Social Collectivism Research Articles

Navigating Pacific nutrition and health at Brown Buttabean Motivation (BBM): Process evaluation and systems dynamics research at a flax-roots organization

Brown Buttabean Motivation (BBM) is a Māori and Pacific-driven community-based organisation operating in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) and Tokoroa. It provides free community exercise bootcamps and other social and health support programs. BBM’s foundational mission was to reduce, among Māori and Pacific people, the prevalence of obesity in Auckland through exercise and nutrition programs.1 This study aimed to understand participants’ engagement with BBM, and the meaning it has had in their lives, with a focus on nutrition. Combining Pacific Fonofale and Te Whare Tapa Wha frameworks, this was a process evaluation to understand the impact of BBM’s services on the community using qualitative methods and a systems analysis to identify program sustainability and improvement. Semi-structured interviews explored the benefits and values of engagement with BBM. Followed by cognitive mapping interviews (CMI) and group model building (GMB) to identify the motivations and challenges of sustained engagement. Participants described holistic health benefits and impacts on community wellbeing. BBM responds to inequitable nutrition contexts, through its FoodShare (food bank), community kitchen, and BBM Kai (nutrition literacy). Engagement changed family nutrition patterns, and benefits included healthier spending habits, and addressing food insecurity. Social inclusiveness represented the Fonofale foundation (family) and the roof (culture) was described as ethnic cultural practices and BBM culture. Nutrition was not highlighted by BBM participants in CMI or GMB activities. However, participants suggested BBM increase nutrition initiatives to enable all members to improve their health journeys. BBM was seen as not just an exercise program but their own and their family’s new way of life, that health was a journey, not a destination. Moreover, although participants mentioned nutrition and health benefits, there was an overwhelming understanding that the values of BBM, Pacific culture, and social collectivism were the drivers of engagement, motivating healthier practices. BBM could leverage existing strengths by incorporating nutrition-enabling initiatives that are achieved collectively. Opportunities for systematic intervention will be presented.

The architectural features of socio-spatial transformation in Hassan Al-Imam’s Cairo Trilogy

The urban scenery that dominated Cairo since the nineteenth century was a spatial superimposition of tradition and modernity, represented in the social and architectural composition of the city. The cinematic medium in Egypt attempted to visualize such overlap through a vivid depiction of spatial transformations occurring within the micro and macro urban levels revealing hidden aspects of social order and organizational behaviour. This article sheds light on Egyptian filmmaker Hassan Al-Imam’s Cairo Trilogy films, based on the critically acclaimed novels by Nobel Prize laureate Naguib Mahfouz, where the story takes place in the heart of early twentieth-century Cairo spanning from 1917 to 1944. The films’ physical features illustrate the morphology of time and urban space constituting to the socio-spatial narratives of the local setting, a theoretical framework adopted by the authors named cine-spatial representation. Through the examination of such connection within the settings across the three films, the article reveals the influence of non-physical elements on the physicality of architectural and urban space, creating a visual narrative from social collectivism to individualist fragmentation.

The Demon Child and His Modern Fate: Reconstructing the Nezha Myth in Animated Fabulation

Emerging from the 17th-century Chinese classic Fengshen yanyi ( Creation of the Gods), a generic mixture of myth, folklore, history and legend, Nezha, a 7-year-old superboy who is decreed by fate to return his own flesh and bones to his parents and unyieldingly confront paternal authority in combat, has been popularized as an unconventional hero in animated adaptations since the 1970s. This article examines the cultural and historical significance of Nezha’s changing fate in the three Chinese animated feature films produced thus far: Nezha Conquers the Dragon King (Wang et al., 1979), Nezha (Jiaozi, 2019) and New Gods: Nezha Reborn (Zhao, 2021). The author argues that Nezha’s variations of personal individuation reflect China’s shifting historical contexts, changing intergenerational relations and reconfigured notions of selfhood by presenting an existential paradox of fate and freedom of action that ultimately preserves the social systems of patriarchy and filial piety, and puts forward a negotiated compromise between social collectivism and individualism. Combining theories of intertextual aesthetics with Gilles Deleuze’s conceptualization of fabulation, the study proposes a conceptual framework of ‘animated fabulation’ to account for the profound interaction between the literary and the cinematic, the social and the mythic, with a detailed analysis of the aesthetic and socio-political entanglements in the three animated adaptations.

