Social Explanations Research Articles

The Structures of Social Structural Explanation: Comments on Haslanger’s What is (Social) Structural Explanation?

Abstract In a recent paper (Haslanger 2016), Sally Haslanger argues for the importance of structural explanation. Roughly, a structural explana- tion of the behaviour of a given object appeals to features of the struc- tures—physical, social, or otherwise—the object is embedded in. It is opposed to individualistic explanations, where what is appealed to is just the object and its properties. For example, an individualistic explanation of why someone got the grade they did might appeal to features of the essay they wrote—its being well-written, answering the set question, etc. But if the class is graded on a curve, then a better explanation will appeal to features of the class—of the social structure in which the student is embedded. That she wrote a better paper than 90% of the class explains better than that she wrote a well-argued paper. In this paper, I get clear as to various candidate concepts of structure that we might appeal to in structural explanations, argue that Haslanger’s preferred account is lacking, and present an alterna- tive that is more conducive to social structural explanation.

Animal Husbandry and Colonial Adaptive Behavior: Isotopic Insights from the La Belle Shipwreck Fauna

Changing social and economic practices had an important role for human adaptive strategies in colonial contexts and sometimes had profound consequences for emerging societies. This study uses insights from stable-isotope analyses, as well as other historical and archaeological evidence, to investigate the social and economic roles of French animal husbandry as an adaptive strategy for the settlers taking part in La Salle’s famous expedition (1684–1688) to colonize the mouth of the Mississippi River. Stable carbon- and nitrogen-isotope analyses of pig bones and other faunal remains from the shipwreck, La Belle, and associated Fort Saint Louis on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico are used to evaluate specific historical accounts of colonists’ animal-husbandry practices and show that a large swine population was sustained primarily on meat from local hunting activities. In this context it is argued that, although the substantial efforts involved in raising pigs mainly on other animal products seemingly makes little economic sense, there are social explanations for what initially appears to be irrational behavior. This study provides an example of how stable-isotope analyses of animal-husbandry practices can contribute to understanding social processes through historical archaeology.

Concept and Structural Components of Social Skills

Research background. Though a variety of social skill explanations exist, in essence they give us plenty examples of controversial interpretation of social skill conception and classification. So, there is a problem of different semantic meanings in the concept of social skills and different classifications of them.Research aims were to reveal the multidimensionality of the construct of social skills and to create a theoretical model of their structure. Research method was theoretical analysis.Discussion and conclusions. After studying various explanations of social skills, we observed that not only a great variety of their interpretations was revealed, but also there is a problem of different semantic meaning: some authors named the same behavioral categories as social competences, others – as social skills, yet others – as social abilities, etc. In addition, the authors present a variety of different classifications of social skill groups and the different structures of social skills. In this theoretical research we tried to analyze and systemize the explanations of social skills with reference to the data of scientific research from various countries. As a result of analysis and systemization of scientific data we offer a model of social skill structure and give interpretation of social skill concept as a multidimensional construct created from integrative, overlapping and supplementing each other structural components of: 1) interaction skills; 2) communication skills; 3) participation skills; 4) emotional skills; and 5) social cognition skills. Each component of social skills is made up of certain behavioral abilities.Keywords: interaction skills; communication skills; participation skills; emotional skills; social cognition skills.

The development of structural thinking about social categories.

Representations of social categories help us make sense of the social world, supporting predictions and explanations about groups and individuals. In an experiment with 156 participants, we explore whether children and adults are able to understand category-property associations (such as the association between "girls" and "liking pink") in structural terms, locating an object of explanation within a larger structure and identifying structural constraints that act on elements of the structure. We show that children as young as 3-4 years old show signs of structural thinking, and that 5-6-year-olds show additional differentiation between structural and nonstructural thinking, yet still fall short of adult performance. These findings introduce structural connections as a new type of nonaccidental relationship between a property and a category, and present a viable alternative to internalist accounts of social categories, such as psychological essentialism. (PsycINFO Database Record

Young Pandas Cheat and Smoke: A Social Control Theory Explanation of Chinese University Students' Exam Cheating and Smoking

Young Pandas Cheat and Smoke: A Social Control Theory Explanation of Chinese University Students' Exam Cheating and Smoking

A Social Ecological Modeled Explanation of the Resilience Processes of a Sample of Black Sesotho-Speaking Adolescents.

