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Abstract: We analysed changes in cuticular hydrocarbon signatures of workers in orphaned colonies of the paper wasp Polistes dominulus. In natural conditions, workers and foundresses possess characteristic cuticular signatures, and foundresses are further distinguishable, both behaviourally and chemically, on the basis of their rank in a reproductive dominance hierarchy. In our study, several workers were found to develop their ovaries and produce cuticular signatures resembling those of dominant foundresses, while remaining workers possessed undeveloped ovaries and had cuticular blends characteristic of subordinate foundresses. Workers that did not develop their ovaries had changed epicuticular signatures, demonstrating that the mixture of hydrocarbons of worker individuals is strongly dependent on social role and environment. Our results suggest that the composition of epicuticular lipids is not determined at the pre-imaginal stage, and that physiological pathways leading to cuticular chemical changes are similar in foundresses and workers of P. dominulus. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The problem of context, which explores relations between societal conditions and science, has a long and contentious tradition in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science. While the problem has received little explicit attention in recent years, two contemporary positions remain evident. First is the resources model , which seeks to maintain the autonomy of scientists by denying contextual influence, restricting the role of contexts to providing a pool of 'novel inputs'. Second is the contextual shaping position which recognizes that societal conditions influence science but remains conceptually vague and theoretically undeveloped. This paper argues, given current disciplinary conditions, the problem of context deserves renewed attention. In this paper I first review the history of the debate from the 1930s, highlighting several anxieties that continue to hamper the open study of the problem. After this historical review, I provide a critique of the resources model and assess the possibilities and shortfalls of the contextual shaping position. By addressing past and present perspectives, my goal is to move firmly beyond narrow accounts of context, as exemplified by the resources model. Instead, I propose a renewed program of research in which rich empirical studies are combined with equally rich theoretical work directed toward developing conceptual tools better able to capture the multiple intricacies evident in context-science relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In matching markets, objects are allocated to agents without monetary transfers, based on agents' preferences. However, agents may not have enough information to determine their preferences over the objects precisely. How should a benevolent planner optimally reveal information to maximize social welfare in this context? I show that when agents are symmetric and there are just two options, letting each agent know his rank in the realized distribution of preferences – but not his actual preferences – always improves social welfare over providing no information. When there are more objects, this rank-based information policy generalizes to the Object Recommendation (OR) Signal, which consists of simply recommending each agent to pick his socially-optimal choice. Under a mild regularity condition, I show that, when agents' a priori relative preferences over the objects are "not too strong", the OR Signal, used together with any standard ordinal mechanism, not only maximizes welfare, but achieves the unconstrained social optimum — formalizing the intuition that when people do not have strong opinions over several options, it is easy to sway them. • In this paper we tackle the information design problem of a benevolent planner in a school choice problem, where students do not fully know their own preferences over schools. • When students are symmetric and there are just two schools, letting each student know his rank in the realized distribution of preferences – but not his actual preferences – always improves social welfare over providing no information. • When there are more schools, this rank-based information policy generalizes to the Object Recommendation (OR) Signal, consisting of simply recommending each student to pick his socially-optimal choice — which achieves first best aggregate welfare, as long as students' a priori preferences over schools are not "too strong". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social relations are embedded in material, cultural, and institutional settings that affect network dynamics and the resulting topologies. For example, romantic entanglements are subject to social and cultural norms, interfirm alliances are constrained by country-specific legislation, and adolescent friendships are conditioned by classroom settings and neighborhood effects. In short, social contexts shape social relations and the networks they give rise to. However, how and when they do so remain to be established. This paper presents network ecology as a general framework for identifying how the proximal environment shapes social networks by focusing interactions and social relations, and how these interactions and relations in turn shape the environment in which social networks form. Tie fitness is introduced as a metric that quantifies how well particular dyadic social relations would align with the setting. Using longitudinal networks collected on two cohorts each in 18 North American schools, i.e., 36 settings, we develop five generalizable observations about the time-varying fitness of adolescent friendship. Across all 252 analyzed networks, tie fitness predicted new tie formation, tie longevity, and tie survival. Dormant fit ties cluster in relational niches, thereby establishing a resource base for social identities competing for increased representation in the relational system. • We present an ecological framework for studying relational dynamics in defined social settings. • Selection pressures operating at different timescales constrain relational activities and shape attainable outcomes. • Tie fitness quantifies a tie's alignment with a setting. Fitness predicts new relation formation, survival, and longevity. • Clusters of fit ties establish relational niches in which social identities can compete for increased representation in the relational system. • Network ecology draws attention to the processes that drive tie selection and the strictness of ecological constraint, the coevolution of relational norms with the proximal environment, and the evolving salience of social identities over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feld's focus theory is one of the most influential approaches in social network analysis. However, with very few exceptions, empirical assessments of the theory have only focused on a narrow range of its predictions premised on comparative statics. This paper restates classical focus theory in terms of dependence between multiple network layers as they co-evolve, yielding dynamic focus theory. Social foci serve as an ecology within which person-to-person relations form and as a mechanism via which tastes and behaviors diffuse within a population through interpersonal ties. We argue this is a type of "focus effect" distinct from the standard tie-generation process typically considered. In addition, we go beyond previous single-foci studies in considering multiple foci types, allowing us to ascertain which foci—e.g., clubs, activities, musical genres, or academic course areas—act more like tie generators or which ones as taste diffusers. Using rich data from the NetSense and NetHealth studies, we use recently developed Stochastic Actor-Oriented Models (SAOMs) for two-mode networks to estimate simultaneous foci effects across different foci types. We find that musical genres function primarily as taste-diffusers, club types exclusively as tie generators, and course areas and activities as both tie generators and taste diffusers. We conclude by discussing key implications of dynamic focus theory, including how foci properties can account for variability in foci effects and the role different types of social foci play in social influence and the diffusion of tastes and behaviors. • Building on classical focus theory, we develop a dynamic focus theory. • Dynamic focus theory links the co-evolution of multiple networks to diffusion processes. • We find some foci function primarily as tie generators, increasing the probability that two people form a social tie. • We find other foci act more like diffusion points, amplifying the dyadic social influence processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes how work system theory (WST) was used to achieve the goal of creating an information system artifact that allows for both static and dynamic views of the work systems used in social care environments, in particular those of addiction peer support. In so doing, the internal environment, strategies, and infrastructure created the foundation upon which the Collaborative Health Information for Peer Support Specialists (CHIPSS) was implemented. Doing so was part of an organizational and state-sponsored strategy to streamline social care practices and enhance client care. Scenario-based requirements gathering was instrumental in ensuring that the work of the peer support specialist, rather than the information system, was the focus of the artifact. This study reports on the alignment of initial requirements to the final artifact. Results of a post-implementation survey suggest that the resulting requirements were well aligned with the initial requirements elucidated from the scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using machine learning algorithms in social environments and systems requires stricter and more detailed control. More specifically, the cost of error in such systems is much higher. Therefore, one should ensure that important decisions, such as whether to convict a person or not based on the previous criminal record, are by the legal requirements and not biased toward a group of people. One can find many many papers in the literature aimed at mitigating or eliminating unwanted bias in machine learning models. A significant part of these efforts add fairness constraint to the mathematical model or adds a regularization term to the loss function. In this paper, we show that optimizing the loss function given the fairness constraint or regularization for unfairness can surprisingly yield unfair solutions. This is due to the linear relaxation of the fairness function. By analyzing the gap between the true value of fairness and the one obtained using linear relaxation, we found that the gap can be as high as around 21% for the COMPAS dataset, and around 35% for the Adult dataset. In addition, we show that the fairness gap is consistent regardless of the strength of the fairness constraint or regularization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Second generation individuals (SGIs) represent an increasingly important share of the growing European population. Most literature focuses on the difficulties experienced by SGIs, risking reinforcing popular constructions of SGIs as a problematic group. Examining the potentials of SGIs may help to create a more balanced representation of their social reality and highlight opportunities inherent in multi-ethnic societies. In this paper we suggest that SGIs upbringing amongst multiple cultures may, under certain conditions, favour their developing strong intercultural competence (IC), a vital resource in contemporary, highly diverse societies. Following a literature review, we highlight that the IC of SGIs remains largely unexplored and there is a need for further research to investigate its features and the factors fostering and hindering its development. We begin by defining IC and the approach we adopt to view the construct, and by characterizing SGIs and the main critical implications and potentials of their growing up within multiple cultural environments. Subsequently we unite the contributions of migration studies and the body of work on IC in order to explain the processes by which SGIs likely develop IC. We propose the need for investigation of the IC of SGIs, making the case that research on IC should acknowledge the distinctiveness of SGIs experience and therefore utilize specific conceptual and methodological tools to explore the features and development processes of their IC. The paper ends with a discussion of the remaining knowledge gaps and by setting out an agenda for future research on the IC of SGIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The maritime transportation system heavily depends on sea lanes of communication. Unfortunately, the surge in shipping activities has also resulted in an increase in maritime incidents, encompassing both conventional accidents and piracy-related events. This paper presents a novel object-oriented Bayesian network framework for assessing the risk of traditional maritime accidents and piracy-related incidents. Furthermore, an enhanced machine-learning-based Tree augmented naïve learning approach is proposed to address the correlation relationships among the influential factors and the distinctions between mathematical and practical meanings. The paper also introduces mutual information theory and an improved scenario construction approach to identify the key influential factors on maritime risks and unveil the non-linear relationships among them. The findings indicate that both the degraded natural environment and social environment contribute to the risk levels of maritime accidents. Furthermore, the type of ship is recognized as the most significant factor contributing to unsafe conditions. The research results will offer valuable insights to the maritime industry, specifically aiding ship owners, ship crew, and shipping companies in understanding the key influential factors in multiple types of maritime accidents and assessing potential risks. • A novel Object – oriented Bayesian network is developed to assess the accidents along the sea lanes of communication. • The key influential factors on both maritime accidents and piracy accidents are identified. • Both the traditional maritime accidents and non-traditional piracy accidents are considered. • An improved Tree augmented naïve learning structure learning approach is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In sub-Saharan African cities, community-driven development has emerged as a collective response to entrenched socio-spatial inequalities and inappropriate local development planning responses to the challenges of informal settlements. Social capital is considered to stimulate such community-driven initiatives. There are also claims that social capital can impede the sustainable development of informal settlements. Yet, none of these streams pay due attention to what forms of social capital and what urban social context social capital influences community-led informal settlement improvement. This paper sought to examine the influential role of bonding and bridging social capital on community-driven development (CDD) by comparing indigenous and migrant urban informal settlements in Accra, Ghana. Drawing on a quantitative study with 300 participants in two informal settlements and using a robust multi-group analysis, the findings revealed that bonding social capital had a positive effect on CDD (β = 0.27, p = 0.05) in the indigenous informal settlement (Abese Quarter) but insignificant relationship (β = -0.33, p = 0.36) in the migrant informal settlement (Old-Tulaku). Contrarily, bridging social capital had a positive effect on the migrant (β = 0.87, p = 0.05) but not on indigenous informal settlements (β = 0.07, p = 0.09). The paper concludes that the exploitation of social capital in bottom-up informal settlement improvement is more nuanced, and context-specific applications are imperative for research and practice. For policymakers and built environment professionals, the paper suggests leveraging social capital as a means (not ends) for building formal-informal collaborations through the co-production of bottom-up initiatives for inclusive and sustainable improvements to maximize the positives and minimize the negatives. • Social capital's role in community-driven development (CDD) is inconclusive and fragmented. • We examine the influence of bonding and bridging social capital in two contrasting urban informal settlements. • Bonding social capital positively affected CDD in the indigenous informal settlement but was insignificant in the migrant one. • Bridging social capital positively influenced CDD in the migrant informal settlement but not in the indigenous one. • Formal-informal collaborations are essential to maximize the positives of social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Imprinting is a crucial learning behavior by the hatchlings of precocious birds. In nature, hatchlings in a group environment imprint on a hen, but the effect of siblings on the imprinting process remains largely unknown. To investigate this issue, we examined how the social context modulated visual imprinting in domestic chicks. One-day-old postnatal chicks in isolation (RS chicks) or with siblings (RD chicks), were first exposed to an imprinting stimulus, and subsequently the responses to the imprinting stimulus as well as a new stimulus were examined and compared. The experiment constituted three types of siblings: a 20-min pre-trained tutor, a 60-min pre-trained tutor, and a naïve chick. A multiple comparison test revealed that the preference score (PS) to the new stimulus of RD chicks trained with a 60-min pre-trained tutor was significantly lower than that of RS chicks. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that the length of the tutor's pre-training significantly correlated negatively with the PS to the new stimulus, but this variable did not correlate with the PS to the imprinting stimulus. These results revealed that the presence of highly imprinted siblings could enhance the escape response to the new stimulus. We discussed the possible involvement of the chick's medial amygdala in the social aspect of imprinting. • In this paper, we examined how the social context modulated visual imprinting in domestic chicks. • The presence of highly imprinted siblings during the acquisition phase enhanced the escape response to the new stimulus. • The presence of siblings during the acquisition phase did not affect the following response to the imprinting stimulus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Récemment, le concept de « pleine conscience incarnée » (embodiment) a été proposé comme dénominateur commun aux approches bouddhistes et occidentales de la pleine conscience (Khoury, Dionne & Grégoire, 2018). Cet article vise à approfondir et élargir cette notion de pleine conscience incarnée afin de démontrer que celle-ci implique nécessairement une prise en compte des aspects interpersonnels et sociaux, souvent négligés dans la théorie, la pratique et la recherche. Des études récentes menées sur les effets interpersonnels de la pleine conscience sont d'abord exposées et des avenues sont ensuite proposées afin de stimuler le développement de ce domaine de recherche. The concept of " embodied mindfulness " (Khoury, Dionne, & Grégoire, 2018; Khoury et al., 2017) was recently introduced and discussed according to both Eastern and Western