Social Science Studies Research Articles

A Multimodal Dataset of Fact-Checked News from Chile’s Constitutional Processes: Collection, Processing, and Analysis

This paper presents a multimodal dataset capturing fact-checked news coverage of Chile’s constitutional processes from 2019–2023. The collection comprises 300 articles from three sources: Fast Check, Fact Checking UC, and BioBioChile, containing 242,687 words of text and visual content in 168 entries. The dataset implements advanced natural language processing through RoBERTa and computer vision techniques via EfficientNet, with unified multimodal analysis using the CLIP model. Technical validation through clustering analysis and expert review demonstrates the dataset’s effectiveness in identifying narrative patterns within constitutional process coverage. The structured format includes verification metadata, precomputed embeddings, and documented relationships between textual and visual elements. This enables research into how misinformation propagates through multiple channels during significant political events. This paper details the dataset’s composition, collection methodology, and validation while acknowledging specific limitations. This contribution addresses a gap in current research resources by providing verified multimodal content spanning two constitutional processes, supporting investigations in computational social science and misinformation studies.

Limits of Empirical Studies in Accounting and Social Sciences: A Constructive Critique from Accounting, Economics and the Law

Limits of Empirical Studies in Accounting and Social Sciences: A Constructive Critique from Accounting, Economics and the Law

Biology’s Dark Matter: From Galaxies to Microbes

Emergent research in metagenomics has unveiled large quantities of previously unknown and unclassified prokaryotic DNA. As these prokaryotes constitute the vast majority of microbial life in environmental samples, some microbiologists and commentators in scientific media have referred to this expansive unknown as ‘biological dark matter’, translating the rhetorical power of dark matter from the physical to the life sciences. Engaging literatues and approaches from across the philosophy, history, and social studies of science, we explore the cultural significance of the dark matter theory in the physical sciences and examine the implications of its conceptual reworking in biology, through critically engaging the political narratives folded within dark matter’s genealogies. ‘Dark matter’ designates both zones of importance and zones of turbulence, simultaneously emphasizing microbiologists’ creativity whilst constructing new ways of relating to microbiota. Such a situation, we propose, also invites theoretical analysis as it calls for a conceptual reconsideration of the gene and its fundamental role within the life sciences.

Ordered correlation forest

. Empirical studies in various social sciences often involve categorical outcomes with inherent ordering, such as self-evaluations of subjective well-being and self-assessments in health domains. While ordered choice models, such as the ordered logit and ordered probit, are popular tools for analyzing these outcomes, they may impose restrictive parametric and distributional assumptions. This article introduces a novel estimator, the ordered correlation forest, that can naturally handle non linearities in the data and does not assume a specific error term distribution. The proposed estimator modifies a standard random forest splitting criterion to build a collection of forests, each estimating the conditional probability of a single class. Under an “honesty” condition, predictions are consistent and asymptotically normal. The weights induced by each forest are used to obtain standard errors for the predicted probabilities and the covariates’ marginal effects. Evidence from synthetic data shows that the proposed estimator features a superior prediction performance than alternative forest-based estimators and demonstrates its ability to construct valid confidence intervals for the covariates’ marginal effects. Comparisons using various real-world data sets further highlight the advantages of forest-based estimators over parametric models in larger samples while showing that the ordered correlation forest remains competitive in smaller samples.

Radicalization and Counter-Radicalization on the Internet (Roles and Responsibilities of Stakeholders in Countering Cyber Terrorism)

This article discusses how terrorists/terrorist organizations use the internet to carry out their actions; the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders in countering cyberterrorism. This research is qualitative research with a normative juridical approach and research on law as law in action, a non-doctrinal and empirical social science study. The threat from terrorists/terrorist organizations is not only to the physical infrastructure of the internet itself, but also to the spread of radical ideas on social media. Radicalism is the root of terrorism that is now widespread on the internet. These acts of terrorism threaten the achievement of the SDGs, especially in areas 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, and 16. Efforts to counter these actions within the framework of the national counter-terrorism policy are through counter-radicalization. The sophistication of terrorists/terrorist organizations in utilizing the internet requires an equally sophisticated response in combating and countering cyberterrorism, combating them requires simultaneous integration of stakeholders in this field, namely law enforcement, academia, businesses (private security industry), society/community, media and internet users.

