Social Valuations Research Articles

Old by obsolescence: The paradox of aging in the digital era.

Geroscience and philosophy of aging have tended to focus their analyses on the biological and chronological dimensions of aging. Namely, one ages with the passage of time and by experiencing the cellular-molecular deterioration that accompanies this process. However, our concept of aging depends decisively on the social valuations held about it. In this article, we will argue that, if we study social aging in the contemporary world, a novel phenomenon can be identified: the paradox of aging in the digital era. If the social understanding of aging today is linked to unproductivity and obsolescence; then there is a possibility that, given the pace of change of digital technologies, we become obsolete at an early chronological and biological age, andtherefore, feel old at a younger age. First, we will present the social dimension of aging based on Rowe and Kahn's model of successful aging. We will also show that their notion of social aging hardly considers structural aspects and weakens their approach. Second, departing from social aging in its structural sense, we will develop the paradox of aging in the digital era. On the one hand, we will explain how the institutionalization of aging has occurred in modern societies and how it is anchored in the concepts of obsolescence and productivity. On the other hand, we will state the kind of obsolescence that digitalization produces and argue that it can make cohorts of biologically and chronologically young individuals obsolete, and thus they would be personally and socially perceived as old.

TRANSFORMACIONES EN LA CONFIGURACIÓN Y FUNCIONALIDADES DE LA PERIFERIA URBANA NOROESTE DE LA GRAN ÁREA METROPOLITANA DE COSTA RICA (GAM)

The peripheries are generally conceived as scenarios for expanding various economic activities in central cities, and their land uses usually explain both their functionality and territorial organization. However, the literature shows that the logic that configures these places also goes through a framework of territorialized human relations and that their forms of organization are also linked to social valuations. Given the above, the research emphasizes the importance of taking a comprehensive look, based on spatial structures, to understand the changes and contemporary functionalities of the periphery under study. For this, a qualitative methodology of an ethnographic type was considered, based on observing land uses and the practices of the different users. As a result, the spatial structures approach made evident other activities and relationships between society and the environment, such as forms of recreation on agricultural land, the agriculturization process, agro-productive diversification, and changes in residential models, which must be taken into account for current and future planning of the periphery. Keywords: Land Use, Transformations in Urban Peripheries, Functionalities, Geographic Space, Social Valuation, Gran Área Metropolitana.

Empowerment: Freud, Canguilhem and Lacan on the ideal of health promotion.

Empowerment is a prominent ideal in health promotion. However, the exact meaning of this ideal is often not made explicit. In this paper, we outline an account of empowerment grounded in the human capacity to adapt and adjust to environmental and societal norms without being completely determined by those norms. Our account reveals a tension at the heart of empowerment between (a) the ability of self-governance and (b) the need to adapt and adjust to environmental and societal norms. We address this tension by drawing from the work of Freud, Canguilhem, and Lacan. First, we clarify through a discussion of Freud's notion of sublimation that it is difficult to assess empowerment independent of any social valuations, but also that it is no less problematic to make it dependent on social valuations alone. Second, we draw from the work of Canguilhem to show how empowerment can be understood in terms of the individual's capacity to tolerate the aggressions of a multiplicity of environments. Third, using Lacan, we show how empowerment requires incorporation of social and symbolic norms, without necessarily rendering ourselves a mere product of these norms. Finally, we demonstrate how the views of these authors can complement one another, resulting in a more sophisticated understanding of empowerment.

Reproducing or Reducing Inequality? The Case of Summer Learning Programs

Can summer programs, as remedial supplements to regular schooling, extend learning opportunities and other benefits to disadvantaged students? To frame this question, we compare logics from “social reproduction” and “partial compensation” perspectives, and then apply them to a large mixed method study of four kinds of summer programs in Ontario. Drawing on quantitative data on over 10,000 students and qualitative data from interviews with over 200 teachers and parents, we examined patterns of student recruitment and participation, social valuations, and academic outcomes. We found that all summer programs successfully recruited disadvantaged students without stigmatizing them, and raised their average achievement without widening pre-existing gaps. We interpret these findings as being consistent with the “partial compensation” perspective, and discuss related policy implications that include COVID-19 learning recovery strategies.

