Social Members Research Articles

Animals as Covictims and More-Than-Property: The Inclusion of Companion Animals in Protection Order Statutes at the State Level in the United States.

This article analyzes statutes in 37 U.S. states and Washington D.C. amended to include companion animals in definitions of domestic violence and to enable their inclusion in protection order (POs). The findings indicate that while the inclusion of animal abuse in definitions of domestic violence tends to frame their maltreatment in anthropocentric terms-as a vehicle for harming people-the language and consequences of their inclusion in some PO statutes position them as more-than-property, that is, more as subjects than objects. The analysis documents a temporal trend toward offering greater protections over time, greater bipartisan support for the amendments, and a shift from animals-as-property toward sociolegal recognition of their social membership and the ways their well-being is interconnected with that of the people who care for them.

Contribution of provisioning ecosystem services of homestead trees to rural livelihoods in Kashmir Himalaya, India

Aim: To quantify provisioning ecosystem services (PES) derived from homestead trees, estimate their economic value and contribution to rural livelihoods, and ascertain socio-economic determinants of household PES income from homestead trees in district Budgam of Kashmir. Methodology: In this study 106 homesteads were selected across 12 sample villages using multi-stage random sampling. Data were gathered through structured interviews, focus group discussions, homestead inventories, non-participant observations, and rapid market assessments. The data were analyzed through descriptive and analytical statistics. Results: The mean value of PES of homestead trees was ₹ 14349.27 per household per year, which was composed of fruits (45.54%), fuel wood (20.50%), tree browse (18.15%), timber (8.06%), and wicker (7.75%). PES of homestead trees constituted 4th important component of rural economy, accounting 16.23% of the average household's income. ANCOVA indicated that social membership, family size, family labour, farm size, livestock holding, main occupation, wealth status and annual income were potent predictors of household PES income from homestead trees. The R2 (0.872) of the ANCOVA model indicated that socio-economic determinants accounted for 87.20% of the variation in homestead trees' domestic PES revenue. Interpretation: Findings suggested that PES income from homestead trees is a vital intervention for socio-economic development, livelihood diversification, and forest conservation; hence, policy must be implicated towards a sustainable supply of PES from homestead trees by promoting homestead tree holdings. Key words: Homestead trees, Kashmir Himalaya, Livelihood, Provisioning ecosystem services

Tourism-driven livelihood dynamics: A comprehensive empirical study of Mount Kilimanjaro National Park communities in Tanzania

Tourism is pivotal for rural economic development; however, despite hosting a substantial number of tourists, many developing countries with rural landscapes face persistent poverty among local communities. This study aims to delve into the impact of tourism (geoheritage and national parks) on local livelihoods, examining drivers for livelihood portfolio and community decisions to engage in tourism activities. The Multivariate Probit and instrumental variable models (Instrumental Variable Probit, and Two Stage Least Squares) were employed on data from 582 respondents collected through cross-sectional questionnaires. Results highlight the significant influence of socioeconomic factors—sex, age, household size, credit access, market access, social membership, and education—on livelihood portfolio. Results show that specific tourism activities, such as accommodation services, handcrafts, catering and hospitality, and tour guiding, exert varying effects on household food security, income, and access to essential social services. Challenges hindering participation include education levels, information and awareness, service quality, cultural barriers, financial costs, government policies, competition, resource monopolisation, corruption, and infrastructure deficiencies. Recommendations include investments in skill development, infrastructure enhancement, cultural preservation, financial inclusion, regulatory frameworks, and community awareness programs. These strategies aim to facilitate household participation in tourism activities, promoting geotourism and enhancing the well-being of Mount Kilimanjaro National Park communities. Policymakers are urged to implement these measures to uplift local livelihoods and foster sustainable tourism in the region.

