Biocultural Strategies for Measuring Psychosocial Stress Outcomes in Field-based Research

Field Methods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 315-334
Author(s):  
Alexandra Brewis ◽  
Barbara A. Piperata ◽  
H. J. François Dengah ◽  
William W. Dressler ◽  
Melissa A. Liebert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Psychosocial Stress ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
Human Biology ◽  
Field Collection ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
The Social ◽  
Process And Outcome ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Political Structures

The goal of assessing psychosocial stress as a process and outcome in naturalistic (i.e., field) settings is applicable across the social, biological, and health sciences. Meaningful measurement of biology-in-context is, however, far from simple or straightforward. In this brief methods review, we introduce theoretical framings, methodological conventions, and ethical concerns around field-collection of markers of psychosocial stress that have emerged from 50 years of research at the intersection of anthropology and human biology. Highlighting measures of psychosocial stress outcomes most often used in biocultural studies, we identify the circumstances under which varied measures are most appropriately applied and provide examples of the types of cutting-edge research questions these measures can address. We explain that field-based psychosocial stress measures embedded in different body systems are neither equivalent nor interchangeable, but this recognition strengthens the study of stress as always simultaneously cultural and biological, situated in local ecologies, social–political structures, and time.

Globalization, Citizenship, and Subjectivity in Self Construction

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 135-146
Author(s):  
Namita Poudel
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Field ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Fields ◽  
Research Questions

One of the profound questions that troubled many philosophers is– “Who am I?” where do I come from? ‘Why am I, where I am? Or “How I see myself?” and maybe more technically -What is my subjectivity? How my subjectivity is formed and transformed? My attempt, in this paper, is to look at “I”, and see how it got shaped. To understand self, this paper tries to show, how subjectivity got transformed or persisted over five generations with changing social structure and institutions. In other words, I am trying to explore self-identity. I have analyzed changing subjectivity patterns of family, and its connection with globalization. Moreover, the research tries to show the role of the Meta field in search of subjectivity based on the following research questions; how my ancestor’s subjectivity changed with social fields? Which power forced them to change their citizenship? And how my identity is shaped within the metafield? The methodology of my study is qualitative. Faced to face interview is taken with the oldest member of family and relatives. The finding of my research is the subjectivity of Namita Poudel (Me) is shaped by the meta field, my position, and practices in the social field.

scholarly journals Twitter in Marketing Practice of the Religious Media. An Empirical Study on Catholic Weeklies in Poland

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 421
Author(s):  
Iwona Leonowicz-Bukała ◽  
Andrzej Adamski ◽  
Anna Jupowicz-Ginalska
Keyword(s):  
Communication Channel ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Marketing Practice ◽  
Religious Media ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Twitter Account ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Marketing Tool

This article presents the partial conclusion of the research project devoted to marketing activity of Polish Catholic opinion-forming weeklies on the social media platforms. The main aim of this article is to present the results of the study on the use of Twitter as a marketing tool by Polish nationwide Catholic opinion-forming weeklies. The basic research questions concerned the extent of utilizing the platform by the magazines’ editors to create and distribute the content of their media product, maintain and develop brand communication and self-promotion. The case studies and the content analysis of the accounts of the three magazines—Gość Niedzielny, Tygodnik Katolicki Niedziela and Przewodnik Katolicki—show that there are three different ways in how the editors of the magazines understand the role of the Twitter account of the title they represent—as an ‘active communicator’, ‘active communicator and community supporter’ or ‘community supporter’. The conclusions show that the studied media fairly efficiently use the visual and distributional potential of the platform as well as some of its features, at the same time missing the chance to build a brand-loyal community. They also limit the role of Twitter to that of a supplement for the main communication channel, which is the printed weekly and its website.

scholarly journals Big Data: Some Ethical Concerns for the Social Sciences

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Michael Weinhardt
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Online Behavior ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
State Actors

While big data (BD) has been around for a while now, the social sciences have been comparatively cautious in its adoption for research purposes. This article briefly discusses the scope and variety of BD, and its research potential and ethical implications for the social sciences and sociology, which derive from these characteristics. For example, BD allows for the analysis of actual (online) behavior and the analysis of networks on a grand scale. The sheer volume and variety of data allow for the detection of rare patterns and behaviors that would otherwise go unnoticed. However, there are also a range of ethical issues of BD that need consideration. These entail, amongst others, the imperative for documentation and dissemination of methods, data, and results, the problems of anonymization and re-identification, and the questions surrounding the ability of stakeholders in big data research and institutionalized bodies to handle ethical issues. There are also grave risks involved in the (mis)use of BD, as it holds great value for companies, criminals, and state actors alike. The article concludes that BD holds great potential for the social sciences, but that there are still a range of practical and ethical issues that need addressing.

scholarly journals Pursuing the SDG11 Targets: The Role of the Sustainability Protocols

