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Technical communication aids in helping people envision the usability of technology. A similar need exists for constructing the usability of data sets, but the rhetorical work is less well documented. This article reports on how writers attribute meaning and usability to a geolocation data set and its derivative objects. This rhetorical work connects the data to existing and potential social realities, which provide a framework for thinking of that data set’s usability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As social virtual reality (VR) continues to grow as a medium for digital communication, sustaining presence among communicators remains one of the main constructs that researchers and practitioners use to assess the quality of user experience. In the present paper, we explore language patterns as a behavioral link to presence. We accomplished this through an exploratory text analysis of over 4,800 min of conversation in social VR, consisting of over 130,000 spoken words from 126 participants. We observed that the use of self-references and collective references positively correlated to social presence and spatial presence. Furthermore, median interpersonal distance between communicators was positively associated with using impersonal pronouns, suggesting that participants who stood farther apart from their interlocutors tended to speak in more impersonal terms. Our work sheds light on the possible psychological mechanisms behind presence and the potential of using speech data to help build systems that enhance user engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The connection between the Late Bronze Age (LBA) Aegean costumes and social, cultural and political changes is a rather unexplored topic. Probably the only exception are kilts, the connection of which to such changes on Crete during the 15th century BCE remains a commonly discussed topic in studies focusing on the LBA Aegean iconography and other data sets. However, many questions remain open and the topic is far from exhausted. In this paper I build on the work of various scholars who have studied LBA Aegean kilts in the context of social, political and cultural changes. I diachronically study the changes in the representations of kilts since the beginning of the LBA in the Aegean until the end of the Palatial period on the Greek Mainland (ca. 1700/1600–1200 BCE). Moreover, I examine the spatial distribution of specific kilt types in different periods. In cases of several different kilt types appearing in contemporary contexts in the same region, I explore whether similar costumes might have had different social connotations within the same communities. Moreover, I examine the influence of elite power structures and socio-political changes on the perception of kilts. However, I do not observe kilts as passive reflections of specific social, cultural and political contexts, but rather as material forms actively used in the creation of social realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the persisting issue of women's underrepresentation in political news partly arises from biases in the social reality, journalism plays a crucial role in mediating these biases. This study proposes a multilayered framework of gendered influences in journalistic news production to understand how journalistic factors exacerbate or mitigate women's media representation. Drawing from a mixed-methods design (content analysis, survey, interviews), journalists' own gender emerges as the strongest predictor of gendered representations. Women's underrepresentation is also influenced by professional roles but not by organizations' gender guidelines. We explore how journalists perceive these influences and discuss conceptual and practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes "The Politics Episode" of One Day at a Time, an animated very special episode produced and aired during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. I focus on two aspects that prompt broader considerations about the role of scripted television in responding to pressing social issues. First, I demonstrate how the episode's narrative structure appeals to democratic deliberation as an idealized form of conflict resolution. Second, I consider how its production and airing timeline responded to—and failed to account for—the current events its narrative attempted to incorporate. Although the disjuncture between these two elements demonstrate the pitfalls for fictional television to address social issues in a time of constant crisis, I conclude by proposing that these "failures" can also serve to illustrate a specific "post-pandemic" structure-of-feeling, one where futures are perpetually deferred and where dealing with new social realities requires constant speculative iterations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While research on postgraduate thesis writing has investigated how students cope with institutional assessment criteria, this study explores how students form their own criteria for self-assessment through the writing process, aiming to account for the development of their independent thinking in academic socialisation. Based on in-depth interviews with 10 Chinese master's students, the study found that their self-assessment criteria not only represented solutions to problems identified by their supervisors and examiners, but also embodied aims established by students themselves. Those criteria were not fixed textual properties of a 'good' thesis, but were dynamic representations of textual and social realities constituting students' lifeworlds. Viewed from this perspective, self-assessment is a situated process whereby students re-experience and re-interpret multiple sets of realities juxtaposed against their writing. Pedagogically, the study implies that postgraduate thesis supervision could facilitate the expansion of students' self-assessment criteria to develop their capacity for making independent judgements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Areas of social development are manifestations of Social Reality (SR) which defines possibilities and barriers to achieving a better life. An argument is made to unravel the "dialectic" of a broken society in the post-imperialist world. At the heart of Liberatory Development, one must recognize the lethality of coloniality and its vestiges that incubate a culture of dehumanizing