Social Science Perspective Research Articles

Impact of Academic Endogamy on Scientific Output in Chinese Universities: A Humanities and Social Sciences Perspective

The phenomenon of academic endogamy, wherein faculty members obtain all their degrees from and remain at the same institution, has been observed to potentially impact research productivity and international engagement. As prior literature indicates, this trend raises concerns about potential insularity and reduced academic output. However, empirical evidence regarding the effects of academic endogamy within the context of Chinese higher education remains sparse. This study aims to address this research gap by investigating the influence of academic endogamy on scientific productivity within Chinese universities, with a particular focus on the humanities and social sciences. The study addresses this research gap by collecting data from faculty resumes and the Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI). National university rankings were sourced from the Academic Ranking of World Universities to evaluate institutional performance. To analyze the data, hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was utilized to account for the nested structure of the data, encompassing faculty members within departments and departments within universities. The analysis reveals that academic endogamy has a detrimental effect on the quantity and quality of scientific publications. Specifically, faculty members with endogamous academic backgrounds demonstrated lower publication rates and produced less quality research than their non-endogamous counterparts. Furthermore, the study finds that endogamous faculty members are less engaged in international research collaborations, with non-endogamous faculty showing greater involvement in such projects. The study acknowledges limitations, including its exclusive focus on the humanities and social sciences, which may restrict the generalizability of the findings to other disciplines, such as STEM fields. Additionally, potential biases arising from the reliance on faculty resumes are recognized. Despite these limitations, the study provides significant insights into the effects of academic endogamy and underscores the importance of policies that promote academic mobility and strengthen institutional support. The findings offer actionable recommendations for university administrators and policymakers aiming to enhance research productivity and global competitiveness in higher education. This research contributes to the literature by shedding light on the underexplored impacts of academic endogamy on scientific output and international collaboration, thus filling a critical gap in the existing body of knowledge.

Identifying barriers to the sustainable control of gastro-intestinal nematodes in sheep: a social science perspective.

Identifying barriers to the sustainable control of gastro-intestinal nematodes in sheep: a social science perspective.

Rethinking replacement, rebound and environmental impact in reuse practice

Despite the current emphasis on reuse as a primary strategy for realising more circular economic systems, researchers have questioned the assumed environmental benefits of the practice – arguing that reuse can result in unintended rebound effects that diminish or outweigh environmental gains. This article reviews studies focused on potential rebound effects in reuse practices – not as a means to re-adjudicate the environmental virtues of reuse – but rather to critically examine common assumptions about the people and practices that animate reuse markets. The article thus responds to calls for additional research on the behavioural dimensions of reuse in more circular economic systems – and the associated implications for modelling environmental impact. We draw on an in-depth study of 30 active participants in direct product reuse markets to theorise everyday circularity from a critical social science perspective. We argue, based on our observations, that environmental impact models of reuse should not assume that: (1) all forms of product reuse are the same; (2) buyers and sellers are driven primarily by price logics; and (3) new goods are the default preference. We find reuse markets to be much more fluid than imagined by environmental impact models and argue that these insights are particularly important to consider as we approach the end of cheap nature and the costs of overconsumption are increasingly clear.

Research on Financial Investment Strategy Optimization with The Aid of Large Language Model

This paper discusses the role and influence of large language model (LLM) in the optimization of financial investment strategy from the perspective of humanities and social sciences. By reviewing the evolution of investment behavior, psychology, and LLM, the paper builds a theoretical framework for understanding how these advanced technologies can help investors make more informed decisions. In particular, this paper emphasizes the importance of LLM as an information intermediary, which can interpret and integrate information from financial news, social media and other channels to help investors better grasp market sentiment and facilitate exchanges and interactions among investors. Further, the paper analyzes the ethical principles and social responsibilities that should be considered when applying LLM to investments, and proposes a new investment paradigm of human-machine collaboration, in which human intelligence and technical capabilities complement each other. Finally, the paper looks forward to the impact of technological progress and social change on financial markets, and discusses the challenges and opportunities brought about by the integration of different cultures and technologies in the context of globalization. This study not only provides policy makers with recommendations on the responsible application of technology, but also points the way for future research aimed at promoting a more transparent, fair and efficient financial environment.

