Social Inertia Research Articles

The Colombian paradox. Religion, democracy, and political violence*

ABSTRACT Colombia is a paradoxically complex country – remarkably violent, democratic, and religious all at once. This article presents three claims regarding the responsibility of the Catholic Church hierarchy and civic society in this paradox. First, the Church shifted from partisanship during “La Violencia” (1948 to 1957) to legitimizing the political order proposed by the National Front (1958 to 1974). Second, while the 1886 Constitution recognized Catholicism as the state religion, this collapsed in the 1950s amid increasing pluralization and secularization. Third, Colombian religious practices tend to be formalistic, ritualistic, and driven by a social inertia rather than of personal convictions. This prevented the Catholic spirit from fostering an irenic civic culture that could have discouraged violent attitudes and perhaps curbed the rise of a widespread banality.

Электронный документооборот как фактор влияния на человеческий капитал организаций

The article represents one of the first attempts in the domestic literature on the problems of electronic docu-ment management to link this issue with such a social factor as increasing trust in society and such a problem of modern management as the role of electronic document management in managing the human capital of the organization. On the issue of trust, the article substantiates the fact that the problem initially posed by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of May 9, 2017, to create conditions for increasing trust in electronic documents has not yet been solved. It is emphasized that the rejection of paper media has rather reduced trust in society both at the level of the state-population and at the level of corporate employer-employee relations. In order to confirm this circumstance, the authors stress the social inertia of the transition from paternalistic social and labor relations to liberal-market commodity-money relations in modern society. On the issue of the connection of transition to electronic document flow in the management of a modern organiza-tion, the article substantiates that such a transition from the standpoint of human resource management should be assessed from the standpoint of changing the paradigm of managing the labor potential of an employee, adopted in the Soviet economy, to the paradigm of human capital management in the modern economy. The given conclusion is argued both by references to socio-economic literature and the results of socio-economic research. The article justifies that the transition to management as part of human capital issues solves the prob-lem of trust and social justice in the transition to electronic document flow management.

Struggling in Crisis: The Evolution of Rainmaking in Transitional China, 1912–1949

This paper seeks to investigate China’s response to the crisis of survival in the early twentieth century through the lens of rainmaking, a ritual practice that connected with the transcendental nature of religious ideas, yet refused to be categorized primarily as Buddhism or Daoism. The time-honored ritual, straddling China’s transition from a monarchy to a republic, was enmeshed in a web of local and national crises with multiple dimensions. Its struggle for a place in the age of reason and rationality speaks volumes about the agonizing process by which the Chinese reconstructed their cultural identity in order to conform to a preconceived global narrative. Adapting rainmaking to the discourse of modernity set the stage for conflict and negotiation between the forces of social transformation and social conservation. The boundary between these forces is difficult to define, but their dynamic equilibrium shaped and reshaped the historical contour of rainmaking, illuminating the strength of China’s social inertia that could withstand the revolutionary force of a regime change.

Patients’ behavioral intentions toward robotic adoption in healthcare: An approach on apprehension of embedding robotics

The ubiquitous healthcare sector requires a variegated set of emerging innovations and advanced technologies in the healthcare sector. Healthcare stakeholders in a turbulent marketplace continuously strive to maintain relevance; thus, the healthcare robotics notion has emerged to become a game-changer in the human realm. These emerging systems provide new possibilities to create a core value for stakeholders, specifically care providers and care receivers, in the turbulent environment. Although robotics is moving forward in healthcare, human inertia and apprehension are still anchors exerting robotics. Human behaviors and attitudes may change with time and in different circumstances. This paper aims to contribute a new perspective to the patients’ degree of apprehensions—trust, ethical, privacy, and legal concerns—which affect their behavioral intentions toward robotics adoption in healthcare by considering the moderating effect of social crises, including the aging and COVID-19 pandemic. The brink of a robotic era is encountered with challenges, including the aging population and COVID-19 for public and private healthcare stakeholders worldwide. Hence, this study’s essential support is to investigate emerging technology adoption and hurdles to ascertain how the patients’ behavioral intentions might affect robotic adoption in healthcare. Furthermore, this paper examines the anchors’ factors that affect individual behavioral intentions to successfully propose remedies to embed robotics in the human realm. The results indicate that trust, privacy, and ethical concerns are direct predictors of behavioral intentions toward robotic adoption. Moreover, behavioral intentions toward robotics adoption significantly affect the actual use of robotics in the healthcare industry in the future. Furthermore, social inertia, including aging and pandemics, significantly and positively affects behavioral intentions toward healthcare robotic adoption and use. Finally, both aging and pandemic positive interactions affect actual robotic use in the future of the healthcare industry.

