Social Science Literature Research Articles

A note on the network coloring game: A randomized distributed (Δ + 1)-coloring algorithm

The network coloring game has been proposed in the literature of social sciences as a model for conflict-resolution circumstances. The players of the game are the vertices of a graph with n vertices and maximum degree Δ. The game is played over rounds, and in each round all players simultaneously choose a color from a set of available colors. Players have local information of the graph: they only observe the colors chosen by their neighbors and do not communicate or cooperate with one another. A player is happy when she has chosen a color that is different from the colors chosen by her neighbors, otherwise she is unhappy, and a configuration of colors for which all players are happy is a proper coloring of the graph. It has been shown in the literature that, when the players adopt a particular greedy randomized strategy, the game reaches a proper coloring of the graph within O(log⁡(n)) rounds, with high probability, provided the number of colors available to each player is at least Δ+2. In this note we show that a modification of the aforementioned greedy strategy yields likewise a proper coloring of the graph, provided the number of colors available to each player is at least Δ+1.

Gendered and racialized experiences of Caribbean Latinx women

ABSTRACT This qualitative study explored the racialized experiences among eight self-identified Caribbean Latinas. Narratives derived from semi-structured interviews revealed their lived experiences and the impact, and negotiation of the everyday occurrences of racial microaggressions, invalidation of Latina identity, intragroup colorism, ascription of intelligence, exoticization and skin color privilege. The findings contribute to the social science literature by highlighting the significance and complexity of race among Latinas.

HATI DALAM PERSPEKTIF AL-QUR`AN & HADITS

Qalbun or heart (Anri Saputra, Mela Rospita, Vivik Shofiah, 2019: 37) is a component in the human soul that judges the right or wrong of one's feelings, intentions, thoughts, attitudes and actions. The heart (qalbun) determines behavior where good or bad depends on the condition of the heart. The heart is interpreted by changing, reversing and replacing, while Imam Al-Ghazali is of the view that the heart is the flesh that is located on the left side of the human chest which is elongated round (heart). The purpose of this paper is to describe that the Qalbu (heart) has certain meanings, functions, potentials, types and characteristics that must be used wisely to direct humans to goodness. This paper is a literature study research. Literature study is a scientific work that contains discussion of previous research and scientific references. Literature study is related to theoretical studies and other references related to values, culture and norms that develop in social situations and scientific literature (library research). The conclusions of this paper are 1. Qalbun is a "central system" device of the inner human mind to know and understand something as well as a driving force in human life activities. 2. Qalbun is a medium for entering God's guidance with the condition that the heart is filled with faith first. 3. Qalbun has a potential that must be guarded and used wisely. A mistake in using the potential of the heart will result in damage to the living system which gives birth to humans with various kinds of heart disease. 4. Qalbun functions to find the truth of Allah's verses as a human being can be a person who fears Allah SWT. Furthermore, they can carry out their duties as Abdullah and Khalifatullah.

Evidence on birth spacing and child cognition from Indonesia

ABSTRACT Research from the medical and social science literature has found that spacing births closely together leads to adverse health and socioeconomic outcomes for the younger child. More recent evidence using inter-family comparisons is challenging the validity of those results. However, while inter-family comparisons allow for time-invariant unobservable heterogeneity across families, they cannot fully control for changes in families that occur over time and may affect both decisions about birth intervals as well as child outcomes. To our knowledge, this paper provides the first examination of the effects of birth spacing on later childhood cognitive outcomes that accounts for both time-invariant and time-varying heterogeneity in the same models. Instrumental variables estimations on data from Indonesia indicate that younger siblings perform significantly better on maths assessment exams when they are spaced farther apart from their immediately older sibling. This effect appears to be concentrated among the poorest and least educated households. The data thus suggest that close spacing may be detrimental to the socioeconomic outcomes of the younger sibling.

