Traditional Social Science Research Articles

Critically quantitative: measuring community cultural wealth on surveys

ABSTRACT This study explores the quantitative measurement of Community Cultural Wealth (CCW), an asset-based approach to understanding the experiences of students from systemically marginalized racial/ethnic groups. Grounded in critical race theory, CCW focuses on forms of capital utilized by marginalized populations that are often unrecognized/undervalued by traditional social science research. Most previous studies on CCW have relied on qualitative methods; we argue that quantitative critical race theory, or ‘QuantCrit’, can complement those studies by statistically specifying assets possessed by students from marginalized populations as a step toward reimagining institutions that elevate their importance. This paper aims to develop a CCW scale to quantitatively explore the concept, while acknowledging the overlaps among and the dynamic nature of the forms of capital emphasized in conceptualization. Findings from exploratory factor analysis are largely consistent with the original CCW framework but suggest some important ways in which the framework can be further developed.

The Coloniality of Knowledge and the Autonomous Knowledge Tradition

ABSTRACTAn autonomous social science tradition is one in which knowledge creation takes place amidst consciousness of the psychological and structural obstacles that mental captivity and intellectual imperialism present to students, academics, and people in general. The limitations imposed by the structure of intellectual imperialism and the ubiquity of the captive mind allow for various hegemonic orientations to dominate knowledge creation in such a way that limits originality in terms of the choice of research problems, the application of theories and concepts, and the use of methods of data collection and modes of argumentation. This article defines autonomous knowledge, and discusses the hegemonic orientations that autonomous knowledge seeks to gain autonomy from.

Children picturing their own worlds: Using photovoice to amplify children's voice in sociological research.

This research note highlights an emerging transdisciplinary research method-photovoice-and why it is particularly suited for sociological studies of children and youth. Traditional social science data collection methods can be limited in their ability to capture both the depth and breadth of childhood experiences and children's perceptions of their experiences. We describe an emerging method, photovoice, that is used more frequently in other disciplines, and its suitability for sociologically studying youth and children. We describe the limitations of traditional social science methods and how photovoice can help overcome some of these limitations. Photovoice engages participants as lived experts who contribute to both the data collection and analysis in an individual and collective manner. Through taking photos and discussing their meaning, participants can share abstract feelings and discuss sensitive topics in an imaginative format and express themselves creatively. We describe how previous research has used photovoice to work with youth from vulnerable circumstances and those who have experienced trauma as well as demonstrate how photovoice is well situated to bolster the tenets of sociological research.

Life course studies – conceptual and methodological approaches and solution

Studies of the life course address the fundamental issue of social sciences – understanding the social change, its directions, reasons and perspectives, the interaction of micro- and macro levels of social reality. Studies of life course developed independently in different social sciences and scientific traditions cover a broad range of topics, issues and methodological approaches. These variety of studies were grouped into few major research frameworks: psychological within the studies of personality development; longitudinal sociological focused on life course of different cohorts and comparative studies of generations, social groups, countries and regions; domain-based – studies of trajectories in different life domains; demographic studying the timing of life events; studies of stability and transformation of values and biographical research. The multiple methodological approaches to study the life course are suggested to group in two main categories – concurrent and retrospective which differ by the time distance between the occurrence of an event and the reporting about the event. Concurrent approach is characterized by relatively high reliability of the measurement, but low flexibility in selecting research indicators, long time for the organization of data collection and large financial investments. Retrospective approach provides high flexibility in organization and design of the survey, allows free selection of indicators to test research hypotheses, but the reliability of the data is hampered by the memory errors and context effect. None of these approaches alone can satisfy the needs and requirements of studying the life course and collecting dynamic multi-level data. The possible solution is to design and test the multimodal approach combining the advantages of different research methods and mitigating their drawbacks. The new long-term longitudinal project “Life course, values and expectations of the generation of 1990s” (G90) included the test of an autobiographical method of data collection for random samples of the general population in quantitative design. The testing revealed high sensitivity of the method to the format (handwritten, printed or oral), high differentiation between respondents in completeness of information and the selection of events included in the autobiography. Supplementing autobiographies by in-depth interviews increased the data standardization, completeness and comparability. The drawbacks of this method found during the survey are high demand for resources for data analysis, individual approach to each autobiography, low respondents’ cooperation in highly demanding tasks, and ethical issues. The future of the life course studies can be found in the convergence of different research frameworks, multidisciplinary research projects, and the application of mixed-model integrated methodology.