The Legal Basis For Free Entrepreneurship

The main source of financing of the financial system of Georgia and the most promising means of entrepreneurial activity. The development of market economy depends on an unjustified comprehensive regulation of entrepreneurial relations. Entrepreneurship is based on an organized initiative of individuals and their unions, independent and repeated activities aimed at obtaining material wealth, intellectual values, paid services or other works. It shall be carried out in Georgia in consideration of national interests: it is not permissible to commit criminal interests against national interests in order to win profits. Legal regulation process of entrepreneurial relations was commenced in 1991 in Georgia by law of Georgia “about the basics of entrepreneurial activity”. It laid the foundation to start of entrepreneurial activity and has established the legal conditions of subject of commercial nature. Initially, the entrepreneurial practice has placed the topic “to develop an applicable legislation” in agenda. Nowadays the field related to entrepreneurs is thoroughly and comparatively perfectly governed by 1994 Law of Georgia “about entrepreneurs” and Civil Code of Georgia dated as of 1997. According the law, an entrepreneur bears the responsibility in case of non-fulfilment or improper fulfilment of agreement concluded, for violation of anti-monopoly legislation, for defamation of consumer interests, for environmental pollution, for damage and demolition of state and social property, national valuations, historical and cultural monuments, for incorrect labeling of the goods, for violation of standards and technical terms, for violation of labor safety, for non-fulfilment of tax liabilities and other. The guarantor to protect the entrepreneur`s rights and lawful interests in Georgia is the country. It ensures the equal rights of all entrepreneurs. During the overview of market business principles the significant importance is given to develop small and medium business. The country puts every its effort to promote an expansion and development of small enterprise activities. The reimbursement of loss dealt to entrepreneur due to lawless actions of state bodies or their officials is subject to discuss according the judicial rule. Comprehensive development of entrepreneurial activity constitutes the guarantee of stable financial resources of the country. Keywords: Charter, insurance activities, attachments, licensing. Forsyth Methodology - A Strategic Tool For The Development of Regional Industries

Feminist Institutionalism and Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism is an ideology that requires the public/private split in human affairs to exist and to be perceived as normal and natural. This paper begins by looking at the feminist critique of dualisms, as developed by the feminist institutional economist Ann Jennings and feminist economists Paula England and Julie Nelson and then applies their critique of the public/private dualisms to neoliberal conceptions of agency and care. The paper argues that once dualism is exposed as an incorrect representation of existential reality, it becomes impossible to use for justifying the characterization of behavior, invidious distinctions, and the social valuations of human behavior it supports, thereby making neoliberal assumptions about normal behavior that support its policy prescriptions untenable. Finally, it explores the consequences of this critique of neoliberalism on the conceptualization of agency and the economics of care. HIGHLIGHTS Feminist economists and original institutionalists share aspects of their inquiry. Both approaches understand economics as the study of social provisioning. The public/private dualism is necessary to sustain neoliberal ideology. Discrediting the public/private dualism leads to rejecting neoliberal agency. Caring is inconsistent with neoliberal ideology.

“NOVELTY” AS A COMMUNICATIVE CRITERION OF SOCIAL “AUTOPOIESIS” (ON THE EXAMPLES OF DIFFERENCES IN THE SOCIETY OF HOMERIC AND ARCHAIC GREECE)