Traces of Obduracy: Imaginaries of ‘Social Inertia’ in the Process of Introducing Collaborative Housing in the Czech Republic

This paper explores the sociotechnical change necessary for the introduction of collaborative housing projects into the Czech super-homeownership housing regime. To better understand the obduracy of the current housing system, we examine the major barriers and threats to the implementation of such projects through a series of workshops with non-experts in selected cities. Our findings suggest that the housing system’s obduracy is related to social imaginaries that we conceptualise as the ‘imaginary of social inertia’. This form of imaginary, along with other factors such as a lack of supporting legal and financial infrastructures, creates a complex network of obstacles that reduce the likelihood of such housing projects gaining ground. In conclusion, our research emphasises the role of imaginaries in studying obduracy and thus provides valuable insights into the processes of urban sociotechnical change.

Getting Trapped in Technical Debt: Sociotechnical Analysis of a Legacy System’s Replacement

Organizations replace their legacy systems for technical, economic, and operational reasons. Replacement is a risky proposition, as high levels of technical and social inertia make these systems hard to withdraw. Failure to fully replace systems results in complex system architectures involving manifold hidden dependencies that carry technical debt. To understand how a process for replacing a complex legacy system unfolds and accumulates technical debt, we conducted an explanatory case study at a local manufacturing site that had struggled to replace its mission-critical legacy systems as part of the larger global company’s commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) system implementation. We approach the replacement as a sociotechnical change and leverage the punctuated sociotechnical information system change model in combination with the design-moves framework to analyze how the site balanced creating digital options, countering social inertia, and managing (architectural) technical debt. The findings generalize to a two-level (local/global) system-dynamics model delineating how replacing a deeply entrenched mission-critical system generates positive and negative feedback loops within and between social and technical changes at local and global levels. The loops, unless addressed, accrue technical debt that hinders legacy system discontinuance and gradually locks the organization into a debt-constrained state. The model helps managers anticipate challenges that accompany replacing highly entrenched systems and formulate effective strategies to address them.

Assessing the plausibility of climate futures

Abstract We suggest a new Social Plausibility Assessment Framework to assess which climate futures are plausible (Aykut, Wiener et al., 2021). The approach is rooted in theories about social change, social inertia and path dependency, disruptive change, and transformation. This theoretical basis allows us to identify a set of key drivers that can be assumed to have a high impact on a given future scenario. A climate future is socially plausible if the empirical evidence about the key drivers point in the direction toward the chosen scenario, or at least strongly indicates that enabling conditions are building up that support this direction. To test the framework, we chose the scenario of deep decarbonization by 2050 which is our understanding of the necessary social change that would be needed for limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 °C, with reasonable likelihood of only a limited overshoot. We selected ten key social drivers that influence whether we achieve deep decarbonization by 2050: UN climate governance, transnational initiatives, climate-related regulation, climate protests and social movements, climate litigation, corporate responses, fossil fuel divestment, consumption patterns, journalism, and knowledge production. We defined enabling and constraining conditions for each of these drivers to be able to assess whether these drivers are moving towards or away from deep decarbonization, and how fast. We used extensive literature reviews, existing data bases, and our own research to establish the empirical evidence for the assessment. Unless the enabling conditions of social drivers change dramatically over the next few years, reaching worldwide deep decarbonization by 2050 is not plausible. We discuss implications of this assessment.

Social inquiry for higher education in Russia: Sociological context

The purpose of the work is to determine the characteristics of the social demand for higher education in Russia. The methodological basis of the research is built around the neo-institutional theory, namely D. North's theory of institutional evolution. A theoretical model of the social inquiry for higher education in Russia was developed; four factors with the greatest influence on the social demand were formulated: 1) social inertia; 2) market laws; 3) students' intentions; 4) fashion and trends. The research was conducted and the results of comprehension of features of the social demand for higher education in Russia were presented. The qualitative empirical research aimed at verification of the proposed model of the social inquiry along with the analysis and comparison of the importance of the formulated factors. The theoretical model of the social demand for higher education in Russia was developed; a comparison of concepts of the social inquiry was made.

