Network Society Research Articles

An adaptive differential evolution algorithm driven by multiple probabilistic mutation strategies for influence maximization in social networks

Influence maximization is a critical research topic of social network analysis, particularly with the increasing involvement of individuals in the global networked society. The purpose of the problem is to identify k influential nodes from the social network and activate them initially to maximize the expected number of influenced nodes at the end of the spreading process. Although some meta-heuristics based on swarm intelligence or biological evolution have been proposed to tackle this intractable problem, further investigation is required to refine the exploration and exploitation operations based on the iterative information from the evolutionary process. In this paper, an adaptive differential evolution algorithm driven by multiple probabilistic mutation strategies is proposed for the influence maximization problem. In order to enhance the evolutionary capability of the later stages of the discrete differential evolution, the mutation in the framework, consisting of three policies, namely comprehensive learning particle swarm mutation strategy, differential mutation strategy, and perturbation strategy, is implied based on different probabilistic models. An adaptive local search strategy is presented to improve the local optimum results based on a potential alternative library consisting of structural hole nodes, which guides the differential evolution to find a more optimal solution. Experimental results on six real-world social networks demonstrate the competitive performance of the proposed algorithm in terms of both efficacy and efficiency compared to state-of-the-art algorithms.

Sustainable and Bio-Based Food packaging design of Chinese agricultural products under the “Internet Plus” mindset

National identity is people's emotional attachment to the country, which is related to personal growth and success as well as the prosperity and stability of the country. The advent of the "Internet Plus" era marks a new ecological evolution in the networked society, significantly impacting personal national identity. On the one hand, the proactive, dynamic, autonomous, and connective nature of "Internet Plus" provides abundant resources and novel platforms to enhance individual national identity. On the other hand, its openness, compatibility, diversity, and anonymity can also challenge and influence personal perceptions of national belonging. This study delves into the nuanced interplay between national identity and the packaging design of Chinese agricultural products within the "Internet Plus" framework, exploring emerging trends, changes, and characteristics. This paper presents an in-depth literature assessment on the comprehensive methodology of Bio-based Food Packaging (B-FP) for food within the cyclical economy. It emphasizes three principal domains: (1) the function of B-FP within a circular goods layout method and material selection during the preproduction life cycle phase; (2) the contribution of B-FP to oval resource administration structures and the item's elimination life cycle phase; and (3) the optimum utilization of B-FP concerning the prioritization of end-of-life therapy. It scrutinizes the underlying issues and deep-seated causes, enriching the theoretical discourse on national identity. Through literature review and surveys, this paper firstly defines and clarifies the concepts of "Internet Plus," national identity, and the B-FP design of Chinese agricultural products. It then investigates the implications of "Internet Plus" for national identity within pastoral product B-FP design, examining its supportive role. Furthermore, survey data is analyzed to evaluate the impact of B-FP design on national identity from various aspects such as structure, visual appeal, and the absence of green design principles. Identifying key challenges and attributing them to factors such as brand competitiveness and rural revitalization strategies, the study ultimately seeks to formulate design strategies for agricultural product B-FP from a national identity perspective within the "Internet Plus" context.

Легитимность насилия в техногенном обществе

The author examines the transformation of violence as a way of survival into “violence of power”, characteristic of modern civilization, the legitimacy of its legitimization, the use of resources of the information network society, technogenic civilization to regulate internal and external state relations, and new management perspectives. The legitimacy of the activities of states that claim the right to identify weak, dying or failed states as the source of modern political violence, instability and threats, and to carry out "humanitarian missions" against them, is called into question. The types of violence that are logically built into the development system of modern technogenic society, such as economic, institutional, and informational, are considered. Attention is drawn to the effectiveness of new technologies for the introduction of military innovations and the development of military potential in support of external legitimate state violence. The inability of modern society to control and regulate increasingly complex information systems and the tendency of the authorities to proactively assess negative consequences and prevent the possibility of their occurrence are emphasized. The mechanisms of a technogenic society contribute both to the control of the legitimacy of power and provide the power with the opportunity to control society. Therefore, a culture of peace can serve as a new trend in the development of humanity.

