Showing papers on "Social change published in 2021"

The Societal Consequences of Higher Education

Abstract: The advent of mass schooling played a pivotal role in European societies of the later nineteenth century, transforming rural peasants into national citizens. The late-twentieth-century global expan...

Social work and social exclusion : the idea of practice

Abstract: Contents: Preface Introduction Social exclusion and social work Social work and social exclusion The nature of social work Knowledge values, post modernism and social work Need Authority and choice Empowerment Maintenance, social functioning and coping Interpretivism, reflection and social work as art Social work, science and technical instrumentalism Judgement and decision making: practical reasoning, process knowledge and critical thinking Social work intervention and human nature Conclusion: the discipline of social work Bibliography Indexes.

Theories of power and social change. Power contestations and their implications for research on social change and innovation

Abstract: This paper proposes a meta-theoretical framework for studying power in processes of change and innovation. Power is one of the most contested concepts in social and political theory. This paper dis...

Social Capital and Health

Abstract: “The real nature of man is the totality of social relations” (Marx 1963: 83). All individuals dwell in a network of social relationships. Their health conditions can be contingent on structural attributes of their network contexts. Since Durkheim’s classic study on suicide ([1897] 1951), there has been a long research tradition on diverse aspects of social relationships and health in sociology and other social sciences (for reviews see Berkman et al. 2000; House et al. 1988; Pescosolido and Levy 2002; Smith and Christakis 2008; Song et al. 2011; Umberson and Montez 2010). In the last two decades social capital has grown into one of the most popular but controversial relationship-based theoretical tools in the multidisciplinary health literature.

Un)making in sustainability transformation beyond capitalism

Abstract: Theorizations of sustainability transformation have foregrounded the construction (making) of novel socioecological relations; however, they generally have obscured processes of deliberate deconstruction (unmaking) of existing, unsustainable ones. Amidst ever more compelling evidence of the simultaneous unsustainability and continued reproduction of capitalist modernity, it is misguided to assume that transformation can happen by the mere construction of supposed ‘solutions’, be they technological, social or cultural. We rather need to better understand whether and how existing institutions, forms of knowledge, practices, imaginaries, power structures, and human-non-human relations can be deconstructed at the service of sustainability transformation. This paper demonstrates the usefulness of a lens that attends to processes of making and unmaking in sustainability transformations through an analysis of an ongoing sustainability transformation, the territorios campesinos agroalimentarios (TCA) endogenous territorial figure and peasant movement in Colombia. TCA is transforming territory beyond capitalism on the basis of relational ontologies and principles of autonomy, dignity and sufficiency. This paper identifies processes of unmaking of capitalism in the TCA and demonstrates how they are concretely entangled in the construction of post-capitalist realities. This paper sketches a research agenda on sustainability transformation that is sensitive to and theoretically equipped for the analysis of transformation as a multifaceted, multilevel process that entails the deconstruction of capitalist modernity and the construction of post-capitalist realities. Central to this agenda is a plural engagement with theories of social change from across the social sciences and humanities, which have not previously been mobilized for this endeavour.

“How Do I Carry All This Now?” Understanding Consumer Resistance to Sustainability Interventions:

Abstract: Given the increasingly grave environmental crisis, governments and organizations frequently initiate sustainability interventions to encourage sustainable behavior in individual consumers. However, prevalent behavioral approaches to sustainability interventions often have the unintended consequence of generating consumer resistance and undermining their effectiveness. With a practice-theoretical perspective, the authors investigate what generates consumer resistance and how it can be reduced, using consumer responses to a nationwide ban on plastic bags in Chile in 2019. The findings show that consumer resistance to sustainability interventions emerges not primarily because consumers are unwilling to change their individual behavior, as commonly assumed by existing literature. Instead, consumer resistance emerges because the individual behaviors being targeted are embedded in dynamic social practices. When sustainability interventions aim to change individual behaviors, rather than social practices, they place excessive responsibility on consumers, unsettle their practice-related emotionality, and destabilize the multiple practices that interconnect to shape consumers’ lives, ultimately leading to resistance. The authors propose a theory of consumer resistance in social practice change that explains why consumer resistance to sustainability interventions emerges, including how it distracts, discourages, and delays the required social practice change. They also offer recommendations for policymakers and social marketers in designing and managing sustainability initiatives that trigger less consumer resistance and therefore foster sustainable consumer behavior.

Economic and social impacts of COVID-19 and public health measures: results from an anonymous online survey in Thailand, Malaysia, the UK, Italy and Slovenia.