conceptualizations and operationalization of mindfulness. Our previous papers (Khoury et al., 2018; Khoury et al., 2017) proposed embodiment as a common process that integrates mindfulness across the Buddhist traditions and western schools of thoughts. Moreover, it grounded the notion of " embodied mindfulness " in Buddhist philosophy and neurobiology, namely in the integration of top-down and bottom-up processes. This new notion allowed a common understanding of the mechanisms of change of different Western mindfulness practices, namely Western mindfulness meditation and Langerian mindfulness. It also proposed consciousness as an interaction between the mind, the body, and the outside world. This article aims to deepen and broaden the notion of " embodied mindfulness " by taking into account the interpersonal and social contexts, which are often neglected in the theory, practice and research pertaining to mindfulness. In order to investigate the social dimension of mindfulness, we conducted a thorough qualitative review of theoretical and empirical papers pertaining to the interpersonal, familial, relational, and social aspects of mindfulness and thus, according to both mindfulness-meditation and Langerian mindfulness approaches. Empirical research addressing the interpersonal and social effects of mindfulness in both approaches is presented and discussed. Additionally, we reviewed the state of research in conceptualizing, operationalizing, and measuring the interpersonal/social dimension of mindfulness in both the meditative and Langerian approaches. The results of interpersonal mindfulness are presented and discussed according to the different contexts. In the family context, both correlational and experimental studies have suggested positive effects of mindfulness on relationships between couples (e.g., increase of satisfaction and reduction of reactivity) and on the emotional, social, and behavioral adjustments of children of parents with higher mindfulness disposition or following mindfulness training. The positive outcomes on children were found across different developmental stages (e.g., childhood, early, and late adolescence) and included lower aggressiveness and externalizing behaviors, and more positive interactions with parents and peers, therefore higher self-regulation. The results were also found among both nonclinical and clinical populations, including children with neurodevelopmental disorders such as Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder. In psychotherapy context, qualitative and correlational studies suggested that dispositional mindfulness is correlated with an increase in therapeutic alliance and presence, therefore, an increase in therapeutic effectiveness. In addition, an experimental study showed better clinical outcomes among patients seen by therapists practicing meditation than therapists who were in the control group. On the social level, both correlational and experimental studies have suggested positive effects of mindfulness on prosocial behaviors, empathy, altruism, compassion, and reduction in discrimination. These results were obtained in both the meditative and Langerian approaches. According to current research, interpersonal mindfulness, even though globally defined, was only measured in parenting and teaching contexts. Therefore, the need of having a contextually independent measure of interpersonal mindfulness is very high. In light of the empirical results, we believe that the notion of " embodied mindfulness " would benefit from being extended to include more explicitly its interpersonal dimension. Integrating both intrapersonal and interpersonal/social dimensions in conceptualizing and measuring mindfulness can broaden our understanding of mindfulness and its applications and carry important implications in devising new mindfulness-based interventions, which should consider both the intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions of mindfulness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional clustering algorithms like K-medoids and DBSCAN take distances between objects as input and find clusters of objects. Distance functions need to satisfy the triangle inequality (TI) property, but sometimes TI is violated and, thus, may compromise the quality of resulting clusters. However, there are scenarios, for example in the context of social networks, where TI does not hold but a meaningful clustering is still possible. This paper investigates the consequences of TI violation with respect to different traditional clustering techniques and presents instead a clique guided approach to find meaningful clusters. In this paper, we use the quantum logic-based query language (CQQL) to measure the similarity value between objects instead of a distance function. The contribution of this paper is to propose an approach of non-TI clustering in the context of social network scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Investigate the role of facial muscle movements in lie detection using an experimental task with high ecological validity. • We found the muscles related to lie detection were consistent with those with high frequency occurring in micro-expression. • Propose a vector-based sequential forward selection algorithm to identify the muscles most closely associated with lying. • Micro-expressions analysis could improve lie detection performance by focusing on the forehead, eyebrows, and cheeks. Micro-expression, which is generated by facial muscle movements, could be a crucial cue for deception detection. In the existed research investigating the relationship between facial muscles and deception detection, researchers have focused almost exclusively on two muscles, i.e., zygomaticus and corrugator supercilii, based on the theoretical basis that they are highly associated with positive and negative expressions. However, the aim of this study is to demonstrate the direct relationship between facial muscle movements and deception detection. Addressing this issue, this paper proposes an experimental paradigm with high ecological validity that uses electromyography (EMG) signals to precisely examine the role of facial muscle movements in deception detection. Moreover, we propose a vector-based sequential forward selection (VSFS) algorithm to identify the muscle (or muscle combination) most closely associated with lying. Based on our proposed approach, the importance of seven selected facial muscles was explored by comparing the corresponding facial EMG (fEMG) between truth and lying conditions. First, the present study found that the zygomaticus and corrugator supercilii could play important roles in deception detection, and our findings are consistent with existed research. Second, the experiment result verified that the muscles related to deception detection were consistent with those with higher frequency occurring in micro-expression. Moreover, the present study provides a theoretical basis that intelligent micro-expressions analysis could improve the lie detection performance by focusing on the area of the forehead, eyebrows, and cheeks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the controversial literature on the nature, perceptions, causes, social contexts and consequences of school violence in Cameroon. This study adopts the process tracing method that is valuably instrumental in qualitative studies. On the causes of school violence, this study reveals that lack of parental guidance, abusive use of social media, sociocultural factors, poor working conditions of teachers, inadequate number of guidance counsellors in schools, lack of trained discipline masters/mistresses in security-related issues, and rigidity of the educational system to technological advancements constitute the main causes of school violence in Cameroon. On the consequences of school violence, the study reveals that school violence results to: (i) the disruption of the teaching-learning process, which impacts negatively on both the student and teacher's output, thereby leading to falling educational attainment rates, (ii) psychological, emotional and mental trauma, depression, frustration, perpetual disability and death of the victimized individual (learners, teachers, and school administrators), and this negatively impacts on the educational life of students, (iii) destruction of school property, thereby leading to huge financial burdens on the educational stakeholders, which inevitably weakens existing social ties among students, teachers, parents and the school administration, thereby making it difficult to foster peace within the school environment, (iv) social unrest, high crime wave, school dropout, and loss of lives, which generally constitute an impediment to socioeconomic development of the country. Contingent on these findings, it is apparent that fostering peaceful school environments through the eradication of school violence requires the joint efforts of all education stakeholders (parents, teachers, students, school administrators and educational policymakers). Consequently, there is need for the creation of a National Violence Prevention Council (NVPC) in Cameroon. Besides, several preventive measures for practical policy implications are discussed in the context of this study. • Exploring the nature, causes and consequences of school-based violence. • Need to create a national violence prevention council. • The process tracing methodology is adopted. • Violence is observed to result from direct, cultural and structural sources. • Violence negatively impact academic performance, increasing financial burden on stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rules help guide our behavior—particularly in complex social contexts. But rules sometimes give us the "wrong" answer. How do we know when it is okay to break the