Societal Responses Research Articles

The glocalization of death in the digital age: traits and limits

This perspective article explores the interplay between death and glocalization in digitally saturated societies. The central question driving our perspective is how societal responses to death reflect and inform the process of glocalization within the context of increasing digital connectivity. In this study, we discuss that societal response to death provides a unique perspective on how global digital trends intersect with deep-seated beliefs and traditions in glocalization dynamics. Thus, the main section of the article (Section 3) examines the traits and limitations of digital glocalization in mortality contexts, revealing its multifaceted nature: digital glocalization is relational, post-metaphysical, naturally occurring, and a boundary solution to crises. Constraints in glocal forging in the context of bereavement include interpersonal challenges, social alienation, evolving local customs, religious considerations, and timing issues. Our perspective, informed by brief ethnographic insights from contemporary Romania, highlights the fusion of ancient customs, digital tools, and religious beliefs in shaping distinctive responses to death in digitally enriched environments. Ultimately, this study concludes that death serves as a catalyst for glocalization, harmonizing local traditions and digital advancements in navigating the complexities of life and loss in the digital age, portraying death as the great “glocalizer.”

Jewish Spaces in Egypt as Sites of Memory

This article explores Jewish spaces in Cairo as repositories of memory and their role in shaping a collective understanding of the Jewish past among non-Jewish Egyptians. By examining these sites through the perspectives of engaged observers, it uncovers their multifaceted reflections of Jewish life and culture. Interactions with these sites reveal the intricate interplay of internal and external factors, such as the dynamics between Jews and Muslims, the reverberations of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and societal responses to Jewish culture. These sites evoke a sense of patriotism among Egyptian Jews and their fellow citizens, marked by the fusion of Arabic, Hebrew, Judaism, and Islam. Understanding this perspective necessitates considering the roles of various stakeholders, including the remaining Jewish community, state institutions, conservationists, and scholarly professionals. It also requires an examination of ongoing societal debates and official decisions regarding the preservation or demolition of Jewish sites. Diverse viewpoints emerge from these discussions, reflecting issues like anti-Semitism, anti-Israel sentiments, distrust of the Egyptian state, and prioritizing the preservation of inhabited spaces over abandoned ones. By shedding light on these contradictions within Egyptian public discourse, this article underscores the significance of acknowledging and celebrating Egyptian Jewish heritage, which continues to shape society today.

Streets of memory: Urban practices of civil antimafia resistance

In this article, we present data from the first dedicated census of commemorative antimafia street names in Italian cities, investigating streets named after innocent victims of the mafia as “lieux de memoire”. We introduce the concept of social amnesia surrounding the mafia to cast light on the impact of mafia violence on socio-spatial relationships and potential societal responses to this trauma. The practice of naming streets to commemorate the antimafia movement is a strategy for countering social amnesia. Antimafia street names are forms of urban resistance and civic education, and as such may be defined as a “common good”. Nonetheless, antimafia street naming can also be a primarily formal or acritical memory practice or – potentially – an expedient for legitimizing illegal relations. This kind of ambiguity is inherent in mafia studies and attests to the ongoing urban conflict between the mafia and the antimafia movement.

Interaction mechanisms of urban ecosystem resilience based on pressure-state-response framework: A case study of the Yangtze River Delta

The unprecedented pace of urbanization has intensified environmental concerns, underscoring the critical importance of bolstering urban ecosystem resilience (UER) in contemporary cities. This study presents a Pressure–State–Response framework for evaluating the UER within the Yangtze River Delta region spanning 2012 to 2021. Utilizing spatial visualization techniques and the panel vector auto–regressive model, spatial differentiation patterns and interaction mechanisms among sub–dimensions are examined. Findings indicate an overall positive trajectory of UER, characterized by decreasing Pressure, noteworthy steady growth in State, and rising Response. Spatially, Pressure is higher in the north and lower in the south, with large cities becoming new centers of high pressure; State is higher in the southwest mountains and lower in the northeast plains; Responses center around Shanghai, expanding toward the southwest and northwest. The complex interactions between Pressure, State, and Response form a nested cycle of UER, indicating that the UER in the Yangtze River Delta is evolving towards a more rational development trend, where the tight mechanism of societal Response plays a key role. The implications underscore the urgent need for tailored regional governance strategies that leverage spatial variations, balance human impact on ecosystems, and optimize dimensional interactions for resilient city development. This research contributes a comprehensive framework for understanding and enhancing ecological resilience in the Yangtze River Delta region, offering valuable insights into regional governance and long–term urban ecological sustainability amidst global environmental challenges.

