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This paper discusses the lasting impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on research ethics in social sciences by focusing on the concept of vulnerability. We unpack the current conceptualisations of vulnerability and their limitations and argue for the need to reconceptualise vulnerability as multidimensional, consisting of both universal and contextual dimensions, as well as their dynamic interplay. Multidimensional vulnerability is inspired by and relevant to social science research during the pandemic but can also be useful in other contexts such as climate change or conflict. The paper puts forwards several considerations about how this revised concept of vulnerability may be useful when evaluating ethical dimensions of social science research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of dialectical pluralism (DP) for nursing knowledge development. Nursing scholars have discussed ways of developing nursing knowledge, exploring the fit and relevance of various worldviews for knowledge development and examining the dynamic and perpetual processes of knowledge development. Scholars have argued that knowledge development occurs under a certain worldview to which the researcher adheres. Many nurses employ various worldviews, which can give rise to ontological and epistemological conflicts. DP can help nurses appreciate the diversity of worldviews and recognize the importance of implicit worldviews to generate more practical nursing knowledge. DP as a philosophical approach can enable nurses to communicate between diverse worldviews, become tolerant of conflicting differences, and develop an array of nursing knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of visual media, cities, and society are represented, experienced, and interpreted through images. The need for interdisciplinary visual approaches, therefore, is indisputable. By focusing on cinema, this paper aims to develop a conceptual, methodological framework through which theory helps a broad range of researchers in social sciences, humanities, and arts interpret the represented phenomenon. Based on Peirce's model of signs, the framework provides the basis for a dynamic interpretation of the city and society. This paper shows that Peircean cinesemiotics takes advantage of theory in three ways: First, as the basis that provides scholars with clues necessary for identifying eligible "image-signs"; second, as the guiding framework that helps them reach a final interpretation; third, as ideas are being criticized from visual perspectives. As an example of its application, using Jane Jacobs' "The Death and Life of Great American Cities," the final part of the paper applies Peircean cinesemiotics to an image-sign from Death Wish (2018) and interprets it as the representation of safety/crime in a neighborhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to comprehensively examine the effects of societal and individual characteristics on work-related attitudes, specifically work commitment and work orientations, using a single dataset and comparable models. It also seeks to relate these attitudes to classic theories and understand how societal factors shape work-related attitudes. The analysis is based on data collected by the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) in its work orientations survey. Data is analyzed using factor analyses, correspondence analyses, and multilevel regressions. The paper provides an overview of work-related attitudes at the country level and a detailed analysis of societal and individual variables that shape these attitudes. The results indicate that individual attitudes reflect large societal trends and developments, which are discussed with reference to current studies and classic theories. This paper contributes to understanding work-related attitudes by offering a comprehensive analysis of the effects of societal and individual characteristics, using a single dataset and comparable models. It also relates these attitudes to classic theories and discusses how societal factors shape work-related attitudes. The findings also have policy implications, particularly in the recruitment and retention of highly qualified and motivated workers in different countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Erving Goffman has a reputation as an intellectual maverick who did not fit neatly into any disciplinary mold. His failure to adhere to professional conventions and occasionally off-putting demeanor are mentioned as an aside that has little to do with his oversize influence on the science of society. This paper advances a thesis that Goffman's status as the most cited American sociologist and widespread influence across social science is related to his principled refusal to fit his scholarship into prevailing scholarly canons. The argument is made that Goffman shared with his mentor, Everett Hughes, misgivings about the narrow professional focus in contemporary sociology, that his cross-disciplinary approach advanced social inquiry beyond its traditional confines, and that his colloquial style and penchant for long essays helped disseminate his ideas. The discussion starts with an overview of Goffman's professional career, after which it moves to the reception of his ideas by fellow sociologists and the impact of his work on neighboring disciplines. The study draws on the interviews, correspondence, and other documents assembled in the Erving Goffman Archives, as well as on several social science citation indexes and datasets illuminating Goffman's stature in various fields of scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on papers by Michael Mulkay, Nigel Gilbert and John O'Neill which deal with the literary aspects of sociological redescription. Definition of sociological accounts; Shortage of contrasts in social science; Modes by which sociological accounts should be analyzed.