Abstract: OBJECTIVES: To understand the impact of COVID-19 and public health measures on different social groups, we conducted a mixed-methods study in five countries ('SEBCOV-social, ethical and behavioural aspects of COVID-19'). Here, we report the results of the online survey. STUDY DESIGN AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Overall, 5058 respondents from Thailand, Malaysia, the UK, Italy and Slovenia completed the self-administered survey between May and June 2020. Poststratification weighting was applied, and associations between categorical variables assessed. Frequency counts and percentages were used to summarise categorical data. Associations between categorical variables were assessed using Pearson's χ2 test. Data were analysed in Stata 15.0 RESULTS: Among the five countries, Thai respondents reported having been most, and Slovenian respondents least, affected economically. The following factors were associated with greater negative economic impacts: being 18-24 years or 65 years or older; lower education levels; larger households; having children under 18 in the household and and having flexible/no income. Regarding social impact, respondents expressed most concern about their social life, physical health, mental health and well-being.There were large differences between countries in terms of voluntary behavioural change, and in compliance and agreement with COVID-19 restrictions. Overall, self-reported compliance was higher among respondents who self-reported a high understanding of COVID-19. UK respondents felt able to cope the longest and Thai respondents the shortest with only going out for essential needs or work. Many respondents reported seeing news perceived to be fake, the proportion varying between countries, with education level and self-reported levels of understanding of COVID-19. CONCLUSIONS: Our data showed that COVID-19 and public health measures have uneven economic and social impacts on people from different countries and social groups. Understanding the factors associated with these impacts can help to inform future public health interventions and mitigate their negative consequences. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: TCTR20200401002.

A scoping review critically examining research connecting social and emotional learning with three model-based practices in physical education: Have we been doing this all along?:

Abstract: The purpose of this scoping review is to critically examine previous research that connects three selected model-based practices (MBPs) to social and emotional learning (SEL) outcomes in K-12 physi...

Belonging and loneliness in cyberspace: impacts of social media on adolescents’ well-being

Abstract: Objectives: The rapidly shifting landscape of social media technology presents challenges to researchers and clinicians attempting to understand the impact of such technology on individuals’ psycho...

Consumption Corridors: Living a Good Life within Sustainable Limits

Abstract: Consumption Corridors: Living a Good Life within Sustainable Limits explores how to enhance peoples’ chances to live a good life in a world of ecological and social limits. Rejecting familiar recitations of problems of ecological decline and planetary boundaries, this compact book instead offers a spirited explication of what everyone desires: a good life. Fundamental concepts of the good life are explained and explored, as are forces that threaten the good life for all. The remedy, says the book’s seven international authors, lies with the concept of consumption corridors, enabled by mechanisms of citizen engagement and deliberative democracy. Across five concise chapters, readers are invited into conversation about how wellbeing can be enriched by social change that joins "needs satisfaction" with consumerist restraint, social justice, and environmental sustainability. In this endeavour, lower limits of consumption that ensure minimal needs satisfaction for all are important, and enjoy ample precedent. But upper limits to consumption, argue the authors, are equally essential, and attainable, especially in those domains where limits enhance rather than undermine essential freedoms. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars in the social sciences and humanities, and environmental and sustainability studies, as well as to community activists and the general public. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780367748746, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

The Forest Has Become Our New Living Room" - The Critical Importance of Urban Forests During the COVID-19 Pandemic"

Abstract: Out of nowhere the COVID-19 pandemic has turned people's everyday lives upside down. Public places in urban areas were closed. However, leaving the house for recreational and leisure purposes in nature was still allowed in Germany - even during lockdown in March and April of 2020. As a result, urban forests have gained unprecedented importance - not only for recreational activities, but also for maintaining social contacts and coping with psychological stress. With these diverse requirements, many people have appropriated urban forests in new and changed ways. Using the example of the forests around the southern German city of Freiburg, a team of researchers from the Department of Societal Change at the Forest Research Institute Baden-Wurttemberg (FVA) carried out a mixed-method study to investigate how these appropriation practices are working and to shed some light on the relevance of forests for city residents in these circumstances. In addition to the statistical analysis of an online questionnaire, ethnographic observation data and Instagram posts were analyzed. This methodological triangulation was carried out in order to purposefully combine the strengths of each method while at the same time reducing the intrinsic biases and blind spots. This resulted in a better understanding of the importance of urban forest during this extraordinary period of time. Our results show that urban forests became critically important during the lockdown. Many visitors appropriated the forest with very different motives and for different purposes. For many visitors, the forest provided the same functions during this extraordinary period that public spaces otherwise do. The forest was not only consumed as a natural space, but also constructed by visitors as a social space. We can illustrate how this social meaning was both negotiated and reproduced. To provide an abstraction of our results, we refer to the theory of spatial appropriation as well as to new approaches in sociology of space that conceptualize space as a network of social relations. These results give rise to broader questions for future research projects, recreational forest research, forest and health, and forest planning.