Development of the "Through the Eyes of …" Program for Improving Cultural Awareness.

Understanding the role implicit bias plays in health inequities can aid students in adopting a culturally humble approach to working with diverse communities. This article describes the development of the "Through the Eyes of …" training program, aimed at improving cultural humility, empathy, and implicit bias awareness of nursing students. A series of simulated experiences using 360-degree video capture was developed, allowing students to explore personal and societal responses to the experiences of the populations served within the community. The training materials were pilot tested with a group of prelicensure nursing students. Students (N = 25) reported strong agreement that the simulations provided adequate information, necessary support, problem-solving ability, time for feedback/reflection, and fidelity. The students enjoyed hearing other perspectives and the realistic nature of the simulated scenarios. The program allowed students the opportunities to explore with the goal of improving nursing practice and patient outcomes. [J Nurs Educ. 2024;63(X):XXX-XXX.].

Discrimination, Bias, and Repudiation

This ninetieth issue of DIALOGO (2024) is dedicated to the multi-theme “Discrimination, Bias, and Repudiation,” addressing an [unfortunately, ongoing] actual and critically relevant issue. The focus is on human biases in contemporary society, encompassing discriminatory behaviors, actions, and legislation, particularly amid global crises, local conflicts, and increasing wars. These challenges often diverge from universal human values. By advocating for merciful human coexistence, DIALOGO collates various articles assessing conflict and societal responses to these pervasive behaviors. We start our endeavor with the inquiry, “How do discrimination, bias, and repudiation manifest across different societal, psychological, and cultural contexts, and what strategies can be employed to mitigate these pervasive human behaviors effectively?”

A ‘Romantic Public Tragedy’? COVID Pandemic and the Changes of Governance in Poland

The impact of pandemic governance on state regimes is a topic of lively debate. While some researchers suggest that governments may use a ‘state of exception’ to consolidate their power and introduce new methods of control, others see it as an opportunity for new civil society initiatives and social innovation. In this paper, we examine both the actions and discourses of the Polish government and its associated actors and the independent bottom-up responses of Polish society and how these were incorporated or rejected by the government. Our primary focus is on public health governance, including quarantine policies, the management of scarce personal protective equipment, related narratives and societal responses. This study is based primarily on desk research, analysis of key legislation and regulations tailored to the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland and analysis of social media (X/Twitter) discourse related to COVID-19. Our research reveals a crisis not only of governance but primarily of the neoliberal capitalist state. We conclude that governance during the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland showed uneven patterns.

To wear or not to wear, was that the question? Understanding citizen responses to COVID‐19 crisis management in social media across Europe

AbstractThis study aims to gain qualitative insights about and compare public responses to COVID‐19 crisis management during the different pandemic phases and across three countries—Norway, Sweden and Italy. To do so, we have carried out a qualitative content analysis of a selection of 2606 tweets containing the term ‘face mask’ in Italian, Norwegian, and Swedish published between March 1, 2020 and June 31, 2022. The article combines risk society theses with social practice theory as a lens through which to examine public responses to crisis management. Analyzing the data from Norway, Sweden, and Italy, this article discusses the extent to which individualism, reflexive modernization, and cosmopolitanism account for citizen responses to authority's crisis management efforts in each of the countries during the different phases of the pandemic. Findings highlight the crucial role of socio‐cultural contexts that shape citizen responses to crisis management over time, showcasing a spectrum of attitudes ranging from scepticism and critique to trust and compliance. This comparative analysis underscores the importance of considering the dynamic interplay between criticism and support, individualism and collectivism, as well as global and local experiences in understanding diverse and situated societal responses to crisis management during a global pandemic. The article also points to social media as a meaningful arena where individuals and groups share information and participate in discussions that shape collective views, thus having a significant role in shaping citizen responses to COVID‐19 crisis management and influencing decision‐making.