This paper aims to comprehensively examine the effects of societal and individual characteristics on work-related attitudes, specifically work commitment and work orientations, using a single dataset and comparable models. It also seeks to relate these attitudes to classic theories and understand how societal factors shape work-related attitudes. The analysis is based on data collected by the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) in its work orientations survey. Data is analyzed using factor analyses, correspondence analyses, and multilevel regressions. The paper provides an overview of work-related attitudes at the country level and a detailed analysis of societal and individual variables that shape these attitudes. The results indicate that individual attitudes reflect large societal trends and developments, which are discussed with reference to current studies and classic theories. This paper contributes to understanding work-related attitudes by offering a comprehensive analysis of the effects of societal and individual characteristics, using a single dataset and comparable models. It also relates these attitudes to classic theories and discusses how societal factors shape work-related attitudes. The findings also have policy implications, particularly in the recruitment and retention of highly qualified and motivated workers in different countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research studies of shopping with companions, or "co-shopping," have investigated different "types of companion" (e.g., children, spouses, parents, friends) and the nature of their influence on shoppers' retail experience. By means of a systematic literature review guided by the standard review protocol PRISMA and qualitative content analysis, this paper offers a state-of-the-art overview of 66 studies and their findings, through the middle of 2023. It finds that sparse attention has been paid to shopping companions' behaviors and personalities and that it is so far impossible to attribute their impacts on shoppers specifically to one or more types of companion. It also finds that the various factors that could facilitate understanding of how companions' influences work in practice remain largely unexplored. In short, too little is known about how companions exert their influence and how shoppers process it and there remains much to be investigated about the interplay between shoppers, their companions, and an interacting salesperson. Our detailed findings and their implications could therefore usefully shape the agenda for future research into accompanied shopping. Plain Language Summary: A systematic study of retail shopping companions and their various effects The purpose of this article is to explore the current state of research on the phenomenon of shoppers who visit retail environments with a designated companion. Through a systematic literature review following a standard review protocol (PRISMA) and subsequent qualitative content analysis, we summarize the findings of previous research on how companion shoppers have been studied and the effects of companions on the person they accompany. It becomes clear that while the general effects of companions on shoppers are well understood, there is a lack of understanding of how they generate their influence on shoppers and how shoppers go about the process of translating their influence into emotions and behaviors. Awareness of these processes can help retailers and their frontline employees better understand their customers and their companions, and thus shape the way they deliver their services at the point of sale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research paper is to identify advantages and barriers to implementation and usage of robotic-assisted surgery (RAS), specifically the Da Vinci robot, at a larger regional hospital in Norway and from a multiple stakeholder perspective. The identified advantages and barriers are connected to the socio-technical system framework SEIPS, thereby establishing a broader contextual system perspective on RAS implementation and usage. Our findings both align and extend upon existing human factors and ergonomics (HFE) knowledge on RAS in the operating room. In terms of specific future directions, we believe that a pressing concern for both management and current HFE research involving RAS implementation and usage relates to exploring and accounting for the close connections between the organization itself and the external stakeholders that exert a considerable influence on the internal work system and processes and the ability to achieve cost-efficiency and safety levels. We further conclude that the SEIPS framework can be a powerful tool in drawing or eliciting the larger contextual picture of RAS implementation and usage, and we encourage further HFE research to explore its application in different contexts to improve the current knowledge base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing acknowledgment by segments of the global population that it is becoming extremely difficult to ignore the negative production externalities of industrial processes. In this regard, the related concept of "sustainability" has been gaining traction, with use of the word rising considerably since the 1990s. The term itself has been defined in many different ways, however, the core components are becoming common knowledge: economic, environmental, and social--informally referred to as profits, planet, and people. As Borden has aptly noted: "Sustainability ideas are growing and maturing at many levels worldwide". One way that people come to know about sustainable development and its importance is through media coverage of the movement via various projects and initiatives that have been proposed on a theoretical or conceptual basis, as well as those models which have already been concretely realized. One such project established in 2015 is Dubai's "Sustainable City', the emirate's first net-zero energy working model, which received attention in the world press. This paper investigates and compares the coverage that the Sustainable City has received in the global and local media by utilizing a content analysis methodology guided by framing theory. The research joins the discussion on issues regarding how the media discuss aspects of "sustainability" and how it takes hold within a society, whether it be by grassroots or government policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is no lack of peer-reviewed publications that focus on resumes, there is a lack of theory-based research in the genre. Most studies on resumes report observations rather than test theories to predict screener behaviors, and recent calls to action have advocated for more theory-based resume research. This paper answers the call and offers ways in which scholars can introduce theory into the existing body of knowledge in the resume genre by exploring research questions guided by the various philosophical foundations of the communication discipline. Future resume research should reference Craig's constitutive metamodel that offers more than 250 communication theories into seven philosophical foundations: semiotic, phenomenological, cybernetic, sociopsychological, sociocultural, critical, and rhetorical when designing studies. Exploring resume research questions based on communication theory enables scholars to use an applied research perspective across disciplinary boundaries and advance knowledge of resumes, a key component of organizational entry. This paper opens the door for scholars to contribute to this large and important question of organizational entry by outlining resume research questions