scholarly journals Balance and fragmentation in societies with homophily and social balance

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuan M. Pham ◽  
Andrew C. Alexander ◽  
Jan Korbel ◽  
Rudolf Hanel ◽  
Stefan Thurner
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Critical Value ◽  
Significant Fraction ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Spin Models ◽  
Social Fragmentation ◽  
Hamiltonian Model ◽  
Social Balance

AbstractRecent attempts to understand the origin of social fragmentation on the basis of spin models include terms accounting for two social phenomena: homophily—the tendency for people with similar opinions to establish positive relations—and social balance—the tendency for people to establish balanced triadic relations. Spins represent attribute vectors that encode G different opinions of individuals whose social interactions can be positive or negative. Here we present a co-evolutionary Hamiltonian model of societies where people minimise their individual social stresses. We show that societies always reach stationary, balanced, and fragmented states, if—in addition to homophily—individuals take into account a significant fraction, q, of their triadic relations. Above a critical value, $$q_c$$ q c , balanced and fragmented states exist for any number of opinions.

Balance and fragmentation in societies with homophily and social balance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
TUAN PHAM ◽  
Andrew Alexander ◽  
Jan Korbel ◽  
Rudolf Hanel ◽  
Stefan Thurner
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Critical Value ◽  
Significant Fraction ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Spin Models ◽  
Social Fragmentation ◽  
Social Balance

Abstract Recent attempts to understand the origin of social fragmentation on the basis of spin models include terms accounting for two social phenomena: homophily—the tendency for people with similar opinions to establish positive relations—and social balance—the tendency for people to establish balanced triadic relations. Spins represent attribute vectors that encode G different opinions of individuals; social interactions between individuals can be positive or negative. Here we present a co-evolutionary Hamiltonian framework that minimizes individuals’ social stress in social networks that have finite connectivity and people with a small number of attributes. We show that such systems always reach stationary, balanced, and fragmented states, if –in addition to homophily– individuals take into account a significant fraction, q, of their triadic relations. Above a critical value, qc, balanced and fragmented states exist for any number of opinions.

scholarly journals The ‘Selfish Element’: How Sperm and Egg Donors Construct Plausibly Moral Accounts of the Decision to Donate

Sociology ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003803852110331
Author(s):  
Leah Gilman
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Moral Self ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Sperm Donors ◽  
Selfish Element ◽  
Egg Donors ◽  
Sociological Studies ◽  
The Way

Multiple sociological studies have demonstrated how talk of ‘good’ motives enables people to maintain the presentation of a moral self in the context of stigmatised behaviours. Far fewer have examined why people sometimes describe acting for the ‘wrong reasons’ or choose to qualify, or reject, assumptions that they are motivated by a desire to ‘do good’. In this article, I analyse one such situation: sperm donors who describe being partially motivated by a ‘selfish’ desire to procreate, a motive which these same men frame as morally questionable. I argue that such accounts are explicable if we consider the (gendered) interactional and cultural contexts in which they are produced, particularly the way interactive contexts shape the desirability and achievability of plausibility and authenticity. I suggest that analysis of similar social phenomena can support sociologists in better understanding the complex ways in which moral practices are woven into social interactions.

scholarly journals The digital hood: Social media use among youth in disadvantaged neighborhoods

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 950-967 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Stevens ◽  
Stacia Gilliard-Matthews ◽  
Jamie Dunaev ◽  
Marcus K Woods ◽  
Bridgette M Brawner
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Standpoint Theory ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Specific Knowledge ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
Disadvantaged Neighborhoods

This study examines the role of social media in the lives of youth living in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Feminist Standpoint Theory, which privileges the voices of marginalized communities in understanding social phenomena, suggests that youth at the margins have specific knowledge that helps us understand social media more broadly. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 females and 30 males aged 13–24 years about their social worlds and neighborhoods, both online and offline. The findings reveal a dynamic and somewhat concerning interplay between the geographic neighborhood and the digital neighborhood, whereby negative social interactions in the geographic neighborhood are reproduced and amplified on social media.

scholarly journals The effect of social balance on social fragmentation

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (172) ◽  
pp. 20200752
Author(s):  
Tuan Minh Pham ◽  
Imre Kondor ◽  
Rudolf Hanel ◽  
Stefan Thurner
Keyword(s):  
Phase Transition ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Spin Glasses ◽  
Critical Level ◽  
Mathematical Structure ◽  
Opinion Formation ◽  
Social Fragmentation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Disordered Magnets ◽  
Social Balance

