Cooperative Accounts: Avoiding Conflict and Repairing Social Relations

The analytical concept of accounts has long presented sociologists with an excellent tool for the study of talk. Nonetheless, studies of accounts often neglect the fact that cooperation is common when an account for untoward behavior is constructed. Many studies tend to flatten the process of how accounts are created by routinely describing them as being “offered” by offenders and then “evaluated” by reproachers. We assume that accounts are often negotiated between parties as a means of avoiding conflict and preserving a relationship. As such, this paper develops the concept of cooperative accounts that are offered to (or projected upon) offenders as a means of explaining their untoward behavior. While also examining hostile accounts, this paper concentrates on developing the cooperative account in order to investigate more fully Scott and Lyman's (1968) argument that accounts are crucial for managing conflict and maintaining social order. Because offering cooperative accounts to others is a routine social interaction their examination provides an opportunity to reanchor the study of accounts back into the symbolic interactionist tradition.     

Are we all equally at home socializing online? Cyberasociality and evidence for an unequal distribution of disdain for digitally-mediated sociality

Online social media are an increasingly important arena of social interaction. This rapid transition to digitally mediated sociality is far from trivial in both the consequences it engenders and the tensions it generates. In this paper, we find that some people do not take as readily to accepting digitally mediated sociality as others, and that this mode of connectivity appears fulfilling and engaging to some while it appears hollow and vacant to others due to variations in a personality disposition which we dub ‘cyberasociality' which was defined as the inability or unwillingness of some people to relate to others via social media as they do when physically present by Tufekci [2010. Who acquires friends through social media and why? Rich get richer versus seek and ye shall find. Proceedings of the fourth international conference on weblogs and social media, Washington, DC]. Using two purposive samples of college students (n?=?410 and n?=?417 completed surveys), we develop a scale to test cyberasociality as a construct. We show that cyberasociality is neither a mere reflection of offline sociability nor a proxy for other well-studied traits such as extraversion or neuroticism, nor a simple reflection of Internet experience or cohort effects. We find that cyberasociality impacts how people use digital social tools more than whether they use them, and that the cyberasocial are less likely to use platforms for digitally mediated social interaction to broaden their social networks or to forge new social ties online while they are equally likely to use digital channels for utilitarian purposes such as coordinating plans or finding out about class assignments. Such differences in dispositions toward online sociality hint toward new wrinkles, advantages and disadvantages for consequences of variations in Internet use.     

Dimensions of social capital and subjective well-being: evidence from Italy

The concept of social capital was investigated as an explanatory variable of a number of significant socio-economic phenomena, such as economic development, the well-functioning of institutions, and school performance. This study proposes an analysis of the relation between social capital and well-being. The two concepts have been interpreted by social sciences in many different ways. In particular, as a result of its recent success, social capital has been the object of a great deal of interpretations. Social scientists have considered it either as a collective resource (macro social capital), or as an available resource amongst members of specific groups (friends, associations, local communities, etc.; i.e. meso social capital), or as a resource that individuals can achieve through their personal networks (micro social capital). Using data from a representative sample of Italian citizens (25–80 years old), this work investigates which dimension (micro, meso, or macro) of social capital has (if any) a major influence on subjective well-being. Data show some interdependence only with the macro social capital, and suggest that it is just the symbolic and cognitive qualities of the social capital, rather than its structural dimension, that could be associated with subjective well-being in a significant way.     

Networking Modes and Performance in Israel's Nonprofit Organizations

The present article examines the relationship between networking modes and performance for 138 nonprofits in Israel. We draw upon the bridging and bonding concepts and social exchange theory and introduce the sharing and consulting networking modes to predict performance in terms of organizational growth in resources. We suggest that differences in networking modes (1) reflect variations in organizational size and age and (2) affect organizational growth in resources. We show that (1) the consulting networking mode is more frequent among managers of smaller and younger nonprofits, (2) sharing is characteristic of managers in older and larger nonprofits, (3) sharing has a strong effect on organizational growth, and (4) the sharing and consulting modes are better predictors of organizational performance than those of bonding and bridging. The results indicate that nonprofit growth in organizational resources is possible with networking when managers aspire to higher involvement in the networking process due to the scope and extent of goals.     