ДЕРЖАВНА ПОЛІТИКА СТРУКТУРНОЇ ТРАНСФОРМАЦІЇ ЕКОНОМІКИ СТАРОПРОМИСЛОВИХ РЕГІОНІВ УКРАЇНИ В ПЕРІОД ПОВОЄННОГО ВІДНОВЛЕННЯ

Проблема розвитку регіонів, які в умовах втрати ваги індустріальних чинників економічного зростання потерпають від економічного спаду, є в полі уваги сучасної регіональної політики на світовому, зокрема європейському, рівні. Структурні трансформації у таких регіонах відбуваються з урахуванням вимог постіндустріального суспільства за рахунок комплексного застосування інструментів регіональної, структурної та промислової політики. Для України вирішення проблем розвитку таких регіонів потребує оновлення концепту державної політики, заснованого на врахуванні глобальних економічних тенденцій зміни принципів розміщення продуктивних сил; посиленні інституційного впливу на специфічні властивості регіонів (ендогенну депресивність, структурну і соціальну інертність); підвищенні ступеня інклюзивності регіональних ринків праці, забезпеченні вбудовування регіональних економік у світові ланцюжки доданої вартості на засадах неоіндустріалізації. Упровадження оновленого концепту структурних трансформацій старопромислових регіонів є важливим у межах реалізації загального Плану післявоєнного відновлення економіки України. Сформовані рекомендації із забезпечення ефективних структурних змін у старопромислових регіонах України на підставі оновленого концепту державної політики стосуються усунення проблемних моментів державної регіональної та галузевої політик і покращення їх скоординованості між собою. Основними шляхами модернізації економіки регіонів на засадах запропонованого концептуального підходу визначено вдосконалення вітчизняного інституційного забезпечення регіонального розвитку; подолання недосконалості та нестабільності галузевого законодавства (зокрема, у сфері реструктуризації вугільної галузі); урахування особливостей структурної трансформації старопромислових регіонів у політиці післявоєнної відбудови економіки України.

ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНО-ЦЕННОСТНЫЕ ОРИЕНТАЦИИ ЖЕНЩИН РЕГИОНОВ ЮГА РОССИИ

Objective of the study is to identify the professional and value orientations of the female population in the South-Russian regions. The methodological basis of the research. The empirical data used in the article were obtained during the sociological study “Social inertia in the meanings and practices of everyday life of the population of the South-Russian regionsˮ, conducted in 2018 by the staff of the South-Russian Branch of the Federal Research Sociological Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The sample was 2256 people, including 1264 women. The study was conducted in the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, the Republic of Adygea, the Republic of Crimea, Rostov Region and Stavropol Territory. While working on the article, the author was guided by the methods of analysis and comparison. Research results. In the process of transformation of value orientations and gender relations, the labor and professional activities of women have undergone significant changes. Of course, all women have different professional preferences, aspirations and career strategies, but at the same time there are common professional and value orientations that women can be guided by in the course of their professional activities. As a result of our research, we were able to determine the professional values that the female population of the South-Russian regions is guided by in the process of employment and professional activity. Prospects of the study. The issue of professional self-determination of women, their professional preferences and values in the South-Russian regions have prospects for further study and even a separate research.