that can be explored within each of the theoretical foundations of the communication discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research paper is to identify advantages and barriers to implementation and usage of robotic-assisted surgery (RAS), specifically the Da Vinci robot, at a larger regional hospital in Norway and from a multiple stakeholder perspective. The identified advantages and barriers are connected to the socio-technical system framework SEIPS, thereby establishing a broader contextual system perspective on RAS implementation and usage. Our findings both align and extend upon existing human factors and ergonomics (HFE) knowledge on RAS in the operating room. In terms of specific future directions, we believe that a pressing concern for both management and current HFE research involving RAS implementation and usage relates to exploring and accounting for the close connections between the organization itself and the external stakeholders that exert a considerable influence on the internal work system and processes and the ability to achieve cost-efficiency and safety levels. We further conclude that the SEIPS framework can be a powerful tool in drawing or eliciting the larger contextual picture of RAS implementation and usage, and we encourage further HFE research to explore its application in different contexts to improve the current knowledge base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing acknowledgment by segments of the global population that it is becoming extremely difficult to ignore the negative production externalities of industrial processes. In this regard, the related concept of ''sustainability'' has been gaining traction, with use of the word rising considerably since the 1990s. The term itself has been defined in many different ways, however, the core components are becoming common knowledge: economic, environmental, and social--informally referred to as profits, planet, and people. As Borden has aptly noted: ''Sustainability ideas are growing and maturing at many levels worldwide''. One way that people come to know about sustainable development and its importance is through media coverage of the movement via various projects and initiatives that have been proposed on a theoretical or conceptual basis, as well as those models which have already been concretely realized. One such project established in 2015 is Dubai's ''Sustainable City', the emirate's first net-zero energy working model, which received attention in the world press. This paper investigates and compares the coverage that the Sustainable City has received in the global and local media by utilizing a content analysis methodology guided by framing theory. The research joins the discussion on issues regarding how the media discuss aspects of ''sustainability'' and how it takes hold within a society, whether it be by grassroots or government policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay is part of a special issue celebrating 50 years of Political Theory. The ambition of the editors was to mark this half century not with a retrospective but with a confabulation of futures. Contributors were asked: What will political theory look and sound like in the next century and beyond? What claims might political theorists or their descendants be making in ten, twenty-five, fifty, a hundred years' time? How might they vindicate those claims in their future contexts? How will the consistent concerns of political theorists evolve into the questions critical for people decades or centuries from now? What new problems will engage the political theorists (or their rough equivalents) of the future? What forms might those take? What follows is one of the many confabulations published in response to these queries. Our earth is approaching its end. Through Project Arcadia our species has a chance at escape. In this paper, I want to argue that Arcadia is all things considered unjustifiable and unadvisable. It is unjustifiable because human beings have proven themselves incapable of stewarding sentient life on planet earth; for example, our collective response to climate change has been dire, handled almost exclusively through adaptation, committing vast areas of the world to desolation, desertification, or disappearance. Basic respect for life, and what we likely will make of some other instances of it, should counsel humility as we contemplate relocating ourselves to other life-supporting domains. It is inadvisable because our species, like the world, is impermanent. We will, at some point, have to contemplate the ceasing of our existence, and it is my argument that we contemplate this ceasing on the terra firm of our own planet. In conclusion, and drawing on the work of Samuel Scheffler and the Japanese concept of mono no aware, I will argue that there is considerable value, admittedly tainted with considerable melancholy, to be had in grasping the opportunity provided by planetary devastation to achieve some semblance of narrative completion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media posts made by ordinary people are in most cases only viewed by a small number of friends and contacts. But some posts get thousands of likes, comments, and shares, a phenomenon often dubbed as going viral. This paper provides a content analysis of viral Facebook posts published by common people in Norway, and of the news coverage they received. The social media posts that go viral in Norway deal with a variety of topics, like health care, elderly care, bullying, traffic safety, unemployment, animal welfare, school, and education. Some of the viral posts were open job applications, and some were creative expressions. Many of the posts address political issues, and becomes part of the public debate. The posts are personal in their mode of address, often with an emotional appeal for civic engagement. They resemble the letters to the editor, though they bypass the editor and go directly to online self-publication, and in this way, moving parts of the public debate from the newspapers to social media. Most of the viral posts got news coverage, which in most cases focused more on the popularity cues and the virality of the post, and less on the topic the post addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the development and salience of an original and innovative interdisciplinary approach, Sensoria, that combines methods and techniques from social science and performance to address the methodological challenges of researching sensory/multimodal experiences. It sets out the core components and methodological principles that underpin the approach and uses an illustrative example to show how it can facilitate research on hard to access sensorial experiences, to access, understand and analyse people's experiences and perspectives of touch, a highly tacit sensory mode. The paper discusses the methodological contribution and challenges of this approach to sensory research for social science and artistic practice and 'more-than-representational' research more generally. It concludes by making a case for more critical research spaces at the intersection of these disciplines to foster multi-dimensional research dialogues and to advance the exploration and understanding of the relationship between the sensory, social and the digital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts of qualitative research methodology. They include "What Lies Beyond the Narrative Horizon?: The Spiritual Dimension in Critical Qualitative Research," "The Best and/or Worst Times? The Uncertain Future of Qualitative Research," and "The Contested Terrain of Action Research as a Qualitative Method."

