Social Relations Research Articles

Girls, education and climate crisis in Pakistan: From ‘what-connects’ to a sense of ‘self’ and education after the 2022 floods

Girls’ education has been understood as an issue pendulating between the girls as a subject and their socio-economic conditions. Countries such as Pakistan have historically struggled to ensure equal access and quality of education to girls, who have been made even more vulnerable in the wake of recent crises like the 2022 floods. In the absence of adequate state support, the potentialities of community as social support need to be considered. In this paper, we seek to centre girls’ experiences of constructing the meaning of their desire for education rooted in the networks of social relations and connections, without losing sight of the structural constraints that were exacerbated after the floods. This paper asks the question: how are girls in Pakistan experiencing intersectional issues of education after the devastating 2023 floods?This paper, focused on three flood affected villages in Pakistan, explores educational access and exclusion as a collective experience of girls and their communities. A qualitative multi-method design was utilised, including interviews and informal group-discussions with girls, male and female community members as well as experts (in education, health, and politics). The findings follow a temporal sequence, i.e., looking at the legacies of girls’ exclusion from educational opportunities pre-dating the floods, the post-flood devastation and then, the experiences and emerging potential of relationality. It is argued that such crises require appropriate support from the state and community levels, whilst also urging a deeper engagement with how girls’ aspirations for education contribute to a process of self-enrichment amidst a crisis.

The trust incentive mechanism by trust propagation to optimize consensus in social network group decision making

Trust relationship in social network group decision making (SN-GDM) is one of the key factors to promote group consensus. This trust relationship reflects the importance of experts, and the consensus feedback opinion induced by the trust relationship is easier to be accepted by the group. But this trust relationship is often assumed to be static, and therefore the dynamic effect of incentive behavior among experts on trust relationship is not considered. To do that, the purpose of this paper is to develop a trust incentive mechanism to effectively promote group consensus. First, the new discount based Uninorm trust propagation operator with 2-tuple linguistic is presented, which transforms an incomplete trust relationship into a complete trust relationship. And then, the trust incentive mechanism with opinions similarity between experts is constructed, which reflects not only the incentive process among experts, but also the dynamic change of the social trust relationship. Further, the trust incentive mechanism driven consensus optimization model is established to generate experts’ recommendation advices, which not only effectively reduce the total adjustment cost of experts to promote consensus, but also makes the experts continue to motivate the discussion after revising their opinions, leading to dynamic changes in the social trust relationship in the next consensus round. Finally, an example of agricultural UAV brand selection in “Metaverse” intelligent shopping is provided to illustrate the proposed method, and the results show that with the increase of incentive factor, the total adjustment cost decreases, and the best UAV brand also changes alternately and tends to be stable. In addition, comparing with the method without trust incentive, the interaction cost of the proposed method is 13.46% lower, and then our proposed method has certain flexibility and advantages.

Unsupervised Social Bot Detection via Structural Information Theory

Research on social bot detection plays a crucial role in maintaining the order and reliability of information dissemination while increasing trust in social interactions. The current mainstream social bot detection models rely on black-box neural network technology, for example, Graph Neural Network, Transformer, and so on, which lacks interpretability. In this work, we present UnDBot, a novel unsupervised, interpretable, yet effective, and practical framework for detecting social bots. This framework is built upon structural information theory. We begin by designing three social relationship metrics that capture various aspects of social bot behaviors: posting type distribution , posting influence , and follow-to-follower ratio . Three new relationships are utilized to construct a new, unified, and weighted social multi-relational graph, aiming to model the relevance of social user behaviors and discover long-distance correlations between users. Second, we introduce a novel method for optimizing heterogeneous structural entropy. This method involves the personalized aggregation of edge information from the social multi-relational graph to generate a two-dimensional encoding tree. The heterogeneous structural entropy facilitates decoding of the substantial structure of the social bots network and enables hierarchical clustering of social bots. Third, a new community labeling method is presented to distinguish social bot communities by computing the user’s stationary distribution, measuring user contributions to network structure, and counting the intensity of user aggregation within the community. Compared with 10 representative social bot detection approaches, comprehensive experiments demonstrate the advantages of effectiveness and interpretability of UnDBot on 4 real social network datasets.

