New Dimensions of Global Feminist Influence: Tracking Feminist Mobilization Worldwide, 1975–2015

Feminist mobilization, crucial for advancing women's human rights, has increased in all world regions since 1975. However, we do not know enough about the global impact of this mobilization because we lack adequate databases to explore the ways that feminist mobilization interacts with other factors that enhance and limit women's rights, such as democracy, intergovernmental processes, and transnational, regional organizing. Our ability to explore these questions is obstructed by a lack of data on the global south and measures that focus on formal organizations. This project remedies these gaps, developing an improved measure of feminist mobilization that encompasses autonomous, domestic feminist mobilization in 126 countries, 1975–2015, enabling us to track global and regional trends. Using regional comparisons and statistical analysis, we use this new measure to reveal new patterns and complexities in feminist mobilization. We discern distinct regional patterns in such organizing that defy facile predictions of global convergence and suggest a central role for UN processes advancing women's rights. Our analysis also points to the importance of transnational feminist networks and democratization as factors enabling and strengthening feminist mobilization. We conclude by suggesting some fruitful avenues for exploring relationships between feminist movements, international institutions, and democracy.

The Social, Civic, and Political Uses of Instagram in Four Countries

Instagram has more than 1 billion monthly users. Yet, little is known about how citizens engage with this platform. In this paper, we use representative survey data to examine social, civic, and political uses of Instagram by citizens in four countries: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and France (n=6,291). The survey was administered to an online panel matched to the age and gender profile of each country (September to November 2019). About 40% of respondents used Instagram. This platform is especially popular among young adults (73%). Users’ network sizes are typically small, as a third of users have less than 15 followers and follow less than 15 other accounts. About 15% of users followed news organizations, a nonprofit organization or charity, or a political candidate or party. While users rarely cultivate networks with ties to these formal organizations and groups, civic and political information flows on this platform. Approximately 57% of users report seeing political information on Instagram during the previous 12 months. These findings suggest political information on Instagram flows through informal rather than formal networks. This paper establishes the importance of social, civic, and political uses of Instagram among citizens in four Western countries. Furthermore, we offer insights into the segments of the population that are intense users of Instagram, which helps to understand the role of this platform in civic and political life.

Social Capital and its Role in Community Affiliation (A Field Social Study in Al-Diwaniyah Governorate)

This study attempted to uncover the role that social capital plays in activating the culture of integration, community belonging and pride in national identity, in light of this, the present study aimed to reveal the nature of the concept of social capital, its development, its social dimensions, the mechanisms of its formation and its societal sources, it also discussed the issue of measuring social capital, reviewing a number of indicators that researchers have reached, as these indicators are: leadership level, public participation, cooperative relations network, trust capital, and membership of formal organizations, the study also tried to identify the changes that occurred to social structures such as family, relatives, neighbors, official and civil institutions, in addition to knowing the relationship between civil society and social capital in Iraqi society by studying the interaction of the study community members with civil society institutions in Iraq and their impact on the society’s stock of capital social. To achieve these aims, the researcher used several methodological procedures such as the case study approach in addition to activating the observation method. The approach was applied through an in-depth interview form and in order to that, the current study reached an important conclusion which is that social capital - that is, the social capabilities of the individual or society is of great importance in achieving social integration and social interaction and enhancing belonging to society and the homeland in a way that enhances the economic and social advancement of society.

Ethnic Ties, Organized Opposition and Voter Defection in Authoritarian Elections

Existing studies of ethnic voting mainly focus on democratic elections. In electoral autocracies, politically subordinate ethnicity can help citizens coordinate against the incumbent. However, we argue that collective action will be constrained when the group grows large, as it becomes costly for its members to form common behavioural norms and carry out effective sanctions through shared ethnic ties under authoritarian repression. Drawing on unique historical surveys in Taiwan, we study how Taiwanese ethnicity and local ethnic demography jointly induced voters' defection against the hegemonic KMT regime. We find that the pro-defection or anti-incumbent effect of Taiwanese ethnicity fell as the share of Taiwanese citizens in a township increased. However, the relative size of the Taiwanese group no longer undermined pro-defection ethnic voting after the KMT lifted the ban on opposition parties. Our results illustrate that formal organizations play a critical role in sustaining the informational salience of ethnicity in the elections.

The Influence of SME’s Collaboration on SME Innovation Capabilities

The ability to innovate is indispensable in a turbulent external environment. SME’s in Bantul Yogyakarta formed a group of non-formal organizations to overcome business difficulties during the pandemic by increasing business innovation capabilities. This study also aims to examine the effect of SME’s collaboration on innovation capability during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research is important to do obtain information on the effectiveness of SME collaboration to create innovation and achieve SME performance. During a pandemic where the business environment is increasingly dynamic, this research is increasingly needed to obtain an effective collaboration model. The research was conducted on 100 local processed food SME’s using a quantitative approach. The research instrument was in the form of a questionnaire equipped with interviews to obtain comprehensive data and information. The analytical tool used is WarpPLS. The results show that SME’s collaboration has a significant effect on innovation capabilities.

The Online Social Support of Chinese Fellow Townsman in Post Pandemic

As a kind of disease risk, the global spread of the COVID-19 may just be a microcosm of the global risk society. Affected by the epidemic, people adopt more online virtual connections and have become more dependent on social media. This paper conducted the online social support of Chinese fellow-townsman analysis via conducting online participatory observations on the QQ group of Xinhua immigrants and conducting in-depth interviews with 15 of them. This study found that the social support obtained by the Chinese Fellow Townsman through the Internet interpersonal mutual aid network has made up for the shortcomings of formal social support to a certain extent. In the risk society, it helps individuals get immediate and personalized help. In terms of online social support sources, the Internet social support of Chinese Fellow Townsman mainly comes from bridging social capital. From the perspective of online support content, the online social support of this group is mainly manifested in emotional support, companionship support, and informational support, and the role of tangible support is relatively weak. As to the support effect, through the Online social support from the group, the peers can obtain timely, diverse, and non-redundant information to help them make better decisions. But the ability of interpersonal networks to provide resources is limited. When necessary, we still need social support from the government and other formal organizations.

The Relevance and Presumed Innocence of Learning: A Reply to Soeters and Talbot and Fischer

Responding to Soeters and Talbot and Fischer, we clarify our position that learning in military organizations is highly contingent on established organizational frameworks, vocabularies, and understandings and constrained by existing power relations. The danger present in military operations increases the importance of minimizing internal frictions and constrains local experimentation and the application of different solutions. Thus, while there is learning in military organizations, the latter are less prone than large, civilian organizations to venture into the use of new and unproven solutions. The present debate about learning in military organization reflects the different basic assumptions about formal organizations in management studies as opposed to the field of organizational sociology.

Varieties and Variations of Functional Differentiation

Functional differentiation is associated with two salient features of globalization: First, societal subsystems such as the economy, science, religion and politics have become increasingly global in terms of the interconnectedness of their operations across the world. Second, they exhibit global structural similarities, for instance regarding functionally specific role relationships and corresponding formal organizations. However, functional differentiation entails not only more interconnectedness and homogenization but also considerable structural and institutional diversity. In this paper, I distinguish and examine two forms of diversity that emerge as consequences of functional differentiation: Varieties of institutional structures that concern different ways of addressing functionally specific problems, on the one hand, and on the other, the variation of forms of structural coupling among subsystems within a particular local or regional context.