From Executive Branch to Independent Commission: The Development of Crime Prosecution and Lessons from Indonesia

This study aims to analyze the impact of political dynamics on institutional independence in criminal prosecution processes, focusing on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) in post-1998 democratic transition Indonesia. The central issue examined is how constitutional weaknesses are exploited by lawmakers to manipulate institutional design, thereby undermining the capacity of these bodies to function independently. Utilizing a socio-legal methodology that integrates legal analysis with social science perspectives, this interdisciplinary approach explores the interplay between institutional frameworks, regulatory structures, and political dynamics. The findings reveal that the concept of the unitary executive, previously abandoned, has reemerged as a justification for political intervention in institutional design. Consequently, both the KPK and Komnas HAM have experienced a significant erosion of their institutional independence, impairing their effectiveness in addressing corruption and human rights violations. This study contributes to theoretical debates on institutional challenges in emerging democracies and offers practical insights for safeguarding institutional autonomy to ensure the accountability and integrity of governance structures.

Unravelling biosocial dynamics? The placenta as a postgenomic bio-object in environmental epigenetic research on air pollution.

Air pollution exposure and its health effects are a central concern of environmental epigenetic research with birth cohorts. This article explores why researchers have turned to the placenta as a research object to study the dynamic interactions between in utero exposure to air pollution and future child health. Drawing on Science and Technology Studies, particularly the bio-object concept, this article analyses the transformation of the placenta into a technologically manipulated postgenomic bio-object through scientific discourse and practice. Building on ethnographic fieldwork conducted at an institute of epidemiology and public health in Spain, we analyse how researchers deal with the tension between the placenta's promises for epigenetic research and the practical research realities in postgenomic sciences. First, researchers discursively call upon the placenta as a suitable research object that embodies air pollution exposure and becomes entangled with and responds to this exposure via epigenetic changes. Studying the placenta promises to elucidate the temporally dynamic and environmentally embedded process of disease development as one of postgenomics' core epistemic concerns. Second, in practice, however, accessing and preparing the postpartum placenta for epigenetic analysis defies its promise as a postgenomic bio-object. The constraints of research with birth cohorts, such as only having access to the postpartum placenta at birth, limit what researchers can know about the dynamic process of disease development. Third, we show how researchers deal with these limitations by assembling additional data in and around this organ to recontextualise the epigenetic analysis performed in the postpartum placenta and revive its postgenomic character. We conclude by discussing how ethnographies of epistemic practices provide entry points to collaboratively reflect upon the theoretical and methodological opportunities and challenges in birth cohort research to study biosocial dynamics. We suggest avenues for using qualitative social science perspectives for future biosocial research and collaboration between the social and life sciences.

Finding home in Irish and German migrant letters: A comparative analysis

Abstract How migrants navigate their sense of home between the place left behind and the new place of destination is a crucial question. The social scientific perspective has increasingly come to emphasize the multiplicity of home and appreciates that home provides a bridge between “here” and “there.” In this article we explore how notions of home compare between migrants who arrived in the US throughout the 19th and 20th century. We can draw on a uniquely rich comparative set of letters written by people who left German-speaking Europe or Ireland. Our analysis of more than 12,000 letters uses methods of linguistic analysis to navigate between a macro-perspective, focused on term frequencies, a meso-perspective focused on the contextual meaning of the terms home and Heimat, and a micro-perspective providing in-depth details of two sets of letter collections. We find that the emotional words used to express an affective link with home reveal a deeper process of socio-cultural integration among the two groups. Indeed, we find that home is being talked about a lot more frequently in the Irish compared to the German letters, pointing to a profound divergence in the integration process. In the German letters, America quickly became home, which occurred at a much slower rate among the Irish. Moreover, the Irish maintained a desire to return home to Ireland for longer, an idea that the German writers contemplated only rarely.

AI and Consumer Behavior : Understanding Decision-Making Through Cognitive and Social Science Lenses

Consumer behavior and AI operates as an essential study through which researchers apply cognitive and social science theories to analyze complex consumer decision-making behaviors. This research examines how people make their decisions together with cognitive biases' impact along with social contacts' impact and cultural standards and emotional reactions. The main goal aims to study decision-making through analysis that uses social science and cognitive psychology theories to create a complete understanding of consumer choices. Consumer decisions get influenced through mental processes that include perception together with memory functions and decision-making heuristics which cognitive science perspectives study. People usually make purchasing choices by using quick mental solutions but these strategies can produce incorrect or illogical outcomes. From a social science perspective the manner in which individuals form their behavior comes from outside elements such as group influence together with cultural norms and societal pressure. Social factors have dual effects on consumers because they impact consumer perception as well as their purchasing reasons. The research combines marketing principles with sociological knowledge to examine how various behavioral factors network to influence consumer decision making. The comprehension of these mechanisms enables marketers along with businesses and policymakers to develop superior approaches that serve customer requirements. The research findings built through this study will expand knowledge about consumer choices which marketers can utilize for developing better marketing plans and new advertising methods and product creations. Through multidisciplinary research approaches researchers achieve better understanding of consumer decisions because they gain advanced insights into Consumer behavior and AI patterns. Keywords: Consumer behavior and AI, cognitive science, decision-making, social science, marketing strategies

