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Twenty-seven scientists met for the annual Auxological conference held at Aschau, Germany, to particularly discuss the interaction between social factors and human growth, and to highlight several topics of general interest to the regulation of human growth. Humans are social mammals. Humans show and share personal interests and needs, and are able to strategically adjust size according to social position, with love and hope being prime factors in the regulation of growth. In contrast to Western societies, where body size has been shown to be an important predictor of socioeconomic status, egalitarian societies without formalized hierarchy and material wealth-dependent social status do not appear to similarly integrate body size and social network. Social network structures can be modeled by Monte Carlo simulation. Modeling dominance hierarchies suggests that winner-loser effects play a pivotal role in robust self-organization that transcends the specifics of the individual. Further improvements of the St. Nicolas House analysis using re-sampling/bootstrap techniques yielded encouraging results for exploring dense networks of interacting variables. Customized pediatric growth references, and approaches towards a Digital Rare Disease Growth Chart Library were presented. First attempts with a mobile phone application were presented to investigate the associations between maternal pre-pregnancy overweight, gestational weight gain, and the child’s future motor development. Clinical contributions included growth patterns of individuals with Silver-Russell syndrome, and treatment burden in children with growth hormone deficiency. Contributions on sports highlighted the fallacy inherent in disregarding the biological maturation status when interpreting physical performance outcomes. The meeting explored the complex influence of nutrition and lifestyle on menarcheal age of Lithuanian girls and emphasized regional trends in height of Austrian recruits. Examples of the psychosocial stress caused by the forced migration of modern Kyrgyz children and Polish children after World War II were presented, as well as the effects of nutritional stress during and after World War I. The session concluded with a discussion of recent trends in gun violence affecting children and adolescents in the United States, and aspects of life history theory using the example of "Borderline Personality Disorder." The features of this disorder are consistent with the notion that it reflects a "fast" life history strategy, with higher levels of allostatic load, higher levels of aggression, and greater exposure to both childhood adversity and chronic stress. The results were discussed in light of evolutionary guided research. In all contributions presented here, written informed consent was obtained from all participants in accordance with institutional Human investigation committee guidelines in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki amended October 2013, after information about the procedures used.

The present study examines the role of individuals’ preference for unequal intergroup relations in exacerbating a process of differential attrition from organizations that value intergroup equality (i.e., hierarchy-attenuating contexts). We proposed that people functioning within a well-recognized hierarchy-attenuating context (i.e., students of social work) who were higher on social dominance orientation (SDO) would be more likely to leave their institution through two pathways; first, people higher on SDO would have fewer moral concerns of social fairness and human harm-avoidance (i.e., individualizing); in turn, a lack of individualizing morality would stimulate a perceived person-environment misfit, ultimately increasing their intention to leave. We conducted a single cross-sectional design study involving a convenience sample of 245 undergraduate social work students. Overall, the results of the serial mediation model suggest that people higher on SDO intend to leave their organization that supports inclusive equality via reduced individualizing morality and high perceived P-E misfit. These findings contribute to understanding the role of socio-political orientations and moral beliefs in hindering proper adaptation to contexts that value egalitarian social norms, with relevant implications for individuals and groups.

To fill the gap in empirical research on the relationship between sexist gender ideologies and sports participation, I examined how sports participation affects the endorsement of sexist gender ideologies by men and women and how country-level gender inequalities moderate this relationship. For the analysis, I used cross-national survey data from the World Values Survey and the European Values Study, including observations collected between 2005 and 2016 on 57,817 men and 61,080 women from 74 countries that vary in terms of gender equality, religiosity, modernization, and economic development. My findings show that when controlling for sociodemographic factors and between-country differences in sexist gender ideologies, men who are sports club members endorse sexist gender ideologies to a significantly greater degree than men who are not sports club members. This finding is independent of the prevalence of gender inequalities in a country. Furthermore, in very gender-inegalitarian countries, women who are active sports club members tend to hold less sexist gender ideologies than women who are not sports club members or are not active members, while they do not differ substantially in the endorsement of sexist gender ideologies in relatively egalitarian countries.

Social status is recognized as a major determinant of social behavior and health among animals; however, the neural circuits supporting the formation and navigation of social hierarchies remain under extensive research. Available evidence suggests the prefrontal cortex is a keystone in this circuit, but upstream and downstream candidates are progressively emerging. In this review, we compare and integrate findings from rodent and primate studies to create a model of the neural and cellular networks supporting social hierarchies, both from a macro (i.e., circuits) to a micro-scale perspective (microcircuits and synapses). We start by summarizing the literature on the prefrontal cortex and other relevant brain regions to expand the current “prefrontal-centric” view of social hierarchy behaviors. Based on connectivity data we also discuss candidate regions that might inspire further investigation, as well as the caveats and strategies that have been used to further our understanding of the biological substrates underpinning social hierarchy and dominance.

