Hasil untuk "Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform"

B. Turner

Svitlana Boyeva

At the turn of the two millennia, the United States emerged as a leading global economic power. The study of the origins and dynamics of U.S. industrial development in the late 18th–19th centuries enhances understanding of modern economic systems and serves as an important basis for effective national economic restructuring and post-war reconstruction after the Russian full-scale invasion launched on February 24, 2022. The purpose of the article is to examine the origins and key factors behind the formation and growth of U.S. economic power from the late 18th to the 19th centuries within the context of global economic development and industrialization, drawing on a critical analysis of recent American primary and secondary sources. The study addresses the prerequisites, stages, and consequences of the Industrial Revolution, explores structural economic transformations and the development of American scientific and engineering thought, and generalizes the historical experience of market economy formation using the United States as a case study. The methodology of the research is based on the critical analysis of the resent American historical sources and scientific literature, as well as on the application of civilizational, problem-chronological, systemic, regional, interdisciplinary approaches to the study of the evolution of economic history. The fundamental principles of the article include historicism, objectivity, scientificity, and the unity of positive and normative aspects of science. For the analytical examination of the problem, comparative, systemic-synergistic, historical-genetic, and comparative-statistical methods are used, along with methods of periodization and the approach of social positivism, understood as the consideration of socio-economic phenomena amenable to reform and improvement. The novelty of the study lies in a comprehensive reinterpretation of the formation and development of U.S. economic power within the broader context of the global civilizational process. The article analyzes qualitative changes brought about by industrialization as a key factor in the emergence of a developed domestic market and assesses the role of American scientific and engineering thought and technological innovation in economic growth, based on a wide range of American primary and secondary sources. The article concludes that the accelerated economic development following the Civil War (1861–1865) transformed the United States into a powerful industrial-agrarian country by the end of the 19th century. This transformation resulted from a combination of factors, including the radical character of the Civil War, favorable natural and geographical conditions, active technological adoption, mass immigration, extensive settlement of the Wild West, rapid infrastructure development that ensured domestic market integration, and a successful foreign economic policy.

S. Rudakova, Lyudmilа Shchetinina, N. Danylevych et al.

The article examines the importance of public organizations in the conditions of the war in Ukraine, which demonstrated their readiness to restore the country, the ability to involve the country's population in the process. The general principles of strengthening the unity of Ukrainians by public organizations have been determined. It is noted that the development of public organizations in Ukraine depends on the political situation, the economic state of the country, public activity, and the legislative framework. It is substantiated that the involvement of civil society in the design and implementation of transformational reforms has a proven history of success in Ukraine, in particular, in the conditions of war, public organizations are actively involved in supporting the population affected by the war, including children, veterans, internally displaced persons and refugees. It is noted that in Ukraine there is a significant number of public organizations operating in various areas, including civil rights, gender equality, ecology, social development, culture, education and many others. It was established that public organizations, acting as mediators between the Ukrainian government and international donors, are an entity that ensures the effective use of international aid. The dynamics of the number of registered public organizations in Ukraine were analyzed. It was determined that their number was increased during 2014–2023. Public organizations are actively involved in the reform of state institutions, contribute to the fight against corruption, monitor the activities of government bodies and participate in decision-making at various levels. The existence of problems in the development of public organizations has been confirmed. First, the lack of stability in the financial support of their activities makes it difficult to plan long-term projects and ensure stable work. Secondly, the activities of public organizations are hampered by complicated administrative procedures and bureaucracy. Thirdly, in connection with the departure abroad or the acquisition of the status of an internally displaced person by already existing members of public organizations, their further participation in the work becomes difficult and there is a need for training of new members of the public organization. Fourth, insufficient experience in receiving international aid (for example, grants) and establishing cooperation with businesses. It is noted that the work of public organizations can be improved thanks to the use of innovative technologies and digital tools. The advantages and disadvantages of digitalization of public organization activities are determined. It was concluded that the activity of public organizations is a prerequisite for public well-being, and the digitalization of their activity will contribute to the development and integration into the European and international space.