Optimally generate policy-based evidence before scaling.

Social scientists have increasingly turned to the experimental method to understand human behaviour. One critical issue that makes solving social problems difficult is scaling up the idea from a small group to a larger group in more diverse situations. The urgency of scaling policies impacts us every day, whether it is protecting the health and safety of a community or enhancing the opportunities of future generations. Yet, a common result is that, when we scale up ideas, most experience a 'voltage drop'-that is, on scaling, the cost-benefit profile depreciates considerably. Here I argue that, to reduce voltage drops, we must optimally generate policy-based evidence. Optimality requires answering two crucial questions: what information should be generated and in what sequence. The economics underlying the science of scaling provides insights into these questions, which are in some cases at odds with conventional approaches. For example, there are important situations in which I advocate flipping the traditional social science research model to an approach that, from the beginning, produces the type of policy-based evidence that the science of scaling demands. To do so, I propose augmenting efficacy trials by including relevant tests of scale in the original discovery process, which forces the scientist to naturally start with a recognition of the big picture: what information do I need to have scaling confidence?

Prednosti i slabosti etnometodologije u zasnivanju naučnih zakona - protivrečnosti Garfinkelovog eksperimenta

In this paper, the author sheds light on the importance of ethnomethodology as a "school" of thought, but also as a set of methodological procedures that have greatly improved the scientific research of social phenomena and their changes through historical movement. The advances in empirical research made by ethnomethodology are emphasized by authors from Irving Goffman to Garfingel and his famous experiment. The text highlights the advantages of ethnomethodological procedures in relation to the speculative tradition of European social and humanistic sciences, as well as some weaknesses that the author notices, such as the excessive insistence on the "universality" of the induction principle in analysing the "holy trinity" of social sciences, followed by the nature of social relations and their changes, of the status of the citizen, and the ideological-political structure of the state under whose auspices these changes take place. The author sees the main weakness of the entire ethnomethodology in the absolutization of indicators that stand out as a reliable criterion for demystifying the true nature of symbolic interaction in a social structure. In this sense, this paper sheds additional light on the superficial effects of Garfingel's experiment, which is focused on exposing the "vanity" of everyday behavioural patterns. The author does not dispute that the process of "dehumanization" of Western civilization is also manifested in the unravelling of Saussure's linguistic triangle - the sign, the signifier, and the signified. The author does not dispute the scientific and methodological effectiveness of Garfingel's experiment; he rather denies the generally binding nature of the conclusions of that experiment, the significance of which lies in the fact that it helped establish the view that interpersonal relations are devoid of empathy in the epistemic period of modernity. According to the author of this paper, Garfingel expressed one indicator from a wide empirical abundance, deliberately ignoring others that contradict it. Although he questions the universality of the results of ethnomethodological research on social phenomena, the author points out that ethnomethodology follows Durkheim's demand that "social phenomena should be viewed as things"

CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF NORMAN FAIRCLOUGH ON ONLINE MEDIA REPORTING ABOUT THE ROHINGYA REFUGEE CRISIS