Wind–Human Resonance in a Polluted City: The Case of Dalinpu in Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Air pollution creates significant challenges, particularly in countries undergoing rapid industrialization and urbanization. Wind, a strong agency in moving polluting to and away, however, does not attract sufficient attention from the social science literature on urban health and air pollution. This article fills this gap by proposing the concept of wind–human resonance, referring to both the capacity and intensity of the wind as two kinds of human–wind relationships in the weather-world. On the one hand, certain cleaning and blocking practices are carried out by residents, corresponding to the wind’s carrying capacity of air pollutants; fishing activities are altered according to the wind capacity in the atmo-oceanic dynamic. On the other hand, the intensity of the wind envelops an industrialized coastal village where community members engage with the oceanic wind that shapes the community identity (and affect). This framework of an entangled human–wind relationship is empirically examined through the case of the coastal Dalinpu area of Kaohsiung in southwestern Taiwan, a community that has successfully organized a campaign in the name of “southwest wind preservation” to terminate an industrial zone construction project. By revealing how wind is physically and affectively entangled into urban politics, this article aims to foreground the air flow study in volume geography in particular and the human–environment relationship in general.

Climate Politics and the Power of Religion, edited by EVAN BERRY

Is religion an overlooked resource in the quest to overcome international gridlock on climate change? Or is its power exaggerated, doomed to fizzle once lofty ideals meet real life? These two questions once served as the intellectual centers of gravity in discussions of religions and climate change. Evan Berry’s edited volume Climate Politics and the Power of Religion marks a welcome new phase of scholarship, one that shifts our attention from questions about the potential of religion writ large to questions about specific religions, at specific times, scales, and places. A companion volume to Understanding Climate Change Through Religious Lifeworlds (edited by David Haberman, 2021), Climate Politics and the Power of Religion aims to address three gaps in the existing literature: the paucity of literature on religions outside the richer countries of the global north (especially Christianity); a secular bias in the social scientific literature on climate change; and inadequate attention to politics in the religion and environment literature (3). To accomplish this, the volume assembles scholars from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, with a heavy emphasis on anthropology—a natural outcome of the project’s stated aim of emphasizing ethnographic scholarship (vii). The chapters of Part I analyze the role of religious actors and ideas in national-level climate policy discussions, via case studies in the Philippines, Trinidad, and India. The chapters in Part II articulate theoretical concerns about the treatment of religion in climate research. Part III investigates “novel and emerging modes of religious engagement with climate politics” (7) in India, Peru, and Puerto Rico. Crosscutting these divisions are three broad questions, the answers to which are assessed in the final chapter: how are religious actors shaping national and transnational climate disputes, how are religious norms shaping the understanding and experience of climate change on the ground, and finally, how is climate change changing religions.

Living standards of copper mine labour in Chile and the Central African Copperbelt compared, 1920s to 1960s

ABSTRACT Large-scale copper mining has been the main industry in Chile and the countries conforming the Central African Copperbelt for about one century. While a relatively extensive social science literature exists on the mostly adverse macroeconomic and institutional effects of a high reliance on mineral exports and revenues, we address the effects on the labour force employed by this industry. We perform a novel inter-continental – as well as dynamic-historical – comparative assessment of the living standards of the domestic copper mineworkers in the three countries from ca1920 to ca1960. There are important similarities and disparities in levels and trends of real wages and other welfare provisions. In explaining the gap across continents, we discuss labour shortage and labour provision, productivity, and mobilization. We also highlight the underlying role of colonialism in determining the inter-continental differences. Copper miners are further found to have been better paid than other workers in all three countries.

Digital technologies in local agri-food systems: Opportunities for a more interoperable digital farmgate sector

Agriculture e-commerce technologies are transforming how small and medium-scale farmers distribute food, consumers access local food, and market vendors negotiate sales. However, most of the social scientific literature exploring digital agriculture concentrates on big data analytics in the context of commodity farming systems and conventional supply chains. In this paper we review the social scientific literature on agriculture e-commerce technologies and situate this literature within broader debates over digital agriculture and its uneven social and economic dynamics. We find that most social scientific literature does not include agriculture e-commerce in its definition of digital agriculture, instead defining it predominantly in terms of production (e.g., variable-rate technology) or verification (e.g., blockchain) technologies. We contextualize this review with results from a series of focus groups exploring the challenges faced by Ontario's “digital farmgate sector”—the suite of agriculture e-commerce platforms that organize local food sales for hubs, farmers' markets, and small- and medium-scale farmers—related to lack of platform interoperability. We find that local food systems actors are increasingly adopting e-commerce platforms, particularly in the context of the pandemic, and observing substantial business-related benefits to their adoption. Yet, there are common frustrations with digital tools due to market fragmentation and lack of platform interoperability. We recommend the collaborative development of an open standard for e-commerce platforms that allows for the cross-platform sale of local food and farming products.

