Traditional Social Science Research Articles

Socio‐hydrology and hydrosocial analysis: toward dialogues across disciplines

In this study, we review the ways in which water has recently been conceptualized by both natural and social scientists as either hydro‐social or socio‐hydrological. We do this in order to discuss whether and how they can be compatible, in order to enable dialogue across disciplines that seek to address the ecological and social challenges related to the complex human/water interactions. Through our review, we document the emergence of these specific terminologies, identify how these terms—and the conceptualizations they represent—relate to each other, and suggest what opportunities there are for building further interdisciplinary approaches to understanding water and society. Specifically, we review the recent rise in socio‐hydrology amongst natural scientists/hydrologists to put this in discussion with a much longer tradition in social sciences of seeing water as both natural and social. We identify what the paradigms are in both conceptualizations in order to assess what their respective focus is, and what they omit. Our purpose is not to judge competing claims. Rather we want to assess the knowledge claims made in both paradigms: what can we learn when we employ these different approaches, what different rationales for action do they suggest, and what scope exists for collaboration. We conclude that there is scope in combining both approaches without a need to antagonistically question their respective fundamental assumptions, and playing to the strengths of each: the rich case study narratives produced by hydrosocial research can be the basis for the conceptual and quantitative modeling of socio‐hydrology.WIREs Water2017, 4:e1196. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1196This article is categorized under:Engineering Water > Planning WaterScience of Water > Hydrological ProcessesHuman Water > Water Governance

Development Implications of Ceded Lands by the Cameroon Development Corporation on Fako Division- South West Region of Cameroon from 1960 to 2010

The availability of Surrendered lands has enormously facilitated the process of transformation and development of Fako Division in the South West Region of Cameroon from a predominantly underdeveloped rural and agricultural oriented society in the latter half of the 20th Century to a developed urban society. This is visible in terms of expansion in the quantity and quality of residential neighborhoods, health and educational establishments. The significant contribution of surrendered land to the urbanisation process of Fako has once again secured an important place for land in planning and development discourse of the division in particular and Cameroon in general. Using the traditional social science methodology, primary data was collected from the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC). The data was analysed and presented using a map, table and pie charts. Findings suggest that the expansion and growth in neighborhoods accompanied by a transformation from congested, squalid neighborhoods of substandard housing is an outcome of the availability of new territory surrendered by the large scale plantation company (CDC) to the population for modern investment structures. The transformation in housing has improved health care standard. Such housing development zones have enhanced educational and health standards, through the creation of numerous hospital and schools which have had a combined positive developmental effects on the division. However, to ensure sustainability in surrendered lands, a holistic planning approach must be factored into the developmental strategies of Fake to enhance the efforts of the traditional authorities before, during and after the process of land cessation. KEY WORD: Development Implications, Surrendered Lands, Land Use, Fako Division, CDC.

Opportunities From the Digital Revolution

In the 1990s, the term “online” research emerged as a new and vibrant suite of methods, focused on exploitation of sources not collected by traditional social science methods. Today, at least one part of the research life cycle is likely to be carried out “online,” from data collection through to publishing. In this article, we seek to understand emergent modes of doing and reporting qualitative research “online.” With a greater freedom now to term oneself a “researcher,” what opportunities and problems do working with online data sources bring? We explore implications of emerging requirements to submit supporting data for social science journal articles and question whether these demands might disrupt the very nature of and identity of qualitative research. Finally, we examine more recent forms of publishing and communicating research that support outputs where data play an integral role in elucidating context and enhancing the reading experience.

Social networks in health care teams: evidence from the United States

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to synthesize existing evidence regarding health care team networks, including their formation and association with outcomes in various health care settings. Design/methodology/approach Network theory informed this review. A literature search was conducted in major databases for studies that used social network analysis methods to study health care teams in the USA between 2000 and 2014. Retrieved studies were reviewed against inclusion and exclusion criteria. Findings Overall, 25 studies were included in this review. Results demonstrated that health care team members form professional (e.g. consultation) and personal (e.g. friendship) networks. Network formation can be influenced by team member characteristics (i.e. demographics and professional affiliations) as well as by contextual factors (i.e. providers sharing patient populations and physical proximity to colleagues). These networks can affect team member practice such as adoption of a new medication. Network structures can also impact patient and organizational outcomes, including occurrence of adverse events and deficiencies in health care delivery. Practical implications Administrators and policy makers can use knowledge of health care networks to leverage relational structures in teams and tailor interventions that facilitate information exchange, promote collaboration, increase diffusion of evidence-based practices, and potentially improve individual and team performance as well as patient care and outcomes. Originality/value Most health services research studies have investigated health care team composition and functioning using traditional social science methodologies, which fail to capture relational structures within teams. Thus, this review is original in terms of focusing on dynamic relationships among team members.