NOAA Fire Weather Testbed Launches First In-Person Evaluation

Abstract To enhance impact-based decision support services to core partners before, during, and following wildland fires, an operations-to-research-to-operations testbed utilizing both physical and social science perspectives is needed. In response, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) established the Fire Weather Testbed (FWT) at NOAA’s Global Systems Laboratory (GSL) in Boulder, Colorado in 2023 with support of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the 2022 Disaster Relief Supplemental Act and Congressionally allocated base funding. This Nowcast overviews the guiding mission of the FWT to serve as a ‘knowledge translation platform’ to link the many partners involved in wildland fire with the weather community. It next summarizes our first in-person evaluation, conducted in June 2024. This week-long evaluation involved NWS meteorologists and state fire partners participating in simulations and accompanying surveys, roundtable discussions, and focus groups. The evaluation aimed to assess the usability and utility of three emergent products and services: i) the Next Generation Fire System (NGFS), an automated satellite based fire detection capability accompanied with hotspot notifications disseminated by NWS meteorologists to partners, ii) an extension of the Integrated Warning Team (IWT) approach for tactical wildland fire operations, and iii) the Tactical IWT approach for collaboratively issuing Fire Warnings between the NWS and partners. The integration of these findings in a forthcoming FWT report will inform product development and operational support.

Pumped Storage Hydropower in the United States: Emerging Importance, Environmental and Social Impacts, and Critical Considerations

ABSTRACTPumped storage hydropower is a widely used, long‐duration energy storage system that sits squarely at the water‐energy nexus. Bold decarbonization goals have propelled a rapid resurgence of interest in pumped storage hydropower in the US, given its ability to provide bulk energy storage, manage grid reliability, and support increasing integration of variable renewable energy sources. Drawing on published research from both technical and social science perspectives, this paper provides an overview of pumped storage hydropower technology, the project development pipeline, potential social and environmental impacts, including a comparison of open‐loop and closed‐loop design configurations, and critical considerations for project development. In contrast to all existing pumped storage hydropower projects in the US that are open‐loop and located on natural water bodies, this review finds that over 80% of proposed projects are closed‐loop designs, due to their siting flexibility away from natural water bodies and purportedly lower social and environmental impacts. However, issues around projects, including concerns over permitting and consultation processes and conflicts over siting, water resources, and Indigenous lands, are emerging more frequently given the planned expansion of projects in the arid US West and near Tribal lands. These issues and conflicts are not necessarily lowered by closed‐loop technology. The early stage of project development offers an opportunity to design projects that include community input and minimize tradeoffs. In turn, this will require taking a critical look at each pumped storage hydropower project as well as understanding community perceptions and the lifecycle impacts of this technology.

Climate Change Is an Intangible News Topic: A Qualitative Analysis of Audience Perceptions

ABSTRACT In this article we examine how news audiences perceive the issue of climate change, arguing that it appears intangible compared to other major news topics people routinely encounter in everyday media use. Our study contributes to existing research on climate journalism by prioritizing an audience perspective, combining scholarship on temporalities in climate journalism with environmental social science perspectives on climate as a difficult issue to grasp. We analyze qualitative in-depth interviews conducted in Norway, against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, energy shortages and rising costs of living, asking how people relate to climate change as compared to other societal crises covered in the news. Our findings highlight three ways in which climate change appears intangible to audiences: the topic is less integrated into everyday news media habits, appears less clearly demarcated, and lacks spatiotemporal grounding. As an implication of these findings, we underline intangibility as a relevant explanation for noted problems in climate journalism, and discuss how to engage audiences on an important issue that is ill suited to key formats and conventions of news.