Ann Nedime Nese Rende, Tolga Yilmaz, Özgür Ulusoy

To observe how individual behavior shapes a larger community's actions, agent-based modeling and simulation (ABMS) has been widely adopted by researchers in social sciences, economics, and epidemiology. While simulations can be run on general-purpose ABMS frameworks, these tools are not specifically designed for social networks and, therefore, provide limited features, increasing the effort required for complex simulations. In this paper, we introduce Crowd, a social network simulator that adopts the agent-based modeling methodology to model real-world phenomena within a network environment. Designed to facilitate easy and quick modeling, Crowd supports simulation setup through YAML configuration and enables further customization with user-defined methods. Other features include no-code simulations for diffusion tasks, interactive visualizations, data aggregation, and chart drawing facilities. Designed in Python, Crowd also supports generative agents and connects easily with Python's libraries for data analysis and machine learning. Finally, we include three case studies to illustrate the use of the framework, including generative agents in epidemics, influence maximization, and networked trust games.

Ismail Hossain, Md Jahangir Alam, Sai Puppala et al.

Social media platforms are extensively used for sharing personal emotions, daily activities, and various life events, keeping people updated with the latest happenings. From the moment a user creates an account, they continually expand their network of friends or followers, freely interacting with others by posting, commenting, and sharing content. Over time, user behavior evolves based on demographic attributes and the networks they establish. In this research, we propose a predictive method to understand how a user evolves on social media throughout their life and to forecast the next stage of their evolution. We fine-tune a GPT-like decoder-only model (we named it E-GPT: Evolution-GPT) to predict the future stages of a user's evolution in online social media. We evaluate the performance of these models and demonstrate how user attributes influence changes within their network by predicting future connections and shifts in user activities on social media, which also addresses other social media challenges such as recommendation systems.

Borislav Galić, Rajko Raonić

Throughout history, trade union organization has undergone significant reforms and changed as the organization of the state itself has changed. Trade union organization went through three historical phases: the phase until the nineteenth century, the phase from the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century, and the final phase in the twenty-first century. Trade union organization followed the organization of the first states, through which workers defended their labor rights under primitive conditions in a primitively organized way. The first modern forms of trade union organizing were experienced in the territory of the United Kingdom, which is also considered the forerunner of trade union organizing. The right to organize a trade union, although today one of the fundamental collective rights, is increasingly becoming the subject of discussions and dilemmas, whether this right is really necessary in labor relations and, in the end, in constitutions of a large number of countries, as a promotion of economic and social rights. The paper could be divided into three parts, firstly the authors want to define the historical development of trade union organization, the process of developing in the countries of the world, what are the key historical moments in which this right made and contributed to “a quality more” in labor relations, and which were the first laws-constitutions that provided for this fundamental right today. The second part of the paper refers to the current normative legal situation in the Republic of Serbia regarding trade union organization and specifically trade union rights. The third part actually represents the main purpose of the paper, which is to point out some potential problems in the twenty-first century that union organizing in the international community is facing.

S. Edwards

Volodymyr Sarioglo, Dariia Korotkova

The problems of estimating and forecasting the economic behavior of households attract more and more attention of scientists, experts and even politicians. This is explained mainly by the popularity of modern tools for ex-ante assessment of the impact of economic and social reforms on the most important aspects of the population’s life: consumption of goods and services, economic activity, needs for social support, satisfaction with the standard of living and living conditions, etc. The article, which is primarily an overview, examines the peculiarities of the formation and development of unitary and collective models of consumer behavior of households, as a theoretical basis for the development of applied tools for evaluating corresponding economic processes. The main principles of creating unitary and collective models are highlighted, and the main advantages of the collective approach are substantiated. Some attention is paid to the role of the Pareto principle of efficient resource allocation in modeling the household behavior, and to the problems of forming equivalence scales of household incomes and expenditures. Issues of the effectiveness of the microsimulation approach in the development of applied tools for assessing the economic behavior of households, and the formation of an information support system for microsimulation modeling are discussed. It is noted that although microsimulation modeling is a relatively new area of research on the household economic behavior, it can ensure the development of adequate and effective applied reduced collective models. The characteristics of the household time use survey, as one of the main data sources for creating collective models, are given. The importance of the availability of representative microdata sets of other sample surveys characterizing both households and their members, in particular, such as the household income and living conditions sample surveys and labor force surveys is noted. The purpose of the article is to assess the evolution of economic models of household consumption behavior from unitary to collective, to determine the essence and advantages of collective models, to identify opportunities and effective ways of their practical usage for modeling the behavior of Ukrainian households. The novelty of the article is in the study of models of household behavior both in the historical perspective and from the point of view of increasing their adequacy based on more realistic assumptions and ways of formalizing models, determining the prospects of a microsimulation approach for the development of applied collective models. In the process of preparing the article, while summarizing the experience of scientific research in the field of modeling the economic behavior of households, methods of deduction and induction, analysis and synthesis were used. Comparison method made it possible to compare the unitary and collective approaches in modeling the consumer behavior of households, identify their similarities and differences. The conclusions summarize the main theses of the article and highlight the main directions of further research.

