Study on the Social Engagement of the Catholic Laity

2021 ◽  
Vol 214 ◽  
pp. 168-216
Author(s):  
KyuHyun Jung ◽  
Seil Oh
Keyword(s):  
Social Engagement ◽  
The Social

The role of public libraries in the development of social capital in local communities – a theoretical study

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 184-196
Author(s):  
Maja Dorota Wojciechowska
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact

PurposeSocial capital, understood as intangible community values available through a network of connections, is a factor in the development of societies and improving quality of life. It helps to remove economic inequalities and prevent poverty and social exclusion, stimulate social and regional development, civic attitudes and social engagement and build a civic society as well as local and regional identity. Many of these tasks may be implemented by libraries, which, apart from providing access to information, may also offer a number of services associated with social needs. The purpose of this paper is to present the roles and functions that libraries may serve in local communities in terms of assistance, integration and development based on classical social capital theories.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews the classical concepts of social capital in the context of libraries. It analyses the findings of Pierre-Félix Bourdieu, James Coleman, Francis Fukuyama, Robert Putnam, Nan Lin, Ronald Stuart Burt, Wayne Baker and Alejandro Portes. Based on their respective concepts, the paper analyses the role of the contemporary library in the social life of local communities. In particular, it focuses on the possible new functions that public libraries may serve.FindingsA critical review of the concept of social capital revealed certain dependencies between libraries and their neighbourhoods. With new services that respond to the actual social needs, libraries may serve as a keystone, namely they may integrate, animate and engage local communities. This, however, requires a certain approach to be adopted by the personnel and governing authorities as well as infrastructure and tangible resources.Originality/valueThe social engagement of libraries is usually described from the practical perspective (reports on the services provided) or in the context of research on the impact of respective projects on specific groups of users (research reports). A broader approach, based on original social theories, is rarely encountered. The paper draws on classical concepts of social capital and is a contribution to the discussion on possible uses of those concepts based on an analysis of the role of libraries in social life and in strengthening the social capital of local communities.

Lessons Learnt from the Socio-Technical Design of Social TV Services with Elderly

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malek Alaoui ◽  
Myriam Lewkowicz
Keyword(s):  
Elderly People ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Technical Design ◽  
Communication Services ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Living Lab ◽  
Social Tv ◽  
The Social ◽  
At Home

Encouraging elderly people to stay at home as long as possible is associated with a higher risk of social isolation. Nowadays, aging well at home cannot be reduced to the management of physical and cognitive frailties and technologies should also tackle the quality of life of the elderly by fostering their social interactions. However, designing appropriate services and ensuring their adoption remain open questions, to which we try to provide answers at the methodological and instrumental levels. The authors present here a Living Lab approach to design communication services for elderly people at home. They illustrate this approach by describing their participation in a European project aiming at developing and evaluating Social TV services and they conclude with recommendations for the successful socio-technical design of services that foster the social engagement of elderly people.

scholarly journals FELTARBEJDETS FORPLIGTELSER: Deltagelse og kritik blandt sateré-mawé-immigranter i Manaus, Brasilien

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Groes-Green
Keyword(s):  
Social Engagement ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Graphic Data ◽  
The Social

Current studies of human poverty and suffering seem to lack reflexivity on the kinds of alternatives or solutions that might be found in the local context of study. By reference to experiences from fieldwork among indigenous Sateré-Mawé immigrants in Manaus, Brazil it is illustrated how “participation” as an anthropological method is more than a tool for collecting ethno-graphic data. It is a practice like any other, involving social obligations towards our informants and a necessary engagement in the field of study. As an inseparable part of the production of anthropological know-ledge this engagement should be more explicitly addressed and reflected in anthropological writing and in the very idea of the anthropological project. If this engagement is properly reflected and addressed, a constructive anthropological critique might evolve that points to viable solutions to the social problems and sufferings encountered. Re-inscribing “participation” in the anthropological project as fundamental to any knowledge might also remind us that fieldwork, like any other social engagement, is fraught with social obligations that do not vanish with theoretical distance and abstraction.  

scholarly journals Social Engagement among Migrant Youth: Attitudes and Meanings

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liudmila Kirpitchenko ◽  
Fethi Mansouri
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Social Participation ◽  
Personal Growth ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Migrant Youth ◽  
The Social ◽  
Youth Attitudes ◽  
Arabic Speaking

