Carrying, caring, and conversing

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-54
Author(s):  
Bert H. Hodges

Social and ecological research and theory are used to elaborate and enrich two important sets of accounts of language origins. One is the interdependence and shared intentionality hypothesis (e.g., Tomasello, 2014a) of the ways in which humans became cooperative and conforming in ways that other apes did not, eventually leading to language. A second set of accounts addresses the emergence of bipedalism and its connections to language and to many other anatomical, cognitive, and social features that are distinctive in humans. Particular attention is given to the carrying and caretaking of infants. Research and theory challenging common assumptions about the role of conformity in cooperation and conversation are reviewed and integrated into these accounts. Together these varying perspectives point toward a more dialogical, dynamic, and distributed understanding of social interactions and the values that motivate and constrain humans’ social and linguistic skills.

Info ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 66-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
ChienHsing Wu ◽  
Shu-Chen Kao ◽  
Hsin-Yi Liao

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to reveal the role of individual–social–technology fit in online social network (OSN) value development. The social software features (e.g. communication and interaction), social features (e.g. privacy and trust) and individual features (e.g. sense of belonging and self-disclosure) are considered fitting forms to describe the OSN value. Implications and suggestions are addressed. Design/methodology/approach – The literature review on social software, the social and individual characteristics and the research gap with respect to OSN value is presented. The research arguments are then hypothesized, and research model used to describe the proposed role is examined empirically. The research targeted mobile phone users as the subjects, and the extent of the activities of these users on OSN for both work and studies. A salient investigation explores the moderation effect of gender. The research results are obtained, and the findings are revealed on the basis of 468 social software users. Findings – The significant effect of individual–social–technology fit on OSN value development is presented through the satisfaction of both participation and sharing information, and knowledge about this fit is verified. The interplay of social software, social and individual features contributes significantly to individual–social–technology fit development, implying that OSN value development is not a single issue. OSN value development should be considered concurrently with technological, personal and social issues. Research limitations/implications – The empirical study confirms that fitness analysis produces a systematic outcome, in which all elements (e.g. social, technology and individual) are required to cooperate with one another to maximize the OSN value. An individual adopts online channels to communicate with others; thus, the benefits may be a multidimensional issue instead of only a single information service issue. They also consider building an equal social relationship to be important, as it enables diverse propositions, maintains acceptable privacy and behaves on faith to enhance the fit of technology features and individual features to value development. The subjects also likely accepted the fact that emotion generation is important for the advantage of fit of technology features and social features, thereby likely benefitting OSN value development. Originality/value – The OSN does not only add new values to the society but also brings new effects on social development, especially in terms of social cognition from virtual community formation, development and creation. Although existing studies in the literature present the important aspects and antecedents linked significantly to OSN value development, these studies also insufficiently discuss the effect of fit of these facets on OSN value development. This exploratory study mainly aims to propose and examine the individual–social–technology fit model through an empirical investigation. The main argument of the study is that when a positive and healthy virtual society is developed through social software, the individual and social characteristics, as well as the social software features, should be defined with a suitable fit to promote the social networking value.


2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 687-703
Author(s):  
Priya Kizhakkethil

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to look at memory making and the documenting of memories, as a part of the document and information experience of women belonging to the Indian diaspora in a leisure context.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative research approach was inspired by institutional ethnography, and data are collected through semi-structured interviews and by collecting comments posted on five fan fiction blogs.FindingsEarly observations show that memory making and documenting of those memories is a part of the document experience of the research participants. It also points to the role of social interactions in that experience as well as the recording of one's document experience in the making or deriving of document meaning.Originality/valueThis study aims to contribute toward conceptual growth in the area of information and document experience. It also aims to address a gap in the literature that looks at cultural memory evocation and how it is documented, as well as looking at the interplay between affordances of new media, memory making and documentary practices especially with respect to virtual communities. And when looked at through the prism of migration and leisure, it can be even more interesting.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (7) ◽  
pp. 1449-1469
Author(s):  
Wendelin Küpers

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to develop a critical and extended understanding of practices in organizations from a phenomenological point of view. It explores the relevance of Merleau-Ponty's advanced phenomenology and ontology for understanding the role of the lived body and the embodiment of practices and change in organizational lifeworlds.Design/methodology/approachBased on the literature review and phenomenology, the role of embodied and relational dimension, the concept of an emergent and responsive “inter-practice” in organizations is developed systematically.FindingsBased on the phenomenological and relational approach, the concept of (inter-)practice allows an extended more integral and processual understanding of the role of bodily and embodied practices in organizational lifeworlds as emerging events. The concept of inter-practice(ing) contributes to conceiving of new ways of approaching how responsive and improvisational practicing, related to change, coevolves within a multidimensional nexus of organizations.Research limitations/implicationsSpecific theoretical and methodological implications for exploring and enacting relational practices as well as limitations are offered.Practical implicationsSome specific practical implications are provided that facilitate and enable embodied practices in organizational contexts.Social implicationsThe responsive inter-practice is seen as embedded in sociality and social interactions and links to sociocultural and political as well as ethical dimensions are discussed.Originality/valueBy extending the existing discourse and using an embodied approach, the paper proposes a novel orientation for reinterpreting practice that allows explorations of the emergence and realization of alternative, ingenious and more suitable forms of practicing and change in organizations.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ibticem Ben Zammel ◽  
Tharwa Najar