A proposed validation framework for the system theoretic process analysis (STPA) technique

Validation is a prominent challenge in the domain of risk management in general, and hazard analysis in particular. Practitioners have highlighted a lack of clear guidance on how to perform validation of hazard analyses, who should be involved, and when to stop the validation process. Aiming to contribute to addressing this issue, this study proposes a validation framework for the System Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) technique, based on foundational concepts in risk analysis and prior theoretical work on validation in related disciplines. STPA, which is a hazard analysis technique based on System-Theoretic Accident Model and Processes (STAMP) accident causality model, is selected due to its increasing popularity in different industries, and because no validation frameworks have yet been proposed for this technique. The proposed STPA validation framework aims to support a systematic assessment of the analysis's comprehensiveness, accuracy, and credibility. It consists of a set of theory-based concepts that are elaborated as guide questions, each focusing on different aspects of STPA. The framework employs a formative approach, i.e., it aims to help stakeholders systematically reason about the analysis and advise on improvements or further elaboration. To develop this framework, theoretical validation concepts in the pertinent literature in risk science, social science, and operations research, system dynamics, and simulation modeling disciplines have been used. It is recognized that the proposed framework should be further tested to confirm its practical usefulness, and it should be investigated whether it indeed improves the hazard analysis in terms of the envisioned functions.

Review: Ripples of the Universe: Spirituality in Sedona, Arizona, by Susannah Crockford

Review: <i>Ripples of the Universe: Spirituality in Sedona, Arizona</i>, by Susannah Crockford

Aid utility theory: A new way of thinking about and tackling aid utilization neglect

In order for the assistance we extend to others to be maximally effective—whether interpersonally or institutionally—we need both givers to extend the help and recipients to utilize the assistance made available to them. Although much organizational behavior research has explored ways to increase prosocial behavior and charitable giving, comparatively little organizational scholarship has explored the recipient’s perspective. We believe that organizational behavior scholars, and social scientists more broadly, need to broaden their focus to examining why recipients in need of help sometimes neglect to utilize help. This paper proposes our Aid Utility Theory as a new way of thinking about and tackling aid utilization neglect, while also synthesizing prior social scientific literature that aims to improve aid utilization. We conclude with future directions for organizational behavior scholars who are interested in researching the perspective of those receiving help and improving global aid effectiveness. (145 words)

Using literature-based discovery to develop hypotheses for the moderating effect of massively multiplayer online games

Background: Empirical studies have shown that the relationship between psychological flow state and game addiction tends to be weaker in massively multiplayer online (MMO) games compared with non-MMO games. However, a theoretical explanation for the moderating effect of MMO games is lacking in the literature. This paper uses interview data and a method for generating hypotheses, literature-based discovery (LBD), to identify potential moderating factors and develop theories about this relationship. Methods: The proposed method involved text mining 2,829 abstracts to generate a keyword list of potential underlying moderating factors. Interview data from three domain experts confirmed the usefulness of LBD. Instead of arriving at game addiction primarily through flow, the interview data revealed that different cognitive pathways may lead to game addiction in MMO games. Results: Specifically, the identified keywords led to three explanations for the observed moderating effect: (1) social interaction in MMOGs may prevent the progression from flow to game addiction or induce positive peer influence; (2) game performance typically measured using a score- or point-based system in non-MMO games offers an extrinsic motivation that is more in line with flow theory; and (3) intrinsic motivation and escapism may be more important drivers of MMO game addiction. This paper summarizes the domain experts’ views on the usefulness of LBD in theory development. Conclusions: This paper uses literature-based discovery (LBD) to demonstrate how the pathways to game addiction in MMO games differ from non-MMO games. LBD is a method for generating hypotheses seldom used in the social science literature.

The "Dravidian model": egalitarianism and healthcare reform.

