Structuring Research Articles

The influence of Uganda women’s entrepreneurship program on livelihoods and cultural dynamics in Amolatar, Northern Uganda

This article examines the influence of women’s economic empowerment initiatives under Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP) on livelihoods and cultural dynamics in Amolatar Sub-Region, Northern Uganda. The study focused on how UWEP has contributed to improving women’s economic status and their roles within the cultural practices in the region. A Qualitative interpretive framework as well phenomenological research design was employed in this study involving in-depth and key informant interviews as well as focus group discussion with 28 participants. The study is grounded in Agency theory by Kabeer and Cultural Capital Theory by Bourdieu, which emphasise women’s participation in entrepreneurship to transform their economic lives and well-being within existing social structures. This research indicates that, UWEP greatly contributes to women’s active agency, allowing them to challenge obstacle within the communities, particularly gender inequality and social stratification. In addition, women’s participation in entrepreneurship coupled with the positive shifts in cultural attitudes in Amolatar sub-region have improved their livelihoods through self-employment. This study emphasise the significance of continuous support by Uganda government through Ministry of Gender, Labour, and Social Development (MoGLSD) for UWEP. Constant support is important to further empower women as well as improve their economic status and well-being within their families and communities.

Russia’s Autocratic Resilience and the Sources of Political Change: Lankina’s Estate Origins

In Estate Origins, Tomila Lankina sheds new light on the logic of persistence and resilience in the Russian social structure that shapes political possibilities in Russia to the present day. It is a wonderful and rewarding read on the historical origins of social requisites of democracy, such as greater civic activism and more pluralistic political competition. To understand variation in attitudinal and behavioral support for democracy in contemporary Russia, according to Lankina, we must go back to tsarist Russia’s estate institutions. A set of institutions that codified the rights and privileges of different social groups, the estates system created incentives for an eclectic and growing stratum of urban dwellers known as meshchane to invest in education while simultaneously fostering the creation of institutional “infrastructures”—professions, educational institutions, charitable, civic, and local governance bodies—that retained during the communist period a degree of autonomy vis-à-vis the state. This, Lankina argues, allowed the meshchane’s distinct value orientations to persist over time.

Suitability of smoking cessation support from social and community service organizations: perspectives of Dutch clients.

Social and community service organizations (SCSOs) may be a promising new environment to more successfully reach people with a lower socioeconomic position (SEP) for smoking cessation support. However, studies that investigate clients' perspectives of the suitability of SCSOs as a setting to discuss smoking are scarce. This study aimed to (i) investigate the suitability of smoking cessation support provided by SCSOs, according to people with a low SEP, and (ii) explore their reasons for considering it suitable or unsuitable. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 individuals with a low SEP who smoked regularly (N = 14) or had smoked regularly (N = 5). They have been in contact with SCSOs in a specific neighborhood in Amsterdam. Data were analyzed using a thematic approach. Participants generally considered SCSOs as suitable for providing smoking cessation support, as professionals are involved, build a relationship of trust, and offer personalized and holistic support. SCSOs are located nearby and familiar, they provide support in both group and individual settings and might offer additional supportive (group)activities. A number of participants expressed doubts about the waiting time for support, the fact that the needed support might exceed professionals' expertise, and the lack of aftercare. SCSOs can be an additional opportunity for providing smoking cessation support that aligns with the circumstances of lower SEP people. To harness the potential, smoking cessation could be integrated into education programs and training among professionalscould be promoted. Policy changes within and outside SCSOs would be needed.

