Social Power Research Articles

“It Seemed Like Forever!” Shrinking Spaces of Conviviality at the Border of Norway and Russia

ABSTRACT “Conviviality” is a useful term for exploring interactions and relationships taking place between different groups of people. While conviviality may arise through everyday processes, rhythms, and senses of belonging, it may also be made possible or limited by social structures, power relations and politics when taking place across borders. “Conviviality” as a theoretical perspective has mainly previously dealt with places within a border, and to a lesser extent has been linked to borders and boundary areas, and especially then in circumpolar areas. We use the concept of “border conviviality,” focusing on the intersection of changing geo-political contexts and changing personal contexts, to develop a theoretical look at “people-to-people” cooperation- and cohabitation through “conviviality” and how these were created, changed, and challenged in Kirkenes, a small town on the border of Norway and Russia, in the months following the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. We find that such a concept may provide a broader understanding of the dynamic nature of space and place associated with cooperation and “unification.” Additionally, we contend that the way in which “conviviality” is meaningfully linked to “borders” is shaped by how people live, work, and collaborate.

“Homophobia” in the Country? Rural America and the Stigmatization ofLGBTQPeople: An Empirical Test of Norm‐Centered Stigma Theory

AbstractIn‐depth explorations of LGBTQ attitudes among rural Americans are sparse and often rely upon sweeping stereotypes that cluster all perspectives into one broad statement such as “homophobia” in the country. As a result, little is known about the relationships between rurality and the stigmatization of LGBTQ people. In addition, though research demonstrates that men are less supportive of LGBTQ people than women are, these patterns are unclear among rural Americans. In the current study, data from a sample of U.S. adults aged 18–64 stratified by the U.S. census categories of age, gender, race/ethnicity, and census region collected from online panelists (N = 2,802,n = 492 rural Americans) are utilized to investigate the relationships between rurality and attitudes toward lesbian women, gay men, bisexual women, bisexual men, trans women, trans men, nonbinary people, queer women, and queer men. Specifically, we offer a test of Norm‐Centered Stigma Theory with a focus on hetero‐cis‐normativity and intersecting experiences with social power (gender identity: cis women and cis men) as they relate to rurality and LGBTQ attitudes. Findings indicate that hetero‐cis‐normativity, rurality, and being a cisgender man are all significantly related to the stigmatization of LGBTQ people. Implications are provided.

Examining the Impact of Social Classism and Sacrifice in Dickens's a Tale of Two Cities

The present study examines the social stratification in the novel of Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities (1859). It shows how the novel traces the conflict between different categories of society. In so doing , the study discovers the core ideas that shape the disparity that exists between the working class and the aristocrats. In his novel A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens discusses the role of cultural domination in France and England as well as demonstrating the goals of the aristocracy. According to Marx's theory of social construction depends on class relationships and division. These relationships are explained using the two terms exploitation and appropriation. This will include the bourgeois class controlling the working class, which would mean that the mode of production and the productive forces of society would be determined by the aristocracy. The study has used a literary model in an attempt to produce a clear view of the relationship between power and the weak in this novel. Having this literary model to Dickens's novel, the findings of this study reveal how the individuals compete each other to attain social power as represented in their social structure.

How ethical leaders foster salesperson creativity: exploring the roles of social power, job autonomy, and internal competitive work environment

ABSTRACT While the benefits of salesforce creativity are well-documented, recent calls underscore the lack of research on how to develop a creative salesforce. Adopting social learning theory, we position ethical leadership as the focal antecedent to creative performance. Using this theoretical lens, we construct a model that explores two moderators and one mediator in this relationship. Analyzing survey responses from salespeople, we reveal that ethical leadership enhances social power, which in turn, increases creative performance. Results also show that job autonomy strengthens the positive influence of ethical leadership on social power while an internal competitive work environment weakens it.

