Search results for: eugenic social attitudes

Authors: Shivani Singh, Shantanu Nakhare, Kalyani Nair, Rohan Shetty

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As social networking is growing at a rapid pace today it is vital that we work on improving its management. Research has shown that the content present in online social networks may have significant influence on impressionable minds. If such platforms are misused, it will lead to negative consequences. Detecting insults or inappropriate messages continues to be one of the most challenging aspects of Online Social Networks (OSNs) today. We address this problem through a Machine Learning Based Soft Text Classifier approach using Support Vector Machine algorithm. The proposed system acts as a screening mechanism the alerts the user about such messages. The messages are classified according to their subject matter and each comment is labeled for the presence of profanity and insults.

Keywords: machine learning, online social networks, soft text classifier, support vector machine

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Authors: Igor Michel Gachig, Samanta Tiague

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Baka ‘Pygmies’ is an indigenous community living in the rainforest region of Cameroon. This community is known to be poor and marginalized from the political, economic and social life, regardless of sedentarization and development efforts. In fact, the social exclusion of ‘Pygmy’ people prevents them from gaining basic citizen’s rights, among which access to education, land, healthcare, employment and justice. In this study, social interactions, behaviors, and perceptions were considered. An interview guide and focus group discussions were used to collect data. A sample size of 97 was used, with 60 Baka Pygmies and 37 Bantus from two Baka-Bantu settlements/villages of the south region of Cameroon. The data were classified in terms of homogenous, exhaustive and exclusive categories. This classification has enabled factors explaining social exclusion in the Baka community to be highlighted using content analysis. The study shows that (i) limited access to education, natural resources and care in modern healthcare organizations, and (ii) different views on the development expectations and integration approaches both highlight the social exclusion in the Baka ‘Pygmies’ community. Therefore, an effective and adequate social integration of ‘Pygmies’ based on cultural peculiarities and identity, as well as reduction of disparities and improvement of their access to education should be of major concern to the government and policy makers.

Keywords: development, indigenous people, integration, social exclusion

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Authors: Khin Thi Htun, James Jain, Tim Andrews

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This study examines the under-researched phenomenon of crowdfunding use and effectiveness in developing non-western markets. More precisely, using an institutional theoretical lens, the research explores the attitudes, motivations, and practice surrounding the initiation, development, and receipt of crowdfunding campaignsin a business context symptomatic of widely dissimilar regulatory, normative cognitive institutional ‘pillars’ to those studied – and utilized in practice - to date. As, in essence, a form of alternative finance, crowdfunding is used primarily to fund a wide range of projects through the securement of small amounts of money from a large pool of investors/participants. Being tied almost inextricably to e-commerce channels, the practice of crowdfunding typically sources its means and communicates the purpose of each venture mainly, though not exclusively, online. The wide range of projects supported to date span social entrepreneurship, community benefits initiatives, creative and artistic endeavors, assistance to disadvantaged social cohorts, and small business start-ups. Adopting a longitudinal, comparative approach, the study reported here embodies an investigation centered on six case start-up campaigns within the Thai societal context, covering a range of fundings calls and cause choices. Data was sourced from a variety of respondents using semi-structured interviews, observation (direct and participant), and company information. Results suggest that the motives and effectiveness of crowdfunding campaigns differ significantly in non-western consumer contexts from the norms that have evolved to date in mature Western contexts(particularly the US and UK). Specifically, whereas data on the different regulatory pressures showed relatively insignificant variation, the results regarding cognitive and, especially, normative dissimilarities between the Thai and US/UK institutional profiles surfaced potentially important differences with far-reaching implications. Particular issuesto emerge from our data concerned consumer motivation in terms of support and engagement with different types of campaigns. This was found to stem from social norms symptomatic of ‘collectivist’ and ‘relations based/particularist’ cultural assistance behavior, in turn, linked to deeply-held societal values regarding interpersonal network (‘in group’) reciprocity. This research serves to refine and extend the limited body of knowledge to date on crowdfunding by exploring the phenomenon in a non-western, non-developed country contextswhere social norms and values differ. This was achieved through uncovering and explicating the effects of cultural dissimilarity on motivation, decision-making, construed ethics, and general engagement with crowdfunding ideas. Implications for theory into e-marketing and cross-cultural marketing, as well as for practitioners seeking to develop effective crowdfunding campaigns in a Southeast Asian cultural environment, are discussed to conclude the paper.

Keywords: crowdfunding, national culture, e-marketing, cross-cultural business

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Authors: Suvankar Chakraborty

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Introduction: Corporate Social Responsibility means the obligations of business to act in a manner which will serve the best interests of the Society. The Companies Act , 2013 for the first time has emphasized on the fact that every company having net worth of rupees five hundred crore or more, or turnover of rupees one thousand crore or more or a net profit of rupees five crore or more during any financial year shall constitute a Corporate Social Responsibility Committee of the Board consisting of three or more directors, out of which at least one director shall be an independent director. In the previous Companies Act, 1956 there was no such compulsion for constituting a Corporate Social Responsibility Committee. Objective: This study examines the changes in the perception of corporate sectors so far as social responsibility is concerned. Methodology: The study is based on secondary data obtained from various websites of different corporate sectors and the Gazette of India related to Companies Act, 1956 and the new Companies Act, 2013. For capturing the perception of the corporate world regarding the provisions of CSR in the new Companies Act, 2013, primary data has been collected through structured questionnaire. Findings: Corporate Social Responsibility can put a company on a strong base of sustainable development and in facing the business risk of foreclosure or winding up. Shouldering social responsibility on a long-term basis can help a company not only in increasing its reputation in the business world but also helps in minimizing Government intervention. . But, there can hardly be any universal rule that the area of social responsibility being wholly and solely dependent on the ethical aspect of the corporate sectors. But having said that it may be asserted that business ethics may be a key driver of CSR activities rather than rule based CSR activities in the years to come.

