Sociology Research Articles

Mitigation measures for addressing gender bias in artificial intelligence within healthcare settings: a critical area of sociological inquiry

AbstractArtificial intelligence (AI) is often described as crucial for making healthcare safer and more efficient. However, some studies point in the opposite direction, demonstrating how biases in AI cause inequalities and discrimination. As a result, a growing body of research suggests mitigation measures to avoid gender bias. Typically, mitigation measures address various stakeholders such as the industry, academia, and policy-makers. To the author’s knowledge, these have not undergone sociological analysis. The article fills this gap and explores five examples of mitigation measures designed to counteract gender bias in AI within the healthcare sector. The rapid development of AI in healthcare plays a crucial role globally and must refrain from creating or reinforcing inequality and discrimination. In this effort, mitigation measures to avoid gender bias in AI in healthcare are central tools and, therefore, essential to explore from a social science perspective, including sociology. Sociologists have made valuable contributions to studying inequalities and disparities in AI. However, research has pointed out that more engagement is needed, specifically regarding bias in AI. While acknowledging the importance of these measures, the article suggests that they lack accountable agents for implementation and overlook potential implementation barriers such as resistance, power relations, and knowledge hierarchies. Recognizing the conditions where the mitigation measures are to be implemented is essential for understanding the potential challenges that may arise. Consequently, more studies are needed to explore the practical implementation of mitigation measures from a social science perspective and a systematic review of mitigation measures.

Educational opportunity and the purpose of schooling as self-development: A philosophical and sociological inquiry

Educational opportunity and the purpose of schooling as self-development: A philosophical and sociological inquiry

Sociology of E-Health Initiatives in Sierra Leone’s Communal Health Zone

The Sierra Leonean government has promoted diverse programs and approaches as a segment of civic automation ambitions to hand associates of the communal with a reachable path to health social data and services. Accomplishments have been made to grasp Datalogies in Sierra Leone’s communal health zone. The conduct of social health establishments in Sierra Leone nonetheless persists in degenerating at a moment when the exploit of Datalogies in social health is attaining motivation in the Mano River Basin. This sociological inquiry, therefore, urges to evaluate the execution of the social E-health system disclosing the ongoing state of social e-health or electronic device networks in Sierra Leone’s communal clinics. The sociological inquiry embraced an exploratory social inquiry design. Respondents in this inquiry preferred purposive sampling. Social data were amassed via respondents' social observations, in-depth dialogues, and documentary inquiry. The inquiry determined that despite social e-health being an essential instrument in enhancing standard, swift, and productive social health care, its achievement in Sierra Leone has not been smooth, and it is still in its immaturity platforms. The inquiry wrapped up with the fact that social e-health is a dependable instrument for forwarding prosperous and efficient communal social health service supply in Sierra Leone. The sociological inquiry, therefore, mirrors and offers aspects imperative for the thriving application of social E-health in Sierra Leone’s communal social health zone.

An apology for utopia: on the return of utopian constructions to the mainstream sociological theorizing