Supervisory neglect: Critical questions regarding child supervision and protection system responses

Concerns about child supervision are present in a large proportion of the circumstances responded to by North American child protection systems. This paper examines different perspectives on low-supervision, from parental-deficit to critical-ecological formulations, to address two questions that are central to assessing reports: why low-supervision is deemed to be harmful, and why low-supervision events occur The implications of this knowledge for child protection system responses is explored, and the conceptualization and application of supervisory neglect as a maltreatment category is critically questioned in order to tease apart what this label may represent in practice. The paper considers how thinking could be reframed to make supervisory neglect a more discrete classification which informs subsequent action, including centering the environmental hazard in supervisory neglect formulations and giving primacy to the impact on the child rather than to parent behavior. The role of normative thinking in decision-making and the risk of perpetuating social inequalities and oppressive power is also considered. More research is required to examine responses and outcomes under current systems of practice, and how child protection workers and systems reflexively analyze reports. In addition, more societal dialogue is needed to prevent widespread risk-averse thinking about how children should be supervised, which can reinforce restrictive child protection policy.

Understanding intersectional inequality in access to primary care providers using multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy.

Despite the Canadian healthcare system's commitment to equity, evidence for disparate access to primary care (PC) providers exists across individual social identities/positions. Intersectionality allows us to reflect the realities of how social power shapes healthcare experiences at an individual's interdependent and intersecting social identities/positions. The objectives of this study were to determine: (1) the extent to which intersections can be used classify those who had/did not have a PC provider; (2) the degree to which each social identity/position contributes to the ability to classify individuals as having a PC provider; and (3) predicted probabilities of having a PC provider for each intersection. Using national cross-sectional data from 241,445 individuals in Canada aged ≥18, we constructed 320 intersections along the dimensions of gender, age, immigration status, race, and income to examine the outcome of whether one had a PC provider. Multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy, a multi-level model using individual-level data, was employed to address intersectional objectives. An intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) of 23% (95%CI: 21-26%) suggests that these intersections could, to a very good extent, explain individual variation in the outcome, with age playing the largest role. Not all between-intersection variance in this outcome could be explained by additive effects of dimensions (remaining ICC: 6%; 95%CI: 2-16%). The highest intersectional predicted probability existed for established immigrant, older South Asian women with high income. The lowest intersectional predicted probability existed for recently immigrated, young, Black men with low income. Despite a "universal" healthcare system, our analysis demonstrated a substantial amount of inequity in primary care across intersections of gender, age, immigration status, race, and income.

Ensorceled food: navigating domestic social power and control in early modern Malta

ABSTRACT Ensorceled Food: Social power and control in early modern Malta. If conviviality carries inherent meanings of power and control, then food activates those emotions that generate a reciprocal understanding between members of a family, a neighbourhood, and even an entire community. Consequently, food empowers individuals with the possibility of either exerting influence on, or resistance to, adverse situations. This study will provide an analysis of criminal proceedings of the tribunal of the Holy Office in early modern Malta. Inquisition cases involving love magic will form an integral part of this exploratory research. Some women ensorceled food in the hope of reversing the coercion imposed on them by their husbands. Conversely, the reaction of those who believed to have been fatturati [lit. bewitched] indicates how cursed food formed an integral part of the early modern mindset.

Organizational coupling in higher education institutions: challenges for university governance

Control mechanisms have traditionally been used for managing organizations, but the development of concepts of loosely coupled or flexibly coupled systems offers an alternative for managing unbureaucratic organizations or ones whose broad social interactions and power relationships make them complex to manage, as in the case of university institutions. Tensions between loose and tight coupling are common in university governance, but they have not been adequately researched. Addressing this gap is the objective of this study. To do so, a case study methodology was selected, opting for three methods: documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The findings made it possible to identify three determinant variables of governance: power – social interaction – coupling, which leads us to propose a model with four kinds of governance: control, collegial, self-regulated and concerted managerial.

Gifted High School Students’ Perceptions of the Impact of Classroom Power Dynamics on Motivation and Empowerment

Past research has indicated that teachers’ use of relational power directly influences students’ sense of empowerment and that students who feel empowered are more likely to be motivated. This phenomenological, retrospective study investigated gifted high school students’ perceptions of power and empowerment within their classrooms and the relationship of these to motivation. Specifically, I explored the impact of different power dynamics, including teachers’ utilization of various relational power bases (i.e., rew ard, coercive, legitimate, referent, expert) on gifted high school students’ sense of empowerment and motivation to engage in learning. The students in this study described experiences with all of the social power bases; however, the most positively impactful of these were referent power and expert power. Students felt most empowered when they could personally connect with teachers who knew how to teach, who were content experts, and who could manage the classroom to ensure learning could happen for all students.