Keywords: business ethics, corporate social responsibility, companies act, 2013, CSR committee

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Authors: Mohamed Hamed Mohamed Ahmed Alameer

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Population studies, essentially deals with the size, growth, and distribution of the population in a given area. Size, growth, and distribution are determined by three major factors, which are fertility mortality, and migration. Of these factors, fertility- as a number of live births a woman has actually had- is a potent socio-demographic force in vital process of population growth. So, fertility is a major component of population growth. It is one of the main determinants of population growth and has crucial role in population dynamic, because it measures the rate at which a population increased. In fact the levels of fertility are vary widely among nations, countries, geographic regions, ethnic, socio- economic groups, and religious groups. Fertility differential by religion have been empirically documented in a large numbers of countries. For instance, many researchers in developing and developed countries investigated the differential of fertility among Muslims and Non- Muslims. Most of them have found that fertility of Muslims is higher than fertility of non Muslims. And Muslims have a tendency for large families comparing to non- Muslims population. On the basis of this; Islam by it itself could play an important role in shaping attitudes and values of fertility, such as: sustainability of human kind, developmental reasons, religious Motivations, socioeconomic Motivations, and Psychological Motivation. Therefore, this paper investigates socio-economic values of fertility in Islam and compare it to Malthusian and neo Malthusian functionalists and conflict perspectives.

Keywords: islam, fertility, socioeconomic values, social sciences

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Authors: Lorenzo Maiorino, Fabio Fortuna, Giovanni Panebianco, Marco Sanzari, Gabriella Arcese, Valerio Maria Paolozzi

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It is well known that sport is a factor of social cohesion and the breaking down of barriers between people. From this point of view, the aim is to demonstrate how, through the (re)generation of sustainable structures, it is possible to give life to a new social, cultural, and economic pathway, where possible, in peripheral areas with problems of abandonment and degradation. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to study realities such as European programs and funds and to highlight the ways in which planning can be used to respond to critical issues such as urban decay, abandonment, and the mitigation of social differences. For this reason, the analysis will be carried out through the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) package, the Next Generation EU, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the Cohesion Fund, the European Social Fund, and other managed funds. The procedure will rely on sources and data of unquestionable origin, and the relation to the object of study in question will be highlighted. The project lends itself to be ambitious and exploring a further aspect of the sports theme, which, as we know, is one of the foundations for a healthy society.

Keywords: sport, social inclusion, urban regeneration, sports facilities, European funds

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Authors: Hadjer Chellia

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the present study reports on second language use among Algerian international students in the UK. In Algeria, French has an important status among the Algerian verbal repertoires due to colonial reasons. This has triggered many language conflicts and many debates among policy makers in Algeria. In higher education, Algerian English students’ sociolinguistic profile is characterised by the use of French as a sign of prestige. What may leave room for debate is the effect of crossing borders towards the UK as a result of international mobility programmes, a transition which could add more complexity since French, is not so significant as a language in the UK context. In this respect, the micro-objective is to explore the fate of French use among Ph.D. students in the UK as a newly established group vis-à-vis English. To fulfill the purpose of the present inquiry, the research employs multiple approaches in which semi-structured interview is a primary source of data to know participants’ attitudes about French use, targeting both their pre-migratory experience and current one. Web-based questionnaires are set up to access larger population. Focus group sessions are further procedures of scrutiny in this piece of work to explore the actual linguistic behaviours. Preliminary findings from both interviews and questionnaires reveal that students’ current experience, particularly living in the UK, affects their pre-migratory attitudes towards French language and its use. The overall findings are expected to bring manifold contributions to the field of research among which is setting factors that influence language use among newly established émigrés communities. The research is also relevant to international students’ experience of study abroad in terms of language use in the guise of internationalization of higher education, mobility and exchange programmes. It could contribute to the sociolinguistics of the Algerian diaspora: the dispersed residence of non-native communities - not to mention its significance on the Algerian research field abroad.