Y. Kryvytskyi

The article summarizes, expands and substantiates scientific knowledge about legal transformation as a component of modern legal development. The problems of transformations are understood by scientists of various directions and branches of social knowledge, primarily philosophers, political scientists, sociologists, economists and lawyers, since historical progress is directly determined by the ideas of democracy, freedom, free market, law and statehood. The points of view available in the specialized literature regarding the understanding of social transformation, its types, forms, trends and factors are analyzed. Social transformation covers the entire sphere of relations and interests (needs) in society, is the basis of the material and ideological structure on which both theory and practice of human life are based. Social transformation means the process of transformations in society, in particular in the cultural, political, economic and legal spheres. Qualitative and quantitative indicators of these transformations depend on many reasons and factors – internal and external, purposeful and spontaneous, objective and subjective, etc. Based on the study and systematization of transformational issues in legal science, the essence of legal transformation is revealed, under which it is proposed to understand qualitative and quantitative, substantive and formal, progressive and regressive, rational and irrational, regular, random and tendentious transformations of legal matter, legal life,legal reality, legal phenomena and processes under the action, influence, in the context, in the conditions of internal and external, purposeful and spontaneous, objective and subjective causes and factors (globalization, European integration, digitalization, sustainable development, etc.). The prerequisites for determining the common, distinctive and special features of legal transformation and legal reform within the framework of the development of the theory of the latter are outlined. Legal transformation is a component (component) of legal development along with such legal changes as formation, functioning, destruction, and is also carried out in the form of legal evolution, legal revolution, and legal reform. Turning to transformational (transformative) processes in legal reality is intended to continue the scientific search for an optimal, effective model of legal development, initiated by domestic scientists, in fundamentally new realities – in the conditions of war and post-war state reconstruction. Key words: development, social development, legal development, changes, social changes, legal changes, transformation, social transformation, legal transformation, transformation of legislation, transformation of the legal system, reform, social reform, legal reform, theory of legal reform.

