Social Ecosystem Research Articles

Ecological Functional Zoning in Urban Fringe Areas Based on the Trade-Offs Between Ecological–Social Values in Ecosystem Services: A Case Study of Jiangning District, Nanjing

Amid the rapid socio-economic development of urban fringe areas, promoting the multi-functional supply of ecosystems and sustainable development is essential. Taking Jiangning District in Nanjing as a case study, this study explores the relationships and spatial clustering characteristics among various ecosystem service values in urban fringe areas, focusing on the trade-offs between ecological and social values. Ecological functional zones were delineated based on the ecosystem service clustering results and regional conjugation principles, followed by an analysis of the trade-offs and synergies among the values within each zone. The findings reveal the following: (1) trade-offs between ecological and social ecosystem service values are prevalent across the entire region, as well as within sub-regions in urban fringe areas; (2) Jiangning District can be divided into five key ecological functional zones—the Vibrant Industry-Urbanization Integration Zone, Important Habitat Conservation Zone, Livable Organic Renewal Zone, Characteristic Rural Landscape Development Zone, and Riparian Recreation and Ecological Conservation Zone. Each zone exhibits significant differences in the types and features of the services provided; and (3) understanding the relationships among ecological and social values within each zone may help to resolve trade-offs between them. This progressive trade-off analysis, from the regional to sub-regional level, enables more precise identification of ecosystem functions, providing reference for decision-making to enhance the overall regional value and guide sustainable planning and management practices in urban fringe areas.

Triboelectric Nanogenerator Based on Tin Doped Zinc Oxide and Polyvinyl Alcohol Composite Thin Film for Energy Harvesting Applications

The triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) collects mechanical energy from its surroundings and converts it to electrical signals that can be used in sustainable energy harvesting technologies to help maintain the social ecosystem. However, TENG operation with pure triboelectric material may not be sufficient to power a small electronic system without modification. The optimal material capable of producing significant electrical energy with flexible structures remains a major barrier to practical application. In this study, tin-doped zinc oxide (Sn:ZnO) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) composite thin films were prepared using a simple solution immersion technique at various Sn atomic percentage (at.%) concentrations for use in TENG devices. The crystalline quality of a composite thin film made of Sn:ZnO and PVA was identified using x-ray diffraction. The microstructure changes of the composite thin film were found to be influenced by Sn doping, as studied using optical microscopy. The TENG with 2.5 at.% Sn:ZnO/PVA composite thin film and Kapton film achieved the highest peak voltage of 8.5 V in open circuit and 90 µW output power at 1 MΩ. The produced electrical output was then used to store energy in capacitors. According to its TENG properties, the Sn:ZnO/PVA composite thin film-based TENG has the potential to be used in low power electronic devices.

Social entrepreneurship and value creation in the cultural sector. An empirical analysis using the multidimensional controlling model

Purpose Social entrepreneurship plays a crucial role in the contemporary economic and social ecosystem, defining a value proposition that incorporates a plurality of dimensions to be considered. This research work analyzes the externalities of social enterprises driven by arts and culture for the territories they operate in. Design/methodology/approach A mixed-method approach of a single case study is performed to consider multiple dimensions in the development of controlling models in the managerial field. The framework adopted is then implemented through a longitudinal analysis over the last three years. Findings The empirical evidence shows the evolution of the economic and financial performance, the social effectiveness and the institutional legitimacy of the case, explaining the role played in the reference community, even during crisis time. The predictive power of performance changes emerges as a direct link to socially responsible indexes that amplify the attractiveness of value proposition processes. Research limitations/implications The results obtained are aligned with Betzlet et al. (2021) key predictor of the success of social entrepreneurship. A wide sample with multiple social enterprises operating in the cultural and creative field needs to be considered in the future, to further advance the literature through a comparative analysis. Originality/value This paper reveals that, in the cultural and creative sector, social entrepreneurship value creation is intrinsically linked to the individual and collective identity dimension able to promote cohesion and community well-being.

May a highly touristic tropical island sustain water resources? Navigating troubled waters to berth on a safe shore.

