Multiple Social Contexts Research Articles

Dealing with the Social Media Polycontextuality of Work

Practice and Policy Oriented Abstract This article views social media for work not only as technologies that enable people to do certain things, but also as contexts with emerging norms and roles in which people participated. As they do so, people are confronted with opportunities and challenges that are inherent to social media polycontextuality, that is, with multiple social media–based contexts of relevance to work. This study offers guidance for people on how their participation in multiple social media contexts affects their work positively and negatively and how they can manage the associated opportunities and challenges. It also reveals how people’s engagement with social media polycontextuality may change as their employment status and work experiences evolve. Moreover, this study holds managerial implications by bringing awareness to how employees’ participation in social media contexts bypasses the organization and, thus, their typical purview but is still associated with work rather than leisure. Managers can understand better their employees’ situations and examine how social media contexts affect them within and beyond organizational boundaries and shape what they can or cannot do in their work. A better understanding of social media polycontextuality also brings managers new insights to communicate with employees.

El ejercicio político de la autorrepresentación. La experiencia de tres comunicadoras cominitarias en Oaxaca, México

From the field of communication and politics it is possible to build a platform to analyze and interpret the meanings that are produced and interact in multiple social contexts. This article reflects on how three women, through the exercise of community communication, reconfigure their identity and position it politically through self-representation. The cases addressed were the means to approach to know the cultural practices that integrate community life in three regions of the Sierra Norte de Oaxaca: Guelatao, Yalálag and Tlahuitoltepec in which communality has been promoted as a tool of ethnopolitical struggle and as a category to explain the indigenous realities.

Gatekeeper identity development: An application of bioecological systems theory

AbstractUsing Bronfenbrenner's bioecological system theory as a framework, we propose an individual's gatekeeper identity development occurs through interactions within multiple social contexts. We conducted a thematic analysis of 11 counselor educators’ experiences gatekeeping within each bioecological system. Implications for counselor educators to promote gatekeeper identity development are provided.

Visualizing a Personal Timeline By Adding Multiple Social Contexts

We improve the readability of a personal timeline byweaving multiple social contexts of tweets into a visualization.Our social contexts consist of three dimensions:community membership, key persons, and interestingtweets within a personal timeline. A person is oftena member of several communities, such as a family,a class, or a team, simultaneously. We identify all communitiesthat a user participates in. Labeling a tweetwith a visual representation to indicate what communityit belongs to can help readers to understand why thetweet is written, since different communities are likelyto carry tweets in different contexts. We then discoverkey persons and interesting tweets within a personaltimeline. Our prototype design demonstrates how threesocial contexts work together for visualizing a personaltimeline.

Adolescents’ Post-Divorce Sense of Belonging

Abstract. A considerable number of children face the divorce or separation of their parents globally every year. As parental divorce is often accompanied by changes in the home and social environment of adolescents, they may experience a diminished sense of belonging to one or multiple social contexts, such as the family, school, peer group, or neighborhood, which can, in turn, influence their post-divorce adjustment. To gain insight into the mechanisms and conditions that affect adolescents’ sense of belonging following parental divorce, we have reviewed empirical research from multiple disciplines from a bio-ecological perspective. This review has shown that adolescents’ sense of belonging can be an important protective factor after parental divorce, and is affected by processes at the micro-, meso-, exo-, and macrolevel. However, extensive knowledge on the determinants and mechanisms that affect adolescents’ belonging in the context of divorce remains lacking. Recommendations for future research are given, as a more thorough understanding of the factors that promote the belonging of adolescents in divorced families can be an important next step in promoting a higher quality of life for adolescents after parental divorce.

Mouse vocal emission and acoustic complexity do not scale linearly with the size of a social group.