My “kind” of food: how ethnic food categories were changed in Local mainstream media from the case study of Boston Magazine

ABSTRACT This paper aims to understand how the local mainstream media frames ethnic food and delivers different cultural implications. By tracing how the categorization of food shifts over time, this study illustrates how the local mainstream media shapes and reshapes the concept of cultural identity. Since what and how we eat profoundly influences the way we construct our worldview, the “mundane” realm of food culture paradoxically brings meaningful political implications. Yet, the topic of food from a social science perspective has not received much attention in the existing literature. Considering that the current food scene in the United States is highly segmented according to arbitrary criteria, the intersection of food and identity politics can be a fruitful avenue to understand our pigeonholed perception of society. By relying on the original dataset from the Boston Magazine’s “Best of Boston” Awards from 1975 to 2022 and employing text mining and semantic network techniques, we primarily focus on how authenticity has played a role in the persistent yet dynamically evolving the paradigm of multiculturalism that continues to touch on the issue of identity politics.

Challenges and opportunities for embedding social science in pesticide resistance research and outreach.

Pesticide resistance constitutes a growing management challenge across agricultural systems worldwide, as complex interplays between social, biophysical, and technological factors create wicked problems that resist simple solutions. Transdisciplinary approaches that bring together researchers and practitioners with diverse disciplinary repertoires have been proposed to tackle pesticide resistance but, despite increasing interest, remain sporadic and often ineffective. In many cases this is due to an insufficient involvement of social scientists, misconceptions that better management merely requires more information, and limited appreciation for the diversity of social scientific perspectives. This article addresses this dearth by synthesizing relevant scholarship to show how the social sciences can help to better understand and more effectively manage pesticide resistance. Following an overview of the main theoretical and methodological approaches employed by social scientists, we demonstrate their nuanced practical contributions in herbicide and insecticide resistance management. These cases demonstrate that the crux of pesticide resistance management is context, with no one-size-fits-all solutions. Social scientists can offer a diverse range of distinct perspectives and tools to jointly develop context-specific solutions with biophysical and applied scientists. However, effective transdisciplinarity requires early collaborative problem framing involving all disciplinary partners and meaningful ongoing engagements. The article, therefore, concludes with practical suggestions for how pest management researchers and practitioners can start to connect with social scientists to more holistically address the various aspects that make pesticide resistance management a complex wicked problem. © 2025 The Author(s). Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Workplace Culture and Organizational Behaviour Through a Literary Lens: A Social Science Perspective

Workplace culture together with organizational behavior functions as essential elements for explaining how people experience their working environments. Literature functions as a tool to observe organizational environments through works which dissect and replicate social dynamics of workplaces as well as leadership patterns and power relationships. The research examines workplace culture and organizational behavior representations in literature through a social science lens while identifying corresponding actual workplace scenarios. The analysis of novels and plays and short stories operates to explain how authors show the fundamental psychological and sociological and cultural elements controlling actions in organizations. Both literature serves as a reflection of societal structures and it functions as a tool which shapes work-related public perceptions. As an organizational behavior investigation this research analyzes internal workplace elements through the theoretical concepts found in existing published works. Through their analysis the study shows that literary literature reveals decisive understanding of the issues encountered alongside possible improvements within different organizational settings. This paper connects organizational behavior theories to literature to create a more extensive comprehension of workplace dynamics evaluated through social science principles. Keywords: Workplace culture, Organizational behavior, Literature, Social science, Leadership

Increasing diversity in STEM academia: a scoping review of intervention evaluations

ABSTRACT Lack of diversity is a significant issue in academic STEM, whether from a social justice, economic, or scientific quality perspective. In this scoping review, we synthesise peer-reviewed evaluations of diversity interventions in academic STEM from high-income countries between 2011 and 2023. One hundred and eighty-four intervention evaluations are identified through database searches (Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, and IBSS) and forwards and backwards citation searches of included articles. Interventions are predominantly conducted in the US and targeted at women and ethnic or racial minorities. Other dimensions of diversity such as disability, socio-economic background, and sexual orientation are rarely addressed. The most common type of intervention is one that provides support-related services, followed by diversity training such as bias awareness workshops. Those seeking policy-level change are seen less frequently. Evaluations are heterogeneous in outcomes studied and designs. Interventions were overwhelmingly positioned as successful, with considerations of failures or unintended consequences rare. The findings from this review emphasise the need for holistic evaluations of diversity interventions that provide transparency between intervention and evaluation goals and processes. If institutional commitment to diversity is sincere, it is vital that resources and incentives for such evaluations and their dissemination are reliably available and that measures are taken to discourage evaluations acting as ‘any change is good’ box-ticking exercises.

