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Social Phenomena (social + phenomenon)
Selected AbstractsTRIBLER: a social-based peer-to-peer systemCONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 2 2008J. A. Pouwelse Abstract Most current peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing systems treat their users as anonymous, unrelated entities, and completely disregard any social relationships between them. However, social phenomena such as friendship and the existence of communities of users with similar tastes or interests may well be exploited in such systems in order to increase their usability and performance. In this paper we present a novel social-based P2P file-sharing paradigm that exploits social phenomena by maintaining social networks and using these in content discovery, content recommendation, and downloading. Based on this paradigm's main concepts such as taste buddies and friends, we have designed and implemented the TRIBLER P2P file-sharing system as a set of extensions to BitTorrent. We present and discuss the design of TRIBLER, and we show evidence that TRIBLER enables fast content discovery and recommendation at a low additional overhead, and a significant improvement in download performance. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Reducing complexity in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA): Remote and proximate factors and the consolidation of democracyEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 5 2006CARSTEN Q. SCHNEIDER However, real-world research situations might make the application of fs/QCA difficult in two respects , namely, the complexity of the results and the phenomenon of limited diversity. We suggest a two-step approach as one possibility to mitigate these problems. After introducing the difference between remote and proximate factors, the application of a two-step fs/QCA approach is demonstrated analyzing the causes of the consolidation of democracy. We find that different paths lead to consolidation, but all are characterized by a fit of the institutional mix chosen to the societal context in terms of power dispersion. Hence, we demonstrate that the application of fs/QCA in a two-step manner helps to formulate and test equifinal and conjunctural hypotheses in medium-size N comparative analyses, and thus to contribute to an enhanced understanding of social phenomena. [source] Critical Realism and Causality: Tracing the Aristotelian LegacyJOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 2 2009STEPHEN PRATTEN Rom Harré's generative account of causality has been drawn on heavily by advocates of critical realism. Yet Harré argues that critical realists often exaggerate the extent to which powerful causal explanations of social phenomena can be developed. Certain proponents of critical realism have responded to Harré's criticisms by suggesting that it is useful to consider the relevant issues in relation to the familiar Aristotelian classification of four causes. In this paper I contribute to this debate and pursue a similar strategy. The paper adds to existing contributions in two ways. Firstly, I outline how Harré sees his generative account of causality as linking up with Aristotelian themes. It emerges that Harré at times conceives of his generative theory as part of an alternative to the Aristotelian system while at other times he draws connections between it and a reformulated account of formal causality. Secondly, I argue that when we consider the positions of Harré and proponents of critical realism on the scope of causal explanation in the social realm in relation to the interpretation of final causes offered by another philosopher profoundly influenced by the Aristotelian tradition, namely Charles Peirce, we can see both as limited in certain respects. [source] The Analysis of the Borders of the Social World: A Challenge for Sociological TheoryJOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 1 2005GESA LINDEMANN ABSTRACT:In order to delimit the realm of social phenomena, sociologists refer implicitly or explicitly to a distinction between living human beings and other entities, that is, sociologists equate the social world with the world of living humans. This consensus has been questioned by only a few authors, such as Luckmann, and some scholars of science studies. According to these approaches, it would be ethnocentric to treat as self-evident the premise that only living human beings can be social actors. The methodological consequence of such critique is a radical deanthropologization of sociological research. It must be considered an open question whether or not only living human can be social actors. The paper starts with a discussion of the methodological problems posed by such an analysis of the borders of the social world, and presents the results of an empirical analysis of these borders in the fields of intensive care and neurological rehabilitation. Within these fields it must be determined whether a body is a living human body or a symbol using human body. The analysis of these elementary border phenomena challenges basic sociological concepts. The relevant contemporary sociological theories refer to a dyadic constellation as the systematic starting point of their concept of sociality. The complex relationship between at least two entities is understood as the basis of the development of a novel order that functions as a mediating structure between the involved parties. Based upon empirical data, I argue that it is necessary to change this foundational assumption. Not the dyad but the triad must be understood as the foundational constellation. This implies a new understanding of the third actor, which is distinct from the concepts developed by Simmel and Berger and Luckmann. [source] Re-Thinking the ,Origins Debate': Race Formation and Political Formations in England's Chesapeake ColoniesJOURNAL OF HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2 2002Chris Smaje The debate over the ,origins' of racism in colonial North America has been dominated by the view that racism was a consequence of the enslavement of African-origin labour, or alternatively that it was a prior , perhaps primordial , sentiment that shaped the process of enslavement. This paper offers an alternative reading of the evidence in suggesting that race formation can be understood in relation to the emergence of new forms of imagining political communities in early modern England, and Europe more generally. This argument can not only help refine understanding of race formation in early colonial America, but also sociological theories of race more generally, while helping avoid some of the theoretical problems entailed in attempting to trace the ,origins' of social phenomena. [source] The non-Gaussian nature of bibliometric and scientometric distributions: A new approach to interpretationJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 13 2001Ludmila E. Ivancheva An attempt has been made to give an answer to the question: Why do most bibliometric and scientometric laws reveal characters of Non-Gaussian distributions, i.e., have unduly long "tails"? We tried to apply the approach of the so-called "Universal Law," discovered by G. Stankov (1997, 1998). The basic principle we have used here is that of the reciprocity of energy and space. A new "wave concept" of scientific information has been propounded, in which terms the well-known bibliometric and scientometric distributions find a rather satisfactory explanation. One of the made corollaries is that , = 1 is the most reasonable value for the family of Zipf laws, applied