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In this practice-based pedagogical paper, we, the university faculty of Education, Food and Nutrition, Sociology, and History in the U.S., describe how we started a Reflective Practice Teaching Circle at our institution for interdisciplinary dialogue about the effective use of social media (SM) for teaching and learning. Our discussions led to the design of the Social Media Entry Model that educators can use for decision-making. We begin this paper with a brief synthesis of scholarly literature describing students' SM use and how higher education faculty use SM to support 21st-century skills development. Next, we describe the institutional, individual, and pedagogical barriers that prevent faculty from embracing SM as a teaching and learning tool. Based on our shared vision and praxis, we present the Social Media Entry Model and describe how educators can use it when deciding how to integrate SM into the formal or informal curriculum. Through our narratives, we illustrate how we use a variety of SM platforms and different entry points in the model to enhance students' 21st-century skills. We also discuss the legal and ethical issues that educators must consider to ensure that university students use SM in a socially responsible manner.

This paper advocates for the integration of the 'sociological imagination', as proposed by the sociologist C. Wright Mills, into pedagogical practices to foster inclusive and democratic classrooms. Departing from narrow evidence-based approaches, it explores how the sociological imagination connects personal experiences with broader societal structures, enhancing critical thinking and social awareness among students. Practical strategies for implementation across diverse subjects are discussed, emphasising its potential to empower school-age students as agents of social change amidst contemporary challenges.

This document is an editorial titled "Blurring boundaries: reconfiguring social and digital spaces" published in Frontiers in Sociology. It discusses the blurring boundaries between digital and social spaces, particularly highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The editorial brings together 10 articles from around the world to explore the reconfiguration of identities, relationships, and institutions in the context of social and digital spaces. The articles cover various topics such as the representation of female subjectivity in social media, the values conveyed by media contents, educational issues, political and citizenship issues, and methodological considerations. The editorial emphasizes the need for a transdisciplinary approach and highlights the complexity of exploring the interconnections between social and digital spaces. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The notion of the mechanism is one of the most popular and widely used concepts in science and sociology is no exception. This paper problematizes the widespread and often uncritical use of the term "mechanism" in contemporary sociology. Drawing on the mechanistic worldview associated with leading figures of the scientific revolution, the paper emphasizes the impact of mechanistic thinking on the societal rationalization process identified by Max Weber and the Frankfurt School. The analysis suggests that mechanisms, when applied to sociological theories, may uncritically reproduce a cultural fetish of the rational society with potentially dehumanizing consequences. The author advocates for a critical reflection on the cultural and historical context of mechanisms, urging sociologists to view them not merely as analytical tools but as active contributors to the creation and shaping of social worlds erected on a belief in instrumental reason. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing awareness that the condition of the built environment has a substantial impact on health. Systematic housing conditions surveys are a method for developing information about the physical condition of housing. This paper introduces the Center for Economic Information's (CEI) Neighborhood Housing Conditions Survey (NHCS). We discuss the history and implementation of the NHCS in light of other academic and civic housing conditions surveys. The paper also reviews the history and method of the NHCS. We find that housing conditions surveys are generally designed from scratch for each new research program, translating survey results into policy remains underdeveloped in the scholarly literature, and heterogeneity between surveys reduces the ability to compare observations across space and time. The NHCS may address some of these issues, suitable as an "off the shelf" template, adjustable to suit programmatic needs, and providing a baseline consistency across space and time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In parallel with their counterparts in neighboring countries, specifically Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Poland, Hungarian university students also exhibit a high level of involvement in internet activities, particularly within the realm of online social networking. Our quantitative data analysis, in line with our primary hypothesis, reveals a substantial proportion of university students displaying additional awareness also of academic online platforms (hereinafter: AOPs) specifically. These platforms, as per our typology, encompass the following categories: (1) academic online social networking sites; (2) databases lacking social features; and (3) author profiles linked to publishers. Notably, student awareness is most prominently affiliated with academic social networking sites offering comprehensive access to full-paper views. The data gathered in the framework of qualitative research was based on a contingent of 100 university respondents' (mostly female residents of the capital Budapest) answers to seven demographic and thematic questions The corresponding findings further indicate that, with the exception of a notable segment actively engaging with these AOPs, the majority of students exhibit sporadic usage patterns concentrated during specific seasonal peaks. At the same time, author profiles