A typological understanding of medical support in sport: What do we know and what’s next?

This article develops a typological understanding of medical support in sporting contexts. Based on the findings of a narrative literature review of social scientific studies, it outlines how medical support in sport can be usefully framed by four interrelated but conceptually distinct ideal types. These include affiliated, transient, independent and pseudo medical support. This understanding leads to the introduction of several avenues for further investigation, with an emphasis on exploring the boundaries and flexibility within different types of medical support through athletes’ perspectives and experiences, the impact of internet-based pseudo ‘medical’ knowledge and the need for research from without the Western/Global North setting to highlight differences in a currently under-researched area of the field. We welcome scholars to critically engage with our ideas so as to refine, test and reconsider them in light of empirical observations.

Folklore’s Ghosts: Haitian Folkloric Dance and the Hauntings of an Entangled History

This article renders a history of Haitian folkloric dance that accounts for its “ghostly matters,” meaning the haunted legacies still hovering around transmissions and performances of folkloric dance. Focusing on the dance’s mid-twentieth century formation, this analysis weaves together scholarship with the author’s own archival, ethnographic, and oral historical research. The construction and codification of “Haitian folkloric dance” emerges through the labor and knowledge of Haitian actors—Lina Mathon Blanchet, Jean-Léon Destiné, Emerante de Pradines, Louinès Louinis, Pierre Desrameaux, Viviane Gauthier—combined with the influence of Katherine Dunham, Lavinia Williams, anti-Vodou and colonial Eurocentric ideologies, Western aesthetics, social scientific study, tourism, urbanization, and transnational migration.

Nationhood as ethical orientation among Polish Catholic migrants in Denmark

ABSTRACT This article presents an ethnographic study of diasporic nationhood, Catholicism, and ethical navigation among Polish migrants in Denmark. Focusing on a vibrant Polish Catholic community in Copenhagen, the study utilises fieldwork and 25 semi-structured interviews gathered from 2021 to 2023 to explore the under-researched role of a nationalised Catholicism as a repertoire of guidance in a migratory setting. The conceptual framework combines a praxiological approach to diasporic nationhood with the notion of ethical affordances. Foregrounding specific modalities of connections between Catholic Polish nationhood and ethical guidance, the study expands the perspectives on how migrants actively engage Catholicism amid their lives of transition and accommodation in Denmark. Based on such focus, the analysis shows how this connection enables both an ethical navigation in new terrain, but also an opposition to the secular public outside the church environments. Within the nascent social scientific study of Catholicism and migration, the study contributes by analytically combining these elements – diasporic nationhood and ethical navigation – thereby providing novel insights into the often overlooked ethical and religious experiences of post-accession Polish migrants, and the ethical difference a nationalised form of Catholicism makes.

Reviewer Acknowledgements for International Journal of Social Science Studies, Vol. 12, No. 6

International Journal of Social Science Studies (IJSSS) would like to acknowledge the following reviewers for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Many authors, regardless of whether IJSSS publishes their work, appreciate the helpful feedback provided by the reviewers. Their comments and suggestions were of great help to the authors in improving the quality of their papers. Each of the reviewers listed below returned at least one review for this issue.Reviewers for Volume 12, Number 6Encarnación ABAD ARENAS, National University of Distance Education (UNED), SpainFahri ÖZSUNGUR, Adana Science and Technology University, TurkeyKun Yu, Universiti Putra Malaysia, ChinaMei-Ling Lin, National Open University, TaiwanSana Ali, Allama Iqbal Open University, Pakistan, and Birmingham City University, United Kingdom, PakistanWEILONG Li, ASCENTGENE INC, USA James YoungEditorial AssistantOn behalf of,The Editorial Board of International Journal of Social Science StudiesRedfame Publishing9450 SW Gemini Dr. #99416Beaverton, OR 97008, USAURL: http://ijsss.redfame.com