Keywords: Algerian diaspora, French language, language maintenance, language shift, mobility

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Authors: Felix Liedel

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The rise of artificial intelligence has numerous and far-reaching consequences. In addition to the obvious consequences for entire professions, the increasing interaction with chatbots also has a wide range of social consequences and implications. We are already increasingly used to interacting with digital chatbots, be it in virtual consulting situations, creative development processes or even in building personal or intimate virtual relationships. A media-theoretical classification of these phenomena has so far been difficult, partly because the interactive element in the exchange with artificial intelligence has undeniable similarities to human-to-human communication but is not identical to it. The proposed study, therefore, aims to reformulate the concept of symbolic interaction in the tradition of George Herbert Mead as symbolic interactivity in communication with chatbots. In particular, Mead's socio-psychological considerations will be brought into dialog with the specific conditions of digital media, the special dispositive situation of chatbots and the characteristics of artificial intelligence. One example that illustrates this particular communication situation with chatbots is so-called consensus fiction: In face-to-face communication, we use symbols on the assumption that they will be interpreted in the same or a similar way by the other person. When briefing a chatbot, it quickly becomes clear that this is by no means the case: only the bot's response shows whether the initial request corresponds to the sender's actual intention. This makes it clear that chatbots do not just respond to requests. Rather, they function equally as projection surfaces for their communication partners but also as distillations of generalized social attitudes. The personalities of the chatbot avatars result, on the one hand, from the way we behave towards them and, on the other, from the content we have learned in advance. Similarly, we interpret the response behavior of the chatbots and make it the subject of our own actions with them. In conversation with the virtual chatbot, we enter into a dialog with ourselves but also with the content that the chatbot has previously learned. In our exchanges with chatbots, we, therefore, interpret socially influenced signs and behave towards them in an individual way according to the conditions that the medium deems acceptable. This leads to the emergence of situationally determined digital identities that are in exchange with the real self but are not identical to it: In conversation with digital chatbots, we bring our own impulses, which are brought into permanent negotiation with a generalized social attitude by the chatbot. This also leads to numerous media-ethical follow-up questions. The proposed approach is a continuation of my dissertation on moral decision-making in so-called interactive films. In this dissertation, I attempted to develop a concept of symbolic interactivity based on Mead. Current developments in artificial intelligence are now opening up new areas of application.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, chatbot, media theory, symbolic interactivity

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Authors: Shuai Yang, Bin Li, Sixing Chen

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Engaging and co-creating value with buyers (i.e., the buying organizations) have rapidly become a rising trend for sellers (i.e., the selling organizations) within Business-to-Business (B2B) environments, through which buyers can interact more with sellers and be better informed about products. One important way to achieve this is through engaging with buyers on social media, termed as brand engagement on social media, which provides a platform for sellers to interact with customers. This study addresses the research gap by answering the following questions: (1) Are B2B firms’ brand engagement on social media related to their firm value? (2) To what extent do analyst stock recommendations channel B2B firms’ brand engagement on social media’s possible impact on firm value? To answer the research questions, this study collected data merged from multiple sources. The results show that there is a positive association between seller-initiated engagement and B2B sellers’ firm value. Besides, analyst stock recommendations mediate the positive relationships between seller-initiated engagement and firm value. However, this study reveals buyer-initiated engagement has a counterintuitive and negative relationship with firm value, which shows a dark side of buyer-initiated engagement on social media for B2B sellers.

Keywords: brand engagement, B2B firms, firm value, social media, stock recommendations

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Authors: Joseph Kwame Sarfo-Adu

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Social protection programs have been rolled out by successive governments in the quest of bridging the inequality gap in Ghana. Despite notable positive impacts of these programs across the country, there still remains worrying experience of the exclusion of the poor and vulnerable especially in rural Ghana Notwithstanding the rhetoric of participation within the discussion of social protection programs, less attention has been given to the design of these programs. In view of this, the study seeks to address how social protection programs are designed to address the needs of the poor. This study focused on five selected social protection programs in Ghana because they are programs with nationwide coverage. Qualitative thematic analysis was applied to analyze our data with the use of the Nvivo 12 version. We found out that there is a strong link between policy design and poverty alleviation. Our findings revealed that a well-designed program can significantly alleviate poverty, a poorly designed program can create more damage.

Keywords: social protection, poverty alleviation, policy design, effective outcome

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Authors: Catarina Belchior, Catarina Martins, Sara Mendes, Ana Rita S. Valente, Elsa Marta Soares

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Introduction: The negative feelings and attitudes that a person who stutters can develop are extremely relevant when considering assessment and intervention in Speech and Language Therapy. This relates to the fact that the person who stutters can experience feelings such as shame, fear and negative beliefs when communicating. Considering the complexity and importance of integrating diverse aspects in stuttering intervention, it is central to identify those emotions as early as possible. Therefore, this research aimed to achieve the translation, adaptation to European Portuguese and to analyze the content validation of the Preschooler Awareness Stuttering Survey (Abbiati, Guitar & Hutchins, 2015), an instrument that allows the assessment of the impact of stuttering on preschool children who stutter considering feelings and attitudes. Methodology: Cross-sectional descriptive qualitative research. The following methodological procedures were followed: translation, back-translation, panel of experts and pilot study. This abstract describes the results of the first three phases of this process. The translation was accomplished by two Speech Language Therapists (SLT). Both professionals have more than five years of experience and are users of English language. One of them has a broad experience in the field of stuttering. Back-translation was conducted by two bilingual individuals without experience in health or any knowledge about the instrument. The panel of experts was composed by 3 different SLT, experts in the field of stuttering. Results and Discussion: In the translation and back-translation process it was possible to verify differences in semantic and idiomatic equivalences of several concepts and expressions, as well as the need to include new information to enhance the understanding of the application of the instrument. The meeting between the two translators and the researchers allowed the achievement of a consensus version that was used in back-translation. Considering adaptation and content validation, the main change made by the experts was the conceptual equivalence of the questions and answers of the instrument's sheets. Considering that in the translated consensus version the questions began with various nouns such as 'is' or 'the cow' and that the answers did not contain the adverb 'much' as in the original instrument, the panel agreed that it would be more appropriate if the questions all started with 'how' and that all the answers should present the adverb 'much'. This decision was made to ensure that the translate instrument would be similar to the original and so that the results obtained could be comparable between the original and the translated instrument. There was also elaborated one semantic equivalence between concepts. The panel of experts found that all other items and specificities of the instrument were adequate, concluding the adequacy of the instrument considering its objectives and its intended target population. Conclusion: This research aspires to diversify the existing validated resources in this scope, adding a new instrument that allows the assessment of preschool children who stutter. Consequently, it is hoped that this instrument will provide a real and reliable assessment that can lead to an appropriate therapeutic intervention according to the characteristics and needs of each child.