linked to publishers currently remain beyond the immediate reach of the broader student population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we demonstrate the ways in which the schooling of refugee youth in the United States reflects ongoing coloniality in education. Drawing on data collected in a case study, conducted between 2013 and 2016, as part of a larger ongoing ethnography of a Southwest United States District school's response to refugee students, we show how the enactment of policies, pedagogies, and practices within schools reinforce the government's control over refugee students and their families. In schools, the students are kept out of certain school spaces, marginalized in remedial courses, and denied academic opportunities and integrated support services. Using empirical data, we demonstrate how the restriction of the students' movement in and around schools is embedded within the larger limitations embedded in coloniality and assimilation. We situate our analysis within the tensions and interactions between coloniality, assimilation, and neoliberalism as articulated in studies within anthropology and sociology, migration studies, critical refugee studies, and cultural studies. We conclude with a call for the decolonization of education and offer a practical starting point in refugee education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital age has rekindled popular and academic interest in immortality. While the idea of immortality has long been recognized as fundamental to human societies, unlike death, within the field of sociology, immortality has not yet established itself as a distinct and autonomous field of study. This paper contributes to the recently emerging scholarship promoting a sociology of immortality. Drawing inspiration from C. Wright Mills's sociological imagination (1959) and building upon significant research in the field of immortality, we offer to use the concept of the immortological imagination as an analytical and conceptual tool for further developing a sociology of immortality. We refer to the immortological imagination as a complementary concept to Penfold-Mounce's thanatological imagination, seeing both concepts as stemming from two different lineages and academic traditions. After defining the immortological imagination and how it differs from and complements the thanatological imagination, the paper moves to discuss examples in popular culture establishing the potential impacts and influences of the immortological imagination, particularly within the digital context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Psychology & Sociology is the property of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Horses in Great Britain are living into increasingly older age and are often regarded as friends or family members by their owner. The horse is reliant on their owner to meet their needs and this paper discusses how horse owners frame an issue that becomes a matter of veterinary concern within the context of the older horse. Qualitative methods were used to explore the experiences of owners and veterinarians. Data were collected and analysed using a grounded theory approach during the period 2019-2022. Analysis identified that owners undertook an ongoing and iterative process of assessment, monitoring and decision making in relation to the animal and any changes they observed. Matters that became a veterinary concern required the owner to formulate the issue as something that fell within the knowledge domain of the veterinarian. Veterinarians had a medicalised view of older horse health and their perspectives on socially acceptable care were shaped by their understanding of speciesspecific needs, and whether owners were providing appropriately for those needs. The formulation of a matter of veterinary concern was itself shaped by an owner's experiential knowledge of both veterinary matters and their horse. The extent to which owners felt like they and their individual horse mattered during interactions with veterinarians affected whether they adopted veterinary advice and the nature of future veterinary employment. Findings demonstrate how matters of health, disease, and the role of professionalised forms of medical knowledge, are not static but constantly changing and interacting over time. An issue that became a matter of veterinary concern was contextual, and rooted in individual relationships. The significance of veterinarian-owner interactions in shaping future consumption of veterinary health care may be underestimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of digital sociology, debates continue about the best strategies to analyse the social role of algorithms, their design and uses, as well as their implications. To contribute to this conversation, this paper bridges a practical approach to culture - which considers culture as an outcome of social activities - with the tradition of cultural studies - which frames culture as a set of practices in the construction and interpretation of media messages and technological artifacts. Specifically, I focus on how Nick Seaver's "algorithms as culture" approach intersects with Stuart Hall's "Encoding/Decoding" model and the following applications to algorithmic media of different authors. Through this analysis, I argue that algorithms are culturally enacted by the encoding and decoding practices of their producers and end users. Thus, algorithms are considered as brought into being by the activities underlying their design, as well as by their uses, analyses, and interpretations. Furthermore, I propose different methodological strategies to analyse how encoding/decoding activities culturally enact algorithms within the social realm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I attempt to systematically reconstruct Theodor Adorno's account of the relationship between the processes of authoritarian subject formation and the processes of political formation of the democratic common will. Undertaking a reading that brings Adorno into dialogue with contemporary philosophical perspectives, the paper asks the question of whether it is possible to think of a "democratic We" in