What's going on with teleworking? a scoping review of its effects on well-being.

Studies of teleworking and well-being increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article aims to provide an overview of this emerging body of knowledge. Following the PRISMA guidelines, we performed a scoping review using Social Sciences Citation Index (Web of Science), Sociological Abstracts (PROQUEST), and SocINDEX with full text (EBSCOhost). Articles published in English up to December 2022 were included. The result was a total of 2695 potentially relevant studies. After a double-screening procedure, 132 studies were chosen for data extraction. A content analysis was carried out to provide a summary of the social mechanisms linking teleworking to indicators of well-being related to mental health and quality of life. A complex picture of variables emerges on the impact of teleworking through direct or indirect mechanisms and a number of interactions with worker's characteristics. First, the features of the environment matter, as it affects well-being, for example, depending on a better digital infrastructure, access to daylight and sufficient space. Second, it is not only a question of "where" we telework, but also "how much". The advantages of a hybrid mode seem to be emerging to avoid an excessive lack of in-person social interaction, while offering greater flexibility in organizing daily life and reducing commuting times. Third, beyond the modalities of teleworking per se, it is key to take into account how these interact with workers' personalities, their choices and preferences, which are often dictated by the stage of life they are in, e.g., parenting and career stages. In sum, the literature suggests that a straight answer on the positive or negative effects of teleworking is neither useful nor necessary. Multiple answers are possible to unveil the specific working arrangements that makes workers' lives better according to their different needs. It seems essential to continue research on teleworking away from the exceptional stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic, which have greatly skewed the evidence on the detrimental effects of teleworking. Planning more complex research designs using longitudinal data and network analyses could improve understanding of how teleworking is changing careers, lifestyles and social relationships.

A systematic review of social connections as determinants of obesity: Longitudinal evidence limited to marital transitions.

Social relationships impact health and may affect proximal determinants such as obesity. Our review examined empirical evidence of the impact of changes in social relationships on risk of obesity in aging adults, with attention to gender. We systematically searched Medline, EMBASE, Scopus, CINAHL, and ProQuest Dissertations and reference lists of relevant reviews and papers published up to November 2022. Longitudinal studies examining changes in marital status, living arrangement, social participation, and social networks and anthropometric changes or incident obesity were deemed eligible. Relevant data were extracted and synthesized narratively. We identified 41,910 eligible titles, resulting in 252 full texts and 7 included studies. All studies were conducted in the United States and assessed marital transitions only; 3 studies included both women and men. Overall, compared with people who remain non-married, entering marriage leads to a significant increase in body mass index (BMI) for both genders. Conversely, transitioning out of marriage through widowhood or divorce leads to a decrease in weight (kg/lbs), waist circumference, and BMI for both genders. All seven studies were deemed to be of medium quality. Our review revealed a paucity of prospective evidence on social connections as determinants of obesity among aging adults. There is limited evidence that marital transitions are associated with changes in anthropometric measurements in aging individuals, but no evidence on the effects of changes in living arrangements, social participation, and social networks on anthropometric measurements. More research attention to the social determinants of obesity is warranted.

Shouldering the Double Burden of Homophobia and Racism Alone: Challenges to Seeking Social Support and Finding Community Among Sexual Minorities of Color

ABSTRACT Social support is important to well-being, and people with more supportive social networks tend to be healthier. Sexual minorities are generally at risk of worse health outcomes, and as “double minorities,” sexual minorities of color are vulnerable to experiences of both homophobia and racism. Yet, we know little about how they navigate their social relationships or how efficacious these relationships are. This study draws from 25 in-depth interviews of Black and Latino/a sexual minority adults, finding that respondents experience conditional social support from their networks. Familial ties are ill-equipped to provide support related to their sexual identity but more equipped to provide support related to racism. Inversely, ties to the LGBTQ community provide support related to sexual identity but impose challenges related to racial identity. Our analysis makes two novel contributions regarding social belonging among sexual minorities of color: First, strong ties and shared identity are not inherently predictive of the accessibility or quality of social support. Second, social integration and isolation are not mutually exclusive but can be experienced simultaneously. Given that social support and community ties can be health protective, this study provides insight into effective community building that meets the comprehensive needs of sexual minorities of color.