Utopian thought, the aspiration toward idealized conditions, and the progression toward advancement have historically constituted a cornerstone of the modernist ethos. Sociology, as an intellectual offspring of the modern epoch, has inherently engaged with utopian constructs – directing its gaze towards conceivable societal futures. In the current era where global challenges – such as climate change, social inequality, and populist political movements – present complex social problems, the relevance of utopian thinking in sociology is underscored as a tool for envisioning transformative solutions. Nonetheless, contemporary developments within the discipline signal a marked attenuation of utopian fervor. This paper scrutinizes the factors contributing to the diminished enthusiasm for utopian speculations within sociological theory. The decline is largely attributed to a shift towards postmodern paradigms, characterized by skepticism towards grand narratives and a pervasive mid-20th-century critique of utopianism. Despite this, the heuristic value of utopian thinking as a methodological instrument for social analysis remains substantial. The central thesis advocates for a resurgence of utopian thought within sociological inquiry, proposing that its restoration functions as a potent critical apparatus. Amid pressing societal crises, sociological engagement with utopian ideals is not merely an academic exercise but a practical imperative. It empowers the discipline to envision alternative social configurations, articulate social aspirations, and pragmatically approach their realization. Utopian thought can stimulate innovative policy-making, encourage societal engagement, and help construct resilient social systems in the face of adversity. Presently, Russian sociology, reflective of broader global sociological trends, does not proffer a societal ideal, hence it navigates without direction, merely mapping and interpreting the existing social landscape. This trajectory has practical implications, potentially limiting the discipline’s ability to be prescriptive and proactive. Confronted with this reality, Russian sociologists – and the discipline more broadly – are urged to rekindle the utopian imagination as a pivotal component of their intellectual endeavor. In doing so, they may foster a renewed sense of direction and purpose in the discipline of sociology, making it all the more pertinent in addressing the multifaceted complexities of today’s world.

Scripting mortgage fraud for the motion picture: “Fraud and its interrelationship with the financial services sector in the UK”

This article examines how mortgage fraud is organised in the United Kingdom, what the crime-commissioning processes are for its occurrence and what exogenous conditions and influences support its existence and its capacity to reproduce. The article aims to extend understanding beyond the micro-individual-level, such as causal agency, the biographies of actors and their social relations with one another; to a level of understanding that encompasses macro-structural and facilitative factors and conditions that exist in the financial services sector. The research strategy is supported by a multiple case study design, which involves the cross-case analysis of three multi-million-pound mortgage fraud conspiracies. The study combines criminology with sociological inquiry that employs Clegg’s circuits of power theory as a conceptual framework to examine how the roles and activities of fraudsters and key professional agents are otherwise supported by the convergence of dispositional and facilitative conditions and influences in the financial services sector. It is this circuit that supports the existence of mortgage fraud and its capacity to reproduce. Crime scripting is used as a means of transposing the circuits of power framework into criminological research, as the schema is representative of the interrelationship of the causal, dispositional and facilitative powers through which the organisation of mortgage fraud is possible.

Unveiling the multifaceted dimensions: a sociological inquiry into kidnapping in Nigeria

Unveiling the multifaceted dimensions: a sociological inquiry into kidnapping in Nigeria

Pelatihan Capacity Building Bagi Perangkat Desa Kampung Baru dan Koto Sentajo Kabupaten Kuantan Singingi

Capacity building can be done in two ways, namely through hard skills (work skills) and soft skills (personal and behavioral skills). Soft skills is a sociological term that refers to personality characteristics, social attractiveness, negotiation skills, personal habits, caring, and optimism. Soft Skills are personality and behavioral abilities and skills. These soft skills complement hard skills as technical requirements for a job. The objectives of the service activities that will be carried out include (a) providing understanding to village officials about the capacity building needed in community service and (b) providing skills in community service in the form of personal skills and behavior so as to improve the quality of community service. Village officials and other community servants have not been able to provide maximum services due to lack of discipline and responsibility, lack of cooperation both among officers and with the community. Village officials and other community servants such as posyandu officers, members of village PKK mobilizers, are officers who provide services to the community. Village officials and other community servants have not been able to provide maximum services due to lack of discipline and responsibility, lack of cooperation both among officers and with the community. This phenomenon is an indicator of a lack of ability or capacity as a public servant. Their main tasks and functions related to village government are quite well understood, but the supporting factors for their tasks which are directly related to their personal capacity as servants are still lacking. Capacity building through outbound activities is an outdoor activity which is training in the form of games to build personal abilities and behavior in improving the quality of service to the community. Capacity building activities can build aspects of personality and behavior of village officials as soft skills which are an inseparable part of basic skills in the form of basic tasks (hard skills) and functions as village government officials.

