scholarly journals The ethics of inattention: revitalising civil inattention as a privacy-protecting mechanism in public spaces

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamar Sharon ◽  
Bert-Jaap Koops
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Social Norm ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Private Sphere ◽  
Erving Goffman ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Digital Surveillance ◽  
The Social

AbstractSocieties evolve practices that reflect social norms of appropriateness in social interaction, for example when and to what extent one should respect the boundaries of another person’s private sphere. One such practice is what the sociologist Erving Goffman called civil inattention—the social norm of showing a proper amount of indifference to others—which functions as an almost unnoticed yet highly potent privacy-preserving mechanism. These practices can be disrupted by technologies that afford new forms of intrusions. In this paper, we show how new networked technologies, such as facial recognition (FR), challenge our ability to practice civil inattention. We argue for the need to revitalise, in academic and policy debates, the role of civil inattention and related practices in regulating behaviour in public space. Our analysis highlights the relational nature of privacy and the importance of social norms in accomplishing and preserving it. While our analysis goes some way in supporting current calls to ban FR technology, we also suggest that, pending a ban and in light of the power of norms to limit what is otherwise technically possible, cultivating new practices of civil inattention may help address the challenges raised by FR and other forms of digital surveillance in public.

scholarly journals How to Solve the Social Norm Conflict Dilemma of Green Consumption: The Moderating Effect of Self-Affirmation

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wanda Ge ◽  
Guanghua Sheng ◽  
Hongli Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Social Norm ◽  
Injunctive Norms ◽  
Descriptive Norms ◽  
Green Consumption ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Maximum Utility ◽  
The Social

Social norms are important social factors that affect individual behavioral change. Using social norms to promote green consumption is receiving increasing attention. However, due to the different formation processes and mechanisms of the behavioral influence of the different types of social norms, using social norms to promote green consumption often has social norm conflict situations (injunctive norms + negative descriptive norms). Thus, it is difficult to attain the maximum utility of social norms. The present research found that social norm conflict weakens the role of injunctive norms in promoting green consumption. Specifically, negative descriptive norms weaken the role of injunctive norms in promoting green consumption. Alienation, which manifests through powerlessness and meaninglessness, plays a mediating role in the relationship between social norm conflict and green consumption. Self-affirmation moderates the mediating role of alienation between social norm conflicts and green consumption. Self-affirmation reduces the alienation caused by social norm conflict, thereby alleviating the weakening effect of social norm conflict on green consumption.

scholarly journals ‘Out of order’: The double burden of menstrual etiquette and the subtle exclusion of women from public space in Scotland

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 766-787
Author(s):  
Natalie Moffat ◽  
Lucy Pickering
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Private Sphere ◽  
Double Burden ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Invisibility ◽  
Infrastructural Support ◽  
Do So

This article examines the double burden of ‘menstrual etiquette’ and the implications for women’s inclusion in public spaces in Scotland today. Beginning from Laws’ work on ‘menstrual etiquette’, we explore how menstrual etiquette is characterised primarily by the burden of rendering menstruation invisible, both discursively and practically. However, women not only work to ensure that others remain unaware that they are menstruating; they depend on technologies, such as menstrual product dispensers and bins, to facilitate this process of rendering menstruation invisible. When these technologies are absent or poorly maintained, women experience a double burden: not only must they maintain the social invisibility of menstruation but do so without social or infrastructural support or drawing attention to this absence (for fear of breaching the discursive silence demanded of menstrual etiquette). We locate poor maintenance of facilities within the very same ‘civilising process’ that has pushed women’s bodily management to the furthest reaches of the private sphere. Socially invisible, these infrastructural supports are granted low status and poorly maintained. The pressure to maintain conceptual silence around menstruation limits women’s capacity to contest this neglect and, in turn, perpetuates their exclusion from public space. This article, then, exposes the nature and the compounding temporal and affective burden of menstrual etiquette and advocates for breaking discursive silences to facilitate much needed social change.

Laissez-Faire Public Spaces: Designing Public Spaces for Calm and Stressful Times

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 392-401
Author(s):  
Tali Hatuka
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Open Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Social Value ◽  
Extreme Conditions ◽  
Departure Point ◽  
Future Design ◽  
The Social ◽  
Climate Events

Under extreme conditions, such as wars, pandemics, and climate events, the role of open space and public rituals alters dramatically. Extreme conditions remind us that daily life is fragile. What should dictate the development of public spaces? What does Covid-19 teach us about public space, its use and future design? Should planners and designers address the unexpected when designing public spaces? These questions are the departure point for discussing the social value and design of public space during both extreme conditions and calm times.

scholarly journals Film Intervention in Public Space. A Phylogenetic Spatial Change

2020 ◽  
pp. 107-122
Author(s):  
Taher Abdel-Ghani
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Social Agent ◽  
The Public ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Right ◽  
And Function ◽  
The City

Cinema has taken up the role of a social agent that introduced a variety of images and events to the public during critical times. This paper proposes the idea of using films as a tool to reclaim public space where a sense of belonging and dialogue restore to a meaningful place. During the January 2011 protests in Egypt, Tahrir Cinema, an independent revolutionary project composed of filmmakers and other artists, offered a space in Downtown Cairo and screened archival footage of the ongoing events to the protestors igniting civic debate and discussions. The traditional public space has undergone what Karl Kropf refers to as the phylogenetic change, i.e. form and function that is agreed upon by society and represents a common conception of certain spatial elements. Hence, the framework that this research will follow is a two-layer discourse, the existence of cinema in public spaces, and the existence of public spaces in cinema. Eventually, the paper seeks to enhance the social relationship between society, spaces, and cinematic narration – a vital tool to raise awareness about the right to the city.

