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Northeast Thailand experienced a rubber boom that began in the 2000s with a sudden swing away from the trend toward sustainable forest management that had been widely accepted by society in the 1990s. The rapid expansion of rubber cultivation caused various ecological changes in the farmers' living environment. Faced with environmental issues, various actors in society were reluctant to take the measures necessary to stop these changes, even when there were legal provisions to do so. Among the bureaucracy, agriculture agencies were indifferent to deforestation and, in some cases, gave subsidies to non-titled lands despite regulations against this. Conservation agencies hesitated to regulate illegal cultivation strictly in the forestlands. At the study site, the Tambon Administration Organization stressed the importance of forest conservation but never criticized or prevented rubber cultivation. Villagers reached no consensus on regulating forest clearing or herbicide use but changed their customs to allow the enclosure of non-timber forest resources in private forests. Various actors, without mutual communication, perceived a political atmosphere in which poor people's hopes of a socioeconomic upgrade via rubber could not be denied under the conditions of electoral politics, despite environmental degradation. These were all elements of the rubber boom assemblage. The friction arising from rubber cultivation combined with anxiety regarding environmental degradation became internalized in the actors because the forces driving the rubber boom were so powerful. Therefore, at a glance, all actors suddenly seemed to become optimistic about rubber. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This work arises with the idea of presenting the social and human conditions (taking Mexico as a case) of what could be called a pandemic or contingency culture, understood as a process of disorder that generates events that change the dynamics of social processes of coexistence from the moment that humanity adapts to a health problem that can extinguish or endanger the species. Under this spectrum of thought questions arise: Through the presence of the virus as an existential experience, does the feeling of community break, or does it have an inertia that allows the community to overcome a specific moment of uncertainty? How has community life been maintained? What has happened in the social order with the presence of this virus and the order that a pandemic causes from social isolation? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Claimants and industry professionals frequently view conflict that arises in the course of a native title claim as a detriment to timely claims resolution. I argue instead that disputation itself may constitute an integrative social process through which participants define, delimit and reproduce community. I show also how ethnographic analysis of disputation can provide useful insights into broader social and cultural practices and normative value systems. Drawing on theoretical and methodological concerns with human agency and the integrative and constitutive role of conflict that challenges consensus models of community, I develop a practice‐centred approach that is attentive to the ways that participants in a dispute articulate and contest the definition of community. The possibility of viewing 'culture' and group cohesion as contingent and emergent through disputation should assist anthropologists working in the native title field to incorporate conflict as a productive aspect of social and cultural practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blending autoethnographic approaches with critical analysis, this article explores the intersection of arts-based praxis in peacebuilding and development in peace studies and conflict resolution (PS/CR). In recent decades, arts-based approaches have emerged across the globe in post-conflict settings. Applied, or process, theatre constitutes a social ontology, analysing and digesting experiences and an acceptance of multiple methods that inform research, theory, and practice. Similar to experiential education, applied theatre methodology connects research, theory, and practice in an integrative setting, but how does it resonate with PS/CR in practice? How can peace practitioners access arts-based praxis in development efforts? What benefits do such approaches provide? The author proposes that applied theatre principles, inspired by Augusto Boal and his system called Theatre of the Oppressed, can strengthen existing connections between peace education and peacebuilding practice, whilst also providing opportunities to enhance leader and learner benefit through active engagement in various settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of publications on social innovations has significantly increased over the past decades. Meanwhile even policy-makers build their hopes on socially innovative solutions and their 'transformative power'. However, what is still needed is a better understanding of the processes and mechanisms of social innovations. This Special Issue focuses in particular on the genesis of social innovations in the context of urban development and planning. It addresses a research gap by systematically drawing the attention to the fact that innovative ideas often meet resistance or conflict and that the implementation of novel practices is hindered. The article gives a short introduction to the current state of research in the field. It explains the many-facetted concept of social innovation, defines how socially innovative urban development and planning can be understood in this context and discusses how the role of conflicts can be described. The article not least gives an overview of the contributions. The articles show that institutional friction and resistance are normal concomitants of innovation processes. This does not mean that conflicts necessarily result in the failure or delay of socially innovative developments. In cases where they are constructively processed, they rather lead to progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new media provide alternative ways for consumers to enjoy TV series and fertile ground for researchers to analyse the stardom process. We analyse the case of Korean actors performing in K-drama productions that are globally made available through online platforms, testing alternative theories on the process of becoming a star. Socially shared emotional experiences among viewers seems to be the launching pad to stardom in a process fuelled by a snowball effect. However, potential exponential growth in social sharing is mediated by the market size: the larger the market, the stronger the snowball effect. As for viewers' interaction networks, these are structured according to actor popularity. In the process of an actor acquiring popularity, the structure of the viewers' network evolves from isolated individuals to a few of central communicators interacting with many other viewers. We refer to this transformation process of the network structure as the big bang theory of stardom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Maintenance of weight loss after behavioral intervention tends to be poor, and there is need for an improved understanding of factors that are associated with successful maintenance. Social comparison is known to be a powerful influence on treatment outcomes for group-based behavioral weight loss programs, but little is known about the role of individual differences in social comparison orientation (i.e., tendency to value comparison information) in this context. The goal of this study was to examine prospective relations between social comparison orientation and long-term weight loss outcomes (percent weight loss and aerobic-intensity physical activity) among participants in behavioral weight loss treatment. Participants (n = 161, MAge = 54, MBMI = 34.4 kg/m2) completed a measure of social comparison orientation at pre-treatment baseline. Height and weight were measured in the research center and aerobic-intensity physical activity was assessed via accelerometer at baseline, mid- and end-of-treatment, and at 6 and 12 months post-treatment (representing maintenance). Multilevel models tested prospective relations between comparison orientation and treatment outcomes over time, with emphasis on differences during the post-treatment maintenance phase. Stronger (vs. weaker) general comparison orientation was associated with better maintenance of aerobic-intensity physical activity. However, stronger (vs. weaker) orientation toward comparisons with better-off others (i.e., upward comparison) was associated with less weight loss success during and after treatment. Social comparison orientation thus shows meaningful relations with long-term maintenance of key outcomes in group-based behavioral weight loss treatment, and warrants further investigation in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Morphogenetic Approach (MA) was developed to explain social structural change processes by sociologist Margaret Archer in 1995. MA became a remarkable and much-debated approach shortly in social sciences because of its unique consideration about structure and agency dualism. Although MA has been discussed intensively in the science world, its appropriateness to real world situations has slightly been questioned by scholars and it has been applied very few to social fields other than education. Starting from this gap, this study aims to introduce MA to property researchers and turn it into a practical methodological tool which may easily be used to explain any social change process in urban and property studies. The study attempts to test the suitability of this methodological tool for property market studies as an alternative social field and seeks the answer of this basic question: “Can we explain the change process of a property market with the help of concepts and methodological framework in MA?”. An in-depth and comparative literature review method has been used in this methodology-focused research. The research reveals that despite some of its weaknesses, MA is a useful methodological tool which may be used in explaining the change process of a local property market. The study also makes some important theoretical contributions to the structure and agency dualism.