This book review considers “А Sense of Inequality” by Wendy Bottero. The author is a Reader in Sociology at the University of Manchester (UK).Wendy Bottero inspires us to look broadly at the phemomenon of inequality through the social mechanisms ofobligations and restrictions bounding individuals on a daily basis. At the same time, the author suggests a broader understanding of inequality and insists on “a methodological localism”, i.e. the importance of studying local inequalities, which individuals experience in their milieus (subjective inequality or a sense of inequality). She argues that people tend to be more aware of “local” inequality in their daily lives. Individuals have a restricted vision of objective inequality. According to Bottero, objective inequality does not necessarily lead to social discontent or protest. And data of mass quantitative surveys give us an abstract understanding of a sense of inequality. Individuals’ perceptions of inequality are formed by institutional regimes, political debates and discussions in the media. Therefore, the key concept of this book is “subjective inequality” — a specific feeling of individuals arising through a variety of unequal social relations, entailed subordination, unequal opportunities and statuses.This book gives us an understanding of how to be more reflective of everyday inequalities. This work will be especially of great value for social researchers because it offers acritically revised theoretical frame and solid methodological basis for studying subjective inequalities. The book reveals the mechanics of the key global social phenomenon — inequality and discovers the opportunities for studying it on the level of individuals.

The discussion on social protection in Latin America must consider the economic, social and political characteristics of the region, which have been historically constructed and reconstructed in the movement of peripheral capitalist society. In order to reflect on the relationship between the State and social protection in the beginning of the 21st century, this essay presents an overview of the conflict between capital and labor to directing the State, through social protection / public social unprotection. It presents characteristics of the Latin American society and the movement of the State in the 21st century, between the expansion and retraction in social investments. The coups d’état is analyzed as attempts to contain social advances and maintain the status quo, guaranteeing the privileges of groups linked to the ruling class and international financial capital. Finally, it demonstrates the need to transform the shape of public social protection in the Southern Cone of America to overcome the current challenges.

The goal of the present work is to analyze the “Guarda Nacional” as a key institution to sustain the hierarchic process that took place in the Brazilian society in the XIX century. We focus our investigation on quantitative and qualitative aspects of the Guarda Nacional of Jaguarão Municipality, placed at the southwestern border of São Pedro province, Rio Grande do Sul State, between 1860 and 1889. We present the Guarda Nacional profile, showing the distance between officers and other military members, which both reflect and reinforce the hierarchic structure of the society. Besides, through the analyses of specific cases, we demonstrate how the organizational structure of the Guarda was politically used by officers and by others influential local citizens to keep the status quo and to perpetuate in an elite position.

Introductory Comments The eighth issue of Colloquia Humanistica contains two thematic sections: the extensive Hierarchies and Boundaries. Structuring the Social in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean and a second, shorter section in the Discussions part of the volume, entitled Culture and Economy. This time in the Discussion. Presentations. Book Reviews segment, we offer readers as many as five reviews and also one presentation of an interesting series from the Faculty of Humanities at Konstantin Preslavsky University of Shumen (Bulgaria), Limes Slavicus. Uwagi wstępne Ósmy numer Colloquia Humanistica zawiera dwa bloki tematyczne, pierwszy obszerny, zatytułowany Hierarchies and Boundaries. Structuring the Social in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean i drugi krótszy umieszczony w dziale Discussions, noszący tytuł Culture and Economy. W dziale Discussion. Presentations. Book Reviews tym razem mamy do zaoferowania czytelnikowi aż pięć recenzji i jedną prezentację ciekawej serii wydawniczej the Faculty of Humanities at Konstantin Preslavsky University of Shumen (Bułgaria) Limes Slavicus.

Information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) are seen to have great potential for boosting democratization processes all over the world by giving people access to information and thereby empowering them to demand more accountability and transparency of authorities. Based on ethnographic research in Togo and Rwanda on an SMS-based citizen monitoring and evaluation system, this article argues that focusing on access to information is too narrow a view. We show that it is crucial to take into account the respective socio-political backgrounds, such as levels of mistrust or existing social hierarchies. In this context, mobile phone usage has rather varied and ambiguous meanings here. These dynamics can pose a challenge to the successful implementation of ICT4D projects aimed at political empowerment. By addressing these often overlooked issues, we offer explanations for the gap between ICT4D assumptions and people’s lifeworlds in Togo and Rwanda.

The present research is aimed at investigating how the politeness of the speakers of Urdu is influenced by their relative social status in society. The researcher took politeness theory of Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987) as a model. To observe politeness of Urdu speakers, speech act of apology with different strategies was selected. A Discourse Completion Task (DCT) was used as an instrument to collect data from a sample of 152 participants from different institutes. The analysis of data indicated that the speakers of Urdu employed negative politeness strategies mostly for the addressee of high social status and low social status. The addressee of equal social status was apologized by positive politeness strategies. The results showed that Pakistani society is non-egalitarian. Moreover, this study supports Brown and Levinson’s (1978, 1987) claim for universality of politeness in preferring negative politeness to positive politeness; though, this preference for negative politeness is the outcome of the unequal social status of the addressee.

