Social Contest Research Articles

Practices of double currency: value and politics in rural Cuba

Ethnographies of contemporary Cuba often employ the concept of “struggle” to describe everyday economic action. This concept, however, lacks the edge to analyze social contests around value and the resulting structural differentiation of the social field. Inspired by anthropological debates on value and fieldwork observations in rural western Cuba, this paper begins to explore the social life of Cuba’s monetary plurality. I reconstruct and interpret some of the major features of the Cuban monetary landscape, namely, the existence of two main national currencies and exchange rates, different institutional rules for accountancy, and the awkward intimacy with the US dollar. The analysis of the national monetary system reveals the contrapuntal and historically contingent formation of an architecture of value based on a sphere of contained reproduction and a sphere of external reconnection. Additionally, paying attention to the money medium leads me to notice the politics involved in negotiating a dimension of incalculability interwoven in the functioning of the economy at large. The analysis of individuals’ and state actors’ everyday economic practices in this context provides a favorable vantage point from which to consider how particular economic operations take part into broader processes of accumulation and loss of value.

Winner and loser effects in lobster cockroach contests for social dominance

In the context of animal aggression, the winner/loser effect is a cross-taxa phenomenon. In the present study, the effect of social contest experience on winning and losing subsequent encounters was investigated in the furious male lobster cockroach, Nauphoeta cinerea. Dominant and subordinate individuals were generated as the result of an encounter between two socially naïve males (SNMs); the winner and loser were designated as 1st encounter dominants and 1st encounter subordinates, respectively. With these dominants and subordinates, three experiments were conducted: (I) the original pair met in a re-encounter, (II) the 1st encounter dominants and subordinates were paired with an inexperienced SNM, (III) the 1st encounter dominants and subordinates were paired with an experienced individual of the same rank. Each experiment was conducted at 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks and 5 weeks after the 1st encounter fight. Juvenile hormone (JH) III titer was monitored in all individuals before and after each subsequent encounter. Our results showed that, in the original pairing and in the pairing with SNMs, the probability that a 1st encounter dominant (or subordinate) would win (or lose) the subsequent encounter fit well with the 95% confidence interval of the theoretical criteria proposed by Begin et al. (1969), indicating the existence of the winning/losing effect. However, this effect was inconsistent along the five-week observation period. For all 1st encounter dominants, at each week after the 1st encounter, the before subsequent encounter JH III titers distribution was significantly different from that on the 1st encounter day; the distributions of before subsequent encounter JH III titers could be further clustered into two groups, the higher JH III group and the lower JH III group, which were significantly correlated with subsequent winning and losing, respectively. For the 1st encounter subordinates, the distributions of before subsequent encounter JH III titers were not significantly different from that of SNMs, but the titer distributions were significantly shifted to a higher level compared to the 1st encounter day. Compared with before subsequent encounter, the after subsequent encounter hemolymph JH III level was significantly increased in winners and significantly decreased in losers. From these data, we propose that instability of the winner and loser effects may occur due to physiological costs and recovery; this instability may partly explain why the social hierarchy is unstable in this cockroach species.

Social Innovation Promoting Policy and its Implementation in the European Union

Social Innovation Promoting Policy and its Implementation in the European Union

Walking variations in healthy women wearing high-heeled shoes: Shoe size and heel height effects

BackgroundThe use of high heels is widespread in modern society in professional and social contests. Literature showed that wearing high heels can produce injurious effects on several structures from the toes to the pelvis. No studies considered shoe length as an impacting factor on walking with high heels. Research questionThe aim of this study is to evaluate walking parameters in young healthy women wearing high heels, considering not only the heel height but also the foot/shoe size. MethodsWe evaluate spatio-temporal, kinematic and kinetic data, collected using a 8-camera motion capture system, in a sample of 21 healthy women in three different walking conditions: 1) barefoot, 2) wearing 12 cm high heel shoes independently from shoe size, and 3) wearing shoes with heel height based on shoe size, keeping the ankles’ plantar flexion angle constant. The main outcome measures were: spatio-temporal parameters, gait harmony measurement, range of motion, flexion and extension maximal values, power and moment of lower limb joints. ResultsComparing the three walking conditions, the Mixed Anova test, showed significant differences between both high heeled conditions (variable and constant height) and barefoot in spatio-temporal, kinematic and kinetic parameters. SignificanceRegardless of the shoe size, both heeled conditions presented a similar gait pattern and were responsible for negative effects on walking parameters. Considering our results and the relevance of the heel height, further studies are needed to identify a threshold, over which it is possible to observe that wearing high heels could cause harmful effects, independently from the foot/shoe size.

