Hasil untuk "Sociology (General)"

W. C. Allee

N. Long

W. C. Allee

Celeste Campos-Castillo, Xuan Kang, Linnea I. Laestadius

Recently, research into chatbots (also known as conversational agents, AI agents, voice assistants), which are computer applications using artificial intelligence to mimic human-like conversation, has grown sharply. Despite this growth, sociology lags other disciplines (including computer science, medicine, psychology, and communication) in publishing about chatbots. We suggest sociology can advance understanding of human-chatbot interaction and offer four sociological theories to enhance extant work in this field. The first two theories (resource substitution theory, power-dependence theory) add new insights to existing models of the drivers of chatbot use, which overlook sociological concerns about how social structure (e.g., systemic discrimination, the uneven distribution of resources within networks) inclines individuals to use chatbots, including problematic levels of emotional dependency on chatbots. The second two theories (affect control theory, fundamental cause of disease theory) help inform the development of chatbot-driven interventions that minimize safety risks and enhance equity by leveraging sociological insights into how chatbot outputs could attend to cultural contexts (e.g., affective norms) to promote wellbeing and enhance communities (e.g., opportunities for civic participation). We discuss the value of applying sociological theories for advancing theorizing about human-chatbot interaction and developing chatbots for social good.

Eduardo Coltre Ferraciolli, Tanya V. Araújo

The institution of money can be seen as a foundational social mechanism, enabling communities to quantify collectively regulate economic processes. Money can be said, indeed, to constitute the micro-macro link in economics. This paper reviews influential views on the nature of money in economics and sociology, contrasting them to the relatively limited findings of recent agent-based models of "the emergence of money". Noting ample room for novel combinations of sociological and formal methods to drive insight into the many roles played by money in the economy, we conclude by indicating research directions in which we believe this combination can provide new answers to old questions in monetary theory

Nicolás Diana Menéndez, Cora Cecilia Arias, Julieta Haidar

En este trabajo discutimos los abordajes foucaultianos sobre los procesos de subjetivación de trabajadoras/es de plataforma, poniendo el foco del análisis en los propios sujetos. A partir de datos recolectados en grupos focales, elaboramos cuatro “claves interpretativas” para captar racionalidades, lógicas y prenociones subyacentes en los sentidos construidos por las/os trabajadoras/es. Concluimos que, en un contexto signado por una economía históricamente en crisis, la racionalidad predominante entre las/os repartidoras/es se encuentra más próxima a una lógica de “supervivencia” que a las dinámicas propias de la figura del “empresario de sí”.

Suadath V, Muhammad Sajeer P

Nanopore sequencing, a next-generation sequencing technology, holds the potential to revolutionize multiple facets of life sciences, forensics, and healthcare. While previous research has focused on its technical intricacies and biomedical applications, this paper offers a unique perspective by scrutinizing the societal dimensions (ethical, legal, and social implications) of nanopore sequencing. Employing the lenses of Diffusion and Action Network Theory, we examine the dissemination of nanopore sequencing in society as a potential consumer product, contributing to the field of the sociology of technology. We investigate the possibility of interactions between human and nonhuman actors in developing nanopore technology to analyse how various stakeholders, such as companies, regulators, and researchers, shape the trajectory of the growth of nanopore sequencing. This work offers insights into the social construction of nanopore sequencing, shedding light on the actors, power dynamics, and socio-technical networks that shape its adoption and societal impact. Understanding the sociological dimensions of this transformative technology is vital for responsible development, equitable distribution, and inclusive integration into diverse societal contexts.

Nathalie Heinich

This paper is intended to draw the main theoretical lines of the notion of value, in order to avoid some flaws in the quantitative surveys on values as well as in some qualitative studies of value judgements. Through a number of redefinitions based on a pragmatic approach, inspired not only by Dewey’s concept of ‘valuation’ but also by the new French pragmatic sociology and by the pragmatist trend in linguistics, it tries to specify the conditions under which sociology can address the notion of ‘value’ while avoiding their reduction to scholarly supports for morals or normative guides for action and evaluation. Meanwhile, it tries to construct a unified concept of value that would work for all the concerned disciplines: not only sociology but also economics, psychology, anthropology, and even philosophy.