What does inclusion look like within an experiential teaching and assessing reflective learning model? Utilising authentic assessment to foster shared social membership

ABSTRACT The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights calls for accessible higher education (HE), stating that it is necessary for the full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity. Within this context, our research is centred on the Aristotelian principles of equity and fairness. To achieve these outcomes, our completed, Stage One research (2008–2019, 5603 participants), took place inside the university context and focused on designing out identified barriers to access and participation in mandatory assessment tasks for all students, including those with a disability. Building on our Stage One learnings and to generate increased inclusion, Stage Two involved the development of authentic HE assessment tasks which generate external , reflective, and inclusive practitioners who value shared social membership. This research seeks to support and strengthen the core philosophy of HE and the guiding principles of the participating university, Queensland University of Technology, which state: ‘ … the real world asks us … to guide it towards collective benefit.’ To achieve these outcomes, this university ‘ … partners with students to develop their self-knowledge, professional integrity and ethical leadership to enable them to become … global citizens who create positive social change’. This Stage Two research has been facilitated by the unique, author created integration of the Teaching and Assessing of Reflective Learning Model and the Experiential Learning Model (TARLEM). TARLEM focuses simultaneously on developing discipline-based content, the mastery of reflective practice skills, and an understanding of the reason for the task in terms of the social impacts of international business decision-making. The cross-cultural, cross-discipline and online/on campus participants are enrolled students in a UG IBU degree (622 responses).e

The development of moral reasoning in urban, high-social class families from Gujarat, India: A longitudinal study from middle childhood to late adolescence.

The aims of the present study were to quantitatively test hypotheses based on the cultural-developmental approach among children and adolescents in Vadodara, India, and to use qualitative analyses to examine the use of indigenous moral concepts. The study included 72 participants who were interviewed at two different age points, separated by approximately 4.5 years. At Time 1, participants were in middle childhood (Mage = 8.22 years) and in early adolescence (Mage = 11.54 years). At Time 2, the same participants were in early adolescence (Mage = 12.87 years) and late adolescence (Mage = 15.77 years). Three findings stood out: (1) As expected, the degree of use of Autonomy increased over the course of adolescence, as did the types of moral concepts. (2) The degree of use of Community significantly increased from middle childhood to adolescence. Duty, within Community was evoked prominently and consistently across all age points suggesting that aspects of social membership emerge early in Indian children's moral reasoning and remain important through adolescence. (3) The use of Divinity was prominent in middle childhood and its use decreased significantly through early adolescence; with a trend for a decrease in its use from early to late adolescence. While much of the reasoning in middle childhood was dominated by a concern for Punishment Avoidance from God, by adolescence Customary Traditional Authority and God's Authority gained prominence. Findings highlight aspects of adolescent moral reasoning that are largely missing in Western studies and point to the utility of emic, indigenous approaches to study moral development.

Urban greenspace for social integration: Which types of greenspace do new-Swedes prefer and why?

Urban greenspace (UGS) is a key public resource offering a broad range of nature-based solutions and is increasingly looked to as a potential arena to promote social integration in Europe’s increasingly multicultural urban and peri-urban areas. However, relatively little research has explored the preferences and perceptions of immigrants in relation to UGS, especially in European contexts. Without such knowledge, planners risk entrenching planning structures that inadvertently result in segregation and environmental injustice. Using survey and participatory mapping methods with 261 immigrants in eight sampled settlements across Sweden, this study explores which types of UGS foreign-born immigrants in Sweden (i.e., new-Swedes) prefer and why. We found that new-Swedes are frequent users of a wide spectrum of UGS types, with the most preferred types including forests, large parks and lakes. The majority of respondents were satisfied with the quality (73%), availability (68%) and accessibility (76%) of UGS in their hometowns. Our regression analysis identified 51 key factors that had a meaningful effect on preferences for different types of UGS. Key factors were distributed relatively evenly across blocks of predictor variables concerning characteristics of UGS, socio-demographic factors, activity preferences, and perceptions. Our results indicate that new-Swedes’ UGS preferences are broadly comparable with those of the general population in Sweden. We found little evidence to suggest that ethnocultural factors played a major role in the preferences of our respondents. Furthermore, our results suggest that nature-connectedness might be an important determinant of new-Swedes’ UGS preferences. Based on these findings, we highlight several opportunities to further develop UGS strategies to support different dimensions of social integration, e.g., using popular UGS as interactive spaces for cultural learning, as a platform for intercultural contacts and for maintaining cultural traditions, and to contribute towards a greater sense of social membership in their new country. A crucial implication of our study is that the use of UGS to support social integration may further contribute to the increasing complexity of the UGS planning and management challenge. This implies the need for a systems perspective in UGS research, policy-making, planning and management to consider UGS as part of an integrated urban social-ecological system and to coordinate measures across sectors.