While being a major economic development force for tropical islands, tourism may aggravate disturbances on local water resources (scarcity, pollution) and the surrounding ecosystem. In this work, we used a discrete events modelling approach to characterize trajectories of Cat Ba Island (Vietnam) and its ability to reach specific trajectories. We wanted to assess if a healthy social ecosystem could be compatible with tourism. We found that co-existence between water resources and tourism may be reached; moreover, a systemic state where ecosystem and sociosystem can sustainably coexist may be reached. The implementation of urban ecological infrastructure is a key process to shift from the present state towards more favourable states. Another significant result is that the departure from the present state to reach more favourable ones may lead to a transitory degraded situation; only by keeping in mind the systemic objective significant transformations can be carried out.

Correction: Spours, K. From Learning Ecologies to a Social Ecosystem Model for Learning and Skills. Systems 2024, 12, 324

In the published article [...]

Study abroad experiences in homestay: where complexity, dynamicity, and individuality stay

Abstract Informed by Complex Dynamic Systems Theory, this study examines the nature of homestay as a situated language learning site, with an eye toward the development of American student guests and Chinese host families’ homestay experiences within the larger context of the study abroad (SA) program and local community. Drawing on data collected from host families and student guests, this study discovers benefits, conflicts, and co-adaptations in homestay; the evolution of host families’ dispositions toward homestay; student guests’ proficiency gains and interactions with hosts and locals; and contextual factors that influence the proficiency gains and interactions. The findings reveal that homestay is a dynamic, self-evolving subsystem, which constantly interacts with other dynamic subsystems, such as the SA program and local community, within the complex social ecosystem of the entire SA environment. This study also provides suggestions for the design and management of the homestay component in the SA program and future research.

Barriers and facilitators for accepting health education of Chinese rural older adults in Henan Province: a qualitative study

BackgroundAs global aging continues to intensify, the health status of the older people requires urgent attention, and health education provides a pathway for active aging. However, the current outlook on health education for older people in rural areas of China is not optimistic. This study used Social Ecosystems Theory and explored the deep-rooted influencing factors on the acceptance of health education from the perspective of the rural older people.MethodsIn this study, a purposive sampling method was adopted, and eligible rural older individuals were selected from Hebi city, Henan Province, China, from March to May 2023 as the research participants. A semistructured interview method was used to explore the factors affecting the acceptance of health education by older people. The interview data were analyzed using the qualitative content analysis method to obtain relevant themes and subthemes.ResultsA total of 14 participants were recruited for the interviews; 8 were male, 6 were female, most had an elementary school education, and most were farmers. The results of the thematic analysis revealed a total of nine facilitators and nine barriers in micro, meso and macro levels. Among the findings, our important and unique finding is that inadequate intergenerational support somewhat hinders older adults’ exposure to health education.ConclusionThere are numerous and complex facilitators of and barriers to accessing health education for rural older adults; of these, a lack of intergenerational support is particularly important. In the future, health education needs to be centered on the families of older people with the assistance of village committees so that older people and their children can learn and communicate together.

Developing and Deploying End‐to‐End Machine Learning Systems for Social Impact: A Rubric and Practical Artificial Intelligence Case Studies From African Contexts

ABSTRACTArtificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have demonstrated the potential to provide solutions to societal challenges, for example, automated crop diagnostics for smallholder farmers, environmental pollution modelling and prediction for cities and machine translation systems for languages that enable information access and communication for segments of the population who are unable to speak or write official languages, among others. Despite the potential of AI, the practical and technical issues related to its development and deployment in the African context are the least documented and understood. The development and deployment of AI for social impact systems in the developing world present new intricacies and requirements emanating from the unique technology and social ecosystems in these settings. This paper provides a rubric for developing and deploying AI systems for social impact with a focus on the African context. The rubric is derived from the analysis of a series of selected real‐world case studies of AI applications in Africa. We assessed the selected AI case studies against the proposed rubric. The rubric and examples of AI applications presented in this paper are expected to contribute to the development and application of AI systems in other African contexts.

Structure of higher-order interactions in social-ecological networks through Q-analysis of their neighbourhood and clique complex.

This paper studies higher-order interactions in social-ecological networks, which formally represent interactions within the social and ecological units of an ecosystem. Many real-world social ecosystems exhibit not only pairwise interactions but also higher-order interactions among their units. Therefore, the conventional graph-theoretic description of networks falls short of capturing these higher-order interactions due to the inherent limitations of the graph definition. In this work, a mathematical framework for capturing the higher-order interactions of a social-ecological system has been given by incorporating notions from combinatorial algebraic topology. In order to achieve this, two different simplicial complexes, the clique and the neighbourhood complex, have been constructed from a pairwise social-ecological network. As a case study, the Q-analysis and a structural study of the interactions in the rural agricultural system of southern Madagascar have been done at various structural levels denoted by q. The results obtained by calculating all the structural vectors for both simplicial complexes, along with exciting results about the participation of facets of the clique complex at different q-levels, have been discussed. This work also establishes significant theorems concerning the dimension of the neighbourhood complex and clique complex obtained from the parent pairwise network.