nihilistic times. In order to achieve this aim, I will analyze in reverse the modifications that the concept of narcissism has undergone, from Adorno's use of it to account for the symbolic obstacles to the formation of democratic subjectivities after the Holocaust, to the initial formulations of Freudian psychoanalysis. Finally, I will attempt to outline an affirmative answer to the initial question, formulating the potentials and merits of what I will call a politics of negativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While theoretical approaches attempt to map ancient childhood, the material and incidental nature of children's lives in all their varieties and differences, are crucial for understanding ancient childhood. Recent investigations into children in their living environments have shown attention to their clothing, childhood care, social relations, leisure and play, health and disability, upbringing and schooling, and their experiences of death. Children's lives and activities were framed also by the agonistic nature of first-century society, making them susceptible to structural violence in various ways. The purpose of the paper is to track and trace children's experience and in particular their agency in the ancient Roman world that were often hostile to little lives and bodies, and to consider the value of such studies for the interpretation of the New Testament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that interreligious dialogue through study and friendships across the religious divide makes participants less susceptible to religious and cultural misinformation that is often used to maintain social bubbles, in which members draw clear boundaries between "us" and "them". Differences between social groups can culminate in a struggle between "good" and "evil" that can escalate into tension and violence. Preventing tensions and conflicts requires respect for differences, willingness to engage in dialogue, and a sound understanding of what religion is and the historical processes that have determined its development, distinguishing between empirical facts and images to which believers adhere. Because the author is a Dutch sociologist turned journalist from a conservative Christian family involved in interreligious dialogue in the Netherlands, Israel, and Egypt, the literature review presents contemporary religious developments in all three countries. The literature review is flanked by the author's personal narrative on the events that changed his views on truth and spirituality, making him more aware of the commonalities between peoples of different beliefs and leading him to a lifelong commitment to interreligious and intercultural dialogue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze the movie The War Is Over (La guerre est finie—France/Sweden, 1966, directed by Alain Resnais and a screenplay by Jorge Semprún). The idea is to point out a possible sociological discussion on exile, mobilizing the notion of mental images. The methodological approach is an internal analysis of the film to allow for the elaboration of sociological considerations along with the expressive elements of the film construction. To do so, we shall focus on the "leaps" within the movie's narrative order, in which a main character (Diego) anticipates, through imagination, a series of sequences and events that might or might not have occurred. To discuss the notion of mental images and their relationship with the imaginary, the theoretical reference will be Cornelius Castoriadis' book The Imaginary Institution of Society. This article will benefit from the discussions in the presentations about the film both at meetings in Brazil and at the last ISA Congress 2023 (International Sociological Association—Research Committee 37—Sociology of Arts). This text is one of the results of research supported by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Accounting Perspectives is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Although the problem of category has traditionally been addressed by various scholars since Aristotle, Luhmann's epistemology has kept this matter in a suspended state, occasionally prioritizing some concepts (presumably categories) over others. However, for the sake of a consistent analysis of the semantics and societal self‐descriptions, it is better to have categorical constructs as focal points of systemic analysis manifested. Drawing upon resources of Luhmann's systems theory and Durkheim's sociology, this paper aims at elaborating the concept of category as an essential element of autopoietic analytical optics. It is shown that categories possess the following attributes: the highest degree of generalization and condensation, necessity, universality despite semantic variability, historicity and evolutionary characteristics. Amid a range of distinctions, system/environment, dis‐/similar, un‐/equal and distinction itself are considered to be categorical. These serve to carry out a primordial marking of 'unmarked space' and prepare the essential foundation for connectivity and other distinction generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the ideology of Sayyid Abul A'la Mawdūdī, a prominent Islamic scholar and thinker of the 20th century. Focusing on Mawdūdī's religious, social, economic, and political ideas, the paper examines his contributions to Islamic thought and their relevance in contemporary perspectives. With a special focus, the paper explores Mawdūdī's interpretations of Islam, his vision for society and governance, and his critiques of modern ideologies. Additionally, the paper examines the controversies surrounding Mawdūdī's thought and offers insights gained from comparative analysis with other Islamic thinkers. By exploring Mawdūdī's intellectual legacy, this paper seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of Islamic thought and its implications for contemporary Muslim societies. It seems that over the coming years the comprehension and influence of his thoughts will grow within the field of contemporary Islamic social sciences and he will be recognized as one of the most influential thinkers in contemporary world of Islam.