rules? In this paper, we argue that we sometimes use contractualist (agreement-based) mechanisms to determine when a rule can be broken. Our model draws on a theory of social interactions – "virtual bargaining" – that assumes that actors engage in a simulated bargaining process when navigating the social world. We present experimental data which suggests that rule-breaking decisions are sometimes driven by virtual bargaining and show that these data cannot be explained by more traditional rule-based or outcome-based approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the social and built environment shapes preference on protectionist immigration policy, generalised trust, and life satisfaction. It seeks to understand the intergroup processes that underpin intergroup contact and acculturation in the neighbourhoods by combining an individual-level survey (n = 1188) with census information on housing resale transactions (as proxy of socio-economic class) and other geospatial points of interest. Analyses of spatial big data revealed that neighbourhoods with a higher density of ethnic minorities and immigrant households are characterised by lower trust and quality of life. In contrast, neighbourhoods with a higher density of immigrant households are associated with a preference for a protectionist immigration policy (mitigated by proximity to community clubs). These environmental factors are associated with the outcome even after controlling for individual-level differences. Importantly, the findings underscore the enduring influence of ethnicity and immigrant identities more than the socio-economic background of the neighbourhood. Intergroup contact alone is insufficient to foster inclusion, especially in locales densely populated with ethnic minorities and immigrant communities. Shared amenities, such as community clubs, were found to play a crucial role in creating a conducive environment for meaninful contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• In a bid to resist a medical-moralist paradigm dominating public health ideologies, we make a case for understanding chemsex among men in Singapore vis-à-vis Deleuzean lines of flight. • Through a queer deleuzean framing, we illustrate how chemically inflected sexual encounters can offer deterritorialising flights of fantasy and freedom from a heteronormative social structure that stigmatises gay sex, among other normative regimes. • We explored how lines of flight generated by chemsex are dynamic (i.e. they can turn into lines of non-flight) and have to be unpacked contextually (i.e. in relation to unfolding senses of self and the social environment). We have also demonstrated that such deterritorialising flights of freedom can catalyse unplanned outcomes, including the propensity to reterritorialise. • Our analysis has not shied away from incorporating heartfelt anecdotes that perpetuate medico-moral, public health perspectives even as we are committed to a critical-political discussion on chemical-sexual intimacies. • Future research in this arena could potentially investigate the complicated, conflicted and protracted intimate relationships that users may have with their drug(s) of choice, as well as the varied lines of (non-)flight that these chemicals can endow over a longitudinal study. Public health scholars informed by a dominant biomedical paradigm have in their 'rush to risk' emphasised the problematic aspects of chemsex. Meanwhile, critical chemsex scholars have attemped to destigmatise such sexual-chemical practices and foreground how they can be transformative. Taking these two perspectives as points of departure, we make a case for understanding chemsex vis-à-vis Deleuzean lines of flight. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 33 purposively sampled sexual minority men seeking therapy for chemsex dependency in Singapore. Interview topics included participants' experiences and histories of chemsex, substance use, and their ongoing recovery. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and then analysed according to key themes. We illustrate how chemically inflected sexual encounters can offer deterritorialising flights of fantasy and freedom from a heteronormative social structure that pathologises gay sex. At the same time, we argue that these flight lines are not static, neither do they extend indefinitely in space-time. Rather, we show how flights of freedom can evolve into lines of fright (or non-flight) when chemsex practitioners are met with critical thresholds that reveal the less-than-desirable aspects of being intoxicated. Consequently, they may eventually consider the reterritorialisation of their lives (i.e. abstinence and recovery) as a more constructive option. Regardless of their decisions to ride on chemically-induced flight lines or to take a step back from such deterritorialising pathways, they have troubled stereotypical perspectives of drug users as passive automatons. This paper enriches the chemsex scholarship by presenting a Deleuzean conceptualisation of chemical-sexual intimacies without romantacising and/or overstating the 'escape'/'freedom' that chemsex can facilitate. Future research in this arena could explore the complicated intimate relationships that users may have with their drug(s) of choice, and their varied lines of (non-)flight over a longitudinal study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lately, Autonomous vehicles (AV) have been gaining traction globally owing to their huge social, economic and environmental benefits. However, the rising safety apprehensions for vulnerable road users (VRU) alongside have become a stumbling block to the large-scale implementation of AVs. Deciphering intention in advance considering all social norms and context surrounding the VRU is a highly challenging task due to the huge amount of variability in their motion, actions and end goals. Based on this pensiveness, this paper extensively surveys the variety of techniques applied to anticipate pedestrian intention and classifies them from multiple perspectives. Some newly introduced datasets with added complexities of human behaviour on road have also been outlined. It also provides a comparative analysis of the performance of pedestrian intention prediction approaches on several benchmark datasets as per the various assessment parameters available. In addition to this, several potential challenges and their possible solutions paving way for future research initiatives have also been thoroughly analysed in this endeavour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human geography's varied engagement with the brain has involved considerations of the way people know and respond to their environments, and their place-based experiences with emotions, mental illnesses and disorders, intellectual disabilities and particular neurological conditions. This paper argues however that this scholarship could be augmented by, and existing expertise be directed towards, considering physical brain abnormalities and injuries. As a case in point it considers the spatial experience of living with Type 1 Chiari Malformation. Through interviews with four sufferers, the research articulates three domains that they have had to re-negotiate - home space, social space and medical space - emphasizing supportive and challenging aspects of each, as well as meaningful and affective qualities to encounters. The paper concludes with some pointers towards the future study of physical brain abnormalities and injuries and the kinds of knowledge it might create to increase awareness and inform care. • Extends a geographical research lens to structural brain abnormalities and injuries. • Shows how life spaces are negotiated by people with Chiari Malformation. • Exposes both meaningful and affective levels to their encounters with life spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to explore how the analysis of im/politeness can be tackled from a discursive pragmatics perspective. Pragmatics and discourse analysis are interrelated disciplines as they are both concerned with language use. However, they differ mostly in terms of the units of analysis traditionally associated with them: pragmatics is typically concerned with the utterance whereas discourse analysis with what is beyond the utterance. Im/politeness research has drawn from both as it was initially based mostly on pragmatic notions and later, reacting to these and embracing the pragmatic turn, it turned primarily to big D discourse for additional or more useful tools. Thus, researchers abandoned isolated utterances as their data and gravitated towards longer stretches of discourse in context. However, context was mostly explored through aspects of the micro- and macro-levels leaving rather underexplored the meso level. Our contention in this paper is that for a truly discursive approach to pragmatics in general and to im/politeness in particular, we need to develop methods and tools that will facilitate the analysis of politeness phenomena also at the mesolevel and reveal the dynamic interaction among these three levels. • Pragmatics and discourse analysis are interrelated but differ mostly in terms of the units of analysis associated with them. • A trichotomy covering the macro/meso/micro levels of sociological enquiry is needed. • Genres/ texts are central to a discursive pragmatics. • A truly discursive approach to im/politeness should facilitate the analysis of phenomena at the meso-level. • It should also reveal the dynamic interaction among these three levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract While the critique to economic growth is quintessential in the degrowth scholarship, one may observe a similar focus in various environmental justice movements around the world. This is particularly visible when it