From Learning Ecologies to a Social Ecosystem Model for Learning and Skills

The growing relevance of socio-ecological systems (SESs) thinking reflects both the challenges of an anthropogenic poly crisis and attempts to understand the complexities of societal development in an era of globalisation. The article begins by suggesting there are two related variants of SES thinking—relationships between the natural and human worlds (Variant 1) and whole social and human system analysis using metaphorical transfer and theorisation of natural ecological principles (Variant 2). This article elaborates Variant 2 through the development a social ecosystem model (SEM) applied to post-compulsory education and skills development. An exploration of the SEM is conducted through a review of the literatures on ‘Learning Ecologies’ to assess the strengths and limitations of this human ecological approach. Perceived limitations are addressed by the development of the SEM that adds a political economy dimension to the learning ecological model, which is then applied to the field of learning and skills in the English context in support of an inclusive and place-based approach to vocational education and training (VET). The article concludes by suggesting that the SEM can be further expanded by its application to transitioning to more sustainable futures, being developed by scholars of indigenous communities and populations of the Global South, that arguably brings Variant 2 of SESs thinking closer to Variant 1.

Coastal Cultural Ecosystem Services: A Bridge between the Natural Ecosystem and Social Ecosystem for Sustainable Development

Cultural Ecosystem Services (CESs), as non-material benefits and well-being provided by ecosystems to humans, possess the ability to bridge nature and human society and interpret their complex interrelationships. Coastal areas are regions with concentrated human activities, where coastal zones are often subject to human development, pollution, and degradation. Compared to other ecosystems, coastal ecosystems face greater pressures and threats, and the cultural services they provide are more vulnerable. Research on coastal ecosystem cultural services needs to consider ecosystem vulnerability and find ways to protect and restore ecosystem functions. Therefore, this paper explores the intrinsic logical system and feasibility of guiding natural resource management and enhancing human well-being through coastal CESs, discussing related research data acquisition, method analysis, and perceptual application. Based on this, this paper analyzes the development trends of coastal CESs in natural resource management and enhancing human well-being from aspects such as biodiversity, human–nature interaction processes, cultural heritage conservation, local economic development, and community management. Finally, it proposes advancing the in-depth research of coastal CESs from the perspectives of integrating multi-source data, interdisciplinary development, and incorporating CESs into policy making, providing theoretical support for the systematic study of rational resource utilization and sustainable ecosystem development.

Enabling technology hand in hand with enabling practices

PurposeIn the project “Working the way I want” (AWIEW), people with and without disabilities are co-creating a needs assessment tool (NAT) to support participation in the labour market. This tool will include a technological solution at its core and a set of tested new social practices for its successful application in Germany.Design/methodology/approachThe AWIEW project combines several methods and a participatory approach from different disciplines in a transdisciplinary project design. At the micro level, the participatory design approach is used to jointly develop the digital tool with people with disabilities (PWD). At the meso level, semi-structured interviews are used to gather data from different stakeholders in the PWD’ social ecosystem to uncover factors facilitating or hindering the successful transition of PWD to the labour market.FindingsThis paper discusses how transdisciplinary results can be incorporated into the development of a tool that supports PWD in navigating their occupational orientation processes. Some preliminary findings are: (a) Vocational orientation for PWD often starts with difficulties in imagining a future job; participative designs need to start from this premise. (b) PWD’ knowledge about the labour market depends on information provided by their social ecosystem; thus, research and design must take this ecosystem into account. (c) Welfare organisations instil a feeling of security and competence within their structures that has to be considered in needs assessment – both as a hindering and an empowering factor.Originality/valueThis paper highlights the importance of combining a digital solution and new practices for a promising approach towards enhancing the participation of PWD in the labour market.