The primary aim of the study that this article reports was to model and test a social ecological explanation of resilience as explained by Ungar. Its secondary aim was to investigate resilience-promoting supports in school-going Black South African adolescents. School attendance was specified as a culturally appropriate, functional outcome of resilience. The Pathways to Resilience Research Project gathered data through the Pathways to Resilience Youth Measure. Seven hundred and thirty school-going adolescents (age 12-19 years, 388 female, 341 male, one unspecified) from Thabo Mofutsanyana District, in South Africa's Free State province, participated in this cross-sectional study. Latent variable modeling was used to test measurement models of adolescents' self-reported perceptions of social ecological contributions (resources and risks) to their resilience. A complex model based on a social ecological explanation of resilience fitted the data best. The structural model showed that the resilience process predicted 32% of the variance in school attendance. Social skills, cultural, and spiritual resources were most supportive of adolescents' resilience. The results confirmed that the complex model explained resilience in Black South African adolescents as a person-context relational process and prompt principals, parents, teachers, and governmental departments to encourage school attendance.

Dead Grass: Foreclosure and the Production of Space in Maricopa County, Arizona

A wide variety of economic, social, political and moral explanations have been given for why the foreclosure crisis of the late 2000s occurred. Yet many of the tensions provoked by the uptick in foreclosure proceedings, their resolution during the foreclosure recovery process, and the insight they provide into the function of American space remain unexplored. This article uses Lefebvre’s <em>The Production of Space</em> as a framework to explore the spatial and ecological contradictions of suburban development in Maricopa County (Phoenix), Arizona, USA, and the ways those contradictions were drawn into relief by the foreclosure crisis of the late 2000s. Analysis through this Lefebvrian lens uncovers symbolic meanings assigned to urban ecologies and their ruliness as a means of drawing legal devices such as nuisance laws and housing codes into a more-than-human frenzy. This article follows a growing tradition of scholarship that employs Lefebvrian insights to identify and explicate urban planning dilemmas.

The evolving normative dimensions of ‘riot’: Towards an elaborated social identity explanation

AbstractThe question of how normative form changes during a riot, and thus how collective behaviour spreads to different targets and locations, has been neglected in previous research, despite its theoretical and practical importance. We begin to address this limitation through a detailed analysis of the rioting in the London borough of Haringey in 2011. A triangulated analysis of multiple sources of data (including police reports, media accounts, and videos) finds a pattern of behaviour shifting from collective attacks on police targets to looting. A thematic analysis of 41 interview accounts with participants gathered shortly after the events suggests that a shared anti‐police identity allowed local postcode rivalries to be overcome, forming the basis of empowered action not only against the police but to address more long‐standing grievances and desires. It is argued that collective psychological empowerment operated in a ‘positive feedback loop’, whereby one form of collective self‐objectification (and perceived inability of police to respond) formed the basis of further action. This analysis of the development of new targets in an empowered crowd both confirms and extends the elaborated social identity model as an explanation for conflictual intergroup dynamics.

Matters of time: Materiality and the changing temporal organisation of everyday energy consumption

This article seeks to reverse an emphasis in current discussions of peak demand and the times of everyday energy consumption, which suggest that the use of technologies, infrastructures and energy are patterned by temporal features of practice as against such materials being integral to practice temporalities. In an exploratory study of homes and daily lives between 1950 and 2000, materials are foregrounded in the analysis of daily routines and the temporal details of specific practices – doing laundry, keeping warm and keeping oneself clean. The article challenges prominent approaches by demonstrating the material co-constitution of practice temporalities, and thus of the temporal organisation of everyday energy consumption. This material co-constitution is argued for in two ways. First, the article reveals the material dimensions of commonly cited concepts of temporality from Zerubavel, which have previously relied on solely social explanations. Second, the article argues that understanding materials as integral to times of practice (and consumption) requires a new conceptual vocabulary with which to perceive, analyse and discuss such relationships. The article concludes by outlining an initial set of concepts identified through the historical study and discusses the relevance of the emergent framework to contemporary contexts.