comes to the increasing perception that mega-development projects are both unjust and unsustainable, threatening the survival of people and environments. In this paper, we illustrate this focus by looking at two anti-mining movements in Eastern Europe (EE): Save Rosia Montana (Romania) and Krumovgrad (Bulgaria). The local movements describe open cast mining (even in the prospective phase) as potential destruction of basic sources of life (material commons such as water or crops, and community relations). The paper emphasizes a dynamic involved in doing environmental justice, or 'de-growing EJ': affected communities organize themselves by 'staying in place', producing alternative economies, organizing local democratic institutions. What potentially ´´grows´´ here, is a societal imaginary of justice on how to reproduce the socio-ecological conditions of life by protecting and re-defining traditional means of production and grassroots practices, knowledge, wealth, and values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Despite the proliferation of age-friendly cities in Canada that are intended to support older adults to age well, there are still many inequalities between groups of older adults, particularly, and of concern for this paper, between Indigenous older adults, who experience colonialism's ongoing impacts, and non-Indigenous older adults. A better understanding of factors that inform these inequalities will help in the development of policies and programs that better support Indigenous older adults to age well and, thus, will contribute to ameliorating the inequalities that they face. Using a community-based participatory research approach, informed by a postcolonial theoretical lens, in this paper we addressed the question, "what community-level factors contribute to Indigenous older adults (aged 55 years and over) feeling supported to age well in the city of Ottawa?" We specifically examined this question in relation to the age-friendly communities framework, which guides the City of Ottawa's Older Adult Plan. Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and photovoice with 32 First Nations and Inuit older adults revealed that the participants felt both supported and unsupported to age well. More specifically, there were two main areas in which they felt they could be better supported to age well: the social environment and physical environment. There were three subthemes within the social environment theme: responsive health and community support services, respect and recognition, and communication and information. Within the physical environment theme there were four subthemes: transportation, housing, accessibility, and gathering space. The results demonstrate that despite there being similarities in the areas that the participants felt they needed support and the areas on which the Older Adult Plan focuses, if the domains of aging well initiatives do not better account for the impacts of colonialism, it is unlikely that they will be effective in supporting Indigenous older adults' health and well-being. Highlights • Inequalities continue to exist for Indigenous older adults in urban environments. • Impacts of colonialism hinder support for Indigenous older adults in cities. • Physical and social environments contribute to aging well for participants. • Physical environment factors: Housing, transportation, space, and accessibility. • Social environment factors: Health and social services, communication, and respect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper revisits ongoing tensions in the relationship between text and context in research into academic writing, paying particular attention to the ways in which context is understood, the effects this has on the textual analysis that is performed, and the consequent readings of a text that might be produced. The data for this paper are texts which reference each other in various ways. The theoretical framework for the paper employs insights from Michael Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics and the performativity work of Judith Butler to illustrate the unresolved and perhaps unresolvable difficulties of closing the gap between text and context in academic writing research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The beneficial health, wellbeing and liveability impacts of urban nature are broadly evidenced and increasingly engaged with in planning and policy. But anomalies in empirical evidence suggest that benefits do not flow equally to all. This review paper analyses the contribution of existing research on how the material and social context and subjective factors shape the social impact of urban nature. We review 46 international papers published between 2019 and 2021 that present findings from inner-city metropolitan contexts. The findings evidence variations in benefits and some dis-benefits derived from urban nature associated with features of the material context (e.g., urban and greenspace form, infrastructure and facilities), the social context (e.g., demographic diversity and socio-economic standing) and subjective factors such as gender and cultural identity. We recommend an inclusive research and planning approach that is attuned to the role of the human experience in the realisation of the social impact of urban nature to ensure that the prevalent urban greening agenda actually benefits all city dwellers and does not unintentionally contribute to further inequality. We recommend a shift of focus from 'physical access to nature' to 'actually realised access to its benefits' for more inclusive policy and planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online platforms have become an increasingly prominent means of communication. Despite the obvious benefits to the expanded distribution of content, the last decade has resulted in disturbing toxic communication, such as cyberbullying and harassment. Nevertheless, detecting online toxicity is challenging due to its multi-dimensional, context sensitive nature. As exposure to online toxicity can have serious social consequences, reliable models and algorithms are required for detecting and analyzing such communication across the vast and growing space of social media. In this paper, we draw on psychological and social theory to define toxicity. Then, we provide an approach that identifies multiple dimensions of toxicity and incorporates explicit knowledge in a statistical learning algorithm to resolve ambiguity across such dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is currently only limited empirical research and theoretical conceptualisation of the role of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) in the economies of Asia within economic geography or elsewhere in the wider social scientific literature. This paper argues that existing theoretical understandings of KIBS are inadequate to conceptualise the nature of ongoing KIBS development in Asian economies – both emerging and mature – and seeks to address this absence by developing a theoretical framework that draws on a range of existing theoretical approaches within and beyond economic geography. To do this, it proposes the concept of ‘service capitalism’, developed from work concerned with varieties of capitalism (VoC), variegated capitalism and advanced service industries. The paper elaborates its theoretical argument by presenting research into two forms of Asian service capitalism through two case studies examining respectively the specific nature of Japanese KIBS and the development of KIBS in China. Using the case studies, it demonstrates how service industry development in both these Asian economies exhibits distinctive characteristics that are a consequence of both local institutional, corporate, and socio-cultural contexts but are also interconnected the wider global economy in complex ways. The paper thus presents a significant and disruptive challenge to existing theories of KIBS development as based on the western experience, and contemporary deployments of the varieties of capitalism and variegated capitalism approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The song of paired and unpaired zebra finches was compared for the first time. • We combined the effect of breeding context and temperature variability. • The breeding context had a strong impact on the song rate, syllable consistency, and spectral characteristics of the syllables. • The temperature variability had no effect on song production and characteristics. Bird song is a crucial feature for mate choice and reproduction. Song can potentially communicate information related to the quality of the mate, through song complexity, structure or finer changes in syllable characteristics. It has been shown in zebra finches that those characteristics can be affected by various factors including motivation, hormone levels or extreme temperature. However, although the literature on zebra finch song is substantial, some factors have been neglected. In this paper, we recorded male zebra finches in two breeding contexts (before and after pairing) and in two ambient temperature conditions (stable and variable) to see how those factors could influence song production. We found strong differences between the two breeding contexts: compared to their song before pairing, males that were paired had lower song rate, syllable consistency, frequency and entropy, while surprisingly the amplitude of their syllables increased. Temperature variability had an impact on the extent of these differences, but did not directly affect the song parameters that we measured. Our results describe for the first time how breeding status and temperature variability can affect zebra finch song, and give some new insights into the subtleties of the acoustic communication of this model species. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Harm reduction policy and praxis has long struggled to accommodate the pleasures of alcohol and other drug use. Whilst scholars have consistently highlighted this struggle, how pleasure might come to practically inform the design and delivery of harm reduction policies and programs remains less clear. The present paper seeks to move beyond conceptual critiques of harm reduction's 'pleasure oversight' to more focused empirical analysis of how flows of pleasure emerge, circulate and, importantly, may be reoriented in the course of harm reduction practice.Methods: We ground our analysis in the context of detailed ethnographic research in a drug consumption room in Frankfurt, Germany. Drawing on recent strands of post-humanist thought, the paper deploys the concept of the 'consumption event' to uncover the manner in which these facilities mediate the practice and embodied experience of drug use and incite or limit bodily potentials for intoxication and pleasure.Results: Through the analysis, we mapped a diversity of pleasures as they emerged and circulated through events of consumption at the consumption room. Beyond the pleasurable intensities of intoxication's kick, these pleasures were expressed in a range of novel capacities, practices and drug using bodies. In each instance, pleasure could not be reduced to a simple, linear product of drug use. Rather, it arose for our participants through distinctive social and affective transformations enabled through events of consumption at the consumption room and the generative force of actors and associations of which these events were composed.Conclusion: Our research suggests that the drug consumption room serves as a conduit through which its clients can potentially enact more pleasurable, productive and positive relations to both themselves and their drug use. Acknowledging the centrality of pleasure to client engagement with these facilities, the paper concludes by drawing out the implications of these findings for the design and delivery of consumption room services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epidemiological mapping and risk profiling build on the idea that diseases are tied to social-ecological systems that govern the distribution and abundance of transmissible pathogens, vectors and hosts. This is the heart of the emerging field of ecohealth, which examines how biological, cultural, demographic, economic, physical, political and social environments change and how these changes affect the health and wellbeing of humans, animals and ecosystems and the services they provide. This paper is an overview of a special issue of Acta Tropica , whose 15 publications reflect a geographically and epidemiologically diverse landscape of ecohealth. Nowhere is an ecohealth approach better suited than in Africa and its myriad of landscapes that include contexts varying from profuse expanses of tropical rain forests to the world’s greatest desert. The publication of African ecohealth-related projects displays a biological, cultural and social diversity in health system contexts and a wide variety of contributions pertaining to different, often neglected, tropical diseases, including brucellosis, Buruli ulcer, fascioliasis, malaria, Q fever, rabies, Rift Valley fever and schistosomiasis. Pursuing an ecohealth approach provides a platform that brings together community members, decision makers, scientists and other stakeholders with a view to understand how ecosystem changes affect health conditions. Taken together, the presentation of this variety of papers dealing with environmental variables associated with health inaugurates the vital concept of ecohealth. By emphasizing that all organisms are part of social-ecological systems, the long-term wellbeing of both people and animals depending on healthy and productive ecosystems is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyse Hayek's views on endogenous preferences. Perhaps surprisingly in the light of his remarks that economists ought to take people's preferences as given, there are several places in Hayek's economics and political economy where preference endogeneity plays a significant role. We begin by documenting those cases, providing an historical overview of Hayek's views on preference endogeneity. We then go on to argue that in his work on theoretical psychology Hayek provides an account of the causal mechanisms through which people's preferences can change in response to their social context. Finally, we assess Hayek's views on preference endogeneity in the light of more recent work on the topic in behavioural economics, before going on to consider what Hayek's analysis can add to contemporary debates in political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternative food networks are embedded in sociocultural contexts and have developed distinctive features in different regions, but the literature has generally overlooked how AFNs interact and build networks across countries. This paper fills this gap by analyzing how consumer cooperatives in Taiwan have been inspired by pioneers in Japan, and how Taiwan AFNs now influence their counterparts in China. It shows that specific social material arrangements consist of translated books, the intermediary organizations and mutual visits facilitating a sequence of influence among consumer cooperatives across national borders. These social material arrangements disseminate a specific morality of consumption, teiki , that has reframed the food consumer as a 'life person', designed solidarity economies for 'collective purchasing', and established local distribution stations for agrifood education or policy advocacy. The paper illustrates how AFNs in East Asia share similar moralities of consumption, but have also adapted teiki to different social contexts and developed different imaginations of consumer citizen. • Examines the interactions and learning among consumer cooperatives and CSAs across countries. • Highlights how specific social material arrangements supported interactions and help disseminate specific discourses and practices. • Advances understanding of the characteristics of East Asian AFNs that share a similar morality of consumption. • Argues that it is useful to analyze the morality of consumption to understand consumer-farmer relations and political agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Southwest Asia, early ceramics are generally associated with sedentary farming communities. This is unlike many other parts of Asia, where ceramics were first manufactured by hunter-gatherers. Radiocarbon evidence indicates that sustained production of ceramic containers (pottery) began at several sites in Anatolia, Upper Mesopotamia and the northern Levant around 7000 BC or slightly later, although there are indications that very small-scale production of pottery sometimes occurred at even earlier dates. In other regions (e.g. the southern Levant, Cyprus) pottery does not become common until centuries later. This paper examines Southwest Asian ceramic production in terms of its timing, technology and use, as well as its social and economic contexts. It also considers the legacy of early archaeological studies of Southwest Asian pottery for our general understanding of the emergence of ceramics. For example, Gordon Childe's concept of a 'Neolithic package' promoted a close association between the emergence of farming and pottery, which cannot be supported for many parts of Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues for an understanding of local socio-environmental struggles as political spaces that present possibilities for the transformation of subjectivities of the social actors participating in them. Relying on Gramsci’s theorization of state and society relations the paper analyzes whether and how these struggles foment challenges to hegemonic understandings and practices of development, environment and democracy. The analysis builds on a comparison between two mining conflicts—one in Ecuador’s Intag region, the other in Turkey’s Mount Ida region. The paper suggests that the two conflicts differ in the ways political subjectivities of the peasants opposing the mining projects were constructed. In Intag, the peasants framed their opposition to the copper mine project as a struggle for their right to have control over their lives and territories. They have participated in the construction of a vision of local development based on the promotion of sustainable economic activities, and of an organized society actively building its future. In Mount Ida, the peasants resisting gold mining have emphasized the distributional inequalities; yet have not linked their concerns to broader rights-based discourses or political and ethical principles. Their opposition has been confined to a particularistic defense of the place. The paper discusses the role of the state in the making of subjects, and the relationships among the resistance actors as crucial factors accounting for these differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primarily on the basis of epidemiological studies, recent research in psychiatry has established a robust link between urban living and psychosis. This paper argues first, that an experienced-based approach, moving beyond epidemiology, is needed in order to enable more fine-grained understandings of the city/psychosis nexus. The second part of the paper presents preliminary fieldwork results based on video-elicitation sessions with first-episode patients with psychotic disorders. These results lead to the generation of a series of hypotheses for further research on the role of density, sensory overload and social interaction as factors in the onset of non-affective psychoses. The conclusion discusses the insights gained from