S122. Behavioral and Neural Alterations in Competitive Behavior in Major Depressive Disorder

The social defeat model of depression suggests individuals with depression are more likely to exhibit diminished competitive behavior within social contests. Here, we combine computational models of social behavior and functional neuroimaging to examine how valuation of social status and neural mechanisms of guilt contribute to alterations in competitive behavior among individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD).

The `Africanization` of Salvador: Race, work, and politics in post-emancipation Salvador da Bahia, Brazil

ABSTRACTThe Old Republic in Brazil was characterized by urban social unrest in the wake of the final abolition of slavery. This article examines contemporaneous social struggles within the transport industry and carnival festivals of Salvador da Bahia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Urban transport and public popular culture provide windows into social contests over the meanings of modernity and freedom in the newly formed republic: Class struggle in the transport industry in post-emancipation Salvador was simultaneously racial terrain, conflict over popular culture had political and economic roots and both were interrelated within a broader contest over the meaning of modernity and freedom for the majority of the population. Persistent grassroots resistance to Eurocentric and draconian elite policies reached turning points during the 1910 presidential election and the 1919 general strike, forcing Bahian elites to take a more accommodationist approach to popular classes of society. Discourses on Africa mediated this transition and eventually became a central feature of racial and political hegemony.

History of winning remodels thalamo-PFC circuit to reinforce social dominance.

Mental strength and history of winning play an important role in the determination of social dominance. However, the neural circuits mediating these intrinsic and extrinsic factors have remained unclear. Working in mice, we identified a dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) neural population showing "effort"-related firing during moment-to-moment competition in the dominance tube test. Activation or inhibition of the dmPFC induces instant winning or losing, respectively. In vivo optogenetic-based long-term potentiation and depression experiments establish that the mediodorsal thalamic input to the dmPFC mediates long-lasting changes in the social dominance status that are affected by history of winning. The same neural circuit also underlies transfer of dominance between different social contests. These results provide a framework for understanding the circuit basis of adaptive and pathological social behaviors.

Two-way cultural transfer: the case of the Israeli TV series BeTipul and its American adaptation In Treatment

BeTipul, the first Israeli TV series purchased by American television, and its American adaptation, In Treatment, provide an intriguing case of bidirectional (peripheral-global) cultural transfer. Focusing on the psychotherapy content of the show, this article examines the effect of foreignness versus compatibility it generated in the two different reception spaces. In America, the adaptation strategies and critics’ response to the remake reveal a smooth naturalization in the target setting, whereas in the (source) Israeli setting critics’ commentaries and anonymous online comments to the original series reveal that it was conceived from the outset as an American-like production made in Israel – evaluated either positively, as matching international standards, or negatively, as a cultural pretense. The antagonism between Israeli viewers of this show illustrates the powerful ‘foreignness effect’ associated with psychotherapy images in the local culture, inciting a social contest between elitist and mass audience.

Legacies of a Contested Campus: Urban Renewal, Community Resistance, and the Origins of Gentrification in Denver

ABSTRACTThe postwar urban renewal experience varied among US cities according to the result of local social contests pitting those imposing their power to transform urban space against those resisting it. In this paper, we examine the role of one such contest in shaping urban renewal outcomes in Denver, using the case of the late 1960s Auraria project. The project sought to remove a poor, Hispanic neighborhood in order to build a new downtown college campus, generating community opposition from the inner city neighborhood residents, leaders of the city’s Chicano Movement, and historic preservation activists. We demonstrate how resistance actively shaped the ultimate form and character of the project, and how the legacies of this urban renewal contest extended—in unforeseen ways—beyond the immediate struggles of the time. We argue that these legacies provide the essential context for understanding planning practice, redevelopment strategies, and gentrification dynamics in the city today.

Urban land contestations and political mobilisation: (re)sources of authority and protest in West African municipalities

The paper is based on anthropological research on socio‐political opposition in West African municipalities. We analyse how land schemes for urban development are at the centre of social contest and political mobilisation in municipalities, by developing examples from peri‐urban areas of Bamako, Mali and Niamey, Niger. We point to several contradictions that lie at the heart of zoning, one of the most dominant forms of urban land management and urban development in many cities in West Africa. They concern, first, who actually benefits from zoning projects and the promises of development and modernisation; second, the dual role of zoning projects as sources of both public resources and private enrichment; third, the gradual replacement of village populations and the rekindling of a politics of belonging; and, finally, the emergence of new political moralities in the face of corruption and mismanagement. We conclude that urban land contests are simultaneously sources and resources of authority and protest. While the skilful and creative combination of these sources and resources is an asset in municipal politics, political mobilisation is also fuelled by protest movements of those marginalised in urban land management schemes, carving out new spaces for socio‐political opposition in West African municipalities.