Adult mice emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), sounds above the range of human hearing, during social encounters. While mice alter their vocal emissions between isolated and social contexts, technological impediments have hampered our ability to assess how individual mice vocalize in group social settings. We overcame this challenge by implementing an 8-channel microphone array system, allowing us to determine which mouse emitted individual vocalizations across multiple social contexts. This technology, in conjunction with a new approach for extracting and categorizing a complex, full repertoire of vocalizations, facilitated our ability to directly compare how mice modulate their vocal emissions between isolated, dyadic and group social environments. When comparing vocal emission during isolated and social settings, we found that socializing male mice increase the proportion of vocalizations with turning points in frequency modulation and instantaneous jumps in frequency. Moreover, males change the types of vocalizations emitted between social and isolated contexts. In contrast, there was no difference in male vocal emission between dyadic and group social contexts. Female vocal emission, while predominantly absent in isolation, was also similar during dyadic and group interactions. In particular, there were no differences in the proportion of vocalizations with frequency jumps or turning points. Taken together, the findings lay the groundwork necessary for elucidating the stimuli underlying specific features of vocal emission in mice.

Multimodal Voicing and Scale-Making in a Youth-Produced Video Documentary on Immigration

This study builds on research of multimodal storytelling in educational settings by presenting a study of a youth-produced documentary on immigration. Drawing from a video documentary project in a high school class, we examine students’ representational processes of scaling in documentary storytelling, and the kinds of resources they use to construct multiple spatiotemporal contexts for understanding their experience of immigration and immigration policy. Our theoretical framework relates the concept of scale to the Bakhtinian concept of voice to consider the semiotic resources that are used to index and connect multiple social and spatiotemporal contexts in storytelling. Focusing on a documentary produced by some students in the class, we analyze how the young filmmakers used particular speaker voices (characters) and their social positioning to invoke and construct relevant scales for understanding the problem of deportation. Our analysis extends the study of scaling to multimodal texts, and the strategies that people use to represent and configure relationships among different socially stratified spaces. By conceptualizing the relations between voice and scale, this work aims to contribute to literacy learning and teaching that support young people in bringing their knowledge, experiences, and narrative resources to engage with societal structures.

Media coverage and public perceptions of the THAAD event in China, the United States, and South Korea: a cross-national network agenda-setting study

Based on original data gathered from China, the United States, and South Korea, this study explores the relationship between media representations and public opinions concerning the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea. Further, this study validates the network agenda-setting (NAS) model in multiple social contexts. This study’s supportive results confirm the NAS effects on both implicit and explicit public agendas, further expanding current NAS research. From a cross-nationally comparative perspective, this study investigates how NAS effects vary across countries, which is particularly important in the age of globalization, offering valuable contributions to an improved understanding of the NAS model. The study’s findings illustrate substantial differences between media agendas and variations in the NAS effects across countries, providing empirical evidence of national traits as potential contingent agenda-setting conditions.

Male-Directed Object Use by Proceptive Female Bearded Capuchin Monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) in Captivity

Some nonhuman primates use tools to modify the behavior of other animals in social contexts. For example, during their proceptive periods, female bearded capuchins (Sapajus libidinosus) in two wild groups throw stones and push branches toward males, which may function to draw male attention to the females. To further clarify the social and communicative relevance of this behavior, we recorded all occurrences of object use in a captive group (one adult male and four females) at Brasilia Zoo, during 963 h of observation. Additionally, we recorded the occurrence of typical proceptive behaviors and quantified behavioral changes of the male associated with throwing behavior. All females threw objects, such as stones and sticks, at the male (N = 205 events). One of the females also pounded objects near the male (N = 72). The two forms of object use were associated with female proceptivity. Male-directed throws increased the chances of the male changing his behavior, particularly by shifting his attention to the thrower, supporting the hypothesis that throwing at the male function as a communicative act. However, females also used aimed throwing in affiliative contexts (N = 2) and interactions with humans (N = 102) and other animals (N = 61). Thus, our results show that aimed throwing is a flexible behavior, elicited in multiple social contexts and for different purposes. Moreover, our study demonstrates that considering the effects of object use on the behavior of potential targets can help us to understand how primates use objects to mediate communication.

A multi-contextual examination of non-school friendships and their impact on adolescent deviance and alcohol use.

