Bacteria, garbage, insects and pigs

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 938-963
Author(s):  
Sandra Simonsen
Keyword(s):  
Group Theory ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
Collective Emotions ◽  
Symbolic Meanings ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Empirical Contribution

Abstract The present paper focuses on the symbolic meanings of metaphors and their potential social effects. Specifically, it examines the case of the Jewish Ultra-Orthodox “Ḥardakim” poster campaign distributed throughout Ultra-Orthodox communities in Israel in 2013. Following social group theory, the paper interprets the symbolic meanings of the main metaphors in the campaign in order to reconstruct the lifeworld of this religious group. On that basis, it offers a discussion of how metaphors were strategically utilized in order to draw social boundaries, uphold social norms and sanction group members who deviate from those. The paper’s empirical contribution is a case study of how symbolic meanings of metaphors as a part of propagandistic discourse targets and exploits social identities in order to mobilize collective emotions thereby provoking certain actions. It contributes theoretically by arguing that deeming norm-deviant group members internal threats is an efficient propaganda tool for maintaining intragroup behavioral codes.

scholarly journals Behavioural Development of Three Former Pet Chimpanzees a Decade after Arrival at the MONA Sanctuary

Animals ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 138
Author(s):  
Olga Feliu ◽  
Marti Masip ◽  
Carmen Maté ◽  
Sònia Sánchez-López ◽  
Dietmar Crailsheim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Competence ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Behavioural Development ◽  
Agonistic Interactions ◽  
Group Setting ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Rare Opportunity ◽  
Over Time

Chimpanzees used as pets and in the entertainment industry endure detrimental living conditions from early infancy onwards. The preferred option for ending their existence as pet or circus chimpanzees is their rescue and transfer to a primate sanctuary that will provide them with optimal living and social conditions, so that they can thrive. In this case study, we had the rare opportunity to compare the activity budgets of three chimpanzees from their time as pets in 2004 to their time living at the MONA sanctuary in 2020, after almost a decade in the centre. We found their behaviour patterns changed in accordance with the sanctuaries’ rehabilitation objectives. Resting periods increased considerably while vigilance simultaneously declined sharply. Moreover, the chimpanzees’ social competence increased as allogrooming became the predominant social behaviour, and agonistic interactions diminished even though they were living within a larger social group at the sanctuary. All three chimpanzees expanded their allogrooming and proximity networks at the sanctuary, which included new group members, but they maintained the closest relationships to those conspecifics who they were rescued with. In conclusion, these findings suggest that the sanctuary environment and social group setting made it possible for these three chimpanzees to improve their social competence and increase their well-being over time.

scholarly journals A Novel Measure of Moral Boundaries: Testing Perceived In-group/Out-group Value Differences in a Midwestern Sample

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 237802311881874
Author(s):  
Rengin B. Firat ◽  
Hye Won Kwon ◽  
Steven Hitlin
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Value Theory ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Religious Attendance ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
Socioeconomic Indicators ◽  
Value Judgments ◽  
Value Differences ◽  
Moral Boundaries ◽  
Group Members

The literature on group differences and social identities has long assumed that value judgments about groups constitute a basic form of social categorization. However, little research has empirically investigated how values unite or divide social groups. The authors seek to address this gap by developing a novel measure of group values: third-order beliefs about in- and out-group members, building on Schwartz value theory. The authors demonstrate that their new measure is a promising empirical tool for quantifying previously abstract social boundaries. Results from a midwestern sample show an important dichotomy such that in-groups were attributed the more positive and altruistic transcendence and openness values, while out-groups were associated conservation and enhancement, the value domains revolving around a self-focus and social restraint. Furthermore, religious attendance and political ideology also emerged as strong predictors of value boundaries, whereas socioeconomic indicators were less influential. Significance and implications are discussed.

scholarly journals Active and latent social groups and their interactional expertise

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 391-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilkka Arminen ◽  
Otto EA Segersven ◽  
Mika Simonen
Keyword(s):  
Social Group ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Social World ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
Interactional Expertise ◽  
The Third ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Harry Collins