Religion and Partisan‐Ideological Sorting, 1984–2016*

ObjectiveThis article explores how religion affects the extent to which individuals connect their ideological to partisan identities—a process termed partisan‐ideological sorting.MethodTo explore this relationship, I analyze data from the American National Election Studies (ANES) Time‐Series surveys and the Youth‐Parent Socialization (YPS) panel study.ResultsI find that a matrix of belief, belonging, and behavior constrains the convergence between citizens’ political identities, with one important caveat: evangelical affiliation functions as the primary conduit through which religiosity shapes this sorting. Building on these results, I then estimate the direct impact of religion on sorting over time.ConclusionThese findings show that religion has produced asymmetric sorting in the mass public among persons with right‐leaning identities. Further, they provide a social explanation for partisan‐ideological sorting that complements extant institutional ones.

FAIRCLOUGH’S THREE DIMENSION FRAMEWORK USED ON TRUMP’S POLITICAL SPEECH: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS (A CASE STUDY OF HISTORIC SPEECH RELATED TO JERUSSALEM AS ISRAEL’S CAPITAL)

The aim of this research is to analyze and find out the ways used by Trump in delivering his political speech, based on Fairclough’s three dimension framework (1995). The method applied in this research is descriptive qualitative method. The data in this research is a set of transcription extracted from Trump’s speech published on December 8th, 2017 on youtube, which theme of the speech is Trump’s statement about Jerussalem being the capital of Israel. The research uses Fairclough theory. Since there are three dimension frameworks of the critical discourse analysis; first, a text or description (speech, writing, vicual images or a combination of these). Second, a discursive pratice or interpretation which involves the production and consumption of the texts. Third, a social practice or explanation of the discourse. Based on the theory, this research found some results that had been gained from Trump political speech; The ways of delivering this speech were vocabulary, voice, mood and transitivity. This speech conveyed meaning as persuading, criticism, constrastive participant, power, authority, allusion, claim, that were implicitly contained in this speech

Culture and choice: Toward integrating cultural sociology with the judgment and decision-making sciences

Cultural sociologists frequently theorize about choices and decisions, although we tend to shy away from this language, and from concepts that are used by the judgment and decision-making (JDM) sciences. We show that cultural sociology and JDM are compatible and complementary fields by dispelling some common misunderstandings about JDM. We advocate for a strategic assimilation approach in which cultural sociologists are able to translate their work into key JDM terms like beliefs, preferences, and endowments. Learning to speak the JDM language will allow cultural sociologists to make important, and uniquely sociological, contributions to social scientific explanations of choices and decisions.

Parity and Mortality: An Examination of Different Explanatory Mechanisms Using Data on Biological and Adoptive Parents

A growing literature has demonstrated a relationship between parity and mortality, but the explanation for that relationship remains unclear. This study aims to pick apart physiological and social explanations for the parity–mortality relationship by examining the mortality of parents who adopt children, but who have no biological children, in comparison with the mortality of parents with biological children. Using Swedish register data, we study post-reproductive mortality amongst women and men from cohorts born between 1915 and 1960, over ages 45–97. Our results show the relative risks of mortality for adoptive parents are always lower than those of parents with biological children. Mortality amongst adoptive parents is lower for those who adopt more than one child, while for parents with biological children we observe a U-shaped relationship, where parity-two parents have the lowest mortality. Our discussion considers the relative importance of physiological and social depletion effects, and selection processes.

Social Explanations of Lottery Play: New Evidence Based on National Survey Data.