Despite decades of research on adolescent friendships, little is known about adolescents who are more likely to form ties outside of school. We examine multiple social and ecological contexts including parents, the school, social networks, and the neighborhood to understand the origins and health significance of out of school ties using survey data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 81,674). Findings indicate that out of school (more than in-school) friendships drive adolescent deviance and alcohol use, and youth with such friends tend to be involved in school activities and are central among their peer group. This suggests that intervention efforts aimed at reducing deviance and underage drinking may benefit from engaging youth with spanning social ties.

Friendship and the social life of merchants in South Asia: the articulation of homosocial intimacies in Banarasidas’ Ardhakathanaka

ABSTRACT This article explores the emotion of friendship among merchant communities in early modern South Asia. Based on the autobiography of a Jain merchant, Banarasidas, it argues that friendship as an emotion was invoked in multiple social contexts, sometimes to reinforce normative boundaries, and other times to subvert them. Even so, friendship was always multivalent, and extended beyond dyadic relationships. The social outreach of friendship was crucial in reinforcing community and kin ties. In the case of merchant communities, friendship played a crucial role in trade and business activities and very often it was the sentiment of friendship that sustained business partnerships. Friendship also ensured trust among merchants, enabling the free flow of goods and services in early modern South Asia. The autobiography of Banarasidas, Ardhakathanaka is written in versified Braj language. In exploring the text for emotion history, I have also looked at the relationship between language and emotions. Written in a vernacular language, the text combines literacy with performativity and this, I argue, imbues the text with a specific language of emotions that is intense, sensorial and embodied. At the same time, the choice of genre and its relations with emotions is no less significant. Within an autobiographical genre, emotions serve as indices to the constitution of selfhood. The articulation of friendship in Ardhakathanaka allows Banarasidas to situate his social self within a thick web of intimate relationships. Focusing on Ardhakathanaka, this paper looks at the entangled relationship between the choice of language, style and genre, and the articulation of specific emotions. Even as emotions are not entirely constituted in and through discourse, I still wish to suggest that language and emotions are co-dependent entities.

Tissue-specific transcription patterns support the kinship theory of intragenomic conflict in honey bees (Apis mellifera).

Kin selection may act differently on genes inherited from parents (matrigenes and patrigenes), resulting in intragenomic conflict. This conflict can be observed as differential expression of matrigenes and patrigenes, or parent-specific gene expression (PSGE). In honey bees (Apis mellifera), intragenomic conflict is hypothesized to occur in multiple social contexts. Previously, we found that patrigene-biased expression in reproductive tissues was associated with increased reproductive potential in worker honey bees, consistent with the prediction that patrigenes are selected to promote selfish behaviour in this context. Here, we examined brain gene expression patterns to determine if PSGE is also found in other tissues. As before, the number of transcripts showing patrigene expression bias was significantly greater in the brains of reproductive vs. sterile workers, while the number of matrigene-biased transcripts was not significantly different. Twelve transcripts out of the 374 showing PSGE in either tissue showed PSGE in both brain and reproductive tissues; this overlap was significantly greater than expected by chance. However, the majority of transcripts show PSGE only in one tissue, suggesting the epigenetic mechanisms mediating PSGE exhibit plasticity between tissues. There was no significant overlap between transcripts that showed PSGE and transcripts that were significantly differentially expressed. Weighted gene correlation network analysis identified modules which were significantly enriched in both types of transcripts, suggesting that these genes may influence each other through gene networks. Our results provide further support for the kin selection theory of intragenomic conflict, and provide valuable insights into the mechanisms which may mediate this process.

Cross-classified multilevel models (CCMM) in health research: A systematic review of published empirical studies and recommendations for best practices.