The paper analyzes tourism as a political scene. It questions the negotiation of national and subnational « identities », within the frame of the Nation-State, as well as socially legitimized and undervalued « identities ». Drawing on case studies in Morocco, it highlights the interest of mobilizing the field of postcolonial studies together with subaltern studies, to understand the power relations involved, deconstruct the post-colonial logics governing the tourist production of « identities » and give high attention to the « identities » as they are claimed by marginalized social groups.

O presente artigo tem como ponto de partida o acompanhamento de três trajetórias individuais inseridas no contexto da história de Minas Gerais, entre os séculos XVIII e XIX. Analisaremos as formas de ascensão social e o processo de diferenciação desses indivíduos uma vez que suas origens não se prendiam às carreiras clássicas dos conquistadores, homens de negócios e burocratas. Ao longo prazo, estas trajetórias resultaram na integração dessas gerações a elite rural do sudeste brasileiro.The present article has as its starting point the following of three individual trajectories placed in the context of the history of Minas Gerais, between the 18th and 19th Centuries. We will analyze the forms of social ascension and the process of differentiation of these individuals since their origins did not stick to the classic carriers of the conquerors, business men and bureaucrats. In the long term, these trajectories resulted in the integration of these generations with the rural elite of the southeast region of Brazil.

Abject mass poverty is of the key feature of Indian subcontinent. The relationship question, in this paper, is viewed through the lenses of poverty. Thus, the spatial, political, societal and economic questions come to picture when relationships are examined through the eyes of the poor people. Face-to-face interaction, primarily, based on strong social group collective identity is the key hallmark of relationships in India. The social group identity brings hierarchy into the interaction patterns. Thus, even market relations are not merely based on the questions of economic incentives. Social identity deeply penetrates to the huge informal economy that permeates in India. Thus, caught in the web of relationships even at market sphere, the poor people come together to fight, protest and to collaborate for their own well-being.

Na sociedade francesa contemporânea, as antigas desigualdades perduram e novas desigualdades se manifestam, particularmente com a desestabilização crescente das posições sociais e profissionais ocupadas. A noção de fronteira revela-se, assim, essencial: as fronteiras delimitam os contornos das categorias sociais, mas abrem também espaços de troca e de encontro. Buscando apreender os processos de construção e/ou de fragilização das fronteiras sociais, uma pesquisa qualitativa foi realizada junto a famílias (pais e jovens) de diferentes grupos sociais, com interesse pela construção simbólica e percepção das fronteiras entre as diferentes classes sociais, e também sua construção no interior das mesmas. As classes sociais continuam a constituir o fundamento de fronteiras "subjetivas". No entanto, o caráter fluido e complexo das experiências sociais exige dos atores mais trabalho de coerência e de adaptação.In contemporary French society, traditional inequalities persist while new ones have emerged, particularly as a result of the growing destabilization of social and professional positions. The notion of boundary therefore becomes essential: boundaries delimit social categories, but also open up spaces for encounters and exchanges. Seeking to comprehend the processes of constructing and/or weakening social boundaries, a qualitative research study was carried out with families (parents and young people) of different social groups, centred on the symbolic construction and perception of the boundaries between different social classes, and on their construction within these classes. Do social classes still constitute the bases for subjective boundaries? The article concludes that the fluid and complex nature of social experiences means the need for more work at connecting and adapting from the actors.

A study of the religious topography of a Pompeian quarter (I, 6-9; IX, 7 and IX, 11-13), centred on the Via dell’Abbondanza, shows that the gods present successively joined together, complemented each other and distinguished themselves, in an interplay of echoes and resonances reflecting the social, economic and institutional structures that organised the daily lives of its inhabitants. While institutions, the familia and the economy created structuring links for the Pompeians, it was the rites and divine images that formalised and staged relationships of power, dependence and hierarchy. What’s more, religious practices established moments of sociability, with an integrative vocation, guaranteeing everyone a place in the vicinal community and playing an active part in building social links at neighbourhood level.

This article presents a comparative analysis of two modes of self-representation of investigative writers of Argentine journalistic chronicles read by literary critics as documentary narratives. We work with the way in which the figure of the investigative writer functions in El interior. La primera Argentina by Martín Caparrós (2009) and Cuando me muera quiero que me toquen cumbia (2007) and Si me querés quereme transa (2010) by Cristian Alarcón, as they offer two different ways of dealing with contact with otherness, cultural distance and social hierarchies, but mainly because they allow us to analyze the way in which chronicle writing articulates fictional and non-fictional procedures, exploring the limits and scope of literary representation. The working methodology that guided this research gathers the contributions of literary theory, cultural criticism and textual analysis, so that we approach the problem of delimiting the fictional status of texts by producing a reading of procedures in the light of theoretical reflections that allow us, simultaneously, to analyze the sources and produce new knowledge about the object under study.