Women characters in the text Sekaśubhodayā: A Cosmopolitan voice of Moral and Ethical Values

“Social organization cannot be really understood expect as a part of culture; and all special lines of enquiring referring to human activities, human groupings and human ideas and beliefs can meet and become cross fertilized in the comparative study of cultures” Values, Morality and Ethics – this try polar system i.e. (the sense of righteous) are the epitome of Human existence. Although it is differ from man to man. In the present century search for a theory of values has become a separate branch and has been called axiology. According to our opinion the main approach to value system comprises two parts i.e. theistic and humanistic. Theistic approach opines that absolute values are related to absolute reality where the supreme power is the upholder of all values. Whereas, humanistic holds that the values are as a distinct component of the total human personality, which guide or affect attitude and behaviour of the individual and social groups. The text we are dealing here is entitled with Sekaśubhodayā; is a hagiological literature which attributed to Halāyudha Miśra. The blending of Sanskrit and Bengali makes the text unique. Political discrepancy, social and moral degeneration, adultery and mutual rivalry projected boldly without much pretention. Although the text is a pen picture of decadent Medieval Bengal, still a handful of Women excels in their own merit and retains the morality that is equally relevant even in 21st century. The position of women in Medieval Bengal, especially of the house-wives of well-to-do families, as reflected in this story is somewhat unparalleled in Sanskrit literature. This text predicts as a unique collection in the genre of Sanskrit literature because of its sharp representation of women characters. Characters like Madhavī, Vidhutprabhā taught us a lesson that the concept of Satyam, Śivam and Sundaram is the beauty of human nature if we violate one another one automatically disturbed. Our endeavor is to reevaluate this value system in our life which is still relevant.

Long-term tracking of social structure in groups of rats

Rodents serve as an important model for examining both individual and collective behavior. Dominance within rodent social structures can determine access to critical resources, such as food and mating opportunities. Yet, many aspects of the intricate interplay between individual behaviors and the resulting group social hierarchy, especially its evolution over time, remain unexplored. In this study, we utilized an automated tracking system that continuously monitored groups of male rats for over 250 days to enable an in-depth analysis of individual behavior and the overarching group dynamic. We describe the evolution of social structures within a group and additionally investigate how past behaviors influence the emergence of new social hierarchies when group composition and experimental area changes. Notably, we find that conventional individual and pairwise tests exhibit a weak correlation with group behavior, highlighting their limited accuracy in predicting behavioral outcomes in a collective context. These results emphasize the context-dependence of social behavior as an emergent property of interactions within a group and highlight the need to measure and quantify social behavior in more naturalistic environments.

Analisis Pembentukan Akhlak Anak Melalui Media Sosial pada Siswa Kelas 1 di MI/SD

Social media is a social structure that comes from individuals and organizations that are bound by the similarity of its users. Social media is an online media that is used as a means of social interaction online on the internet. On social media, users can interact with each other, communicate, share networking and various other activities online. Social media is made to meet human requirements because humans as social beings, are created to socialize. Because the development of the era is increasingly advanced, the main purpose of which is to facilitate users of social media so that they can connect with someone in one country, even between countries or between continents, making it easy for users to socialize. However, in today's modern era, social media does not only function as usual, it turns out that social media has influences on the character education of students who use it. Talking about strengthening the formation of student character through character education in the current context is very relevant to overcoming the moral crisis that is happening, especially in schools. Whether it is recognized or not, there is currently a real crisis that is worrying in the school environment involving students.

Life-history and genetic relationships in cooperatively breeding dwarf mongoose groups.

Cooperatively breeding societies show distinct interspecific variations in social and genetic organization. Long-term studies provide invaluable data to further our understanding of the evolution and maintenance of cooperative breeding but have also demonstrated how variation exists within species. Here we integrate life-history, behavioural and genetic data from a long-term study of dwarf mongooses Helogale parvula in South Africa to document mating, breeding, dispersal and relatedness patterns in this population and compare them to those found in a Tanzanian population at the other extreme of the species' range. Our genetic data reveal high levels of reproductive skew, above that expected through observational data. Dispersal was male-biased and was seen more frequently towards the onset of the breeding season, but females also regularly switched between groups. These patterns of breeding and dispersal resulted in a genetically structured population: individuals were more related to groupmates than outsiders, apart from the unrelated dominant pair, ultimately resulting in reduced inbreeding risk. Our results also demonstrate that dwarf mongooses are largely consistent in their social structure across their sub-Saharan distribution. This work demonstrates the direct and indirect pathways to reproductive success for dwarf mongooses and helps to explain the maintenance of cooperative breeding in the species.

