scholarly journals COVIDSensing: Social Sensing Strategy for the Management of the COVID-19 Crisis

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (24) ◽  
pp. 3157
Author(s):  
Alicia Sepúlveda ◽  
Carlos Periñán-Pascual ◽  
Andrés Muñoz ◽  
Raquel Martínez-España ◽  
Enrique Hernández-Orallo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Transfer ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Social Perceptions ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Social Sensing ◽  
Noisy Information ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Sensors

The management of the COVID-19 pandemic has been shown to be critical for reducing its dramatic effects. Social sensing can analyse user-contributed data posted daily in social-media services, where participants are seen as Social Sensors. Individually, social sensors may provide noisy information. However, collectively, such opinion holders constitute a large critical mass dispersed everywhere and with an immediate capacity for information transfer. The main goal of this article is to present a novel methodological tool based on social sensing, called COVIDSensing. In particular, this application serves to provide actionable information in real time for the management of the socio-economic and health crisis caused by COVID-19. This tool dynamically identifies socio-economic problems of general interest through the analysis of people’s opinions on social networks. Moreover, it tracks and predicts the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic based on epidemiological figures together with the social perceptions towards the disease. This article presents the case study of Spain to illustrate the tool.

Innovation at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Empowering Rickshaw Pullers

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-177
Author(s):  
Shalaghya Sharma ◽  
Anjani K. Singh ◽  
Amarendra Pratap Singh
Keyword(s):  
Business Model ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
Product Launch ◽  
Social Entrepreneur ◽  
Easy Access ◽  
Bottom Of The Pyramid ◽  
The Social

This case presents the innovative approach adopted by a for-profit social enterprise through utilization of technology, changed processes and improved business models to deliver the desired social impact. It also highlights the various challenges that the social entrepreneur faced and how the bottom of the pyramid was uplifted through success of this new social entrepreneurial venture. The case study is based on an interview conducted with the founder and managing director of SMV Wheels Pvt. Ltd. An exploratory schedule was prepared, and the researchers tried to develop an understanding of the business model deployed, challenges faced, competencies needed and strategic decisions made by the social entrepreneur that helped it in becoming sustainable. The challenges highlighted in the case study were lack of trust of beneficiaries, stakeholder scepticism, funding the business, testing the business model, need to retain self-motivation, handling family opposition and building a team. Moreover, with the use of technology, the traditional rickshaw was converted into a lightweight, technologically superior and cost-effective model; the health hazards were minimized; and the product became accessible with small weekly payments. Dilemma How to alleviate the daily struggle of the rickshaw pullers who perform labour-intensive work with meagre income? Their children lacked access to schools, no nutritious food was available, many rickshaw pullers consumed alcohol on a regular basis, domestic violence was prevalent, they were unable to afford good healthcare and suffered from diseases such as tuberculosis. What could be done for them? Theory: New product launch. Product and process innovations. Type of the Case: Problem solving and applied. Protagonist: Present. Options Redesign the rickshaw as a lightweight vehicle requiring less effort to pull. Strengthen supply side and easy access to bank financing, revenue sharing from advertisements. Discussions and Case Questions How to further optimize economic and social value creation? What steps can reduce the cost of a rickshaw while making it robust but lightweight? Perhaps a community of networks of rickshaw pullers in different towns can give critical mass to better negotiate with the vendors. What can be done for the welfare of the dependents of the rickshaw pullers?

Neighbourhood Social Capital: Does an Urban Gentry Help? Some Stories of Defining Shared Interests, Collective Action and Mutual Support

2002 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 106-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Talja Blokland
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
New England ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
Race And Class ◽  
The Social ◽  
Urban Elite ◽  
Individual Asset ◽  
Human And Social Capital