viewing the city as an experiential milieu rather than as a set of substances. We argue that such insights enable, on the one hand, observation of the role of specific places and situations - and thus to unpack 'the city'; and, on the other, to envisage the urban milieu as a nexus of possible sites of recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We analyse whether social context elements affect Chinese FDI location in the EU. • Spatial allocation of FDI is affected by various dimensions of the social context. • Social context grasps effects not directly related with innovation or knowledge. • Heterogeneous effects arise when considering technological differences in sectors. • Policymakers should consider backlash of social policies and FDI initiatives. European regions are characterized by different economic, technical and social conditions. Such differences might also explain the different strength of European regions in attracting foreign direct investments (FDI). Following recent strands of literature, in this paper we try to identify whether the presence of regional differences in the social context, once considering a set of regional characteristics related to the economic structure and innovative endowments, affects the location of multinational enteprises. To do so, we develop an empirical model using data on Chinese brownfield investments towards European regions. Our results confirm that social context overall matters in location choices, even if heterogeneous effects arise when taking into account technological differences in target sectors. Our evidence is useful in increasing the awareness of policy-makers and of the academic debate on the necessity to consider possible spillover and backlash effects both of social policies and of FDI attraction initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the ways in which the speech act of complaint is realised in social media contexts. To date, little attention has been devoted to the realisation of this speech act in online settings, despite the fact that such settings provide different affordances for complaining than many of their spoken and written counterparts. In the current study, we aim to make a step towards filling this knowledge gap by demonstrating that in online settings – in particular, social media – complaining can become very intensive and aggressive. This is because social media operates with features such as complex participation and multimodality, which allow users to reflect on each other's complaints in an increasingly aggressive escalatory manner, especially when these users are united by a joint cause. We deploy the concepts of 'addressivity' and 'diachronicity' to conceptualise those features of social media that boost complaint to become aggressive. As a case study, we investigate an online protest against the waste management policy of the Borough of Merton in London. • Complaints on Twitter can become increasingly aggressive. • Twitter complaints are distinguished from their face-to-face counterparts. • This distinction is based on 'Complex addressivity' and 'diachronicity'. • Complex addressivity contributes to deindividuation and escalation of aggression. • The visual component of Twitter complaints can increase mimetic engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this conceptual paper, we explore a framework of reasoning practices for decision-making in context. We extend prior work related to socioscientific issues (SSI) (Sadler et al., 2007) to consider the applicability of this framework to sociomathematical issues, specifically using the context of fairness in political (re)districting. We illustrate the usefulness of the SSI framework for sociomathematical issues drawing on student work and reflections from two undergraduate courses. We conclude by suggesting adjustments to reasoning practices of the SSI framework that might uniquely reflect the nature of sociomathematical reasoning. We discuss implications of our findings for conceptualizing reasoning practices that include mathematical perspectives within social and political contexts and for mathematics education generally. • Reasoning about a societal issue consists of intertwining personal, practical, contextual, and mathematical meaning. • A framework based on Sadler, Barab & Scott's (2007) analysis of reasoning practices regarding socioscientific issues is useful for analyzing emergent student reasoning in the context of redistricting, a sociomathematical issue. • Students reason in multiple, sophisticated ways about the fairness of specific maps and redistricting processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, a John Lennon song that was a hit in the 1960s, was born amidst a social context enlightened by lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). In Brazil, both the drug and the song were very popular at the time, although it gradually mitigated. Nevertheless, while the song remains out of the spotlight, LSD derivatives are currently gaining attention with the rising of the new psychoactive substances (NPS). With this new presentation, the drug is returning to Brazil after a few decades and herein we report and discuss the first cases of an LSD prodrug seized in our country. Nine suspected blotter paper samples were seized by the Sao Paulo State Police in different cities of the State. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS) analyses were utilized to confirm the identity of the LSD derivative. The compound was identified as 4-acetyl-N,N-diethyl-7-methyl-4,6,6a,7,8,9-hexahydroindolo[4,3-fg]quinoline-9-carboxamide (ALD-52 or 1A-LSD) and no other active substance was detected in all samples. The identity of the unknown compound found in seized blotter papers has been successfully confirmed as an LSD prodrug, ALD-52, which was not controlled by Brazilian legislation. The arrival of a new type of designer drug in Brazil is in support by other reports, although those are still scarce and should not be overlooked. Altogether, these findings indicate the rising of a new NPS strategy that merits proper discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a future scenario to expose the potential engagement of tourism in the year 2200. Taking a socio-constructionist approach to research and through the analysis of secondary data, it explores current issues and debates concerned with the environment, disasters and depletion of natural resources; social context including movies and entertainment, the media and technology, the evolution of the theme park and cultural transmission; and economical realities, covering poverty vs. world elite and global culture, all of which are seen as drivers of the potential future tourism market. In so doing, it presents a narrative (scenario), provoking the notion that in the year 2200 death and hunting humans will form part of the tourism entertainment industry and a practice carried out by the wealthy-elite, a view backed with substance. It argues, that as a result of past and current engagements with murder, death and human atrocities, and significantly our relationship with death, humans will gradually become more accustomed to death as a form of spectacle, influenced by current entertainment, movies and the media. Death as entertainment by form of detachment (emotionally and physically) will further influence the future fun aspect of hunting humans. Significantly, changes in our natural environment will lead to great challenges, lack of water, depleted food resources and greater disparity between the wealthy and impoverished; all of which will drive the change in our humanly existence. This papers aims to provide a provocative account of the ‘potential future meaning of tourism’, through the application of current knowledge, and significantly, it is our relationship with death and violence that are central, death and violence are becoming diluted and thus, will be a source of future entertainment and a tourism activity – in less humans can reach a level of transcendence that has never been present, to transcend the culture they have created, one that has always witnessed violence as a means to survival. If violence can be detached then we will be presented with a ‘wild card’, a future that is truly out of this world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cause-related marketing (CRM) is a popular ethical consumption model where a for-profit company makes a donation to a non-profit organization each time a consumer purchases a certain product in the name of a particular cause (e.g., education). As a form of ethical consumption CRM has been documented and debated by academics in the Global North, but this is not the only place in which the CRM model is employed. This paper investigates the growing popularity of CRM in India, where it is used to target middle-class consumers. It explores how a shift in the place where CRM occurs necessitates a shift in the way that researchers conceptualize it. Drawing on economic, feminist and postcolonial geographies, this paper puts forward a framework for conceptualizing ethical consumption in emerging economies as both place/context specific and embedded in broader power dynamics and global processes. The paper details four CRM campaigns underway in the USA and India and investigates the contexts in which each is situated. The analysis moves beyond a straight comparison of the Indian and American cases to examine CRM as constituted through various places and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability assessment (SA) is a complex appraisal method. It is conducted for supporting decision-making and policy in a broad environmental, economic and social context, and transcends a purely technical/scientific evaluation. This paper focusses on the systematisation of knowledge on technical/scientific