Structural Racism and Quantitative Causal Inference: A Life Course Mediation Framework for Decomposing Racial Health Disparities

Quantitative studies of racial health disparities often use static measures of self-reported race and conventional regression estimators, which critics argue is inconsistent with social-constructivist theories of race, racialization, and racism. We demonstrate an alternative counterfactual approach to explain how multiple racialized systems dynamically shape health over time, examining racial inequities in cardiometabolic risk in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. This framework accounts for the dynamics of time-varying confounding and mediation that is required in operationalizing a “race” variable as part of a social process ( racism) rather than a separable, individual characteristic. We decompose the observed disparity into three types of effects: a controlled direct effect (“unobserved racism”), proportions attributable to interaction (“racial discrimination”), and pure indirect effects (“emergent discrimination”). We discuss the limitations of counterfactual approaches while highlighting how they can be combined with critical theories to quantify how interlocking systems produce racial health inequities.

Incorporating Public Participation in Offshore Wind Farm Siting in Greece

The public acceptance of Offshore Wind Farms (OWFs) is an important issue that is expected to depend highly on their site location. Public involvement in decision-making processes is recommended as it may contribute to the mitigation of opposing, delaying and even blocking OWF projects, as well as increasing future public confidence and support. The aim of this study is to identify the most suitable sites for OWFs deployment in Greece based on citizens’ preferences and judgments. The methodology consists of three phases: (i) identification of Eligible Marine Areas (EMAs) for OWF siting by deploying ten exclusion criteria, (ii) prioritization of six evaluation criteria and ranking of EMAs according to citizens’ judgments through an Online Questionnaire Survey (OQS) and (iii) overall prioritization of EMAs. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), supported by Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the OQS are used for the analysis. The results illustrate the priority ranking of thirteen EMAs for OWFs deployment in the Greek marine environment under five different scenarios. The most suitable sites are located in the South-West zone offshore of Rhodes in all the examined scenarios. Sustainable development is a challenging social process, and the different preferences of the society should be integrated in planning processes.

COHERENCE OF PUBLIC POLICIES IN POLAND IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE PROCESS ON REACHING COMPLETED ADULTHOOD

The issue of transition into adulthood, treated as a complex, multi-dimensional and multi-stage social process, is not explicitly an object of interest to public policies, including social policy. The context of the life course policy mentioned in the analyzes is justified by the institutionalization of tasks related to functioning in society typical of completed adulthood: completing education, taking up employment, setting up your own household and family. The so-called delayed transition into adulthood means an increasingly later implementation of these tasks. The barriers to reaching completed adulthood discussed in the article mean that this process becomes a social problem that should be prevented by public activities. The article synthetically summarizes the results of the research “Public policies for full adulthood in Poland” (National Science Center No. 2014/15/B/HS5/03284). The aim of the considerations is to indicate the level of coherence and coordination in the creation and implementation of political and institutional instruments that would support young adult Poles in the process of reaching full adulthood in the above-mentioned dimensions. The conclusions from the research prove the need to separate the transition to adulthood regime in Polish social policy (public policies).

Understanding “Hijrah and Atonement” among Indonesian Celebrities: Social Psychology and Psychology of Religion Perspectives

This article aims at understanding “hijrah and Atonement” from the perspectives of psychology in particular psychology of religion. This article focuses to investigate the phenomena of young people who conduct hijrah and the process of their hijrah? This article is part of the qualitative studies on religious conversion among young generations including those are among Indonesian celebrities. Data and information are gathered from various online news and social media particularly from YouTube as the main source. Two main figures of Indonesian celebrities are chosen to be subjects of the study by using their life stories and statements about religious conversion in various online news and social media, and then those of stories and statements are analyzed with thematic analysis technique. This paper finds that the choice of religious conversion takes place through a long psychological and social process. Starting from a psychological crisis in a personal and interpersonal context and ending with a strong commitment and acceptance facing the consequences of their decision. The pivotal conclusion of this study addresses that hijrah is a long process of seeking God and constructing meaningfulness. Keywords: emigration, psychology, conversion, millennial Tulisan ini bertujuan untuk memahami fenomena hijrah dari sudut pandang ilmu psikologi, terutama mencaritahu mengapa anak muda pesohor Indonesia tertarik untuk berhijrah dan bagaimana proses mereka berhijrah? Tulisan ini adalah hasil studi kualitatif tentang konversi agama di kalangan generasi milineal terutama di kalangan pesohor Indonesia. Data dikumpulkan dari berbagai berita online dan media sosial terutama Youtube sebagai sumber informasi. 2 tokoh pesohor Indonesia papan atas dipilih sebagai subyek studi dengan mengkaji pengalaman hidup dan pernyataannya terkait konversi agama di pemberitaan online dan media sosial lalu dianalisis dengan teknik analisis tematik.. Studi ini menemukan bahwa pilihan melakukan konversi keagamaan berlangsung melalui proses psikologis dan sosial yang panjang. Dimulai dari krisis psikologis dalam konteks personal dan interpersonal dan berakhir dengan komitmen yang kuat dan penerimaan konsekuensi dari keputusan berhijrah. Kesimpulan penting dari penelitian ini adalah bahwa hijrah merupakan perjanalan spiritual yang panjang dalam mencari Tuhan dan Kebermaknaan dengan segala cobaan dan tantangan yang mengikutinya. Kata Kunci: hijrah, psikologi, konversi, milineal

Negative Impacts of COVID-19 Outbreak on Mental Health: A Review of Literature to Propose Future Research

Epidemiological research which focused on impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health have been conducted worldwide. This article aimed to: 1) review relevant research articles to identify both risk and protective factors of negative impacts caused by the pandemic, 2) to identify still needed information, and finally 3) to propose particular types of research necessary for the future. A variety of demographic variables as well as psycho-social factors were found to be risk factors or protective factors. It has not been clarified whether these factors interdependently function when the COVID-19 outbreak negatively impacts an individual’s mental health. In addition, only presumable factors have been examined as to whether they are risk or protective factors. Compared to epidemiological studies targeting a relatively large sample, there were few clinical case studies which described the psycho-social process leading to an individual’s maladaptation. In order for these issues to be solved, the author proposed a few essentials in conducting future research.