R v Lufiau, R v Varennes, and The Gamble of Litigating a “Right” to Jury Trials Outside of Section 11(f)

In light of recent events, changes to criminal law, and the advancement of social science, a renewed conversation on the right to select one’s mode of trial (or a right to a non-jury trial) under section 11(f) of the Charter is much needed. This paper aims to restart this conversation. To this end, the paper will briefly review the Lufiau and Varennes cases before discussing the risks of framing arguments on the “right” to a jury trial outside of section 11(f), like the parties did in these two cases. The last section of the paper will then expand on the drawbacks of the approach taken by the Supreme Court in R v Turpin, contrasting its argument with new social scientific studies and legal scholarship that challenge the impartiality and competence of juries.

Playful framings of social robots in dementia care: reconsidering the principle of transparency in interactions with robot animals

Abstract Research on social robots in dementia care has focused on their effects, for example in relation to the patients’ wellbeing or the care-givers’ working environment. Such approaches to social robots treat them as stable objects with a singular function. Combining social gerontology with social studies of science, the current study offers a new angle by asking: How do patients and care-givers in care homes for older people establish a shared definition of the situation in interactions involving robot animals? Drawing on ethnography and multimodal conversation analysis of 211 minutes of video recordings in two care homes in Sweden, we demonstrate the embodied work by which participants in interactions establish activities with robot animals. In contrast to the ideal of transparency in social robotics, we show that a central affordance of the robots is their vagueness, which allows for their inclusion in playful interactions. Playful framings of the robots highlight their social functions and downplay care-giver–patient asymmetries. However, situations where patients resist a playful frame actualise a dilemma of social inclusion, on the one hand, and the right to not participate in play, on the other. Showing this, the article contributes to knowledge on how people age with technology; in particular, it draws attention to the limits of an ideal of transparency when social robots are included in dementia care.

Reviewer Acknowledgements for International Journal of Social Science Studies, Vol. 12, No. 5

International Journal of Social Science Studies (IJSSS) would like to acknowledge the following reviewers for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Many authors, regardless of whether IJSSS publishes their work, appreciate the helpful feedback provided by the reviewers. Their comments and suggestions were of great help to the authors in improving the quality of their papers. Each of the reviewers listed below returned at least one review for this issue.Reviewers for Volume 12, Number 5Bishnu Prasad Dahal, Tribhuvan University, NepalFahri ÖZSUNGUR, Adana Science and Technology University, TurkeyJibrin Ubale Yahaya, National Open University of Nigeria NOUN, NigeriaJulia M. Mack, Gannon University, USAK.O. Aramide, The Polytechnic Ibadan, NigeriaKun Yu, Universiti Putra Malaysia, ChinaLingkai Kong, Izmir University of Economics , TurkeyMartial Fanga, The University of Religions and Denominations, Qom, IranMd. Nasir Uddin, Prime Minister’s Office, BangladeshNAZIAH ABD. KADIR, Universiti Selangor, MalaysiaPeriyasami Anbarasan, Indian Institute of technology Delhi, IndiaQingzhi Huan, Peking University, ChinaSana Ali, Allama Iqbal Open University, Pakistan, and Birmingham City University, United Kingdom, PakistanShaoshu Li, Cornell University , USASusheelabai Srinivasa, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, United StatesYuhan WANG, Guangdong University of Technology, ChinaYusramizza Md Isa, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Malaysia James YoungEditorial AssistantOn behalf of,The Editorial Board of International Journal of Social Science StudiesRedfame Publishing9450 SW Gemini Dr. #99416Beaverton, OR 97008, USAURL: http://ijsss.redfame.com

