Social capital or non-human sources? A cross-context study on information source selection of migrant farmer workers

Insufficient examination of social factors obscures the reason why non-human information sources are under-utilised by social groups with lower information literacy. This study explores the mechanism of information source selection (ISS) of Chinese migrant farmer workers (MFWs) in different industries by conducting a cross-context analysis. After iterative analyses of multiple cases, a theoretical model of information source selection within an individual’s information world is constructed. It explains why MFWs make more use of social capitals than non-human information sources in information seeking. Besides, the information needs are examined form both the needed information and the need itself. A classification of social capital as human information source is created and the roles that social capitals and non-human information sources play in ISS are identified. This study provides novel theoretical insights into the ‘old’ issue of ISS, and thus has practical implications for public information service providers and MFW-related policy makers.

China’s “Embedded Neoliberal” Home-Based Elderly Care? A State-Organised System of Neighbourhood Governance

Embedding the program of elderly care into community-based service system seems to imply that China is reorganising capacities of neighbourhood governance. The program, created by transformation of neighbourhood governance, represented the state government’s frustration with the institutional embodiment of neoliberalism. However, stimulating neighbourhood organisations in elderly care service through involvement of market instruments demonstrated the neoliberal approach. In this study, we provided a research framework in the context of embedded neoliberalism to explore the dilemma of neighbourhood governance in China. By interviewing 100 elderly people in five neighbourhoods in Nanjing, China, we examined the home-based elderly care (HEC) model to analyse the changes in socio-spatial relationships of neighbourhoods. We argued that the state-organised system of market instruments as a form of neighbourhood system weaken the spontaneity of elderly residents in developing social capitals. Moreover, the emerging program is struggling to operate because the devolution of conservative governance capacity from the state to the neighbourhood does not provide resources, leading to the restrained market provision. Thus, this transformation of neighbourhood governance can only be effective if there is a clear complementarity relationship between the role of state and market instruments. The attention of further studies on neighbourhood governance needs to re-examine the reciprocal relationships in the context of declining neoliberalism.

Collective capabilities shape the co-production of nature’s contributions to people in the alpine agricultural system of the Maurienne valley, France

Nature’s contributions to people (NCP) do not flow automatically from ecosystems to society, but they result from a co-production process of interactions between societal and ecological systems. In this study, we used the collective capabilities approach to address the social dimensions of co-production of the material NCP of cheese. These are the benefits collective structures retrieve from social-ecological interactions that individuals could not have achieved on their own and which frequently exceed pure instrumental values. Collective structures mobilise different types of social capitals in order to generate these collective capabilities. Here, we specifically investigated linkages between collective capabilities and their contributions to common perceptions and local identities. We conducted 44 semi-structured interviews with two distinct different actors’ groups in a French Alpine agricultural system surrounding the production of the quality labelled Beaufort cow cheese. We analysed the interviews qualitatively and conducted quantitative analyses as well as content and sentiment analysis to identify the different levels and types of collective investment mobilised by actors to generate collective capabilities. We found that collective capabilities involved in NCP co-production contributed to common perceptions and to specific dimensions of local identities. These can be viewed as the results of relational value construction. Further, the analysis suggests that collective capability relies on dense social interactions between actors that contribute to a good quality of life in itself. This study advances previous attempts to further investigate the role of intra-societal relations for NCP co-production.

Identity Evolutions, Models of Using Internet and Bonding Social Capital in Iran (A Step in the Direction of Presenting a Structural Model (Path Model) with Case Study of Kerman City)