Someone is to blame: the impact of suicide on the mind of the bereaved (including clinicians).

This paper presents an emerging understanding of the psychodynamics of suicide loss, derived from over 1500 accounts of suicide bereavement shared by families, friends and clinicians. It identifies clear patterns in the responses of the bereaved, particularly the formation of delusional narratives that often place them at the centre of blame for the death. These narratives have a profound impact on well-being, increase the risk of mental illness and elevate the likelihood of death by suicide. They not only cause harm to the bereaved but also permeate and distort our systemic and societal responses. Understanding why suicide unleashes such painful and dangerous forces helps mitigate the widespread harm and distress that often follows such a death. This knowledge also enables us to effectively and compassionately support those bereaved.

An integrative framework for mapping the psychological landscape of risk perception

We vary greatly in our perception of risk, not just because of differences between risks themselves, but also because of individual, contextual and cultural differences too. To better understand and predict responses to risk, we need to (a) integrate these components, combining approaches from different psychological disciplines and (b) also consider risk tolerance – how individuals trade-off between risks and benefits. We therefore developed an ICONS (individual, contextual, cognitive, social) framework; using it across two empirical studies (n = 4228) to examine how individuals perceive and respond to the quotidian risks associated with consumer products. Three dimensions underlined risk perceptions: benefits, dread and individual responsibility. Risk tolerance was typically predicted by interactions between individual (demographic, cultural worldview, personality) and contextual (product type/category, harm information) factors. In turn, perceived dread, benefits and individual differences shaped how likely participants were to communicate risk information. Our results demonstrate for the first time how the interaction between individual, cognitive (risk tolerance, intensity), contextual, and social (risk communication) factors is key to understanding and predicting risk perceptions. Together, our findings help explain why societal responses to risks are often difficult to predict and have implications for the spread, and amplification, of risk information.

From party to pandemic – Frames and metaphors in the news coverage of the COVID-19 outbreak in Austria

Media framing facilitates people’s understanding of a threat and affects one’s emotional reaction. It therefore plays a vital role in both individual and societal responses to a public health crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a combination of conceptual metaphor analysis and qualitative frame analysis, this article examines how three Austrian newspapers framed the initial national outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020. The results show that at that early stage, media coverage was primarily concerned with the national government’s political actions to contain the disease. Only a few articles framed the situation in terms of personal experiences and possible economic or social consequences. As has been the case in research reporting on other health crises, metaphors of war, journeys, and natural disasters were used to conceptualize the coronavirus pandemic. Yet, overall, the tone remained neutral, as the media framing was clearly aimed at passing on information and conveying a sense of urgency while at the same time trying to avoid scare tactics.

SISALv3: a global speleothem stable isotope and trace element database

Abstract. Palaeoclimate information on multiple climate variables at different spatiotemporal scales is becoming increasingly important to understand environmental and societal responses to climate change. A lack of high-quality reconstructions of past hydroclimate has recently been identified as a critical research gap. Speleothems, with their precise chronologies, widespread distribution, and ability to record changes in local to regional hydroclimate variability, are an ideal source of such information. Here, we present a new version of the Speleothem Isotopes Synthesis and AnaLysis database (SISALv3), which has been expanded to include trace element ratios and Sr isotopes as additional, hydroclimate-sensitive geochemical proxies. The oxygen and carbon isotope data included in previous versions of the database have been substantially expanded. SISALv3 contains speleothem data from 365 sites from across the globe, including 95 Mg/Ca, 85 Sr/Ca, 52 Ba/Ca, 25 U/Ca, 29 P/Ca, and 14 Sr-isotope records. The database also has increased spatiotemporal coverage for stable oxygen (892) and carbon (620) isotope records compared with SISALv2 (which consists of 673 and 430 stable oxygen and carbon records, respectively). Additional meta information has been added to improve the machine-readability and filtering of data. Standardized chronologies are included for all new entities along with the originally published chronologies. Thus, the SISALv3 database constitutes a unique resource of speleothem palaeoclimate information that allows regional to global palaeoclimate analyses based on multiple geochemical proxies, permitting more robust interpretations of past hydroclimate and comparisons with isotope-enabled climate models and other Earth system and hydrological models. The database can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.5287/ora-2nanwp4rk (Kaushal et al., 2024).