Burning Down the Silos: Integrating new perspectives from the social sciences into human behavior in fire research.

The traditional social science disciplines can provide many benefits to the field of human behavior in fire (HBiF). First, the social sciences delve further into insights only marginally examined by HBiF researchers, in turn, expanding the depth of HBiF research. In this paper, I present examples of studies from the fields of social psychology and sociology that would expand HBiF research into non-engineering or "unobservable" aspects of behavior during a fire event. Second, the social sciences can provide insight into new areas of research; in turn, expanding the scope of HBiF research. In this section, I introduce pre- and post-fire studies and explore potential research questions that fall outside of the response period of a fire, the phase upon which most focus is currently placed. Third, the social sciences elucidate the value of research methods available to study human behavior. Qualitative research methods are specifically highlighted. These three benefits will allow HBiF researchers to collect a wider range of data, further develop and expand current behavioral knowledge, and increase the impact of this research for both social and engineering applications. Finally, I end with a discussion on possible ways to better integrate the social sciences within human behavior in fire.

¿Con ventanas o sin ventanas? Winch, Apel y la monadología de las formas de vida

El siguiente trabajo se propone analizar algunas categorías epistemológicas a partir del problema antropológico de comprender una forma de vida “extraña”. Para ello, se toma como hilo conductor el programa filosófico-social de Peter Winch y en particular su crítica a la obra clásica de la antropología “Brujería, oráculos y magia entre los azande” de Evans-Pritchard. Winch, siguiendo a Wittgenstein, representa un verdadero cambio de paradigma dentro de la tradición analítica de las ciencias sociales, el cual muestra algunas similitudes con la hermenéutica (Gadamer, Ricoeur), la filosofía intercultural (Fornet-Betancourt) y el pragmatismo (Bernstein). De particular importancia resulta en este contexto el problema de la multiplicidad de las formas de vida y de la respectiva “conmensurabilidad” de los estándares de racionalidad. En respuesta a la acusación de “relativismo” de su propuesta teórica, puede afirmarse que en Winch hay dos categorías de análisis antropológico-social que permitirían, o que orientarían, la comprensión intercultural: las analogías formales y las nociones limitantes. Finalmente, se contrastan tales categorías con las críticas de Karl-Otto Apel.

Effectuation, Not Being Pragmatic or Process Theorizing, Remains Ineffectual: Responding to the Commentaries

Effectuation, Not Being Pragmatic or Process Theorizing, Remains Ineffectual: Responding to the Commentaries

Self-organization and social science

Complexity science and its methodological applications have increased in popularity in social science during the last two decades. One key concept within complexity science is that of self-organization. Self-organization is used to refer to the emergence of stable patterns through autonomous and self-reinforcing dynamics at the micro-level. In spite of its potential relevance for the study of social dynamics, the articulation and use of the concept of self-organization has been kept within the boundaries of complexity science and links to and from mainstream social science are scarce. These links can be difficult to establish, even for researchers working in social complexity with a background in social science, because of the theoretical and conceptual diversity and fragmentation in traditional social science. This article is meant to serve as a first step in the process of overcoming this lack of cross-fertilization between complexity and mainstream social science. A systematic review of the concept of self-organization and a critical discussion of similar notions in mainstream social science is presented, in an effort to help practitioners within subareas of complexity science to identify literature from traditional social science that could potentially inform their research.

A Novel Journal Evaluation Metric that Adjusts the Impact Factors across Different Subject Categories

During the last two decades, impact factor has been widely used as a journal evaluation metric that differentiates the influence of a specific journal compared with other journals. However, impact factor does not provide a reliable metric between journals in different subject categories. For example, higher impact factors are given to biology and general sciences than those assigned to other traditional engineering and social sciences. This study initially analyzes the trend of the time series of the impact factors of the journals listed in Journal Citation Reports during the last decade. This study then proposes new journal evaluation metrics that adjust the impact factors across different subject categories. The proposed metrics possibly provides a consistent measure to mitigate the differences in impact factors among subject categories. On the basis of experimental results, we recommend the most reliable and appropriate metric to evaluate journals that are less dependent on the characteristics of subject categories.

Harvesting Big Data in social science: A methodological approach for collecting online user-generated content

Online user-generated content is playing a progressively important role as information source for social scientists seeking for digging out value. Advances procedures and technologies to enable the capture, storage, management, and analysis of the data make possible to exploit increasing amounts of data generated directly by users. In that regard, Big Data is gaining meaning into social science from quantitative datasets side, which differs from traditional social science where collecting data has always been hard, time consuming, and resource intensive. Hence, the emergent field of computational social science is broadening researchers' perspectives. However, it also requires a multidisciplinary approach involving several and different knowledge areas. This paper outlines an architectural framework and methodology to collect Big Data from an electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) website containing user-generated content. Although the paper is written from the social science perspective, it must be also considered together with other complementary disciplines such as data accessing and computing.