With the availability of internet, social media, etc., the interconnectedness of people within most societies has increased tremendously over the past decades. Across the same timespan, an increasing level of fragmentation of society into small isolated groups has been observed. With a simple model of a society, in which the dynamics of individual opinion formation is integrated with social balance, we show that these two phenomena might be tightly related. We identify a critical level of interconnectedness, above which society fragments into sub-communities that are internally cohesive and hostile towards other groups. This critical communication density necessarily exists in the presence of social balance, and arises from the underlying mathematical structure of a phase transition known from the theory of disordered magnets called spin glasses. We discuss the consequences of this phase transition for social fragmentation in society.

scholarly journals Between Geography and Demography: Key Interdependencies and Exit Mechanisms for Covid-19

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Scala ◽  
Andrea Flori ◽  
Alessandro Spelta ◽  
Emanuele Brugnoli ◽  
Matteo Cinelli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Compartmental Model ◽  
Critical Value ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Age Classes ◽  
Social Contacts ◽  
Rebound Effects ◽  
Italian Regions ◽  
The World ◽  
Mobility Matrix

AbstractWe develop a minimal compartmental model to analyze policies on mobility restriction in Italy during the Covid-19 outbreak. Our findings show that a premature lockdown barely shifts the epidemic in time: moreover, beyond a critical value of the lockdown strength, an epidemic that seems to be quelled fully recovers after lifting the restrictions. We investigate the effects on lockdown scenarios and exit strategies by introducing heterogeneities in the model. In particular, we consider Italian regions as separate administrative entities in which social interactions through different age classes occur. We find that, due to the sparsity of the mobility matrix, epidemics develop independently in different regions once the outbreak starts. Moreover, after the epidemics ha started, the influence of contacts with other regions becomes soon irrelevant. Sparsity might be responsible for the observed delays among different regions. Analogous arguments apply to the world/countries scenario. We also find that disregarding the structure of social contacts could lead to severe underestimation of the post-lockdown effects. Nevertheless, age class based strategies can help to mitigate rebound effects with milder strategies. Finally, we point out that these results can be generalized beyond this particular model by providing a description of the effects of key parameters on non-medical epidemic mitigation strategies.

Constructivism as a Philosophical Basis of Pedagogy: Forms and Possibilities of Interpretation

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-10
Author(s):  
Н. Мартишина ◽  
N. Martishina
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Social Constructivism ◽  
Learning Strategy ◽  
Theory Of Knowledge ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Training And Education ◽  
The Social ◽  
Constructivist Position ◽  
Philosophical Doctrine

The article contains the characteristic of constructivism as a philosophical doctrine. The author shows the distinction between the epistemic constructivism, which considers cognition as the construction of epistemological images; the social constructivism in the theory of knowledge, within the framework of which the construction of epistemological phenomena is interpreted not as an individual, but as a communicative, historical-dimensional and culturally-deterministic process; and socio-ontological constructivism, which analyzes the appearance of objectified social phenomena (as opposed to knowledge as such ) and, ultimately, the appearance of social reality in social interactions and communication acts. The article fixes the features of pedagogical concepts, determined by the use of various variants of constructivism as research programs. The author thesis is substantiated that social constructivism in pedagogy can be considered not only as a general learning strategy of knowledge production in students' independent activities, but also as a meaningfully developed methodological program of training and education, which determines the activity of a teacher too from a constructivist position.

scholarly journals The Covid-19 Emergency and the Risk of Social Fragmentation in the Palermo Case

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonia Roberta Siino
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Italian Region ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Social Fragmentation ◽  
Physical Isolation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Multicultural Context ◽  
Local Actors

