Social Science Theory Research Articles

Review: Creating the Creation Museum: How Fundamentalist Beliefs Come to Life, by Kathleen C. Oberlin

Review: <i>Creating the Creation Museum: How Fundamentalist Beliefs Come to Life</i>, by Kathleen C. Oberlin

Is Giving Local? Conceptualizing Why Place Still Matters in Philanthropy

In this paper, we develop an organizing, multi-theoretical framework for exploring the relationship between place and philanthropy. While there are several theories that help us to understand charitable giving at the individual level (i.e. theories of altruism) and a robust discussion of the mechanisms that activate charitable giving (Bekkers and Wiepking 2011), scholars have not well-considered geographic place as an antecedent of these mechanisms. Our primary contribution is to highlight several current social science theories that are relevant for explaining how geographic place influences the eight mechanisms of individual giving (Bekkers and Wiepking 2011)—awareness of need, solicitation, altruism, values, reputation, psychological costs and benefits, costs and benefits, and efficacy.

Infectious Disease Underreporting Is Predicted by Country-Level Preparedness, Politics, and Pathogen Severity.

Underreporting of infectious diseases is a pervasive challenge in public health that has emerged as a central issue in characterizing the dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic. Infectious diseases are underreported for a range of reasons, including mild or asymptomatic infections, weak public health infrastructure, and government censorship. In this study, we investigated factors associated with cross-country and cross-pathogen variation in reporting. We performed a literature search to collect estimates of empirical reporting rates, calculated as the number of cases reported divided by the estimated number of true cases. This literature search yielded a dataset of reporting rates for 32 pathogens, representing 52 countries. We combined epidemiological and social science theory to identify factors specific to pathogens, country health systems, and politics that could influence empirical reporting rates. We performed generalized linear regression to test the relationship between the pathogen- and country-specific factors that we hypothesized could influence reporting rates, and the reporting rate estimates that we collected in our literature search. Pathogen- and country-specific factors were predictive of reporting rates. Deadlier pathogens and sexually transmitted diseases were more likely to be reported. Country epidemic preparedness was positively associated with reporting completeness, while countries with high levels of media bias in favor of incumbent governments were less likely to report infectious disease cases. Underreporting is a complex phenomenon that is driven by factors specific to pathogens, country health systems, and politics. In this study, we identified specific and measurable components of these broader factors that influence pathogen- and country-specific reporting rates and used model selection techniques to build a model that can guide efforts to diagnose, characterize, and reduce underreporting. Furthermore, this model can characterize uncertainty and correct for bias in reported infectious disease statistics, particularly when outbreak-specific empirical estimates of underreporting are unavailable. More precise estimates can inform control policies and improve the accuracy of infectious disease models.

Street food environmental sustainability in a urbanizing global south: A social practice perspective

Selling and buying street food is an every-day practice for millions of urban poor living in cities across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. These practices are embedded in social routines (e.g., for producing food to consuming it and disposing waste) that are dependent on and influence the environmental performance of urban food systems as agents make use of resources (e.g., soil, water, energy, ingredients, etc.). A social science theory being increasingly applied to food systems and sustainability transformations, social practice theory focuses attention on the cultural, institutional, and physical embeddedness of social routines that characterize street food systems. It allows identifying barriers and lock-ins as well as opportunities to de-routinize unsustainable practices and help visualize the linkages and opportunities to nudge the routinization of sustainable practices. Through three examples of social practices in street food systems of the global south, we illustrate those linkages and propose a research agenda to step up the use of these perspective in promoting the contribution of urban street food system to sustainability.

Applying Political Knowledge in Modern Combat: How the U.S. Military Can Use Social Science to Achieve Cross-Cultural Competency

Culture is a prominent theme in U.S. military doctrine, and the Department of Defense has invested much effort in improving the cultural competency of military professionals. This article utilizes first-person reflections of the author, a political scientist who worked in an advisory capacity for the Army in Afghanistan in 2012, to support arguments for applying the social sciences as a way to address the need for improved cultural competency training provided to military personnel. Observations are described, followed by brief analyses of how knowledge of social science concepts, methods, and theories proved to be an instrumental means through which the author’s missions were understood at the time and ultimately conducted in a manner that improved the chances of success. This article therefore provides a unique perspective on the value of social science education, specifically political science, to obtain cultural competency among military personnel engaged in modern combat operations.