In European and American cities alike, politicians and policymakers have developed a strong believe in ‘mixture’. They believe that mixed neighbourhoods have the critical mass of an urban middle class whose economic, human and social capital benefits the whole neighbourhood. If middle classes have the social network contacts to access politicians and policymakers in ways that residents without such contact cannot, is it enough for the poor simply to rub shoulders in the same neighbourhood with the better-off? Does such social capital as individual asset become available to all? Or do the social networks within the neighbourhood, across the lines of class and race, need certain characteristics as meant by Putnam and Coleman for Portes’ and Bourdieu's social capital to become transferable? This paper discusses these questions through a case study in a mixed neighbourhood in a New England college town. The case study suggests that the help of an urban gentry in collective action might depend on how inclusively and fluidly such a gentry defines ‘shared interests’, how power relations determine what ‘collective’ in collective action means, and how difficulties to speak with those the gentry might want to speak for can be overcome. For residents with limited resources, the case suggests that whether or not they can use an urban elite in their neighbourhood to access new resources depends on the quality and nature of informal rather than institutional relationships, and on specific characteristics of reciprocity and mutuality of neighbourhood networks across race and class.

scholarly journals Building a Critical Mass of Users for Digital Healthcare Promotion Programs

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 44-59
Author(s):  
Rennie Naidoo
Keyword(s):  
Case Reports ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
Insurance Company ◽  
Healthcare Organizations ◽  
Teaching Case ◽  
Social Challenges ◽  
The Social ◽  
Healthcare Insurance ◽  
Digital Healthcare

Despite recent technological advancements, the slow adoption pattern of digital healthcare promotion programs continues to be a major problem plaguing many healthcare organizations today. The historical teaching case study is indispensable in improving our understanding of the complex and multifaceted nature of contemporary digital healthcare promotion programs. This historical teaching case presents information about e-health, the e-commerce unit of a large multinational healthcare insurance company. The teaching case shows how despite e-health's ability to persuade a large registered base of users to trial its healthcare promotion programs, over 90% of these registrants discontinued use after a short trial period of using the technology. This historical teaching case focuses on the social challenges involved in persuading users to adopt and continue using e-health's major healthcare promotion innovation: an online nutrition center. Despite extensive promotions and the use of incentives, less than 10% of the user base adopted and continued to use this healthcare promotion innovation. The case reports on the discontinuance among digital healthcare promotion users despite the intensive efforts to retain them. Students and practitioners will gain insight into the key social challenges involved in achieving a critical mass of users for digital healthcare promotion innovations. The teaching case requires important decisions to be made by students and practitioners about present digital healthcare promotion programs by drawing on inferences from past digital healthcare promotion programs. Finally, this historical teaching case study makes a convincing case for the value of historical insights in informing present day challenges facing contemporary digital healthcare promotion programs.

scholarly journals Open social innovation for surplus food recovery and aid during COVID-19 crisis: the case of Fondazione Banco Alimentare Onlus

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Penco ◽  
Andrea Ciacci ◽  
Clara Benevolo ◽  
Teresina Torre
Keyword(s):  
Business Models ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Single Case Study ◽  
Food Bank ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Mission ◽  
The Social

PurposeThe study analyses the role that open social innovation (OSI) perspective played for Fondazione Banco Alimentare Onlus (FBAO), a food bank in Italy, in responding to the COVID-19 crisis. It answers the following research question: how does a crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, stimulate the adoption of OSI practices to revamp the activities of FBAO and facilitate appropriate solutions to carry out its social mission?Design/methodology/approachThis study employs a qualitative approach. It is based on a single case study.FindingsThe study shows how COVID-19 has stimulated the adoption of OSI practices to continue to meet the social mission, creating innovative projects or finding new ways to do the same things.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is based on a single case study.Practical implicationsThe paper contributes insights into the literature on OSI, examining how inbound and outbound OSI mechanisms can modify business models and increase the adaptation capacity of food banks and their effectiveness. In addition, it provides a rich context in which the social value drivers provided by OSI are studied.Originality/valueThis paper applies the OSI to a food bank to evaluate what this action mode produces for the food bank during a health crisis. Specifically, this is the first paper that studies the COVID-19 crisis response of a food bank from the OSI perspective, focusing on the inbound and outbound OSI processes that characterized the entire network of relationships.

Social Design for Services Framework

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie SARANTOU ◽  
Satu MIETTINEN
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Research Group ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Service Design ◽  
Social Design ◽  
Practical Action ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World

This paper addresses the fields of social and service design in development contexts, practice-based and constructive design research. A framework for social design for services will be explored through the survey of existing literature, specifically by drawing on eight doctoral theses that were produced by the World Design research group. The work of World Design researcher-designers was guided by a strong ethos of social and service design for development in marginalised communities. The paper also draws on a case study in Namibia and South Africa titled ‘My Dream World’. This case study presents a good example of how the social design for services framework functions in practice during experimentation and research in the field. The social design for services framework transfers the World Design group’s research results into practical action, providing a tool for the facilitation of design and research processes for sustainable development in marginal contexts.

