scholarly journals Inference of a universal social scale and segregation measures using social connectivity kernels

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (171) ◽  
pp. 20200638
Author(s):  
Till Hoffmann ◽  
Nick S. Jones

How people connect with one another is a fundamental question in the social sciences, and the resulting social networks can have a profound impact on our daily lives. Blau offered a powerful explanation: people connect with one another based on their positions in a social space. Yet a principled measure of social distance, allowing comparison within and between societies, remains elusive. We use the connectivity kernel of conditionally independent edge models to develop a family of segregation statistics with desirable properties: they offer an intuitive and universal characteristic scale on social space (facilitating comparison across datasets and societies), are applicable to multivariate and mixed node attributes, and capture segregation at the level of individuals, pairs of individuals and society as a whole. We show that the segregation statistics can induce a metric on Blau space (a space spanned by the attributes of the members of society) and provide maps of two societies. Under a Bayesian paradigm, we infer the parameters of the connectivity kernel from 11 ego-network datasets collected in four surveys in the UK and USA. The importance of different dimensions of Blau space is similar across time and location, suggesting a macroscopically stable social fabric. Physical separation and age differences have the most significant impact on segregation within friendship networks with implications for intergenerational mixing and isolation in later stages of life.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Till Hoffmann ◽  
Nick S. Jones

How people connect with one another is a fundamental question in the social sciences, and the resulting social networks can have a profound impact on our daily lives. Blau offered a powerful explanation: people connect with one another based on their positions in a social space. Yet a principled measure of social distance, allowing comparison within and between societies, remains elusive. We use the connectivity kernel of conditionally independent edge models to develop a family of segregation statistics with desirable properties: they offer an intuitive and universal characteristic scale on social space (facilitating comparison across datasets and societies), are applicable to multivariate and mixed node attributes, and capture segregation at the level of individuals, pairs of individuals and society as a whole. We show that the segregation statistics can induce a metric on Blau space (a space spanned by the attributes of the members of society) and provide maps of two societies. Under a Bayesian paradigm, we infer the parameters of the connectivity kernel from 11 ego-network datasets collected in four surveys in the UK and USA. The importance of different dimensions of Blau space is similar across time and location, suggesting a macroscopically stable social fabric. Physical separation and age differences have the most significant impact on segregation within friendship networks with implications for intergenerational mixing and isolation in later stages of life.


Author(s):  
John Lever ◽  
Johan Fischer

This book explores the emergence and expansion of global kosher and halal markets with a particular focus on the UK and Denmark. Kosher is a Hebrew term meaning “fit” or “proper” while halal is an Arabic word that literally means “permissible” or “lawful”. This is the first book of its kind to explore kosher and halal comparatively at different levels of the social scale such as individual consumption, the marketplace, religious organisations and the state. Within the last two decades or so, kosher and halal markets have become global in scope and states, manufacturers, restaurants, shops, certifiers and consumers around the world are faced with ever stricter and more complex kosher and halal requirements. The book is based on extended periods of research carried out in the UK and Denmark where kosher and halal are of particular significance. The research question in this book is: What are the consequences of globalising kosher and halal markets? This book argues that the similarities and differences between kosher and halal consumption, production and regulation in different national contexts are not well understood. We further argue that to better understand global kosher and halal markets these should be explored at different levels of the social scale. The book will be appropriate for students in a variety of upper-level undergraduate courses and graduate seminars as well as academics of food (science), sociology/anthropology, religion, globalisation, politics, economics, business/management as well as companies that are or want to be kosher/halal certified. It will also be of interest to religious organisations and policy makers.