In a number of linked articles and monographs over the last decade (e.g. Love, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017), literary scholar and critic Heather Love has called for a descriptive (re)turn in the humanities, repeatedly taking up examples of descriptive methods in the social sciences as exemplifying what that (re)turn might look like and achieve. Those of us working as sociologists, anthropologists, science and technology studies scholars and researchers in allied social science fields thus find ourselves reflected back in Love's work, encountering our own research practices in an unfamiliar light through it. In a period where our established methods and analytical priorities are subject to challenges on many fronts from within our own disciplines, it is hard not be struck by Love's provocative invocation of the social sciences as interlocutors and see in it an invitation to contribute to the debate she has sought to initiate by revisiting our own approaches to the problem of description. Inspired by Love's intervention, the eight papers that form this Special Issue demonstrate that by re-engaging with description we stand to learn a great deal. While the articles themselves are topically distinct and geographically varied, they are all based on empirical research and written to facilitate a reorientation to the role of description in our research practices. What exactly is going on when we describe an ancient papyrus as present or missing, a machine as intelligent, noise as music, a disease as undiagnosable, a death as good or bad, deserved or undeserved, care as appropriate or inappropriate, policies as failing or effective? As the papers show, these are important questions to ask. By asking them, we find ourselves in positions to better understand what goes into 'indexing and making visible forms of material and social reality' (Love, 2013: 412) as well as what is involved, more troublingly, in erasing, making invisible and dematerialising those realities or even, indeed, in uncovering those erasures and the means by which they were effected. As this special issue underlines, thinking with Love by thinking with descriptions is a rewarding exercise precisely because it opens these matters up to view. We hope others take up Love's invitation to re-engage with description for that very reason. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many contradictions in previous studies of the status of depressive symptoms among Chinese migrant children, the number of which in the compulsory education stage is about 13.9 million. This systematic review and meta-analysis were designed to compare depressive symptoms among migrant children and their urban children. Around 2,710 papers were retrieved from PubMed, OVID, the Web of Knowledge, CNKI, Wan Fang, Chongqing VIP, and Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index on January 27, 2020. Thirty-Two studies met study criteria with 14,906 migrant children and 10,792 urban children. Migrant children scored significantly higher for depressive symptoms score (SMD = 0.307, 95% CI [0.222, 0.393]). Region significantly influenced the difference of depressive symptoms between migrant children and urban children. Large effect sizes came from studies using scales that focus on depressive mood while studies using scales that focus on depressive behavioural symptoms had small effect sizes. Future research should focus on treatments to decrease depressive mood of migrant children. Future studies can add information about the length of their current stay in the urban location to improve the quality of study. PROSPERO registry: Systematic review registration no. CRD42018090676. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A call for papers on the epistemology and methodologies of the social sciences is presented.

Investor Relations (IR) has gained prominence globally and is now considered to be a major contributor to corporate value. For companies to thrive in the global environment, they need to build and maintain mutually beneficial relationships with their primary stakeholder, the stockholder. Consequently, scholars have argued that for IR to maximize its benefit to companies, the profession needs to shift from one-way asymmetrical communication to two-way symmetrical communication with stockholders. Although scholars have recommended this shift, there is a paucity of studies that have explored whether two-way symmetrical communication has been embraced in IR practice. Using the two-way symmetrical model of communication as its framework, and a qualitative methodology consisting of in depth interviews, documents analysis, and qualitative content analysis, this paper assessed how Investor Relations professionals in South Africa use communication to maintain relationships with stockholders. The findings of the study show that most IR professionals in South Africa are using what we term a bridged approach, consisting of one-way and two-way symmetrical communication, to maintain relationships with stockholders. Evidence gleaned from the study further indicates that the nature of communication between IR practitioners and stockholders has broadened beyond financial issues to include engagement on non-financial issues. These findings do not only show the existence of a paradigm shift in IR practice in South Africa, they also suggest the need by IR as a field to maintain constant dialogue with Public Relations theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many social science scholars, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to re-think our approaches to research. As a result of new social distancing measures, those of us who conduct in-person qualitative and ethnographic research have faced significant challenges in accessing the populations and fields we study. Technology served as an incredibly useful tool for social interaction and research prior to the pandemic, and it has since become even more important as a way to engage with others. Although not all types of social research, or even all projects, lend themselves to online activities, digital communication platforms like Zoom, Skype, and Facebook have allowed many of us to continue our studies from a distance—in some cases, significant temporal and spatial distances away from our research sites. As such, it is important to consider how these different methodological approaches challenge our understandings of fieldwork. While the disadvantages of not physically accessing the places we study are clear, can mediated approaches offer (any) hope of the immersion we experienced with in-person fieldwork? If many of us are able to continue ethnographic research (in some form) without co-locating with our participants in our field sites, how are our studies fundamentally affected, as well as the ways we conceptualize the 'field' more largely? This paper explores these methodological and epistemological questions through reflections on conducting online research during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to bring together some discourses from the authors of the books that made their marks in their days and from which we can learn more about the ongoing debate on decolonization and Africanization. Taking the historical perspective, first the paper builds its argument by showing how the current social science is still run according to the vestiges of orthodoxy. This is followed by a brief history of decolonial thoughts in Africa while the third point describes the challenges found in the recent debate on decolonization and leads to the conclusion that while the impact of this debate has been well documented, its discourses need to be retouched and supplemented before we could see its much bigger impact in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings reflexivity into conversation with debates about positionality and live sociology to argue for reflexivity to be reimagined as an enduring practice that is collaborative, responsible, iterative, engaged, agile and creative. We elaborate our argument with reference to examples and contemplations drawn from our experiences researching what Brexit means for Britons living in the EU-27 for the BrExpats research project, which was informed from the outset by reflexive