Recognizing that health outcomes are influenced by and occur within multiple social and physical contexts, researchers have used multilevel modeling techniques for decades to analyze hierarchical or nested data. Cross-Classified Multilevel Models (CCMM) are a statistical technique proposed in the 1990s that extend standard multilevel modeling and enable the simultaneous analysis of non-nested multilevel data. Though use of CCMM in empirical health studies has become increasingly popular, there has not yet been a review summarizing how CCMM are used in the health literature. To address this gap, we performed a scoping review of empirical health studies using CCMM to: (a) evaluate the extent to which this statistical approach has been adopted; (b) assess the rationale and procedures for using CCMM; and (c) provide concrete recommendations for the future use of CCMM. We identified 118 CCMM papers published in English-language literature between 1994 and 2018. Our results reveal a steady growth in empirical health studies using CCMM to address a wide variety of health outcomes in clustered non-hierarchical data. Health researchers use CCMM primarily for five reasons: (1) to statistically account for non-independence in clustered data structures; out of substantive interest in the variance explained by (2) concurrent contexts, (3) contexts over time, and (4) age-period-cohort effects; and (5) to apply CCMM alongside other techniques within a joint model. We conclude by proposing a set of recommendations for use of CCMM with the aim of improved clarity and standardization of reporting in future research using this statistical approach.

Revisiting the double-edged sword of self-regulation: Linking shyness, attentional shifting, and social behavior in preschoolers

Although children’s self-regulation has been conceptualized positively, there may be individual differences in self-regulatory processes, some of which might not be adaptive depending on temperamental factors. We examined whether individual differences in children’s self-regulation (i.e., inhibitory control and attentional shifting) moderated the association between shyness and social behavior in multiple social contexts (N = 156 children, 74 girls; Mage = 4.06 years, SD = 0.78). Only in children with high attentional shifting was shyness associated with lower levels of social support seeking during a frustration task and with lower levels of social engagement during a stranger approach task. These results were not attributable to differences in baseline physiological arousal indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia. These findings suggest that for some shy children, high levels of self-regulation may be less adaptive, leading to rigidity or over-control in some social contexts, possibly hindering social interaction.

Taking social policy personally: How does neuroticism affect welfare state attitudes?

AbstractThe role of the “Big Five” personality traits in driving welfare state attitudes has received scant attention in social policy research. Yet neuroticism in particular—a disposition to stress, worry, and get nervous easily—is theoretically likely to be an important driver of welfare attitudes precisely because welfare states deliver social “security” and “safety” nets. Using cross‐sectional data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel, we study three distinct attitude types (dissatisfaction with the social security system, feelings of personal financial insecurity, and preferences for state provision) and multiple social need contexts (including unemployment, ill health, old age, and nursing care). Controlling for established explanations such as self‐interest, partisanship, and socialization, neuroticism does not systematically affect support for state provision. But it robustly increases general dissatisfaction with social security, as well as financial insecurity across various need contexts. Neurotic people are thus less happy with welfare state programmes across the board, yet they also appear to need these programmes more. This trait may be an important deeper layer driving other social attitudes.

Трудовые мигранты из стран СНГ в России: масштабы, аспекты, проблемы

The decline of the role of a national state after World War II, which went against the conservative idea, inseparable from the awareness of national interests and the right of citizens to control the size and composition of the population of their own country, influenced approaches to the problem of migration. The movement of migrant flows from the CIS countries to the Russian Federation fits into the objective migration process taking place in the world, which is characterized by movement from the periphery to the center. Russia continues to be the center and attracts residents of the periphery of the once unified state, its per capita GDP figures continuing to differ favorably from those recorded in the former Soviet republics. The process inevitably leads to problems of adaptation of migrants in a receiving country. The article examines the evolution of attitude towards the problem of inclusion of migrants into society of the host countries from the so-called “melting pot”, meaning their complete assimilation, to transnationalism that allows people to have two or more cultural identities and be involved in multiple social contexts. The economic motivation of employers preferring to hire immigrants from the CIS countries, who are more “competitive” in comparison with domestic specialists claiming decent working conditions and pay, often prevails.

Crianza y cuidado, intervención del Estado y las ONG : un estado de la cuestión.