D. Yakovlev, L. Yakovleva, V. Koltsov

The purpose of this article is to define the middle class as the representative of the public interest and the social foundation of democracy in Ukraine. Throughout the history of Ukraine, the middle class has always been oppressed by Russian and Soviet colonialism. The revival of the middle class is slowed down by the fact that the middle class is “hanging” in the gravitational field between the government and the opposition. In Ukraine there are no bourgeois party(s) independent of the oligarchy. One condition must be met for the introduction of political and economic democracy. The middle class should have full parliamentary representation. There are still no parties in the Ukrainian parliament that represent the interests of the middle class. This applies to both the government and the opposition. The middle class actively supported opposition politicians during the revolutionary events of 2004 and 2013-2014. In modern conditions, it is a class of volunteers, activists and volunteers who are defending Ukraine against a large-scale military invasion. A new social contract, aimed at implementing Ukraine's European and Euro-Atlantic integration on the basis of democratic values and institutions, is impossible without the active political participation of the middle class. This is precisely why the middle class needs full parliamentary representation. Methodology. Class analysis was used to examine the position of the middle class in the political space between the government and the opposition. This makes it possible to identify the different worldviews and values of large groups of people who occupy different social positions and whose interests are expressed in politics. In order to determine the need to redistribute public goods in favour of the middle class through parliamentary representation, the authors turn to the theory of economic democracy. The data from empirical sociological research on the high level of consolidation of the Ukrainian middle class during the war and the results of the middle class' choice in the 2014 and 2019 election campaigns are presented. According to the sociological research data, support for democracy is growing in Ukraine, and the middle class is opting for European and Euro-Atlantic integration. Results. According to objective indicators of income, education, employment and consumer behaviour, the middle class consists of residents of large cities who have (or are in the process of obtaining) higher education. Given the differences between the Ukrainian middle class and the middle class in democratic countries in terms of objective income levels, subjective indicators should also be used to determine it. The self-identification of the middle class is determined by the desire for democratic changes, the awareness of the need to overcome corruption, the deconstruction of the oligarchic regime and the introduction of market reforms. The middle class is a social group that is most interested in political and economic competition, because it is the middle class that benefits from democracy and the market economy. The lack of parliamentary representation of a large social group, the middle class, hinders the democratisation of Ukraine. The social weight of the middle class is constantly growing. It is proven that the fragmentary reforms in Ukraine after the events of 2004 and 2013-2014 were carried out by the oligarchic regime under the pressure of the middle class. At the same time, the constitutional reversals regarding the form of government (presidential and parliament-presidential), the changes in the electoral system (from a majority to a mixed system, the passage of the proportional model in the parliamentary elections of 2006 and 2007) can be explained by the manipulations of the oligarchy, which captured the parliament in order to prevent the middle class from coming to power. The factors that prevent the Ukrainian middle class from gaining parliamentary representation are identified: 1) Oligarchy, as a political regime of economic monopolists. The oligarchic forces have not only privatised the branches of the national economy, but have also created effective systems of political control over the parliament and the “oligarch-lumpen alliance”, which influences the political decisions of Ukrainian citizens with the help of the mass media and oligarchic parties (electoral projects); 2) the mediatisation of politics, caused by the monopoly of financial and industrial groups on television channels; 3) the formation of the “party of power” as an “internal” party, which retains its influence through the formation of a majority in the Ukrainian parliament; 4) the social pathologies of post-Soviet society (paternalism, ambivalence of mass consciousness, atomisation of society, conformism, nihilism, deprofessionalisation, deactualisation of universal democratic values, etc.). It was noted that during the war they were partially overcome in the public consciousness; 5) indoctrination in the educational system, which causes problems of manipulative distortion of collective memory, reproduction of “post-Soviet” identity and regimes of truth. Overcoming the mediatisation of politics, populism and indoctrination will contribute to the rationalisation of political interaction and the growth of the influence of the middle class. In the process of rationalisation of political interaction, the main role belongs to the middle class as a class of individuals who have completed secondary or higher education. This enables them to check facts on the basis of media literacy, to distinguish truth from lies, rational argumentation from populism. As part of the modern “new” middle class, public intellectuals are the first to play a role in the rationalisation of politics. Practical implications. The results of the study can be used in the process of further democratisation, European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine, as well as in the development of middle class political parties. They will contribute to increasing the weight of the middle class in politics and to raising the awareness of middle class representatives of the need for parliamentary representation. Overall, the authors hope that all the results of the study will contribute to the overcoming of the oligarchic regime in Ukraine and the establishment of a democratic system of redistribution of public resources. Value/оriginality. This study of the role of the middle class in Ukrainian politics allows for a better understanding of the need for parliamentary representation of the middle class. It also reveals the reasons for the dominance of the oligarchy. The focus is on the devastating consequences of this dominance for the middle class. The need to ensure the parliamentary representation of the middle class in order to overcome the oligarchy and further democratise Ukraine has been identified.

Stanisław Borowiak

VIII Dobrzycka Konferencja Naukowa zorganizowana przez Muzeum Ziemiaństwa w Dobrzycy w dniach 14–15 września 2023 r. poświęcona była dwóm zasadniczym zagadnieniom. Część pierwsza, zatytułowana „Rodzinne archiwa domowe” dyskutowała kwestie związane z pozostającymi w rękach prywatnych ziemiańskimi archiwami rodzinnymi – ich przechowywaniem i konserwacją w warunkach domowych, udostępnianiem dla celów badań naukowych lub popularyzacji wiedzy o ziemiaństwie, współpracy w tym zakresie z instytucjami naukowymi, archiwami i muzeami. Druga część konferencji, zatytułowana „Myśliwskie pasje ziemian” dotyczyła szeroko pojętej problematyki łowiectwa w majątkach ziemiańskich w XIX i na pocz. XX w.

Rachith Aiyappa, Matthew R. DeVerna, Manita Pote et al.

Social media are utilized by millions of citizens to discuss important political issues. Politicians use these platforms to connect with the public and broadcast policy positions. Therefore, data from social media has enabled many studies of political discussion. While most analyses are limited to data from individual platforms, people are embedded in a larger information ecosystem spanning multiple social networks. Here we describe and provide access to the Indiana University 2022 U.S. Midterms Multi-Platform Social Media Dataset (MEIU22), a collection of social media posts from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and 4chan. MEIU22 links to posts about the midterm elections based on a comprehensive list of keywords and tracks the social media accounts of 1,011 candidates from October 1 to December 25, 2022. We also publish the source code of our pipeline to enable similar multi-platform research projects.

Herman Herman, Fitriani Umar, Syahrul Mubarak et al.