subjugation, urbicidal inequality, and global injustice. A Kaleidoscopic view of human misery and our failure to address fundamental issues signifies the call for needed praxis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social responses to virtual humans in immersive Virtual Reality (VR) may depend on whether users perceive them to be controlled by a person (avatar) or by the computer (agent). As related evidence is growing, this meta-analysis set out to synthesize corresponding findings. Specifically, we analyzed whether the perceived agency of a virtual human affects (1) social presence, (2) the evaluation of the virtual entity, and (3) behaviors toward it differently. Additionally, we controlled for task type, the virtual entity's appearance, the type of interaction, and agency manipulation. A literature search yielded 20 studies examining 911 participants (agent condition: 460, avatar condition: 451). Differences between perceived avatars and agents in social responses were calculated using Hedges' g. Results showed differences for social presence (g = 0.65, p =.001) and evaluation (g = 0.30, p =.024) in favor of avatars over agents. No effects emerged for behavioral outcomes. Meta-regressions revealed larger agency-differences in social presence for neutral than for negative tasks, and differences in evaluation for positive compared to mixed and neutral tasks. Overall, our findings suggest that while deliberate social responses like social presence and evaluation depend on perceived agency, automatic behaviors do not. For future research, particularly consistent conceptualizations of key variables are necessitated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Dismissal of women’s health concerns is a discursive phenomenon with social and material consequences. A burgeoning literature documents how women experience dismissal through various forms of disenfranchising talk. Yet, women are not only subjected to disenfranchising talk; they are called to respond to it. Meaning, analyses of disenfranchisement should also examine efforts toward enfranchisement. One process by which scholars can study communicative (dis)enfranchisement is through people’s scalar activity, or how they contextualize experiences at different levels of social reality. Studies of scale demonstrate that the language people use to narrate their personal experiences has meaning for how they position themselves in relation to other social actors, as well as how they make statements about what matters, how much, and to whom. Drawing on 36 interviews with women whose health issues have been dismissed, we apply scale as a theoretical lens and methodological tool to study how women use language in particular, meaningful, and patterned ways in narratives about health dismissal. Our findings suggest that women’s narrative discourse is enfranchising in so much as women critique, resist, and transform the contexts of their dismissal. We document how they and others scale “realness” and “normality” across narrated and narrating events. We also note how women scale up from their own experiences to women’s experiences writ large, asserting truth claims about issues borne of the broader U.S. healthcare system. Findings have implications for how critical health communication researchers study how women’s health issues are constructed in talk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper unravels the politics of belonging, the legal-political regime of exclusion, and differentiated citizenship in the multi-layered social and political context of Arunachal Pradesh, India. This paper aims to engage with the institutional arrangements of the Indian state that accommodate the ethno-cultural differences in a multi-ethnic society. Set amidst the changing social and economic realities of Arunachal Pradesh, this study relates to the emerging contestations around the protection of Indigenous identity and the need for differential treatment of people in multiethnic societies by embedding these discussions within policy debates on Inner Line Regulation and land legislations in the state. This paper adopts an incisive approach to understand the implications of such protective measures on the conceptualization of citizenship in states with a significant Indigenous population. It argues for examining the implications of ethnicised forms of governance in favour of democratic power sharing structures and representative institutions of the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criminological research published in Latin America has received limited attention in global debates. Inspired by the Southern criminology project, in this article I aim to fill this gap by describing the main features of articles published in Latin America and exploring to what extent these publications reflect the core elements posited by Southern criminologists. To this end, I propose a novel operationalization of Southern criminology coding topics and theoretical frameworks using a dataset I compiled with articles published in 2020 in Latin America (N = 230). The results show that most of the articles are non-empirical and almost half of them are Southern articles. Also, the findings suggest that when articles adopt a Southern theoretical framework, almost all of them are non-empirical. I conclude by discussing the results within the larger context of Latin American academia, arguing for the need to expand empirical approaches to achieve the goals of Southern criminology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Foco (Interdisciplinary Studies Journal) is the property of Revista Foco 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.)

Girls are consistently found to have higher literacy levels than their male peers and to consume more social narrative fiction. This study conducted interviews with four autistic girls to better understand how reading fiction can inform the camouflaging behaviours of autistic girls. Participants described how imitating characters embodying desired values, such as kindness, provided them with a practical behavioural template. However, literature is only a simulation of reality, and participants described social "failures" where the tone of the imitated text did not align with their social reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Foco (Interdisciplinary Studies Journal) is the property of Revista Foco 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.)

