Social Science Lens Research Articles

Building social equity and person-centred innovation into the end TB response.

Reducing systemic inequities in testing, access to care, social protection - and in the scientific process - is essential to end TB. Incorporating social science methods and expertise on inequity into the mainstream TB response would help ensure that political commitments to equity move beyond symbolic gestures. We convened a meeting between TB social scientists, people with lived experience, civil society and community members to discuss equity within the global TB response. Here, we propose five means by which a social science lens can strengthen equitable, person-centred responses and reconcile the public health significance of TB with the principles of social justice.

Integrating social sciences in community engagement in humanitarian action: benefits and challenges seen from the field

The application of social sciences has been recognized as valuable to inclusive humanitarian programming that aims to be attentive to the needs and initiatives of affected communities. However, the integration of social science-informed community engagement (CE) approaches in humanitarian action remains episodic, fragmented, and under-resourced. This research article provides insights from a study that reviewed existing and needed capacities for the systematic integration of social sciences for community engagement in humanitarian action. We examined what capacity resources exist and what resources need to be developed for strengthening social science integration into humanitarian programming for improved engagement of affected and at-risk communities in conflict and hazard contexts. A mixed method approach was used, including twenty-two key informant interviews and a focus group discussion with social scientists and humanitarian practitioners, an online survey with 42 respondents, a literature review, and a year-long monthly consultation with social scientists and humanitarian practitioners in a UNICEF-led global technical working group. Results illustrate insights on the value of the “social science lens” in humanitarian action and current usage of different social science disciplines. Challenges found include different understandings (e.g., on standardization), languages and methods used by practitioners and social scientists, and how to integrate the seemingly “slow” processes of social sciences to fit emergency response. Institutional barriers to mainstream community-centered humanitarian action facilitated by the social sciences include top-down decision-making and resourcing, lack of localization, and many siloed, dispersed, and episodic efforts.

Exploring medical mistrust: from clinic to community

This introduction to the special issue, Exploring Medical Mistrust: From Clinic to Community, provides a conceptual framing of ‘medical mistrust’ from a critical social science lens. This special issue explores and unpacks the complex temporal, social and scalar relationships which are intertwined with contemporary manifestations of mistrust in medicine. We ask what social science and humanities disciplines can offer in relation to wider understandings of the processes driving resistance to and refusal of medical interventions, including but also beyond vaccines. We distil insights derived from diverse spaces of medical encounter, ambivalence and resistance that serve as arenas which generate mistrust. We bring this analysis to deepen an understanding of the frictions and affective relations which exist between vertical and horizontal relations which constitute health systems.

Sentiments toward use of forest biomass for heat and power in canadian headlines

Replacement of fossil fuels with bioenergy, often in concert with carbon capture and storage, plays an important role in published low-emission pathways from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other agencies. National and regional net-zero greenhouse gas emission commitments have caused a dramatic increase in forest biomass consumption globally, and the rise has been accompanied by debates in the scholarly literature and in society at large about the ecological and climate change impacts of forest biomass. This paper presents a quantitative analysis of media headlines about forest bioenergy published in 75 Canadian newspapers from 2010 to 2020. Using a lexicon and rules-based sentiment analysis tool, we explore negative and positive media headlines about forest biomass. Despite our finding that Canadian headlines about forest bioenergy were twice as likely to be positive as negative, media items document reversals away from forest biomass-generated domestic electricity. Our analysis found that increases in electricity costs following the introduction of forest biomass as a fuel type for Canadian electricity generation was a primary cause of these reversals. Headlines also critiqued the expanded production of wood pellets, citing forest ecological impacts and the debate about the net carbon impacts of forest biomass-generated energy. Safety issues, including stories about workplace injuries, and pellet plant fires, and economic issues, such as fiber supply and mill closures, were also featured. This research contributes a social science lens to understand perceptions over time about forest biomass for heat and power.

On How I Got Through COVID-19 Lockdown: An Autoethnographic Approach to Resilience in Disability

I explore how I—a person born with a physical disability living alone in a foreign country—was able to cope with COVID-19 lockdown. I used the autoethnographic method (Chang, 2016) to scrutinize sources of my resilience. Through evocative autoethnography, I reviewed risks/coping strategies recalling the lessons drawn from my childhood in the care of two supportive women. Then, performing analytical autoethnography, I self-assessed my lived experiences through a social science lens. A theoretical validation of my personal story helped me to acknowledge how resilience in my life had been built and was mobilized in the face of the pandemic.