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3858
Author(s):  
Francesca Abastante ◽  
Isabella M. Lami ◽  
Marika Gaballo
Keyword(s):  
Direct Relationship ◽  
Evaluation Criteria ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
Sustainable Cities ◽  
Sustainable Development Goal ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
The One

This paper is built on the following research questions: (i) What are the direct/indirect relationships between Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG11) and sustainability protocols? (ii) Could the sustainability protocols constitute a solution towards the achievement of SDG11? We underline that, on the one hand, the SDGs are guidelines to support the development of sustainable policies and thus address all elements that may affect them, and on the other hand, sustainability protocols are assessment tools to promote sustainability-conscious design while remaining focused on the built environment. In the Italian regulatory context, the paper highlights how this difference in terms of focus and scale means that they only overlap and mutually reinforce each other with regard to certain aspects, more related to energy and air pollution issues and less to the social aspects of sustainability. Even if there is not always a direct relationship between the evaluation criteria of the protocols and the indicators of SDG11, it is possible to conclude that the sustainability protocols can facilitate the achievement of the SDG11 targets, acting as a key for the implementation of sustainable cities and helping in structuring the process leading to sustainability in a broader framework.

The Social Value of Research and Health Research Priority-Setting

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.M. Wenner
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Research ◽  
Priority Setting ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Social Value ◽  
Research Priority ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Health Research Priority Setting

This chapter discusses the social value requirement in clinical research and its intersection with health research priority-setting. The social value requirement states that clinical research involving human subjects is only ethical if it has the potential to produce socially valuable knowledge. The chapter discusses various ways to specify both the justification for and the content of the social value requirement. It goes on to consider the implications of various accounts of the content and justification for the requirement for the ethics of health research priority-setting, showing that while some accounts of the requirement are largely silent with respect to how research questions should be prioritized, others entail robust obligations to prioritize research that might benefit particular groups. The chapter also briefly examines potential arguments for something like a social value requirement in other kinds of research, specifically social scientific research.

Still Life: Notes on Barbara Loden's "Wanda" (1970)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Backman Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Still Life ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Structures

There is indeed a "miracle" in the 1970 film Wanda. This film has survived, despite decades of neglect, to emerge into the fuliginous light of an era that may just be ready to strain at grasping its harsh and brutal truths -- truths that reveal the imbrication of the psychic in the social and the experiential in political structures. Barbara Loden's film dares to suggest that the social and ethical functions of art should not necessarily be redemptive – that salvation is a cheap and spurious form of consolation that few can afford in this world. This film, made by a woman who knew all too well what it means to be defined through and by her material circumstances (and her relationships to men), and that is so relentlessly ferocious in its refusal to assuage and comfort the viewer, has always been a form of future feminism. Wanda does not brook the comforts of positivity, of aspiration, or even the luxury of selfhood. This film, Still Life contends, is so radical in its feminist-anti-capitalist politics of refusal that we are still struggling to keep up with it. It delineates precisely how the personal is political and why this matters now more than ever. Wanda, a film about a woman who refuses to be saved or to save herself, who lacks the means and energy to alter anything in her life, who lives in a permanent state of blockage, impasse and failure is, as this publication suggests, the film of our contemporary moment.

scholarly journals The production of prestige: An entrepreneurial Viagra

2000 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alistair R. Anderson ◽  
Sarah L. Jack
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Explanatory Variable ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activity ◽  
Entrepreneurial Process ◽  
Ethnographic Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Process And Outcome ◽  
The Uk

The social context plays a role in entrepreneurial activity: it shapes perceptions, evaluations and the recognition of opportunity. But one aspect of context is relationships, where it has been found that the search for status provides a stimulus that not only promotes businesses, but affects how they are run. An ethnographic approach was used to examine the activities of 60 rural entrepreneurs in the UK, and six cases are presented to demonstrate the operation of the production of prestige. Conspicuous production provides a heuristic explanatory variable of process and outcome, and enriches our understanding of the entrepreneurial process.

scholarly journals Rethinking Materiality, Memory and Identity

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracy Ireland ◽  
Jane Lydon
Keyword(s):  
Social Worlds ◽  
Introductory Article ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Structures

This introductory article  considers and questions exactly how materials and people constitute social worlds and relationships which sustain identity and memory and, in turn, the social and political structures or norms that these attachments invest in, stabilise and maintain.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Gatrell ◽  
Esther Dermott
Keyword(s):  
Social Research ◽  
Visual Methods ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Research Relationships ◽  
The Impact

This introductory chapter explains how different research questions and methods can contribute to better understanding of contemporary fathers, fatherhood, and fathering. Given the enhanced methodological diversity and increased sophistication of methods across the social sciences, embracing qualitative and quantitative approaches, traditional (such as interviewing) and contemporary approaches (such as netnography and visual methods), and general ‘handbooks’ offering basic introductions to social research have limited use for advanced researchers and students. The book aims to link detailed concerns about conducting individual projects to wider methodological debates concerning the value of different forms and sources of data, the negotiation of research relationships, and the impact of research findings on participants, policy makers, employers, and a wider public.

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