scholarly journals Bridging the gap between critical algorithm studies and the social sciences

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Jonker-Hoffrén
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Direct Impact ◽  
Critical Questions ◽  
Ethnographic Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Market Status ◽  
Labour Market Status

Since the mid-2000s platforms and platform work have greatly proliferated. Although also research on platforms and platforms has expanded, there seems to be a great gulf between IT- and social research on these issues. In this article, I show, using sociologist Maurizio Lazzarato’s concepts, that the technical infrastructure of the platform, in particular the algorithm, has a direct impact on work and the agency of the platform worker. From this perspective, it is possible to ask critical questions about platforms and platform work from a multidisciplinary viewpoint. Methodologically, an ethnographic approach that sees algorithms as part of culture, with its own institutions, impact on people and intersection with different contexts, could support co-operation between different disciplines. When such an approach is combined with insights from algorithm studies, research is also relevant for existing political questions regarding platform workers’ labour market status and the functioning of platform firms.

Social capital, labour market status and wages: some evidence from Spain

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-560
Author(s):  
Antonio Caparrós Ruiz
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Participation ◽  
Job Search ◽  
Sample Selection ◽  
Multinomial Logit Model ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
Market Status ◽  
Labour Market Status

PurposeThis article analyses the social capital's influence on the Spanish labour market. In particular, this study examines to what extent the social capital increases the likelihood of being employed, taking into account different labour market status, and diverse dimensions of the social capital. Focusing on wage earners, it is also analysed whether network structures in Spain influence on the wage earnings.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology applied to analyse the labour market status is a multinomial logit model. For the analysis of wages, it is specified a wage model with sample selection bias. In both cases, social capital indicators are included as regressors.FindingsThe results show that social participation exerts a positive influence on the probability of being self-employed, and lowers the likelihood of being unemployed. Moreover, it is verified that the interaction with family members or close friends influence positively on wages.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research should emphasise how employers assess the workers' competences associated with the social capital.Practical implicationsThe findings provide knowledge to policymakers useful to increase the role of social participation in the labour market.Social implicationsThe importance of social network as an instrument for the job search must be enhanced.Originality/valueThis article overcomes some drawbacks associated with the analysis of social capital from an aggregate perspective. Furthermore, social capital indicators are obtained using the Categorical Principal Components Analysis (CATPCA), which is unprecedented in the economic literature.

The Edwards' Report and the International Relations profession

1988 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Nicholson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Research Council ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Science Community ◽  
The Social ◽  
Science Community

The Economic and Social Research Council recently published a Report commissioned from a committee chaired by Professor Edwards, a psychiatrist, so that the Council, and the social science community in general, might know what was good and bad in British social sciences, and where the promising future research opportunities lie over the next decade. Boldly called ‘Horizons and Opportunities in the Social Sciences’, the Report condensed the wisdom of social scientists, both British and foreign, and concludes with a broadly but not uncritically favourable picture of the British scene.

School Notes: Committee on Historical Studies

1987 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-236
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Processes Of Change ◽  
Graduate Faculty ◽  
New School ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Historical Moment

The Committee on Historical Studies was established in the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research in 1984. The Graduate Faculty has long emphasized the contribution of history to the social sciences. Committee on Historical Studies (CHS) courses offer students the opportunity to utilize social scientific concepts and theories in the study of the past. The program is based on the conviction that the world changes constantly but changes systematically, with each historical moment setting the opportunities and limiting the potentialities of the next. Systematic historical analysis, however, is not merely a diverting luxury. Nor is it simply a means of assembling cases for present-oriented models of human behavior. It is a prerequisite to any sound understanding of processes of change and of structures large or small.