Keywords: stuttering, assessment, feelings and attitudes, speech language therapy

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Authors: Hamna Hamid, Kashmala Zaman

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The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between self-efficacy, resilience, and social support among clinical psychologists, counselors, and teachers of special schools. The study also assesses the gender differences in self-efficacy, resilience, social support, and vicarious trauma and also vicarious trauma differences among three professions, i.e., clinical psychologists, counselors, and teachers of special schools. A sample of 150 women and 97 men were handed out a set questionnaire to complete: a General Self-Efficacy Scale, Brief Resilience Scale, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and Vicarious Trauma Scale. Results showed that there is a significant negative correlation between self-efficacy, resilience, and vicarious trauma. Women experience higher levels of vicarious trauma as compared to men. At the same time, clinical psychologists and counselors experience higher levels of vicarious trauma as compared to teachers of special schools. The moderation effect of social support is not significant towards resilience and vicarious trauma.

Keywords: self-efficacy, resilience, vicarious-trauma social-support, social support

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Authors: Mehmet Balci, Sakir Tasdemir, Mustafa Altin, Ozlem Bozok

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Our globalizing world has become almost a small village and everyone can access any information at any time. Everyone lets each other know who does whatever in which place. We can learn which social events occur in which place in the world. From the perspective of education, the course notes that a lecturer use in lessons in a university in any state of America can be examined by a student studying in a city of Africa or the Far East. This dizzying communication we have mentioned happened thanks to fast developments in computer technologies and in parallel with this, internet technology. While these developments in the world, has a very large young population and a rapidly evolving electronic communications infrastructure Turkey has been affected by this situation. Researches has shown that almost all young people in Turkey has an account in a social network. Especially becoming common of mobile devices causes data traffic in social networks to increase. In this study, has been surveyed on students in the different age groups and at the Selcuk University Vocational School of Technical Sciences Department of Computer Technology. Student’s opinions about the use of internet and social media has been gotten. Using the Internet and social media skills, purposes, operating frequency, access facilities and tools, social life and effects on vocational education etc. have been explored. Both internet and use of social media positive and negative effects on this department students results have been obtained by the obtained findings evaluating from various aspects. Relations and differences have been found out with statistic.

Keywords: computer technologies, internet use, social network, higher vocational school

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Authors: Emma Groenewald

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In 1994, numerous policies of a democratic dispensation envisage social justice and the transformation of the South Africa society. The drive for transformation and social justice resulted in an increasing number of university students from diverse backgrounds, which in turn, lead to the establishment of Sol Plaatje University (SPU) in 2014. A re-curriculated B. Ed. programme at SPU aims to equip students with knowledge and skills to realise the aim of social justice and to enhance the transformation of the South African society. The aim of this study is to explore the experiences and perceptions of students at a diverse university campus on a curriculum that aims to promote social justice. Four education modules, with the assumption that it reflects social justice content, were selected. Four students, representative of different ethnic and language groupings found at the SPU, were chosen as participants. Data were generated by the participants through four reflective exercises on each of the modules, spread over a period of four years. The module aims, linked with the narratives of the participants' perceptions and experiences of each module, provided an overview of the enacted curriculum. A qualitative research design with an interpretivist approach informed by Vygotsky's theory of learning was used. The participants' experiences of the four modules were analysed, and their views were interpreted. The students' narratives shed light on the strengths and weaknesses of how the B.Ed. Curriculum works towards social justice and revealed student's perceptions of otherness. From the narratives it became apparent that module did promote a social justice orientation in prospective teachers trained at a university.