Issue Addressed Background Methods Conclusion This article presents a framework to identify hidden psychosocial hazards and emerging mental health risks in the workplace, thereby assisting Persons Conducting a Business or Undertaking. The framework adds value to the processes outlined in SafeWork NSW's Code of Practice for Managing Psychosocial Hazards At Work. Specifically, the article documents a framework to analyse microcultures and back stage sites of enactment where psychosocial hazards and risks may be hidden or obscured in workplace settings.The article's framework aims to bring to the surface both the intra and interpersonal tensions employees experience in the social reality they inhabit while they perform their work, thereby positively contributing to organisations and PCBUs by helping them create healthy workplace cultures and psychological safety.Specifically, the article discusses partnering with an organisational ethnographer when a PCBU embarks upon psychosocial investigations to: gain access, select employee participants, start conversations, establish rapport, build trust, collect and analyse data.This article theoretically contributes to health promotion literatures by offering organisations a complementary way of extracting deeper insights and understandings of psychosocial hazards and emerging mental health risks which are not apparent with traditional methods of inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the concept of maternal ambivalence in the Indian cultural milieu through a critical analysis of Avni Doshi’s Burnt Sugar and Zehra Naqvi’s The Reluctant Mother. These novels illustrate how societal glorification of maternal archetypes imposes significant emotional burdens on mothers who defy established norms, leading to inner conflicts laden with guilt, uncertainty, and the struggle to balance personal aspirations with societal expectations. We demonstrate how the novels subvert the entrenched heteropatriarchal order and advocate for a departure from rigid standards of what Andrea O’Reilly calls ‘patriarchal motherhood’. The article focuses on the mother–child relationship, which is characterised by ‘ambiguous intersubjectivity’ and ethical dilemmas linked to maternal discontent. We argue that a phenomenological exploration of maternal ambivalence, in conjunction with cultural norms, offers valuable insights into the complexities of maternal subjectivity and mirrors the conflicts within the maternal psyche. This approach grounds conceptions of gender and motherhood in lived experiences rather than normative ideals, providing a unique lens to examine social realities beyond individual literary works. We show how maternal ambivalence lies at the heart of the motherhood experience and how these narratives vindicate the individuality and autonomy of mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cinema is an art connected to social reality, interacting with groups that are actors of societal transformation. Groups that cannot make their voices heard within dominant cultures can develop a resistance against the dominant culture or find a path of reconciliation with it through subcultures, thereby creating an alternative space for themselves. Therefore, although subcultures are often perceived as a form of resistance, they can sometimes be functional in the path towards reconciliation with society. As an alternative form of expression, subcultures can find an opportunity of representation in recent films produced in many different countries. This study examines how rap subculture is represented in cinema. With this aim in mind, the film Casablanca Beats (Ayouch, 2021), which is one of the noteworthy examples of Moroccan cinema in recent years, has been selected as an example. Casablanca Beats (Ayouch, 2021) addresses the emergence of a dynamic rap subculture among young characters, and how through this path, they create a lifeline for themselves by forming a resistance against normative values. In this study, the reflection of rap music subcultural practices in Casablanca Beats (Ayouch, 2021) is examined using the Descriptive Analysis method guided by Raymond Williams' framework of the “dominant”, “residual”, and “emerging” cultures. The results of the study reveal that in the film, young characters find a space of autonomous expression through subcultural practices, form group identities, challenge societal determinants, but on the other hand, they are also observed to engage in efforts to reconcile with the dominant culture by transforming it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary Mexican cinema highlights women and mothers as protagonists and filmmakers in many of its films. These mothers are different from the old model of the suffering and silent mother. The stories that are now being told speak of mothers who search for their missing loved ones, fight against impunity and lies, show solidarity in collectives, and inspire hope. They highlight the work of Mexican women filmmakers who show a particular sensitivity towards the realities of the country. Some notable films from the past five years include "Los lobos" by Samuel Kishi, "Sin señas particulares" by Fernanda Valadez, "Las tres muertes de Marisela Escobedo" by Carlos Pérez Osorio, and "Noche de fuego" by Tatiana Huezo. The Mexican film "Tótem" by Lila Avilés received the Ecumenical Jury Award in Berlin 2023 for its complex and sensitive representation of the love that unites a family. The mentioned films present stories of strong women who confront social reality and seek a different future. These films address topics such as the disappearance of people, sexual abuse, and motherhood from a perspective of psychological terror. The films are available on digital platforms such as Prime Video and Netflix. [Extracted from the article]