Representasi Perundungan pada Film “Bebas”

The phenomenon of bullying is rampant, especially in the educational environment, therefore if no prevention is done, bullying in the educational environment will continue. The rampant cases of bullying have made the social phenomenon raised in a film. One of the Indonesian films that depicts bullying is Bebas. This research aims to find out how the representation of bullying is presented in the film Bebas. The method used in this research is the Roland Barthes semiotic method which divides the meaning of understanding into denotation, connotation, and myth through first level and second level analysis. The results of this study show that based on ten scenes that have been selected according to the type of bullying, the conclusion is obtained: the denotation meaning in the film shows verbal, physical and relational bullying with medium shot, medium long shot and close up image techniques. The connotation meaning is aimed at the differences in social class, power, and peer factors between the perpetrators and victims that make the perpetrators have the desire to bully. The myth in this film is that bullying often occurs to new students who change schools, often perceived as weak.

Who Needs to Tell the Truth? – Epistemic Injustice and Truth and Reconciliation Commissions for Minorities in Non-Transitional Societies

Abstract Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs) have become a widely used tool to reconcile societies in the aftermath of widespread injustice or social and political conflict in a state. This article focuses on TRCs that take place in non-transitional societies in which the political and social structures, institutions, and power relations have largely remained in place since the time of injustice. Furthermore, it will focus on one particular injustice that TRCs try to address through the practice of truth-telling, namely the eradication of epistemic injustice. The article takes the Canadian and Norwegian TRCs as two examples to show that under conditions of enduring injustice, willful ignorance of the majority, and power inequality, TRCs might create a double bind for victims which makes them choose between epistemic exploitation and continued injustices based on the majority's ignorance. The article argues that the set-up and accompanying measures of TRCs are of the utmost importance if TRCs in non-transitional societies are to overcome epistemic injustice, instead of creating new relations of exploitation.

Couple dominance, dark personality traits, and power motivation

In romantic couples, there is usually an asymmetry in decisional power such that one partner is dominant and the other is subordinate. This study investigated the role of sex, ethnicity, self-assessed social status, personality traits, and power motivation (both explicit and implicit) as potential determinants or correlates of couple dominance in a mixed-sex sample of 50 college students. Through a previously validated questionnaire, participants indicated whether they were dominant or subordinate in their romantic relationship, or whether the latter was egalitarian. Major personality domains, narcissism, psychopathy, borderline, autistic-like traits, and explicit power were assessed through questionnaires. Participants also underwent a Picture Story Exercise to evaluate their implicit motives. Being dominant and having high explicit, but not implicit, power motivation were associated with some psychopathic, narcissistic, and/or borderline traits, while autistic-like traits were associated with being subordinate. Traits such as extraversion, conscientiousness, and honesty-humility had weak associations with couple dominance and/or explicit or implicit power motivation. Our findings have implications for the understanding of dominance dynamics within couples and the relationship between personality traits and power motivation.

Mass Media with Positive Impact on Personal Behavior and Ethical Judgments

The advent of the internet has prompted more scrutiny of individual conduct and generated many moral appraisals thereof. Nevertheless, the moral assessments have had both beneficial and detrimental effects on society. Hence, the subject matter explored in this article pertains to the influence exerted by mass media via positive attention and assessment on individual behaviour. The research methodology used in this work is outlined as follows: Firstly, this study focuses on the selection of news broadcasts that highlight persons that possess substantial social power in contemporary society. Secondly, a comprehensive behavioural analysis is performed to examine the moral appraisal of these individuals by the general public. Numerous studies have shown that the scrutiny of individual conduct by the public may provide positive outcomes for both the collective and society at large, provided that both journalists and consumers of news engage in appropriate behaviours. This research proposes that individuals, when confronted with individual behaviour, need to impartially assess its morality in accordance with actuality, using a composed and unbiased judgement.