Changes and Mechanisms of Social Interaction Models in the Digital Age

In the wave of the digital age, technology is rapidly evolving from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 and moving towards the new era of the metaverse. Social media, as a pioneer of this transformation, has deeply permeated peoples daily lives, reshaping our social interaction models. The rise of companion socialization is a typical phenomenon in this transformation, reflecting significant changes in social interaction models in the digital age. This paper aims to systematically review the notable changes in social speed, social subjects, and social methods during the evolution of social media, and to deeply analyze the reasons behind these changes. By exploring the mechanisms of market evolution, platform manipulation, and user addiction, this study seeks to help people better understand the pros and cons of social media, adopt a more rational attitude towards the social challenges of the digital age, and promote the construction of a healthy social ecosystem.

Changes and Mechanisms of Social Interaction Models in the Digital Age

In the wave of the digital age, technology is rapidly evolving from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 and moving towards the new era of the metaverse. Social media, as a pioneer of this transformation, has deeply permeated peoples daily lives, reshaping our social interaction models. The rise of companion socialization is a typical phenomenon in this transformation, reflecting significant changes in social interaction models in the digital age. This paper aims to systematically review the notable changes in social speed, social subjects, and social methods during the evolution of social media, and to deeply analyze the reasons behind these changes. By exploring the mechanisms of market evolution, platform manipulation, and user addiction, this study seeks to help people better understand the pros and cons of social media, adopt a more rational attitude towards the social challenges of the digital age, and promote the construction of a healthy social ecosystem.

Confidence in Moral Decision-Making

Moral decision-making typically involves trade-offs between moral values and self-interest. While previous research on the psychological mechanisms underlying moral decision-making has primarily focused on what people choose, less is known about how an individual consciously evaluates the choices they make. This sense of having made the right decision is known as subjective confidence. We investigated how subjective confidence is constructed across two moral contexts. In Study 1 (240 U.S. participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk, 81 female), participants made hypothetical decisions between choices with monetary profits for themselves and physical harm for either themselves or another person. In Study 2 (369 U.S. participants from Prolific, 176 female), participants made incentive-compatible decisions between choices with monetary profits for themselves and monetary harm for either themselves or another person. In both studies, each choice was followed by a subjective confidence rating. We used a computational model to obtain a trial-by-trial measure of participant-specific subjective value in decision-making and related this to subjective confidence ratings. Across all types of decisions, confidence was positively associated with the absolute difference in subjective value between the two options. Specific to the moral decision-making context, choices that are typically seen as more blameworthy – i.e., causing more harm to an innocent person to benefit oneself – suppressed the effects of increasing profit on confidence, while amplifying the dampening effect of harm on confidence. These results illustrate some potential cognitive mechanisms underlying subjective confidence in moral decision-making and highlighted both shared and distinct cognitive features relative to non-moral value-based decision-making.

How Art and Architecture Influence Hotel Façade Design Automation

Hotel is a commercial institution that renders guests and travelers with two important services: shelter and cuisine (food and drinks) in return for monetary profits. Since guest are travelers and/or excursionist, the security of their lives and properties security is important also provision of comfort while in the hotel is important. Hence, hotel are constructed, with preferences to location, and other distinguishing factors for different goals and type of client, with the thought of hospitality. Architecture, art and integration of an automation system have always had a big impact on the way the world looks, how it makes us feel, and how it tells our memories. In the hotel industry, facade is an important, beginning and an overview of the experience that lies ahead of guests inside. It cannot be emphasized how important art, architecture and automation system are to a hotel's façade because they set the tone for the entire guest experience. A dramatic remark about the hotel's character, culture, and values is made by the combination of artistic elements and smart architectural design, which goes beyond simple aesthetics. This article examines the significant effect of art, architecture and automation system on hotel facades, emphasizing how these elements may attract onlookers, establish brand identity, reflect the context of culture, captivate visitors, help marketing initiatives, and merge in effortlessly with the immediate environment. By exploring the significance of these artistic components, the numerous ways that architecture, art and automation system influence how people perceive and interact with hotels will be understood and ultimately transforming them into iconic piece and memorable settings.