The global Covid-19 crisis has shown its impact on all the aspect of life: health, social, economic, and politic. The attention mainly reserved to the economic and politic aspect musts also take into account the risk of social fragmentation. In which way this emergency has impact on communities where social fragilities were already existing? In which way, social dynamics are changed by the fear of the pandemic and the physical isolation imposed by governments to contain it. In which way local associations and citizen are coping the new challenges imposed by this emergency? In this article, the Sicilian context will be explored with a specific view on the Palermo capital. This Italian region has a peculiar and complex social asset determined by interrelated socio-economic phenomena such as mafia, unemployment and poverty. Fortunately, the existence of problematic and historical social phenomena has to face with the constant activities organized by local associations, civil society and authorities to fight them. There is one element that must to be consider: a global event like a pandemic oblige to be careful to the new ways in which phenomena we are accustomed to can manifest. Inequalities and racial matter can be exacerbated even in a multicultural context like Palermo one if social balance is missing. New form of poverty and the higher number of people exposed to this risk can give to mafia-type organizations more instrument to establish their control on the territory. The same introduction of economic measures aiming to support people can be manipulated and have a distorted effect when concretely applied. It is a great challenge because the lack of a complete comprehension can determine a failure of the adopted measures and a lack of cohesion of the social tissue. Starting from the context definition, the analysis will explore the perspective and the experiences of associations working with people belonging to the weaker part of the community, thanks to semi-structured interviews to representatives of the main local associations as privileged witness. In this way, the analysis will try to highlight how local actors' activities and how dynamics of solidarity are influenced by the global Covid-19 phenomenon.

scholarly journals Rumour propagation and the eco-evolutionary dynamics of social information use

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1875) ◽  
pp. 20180088 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Suire ◽  
Minus van Baalen
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Social Information ◽  
Information Use ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Informational Cascades ◽  
Transmission Mechanisms ◽  
Social Information Use ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
Different Sources

Information is a crucial currency for living organisms as it allows them to adjust their behaviour to environmental fluctuations. Thus, natural selection should have favoured the capacity of collecting information from different sources, including social interactions whereby individuals could quickly gain reliable information. However, such conditions may also favour the gathering of potentially detrimental information, such as false or misinterpreted accounts of environmental and social phenomena such as rumours, which may spread via informational cascades. We applied ecological and evolutionary principles to investigate how the propagation of social information at a populational level affects the propensity to assimilate it, here defined as the gullibilty. Our results show that the evolution of an individual's susceptibility to assimilate information strongly depends on eco-evolutionary feedbacks, in particular when both useful and detrimental information circulate. We discuss our results regarding the different information transmission mechanisms involved with particular attention to specific cases of social learning.

scholarly journals Social Phenomena Between Local Transmigrant Communities and Regional Transmigrant Communities (1994-2020) in Kasimpa Jaya Village, Kec. South Tiworo, Kab. West Muna)

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 798-806
Author(s):  
Ridayat Ridayat ◽  
Saefur Rochmat ◽  
Laode Ali Basri
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Scientific Paper ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Relationship Patterns ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship

Writing this paper aims to provide an overview or social phenomena on the pattern of community relations from social interactions between local transmigrant communities and regional migrants. Social interactions are dynamic social relationships that involve the relationship between people and individuals, between groups of people, as well as individuals and groups of people. The formulation of the problem in writing this scientific paper is how the social phenomena in the relationship pattern of social interactions that occur between the indigenous transmigrant community (Muna) and the immigrant transmigrant community (Bali). The method used in this writing uses qualitative exploratory research with observation data collection techniques, interviews and documentation.   The result of this paper is that the social phenomena in the relationship patterns of social interactions that exist in Kasimpa Jaya Village run very well and harmoniously between local transmigrant communities influenced by their development by the regional transmigrant community both in adopting the behavior, mindset and lifestyle of the local community itself, vice versa.

scholarly journals Evolution of the ISM in starbursting dwarf galaxies

1999 ◽  
Vol 193 ◽  
pp. 732-733
Author(s):  
Fabrizio Brighenti ◽  
Annibale D'Ercole
Keyword(s):  
Surface Density ◽  
Gas Flow ◽  
Dwarf Galaxies ◽  
Dwarf Galaxy ◽  
Critical Value ◽  
Significant Fraction ◽  
Hydrodynamical Simulation ◽  
The Galaxy

We present a 2D-hydrodynamical simulation of the gas flow generated by a starburst in a dwarf galaxy. We focus in particular on the ejection efficiency both of the ISM and of the metals produced during the burst. It turns out that while the galaxy is able to retain most of the ISM, a significant fraction of the metals is lost, supporting the differential wind scenario. A new burst may occur after ∼ 0.5-1 Gyr, when the central gas surface density approaches the critical value, during the post starburst gas replenishment.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document