This study examines the social contexts of gambling and analyzes social motivations for playing the lottery. We test three sociological approaches simultaneously: network effects, consumption theory, and strain theory. The data used (SOEP-IS, N=5868 individuals) has several advantages beyond being a large-scale representative sample of the German population. With information on households, we can analyze social network effects while avoiding the problems of egocentric network data. Another benefit of the SOEP-IS is the panel structure. We use the panel structure to improve measurements of strain theory by using the decline in income over time as a measure for it. Our results suggest that the three theories explain different aspects of lottery play. Networks seem to have an influence on lottery play. Having another person in the household playing the lottery is positively associated with both the probability of playing (regularly) and expenditures on lottery tickets. Daydreams and the belief in good luck are positively associated with lottery play as well. Strain theory is confirmed insofar as we find that a decline in income is significantly related to expenditures but not to the probability of playing the lottery. Overall, this study suggests that people play the lottery depending on their social surroundings, their desire to participate in a world normally out of their reach, and the tensions they feel from the distance between their aspirations and their actual social position.

Ambiguity aversion in buyer-seller relationships: A contingent-claims and social network explanation

Negotiations between buyers and sellers (or suppliers) of goods and services have become increasingly important due to the growing trend towards international purchasing, outsourcing and global supply networks together with the high uncertainty associated with them. This paper examines the effect of ambiguity aversion on price negotiations using multiple-priors-based real options with non-extreme outcomes. We study price negotiation between a buyer and seller in a dual contingent-claims setting (call option holding buyer vs. put option holding seller) to derive optimal agreement conditions under ambiguity with and without social network effects. We find that while higher ambiguity aversion raises the threshold for commitment for the seller, it has equivocal effects on the buyer's negotiation prospects in the absence of network control. Conversely when network position and relative bargaining power are accounted for, we find the buyer's implicit price (or negotiation threshold) decreases (or increases) unequivocally with increasing aversion to ambiguity. Extending extant real options research on price negotiation to the case of ambiguity, this set of results provides new insights into the role of ambiguity aversion and network structures in buyer-seller relationships, including how they influence the range of negotiation agreement between buyers and sellers. The results also help assist managers in formulating robust buying/selling strategies for bargaining under uncertainty. By knowing their network positions and gathering background information or inferring the other party's ambiguity tolerance beforehand, buyers and sellers can anticipate where the negotiation is heading in terms of price negotiation range and mutual agreement possibilities.

The One-Child Policy, Elder Care, and LGB Chinese: A Social Policy Explanation for Family Pressure

ABSTRACTLesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people in China consistently report family pressure as the greatest challenge they face in their daily lives. This problem has been explained primarily by highlighting sociocultural factors. While such explanations are important to understanding family pressure, they do not easily lead to actionable policy interventions to relieve it. This article suggests a new way of looking at family pressure by positing a social policy explanation. In particular, it reveals how both the one-child policy and elder care reforms have strong heteronormative biases that negatively and disproportionately affect LGB people, and it explores social policy interventions that may help address them. Beyond the China case, the article seeks to open up new avenues for research into how sexuality could be better accounted for in analyses of social policies and considered in broader discussions on defamilization and welfare state reform.

Patients\u2019 experiences of living with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS): a qualitative study

BackgroundPatients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) are common in primary care, and pose a communicative and therapeutic challenge to GPs. Although much has been written about GPs’ frustration and difficulties while dealing with these patients, research presenting the patients’ perspectives on MUS still seems to be scarce. Existing studies have demonstrated the patients’ desire to make sense of symptoms, addressed the necessity for appropriate and acceptable explanation of MUS, and revealed stigmatization of patients with symptoms of mental origin. Treatment in primary care should focus on the patient’s most essential needs and concerns. The objective of this paper is to explore Polish patients’ perspectives on living with MUS.MethodsA qualitative content analysis of 20 filmed, semi-structured interviews with patients presenting MUS (8 men and 12 women, aged 18 to 57) was conducted. All patients were diagnosed with distinctive somatoform disorders (F45), and presented the symptoms for at least 2 years. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed independently by two researchers.ResultsFour major themes emerged: (1) experiences of symptoms; (2) explanations for symptoms; (3) coping; (4) expectations about healthcare. Within the first theme, the patients identified the following sub-themes: persistence of symptoms or variability, and negative emotions. Patients who observed that their symptoms had changed over time were better disposed to accept the existence of a relationship between the symptoms and the mind. The second theme embraced the following sub-themes: (1) personal explanations; (2) social explanations; (3) somatic explanations. The most effective coping strategies the patients mentioned included: the rationalization of the symptoms, self-development and ignoring the symptoms. The majority of our respondents had no expectations from the healthcare system, and stated they did not use medical services; instead, they admitted to visiting psychologists or psychiatrists privately.ConclusionPatients with MUS have their own experiences of illness. They undertake attempts to interpret their symptoms and learn to live with them. The role of the GP in this process is significant, especially when access to psychological help is restricted. Management of patients with MUS in the Polish healthcare system can be improved, if access to psychologists and psychotherapists is facilitated and increased financial resources are allocated for primary care. Patients with MUS can benefit from a video/filmed consultation with a follow-up analysis with their GP.