Michel Freitag developed a ground-breaking sociological theory synthesizing the thought of sociology's founders into the form of a dialectical sociology that conceives of the symbolic as ontological to social reality. After outlining his conceptualization of the historical evolution of society through its 'modes of reproduction', we will see how his analysis of contemporary societal transformations rests on a critical theory of communication and technology that, while entering a dialogue with the works of the Frankfurt school, especially those of Habermas, seeks to overcome their inherent contradictions. According to Freitag, the development of capitalist globalization alters the very substance of society as it tends to morph itself into a self-regulating cybernetic system. His sociology allows us to apprehend phenomena tied to the development of contemporary digital technologies such as the drive towards a new form of algorithmic governmentality fueled by digital oligopolies that increasingly dominate globalized capitalism, the rise of fake news in the era of post-truth and the transformation of subjectivity. Finally, his critique enables potent reflection on the dialectical possibilities of overcoming the dynamics of contemporary alienation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From a semiotic perspective interested in the functioning of culture, this article studies the role of the sea and maritime travel in the discursive construction of Portuguese national identity. Given the constructivist nature of semiotics, national identity is studied as a cultural artifact that assigns meaning to social reality in cognitive and affective terms, rather than as an essence or pre-social datum. Through the study of certain episodes and passages from the works Os Lusíadas (Camões) and Mensagem (Pessoa), the aim is to argue how the sea and maritime travel have enabled the discursive construction and mythification of the Portuguese “We” based on values of danger, suffering, courage, and recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 30 years, the last planner system (LPS), as a Lean-driven production planning and control tool, has consistently demonstrated its capability to improve planning reliability and overall performance in construction projects. Recent research provides evidence suggesting that the LPS ability to do good to projects has not reached its full potential yet. In fact, it has been observed that by identifying the missing social mechanisms in its implementation process and managing more effectively the complex socio-technical nature of the LPS, its implementation effectiveness is improved. However, commonly used research approaches, such as the case study method, have been criticized for lacking scientific control, replicability, and external validity. Alternatively, immersive virtual reality (IVR)-based simulation games have the methodological capability to enable the study of the social mechanisms that the LPS engenders when implemented in projects, by providing a highly controlled, reproducible, and ecologically valid experimental environment. However, how to leverage effectively IVR-based gaming technology to study the social mechanisms that the LPS engenders in construction organizations is not well understood. In order to bridge this gap, this paper established the conceptual and technical foundations to set IVR-based experimental environments and developed an IVR prototype encompassing nonlean and LPS-based rounds. The evaluation of the IVR prototype involved both quantitative and qualitative research approaches, focusing on its functionality, user-perceived presence and usability, task performance, and lean expert feedback. The results demonstrated the prototype's capability to create a controlled experimental environment while offering participants a user-friendly, immersive, and realistic LPS simulation experience. The contributions of this study are twofold: (1) the addition of a new method to the research methodology toolbox in construction engineering and management; and (2) the generation of design insights to develop IVR prototypes for research in construction engineering and management, and preliminary evidence for its ecological validity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern contemporary societies are immersed in a process of losing their communitarian categories of self-understanding. In this context, there has been an increasing cultural deployment of the use of categories of individual psychology to explain numerous situations of social reality (psychologization). Here, we will study this cultural extension of the psychological in one of its most representative expressions, self-help literature. Through a mixed discourse analysis (quantitative-qualitative), we will verify the basic elements of this psychotherapeutic culture, as expressed in the world of self-help. We will also see what conception of health emerges from this literature, as well as the implications of this conception. Finally, we will emphasize the wide extension (micro-spaces of everyday life) and malleability of psychotherapeutic categories in their cultural use, as well as the risks of emotional or psychological retranslation of issues with clear social or even political roots, such as family, educational or work relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from the concept of death in contemporary Serbian culture (in the context of thanatological and anthropological studies), the author focuses on the analysis of communication with the deceased in dreams, which is still perceived as an important form of contact with the otherworldly. The analysis of material collected during field research at various locations in Serbia and in Serbian communities in Romania (from 2017 to 2024), supplemented by dream narratives from the internet, has shown that based on the main messages conveyed by the deceased to the living, dreams can be divided into: (1) dreams about "the unappeased deceased" (who lack something in the otherworld, usually due to an omission by the living related to funerary rituals); (2) dreams in which the deceased show the otherworld and provide verbal assessments of it; (3) dreams in which the deceased inform of their departure or final passing into the world of the dead; (4) dreams in which the deceased demonstrate their presence in the world of the living, i.e., providing information pertaining to the sphere of the dreamer's social reality; (5) dreams in which the deceased convey their messages, advice or warnings to the living; and (6) dreams interpreted as the deceased person's call to the dreamer to join them in the otherworld. Basic element analysis of the spatial world image, projected via the dream, highlights the importance of the locus perceived as a border space. Dreams about the deceased seem to be ambivalent in this respect, given that, on the one