The Role of Social Performance and Physical Attractiveness in Peer Rejection of Socially Anxious Adolescents

This study addressed the role of social performance and physical attractiveness in the link between social anxiety and peer rejection in first‐time social situations. Recordings of 20 high and 20 low socially anxious adolescents giving a speech were rated by unfamiliar peers (N = 534) with regard to desire for future interaction (lower scores indicating rejection), social performance, and physical attractiveness; trained adult raters also evaluated social performance. Findings showed high interrelations between the different peer ratings and moderate correlations between adult and peer ratings. High socially anxious students were more rejected and social performance and physical attractiveness partly mediated the link between social anxiety and rejection. The findings may have important implications for socially anxious youth entering new social situations.     

Disinformation,performed: self-presentation of a Russian IRA account on Twitter

ABSTRACT

How disinformation campaigns operate and how they fit into the broader social communication environment – which has been described as a ‘disinformation order’ [Bennett & Livingston, (2018). The disinformation order: Disruptive communication and the decline of democratic institutions. European Journal of Communication, 33(2), 122–139] – represent critical, ongoing questions for political communication. We offer a thorough analysis of a highly successful disinformation account run by Russia’s Internet Research Agency: the so-called ‘Jenna Abrams’ account. We analyze Abrams’ tweets and other content such as blogposts with qualitative discourse analysis, assisted by quantitative content analysis and metadata analysis. This yields an in-depth understanding of how the IRA team behind the Abrams account presented this persona across multiple platforms and over time. Especially, we describe the techniques used to perform personal authenticity and cultural competence. The performance of personal authenticity was central to her persona building as a likeable American woman, whereas the performance of cultural competence enabled her to infiltrate American conservative communities with resonant messages. Implications for understanding disinformation processes, and how some aspects of the hybrid media system are especially vulnerable to hijacking by bad actors are discussed.     

Social work research as a practice of transparency

Social work research is inherently normative and as such the assumptions about social problems in social work research should be open to scrutiny and contestation. But although researchers often face tussles and huge contradictions, they rarely articulate them. In this article, we report on a small research project in which a collective of social work researchers in Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium) tried to think critically through some of the questions and complexities they were confronted with in social work research, more specifically in research on poverty. Our research aim implied that we tried to discuss the choices that were made during a diversity of research projects, including making explicit the grounds on which this happened. We learned that the choices made, although they seem to be very obvious ones, often remained implicit during the different research processes. We conclude that social work research requires that researchers attempt to realize a practice of transparency. The pursuit of such a practice of transparency refers to the importance of the creation of reflexive space in research communities to collectively embrace and discuss the complexities of social work research.     

Patterns of engagement and disengagement among the oldest old

In this article, we have proposed that some elements of Cumming and Henry's [1961] disengagement theory are relevant in understanding the social world of the very old. The findings indicate that both physical and social losses make it difficult to maintain an active social network. Almost one-half of the sample intentionally remains socially engaged by making new friends and attending senior centers. The remainder, who are generally older and in poorer health, modify their social world both psychologically and socially. First, these individuals redefine their optimal level of social integration and become content with a narrower, more constricted social world. Second, they are likely to reject those norms which place expectations on them incongruent with their capacities. Third, respondents tend to redefine their time orientation from the future to the present and become content to live day to day. Fourth, as they detach themselves from social involvement, increasing introspection occurs.     

A Sociological Review of China's Social Credit Systems and Guanxi Opportunities for Social Mobility

This paper proposes a novel understanding of social mobility in China by exploring the literature on social credit systems. I propose that social credit systems, which include credit rating systems and factors of social governance, can affect occupational attainment, as they may influence or function in tandem with guanxi networks. Through social credit systems, there could possibly be a new order of stratification powered by norms of social conformity. These systems can curtail social mobility efforts by designating some individuals as high risk. In addition, these systems can regulate social behaviors, as actions that are considered “right” are rewarded, while “wrong” actions result in penalties.     

