Mobile Social Groups Research Articles

Food City: Ahmedabad as a Globalised Vegetarian Space

Existing studies, highlighting that dining out forms an important part of public cultures in India, have focused on the growing influence of consumer cultures on India’s middle classes and their identity formation. However, insufficient scholarly attention has been paid to the distinctly different ways in which middle-class experiences with modernity and cosmopolitanism unfold across different cities in India and in the worldwide South Asian diaspora. This article argues that in the major Gujarati city of Ahmedabad, middle-class engagement with new and global culinary practices is couched within dominant, regionally coloured vegetarian cultures, redefining vegetarianism as integral to the project of modern middle-class identity among certain upwardly mobile social groups. This ethnographic study of popular pizzerias sheds light on the transformative capacity and significance of vegetarian food. From being a symbol of exclusionary bourgeois hegemonic cultures, it has turned into a consumer item regarded as accessible and desirable for supporting middle-class aspirations to experience ‘global’ forms of consumption. The concluding analysis suggests that, since there are many diverse, cosmopolitan urban spaces like Ahmedabad, more research is needed especially on how global Gujarati food culture has been developing.

Development and usability testing of a cognitive-behavioral therapy-guided self-help mobile app and social media group for the post-acute treatment of anorexia nervosa

ObjectiveAnorexia nervosa (AN) is often treated in the acute setting, but relapse after treatment is common. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is useful in the post-acute period, but access to trained providers is limited. Social support is also critical during this period. This study utilized a user-centered design approach to develop and evaluate the usability of a CBT-based mobile app and social networking component for post-acute AN support. MethodParticipants (N = 19) were recently discharged from acute treatment for AN. Usability testing of the intervention was conducted over three cycles; assessments included the System Usability Scale (SUS), the Usefulness, Satisfaction, and Ease of Use Questionnaire (USE), the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS), a social media questionnaire, and a semi-structured interview. ResultsInterview feedback detailed aspects of the app that participants enjoyed and those needing improvement. Feedback converged on three themes: Logistical App Feedback, boosting recovery, and Real-World App/Social Media Use. USE and MARS scores were above average and SUS scores were “good” to “excellent” across cycles. ConclusionThis study provides evidence of feasibility and acceptability of an app and social networking feature for post-acute care of AN. The intervention has potential for offering scalable support for individuals with AN in the high-risk period following discharge from acute care.

Exploring factors influencing knowledge sharing in mobile social media groups within construction project teams

PurposeAlthough previous research has recognized the pivotal role of mobile social media in knowledge sharing among project members, little is known about what factors affect knowledge sharing in mobile social media groups (MSMGs). Against this background, using normative social influence theory, this study attempts to explore factors influencing knowledge sharing in MSMGs.Design/methodology/approachData from 205 Chinese construction project members are collected and used for analysis. Ordinary least squares regression by Stata 16 is used to test the proposed hypotheses.FindingsConcerning role norms, gender difference in knowledge sharing behavior (KSB) is found, while it is not the case for knowledge quality (KQ). Work experience is found to positively affect KQ, but shows no influence on KSB. As for group norms, the inverted-U relationship between number of members and KSB is partially supported. In addition, organizational norms generally exhibit the greatest influence on both KSB and KQ among the three forms of norms.Originality/valueThis study deepens the understanding of knowledge sharing factors in mobile social media environments and affords practical implications for how to make full use of social media for knowledge management within construction project teams.

Measurement Invariance of the Short Home Attachment Scale: A Cross-Cultural Study.

The home environment is a particularly significant part of life that is supposed to satisfy inhabitants’ needs, form their identity, and contribute to psychological wellbeing. The construct of home attachment is especially relevant for students as a most mobile social group. This study is devoted to the validation of the Short Home Attachment Scale (SHAS) in a student sample from five countries (Armenia, India, Indonesia, Russia, and Ukraine). A total of 1,349 (17–26 years; Mage = 19.82, SDage = 2.14; 78% females) university students participated in the study and filled in the 14 items of HAS. In order to avoid redundant items with high error covariances damaging the model, a new scale—the SHAS was developed by eliminating seven items. The shortened scale has satisfactory structure validity in terms of model fit in all countries except Indonesia; internal reliability values were acceptable in all countries. Measurement invariance across countries was tested with Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis (MG CFA) and Alignment Analysis. MG CFA confirmed both configurational and metric invariance. The invariance of item factor loadings, as well as item intercepts, was also confirmed by the Alignment Analysis. The mean scores varied across cultures, with the highest in India and the lowest in Russia. The final version of SHAS is a valid, reliable tool that may be recommended for use in cross-cultural research. However, the SHAS factor structure robustness in the Indonesian population should be investigated thoroughly.