hand, they are perceived as an important means of communication between this world and the otherworld, and on the other hand, through the ideas on which they are founded and that they further transmit, they are also part of the narrative strategies of the boundary between this concept of two worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological advancements allow embodied and synchronous communication via social virtual reality (VR), where multiple users interact as avatars in a shared virtual space. However, the affordances of social VR and how users interact with them have been underexplored. We expand the discourse on media affordances by emphasizing user agency in strategic media choices for overcoming constraints in physical and virtual worlds. We qualitatively investigated user experiences of a social VR platform. Findings from semi-structured interviews (N = 28) revealed that media selection is determined through a dynamic relationship between platforms designed to encourage action possibilities and users strategically leveraging media affordances to overcome situational constraints of their physical environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

The article examines the problem of the interaction of law with other social phenomena. On the one hand, law can be used to protect other social phenomena, such as moral norms, economic interests, cultural values, and on the other hand, social phenomena can influence the formation of legal norms and law and order in society. An important aspect of research is the interaction of legal norms with such social phenomena as politics, economy, culture, morality, and others, as well as the influence of legal norms on social reality and the interaction of various aspects of society’s life. The article examines the problem of the correlation of legal policy with certain social phenomena, and also determines the role of law in the formation of social reality. In addition, the author investigates the problem of regulation of social phenomena by the norms of national and international law in the context of social phenomena. Understanding the relationship between law and various social phenomena is important for the development of legal policy in the conditions of constantly changing social realities. Studying the relationship between law and other social phenomena allows us to understand the causes of such conflicts and find ways to solve problems. Understanding the relationship between law and social phenomena is important for the effective functioning of the legal system, ensuring the protection of human rights and freedoms, the development of international law and legal awareness. Knowledge of this interaction helps to understand trends in the development of law as a social phenomenon, as well as social phenomena as components of law. Also, understanding the relationship between law and other social phenomena is important for the development of the international legal system and the implementation of international legal cooperation. In connection with the growth of globalization and international cooperation, there is a need for the development of international law and legal instruments that regulate relations between different states and international organizations. Understanding legal norms and their relationship with social phenomena contributes to the formation of a high legal culture in society and ensuring the protection of human rights and freedoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Foro Revista de Derecho is the property of Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar, Sede Ecuador 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.)

Unfair knowledge practices easily beset our efforts to achieve health equity within and between countries. Enacted by people from a distance and from a position of power ('the centre') on behalf of and alongside people with less power ('the periphery'), these unfair practices have generated a complex literature of complaints across various axes of inequity. We identified a sample of this literature from 12 journals and systematized it using the realist approach to explanation. We framed the outcome to be explained as 'manifestations of unfair knowledge practices'; their generative mechanisms as 'the reasoning of individuals or rationale of institutions'; and context that enable them as 'conditions that give knowledge practices their structure'. We identified four categories of unfair knowledge practices, each triggered by three mechanisms: (1) credibility deficit related to pose (mechanisms: 'the periphery's cultural knowledge, technical knowledge and "articulation" of knowledge do not matter'), (2) credibility deficit related to gaze (mechanisms: 'the centre's learning needs, knowledge platforms and scholarly standards must drive collective knowledge-making'), (3) interpretive marginalization related to pose (mechanisms: 'the periphery's sensemaking of partnerships, problems and social reality do not matter') and (4) interpretive marginalization related to gaze (mechanisms: 'the centre's learning needs, social sensitivities and status preservation must drive collective sensemaking'). Together, six mutually overlapping, reinforcing and dependent categories of context influence all 12 mechanisms: 'mislabelling' (the periphery as inferior), 'miseducation' (on structural origins of disadvantage), 'under-representation' (of the periphery on knowledge platforms), 'compounded spoils' (enjoyed by the centre), 'under-governance' (in making, changing, monitoring, enforcing and applying rules for fair engagement) and 'colonial mentality' (of/at the periphery). These context–mechanism–outcome linkages can inform efforts to redress unfair knowledge practices, investigations of unfair knowledge practices across disciplines and axes of inequity and ethics guidelines for health system research and practice when working at a social or physical distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Welfare Policies & Social Work Journal / Revista Internacional de Políticas de Bienestar y Trabajo Social is the property of Asociacion Internacional de Ciencias Sociales & Trabajo Social 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.)

Copyright of Voces y Silencios is the property of Universidad de los Andes 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.)