Scalable intimacy: Rethinking intimate sociality and its problem of scale in digital China

With the development of the Internet in China, people have increasingly turned to digital communication and networking tools for personal connections and social relations. From messaging and dating apps to microblogging and live-streaming platforms, mediated forms of sociality constitute a significant part of people’s intimate lives. Scholarly works on modern and contemporary China have shown how practices and politics of intimacy are formulated and contested against the backdrop of the tensions between the residual culture of Confucianism, the socialist ideological regime, and China’s participation in global capitalism. On the contrary, research on global network societies has foregrounded the role of information and media technologies in mediating intimacy with conceptual frameworks such as programmed sociality and networked intimacy. Bridging these two areas of research, this essay attempts to understand how intimate sociality is configured within China’s burgeoning digital economy and culture. It first provides a review of previous works on forms of intimacy and sociality mediated by network technologies ranging from mobile phones to online dating. Using the popularity of live streaming in current-day China as a case study, this essay then introduces the problem of “scale” to consider how intimacy is mediated at scale with Internet-based media technologies and discuss how scalability shapes intimate lives in Chinese society as a shared rationale behind modernization, network technologies, and new forms of economies. This essay proposes the concept of scalable intimacy to move beyond the platform-centered approach and develop a more contextualized framework for understanding intimate sociality in digital China.

On the Compatibility of the Democratic Rule of Law and the Self-Regulation of Meta: The Oversight Board as a Guardian of Freedom of Expression

The article examines the role of Meta in relation to the principles of the democratic Rechtsstaat. The perspective focuses on the importance of the human right to freedom of expression in a global network society, where Internet intermediaries, through their self-regulation and content moderation, have a crucial impact on the realisation of freedom of expression and, by extension, on democratic processes. Because of their influence, their self-regulatory systems can be seen as independent systems of norms, governed by fundamentally different principles from those of European nation-states committed to democracy, human rights and the rule of law – especially in the context of the European Union. This is of particular importance for public debate and the free expression of opinions, which are fundamental values in democratic societies. Social media both enables and, in some cases, limits the exercise of fundamental and human rights. They also share, or to some extent have even taken over, the institutional role of traditional media in society. The article takes a legal-theoretical approach to the subject matter, as it addresses the role of public debate in the digital environment as part of the legitimacy of the legal order itself. In this respect, the article analyses the relationship between Facebook and the public sphere, which is essential for democracy, and the role of the state in promoting freedom of expression in the online environment. The theoretical framework is based on Kaarlo Tuori's theory of the levels of law and the concept of democratic Rechtsstaat. Against this framework, Facebook/Meta is examined in a European context, which includes both the European Union and Council of Europe law. Most focus is put on the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. Through this framework, the role and position of the Oversight Board at the interface of human rights implementation and Meta's self-regulation will also be examined. Given the emphasis in the ECtHR's jurisprudence on the positive obligations imposed on the state, the article concludes that a more effective horizontal impact of fundamental and human rights is needed. This is supported by the conclusion that Facebook may not be considered as a well-suited public sphere for democracy.

IMPLICATIONS OF COMPUTE AND INTERPRETABILITY FOR THE DIFFERENT SDN SECURITY MODELS

The main focus of this project is to design and implement an IDS for SDNs that are currently causing great interest in the networking society. Making the control plane and the data plane modularity, SDNs provide a higher level of flexibility and programming capabilities to manage the network but concurrently budding novel security risks. Several machine learning algorithms are in use such as the Logistic Regression, Decision Tree, Random Forest, etc. , which are used to identify malice within the network. As for the dataset sdn_intrusion. csv, preprocessing steps included were cleaning where missing values were managed, categorical data was encoded as well as handling for outliers existed. This paper applied feature selection by analysing correlation between the input features and the target variable with the aim of enhancing the model accuracy. The models were assessed with cross validation and several metrics like accuracy, Precision, Recall, F1 score, AUC and the results are quantitatively and qualitatively presented in the form of confusion matrices, ROC and Precision Recall curves. As the findings indicate, Extended Trees (Extra Trees Classifier) and Histograms Gradient Boosting models are efficient in identifying intrusions within SDN architectures. In conclusion, the study highlights the necessity of the proper choice of the machine learning algorithm and preliminary data processing for the effective IDS construction in SDNs, which enhances the readiness level of the networks against cyber threats. KEYWORDS: Software Defined Networks, Intrusion Detection System, Machine Learning, Network Security, Logistic Regression, Extra Trees Classifier, Random Forest, LightGBM, Precision-Recall Curve, ROC Curve.