Drivers of Employees’ Service Sweethearting Behavior Intention: The Interplays of Supervisors’ Social Relationship Quality and Full-/Part-time Job

Drivers of Employees’ Service Sweethearting Behavior Intention: The Interplays of Supervisors’ Social Relationship Quality and Full-/Part-time Job

The KIND Challenge community intervention to reduce loneliness and social isolation, improve mental health, and neighbourhood relationships: an international randomized controlled trial.

Loneliness and social isolation are risk factors for poor health, but few effective interventions are deployable at scale. This study was conducted to determine whether acts of kindness can reduce loneliness and social isolation, improve mental health, and neighbourhood social cohesion. Three randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were conducted in the USA, UK, and Australia, involving a total of 4284 individuals aged 18-90years old, randomized to the KIND challenge intervention or a waitlist control group. Participants allocated to the intervention were asked to do at least one act of kindness per week within a four-week period. The primary outcome was loneliness and secondary outcomes included measures of social isolation, mental health, and neighbourhood social cohesion. There was a significant, albeit small, intervention effect after four weeks for reduced loneliness in the USA and the UK, but not for Australia. Relative to controls, KIND challenge participants also showed significantly reduced social isolation and social anxiety in the USA, and reduced stress in Australia. There was also reduced neighbourhood conflict in the USA, increased number of neighbourhood contacts in the USA and Australia, greater neighbourhood stability and feelings of neighbourhood importance in the UK, and better neighbourhood social relationships in Australia. Promoting the provision of social support through small acts of kindness to neighbours has the potential to reduce loneliness, social isolation and social anxiety, and promote neighbourhood relationships, suggesting a potential strategy for public health campaigns. Clinical Trials Registry. NCT04398472. Registered 21st May 2020.

From Veganism to Dinosaurs and Religion

The Essay provides space for scholars to present peer-reviewed research in a manner that uses data studies and critical reflection as occasions for advancing currents in the broader academic study of religion. Jason Ellsworth analyzes vegetarianism and dinosaurs in pop culture to highlight the ways that humans construct categories to facilitate social relationships. While such constructions serve useful for legitimation and negotiation in cultural contests, they may be less useful in actually representing objects of study with the order of fidelity scholars claim to seek.

Legal regulation of the provision of electronic services in the field of social protection of the population

The article is devoted to the analysis of the legislative consolidation of the provision of electronic services in the sphere of social protection of the population in Ukraine, taking into account the trends of reforming the institute of electronic services in the state. The current state of legal regulation of the provision of electronic services in the field of social protection of the population and directions for improvement of normative legal acts in the specified field have been studied. Summarizing the legal basis regulating the provision of electronic services in the field of social protection of the population, such acts can be classified by legal force (legislative, sub-legal) and by the content of the subject of regulation (determine general theoretical provisions and some aspects of an organizational nature; administrative jurisdictional activity of public administration bodies regarding provision of electronic services in the field of social protection of the population; guarantees of legality of the provision of electronic services in the field of social protection of the population). It has been established that today there is a significant number of normative legal acts that regulate certain aspects of the provision of electronic services in the field of social protection of the population. This is natural given the wide range of social relations subject to their regulation. Instead, for further systematized reform in this area, it is necessary to determine the general principles of organizational and legal regulation of the provision of electronic services in this area on the basis of a unified legislative act with the aim of a systematic approach to the elimination of legal gaps in the regulation of such an institution in view of the special legal position of subjects of public administration of providing electronic services in the field of social protection of the population.