Comparing the effects of text messaging and mobile social networking on physical activity and anthropometric indices of middle-aged women: a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundPhysical inactivity is a global health problem which is more prevalent among women. Among different age groups, middle-aged women are more vulnerable to physical inactivity as one of consequences of menopause. This study aimed to compare the effect of text messaging and that of mobile social networking on the improvement of physical activity and anthropometric indices of middle-aged women in Iran.MethodsThis was a randomized controlled trial in which 110 overweight or obese women who were physically inactive were recruited and allocated into two groups of text messaging (n = 55) or mobile social networking (n = 55). Women in both groups received information regarding the necessity, benefits, and barriers of physical activity and how to overcome these barriers for 12 weeks. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), and a demographic questionnaire were used to collect data. Anthropometric indices including weight, height, waist circumference, hip circumference, waist/hip ratio, and body fat percentage were measured at baseline, as well as 4, 8, and 12 weeks after intervention. Data were analyzed using independent t-test, Chi-square, and repeated measure test.ResultsIn the mobile social networking group, most women had moderate physical activity after 12 weeks (P < 0.05). The mean physical activity and energy expenditure were significantly higher in the mobile social group than those in the text messaging. In the 12th week of intervention, there was a significant reduction in the weight and BMI of the participants in the mobile social networking group compared to the text messaging group (P < 0.05). The waist and hip circumferences of women in the mobile social networking group reduced significantly after 12 weeks of intervention in comparison to the text messaging group (P = 0.001). The two groups did not show any significant difference regarding waist/hip ratio. While the body fat percentage was reduced in the mobile social networking group in the 4th, 8th, and 12th week of intervention, the differences between the two groups was not significant.ConclusionBoth text messaging and mobile social networking were effective in promoting physical activity and reducing anthropometric indices except for waist/hip ratio and body fat percentages, but the effect of mobile social networking was more pronounced. Thus, mobile social networking is recommended for promoting physical activity among middle-aged women.

English VOLUNTEERING IN THE YOUTH ENVIRONMENT DURING A COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The relevance of our topic is that a highly organized and purposeful educational process is impossible without the development of public consciousness in the youth environment. Accordingly, the purpose of the study is to examine and analyze the process of socialization of a person, in particular students, and their involvement in volunteering.&#x0D; Student years are a period of awareness and evaluation of their actions and deeds, the formation of personal concepts. Young people try to look for a reflection of moral qualities in others and begin to project these qualities on themselves.&#x0D; During the forming of the moral potential of students, it is necessary not only to provide an idea of the best human values but also to help them understand, which will motivate the actions of the younger generation.&#x0D; One of the important consequences of the development of civil society in Ukraine was the active development of a relatively new social phenomenon for the country – the volunteer movement.&#x0D; This movement was founded on the tradition of selfless assistance to the needy. It is a historically inherent feature of the Ukrainian national culture. Adopting the experience of a number of advanced Western countries in this area, the domestic volunteer movement is becoming stronger every year, uniting more citizens and attracting significant resources, which requires legislative regulation.&#x0D; Thus, there is reason to claim that volunteer work and the student volunteer movement have been and actually are very relevant.&#x0D; Defining volunteer work, it should be noted that this phenomenon is a social practice that can be mastered by future social workers outside of studying in higher education institutions, but also on the basis of public organizations. Volunteering is based on the ideas of selfless service to humane, the ideal of humanity. It is done without profit, receiving pay, or career growth. Volunteering obtains comprehensive satisfaction of personal and social needs through assistance to other people. It is the basis of public organizations and territorial communities functioning. It is the form of civic activity, as it is low-specialized assistance in various fields.&#x0D; It is also important to keep in mind that a person's values are inextricably connected with motivation and focus.&#x0D; Volunteering contributes to positive changes in the worldview of young people, communicative consciousness, as well as a social and intellectual activity, competence, and ability to act in unusual life situations. The paradox of this work is that by making changes in society, the student rethinks themselves. Therefore, the subject of changes in volunteering is the individual that carries it out. Such work, as well as preparation for it, creates optimal conditions for the development and self-improvement of the personality of a young human, who voluntarily conducts charitable, non-profit, motivating, and socially useful activities.&#x0D; Students are the most mobile social group in the modern world. They take an active part in solving the challenges that are facing the state. The competitiveness of the country at the international level depends on its position in socio-political life, active participation in the socio-economic and cultural development of the country.