“The Lung Disease as an Evanescent Rainbow”: Indigenous Languages as Agency in Communicating COVID-19 in Multilingual Kham Tibetan Region in China

The role of language is one of the most critical elements in communicating COVID-19 public health mandates globally. This study aims to explore how Tibetans in the multilingual Kham region came to understand COVID-19 and develop health choices. To accomplish this goal, we used a culture-centered approach to examine how the words/phrases of COVID-19 influence Kham Tibetans’ agency [the ability to develop actions (or lack thereof)] to work on the infectious disease and the pandemic management policy in China. This analysis explores the interactions among social structure, culture, and agency in the creation of transformative practices for negotiating the digital biomedical environment. Based on 30 in-depth interviews with Tibetans in the Kham region, we illustrate that the dialogical praxis to co-construct languages significantly impacts Tibetans’ deliberate agency, the capacity to act that is conscious or intended, to work on COVID-19 and the pandemic-control policy.

Inclusive factor inputs for determination of human development index for informal settlements: A case study of Enugu city, Nigeria

Despite the popularity of the human development index (HDI) in the measurement of human development, it has been variously criticized on the ground that its three dimensions, namely, health, education, and income, as presently constituted do not completely reflect human overall well-being goal which it set-out to measure. The critics have suggested the introduction of additional relevant indicators for the construction of HDI. The goal of this study is to investigate inclusive factor variables for determining the human development index for informal settlements using the city of Enugu, Nigeria, as a case study. The variables used in the development of HDI include the following: wealth, housing/environmental, and social protection. The HDI formula was subsequently modified to the more elaborate and inclusive factor inputs. The results show that households in informal settlements in Enugu are experiencing deprivation. The level of deprivation is highest in the area of wealth dimension, followed by housing/environmental and social protection. Four informal settlements are currently experiencing significant low-level human development in each area of housing/environmental and social protection issues. The aggregation of the three dimensions of the human development index shows that the informal settlements in the city of Enugu are seriously deprived. This implies that the settlements are poorly served with housing facilities, environmental amenities, and social protection structure. In effect, wealth, housing/environmental, and social protection mechanisms are veritable indicators for the measurement of human development and should be included as variables for calculating HDI, especially for the urban poor.

Urban Natural Gas Pipeline Operational Vulnerability Under the Influence of a Social Spatial Distribution Structure: A Case Study of the Safety Risk Patterns in Kunming, China.

Frequent urban natural gas pipeline accidents pose a serious threat to the safety of people and property in surrounding areas. However, current research on natural gas pipeline risks primarily focuses on evaluating the pipelines themselves, with no established method for assessing the impact of pipeline disasters on surrounding areas. This paper proposes an urban natural gas pipeline risk assessment method that integrates the physical attributes of the pipelines with an analysis of social vulnerability based on urban social spatial distribution. Using urban Point of Interest (POI) data, a social spatial distribution model for potential natural gas pipeline accidents is constructed. The risk of pipeline failure is assessed based on physical vulnerability, while the consequences of failure are evaluated through social vulnerability. This method combines the analysis of physical and social vulnerabilities to achieve a comprehensive urban natural gas pipeline risk assessment. The results identified 68 out of 6148 pipelines in the study area as "double high" pipelines, characterized by high physical vulnerability (relatively high risk pipelines) and high social vulnerability (involving level IV areas). The high risk communities identified in the study area are the Cuihu West Road Community and the Daguan Commercial City Community, highlighting the characteristics of risk distribution. The findings suggest that this study contributes to improving urban resilience to natural gas pipeline incidents, reducing potential economic losses and public impacts, and enhancing urban public safety. It also provides new insights into natural gas pipeline risk assessment and urban public safety research.