Positioning among International Organizations: Shifting Centers of Gravity in Global Health Governance

Abstract In this paper, regime complexes are conceptualized as dynamic networks constituted by relations between international organizations (IOs). We introduce “IO positioning” as a conceptual lens for studying patterns and shifts in IO networks resulting from negotiations between IOs over their distinctiveness and social membership in complex organizational fields. We suggest that IO positioning has two constitutive effects. First, on the level of individual IOs, positioning affects IO identities within the field as these are (re)negotiated in relations with other organizations. Secondly, the positioning practices of IOs have constitutive effects on the contours of entire policy fields too; they form and shift the boundaries of regime complexes. Empirically, the paper examines the utility of our approach by analyzing the history, dynamics, and positioning effects of interorganizational relations between eight IOs in global health governance—an area of international cooperation that is commonly portrayed as exceptionally fragmented, complex, and densely populated. Examining relations between our eight IOs, we provide network analytical longitudinal data of in- and out-reporting by IOs derived from IOs’ annual reports between 1970 and 2017. We triangulate our network analysis with data derived from semi-structured interviews with health IO professionals.

Why failed asylum seekers should have a conditional right to stay: an ethical guideline for policy debates

This article aims to reconcile the moral rights of failed asylum seekers with the integrity of the asylum system. Can the state grant failed asylum seekers a right to stay without undermining the core purpose of the refugee system? Can the state sometimes return those whose asylum claim has failed without violating their moral rights? The article argues that restricting the rights of asylum seekers and reducing the length of the asylum process raise ethical concerns and practical problems. It emphasizes that liberal states should charitably interpret the norms of international protection. It proposes to extend the right to stay on social membership grounds qualified by a good faith condition, and limit returns to those that have lodged their claim in bad faith. Engaging with the good/bad faith distinction the article aims to counteract a culture of suspicion towards asylum seekers by clarifying what it really means to launch a claim in bad faith and to realign its scope in a morally appropriate way.

Self-images of school dropout in Barcelona: analysis from system justification theory / Autoimágenes sobre abandono escolar en Barcelona: análisis desde la teoría de la justificación del sistema

Sociocognitive theories assume that group membership has a direct impact on social identity. Vulnerable groups can develop different strategies to lessen the psychological discomfort caused by disadvantageous social membership. Some of these mechanisms operate by validating the social order. This article shows how implicit self-stereotypes operate in a group of students who have dropped out of school. The approach is qualitative based on these young people’s discourses on their educational trajectories, their school experiences and their reasons for dropping out. The analysis allows self-stereotypical elements with repercussions at the level of social justification to be identified and is complemented by a brief sociodemographic description to characterize the group in terms of their social disadvantage.

“Our Dark Hands and Sore Backs”: The Comité Cívico Popular Mixteco and the New Grassroots Activism by Indigenous Mexican Migrants