Enhancing State Management Efficiency through Administrative Apparatus Reforms in Vietnam

This study examines the imperative administrative reforms in Vietnam, highlighting the significance of transitioning towards a more efficient and globally integrated bureaucratic system. It identifies a crucial gap in understanding the challenges and effectiveness of these reforms, aiming to analyze strategies and outcomes related to institutional restructuring, procedural streamlining, digital modernization, and human resource enhancement. Utilizing qualitative methods, including literature review and semi-structured interviews with reform stakeholders, the research provides a detailed exploration of the reform implementation and societal responses. Findings indicate progress in procedural simplification and digitalization yet underscore persistent obstacles such as resistance to change, digital divides, and the absence of supportive legal frameworks. The study emphasizes the necessity of promoting innovation culture, improving digital literacy, investing in ICT, and clarifying legal frameworks to support reforms. It also highlights the role of public-private partnerships and feedback mechanisms in refining e-government services. Implications extend to policymakers and international entities, suggesting a holistic approach to overcoming challenges crucial for enhancing administrative efficiency and transparency and for Vietnam's socio-economic development and international integration. This research contributes valuable insights for comprehensively advancing administrative reform efforts.

Disaster, Societal Responses, and State Legitimacy in Crisis in Vietnam

This article examines the role of celebrity activism in post-disaster politics in the context of state authoritarianism in Vietnam. In late 2020, a chain of violent tropical storms hit Vietnam’s central highland region – host to hundreds of hydropower dams – triggering severe landslides and floods that devastated human lives and local livelihoods. Drawing on data gathered through social media, online platforms, and interviews with non-governmental organisations and private sector actors, this article shows how the rupture of these disaster events facilitated socio-political openings in state–society relations that might otherwise have remained closed. It explores these political contestations, attributions of blame, and the competing recovery efforts that emerged between government actors, celebrities, and citizens. Public debates over the natural and political catalysts of the disaster revealed major structural and governance problems for the state, which allowed voluntary charity work by a celebrity to supplement state functions during the disaster. Considered illegal under state law, the article shows how support from the public and lower tiers of government for private charity work challenged state legitimacy. Under pressure from within and from citizens, the central government had to amend its policies to accommodate voluntary disaster relief – to restore its flagging legitimacy.

Якість життя: бюджетний баласт чи державотворча необхідність

The aim of the study is to determine the risks, challenges and threats caused by the genetic liability, environmental conditions and living environment, to establish the importance of their impact on the quality of life in Ukraine, to develop a methodological approach to their assessment and to develop a set of measures within the context of the spatial regeneration of the national socio-economic system under conditions of the military aggression of the Russian Federation and in the postwar period. The research is based on information from open sources, expert opinions, data of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine and the data base of the World Health Organization, on results presented in medical, demographic and economic monographic studies and the materials included in sample surveys. Systemic approach and analysis methods, sociological, genetic population, statistical, comparative analysis, generalizations and expert evaluations were utilized. It has been recognized that factors such as genetic burden and environmental conditions and the environment of life have increased the impact on the quality of life of the population of Ukraine, the effect of which has determined the requirements for societal, demographic, organizational-economic, medical-social and socio-political response to threatening events. Awareness of demographic determinism, general laws and modern economic trends in the formation of the quality of life in the country in the conditions of military aggression of the Russian Federation allowed: a) to form a complex of medical and genetic, social, public and state mechanisms and measures to ensure it; b) specify the negative factors of the spatial evolution of the socio-economic system, which determined the need to take into account the medical and genetic reserves and opportunities and develop measures to eliminate the destructive influence of environmental conditions and living environment in the course of solving the demographic and socio-economic problems of the state; c) propose a medical-genetic concept of quality of life and living environment, the implementation of which will enable the generation of a healthy heritage (physical and psychological), will allow to form potential and build up reserves for improving the quality of life. Taking into account resource limitations and the presence of threats and risks in the internal environment, medical genetic counseling and testing, the creation of satisfactory environmental conditions along with a living environment become necessary levers in the recovery of Ukraine. The constitution and importance of the impact of quality of life factors for Ukraine have been updated: heredity (32.0 %); environmental conditions and living environment (32.0 %); nature of the life and lifestyle of the individual (26.0 %); quality of medical care and socio-economic factors (10.0 %). Systemic conditions for the regeneration of the demographic and economic situation, improvement of the quality of life and well-being to proceed with the development of a healthy society have been formulated. A model for assessing the quality of life has been developed, enhancing the methodological approach in assessing the economic equivalent of the value of living, which also involves calculatiing the economic profit of the state from the preserved working capacity of a person as a result of successful treatment / prevention of a genetic anomaly. This becomes the basis for: substantiating the economic effectiveness of medical and genetic care and other treatment and preventive measures for patients with genetic pathologies; rationalization of pension payments; development of a new social policy. The practical significance of the results becomes the basis to improve: the national model of medical and genetic monitoring; a set of preventative measures within the population; analysis of aggressive environmental conditions and living environment; cost of living estimates; systems for managing loss risk factors.

