has highlighted several keywords that indicate the main social actors and main social events of the Arab Spring. These keywords are the shared command features among the news outlets, although each outlet portraying them is significantly different. Finally, the article presents suggestions for other related studies in the future.