Throughout the post-independence period, the state of Tamil Nadu has consistently performed better than most other states in several major healthcare indicators, including infant mortality rate and total fertility rate. At the same time, it has received praise for the deep penetration and robust functioning of its public health system. Tamil Nadu's achievements in healthcare have been analysed in a number of scholarly studies in the past, and a recent book by Kalaiyarasan A and Vijayabaskar M, titled "The Dravidian Model: Interpreting the Political Economy of Tamil Nadu," is the latest addition to this literature. The authors argue that the state's uniqueness in human and social development primarily originates in the egalitarian politics and radical social movements of the early twentieth century which constituted a "Dravidian common-sense" that has since "shaped the development trajectory of the state." Their arguments on the significance of egalitarian politics in improvements in health and wellbeing receive ample support from existing social sciences literature on health, equity, and justice.

Disease classification: A framework for analysis of contemporary developments in precision medicine

This essay synthesizes key analytical perspectives from the vast social science literature on disease classification spanning various disciplines. The aim is to develop a framework for analyzing changes in Western medicine framed under umbrella terms such as ‘precision medicine’ and ‘personalized medicine.’ I argue that understanding these contemporary changes in the conception and enactment of disease requires attention to historical developments in disease classifications. Spinal muscular atrophy is used as an example case to illustrate this argument. To guide further inquiry into the current move in biomedicine towards precision medicine, I outline two analytical dimensions—material and social interactionist aspects of disease classification—and show how these can be fruitfully combined. Possible starting points and questions for analysis are presented and discussed.

Understanding Research Trends and Topics on Organic Agriculture based on Scientific Literature in Social Science

This study focuses on detecting trends and topics in social science research on organic agriculture. We applied scientometric methods, such as keyword co-occurrence analysis and burst detection to keywords assigned to scientific literature related to the social sciences from 2002 to 2021. As a result, various research topics on organic agriculture from production to consumption aspects were detected. Furthermore, recent trends in social science research were detected quantitatively. These trends included meta-analysis through case study accumulation and research topics related to organic agriculture and sustainability.

The innovative word of Academician I.M. Ragimov I.M. Ragimov. On the morality of punishment / foreword by H.D. Alikperov

We would like to note right away that we are dealing with the work of Doctor of Law, Professor, foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences I.M. Ragimov, Honored Lawyer of the Republic of Azerbaijan, in which he offers to reflect on this important and practically undeveloped problem – the relationship between morality and punishment – not only to lawyers, but also to a wide range of representatives of all social and humanitarian sciences. And even more – to all readers, one way or another interested in the knowledge of law and such an important problem as the nature of punishment. This is especially important for a mass audience, since the book is written in a good Russian literary language, which clearly and clearly sets out difficult legally complex problems. Usually in the social science literature, the relationship between law and morality is analyzed in terms of how and on what grounds they differ from each other. It shows how their interrelationship changed during a particular historical period, among a particular people, and how this was reflected in legislation. I.M. Ragimov offers a unique idea – to consider the problems of morality of punishment itself, the limits of its understanding, possible interpretation and use under a variety of circumstances. This innovative idea, in our opinion, goes back to the same approach in law, which was laid down by Russian lawyers at the beginning of the twentieth century – B.A. Kistyakovsky, N.M. Korkunov, P.I. Novgorodtsev et al, who drew attention to why legal acts are not reflected in the minds and consciousness of people and why many laws remain formal documents and remain the lot of only the legislators themselves. In other words, those who deal with the adoption of laws should know how they reach and are fixed in the public consciousness and behavior. The purpose of this review is to analyze this phenomenon on the basis of such an important scientific and applied concept as “social contract”, which is mentioned in the monograph, but only from certain positions. It is on him, taking into account the philosophical, sociological, socio-psychological approach, that we will focus our attention.

