scholarly journals Developing Improvisation Skills: The Influence of Individual Orientations

2020 ◽  
pp. 000183922097569
Author(s):  
Pier Vittorio Mannucci ◽  
Davide C. Orazi ◽  
Kristine de Valck
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Formal Training ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Stage Process ◽  
Development Trajectories ◽  
Live Action ◽  
Over Time

The growing relevance of improvisation for successful organizing calls for a better understanding of how individuals develop improvisation skills. While research has investigated the role of training and simulations, little is known about how individuals develop improvisation skills when formal training is not an option and how individual-level factors shape development trajectories. We explore these issues in a longitudinal qualitative analysis of live action role-playing. Our findings reveal a three-stage process of improvisation development shaped by the presence of task and social structures, which act as both constraints and resources. Moreover, our findings illuminate how collaborative and competitive orientations shape whether improvisers perceive these structures as a resource that they need to nurture and renew (i.e., collaborative) or to seize and exploit (i.e., competitive). We also show that individual orientations are not always enduring but can change over time, engendering four types of improvisation development trajectories. Our work provides a longitudinal account of how individual orientations shape the process of improvisation development. In so doing, we also explain why individuals who are skilled improvisers do not necessarily improvise effectively as a collective, and we reconcile different conceptualizations of improvisation.

scholarly journals From ranking algorithms to ‘ranking cultures’

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard Rieder ◽  
Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández ◽  
Òscar Coromina
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Causal Explanation ◽  
Search Results ◽  
Ranking Algorithms ◽  
Online Platforms ◽  
Change Metrics ◽  
Empirical Approaches ◽  
Over Time

Algorithms, as constitutive elements of online platforms, are increasingly shaping everyday sociability. Developing suitable empirical approaches to render them accountable and to study their social power has become a prominent scholarly concern. This article proposes an approach to examine what an algorithm does, not only to move closer to understanding how it works, but also to investigate broader forms of agency involved. To do this, we examine YouTube’s search results ranking over time in the context of seven sociocultural issues. Through a combination of rank visualizations, computational change metrics and qualitative analysis, we study search ranking as the distributed accomplishment of ‘ranking cultures’. First, we identify three forms of ordering over time – stable, ‘newsy’ and mixed rank morphologies. Second, we observe that rankings cannot be easily linked back to popularity metrics, which highlights the role of platform features such as channel subscriptions in processes of visibility distribution. Third, we find that the contents appearing in the top 20 results are heavily influenced by both issue and platform vernaculars. YouTube-native content, which often thrives on controversy and dissent, systematically beats out mainstream actors in terms of exposure. We close by arguing that ranking cultures are embedded in the meshes of mutually constitutive agencies that frustrate our attempts at causal explanation and are better served by strategies of ‘descriptive assemblage’.

scholarly journals ‘The enemy within’: Campaign attention and motivated reasoning in voter perceptions of intra-party conflict

2020 ◽  
pp. 135406882090640
Author(s):  
Carolina Plescia ◽  
Sylvia Kritzinger ◽  
Jakob-Moritz Eberl
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Motivated Reasoning ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Party Strategies ◽  
Voter Perceptions ◽  
Broad Interest ◽  
Over Time

In spite of broad interest in internal party dynamics, with previous literature relatedly demonstrating that voters are not oblivious to party infighting, very little attention has been paid to the antecedents of voter perceptions of intra-party conflict. This article addresses this research deficit with the support of empirical evidence gathered over the course of the 2017 Austrian national election campaign. The study examines variations in perceived intra-party conflict over time, both across parties and within the same party. We find that although voter perceptions largely mirror actual distinctions in intra-party fighting, conspicuous individual-level variations can also be identified owing to attention to the election campaign and motivated reasoning in information processing. These results have important consequences for our understanding of voter perceptions of intra-party conflict and the role of election campaigns, with potential implications for party strategies during election campaigns.

The Contrasting Effects of Education on Fertility over Time Casalguidi, 1819–1960

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Matteo Manfredini ◽  
Marco Breschi ◽  
Alessio Fornasin
Keyword(s):  
Birth Control ◽  
Demographic Transition ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Control Methods ◽  
Reproductive Behaviors ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Transitional Phase ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Education has been frequently claimed to shape demographic outcomes. Mortality, fertility, and nuptiality have all been attested to be affected to some extent by education attainment. This article investigates the effects of education on fertility over time in a rural Italian community once controlled for potential confounders. Using individual-level data drawn from various sources, the study analyzes the role of education in shaping reproductive behaviors not only during the demographic transition (1890–1960) but also in the pretransitional period (1819–59). The results highlight the contrasting effects of literacy on fertility, which passed from a positive association in the ancien régime to a negative one in the transitional phase. Educated couples were therefore forerunners in the process of fertility decline because they were not only in the position to be the most pressed to control reproduction but also because they were likely aware of reproductive mechanisms, had the knowledge of more effective birth-control methods, had the economic possibility to get them, and had the necessary capacity to use them.

scholarly journals Retrospective economic judgments predict individual-level changes in vote preference in the US

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 272-289
Author(s):  
Hui Bai ◽  
Christopher M. Federico
Keyword(s):  
Economic Voting ◽  
Reciprocal Effects ◽  
Temporal Dimension ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Political Preferences ◽  
The Us ◽  
Vote Preference ◽  
Level Shifts ◽  
Over Time