Keywords: student diversity, social justice, transformation, teacher education

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Authors: Amy Whelan

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This paper presents the reader with the overarching research topic: Examining the drivers to sustainable consumer behavioural intention in the Irish aviation industry. This research will examine the underlying factors that facilitate or hinder a consumer’s sustainable consumption pertaining to aviation, in order to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). The SDG’s were adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 as a call to end poverty, to protect the planet and to ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by the year 2030. Consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about environmental, social and economic issues, and are willing to act on those concerns. More recently, the impact of a consumers environmental footprint has led consumers to re-evaluate their purchase habits and in some cases consumers are more willing to spend more on products and services with environmental characteristics. Accordingly, this has pushed businesses to re-examine their sustainable efforts. However, although consumers may feel a moral responsibility to live sustainably, they cannot do so without effective support from governments, NGOs and the businesses with which they interact. Through the use of Ajzen’s amended TPB model, this research seeks to understand consumers attitudes and behavioural intention towards sustainable aviation and travel and examine the attitude-behaviour gap in sustainable tourism and aviation in Ireland. This research is a mixed methods study and will include an initial elicitation study in the form of focus groups supported by a quantitative survey to inform the initial findings of this research.

Keywords: aviation, consumer behaviour, marketing, sustainability

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Authors: A. Uludağ, F. G. Tufekci, N. Ceviz

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Aim: The research has been carried out in order to evaluate caregiver burden, life satisfaction and received social support level of the parents whose children have congenital heart disease; to examine the relationship between the social supports received by them and caregiver burden and life satisfaction. Material and Method: The research which is descriptive and which is searching a relationship has been carried out between the dates June 7, 2012- June 30, 2014, in Erzurum Ataturk University Research and Application Hospital, Department of Pediatrics and Children Cardiology Polyclinic. In the research, it was collaborated with the parents (N = 157) who accepted to participate in, of children who were between the ages of 3 months- 12 years. While gathering the data, a questionnaire, Zarit Caregiver Burden, Life Satisfaction and Social Support Scales have been used. The statistics of the data acquired has been produced by using percentage distribution, mean, and variance and correlation analysis. Ethical principles are followed in the research. Results: In the research, caregiver burden, life satisfaction and social support level received from family (p < 0.05), have been determined higher in the parents whose children have serious congenital heart disease than that of parents whose children have slight disease and social support received from friends has been found lower. It has been determined that there is a strong relation (p < 0.001) through negative direction between both social support levels and caregiver burden of parents; and that there is a strong relation (p < 0.001) through positive direction between both support levels and life satisfaction. Conclusion: That Social Support is in a strong relation with Caregiver Burden through a negative direction and a strong relation with Life Satisfaction through positive direction in parents of all the children who have congenital heart disease requires social support systems to be reinforced. Parents can be led or guided so as to prompt social support systems more.

Keywords: congenital heart disease, child, parents, caregiver burden, life satisfaction, social support

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Authors: Ashish Shrivastava, C. Pandu Rangan

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In this paper, we consider The Hospitals Residents problem with Social Stability (HRSS), where hospitals and residents can communicate only through the underlying social network. Those residents and hospitals which don not have any social connection between them can not communicate and hence they cannot be a social blocking pair with respect to a socially stable matching in an instance of hospitals residents problem with social stability. In large scale matching like NRMP or Scottish medical matching scheme etc. where set of agents, as well as length of preference lists, are very large, social stability is a useful notion in which members of a blocking pair could block a matching if and only if they know the existence of each other. Thus the notion of social stability in hospitals residents problem allows us to increase the cardinality of the matching without taking care of those blocking pairs which are not socially connected to each other. We know that finding a maximum cardinality socially stable matching, in an instance, of HRSS is NP-hard. This motivates us to solve this problem with bounded length preference lists on one side. In this paper, we have presented a polynomial time algorithm to compute maximum cardinality socially stable matching in a HRSS instance where residents can give at most two length and hospitals can give unbounded length preference list. Preference lists of residents and hospitals will be strict in nature.

Keywords: matching under preference, socially stable matching, the hospital residents problem, the stable marriage problem

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Authors: Elizabeth Radian

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In a challenging era of neoliberalism and managerialism in social services, the status of Canadian social work education at the Bachelor of Social Work level (BSW) was examined to determine how prepared students were to practice in a time of resource cutbacks and insecurity. Curricula in BSW programs was the focus as this generalist degree results in the greatest number of social work graduates in Canada, most of whom work at the front lines in service delivery. The study reviewed the practice frameworks that students in BSW programs were exposed to. Traditionally, schools of social work have embraced two major practice frameworks. The person in environment framework is a well-established practice framework taught in most schools. The framework offers some focus on smaller scale social change, tweaking existing arrangements and is more accepting of the status quo. An alternate practice framework taught in fewer schools has been described as a structural, progressive or anti oppressive framework. This latter framework challenges the status quo, is focused on social justice and social transformation, often incorporating social action strategies to ensure marginalized voices are heard. Using a content analysis methodology of keywords and phrases to delineate framework orientation, practice frameworks articulated in the curricula were determined by reviewing the mission/mandate of schools offering a BSW degree, their core course outlines and core course textbooks. Social action, as one strategy for initiating social change and transformation was considered. Initial research for 28 schools was completed in 2000, with follow up replications of the initial study in 2005 and 2014. These earlier studies displayed that the dominant practice framework taught in BSW programs was the person in environment framework. A lesser number of schools were categorized as primarily offering a structural, progressive or anti oppressive framework. The findings from the current study of 39 Canadian schools of social work are considered to determine how prominent structural, progressive and anti oppressive frameworks exist in current BSW curricula. This study can assist in contemplating the question – are we educating future practitioners for acceptance or action.