Fungi, Rhizomes and Webs: How Literature Can Grow New Routes

This article considers how literature reaches a variety of different audiences and can effect practical change within a wider social ecosystem through the concepts of the ‘wood wide web’ and ‘thinking mycorrhizally’, developed here as part of a pragmatic ‘sympoietics’ of action. I first set out how these terms, stemming initially from forest ecology research and environmental humanities respectively, allow us to conceptualize literary texts as an epistemological species that both draws on and further contributes to our understanding of interspecies communication. What is at stake is therefore not just how we might live together in a broken world but how we might know about this living together and seek to do so in a more systemically just way. This particular kind of relationality is explored through the case study of contemporary German author, poet and performer, Ulrike Almut Sandig and her remediation of stories by the Brothers Grimm and the different kinds of communication that follow. The different routes for literature thus explored have repercussions for the role of the literary critic and his or her remediation of literary networks around the globe. These repercussions are teased out with an eye to very practical applications of literature, and the expertise of the literary scholar, in a variety of non-literary contexts but with a particular focus on working with professional government and community-based decision makers.

Climate Change and Social-ecological Vulnerability in the Himalaya: A Study of the Kaligandaki Basin, Nepal

This research examines the implications and opportunities for climate change adaptation in the Kaligandaki Basin, Nepali Himalaya. The study adopts a holistic approach to explain human-environmental interrelationships. The Sustainable Livelihood Approach and the system approach of analyzing Change-Impact-Response are integrated to construct a dynamic framework that assesses household and sub-regional social-ecological vulnerability. Findings suggest that climate-sensitive social-ecological systems of the Himalayas are highly exposed to both climate change and non-climatic stressors. Households are trying to adapt to rapid change; however, their adaptation knowledge is not sufficiently translated into actions. Consequently, food and livelihood systems are insecure, and social ecosystems in the Basin are highly vulnerable to change.

Constructing Fame: A Phenomenological Study of Online Impression Management among Indonesian TikTok Celebrities

The relevance of social media platforms in our daily lives is intensifying. Social media have become a "showcase" for our life experiences. In addition, they represent a range of dimensions of our status in the virtual and actual social world. These two factors trigger people to construct particular identities to thrive in dual social ecosystems. Subsequently, Tiktok's prominence as a current trending social media platform with a total of 500 million users globally transforms its function from a communication medium to a medium for gaining social capital. This phenomenon notably influences Indonesian society, with people being heavily invested in that platform, and triggered the rise of "influencers" as a popular career choice for the younger generation. Under those circumstances, this phenomenological study explores practical aspects of the identity construction of TikTok influencers on social media. Additionally, the study also analyses the motivations and experiences of the users in constructing their social media identity through impression management to build social capital. Eleven TikTok influencers were involved in this study as the key informants. The findings indicated that TikTok is socially tempting for building the users' social capital because of its high viral opportunity due to randomly generated algorithms. Moreover, the significance of viewer engagement for TikTok influencers compels them to create their most pleasing online impression for the sake of digital popularity. Therefore, popularity is regarded as both a gift and a social pressure.

Perspective matters: a systematic review of immersive virtual reality to reduce racial prejudice

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of social justice movements, increased attention has been directed to levels of intergroup tension worldwide. Racial prejudice is one such tension that permeates societies and creates distinct inequalities at all levels of our social ecosystem. Whether these prejudices are present explicitly (directly or consciously) or implicitly (unconsciously or automatically), manipulating body ownership by embodying an avatar of another race using immersive virtual reality (IVR) presents a promising approach to reducing racial bias. Nevertheless, research findings are contradictory, which is possibly attributed to variances in methodological factors across studies. This systematic review, therefore, aimed to identify variables and methodological variations that may underlie the observed discrepancies in study outcomes. Adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, this systematic review encompassed 12 studies that employed IVR and embodiment techniques to investigate racial attitudes. Subsequently, two mini meta-analyses were performed on four and five of these studies, respectively — both of which utilised the Implicit Association Test (IAT) as a metric to gauge these biases. This review demonstrated that IVR allows not only the manipulation of a sense of body ownership but also the investigation of wider social identities. Despite the novelty of IVR as a tool to help understand and possibly reduce racial bias, our review has identified key limitations in the existing literature. Specifically, we found inconsistencies in the measures and IVR equipment and software employed, as well as diversity limitations in demographic characteristics within both the sampled population and the embodiment of avatars. Future studies are needed to address these critical shortcomings. Specific recommendations are suggested, these include: (1) enhancing participant diversity in terms of the sample representation and by integrating ethnically diverse avatars; (2) employing multi-modal methods in assessing embodiment; (3) increasing consistency in the use and administration of implicit and explicit measures of racial prejudice; and (4) implementing consistent approaches in using IVR hardware and software to enhance the realism of the IVR experience.