practice. We outline three (of a number of) potential strategies for engaging in reflexive practice: reflexive positioning, reflexive navigating and reflexive interpreting or sense-making. We acknowledge that these are not separate actions in practice but are conceptually distinguishable aspects of an ongoing reflexive practice, informed by our understanding of the cognitive relationship between reflexivity and practice theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to an increasingly complex mixture of different types of public spaces and their functions in cities, the role of public spaces can be enhanced to serve users under certain circumstances. This paper examines Carmona's classification of urban spaces in Al-Baha, Saudi Arabia. Carmona introduces a classification that uses aspects of function, perception, and ownership to distinguish between space types. Twenty urban space types are recognized in four groups, representing a variety from clearly public to private space. The classifications of public spaces will be discussed to arrive at classifications for public spaces based on how public spaces are managed. The article builds an understanding of how such classifications relate to how real public spaces are provided today. In this case study, a Geographic Information System (GIS) map is created for Al-Baha Central District and includes the resulting classifications. From the 119 urban spaces selected to represent this study equally distributed across the study area, there are 12 types that public spaces match Carmona's classification. The classification of urban spaces for this case study revealed the complexity of public spaces' nature and the difficulty of distinguishing what is public. Public spaces tend to change and develop over time through other uses and activities. However, the classification of public spaces is a valuable tool that policymakers and planners can use to set comprehensive development plan programs and plan open space strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Finland, the discussion surrounding the impact of research on society has continued for two decades without a consensus on how impact should be part of research evaluation. In this paper, I examine the conceptions of social impact in the field of social sciences from the perspectives of policy authors and academics by reviewing policy documents and conducting semi-structured interviews with 14 policy advisors, evaluation experts, and faculty professors. The policy data sets are from 2003 to 2018, the period in which the Finnish discussion on research impact has been the most active. Interpretivist notions on the social impact of the social sciences argue that representations of social impact derive from juxtapositional conceptions of how social science knowledge is part of society. Grounded theory techniques were used to analyze policy artifacts and stakeholder interviews. I identified five interpretative frames. These are impact governance, operationalization of impact, politicization of research utilization, guiding arrangements, and social impact of the social sciences. A key finding is that policy advisors and academic experts tend to integrate divergent vocabularies of research utilization and its evaluation, resulting in uncertainty about the conceptualization and operationalization of impact. Integrity of research utilization in research policy and research evaluation could increase the social capacity of the social sciences by helping to understand the conceptual contribution of these fields to public policies and public discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantitative cross-cultural databases can help uncover structure and diversity across human populations. These databases have been constructed using a variety of methodologies and have been instrumental for building and testing theories in the social sciences. The processes and assumptions behind the construction of cross-cultural databases are not always openly discussed by creators or fully appreciated by their users. Here, we scrutinize the processes used to generate quantitative cross-cultural databases, from the point of ethnographic fieldwork to the processing of quantitative cross-cultural data. We outline challenges that arise at each stage of this process and discuss the strengths and limitations of how existing databases have handled these challenges. We suggest a host of best practices for cross-cultural database construction, and stress the importance of coding source meta-data and using this meta-data to identify and adjust for source biases. This paper explicitly discusses the processes, problems, and principles behind cross-cultural database construction, and ultimately seeks to promote rigorous cross-cultural comparative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of vignettes that are based upon fictionalised accounts is well-established in contemporary social science. Vignettes have been used in a variety of ways to contribute to studies with both a quantitative and a qualitative orientation. This paper reflects on two recent qualitative studies which have made innovative use of 'real-life' vignettes. In each case, the paper describes some of the unanticipated and overlapping benefits that accrued from their incorporation into the research design and reflects on the advantages that 'real-life' vignettes might bring to future research. Drawing on two different research projects, the paper highlights the further potential contribution of 'real-life' vignettes to the repertoire of research methods currently available to social scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores 'diary-keeping behaviour', or the ways in which participants conduct the completion and submission of diaries in diary research. There is a paucity of methodologically oriented literature on diary method and as such this article makes a contribution to extending the existing knowledge of this method. The primary aim of this article is to set out in detail the key issues relating to diary-keeping behaviour, in order to provide a foundation for future critical explorations of this facet of diary research. The research that this paper is based on involved a 12-month diary-interview study. This project explored the employability management of Chinese international Master's students in social sciences studying in the UK during one academic year. The article sets out key facets of diary-keeping behaviour and explores specific considerations for diary studies in higher education contexts, where diary research has been particularly neglected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the sociology of elites and the role of cliques on the foreign policy-making process through an exploratory case study of Turkish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. It identifies elite sociology as the independent variable triggering a policy-making process in the Turkish Ministry for Foreign Affairs in line with organisational process or governmental politic approaches. It shows that until the 1980s, the Turkish Ministry for Foreign Affairs was marked by strong hierarchical tradition triggered by a certain career path and cliqueism leading to the homogeneity in the sociology of elites. This in turn triggered a foreign policy-making process based on organisational process. The role of cliqueism weakened along with the incremental circulation of elites in the post-1980s and particularly in the post-2005 period as the elite structure in the Turkish Ministry for Foreign Affairs became even more heterogeneous, foreign policy-making process moved towards governmental politics which allowed taking into account diverse schools of thought. Nevertheless, newly emerging programmatic elites employed deliberate efforts for elite circulation by altering the dominant career path and relying on political appointments. The resulting outcome was the emergence of a new clique of ruling elites subordinate to political elites which led to the politicisation of the foreign policy decision-making process in the post-2011 period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section introduces several articles related to Chinese sociology, published in the December 1989 issue of the Journal International Sociology.