Abstract In the 1980s, Indigenous people from southern Mexico migrated in considerable numbers to the United States. Among the most prominent groups were the Mixteco people from Oaxaca, who worked mainly as farmworkers on labor-intensive crops in San Diego and throughout California. Because they were incorporated at the bottom of a racialized labor hierarchy distinct from previous Mexican cohorts and in a period of increased border violence and anti-immigrant sentiments, these new migrants formed the Comité Cívico Popular Mixteco (CCPM). Building from their experiences in Mexico and the migrant circuit, the CCPM's goals were to address their needs as workers and claim their dignity as Indigenous people. Mixtecos organized demonstrations, press conferences, and solidarity, resembling the tactics of Chicano/a, Latino/a, and farmworker struggles. Although their activities appeared similar to historical efforts in California, this article argues that the CCPM drew from their experiences participating in their pueblos’ (community of origin) local form of communal governance. The pueblo provided the basis for their activism as they also produced new forms of social membership. The work of the CCPM at this moment demonstrates how a growing Indigenous political culture from southern Mexico in California was reconsidering ways to enact leadership, community, and activism across borders.

Education for Refugees: Building Durable Futures?

Abstract Education is one of the key tools of nation-building, as it aims to create future citizens. Yet what happens in seemingly ‘futureless’ contexts where refugees cannot access even social membership, let alone legal citizenship? In this introduction to our special issue on education for refugees, we explore the aspirations and conceptions of possible futures that students, teachers, governments, international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), and funders have when they promote and pursue education as the solution to the liminal position that refugees in protracted refugee situations find themselves in. Based on insights from the articles, we analyse disconnects between aspirations for education and realities of access to quality education and to opportunities after completing education. We argue that to address these disconnects requires us to move beyond temporal and spatial binaries—present vs. future, here vs. there—that are so common in refugee education discourse and policy. Our suggestion is to draw on and support stakeholders’ work, powerfully exemplified in this special issue, to contribute to improved conditions through pedagogies, practices, and policies that address these binaries.

Reaffirming the Campus as a Sacred Space: A Japanese Case Study

In light of the considerable transformations in higher education that have had an impact on traditional campus experiences, this paper explores the role of university campuses as sacred spaces for young people. In particular, it examines the significance of the material environment in shaping young peoples’ experiences and social memberships within higher education institutions. Drawing on qualitative research, namely digital walkthrough interviews conducted at a Japanese institution during the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper argues that the physical spaces of a university produce special meaning and unexpected attachments for young people, and thus warrants greater attention as a site for social interaction and exchange. It will be shown that there is a need to look beyond the instrumental and purely pedagogic needs of students and place a greater emphasis on efforts to build more socially supportive campus environments. As universities continue the process of reinventing themselves to better fit the ‘new normal’ in a post-pandemic environment, this paper advocates for more consideration of the everyday needs of young people with regard to meaningful interaction, connection and belonging, and how regarding the campus as a sacred space for practices of placemaking and shared experience offers a pathway to fulfill these needs.

Development of the Rural Perception Scale (RPS-18).

People living in rural areas often experience limited access to health resources, slow knowledge diffusion, and geographical isolation, and tend to be at higher risk for poor physical and mental health outcomes compared with nonrural populations. It is unclear, yet, how the concept of "rural" shapes observed differences from nonrural populations. We aim to develop a psychometrically sound scale to assess key dimensions that constitute individual-level perceived rurality. We first conducted a broad literature review to identify a priori concepts related to rurality and adapted survey items measuring relevant constructs, such as loneliness, attitudes toward people living in rural areas, and perceived social membership. We used these conceptual constructs and measures to develop a survey questionnaire focused on rural perceptions. We recruit residents in 3 rural states: Kentucky, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Using the explorative factor analysis and second-order measurement model in the structural equation model framework, we developed a rural perception scale consisting of 18 items. We recruited 1,384 participants (n = 686 from KY; n = 698 from NH/VT) using Amazon Mechanical Turk (n = 897, 64.8%) and social media paid ads (n = 487, 35.2%). The average age of participants was 41 years old (SD = 15); 54.7% of respondents had less than college graduate education, and 94.2% reported their race as non-Hispanic White. Majority of the participants were from Rural Urban Commuting Area (RUCA)-designated urban areas (n = 798, 57.7%), followed by RUCA-designated large rural areas (257, 18.6%), RUCA-designated rural areas (n = 174, 12.6%) and RUCA-designated isolated areas (n = 133, 9.6%). Our final model revealed 4 latent constructs: "belonging" (Cronbach's α = 0.896), "attitudes toward rural life" (Cronbach's α= 0.807), "loneliness" (Cronbach's α = 0.898), and "community social ties to people in their community" (Cronbach's α = 0.846). We identified 4 subfactors of the umbrella concept of rurality that explain how people in rural regions may perceive being in rural environments and having rural lifestyles.