Activities of public administration entities in the field of standardization, licensing and accreditation of healthcare in Ukraine

According to the provisions of the Basic Law of our state, life and health, honor and dignity, inviolability and security of a person are the highest social value. In order to ensure the guaranteed right to health care, the state, in the form of authorized bodies, takes the necessary organizational and legal measures and methods aimed at preserving human health. The human right to health covers a wide range of health-related phenomena and practices. Standardization, licensing and accreditation as means of ensuring the human right to health care directly belong to this spectrum of social relations. Taking into account the fact that the health care of citizens is based on a number of principles enshrined in the Constitution and laws of Ukraine, the article emphasizes that standardization, licensing and accreditation, which are the guarantee of life and health care, occupy a specific weight in health care citizens. Through the prism of legislative regulation and the analysis of subordinate regulatory legal acts, the author of the article examines the impact of regulatory legal acts on the regulation of relations in the field of standardization, licensing, and accreditation. The author focuses on the activities of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, the State Service of Ukraine for Medicinal Products and Drug Control, as well as other public administration entities that play a leading role in licensing, standardization and accreditation of business entities, as well as other participants in relations in the field of health care. In general, the article draws attention to the important role of public law entities in regulating relations in the field of standardization, licensing, and accreditation, as well as draws attention to the legal mechanism of compulsory licensing. It is concluded that the modern system of public administration in the researched sphere of public relations is carried out primarily by authorized state bodies. It is emphasized that the subject of further research should be the issue of determining the system of public and private law entities involved in the process of regulating relations in the sphere of health care of Ukraine, the disclosure of the legal mechanism of compulsory licensing in order to ensure the health of the population, the defense of the state, environmental safety and other public interests, as well as the activities of public entities during the martial law regime.

Research on the Socio-Spatial Resilience Evaluation and Evolution of the Central Area of Beijing in Transitional China

In recent decades, the increasing threats of global climate change, natural disasters, and epidemics have brought extensive attention to resilience theory. However, most studies focus on the physical aspects of cities, overlooking the significance of the social perspective. This study addresses this gap by using social areas as the core spatial unit for analysis. By constructing a scientific indicator system and employing the set pair analysis method, this study comprehensively evaluates the multidimensional resilience levels of Beijing’s central area during its transitional period (1990–2020). The findings reveal that socio-spatial divisions, which emphasize the network structure of social relations and the dynamic changes in social spaces, are more suitable than traditional administrative divisions as fundamental units for resilience assessment. During Beijing’s transitional period, the comprehensive resilience of the central area and all social areas steadily increased, although social capital resilience faced the challenges of loss and slow recovery. Social areas with a unique internal connection, such as those based on ethnicity, exhibited more positive social capital resilience development. Additionally, social areas with lower population diversity and greater homogeneity tended to have higher comprehensive resilience and a more positive trend in social capital resilience development, whereas highly heterogeneous social areas faced significant constraints in resilience development. These findings may provide valuable insights for cities and communities to enhance their capacity to address future uncertainties and assist policymakers in making informed governance decisions.

Legal Regulation of Protecting Information аbout Personal and Family Life in the Conditions of Martial Law

The article examines the legal basis for protecting information about personal and family life in the complex conditions of martial law, which provide for a number of specific restrictions and prohibitions defined by regulatory legal acts. It has been clarified that under martial law, the legal regulation of social relations objectively has certain peculiarities. In particular, it is possible to temporarily, for the period of the legal regime of martial law, restrict the constitutional rights and freedoms of a person and citizen, including those provided for in Article 32 of the Constitution of Ukraine, within the limits and scope necessary to ensure the possibility of introducing and implementing measures of the legal regime of martial law, which are provided for by the Law of Ukraine “On the Legal Regime of Martial Law”. Article 32 of the Constitution of Ukraine is considered in the context of guaranteeing a person’s right to non-interference in their personal and family life in order to determine the peculiarities of legal regulation of protecting information about personal and family life when introducing the legal regime of martial law. The peculiarities of legal regulation of social relations under martial law are studied. The state’s obligation to protect information about personal and family life is emphasized. Such protection involves creating a set of legal, administrative, organizational, technical, and other measures that ensure the preservation, integrity of information, as well as the proper order of access to information about personal and family life. In the context of this guarantee, three components have been identified that required concretization of content within the framework of the presented scientific study: information; personal life; family life of a person. During the study, the concept of “information” according to the Law of Ukraine No. 2657-XII “On Information” was taken as a basis. The content of the concept “personal life of a person”, a person’s right to personal life, a person’s right to the secrecy of personal life, a person’s rights to respect for their family life are considered. In the process of conducting the research, attention is focused on the fact that the legal regime of martial law cannot be used as an excuse for unreasonable restriction of personal rights.