sustainability evaluation, by addressing critical decision-making elements focussed on by domain experts. We make a distinction between integrated assessment and SA. Our systemic approach outlines how to move from integrated assessment to SA. The fundamental differences involved concern three levels: ontological, methodological and epistemological. We present a novel methodological framework for SA, based on a literature meta-review of multi-scale and multi-purpose appraisal methodologies, models and indicators. SA is essentially a structured procedure encompassing different field-specific analytical methods and models, for specific applications and decision contexts. External inputs to the methodology are “values” considered in the analysis and boundaries defined, including the relevant sustainability framework. Internal methodological elements comprise approach to be adopted (e.g. “what-if” vs. “what-to”), scenario design and analytical models and measurable indicators for an operational analysis. Methods to quantify uncertainty are key ingredients of the assessment framework. The paper highlights the relevance of and policy challenges for SA development, with due attention for applicability in real-world decision contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on a specific community of individuals who have mixed Southern Chinese and Filipino cultural heritage in the Philippines – the 'Lannangs'. I investigate the Lannang identity and, with ethnographic interviews and survey data, propose that the identity should be broadly defined as comprising of four dynamic parts: being Filipino, being Chinese, being neither, and being both. Focusing on the Manila community, I show how the Lannangs navigate between these orientations depending on the social context and the interlocutors. Moreover, drawing on the notions of indexicality and simultaneity, I investigate the role of language in the characterization of the Lannang identity. I also show that Hokkien, Lánnang-uè, Tagalog, English, among other languages, are being used to embody the aspects of 'Lannang-ness'. • The Lannang identity is not just a static 'Chinese' identity. • Being Chinese, being Filipino, being both, and being neither Chinese nor Filipino are crucial facets of the Lannang identity. • Certain Lannang languages are associated with the four facets of Lannang identity and have acquired indexical value. • The Lannangs use these languages to assert aspects of their Lannang identity, depending on the context and situation. • Embracing the complexities of the Lannang identity can help mitigate ethnic attrition in the Lannang community. • Acknowledging the role languages other than Sinitic ones play in the characterization of the Lannang identity can too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on intersectional awareness literature, this paper examines how another individual difference regarding one's perception of identity intersections — bicultural identity conflict (BII-C)— predicts immigrants' interpretations of their social environment and general orientation to take action to support immigrants from one's heritage group (GOA-I). While previous research has shown that BII-C, or perceived conflict (vs. harmony) between multiple cultural identities, is related to negative intergroup outcomes, we extend this research to examine how BII-C relates to social change actions that promote a more equitable society. An experimental study with 165 first- and second-generation immigrants living in the United States found support for a moderated mediation model. BII-C moderated the relationship between discrimination and the degree to which participants attributed discrimination to societal factors. These attributions were associated with GOA-I. Future research should consider additional individual differences, beyond intersectional awareness and BII-C, to see how these orientations may also act as a lens through which people interpret their social environment and are willing to take action to change it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition, to reconstruct and fully understand operational and behavioural chain in the life-cycle of an artefact it is essential to consider marks that indicate the life of an artefact in a secondary context, where it can no longer be used for the primary function. Reused objects affect the total assemblage interpretation and have to be considered as part of the technological, economic, social and ideological context. Those marks are especially recognizable in repairing the pottery, which is a very good indicator of adoption of pottery to new purposes and changing its value for the owner or entire community. The paper presents results and interpretation of pottery repairs from two sites in Eastern Croatia belonging to the Vučedol Culture (Late Copper Age). The results have shown that the most frequently repaired form is the type of bowl which have the highest rate of standardization, production and use. These bowls also require more labour input, and they are time-consuming for the potters. Their value is not only in economic need for a specific product but probably in a combination of social, aesthetic and technological values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Two measurement attributes related to clustering in LSGDM problems are explored. • Trust relationship and opinion similarity are both important in LSGDM scenarios. • Trust-similarity analysis (TSA) is developed to implement clustering operations. • A TSA-based clustering method is proposed for LSGDM events under social network. • A TSA plot is built to visualize the clustering processes. Large-scale group decision-making (LSGDM) under a social network context has attracted much attention in the field of decision science. The clustering of individual opinions and the handling of trust relationships are the main research topics. Opinion similarity and trust relationship are considered to be two important measurement attributes for implementing clustering. Traditional clustering methods often use a single attribute to divide the original group without requiring a combination of the above two attributes. However, these two attributes play different roles in the clustering process, insofar as opinion similarity is used to measure the level of difference among individual opinions, whereas the trust relationship represents the trustworthiness of decision makers. This paper develops a trust-similarity analysis (TSA)-based clustering method to manage the clustering operation in LSGDM events under a social network context. First, the trust-similarity matrix is established to collectively describe the decision information. Second, all measurement attribute values are mapped to a trust-similarity plot from which the joint threshold can be calculated. Finally, a TSA-based clustering method is proposed that considers the attributes of opinion similarity and trust relationship and that allocates their importance to achieve specific clustering objectives. The numerical experiment and comparative analysis reveal the feasibility and advantages of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial reconstruction of rural settlements is one of the important methods for coordinating the relationship between people and land in rural areas and promoting rural revitalization. Based on the theoretical framework of rural settlement space reconstruction from the perspective of rural livability and population flow, this paper took Longxi County in the loess hilly region of Longzhong in China as an example. Based on cross-sectional survey data of 213 administrative villages in 2020 as evaluation units, we analyzed rural livability and population flow intensity, and identified the types of rural settlement spatial reconstruction. The results show that: (1) The spatial differences in the rural natural environment, residential environment, economic and social environment, and overall livability of Longxi County were significant. They have significant river and road directivity. The livability of villages along the river in the middle of mountain area was better than that of villages along the hilly and mountainous in the south and northwest; (2) The population flow of Longxi County was classified into three types: cross-regional population flow, population flow within the county and population flow within the town. The trend of cross-regional population flow is significant. However, the activity of cross-regional population flow was not high, mainly with low and medium levels. The villages with strong population flow were also highly integrated, and vice versa; (3) Based on the evaluation results of rural livability and population flow, we divided the 213 administrative villages into four types of reconstruction: agglomeration and promotion type, potential advantage type, restricted expansion type, and layout optimization type. Then, we optimized and reconstructed them according to local conditions This paper provides a scientific basis for the spatial reconstruction of rural settlements in the loess hilly region of Longzhong in China. In addition, it provides a theoretical reference for coordinating the relationship between people and land, and realizing rural revitalization. • Rural livability and population flow are the keys to rural settlement spatial reconstruction. • The evaluation index system of rural livable ability is constructed and the spatial reconstruction type of rural area in Longxi county is identified. • This paper discusses the spatial reconstruction mechanism of rural settlements and puts forward the reconstruction strategy of rural settlements. • To provide theoretical reference for coordinating rural man-land relationship and realizing rural revitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]