Keywords: social work education and pedagogy, social change, social justice, social services

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Authors: Seyed Alireza Mirmohammadi

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Tehran Metro vendors are one of the working minorities in the capital, which is an essential cross-cultural case study. Today, with difficult economic conditions, subway vendors are increasing. Tehran metro vendors are in daily contact with many people in different metro stations. Due to the ban on their activities in this place and sometimes the humiliating look of some people, they experience special conditions compared to other people in the community. One of the most critical sources of shaping people's mentality toward their social status and identity in the media and, in the meantime, virtual social networks, due to various communication facilities such as Dualism and the possibility of high activity of users have a special place. Statistics have shown that virtual social networks have become an indispensable source of communication, information, and entertainment today. In this study, 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 metro vendors in Tehran about their membership in various virtual social networks and their mental perception of using them. The research results indicate that the obtained mentality of metro peddlers towards themselves is negative in virtual social networks, and they do not receive a good image of themselves in these networks.

Keywords: metro, tehran, intercultural communication, metro vendors, self image

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Authors: Elisa Bertagna

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The aim of the research is to study diversity issues and gender equality in the Finnish and Italian oil and gas companies. Particular attention is given to the effects on the organization’s and employees’ interactions resulting from intersecting social categories. The study is aimed to be settled in companies where social inequalities and diversity management problematics are present. Consequently, ten semi-structured interviews with key managers from the companies and four focus groups composed of culturally diverse employees aim to depict and analyze the situation from both points of view. Social discourse and intersectionality are employed as the analysis methods. Trainings, workshops, and suggestions are to be offered in the required situations.

Keywords: diversity, gender, intersectionality, oil and gas companies, social constructionism

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Authors: F. A. Adesoji, A. A. Ayandele

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There has been a concern over non-responsiveness of educational programme in Nigeria’s higher institutions to adequately meet social needs. The study, therefore, investigated the effectiveness of basic elements of the Social Studies Curriculum, the contributions of the Teacher–Related Variables (TRV) such as qualification, area of specialization, teaching experience, teaching methods, gender and teaching facilities to the implementation of the curriculum (IOC) in the Colleges of Education (COEs). The study adopted the descriptive survey design. Four COEs in Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Lagos States were purposively selected. Stratified sampling technique was used to select 455 Social Studies students and 47 Social Studies lecturers. Stakeholders’ Perception of Social Studies Curriculum (r = 0.86), Social Studies Curriculum Resources scale (r = 0.78) and Social Studies Basic Concepts Test (r = 0.78) were used for data collection. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, multiple regression, and t-test at 0.05 level of significance. COEs teachers and students rated the elements of the curriculum to be effective with mean scores x̄ =3.02 and x̄ =2.80 respectively; x̄ =5.00 and x̄ = 2.50 being the maximum and minimum mean scores. The finding showed average level of availability (x̄ =1.60), adequacy (x̄ =1.55) and utilization (x̄ =1.64) of teaching materials, x̄ =3.00 and x̄ =1.50 being maximum and minimum mean scores respectively. Academic performance of the students is on average with the mean score of x̄ =51.4775 out of maximum mean score of x̄ =100. The TRV and teaching facilities had significant composite contribution to IOC (F (6,45) = 3.92:R² = 0.26) with 39% contributions to the variance of IOC. Area of specialization (β= 29, t = 2.05) and teaching facilities (β = -25, t = 1.181) contributed significantly. The implementation of bachelor degree in Social Studies curriculum was effective in the colleges of education. There is the need to beef-up the provision of facilities to improve the implementation of the curriculum.

Keywords: bachelor degree in social studies, colleges of education in southwestern Nigeria, curriculum implementation, social studies curriculum

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Authors: Zihao He

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The majority of existing studies on the Taiping Movement (1851-1864) viewed their anti-Manchu attitudes as nationalist agendas: Taiping was aimed at revolting against the Manchu government and establishing a new political regime. To explain these aggressive and violent attitudes towards Manchu, these studies mainly found socio-economic factors and stressed the status of “being deprived”. Even the ‘demon-slaying’ narrative of the Taiping to dehumanize the Manchu tends to be viewed as a “religious tool” to achieve their political, nationalist aim. This paper argues that these studies on Taiping’s anti-Manchu attitudes and behaviors are analyzed from an external angle and have two major problems. Firstly, they distinguished “religion” from “nationalist” or “political”, focusing on the “political” nature of the movement. “Religion” and the religious experience within Taiping were largely ignored. This paper argues that there was no separable and independent “religion” in the Taiping Movement, as opposed to secular, nationalist politics. Secondly, these analyses held an external perspective on Taiping’s anti-Manchu agenda. Demonizing and killing Manchu were viewed as purely political actions. On the contrary, this paper focuses on the internal perspective of anti-Manchu narratives in the Taiping Movement. The method of this paper is mainly textual analysis, focusing on the official documents, edicts, and proclamations of the Taiping movement. It views the writing of the Taiping as a coherent narrative and rhetoric, which was attractive and convincing for its followers. In terms of the main findings, firstly, internal and external perspectives on anti-Manchu violence are different. Externally, violence was viewed as a tool and necessary process to achieve the political goal. However, internally speaking, in Taiping’s writing, violence was a result of Godlessness, which would be solved as far as the faith in God is restored in China. Having a framework of universal love among human beings as sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father and killing was forbidden, the Taiping excluded Manchus from the family of human beings and demonized them. “Demon-slaying” was not violence. It was constructed as a necessary process to achieve the Great Peace. Moreover, Taiping’s anti-Manchu violence was not merely “political.” Rather, the category “religion” and its binary opposition, “secular,” is not suitable for Taiping. A key point related to this argument is the revolutionary violence against the Manchu government, which inherited the traditional “Heavenly Mandate” model. From an internal, theological perspective, anti-Manchu was ordained and commanded by the Heavenly Father. Manchu, as a regime, was standing as a hindrance in the path toward God. Besides, Manchu was not only viewed as a regime, but they were also “demons.” Therefore, the paper examines how Manchus were dehumanized in Taiping’s writings and were situated outside of the consideration of nonviolent and love. Manchu as a regime and Manchu as demons are in a dynamic relationship. As a regime, the Manchu government was preventing Chinese people from worshipping the Heavenly Father, so they were demonized. As they were demons, killing Manchus during the revolt was justified and not viewed as being contradicted the universal love among human beings.