Developing a hybrid and networked educational approach to lifelong learning for organisations and employees

Developing work-related competencies suitable to the ongoing changes in surrounding society could be discussed in terms of lifelong learning. In such a context, the role of higher education has been identified as a key to develop advanced competencies applicable in a networked society. The current project includes scholars from three Swedish universities, representatives and employees from six Swedish bank and insurance companies, and a related governmental agency, all belonging to an established network. The project focuses on highly specialized professionals and their organisations, and the paper aims to answer the following research question: How can a hybrid and networked educational approach to lifelong learning for organisations and employees at the advanced level of higher education be designed? The investigation applies design-based research, and preliminary findings indicate that a hybrid and networked educational approach for lifelong learning for organisations and employees could be viewed from various perspectives. However, an overall observation is that several boundaries dissolve – for example, the ones between universities and participating and collaborative organisations – when a hybrid and networked educational approach for lifelong learning is designed. For one thing, universities should not be reduced to suppliers of education, and organisations should not be reduced to receivers of knowledge. Of particular interest is that participants working with data from their organisations can devote time to organisational challenges and/or utilize a deeper understanding of such challenges in a university course module approach. While the project still is in progress (the implementation phase is ongoing, and the phase intended to evaluate completed course modules has not started yet), the preliminary hybrid and networked approach for lifelong learning needs further development before it can be established. Nevertheless, early trials highlighting the idea of flexible courses that consist of various short modules developed in collaboration between universities and participating organisations indicate a promising venue for creating long-term relationships that could include deeper university-organisation and/or university-industry collaborations. Dialogues with course module participants and representatives of the collaborative organisation reinforced this preliminary conclusion.

Reconceptualisation of Social Solidarity: Networked Segmentation as a New Digital Divide

Many authors have recognized the unifying potential of digital technologies. McLuhan introduces the phrase "global village," while Castells writes about the emerging society as "networked." However, the experience of living in a "networked society" has questioned assumptions about the one-dimensional nature of the impact of digital technologies both on global social solidarity and solidarity at the micro level. Castells himself makes a sort of leap by considering the transformation of society from networked to segmented, heralding the end of the traditional concept of mass audience. Through mass and especially new social media, the audience as an interactive subject is open to further segmentation and differentiation. These insights indicate the necessity of reconsidering the impact of new media technologies – on the one hand, on forms of constructing social identity and social connectivity, and on the other hand, on the creation of a digital divide, supported by algorithms and artificial intelligence. Furthermore, certain categories need to be revised/redefined, primarily considering them in the context of social and political divisions that the use of social networks generates and deepens, such as the concept of the "digital divide," originally associated with the problem of unequal access to digital resources. The main aim of the paper concerns contributing to the modernization of research categories used in media and society studies, to make their theoretical and practical application more adequate and tailored to contemporary social reality. The paper will propose new formulations of key concepts, aiming to make the inherent multidimensionality of the discussed categories evident, within the context of the impact of new media and technologies. The ultimate result of the paper is contained in a sort of mapping of how the new media ecosystem supports processes of building social solidarity and creating digital alienation.

How will education look like in the future?

There are many factors affecting educational practices. Changes in these factors create serious transformations in education. Some of the transformations are visible that imply a predictable future, while others have blurred influences which make the future forecasts difficult. Educational technologies often come and go but they all leave their marks on education when they are prevalent. In order to get prepared for the future, educators need to know which technologies will be dominant in the future practices of education. This article attempts to highlight the technologies that will be used commonly in the future education. It appears that virtual classroom, artificial intelligence, learning analytics, mobile applications, smart devices, extended reality, open educational resources, gamification, cloud computing, network society, post-truth, digital learning objects, online collaboration will be popular elements of educational practices in the future. On the other hand, social media, metaverse, and wearable technologies will lose their popularity in education to some degree. It is also likely that some of the current technologies will be modified while new ones will emerge to accommodate educational needs of the future.

Cyber Activism in Iran: A Case Study

One of the most obvious characteristics of Iran’s protests in September 2022 is the emergence of a type of cyber activism that, unlike mass activism, is formed first in cyberspace. Networks have redefined social action and structure in our societies and have important consequences on production processes, power, and culture, challenging political systems, and creating legitimacy crises. The subject of the present research is important because cyber activism has an external aspect and has changed the shape of Iran’s social movements. This article is based on the Twitter data analysis method and using MAXQDA. Referring to Castells’ network society theory, it addresses this question: What role did the Twitter play in September 2022 in Mahsa Amini’s social movement? This article shows that the Twitter, in the context of existing dissatisfactions and in the absence of active organizations and parties, has led to an increase in cyberactivism in Iran. This cyberactivism encompasses mass self-communication, occupation of urban space, horizontal leadership, globalization of messages, mobilization and guidance of public opinion, nationalism, the subjectivity of women, and their identification has been its external manifestation.