Machine Learning Techniques for Sentiment Analysis of COVID-19-Related Twitter Data

On Twitter, COVID-19 is a highly discussed topic. People worldwide have used Twitter to express their viewpoints and feelings during the pandemic. Previous research has focused on particular topics such as the public’s sentiment during the lockdown, their opinion on governmental measures, or their stance towards COVID-19 vaccines. However, until today, there is no comprehensive overview that presents possible areas of application for sentiment analysis of COVID-19 Twitter data. Therefore, this study reveals how sentiment analysis can provide relevant insights for managing the pandemic by applying a behavioral and social science lens. In this context, our systematic literature review focuses on machine learning-based sentiment analysis techniques and compares the best-performing classification algorithms for COVID-19-related Twitter data. We performed a search in five databases, which are: IEEE Xplore DL, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, ACM DL, and AIS Electronic Library. This search resulted in 40 papers published between October 2019 and January 2022 that used sentiment analysis to evaluate the public opinion on COVID-19-related topics, which we further investigated. Our research indicates that the best performing models in terms of accuracy are ensemble models that comprise various machine learning classifiers. Especially BERT and RoBERTa models provide the most promising results when fine-tuned on Twitter data. Our study aims to combine machine learning-based sentiment analysis and insights from social and behavioral science to provide decision-makers and public health experts with guidance on the application of sentiment analysis in the fight against the spread of COVID-19.

Exploring the future of family enterprise research through a social science lens

While evidence that contradicts a discipline’s hard core assumptions is essential to scientific progress, its accumulation is made difficult by the protective nature of the middle range theories that protect it. For this reason, progress tends to be most common in response to external shocks that expose the limitations of traditional ways of thinking. Given the impact COVID-19 has had on our collective understanding of business (family or otherwise), we propose that evidence against the hard core has reached the point where new thinking is necessary if we are to advance the field in productive ways. As the authors in this special issue demonstrate, such progress can be made by leveraging our intellectual roots in the social sciences. By looking to fields such as anthropology, sociology, jurisprudence, political science, and economics for inspiration, these authors use the current crisis as an opportunity to envision the future of family business scholarship.

Community perceptions and acceptability of mass drug administration for the control of neglected tropical diseases in Asia-Pacific countries: A systematic scoping review of qualitative research.

BackgroundPreventative chemotherapy and mass drug administration have been identified as effective strategies for the prevention, treatment, control and elimination of several NTDs in the Asia-Pacific region. Qualitative research can provide in-depth insight into the social dynamics and processes underlying effective implementation of and adherence to mass drug administration programs. This scoping review examines published qualitative literature to examine factors influencing community perceptions and acceptability of mass drug administration approaches to control NTDs in the Asia-Pacific region.MethodologyTwenty-four peer reviewed published papers reporting qualitative data from community members and stakeholders engaged in the implementation of mass drug administration programs were identified as eligible for inclusion.FindingsThis systematic scoping review presents available data from studies focussing on lymphatic filariasis, soil-transmitted helminths and scabies in eight national settings (India, Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Laos, American Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Fiji). The review highlights the profoundly social nature of individual, interpersonal and institutional influences on community perceptions of willingness to participate in mass drug administration programs for control of neglected tropical diseases (NTD). Future NTD research and control efforts would benefit from a stronger qualitative social science lens to mass drug administration implementation, a commitment to understanding and addressing the social and structural determinants of NTDs and NTD control in complex settings, and efforts to engage local communities as equal partners and experts in the co-design of mass drug administration and other efforts to prevent, treat, control and eliminate NTDs.ConclusionFor many countries in the Asia-Pacific region, the “low hanging fruit has been picked” in terms of where mass drug administration has worked and transmission has been stopped. The settings that remain–such as remote areas of Fiji and Papua New Guinea, or large, highly populated, multi-cultural urban settings in India and Indonesia–present huge challenges going forward.