Pengaruh Strategi Pembelajaran CTL Dan Media Berbasis AI Terhadap Kemampuan Literasi Mahasiswa Tadris IPS UINSU Dalam Penelitian Kuantitatif

Education in the modern era is experiencing significant transformation, including changes in technology and teaching paradigms. At the North Sumatra State Islamic University (UINSU), especially in the Tadris Social Sciences (IPS) study program, there are challenges in developing student literacy, especially in Quantitative Research courses. This research aims to analyze the effect of implementing Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) learning strategies and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based learning media on students' literacy abilities. The research method used was quantitative with a 2x2 factorial quasi-experimental design, involving 68 students divided into experimental and control classes. Data was collected through questionnaires and analyzed using multiple regression analysis, t test, and F test. The results showed that the application of CTL strategies and AI media had a significant positive effect on students' literacy skills, with a contribution of 77.7%. These findings emphasize the importance of integrating interactive learning strategies and technology in improving academic literacy. The conclusions of this research suggest the need for further development and application of innovative learning methods to achieve more optimal results in student literacy.

Satisfaction from a broad perspective: the joint contribution of factors to satisfaction with studies among undergraduate students

ABSTRACT There is extensive research-based evidence that academic satisfaction is a central factor in students’ degree of investment, ability to apply study material, probability of dropping out of studies, academic achievements, and more. Several models include factors that underly academic satisfaction and correlations have been found between numerous factors and such satisfaction. However, the joint contribution of these factors to student satisfaction has not been investigated. This article examined the joint contribution of self-efficacy, achievements, threshold grade for success, and evaluation of lecturers among 408 undergraduate studies of social sciences in Israel. At the beginning of the semester, students’ expectations regarding their grades, level of self-efficacy, conscientiousness, and evaluation of lecturers were examined; at the end of the semester, their grades and satisfaction were examined. In addition to the relationships between the variables, mediation was also found, indicating interactions among them.

Careers of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as “miraculous” anti-Covid-19 drugs

In early January 2024, a widely publicized article in the journal Biomedicine and Pharmacology estimated that approximately 17,000 COVID-19 patients in France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the US died as a result of hydroxychloroquine treatment. The publication of this article is a fitting closure to nearly three years of controversy about the possible use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19. Repurposed in early 2020 as miracle answers to the COVID-19 pandemic, they had a brief moment of worldwide celebrity, despite the doubts expressed by many experts. Hydroxychloroquine’s career ended in September 2020, when a series of clinical trials showed not only inefficacy to treat COVID-19 but also safety concerns. However, the use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine continued in Brazil, where the government continued to promote their use as the first therapeutic choice against COVID-19. Our study outlines the employ of these drugs in France and Brazil. Grounded in the methodology developed by social studies of science, our article reconstructs the trajectories of hydroxychloroquine in France and Brazil. It aims to elucidate the reasons for the Brazilian exception, illuminating the disastrous consequences of the exercise of a monolithic political power and of anti-democratic practices on drug regulation and proposes new reflections on a topic that has been visible in the media and widely discussed in society, but attracted much less attention in the academic sphere.

Academic Listening Practices and Synodality: Reflections from a Study of World Youth Days

In order to analyze the possible contribution of academic listening practices to the synodal process, this article offers a reflexive analysis of two social science studies of World Youth Days. The first investigation is a historical work carried out between 2017 and 2020 on John Paul II’s World Youth Days, based on archives and testimonies collected in seven different countries. The second is a sociological and anthropological study carried out in July-August 2023 on the occasion of the WYD in Lisbon: as part of a delegation of pilgrims, the author experienced the pilgrimage in Portugal among the young people and their chaplains, while carrying out research work. At the crossroads of epistemological reflection and life review, the paper presents the opportunities and risks of such empirical research from the viewpoints of the researcher, respondents, and Catholic institution. While highlighting misunderstandings that can arise, the article emphasizes the mutual enrichment academic listening practices in a church setting can bring. If the researcher and researched agree to let go of their rigidities, their companionship can purify both faith and science by desacralizing what should not be sacred.