The Xi Jinping administration’s desire for legitimacy: the strategic implication of its “new political party system”

ABSTRACT On June 25th, 2021, the State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China issued a white paper entitled “China’s New Political Party System.” This document argues that the political systems of Western nations are “outdated” and emphasizes the superiority of the political system of “Chinese democracy,” as promoted by Xi Jinping. However, the Chinese government’s official English translation leaves out the context of “newness” and does not emphasize the harmfulness of the West’s “outdated” system. Why was the English version rewritten with little nuance? This could be because of a desire to avoid drawing international criticism for its plan to boost China’s “international discourse power” (国际话语权 in Chinese), which President Xi Jinping has sought to shore up. This paper argues that China’s “new political party system” was implemented as a political tool to formulate Xi Jinping’s new social science theory. Thus, it did not bring about any major changes to China’s political consultation system, in which “democratic parties” can consult with the Communist Party but basically cannot oppose or disagree. Additionally, the phrase “new political party system” was created amidst conflict around discourse power with the West and was an argument with strategic significance in its connection to foreign policy. Discussion of China’s political system is likely to become all the more important amidst the current structural conflict between the US and China.

Динамика прочного брака

This research in the area of social philosophy is a creation of an integrative theory, which addresses the question of what makes a marriage a lasting marriage. Sources of information are scientific results of different specialists in the field of close relationships and marriage. In the process of research and reflection, the following social-scientific theory arose: the dynamic of a lasting marriage is realised through such drivers as Meaning, Love, Commitment, Trust and Ritual. This dynamic is realised by interaction of these drivers. Love constitutes the foundation for all close relationships. The metaphysical basis, meaning, is necessary for the emergence and existence of commitment. Commitment fosters and encourages love as an attitude. Ritual is commitment expressed by actions and is responsible for loving actions. The most vivid and experimental of them is the sex act, in which all drivers of the dynamic of a lasting marriage are realised practically. It takes meaning from the highest purposes, such as morals, expediency, duty. Sex is an expression of love, and its repetition again and again is indeed a ritual. And in order to support the exclusivity, frequency and custom of this love and ritual commitment is crucial. For full realisation of sexual intimacy, which arises from love, ritual and commitment, we need trust. This way the sex act is an existential means for the interaction of all drivers of a lasting marriage. Contribution of this work consists in unifying already studied and known drivers into a joint structure, where each of them in its own right contributes to emergence, maintenance and strengthening of close relationships. The newness of this research consists in the dynamics of interaction which creates an existential structure which maintains and fosters a lasting marriage, as an emerging property.

Motivating a Pragmatic Approach to Naturalized Social Ontology

Recent contributions to the philosophy of the social sciences have motivated ontological commitments using appeals to the social sciences (naturalized social ontologies). These arguments rely on social scientific realism about the social sciences, the view that our social scientific theories are approximately true. I apply a distinction formulated in metaontology between ontologically loaded and unloaded meanings of existential quantification to argue that there is a pragmatic approach to naturalized social ontology that is minimally realist (it treats existence claims as true or false) but that is ontologically austere. I argue that the extant arguments may be construed in terms of this pragmatic approach. The result is an approach to social ontology that is deflationist about naturalized social ontology.

A multi-theoretical approach to identifying mediating &amp; moderating effects of effectual constructs of Social Entrepreneurship, simulated under the PCDO framework

The study aims to determine the mediating and moderating effects of effectual constructs of social sciences theories when categorized under the PCDO (People, Context, Deal, and Opportunity) framework. The PCDO Model is developed for commercial Entrepreneurship and subsequently developed to apply in the Social Entrepreneurship framework with variables focussed on creating Social Value Proposition (SVP). In this article, the PCDO framework of Social Entrepreneurship is further enhanced with functional constructs and seeks to make the model more holistic. This multifaceted approach will lead to understanding the conceptual framework from various dimensions and enabling the Context to be more multi-theoretical. This study uses four functional constructs, Social Innovation, Social Sustainability, Social Livelihood, and Social Identity, to build a multi-level &amp; multi-theoretical conceptual framework. In all the constructs, the sub-constructs are also identified, and subsequently, a logical model was developed to make the concept more versatile and multidimensional. At the conceptual level and in the literature survey, the relationships between the various social sciences theories are established when modeled on the PCDO framework. The model was substantiated by superimposing the case study method and observed to be conceptually sound in nature.