Infrastructuring Digital Literacy in K-12 Education: A National Case Study

While much CCI research has dealt with the educational challenge of providing children with knowledge and skills for a digital society, little work has dealt with the strategic challenge of developing and implementing a digital literacy subject in K-12 education. In this paper, we explore how to develop, implement, and sustain a national program on technology comprehension by analyzing the newly established Danish knowledge center for digital technology comprehension. We draw on the concept of infrastructuring to shed light on how to create and sustain the social, material, political and organizational structures that form the basis for introducing the new national initiative. Based on our case, we distill seven propositions that describe more generally how to work strategically with this challenge.

Is the Term "Food Consistency" Used Consistently in Consumer Science? An Exploratory Study of Consumer Association and Conceptualization.

The post-pandemic context has changed the modes for collecting data in sensory and consumer science. The objectives of this research were to analyze consumers' associations of food consistency and to study two virtual modes of the Free Word Association test (FWA). This test was administered to 209 consumers (180 women, 29 men, 18-45 years old) asynchronously (i.e. self-administered) and synchronously (i.e. face to face interviews). The Cognitive Salience Index (CSI) was calculated, and the structure of the social representation was analyzed. Correspondence analysis showed that food consistency was a mixture of concepts related to structure, hardness and several aspects of auditory (e.g., Crunchy, Crispy), tactile (e.g. Smooth, Spreadable) and oral texture (e.g., Creamy, Gummy). Slightly consistent food was associated with something soft, liquid or semisolid, and very consistent food to something hard and resistant. Consistent food was more related to "very" than to "slightly consistent." The CSI depended on the stimulus presented (p < 0.05). Regarding the social representation structure, the central core had the highest CSI for all stimuli (CSI ≥ 0.13, p < 0.05). Consumers defined "very consistent, consistent and slightly consistent food" by naming more foods in the synchronous mode than in the asynchronous one. In the asynchronous mode, consumers took more time to complete the test. The virtual FWA test (asynchronous or synchronous) showed some differences in the associations of term consistency, due to the lack of spontaneity in the first minute. It is important to adjust the methodologies to standardize the times in both modes.

Legal personhood and care for elderly parents in Indonesia

In one of her last articles, K. von Benda-Beckmann explores the notion of embeddedness of persons in their social world and how this relates to their duty of care (2021). She found that there may be different degrees of embeddedness; that some people are not only bounded to their social relations and environment, but also that their selves extended to include their social world. She suggested a differentiated analysis that could account for these differences and expects this to benefit in understanding care relations and, on a practical front, to offer unexpected strategies in dealing with injuries. This paper continues this framework by looking into legal pluralism and the relinquishing of legal personhood of elderly parents across different levels of social organizations, from the decision-making within families and into the courtrooms. What are the reasons for- and how are individuals being declared as no longer having agency or legal personhood (legal competency)? How does this relate to extending proper care to family members and (or in opposition to) others? And in more abstract terms, how is law translated from cognitive conception to become institutionalized or systematized? Through an analysis of court decisions and interviews, this paper demonstrates the relationship between social security and dependency. It studies the complex ways in which individual and collective human agency relates to social security structures and institutions.