Howard Becker's practice of description has been debated, critiqued and reclaimed in a range of fields including sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, Science & Technology Studies, critical drug studies and more recently Heather Love's (2015) appraisal of deviance studies. Much of this debate concerns the uses of social research methods and their political effects. Taking up these issues with the construction of social scientific knowledge in Becker's work, this article returns to the methodological problem of description in Becker's research on drug use. Focusing on the legacy of Becker's empirical studies of deviance and the critiques of his research methods, it addresses the problem of description in the research process. In reviewing the methodological relevance of Becker's problem of description as a tool for thinking sociologically, the paper evaluates the contribution of descriptive methods for contemporary sociology and knowledge production. In so doing, it demonstrates how description is transformative of objects, problems and disciplinary practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Posthumanism has challenged the social sciences and humanities to rethink anthopocentricism within the cultures and societies they study and to take account of more-than-human agencies and perspectives. This poses key methodological challenges, including a tendency for animal geographies to focus very much on the human side of human–animal relations and to fail to acknowledge animals as embodied, lively, articulate political subjects. In this paper, we draw on recent ethnographic work, observing and participating in the care of research animals and interviewing the animal technologists, to contribute to the understandings of life within the animal house. In so doing, the paper makes three key arguments. Firstly, that studying how animal technologists perform everyday care and make sense of their relationships with animals offers useful insights into the specific skills, expertise and relationships required in order to study human–animal relations. Secondly, that animal technologists are keenly aware of the contested moralities which emerge in animal research environments and can offer an important position from which to understand this. Thirdly, that storytelling (exemplified by the stories told by animal technologists) is a useful resource for animal geographers to engage with complexity in human–animal relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of many and varied concerns that the processes of institutional ethical review are flawed, cumbersome, and in need of reform, these processes do provide effective protection in certain situations for individual research subjects, researchers, and the institutions from which the researchers venture to conduct their fieldwork. Many in the social sciences have argued that the ethical protocols that the researcher must observe are designed to protect against the potential dangers of much riskier biomedical research, and that social research is, by and large, harmless. Although there is some validity to that argument, in this paper, social research is assessed not in terms of its risks to the individual participant, but to communities. By examining the protocols of the Belmont Report, the Institutional Review Board, and the American Sociological Association's "Code of Ethics" and ethical review, this paper discusses some of the major blind spots in the ethical review of social science research, applying the analysis in particular to the case of indigenous communities, who have historically sustained significant damage from academic researchers against which no standardized institutional review could have protected them. The paper covers the history and parameters of these three ethical review institutions, identifies shared blind spots, and discusses the consequences of these blind spots for indigenous communities, ending with some suggestions of ways to address the problems in the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Repeat Question Diary method involves research participants audio-recording many answers to a single question. This article investigates some of the features of the method that are relevant to the study of mobile practices. Particularly, the method encourages participant reflection and the paper argues that this can facilitate the study of mobile practices through enabling participants to notice and analyse previously taken-for-granted, pre-conscious, or corporeal aspects of their practices. The paper also explores the use of audio-recording in diary research and argues that audio-diaries can facilitate participant expression, particularly of emotions, and can avoid the stifling effects of self-editing in written diaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the notion of 'participation' as it has been used in the social sciences throughout the 20th century. It proposes that there are two main traditions of use – an 'individual' one, and a 'dividual' one – and it argues in favour of the latter. It does this by examining how Simmel and Goffman, on the one hand, and Lévy-Bruhl and Durkheim, on the other, defined participation. Developed by Lucien Lévy-Bruhl in the first part of the last century, 'participation' in the dividual sense is today being given new life by sociocultural anthropologists such as Marshall Sahlins and phenomenologically inclined cognitive scientists such as Shaun Gallagher. The paper addresses the roots of the concept in Scholastic theology and proposes to show how central it can come to be to a sociocultural anthropology that is willing to take on frontally the challenges presently being posed by embodied cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is a valid measuring instrument? Recent philosophy has attended to logic of justification of measures, such as construct validation, but not to the question of what it means for an instrument to be a valid measure of a construct. A prominent approach grounds validity in the existence of a causal link between the attribute and its detectable manifestations. Some of its proponents claim that, therefore, validity does not depend on pragmatics and research context. In this paper, I cast doubt on the possibility of a context-independent causal account of validity (what I call unconditional validity). I assess several versions, arguing that all of them fail to judge the validity of measuring instruments correctly. Because different research purposes require different properties from measuring instruments, no account of validity succeeds without referring to the specific research purpose that creates the need for measurement in the first place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the introduction to the first-ever special issue on the spatial dimensions of FinTech, we show that despite a FinTech fever in business and media, research