Lord Dacre and the Politics of the Scottish Enlightenment

2005 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Kidd
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Scottish Enlightenment ◽  
North East ◽  
The Social ◽  
Romantic Movement ◽  
Scottish History

Hugh Trevor-Roper (Lord Dacre) made several iconoclastic interventions in the field of Scottish history. These earned him a notoriety in Scottish circles which, while not undeserved, has led to the reductive dismissal of Trevor-Roper's ideas, particularly his controversial interpretation of the Scottish Enlightenment, as the product of Scotophobia. In their indignation Scottish historians have missed the wider issues which prompted Trevor-Roper's investigation of the Scottish Enlightenment as a fascinating case study in European cultural history. Notably, Trevor-Roper used the example of Scotland to challenge Weberian-inspired notions of Puritan progressivism, arguing instead that the Arminian culture of north-east Scotland had played a disproportionate role in the rise of the Scottish Enlightenment. Indeed, working on the assumption that the essence of Enlightenment was its assault on clerical bigotry, Trevor-Roper sought the roots of the Scottish Enlightenment in Jacobitism, the counter-cultural alternative to post-1690 Scotland's Calvinist Kirk establishment. Though easily misconstrued as a dogmatic conservative, Trevor-Roper flirted with Marxisant sociology, not least in his account of the social underpinnings of the Scottish Enlightenment. Trevor-Roper argued that it was the rapidity of eighteenth-century Scotland's social and economic transformation which had produced in one generation a remarkable body of political economy conceptualising social change, and in the next a romantic movement whose powers of nostalgic enchantment were felt across the breadth of Europe.

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.

Coronavirus: Towards controlling of the pandemic - Indian scenario

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 462-468
Author(s):  
Latika kothari ◽  
Sanskruti Wadatkar ◽  
Roshni Taori ◽  
Pavan Bajaj ◽  
Diksha Agrawal
Keyword(s):  
Control Measures ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Medical Treatments ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Infection Control Measures ◽  
The Social ◽  
Asking Questions ◽  
The Government ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a communicable infection caused by the novel coronavirus resulting in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV). It was recognized to be a health crisis for the general population of international concern on 30th January 2020 and conceded as a pandemic on 11th March 2020. India is taking various measures to fight this invisible enemy by adopting different strategies and policies. To stop the COVID-19 from spreading, the Home Affairs Ministry and the health ministry, of India, has issued the nCoV 19 guidelines on travel. Screening for COVID-19 by asking questions about any symptoms, recent travel history, and exposure. India has been trying to get testing kits available. The government of India has enforced various laws like the social distancing, Janata curfew, strict lockdowns, screening door to door to control the spread of novel coronavirus. In this pandemic, innovative medical treatments are being explored, and a proper vaccine is being hunted to deal with the situation. Infection control measures are necessary to prevent the virus from further spreading and to help control the current situation. Thus, this review illustrates and explains the criteria provided by the government of India to the awareness of the public to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The Social, Cultural and Behavioral Components of Information and Knowledge-Seeking Among Home Care Nurses

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edmund J.Y. Pajarillo
Keyword(s):  
Home Care ◽  
Study Methods ◽  
Soins À Domicile ◽  
The Social ◽  
Knowledge Seeking ◽  
Case Study Methods ◽  
Home Care Nurses

Information and knowledge-seeking vary among users, including home care nurses. This research describes the social, cultural and behavioral dimensions of information and knowledge-seeking among home care nurses, using both survey and case study methods. Results provide better understanding and appreciation of nurses’ information behavior.La recherche d’information et de connaissances varie selon les usagers, y compris parmi les infirmiers et infirmières des soins à domicile. Cette recherche décrit les dimensions sociales, culturelles et comportementales de la recherche d’information et de connaissances parmi les infirmiers et infirmières des soins à domicile, en utilisant les méthodes de sondage et de l’étude de cas. Les résultats offrent une meilleure compréhension et connaissance du comportement informationnel des infirmiers et infirmières. 

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