Mikaela Jasmin F. Dacillo, Jhoana Katrina M. Dizon, Earl Johann T. Ong et al.

IntroductionThe ubiquity of online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic induced the widespread use of videoconferencing applications. However, the prolonged use of these applications can lead to videoconferencing fatigue. Drawing from an online survey sample of 215 senior high school students from a selected private university in Manila, Philippines, this mixed methods study examines videoconferencing fatigue and its relationship with online student engagement (OSE) during the COVID-19 pandemic.Materials and methodsThis study utilized a convergent triangulation research design. The quantitative strand was cross-sectional in nature. The constructs were measured using the Zoom Exhaustion and Fatigue Scale and Online Student Engagement Scale. Bivariate and multivariate statistical tests were used to determine the significance of the relationships between variables. The qualitative strand utilized a descriptive design. Narrative data were collected through an open-ended survey question and analyzed using content analysis.ResultsQuantitative results indicate moderate to high levels of videoconferencing fatigue among student respondents. Moreover, higher levels of OSE were observed among those who endured higher visual fatigue and attended videoconferences more days a week. Qualitative findings demonstrate various manifestations of videoconferencing fatigue among students and relate it with decreased energy to perform academic tasks and learning absorption. However, the qualitative analysis also reveals students’ perceived need for videoconferencing to learn online.DiscussionThe nuanced insights from both strands highlight that despite their perceived negative impacts of videoconferencing, students had to tolerate visual videoconferencing fatigue in order to engage meaningfully in online classes.

Nikolett Szelei, Ines Devlieger, An Verelst et al.

This article investigates school belonging among migrant students and how this changed during the Covid‐19 pandemic. Drawing on quantitative data gathered from 751 migrant students in secondary schools in six European countries (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the UK), we examined the impact of Covid‐19 school closures, social support, and post‐traumatic stress symptoms on changes in school belonging. Linear regression showed a non‐significant decrease in school belonging, and none of the studied variables had a significant effect on this change in our whole sample. However, sensitivity analysis on a subsample from three countries (Denmark, Finland, and the UK) showed a small but significant negative effect of increasing post‐traumatic stress symptoms on school belonging during Covid‐19 school closures. Given that scholarship on school belonging during Covid‐19 is emergent, this study delineates some key areas for future research on the relationship between wellbeing, school belonging, and inclusion.

Xiangguo Sun, Hong Cheng, Bo Liu et al.

Modern sociology has profoundly uncovered many convincing social criteria for behavioural analysis. Unfortunately, many of them are too subjective to be measured and presented in online social networks. On the other hand, data mining techniques can better find data patterns but many of them leave behind unnatural understanding. In this paper, we propose a fundamental methodology to support the further fusion of data mining techniques and sociological behavioral criteria. Our highlights are three-fold: First, we propose an effective hypergraph awareness and a fast line graph construction framework. The hypergraph can more profoundly indicate the interactions between individuals and their environments because each edge in the hypergraph (a.k.a hyperedge) contains more than two nodes, which is perfect to describe social environments. A line graph treats each social environment as a super node with the underlying influence between different environments. In this way, we go beyond traditional pair-wise relations and explore richer patterns under various sociological criteria; Second, we propose a novel hypergraph-based neural network to learn social influence flowing from users to users, users to environments, environment to users, and environments to environments. The neural network can be learned via a task-free method, making our model very flexible to support various data mining tasks and sociological analysis; Third, we propose both qualitative and quantitive solutions to effectively evaluate the most common sociological criteria like social conformity, social equivalence, environmental evolving and social polarization. Our extensive experiments show that our framework can better support both data mining tasks for online user behaviours and sociological analysis.

J. Brennen, P. Howard, R. Nielsen

Drawing on scholarship in journalism studies and the sociology of expectations, this article demonstrates how news media shape, mediate, and amplify expectations surrounding artificial intelligence in ways that influence their potential to intervene in the world. Through a critical discourse analysis of news content, this article describes and interrogates the persistent expectation concerning the widescale social integration of AI-related approaches and technologies. In doing so, it identifies two techniques through which news outlets mediate future-oriented expectations surrounding AI: choosing sources and offering comparisons. Finally, it demonstrates how in employing these techniques, outlets construct the expectation of a pseudo-artificial general intelligence: a collective of technologies capable of solving nearly any problem.