The study is devoted to the semantic study of the phenomenon of “novelty” in the context of social and philosophical theorizing by Niklas Luhmann. The factor of novelty is considered as a necessary aspect of communication, its obligation as an informational or demonstrative component, the semantic ambiguity of the word in the subsystems of religion and art is indicated. On the basis of an etymological analysis and study of the resource of the National Corpus of the Russian language, three “basic” attitudes towards the novelty were identified: negative, neutral and positive in the fields of religion and art. Within the framework of the study, the dependence of the noting of the “new” and social valuations of this phenomenon depending on the cultural and historical context, the study of which is possible using the methodology of N. Luhmann, is indicated. As an example of the practical application of the method of “distinguishing differences” and identifying semantic dynamics in self-descriptions of autopoietic social systems, the experience of understanding the novelty in the society of Homeric and archaic Greece, the degree and forms of its acceptability/unacceptability is analyzed. In terms of Luhmann’s philosophy, the society of our research refers to segmented, in which access to the forbidden, the unknown, of which the novelty is a part, is strictly regulated. On the basis of Homer’s poems, as well as texts of the archaic period, the main mechanisms of the emergence of a novelty are shown, interpreted as news from the world of the gods, received by people through poets, oracles, signs. As a result of the study, the difference between the lexeme «novelty» and the social phenomenon of the new was demonstrated. The phenomenon of novelty is an integral characteristic of communication, however, the historical forms of its access to social life change depending on the context, which can be traced in the textual forms of self-description of a society.

Contributors

Previous articleNext article FreeContributorsPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreJennifer Carlson is associate professor in the School of Sociology and the School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Arizona. Her research examines gun politics, gun violence, and gun law enforcement. She is the author of Citizen-Protectors (Oxford University Press, 2015) and Policing the Second Amendment (Princeton University Press, forthcoming).Yao Lu is associate professor of sociology at Columbia University. Her current research focuses on the impacts of social and demographic processes on political development, and the sources of gender, racial/ethnic, and nativity inequality in the high-skilled workforce.Steven L. Foy is associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley. His research primarily addresses stigmatization processes at the intersection of the sociology of race and ethnicity, medical sociology, and social psychology.Rashawn Ray is associate professor of sociology and executive director of the Lab for Applied Social Science Research at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is also a co-editor of Contexts Magazine: Sociology for the Public. Currently, Ray is a David M. Rubenstein Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution.Pierre Azoulay is a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research focuses on the economic study of scientific institutions and their impact on the rate and direction of technological change.J. Michael Wahlen is a Ph.D. candidate in management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. His research interests include innovation and organizational theory.Ezra W. Zuckerman Sivan is deputy dean and the Alvin J. Siteman (1948) Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is also cofounder of MIT Sloan’s Ph.D. program in economic sociology. The larger question of the article in this volume—How and to what extent can social valuations become decoupled from objective conditions?—is an abiding research focus, as represented in his 2012 Annual Review of Sociology essay, “Construction, Concentration, and (Dis)Continuities in Social Valuations.” Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Sociology Volume 125, Number 3November 2019 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/708290 © 2019 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Muslim–queer encounters in Rio de Janeiro: Making sense of relational positionalities

For recently arrived West African migrants in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro, the virtual and street encounters with travesti sex workers and queer beach goers provoked questions of relative power and status as experienced from a social margin of local Brazilian society. Based on ethnographic fieldwork since 2014, I address the question of how my Muslim interlocutors’ encounter with queers facilitate a particular and partial reading of Brazilian social relations, their legal mediation and their individual and social valuations. Moving between queer, postcolonial, queer of color and Muslim queer scholarship, I situate the local encounters of Muslim West Africans and queer subjects to differentiate and transcend the global framework of homonationalism and queer necropolitics. Situational positionalities result from the interplay of multiple geographical and social locations that, in their contradictions and interdependencies, are characteristic of contemporary urban configurations.

Involving Stakeholders’ Knowledge in Co-designing Social Valuations of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Implications for Decision-Making