Serving-Up the ACE: Understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences (“ACE”) in Dependency Adoption Through the Lens of Social Science

Almost certainly, every child who enters the foster care system has endured some sort of trauma. It is unrefuted that childhood trauma correlates with mental, physical, and behavioral problems well into adulthood. In 1998, one of the first major studies of the relationship between certain forms of childhood trauma and adult behavior and disease was reported. Collectively, these traumas are called “Adverse Childhood Experiences” (ACE). Today ACE refers to ten common forms of trauma that individuals may have experienced as children. To put this issue in perspective, it is currently estimated that 34.8 million children in the United States are affected by ACE, two out of three adults have one or more ACE, and one out of eight adults have four or more ACE. Since the original study, several studies have been published linking ACE to detrimental lifelong effects relating to mental health, chronic health, and behavior patterns. Despite this, the consideration of ACE in family law and child welfare-related cases is a relatively new concept in courts across the country. This Article summarizes the research on ACE and how this research has become integrated into the courtroom, using the Florida court system as an example. In addition, in a novel approach, this article will articulate how ACE research and findings can be utilized in foster care adoption.

The impact of poverty and deprivation at the end of life: a critical review.

This critical review interrogates what we know about how poverty and deprivation impact people at the end of life and what more we need to uncover. While we know that people in economically resource-rich countries who experience poverty and deprivation over the life course are likely to die younger, with increased co-morbidities, palliative care researchers are beginning to establish a full picture of the disproportionate impact of poverty on how, when and where we die. This is something the Covid-19 pandemic has further illustrated. Our article uses a critical social science lens to investigate an eclectic range of literature addressing health inequities and is focused on poverty and deprivation at the end of life. Our aim was to see if we could shed new light on the myriad ways in which experiences of poverty shape the end of people’s lives. We start by exploring the definitions and language of poverty while acknowledging the multiple intersecting identities that produce privilege. We then discuss poverty and deprivation as a context for the nature of palliative care need and overall end-of-life circumstances. In particular, we explore: total pain; choice at the end of life; access to palliative care; and family caregiving. Overall, we argue that in addressing the effects of poverty and deprivation on end-of-life experiences, there is a need to recognise not just socio-economic injustice but also cultural and symbolic injustice. Too often, a deficit-based approach is adopted which both ‘Others’ those living with poverty and renders invisible the strategies and resilience they develop to support themselves, their families and communities. We conclude with some recommendations for future research, highlighting in particular the need to amplify the voices of people with lived experience of poverty regarding palliative and end-of-life care.

How Do Postgenomic Innovations Emerge? Building Legitimacy by Proteomics Standards and Informing the Next-Generation Technology Policy.

How do postgenomic innovations emerge and become legitimate? Proteomics, a frequently utilized postgenomic technology, provides a valuable case study of the sociotechnical strategies used by an emergent scientific field to establish its legitimacy and assert political power. Chief among these strategies is standard making, an inherently political process that requires examination through a critical social science lens. We report in this study an original case study from interviews with proteomics scientists and observations at conferences of the Human Proteome Organization and Australasian Proteomics Society over a 5-year period (2011-2015). The study contributes new knowledge on how an emerging postgenomic science uses standard-setting practices to politically legitimize a hitherto contested technology. Drawing on legitimacy theory, we show how proteomics scientists and organizations used standards as strategic tools to establish the legitimacy of this postgenomic field and affirm that proteomics can generate verifiable and reproducible results, thereby establishing it as a legitimate scientific field. Notably, legitimacy can be leveraged, at the same time, to maximize political power vis-à-vis other fields of science and as such embodies power relationships. These data collectively inform the broader context, in which postgenomic innovations emerge and legitimize, both technically and politically, through standards making. These findings have relevance for the design of next generation technology policies by demonstrating that standards are not "just" standards or neutral constructs but also tools to leverage political power of and by science and innovation actors, as shown in this case study of the emerging early phase of proteomics from 2011 to 2015.