2020 ◽  
pp. 130-156
Author(s):  
Snježana Veselica-Majhut

Challenges of translating cultural embeddedness in crime fiction: a picture from Croatia The aim of the present study is to examine the specific features of translating crime fiction genre in Croatia in the 2000s. Frederic Jameson (qtd. in Rolls, Vuaille-Barcan & West-Sooby 2016) foregrounded the notion of crime fiction’s role as the new Realism due to the importance it places on historical and geographical specificity, and the social fabric of our daily lives. In line with this, an assumption could be made that the overvaluation of place in crime fiction may present a particular challenge in translation, not only in terms of translation strategies chosen by translators, but also in terms of preferable marketing strategies pursued by publishers and editors and the correspondence between them. The focus of this study is on the patterns of handling source-culture embeddedness, typical of this genre, in translation. The study examines how diverse agents (editors, translators and language revisers) involved in the production of translations of this genre interact and how their interaction influences the decisions on handling the genre’s embeddedness in a particular, source-culture, reality. As crime fiction novels are a highly popular translated genre in Croatia, crime fiction novels make a substantial portion of the production of the publishing sector. For the purposes of this study we have selected a number of crime fiction novels by several frequently translated authors (P. D. James, Ruth Rendell, Michael Connelly) that have been published by Croatian publishers of diverse profiles, ranging from well-established publishers with long presence on the market to start-ups with a relatively short market life. The data analyzed include interviews with the agents involved (translators, editors and language revisers), peritext of these editions and analysis of selected textual segments.


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (0) ◽  
pp. 48-54
Author(s):  
Konrad Ćwikliński

Civil society and the organizations included in the system has been shaped in New Zealand by factors specific to that country, due to cultural differences the two communities forming the social space. Maori community, which as a result of natural processes of evolution has developed a specific model of social behavior. Characterized by a high respect for the family and the cultivation of cultural values. New Zealand during the colonial period was formed by regulating the social, legal and political from the British legislation, which formalization occurred with the signing of the Treaty Watangi, which gave basis for shaping the social and institutional order. On the other hand, forms of social activity and regulation known and operating in the UK since the eighteenth century. In particular, charities, clubs, lodges, societies and associations of craft. organizations.


2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcelo Kunrath Silva ◽  
Rui Zanata Jr.

O objetivo deste artigo é analisar os efeitos das profundas desigualdades que marcam a sociedade brasileira sobre a conformação da vida associativa nas grandes cidades, tendo por referência uma pesquisa empírica realizada com uma Associação de Moradores de um tradicional bairro de classe média de Porto Alegre. A partir do estudo das relações e da atuação desta entidade, percebe-se um alto grau de segmentação do tecido associativo da cidade em decorrência das marcantes distâncias estruturais e relacionais entre seus moradores. Devido a esta segmentação, as entidades de classe média e alta tendem a estabelecer vínculos e desenvolver ações com atores que compartilham posições similares no espaço social. Ao mesmo tempo, tendem a não se relacionar com entidades populares, mesmo que espacialmente próximas. Este resultado indica que as desigualdades costumam se reproduzir nos processos associativos que conformam a sociedade civil brasileira, tema pouco abordado pela literatura dedicada ao tema.Palavras-chave: associativismo; sociedade civil; desigualdade; distância social; Porto Alegre. Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyze how the great inequalities of Brazilian society affects on the conformation of associational life in the big cities, based on a empirical research with an Neighborhood Association of a traditional middle-class neighborhood of Porto Alegre. From the study of relations and the action of this entity, we can see a high degree of segmentation of the social fabric of the city as a result of the marked structural and relational distances between its residents. Because of this segmentation, the associations of middle and upper classes tend to establish links and develop actions with actors who share similar positions in social space. At the same time, they do not tend to relate to popular organizations, even though spatially close. These results indicate that inequalities tend to reproduce in the associative processes that make up the Brazilian civil society, a subject rarely discussed in the literature on the topic.Keywords: association; civil society; inequality; social distance; Porto Alegre.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 92-106
Author(s):  
Chloé Sudduth