Tromp, Paul. 2024. “In the Shadow of Secularization Theory: Neglected Issues in the Social-Scientific Study of Spirituality.”

Tromp, Paul. 2024. “In the Shadow of Secularization Theory: Neglected Issues in the Social-Scientific Study of Spirituality.”

The influence of artificial intelligence within health-related risk work: a critical framework and lines of empirical inquiry

In this editorial we highlight the need for empirical studies into the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in healthcare and social work settings, especially studies which are theoretically informed by critical social science studies of risk and uncertainty. In setting out the importance of interpretative and critical traditions for research into such AI-oriented forms of risk work, we propose three important conceptual lines of inquiry which empirical studies might follow. First, we sketch ways in which the enactment of AI in healthcare work may be changing how risk is handled amid professional decision-making, and creating new categories of patient/service-user. Patients may be evaluated as being at lower or higher risk depending, respectively, upon their engagement or non-engagement with AI-technologies. These questions of (non-)engagement lead us to consider, second, the trust and distrust dynamics around AI-technologies, exploring the potential inequalities that can emerge as a result of (non) engagement. We then consider drivers of this technological embrace in terms of hope and magical thinking in technological-imaginaries, connecting these cultural tendencies to broader structures of ideology and political-economic interests. We conclude this editorial with a plea to social scientists to be cautious to avoid both techno-optimistic narratives and alarmist warnings regarding the implications of artificial intelligence (AI). Instead, we argue that our focus should be a theoretically informed and detailed examining of how expectations (pertaining to risk, trust, and hope) materialise in practice, particularly in the daily experiences of those who develop and enact AI technologies in care settings.

What development lessons can be learned from Chinese mobilities? Trends in Argentinean students’ mobility to China

The Chinese experience offers valuable lessons for other emerging countries, particularly in leveraging international student mobility for development. The return from overseas students in China has significantly contributed to the country´s growth, presenting a Global South alternative to the dominant, Global North-driven model of internationalisation. This study explores the differentiated impacts of higher education internationalisation on the Global North and the Global South, emphasizing how international mobility and overseas knowledge acquisition can foster development. Using a qualitative approach, including documentary analysis and an interview with a former Argentinean Minister of Science and Technology, we examine the mobility of Argentinean students to China through unilateral and bilateral scholarships (2009-2023) and the RAICES repatriation program (2008-2023). Our goal is to draw lessons from China´s experience and the role of its returnees, focusing on the dynamics of South-South student mobility. Our findings indicate that Argentinean students in China predominantly pursue studies in social sciences and language, fields with narrow contributions to development and the knowledge-based economy, such as engineering, science and technology. Conversely, the RAICES program has prioritised repatriating professionals in fields like natural sciences, health, and biology, mainly from the Global North countries. The limited developmental contribution of Argentinean student mobility to China underscores the need for a more strategic approach to fostering South-South internationalisation that aligns with national development goals.

Exploring Trends in Work-Family Conflict and Gender Research with a Bibliometric Approach

Work-family conflict (WFC) is a role conflict where there are pressures from work that conflict with role pressures in the family. The different roles in the family, which in this case is called gender, creates its own conflict for workers. The relationship between WFC and gender is an interesting topic to research considering the shift in roles between men and women today due to economic demands. This study aims to analyze how the development of WFC and gender research from publications in Scopus. WFC and gender research data were obtained through Scopus database and analyzed descriptively using excel. VOSViewer was also used in the research to see the publication trend with the topic of WFC and gender. The results of research related to work family conflict published based on the Scopus database found as many as 1,932 documents. The analysis shows that research related to WFC and gender keywords has increased every year, where America, Europe and Australia are still the regions with the most WFC and gender research. Most publications related to WFC and gender are in the form of articles that are published in journals with the subject area of social science and gender studies. The keywords between WFC and gender in visualization with VOSViewer show that gender and human are the keywords that appear most often.