Dynamic Status Signal Reflects Outcome of Social Interactions, but Not Energetic Stress

Social defeat induces stress-responses in a wide array of vertebrates and can generate winner-loser effects. Dynamic condition-dependent signaling systems that reflect preparation for subsequent agonistic interactions, and thereby mediate winner-loser effects, should be more sensitive to competitive history than to non-social sources of stress. Bill color of female American goldfinches (Spinus tristus) is a dynamic condition-dependent ornament that functions as a signal of competitive status and mediates intrasexual agonistic social interactions. We tested the “social experience signaling hypothesis” in female goldfinches by (1) manipulating a non-social energetic stressor by experimentally elevating flight costs via wing-clipping in free-ranging birds, and (2) manipulating social experience by staging competitive interactions among captive birds. Bill color change did not differ between wing clipped and non-clipped females, even though stress-response, as measured by the heterophil to lymphocyte (H:L) ratio, increased significantly in clipped females relative to unclipped females. In contrast, winners and losers in the social experience experiment differed significantly in the degree and direction of bill color change following social contests, with bill color increasing in winners and decreasing in losers. These results suggest that dynamic bill color of female American goldfinches signals recent social history, but is less sensitive to some stressors stemming from non-social sources, and thereby suggest that signals can evolve sensitivity to specific types of processes relevant to the context in which they are used.

Comparison of clear and narrow outcomes on testosterone levels in social competition

A contribution to a special issue on Hormones and Human Competition.Social competition is associated with marked emotional, behavioral and hormonal responses, including changes in testosterone levels. The strength and direction of these responses is often modulated by levels of other hormones (e.g. cortisol) and depends on psychological factors – classically, the objective outcome of a competition (win vs. loss) but also, hypothetically, the closeness of that outcome (e.g. decisive victory vs. close victory). We manipulated these two aspects of a social contest among male participants (N=166), to investigate how testosterone and affect fluctuated as a function of clear vs. narrow wins and clear vs. narrow losses. We found that losing a competition by a small margin (a narrow loss) was experienced as more pleasant than a clear loss. Among individuals with higher levels of basal cortisol, winning the competition by a narrow margin was associated with a decrease in testosterone levels. These findings are discussed within the framework of the status instability hypothesis and the growing literature on how situational and physiological factors modulate testosterone reactivity to social contests.

Visuality and Representation in Traditional Igbo Uli Body and Mud Wall Paintings

Igbo uli art is a popular creative idiom in south-eastern Nigeria. It is a serves as decorative, ritual and cosmetic art. It does not exhibit any paradox because it has been considered as art that is aesthetically pleasing. Uli art is practiced purely by the womenfolk on human body and mud wall and based on linear configurations. The intention of uli painting is not to create an illusionistic representation of reality. However, it is dependent on both conceptual and perceptual, which results in abstract and non- figurative representations. Uli women painters have produced a voluminous body of work widely distributed throughout Igbo land. However, there is a dearth of uli body and mud wall paintings or decorations as well as their processes of execution as women community art project literature on the corpus of uli art, hence it requires a continuous investigation and scrutiny. This essay therefore provides an insight into the nature and social contest of uli body and mud wall paintings or decorations as well as their processes of execution as women community art project.

Attorneys’ Use of Hegemonic Tales and Subversive Stories in the Presentation of Capital Mitigation

It has been theorized that American culture is so individualistic that it compels defense attorneys in capital cases to rely upon and reinforce the very individualism that sustains the death penalty. Yet, stories also have the potential to be subversive, and because mitigation is specifically designed to present a contextualized view of a defendant and his or her social history, mitigation seems especially poised to offer a challenge to the hegemonic worldview that privileges individualistic causal explanations. Yet, the subversive potential of capital mitigation has never been examined. This study attempts to bridge this gap in the literature by analyzing eight mitigation cases from Delaware. The results confirm that while defense attorneys do utilize and reinforce individualistic causal explanations, most of them also attempted contextualizing stories that subverted the dominant cultural narrative, indicating that capital mitigation is an arena of social contest where both hegemonic and subversive stories can be told. The implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.