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) examines language as 'discourse,' where language is understood as one element within social processes that dialectically relate to each other. Critical discourse analysis precisely aims to explore these dialectical interconnections within the tradition of critical social science. In this research, the researcher will employ Norman Fairclough's model of critical discourse analysis, which examines discourse analysis through three theories: Text Analysis (Microstructural) related to cohesion and coherence, grammar, and diction; Production Practice Analysis (Mesostructural) dealing with the text production process, text dissemination, and text consumption, such as work patterns, workflow, and routines in news production; Social Cultural Practice Analysis (Macrostructural) related to situational, institutional, and social aspects. This study utilizes a qualitative descriptive method to deepen the critical analysis description of news discourse. The research data consists of words, phrases, or sentences in two online news discourses supporting the research problem. The data collection technique employed is documentary study. The news regarding the arrival of Rohingya refugees in Aceh published by VIVA.co.id becomes the focus of critical discourse analysis using Norman Fairclough's approach. This news reflects the text production process involving microstructural, mesostructural, and macrostructural aspects. In microstructural analysis, language use and representation are highlighted. Phrases like "coming to Indonesia using old boats" and quotes from netizens create negative stereotypes about Rohingya refugees. Social interactions are reflected in conflicts and societal concerns represented by these comments. In mesostructural analysis, the selection of topics, framing, and source determination becomes the focus. Choosing to report the Rohingya refugee issue with a predominantly negative framing reflects editorial production decisions influenced by preferences. Determining sources from netizens and UNHCR creates variations in perspectives. Macrostructural analysis highlights the social, political, and cultural values that shape the news. The Rohingya refugee crisis and global migration politics form the macro background influencing news production. Indonesian cultural values and ideology are reflected in the stigmatization of refugees. In conclusion, this critical discourse analysis reveals how text production practices, social interactions, and macrostructural contexts are interconnected. This news not only reflects internal language and media dynamics but is also tied to power, ideology, and cultural values within society. This analysis opens up space for a deeper understanding of narrative construction and its impact on public perceptions of Rohingya refugees in Indonesia. Keywords: Critical Discourse Analysis, Norman Fairclough, News.

Education for the Great Socio-Ecological Transition

Abstract In this paper I explore some of the roles that education can and needs to play in supporting “the great socio-ecological transition”, with particular emphasis on adult and vocational education and training. After briefly outlining some of the facets of the current pluricrisis, I examine a set of intersecting debates about transformation and transition(s) towards a more sustainable future, which is necessarily also more just. In this analysis, I build beyond the social science traditions usually evoked in these debates to draw on Catholic analyses of the nature of the problem. Catholic Social Teaching began with a concern about the effects of the transition to industrialisation, with Rerum Novarum (published by Pope Leo XIII in 1891), and increasingly has sought to address the need for the next transition beyond the Capitalocene, especially in Laudato Si’ (published by Pope Francis in 2015). It has always placed workers, work and learning at its core. Thus, there is much potentially to be gained from bringing together conventional educational research perspectives on education for sustainable development and education for human development with a Catholic Social Teaching lens in thinking about the possible roles for education in supporting just transitions.

A Quantum-like Model of Interdependence for Embodied Human-Machine Teams: Reviewing the Path to Autonomy Facing Complexity and Uncertainty.

In this review, our goal is to design and test quantum-like algorithms for Artificial Intelligence (AI) in open systems to structure a human-machine team to be able to reach its maximum performance. Unlike the laboratory, in open systems, teams face complexity, uncertainty and conflict. All task domains have complexity levels-some low, and others high. Complexity in this new domain is affected by the environment and the task, which are both affected by uncertainty and conflict. We contrast individual and interdependence approaches to teams. The traditional and individual approach focuses on building teams and systems by aggregating the best available information for individuals, their thoughts, behaviors and skills. Its concepts are characterized chiefly by one-to-one relations between mind and body, a summation of disembodied individual mental and physical attributes, and degrees of freedom corresponding to the number of members in a team; however, this approach is characterized by the many researchers who have invested in it for almost a century with few results that can be generalized to human-machine interactions; by the replication crisis of today (e.g., the invalid scale for self-esteem); and by its many disembodied concepts. In contrast, our approach is based on the quantum-like nature of interdependence. It allows us theorization about the bistability of mind and body, but it poses a measurement problem and a non-factorable nature. Bistability addresses team structure and performance; the measurement problem solves the replication crisis; and the non-factorable aspect of teams reduces the degrees of freedom and the information derivable from teammates to match findings by the National Academies of Science. We review the science of teams and human-machine team research in the laboratory versus in the open field; justifications for rejecting traditional social science while supporting our approach; a fuller understanding of the complexity of teams and tasks; the mathematics involved; a review of results from our quantum-like model in the open field (e.g., tradeoffs between team structure and performance); and the path forward to advance the science of interdependence and autonomy.