Irrational Foundations of Suicide

The article discusses theoretical studies on suicides and suicidal behavior, discusses the features of the development of this phenomenon in different social groups, provides a general typology of studies already conducted through the prism of understanding the impact of social experience (external pressure factors, crisis, stressful situations) and intrapersonal problems (related to personality traits, socialization and adaptation of a person to external influences and internal experiences and processes). The paper also presents the results of a comprehensive study of the irrational foundations of suicide. The first is based on an analysis of the materials of a quantitative survey of Russians (n-1200) conducted in 2022 in all regions of the Russian Federation. The second one is constructed on the interpretation of qualitative data ‒ the analysis of expert interviews (n-18), psychologists, psychotherapists, psychiatrists, philosophers, criminologists. The third is the analysis of articles and publications in social networks devoted to suicides and promoting suicidal behavior (n-1620), which made it possible to identify key semantic lexemes that indicate the main causes and factors in the development of suicidal behavior and suicides. As a result of the study, we identified nine of them: 1) age (17–21, 40–45, 55–65); 2) limitation of emotional and sensory experience; 3) difficulties in building communications due to their own incompetence or limited opportunities; 4) problems of self-determination in society (conflict with a group, forced confrontation ‒ in the family, at work, among friends); 5) weakly expressed own worldview; 6) feeling of loneliness; 7) a sharp stratification of people in terms of the level and quality of life; 8) social inertia and frustration; 9) destructive hobbies (drug addiction, drunkenness). The use of these research methods made it possible to supplement and expand the initial materials and data of the work, to reveal the potential for interaction at the methodological and practical level and to identify several prospects for topics for further scientific research. It is indicated that the quality of life is based on the ability to predict the future, the prevention of suicidal behavior and suicide can become the basis for social stability and social reproduction.

ELEMENTS OF ANTI-UTOPIA IN THE NOVEL "RADIO NIGHT" BY YU. ANDRUKHOVYCH

The article deals with the relevance of anti-utopian discourse in the twentieth century, which is considered a time of anti-utopian social thinking in view of historical reality. The study outlines the problems of transformation of the genre of anti-utopia in the postmodern era on the basis of the most notable research on the material of modern Ukrainian prose. It is emphasized that anti-utopia in the XXI century expands the boundaries of its existence as a literary genre, becoming a socio-cultural phenomenon of perception of reality. The list of characteristic features of the genre of literary anti-utopia is given. Based on the analysis of the novel "Radio Night" by Yu. Andrukhovych, the author finds out that this text contains features of both utopia and anti-utopia. The utopian thinking embodied in the work is based on an optimistic perception of the past, anti-utopianism is rooted in the area of doubt, which emphasizes the negative aspects of society and social consciousness as a result of the effect of dependence on previous development ("path dependence") or the effect of track, social inertia, when the negative attitudes that have been developed over the decades make positive progress impossible. It is noted in the article that the anti-utopian nature of the novel by Yu. Andrukhovych is manifested in the reflection of despair in the possibility of embodying the ideals of the Revolution of Dignity, illusory human freedom, the theme of confrontation to the digital sphere, determinism of human destiny, the modality of constant movement, the idea of an artificial man, the creation of a collective negative image of the state. It is stated that the fate of the hero is in the center of the plot, the attention is focused on the consequences of resistance to the system for the privacy of the average person. The article points out that the genre variety of the novel "Radio Night" testifies to the process of genre diffusion in the dynamics of genre transformations: elements of utopia evolve into elements of anti-utopia, micro-elements of science fiction genre are involved, which can be classified as included genre. The synthetic nature of the genre of the text by Yu. Andrukhovych is stated, a conclusion is made about the unfolding of a genre variety of escapic metautopia or postutopia in the novel.

The War in the Scientific Discourse of Russia and Austria (Book Review: V.K. Belozorov & A. Dubowy (Eds.) <i>Military Science versus the Science of War in Austria and in Russia = Militärwissenschaften versus Wissenschaft über den Krieg in Österreich und Russland.</i> Moscow: Moscow State Linguistic University, 2021)

The author reviews the collective work Military Sciences versus the Science of War in Austria and in Russia (2021). The reviewed book considers methodological and ideological problems of modern war and its aspects. The author draws attention to several topics, which are important for understanding modern war. The reviewed work is analyzed from the point of view of its contribution to the development of the philosophy of war. The author focuses on the peculiarities of classical researches on war, pays attention to the conceptual and categorical apparatus, conducts a comparative analysis of thoughts and judgments of Russian and Austrian scholars, shows their conceptual vision of everything related to the war. The article considers the approach to the modern science of war. The possibility of its exclusion from the historical process is analyzed. The main factor preventing the elimination of war is a strong social inertia. Analyzing concepts and categories of the philosophy of war, the collective work discussing the art of war, strategy, and the meaning of war. Strategy, even being divided into military and political one, is a part of the art of war. The review’s author considers the views on philosophical foundations of war of Russian and Austrian scholars, who are in search for moral basis for countering this social and political phenomenon. It is noted that analyzing the views on the nature of war of scientists in Austria and Russia, the political ambitions of their nations should be taken into account. The monograph emphasizes that an effective opposition to militarism should be based on an analysis of its nature and the real historical situation.