Canadian government discourses on the overdose death crisis: limitations of a bio-evidenced approach

PurposeCritical analyses of health policies and practices may appear to lack practicality during unprecedented times that demand immediate solutions. This paper aims to use critical social science theories to help improve essential service delivery during a public health crisis.Design/methodology/approachThis study is based on qualitative content analysis of government and scholarly sources between 2008 and 2021 to identify strengths and gaps underlying the Canadian Federal Government’s evidence-based solutions to the opioid death crisis. Key questions examined are: What constitutes best-evidence practices underlying the Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy?, Is biomedical evidence the only legitimate framework to substantiate feasible interventions? and Because the opioid death crisis affects disproportionately vulnerable populations, what is the potential merit of considering diverse knowledges and practices as valid forms of intervention despite lacking biomedical evidence bases?FindingsWhile overdose reversing drugs, drug replacement approaches, biologically focused harm reduction options and pharmacological regulatory and surveillance initiatives help reduce premature opioid-related morbidity and mortality across provinces, this study’s findings demonstrate that these individualizing, biomedical magic bullets are temporary solutions, not comprehensive plans to solve a societal problem. This study’s theoretically informed analysis shows that the Canadian Federal Government responses detract attention from issues of social justice, social inequities and the biomedical dominance of health care as broader forces of the opioid death crisis. To address these analytical omissions, broader evidence-based solutions must build upon meaningful intraventions, the insiders’ perspectives or voices of the afflicted communities alongside meaningful interventions – going beyond distal, clinical-based and proximal, home-based interventions.Originality/valueBy highlighting the biomedical and social embeddings of the opioid death crisis, this study underscores structural conditions rather than individuals’ physical bodies as the catalysts for change. A deeper theoretical understanding of why certain issues exists, as they do and how they occur, can provide the basis for prediction of their (re)occurrence and for informing meaningful intervention efforts.

Social Media, Digital Health Literacy, and Digital Ethics in the Light of Health Equity.

Social media is used in the context of healthcare, for example in interventions for promoting health. Since social media are easily accessible they have potential to promote health equity. This paper studies relevant factors impacting on health equity considered in social media interventions. We searched for literature to identify potential relevant factors impacting on health equity considered in social media interventions. We included studies that reported examples of health interventions using social media, focused on health equity, and analyzed health equity factors of social media. We identified Information about health equity factors and targeted groups. We found 17 relevant articles. Factors impacting on health equity reported in the included papers were extracted and grouped into three categories: digital health literacy, digital ethics, and acceptability. Literature shows that it is likely that digital technologies will increase health inequities associated with increased age, lower level of educational attainment, and lower socio-economic status. To address this challenge development of social media interventions should consider participatory design principles, visualization, and theories of social sciences.

Turning the tide in HIV through health communication research.

Turning the tide in HIV through health communication research.

Disinformation detection on social media: An integrated approach.

The emergence of social media platforms has amplified the dissemination of false information in various forms. Social media gives rise to virtual societies by providing freedom of expression to users in a democracy. Due to the presence of echo chambers on social media, social science studies play a vital role in the spread of false news. To this aim, we provide a comprehensive framework that is adapted from several scholarly studies. The framework is capable of detecting information into various types, namely real, disinformation and satire based on authenticity as well as intention. The process highlights the use of interdisciplinary approaches derived from fundamental theories of social science and integrating them with modern computational tools and techniques. Few of these theories claim that malicious users suggest writing fabricated content in a different style to attract the audience. Style-based methods evaluate the intention i.e., the content is written with an intent to mislead the audience or not. However, the writing style can be deceptive. Thus, it is important to involve user-oriented social information to improve model strength. Therefore, the paper used an integrated approach by combining style based and propagation-based features with a total of thirty-one features. The extracted features are divided into ten categories: relative frequency, quantity, complexity, uncertainty, sentiment, subjectivity, diversity, informality, additional, and popularity. The features have been iteratively utilized by supervised classifiers and then selected the best-correlated ones using the ANOVA test. Our experimental results have shown that the selected features are able to distinguish real from disinformation and satirical news. It has been observed that the Ensemble machine learning model outperformed other models over the developed multi-labelled corpus.