Purpose: Despite the increasing interest in the metaverse—immersive three-dimensional virtual worlds wherein personalized avatars interact with one another—little is known about how users cognitively appraise and emotionally experience it. To fill this gap, the present study explores the emotional, behavioral and social consequences of users' cognitive appraisals, while focusing on social virtual reality (VR) as a representative entry point to the metaverse. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory against the backdrop of a framework for classifying emotions, this study develops and tests a theoretical model to account for users' continuance intention and its consequences in the social VR context based on two-wave panel survey data collected from 216 users of social VR platforms, including AltspaceVR, VRChat, Bigscreen and Rec Room. Findings: The results of the first survey showed that perceived opportunity was more strongly influenced by technological opportunity than social opportunity, whereas perceived threat was more strongly affected by social threat than technological threat. Integrating the data collected from the first survey with those of the second survey, we also found that users' continuance intention positively influenced both their behavioral engagement and social self-efficacy. Originality/value: By adopting a longitudinal approach, this study provides insights that may be valuable to researchers and practitioners who seek to use social VR for business purposes. This study also contributes to the metaverse literature by conceptualizing and operationalizing the opportunity and threat factors of social VR and identifying salient emotions that users experience in this context. Finally, this study has practical implications for addressing the social and technological features that may cause adverse user experiences in social VR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Charles Dickens often satirised and sharply criticised the unfortunate social realities of nineteenth-century England through his works such as Oliver Twist (1838), David Copperfield (1850), A Christmas Carol (1843) and Hard Times (1854). In my paper, I will be putting forward the argument that Dickens’s novels advocate for social change by exemplifying the theoretical doctrine of methodological individualism. As a social science doctrine, methodological individualism was first introduced by Max Weber in his work Economy and Society (1922). The central precept of Methodological Individualism, according to Weber, is that individual actions and motivations rather than social and cultural realities should be considered as the chief drivers of social change. However, it should be precisely noted that methodological individualism as a doctrine is not a reckless celebration of individualism, but, more importantly, a careful analysis of how the intentional states of individuals contribute to the unfolding of social changes in a given society. In other words, the doctrine of Methodological Individualism proposes that social structures are influential but they are not superstructures whose influence exceeds the agency of individual members of a society. In order to illustrate the argument, I will be specifically focusing on the novel Oliver Twist. The historical and social context of the novel consists of 1834 Poor Law Reforms and widespread economic and social inequalities in nineteenth century England. Within these contexts the characters of Fagin, Mr Bumble. Nancy, Harry Maylie and Mr Brownlow make highly individualistic choices that shape the narrative of the novel, challenge the established code of social relations and finally restores Oliver Twist to his rightful place in the society of nineteenth century England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The actualization of the issues of the youth’s religiosity and of its scientific interpretation on the example of students, representatives of generation Z (centennials, Gen Z), determined the research questions of the article which aims at identifying centennials’ estimates of various religious phenomena and their interpretation of knowledge about it. The theoretical basis of the article are the ideas of social constructionism, which help to understand how young people take part in the creation of such a social construct as religion. The article summarizes the results of the sociological study of ideas about religion among students of the large regional university - Ufa State Petroleum Technical University (Republic of Bashkortostan). The sample consisted of students born after 1995, aged 18 to 26 (N = 1900); the author used the questionnaire with closed questions, narrative interviews and focus groups with the Eastern Regional Studies’ students. Based on the results of the survey, the author considers the youth’s ideas about religion, religious traditions and practices, their spread in the regional community, and the origins of religious sentiments and attitudes reproduced and constructed by the youth. The author notes the lack of unity in various aspects of the youth’s attitude towards religion, which indicates the blurring and eclecticism of religious ideas among the generation Z. Although students declare a wide variety of manifestations of religiosity, the relationship between religion and the existential understanding of the world is clear. Images of the sacred go beyond students’ religious worldview, which is due to the way knowledge about reality is constructed and to the individual need to sacralize knowledge. The comparative analysis of the construction of the image of the sacred by Muslim and Orthodox centennials showed some differences: Muslims are more religious; religious tradition seems to be transmitted from generation to generation mainly by the Muslim part of the Gen Z, and, on the contrary, is constructed by Orthodox students in the current social context. However, there is a general trend - religious identity of the believer is not strictly based on a certain tradition but is constructed with available knowledge and changes with new information, which is a typical feature of the generation Z.

Classical logic is based on an underlying view of the world, according to which there are elementary facts and compound facts, which are logical combinations of these elementary facts. Sentences are true if they correspond to, in last instance, the elementary facts in the world. This world view has no place for rules, which exist as individuals in the world, and which create relations between the most elementary facts. As a result, classical logic is not suitable to deal with rules, and is therefore unsuitable to deal with legal reasoning. A logic that is more suitable should take into account that law is a part of social reality, in particular a part that consists of constructivist facts, and that rules play a central role in law. This article gives a superficial description of how social reality exists and of the place of law and legal rules in it. It uses this description to argue that traditional techniques to reason with and about legal rules provide a better logic for law than classical logic. These techniques can be accommodated in a logic that treats rules as logical individuals.