to information or social phenomena. [source] Forecasting composite indicators with anticipated information: an application to the industrial production indexJOURNAL OF THE ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETY: SERIES C (APPLIED STATISTICS), Issue 3 2003Francesco Battaglia Summary. Many economic and social phenomena are measured by composite indicators computed as weighted averages of a set of elementary time series. Often data are collected by means of large sample surveys, and processing takes a long time, whereas the values of some elementary component series may be available a considerable time before the others and may be used for forecasting the composite index. This problem is addressed within the framework of prediction theory for stochastic processes. A method is proposed for exploiting anticipated information to minimize the mean-square forecast error, and for selecting the most useful elementary series. An application to the Italian general industrial production index is illustrated, which demonstrates that knowledge of anticipated values of some, or even just one, component series may reduce the forecast error considerably. [source] Minorities and the Philosophical MarketplaceMETAPHILOSOPHY, Issue 5 2002Jorge J.E. Gracia This article argues for two theses. The first is that many of the sociological factors endemic in the philosophical community function as barriers to the recruitment of members of minority groups in the profession and to their functioning as public intellectuals. The division into familial groups, the fights for security and success, and the weakness of the federal organization of the American Philosophical Association all contribute to these barriers. The second is that sociology has a place in philosophy, even though it should not be confused with it. This means that philosophers need to consider social phenomena. [source] Toward a sociocognitive approach to second Llanguage acquisitionMODERN LANGUAGE JOURNAL, Issue 4 2002Dwight Atkinson This article develops the notion of a sociocognitive perspective on second language acquisition (SLA), proposed as an alternative to the cognitivism pervading the field. By sociocognitive, I mean a view of language and language acquisition as simultaneously occurring and interactively constructed both "in the head" and "in the world." First, I develop a view of language and its acquisition as social phenomena,as existing and taking place for the performance of action in the (socially-mediated) world. Second, I describe the cognitive nature of language and its acquisition, focusing especially on recent developments in connectionism. Third, I introduce sociocognitive views of language and posit a social interpretation of connectionism as bridging the gap between cognition and social action. Fourth, I discuss sociocognitive perspectives on first language acquisition. Fifth, I describe the cognitivist biases of much SLA research, then suggest how sociocognitive approaches can help overcome them. I end by considering implications of the perspective I develop in this paper. [source] Sorcery in the Era of ,Henry IV': Kinship, Mobility and Mortality in Buhera District, ZimbabweTHE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, Issue 3 2002Jens A. Andersson Recent studies of witchcraft and sorcery in Africa have described this domain as an all,powerful and inescapable discourse. This article, on a migrant labour society in Zimbabwe, discloses a situation in which this discourse and its interpretation are contested. It shows how existential insecurity, which gives rise to witchcraft accusations, relates to the high incidence of HIV/AIDS,related illnesses and death , euphemistically called Henry IV (HIV). Witchcraft accusations arise within kin,based networks that span rural and urban geographical areas, as it is these networks that people depend upon for their livelihoods. Thus, this article stresses the important link between witchcraft and kinship in a society that is not geographically bound, revealing how witchcraft discourse is assigned a place relative to other social phenomena. [source] Scale-free networks in biology: new insights into the fundamentals of evolution?,BIOESSAYS, Issue 2 2002Yuri I. Wolf Scale-free network models describe many natural and social phenomena. In particular, networks of interacting components of a living cell were shown to possess scale-free properties. A recent study(1) compares the system-level properties of metabolic and information networks in 43 archaeal, bacterial and eukaryal species and claims that the scale-free organization of these networks is more conserved during evolution than their content. BioEssays 24:105,109, 2002. Published 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIA SETTINGS: A PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE ON THE INTERACTION OF THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETYBRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY, Issue 2 2005R.D. HinshelwoodArticle first published online: 17 NOV 200 ABSTRACT Psychoanalysis cannot explain social phenomena directly, but the human responses to social, economic and historical forces can be described. In this paper I want to look at the interaction between the underlying psychology of the unconscious of individuals in groups, and to theorize how that provides a basis upon which social forces may act. Certain aspects of racism and national identity serve as useful illustrations of how the social phenomena interact with the psychology of individuals. [source] The Microfoundations of Corporatist Intervention: Dairying's Collective Action Problems in Canada and England during the 1930s Depression,CANADIAN REVIEW OF SOCIOLOGY/REVUE CANADIENNE DE SOCIOLOGIE, Issue 4 2000Roy C. Barnes Dans cet article, nous démontrons l'utilité d'une approche microfondamentale dans la compréhension de phénomènes sociaux de plus grande ampleur. Grâce à l'analyse des questions de recours collectifs, qui se sont posées aux différents acteurs, au Canada et en Angleterre, nous établissons un lien informel entre la macrovariable de « structure de l'industrie » et les formes divergentes de réglementation corporatiste instaurées dans les années 1930. Après avoir expliqué les caracteéristiques centrales de l'approche microfondamentale et souligné les aspects importants de la théorie des jeux et du concept de choix rationnel, nous examinons les témoignages élaborés, présentés dans le cadre de commissions et de comités du gouvernement. Ces données comparatives et historiques fournissent les bases qui permettent de comprendre la manière dont les différentes structures de l'industrie ont causé des problèmes de réglementation uniques pour les gouvernements canadien et britannique. This paper argues for the utility of a microfoundational approach to understanding larger social phenomena. Through an analysis of the collective action problems experienced by the various actors in both Canada and England, I wish to establish a causal link between the macro-level variable "industry structure" and the divergent forms of corporatist regulation instituted in the 1930s. After clarifying the central features of my microfoundational approach and highlighting important aspects of game theory and rational choice explanations, I review the extensive sets of testimonies given before governmental commissions and committees. These comparative and historical data provide the foundations for understanding how distinct industry structures produced unique sets of regulatory problems for the Canadian and British governments. [source] | ||||||||||||||||