Effects of Motivational Interview and Mobile Social Network Support on Smoking Cessation in Male Patients With Coronary Heart Disease

Patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) who quit smoking exhibit lower rates of heart attack recurrence and mortality than their peers who continue smoking. However, most male patients with CHD resume smoking after hospital discharge. To explore the effectiveness of motivational interventions and mobile social network support on smoking cessation and other predictors of smoking cessation in male patients with CHD. An experimental design was used, and a convenience sample was recruited from a cardiology ward of a hospital in northern Taiwan. The participants were randomly assigned to the experimental group (n = 57) and control group (n = 64). During hospitalization, each participant completed a questionnaire after undergoing cardiac catheterization. The questionnaire included a demographic datasheet, the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence, and the contemplation ladder. Afterward, the experimental group received motivational interventions, filled out a self-efficacy scale and the contemplation ladder, and joined an online mobile social group (LINE) for three months. The control group received regular care and a smoking cessation booklet, and then filled out the self-efficacy scale and contemplation ladder. An intention-to-treat analysis was adopted to evaluate smoke cessation status. Information on post-discharge smoking status was collected from the participants via the Line communications app or phone calls at three-months after hospital discharge and was further confirmed using urinary cotinine levels. The results revealed that both groups registered improvements in motivation to quit smoking. This motivation was relatively higher in the experimental group after the intervention than in the control group. The smoking cessation rate in the experimental group (35.09%) was higher than that in the control group (17.19%). However, the intergroup difference in the cessation rate only approached statistical significance (OR: 2.34; p = .055) after controlling for the baseline difference between the two groups. Controlling for the effects of the intervention, age of smoking initiation, first diagnosis of CHD, and self-efficacy were identified as predictors of smoking cessation. Healthcare providers are encouraged to provide motivational interviews to enhance the motivation of their patients to quit smoking as well as to incorporate self-efficacy into related interventions to increase the smoking cessation rate.

Agricultural education and migration: A comparison of rural youth in El Salvador and Honduras

Youth is defined as a period of transition from childhood to adulthood that ranges between the ages of 15 and 24, and it is the most mobile social group in the world. Youth migration in El Salvador and Honduras is a well-known problem; however, limited research has studied the causes of migration and the impact of agricultural education programs on the decision to migrate. This study aims to identify and compare the migration intentions of students in agricultural and non-agricultural programs of two rural communities of El Salvador and Honduras. For this quantitative study, a two-group model was used, the target population (N = 209) was composed of high school students with similar socioeconomic characteristics. Overall, the comparison between El Salvador and Honduras showed a significant difference between countries regarding their migration intentions (p &lt; 0.05). Salvadorian students presented a stronger willingness to migrate. Moreover, students’ intention of migration was evaluated based on their educational background. Youth who were not part of a formal agricultural program have a higher intention of migrating (p &lt; 0.05). Finally, the main and interaction effects of intention to migrate, country of origin, and academic program based on the different migration drivers were analyzed.