on FinTech is still niche, particularly in social sciences. We describe FinTech as a research area full of controversies, ripe and in need of geographical research. As we outline, papers in this issue contribute to the debate primarily by examining the role of the state, financial centres and uneven development in FinTech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of moral economy has been increasingly popular in the social sciences over the past decade, given a confusing variety of meanings and sometimes invoked as an empty symbol. This paper begins by describing this state of affairs and some of its undesirable corollaries, which include unthinking invocations of the moral and simplistic views of some sorts of economic activity. Then, referring especially to the work of EP Thompson and James C Scott, this paper proposes a more precise definition of moral economy that roots moral economic activity in the mutual obligations that arise when people transact with each other over the course of time. It thus distinguishes between the moral values that are the context of economic activity and those that arise from the activity itself. The solution that the paper proposes to the confused state of ‘moral economy’ can, therefore, be seen as terminological, as the sub-title suggests, but it is intended to have the substantive benefits of a better approach to economic activity and circulation and a more explicit and thoughtful attention to moral value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how materials libraries are used as tools for interdisciplinary collaboration in 3 research projects that inhabit a disciplinary triangle between materials research, design and user needs: PhysFeel, which explores how materials collections can be used in psychological therapies; Light.Touch.Matters, a design-led project to develop new smart materials; and Hands of X, which uses materials collections to develop a bespoke prosthetics service. The paper analyses and contrasts these case studies to better understand the affordances and limitations of materials collections when used as research, translational and design tools. We conclude that in collaborations between materials researchers, designers and end users, tensions arise as a result of the primacy that each partner gives to creativity, the development of new knowledge and to solving societal problems. The use of a materials library addresses many of these issues but is not a panacea for all the problems associated with interdisciplinary working. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hundreds of papers have been published using Twitter data, but few previous papers report the digital divide among Twitter users. British Twitter users are younger, wealthier, and better educated than other Internet users, who in turn are younger, wealthier, and better educated than the off-line British population. American Twitter users are also younger and wealthier than the rest of the population, but they are not better educated. Twitter users are disproportionately members of elites in both countries. Twitter users also differ from other groups in their online activities and their attitudes. These biases and differences have important implications for research based on Twitter data. The unrepresentative characteristics of Twitter users suggest that Twitter data are not suitable for research where representativeness is important, such as forecasting elections or gaining insight into attitudes, sentiments, or activities of large populations. In general, Twitter data seem to be more suitable for corporate use than for social science research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saturation of data has been acknowledged by many social scientists as evidence of rigor in qualitative research. Though there is a consensus about its definition and usefulness in qualitative research, the methods for achieving saturation are scarce while the social scientists who mention data saturation in their research methodologies do not adequately describe how this is achieved. This paper describes a new method for achieving saturation in studies that use interviews. The method is called Comparative Method for Themes Saturation (CoMeTS). CoMeTS is comparative in two ways. First, all themes from all interviews are compared with each other. Second, the sequence of interviews is reordered multiple times in order to check saturation again. This is because the sequence of interviews during the check makes saturation vary and, therefore, reordering helps confirming saturation. This paper concludes that CoMeTS is a simple, comparative and holistic method for achieving saturation and that it can be used in complicated qualitative studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand the presence and positioning of Latina faculty in humanities and social science scholarship, the authors analyzed articles published between 2000 and 2016 and developed three findings. First, few papers centered Latina professors. Second, when Latina faculty were featured in scholarship, it was often in the context of research concerning other minoritized and underrepresented faculty, more generally. Third, Latina faculty were frequently elevated as intellectuals when Latina-identifying scholars conducted the work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary : How does one go about doing or engaging in ethnomethodological study of local occasions? Would such study be of value for social workers, hence would it help them to understand the everyday accomplishment of practice as social work? Harold Garfinkel, the founder of ethnomethodology, argued that the task is to start with and to be in the midst of ordinary and everyday activities. A beginning in ordinary, mundane, and everyday activities is also to be surrounded by taken-for-granted understandings, frameworks, and facts or facticities. The focus on "facticities" of everyday things directs us to attend to utterly ordinary and mundane interactions, and here there is deep congruence with social work interests and practices. Findings: This paper turns to Garfinkel's oeuvre to set out in readily understandable language the orientation and tools needed for social workers to do ethnomethodological studies. A focal question is: Just how might social workers in the midst of practice actually go about engaging in EM? Application: By taking up tools from ethnomethodology, social workers can better understand and explicate the essential reflexivity of their everyday practice. As a result, EM provides a pathway for both understanding and teaching effective social work through a reflective and reflexive turn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his essay 'The Impact of the Concept of Culture on the Concept of Man', Clifford Geertz asserts that contemporary social science must 'look for systematic relationships among diverse phenomena'. Geertz