Keywords: anti-manchu, demon-slaying, heavenly mandate, religion and violence, the taiping movement.

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Authors: Jarmila Zolnova, Lucia Hrebenarova, Veronika Palkova

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The interconnections between supportive sources of authorities at school and students have been proved. Lacking research in this field in Slovakia translates into absenting perception of social support by students with special educational needs. The aim of this paper (presented by the poster) is to reveal and interpret the perception of frequency and importance of authorities at school from students' perspective. The sample included 718 students aged 10 years and 1 month on average. Eighty nine students of this count were students with special educational needs. Data were obtained from the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (CASSS) for students. Mutual relations between teachers acting as the source of support and students were not significant. Neither was significant the support of other school employees. Both groups of students assessed the frequency and importance of social support from teachers more positively than the support from other school employees.

Keywords: intact student, pedagogue, pupil with special education needs, school employee, social support

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Authors: C. L. Huang, J. J. Sia

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The interest-based social networks, also known as social bookmark sharing systems, are useful platforms for people to conveniently read and collect internet resources. These platforms also providing function of social networks, and users can share and explore internet resources from the social networks. Providing personalized internet resources to users is an important issue on these platforms. This study uses two types of relationship on the social networks—following and follower and proposes a collaborative recommender system, consisting of two main steps. First, this study calculates the relationship strength between the target user and the target user's followings and followers to find top-N similar neighbors. Second, from the top-N similar neighbors, the articles (internet resources) that may interest the target user are recommended to the target user. In this system, users can efficiently obtain recent, related and diverse internet resources (knowledge) from the interest-based social network. This study collected the experimental dataset from Diigo, which is a famous bookmark sharing system. The experimental results show that the proposed recommendation model is more accurate than two traditional baseline recommendation models but slightly lower than the cosine model in accuracy. However, in the metrics of the diversity and executing time, our proposed model outperforms the cosine model.

Keywords: recommender systems, social networks, tagging, bookmark sharing systems, collaborative recommender systems, knowledge management

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Authors: Masahiro Ohmura, Koh Kakusho, Takeshi Okadome

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This paper presents a regression model with autocorrelated errors in which the inputs are social moods obtained by analyzing the adjectives in Twitter posts using a document topic model. The regression model predicts Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) more precisely than autoregressive moving-average models.

Keywords: stock market prediction, social moods, regression model, DJIA

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Authors: Sidra Jawed

Abstract:

The accessibility constructs and the body privilege discourse has been a major problem while dealing with health inequities and inaccessibility. The inherent problem in this arbitrary view of disability is that disability would never be the productive way of living. For past thirty years, disability activists have been working to differentiate ‘impairment’ from ‘disability’ and probing for more understanding of limitation imposed by society, this notion is ultimately known as the Social Model of Disability. The vulnerable population as disability community remains marginalized and seen relentlessly fighting to highlight the importance of social factors. It does not only constitute physical architectural barriers and famous blue symbol of access to the healthcare but also invisible, intangible barriers as attitudes and behaviours. Conventionally the idea of ‘disability’ has been laden with prejudiced perception amalgamating with biased attitude. Equity in contemporary setup necessitates the restructuring of organizational structure. Apparently simple, the complex interplay of disability and contemporary healthcare set up often ends up at negotiating vital components of basic healthcare needs. The role of society is indispensable when it comes to people with disability (PWD), everything from the access to healthcare to timely interventions are strongly related to the set up in place and the attitude of healthcare providers. It is vital to understand the association between assumptions and the quality of healthcare PWD receives in our global healthcare setup. Most of time the crucial physician-patient relationship with PWD is governed by the negative assumptions of the physicians. The multifaceted, troubled patient-physicians’ relationship has been neglected in past. To compound it, insufficient work has been done to explore physicians’ perspective about the disability and access to healthcare PWD have currently. This research project is directed towards physicians’ perspective on the intersection of health and access of healthcare for PWD. The principal aim of the study is to explore the perception of disability in family medicine physicians, highlighting the underpinning of medical perspective in healthcare institution. In the quest of removing barriers, the first step must be to identify the barriers and formulate a plan for future policies, involving all the stakeholders. There would be semi-structured interviews to explore themes as accessibility, medical training, construct of social model and medical model of disability, time limitations, financial constraints. The main research interest is to identify the obstacles to inclusion and marginalization continuing from the basic living necessities to wide health inequity in present society. Physicians point of view is largely missing from the research landscape and the current forum of knowledge with regards to physicians’ standpoint. This research will provide policy makers with a starting point and comprehensive background knowledge that can be a stepping stone for future researches and furthering the knowledge translation process to strengthen healthcare. Additionally, it would facilitate the process of knowledge translation between the much needed medical and disability community.