Environment Actors Confronting a Post Climate-Related Disaster Scenario: A Feasibility Study of an Action-Based Intervention Aiming to Promote Climate Action.

(1) A climate change awareness-action gap still prevails in our society, with individuals showing significant social inertia regarding environmental issues. The communication on climate change is pointed out as one of the causes of the social inertia; (2) Following an action-oriented transformation research, the main goal of this study was to ascertain the feasibility of an action-based communication intervention, based on the participants’ exposure to a post climate-related disaster scenario. The feasibility of the action-based communication intervention was assessed in a focus group meeting, whose content was qualitatively analysed; (3) The results of this study demonstrate that action-based communication interventions are feasible to trigger an attitude transformation, catalysed by the experiential processing of climate change and by the affect arousal; (4) This study comes to contribute to a transformation of the climate change communication praxis, by highlighting the urgency to shift the for a new paradigm of communicating climate change, in which the affect and the experiential processing should account for conveying environment-related information in order to promote society’s climate action.

From shared climate to personal ecosystems: Why some people create unique environments

Much of organizational behavior research looks at how social context influences individuals’ experiences and behaviors. We add to this view by arguing that some individuals create their own contexts, and do so in a way that follows them across dyads, groups, and organizations. We call these individual-specific contexts “personal ecosystems,” and propose that they are created when an actor consistently engages in visible behaviors that trigger similar and visible reactions across targets of that behavior. We attribute the formation of personal ecosystems to social inertia, and identify three individual traits that increase the likelihood that an individual’s behavior is consistent across people and situations: low self-monitoring, implicit beliefs, and low levels of emotional intelligence. Finally, we discuss why understanding personal ecosystems is important for organizations, identify managerial implications of this phenomenon, and strategies for diminishing the likelihood of having personal ecosystems.

Origin and Outcome of Social Polygyny in the Blue Tit

Classic explanations for polygyny consider habitat, genetic makeup and paternal care, but little attention has been paid to social inertia. We studied facultative social polygyny in a population of Blue Tits Cyanistes caeruleus with a low rate of polygyny (3% of males across 12 years). Occurrence of polygyny was best predicted by social turnover after the disappearance of one or more individuals; habitat quality and individual phenotypic traits were unimportant. Females settled as secondary females with a male and in an area they had previously associated with, indicating a role of familiarity in the formation of polygyny. Females mated to polygynous males received less help feeding nestlings. Reduced paternal care is potentially costly, because these females survived less well than females mated to monogamous males. Reduction in care occurred at both primary and secondary nests although polygynous males rarely divided their care between nests. On any given day during the nestling period, polygynous males were more likely than monogamous males to not feed nestlings at all and – as a consequence – polygynous males provided less care in total than monogamous males. Polygynous males rarely intermingled visits at both nests, suggesting a cost of switching between feeding locations. Both primary and secondary nests had reduced fledging success, even after controlling for variation in habitat quality and paternal care, due to a higher rate of nest failure. Paternity loss was higher at secondary nests, presumably because the secondary female copulated with a previous mate that disappeared. Due to increased paternity loss and reduced fledging success polygynous males did not sire more fledglings than monogamous males in a given season. Thus, the benefit of social polygyny for males seems limited. Social polygyny in our population probably arises as a by-product of widowed females settling as secondary mates with a familiar male or in a familiar area, thereby making the best of a bad situation.