As a part of their normative theory of expertise, Harry Collins and Robert Evans proposed that interactional expertise forms the third kind of knowledge, located between formal propositional knowledge and embodied skills. Interactional expertise refers to the capability to grasp the conceptual structure of another’s social world, and it is expressed as the ability to speak fluently the language spoken in that social world. According to their theory, it is a key concept of sociology, because it refers to the understanding and coordination of joint actions between members of different social groups. Collins and Evans have further claimed that minority social group members tend to outpace majority social group members in terms of interactional expertise. Drawing on ethnomethodology, we detail the ways in which interactional expertise is displayed and revealed in experiments. This allowed us to specify the underlying reasons for the distribution of interactional expertise between social groups. Our results indicate that the difference between the groups depends on whether a group is either actively maintained or a passive latent category, because interactional expertise provides for not only the crossing of social boundaries but also their maintenance. The minority social group members’ greater interactional expertise or competence is therefore proven to be illusory.

A performative network theory of attitudes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Quayle
Keyword(s):  
Attitude Change ◽  
Network Structure ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Group Structure ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Bipartite Network ◽  
Identity Change ◽  
Multilayer Network ◽  
Dynamic Phenomena

In this paper I propose a network theory of attitudes where attitude agreements and disagreements forge a multilayer network structure that simultaneously binds people into groups (via attitudes) and attitudes into clusters (via people who share them). This theory proposes that people have a range of possible attitudes (like cards in a hand) but these only become meaningful when expressed (like a card played). Attitudes are expressed with sensitivity to their potential audiences and are socially performative: when we express attitudes, or respond to those expressed by others, we tell people who we are, what groups we might belong to and what to think of us. Agreement and disagreement can be modelled as a bipartite network that provides a psychological basis for perceived ingroup similarity and outgroup difference and, more abstractly, group identity. Opinion-based groups and group-related opinions are therefore co-emergent dynamic phenomena. Dynamic fixing occurs when particular attitudes become associated with specific social identities. The theory provides a framework for understanding identity ecosystems in which social group structure and attitudes are co-constituted. The theory describes how attitude change is also identity change. This has broad relevance across disciplines and applications concerned with social influence and attitude change.

Shifting Cultivation as Improvisation

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Richards
Keyword(s):  
Group Theory ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Shifting Cultivation ◽  
Social Skill ◽  
Rice Farming ◽  
Skill Sets ◽  
Military Conflict ◽  
The Social ◽  
Fixed Boundaries

Shifting cultivation is a type of farming without fixed boundaries. It obeys an ecological logic but requires constant improvisation and adaptation to fluid circumstances. The character of improvisation in shifting cultivation is explored with reference to an African case study (rice farming by the Mende people of Sierra Leone). Two elements are emphasized in particular—the management of fire (by men) and rice seeds (by women). A contrast, applicable not only to farming, but also to other activities such as military conflict and musical performance, is drawn between strategic planning and tactical improvisation. The relevance of Mary Douglas’s grid-group theory to the framing of the social skill sets required for improvisation is discussed.

Naive, connected, and counselor tween girl identity groups: Consumption practices and social identity constructions within consumer culture

2021 ◽  
pp. 146954052110160
Author(s):  
Tiziana Brenner Beauchamp Weber ◽  
Eliane C. Francisco Maffezzolli
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Social Identity Theory ◽  
Consumer Culture ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Consumer Identity ◽  
Identity Constructions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Consumption Practices ◽  
Identity Groups

This research identifies the relationship between consumption practices and the construction of social identity among tweens in a Brazilian context. Using consumer culture theory and social identity theory, we employed 80 h of observation, 9 interviews, and projective techniques with fifteen girls. Three social identity groups were acknowledged: naive, connected, and counselors. These groups revealed different identity projects, such as the integration and maintenance within the social group of current belonging, the access to the social group with the greater distinctions, the generation of differentiable and positive distinctions (both intra- and intergroups), and the expression and consolidation of identity and its respective consumption practices. This research contributes to the consumption literature that relates to consumer identity projects. The findings reveal a current resignification of girlhood and exposes tweens’ consumption practices as a direct mechanism of the expression and construction of their social identities. These are mechanisms of social identity construction as mediated by group relations through the processes of access, maintenance, integration, differentiation, and distinction.

scholarly journals Exploring Group Movement Pattern through Cellular Data: A Case Study of Tourists in Hainan

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinning Zhu ◽  
Tianyue Sun ◽  
Hao Yuan ◽  
Zheng Hu ◽  
Jiansong Miao
Keyword(s):  
Pattern Mining ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Movement Pattern ◽  
Phone Call ◽  
Specific Group ◽  
Group Movement ◽  
Trajectory Similarity ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Call Detail Records