N. Friedkin

Omar Alcides Lizardo, R. Mowry, Brandon Sepulvado et al.

In this paper we introduce the idea of the dual process framework (DPF), an interdisciplinary approach to the study of learning, memory, thinking, and action. Departing from the successful reception of Vaisey (2009), we suggest that intradisciplinary debates in sociology regarding the merits of “dual process” formulations can benefit from a better understanding of the theoretical foundations of these models in cognitive and social psychology. We argue that the key is to distinguish the general DPF from more specific applications to particular domains, which we refer to as dual process models (DPMs). We show how different DPMs can be applied to a variety of analytically distinct issues of interest to cultural sociologists beyond specific issues related to morality, such as culture in learning, culture in memory, culture in thinking, and culture in acting processes. We close by outlining the implications of our argument for relevant work in cultural sociology.

Thomas A. Loughran, R. Paternoster, Aaron Chalfin et al.

Elie Wolfe, Alejandro Pozas-Kerstjens, Matan Grinberg et al.

Causality is a seminal concept in science: any research discipline, from sociology and medicine to physics and chemistry, aims at understanding the causes that could explain the correlations observed among some measured variables. While several methods exist to characterize classical causal models, no general construction is known for the quantum case. In this work we present quantum inflation, a systematic technique to falsify if a given quantum causal model is compatible with some observed correlations. We demonstrate the power of the technique by reproducing known results and solving open problems for some paradigmatic examples of causal networks. Our results may find an application in many fields: from the characterization of correlations in quantum networks to the study of quantum effects in thermodynamic and biological processes.

Hadrien Clouet

Feliks Tuszko

This article investigates the valuation of artworks during the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines how art market participants employ fictional expectations of the future to stabilize valuations during uncertain times. A total of 86 forecasts originating from both the center and periphery of the global art market were analyzed. Taking a meta-analytic approach, focus was placed on what each analysis predicts, how it constructs the future it purports to know, and how the expected value of artworks and methods for their purchase are justified. This uncovered the paradoxical reality of art market forecasts—their authors are convinced that the power of crisis could reformulate the art market, but their conclusions do not assume the possibility of real change. Further, the argument is made that speculation about the future is at the core of today’s art economy. Therefore, in a crisis, market participants conservatively orient themselves toward artworks that already have established value.

Андрей Владимирович Смирнов

В статье рассмотрена теоретическая модель цифрового общества, основанная на четырех концептах: сверхсвязность, платформизация, датификация и алгоритмическое управление. С помощью модели описан механизм углубления цифровизации общества — от переноса в цифровую среду отдельных практик и социальных взаимодействий до создания социального порядка на основе больших данных. Анализ панельных данных лонгитюдного обследования РМЭЗ НИУ ВШЭ за 2003-2018 гг. и географически привязанных данных проекта «Виртуальное население России» показал, что, несмотря на впечатляющий рост некоторых показателей, цифровизация российского общества носит фрагментарный характер как в разрезе социальных групп и территорий, так и по сферам общественной жизни. Препятствует устранению этого неравенства в первую очередь низкая устойчивость интернет-практик индивидов. Изучение содержания паспортов национальных проектов, утвержденных в 2018 г., позволило оценить перспективы формирования в России цифрового общества и выявить барьеры адаптации населения к изменяющимся условиям. Благодарность. Исследование выполнено при финансовой поддержке РФФИ и БРФФИ в рамках научного проекта № 20-510-00007.

C. Fischer

My research so far has followed an interest in the classic concern about the social consequences of modernization, which led me to study urbanism, personal networks, the history of technology, and most extensively, American social history. A commitment to public sociology led me to a book on inequality, Contexts magazine, contributions to general media, a blog, and badgering sociologists about their writing. Some consistent themes include trying to address big questions with middle-range empirical work, focusing on ordinary lives and living, insisting on rigorous evidence whatever the method, and communicating with as wide an audience as lucidly as possible. The article closes with a few lessons learned.