Objetivo. La crianza como fenómeno complejo que acontece en la familia en interacción con múltiples actores sociales y contextos ha sido un tema ampliamente estudiado por diversas disciplinas, sin embargo, la investigación ha estado más centrada en la relación padres e hijos desconociendo factores contextuales y estructurales que la rodean. Metodología. Se realizó una revisión de investigaciones sobre la intervención de las ONG y el Estado en la crianza en familias en situación de pobreza en Latinoamérica. Se realizó un análisis de contenido de 50 artículos y tesis desde la perspectiva de las ciencias sociales y humanas entre 2008 y 2018. Resultados y conclusión. Se evidencia la necesidad de seguir estudiando la crianza en familias en situación de pobreza para visibilizar el ocultamiento en el que se han mantenido las dimensiones como el poder y desigualdad en las relaciones próximas de las familias con las organizaciones sociales y el Estado.

Exposure to Family Violence and Adolescent Aggression in Multiple Social Contexts: Classroom Social Resources as Moderators

Using a risk and resilience framework, the present study examined perceived classroom social resources (teacher control, teacher-student support, and supportive student-student relationships) as moderators of the association between family violence (parent-to-child physical violence, intimate partner violence (IPV) between parents) and aggression toward parents, schoolteachers, and dating partners. Data were drawn from a large self-report school survey of ninth grade students in Lower Saxony, Germany (n = 10,638) from which three subsamples were generated (n = 3548, n = 3534, and n = 4351). Controlling for demographic, behavioral, and school factors, results showed that parent-to-child physical violence was consistently related to aggression across social contexts, while IPV showed significant associations with adolescent-to-parent physical aggression. Against expectations, teacher control was linked with more frequent verbal aggression toward dating partners, while teacher-student suppport was associated with lower verbal aggression across contexts as well as with lower physical aggression toward dating partners. Supportive student-student relationships were associated with less frequent verbal aggression toward parents and dating partners as well as with less frequent physical aggression toward teachers. Furthermore, three significant interaction terms were identified: Students exposed to more frequent IPV and perceiving higher-quality classroom resources (teacher control and supportive student-student relationships) reported less aggression toward parents than at-risk students who perceived classroom resources as low. Intervention programs may benefit from an approach that aims to reduce exposure to violence in the family, while targeting the buffering potential of teacher control and student-student relationships regarding aggression toward parents.

Response to ‘The Aadhaar debate: Where are the sociologists?’

At this historical juncture, when digital governance is fundamentally re-forming social relations, we need critical knowledge about the emerging texture of society. This text responds to Reetika Khera’s important intervention about the need for more timely studies of Aadhaar. Building on Angelia Chamuah’s and Lawrence Cohen’s comments, I argue for the need to ask broader questions about the changing character of the political as it emerges in the Aadhaar arena. Today, states respond to the world’s dizzying complexity by inventing new experimental solutions, many of which utilise digital technologies, and often rather than deliver solutions, create new pathways for learning through critical engagement. Aadhaar is a case in point. In their studies, scholars should remain attuned to the open-endedness of the Aadhaar infrastructure and understand its experimental ethos. This would generate knowledge about processes of iterative learning and lead to conclusions about the role of feedback-loops for the evolution of digital governance. From there one can conclude about systems of value, social hierarchy, or justice and fairness that organise the processes of adapting a new infrastructure to multiple social contexts.

Global Second Language Proficiency Predicts Self-Perceptions of General Sarcasm Use Among Bilingual Adults

Each culture has a distinct set of features that contribute to a unique communication style. For example, bilinguals often balance multiple social contexts and may undergo cognitive changes that consequently support different communication styles. The present work examines how individual differences in bilingual experience affect one form of communication style: sarcastic and indirect language. A diverse sample of largely bilingual adults (first language English) rated their likelihood of using sarcastic and indirect language across different daily settings. They also rated their second language experience. There were two key findings: Bilinguals use sarcasm for similar social functions as do monolinguals (general sarcasm, frustration diffusion, and embarrassment diffusion) and greater global second language proficiency linked to greater usage of general sarcasm in daily life. These results suggest that bilinguals may use sarcasm to achieve various communicative goals and bilingual experience may affect general cognitive capacities that support sarcasm use across real-world contexts.