Discursos sobre descolonización y conflicto social. El caso de la VIII Marcha Indígena en Bolivia (2011)

This article examines how the narrative of the plurinational state provided the common symbolic framework for the conflict over the Isiboro Sécure Indigenous Territory and National Park (Tipnis) in Bolivia in 2011. The central dispute, one of the most important in Bolivia’s recent history, was whether or not to construct a highway through this area, a debate that has led to a major rift between peasant and indigenous social organizations that shared common reivindicative imaginaries but ultimately experienced profound divisions. This discussion serves as a key observation point to understand how decolonization imaginaries actually function, which I consider a anchoring point (point du capiton) in the narrative of the plurinational state. Through discourse analysis, review of chronicles, press statements, and accounts of the VIII Indigenous March, I aim to identify the discursive threads that framed the debates on decolonization, showing that it can be used as a rhetorical tool to mask extractivism or defend “national sovereignty,” or as an argument to uphold the self-determination of indigenous peoples. I also examine how the repertoire of the indigenous march was constructed discursively and symbolically, and the impact it left on Bolivia’s recent history. I intend for this analysis to contribute to understanding how Bolivian social perceptions are shaped in relation to the narrative of the plurinational state and its potential for social transformation as a new regime of truth.

“Plomo por hablar, plata pa’ que hablemos”. Diversidad étnica y educación en el suroccidente colombiano

How do the relationships between the concept of being indigenous and the processes of ethnoeducation manifest in southwestern Colombia? This ethnographic study explores the complexities of constructing ethnic identity among the indigenous peoples of Nariño, focusing on the implementation of educational programs driven by a population perspective. By questioning the foundations of ethnoeducation from the late 20th century to the early 21st century, we establish a dialogue among various institutional agents within the broader framework of ethnic-based social organization. We also examine the historical relationships, institutional archaisms, and contemporary challenges faced by ethnic educational processes in Nariño. We conclude with insights into the construction of ethnic identity and its implications for the social order governing the interactions between community members and government representatives. We conceptualize the relationship between the State, school, and ethnic identity as a fundamental part of Colombia’s modern project, which has been in development since the republican era. The institutional framework has fluctuated between protectionist, paternalistic, and cultural assimilation policies. However, the current threats to the physical and cultural survival of ancestral peoples must be addressed through the State’s institutional mechanisms and governance technologies. These mechanisms are designed to tackle the challenges of interculturality within a complex and often contradictory framework of relationships.

A Research Analysis On Cognitive Stress Management of Employed Women in India

Women in India have demonstrated their abilities in the workplace. However, their success is rooted in a history of struggle and the pursuit of freedom within traditional social structures. Despite their evolving roles in the workforce, women have also maintained their commitment to traditional household responsibilities. In the workplace, individuals have encountered significant stress, however they persistently strive to achieve their desired professional path in the current period. Stress is an inevitable aspect that affects every facet of workers. The majority of women have been seeking a way to alleviate tension. By examining the intersection of traditional expectations and modern aspirations, this research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the complexities faced by working women in India. Through interviews and case studies, the researchers hope to shed light on the ways in which women navigate societal norms while striving for professional success. While it is important to understand the challenges faced by working women, it is equally crucial to recognize that solutions may not always be transferable across different cultural contexts. Additionally, focusing solely on individual experiences may overlook systemic barriers that perpetuate gender inequality in the workplace. Ultimately, the goal is to empower women to overcome barriers and achieve their full potential in both their careers and personal lives. In this research, an attempt has been made to explore various strategies that women use to overcome stress and how it can be made as a mandatory solution in all companies. This empirical study identifies the various strategies which has been followed by women and the companies in relieving the stress and thereby creating a productive atmosphere.

Beyond the Silver Screen: Exploring Future Public Life Through Sociological Film Analysis

This study seeks to interrogate prospective configurations of public life through science fiction films, particularly by addressing the effects of technological advances and changes on society. In the study’s methodology, 27 films were assessed using the sociological film analysis method. In these films, an analysis was conducted on thematic elements, encompassing aspects such as the physical environment, socio-cultural structures, public life, technological infrastructure, and dynamics of human relationships. As a result, a codex of thematic codes was meticulously crafted. The main findings indicate that the films contain scenarios that discuss the boundaries of public space and reflect future social structures. The emphasis appears to be on how and to what extent technology is used. This research presents novel ideas and a platform for discussion for urban planning, architecture, social sciences, and film studies. The originality of this study lies in its analysis of cinematographic content from a sociological standpoint, providing an in-depth perspective on the future of public life and adding a new dimension to the existing body of knowledge on the subject.