Identifying group movement patterns of crowds and understanding group behaviors is valuable for urban planners, especially when the groups are special such as tourist groups. In this paper, we present a framework to discover tourist groups and investigate the tourist behaviors using mobile phone call detail records (CDRs). Unlike GPS data, CDRs are relatively poor in spatial resolution with low sampling rates, which makes it a big challenge to identify group members from thousands of tourists. Moreover, since touristic trips are not on a regular basis, no historical data of the specific group can be used to reduce the uncertainty of trajectories. To address such challenges, we propose a method called group movement pattern mining based on similarity (GMPMS) to discover tourist groups. To avoid large amounts of trajectory similarity measurements, snapshots of the trajectories are firstly generated to extract candidate groups containing co-occurring tourists. Then, considering that different groups may follow the same itineraries, additional traveling behavioral features are defined to identify the group members. Finally, with Hainan province as an example, we provide a number of interesting insights of travel behaviors of group tours as well as individual tours, which will be helpful for tourism planning and management.

Portuguese Jews in Amsterdam: An Insight on Entrepreneurial Behaviour in the Dutch Republic

2008 ◽  
pp. 15-32
Author(s):  
Cátia Antunes
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Business Strategies ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
Dutch Republic ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Entrepreneurial Behaviour ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter provides a case study of the entrepreneurship of Portuguese Jewish merchants in the Dutch Republic in the Early Modern period. Though similar case studies exist, none have focused specifically on Jewish entrepreneurs. The core aim is to determine which business strategies and values the Jewish entrepreneurs shared with their Dutch counterparts. It provides a history of the Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam, followed by a definition of the early modern entrepreneur. It then examines the trade routes, products, range of trading capital, and social networks of the Portuguese Jewish entrepreneurs, and concludes that Portuguese Jewish and Dutch merchants operated their businesses in similar ways, but Portuguese Jewish merchants were willing to step out of their religious and social boundaries in pursuit of a stronger economic position and were able to do so through financial support gained by dealing in diverse, high quality trade.

Groups and Social Boundaries

2021 ◽  
pp. 72-108
Author(s):  
Jan Fuhse
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationships ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Group Concept ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Network Patterns ◽  
Social Units

Social groups were a key concept in early sociology (German formal sociology, symbolic interactionism). Since the 1960s, they have been replaced by “social network” as the prime concept for informal social structures. We rarely find the bounded and internally homogeneous social units suggested by the group concept in the real world. Instead, individuals are embedded in a complex mesh of social relationships. Building on relational sociology, we can reconceptualize groups as a particular case of densely connected network patterns of social relationships. These exist only by degree, to the extent that they are reinforced by a social boundary separating the group members symbolically from the outside world and by foci of activity for the group to meet. Densely connected groups develop a particular group culture, and they frequently use symbols to signal group membership and the cultural difference to other groups and to the wider cultural context (group style).

scholarly journals Group-works: exploring multiplex networks, leadership and group performance

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 227-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Yeow ◽  
Alison Dean ◽  
Danielle Tucker ◽  
Linda Pomeroy
Keyword(s):  
Positive Reinforcement ◽  
Group Performance ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Group Effectiveness ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Multiplex Networks ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Knowledge Intensive

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of “multiplex” (multiple overlapping) networks and leadership on group performance in a higher education setting. Design/methodology/approach Using a combination of social network analysis and interviews, the authors employ a case study approach to map the connections between academic group members. This paper analyses the relationship between this mapping and academic performance. Findings The authors identified two dimensions which influence group effectiveness: multiplex networks and distributed–coordinated leadership. Where networks are built across tasks, inter-relationships develop that lead to greater group performance. Practical implications Where group members create a dense hive of interconnectivity and are active across all group tasks, and also informally, this increases the opportunity for knowledge sharing. When this is similarly experienced by a majority of group members, there is positive reinforcement, resulting in greater group effectiveness. Originality/value This paper highlights the importance of the richness of formal ties in knowledge-intensive settings. This paper is the first to differentiate between formal connections between colleagues related to different tasks within their role. This suggests that dense configurations of informal ties are insufficient; they must be coupled with strong ties around formal activity and demonstrative leadership.

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