Study of the value orientations and soft skills in modern senior high school students (in the context of the doctrine of sustainable development)

The concept of sustainable development involves maintaining the stability of social systems through the development of human capital. The formation of values and universal skills of the youth population is an important component of human capital. The article studies the problem of the universal readiness of school leavers for academic activity and professional labor that is expressed by the degree of formation of value orientations, which are the basis for non-specialized soft skills. The level of development of soft skills of senior high school students in modern comprehensive schools, that ensures the behavioral characteristics of self-organization and work ethics, depends on the values they share, which were studied using the survey method. The randomized survey of senior high school students in Rostov region (N = 4037, 59.3% of girls), carried out in 2019, was aimed at identification of the elements of social collectivism - social egoism in the minds of young people and normative - deviant components of behavior motivation. The studied value orientations of young people were re-duced to social-cognitive elements and attitudes. The authors proceeded from the fact that evident social collectivism - social egoism is directly associated with manifestations of normative / deviant behavior. As a result of processing of the data obtained, a quantitative analysis and explication of the development of value orientations and soft skills in the field of work and organizational ethics of the modern contingent of secondary school students was represented, what made it possible to formulate the preferential directions of pedagogic work.

O identitetskom karakteru srpske međuratne arhitekture (1918-1941)

This paper offers a presentation and interpretation of Serbian architecture between 1918 and 1941, whose creative span ranged between artistic-aesthetic and political-ideological utopias. Within this space numerous individual creators acted, authors of epochal achievements, as well as those creative forces that found their affirmation in social collectivism in the interwar architecture. The specific artistic character of this architecture was founded on striking stylistic contrasts, on its social function and on ideological factors, which formed the basis for an authentic cultural and artistic profile of Serbian interwar architecture. The aesthetic approach is based on the value parameters, spiritual constants, and social role of architecture, as its most characteristic features. Although disparate in both content and quality, Serbian interwar architecture reflects a unique and distinctive identity. Its varied characteristics were composed into the complex picture offered by the interwar architecture, as a credible indicator combining the prevailing features of Serbian interwar society, the builder's attitudes as well as tastes of the commissioners. The importance of interwar architecture derived from the process of character interpretation, which constructed the visual identity of interwar architecture through the mechanisms of art and culture.

Moving with the times: evolution of Buttabean Motivation – a community-based, Pacific-centred approach to health

Buttabean Motivation (BBM) is a grassroot initiative aiming to improve Pasifika and M?ori health through free community bootcamps offering exercise, motivation and nutritional advices, and with online programmes of workouts and meal plans. It is a dynamic organisation, responding to community needs, providing practical solutions to issues such as food insecurity and influenza vaccination while maintaining its core focus of reducing obesity among Pasifika and M?ori through nutrition and physical activity.. BBM forms active and changing relationships with numerous organisations that offer support. They would like to work with the government and the district health boards, but the structure and changing nature of their organisation does not fit traditional funding models. To show that BBM is effective for Pacific people beyond anecdotal evidence, BBM has partnered with University of Auckland researchers. The research team are using a kaupapa M?ori and co-design approach to explore how BBM might benefit the community and reduce health inequities, especially whether BBM’s model of social collectivism enables sustainable weight loss for Pasifika and M?ori in the current obesogenic environment. Weight reduction programmes typically find that after initial success, participants have reverted to pre-programme weight by five years. BBM’s “whole of life change” approach may lead to sustained weight loss not demonstrated by other programmes. Using co-design, a BBM/University of Auckland partnership is evaluating the effectiveness of the BBM programme for sustained health and wellbeing. BBM is grounded in the Pacific/indigenous health frameworks fonofale, te whare tapa wh? and fa’afaletui addressing physical, mental, spiritual, family and social health in the context of people’s lives. The research will use a longitudinal cohort approach study design, using metrics and outcomes of relevance to its participants and the programme. A systems analysis will facilitate understanding of the strengths and challenges to delivering a holistic and sustained service for the community. BBM provides much promise in reducing health inequities for Pasifika and M?ori, however the model creates challenges for ongoing funding, business structure and evaluation. The goal is to find ways that both the programme and social institutions, including funders and evaluators, can adapt to meet these real-world challenges.

Strengthening social capital of urban community during COVID-19 disaster

COVID-19 disaster has destroyed many facets of societal and economic circumstances. However, it remains a crucial debate how the effect of COVID-19 on community social capital. This study aims to examine the relationship between a community’s risk perception on COVID-19 and social capital. In addition, we also investigate the mediating role of social collectivism in the association. This research used a survey approach by performing an online questionnaire. Data were gathered from 156 respondents at the residence in an urban community in Sukoharjo, Central Java. A partial-least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied to analyze the data. The results show that social capital enhances during COVID 19 because of the increasing risk perceptions on COVID-19 and social collectivism. The impact of risk perceptions on social capital is mediated by social collectivism. The present study adds our understanding of social capital at the time of the COVID-19 outbreak, especially what factors drive it. The research also has practical implications for the government and urban community to anticipate risks of COVID-19 by enhancing social capital and collectivism.