How are interpretive methods feminist and queer? Four discursive methods for studying marginality

ABSTRACT What is a queer feminist method? Both feminists and queer scholars attend to the issue of power, but in somewhat divergent ways. Feminist scholars focus social justice concerns on modernist notions of experience and agency within systems of inequalities, while queer theorists shun a modernist notion of rational actors and focus on the poststructuralist goal of demonstrating the organizing power of discourse. (How) Can social scientists translate these two epistemologies into empirical methods? We consider how traditional social science methods have not been conducive to studying power as everyday discursive marginalization and how interpretive methods can attend to feminist and queer analytical and activist goals. We identify four analytic methods (queer feminist discourse analysis, Loseke’s formula stories, queer feminist ethnography, and interpretive materialism) as potentially feminist and queer. In doing so, we find resonances between feminist and queer epistemologies, which, unlike some of our forebearers, we see as entirely compatible.

Event Predictability: A Uniform Form for IoT-Based Nondeterministic Social Systems

Integrating massive social data with traditional social sciences, the Computational Social Science (CSS) is crucial for understanding the Internet of Things (IoT)-based nondeterministic social systems. Event predictability is the fundamental premise of widespread societal event predictions with CSS. Due to data quality, model suitability and the nondeterministic nature of IoT-based social systems, the event predictability is difficult to be characterized. Based on Turing computability and prediction error tolerability, this paper posits a uniform event predictability theory. With discrepancy and Rademacher complexity, the generalization error bound is utilized to represent data quality and model suitability. Together with thresholds for the generalization error bound and confidence, the event predictability is modeled in a probabilistic manner to capture the nondeterminism within IoT-based social systems. The event predictability theory is theoretically proved and validated, and utilizing the proposed Approximation Algorithm for Discriminating Event Predictability (AADEP), its applicability is further verified by experiments on a real-world dataset for IoT-based nondeterministic social systems.

Dialogic Intentions: Social Practice and Moral Character in Contemporary Arts and Education

The decades-long surge of artistic interest in social practice finds a potential confluence in the recent rise of moral character as an object of psychological study, with both ideas filtering downstream into contemporary arts education philosophy and practices. Although much has been written about the social turn in the arts and the cultivation of character in education, few investigators have analyzed the relationship between them. This conceptual essay contributes to a possible convergence by examining the tensions and opportunities inherent in the integration of experimental art-making with the traditions of social science and moral theory. Its purpose is to take a personality-based approach to socially engaged art-making: to understand why some artists engage in social practice and the implications for arts education. This inquiry draws from a series of public interviews that examine the works and values, thoughts and feelings, practices and perspectives of contemporary artists working in higher education.

Biological risk factors for dementia in India

AbstractBackgroundMany clinical biomarkers have been associated with dementia. This paper uses a novel data set from an understudied population – a national sample of older Indians ‐ to assess the relative importance of 41 biomarkers using a variety of approaches. The value of these data is the extensiveness of the biomarker collection, the validated classification of dementia, and the uniqueness of the population with low average education. Many approaches to both summarizing and reducing data complexity have been suggested. Some of these are based on theory about biological mechanisms and some are agnostic and based on machine‐learning approaches. The results are informative for others collecting and analyzing biomarker data in population samples.MethodWe use 6 approaches to assessing the value of the biomarkers in explaining variance in dementia diagnosis and cognitive functioning – some traditional social science approaches and some based on machine learning. The aim of the different approaches is to determine how to best characterize the influence of biology as well as how to trim and combine the data. The five approaches to measuring biological risk: 41 individual biomarkers; identification of subsets of biomarkers with elastic net; support vector machine learning; factors developed with factor analysis; a principal components approach; and a factor classification based on a theoretical approach.ResultsResults indicate if the aim is explain variance in dementia, all the biomarkers or a reduced set of biomarkers identified by elastic net do the best job at explaining variability. However, biological markers chosen as most important do not fit well our understanding of biological mechanisms.ConclusionIf the aim is understanding the relative importance of biological systems, traditional social science approaches, e.g. the factor analysis and principal components approach, allow better understanding and interpretation of the biomarkers associated with cognitive performance.