Practical reason is the use of reason to decide how to act and perform in a social reality. When someone deliberates about what to do, one puts all the reasons for the action, and then all the reasons against the action will determine the outcome of the action. In that situation, we can describe that practical action with reason because we will determine reason with the weight of different reasons not on the weighing reasons. In this paper, we analyze that reasons have weight against the theory that weights of reasons have no role in a theory of reasoning, and defend that reasons have weight with the evidence of practical reasons. The aim of this paper is to argue that weight of reasons has a role in the process of reasoning. In every situation of life, we can use have reason and weight of reason according to the practical situation of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research aims to study, analyse and criticize Weber's methodology of understanding and interpretation, in addition to clarifying how to build an ideal model. The research relied on the analytical-critical approach in studying the research topic. The research concluded that Weber was keen to define the concept of understanding and interpretation as a methodological basis for revealing the meanings of actions and social phenomena in society as a whole. The research also concluded that studying the meanings of social actions requires the presence of a methodological tool that Weber called the ideal model, which is a mental structure that is formed during the emergence or clarity. One or more observable features of social reality that are used to achieve sociological understanding in the study of socio-cultural phenomena. In the end, the research recommended the necessity of conducting more analytical and critical studies and research on Weber’s interpretive methodology to clarify the intellectual circumstances and events of the social context and its interactions that contributed to the maturation and establishment of his methodological approach, in addition to considering it one of the most important methodologies suitable for studying our problems and social phenomena. Because it takes into account the cultural variables specific to each society as a methodological input when conducting sociological research based on ideal models that can be employed to understand and interpret social reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are several proposals regarding the origin of the universe and the inhabited earth, the most prominent being Biblical creationism and naturalistic evolutionism. Biblical creationism proposes that the reality around us was created supernaturally by a personal and transcendent Being, who first shaped an earth that was disordered and then filled it with all kinds of life; At the end of the process, he created the human being to represent him visibly in the government or administration of other things. On the other hand, naturalistic evolutionism proposes that the reality that surrounds us is the product of a process in which, without any type of supernatural intervention, natural laws, acting on matter over time and at random, gave rise in a way gradually to the universe, to the inhabited earth and to organisms. Which of the two fits more with the evidence and the reality that surrounds us? Although it is true that trying to explain the origin of both have limitations, the reality is that Biblical creationism is not only more consistent with the evidence, but also with social reality. Furthermore, it is easier to explain how the creationist model harmonizes with the apparent difficulties or contradictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the founding of the Communist Party of China, literature has often featured themes glorifying industry under the guidance of national policies. However, a group of post-1970s and -80s writers in China express a unique perspective on factory scenes in their works, deviating significantly from mainstream Realism. This article focuses on Lunei’s 路內 “The Following Trilogy” (Young Babylon, On the Trail of Her Travels, and Lost in Daicheng 戴城) to observe how the writer, as a witness at the edge of an era, depicts the aesthetic ambiance shaped by factory narratives, thereby reflecting social reality. Compared to other writers, two features set Lunei’s works apart. First, through the intertextuality of sounds, smells, relics, and factories, a poetic “ruin-spirit” space is constructed. The novels are also characterized by the presence of disabled individuals and societal “cancer cells,” symbolizing the confusion and disillusionment of the turn of the century, which are subtly embedded in the narrative. How does Lunei construct the aesthetics of the ruins in the space of the factory? How does he reflect and inquire into the changes of the times in his decadent writing? How does he combine the conscious personal history with the unconscious writing of the times, so as to show his social concern and shape the generation’s redemption of the past, perception of the present, and warning for the future? These are several questions explored in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historical representation of natural science as the experimental testing of causal hypotheses with reductionistic, mechanistic explanations has been rightly rejected as an exclusive approach for psychology. However, this representation of science is simplistic and misleading. Interdisciplinary science studies show how biology, physics, and empirical psychology include reflection, empathy, imagination, qualitative analysis, and the creative use of ordinary language in natural scientific practice. Beyond causal experimentation in research and mechanistic explanation in theory, practices across all sciences include intentionality, meaning, holism, values, teleology, temporality, and agency in phenomena. Psychophysical subject matter requires unique methodological norms that interrelate intentional meanings and their external physical, vital, and social realities. Understanding psychology's complex relation to natural science begs for a closer, more probing, comparative examination of the actual practices of scientists. Only on this basis will methodological norms adequately clarify, justify, and integrate the diverse, pluralistic approach required by psychology's paradoxical identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Normative case studies represent empirically grounded phenomena that raise normative philosophical questions. Growth in the popularity of case‐based inquiry in philosophy reflects a recent trend in the field not to shy away from engaging with empirical realities, but instead to advance philosophical projects that recognize and speak directly to these realities, including social inequities endemic to our societies. Yet, as the use of case studies and other empirically engaged philosophical approaches has grown, concerns have been raised about whether these methods risk reducing philosophy to social science and, in turn, burdening philosophy with the constraints of social science research. Responding to these concerns calls for more attention to the methodological dimensions of case‐based inquiry in philosophy. In this article, Rebecca Taylor offers reflections on two core clarifying questions: (1) What makes normative case studies distinct from other related tools for inquiry — in particular, philosophical thought experiments and qualitative case studies? (2) What quality criteria should guide the development of normative case studies? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing research on and conceptualization of the public presence of religion usually builds on the Habermasian understanding of the public sphere. This has centered the discussion on the public presence of religion around the question of where such a presence is justified. Discourse theories offer an alternative understanding, stating that the public sphere is an area of struggles where diverse discourses compete to establish a definition of social reality as taken for granted and hegemonic. This shift opens the question of how a given definition of social reality becomes taken for granted, pointing to the role of legitimation. Against this background, our article argues that religion's ability to serve as a valuable "resource" for building justifications in discursive struggles for hegemony could serve as indicators of its presence in the public sphere. Along these lines, we analyze religion's legitimizing role in abortion policy-making in Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I have been playing pickup soccer for the last decade with members of my local Midwestern US community. In practical terms, we all behave as if little is more important to us than our ongoing game. We suffer injuries, tolerate rehabilitation, and spend hours and days away from our closest friends and family members in order to play. But we also miss no opportunity to deny the importance of the game. We are quick to admonish one another for taking it too seriously, for not just having fun, for forgetting that it's just a game. If we behave practically as if soccer carries genuine social import, then why won't we admit to this belief when we talk about it? In this essay, I demonstrate that, in fact, the two sides of this seeming paradox are the necessary supports for one another. Although it is counterintuitive, the seriousness of our play depends upon our refusal to acknowledge in language the significant space that soccer occupies in our lives. We are free to invest our game with a surprising degree of profundity so long as we steadily and periodically remind one another that we are not doing so. To support this thesis, I draw on classic commentary on the sociology of play by Johan Huizinga, on Robert Pfaller's concept of interpassivity, and on several ideas from Lacanian psychoanalysis as read by Slavoj Žižek. This triangulation of thinkers allows me to clarify the logic of an everyday experience. It will also help explain the apparent contradiction between how a large group of soccer players experience their excessive attachments to a game and the sport's minor status within our shared social reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the bygone American independent film media landscape, of which Pulp Fiction (1994) was an essential part, and explores how the film has aged in light of the present media environment and the trajectory of Tarantino's career. I compare Pulp Fiction with the Coen brothers' Barton Fink (1991), another American independent film that preceded it by a few years. Then, I illustrate how Pulp Fiction synthesized classical and post-classical filmmaking styles and operated according to a visual minimalism that is one of the film's strengths. The primary outcome of revisiting Pulp Fiction as a product of both its time and its filmmaker's penchant for excavating material from older movies and stories is to conclude that the groundbreaking Pulp Fiction is, in many ways, a transitional work that often reduces its human characters to objects. I argue that later features from the filmmaker are more substantial in their human characters and a concern for social reality and consequences beyond the immediate frame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conserving biodiversity in the context of global change is a challenge for the sustainability of life as we know it. Scientific protection work, particularly for flora, often lacks interdisciplinary approaches that consider human dynamics. The main objective is to evaluate the level of commitment of Spanish society toward the conservation of biodiversity in general and vascular flora in particular. As a secondary objective, it aims to contribute to the transfer between management and the general population. Methodologically, the survey has been used to estimate the willingness to protect threatened flora. The surveyed population is structured on the basis of its commitment to biodiversity conservation into: pro-conservation or pro-utilitarian group. The results are conclusive and indicate a high commitment of the Spanish society to conservation in aspects such as fees or legislative limitations on owners. It also reveals a deficiency in the transfer of the efforts made, from management, to society. It can be concluded that the survey, as a tool, allows us to know the starting social reality, detect weaknesses and deficiencies that allow management to be adapted to that reality, replicate work longitudinally to know the evolution of the measures and, indirectly, bring reality closer, of conservation to the people surveyed (science transfer). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Anbar University for Law & Political Sciences is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) 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.)

Copyright of Journal of Young Intellectuals / Genç Mütefekkirler Dergisi is the property of Journal of Young Intellectuals 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.)

This paper traces the life and afterlife of Tunisia's literary avant-garde (al-tali'a al-adabiyya), which thrived between 1968 and 1972. Al-tali'a sought to 'revolutionize' literary language and to root Tunisian literature in the multilingual environment and social reality of the country, at a crucial period of social and political change and against the backdrop of a Leftist turn in local dissident politics. Al-tali'a sought to complete the process of language and literary decolonization in intersection with key global tendencies, including Tiermondisme and decoloniality. The language question was articulated, then as in post-2011 Tunisia, in terms of democracy and justice. While the state promoted fostering Tunisianness as state policy, there were other takes on this concept that were progressive, more deeply decolonial and justice-driven. This paper uncovers the genesis of the movement through the work of Izzeddine al-Madani in drama and Tahar Hammami, among others, in fiction and poetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]