Egalitarian-equivalence and the Pareto principle for social preferences

The Pareto principle is often in conflict with the equity criteria in construction of social preferences: there exist two allocations x and y such that x Pareto dominates y, but y is an equitable allocation whereas x is not. The efficiency-first principle requires to rank an allocation x higher than y if (i) x Pareto dominates y or (ii) x and y are Pareto-noncomparable and x is equitable whereas y is not. The equity-first principle reverses the order of application of the two criteria. Adopting egalitarian-equivalence as the notion of equity, we examine rationality of the social preference functions based on the efficiency-first or the equity-first principle. The degrees of rationality vary widely depending on which principle is adopted, and depending on the range of egalitarian-reference bundles. We show several impossibility and possibility results as well as a characterization of the social preference function introduced by Pazner and Schmeidler (1978). We also identify the sets of maximal elements of the social preference relations in the set of feasible allocations. The results are contrasted with those in the case where no-envy is the notion of equity.This paper is a much extended version of a part of Tadenuma (1998). The author is grateful to Marc Fleurbaey, Serge-Chiristophe Kolm, Kotaro Suzumura, and William Thomson for helpful comments on the earlier version of the paper. ‘‘Financial support from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan for the 21st Century Center of Excellence Project on the Normative Evaluation and Social Choice of Contemporary Economic Systems is gratefully acknowledged’’.     

Property,wealth, and social change: Piketty as a social science engineer

This paper applauds the vision and originality of Piketty's Capital and Ideology. We draw attention to the distinctive methodological perspective which he adopts, which we liken to call “social science engineering.” This allows a problem oriented perspective on long‐term global social change which sidesteps siloed disciplinary debates in social science and history about the meaning of modernity, the rise of capitalism, the formation of social groups, and the primacy of nations. We bring out how his theory of property permits him to take forward his overarching insight that economic growth leads to wealth accumulation. This, therefore, challenges long standing sociological perspectives by insisting that modernity is a conservative, rather than a revolutionary and transformative process. We build on this essential contribution by noting some areas where his work can push forward even further, notably that his focus on shifting relativities obscures qualitative historical changes, and more particularly means his analysis of the 20th century is not as provocative as that of the 19th century.     

Bridging semantic and social network analyses: the case of the hashtag #precisamosfalarsobreaborto (we need to talk about abortion) on Twitter

This paper presents an innovative method design that combines semantic with social network analysis in order to measure opinion leadership in social networking sites in a more accurate way. We used this method to assess the efficacy of the TPM magazine in disseminating its pro-decriminalization of abortion frames (contained in the cover story of its 148th issue) that were associated with the hashtag #precisamosfalarsobreaborto (a trending topic in November 2014). The data were collected from Twitter through the data-mining application NodeXL (N?=?1010). A content analysis of a random sample was carried out (N?=?376; margin of error?=?4%; confidence interval?=?95%; Krippendorff’s alpha?=?0.661). Using the software Gephi, we plotted the data on a socio-semantic graph, which indicates that (a) the border of the social network does not represent a semantic gap with the center and (b) despite the network being extremely like-minded, one of its hubs appears to be what we conceptualize as a hotspot of contestation. We discuss how future research may replicate and refine our methodology to handle population datasets and big data as well.     

Social work, modernity and post modernity

In this article we argue that current reform proposals coming from Robert Pinker and others are challenging the universalist premises of generic social work. Pinker et al. argue that social work should, for the sake of efficiency and performance, be a connected set of specialist activities. This ‘determinate dispersal’ which we recognise as falling within the remit of postmodern strategies, we contrast with the far more libertarian ideas of the noted post-modern theorist J.F. Lyotard. Thus we site the political and cultural meanings of Pinker's ideas between generic social work which upholds ideas of universal ethical values and universal provision, and those of Lyotard whose anti-foundationalism proposes a radically heterogeneous society with no central value-structure. We express our concern that the ‘new specialist’ remit may allow too much power to the social worker. Thus we have considerable sympathy for Lyotard's call for a radical anonistics – a field wherein the inequalities of power between say, a worker and her client, to some extent can be redressed.     