We contribute to addressing two gaps that reduce the utility of ecosystem sciences for decision-making: lack of standard methods for using stakeholders’ knowledge to co-design ecosystem services science research, and absence of commensurable social valuation metrics that allow effective value comparisons. In two phases, we used co-designed instruments to conduct social valuation of biodiversity, and provisioning, cultural and regulating services. First, we conducted eight participatory fora, where experts and non-experts identified ecosystem aspects to which they ascribe value. We combined knowledge from the fora—expert and non-expert—and the literature to identify 45 ecosystem aspects of value—importance—to people. Second, we organized the valued aspects into four psychometric social valuation instruments that were reviewed and contributed to by experts and non-experts. We used those instruments in a survey questionnaire completed by 968 residents of Deschutes County, USA. Co-design led to high valuation reliabilities. The omission of either expert or non-expert knowledge would have resulted in suboptimal valuation. Unexpectedly, biodiversity was valued more than any category of ecosystem services, and urban sprawl regulation—a novel non-expert-identified function—was valued more than all aspects of climate regulation. These findings—directly resulting from co-design—illustrate that co-designed commensurable metrics are adaptable to various decision contexts; they can provide issue-specific valuations and comparisons, broader valuations, comparisons between specific and broader ecosystem services, and equity-based parameters for addressing distributional concerns vital to decision-making. Co-designed commensurable metrics lead to social valuations that are better suited for decision-making and for persuasive communication of those decisions to enhance social compliance.

How incentives matter? An illustration from the targeted subsidies reform in Iran

We use the Targeted Subsidies Reform implemented in Iran in 2011 to recover empirically the social valuations of Iranian households relying on the assumption of optimal taxes. Unlike the existing literature, we do not restrict attention to a specific pattern for the incentive constraints associated with nonlinear income taxation. Instead we recover the Lagrange multipliers corresponding to these constraints. We find evidence of a significant redistribution toward the bottom three deciles of the income distribution before the reform. This redistribution is however limited by an incentive constraint where the rich envy the social treatment of the poor. At the outcome of the reform incentives no longer matter and the social welfare function of the government of Iran displays a Benthamite-like form.

Does a patient's health potential affect the social valuation of health services?

BackgroundPatients with a permanent impairment may be unable to reach full health. Consequently health services which cure illnesses which are unrelated to the impairment may increase health less than services for patients with no impairment. While it has been argued that this should not lead to discrimination against impaired patients there is little evidence to determine whether this equity-efficiency trade-off is consistent with social values.ObjectivesTo measure the effect of permanent impairment upon the social valuation of services for unrelated illnesses.MethodsSocial valuations of services for illnesses associated with mobility, depression or pain were assessed and compared for patients with and without a permanent impairment using the Relative Social Willingness to Pay (RS-WTP) instrument. The maximum valuation of services for impaired patients was also compared with the maximum utility which could be gained when utility was measured using three multi attribute utility instruments.ResultsCuring the illness of impaired patients was valued 8–11 percent less than the cure of patients with no impairment. Discrimination decreased as the severity of the illness increased. Valuation of health states using the utility instruments implied significantly greater discrimination than the social valuations using the RS-WTP instrument.ConclusionsHealth services are valued less highly when a patient’s health potential is impaired. However discrimination is significantly less than would occur if the value of the services were limited to the value of the health state causing the impairment. The argument for disregarding a patient’s limited health potential when resources are allocated therefore receives some support from social valuations but the case for completely equal treatment depends upon additional ethical arguments.

Different Strokes for the Same Folks: The Effect of Information Architectures on Social Valuations

Social evaluation platforms for products, services, workers, and organizations are ubiquitous. Scholars have studied the social determinants of these collective endeavors, tracing how attributes of...

Acoustic perceptions of vessel fitness in southern Africa

The acoustic properties of objects found in archaeological contexts have seen little attention because they are seldom found intact. Nevertheless, sound is quality of objects that is of tremendous significance during both their manufacture and use. In this article, the authors examine how the acoustic properties of ceramic vessels influence the perception of their fitness for use. Grounded in how sound cues correlate to visual, tactile and olfactory measures of vessel fitness in an ethnographic context, they focus on detecting perceptible sonic differences between damaged and undamaged vessels produced by Zulu and Swazi potters in southern Africa. The article demonstrates how sound is a key quality of vessel ‘strength’ that both potters and clientele use to gauge functional and social suitability. We show that studies of fabric characteristics, such as fissures and voids, in addition to fabric composition provide a means to infer the acoustic properties of archaeological pottery and evaluate the significance of sound in past valuations of vessel fitness. Archaeological discussions of materiality can explore how social valuations of vessel fitness are accessible through studies of the functional properties of ceramics that consider human sensory experience.