Group harmony in the workplace: Conception, measurement, and validation

Based on a literature review of Chinese traditional philosophies and social science research on social harmony we formulated the group harmony construct, developed a scale, and tested its validity in two studies on 167 top management groups from China. Study 1 demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity of group harmony and evaluated its predictive validity against well-established constructs of relationship conflict, task conflict, group cohesiveness, psychological safety, and conflict avoidance. Study 2 further examined the construct and nomological validity of group harmony and tested the effects of group harmony and found that, as hypothesized, group harmony enhanced group innovative performance through increasing knowledge sharing among group members. However, instead of motivating innovative performance through fostering moderate levels of task conflict, group harmony enhanced innovative performance through reducing task conflict on the one hand and neutralizing the negative effect of task conflict on the other. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

A way to meet queer women? Reflections on sexuality and desire in research

This article considers the influence of sexuality and desire in qualitative research. Feminist researchers promote critical reflexivity in response to traditional social science methodological approaches, which advocate objectivity and neutrality. While reflexivity has become part and parcel of feminist research, an aspect of the subjective experience of doing research requiring more attention is how desire, intimacy and/or sexuality inform the research process. This paper draws on previous studies as well as recent research experiences to argue that desire is a powerful form of communication that can be productive and insightful for our analyses and knowledge production.

О неравенстве исходов. Рецензия на книгу: Пикетти Т. 2015. Капитал в XXI веке. М.: Ad Marginem

The much awaited appearance of the Russian translation of Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Tomas Piketty marks a milestone, and also brings an occasion to discuss the book’s main arguments as well as the arguments of its critics. Piketty charts the evolution of income and capital inequality in developed nations through the last two centuries. He states that despite what has been said in previous literature, inequality evolves in a U-shaped pattern with the bottom of the U being the three postwar decades. Piketty suggests that capitalism is hardwired to increase inequality due to what he calls three fundamental laws of capitalism. The most important third law states that inequality will grow as long as return on capital (r) is greater than output growth rate (g). While Piketty’s data seems like an accurate description of what occurs, Piketty’s theory had been met in a most unwelcome manner. Critics claimed that Piketty’s laws are not laws at all, and are actually either accounting identities or plainly incorrect statements. In this review, I also trace Piketty’s work to two particular traditions in social sciences: cliometrics - particularly the version known as series history - and to analytical Marxism. Seeing both of these traditions will help us to place Piketty’s book within the context of twentieth-century social science rather than isolated phenomena.

Connecting Productivity with Social Capital via Daily Mobile Phone Logs

Human behavior and their social interactions can be quantified and modeled with the use of smart phones and any wearable badges which senses and captures real-life interactions. In traditional social sciences, such information was gathered by conducting surveys. However in digital era, smart phones are regarded as a popular tool which automatically senses much human information to quantify our lives. Reality mining gives a clear picture of a human being and its social relations. Social Network Analysis (SNA) is a powerful research tool which provides a comprehensive analysis on ego-alters communications with their individual productivity within a community. In this paper, various popular measures of social network analysis have used to study a closed community through their mobile call logs for a period of time. We experimented various social network measures both on daily basis and also over a period of time. The pattern shows that the relationships and interaction between ego-alter ties have more productive benefits. Using Pearsoncorrelation analysis, we observed that significant (positive) correlation exists between various network properties and their productivity. Results showed that degree (size) has the strongest positive correlation with average productivity, followed by effective size, efficiency, constraint, hierarchy, and k-core of an individual. Density and betweenness centrality have a weak, negative correlation with productivity. Hence social capital has a significant influence on human productivity.

Neurosocio - Economic Inquisition into Absenteeism

Exhibiting bargaining seeking attitude, human beings want to get as much as they can for as little as possible. The scholarship, populated principally by economists, attempts to incorporate ideas from choice study in order to make accurate predictions about behaviour and outcomes. Research is typically motivated as hypotheses derived from neurosocio - economics has attracted considerable attention in data - driven absenteeism economics. The research problem attempts to study the correlation of neurosocio - economic factors to problem of absenteeism among Managers in Indian context. Focus is on neurosocio - economic causes and prescriptions. The complexity leads to an empirical analysis based on survey questionnaire, schedules and interviews. Economic aspects indicate that pure neurosocio - economic approach is exclusively based on idea of Managers as ‘economic men’ acting rationally as well as opportunistically. Contemporary neuroscience research can assist in sharpening and empirically refining our understanding of a number of micro sociological concepts that often elude investigation with more traditional social science methods.