DATINI ARCHIVE DOCUMENTS AS A SOURCE FOR STUDYING THE ETHICAL CONCEPTS OF THE PREMODERN BUSINESS MAN

The article provides an analysis of documents from the Datini archive, the purpose of which is to determine the prospects for studying the ethical views of a business person of the premodern era on their material. During the High and Late Middle Ages in Western Europe, there was a “rise of cities” due to the activities of the most mobile and creative social groups of medieval townspeople — merchants, and later entrepreneurs and financiers. Their occupations and way of life contributed to the development of a different type of behavior, new ethical attitudes. One of these business people was Francesco Datini (1335-1410). The methodological basis of the research was formed by the theory of the ethos of the Polish researcher Maria Ossovskaya, which was perceived by domestic scientists in the post-Soviet period. The analysis made it possible to establish the linguistic identity of 148265 letters from the archive. Most of them were written in Tuscan “volgare”. This confirmed the prevailing point of view in historiography about the formation of commercial and financial companies in the cities of medieval Tuscany mainly on the basis of family ties. There were also found letters in Latin, Catalan, Provencal and other languages. Due to the linguistic diversity of sources and the vast geography of their origin, it seemed the most promising to use the methods of “digital history” in further research, which implies the creation of a prosopographic database of Datini’s correspondents and the construction of a GIS on its basis. The linguistic affiliation of the letters was the main marker of the cultural and national identity of their authors, however, the supranational factor that united these people was their belonging to the ethos of a business man of the premodern era, which is characterized by a combination of irrational religiosity with the emerging rational pragmatics.

ПСИХОЛОГІЧНІ ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ВИКОРИСТАННЯ СТУДЕНТАМИ ІНТЕРНЕТ-ПРОСТОРУ

Здійснено аналіз психологічних характеристик використання мережі Інтернет сучасною молоддю. Показано, що Інтернет-простір є вторинним інститутом соціалізації, особливо для молоді сьогодення, як найбільш мобільної соціальної групи, внутрішньо готової до сприйняття нових цінностей і норм. Здійснено теоретичний опис специфіки Інтернет-соціалізації студентів. Зазначено, що використання Інтернет-ресурсів, існування акаунтів розглядається як процес кіберсоціалізації – соціалізації особистості в кіберпросторі, процес змін структури самосвідомості особистості, що відбувається під впливом використання нею сучасних інформаційних і комп’ютерних технологій у контексті життєдіяльності. Експериментально вивчено особливості мотивації молоді до застосування Інтернет-простору, її самооцінку та ціннісні орієнтири. Встановлено, що основними мотивами в користуванні Інтернетом у студентів є пізнавальний (освітній), розважальний та комунікативний. Високий рівень претензій і самооцінки свідчать про те, що користування Інтернетом здійснюється з метою покращення своїх навчально-освітніх результатів, виконання студентських завдань та як спосіб пасивного відпочинку. Ціннісні орієнтації в більшості опитаних спрямовані на саморозвиток, кар’єру, розваги. Не виявлено сильно вираженої Інтернет-залежності. З’ясовано, що інформаційно-комунікаційні технології представлені сукупністю методів виробничих процесів, програмно-технічних засобів, інтегрованих з метою збору, обробки, збереження, розповсюдження, відображення та використання інформації в інтересах її користувачів. Визначено, що ефективними для оптимізації навчального процесу у закладі вищої освіти є: інтерактивне, електронне та мобільне навчання; проведення Інтернет-конференцій; спілкування через Skype-зв’язок, чат, форум; електронні журнали; тестування в онлайнрежимі; електронні підручники; електронний каталог, доступ до наукометричних баз даних; Вебквести; створення телекомунікаційних навчальних проєктів, соціальних реклам, презентацій, інформаційних буклетів.