Perceptions and social valuations of landscape. Objectives and methodology for citizen participation in landscape policies

Since the approval of the European Landscape Convention, social perception has been accepted as one of landscape’s defining components and, therefore, any strategy for its planning, protection or management has to be in possession of knowledge produced by citizen participation procedures. The Convention did not formally state what these procedures are and no methodology has been agreed upon for guaranteeing their inclusion in landscape analysis and praxis. This article puts forward a methodological proposal to this end that has been designed, tested and put into practice in the compiling of the Landscape Catalogue of the Province of Seville (Andalusia, Spain). Arguments put forward to support the methodological choices made are evaluated with the aim that this proposal might be of use for other initiatives to create a theoretical and practical corpus for social participation in landscape policies.

Valuation of the EQ-5D-5L with composite time trade-off for the German population \u2013 an exploratory study

BackgroundThe EuroQol Group has extended the severity levels of the EQ-5D from three to five (EQ-5D-5L). There are valuation studies worldwide planned in order to convert the EQ-5D-5L health states into a single preference-based summary score based on country-specific value sets of social health status preference valuations. The EuroQol Group developed an internationally standardised EQ-5D-5L valuation protocol. Based on the experiences of the first wave of valuation studies applying the protocol, a number of modifications to the implementation of composite time trade-off (cTTO) were proposed and tested in an exploratory study in Germany.MethodsThe aim of the study is to test the improved EQ-5D-5L valuation protocol 1.1 and the implementation of three modifications: (1) introduction of ranking task, (2) separating time trade-off (TTO) tasks for health states “Better Than Dead“(BTD)/“Worse Than Dead” (WTD), (3) allow for removal of problematic valuations from the cTTO data (the feedback module). Data were collected in computer assisted personal interviews with 200 members of the German general public.ResultsIn comparison to the first wave of valuation studies a higher data quality can be observed in both study arms: increasing number of WTD valuations, reduced inconsistencies for health state 55555 as well as higher values for mild health states. Comparing both study arms, mean observed cTTO value for severity 6 is higher in the test arm. The proportion of inconsistent cTTO responses is lower in the test arm than in the control arm and is further reduced by the feedback module. The ranking task prolongs the interview without the desired effect.ConclusionsBoth study arms yielded higher data quality in comparison to the first wave of EQ-5D-5L valuation studies. The valuation protocol combined with an intensive interviewer training and close data monitoring showed a high feasibility and acceptability to the respondents of the general population as well as the interviewers in Germany. Based on the results of this study and other countries, the separation of TTO tasks for health states BTD/WTD and the feedback module will be implemented in the valuation study for the EQ-5D-5L for Germany.

Cascades of green: A review of ecosystem-based adaptation in urban areas

Climate change impacts increase pressure on challenges to sustainability and the developmental needs of cities. Conventional, “hard” adaptation measures are often associated with high costs, inflexibility and conflicting interests related to the dense urban fabric, and ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) has emerged as a potentially cost-efficient, comprehensive, and multifunctional approach. This paper reviews and systematises research on urban EbA. We propose an analytical framework that draws on theory from ecosystem services, climate change adaptation and sustainability science. It conceptualises EbA in terms of five linked components: ecological structures, ecological functions, adaptation benefits, valuation, and ecosystem management practices.Our review identified 110 articles, reporting on 112 cities, and analysed them using both quantitative statistical and qualitative content analysis. We found that EbA research in an urban context is fragmented due to different disciplinary approaches and concepts. Most articles focus on heat or flooding, and the most studied ecological structures for reducing the risk of such hazards are green space, wetlands, trees and parks. EbA is usually evaluated in bio-geophysical terms and the use of economic or social valuations are rare. While most articles do not mention specific practices for managing ecological structures, those that do imply that urban EbA strategies are increasingly being integrated into institutional structures. Few articles considered issues of equity or stakeholder participation in EbA.We identified the following challenges for future EbA research. First, while the large amount of data generated by isolated case studies contributes to systems knowledge, there is a lack of systems perspectives that position EbA in relation to the wider socio-economic and bio-geophysical context. Second, normative and ethical aspects of EbA require more thought, such as who are the winners and losers, especially in relation to processes that put people at risk from climate-related hazards. Third, there is room for more forward-looking EbA research, including consideration of future scenarios, experimentation in the creation of new ecological structures and the role of EbA in transformative adaptation.