SCGTracker: Spatio-temporal correlation and graph neural networks for multiple object tracking

Multiple Object Tracking is an important vitally important fundamental task in computer vision. Visual tracking becomes challenging when objects move in groups and are obscured from each other. There are two mainstream solution strategies for these group models. One is to transform the data association problem into a graph matching problem for solving, while the other is to apply the social power model as an advanced constraint for group tracking. In the former case, the solving difficulty geometric growth as the number of tracked objects increases, and the computing efficiency for real-time tracking demand cannot be met. The latter strategy tends to set up fixed-size groups or offline training rules, resulting in a lack of flexibility that limits their scenario generalization. According to the shortcomings of existing methods, this paper proposes a novel multiple object tracking method with spatio-temporal correlation and graph neural networks. Firstly, the relational features of the historical trajectories are extracted through the spatio-temporal relationship learning module, which models the spatio-temporal correlations of the objects and dynamically constructs the group structure online. Then, the graph neural network is combined with appearance and motion information, and the similarity between each detection and tracklet is used as a weight in node feature aggregation to make powerful distinctions between node features. Meanwhile, the spatio-temporal correlation method is also used to solve target loss issues caused by occlusion. Even collocated with linearly assigned data association method, good tracking results are still achieved, with a low computational complexity. Experiments on three challenging public datasets, namely MOT16, MOT17, and MOT20, validated the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed tracking method.

Attitudes towards people with disabilities in Greenland and the need for empowered changes

ABSTRACT In order to understanding public attitudes towards people with disabilities in Greenland and analyse how to facilitate further empowerment, a national survey was produced in 2020. The results from the survey showed a clear difference in attitudes towards people with either physical or mental disabilities. The survey ‘Holdninger til Handicap’ (attitudes towards disabilities), which was carried out by Tilioq (the spokesperson institution for people with disabilities) and Ilisimatusarfik Centre for Arctic Welfare, included almost 1,000 responses. Respondents had a more positive view of people with physical disabilities than those with mental disabilities. Furthermore, the survey highlights a prejudice among respondents in relation to dating or having intimate relationships with a person with a disability or mental disability. Despite the respondents’ divided view of having an intimate relationship with people with disabilities, there was more openness to accepting people with a physical disability in a position of power (e.g. politicians or managers). However, the respondents were not willing to accept people with mental disabilities in positions of power. The study in Greenland is the first to explore barriers and attitudes towards people with disabilities in non-intimate and intimate social relationships and power relationships. The study provided knowledge to support decision-makers and NGOs in informing society in general about physical and mental disabilities and the rights of disabled people in Greenland in relation to empowerment and further inclusion.

Traditional authorities as both curse and cure: the politics of coping with violent extremism in Somalia

ABSTRACT This paper explores community perceptions about traditional authorities’ roles during the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) of former combatants. We have selected the case of Somalia, where both government institutions and traditional authorities have partnered with international actors and institutions, as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs), to prevent and counter violent extremism (P/CVE). International actors have related to traditional authorities based on the assumption that these actors wield a kind of social power that facilitates the reintegration of former members of the violent extremist organisation al-Shabaab. Based on mixed methodology research we explain social reintegration in Somalia from the community perspective, and find that P/CVE programmes are expressive of co-optation of traditional authorities. We make the case that ‘risk coping’ helps explain why a majority of civilians prefer the government-led formal reintegration pathway of ex-combatants to the traditional authorities pathway. We conclude by discussing the implications that this has for NGOs/INGOs active in this P/CVE sector.

Social Power Antecedents of Knowledge Sharing in Project-Oriented Online Communities

While previous research has explored a number of knowledge sharing factors in project teams, little is known about antecedents of knowledge sharing in the context of communication visibility. Against this background, this article attempts to deepen our understanding of knowledge sharing antecedents in project-oriented online communities (POCs) characterized by communication visibility. Specifically, employing social power theory, this article identifies antecedents of knowledge sharing behavior and knowledge quality and examines hierarchical distance as a moderator between expert power and knowledge sharing. Data collected from 205 Chinese project members in the construction industry are used to test our proposed hypotheses. Results indicate that both expert power of others and oneself are positively related to knowledge sharing behavior and knowledge quality, respectively. Hierarchical distance hinders knowledge sharing behavior but does not significantly influence knowledge quality. In addition, hierarchical distance weakens the magnitude between expert power of others and knowledge sharing behavior but strengthens the magnitude between expert power of oneself and knowledge sharing behavior. Besides, the moderating effect of hierarchical distance for knowledge quality is found to be insignificant. Theoretical implications for project team knowledge sharing and practical implications concerning improving knowledge sharing in POCs are discussed.