The aim of this article. The paper presents the ways of transforming of a purely economic category – marketing – in the information environment of a big modern city in its social and communication category. To do this, we considered the existing theoretical and methodological approaches to modern marketing communications and marketing opportunities as a social process that promotes productive dialogue between society and business. We proved the existence of inexhaustible possibilities of social potential of marketing communications in the context of the formation of the modern information environment of the big city, and developed practical recommendations in respect of its maximum usage in the modern world. The results of the analysis. Analysis of the phenomenon of “big modern city” has shown that its political, economic and cultural structural and functional attributes of reality are inextricably linked to corresponding images and brands, emerging in the process of self-organization or political business organization. However, there is a set of social codes and markers characteristic of population of a specific city, the use of which in communication with the population of this city is appropriate and productive. In their forming the crucial role is played by history and traditions of the city, demographics, infrastructure, geographic location, national and cultural differences, etc., which define the uniqueness of each city. It is no exaggeration to say that all the above definitions is the ideological component of the social potential of marketing communication and should not be neglected in the dialogue between the manufacturer (seller) and the consumer (city resident). Conclusions and further research perspectives. Thus, the urban information environment as a place of the highest concentration of marketing practices is a unique platform for monitoring, analyzing and searching for new social resources. Therefore, further research should focus not only on the unification of marketing communications with the mass media, practiced at the time, but on the search for new ways to maximize the use of the social potential of marketing communications. It is also clear that the improvement of marketing communications requires further professional discussions of scientists and practitioners in the context of sustainable development of a big modern city.

The research aimed to explain the urbanization in Balikpapan City and the poverty that faced by the needy migrant family through their social and formation processes what their experience. Methods use in the research from quantitative and qualitative method. The research was using the primary data through survey, in-depth interview and fi eld log book. The secondary data are use from documentation and related articles to explain the urbanization in Balikpapan City. The result shown that, the urbanization in Balikpapan City connected with the present of the needy family from various regions in Indonesia that seek for jobs. The solidarity among ethnic, become one of the social process that experience by the needy family. The needy migrant families that bond with ethnic bond, than use by the fi nancier as cheap labor that make the migrant family still in poverty.

The volume of information in the 21st century is growing at a rapid pace. Big data technologies are used to process modern information. This article discusses the use of big data technologies to implement monitoring of social processes. Big data has its characteristics and principles, which reflect here. In addition, we also discussed big data applications in some areas. Particular attention in this article pays to the interactions of big data and sociology. For this, there consider digital sociology and computational social sciences. One of the main objects of study in sociology is social processes. The article shows the types of social processes and their monitoring. As an example, there is implemented monitoring of social processes at the university. There are used following technologies for the realization of social processes monitoring: products 1010data (1010edge, 1010connect, 1010reveal, 1010equities), products of Apache Software Foundation (Apache Hive, Apache Chukwa, Apache Hadoop, Apache Pig), MapReduce framework, language R, library Pandas, NoSQL, etc. Despite this, this article examines the use of the MapReduce model for social processes monitoring at the university.