This is a study of an action research project conducted in one of the biggest university departments for sociology in a Central Eastern European capital during the first half of the 2000s. The paper shows that researchers' images of society have a strong impact on social scientific methodology, scientific explanations and narratives. I offer an example of how realist approaches to science and technology studies can be used in a field study and discuss the benefits and limitations of such an endeavor, which I define as an interpretive and explanatory social scientific work. The analysis shows ways in which latent knowledge structures influenced the wording of a questionnaire used in the research, the types of data that were gathered, and how the data were interpreted. These knowledge structures include notions concerning local policy discussions, different social policy traditions, and images of a Roma minority struggling with the effects of structural poverty and prejudices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foundations are one of the oldest organizational forms globally; their number and resources, as well as their socio-political and economic importance, have steadily continued to grow. Yet, foundations' attributes, activities, and actual achievements remain underexplored and poorly understood. This is particularly noticeable in the context of global policy and transnational administration, an area where foundations tend to be subliminal players, acting as a widely unrecognized socio-political undercurrent. Addressing the resulting need for better and alternative conceptualizations of foundations, our paper uses French pragmatic sociology of critique (FPSC), a non-structuralist, post-Bourdesian, approach to sociology, to theorize philanthropic foundations within the policy agora. Through FPSC, we present foundations as a composite setup of activity, where critically reflexive actors bring normative ideologies and knowledge to policy, providing a new avenue for how scholarship can interpret and critique foundations and their influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, titled "Editorial: Sociologies of health and emotions," explores the intersection of emotions, social conditions, and interactions in the context of healthcare. The authors discuss the role of emotions in healthcare work, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on mental health. They highlight the drawbacks of viewing emotions as individualistic phenomena and emphasize the importance of understanding empathy as an emotional practice. The article also examines the conceptualization of emotions in relation to patient care, clinician well-being, and societal factors such as race and culture. Overall, the research topic aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the complex role of emotions in healthcare experiences and delivery. [Extracted from the article]

Previous research has raised challenges in teaching gender theory in sociology courses. While many students appreciate such theories, some students resist sociological approaches to gender, sexualities, and social inequalities. There is a growing body of research that has recognized and explored pedagogical tools aiming to help students engage with sociological insights and concepts related to gender. However, more studies and pedagogical frameworks are needed to guide higher education teachers. Consequently, this perspective article aims to introduce and present how norm-critical design objects can be used as a pedagogical tool to enhance student learning and engagement. The article demonstrates how such objects have been incorporated into sociology courses and provides a springboard for reflective, thorough, and problematizing approaches to gender issues in sociology. Further, the article encourages a broader sociological discussion about the potential of using norm-critical design objects in sociology courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A big-data analysis shows that men are starkly over-represented in online images, and that gender bias is stronger in images compared with text. Such images could influence enduring gender biases in our offline lives. Biased images on the Internet could influence beliefs about gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In parallel with their counterparts in neighboring countries, specifically Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Poland, Hungarian university students also exhibit a high level of involvement in internet activities, particularly within the realm of online social networking. Our quantitative data analysis, in line with our primary hypothesis, reveals a substantial proportion of university students displaying additional awareness also of academic online platforms (hereinafter: AOPs) specifically. These platforms, as per our typology, encompass the following categories: (1) academic online social networking sites; (2) databases lacking social features; and (3) author profiles linked to publishers. Notably, student awareness is most prominently affiliated with academic social networking sites offering comprehensive access to full-paper views. The data gathered in the framework of qualitative research was based on a contingent of 100 university respondents’ (mostly female residents of the capital Budapest) answers to seven demographic and thematic questions The corresponding findings further indicate that, with the exception of a notable segment actively engaging with these AOPs, the majority of students exhibit sporadic usage patterns concentrated during specific seasonal peaks. At the same time, author profiles linked to publishers currently remain beyond the immediate reach of the broader student population.