Plato’s Crito and the Contradictions of Modern Citizenship

Citizenship, with its presumptive rights, privileges and obligations, has been a fundamental challenge confronting the state since the classical Greek era and the transformation and reorganization of the centralized medieval Holy Roman Empire after the Thirty Years War. With the changing patterns of state formation from the large and unwieldy empires organized into absolutist states to the more nationalistic/linguistic formations a recurring issue has been the constitutional or legal guarantees of the rights of the citizen as well as his/her obligations to the state. This paper engaged in a nuanced study of Plato’s Crito as it relates the contradictions of citizenship as social membership and as participation in the modern state. The primary objective was to adapt Socrates’ experience to discuss the citizenship challenge in the modern state and driven by the research question on the implications of the emergence of new challenges to the contradictions of citizenship. Social contract theory by Thomas Hobbes served as the theoretical framework. Data collection was mainly from secondary sources such as academic journals, books, newspapers and internet sources, and data analysis based on the content and textual analysis of extant and relevant literature on the subject matter. Conclusively, the study realized that citizenship in the modern state is determined largely by the protection, in various ramifications, given to the citizen by the state, but that given a change in the circumstances many would decline to die for the state. Accordingly, it recommended a mutualism in the relationship and responsibilities between that state and the citizen of the modern state, particularly the underdeveloped states of the Third World.

How Age and Life Stage of Relocation Fosters Social Belonging: Comparing Two Groups of Older Migrants in the United States.

The presumed "ossification effect" of the past on older generations remains influential in the scholarship on aging and migration, orienting scholars to highlight the vulnerability of senior migrants in new societies. As a result, the ability of older generations to adapt to receiving societies has been underestimated and largely undifferentiated, and little is known about how age and life stage at arrival matter for how older individuals manage later-life transitions across borders. This article compares 2 groups of Han Chinese senior migrants: recent arrivals (who migrated to the United States later in life) and long-term residents (who migrated to the United States during adulthood). We draw on 112 qualitative interviews and 4 years of ethnographic observation in 2 northeastern cities in the United States. We argue that the life stage at arrival, coupled with class (dis)advantages, are central to analyzing the diverse ways older migrants stake claims to their belonging to American society. We offer the concept of "economies of belonging" to delineate the ways recent arrivals and long-term migrants anchor themselves socially and emotionally in the United States. Through examining the social relationships and state-provided resources that recent arrivals and long-term migrants use to cultivate social belonging and justify their social membership in American society, our analysis reveals that both groups of older migrants have preconceived American dreams before they emigrate, but their age at arrival offers differential opportunities to fulfill those dreams and influences how a sense of belonging unfolds later in life.

Doing “gendered exit”: Work, care and the moral practices of disabled persons

AbstractPrevious research into the exclusion of disabled persons from paid work tends to compartmentalize them into a stable and undifferentiated category of “cared‐for” subjects. This fixation implicitly approves the ethics of work as the exclusive source of their dignity and citizenship. Drawing on in‐depth interviews with Myasthenia Gravis patients and their families, this paper argues that a subscription to the logic of interdependence that organizes the ethics of care enables our participants to transcend the conventional carer/cared‐for dichotomy. However, the patriarchal structures in which the agency of our participants finds expression create a gendered distribution of care. By delimiting the possibilities of social membership for disabled persons, this paper embraces the care ethics as an alternative to that of work. It nevertheless circumscribes care by bringing into relief its differential and contingent qualities.