This article explores migrant young people’s engagement, participation and involvement in socially meaningful activities, events and experiences. This type of social participation is approached in the social inclusion literature using the notions of social capital and active citizenship (Bourdieu, 1986; Coleman, 1988; Putnam, 1993; Putnam, 2000). A key objective, therefore, is to explore the attitudes, values and perceptions associated with social participation for young people. They include the meanings that social engagement has for migrant young people, along with drivers and inhibitions to active participation. The article focuses on both the motives for being actively engaged as well as perceived barriers to social engagement. It is based on a large study conducted among migrant young people of African, Arabic-speaking and Pacific Islander backgrounds in Melbourne and Brisbane, and presents both quantitative and qualitative (discursive) snapshots from the overall findings, based on interviews and focus groups. While many studies have centred on the management of migration and migrants, this article draws attention to the individuals’ active position in negotiating, interpreting and appropriating the conditions of social inclusion. Accounting for the multidimensional and multilayered nature of social inclusion, the paper highlights the heuristic role of social engagement in fostering the feelings of belonging and personal growth for migrant youth.

Peer Mentoring to Foster Resilient Age-Friendly Rural Communities in Maine

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 420-420
Author(s):  
Jennifer Crittenden ◽  
Laura Lee ◽  
Patricia Oh
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Peer Mentoring ◽  
Relationship Building ◽  
Built Environments ◽  
Community Initiatives ◽  
The Social ◽  
Resilient Communities ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
New Strategies

Abstract Maine has a growing number of age-friendly community initiatives (AFCIs); 116 communities are actively working to adapt the social, service, and built environments for aging and 71 have formally joined the AARP Network of Age-Friendly States and Communities. During COVID, rural municipalities were faced with dynamic changes that limited older resident’s access to services and social engagement. To overcome these limitations, it is critical for emergent AFCIs to have tools and strategies to maintain and further enhance healthy environments and resilient communities. This study uses group interviews with 6 leaders of established AFCIs and 6 leaders of emergent AFCIs to explore how the Lifelong Fellows Program, a peer mentoring model that matches experienced leaders with newly formed initiatives, was able to spur development of new strategies to build community resilience. Prominent themes were (1) engaging new local and regional partners; (2) intergenerational volunteerism; (3) fun and flexibility; and (4) relationship-building.

Neither Individualistic nor Interactionist

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ezequiel Di Paolo ◽  
Hanne De Jaegher
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Individual Autonomy ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Enactive Approach ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
Hybrid Approaches ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
Complex Forms

We summarize some of the main proposals of the enactive approach to social understanding and discuss some common misreadings of the notion of participatory sense-making. The emphasis on the role played by social interaction in the enactive perspective is sometimes misinterpreted as the adoption of an interactionist stance, whereby individual processes are less relevant. This is not the case, and we proceed to explain and exemplify the central role played by individual agency, subpersonal processes and subjective personal experience in the framework of participatory sense-making. This is clear from how social interaction is defined as involving the co-arising of autonomous relational patterns, not under the full control of any participant, but without loss of individual autonomy of those engaged in the social encounter. We discuss how interactive patterns can sustain a deep entanglement between brain, body and interactive dynamics during social engagement, as well as the functional role played in some case by collective dynamics. The enactive approach is neither individualistic, nor interactionist. However, we express skepticism regarding the usefulness of hybrid approaches, which perpetuate dualistic distinctions between mind and body. Instead, the tensions in the notion of participatory sense-making are elaborated dialectically, demonstrating how complex forms of social agency, including language, develop from the primordial tension in participatory sense-making.

Epilogue

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Brückner
Keyword(s):  
National Culture ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Social Life ◽  
The Social ◽  
Best Sellers

Having addressed maps as media platforms that were at once personas and avatars, best sellers and spectacles, this book recovered the social life of maps at the intersection of generic diversity and social engagement. Examining the discrete biographical stages in a map’s life, its chapters retrieved the labor and rituals with which the materiality of ordinary maps fostered a national culture of map intimacy. The Epilogue surveys the thickly folded patterns of mediation in which map content and cartographic signification emerged as a form of cartoral art, informing paintings as well as literature. National maps, collectible cartifacts, and a cartocoded education turned everyday map encounters into everyday metaphors that Americans came to live by.

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