Palestine and the Dialectic of Racial Capitalism

This article situates racial capitalism as a historical-theoretical framework to generate new and alternative theory on the question of Palestine. It argues that the genocidal assault on Gaza must be understood as the clearest expression of the logic of racial capitalism and the terrain upon which we must generate theory and strategy able to dismantle Zionism, colonialism and Imperialism. Many of the critiques of Zionism deploy frameworks of apartheid, understood by radicals in South Africa as a social structure reproduced by racial capitalism. It was understood that such a system could only be effectively dismantled through a national liberation project which understood race, class, capital and Imperialism as a single contradiction which must be overthrown as a totality. Similarly, earlier theorists within the Palestinian anti-colonial struggle, such as Fayez Sayegh, understood Zionist settler colonialism as an outpost of Western Imperialism. By tracing the emergence of racial capitalism within the South African anti-apartheid struggle and the similarities between the white minority regime and Zionism, this article acts as a point of departure to drawing together histories of the Black radical tradition and the Palestinian struggle in crafting radical theory relevant for our present moment.

Anthropology and Rural Sociology: Combining Qualitative Methods to Analyze Rural Life and Beliefs

This paper explores the application of qualitative methods in analyzing rural life and beliefs through the perspectives of anthropology and rural sociology. Qualitative research methods, such as participant observation, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and text analysis, can reveal the complexities of rural social structures, cultural changes, and religious beliefs. By integrating the perspectives of anthropology and rural sociology, this paper demonstrates the unique advantages of qualitative methods in understanding the internal mechanisms, cultural traditions, and community interactions in rural societies. The study emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary research in interpreting the diversity and complexity of rural societies. The findings indicate that qualitative methods not only capture the dynamic processes of rural society but also provide rich first-hand data, offering scientific evidence for policy formulation and social practice.

Defining the boundaries of the meaning of ornamental compositions in the art of the Pazyryk culture

The article is devoted to the analysis of the semiotic field of the term "ornamental composition" in the context of definitions of ornament and composition in the art of the Pazyryk culture and its historiography. The subject of the study is ornamental compositions from elite burials of the Pazyryk culture of different periods of its development – the early Second Bashadar kurgan and the Tuekta burial ground and the late Pazyryk burial ground. In addition, the paper examines the specifics of the use of the terms "composition" and "ornament" in order to highlight the history of their meanings, as well as analyzes certain provisions of theoretical works on the study of the theory of composition and ornament. The purpose of the study is to identify the components of the semantic field of an ornamental composition related to the field of interaction of the composition with the viewer, and not to the field of meaning of specific figurative images. The article proposes using the method of formal analysis in combination with some provisions of the Gestalt approach described in the works of E. Gombrich and R. Arnheim to analyze a series of ornamental compositions with and without figurative images in the art of the Pazyryk culture. The scientific novelty of the study is predetermined by the absence in the Russian historiography of works describing the specifics of the meaning of ornamental composition in the context of visual perception in the art of the Pazyryk culture. The researchers note that the significance of ornaments in Pazyryk art could be related to the meaning of multi-figure compositions (when zoomorphic images are included in the ornament) and reflect the worldview of the bearers of the Pazyryk culture, or the types of symmetry used in the construction of ornaments could reflect the social structure of society. However, in both of these trends, the analysis of an ornamental composition without figurative images remains outside the scope as a structural and semantic, integral work of art interacting with the viewer. As a result of the research, the assumption is put forward that it is possible to designate a single semantic field for ornamental and multi-figure compositions in Pazyryk art. Clarifying and expanding the scope of the ornamental composition allows us to identify a single specificity of interaction with the viewer of both figurative and non-figurative images of Pazyryk art, to emphasize the game element in the nature of culture.