Positivism in the social sciences

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold Kincaid
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Social Research ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Methodological Individualism ◽  
Main Function ◽  
Social Convention ◽  
The Social

Positivism originated from separate movements in nineteenth-century social science and early twentieth-century philosophy. Key positivist ideas were that philosophy should be scientific, that metaphysical speculations are meaningless, that there is a universal and a priori scientific method, that a main function of philosophy is to analyse that method, that this basic scientific method is the same in both the natural and social sciences, that the various sciences should be reducible to physics, and that the theoretical parts of good science must be translatable into statements about observations. In the social sciences and the philosophy of the social sciences, positivism has supported the emphasis on quantitative data and precisely formulated theories, the doctrines of behaviourism, operationalism and methodological individualism, the doubts among philosophers that meaning and interpretation can be scientifically adequate, and an approach to the philosophy of social science that focuses on conceptual analysis rather than on the actual practice of social research. Influential criticisms have denied that scientific method is a priori or universal, that theories can or must be translatable into observational terms, and that reduction to physics is the way to unify the sciences. These criticisms have undercut the motivations for behaviourism and methodological individualism in the social sciences. They have also led many to conclude, somewhat implausibly, that any standards of good social science are merely matters of rhetorical persuasion and social convention.

scholarly journals Job demands & control among employees in Sweden aged 55-64 and labour market status 11 years later

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
K Farrants ◽  
K Alexanderson
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Multinomial Logistic Regression ◽  
Job Demands ◽  
Job Control ◽  
Paid Work ◽  
Market Status ◽  
High Control ◽  
Labour Market Status

Abstract Background As discussions about extending working lives are ongoing, more knowledge is warranted on how psychosocial working conditions are associated with labour market status in older age. Aim Among employees aged 55-64 years, explore associations between job demands/control with their labour market status 11 years later, using a job exposure matrix (JEM). Methods A population-based prospective cohort study using nationwide register data. All 616,818 individuals in Sweden who in 2001 were in paid work and aged 55-64, were categorized using JEM into 9 groups, based on tertiles. They were followed up in 2012 regarding their labour market status (main income from: paid work, old-age pension, marginalised (no income/social assistance), sickness absence >183 net days, emigrated, dead) using multinomial logistic regression for odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI), controlling for labour market status and sociodemographics in 2001. Analyses were stratified by sex. Results The majority (women: 84.9%, men: 80.3%) had main income from old-age pension at the 11-year follow-up; 4.7% from paid work (women: 3.9%, men: 5.6%). Those initially in jobs with high demands were less likely to be marginalised at follow-up (OR women high demands/medium control 0.51, CI 0.38-0.68, high demands/high control 0.68, CI 0.50-0.92; OR men high demands/medium control 0.55, CI 0.31-0.96, high demands/high control 0.47, CI 0.30-0.73). Those in occupations with low demands were less likely to be in paid work (OR women low demands/low control 0.56, CI 0.51-0.62, low demands/medium control 0.63, CI 0.58-0.69; OR men low demands/low control 0.56, CI 0.51-0.63, low demands/medium control 0.63, CI 0.58-0.69). Conclusions High job demands with high job control among people aged 55-64 in 2001 were associated with higher rate and OR of having main income from paid work in 2012, and high job demands regardless of level of job control were associated with less marginalisation. Key messages Levels of job demands when aged 55-64 were associated with labour market status 11 years later for women and men, while levels of job control were less so. High job demands were associated with a higher likelihood of being in paid work and lower likelihood of being marginalised at the end of follow-up.

Social Research in Africa

1966 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-235
Author(s):  
A. A. Castagno
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
New York ◽  
Social Research ◽  
African Studies ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social

The African World: a survey of social research, is in my estimation one of the most important and unique attempts in African studies to interrelate the social sciences and the humanities; it has been edited for the African Studies Association by Robert A. Lystad (New York, Praeger, 1965). The contributors, mainly American and British, are well-known scholars. Together they have brought out a volume on methodology that is unparalleled in multi-disciplinary comprehensiveness in African studies. This is a tribute not only to the authors but also to the development of scholarship on Africa, for the past two decades of accomplishments are richly represented here. The distinction of The African World is that it identifies new problems, raises new questions and deals with a wide variety of methodologies. It should be mandatory reading for students of African affairs. And it can be usefully employed by nonAfricanists dealing with multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary aspects of area research.

Do labour market status transitions predict changes in psychological well-being?

2013 ◽  
Vol 67 (9) ◽  
pp. 796-802 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Flint ◽  
Mel Bartley ◽  
Nicola Shelton ◽  
Amanda Sacker
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
Market Status ◽  
Labour Market Status
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document