DREAM Act, DACA, and Social Membership

The DACA program, administered by the Department of Homeland Security, protects Dreamers—undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.However, without legislative support, Dreamers face the imminent threat of losing their homes, rights, and deportation. I argue for the passage of the DREAM Act, which would protect Dreamers from unfair targeting and provide a path to citizenship. Dreamers possess a unique social membership in American society, and it is ethically imperative to shield them from deportation and grant them equal rights as fellow citizens if we ought to demonstrate a commitment to addressing oppression and injustice.

Цифровая грамотность в информационном пространстве в условиях современности

From online political campaigns to social Internet clubs, the environment of mass participation in Kazakhstan is becoming increasingly mediated by digital technologies or tools. In this article, the authors argue that digital literacy, or the ability to use electronic tools to extract, evaluate and create information, has become necessary for participation in various mass events and social activity in Kazakhstan, including those activities that relate to the sphere of social membership, civic, political and online participation. Using data from a nationally representative survey, several findings were illustrated that point to the power of digital literacy skills in empowering the public to participate in social networks, political activities and online social activism. In the course of the work, the following research questions arose – to what extent is digital literacy a predictor of mass participation? Due to the rapid development of technology, it is becoming increasingly difficult to pinpoint changes in technology and how they are used by different groups of people. The results obtained are of particular interest and can be used in research on digital literacy problems. The factual material that has entered scientific circulation, conclusions, assessments, and suggestions of the authors allow them to be used when creating general works on the issues under study

Knowledge of climate change and adaptation by smallholder farmers: evidence from southern Ethiopia

Climate change has the greatest negative impact on low-income countries, which burdens agricultural systems. Climate change and extreme weather events have caused Ethiopia’s agricultural production to decline and exacerbated food insecurity over the last few decades. This study investigates whether farmers’ awareness and perceptions of climate change play a role in climate change adaptation using climate-smart agricultural practices. To collect data, 385 households in Southern Ethiopia were sampled using a multistage sampling. A Heckman probit two-stage selection model was applied to investigate the factors influencing farmers’ perceptions to climate change and adaptation measures through adoption of climate-smart agriculture practices, complemented with key informant interviews and focused group discussions. The results indicated that most farmers (81.80%) perceived that the local climate is changing, with 71.9% reporting increased temperature and 53.15% reporting decreasing rainfall distribution. Therefore, farmers attempted to apply some adaptation practices, including soil and water conservation with biological measures, improved crop varieties, agroforestry, improved breeds, cut and carry system, controlled grazing, and residue incorporation. The empirical results revealed that farmers adaptation to climate change through adoptions of CSA practices was significantly influenced by education, family size, gender, landholding size, farming experience, access to climate information, training received, social membership, livestock ownership, farm income and extension services. The study found that farmers’ perceptions of climate change and variability were significantly influenced by their age, level of education, farming experience, and access to climate information, hence, the need to focus on enhancing the accuracy of weather information, strengthening extension services, and considering a gender-sensitive adaptation approach toward improving farmers’ knowledge and aspirations. Agricultural policies should support the efforts of farmers to increase the reliance on climate risk and alleviate farmers’ difficulties in adopting climate-smart agriculture practices.

Inside a White Power echo chamber: Why fringe digital spaces are polarizing politics

Recent decades have seen a blurring of the line between extremist movements and mainstream politics, driven by rising sectarian polarization. This development has been linked to digital media, with suggestions that so-called echo chambers may drive political radicalization. To understand the social processes taking place inside such digital spaces, this article draws on Randall Collins and the Durkheimian tradition to develop a theory of discursive community formation. Empirically, we analyze 20 years of discussion on the White Power forum Stormfront, employing natural language processing to study discursive evolution as members become socialized into the community. Our findings suggest that digital media provide space for conversational rituals that instill in people a sense of social membership and intersubjectivity, contained in the elaboration of a shared discourse, within which certain beliefs become sacred and unquestionable. This provides a potential social mechanism linking echo chambers to the rise of sectarian polarization.