Youth policy development in Ukraine - experience of the European Union

«Youth policy» as an independent term is defined in the scientific literature in the 1960s., which in many ways «was associated with the formation of youth as an independent social force and its self-determination in the socio-political space». By the 1970s XX century youth policy in the vast majority of developed countries is transforming an independent direction of national policy. Youth is a complex, multidimensional and rather controversial social phenomenon. Modern youth acts as the most active and mobile social group, which requires special attention from state institutions in need of socialization and adaptation. At the same time, it is youth that is increasingly viewed today as the most important and promising part of society. It is no accident that already in the mid-60s of the XX century, in the practical activities of a number of international institutions, in particular the UN, a specialized area of cooperation began to develop, in the field of education and social support for the young generation. It should be noted that in the world there are more than 1 billion 800 million young people under the age of 25, which emphasizes the importance of effective youth policy by members of the international community. In the post-bipolar period, youth policy has become one of the priority areas of state policy of most developed countries. A striking example in this regard is the activities of the countries of the European Union (EU) and its structures. Europe is making significant efforts to create a single space in which not only common political institutions, but common values for all Europeans should be formed. And in this process, it is youth that acts as the key object on which measures are aimed at the formation of a pan-European identity. In recent years, the European Union has significantly stepped up youth policy. Its mechanisms were developed (open coordination method), special institutions were formed. It seems extremely relevant to analyze the EU’s activities in this direction, to consider concrete steps taken at the European level to consolidate measures in the field of youth policy. Despite the fact that integration processes in Europe continue, nevertheless, a number of problems have already been accumulated there today, the success of the entire European project will depend on the solution of these problems. In many ways, these problems are connected precisely with the young generation of Europeans, to whom the EU leadership has special hopes. As noted in a recent communique of the European Commission, “social and human capital of youth is one of the greatest European assets of the future». Among the studies affecting various aspects of working with young people, one can single out works of S.V. Aleshchenko, V.P. Baskov, Yu.R. Vyshnevskyi, Yu.V. Volkov, T.I. Zaslavskaia, I.M. Ylynskyi, E.Sh. Kamaldynova, A.I., Kovalova, O.A. Koriakovtseva, V.T. Lysovskyi, V.A. Lukov, O.A. Rozhnov, B.A. Ruchkin, S.K. Savin, V.I. Chuprov and several other authors. However, the young generation of Europeans faces serious challenges. The growth of unemployment, absenteeism, deprivation, the growth of radicalism, cultural indifference (including religious) – main youth problems that today require urgent solutions. Moreover, in different EU countries, these problems have varying degrees of severity. Continued heterogeneity continues to be a serious obstacle to pan-European unity. It is likely that youth policy may be another very painful issue for the future of the EU. Thus, it seems necessary to analyze the national and supranational levels of youth policy in the European Union in order to identify their degree of coherence, common goal-setting and specific implementation methods.

Use of social media in a national Tuberculosis Drug Resistance Survey: lessons from the first anti-tuberculosis drug resistance survey in Ghana

Background: The widespread use of social media applications on mobile phones indicate that smart phones have become more than just a simple medium for voice calling. Several studies have shown the potential benefit of these social media applications in discussing many health conditions. We report on tracking sample transport by public and private transport providers using WhatsApp during the first nationwide drug resistance tuberculosis (TB) survey in Ghana. Methods: The survey was conducted between February 2016 and June 2017, and involved 33 TB diagnostic sites selected on the basis of a two-stage cluster randomized sampling design on both anticipated yield and probability proportional to size method. We engaged the services of privately and publicly owned vehicles’ union to transport samples to the Bacteriology department at the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine laboratories for further laboratory processing. We created a mobile social group platform (‘National TBDRS’) on WhatsApp consisting of two representatives from each site as well as other stakeholders. The purpose was to notify a laboratory team in Kumasi, on the following details of the sample: date and time of dispatch, driver’s name, car number, estimated time of arrival, and bus terminal name. Results: A total 3077 WhatsApp messages were received during the survey period. Of these, 2879 (93.57%) messages were related to the survey. We observed a positive correlation between the total number of messages received and the total number of well-packaged sputum samples sent (r=0.89, p=0.02). There were no major transport delays (11:44±03:50) and all samples arrived within a 3-day window from the survey sites. Conclusions: Using WhatsApp as a platform of communication can aid in improving tracking of samples, enhance accountability of for example drivers handling the samples over at a road crossing and communication across health facilities.