PurposeIn the present paper the research respects a specific steps regarding to the specificities of the study. The first step is compiling data into formal set which calls for the careful and methodic organizing of the original data. The second phase is disassembling the data in the base which calls the formal coding procedure. This phase supposes the use of a type of coding (axial coding). The authors combined three sources of information; nonparticipating observation of employee practices, techniques of semi-structural Biographical Interviews and explanations to collect data.Design/methodology/approachThis paper aims to report one-case study approach in a knowledge-based multinational to propose a framework that explores the role of reflexivity as determinant and the KM practices base of organizational changes and interpretations. The practice theory of Bourdieu and Giddens is mobilized to explain the individual behavior and the effect on the organizational structures. The paper assigns the role of team reflexivity as antecedent and emphasizes the individual and organizational practices to KM assessment.FindingsThe results showed the value of considering individual practices and team reflexivity on the learning stock of groups and knowledge sharing. Also, organizational learning, capability and social interactions are promising to build a practice-based framework of individual-organization duality of KM and for understanding changes in organizational structure and management modes.Research limitations/implicationsThe results showed the value of considering individual practices and team reflexivity on the learning stock of groups and knowledge sharing. Also, organizational learning, capability and social interactions are promising to build a practice-based framework of individual-organization duality of KM and for understanding changes in organizational structure and management modes.Practical implicationsThe organization's business strategy should identify and assess knowledge within the company's targets based on practice related concepts. The development of KM and HRM strategies must be embedded in business strategy which enables and support the organizational learning through practice community formation. Also, the direction should facilitate interpersonal knowledge sharing through certain forms of social interaction like establishing trust between new team's projects, team reflexivity and individual practices. Moreover, in the managerial issues, the study values the transformational leadership, participative management and commitment within the working group.Originality/valueAs any organizational phenomenon, KM can be addressed in different ways. The authors’ objective is to present an original and global approach leading to understanding different dimensions of this phenomenon. The proposed framework stipulates that knowledge is formed in practice through social interactions (Bourdieu, Giddens) and presents itself as a solution to the duality individual-organization. The originality of the paper is presumed in building a theory about KM effectiveness to develop its literature in terms of determinants and practices.


Author(s):  
Quynh Xuan Tran ◽  
My Van Dang ◽  
Nadine Tournois

Purpose This study aims to investigate the effects of servicescape on customer satisfaction and loyalty – centered on social interaction and service experience in the café setting. Design/methodology/approach Data for this study were collected from approximately 1,800 customers at 185 coffee stores located in the three largest cities in Vietnam through the self-administered questionnaires. Findings The research findings pointed out the significant impacts of café servicescape on social interaction quality, including customer-to-employee interaction (CEI) and customer-to-customer interaction (CCI). Social interactions and servicescape were shown to remarkably influence customer experience quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty. Moreover, the study confirmed the interrelation between service experience, satisfaction and loyalty in the café setting. Practical implications This study provides marketers and service managers a deeper understanding of improving customer satisfaction and loyalty through the control of servicescape attributes and social interactions in café contexts. Originality/value This research explores the significant impacts of café servicescape on social interaction quality (CEI and CCI). Additionally, it provides insights within the role of social interactions to customer’s affective and behavioral responses in service settings, especially the CCI quality.


Author(s):  
Yoko Akama ◽  
Susan Chaplin ◽  
Peter Fairbrother

Purpose – This paper aims to present on-going research on the role of social networks in community preparedness for bushfire. Social networks are significant in helping communities cope in disasters. Studies of communities hit by a catastrophe such as landslides or heatwaves demonstrate that people with well-connected social networks are more likely to recover than others where their networks are obliterated or non-existent. The value of social networks is also evident in bushfire where information is passed between family, friends and neighbours. Social interactions are important in creating opportunities for residents to exchange information on shared risks and can lead them to take collective actions to address this risk. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents on-going research on social networks of residents living in fire-prone areas in Australia to investigate how knowledge related to bushfire might flow, either in preparation for, or during a hypothetical emergency. A closer examination of social relations and characteristics within networks is critical in contextualizing this knowledge flow. This understanding will contribute to collected evidence that social networks play a particularly important role in collective action in building adaptive capacity. Findings – The types of networks studied reflects how people’s emergent roles and their inter-relatedness with one another helps to build adaptive capacity and greater awareness of the risks they face from fire. In doing so, the paper questions individualized attributes of “leaders” that disaster literature can over-emphasize, and critiques notions “vulnerability” in a social network context. It demonstrates that social capital can be generated through emergent, contextual, processual factors. Originality/value – The paper contributes critical knowledge and evidence for fire agencies to engage with community networks and support those people who are playing a vital catalytic, bridging and linking role to strengthen their potential for adaptive capacity in mitigating bushfire risk.