Tantangan Pendidikan IPS di Era Masyarakat Madani

In the current era of globalization, technology plays a very important role. The flow of globalization certainly has positive and negative impacts on world society. To anticipate this impact, the role of social sciences education (IPS) is required because social sciences education is very closely related to social issues that occur in society. Apart from that, social studies education learning materials are closely related to the nation's social and cultural values. In solving social problems, social studies education must play an active role. One approach that can be used to solve this social problem is the reflective inquiry approach. Through the reflective inquiry approach, students are taught how to use social skills to solve factual problems that occur in everyday life and in society. Social studies education must be able to help students control themselves in life and apply these values to their behavior in society. Social studies education must be able to develop people into good citizens, familiar with all elements of the environment, wise and prudent in building relationships, and exploring and developing various forms of elements of the existing cultural environment. Social studies education not only emphasizes developing cognitive aspects such as the ability to master social science concepts or theories, the ability to think critically and analytically, or mastering social skills, but can also develop students' affective aspects, which include developing students' attitudes, values, and morals. The reflective inquiry approach will encourage students to use more critical and creative thinking to solve social problems and participate more actively in society. Because the learning material from social sciences education is very closely related to the nation's social and cultural values.

A call to expand disciplinary boundaries so that social scientific imagination and practice are central to quests for ‘responsible’ digital agri‐food innovation

AbstractThis editorial introduces a special issue (SI) concerning quests for responsible digital agri‐food innovation. We present our interpretations of the concepts of responsible innovation and digital agri‐food innovation and show why they can and have been productively interrelated with social science theories and methods. First, each of the articles in this SI is briefly introduced and synthesised around three themes: (1) the need for a critique of digital ‘solutionism’ in current interdisciplinary research, development and innovation settings; (2) that social science contributes value via the ideas it brings to life to challenge dominant power dynamics and (3) that social scientific imagination and practice is a valuable long‐term investment to both mitigate risk but also embrace socioenvironmental opportunities as we face ongoing sustainability crises into the future. Second, we identify future research considerations arising within the field, sitting at the intersection of social science and agricultural sociotechnical transitions. Our insights relate to challenges and opportunities to ‘do’ social science within the context of contemporary and nascent transitions such as increasing digitalisation. Researchers trained in social science theory and practice can make distinctive contributions to agri‐food innovation processes by making social stakes visible and by advancing inclusive processes of research policy and technology design.

Religious Exclusivism and Mass Beliefs about the Religion v. Science Debate: A Cross-National Study

When religion and science are in conflict, who supports religion? Using data from 71 diverse societies in the World Values Survey (n = 120,728), this study assesses the relative predictive strength of science optimism, moral concerns about science, religiosity, and religious exclusivism. Perhaps counterintuitively, science beliefs (science optimism, in particular) are weak predictors of the outcome, even in wealthy societies with high levels of scientific productivity. In contrast, believing that only one’s religion is acceptable is the strongest predictor of choosing religion over science; this is generally consistent across religious groups, regions, and specific countries/territories. These findings suggest that making the public more aware of major scientific advances will not, by itself, increase the cultural authority of science—especially if it is explicitly contested by another influential social institution. The implications for social scientific theories of modernization and secularization are discussed.

Targaryen Thought Experiments: Do Science Fiction and Fantasy Examples Aid or Obfuscate Student Learning?

