scholarly journals Social Dynamics of Expectations and Expertise: AI in Digital Humanitarian Innovation

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 591
Author(s):  
Guillaume Dandurand ◽  
François Claveau ◽  
Jean-François Dubé ◽  
Florence Millerand
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Theoretical Contribution ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
Sociology Of Expectations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Humanitarian Organization

Public discourse typically blurs the boundary between what artificial intelligence (AI) actually achieves and what it could accomplish in the future. The sociology of expectations teaches us that such elisions play a performative role: they encourage heterogeneous actors to partake, at various levels, in innovation activities. This article explores how optimistic expectations for AI concretely motivate and mobilize actors, how much heterogeneity hides behind the seeming congruence of optimistic visions, and how the expected technological future is in fact difficult to enact as planned. Our main theoretical contribution is to examine the role of heterogeneous expertises in shaping the social dynamics of expectations, thereby connecting the sociology of expectations with the study of expertise and experience. In our case study of a humanitarian organization, we deploy this theoretical contribution to illustrate how heterogeneous specialists negotiate the realization of contending visions of “digital humanitarianism.”

The social politics of dispossession: Informal institutions and land expropriation in China

Urban Studies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (16) ◽  
pp. 3331-3346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karita Kan
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Informal Institutions ◽  
Economic Aspects ◽  
Market Mechanisms ◽  
Land Expropriation ◽  
Land Dispossession ◽  
The Social ◽  
Land Control

Extant studies on land dispossession often focus on its economic and extra-economic aspects, with respective emphasis on the operation of market mechanisms and the deployment of state-led coercion in bringing about the separation of households from their land. This article draws attention to the under-examined role of informal institutions in the politics of dispossession. Social organisations such as lineages and clans pervade grassroots societies and are central to land control and configurations of property rights. In China, the reconsolidation of lineages as shareholding corporations that develop real estate and operate land transfers has rendered them prominent actors in the politics of land and urbanisation. Drawing on an empirical case study, this article argues that informal institutions play a crucial role in mediating both the economic and extra-economic processes of dispossession. It further shows how, by providing the networks necessary for collective mobilisation and supplying the normative framework through which rightful shares in land are claimed, social organisations are at the same time instrumental in the organisation of anti-dispossession struggles. By unravelling the social dynamics that underlie land expropriation, this article offers a nuanced perspective to the politics of dispossession that goes beyond narratives of state-led coercion and market compulsion.

Digital sets: power and subjectivity in the era of new media

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-36
Author(s):  
Artem Feigelman
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Antonio Negri ◽  
Digital Footprints

This paper is a reply to Evgeniy Maslanov’s article “Challenges of Digitalization for Technogenic Civilization”. Emphasizing the total impact of digitalization on modern society, the author tends to agree with E. Maslanov that at the moment human existence is proceeding in a hybrid mode, for which the “real-virtual” dichotomy seems irrelevant. Being in this mode, a person leaves a digital footprint on the network, which forms her or his digital identity. The latter turns out to be “transparent”, vulnerable to instrumental influence from outside. Digital footprints are totalized into gigantic amounts of big data that can be used for social manipulation, as evidenced by the Cambridge Analytica case study. The manipulative activity of Cambridge Analytica fits into the context of the post-truth policy, which tends to ignore the facts in favor of false information that brings pragmatic benefits to the subject of the statement. This article argues that the complexity of social dynamics characteristic of the digital age is balanced by new means of description and analysis that enable us to better understand and navigate modernity. Nevertheless, a total description and thus stabilization of social reality seems impossible, given its advantageously network nature. The flip side of digitalization includes increased control within labor relations, blurring the boundaries between work and home as blurring the distinction between the “real” and the virtual. Along with it, the digital space is becoming a space of emancipation, where individuals-singularities form sets freed from violent unity (in the terms of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri). The multitudes unfold their subjectivity in opposition to the social system, to which they oppose networked col-lective action and solidarity. The article concludes about the dialectical role of digitalization, which can serve as both a means of control and a means of emancipation. Thus, the challenges of digitalization seem not so much a technological call as a social one.

Endangered Butterflies and their Non-Native Host Plants: Examining Shifting Values of Belonging in Restoration

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Robert M. Anderson ◽  
Amy M. Lambert
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Restoration ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Puget Sound ◽  
A Value ◽  
The Social ◽  
Remote Island ◽  
Scientific Truth ◽  
Native Host

The island marble butterfly (Euchloe ausonides insulanus), thought to be extinct throughout the 20th century until re-discovered on a single remote island in Puget Sound in 1998, has become the focus of a concerted protection effort to prevent its extinction. However, efforts to “restore” island marble habitat conflict with efforts to “restore” the prairie ecosystem where it lives, because of the butterfly’s use of a non-native “weedy” host plant. Through a case study of the island marble project, we examine the practice of ecological restoration as the enactment of particular norms that define which species are understood to belong in the place being restored. We contextualize this case study within ongoing debates over the value of “native” species, indicative of deep-seated uncertainties and anxieties about the role of human intervention to alter or manage landscapes and ecosystems, in the time commonly described as the “Anthropocene.” We interpret the question of “what plants and animals belong in a particular place?” as not a question of scientific truth, but a value-laden construct of environmental management in practice, and we argue for deeper reflexivity on the part of environmental scientists and managers about the social values that inform ecological restoration.