Use of social media in a national Tuberculosis Drug Resistance Survey: lessons from the first anti-tuberculosis drug resistance survey in Ghana

Background: The widespread use of social media applications on mobile phones indicate that smart phones have become more than just a simple medium for voice calling. Several studies have shown the potential benefit of these social media applications in discussing many health conditions. We report on tracking sample transport by public and private transport providers using WhatsApp during the first nationwide drug resistance tuberculosis (TB) survey in Ghana. Methods: The survey was conducted between February 2016 and June 2017, and involved 33 TB diagnostic sites selected on the basis of a two-stage cluster randomized sampling design on both anticipated yield and probability proportional to size method. We engaged the services of privately and publicly owned vehicles’ union to transport samples to the central laboratories in Kumasi for further laboratory processing. We created a mobile social group platform (‘National TBDRS’) on WhatsApp consisting of two representatives from each site as well as other stakeholders. The purpose was to notify a laboratory team in Kumasi, on the following details of the sample: date and time of dispatch, driver’s name, car number, estimated time of arrival, and bus terminal name. Results: A total 3077 WhatsApp messages were received during the survey period. Of these, 2879 (93.57%) messages were related to the survey. We observed a positive correlation between the total number of messages received and the total number of well-packaged sputum samples sent (r=0.89, p=0.02). There were no major transport delays (11:44±03:50) and all samples arrived within a 3-day window from the survey sites. Conclusions: Using WhatsApp as a platform of communication can significantly aid in improving tracking of samples, enhance accountability of for example drivers handling the samples over at a road crossing and communication across health facilities.

Group-Wise Itinerary Planning in Temporary Mobile Social Network

Temporary mobile social networks has been used at hotels, concerts, theme parks, and sports arenas, where people form a mobile social group for a short time with a common interest or activity. People confined to such specific places or activities are allowed to join the temporary mobile social networks using their main social network accounts (e.g., Foursquare, Facebook). Users registered for the same business/research conference may have common connections and thus may be willing to travel together in the conference city. Traveling with temporal friends can improve the mobile users' experiences as well as help them save money. Currently, renting cars to travel around becomes very general, and one car usually can contain at least four guests. Therefore, traveling with temporal friends can help those guests save their travel cost, such as renting cost and oil cost. To this end, in this paper, we propose a group-wise itinerary planning framework to improve the mobile users' experiences. The experiment results over real data sets illustrate the effectiveness of our proposed framework.

Functional social structure in baboons: Modeling interactions between social and environmental structure in group-level foraging

In mobile social groups, cohesion is thought to be driven by patterns of attraction at both the individual and group level. In long-lived species with high group stability and repeated interactions, such as baboons, individual-to-individual attractions have the potential to play a large role in group cohesion and overall movement patterns. In previous work, we found that the patterning of inter-individual attraction gave rise to an emergent group-level structure, whereby a core of more influential, inter-dependent individuals exerted a unidirectional influence on the movements of peripheral animals. Here, we use agent-based modeling of baboon groups to investigate whether this core–periphery structure has any functional consequences for foraging behavior. By varying individual level attractions, we produced baboon groups that contained influence structures that varied from more to less centralized. Our results suggest that varying centrality affects both the ability of the group to detect resource structure in the environment, as well as the ability of the group to exploit these resources. Our models predict that foraging groups with more centralized social structures will show a reduction in detection and an increase in exploitation of resources in their environment, and will produce more extreme foraging outcomes. More generally, our results highlight how a group's internal social structure can result in mobile social animals being able to more (or less) effectively exploit environmental structure, and capitalize on the distribution of resources. In addition, our agent-based model can be used to generate testable predictions that can be tested among the extant baboon allotaxa. This will add value to the existing body of work on responses to local ecology, as well as providing a means to test hypotheses relating to the phylogeography of the baboons and, by analogy, shed light on patterns of hominin evolution in time and space.

Evaluating Ecological, Subcultural and Political Approaches to Neighbourhood Change and Neighbourhood Poverty

Various metatheories are applied to explain neighbourhood change and neighbourhood poverty. Ecological approaches view these as a deterministic, evolutionary process of market competition amongst mobile social groups. Subcultural approaches view these as the product of a complex interaction of both endogenous psychological factors and exogenous economic, social and demographic factors. Political approaches view these as a spatial side effect of the unequal ownership of the means and modes of production, and skewed power relations. Statistical analysis indicates that a range of significant factors shared between different metatheoretical approaches explains neighbourhood change or neighbourhood poverty. This supports the trend in a convergence and hybridization of metatheory. The diverse approaches sufficiently explain common changes, but the low explanatory power of the models indicates that idiosyncratic factors are as or more important in explaining individual neighbourhood changes. Neighbourhood poverty is not a significant factor influencing changes in neighbourhoods, although other pecuniary measures are.