Bars have long been recognized as the intersection of a city’s culture and commerce. They provide opportunities for social interaction, contain a multitude of local memories, and serve as sources of identity. The American Revolution, the Whiskey Rebellion, and the Stonewall riots all developed out of local bars. So, what does it mean when the character of bars in a neighborhood begins to change? How do these changes to commercial spaces affect the social fabric of a city? Using a combination of ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, I explore the upscaling of the downtown bar scene in Geneva, New York to unpack what these commercial changes mean for the disparate groups that frequent the downtown space. I argue that instead of simply diversifying the types of businesses available to consumers in Geneva, this development has altered the very character and social fabric of downtown. Rather than creating an integrated and cohesive nightlife scene in which disparate groups come together in shared space and time, this development manifests in the fragmentation of the downtown scene in new ways that increase the segregation of people in social space.


1998 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-18
Author(s):  
Kathryn C. Oleson ◽  
Robert M. Arkin
Keyword(s):  

Professare ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Claudemir Aparecido Lopes

<p class="resumoabstract">O professor Giorgio Agamben tem elaborado críticas à engenhosa estrutura política ocidental moderna. Avalia os mecanismos de controle estatal, nos quais os denomina ‘dispositivos’, cuja força está na imbricação às normas jurídico-teológicas com seus similares ritos e liturgias. Suas ocorrências e legitimidade preponderam no tecido social cuja organização sistêmica se põe quase como elemento natural e não cultural. O texto tem por objetivo explorar a concepção política de Agamben sobre a política contemporânea, especialmente considerando seu livro: ‘Estado de Exceção’, cuja investigação apresenta a possibilidade de atenuação dos direitos de cidadania e o enfraquecimento da prática da liberdade política e o processo de relação dos indivíduos no meio social através da redução das subjetividades ‘autênticas’. Analisamos ainda a transferência do mundo sacro elaborado pelos teólogos católicos presente na modernidade à política cuja democracia moderna faz do homem (sujeito) tornar-se objeto do poder político. Faz também, reflexão dos conceitos de subjetivação e dessubjetivação relacionando-os às implicações políticas do homem moderno. A pesquisa é bibliográfica com ênfase na análise dos conceitos elaborados por Agamben, especialmente quanto ao ‘dispositivo’. Conclui que o indivíduo ocidental, de modo geral, sofre o processo de dessubjetivação e está ‘nu’, indefeso e alienado politicamente. Ele precisa voltar-se ao processo de ‘profanação’ dos dispositivos para libertar-se das vinculações orientadoras que forçosamente o descaracteriza enquanto ser ativo e livre.</p><p class="resumoabstract"><strong>Palavras-chave</strong>: Política. Liberdade. Subjetivação.</p><h3>ABSTRACT</h3><p class="resumoabstract">Professor Giorgio Agamben has been criticizing the ingenious modern Western political structure. It evaluates the mechanisms of state control, in which it calls them 'devices', whose strength lies in the overlap with legal-theological norms with their similar rites and liturgies. Its occurrences and legitimacy preponderate in the social fabric whose systemic organization is almost as a natural and not a cultural element. The text aims to explore Agamben's political conception of contemporary politics, especially considering his book 'State of Exception', whose research presents the possibility of attenuating citizenship rights and weakening the practice of political freedom and the individuals in the social environment through the reduction of 'authentic' subjectivities. We also analyze the transfer of the sacred world elaborated by the Catholic theologians present in the modernity to the politics whose modern democracy makes of the man - subject - to become object of the political power. It also reflects on the concepts of subjectivation and desubjectivation, relating them to the political implications of modern man. The research is bibliographical with emphasis in the analysis of the concepts elaborated by Agamben, especially with regard to the 'device'. He concludes that the Western individual, in general, suffers the process of desubjectivation and is 'naked', defenseless and politically alienated. He must turn to the process of 'desecration' of devices to free himself from the guiding bindings that forcibly demeanes him while being active and free.</p><p class="resumoabstract"><strong>Keywords</strong>: Politics. Freedom. Subjectivity. </p><p> </p>


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