THE ROLE OF LOCAL SOCIAL INSTITUTION IN COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT IN BANDUNG REGENCY, INDONESIA

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Helly Ocktilia
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Style ◽  
Social Institution ◽  
Community Empowerment ◽  
Board Members ◽  
Supportive Leadership ◽  
Community Institutions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Descriptive Method

This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of the existence of the local social organization in conducting community empowerment. The experiment was conducted at Community Empowerment Institution (In Indonesia it is referred to as Lembaga Pemberdayaan Masyarakat/LPM). LPM Cibeunying as one of the local social institution in Bandung regency. Aspects reviewed in the study include the style of leadership, processes, and stages of community empowerment, as well as the LPM network. The research method used is a case study with the descriptive method and qualitative approach. Data collection was conducted against five informants consisting of the Chairman and LPM’s Board members, village officials, and community leaders. The results show that the dominant leadership style is participative, in addition to that, a supportive leadership style and directive leadership style are also used in certain situations. The empowerment process carried out per the stages of the empowerment process is identifying and assessing the potential of the region, problems, and opportunities-chances; arranging a participative activity plan; implementing the activity plan; and monitoring and evaluating the process and results of activities. The social networking of LPM leads to a social network of power in which LPM can influence the behavior of communities and community institutions in utilizing and managing community empowerment programs. From the research, it can be concluded that the model of community empowerment implemented by LPM Cibeunying Village is enabling, empowering, and protecting.

scholarly journals Extending Geodemographics Using Data Primitives: A Review and a Methodological Proposal

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 386
Author(s):  
Jennie Gray ◽  
Lisa Buckner ◽  
Alexis Comber
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Feature Space ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Multiple Time ◽  
Current State ◽  
Cluster Label ◽  
Static Data ◽  
The Social ◽  
Using Data

This paper reviews geodemographic classifications and developments in contemporary classifications. It develops a critique of current approaches and identifiea a number of key limitations. These include the problems associated with the geodemographic cluster label (few cluster members are typical or have the same properties as the cluster centre) and the failure of the static label to describe anything about the underlying neighbourhood processes and dynamics. To address these limitations, this paper proposed a data primitives approach. Data primitives are the fundamental dimensions or measurements that capture the processes of interest. They can be used to describe the current state of an area in a multivariate feature space, and states can be compared over multiple time periods for which data are available, through for example a change vector approach. In this way, emergent social processes, which may be too weak to result in a change in a cluster label, but are nonetheless important signals, can be captured. As states are updated (for example, as new data become available), inferences about different social processes can be made, as well as classification updates if required. State changes can also be used to determine neighbourhood trajectories and to predict or infer future states. A list of data primitives was suggested from a review of the mechanisms driving a number of neighbourhood-level social processes, with the aim of improving the wider understanding of the interaction of complex neighbourhood processes and their effects. A small case study was provided to illustrate the approach. In this way, the methods outlined in this paper suggest a more nuanced approach to geodemographic research, away from a focus on classifications and static data, towards approaches that capture the social dynamics experienced by neighbourhoods.

From converts to cooperation: Protestant internationalism, US missionaries and Indian Christians and ‘Professional’ social work between Boston and Bombay (c. 1920–1950)

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Michael Phillipp Brunner
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
North America ◽  
Social Gospel ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Concerns ◽  
High Phase

Abstract The 1920s and 30s were a high phase of liberal missionary internationalism driven especially by American-led visions of the Social Gospel. As the missionary consensus shifted from proselytization to social concerns, the indigenization of missions and the role of the ‘younger churches’ outside of Europe and North America was brought into focus. This article shows how Protestant internationalism pursued a ‘Christian Sociology’ in dialogue with the field’s academic and professional form. Through the case study of settlement sociology and social work schemes by the American Marathi Mission (AMM) in Bombay, the article highlights the intricacies of applying internationalist visions in the field and asks how they were contested and shaped by local conditions and processes. Challenging a simplistic ‘secularization’ narrative, the article then argues that it was the liberal, anti-imperialist drive of the missionary discourse that eventually facilitated an American ‘professional imperialism’ in the development of secular social work in India. Adding local dynamics to the analysis of an internationalist discourse benefits the understanding of both Protestant internationalism and the genesis of Indian social work and shows the value of an integrated global micro-historical approach.