credits his approach to developments in the field of cybernetics, which pioneered the study of modern information systems to understand everything from computer systems and biological networks to human organisation. Geertz's early formulation of culture, as a set of publicly traded symbols and their meanings, relied on cybernetic theories of 'control mechanisms', as discreet, ordered instructions and operational codes. In locating Geertz and the notion of culture within the historical developments and transformation of cyborg science, this paper also seeks to understand the expansive transformation of American anthropology in the Cold War period, as it shifts from the study of primitive to complex societies in the context of America's growing global ambitions. Repositioning Geertz in this way helps contemporary readers understand Geertzian 'culture' beyond the limits of the cultural turn. More crucially, it better situates current anthropological interest in contingency, ontology and emergence within a broader historical and intellectual genealogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To explore the practice and science of social good and identify avenues for producing research and evidence-based practice in this area. The main proposition of this paper is that social good has the potential to promote ideals that directly align with social work values, offer new alliances and innovative technologies for achieving them, and spark interest in macro practice. Method: To gain an understanding of social good, a three-pronged approach was used: (a) review of multidisciplinary academic literature; (b) review of web-based information; and (c) analysis of qualitative interviews with nine social good experts. Results: The combined data indicated three social good domains: diversity and inclusion, environmental justice and sustainability, and peace and collaboration. A proposed definition and conceptual model of social good has emerged from the data: (I) social good domains; (II) unconventional systems of change; and (III) innovative technologies and approaches. Conclusions: Social good can open up new opportunities for the social work profession, together with allied disciplines, to lead the development of evidence-based practices and educational programs aimed at promoting social justice. It can bring a fresh direction to social work, rooted in the profession's bedrock values and befitting the entrepreneurial spirit, advances and technological innovations of the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that the term "capitalism" carries with it baggage that interferes with our ability to understand contemporary market economies. The evolution of work in the "varieties of capitalism" literature is used to make the argument that more essentialist modes of analysis win out over those that emphasize variation and contingency. It is argued that analysts should instead use the terminology of variegated societies operating within a capitalist world economy in order to develop a better toolkit for analyzing political, social, and economic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we will focus on the effects of continuous and final assessment on students’ final grades. In particular, the aim is to quantify the degree of improvement that the qualification criteria of written tasks entails, and to ascertain whether continuous assessment is crucial for the final grade of students who have passed the continuous assessment process. The results suggest that the way in which the final grade is calculated is crucial for the results. The findings indicate that continuous assessment activities (practical activities in class and submission of written papers) are more relevant for the final grade than the completion of tests throughout the course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper thinks about ourselves as communal beings, tied together and created by common actions of sociality. The perspective presented here stems from what Wills (this issue) terms the Aristotelian position that community is always with us, but it tries to move beyond that simple statement, to ask questions, and propose answers to the question of how: how is community always with us? Embedded in that question of course are others: what are the implications of such an investigation for a discipline tasked to investigate the social? How do we investigate the social of which we are both observer and act-or? What does thinking differently about community mean? What would such a different approach to community look like and finally, how does community work? To confront these questions the paper proposes an investigative analytic which positions communal being-ness as the source of ontological meaning. It proposes that the 'who' we are, our being-ness/identity, is the outcome of constant sociality enacted in common and created and sustained in common through the inter-relational linking of action, materiality, subjectivity, speech and the world of accepted meanings. It proposes a social science means for the investigation of this sociality, this communal being-ness of ours: that is a method for studying the social not built upon concepts borrowed from other fields, but particular to the task at hand. It argues that Hannah Arendt's (1958) account of the creation of our human being-ness as a temporary outcome held in common, provides the foundation for thinking inter-relationally about our communing, and about the social world, to which that thinking must be inexorably bound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015, Comparative Political Studies embarked on a landmark pilot study in research transparency in the social sciences. The editors issued an open call for submissions of manuscripts that contained no mention of their actual results, incentivizing reviewers to evaluate manuscripts based on their theoretical contributions, research designs, and analysis plans. The three papers in this special issue are the result of this process that began with 19 submissions. In this article, we describe the rationale for this pilot, expressly articulating the practices of preregistration and results-free review. We document the process of carrying out the special issue with a discussion of the three accepted papers, and critically evaluate the role of both preregistration and results-free review. Our main conclusions are that results-free review encourages much greater attention to theory and research design, but that it raises thorny problems about how to anticipate and interpret null findings. We also observe that as currently practiced, results-free review has a particular affinity with experimental and cross-case methodologies. Our lack of submissions from scholars using qualitative or interpretivist research suggests limitations to the widespread use of results-free review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]