Welfare Attitudes Towards Anti-poverty Policies in China: Economical Individualism, Social Collectivism and Institutional Differences

Public attitudes towards welfare programs is a crucial topic in the field of social policy research. Current studies on welfare attitudes has long been a lack of an explicit conceptualization, and mainly conducted at the individual level with the focus on self-interest. This study distinguished the dimensions of welfare attitudes into responsibility, efficiency and effectiveness, and examined the factors that influence welfare attitudes towards anti-poverty policies in China. Data used in this study came from Chinese National Survey of Public Welfare Attitudes in 2018 with a final sample size of 8296 respondents from three deliberately selected provinces in China. It concluded that welfare attitudes share the traits of economical individualism, social collectivism and institutional differences. Positive perception of work ethics and social cognition about income inequality were two important factors associated with welfare attitudes towards anti-poverty policy. People who were against indolence, idleness and male breadwinner and who were highly sensitive of income inequality were more supportive of the notion that government is responsible for protecting their livelihood, nevertheless, less satisfied with the current standard of substance allowance and performance of policy implementation, indicating an orientation of both individualism and collectivism of welfare attitudes. Besides, welfare attitudes were also motivated by institutional differences such as regional disparities and migrant identity. Therefore, this study suggests that the government should be need-oriented in dealing with of the different dimensions of poverty, and should establish a more unified and generous social welfare system that benefits both the natives and migrants.

Contextualising the pervasive impact of macroeconomic austerity on prison health in England: a qualitative study among international policymakers

BackgroundPrisons offer the state the opportunity to gain access to a population that is at particularly high risk of ill-health. Despite the supportive legal and policy structures surrounding prison rehabilitation, the oppressive nature of the austerity policy in England threatens its advanced improvement.MethodsUsing grounded theory methodology, this is the first interdisciplinary qualitative study to explore the impact of macroeconomic austerity on prison health in England from the perspective of 29 international prison policymakers.ResultsThe far-reaching impact of austerity in England has established a regressive political system that shapes the societal attitude towards social issues, which has exacerbated the existing poor health of the prisoners. Austerity has undermined the notion of social collectivism, imposed a culture of acceptance among prison bureaucrats and the wider community, and normalised the devastating impacts of prison instability. These developments are evidenced by the increasing levels of suicide, violence, radicalisation and prison gangs among prisoners, as well as the imposition of long working hours and the high levels of absenteeism among prison staff.ConclusionsThis study underscores an important and yet unarticulated phenomenon that despite being the fifth largest economy in the world, England’s poorest, marginalised and excluded population continues to bear the brunt of austerity. Reducing the prison population, using international obligations as minimum standards to protect prisoners’ right to health and providing greater resources would create a more positive and inclusive system, in line with England’s international and domestic commitments to the humane treatment of all people.

Life Experiences of Patients With Glaucoma: A Phenomenological Study.

Studies that describe the experiences of patients with glaucoma from different cultures may help health professionals gain a broader perspective on this issue. Currently, few qualitative studies describe how patients with glaucoma in Turkey cope with daily life. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of patients with glaucoma. This descriptive phenomenological study used purposive sampling to enroll 20 patients with glaucoma. A qualitative, in-depth, face-to-face interview technique was used to collect data during January and February 2014. The data were analyzed using to the Van Kaam method. Seven themes were identified, including confirming the diagnosis by acute symptoms or unrelated symptoms, grateful to God for having a non-life-threatening disease, feeling happy after receiving more accurate information, coping with the disease by using eye drops and attending follow-up examinations regularly, managing daily life to avoid further damage to eyesight, emotional reactions related to going blind, and urging family members or friends to attend regular glaucoma checkups. Patients with glaucoma experience physiological and psychological problems throughout the course of their disease. Being informed and cultural practices such as "praising God" and "resignation" helped patients cope with the disease. Furthermore, because of the cultural characteristic of social collectivism, participants acted to protect the health of others by informing them about glaucoma. Understanding the experiences of patients with glaucoma is important for nursing practice. Nurses should be encouraged to take a greater role in the care of patients with glaucoma by becoming the primary source of glaucoma disease, treatment, and care-related information.