scholarly journals Using Social Media in Tourist Sentiment Analysis: A Case Study of Andalusia during the Covid-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3836
Author(s):  
David Flores-Ruiz ◽  
Adolfo Elizondo-Salto ◽  
María de la O. Barroso-González
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Sentiment Analysis ◽  
Cost Savings ◽  
Mass Scale ◽  
Tourism Sector ◽  
The Social ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
Media Data

This paper explores the role of social media in tourist sentiment analysis. To do this, it describes previous studies that have carried out tourist sentiment analysis using social media data, before analyzing changes in tourists’ sentiments and behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the case study, which focuses on Andalusia, the changes experienced by the tourism sector in the southern Spanish region as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic are assessed using the Andalusian Tourism Situation Survey (ECTA). This information is then compared with data obtained from a sentiment analysis based on the social network Twitter. On the basis of this comparative analysis, the paper concludes that it is possible to identify and classify tourists’ perceptions using sentiment analysis on a mass scale with the help of statistical software (RStudio and Knime). The sentiment analysis using Twitter data correlates with and is supplemented by information from the ECTA survey, with both analyses showing that tourists placed greater value on safety and preferred to travel individually to nearby, less crowded destinations since the pandemic began. Of the two analytical tools, sentiment analysis can be carried out on social media on a continuous basis and offers cost savings.

Genome Editing or Genome Cutting? Communicating CRISPR in the British and German Press

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-66
Author(s):  
Yoo Yung Lee
Keyword(s):  
Science Communication ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Word Processor ◽  
Public Science ◽  
German Press ◽  
Legal Questions ◽  
British Press ◽  
Legal Frameworks

AbstractIn this paper, I analyze the role of metaphors in public science communication. Specifically, it is a case study of the metaphors for CRISPR/Cas9, a controversial biotechnology that enables scientists to alter the DNA of any organism with unprecedented ease and has raised a number of societal, ethical and legal questions concerning its applications – most notably, on its usage on the human germline. Using a corpus of 600 newspaper articles from the British and German press, I show that there are striking differences in how these two European countries construe CRISPR in public discourse: the British press promotes the image of CRISPR as a word processor that allows scientists to edit the DNA, replacing spelling mistakes with healthy genes, whereas the German press depicts CRISPR as genetic scissors and thereby underlines the risk of mutations after cutting the DNA. I suggest that this contrast reflects differences in the legal frameworks of the respective countries and may influence the attitudes towards emerging biotechnologies among the British and German public.

From ‘People's Struggle’ to ‘This War of Today’: Entanglements of Peace and Conflict in Guinea-Bissau

Africa ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 78 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Padrão Temudo
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Ethnic Conflicts ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
Guinea Bissau ◽  
The Social ◽  
Peace And Conflict ◽  
Urban Elite ◽  
Client Relations ◽  
Partial Consensus

This article aims at contributing to our understanding of violence and warfare in contemporary West Africa by adopting a bi-focal analysis that looks both at power struggles within the urban elite and at the grassroots multi-ethnic setting in southern Guinea-Bissau. I pay close attention to the social dynamics of rural peoples' perspectives, coping strategies and inter-ethnic conflicts. Local conflicts are elucidated as an ongoing process that traverses times of war and peace. Although they are subject to manipulation by urban actors, local conflicts are also a matter of continuous negotiation and partial consensus at the grassroots. In stark contrast to this, the struggles in the ruling group are characterized by an escalating spiral of factionalism, diminishing compromises and elimination of rivals. By analysing the relationship between urban and rural actors and the role of cosmology, the article also aims to shed new light on the multiple shapes patron–client relations can assume in Africa.

Linking Moralisation and Class Identity: The Role of Ressentiment and Respectability in the Social Reaction to ‘Chavs’

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 18-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elias Le Grand
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
Class Identity ◽  
Moral Self ◽  
Social Reaction ◽  
The Social ◽  
Dialectical Process ◽  
White Working Class

This paper aims to link two fields of research which have come to form separate lines of inquiry: the sociology of moralisation and studies on class identity. Expanding on recent papers by Young (2009 , 2011 ) and others, the paper argues that the concepts of ressentiment and respectability can be used to connect moralisation processes and the formation of class identities. This is explored through a case study of the social reaction in Britain to white working-class youths labelled ‘chavs’. It is demonstrated that chavs are constructed through moralising discourses and practices, which have some elements of a moral panic. Moreover, moralisation is performative in constructing class identities: chavs have been cast as a ‘non-respectable’ white working-class ‘folk devil’ against whom ‘respectable’ middle-class and working-class people distinguish and identify themselves as morally righteous. Moralising social reactions are here to an important extent triggered by feelings of ressentiment. This is a dialectical process where respectability and ressentiment are tied, not only to the social control of certain non-respectable working-class others, but also to the moral self-governance of the moralisers.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document