Inertia in socio-economic systems: theoretical and heuristic analysis of the phenomenon

Modern society and economy are a complex dynamic system of an open type, the complexity of which is due to the variety of forms and contents of modern socio-economic relations between individuals and economic entities. Inertia, as a phenomenon, is characteristic of both objects of the material world and subjective reality (for example, inertia of thinking). With all the variety of manifestations of inertia that we encounter in the events and phenomena of social life, inertia is given considerable attention in the natural (physics, etc.) and technical (applied mechanics, etc.) sciences. At the same time, there are practically no theoretical and methodological studies of this phenomenon in the humanities and social sciences (economics, political science, sociology, etc.). In this study, the authors consider inertia as a phenomenon characteristic of any modern socio-economic system. The object of the study is the phenomenon of inertia, as an integral attribute of complex dynamic systems. The subject of the study is the phenomenon of inertia, as a event in the socio-economic life of society. We consider inertia as an indispensable attribute of the social and economic life of society, which inevitably affects the rate of decision-making (managerial, financial, investment, etc.), the final result of management, the effectiveness of the implementation of project decisions and other consequences of social and economic existence. The results of the study. They are expressed in the consideration of the substantive and conceptual aspects of the phenomenon of inertia in socio-economic systems, with the transdisciplinarity of the categorical and conceptual apparatus of various fields of knowledge. The formulations of social and economic inertia are proposed. Based on the principles of sufficient reason, it is proved that inertia is an inherent property of social and economic systems. The content aspects of the formation and reality of economic and social inertia are presented and disclosed. Special cases of inertia accounting in economic and social systems in world practice (Taylor rule, Berliner effect, etc.) are considered. The author’s definitions and interpretation of some real events are presented.Abbreviations. Socio-economic system (SES), inertial system (IS), non-inertial system (NIS), inertial mass (IM).

Research on the Influence Mechanism of Career Insecurity on Individual Career Dynamics

Career insecurity is widespread in individual career development. Career insecurity has both positive and negative effects on individual career dynamics. It has practical value to explore the influence mechanism between career insecurity and individual career dynamics for both individual career development and organizational performance. Through sorting out the relevant literature, this paper proposes two hypotheses on the influence of career insecurity on individual career dynamics. The negative impact of career insecurity on individual career motivation is mainly reflected in the reduction of organizational commitment, organizational trust, job satisfaction, employee performance, work input, innovative behavior, etc.; the positive impact of job insecurity on individual career motivation is mainly reflected in a low level of career insecurity can lead to social inertia such as absenteeism and increased escapism. this research plans the research methods and steps, laying a foundation for the next empirical study.

Valentía, feminismo y resiliencia. La (in)visibilidad de la mujer musulmana a través del cine

El cine es una ventana abierta al mundo que nos rodea. Las diferentes cinematografías nos acercan y revelan, al mismo tiempo, preocupaciones y realidades sociales de muy diversa naturaleza. En este caso, esta investigación se centra en analizar a través de una serie de filmes seleccionados las diferencias problemáticas de la mujer musulmana (sus padecimientos en las guerras, indefensión, pérdida de derechos y libertades, acoso, abusos, resiliencia, etc.) en diferentes países y entornos. Cada una de estas producciones desvela un universo femenino con una intención muy importante y crucial: sensibilizarnos y alterar las inercias sociales que se dan en muchos países. El cine se convierte, así, en una palanca de cambio histórico que no solo hace visible a la mujer (al mostrar su sufrimiento), sino que se adentra, además, en recalcar su imprescindible protagonismo en todos los órdenes de la vida y la importancia que cobra la educación a la hora de materializar su empoderamiento.

Potential for large-scale CO2 removal via enhanced rock weathering with croplands.

Enhanced silicate rock weathering (ERW), deployable with croplands, has potential use for atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) removal (CDR), which is now necessary to mitigate anthropogenic climate change1. ERW also has possible co-benefits for improved food and soil security, and reduced ocean acidification2-4. Here we use an integrated performance modelling approach to make an initial techno-economic assessment for 2050, quantifying how CDR potential and costs vary among nations in relation to business-as-usual energy policies and policies consistent with limiting future warming to 2 degrees Celsius5. China, India, the USA and Brazil have great potential to help achieve average global CDR goals of 0.5 to 2 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year with extraction costs of approximately US$80-180 per tonne of CO2. These goals and costs are robust, regardless of future energy policies. Deployment within existing croplands offers opportunities to align agriculture and climate policy. However, success will depend upon overcoming political and social inertia to develop regulatory and incentive frameworks. We discuss the challenges and opportunities of ERW deployment, including the potential for excess industrial silicate materials (basalt mine overburden, concrete, and iron and steel slag) to obviate the need for new mining, as well as uncertainties in soil weathering rates and land-ocean transfer of weathered products.