What you have, not who you know: food-enhanced social capital and changes in social behavioural relationships in a non-human primate.

Social network position in non-human primates has far-reaching fitness consequences. Critically, social networks are both heterogeneous and dynamic, meaning an individual's current network position is likely to change due to both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. However, our understanding of the drivers of changes in social network position is largely confined to opportunistic studies. Experimental research on the consequences of in situ, controlled network perturbations is limited. Here we conducted a food-based experiment in rhesus macaques to assess whether allowing an individual the ability to provide high-quality food to her group changed her social behavioural relationships. We considered both her social network position across five behavioural networks, as well as her dominance and kin interactions. We found that gaining control over a preferential food resource had far-reaching social consequences. There was an increase in both submission and aggression centrality and changes in the socio-demographic characteristics of her agonistic interaction partners. Further, we found that her grooming balance shifted in her favour as she received more grooming than she gave. Together, these results provide a novel, preliminary insight into how in situ, experimental manipulations can modify social network position and point to broader network-level shifts in both social capital and social power.

Why Religion Matters: Social Scientific Insights on the Role of Religion in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

This article addresses a well-developed yet contentious question: Can social science objectively analyse religion and its role in escalating or mitigating socio-political tensions? Grounded in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the essay does not attempt to provide a precise answer to this question nor to criticise the social science that simultaneously explores the notion of religion and grapples with its conceptualisation. Instead, it reflects on the evolving social science perspectives scholars use to understand how religion interacts with various social dimensions, including politics and power relations. The primary aim is to underscore the enduring significance of social scientific analysis of religion, reflect on the limitations of its Westernised perspectives, and revitalise intellectual tools for examining its multifaceted nature. To achieve this objective, the essay first (re)examines prominent Western-developed perspectives on religion within social science literature, synthesising contributions from various disciplines. It then identifies connections and discontinuities between the basis of these perspectives and broader socio-political conversations, with a specific focus on the religious dimension of the Israel–Palestine conflict as a case study. The central hypothesis is that social scientific analysis is crucial for understanding religion as a dynamic system both influenced by and influencing contextual and historical factors. This nuanced non-Westernised understanding is essential for promoting inter-state harmony or cooperation, particularly in complex situations like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Using Walking Interviews in Migration Research: A Systematic Review of the Qualitative Research Literature

In the field of migration research, the frequency of employing qualitative walking interviews has risen in recent years to delve into the construction, evolution, and negotiation mechanisms of migrant identities within everyday spatial practices. This novel mobile method emphasizes the interaction between micro-experience and macro-structure. It facilitates a shift away from viewing migrants as passive outsiders, empowering them with increased agency, and allow researchers to gain deeper insights into migrants’ emotional dynamics, life experiences, and self-identification within new social landscapes and power configurations. This systematic review aims to evaluate, integrate, and analyse the current empirical evidence in qualitative migration research using walking/go-along interviews for different types of migrants (defined as an individual who moves away from his or her place of usual residence, whether within a country or across an international border, temporarily or permanently, and for a variety of reasons). This review brings together for the first time the knowledge and insights from migration research that involves walking interviews. This review employs framework synthesis to analyse the 24 included articles, identifying five major themes: (1) synergising diverse research methods within different research designs; (2) adjustment of power dynamics; (3) migrants’ place-based threefold agency; (4) migrants' identity construction; (5) place-based sense of belonging or exclusion. By integrating these themes, the methodological contribution of this review lies in recognizing the advantages of combining walking interviews with other research methods, which lies in capturing the multidimensional aspects of mobility, allowing researchers to flexibly switch between methodological strategies and spatial scales. Additionally, this paper recommends a deeper exploration of migratory experiences to transcend prevailing practical knowledge and pay sensitive attention to potential ethical issues throughout the research. Such investigation has the potential to uncover the dynamic evolution of agency, identity construction, and the fluctuating sense of belonging among various migrants throughout their journey.