Pour le peuple

This special issue explores the contribution of sociologist Dorothy E. Smith's vast scholarship to the field of adult education. Drawing from her materialist re-orientation of sociological inquiry, exemplified in her crafting of Institutional Ethnography, these authors raise questions about the politics of knowledge work and the relations between activism, learning, and social change.

Max Weber’s Verstehende Soziologie and Florian Znaniecki’s Cultural Sociology: A Discussion of Two Distinct but Related Notions

AbstractThis article compares Weber’s notion of Verstehende Soziologie with Znaniecki’s concepts of humanistic coefficient and cultural sociology. While both authors follow an interpretive perspective and agree that the specific object of sociological inquiry is social action, they diverge in their conceptions of social action and in their definition of sociology and its methods and aims. For, in contrast to Znaniecki, Weber holds that sociology aims not only to understand social action, but also to explain it. Social action, moreover, is differently defined according to whether it is oriented to the conduct of others, as with Weber, or aims to exert influence on others, as with Znaniecki. As for their respective methods of inquiry, Znaniecki proposes to reconstruct the actor’s experiences and viewpoints, while Weber advocates the formulation of generic ideal types for the purposes of describing and explaining social and historical courses of events. Finally, the study of the social order belongs to the cultural sciences, according to Znaniecki. For Weber, the social order is sociological, and follows from the prevalence of consensual action in particular communities such as the market or language communities. Otherwise, its prevalence should not be taken for granted.

Relazioni pubbliche: pars communicans della «sociologia pubblica»?

The contribution seeks to position public relations (PR) as a communicative component of public sociology (PS), tracing the evolution of PR from its inception to the modern-day constructs that form its theoretical foundation and practical activities. It argues that concepts such as stakeholder, relationship, and reputation are not merely central to PR but also intricately intertwined and utilized within the realm of sociological inquiry. The paper underscores the societal impact of PR, especially emphasizing corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social campaigns. These efforts aim to propagate specific issues, cultivate a collective awareness, and ultimately provoke transformation in social attitudes and behaviors. A notable tension exists within PR between empirical practices and scientific precision, drawing attention to the need for interdisciplinary strategies and mid-range theories to bridge this gap. PR, while not exclusively, is primarily situated within the social sciences and, more specifically, within the Sociology of Cultural Processes as an academic discipline. This article calls for a deeper integration between PR and PS, advocating for the use of shared concepts, categories, methods, and tools. Additionally, PR targets the identification of distinct publics and the initiation of active, participatory dialogue with them. Although the predominant literature and major journals in PR are American, the article acknowledges that PR’s application on local grounds is where the synthesis of local and global takes place, demonstrating the field’s wide-reaching relevance and adaptability.

Economic Impact and Adaptive Responses in the Global Hotel Industry During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has become a challenge of unprecedented scale for various industries, and the hotel industry has not escaped the waves of economic uncertainty. Economic indicators in the hotel industry, which once reflected growth and prosperity, abruptly turned into indicators of crisis and the need for adaptation. The main aim of the presented article is the evaluation, categorization, and comparison of hotel-type accommodation facilities in selected countries based on their economic indicators in the pandemic period. Comparison and categorization of countries will be carried out using a multivariate statistical method – cluster analysis. All investigated indicators were obtained by the method of sociological inquiry in the form of a questionnaire. The application of cluster analysis identified the economic importance and potential in the countries in question using the investigated economic indicators in the hotel industry. The results showed a significant economic difference between the countries. The analysis divided the requested countries into five clusters – categories from the lowest (Turkey) to the highest impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economic situation in the hotel industry (Slovak Republic). Since the prevention of crises in the hotel industry is a key aspect that can minimize negative consequences and ensure the sustainability of operations, at the end of the presented article we have outlined the measures that accommodation establishments should apply in their normal practice.