AbstractSeveral recently published international relations and criminal justice writings, textbooks, and supplements focus on using science fiction and fantasy texts to teach social science theories. This article investigates how science fiction and fantasy examples affect student learning compared to documentary films. We use mixed methods to conduct two studies on the use of science fiction and fantasy in political science and criminal justice classrooms. In the first study, we divide up a large lecture class, comparing how examples from the HBO series Game of Thrones versus documentary films affect student learning about the United Nations and peacekeeping. Our second study uses a combination of interviews and surveys to assess how students apply various criminological theories to the 1997 film Gattaca versus a documentary. Our research reveals that science fiction and fantasy examples neither help nor harm student learning. However, incorporating examples from fictional worlds may alienate some students, affecting their enjoyment of class and perception of preparedness. Most importantly, we find that the use of fictional examples creates an interpretive barrier in the classroom. Thus, we recommend judicious use of science fiction and fantasy examples. When fictional examples are used, we encourage student preparation and extensive debriefing.

Komunikasi Profetik Perspektif Islam Terhadap Ujaran Kebencian di Media Sosial

Hate speech causes great harm. Its spread is difficult to control on social media. Social media has the power to change people's behavior. The flow of information and social media users continues to grow. Islamic perspective through prophetic communication as a prophetic social science theory against hate speech. Prophetic communication based on Kuntowijoyo's paradigm has three values, namely, humanism, liberation and transcendence. Qualitative Research Literature Review allows studying data sources from hadiths. The focus of the research is on the pattern of prophetic communication in response to hate speech. Integrated professional communication per device. The value emphasizes goodness in words and interactions, the value of freedom that does not go too far to prevent crime and the value of awareness of the relationship between human faith and God in social life, including on social media.

The Belarus crisis: people, protest, and political dispositions

ABSTRACT His symposium employs established social science theory to frame and place into comparative perspective the case of Belarusian mass mobilization that began in August 2020. We not only argue and explain how this is a case of mass mobilization that occurred in a competitive authoritarian context, but also that is a far more “typical” example (rather than an outlier) of protest mobilization occurring in political repressive contexts. We propose both empirical and methodological guidance for the study and analysis of such cases, whilst warning against accepting initial reports of mass protest phenomena at face value. Examining how each study presented in this special issue makes a measured and innovative empirical and conceptual contribution, correcting or revisiting accepted “truths,” providing a new framing and/or analyzing original data. The case of Belarus before and after August 2020 underlines the importance and the empirical and ethical challenges of studying stability and change in public opinion and state-society relations in authoritarian settings.

A Review of the Research on Discourse System with Chinese Characteristics Based on the Content Analysis Method

Nowadays, the construction of discourse system with Chinese characteristics is an important part of the comprehensive promotion of Chinese Characteristic Major-country Diplomacy. It is also an important way to shape a true, three-dimensional and comprehensive image of China and to coordinate the domestic and international situations. As our country pays more and more attention to building a national discourse system, discourse system with Chinese characteristics has gradually become a topic of eager attention by the majority of scholars. Using the content analysis method, this article analyzes the number, quality, hot spots, discipline distribution, author distribution and fund distribution of articles on discourse system with Chinese characteristics published in Peking University core journals and CSSCI journals of CNKI from 2011 to 2021, in order to reflect the research status and development trend of discourse system with Chinese characteristics in recent ten years, and to provide a reference for the study of discourse system with Chinese characteristics in the future. The results show that: (1) The research on discourse system with Chinese characteristics is highly valued by our country and scholars from all walks of life, and the research prospect is considerable. (2) The current research hotspots are mainly concentrated on the discourse system, socialism with Chinese characteristics, philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics, and academic discourse systems, etc. (3) The discipline distribution of the research on discourse system with Chinese characteristics is mainly concentrated in multi-disciplinary fields such as Chinese politics and international politics, social science theories and methods, higher education, news and media, showing the potential of extensive integration of discourse system with Chinese characteristics research with other disciplines. (4) The country attaches great importance to the research on discourse system with Chinese characteristics, but the local support is insufficient. (5) The amount of research on discourse system with Chinese characteristics is considerable, but the quality is not good enough. The depth and breadth of the research on discourse system with Chinese characteristics need to be further expanded.