Social science to advance wildfire adaptation in the southwestern United States: a review and future research directions

Background Social science that seeks to advance wildfire adaptation in the southwestern US states of Arizona and New Mexico remains underdeveloped in comparison with other regions in the USA. Aim To identify key themes in the existing social science literature on wildfire in the Southwest and to determine future research needs that can inform more strategic adaptation across scales and contexts. Methods This article presents an in-depth literature review, organising findings using the Fire Adapted Communities Framework. Key results Research on social aspects of wildfire in the southwestern USA has continued to diversify and broaden in scope over time, but some foundational lines of inquiry (such as public support for prescribed fire) have become outdated while other areas of study (such as fire prevention) have not been explored at all. Conclusions Opportunities to advance wildfire social science efforts in the Southwest are abundant and well positioned to inform social understandings in other regions and countries. Implications Researchers wishing to conduct social science research related to wildfire in the Southwest should seek to update and diversify knowledge in this field both through strategic selection of study sites and populations and via intentional, rigorous research design that acknowledges and elevates the nuances of social interactions with wildfire.

AGING DRAG QUEENS: RISKS, REWARDS, EXPRESSION AND PERFORMANCE

Abstract This poster presentation will share the exploratory findings of a qualitative research study examining the lived experiences of older drag queens, age 50+. Drag queens are an understudied and underrepresented population in the social science literature (Knutson, Koch, Sneed, Lee, &amp; Chung, 2020; O’Brien, 2018). Older drag queens have yet to be studied in the social science literature. “Drag Queens possess unique characteristics as a subpopulation of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community that warrant exploration” (Knutson, Koch, Sneed, &amp; Lee, 2018). A comprehensive literature review identified approximately a dozen research driven articles from 2004 to the present, studying such areas as motivations, obstacles and stressors in becoming and being a drag queen (Hopkins, 2004; Knutson et al., 2021), depression, substance abuse, and resilience (Knutson et al., 2019; Tillewein &amp; Kruse-Diehr, 2021) and the role gender plays via sexuality identities (Taylor &amp; Rupp, 2004, Levitt et al. 2017). This research seeks to better understand how drag expression is integrated with one’s persona and how it interfaces with dragism, coping, and if drag expression can be used as a tool to foster resilience. Using a semi-structured interview protocol and thematic analysis, many themes emerged including the risks and rewards associated with drag expression, the relationship between aging and being a drag performer, and the shift in traditional versus 21st century drag. Lastly, we highlight the implications for gender and LGBTQIA+ theory and plans for future research.

Modern Postural Yoga and the Health-Spirituality-Neoliberalism Nexus

The practice of yoga has become an integral part of practitioners’ lifestyles, spirituality and therapeutic paths across the world, not to mention institutional and governmental interventions of a pedagogical, rehabilitative and political nature in settings as diverse as schools, hospitals and prisons. While social science literature has explored some of these areas of analysis, we currently know little about how particular conceptions of health and wellbeing, of the sacred and of the economic-political continuum overlap, diverge and reciprocally influence each other, with reference to yoga and beyond. Using the example of “modern postural yoga”, this article aims to provide a preliminary account of what we term the Health-Spirituality-Neoliberalism Nexus, that is, of the ways in which different “social fields”, such as the medical/therapeutic, the spiritual/religious and the political/economic fields, are partly governed by the same practical-discursive logics and display profound “symbiotic relationships”. More specifically, this article elucidates how specific health discourses, centred around practitioners’ self-care, self-responsibility and self-control, dominate not only the medical/therapeutic field, but also the landscape of contemporary spiritualities and the widespread neoliberal ethos that characterizes the current social, political and economic model of Westernized societies. Here, the categories of physical and psychological health, the idea of a fulfilling spiritual life, and economic success display deep “elective affinities” that we seek to uncover by mobilizing a series of foundational sociological concepts such as the Bourdieusian notion of “field” and a Foucauldian reading of “biopolitics” and “governmentality”.

SsciBERT: a pre-trained language model for social science texts

The academic literature of social sciences records human civilization and studies human social problems. With its large-scale growth, the ways to quickly find existing research on relevant issues have become an urgent demand for researchers. Previous studies, such as SciBERT, have shown that pre-training using domain-specific texts can improve the performance of natural language processing tasks. However, the pre-trained language model for social sciences is not available so far. In light of this, the present research proposes a pre-trained model based on the abstracts published in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) journals. The models, which are available on GitHub (https://github.com/S-T-Full-Text-Knowledge-Mining/SSCI-BERT), show excellent performance on discipline classification, abstract structure–function recognition, and named entity recognition tasks with the social sciences literature.