Navigating liminality in new venture internationalization

Prior research describes international expansion as a series of discrete steps and notes that taking them threatens new ventures' survival, especially due to unexpected setbacks. Seen through the lens of social science, the source of such threat becomes clearer. In this paper, we argue that internationalization in new ventures involves what social anthropologists call a liminal transition – a betwixt-and-between period lying between the intent to internationalize and the realization of a stable internationalized state. The ambiguous and transitory nature of this liminal transition has the potential to increase the odds of overreach (e.g. a high-cost market entry without sufficient resources). Avoiding the negative influence of liminality – and instead harnessing its positive effect – relies on three sources of support that we refer to as opportunity scaffolding: self-reflective learning, peer learning and consultative learning. We argue that entrepreneurs with personality profiles high in levels of core self-evaluation (CSE) are more likely to utilize the scaffolding like that available in business incubators effectively. This leads to the development of a more reflective mindset, making capability learning more likely, preventing decisions that lead to overreach and reducing the threat to INV survival. However we also strike a note of caution in that at excessive (hyper) levels of CSE, the internationalizing new venture could become the victim of hubris. Emboldened with unrealistically high self-confidence, hubristic entrepreneurs are more likely to rebuff use of scaffolding, leading to a more reactive mindset, increasing the probability of liminal overreach and threatening INV survival. Executive summaryInternationalization represents an important pathway to growth for new ventures. At the same time, the burden of internationalization is considerable since new ventures must learn new capabilities under severe resource constraints to succeed in international markets. Thus we have a tension: internationalization increases the odds of growing rapidly and lowers the odds of survival for new ventures. Therefore, it is important for new ventures' capability learning process to be effective through harnessing network ties and entrepreneurial cognition.However, although we know a lot about what makes international new ventures (INVs) successful, there is a surprising lack of detailed understanding of the transition that these firms make during the internationalization process. Becoming a stable INV involves making sense of new environments and improvising in the face of unexpected setbacks. Previous work has focused more on how INVs fare while pursuing identified opportunities during initial or post-entry internationalization but not as much on how they cope in the transition to becoming a stable INV over time.To address this deficiency we draw upon an underutilized theoretical lens from social anthropology: liminality. Liminality describes the “betwixt-and-between” condition that is experienced during a transition when one is no longer in the original state but hasn't quite reached the new one. This perspective draws attention to both a vulnerability and an opportunity that are simultaneously heightened during transitions: the novelty of the situation can be cognitively confounding and liberating. If a new venture's entrepreneur is overwhelmed by distorted thinking during this liminal period, he or she may lead the INV to take fatal missteps, including overreaching. On the other hand, if the confusion inherent in this process can be contained and the potential creativity of this stage harnessed, then new capabilities can be learned and the potentially treacherous liminal period successfully navigated. Thus liminality theory helps to distinguish between measured and reckless improvisation.Liminal theory also helps us to identify opportunity scaffolding as an important way of avoiding liminality's negative effects by facilitating reflective learning, peer learning and consultative learning in conjunction with mentors. A practical manifestation of such support is the use of business incubators. Where these are not available, entrepreneurs may avail of mentors and peers through other means such as advisory boards or education. Furthermore, entrepreneurial personality in influences entrepreneurs' propensity for using such scaffolding: those with high levels of core self-evaluation (CSE) – confident of their abilities – are more likely to use scaffolding whereas those with low or excessive levels of CSE will tend to rebuff the use of scaffolding.Overall, our conceptualization complements previous work on capability learning with the notion of “transitioning capability” – which is the ability to harness the creativity of liminality while avoiding its confounding potential. This is a theoretical advance over how INV research views the capability learning process. And it has strong practical implications for how international entrepreneurs can thoughtfully navigate liminality, by taking advantage of opportunity scaffolding, being self-aware of limitations and strengths and avoiding overreach.

Consumer Information for Data-Driven Decision Making: Teaching Socially Responsible Use of Data

The marketing field is undergoing dramatic shifts in the digital age. The increasing reliance on, collection, and use of data enabled by technological innovations requires teaching the responsible use of data for personalization, and marketing educators play a critical role. Students, universities, accrediting agencies, and employers demand curriculum that equips students with appropriate knowledge, skills, and abilities to make data-driven decisions. We explore the curricular advantages of a unique marketing course that applies a social science lens to frame the emerging issue of socially responsible data usage. This type of curriculum fulfills students’ needs for current and relevant courses; provides key knowledge, skills, and abilities for prospective employers; meets department curriculum and resource requirements, all while addressing existing and newer AACSB guidelines for “Technology Agility” with a focus on “evidence-based decision making that integrates current and emerging technologies, . . . [the] ethical use and dissemination of data, including privacy and security of data.”