Application of Collaborative Learning with Mind Mapping Method on Ecosystem Material For Science Subjects

Teachers are encouraged to have the ability to develop learning strategies and models that are in accordance with the curriculum and student learning styles. Teachers who deliver material with a lecture model will dominate the learning process, so students will tend to behave passively by only listening to the explanation of the material presented. Combining the collaborative learning model with the mind mapping method is expected to improve students' activeness and social relationships. The purpose of this study was to determine how the application of collaborative learning with the mind mapping method affects ecosystem material in science subjects. This research was conducted on March 23, 2024, with the 35 7th grade students of SMPN 1 Plosoklaten. The method used in this research is descriptive analysis with a qualitative approach. The learning model applied can improve personal relationships between students and increase creativity. Therefore, the collaborative learning model with the mind mapping method can be applied in the learning process of science subjects on ecosystem material in grade 7 SMPN 1 Plosoklaten.

Touch in digitalized worlds: An introduction

AbstractThe English word digital (from the Latin, digitus) etymologically connects both fingers and technologies. In this special issue, we honor this dual meaning of the digital by foregrounding how living in a digital era both challenges and actualizes our senses, particularly our sense of touch. Ethnographically, the articles gathered offer intimate accounts of tactile experiences that intertwine with the digital in both direct and indirect ways. Despite ongoing—and often legitimate—anxieties about the disappearance of touch from our increasingly digitized world, our special issue shows that human engagements with digital technologies are more complex. We theorize touch through a phenomenological and relational lens and as a sensory experience that is deeply shaped and reconfigured by local, sociotechnical and political‐economic concerns. This special issue illuminates how attention to hands, fingers, or touch can help us understand the relationship between bodies, ethical life, social relations, selves, and subjectivities through a new lens.

Unpacking the “fluidity” of Mestizaje: how anti-indigenous and anti-black racism determine social relations and economic destinations of Mestizos

ABSTRACT In this paper, we examine the centrality of mestizo people in the Mexican national political and social project of mestizaje. We argue that mestizos are far from homogenous, and that exploring their socio-economic and cultural differences sheds light on how racial hierarchies operate in contexts of mestizaje. Using data from the Project for Ethnicity and Race in Latin America (PERLA), we (1) uncover the heterogeneity of the mestizo population in terms of Indigenous background; (2) show how skin color and place of residence predicts membership of different subgroups within the mestizo population that vary in terms of their Indigenous affiliations, and (3) reveal educational and socio-economic inequality within the mestizo population based on individuals’ Indigenous affiliations and skin color. We provide a nuanced understanding of how anti-indigenous and anti-black racism conflate in contexts where racial mixing is part of the ideology and daily practices of social life.

A non-randomised controlled trial of a community-based accommodation and psychosocial support programme for adults experiencing mental illness and homelessness.

The transition out of inpatient mental health is a crucial time for adults experiencing concurrent mental illness and homelessness, yet evidence regarding effective support options is mixed. Choices is an intensive 3-month psychosocial outreach and crisis accommodation support programme for adults experiencing mental illness and homelessness, delivered by Baptcare in Tasmania, Australia. This study examined the effect of Choices on adults' psychosocial functioning, clinical symptomology and psychiatric readmissions in comparison to standard care only. Participants were adults aged 18-64 years experiencing mental illness and homelessness, recruited upon discharge from a psychiatric admission. Intervention participants (n = 124) received the Choices programme. Control participants (n = 122) received standard care, clinical assessment and treatment from hospital-based Mental Health Services. Outcomes were psychosocial functioning (primary), clinical symptomology, hospital readmission rate and readmission length of stay. Outcomes were assessed at programme commencement and closure (3 months) and 3 months post-closure (intervention group only). Analysis of covariance was used to analyse differences between groups at closure, while controlling for baseline differences. Intervention participants had significantly improved social functioning (encompassing living conditions, social relationships, self-esteem/confidence), overall psychosocial functioning, symptoms of depression and anxiety and shorter hospital readmission length of stay in comparison to the control group. Intervention participants experienced further improvements in social and overall psychosocial functioning 3 months post-closure. The Choices programme is effective in enhancing the psychosocial functioning of adults experiencing concurrent mental illness and homelessness. These findings support the ongoing delivery of this combined accommodation and wrap-around psychosocial model of intensive support.