Keywords: disability, physicians, social model, accessibility

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Authors: John Akinwumi Makinde

Abstract:

Nigerian manufacturing industry, particularly the fast moving consumer producing firms play vital roles in Nigerian economy. This sector’s product acceptability is given very little attention along with social media advertising that communicate product information to audience across the globe need to be documented. Procter and Gamble Plc operate in Nigeria with appreciable number of fast moving consumer goods that service Nigerian economy. Social media advertising disposition of the company and product acceptability of the company deserve some elucidations. This study therefore examined the impact of social media advertising on product acceptability of FMCG in Nigerian manufacturing industry, using Procter and Gamble Plc as case study. The study employed the case study type of descriptive survey research design. The population consisted of 235 customers of G&P Plc, which were selected through random sampling method. A total of 235 copies of questionnaires titled 'Social Media Advertising and Product Acceptability (SMA-PA) Questionnaire' was administered and retrieved. Data generated were analysed using frequency distribution and regression analysis at 0.05 level. It was found that social media advertising positively and significantly motivated customers to buy product of P&G Plc (r =.147**, N= 235, p(.000) < .01). Findings also showed that social media advertising has significant impact on product acceptability of FCMG in P&G Plc (F(2,61)=22.250; R2=.629; P(.000) < .05). The study concluded that social media advertising is a determinant factor of consumer decision to accept fast moving consumer goods in Nigerian manufacturing industry. It is recommended that with the growing market of FMCG, there is need to educate the market with the product unique features, standard and quality on social media. Finally, Fast Moving Consumer Goods firms should deploy excellent marketing mix on social media.

Keywords: advertising, fast moving consumer goods, manufacturing industry, product acceptability, social media

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Authors: Phutthiwat Waiyawuththanapoom, Wannapong Waiyawuththanapoom, Pimploi Tirastittam

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Nowadays, it is a globalization era which social media plays an important role to the lifestyle as an information source, tools to connect people together and etc. This research is object to find out about the significant level of the social media as a distribution channel to the agriculture product of Thailand. In this research, the agriculture product is the Rice Berry which is the cross-bred unmilled rice producing dark violet grain, is a combination of Hom Nin Rice and Thai Jasmine/ Fragrant Rice 105. Rice Berry has a very high nutrition and nice aroma so the product is in the growth stage of the product cycle. The problem for the Rice Berry product in Thailand is the production and the distribution channel. This study is to confirm that the social media is another option as the distribution channel for the product which is not a mass production product. This will be the role model for the other niche market product to select the distribution channel.

Keywords: distribution, social media, rice berry, distribution channel

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Authors: Calvin Chiu, Samar Saade Needham

Abstract:

The factors associated with the development of major depressive disorder (MDD) have been an ongoing area of concern within the field of psychopathology. Among parents, the rise in stress factors for individuals receiving less social support contributes to an increase in MDD cases. Understanding the causal aspects of MDD through the interworking of stress development within social support disparities provides critical insights into preventive measures for depressive symptoms. The present study seeks to assess the impact of social support on stress formation within MDD. Such that single parents lacking social support prompt an increase in stress formation, which proliferates the progression of MDD. Participants in this study were 450 ethnic minority mothers and fathers experiencing health inequities during pregnancy and early childhood. Perceived stress, social support, and depression are assessed by multi-item questionnaires that produce score ranges for general findings. Results indicated that lower social support scores resulted in higher depression scores, and higher perceived stress scores produced higher depression scores. Furthermore, single parents reported higher depression scores. These findings overlap with studies on paternal depression and suggest that MDD is a product of stress accumulation due to declining social support systems. Future studies may specify effective social support systems for decreasing stress accumulation in MDD formation in preventive strategies.

Keywords: major depressive disorder, stress formation, cognitive-behavioral outcomes, deficit-based behaviors

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Authors: R. Pääkkönen, L. Korpinen

Abstract:

We tried statistically to determine the biggest risks for accidents and injuries in Finland compared to other countries. We have a very high incidence of domestic falls and accidental poisoning compared to other European countries. On the other side, we have a relatively low number of accidents in traffic or at work globally, and in European scale, because we have worked hard to diminish these forms of accidents. In Finland, there is work to be done to improve attitudes and actions against domestic accidents.

Keywords: injuries, accident, comparison, Finland

Procedia PDF Downloads 223