The extant theory posits that ethno-racial diversity promotes entrepreneurship by increasing the novelty of information and perspectives available for recombination in a region. This view presupposes the flow of novel information among potential entrepreneurs. Yet, we know comparatively little about how regional social structures (e.g., collective social capital) that affect information flows condition this relationship. We build on the sociological literature to theorize how the interplay between collective social capital and residential segregation moderates the relationship between ethno-racial diversity and entrepreneurship. We test, and find empirical support for, our hypotheses among all registered new ventures started in the United States between 1990 and 2018. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial characteristics of element flow and its spillover are important topics in economics, sociology, and geography, and significant to the promotion of the coordinated development of urban agglomerations. To study element flow in the Lanxi urban agglomeration and its effect to economic development, the spatial network characteristics and economic spillover effect were studied using the methods of spatial network analysis, the spatial Durbin model, and spatial effect decomposition. The results showed that (1) the scale of element flow in the Lanxi urban agglomeration is in an unbalanced distribution state, the scale of element flow in Lanzhou and Xining is higher than that in surrounding cities, and the connection between surrounding cities is also higher than that between other cities; (2) the network structure of element flow in the Lanxi urban agglomeration is relatively intensive, with Lanzhou and Xining as the center of element concentration, which indicates an obvious 'center periphery' structure, and gradually spreads from the core area to the surrounding areas; and (3) the element concentration level of the Lanxi urban agglomeration has a significant positive spillover effect, which plays a significant role in driving the development of surrounding cities. Other factors, such as the social consumption level, have significant direct effects, whereas the industrial structure and residents' income have significant direct and spillover effects, and are the main factors that affect the coordinated development of the regional economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active transportation modes such as walking and biking are gaining popularity for their extensive health and environmental benefits, yet scholars know little about how place-based accessibility varies by area sociodemographic composition. This study is among the first to examine sociodemographic disparities (by both race and socioeconomic status) in bikeability while allowing for heterogeneity in disparities. Consideration of bikeability disparities is particularly critical within the framework of urban planning concepts that promote equitable accessibility and reduced dependency on automobiles, such as the 15-minute city. Geographically Weighted Regressions examined associations between census tract-level bikeability (using an index that combines five components), socioeconomic status, and percentage non-White residents (controlling for age of structures in tracts). Findings showed that the strength and directionality of associations between bikeability and race/socioeconomic status varied throughout the county, providing targeted information on where greater concentrations of low socioeconomic status and non-White residents were associated with lower bikeability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papeles del CEIC is the property of Centro de Estudios sobra la Identidad Colectiva, Facultas de Ciencias Sociales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Multiple studies have demonstrated that the conventional method of learning is suboptimal when our goal is to enhance individuals' genuine privacy behavior. This study introduces a framework for transforming privacy behavior, with the objective of enhancing individuals' privacy practices to a higher level of confidentiality. We performed an experiment on a limited number of people to validate the efficacy of our suggested transformation framework. This framework combined determining aspects of privacy behavior with experiential behavior modification methodologies such as neutral stimuli (e.g., cognitive behavioral transformation—CBTx), practical assessments and motivational interviews from other disciplines. While these methods have proven effective in fields like psychology and sociology, they have not yet been applied to the realm of Information Computer and Technology (ICT). In this study, we have effectively demonstrated the efficacy of the proposed framework through a five-phase experiment. The suggested framework has the potential to be advantageous for educational institutions, including both public and private schools as well as universities, to construct new frameworks or develop new methodologies regarding individuals' privacy behavior transformation to a more protective one. Furthermore, our framework offers a conducive environment for further investigation into privacy behavior transformation methodologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]