The Gender Gap in the Digital Era: Reaching Algorithmic Fairness and Technological Inclusivity in Network Society

The Gender Gap in the Digital Era: Reaching Algorithmic Fairness and Technological Inclusivity in Network Society

Legal and Policy Implications in the Age of Social Media in South Africa

Purpose: The aim of the study was to examine the legal and policy implications in the age of social media in South Africa Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: The study revealed that privacy concerns, copyright infringement, cyberbullying, data protection regulations, content moderation, online political advertising, employer surveillance, and emerging technologies like deepfake, researchers have shed light on the evolving legal frameworks governing social media platforms. The study emphasized the critical need for enhanced privacy protection measures, transparent content moderation policies, comprehensive cyberbullying laws, and stricter regulation of online activities to safeguard users' rights and mitigate potential harms. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Social Contract Theory, Diffusion of Innovations Theory & Network Society Theory may be used to anchor future studies on legal and policy implications in the age of social media in South Africa. Formulate policies that strike a balance between freedom of expression and the need to curb harmful content such as hate speech, misinformation, and online harassment. Legal frameworks should provide guidance on content moderation practices while safeguarding fundamental rights. Encourage social media companies to adopt ethical principles and practices that prioritize user well-being and societal good over profit maximization. This includes measures to combat online addiction, promote digital well-being, and mitigate the negative impacts of their platforms on mental health and democracy. This contributes to both legal theory and practice by emphasizing the role of corporations in upholding broader societal values.

Italian Society of Accounting History XVII NATIONAL CONFERENCE Merchants, Markets, and Trade Networks: A Historical Perspective Bari, December 5-6, 2024 University of Bari

Italian Society of Accounting History XVII NATIONAL CONFERENCE Merchants, Markets, and Trade Networks: A Historical Perspective Bari, December 5-6, 2024 University of Bari

Transformative, Transdisciplinary, Transcendent Digital Education: Synergy, Sustainability and Calamity

Dynamic transformation of the knowledge economy, enhanced by Industry 4.0/5.0 development and rise of the networked society in the Digital Age, emergency digitization of all social communicative spheres due to pandemic measures have imposed dramatic changes onto transdisciplinary overlap in different areas of human knowledge and experience, induced by the cross-sectorial job market demands of university level education, curriculum design and learning outcomes. The global pandemic and subsequent warfare in Ukraine induced amplified digitalization measures in the higher education sphere. This end-to end digital shift in the educational processes (communication, content, outcomes and outputs, skills) heralded the introduction of meta-disciplinary dimensions of learning – digital, hybrid and, blended. These meta-disciplinary dimensions can be considered conduits of vertical (endocentric) and horizontal (exocentric) transdisciplinary of digital education as a sustainable dynamic system. Applied trans-disciplinary lens contributes to the solution of holistic modeling of processes and results of updating models and mechanisms of the highly dynamic communication system of education in the digital environment as a whole and its individual formats in the emergency digitization measures of different types.

Criminalization Challenge and Analysis of Network Crime Assistance Behaviors

The rapid development of the network society is in sync with the current era's pace. In comparison to traditional criminal methods, the utilization of the internet for criminal activities has progressively emerged and become increasingly prevalent. Nonetheless, this also poses a challenge in characterizing the offender's behavior. The objective of the study is to reveal the inadequacies in existing laws, policies and practices, and clarifying the harm of assisting in cybercrime and the plight of victims will help develop more effective support services and coping strategies, thereby improving the efficiency and quality of assistance to victims. This study focuses on the identification disputes that arise during the adjudication process of practical cases, combined with the existing legal provisions of the data for qualitative and quantitative analysis, and carries out a type study on the identification of helping behavior of cybercrime. Although China has specified the crime of assisting information network criminal activities in Article 287 bis of the Criminal Law, it remains controversial in distinguishing this offense from other crimes in actual cases. The study found that the techniques and means of cybercrime continue to evolve, from simple scams to sophisticated cyberattacks and data breaches, indicating that perpetrators are adapting to technological developments and changes in security measures. Consequently, it is crucial to clearly elucidate the connection between various recognition schemes from the theoretical perspective of norm violation and legal interest infringement, in order to provide an effective solution for the resolution of identification disputes in actual cases.

Agreeing priority categories and items for inclusion in a future best practice delegation framework for musculoskeletal outpatient physiotherapy services: A consensus groups study