Violence,Networks, and International Migration from Colombia

Although Colombia is a major country of emigration, little is known about its citizens' motivations for migration. Social and economic conditions have been studied as determinants of migration, but violence has received less attention. We examine how social networks and violence function to promote emigration from Colombia by linking event‐history data from the Latin American Migration Project to external data on violence and economic conditions. We show that emigration is more likely to be initiated by those with higher education, those with network connections to migrants, and during periods of greater violence and increased police presence. Although violence acts powerfully to determine when people migrate, the geographic distribution of social capital determines where they go. Not surprisingly, migrants go to locations where people in their social networks are currently living or have been earlier.     

Policy Research and the Future: An Exemplar for a Critical Symbolic Interactionism

Abstract

Policy research is inquiry that seeks to inform organizational decisions. As such, it is embroiled in the construction of whatever futures these effectuate. Symbolic Interactionism has untapped resources for the conduct of policy research in its basic assumption that human nature and its situations are human creations. Within that tradition, it is always possible to compare what has been produced with some “future,” and to do so “critically.” The most relevant contemporary exemplar for such a comparison may be found in the work of Hugh Duncan. His analysis of the sociodramas that individuals perform, and his examination of comedy and tragedy as competing forms of social order is discussed. Finally, his attempt to exhibit the comedic as the humane form of social order is presented as a “formal” exemplar for the conduct of policy research which entertains a variety of futures in the investigation of present situations.     

Rethinking law from below: experiences from the Kuna people and Rojava

ABSTRACT

This article presents a modest summary of the vivid discussions around the role of law and human rights that took place during the workshop ‘Seeking answers from below to the contemporary crisis of democracy’ in Siena in October 2018. Representatives from social movements, CSOs and academic considered law as one of the central issues to be discussed in order to better grasp and counter the global power structures. Law historically serves national and global elites’ interests, being applied to maintain the status quo of social injustice and inequalities. Therefore, this article presents some ideas and provokes some fundamental questions on how law and human rights can be part of an emancipatory project. Based on concrete experiences of the participants, from Rojava to the Kuna people, we critically discuss how legal instruments can be used to strategically defend people’s rights, strengthening the use of law from below.     

An Effigy for the Enslaved: Jonkonnu in Jamaica and Belisario's Sketches of Character

In 1838, less than one year before the enslaved of Jamaica were fully emancipated, Isaac Mendes Belisario completed his Sketches of Character, a set of lithographs that today constitutes one of the first visual representations of the Jamaican Jonkonnu performance from the pre-emancipation period. This essay considers the links between Jonkonnu and similar performances from the African continent, asking what Jonkonnu meant to the largest group of African-born slaves at the time Belisario finished his Sketches of Character. Ultimately, Jonkonnu is best understood as a mortuary ritual that both mourns the moment of enslavement and provides for the possibility of social resurrection within a new social order.     

Mirroring,Mentalizing, and the Social Neuroscience of Listening

Listening to another speak is a basic process in social cognition. In the social neurosciences, there are relatively few studies that directly bear on listening; however, numerous studies have investigated the neural bases of some of the likely constituents of successful listening. In this article, I review some of this work as it relates to listening, with a focus on two auxiliary processes in the comprehension of speech: perceiving the nonverbal behaviors, such as facial expression, that accompany an utterance (i.e., how it is being said); and interpreting an utterance and the nonverbal behaviors that accompany it in terms of the speaker's state of mind (i.e., why it is being said). The review indicates the presence of two large-scale systems in the human brain that play a major role in successful listening: the putative mirror neuron system, which likely facilitates the relatively automatic perception of the how of speech; and the so-called mentalizing system, which likely underlies our ability to actively reach conclusions about the why of speech behavior. I conclude by considering the possibility that the dynamic interaction of mirroring and mentalizing processes may be pivotal for successful listening and social interaction more generally.