Individual-level movement bias leads to the formation of higher-order social structure in a mobile group of baboons

In mobile social groups, influence patterns driving group movement can vary between democratic and despotic. The arrival at any single pattern of influence is thought to be underpinned by both environmental factors and group composition. To identify the specific patterns of influence driving travel decision-making in a chacma baboon troop, we used spatially explicit data to extract patterns of individual movement bias. We scaled these estimates of individual-level bias to the level of the group by constructing an influence network and assessing its emergent structural properties. Our results indicate that there is heterogeneity in movement bias: individual animals respond consistently to particular group members, and higher-ranking animals are more likely to influence the movement of others. This heterogeneity resulted in a group-level network structure that consisted of a single core and two outer shells. Here, the presence of a core suggests that a set of highly interdependent animals drove routine group movements. These results suggest that heterogeneity at the individual level can lead to group-level influence structures, and that movement patterns in mobile social groups can add to the exploration of both how these structures develop (i.e. mechanistic aspects) and what consequences they have for individual- and group-level outcomes (i.e. functional aspects).

Point-Of-Interest Recommender System for Social Groups

This paper presents a signature based point of interest (POI) group recommendation system which provides personalized recommendations of places, such as restaurants, for mobile social groups. The growth of location-based social networking (LBSN) like Foursquare in recent years allowed users to explore POI’s easily. While the POI recommendation for individual users has been studied greatly, there has not been much work done when it comes to recommendation for group events. The recommendation for groups is different to that of single user as the requirements vary in both cases. In this work, we identify the places which are used for group events and then build signatures based on group size, location, time and other parameters. Then, for each new group we build a similar signature and recommend places based on similarity with the calculated signatures. The experimental results demonstrate how the algorithm exploits the structure of the group and gives prediction based on the group rather than the approach of giving predictions to single user.

Making a difference together: discourses of transformation in family voluntourism

This article explores the intersection of development discourse, volunteer tourism, and practices of family travel. While research on the emerging trend of voluntourism has tended to focus on young, single, college-aged volunteers, little attention has been paid to families with young children who volunteer abroad. Taking as its starting point the prevalent message that voluntourism can “make a difference”, the article examines the implications of emphasizing the family and the child, rather than structural inequalities, as the objects of transformation. Based on face-to-face and online interactions with worldschooling families, the article uses mobile virtual ethnography to create an in-depth and immersive study of mobile and online social groups. Findings suggest that families undertake voluntourism as a strategy for fostering family bonding and cultivating their children's sense of global citizenship. In both cases, family voluntourism pursues transformation in the private sphere of the family rather than in the public sphere of political activism. In this sense, discourses of transformation make family voluntourism complicit with neoliberal ideals of individual responsibility and entrepreneurialism that may reinforce rather than dismantle entrenched Global North/Global South power hierarchies, but they also lend themselves to critical debates that may recuperate the transformative potential of volunteer tourism.

Doing Online Surveys: Zum Einsatz in der sozialwissenschaftlichen Raumforschung

Empirical social research made use of online surveys since the mid-1990s. However, there is no significant methodological debate about this empirical tool in socio-scientific regional studies. In this paper, we delineate the online survey methodology, their advantages and disadvantages as well as potential contexts of application. Online surveys are useful especially for explorative and experimental quantitative research projects that deal with complex and new socio-spatial phenomena. Based on these observations, we will present practical experience with online survey research from three projects in the field of socio-scientific regional studies. We will focus on questionnaire design, sampling and technical solutions. The results show that particularly for studies on highly mobile social groups online surveys are an appropriate and powerful tool for data collection. Given that mobility and multilocality are more and more characterizing our societies and thus impact spatial structures, we argue that online surveys are underused as a method for the exploration of new trends and phenomena in socio-scientific regional studies. Based on these insights, we present a catalogue of questions that should allow interested regional scientists to evaluate the applicability of online surveys when conceptualizing new research projects.