Sport, Theology, and Dementia: Reflections on the Sporting Memories Network, UK

ABSTRACTAdopting a theological and social science lens, this study examined the role of sport in the care and treatment of individuals with dementia, through an examination of the sport-dementia organization Sporting Memories Network (SMN). A conceptual, theoretical, and methodological backdrop to the study is provided through analysis of a number of themes: the definition, prevalence, and varied treatment pathways of dementia; sport-based dementia research and interventions; an overview of SMN; and theological reflections on dementia. A qualitative approach was adopted in which an expert/elite one-to-one interview was conducted with the Revd. Professor John Swinton, and the resultant transcript was analyzed using thematic content analysis. Emergent themes suggested sport-dementia interventions, such as SMN, are one effective approach to care for and treat individuals with dementia. The article concludes by suggesting future research should explore how Christian sport organizations (and the broader church) might partner with SMN and similar organizations to address the dementia crisis.

Understanding guilty pleas through the lens of social science.

Understanding guilty pleas through the lens of social science.

Social Network Norms and Intellectual Property: A Proposal for the Public Use Bar

How to draw the line between public and private is a foundational, first-principles question of privacy law, but the answer has implications for intellectual property, as well. This project is the first in a series of papers about first-person disclosures of information in the privacy and intellectual property law contexts, and it defines the boundary between public and non-public information through the lens of social science — namely, principles of trust. Patent law’s “public use” bar confronts the question of whether legal protection should extend to information previously disclosed to a small group of people. I present evidence that shows that current application of the public use bar appears to privilege the confidentiality and control norms of industry while minimizing those no less strong norms common to lone entrepreneurs. This results in a general pattern: corporate inventors tend to whin their public use cases; solo entrepreneurs tend to lose them. As a result, the public use bar has unintended negative effects, including discouraging experimentation and discriminating against inventors without the financial backing of corporate employers. This project proposes a new way of talking about, thinking through, and determining when previous disclosures bar subsequent patentability. In short, I argue that patent disclosures in contexts of trust retain their legal protection despite any ostensible loss of control or lack of formal confidentiality agreements. This proposal respects social network differences and will advance the goals of patent law and increase access to the innovation economy for all persons.

Urban Blue Space and “The Project of the Century”: Doing Justice on the Seattle Waterfront and for Local Residents

Urban blue space is increasingly embraced by cities as a specific and valuable genre of public space, valued for its economic, symbolic and experiential place attributes and essential to sustainable urban development. This article takes up the concept of urban blue space from a design perspective, extending and exploring it through a critical social science lens. Using the reconfiguration and redesign of the central Seattle waterfront as a case example, the idea of “doing justice” is enlisted to examine not just the design opportunities and formal characteristics of the site, but also the patterns of privilege, access and regional socio-ecological equity that are raised through its redesign. After situating the extraordinary design opportunity presented by this iconic urban blue space, and the imperative to do justice to the waterfront’s physical situation, the article presents the site from four additional and discrete perspectives: economic justice, environmental justice, social justice and tribal justice. By thus foregrounding the urban political ecology of the waterfront, the article demonstrates that the most important challenge of the site’s redevelopment is not technological, financial or administrative, although these are real, and significant challenges, but rather, the need to construct a place that works to counter established patterns of local and regional injustice. In Seattle as in other coastal port cities, urban blue space is a shared public and environmental good, with unique and demanding governance responsibilities for its conceptualization and sustainable development.

Integrating Spirituality into Professional Education

This article examines the task of integrating spirituality into professional education today. Significant socio-demographic, cultural, technological, and ideological trends have called for professional intervention with a spiritual dimension of well-being. As an answer to this call, the author endorses a more openminded professional position in which spirituality can be feasibly integrated into the social work curriculum. This position enables social work educators to adequately address professional dilemmas, such as church-state separation, and complexity of conceptualization issues in their teaching through a multidisciplinary lens of social science. Diverse theoretical and methodological approaches toward topics related to spirituality are recommended.

TWO READINGS AND AN EPILOGUE: A COMMENTARY ON THE VOICE OF SEDUCTION IN MYNATTET AL.

Two readings are made of Mynatt, Omundson, Schroeder and Stevens (pp. 657–683). The first reading views the paper through a largely “conventional” social science lens, while the second adopts a more critical perspective which raises three issues: abstraction in research; gender and ethnicity; and the rhetoric of research.