2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 1040-1056 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Polese ◽  
Jaqueline Pels ◽  
Bård Tronvoll ◽  
Roberto Bruni ◽  
Luca Carrubbo

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of actors that allow them to relate to others actors in the system through shared intentionality (orientation) and the nature of the A4A relationship and the results that such interactions bring to the emergent system based on this shared purpose (finality). Design/methodology/approach The topic is approached by theoretical analysis and conceptual development of three integrative frameworks: the sociological perspective, service-dominant logic and a particular perspective of system thinking: the viable system approach (vSa). Findings The A4A relationships involve value co-creation based on actors integrating their resources and acting with intentionality to obtain value by providing benefits to other parties and by belonging to the emergent viable system; actor acts for other actors directly involved in the relationship generating positive effects for the whole system in which it is contextualized. Research limitations/implications Future empirical research might better support findings. Social implications Many social implications deriving from an augmented role of actors engaged within social relationships in co-creation exchanges. From the title of the paper A4A over on the manuscript describes numerous social inferences of actors in co-creation. Originality/value A4A is a relationship formed by actors that interact for the benefit of the whole system in which are involved. They find own benefit from the benefit created for the system in which they live and act. In A4A relationships the value of the single actor comes from the participation to the viability of the whole system.


Author(s):  
Gulbarshyn Chepurko ◽  
Valerii Pylypenko

The paper examines and compares how the major sociological theories treat axiological issues. Value-driven topics are analysed in view of their relevance to society in times of crisis, when both societal life and the very structure of society undergo dramatic change. Nowadays, social scientists around the world are also witnessing such a change due to the emergence of alternative schools of sociological thought (non-classical, interpretive, postmodern, etc.) and, subsequently, the necessity to revise the paradigms that have been existed in sociology so far. Since the above-mentioned approaches are often used to address value-related issues, building a solid theoretical framework for these studies takes on considerable significance. Furthermore, the paradigm revision has been prompted by technological advances changing all areas of people’s lives, especially social interactions. The global human community, integral in nature, is being formed, and production of human values now matters more than production of things; hence the “expansion” of value-focused perspectives in contemporary sociology. The authors give special attention to collectivities which are higher-order units of the social system. These units are described as well-organised action systems where each individual performs his/her specific role. Just as the role of an individual is distinct from that of the collectivity (because the individual and the collectivity are different as units), so too a distinction is drawn between the value and the norm — because they represent different levels of social relationships. Values are the main connecting element between the society’s cultural system and the social sphere while norms, for the most part, belong to the social system. Values serve primarily to maintain the pattern according to which the society is functioning at a given time; norms are essential to social integration. Apart from being the means of regulating social processes and relationships, norms embody the “principles” that can be applied beyond a particular social system. The authors underline that it is important for Ukrainian sociology to keep abreast of the latest developments in the field of axiology and make good use of those ideas because this is a prerequisite for its successful integration into the global sociological community.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 156-173
Author(s):  
Vikram Singh

This  article  attempts to  analyse  the  process  of  sustainable  livelihood  through skill development and its conceptual and theoretical understanding in India with reference to rural youth. In India skill development is demanded for economic growth and inclusive development; hence the rural population cannot be overlooked. Employable skills alone have not been able to generate sufficient employment among rural youth or address/promote well-being and sustainable livelihood. Various frameworks associated with skill development leave scope for reforms to strengthen the implementation of various policy shifts in respect of rural development and government/non-government organisations. The process of skill development for rural youth through the establishment of institutions, launch of policy/programmes and their linkages with micro-finance are considered, as the distinctive nature and features of micro-finance in relation to the forces of societal structure, social relationships, and social interactions leading towards collective interests and norms that shape the lives of rural youth. Lastly, analysis is done and conclusions drawn on the basis of discussion.


2004 ◽  
pp. 406-412
Author(s):  
Paul Okunieff ◽  
Michael C. Schell ◽  
Russell Ruo ◽  
E. Ronald Hale ◽  
Walter G. O'Dell ◽  
...  

✓ The role of radiosurgery in the treatment of patients with advanced-stage metastatic disease is currently under debate. Previous randomized studies have not consistently supported the use of radiosurgery to treat patients with numbers of brain metastases. In negative-results studies, however, intracranial tumor control was high but extracranial disease progressed; thus, patient survival was not greatly affected, although neurocognitive function was generally maintained until death. Because the future promises improved systemic (extracranial) therapy, the successful control of brain disease is that much more crucial. Thus, for selected patients with multiple metastases to the brain who remain in good neurological condition, aggressive lesion-targeting radiosurgery should be very useful. Although a major limitation to success of this therapy is the lack of control of extracranial disease in most patients, it is clear that well-designed, aggressive treatment substantially decreases the progression of brain metastases and also improves neurocognitive survival. The authors present the management and a methodology for rational treatment of a patient with breast cancer who has harbored 24 brain metastases during a 3-year period.


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