PurposeDelegation of clinical tasks from physiotherapists to physiotherapy support workers varies considerably in musculoskeletal outpatient physiotherapy services leading to variation in patient care. This study aimed to develop consensus amongst physiotherapists, support workers and managers about what components should be included in a future framework to guide effective and safe delegation of clinical tasks to physiotherapy support workers in United Kingdom's National Health Service musculoskeletal outpatient physiotherapy services. MethodsA consensus study was carried out, using Nominal Group Technique. Seven physiotherapists, ten physiotherapy support workers and ten physiotherapy operational/clinical leads from 13 musculoskeletal physiotherapy services within United Kingdom's National Health Service were recruited through the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy's professional networks and social media. Three separate, role-specific consensus groups were convened, involving participants generating, discussing and rating on a Likert scale, components for inclusion in a future delegation framework. Results32 out of 38 generated items reached consensus of ≥70%, i.e. a mean of ≥4.9 on a 7-point Likert scale, across the three groups. Items were grouped under five main categories: 1) training/Continuous Professional Development for physiotherapists and support workers; 2) need for a clear delegation process; 3) competencies 4) defining the role of support workers and 5) safety net. ConclusionKey stakeholder groups were able to reach consensus on five priority areas which will be developed into a best practice framework to standardise delegation and guide physiotherapists when delegating clinical tasks to support workers.

Resilience or decline of informal networks? Examining the role of trust context in network societies

The nature of informal networks in various societies, and particularly whether they recede or tend to persist over time, has long been a subject of discussion in international business studies. However, empirical research on trust in network-oriented societies, where individuals typically maintain somewhat different relationships with their in-group, out-group, and non-specified others, remains limited. Drawing on insights from informal network research and intergroup contact theory to model trust relationships in network societies, 882 respondents from three network societies -- China, Russia, and South Korea -- were surveyed, and confirmatory factor and path analyses applied. The results suggest that as network importance increases, both in-group trust and out-group trust also increase. Individuals who more commonly draw upon out-group trust ties attach less importance to in-group trust ties. Increases in non-specific trust, however, are associated with increases in both in-group and out-group trust, pointing towards the boundary spanning function of non-specific trust. Consequently, rather than finding a clear indication of whether informal networks persist or recede, ambivalent trust relationships were observed. This calls for a reexamination of the conventional ‘either/or’ perspective on the nature of informal networks. This network heterogeneity can be attributed to individuals, especially in developing network societies, utilizing a ‘both/and’ approach to trust and networking, and yielding more economic opportunities.

The NetWorkPlaceTM© Phenomenon

This paper presents an issue related to interior architectural environments, which is currently being investigated through an empirical research program entitled the NetWorkPlaceTM© study. It is delivered from a speculative standpoint which invites consideration and feedback. The radical structuralist conception of Castells’ network society is adopted as the position from which to explore the experience of being-at-work in contemporary organisations. This brings into proximity the experience of the space of place and the space of flows as the new expression of sociability in networked organisations. This juxtapositioning, of what appear to be competing terms, provides the research space for investigating both a contemporary commercial phenomenon and in parallel, for postulating the ideological foundations of interior design. The speculative position, on which this discussion is based, anticipates that the proposed research framework and the experience of the investigative process are ones that also provide an ethical and rigorous foundation for establishing at least one perspective on the formulation of a design ethos.

Mobilizing social transformation with technology. The shaping of social processes since the development of industrial society and beyond: innovation input and social processes

Technological development is a key factor for shaping social life, transforming the ways in which societies organize their production, mobility and communication processes. Since the beginning of industrialization, the pace of the transformations brought about by technological change has increased dramatically, and has further accelerated since the advent of the new digital technologies. These development processes has also impacts in terms of social, economic and environmental costs, a fact that has been addressed in the past few decades by various social movements as well as theoreticians, becoming a key issue in political and social discussion agendas. In this paper, we outline a historical perspective of these changes and their effects, from pre-industrial, industrial, post-Fordism and network societies, and we focus on the mobilizing potential of technological change. We analyze the role that technological interfaces play today in social transformation, as well as the implications for our present day that our interactions become increasingly intermediated by digital technologies. Finally, we discuss digital technologies and their impacts on social inequity. We argue that a public and democratic agenda comprising both development and technological issues should be put in place for guaranteeing social development processes.

Influencing Factors of Chinese Proficiency Test Learning Application Under the Framework of Seamless Learning

With the development of modern information technology and network society, the era of digital transformation has arrived, many educational resources have been developed and utilized, and the problem of space-time separation of global Chinese learners is gradually being solved. The use of mobile application learning can achieve convenient and fast learning, reduce learning costs, and flexibly adjust learning progress. After experiencing COVID-19, the demand for human-computer interaction in mobile learning is even more necessary. Therefore, to make applications achieve seamless docking with the needs of learners in the design of learning, the research investigates and analyzes the five dimensions of time, space, mode, subject, and object. The research tests the reliability and validity of the questionnaire, removes the relevant items and conducts non-parametric tests, then puts forward corresponding strategies according to the results of the questionnaire. It aims to enhance the efficiency of Chinese learners in HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, Chinese Proficiency Test) learning and promote Chinese learning and the spread of the Chinese language and culture.