Mythologisation of Law by Historical Consciousness

The main objective of this article is to substantiate the fact that historical consciousness as a form of social consciousness is full of the mythologisation of law. The main hypothesis is that only such forms of law as customary law and international law may be considered historical phenomena. Standalone in law, mainly subjective law is not actually a historical phenomenon; therefore, any historical interpretation of it leads to mythologisation. The subject of this study is the mythologisation of law, found in the content of several legal concepts and being present in correlations with basic historical concepts. The complexity of the problem posed is that the very phenomenon of history outside historical consciousness, especially in our time, is constantly subjected to serious mythologisation. The result of the study is the statement that historical legal understanding is not connected with the understanding of the nature of law and does not reveal its essence. The methodological consequence of this for legal theory is the need for concentration on the understanding of the development of law not as a historical, but only as a social process, and for the law itself – as something that exists and makes sense only in the present.

Tradisi Buru Babi Masyarakat Minangkabau: Proses, Makna, dan Drama Sosial

Pig hunting in Minangkabau is a rite of passage which is carried out in a gradual ritual process. The rite of pig hunting is a sign that involves various social aspects of the community, including economy, religion, and culture. There are two questions to be answered in this research. Firstly, what is the meaning of the rite in the society and, secondly, how does the community's traditional pig hunting construct a social drama. To answer those questions, the author uses Victor Turner's ritual theory and Max Weber's theory of social drama. The results of this study indicate two main things. First, the pig hunting, which was originally an attempt to eliminate pests, later developed into a social drama. The rite of hunting as a social drama has four functions, namely (1) eliminating conflict; (2) limiting divisions and building community solidarity; (3) unites two opposing principles; and (4) provides new strength and motivation to live in everyday society. Second, as a social drama, the tradition forms a social construction. In this social process, there are four phases of social drama, (1) violation of social norms which invites the community to unite in eradicating pests; (2) wild pests pose a real threat, which can make the life of the farming community miserable (crisis) so that the community unites and holds various ceremonies to prepare for the implementation of hunting; (3) crisis recovery measures by carrying out a pig hunting ceremony; and (4) returns society with its entire social order to a normal situation.AbstrakBuru babi dalam masyarakat Minangkabau merupakan sebuah ritus yang dilaksanakan dalam sebuah proses ritual yang bertahap. Ritus buru babi menjadi sebuah penanda yang melibatkan berbagai aspek sosial masyarakat Minangkabau, termasuk ekonomi, religi, dan budaya. Ada dua pertanyaan yang hendak dijawab di dalam penelitian ini. Pertama, apa makna ritus buru babi dalam masyarakat Minangkabau dan bagaimana konstruksi sosial dari proses ritual tradisi buru babi sebagai sebuah drama sosial? Untuk menjawab kedua pertanyaan tersebut, penulis menggunakan teori ritual Victor Turner dan teori drama sosial Max Weber. Hasi penelitian ini menunjukkan dua hal pokok. Pertama, peristiwa buru babi yang awalnya hanya merupakan upaya para petani menghilangkan hama tanaman berkembang menjadi sebuah drama sosial. Ritus buru babi sebagai drama sosial ternyata memiliki empat fungsi, yaitu (1) menghilangkan konflik; (2) membatasi perpecahan dan membangun solidaritas masyarakat; (3) mempersatukan dua prinsip yang bertentangan; dan (4) memberikan kekuatan dan motivasi baru untuk hidup dalam masyarakat sehari-hari. Kedua, sebagai drama sosial, tradisi buru babi membentuk sebuah konstruksi sosial. Di dalam proses sosial itu terdapat empat fase drama sosial yang terdiri atas (1) pelanggaran norma sosial oleh hama yang mengundang masyarakat untuk bersatu melakukan pembasmian; (2) hama babi mendatangkan ancaman yang nyata yang dapat menyengsarakan kehidupan masyarakat petani (krisis) sehingga masyarakat bersatu dan mengadakan berbagai upacara persiapan pelaksanaan berburu; (3) tindakan pemulihan krisis dengan melaksanakan upacara berburu babi; dan (4) mengembalikan masyarakat dengan seluruh tatanan sosialnya ke situasi normal.

The Kaon’CPT Collective: Building a musical culture of not-in-real-life performance through conducted live comprovisation

In this article we describe a Networked Music Collective for online live performance events. Four characteristics of live performance (bodies, space and time, musical culture and social process) are identified as the conceptual and technological basis of our approach. Our recent distributed comprovisation, Perripplayear, is used to illustrate these concepts and to describe the technology stack we employed. The Kaon’CPT collective uses diverse instrumentation including acoustic and electronic instruments, voice and digital musical instruments (DMIs). Its members span 12 time zones and their comprovisation is conducted via a custom distributed score.