Social psychological pathways to climate justice: Emerging insights and intersecting challenges

As the impacts of climate change grow in frequency and intensity, climate justice—the recognition of climate change’s unequal impacts across populations, as well as inequities in the benefits and burdens from societal responses to climate change—has become a central focus of climate policymaking, advocacy, and scholarship. In this review, we take stock of these trends to consider what social psychologists can contribute to this discourse. We draw from integrative perspectives within the environmental social sciences, as well as emerging insights from psychology, communication, and public health, to highlight three areas with growing policy relevance that are ripe for social psychological inquiry: (a) understanding factors that influence climate vulnerability, its causes, and remediation; (b) identifying barriers and pathways to inclusive climate governance and decision-making; and (c) enhancing justice in climate solutions. For each, we consider the relevance of group and intergroup processes and highlight emerging empirical insights and key unanswered questions. We conclude by considering the urgency and challenges of translating psychological research to address climate injustice and highlighting opportunities for advancing the societal relevance of this research.

Identification of Perceived Challenges in the Green Energy Transition by Turkish Society through Sentiment Analysis

Green energy refers to energy derived from renewable sources such as solar, wind, hydro, and biomass, which are environmentally sustainable. It aims to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and mitigate environmental impacts. In the Turkish context, alongside positive sentiments regarding the establishment of energy plants, there are also prevalent negative perspectives. Societal responses to the transition towards green energy can be effectively gauged through the analysis of individual comments. However, manually examining thousands of comments is both time-consuming and impractical. To address this challenge, this study proposes the integration of the Transformer method, a Natural Language Processing (NLP) technique. This study presents a defined NLP procedure that utilizes a multi-labeled NLP model, with a particular emphasis on the analysis of comments on social media classified as “dirty text”. The primary objective of this investigation is to ascertain the evolving perception of Turkish society regarding the transition to green energy over time and to conduct a comprehensive analysis utilizing NLP. The study utilizes a dataset that is multi-labeled, wherein emotions are not equally represented and each dataset may contain multiple emotions. Consequently, the measured accuracy rates for the risk, environment, and cost labels are, respectively, 0.950, 0.924, and 0.913, whereas the ROC AUC scores are 0.896, 0.902, and 0.923. The obtained results indicate that the developed model yielded successful outcomes. This study aims to develop a forecasting model tailored to green energy to analyze the current situation and monitor societal behavior dynamically. The central focus is on determining the reactions of Turkish society during the transition to green energy. The insights derived from the study aim to guide decision-makers in formulating policies for the transition. The research concludes with policy recommendations based on the model outputs, providing valuable insights for decision-makers in the context of the green energy transition.

Navigating ecological novelty towards planetary stewardship: challenges and opportunities in biodiversity dynamics in a transforming biosphere.