Global Social Sciences? Introducing a Series of Special Collections on the State and the Potential of the Social Sciences across the Globe

Nominally, the social sciences maintain the ideological aspiration of a unified, global endeavor for a better understanding of human societies, their economies, cultures, and polities. Over 150 years after their founding period, there is significant fragmentation and unevenness in this quest to understand the human condition. Distinct hierarchies and exclusionary structures emerged between the “West” and regions like Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, China and India and many parts of Asia. Some countries, even entire regions, are terra incognita from a Western vantage point and relegated to “area studies.” At the same time, distinct social science traditions have formed in countries and regions outside the West, with a new interest in developing approaches that rely less on Western foundations and conventional academic practices. The questions become: Are the social sciences drifting further apart, or is there a possibility of greater dialogue, even cohesiveness, to advance our knowledge and understanding globally rather than only in some regions or countries? And if so, why, how, and for what? What are the main foci in research and teaching? What is the degree of institutionalization, and how could the global, regional, and national potentials of the social sciences be better realized? To approach these questions, Global Perspectives launches systematic assessments of the state and the potential of the social sciences in different parts of the world. They address five key issue clusters: Western hegemony and fragmentation; basic conceptual and epistemological considerations; ideologies and normative foundations; academic freedom; and professionalization and commercialization. Given the significant scale and complex scope of the social sciences with their many specific subfields, methodologies, and curricula as well as varying degrees of professional institutionalization and different political backgrounds, the special collections present reflective essays on the state and the potential of the social sciences rather than comprehensive empirical stock-taking.

’Pagsasariling atin’: the project of an autonomous social science tradition (ASST) and the challenge of scientometrics

The call of the Malaysian sociologist, Syed Hussein Alatas (1928–2007), for the development of ‘Autonomous Social Science Tradition(s)’ (ASST) in developing societies is a major contribution towards ‘intellectual decolonisation’. The idea has, in the meantime, received further elaboration and even richer articulations by Syed Farid Alatas. It showed much promise as a way out of intellectual dependency. However, the implementation in the past decades and on a global scale of neoliberal policies in universities has led to the widespread imposition of a ‘scientometric regime’ which privileges publication in ‘prestigious’ and ‘high-ranking’ peer-reviewed journals which are overwhelmingly published in English in the Euro-American academic sphere. Needless to say, the ASST project has faced setbacks and grave challenges because of these developments which amount to a massive reassertion of the academic hegemony of the Global North. Far from rejecting scientometry as a whole, this paper will try to absorb, redirect and retool insights taken from it towards the construction of a new type of ASST which can be provisionally called an ‘Autonomous Academic Communication Community’ (AACC).

Reproducing and shifting discourses on indigenous culture: Ethnographic self-descriptions of the Kola Sámi