Critical geosophies: A pyschotopological reading of Rice’s vampires and Romero’s zombies

Anne Rice and George Romero are two of the foremost transformative authors of vampire and zombie fiction in the United States. This reading of their work applies a psychotopological lens to the first two novels of Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and the first three films of Romero’s Living Dead series. It differs from numerous preceding analyses of monster fiction mostly in the theoretical apparatus it articulates to link the psychic fear vampires and zombies evoke with the topologies of space and power they evince. This intervention invokes a negative understanding of dialectical materialism to analyze human-monster thresholds as political sites. It builds this theorization primarily from the works of Slavoj Žižek, Sara Ahmed, Julia Kristeva, Kojin Karatani, and to a lesser extent Joan Copjec. The result is a psychotopological analysis that challenges understandings of the monster as either timeless allegories for the systemic order or as endlessly interpretive contingencies. It also reads the topological forms of Rice’s vampires and Romero’s zombies in relation to each other. Understanding psychic space and topologies of power as integral to each other helps read the vampire and the zombie as myths which endure because of the fears of class exploitation and social collectivism they stoke.

Social networks and marketing cooperation in entrepreneurial clusters: An international comparative study

This research examines factors that influence the development of marketing cooperation among cluster-based firms in different regions in the world. Theorists have consistently demonstrated the role and importance of economic externalities, such as knowledge spillovers, within industrial clusters. Less research attention has been paid to the investigation of marketing-based externalities, though it has been suggested that these may also accrue from geographical agglomeration. The study focus is on the development of joint marketing activities between firms operating in a single industry sector, located in close proximity. The results suggest that social networking is important in facilitating inter-firm cooperation in marketing activities. The study also explores whether the levels of inter-firm cooperation differs between countries with distinctly different levels of social collectivism. Interestingly, this study finds few significant differences in marketing cooperation among cluster-based firms from Scotland and Chile.

An Investigation of Cross-Cultural Differences on the Impact of Productivity Interventions: The Example of ProMES

The success of a productivity intervention may depend on the fit between the intervention and the country in which it is implemented. In particular, a country's horizontal collectivism may influence the intervention's effectiveness. Results based on a database of 90 organizational units from seven different countries in which ProMES, a productivity intervention, was implemented indicated that in general, ProMES is more successful in some European countries than in the United States. Furthermore, results indicate that this effect may be due to an interaction between power distance and social collectivism. The degree of collectivism plays an important role in predicting whether ProMES succeeds in countries with relatively low power distance. In countries that score relatively high in power distance, the intervention succeeds regardless of the degree of collectivism. Lastly, whether a country's level of uncertainty avoidance has implications for the success of ProMES is also explored. Implications are discussed.

I versus We

This study examines conditions of peace and war to find whether the “rally `round the flag” effect is indeed attributed to rising levels of social collectivism. Reserve service motivation in peacetime and wartime was compared among 1,004 Israeli reservists. Levels of motivation and the factors that affect them were examined during the optimism of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process (February 2000) and about a year and a half into the second Intifada (October 2000). Findings suggest that motivation to serve in wartime is indeed higher than in peacetime. However, they also suggest that similar factors predict motivation in both times, although their relative impact is altered by the situation. Reservists were more likely to be motivated by individual rather than collective incentives (in both peacetime and wartime situations), thus suggesting that “rally `round the flag” occurrences are not necessarily reflective of the social cohesion and collective reasoning.

The Whispering Shadow: Collectivism and Individualism at Ikeda-Hoover and Nissan UK

Despite recent interest in the character of individual dissonance in the workplace less attention has been given to the nature of collectivism in the context of restricted trade union behaviour. While findings on conflicts associated with collective practices have been given reasonable space these have tended to focus on the association between collectivism qua trade unions and the presence or absence of conflict. Moreover, where the relationship between conflict and individualism provide the focus of study, this often serves to herald the demise of forms of collectivism or collectivism in general. The paper identifies three forms of collectivism in two Japanese manufacturing plants. These are; ‘trade union collectivism’; ‘work place collectivism’ and, the ‘social collectivism of everyday life’. By moving away from the conflict-consensus polarity, the intention is to shift the terms of debate over the nature of individualism and collectivism in the context of LLPs. The perceived conceptual and empirical gap is not to be closed by highlighting only incidents of dissonance, whether individually or collectively construed.

Irrational beliefs, individualism-collectivism, and adjustment

Ellis (1994) has argued that a failure to actualize both personal individualism and social collectivism is irrational and leads to maladjustment. In a test of these assumptions, two measures of irrational beliefs—the Survey of Personal Beliefs (SPB) and the Belief Scale—were correlated with indices of individualism, collectivism, and psychosocial adjustment. Both individualism and collectivism had positive and negative mental health implications. Values associated with each covaried directly. The validity of several SPB subscales was challenged, but data for especially the Belief Scale confirmed that individualistic and socially oriented forms of actualization can be part of a balanced functioning of personality.