Human-induced global changes, including anthropogenic climate change, biotic globalization, trophic downgrading and pervasive land-use intensification, are transforming Earth's biosphere, placing biodiversity and ecosystems at the forefront of unprecedented challenges. The Anthropocene, characterized by the importance of Homo sapiens in shaping the Earth system, necessitates a re-evaluation of our understanding and stewardship of ecosystems. This theme issue delves into the multifaceted challenges posed by the ongoing ecological planetary transformation and explores potential solutions across four key subthemes. Firstly, it investigates the functioning and stewardship of emerging novel ecosystems, emphasizing the urgent need to comprehend the dynamics of ecosystems under uncharted conditions. The second subtheme focuses on biodiversity projections under global change, recognizing the necessity of predicting ecological shifts in the Anthropocene. Importantly, the inherent uncertainties and the complexity of ecological responses to environmental stressors pose challenges for societal responses and for accurate projections of ecological change. The RAD framework (resist-accept-direct) is highlighted as a flexible yet nuanced decision-making tool that recognizes the need for adaptive approaches, providing insights for directing and adapting to Anthropocene dynamics while minimizing negative impacts. The imperative to extend our temporal perspective beyond 2100 is emphasized, given the irreversible changes already set in motion. Advancing methods to study ecosystem dynamics under rising biosphere novelty is the subject of the third subtheme. The fourth subtheme emphasizes the importance of integrating human perspectives into understanding, forecasting and managing novel ecosystems. Cultural diversity and biological diversity are intertwined, and the evolving relationship between humans and ecosystems offers lessons for future stewardship. Achieving planetary stewardship in the Anthropocene demands collaboration across scales and integration of ecological and societal perspectives, scalable approaches fit to changing, novel ecological conditions, as well as cultural innovation. This article is part of the theme issue 'Ecological novelty and planetary stewardship: biodiversity dynamics in a transforming biosphere'.

Evaluating approaches for reducing catastrophic risks from AI

AbstractAccording to a growing number of researchers, AI may pose catastrophic – or even existential – risks to humanity. Catastrophic risks may be taken to be risks of 100 million human deaths, or a similarly bad outcome. I argue that such risks – while contested – are sufficiently likely to demand rigorous discussion of potential societal responses. Subsequently, I propose four desiderata for approaches to the reduction of catastrophic risks from AI. The quality of such approaches can be assessed by their chance of success, degree of beneficence, degree of non-maleficence, and beneficent side effects. Then, I employ these desiderata to evaluate the promises, limitations and risks of alignment research, timelines research, policy research, halting or slowing down AI research, and compute governance for tackling catastrophic AI risks. While more research is needed, this investigation shows that several approaches for dealing with catastrophic AI risks are available, and where their respective strengths and weaknesses lie. It turns out that many approaches are complementary and that the approaches have a nuanced relationship to approaches to present AI harms. While some approaches are similarly useful for addressing catastrophic risks and present harms, this is not always the case.

Humanizing Pandemics by Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Societal Response to Pandemics: The case of Bengal (aka West Bengal)

This study is interdisciplinary in nature and brings in its fold dissemination of social science research on health. In the light of the recent Covid 19 crisis, there has been an increasing interest towards epidemiology and to understand the concept of epidemics or pandemics. Intermittent outbreaks of infectious diseases have had profound effect on societies throughout history. Historical perspective helps in understanding the extent to which panic, connected with social stigma, threat, prejudice, frustrated public health efforts can control the spread of disease. The intensity of the spread of a pandemic and the number of people affected in country and specific regions depend a lot on the measures of state control at the local and centre-level. However, the severity of an epidemic which slowly pervades into a pandemic depends on the spatio-temporal frame of a region. The research poses a basic question, how do members of the society respond to the threat of pandemic and to the hygiene, social isolation and other measures proposed by public health, over time and selects the case of Bengal which has witnessed three pandemics since the 18thcentury.. The study follows a mixed-method approach and the discussion provided a few general observations which however are not exhaustive to pandemic reaction, for the study area like threat Perception, emergence of leadership, science communication etc.