Human rights and power amid protest and change in the Arab world

The stunning popular uprisings in the Arab world in 2011 inaugurated an era of protest, revolutions and political transitions, on the one hand, and heightened repression, civil war and renewed authoritarianism, on the other. During this era the human rights paradigm was often at the fore of political and social contests, repeatedly being claimed, co-opted and appropriated. This paper argues that within the Middle East’s uprisings and transitions, deployments of human rights had notable emancipatory effects; yet invocations of the discourse continued to emerge from, converge with or (re)produce various power-laden domestic and international political dynamics. The human rights paradigm served as a primary discourse of the most serious challenge to Arab authoritarianism and its Western sponsorship in contemporary history, with the outcome in Tunisia exemplifying its potential to influence both the processes and substance of genuine political change. The period’s events and ethos also created openings for rights claims to be made by marginalised groups and facilitated local actors’ agency in driving the region’s human rights politics and agendas after decades of ‘human rights in the Arab world’ being a discourse largely driven by foreign actors. Yet the paradigm was also frequently curtailed or instrumentalised by local rulers and Western powers clinging to longstanding authoritarian arrangements, as well as by emergent political actors vying for power.

Sex, social status and physiological stress in primates: the importance of social and glucocorticoid dynamics.

Social status has been associated with health consequences, although the mechanisms by which status affects health are relatively unknown. At the physiological level, many studies have investigated the potential relationship between social behaviour/rank and physiological stress, with a particular focus on glucocorticoid (GC) production. GCs are of interest because of their experimentally established influence on health-related processes such as metabolism and immune function. Studies in a variety of species, in both naturalistic and laboratory settings, have led to complex outcomes. This paper reviews findings from primates and rodents and proposes a psychologically and physiologically relevant framework in which to study the relationship between social status and GC function. We (i) compare status-specific GC production between male and female primates, (ii) review the functional significance of different temporal patterns of GC production, (iii) propose ways to assess these temporal dynamics, and (iv) present novel hypotheses about the relationship between social status and GC temporal dynamics, and potential fitness and health implications. To understand whether GC production mediates social status-related fitness disparities, we must consider social contest conditions and the temporal dynamics of GC production. This framework will provide greater insights into the relationship between social status, physiological stress and health.

A Study on Contents Channel Integration on Facebook Fan Pages Using a Third Party App

Many companies use various avenues to increase their marketing activities, including SNS, blogs, and Internet webpages. What they need is to be able to consolidate these efforts through their Facebook Fan Page, however linking the SNS APIs has proved difficult, companies lack manpower as well as the necessary skills, a long development cycle, and maintenance difficulties have effectively blocked consolidation efforts. In order to help overcome this obstacle, we researched 3rd party Apps that can quickly and easily channel Facebook’s custom tab. We analyzed 5 Third Party App: Tabfusion, TabSite, Woobox, FnGAGE and SOCG. We discovered that there are 15 types of Apps: Social Media Apps, Blog Apps, Photo Apps, Music Apps, Video Apps, Lottery Apps, Quiz Apps, Puzzle Apps, Contest Apps, Events Apps, Coupon &Lead Capture Apps, Information Apps, Poll Apps, Contact Apps and Web Apps. This research will be of great practical benefit for Marketing and PR managers in conducting business, especially regarding the features of the 5 Third Party App covered, as well as the 15 types of Custom Apps. Further research that compares the main functions, items needed in preparing for setup, and items that need special attention for Third Party Apps utilizing specific channels such as YouTube, Pinterest, and other types of SNS is needed.

User Motivation and the Effects of Multitasking: An Analysis of an Online CQA Forum

There is an increasing prevalence of Collaborative Question Answering (CQA) websites and a growing reliance of the online community on user-generated content. In this paper, we study users' motivation to win social recognition contests (best answers) and how multitasking and flexible hours influence the performance of contest-motivated users. Heterogeneity of contest motivation is estimated at the user level in a standard contest framework and used to demonstrate that for those who are highly motivated to win contests, multitasking across subjects is associated with lower productivity while flexible hours are associated with higher productivity, as proxied by the rate of winning contests.

The Incoherence of Success: Intersections of Marriage and Education in a Second-Chance Girls' Education Initiative in Rural Upper Egypt

In Egypt, early-marriage is implicated as a barrier to educational access for girls living in rural areas. It is understood to impede women’s access to education and the labor market. This paper focuses on Ishraq, a second chance girls’ education initiative brought on by the Girls Education Initiative-Egypt. Using a critical poststructural conceptual framework, this paper examines how individuals associated with the Ishraq program engage in social contests concerning the relationship between marriage and education by employing a qualitative case study approach grounded in ethnographic methodological considerations. This essay argues participant’s view religious life as the single most important consideration in articulating and enacting their conceptions of community development and girl’s empowerment, providing a framework for understanding the relationship between marriage and education. These perspectives demonstrate how participants navigate certain structural realities in their lives and the strategies they employ in localizing the designed affects of the Ishraq program. The full text of the article can be found at 10.18275/fire201502021040

科学技術イノベーション教育としての社会実装コンテストプロセス分析とそれによる深化

科学技術イノベーション教育としての社会実装コンテストプロセス分析とそれによる深化