Феномен гендера в научном дискурсе

The concept of gender has become increasingly prominent in scientific discourse, reflecting society’s growing recognition of the complexities of human identity and social relations. In this article, the author delves into the multifaceted nature of gender and gender culture, aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding of these concepts within the framework of scientific inquiry. Gender research spans various academic disciplines, each offering unique insights into the complexities of gender dynamics. Linguistic studies explore the language and discourse surrounding gender, revealing how linguistic practices both reflect and shape gender norms and identities. Psychological research investigates the cognitive processes and social factors that influence gender identity formation and expression. Sociological inquiries examine the social structures and power dynamics that perpetuate gender inequality and discrimination. Philosophical analyzes interrogate the underlying assumptions and conceptual frameworks that underpin our understanding of gender. Cultural studies explore the diverse representations and practices that constitute gender culture within different societies and historical contexts. Gender culture in society is understood as a system of organizing intersexual relations that has developed within the social structure, encompassing a multitude of individual gender cultures and serving as a macroconstruct for them. The concepts of gender and gender culture as sociocultural phenomena serve as methodological tools for studying the specificity and dynamics of specific gender cultures that develop within various sociocultural societal systems. In conclusion, the study of gender and gender culture is essential for advancing our understanding of human diversity and social inequality. By critically examining the conceptual foundations and methodological approaches to gender research, we can contribute to the development of more inclusive and equitable societies that recognize and respect the full spectrum of gender identities and expressions.

Sociology of Graft in Sierra Leone: A Foucault Cognizance

Imploring a Foucault cognizance to comprehending graft in Sierra Leone furnishes fascinating sociological inquiry of how primacy is at the mecca of this social curiosity. In Sierra Leone graft has dawned as the significant risk to impoverished folk’s subsistence as it influences social domains of people. This sociological inquiry accommodates a refined discourse of how graft is fundamentally a snag of primacy. It utilizes commonplace social case constructions of existence in Sierra Leone to emphasize the commonness of primacy in the social discourse of graft. The sociological inquiry accommodates a social substructure for the evolution of the sociology of graft in Sierra Leone by debriefing how graft and primacy are presently devised as personal exploits without comprehending the expansive nexus of primacy and consequently it affects admittance and snub. The sociological inquiry argues that dislodging graft political leaders or bureaucrats is not adequate to liquidate destitution nonetheless what is essential is a rudimentary transformation of the connections of primacy deployed on asymmetrical or unfair social structures.

Building a Du Boisian Research Agenda on Gentrification

The study of gentrification has traditionally found its theoretical roots among the debates between production- and consumption-focused scholars, lending the field a heavily class-based focus. Despite some sociological inquiry into gentrification as an urban process that is also racialized, there are several crucial gaps within this line of inquiry. I here argue that a research agenda inspired by the writings of W. E. B. Du Bois can help to more fully conceptualize the intersection of race and gentrification. Drawing particularly from The Philadelphia Negro while also incorporating key concepts from other works, I show that Du Boisian theory can help us to: (1) understand the role of whiteness as a construct that begets spatial privileges within gentrification processes; (2) articulate racialized displacement as a cultural and affective phenomenon; and (3) account for the agency of local residents in augmenting or living with gentrification processes. I conclude with a call to also pay attention to the transnational context.

Analysis of the Phenomenon of “Apathy Towards Relatives” among Young People in Contemporary Society

“Apathy towards relatives” is a sociological term that refers to laziness, negligence, and disdain for interactionand socialization with relatives within two generations. As the saying goes, “One generation is considered close families, the second generation is considered distant relatives, while the third and fourth generation are equivalent to strangers.” In this atomized society, apathy towards relatives brings about a possible social trust crisis. Therefore, in this paper, we will dive into the leading causes of this phenomenon and its impact on today’s society and the relationship structure between distant relatives.