In this research, we are attempting to review the relationship between users' models of using internet and bonding social capitals in Iran. The theoretical framework of the research are based on theoretical approaches of Dearnly and Feder, Velleman, Katz in the field of internet and models of using it and views of Putnam, Woolcock regarding social capital. The method used in this research is a qualitative – quantitative mixed method and the sampling method which has been used in the qualitative method is the purposive sampling method (theoretical sampling) and in the quantitative method, a combination of clustering, systematic and stratified sampling method in proportion with age and gender has been used. The statistical population of all persons who are 15 years old and more in Kerman city has been estimated to be 515114 persons in 2019 and the research sample has been estimated to be about 400 persons. Research results indicate that the rate of citizens' usage of internet in Kerman city is very low (less than 5 hours per week). Other results of the research indicate that regarding the model based on information associated with news, mostly filtered and unpermitted news sites such as VOA, BBC and other networks have been used. Research data regarding social identity is indicative of formation of identity evolutions in the contemporary society of Iran. The results of the path model test of the research indicate that news and economic information based models have about (0.11) direct and positive impact and ethnic identity has a direct and positive impact (0.189) and group identity has about (-0.131) impact and entertainment based model has about (0.130) impact on social capital. The results of variables' indirect impacts have also been expressed in the research

Carrying the Family in the Body: Family Trajectories of Paraguayan Women in the Paraná Tri-Border Area

This article discusses the results of ethnographic case studies on female cross-border experiences in the Paraná Tri-Border Area (between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay) conducted in 2018 and 2019. Reclaiming the life histories of thirty Paraguayan women, we will analyze the tensions that lie between family trajectories, female transgenerational acquisition of cultural and social capitals, rural-urban and transborder mobility, and labor insertion. Our analysis will explore more in-depth the impact that productive and reproductive work overloads have on different generations of women who share family bonds, showing how their care responsibilities are intrinsically related to their agency strategies.

Evolutionary Game Analysis of BIM Adoption among Stakeholders in PPP Projects

With the development of building information technology, Building Information Modeling (BIM) has become an important way to effectively solve the cross-organization information collaboration of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects, and how to promote the adoption of BIM in PPP projects has become a realistic problem to be solved urgently. This study discusses the adoption of BIM among stakeholders in PPP projects based on prospect theory and evolutionary game theory. A tripartite evolutionary game model including governments, social capitals, and contractors is established. The behavioral evolution mechanism of each stakeholder on BIM adoption is explored by analyzing the evolutionary equilibrium, and the key influencing factors of equilibrium strategy are analyzed by using numerical simulation. The results demonstrate that first, the degree of the cost to all stakeholders involved in the adoption of BIM, as well as the punishment for governments’ passive promotion of BIM, the punishment for social capitals’ passive adoption of BIM and the reward for contractors’ active application of BIM are the key factors affecting evolutionary stability. Second, according to prospect theory, the main stakeholders usually make decisions through subjective judgment and perceived value which ultimately lead to deviation in their behaviors. The deviations will hinder the establishment of ESS point (1, 1, 1) and make the system difficult to converge to the optimal state. Finally, from the perspective of governments, social capitals, and contractors, countermeasures and management implications are put forward to effectively promote the adoption of BIM in PPP projects.

Social capital leading to innovation: understanding moderating effects of the environment in the Zimbabwean small and medium enterprise context

Purpose Realizing the value of social capital to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing economies, where relationship networks play a big role in filling the gaps that are left by dysfunctional institutions, the purpose of this paper is to gain an empirical understanding of various forms of social capital in relation to the innovation of SMEs in Zimbabwe. Design/methodology/approach Primary data is collected from SMEs across several regions in Harare, where instrument validity is checked with confirmatory factor analysis, and hypotheses are tested using moderated regression analyses. Findings A positive influence is observed for both alliance capital and reputational capital on innovation, while non-significant moderating effects in terms of environmental hostility and dynamism are noted for these relationships Practical implications On a practical level, to increase levels of innovation, SME owner-managers need to secure stronger investments into their social infrastructure by developing (both physical and digital) alliance and reputational capitals Originality/value By segregating various forms of social capital, an original understanding is attained in terms of how entrepreneurs actively leverage alliance and reputational forms of social capitals to increase their levels of innovation. The theoretical and empirical understanding of the social capital-innovation link is enhanced, and the study constructs now have broader application as their psychometric properties have been established in an under-researched African market context.