scholarly journals Role of Public Space in Achieving Social Sustainability in Cairo

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (9) ◽  
pp. 183
Author(s):  
Mennat-Allah El-Husseiny
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Social Sustainability ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Gated Communities ◽  
Community Based ◽  
The Social ◽  
International Publishing ◽  
Open Access Article

Public space has been always regarded as a reflection of the social status of the community. Based on this assumption, the challenge for achieving a ‘socially sustainable’ community in Cairo is in need to be re-questioned in relation to the role of public space. Accordingly, the paper explores the role of public-space in maintaining the social sustenance in the extreme ends of Cairo’s social structure, first: the gated communities taking ‘Beverly Hills’ as a prototype, and second the informal areas taking ‘Al-Zahraa’ district a prototype.Keywords: Social sustainability; Neoliberalism; Public spaces; Gated communities.eISSN 2398-4295 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.

scholarly journals Do open online projects create social norms?

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
GODEFROY DANG NGUYEN ◽  
SYLVAIN DEJEAN ◽  
NICOLAS JULLIEN
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Instrumental Variables ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Social Norm ◽  
Dictator Game ◽  
Surprising Result ◽  
Large Sample ◽  
The Social ◽  
Equal Split

AbstractWhile most scholars emphasize the role of prosocial motivations of contributors in building open online communities, we show that mere users also adhere to their norms of behaviour to some extent. To this end we designed an original experimentation protocol. With the help of the French Wikimédia Foundation, we questioned a large sample (n = 13,000) of Wikipedia users (whether contributors or not). They were invited, after having expressing their feelings about Wikipédia, to play a Dictator Game. A large proportion of respondents, including those who were merely users, chose an equal split (66% of the sample). This surprising result suggests that they have adhered to a social norm of sharing. Investigating the determinants of this result, we prove that an involvement measured by usage (intensity and variety), as well as by attachment to, and time spent, on Wikipedia, is correlated with the choice of the 50/50 split in the dictator game (DG). Furthermore, the method of instrumental variables gives an indication that adherence to the social norm of sharing may be endogenously determined by involvement in the open online community. Our result highlights the importance of interactions with the institutional and technical frameworks of the community.

The Neglected Educative Function of Public Space on Preadolescent Development

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 737-759 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauro Giardiello
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Open Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
External World ◽  
Free Expression ◽  
Private Sphere ◽  
Autonomous Exploration ◽  
Deep Relationship ◽  
Spatial Identification

The crisis of public spaces implies a closure to the private sphere and, as a consequence, the inanity of the education processes. Space privatization involves the supremacy of the “οίκος” (house) on the “αγορα” (public space), so that the house assumes the role of an enclosed community. The effect of this closure is a weakening of the spatial identification and socialization of preadolescents and the exclusion of differences and relationships with their peers. This break prevents and reduces the autonomous exploration of the space as a place of free expression, the communicative acting, the conflict. This article analyzes the efficacy of the educative role of the quarter and its incidence on the preadolescent development from a sheltered to an open space both through a deep relationship with the environment and an aptitude to explore the external world. The validity of these hypotheses has been proved through a study carried out in three cities.

Can Humanism be the Social Norm?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon D. Welch
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Social Norm ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Human Reasoning ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Social Divisions ◽  
The Social

Assaults on truth and divisions about the nature of wise governance are not momentary political challenges, unique to particular moments in history. Rather, they demonstrate fundamental weaknesses in human reasoning and core dangers in ways of construing both individual freedom and cohesive communities. It will remain an ongoing challenge to learn to deal rationally with what is an intrinsic irrationality in human cognition and with what is an intrinsic tendency toward domination and violence in human collectivities. In times of intense social divisions, it is vital to consider the ways in which humanism might function as the social norm by, paradoxically, functioning in a way different from other social norms. Humanism is not the declaration that a certain set of values or norms are universally valid. At its best and most creative, humanism is not limited to a particular set of norms, but is, rather, the commitment to a certain process in which norms are continuously created, critically evaluated, implemented, sustained or revised. Humanism is a process of connection, perception, implementation, and critique, and it applies this process as much to itself as to other traditions.

The role of social norms in the relationship between anti-smoking advertising campaigns and smoking cessation: a scoping review

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 179-194
Author(s):  
Joanne Dono ◽  
Caroline Miller ◽  
Kerry Ettridge ◽  
Carlene Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Smoking Cessation ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Social Norm ◽  
Significant Heterogeneity ◽  
Mass Media Campaign ◽  
Media Campaign ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract A systematic scoping review of anti-smoking mass media campaign literature provided opportunity to explore how social normative theories and constructs are used to influence smoking cessation. Synthesis of findings was constrained by significant heterogeneity. Nevertheless, the results indicate that a broader conceptualization of social norm is worthy of further exploration. Perceptions of what others think and do contributed in multiple ways to the relationship between anti-smoking messaging and quitting outcomes. Furthermore, integrating research on social norms, social identity and communication may improve understanding of why quitting intentions are enhanced in some circumstances but reactance and counter-arguing responses corresponding to lower quitting intentions occur in others. Integrating a broader theoretical understanding of normative influences into campaign development and evaluation may prove useful in demonstrating the effectiveness of this approach in behaviour change campaigns.

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