Berdasarkan UU No. 6 tahun 2014 pasal 86 dijelaskan antara lain bahwa desa berhak mendapatkan akses informasi melalui sistem informasi desa yang meliputi data desa, data pembangunan desa, kawasan perdesaan, serta informasi lain yang berkaitan dengan pembangunan desa dan pembangunan kawasan perdesaan. Hal ini menjadi tanggung jawab bersama dari semua pihak baik lembaga pendidikan, instansi pemerintah/swasta maupun pemerintah itu sendiri. Mitra dalam pengabdian ini ada yaitu Desa Bontokassi yang merupakan salah satu desa yang terletak di Kecamatan Parangloe, Kabupaten Gowa, Propinsi Sulawesi Selatan. Pengelolaan informasi yang terjadi di desa Bontokassi belum dilakukan secara optimal. Pengelolaan informasi belum dilaksanakan secara maksimal, dimana informasi ditampilkan dalam bentuk blog yang memiliki tampilan kurang menarik dan kurangnya ketersediaan informasi serta informasi yang tidak dinamis ditunjang dengan sumber daya manusia yang tidak memahami pengelolaan informasi berbasis website. Teknologi informasi saat ini memiliki peranan penting dalam organisasi, orang-orang yang bekerja didalamnya, serta hubungannya dengan masyarakat luas. Hampir semua perencanaan, kebijakan, pelayanan, dan pelaporan dipercayakan pada teknologi informasi sebagai alat untuk menjadikan pemerintah atau instansi lainnya lebih efektif, lebih bersahabat, dan memudahkan masyarakat dalam mendapatkan informasi dan pelayanan.

R. Braithwaite, R. C. Warren

Abstract:This commentary amplifies the insidious nature of the novel coronavirus (resulting in COVID19) and its ubiquitous spread, which disproportionately and adversely affect the health and well-being of people of color. The consequence is poor health outcomes and premature death. Ample previous literature documents health inequities in the morbidity and mortality statistics for Black and Brown people in the United States. Their excess deaths are due to disproportionately high rates of serious health conditions (diabetes; hypertension; asthma; and lung, kidney, and heart disease), as well as structural factors having to do with income, employment, and the built environment in which they live. The health conditions are exacerbated with ongoing societal problems and stress emerging from the country's history of dehumanizing racial inequities. Current discrimination comes most virulently in the form of systematic and institutionalized racist policies that keep racial and ethnic minorities marginalized and disempowered. Furthermore, people of color encounter the immediate external pressures of working away from home and using public transportation during the country's extraordinary ongoing lockdown, heightening the risk of exposure to the virus. Moreover, the same population is overrepresented in jails and prisons where social distancing is impossible. Any virulent virus without a vaccine is bound to become a human petri dish in which people of color in the U.S. today are caught. The war against the coronavirus for people of color is part and parcel of the war to eliminate historic inequities and to level the socioeconomic playing field. This article covers the racial/ethnic inequities in morbidity and mortality from COVID19 and the slow and untimely response by the federal government to address mediation of the spread of the virus. For people of color to transcend the coronavirus pandemic crisis there must be comprehensive access to COVID-19 testing and early, sustained, and affordable access to health care, including hospitalization. Such access will require national leadership, which seems to be in short supply.

Julio Calderón Cockburn, Manuel Jerjes Loayza Javier

El número 33 de la Revista de Sociología sale a la luz en un contexto de cambios políticos en el Perú, referidos a la entrada de un nuevo gobierno, en el contexto de la pandemia del COVID 19, lo cual impone nuevos retos a las ciencias sociales desde la realidad. El número presenta diversas aproximaciones. En los artículos iniciales se incluyen reflexiones de filosofía y teoría social referidos a la postmodernidad y la crítica de la modernidad y al concepto de alienación en el pensamiento de Carlos Marx. A su vez, un intento de aplicar el concepto de hegemonía cultural de Antonio Gramsci al estudio del discurso del mestizaje en el Perú. En un segundo momento, las contribuciones, en el plano internacional y nacional, abordan temas sociológicos de actualidad referidos al COVID 19 en diferentes contextos. En el caso peruano desde la experiencia de los comedores autogestionarios. En el caso internacional se abordará el contexto canadiense, tanto a partir de la crisis del medio ambiente y la necesidad de un diálogo democrático de urgente transformación, como de las insurgencias migrantes a través de las solidaridades identificadas en pleno contexto del COVID 19. Asimismo tiene lugar una investigación sobre las intervenciones urbanas en la ciudad de Córdoba, Argentina, a partir de un estudio del turismo, lo cultural y lo gastronómico en el Barrio Güemes.

Luciana Oliveira, Arminda Sequeira, Adriana Oliveira et al.