Social capital and pneumococcal vaccination (PPSV23) in community-dwelling older Japanese: a JAGES multilevel cross-sectional study

ObjectiveInequalities exist between the 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccination (PPSV23) rate in each municipality among Japanese older adults. Exploring individual-level and community-level intervenable factors is necessary to improve the vaccination rates. We examined the associations between community-level and individual-level social capital and the PPSV23 vaccination among older Japanese adults using multilevel Poisson regression analyses.DesignCross-sectional study.SettingWe used data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study, conducted between 3 October 2016 and 10 January 2017 in 631 districts, 39 municipalities and 18 prefectures.ParticipantsThe target population comprised persons aged 65 years or older who are physically and cognitively independent (that is, not certified as needing long-term care). Further, 180 021 older adults from 39 Japanese municipalities were enrolled.Primary outcome measureThe primary outcome was the PPSV23 vaccination among the Japanese older adults aged 65 years or older who did not have physical or cognitive disabilities.ResultsAfter adjusting for municipality-, community-, individual-levels effects with multiple imputation, 137 075 individuals who participated in one/more of the civic participation (participation of social groups), social cohesion (social tie), or reciprocity (mutual exchange of social support) were significantly associated with more vaccinations than those without the three social capitals among the 137 075 older adults (13.0% (95% CI 11.0% to 14.9%), 5.0% (95% CI 2.4% to 7.6%) or 33.9% (95% CI23.6% to 44.2%) increase, respectively, p>0.001 for all). The rich (≥+1 SD) community-level civic participation was significantly associated with 3.4% increase [95% CI 0.02% to 6.78%, p<0.05] of the PPSV23 vaccination among the older adults compared to those with the poor or standard one.ConclusionsOlder adults with one/more of the three social capitals at the both levels received more PPSV23 vaccinations than those without those social capitals. Therefore, fostering of those social capitals may improve the inequality of the PPSV23 vaccination rate among older adults in each municipality.

Crystal market: a way to study knowledge-based dynamic capabilities

PurposeIn this work, the authors address a gap in the literature on the contribution of dynamic capabilities and internal contingencies to performance in a highly competitive environment.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use data from the Premier Football (soccer) League in Portugal over ten years. This league works as a laboratorial setting and enables the authors to identify the influences of the variables in the study.FindingsThe authors find evidence that human capital is decisive to a team's performance. This study’s findings question the role of the alignment between the different levels of the organization: strategic, tactical and operational.Research limitations/implicationsWith this work, the authors stress the importance (1) of using alternative scenarios in management research and (2) of the way that human and social capitals and managerial cognition and internal contingencies influence the development of knowledge-based dynamic capabilities, especially in highly regulated industries such has sports clubs.Practical implicationsThis work provides evidence on the importance of strategic coherence at different structural levels of the organization. Furthermore, it highlights the need to secure the right resources at the right time.Originality/valueThe authors propose a setting to run the study: a crystal market and an original measure of performance that reflect the relative achievement of market potential.

A Circular Economy Is About the Economy

In this paper, I outline the scope and the potential of a ‘circular economy’ in the future, one which goes beyond a concentration on recycling and waste management. I argue that three key elements are paramount. The first, and most widely discussed, is its ‘circularity by design’ characteristics. Secondly, but rarely discussed, the intimate relationship between the materials cycle and money and finance systems. Thirdly, encompassing both but often ignored: the way in which a more holistic interpretation of the concept is attached to a worldview or ‘framework for thinking’. This last element is a perspective that understands the economy as less like a machine and more like a nested living system. This worldview includes a stock maintenance emphasis placed in relation to feedback-rich flows. It extends, ineluctably, to the regeneration of natural capital and the restoration of social capital. A systems perspective includes a renewed focus on creating a refreshed industrial or productive economy at all scales as opposed to an expanded extractive or ‘rentier’ economy which is parasitical. This is quite unlike the current, linear, economy which not only extracts and runs down natural and social capitals (or exchanges it for financial capital), but also sees surplus financial reinvested largely in existing assets rather than creating new ones. The opportunity exists to create a ‘systems aware’ circular economy, one which is consistent with our contemporary understanding of ecosystemic relationships, the maintenance of capitals or stocks, the interdependence of different scales and the clear distinction between effective and efficient.