General and distinct correspondence between personality disorder and interpersonal functioning

The alternative model of personality disorders (AMPD) in DSM-5 includes interpersonal dysfunction as a core construct as a global severity dimension. However, it is less known how various interpersonal characteristics contribute to both general and distinct dimensions of personality dysfunction. In participants from community sources, we obtained responses to Levels of Personality Functioning Scale-Self Report (LPFS-SR), maladaptive traits (PID-5-BF), and social relationship patterns, including those related to close relationships and quantitative measures of network size. Canonical correlation analysis mapped conjoint associations between two sets of variables (personality scales and social relationship) and identified three distinct modes of correlation as significant. The first canonical pattern represented global dysfunction and was associated with utilitarianism, short-termed, weaker strengths, and smaller network sizes. The second canonical correlation represented externalizing traits and was associated with a larger number of relationships, higher utilitarianism, and short-term relationships with a close significant other. The third canonical correlation represented a detached, unemotional, and callous personality which corresponded with weaker relationship strength with both the mother and a close significant other. Our findings suggest that interpersonal functioning corresponding to personality dysfunction can be distinguished into both common and specific characteristics and further highlight the importance of characterizing distinct patterns within close relationships.

Why would you choose yachting tourism? Exploring the push-pull motivations and constraints in China

PurposeThe main aims of this study were to develop analytical scales for yachting tourism push-pull motivations and constraints, and analyze how these factors may influence the revisit intention of yachting tourists in China.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis was conducted using the PLS-SEM, including the evaluation of measurement models and the structural models. SPSS18.0 and SmartPLS 3.3.5 software were used for statistical analysis.FindingsWe conducted a survey of 451 respondents who participate in yachting activities in Dalian, China and identified six push motivational factors (novelty and stimulation, sightseeing and leisure, sports and learning, social relationships, self-esteem and prestige and self-realization), three pull motivational factors (featured activities and services, destination environment, destination facilities) and two constraints (internal and external). Partial least squares structural equation modelling showed that all hypothesized interactions between identified factors were statistically significant and meaningful.Originality/valueThe push-pull-constraint model offers a new interpretation to the traditional push-pull model in theory, and the results contribute to local yacht industry sectors.

How Does Successful Aging Apply To Black Women?: A Latent Class Analysis.

Although prior research has identified racial/ethnic and gender differences in successful aging (SA), heterogeneity within groups has been little examined. We consequently explore the variety of aging experiences among older Black women. We used the 2010/2012 U.S. Health and Retirement Study, limiting analyses to Black women who completed the Psychosocial Leave-Behind Questionnaire (N = 1,186). We conducted latent class analysis (LCA) using indicators of physical health, psychological well-being, social support/strain, and social engagement. Six SA latent classes were identified and labeled according to their distinctive characteristics: infirm, isolated, taxed, independent, vivacious, and robust. The infirm class had uniformly poor health, while the isolated class was in poor physical health but also lacked social relations. Although both had average physical health and psychological well-being, the taxed class experienced high levels of social support and social strain compared to the high support (and unpartnered) independent class. The vivacious and robust classes exhibited high physical health and psychological well-being, high social support/low social strain, and high social engagement, but vivacious women (23% of respondents) were unpartnered and robust women (16% of respondents) were partnered. The robust class had the highest physical and psychological well-being, and best social relations across all classes. Using nationally representative data, we reveal significant heterogeneity in Black women's aging experiences. Although many face difficult aging experiences, 39% of older Black women fit the SA framework well. Future work should recognize that Black women's aging experiences are not homogenous.