Big Data et quantification de soi : La gouvernementalité algorithmique dans le monde numériquement administré

This article aims to discuss, from a critical theory perspective, the apparent paradox between the ability to monitor and control made possible by Big Data and the belief in the latter’s emancipatory potential. The goal is to assess to what extent the data, tools and methods characteristic of Big Data constitute self-regulation processes that are similar to a dynamics of governance and surveillance. We will analyze this phenomenon on the basis of two concepts inherited from the critical tradition in social science, namely that of the administered world as formulated by the Frankfurt School theorists, and that of governmentality as developed by Michel Foucault.

Trends in marine climate change research in the Nordic region since the first IPCC report

Oceans are exposed to anthropogenic climate change shifting marine systems toward potential instabilities. The physical, biological and social implications of such shifts can be assessed within individual scientific disciplines, but can only be fully understood by combining knowledge and expertise across disciplines. For climate change related problems these research directions have been well-established since the publication of the first IPCC report in 1990, however it is not well-documented to what extent these directions are reflected in published research. Focusing on the Nordic region, we evaluated the development of climate change related marine science by quantifying trends in number of publications, disciplinarity, and scientific focus of 1362 research articles published between 1990 and 2011. Our analysis showed a faster increase in publications within climate change related marine science than in general marine science indicating a growing prioritisation of research with a climate change focus. The composition of scientific disciplines producing climate change related publications, which initially was dominated by physical sciences, shifted toward a distribution with almost even representation of physical and biological sciences with social sciences constituting a minor constant proportion. These trends suggest that the predominantly model-based directions of the IPCC have favoured the more quantitatively oriented natural sciences rather than the qualitative traditions of social sciences. In addition, despite being an often declared prerequisite to successful climate science, we found surprisingly limited progress in implementing interdisciplinary research indicating that further initiatives nurturing scientific interactions are required.

The role of organic intellectuals in mediating management ideas: a case from Turkish academia

Over the past two decades, there has been increasing interest in the history of management thought in peripheral countries. The consequent body of literature often focuses on the contestation among different Western traditions in social sciences or institutional models. In turn, it largely downplays the social context of intellectual production and the transformational actions of agents. Using the Gramscian notion of ‘organic intellectual’ as a point of departure, this article explores the function business education and educators perform within the context of early capitalist development in a late developing country: Turkey. By doing so, it analyses the role of the cadre of administrative and organization sciences, moving back-and-forth across the institutions of civil society and operating in various parts of the state apparatus, in socializing people into particular values and legitimating management as an academic discipline and a field of practice.

The Beauty of Teaching Interdisciplinary Courses: How Does a Combination of Technology-Based Lectures and Writing-Intensive Assignments Promote Learning?

Sustainability is not solely a scientific issue or an environmental issue. It presents enormous challenges to human and natural systems and includes political, economic, legal, and ethical dimensions. Instructors who teach sustainability-related courses face significant challenges following from the interdisciplinary nature of the subject. Some students lack an interdisciplinary approach, as they have been strongly ingrained in traditional natural or social science academic domains. In other instances, students are unaware of or unconcerned about environmental or sustainability issues, being less actively engaged in classroom discussions. This session presents strategic pedagogical techniques that have been implemented in a single interdisciplinary sustainability course titled, "Environmental Policymaking in Developing Countries." The course, which has been offered to upper-level undergraduate students in Global Affairs and other majors, also meets the university's writing-intensive course requirements. The findings suggest that technology-based learning tools, including video clips and game simulations, are useful in integrating multiple sources of information and ensuring students receive a more inclusive perspective than they would from consulting a single conventional textbook. Research-based writing assignments, in which students apply concrete learning concepts to real-world sustainability challenges, are shown to be a powerful vehicle for enhancing students' understanding of the multifaceted concept of sustainability. This session provides insights into how to build interdisciplinarity into teaching that are relevant for instructors in a broad range of courses in various academic domains.

Macro, meso, micro: broadening the ‘social’ of social network analysis with a mixed methods approach

The objective of the paper is to show the benefits of the use of mixed methods methodology in order to account for the complex and multidimensional nature of social networks. Through an empirical research on the gendered evolution of migrants’ personal networks over their settlement process, the article illustrates the depth and explanatory strength of a methodology that combines the algebraic and formalised reasoning of the analysis of networks’ matrixes with a comprehensive approach of the actors’ narratives. The paper identifies theoretical foundations and methodological approaches that enable to analyse social networks with deep sociological lens. It advocates for a “strong” integration in combining quantitative and qualitative methodologies that helps to abandon the realist premises of the classical tradition of SNA in order to integrate the interpretative tradition of social sciences. This approach enables taking into account the content of relationships and the situated interactions that create and maintain the networks; and to comprise the social and institutional context where they are produced in order to overcome implicit rational thinking about the behaviour of the individuals embedded in relational structures.