Effective strategies that enhance the social impact of social sciences and humanities research

Abstract: Background: We are witnessing increasing demand from governments and society for all sciences to have relevant social impact and to show the returns they provide to society. Aims and objectives: This paper reports strategies that promote social impact by Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) research projects. Methods: An in-depth analysis of six Social Sciences and Humanities research projects that achieved social impact was carried out to identify those strategies. For each case study, project documents were analysed and qualitative fieldwork was conducted with diverse agents, including researchers, stakeholders and end-users, with a communicative orientation. Findings: The strategies that were identified as contributing to achieving social impact include a clear focus of the project on social impact and the definition of an active strategy for achieving it; a meaningful involvement of stakeholders and end-users throughout the project lifespan, including local organisations, underprivileged end-users, and policy makers who not only are recipients of knowledge generated by the research projects but participate in the co-creation of knowledge; coordination between projects’ and stakeholders’ activities; and dissemination activities that show useful evidence and are oriented toward creating space for public deliberation with a diverse public. Discussion and conclusions: The strategies identified can enhance the social impact of Social Sciences and Humanities research. Furthermore, gathering related data, such as collaboration with stakeholders, use of projects’ findings and the effects of their implementation, could allow researchers to track the social impact of the projects and enhance the evaluation of research impact.

Psychodata: disassembling the psychological, economic, and statistical infrastructure of ‘social-emotional learning’

Abstract: Psychology and economics are powerful sources of expert knowledge in contemporary governance. Social and emotional learning (SEL) is becoming a priority in education policy in many parts of...

We Must Take Advantage of This Pandemic to Make a Radical Social Change: The Coronavirus as a Global Health, Inequality, and Eco-Social Problem.

Abstract: COVID-19 not only constitutes a serious public health problem and a global major threat to the poorest and most vulnerable social groups and neighborhoods of the world, creating a potential pandemic of inequality, but also poses an enormous challenge from the perspective of public health, ethics, economy, environment, and politics. However, many of the deep and complex systemic interrelationships created and developed by this pandemic are largely hidden, unknown, or neglected, both by the hegemonic media and by a highly specialized and fragmented academic world. However, when all the available knowledge is critically integrated, the origins and effects underlying this pandemic are likely to be found in the development of neoliberal capitalism and its inherent logic of ceaseless accumulation, economic growth, large inequalities, and ecological devastation. This commentary reflects on these issues, drawing out some of the most important lessons to be learned and challenges to be faced in the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, advocating for a radical social change to deal with these challenges.

Reconfigurations in sustainability transitions: a systematic and critical review

Abstract: Two streams of literature have become especially prominent in understanding social change toward sustainability within the past decades: the research on socio-technical transitions and applications...

The social child

Abstract: Something happened - fission and fusion in developmental psychology, S. Muncer, A. Campbell evolution and development, K. MacDonald genes, environment and psychological development, D. Rowe cultural influences on development, G. Jahoda families and social development - towards the 21st century, M. McGurk, G. Soriano the company they keep - friendships and their developmental significance, W. Hartup social life in the primary school, P. Kutnick, Ian Mason technology, media and social development, C. Crook the developmental origins of social understanding, D.F. Hay, H. Demetrious Children's Perspective And The Emotional process, M. Meerum Terwogt, H. Stegge agency and identity - a relational approach, J. Shotter socio-moral understanding, N. Emler gender and the development of interpersonal orientation, A. Campbell youth crime and antisocial behaviour, D.P. Farrington.

The Vicious Cycle Linking Stereotypes and Social Roles

Abstract: Members of social categories defined by attributes such as sex, race, and age occupy certain types of social roles much more than members of other social categories do. The qualities that define th...

The role and challenges of education for responsible AI

Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting education in many different ways. From virtual assistants for personalized education, to student or teacher tracking systems, the potential benefits of AI for education often come with a discussion of its impact on privacy and well-being. At the same time, the social transformation brought about by AI requires reform of traditional education systems. This article discusses what a responsible, trustworthy vision for AI is and how this relates to and affects education.