What has debt got to do with it? The Valuation of Homeownership in the Era of Financialization

Based on comparative focus group data from Norway, Denmark and England, this article asks why people take on substantial mortgages to become homeowners. It argues that financialization of the housing market has resulted in a widespread investment philosophy at the household level and changed the way people think and talk about “the home”. High levels of mortgage borrowing have become commonplace and are justified by social valuations of owner-occupation based on beliefs around freedom through homeownership. Like previous research, the study shows that homeownership offers social identity, stability and belonging. But, this is wrapped up in an investor’s language, such that the distinction between homes as socially valued living environments and homes as investment objects has become blurred. This makes it difficult – perhaps impossible – for households to assess the risks involved in home purchases.

Best Practices for Resettlement Management in Kenya: A Case Study of Olkaria IV Geo-Thermal Project

The growing demand for electricity in Kenya has prompted the Kenya Electricity Generating Company Limited (KenGen) to go ahead with plans to increase production of geothermal energy within the Greater Olkaria Geothermal Area (GOGA). The plans call for the establishment of a new power plant, the Olkaria IV Power Station. But these plans come at a cost: the location of the new plant is home to an indigenous Maasai population that will have to be removed and resettled elsewhere. To this end, KenGen undertook and ESIA and developed a Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) to mitigate the anticipated adverse effects arising from the involuntary resettlement of the Project Affected Persons (PAPs) to pave way for the power plant. The RAP aims to ensure that PAPs are not worse off than they were at the commencement of the project. This paper chronicles the ESIA and process through which the RAP was developed, the policy and legal considerations involved, and the institutional framework for RAP implementation. Data collection for ESIA and RAP included site visits, air and noise dispersion modelling, a census, a social survey, land and asset valuations and consultative meetings with PAPs. Overall, the implementation of the RAP was carried out with utmost professional standards and consultations and budgetary resources were allocated for construction of housing and other social amenities for the PAPs. The resettlement programme was therefore a salient example of successful resettlement management practice of PAPs in Kenya.

Análisis Interactivo de Valoraciones y Prácticas de los Turistas en el Museo Egidio Feruglio (Patagonia, Argentina)

El binomio patrimonio y turismo involucra diversas valoraciones y prácticas sociales, dependiendo su multiplicidad y variabilidad en función de los actores sociales participantes. Entre los diversos actores, el turista atribuye diferentes tipos de valores, y consecuentemente, desenvuelve acciones múltiples en los espacios patrimoniales que merecen un abordaje complejo. En este sentido, el presente artículo describirá las valoraciones y prácticas de los turistas tanto en el viaje como en la visita del museo, y sus interpelaciones interactivas entre las mismas. En la investigación se desarrolla un estudio exploratorio y descriptivo con triangulación metodológica, donde se toma como caso de estudio el Museo Egidio Feruglio (Trelew, Argentina).Los datos se recolectaron mediante encuestas y observaciones realizadas a los turistas, complementado con datos obtenidos de las entrevistas aplicadas al personal del museo. Los principales resultados obtenidos se concentraron en el conocimiento de las motivaciones, percepciones y satisfacciones de los turistas como formas de expresión de sus valoraciones; y en el comportamiento de viaje, conducta atencional y desplazamiento espacial en el museo como modos de manifestación de sus prácticas. Las conclusiones residieron en los procesos de interacción entre diferentes tipos de valores sobre el patrimonio, como el de uso, simbólico y forma-estético. A su vez, las interpelaciones manifiestas en las prácticas de consumo, recreación y aprendizaje del turista dentro del museo analizado.