The outburst and proliferation of the COVID-19 pandemic, together with the subsequent social distancing measures, have raised massive challenges in almost all domains of public and private life around the globe. The stay-at-home movement has pushed the news audiences into social networks, which, in turn, has become the most prolific field for receiving and sharing news updates, as well as for public expression of opinions, concerns and feelings about the pandemic. Public opinion is a critical aspect in analysing how the information and events impact peoples lives, and research has shown that social media data may be promising in understanding how people respond to health risks and social crisis, which are the feelings they tend to share and how they are adapting to unforeseen circumstances that threaten almost all societal spheres. This paper presents results from a social media analysis of 61532 news headlines posted by the major daily news outlet in Portugal, Sic Noticias, on Facebook, from January to December 2020, focusing on the issues attention cycle and audiences emotional response to the COVID news outburst. This work adds to the emergent body of studies examining public response to the coronavirus pandemic on social media data.

Sarwar J. Minar, Abdul Halim

Recent event of ousting Rohingyas from Rakhine State by the Tatmadaw provoked worldwide public-and-academic interest in history and social evolution of the Rohingyas, and this is to what the article is devoted. As the existing literature presents a debate over Who are the Rohingyas?, and How legitimate is their claim over Rakhine State?, the paper reinvestigates the issues using a qualitative research method. Compiling a detailed history, the paper finds that Rohingya community developed through historically complicated processes marked by invasions and counter-invasions. The paper argues many people entered Bengal from Arakan before British brought people into Rakhine state. The Rohingyas believe Rakhine State is their ancestral homeland and they developed a sense of Ethnic Nationalism. Their right over Rakhine State is as significant as other groups. The paper concludes that the UN must pursue solution to the crisis and the government should accept the Rohingyas as it did the land or territory.

Mireya Baron Pulido

El artículo resalta la relación entre prácticas mediáticas fotográficas y prácticas sociohistóricas en diversos casos del mundo, durante los últimos 10 años, destacando las narrativas de guerra desde la fotografía y su rol en los procesos de construcción de paz. Se caracteriza la fotografía como dato periodístico, las metodologías que han resultado apropiadas para su análisis y los factores que pueden potenciar su valor comunicativo. Desde el marco metodológico, el artículo de revisión sistemática literaria RSL, se apoyó en fórmulas algorítmicas y utilizó como herramientas de búsqueda: Scopus, Mendeley y Vos Viewer. Como resultado, se invita a la praxis fotográfica por recuperar aquellas narrativas icónicas que prioricen la recuperación de una memoria para la paz.

Shruti Phadke, Mattia Samory, Tanushree Mitra

Widespread conspiracy theories, like those motivating anti-vaccination attitudes or climate change denial, propel collective action and bear society-wide consequences. Yet, empirical research has largely studied conspiracy theory adoption as an individual pursuit, rather than as a socially mediated process. What makes users join communities endorsing and spreading conspiracy theories? We leverage longitudinal data from 56 conspiracy communities on Reddit to compare individual and social factors determining which users join the communities. Using a quasi-experimental approach, we first identify 30K future conspiracists-(FC) and 30K matched non-conspiracists-(NC). We then provide empirical evidence of importance of social factors across six dimensions relative to the individual factors by analyzing 6 million Reddit comments and posts. Specifically in social factors, we find that dyadic interactions with members of the conspiracy communities and marginalization outside of the conspiracy communities, are the most important social precursors to conspiracy joining-even outperforming individual factor baselines. Our results offer quantitative backing to understand social processes and echo chamber effects in conspiratorial engagement, with important implications for democratic institutions and online communities.

Thilini Wijesiriwardene, Hale Inan, Ugur Kursuncu et al.

The convenience of social media has also enabled its misuse, potentially resulting in toxic behavior. Nearly 66% of internet users have observed online harassment, and 41% claim personal experience, with 18% facing severe forms of online harassment. This toxic communication has a significant impact on the well-being of young individuals, affecting mental health and, in some cases, resulting in suicide. These communications exhibit complex linguistic and contextual characteristics, making recognition of such narratives challenging. In this paper, we provide a multimodal dataset of toxic social media interactions between confirmed high school students, called ALONE (AdoLescents ON twittEr), along with descriptive explanation. Each instance of interaction includes tweets, images, emoji and related metadata. Our observations show that individual tweets do not provide sufficient evidence for toxic behavior, and meaningful use of context in interactions can enable highlighting or exonerating tweets with purported toxicity.