scholarly journals Towards a better integration of social sciences in arbovirus research and decision-making: an experience from scientific collaboration between Cuban and Quebec institutions

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 157-163
Author(s):  
Mabel Carabali ◽  
Dennis Pérez ◽  
Stephanie Degroote ◽  
Alicia Reyes ◽  
Jay S. Kaufman ◽  
...  

In 2017, the Institute of Tropical Medicine Pedro Kourí, University of Montreal Public Health Research Institute, and McGill University joined efforts to provide scenarios for scientific exchange and knowledge dissemination about the social science contribution on arboviral research. This commentary describes the scientific collaboration between Cuban and Canadian (Quebec) institutions, illustrating the need and opportunities to facilitate research and effective decision-making processes for arboviral prevention and control, going beyond traditional biomedical aspects. We organized a set of scientific activities within three international events conducted in Cuba between 2017 and 2018. Given the collaborating institutions’ expertise and the knowledge gaps in arboviral research, we selected three main thematic areas: social determinants and equity, community-based interventions and use of evidence for decision-making. The partnership shows that interdisciplinary collaboration and the use and integration of quantitative and qualitative methods from the social sciences is essential to face the current challenges in arbovirus research.

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-192
Author(s):  
Sonja Rinofner-Kreidl

Autonomy is associated with intellectual self-preservation and self-determination. Shame, on the contrary, bears a loss of approval, self-esteem and control. Being afflicted with shame, we suffer from social dependencies that by no means have been freely chosen. Moreover, undergoing various experiences of shame, our power of reflection turns out to be severly limited owing to emotional embarrassment. In both ways, shame seems to be bound to heteronomy. This situation strongly calls for conceptual clarification. For this purpose, we introduce a threestage model of self-determination which comprises i) autonomy as capability of decision-making relating to given sets of choices, ii) self-commitment in terms of setting and harmonizing goals, and iii) self-realization in compliance with some range of persistently approved goals. Accordingly, the presuppositions and distinctive marks of shame-experiences are made explicit. Within this framework, we explore the intricate relation between autonomy and shame by focusing on two questions: on what conditions could conventional behavior be considered as self-determined? How should one characterize the varying roles of actors that are involved in typical cases of shame-experiences? In this connection, we advance the thesis that the social dynamics of shame turns into ambiguous positions relating to motivation, intentional content,and actors’ roles.


Author(s):  
Irina A. Iles ◽  
Xiaoli Nan

Counterfactual thinking is the process of mentally undoing the outcome of an event by imagining alternate antecedent states. For example, one might think that if they had given up smoking earlier, their health would be better. Counterfactuals are more frequent following negative events than positive events. Counterfactuals have both aversive and beneficial consequences for the individual. On the one hand, individuals who engage in counterfactual thinking experience negative affect and are prone to biased judgment and decision making. On the other hand, counterfactuals serve a preparative function, and they help people reach their goals in the future by suggesting effective behavioral alternatives. Counterfactual thoughts have been found to influence an array of cognitive processes. Engaging in counterfactual thinking motivates careful, in-depth information processing, increases perceptions of self-efficacy and control, influences attitudes toward social matters, with consequences for behavioral intentions and subsequent behaviors. Although it is a heavily studied matter in some domains of the social sciences (e.g., psychology, political sciences, decision making), counterfactual thinking has received less attention in the communication discipline. Findings from the few studies conducted in communication suggest that counterfactual thinking is a promising message design strategy in risk and health contexts. Still, research in this area is critically needed, and it represents an opportunity to expand our knowledge.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. e002672
Author(s):  
Myles Leslie ◽  
Raad Fadaak ◽  
Jan Davies ◽  
Johanna Blaak ◽  
PG Forest ◽  
...  