The State of Policy in Practice: A Social Science Perspective

The State of Policy in Practice: A Social Science Perspective

Environmental Quality Index in Indonesia: Economic Activities, Investment, Forest and Land Fire

Abstract Rapid economic growth requires more activities that affect the environment negatively. The production process from economic activities yields goods and services and wastes. The waste can be contained by hazardous elements that can cause health problems and endanger the quality of the environment. Thus, the environmental quality should be maintained to create ideal conditions and minimize negative externalities. The issue regarding environmental quality induces some studies to develop policies on maintaining the environment’s quality. Studies on environmental quality are investigated not only by using a natural science perspective but also from social science, such as economics. Many studies have discussed environmental quality using different approaches from a social science perspective. However, only a few studies have covered Indonesia by province in the past five years. This study aims to estimate the determinants of the Environmental Quality Index in 34 provinces in Indonesia. The current research treats forest, land fire, and economic variables as independent variables, including Gross Domestic Regional Product (GDRP), provincial environmental budget, and investment. The secondary data are generated from Statistics Indonesia from 2016-2022. This study employs static panel regression with a Fixed-Effect model to estimate the data. The results revealed that forest and land fires and the provincial budget for the environment significantly affect the environmental quality index in Indonesia. This implies that budget allocation for environmental spending is one of Indonesia’s policies that control environmental quality.

Understanding Environmental Criminology: Theory, Practice, and Implications for Lagos State Residents in Nigeria

The purpose of this paper is to explore the theoretical foundations and practical applications of environmental criminology, specifically focusing on Lagos State, Nigeria. Environmental criminology examines the spatial and environmental factors that influence criminal behaviour, providing insights into crime patterns and prevention strategies. Key concepts such as territoriality, defensible space, and crime attractors and generators are discussed in the context of Lagos State. Empirical research on the impact of environmental design on crime rates is reviewed, highlighting successes and limitations. The implications for crime prevention policies and practices in Lagos State are examined, emphasizing the need for an interdisciplinary approach that integrates urban design, social science, and law enforcement perspectives.

The metaverse in tension: lines of study and future of the field from the perspective of social sciences

This article analyzes the tensions and emerging lines of research surrounding the metaverse from an interdisciplinary perspective of the social sciences. A bibliometric study (2020-2023) in Scopus identified a predominance of research focused on technological infrastructures—extended reality, blockchain, and artificial intelligence—which contrasts with the scant attention paid to ethical, psychosocial, and environmental implications. While educational and economic applications lead global academic production, topics such as privacy, governance, and digital inequalities remain marginal, revealing a gap between innovation and social critique. In contrast to global agendas, the Latin American context—exemplified by Colombia—faces unique challenges: access gaps, rural exclusion, and risks of digital colonialism, which demand public policies adapted to local realities. The study concludes that the metaverse is not a neutral space, but a field of contestation where corporate interests, historical exclusions, and opportunities for social justice converge. The social sciences emerge as key actors in humanizing its development, integrating critical frameworks that prioritize equity, citizen participation, and sustainability.

Gamification as a Social Phenomenon and Gamification Heuristics Criteria from Social Sciences Perspective

The widespread adoption of gamification across various domains necessitates robust methodologies to gauge its impact and efficacy. This study delves into heuristic evaluation techniques utilized in a European Union project where partners assessed gamification applications focused on cultural heritage in their respective countries. Notably, this study assesses gamification as a social phenomenon and evaluates gamification assessment criteria in practice for five gamification implementations that reflect Türkiye’s cultural heritage. Recognising gamification as a social phenomenon, this research evaluates seven key dimensions: collective participation, cultural integration, social interaction, motivational dynamics, technological mediation, dynamic evolution, and observability/measurability. Assessment criteria, categorised into intrinsic, extrinsic, and context-dependent motivational heuristics, are analysed through the lens of prominent social science theories, including Self-Determination Theory, Expectancy Theory, and Goal-Setting Theory, alongside learning paradigms such as Constructivist and Experiential Learning. The findings illuminate how gamification influences user engagement and learning, offering significant implications for designing more effective gamification strategies. This comprehensive analysis underscores the potential of integrating robust social science theories and evaluating it as a social phenomenon to enhance the theoretical and practical understanding of gamification’s role in modern societal contexts.