While many studies have investigated what predicts citizens’ vote preferences, less is known about what predicts change in citizens’ vote preferences over time. This paper focuses on the role of judgments about national economy in the recent past (i.e., “sociotropic economic retrospections”). Two longitudinal studies show that sociotropic economic retrospections (along with partisanship, ideology, and whether incumbent is running for re-election) at a given time point predict within-person changes in vote choice over time. Furthermore, cross-lagged panel analyses found that sociotropic economic retrospections and political preferences may have reciprocal effects on each other. Together, these results illustrate the temporal dimension of economic voting by suggesting that sociotropic economic retrospections not only predict votes at single points in time, but also individual-level shifts in vote preference over time. As such, the association between sociotropic economic retrospections and vote preference is more dynamic than past literature suggests.

scholarly journals Making a Microaggression: Using Big Data and Qualitative Analysis to Map the Reproduction and Disruption of Microaggressions through Social Media

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 205630512097571
Author(s):  
Rob Eschmann ◽  
Jacob Groshek ◽  
Rachel Chanderdatt ◽  
Khea Chang ◽  
Maysa Whyte
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Racial Microaggressions ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Online Social Media ◽  
Common Response ◽  
Drastic Increase ◽  
Purposive Sample ◽  
Over Time

Racial microaggressions are defined as subtle racial slights that can be offensive or hurtful. One of the defining characteristics of racial microaggressions is how difficult they can be to respond to, and the literature reports that not responding may be the most common response to microaggressions. This study addresses a vital gap in the existing literature by examining the extent to which the silence that characterizes face-to-face experiences with microaggressions extends into online social media spaces. Drawing on a dataset of 254,964 tweets over an 8-year period, we present and examine trends in the usage of the term “microaggressions” over time. Furthermore, we then generate a purposive sample of 1,038 of the most influential tweets to explore discussions and content themes through an in-depth qualitative analysis of these messages. Here, we find both a drastic increase in the usage of the term microaggression on Twitter over time and an intense contestation over its meaning and repercussions for both individuals and society. Implications of these findings in understanding the role of online social media discourse in challenging or reproducing hegemonic racial structures is discussed.

scholarly journals The Role of Engineers in Harmonising Human Values for AI Systems Design

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Umbrello
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Opportunity Cost ◽  
Systems Design ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Human Values ◽  
Value Sensitive Design ◽  
Systems Thinking Approach ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Artificial Intelligence Systems

Abstract Most engineers work within social structures governing and governed by a set of values that primarily emphasise economic concerns. The majority of innovations derive from these loci. Given the effects of these innovations on various communities, it is imperative that the values they embody are aligned with those societies. Like other transformative technologies, artificial intelligence systems can be designed by a single organisation but be diffused globally, demonstrating impacts over time. This paper argues that in order to design for this broad stakeholder group, engineers must adopt a systems thinking approach that allows them to understand the sociotechnicity of artificial intelligence systems across sociocultural domains. It claims that value sensitive design, and envisioning cards in particular, provides a solid first step towards helping designers harmonise human values, understood across spatiotemporal boundaries, with economic values, rather than the former coming at the opportunity cost of the latter.

scholarly journals The Persistence of Residential Segregation by Race, 1940 to 2010: The Role of Federal Housing Policy

2020 ◽  
pp. 104438942092346
Author(s):  
Mimi Abramovitz ◽  
Richard J. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Housing Policy ◽  
Residential Segregation ◽  
Black Population ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
State Expansion ◽  
Federal Housing ◽  
Isolation Index ◽  
Over Time

Has public policy shaped the persistence of residential segregation by race over time? Social Structures of Accumulation (SSA) theory, which explains major shifts in policy paradigms as a response to an economic crisis informs our analysis. We compare federal housing policy across two SSAs: the Keynesian period (1940–1970) characterized by welfare state expansion and the neoliberal period (1970–2010) marked by its contraction. Using the isolation index (a segregation measure), we track changes in the 20 Great Migration cities with the highest Southern-born Black population. Segregation rose steadily from 1940 to 1970s, plateaued at high levels from 1970 to 2010, but remained higher in 2010 than in 1940. Historical policy analysis reveals that regardless of the period, federal housing policy actively promoted residential segregation and underscores the urgency for social workers to mobilize for policy change.

Prospects for the use of modern technologies to increase student involvement

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-33
Author(s):  
Iu. V. Amelina ◽  
R. V. Amelin
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
State University ◽  
Role Playing Games ◽  
It Education ◽  
Interaction Plot ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Live Action

The article discusses the prospects of role-playing games in the educational process to increase students’ motivation and involvement, as well as the possibility of modern information technologies (primarily social networks) for constructing innovative forms of such games. The author’s format of the live-action role-playing game is presented. It was developed and tested at the Saratov State University. It involves the integration of numerous educational tasks into a single plot, within which each participant plays a role and communicates with other participants to complete tasks. The main interaction, plot development and group activities occur in dialogs, conversations and groups of social networks. This approach has shown its viability in teaching legal disciplines, and also has prospects for use in IT education.

Personality change and environmental concerns

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher James Hopwood ◽  
Ted Schwaba ◽  
Wiebke Bleidorn
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Personality Change ◽  
Environmental Concerns ◽  
Big Five Personality ◽  
German Population ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Sustainable Behavior ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Over Time

Personal concerns about climate change and the environment are a powerful motivator of sustainable behavior. People’s level of concern varies as a function of a variety of social and individual factors. Using data from 58,748 participants from a nationally representative German sample, we tested preregistered hypotheses about factors that impact concerns about the environment over time. We found that environmental concerns increased modestly from 2009-2017 in the German population. However, individuals in middle adulthood tended to be more concerned and showed more consistent increases in concern over time than younger or older people. Consistent with previous research, Big Five personality traits were correlated with environmental concerns. We present novel evidence that increases in concern were related to increases in the personality traits neuroticism and openness to experience. Indeed, changes in openness explained roughly 50% of the variance in changes in environmental concerns. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the individual level factors associated with changes in environmental concerns over time, towards the promotion of more sustainable behavior at the individual level.

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