Protecting Children from Faith-Based Abuse through Accusations of Witchcraft and Spirit Possession: Understanding Contexts and Informing Practice

Faith-based abuse relating to the practice of witchcraft and spirit possession is a controversial and not well-understood form of child abuse. From its ‘discovery’ in the UK as a cause of abuse, serious injury and death for children, in 2000 to the present, the recent history of witchcraft and spirit possession involves some high-profile cases, involving serious harm and death for some children, which attracted significant publicity. This article reviews research and commentary, including grey literature, and the emerging policy framework. It discusses the underpinning relationship between faith-based practices and abuse, and takes a post-colonial perspective to discuss the social explanations for the continuing practice of witchcraft and spirit possession in contemporary society. These discussions are then shown to inform practice. Practice priorities are informed assessment of suspected cases, through early and statutory interventions, care for survivors, and an important focus on community engagement to prevent this form of child abuse.

Expanding social actor-based explanations in labour market dualisation research

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to contribute conceptually to debate on labour market dualisation by proposing a macro-micro and micro-macro (or macro-micro-macro) analytical approach to integrate actor-based explanations in the study of labour market dualisation.Design/methodology/approachThis is a conceptual paper emphasising the need to combine qualitative and quantitative data and methods in studying the nature and incidence of labour market dualisation.FindingsTo study social divides – as a manifestation of labour market dualisation and, more generally, fragmentation – macro-micro and micro-macro (i.e. macro-micro-macro) relationships need to be established as part of an analytical approach to studying dualisation. This implies considering macro-level institutional and regulatory as well as micro-level workplace and organisational settings as factors in any analysis and interpretation of the determinants of labour market dualisation, i.e. integrating the dynamics of power and strategy as determinants of dualisation, fragmentation and more generally precariousness.Originality/valueThe paper points to the need to expand actor-based explanations within the labour market dualisation debate, which remains overly institutionalist in its approach. The authors propose a micro-macro-micro analytical approach as the way to systematise the study of concurrent macro-micro and micro-macro relationships shaping social divides in labour markets.

AN ELABORATION AND CRITIQUE OF “REASSESSING ‘TOWARD A THEORY OF RACE, CRIME, AND URBAN INEQUALITY’”

AbstractIn the prior article in this volume, Robert Sampson and colleagues (2018) take theoretical and empirical stock of a framework they presented twenty years ago. They find broad empirical support for its core tenets. Differences in disadvantage explain most, if not all, observed gaps in violent crime between Black and White neighborhoods; disadvantage also operates similarly to foster crime in Black and White areas. The authors also lament the limited research on the key intervening mechanism of community social organization, particularly its cultural and political sources, that links disadvantage to crime. I have two primary goals in commenting on this article. First, in keeping with their assessment, I provide my take on their agenda for extending the framework beyond the Black-White divide, giving greater attention to the political sources of community social organization, and considering reciprocal relationships between crime, race, and disadvantage. Second, I elaborate on how my views differ from Sampson and colleagues’ regarding strategies to empirically validate the racial invariance thesis, the breadth of support for the thesis beyond its core tenets, and the role of culture. I provide these critiques to encourage further work exploring the explanatory power of Sampson and colleagues’ thesis, and, to thereby foster a better understanding of enduring inequities in violent crime between racialized minority populations and Whites. Without their ecologically-based approach, we run the risk of essentializing minorities as criminogenic, like recent work espousing cultural (devoid of structural) and biological (devoid of social) explanations for the race-crime link.