This paper outlines the rapid integration of social scientists into a Canadian province’s COVID-19 response. We describe the motivating theory, deployment and initial outcomes of our team of Organisational Sociologist ethnographers, Human Factors experts and Infection Prevention and Control clinicians focused on understanding and improving Alberta’s responsiveness to the pandemic. Specifically, that interdisciplinary team is working alongside acute and primary care personnel, as well as public health leaders to deliver ‘situated interventions’ that flow from studying communications, interpretations and implementations across responding organisations. Acting in real time, the team is providing critical insights on policy communication and implementation to targeted members of the health system. Using our rapid and ongoing deployment as a case study of social science techniques applied to a pandemic, we describe how other health systems might leverage social science to improve their preparations and communications.


Africa ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 289-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvin Magid

Opening ParagraphThe notion that rural political life is essentially traditional tribal in Africa and therefore scarcely relevant to modern decision-making at higher echelons of government has had a commanding influence in African studies. Associated with this viewpoint has been a tacit division of labour in the social sciences which emphasizes the pre-eminence of anthropology in the tribal domain and the pre-occupation of political science with macropolitics especially in the urban sphere. Happily, a younger generation of political scientists has emerged in recent years to challenge an essentially artificial arrangement.


2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiago Rodrigo Marçal Murakami ◽  
Sibele Fausto ◽  
Ronaldo Ferreira de Araújo

RESUMO A falta de indexação dos títulos de revistas científicas de Ciências Humanas e Sociais em bases de dados comerciais restringe a investigação sobre seu impacto. O Acesso Aberto, ferramentas como o Google Scholar (GS) e aplicativos de processamento de dados permitem a busca e a recuperação de citações de artigos, sinalizando uma alternativa para os estudos sobre o impacto da produção científica publicada nessas áreas. Este estudo apresenta um projeto piloto de compartilhamento de dados de citações de periódicos para a investigação colaborativa por parte da comunidade de cientometria brasileira com o objetivo de incentivar uma maior utilização do GS para fins bibliométricos.Palavras-chave: Dados de Citação; Google Acadêmico; Periódicos Científicos; Colaboração.ABSTRACT The lack of indexing for titles of scientific journals in the Social Sciences and Humanities in commercial databases makes it difficult to carry out an investigation on their impact. Open Access and tools such as Google Scholar (GS) and software for data processing allow search and the recovery of article citations, which can be regarded as an alternative for the studies on the impact of scientific production published in these areas. This study presents a pilot project for sharing citation data from Brazilian journals for further collaborative research by the national scientometrics community with the aim of encouraging greater use of GS for bibliometric purposes.Keywords: Citation Data; Google Scholar; Sharing; Journals; Scientific Collaboration.


Author(s):  
Marsha Rosengarten

Although the body is fundamental to observation and feeling, its experience of infection is regarded by the biomedical sciences and, for the most part, the social sciences as relatively obtuse. The body is situated as a mere object of inquiry, as if its intricate and highly complex dynamics indicate that it is no more than an imperfect animated machine and, concomitantly, infection simply a change to its normative mechanisms. In this Position Piece, I ask: what might be afforded to the problematic diagnosis of communicable infection and to global health strategies of containment if the body were appreciated as an active participant in diagnoses? To do so, I take up the ‘pluralist panpsychist’ proposition that bodies think. Counter to the view that thinking is the preserve of the human mind and that value is an ‘after’ ascribed to a given fact or situation, I experiment with the idea that the body’s sensory awareness can be thought as a creative source of immanent values. Drawing on a series of empirical examples primarily focused on the perceived novelty of COVID-19, I offer a preliminary sketch of how revaluing the body as involved in decision-making and novelty might enrich the scope of biomedical and social diagnoses.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Jan-Erik Lane

Climate and earth scientists now predicting abrupt climate change never ask the social sciences whether large scale policy-making and international coordination, like the COP21 project, is all feasible. The message from policy analysis is that rational decision-making is a myth, as there is bound to be mistakes, confusion and opportunism in policy implementation. Is it better for each state to develop its own climate policy – the resilience option? However, when looking at energy planning by core states, one finds little of decarbonisation. Only Uruguay has good preparation for global warming. Abrupt climate change threatens numerous tipping points towards Hawking irreversibility. But the social sciences are skeptical about large scale policy implementation based upon comprehensively rational decision-making.


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