An Integrative Approach to Sociology of Disability: A Theoretical Recommendation

A common assertion on disability is that people with disability have disadvantaged living. They are disadvantaged because they have physical, intellectual or sensory impairments, and are exposed to a number of barriers. Furthermore, the combined role of impairment as internal and barrier as external aspect of disability cannot be overruled. Notwithstanding the fact that both impairment and barriers contribute, although not equally, to disabling an individual, key approaches to disability such as Medical Sociology and Disability Studies have tended to reject the aggregate role of impairment and barriers in disabling people; one has to either take side of Medical Sociology and suppose impairment as the key kernel of disability, or relate with Disability Studies and acknowledge social barriers as the sole spirit of disability. This paper however rejects the parochial extremes of both approaches, and assumes impairment and barriers as common determinants of disabling condition. I argue that the types of impairment impede individuals to carry out physical and intellectual work, and existing social barriers reduce their chances of utilizing existent strength thereby pushing them to more difficulties. To conclude, an integrative approach is necessary to enrich disability as a specialized field of sociological inquiry.

Investigation of Neighborhoods Closed to Migration in Terms of Sociology of Law: The Case of Istanbul

Türkiye is a country established on lands that have been subject to migration throughout history due to its geographical characteristics. In recent years, due to the war in Syria and the withdrawal of military forces from Afghanistan, a new wave of immigration arrived through the eastern borders of Türkiye. In this study, the legal basis of the neighborhoods closed to migration is examined only with reference to the city of Istanbul, supported by a literature review method. Istanbul was chosen because it encompasses many identities in Türkiye and is one of the most cosmopolitan centres and it is the largest immigration-receiving city. The aim of the study is to reveal the sociological connection of the phenomenon of migration with the law in Türkiye by exploring past studies to explain to what extent the legal regulations affect regional migration and motivations behind.

Social Dynamics in Literary Realms: A Sociological Inquiry into the Intersection of Society and English Literature

Social Dynamics in Literary Realms: A Sociological Inquiry into the Intersection of Society and English Literature

Impostorization in Academia, Psychological Distress, and Class Reproduction

Might “impostor syndrome” be more than the private trouble it is often described to be? Instead, might it be deeply rooted in sociological processes? I explore this possibility drawing on my personal experience and Pearlin’s insistence that much that distresses us in our personal lives originates in social structures. I use Bourdieu’s theory to conceptualize the processes that may instill the “syndrome,” and once in place, surreptitiously recreate inequality. I test this conceptualization, using new sociologically relevant measures, in a stratified sample of over 2,000 American college students. Experiencing impostor concerns in college was significantly related to low parental income. Results were consistent with a model in which impostor concerns mediate the association of low parental income to depression/anxiety and low college persistence. Cultural aspects of impostorization played a larger role than the intellectual aspects emphasized in the traditional conceptualization of impostor syndrome. I advocate the replacement of the within-the-person term “impostor syndrome” with the sociological term “impostorization.”

WIFE BEATING IN SOCIAL AND LEGAL PERSPECTIVE IN INDONESIA

<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" width="388"><p class="TableParagraph"><em>This study aims to determine the act of wife beating according to the views or perspectives of sociology and law in Indonesia and also to find out the thoughts and understanding of Law Number 23 of 2004 concerning the Elimination of Domestic Violence in terms of loading on sanctions for perpetrators of wife beating. The techniques used in data collection through normative research and social aspects are further methods of collecting matari and literature data from, legislation, and various reading sources with national and international integration, used analysis techniques in qualitative form. The conclusion obtained is that in terms of sociology and law in Indonesia the act of beating a wife is an act that is prohibited both in terms of sociology and law, but in the application in society there is still a development of misunderstanding and ignorance in this matter. In solving the problem, the presence of regulations of Law No. 23 of 2004 concerning the Elimination of Domestic Violence is not only seen, read and heard but also implemented properly, because it requires a combination of personal and social matters, and is supported by a strict legal system in taking action against the perpetrator, providing very strict legal sanctions and also appropriate for those who commit acts of wife beating in society so as to create a fair, peaceful and safe quality of life. </em></p></td></tr></tbody></table>