The article considers ethnographic self-descriptions as a cultural form in which indigenous authors conceptualise their culture in the shifting social contexts. Ethnographic selfdescriptions present (a) the transformation of the oral-discursive practices of indigenous culture into text; (b) the interpretation of the scientific versions of culture by indigenous authors. The author focuses on how Sámi culture is conceptualized in the text and as the written text by Sámi authors, taking into account the scientific descriptions of their culture and non-discursive cultural forms (such as ethnographic collections). In the texts of indigenous authors, anthropological versions of culture become a source for reproducing some patterns of culture’s conceptualization as relevant to a particular tradition in social sciences. Thus, ethnographic self-descriptions are interpreted in terms of intertextuality with an emphasis on relations between oral and written discourse, academic and indigenous discourse, discursive and non-discursive practices. Texts as a part of cultural reality or as elements of social events have causal effects which contribute to changes in the perception of Sámi culture and in the ways it is represented in the indigenous perspective, i.e., texts participate in the reproduction, creation and modification of numerous discourses on the Kola Sámi culture. In the ethnographic self-description of many Kola Sámi, ‘culture’ can be recontextualized by actors. Moreover, positions and identity of the observer (the author) and the observed (indigenous people) are partly connected, which implies a change in the epistemological status of the indigenous discourse. The processual approach to the cultural conceptualization and the focus on indigenous insights presented in the ethnographic self-descriptions constitute the methodological basis for examining some contemporary cultural trends of the Kola Sámi (Russia). The author analyses the published texts of the contemporary Kola Sámi authors, who are not professional anthropologists.

Two approaches to naturalistic social ontology

Social ontological inquiry has been pursued in analytic philosophy as well as in the social scientific tradition of critical realism. These traditions have remained largely separate despite partly overlapping concerns and similar underlying strategies of argumentation. They have also both been the subject of similar criticisms based on naturalistic approaches to the philosophy of science, which have addressed their apparent reliance on a transcendental mode of reasoning, their seeming distance from social scientific practice, and their (erroneous?) tendency to advocate global solutions to local and pragmatic problems. Two approaches aiming to naturalize these two traditions of social ontology have been proposed in recent years: one drawing on a Gierean, model-based approach to scientific practice, the other drawing on inference to the best explanation. In our paper, we compare and contrast these naturalistic approaches to social ontology in terms of their capacity to respond to the aforementioned challenges. We also defend a form of methodological pluralism, according to which there are multiple different naturalistically acceptable approaches to social ontology, which emphasize contrasting procedural continuities between social scientific research and philosophical practice.

Seeking consilience: Traditional ecological knowledge and Western social science contributions to orca conservation knowledge

Consilience is the integration of disciplinary knowledges in search of a more complete truth. In the complex context of conservation, where human activities are increasingly impacting the population status of many species, this endeavor is particularly important. Yet, to date, we have had limited attempts at unifying diverse sources of knowledge around a conservation issue. Focusing on orca conservation specifically, we share the perspectives of five scholars from five disciplines to demonstrate how Indigenous Knowledges and Social Sciences can inform the conservation of Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKWs). We see Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) as an original consilient knowledge and Western social sciences as the fields that can best identify and describe the norms and patterns of how to engage conservation. The integration of these broader knowledge systems, driven by individuals trained in their respective fields, with the already existing biophysical data around SRKWs, can help us make better decisions for SRKW conservation.

Культура старения в современной темпоральности: дискурс социального служения

The article explores the socio-gerontological concept of the culture of aging within the framework of temporality as Lifetime, opportunities and obstacles to longevity in modern culture. The third age as a factor in the life of the elderly cohort in the traditions of classical and modern social science is analyzed. It is concluded that modern global population aging is the most important demographic factor and cultural trend, encouraging the scientific community to search for sociocultural positions and social agency in solving the problems of modern society.

Research on the Training of Japanese Translation Talents in Colleges and Universities under the Background of New Liberal Arts

The introduction of the new liberal arts is an important change in the traditional humanities and social sciences. Therefore, it is one of the important development goals of Japanese translation teaching in Colleges and universities at this stage to effectively utilize the national strategy of the new liberal arts construction and respond to the innovative challenges of the new liberal arts construction. Under the background of the new liberal arts, the training of Japanese translation talents in Colleges and universities needs to accelerate the innovation of training methods within the community. This paper interprets the background and connotation of the new liberal arts, and analyzes the effective countermeasures for the cultivation of Japanese translation talents in Colleges and Universities Based on the main problems existing in the current Japanese translation teaching in Colleges and universities.