scholarly journals Community Social Polarization and Change: Evidence from Three Recent Studies

World ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-33
Author(s):  
Max Stephenson ◽  
Beng Abella-Lipsey ◽  
Lara Nagle ◽  
Neda Moayerian

This review article analyzes three major recent books (written by Robert Wuthnow, Arlie R. Hochschild, and James and Deborah Fallows, respectively) concerning ongoing political, economic and social change in United States’ rural communities to probe differing frames and claims among them. We contend these works together point to vital social and political forces that must receive increased attention if the communities they treat are to address the challenges confronting them successfully. Thereafter, we briefly and illustratively underscore the significance of these authors’ arguments using our own ongoing work in two small communities confronting catastrophic economic decline and social fissuring in Central Appalachia. Overall, we argue that an analytical approach that combines elements of Wuthnow’s sensitivity to demographic and scalar polarization and divides, coupled with Hochschild’s emphasis on opportunities to instill and call on empathetic imagination in development efforts, could assist these rural communities’ residents to understand more fully the dynamics at play within them and to craft strategies aimed at addressing those challenges. In particular, we contend that the Fallowses’ call for pragmatic interventions and partnership building must be accompanied by long-term efforts to overcome the fear engendered by the view that rural community life constitutes a consumerist zero-sum game, and the accompanying widespread belief in those jurisdictions that scapegoating and explicit or implicit racialized hierarchies represent reasonable responses to such anxieties.

Author(s):  
Oksana Gaiduchok ◽  
◽  
Oleksiy Stupnytskyi ◽  

In modern times, it is believed that by reducing the risk of military intervention, military security has lost its relevance, and economic security has become a priority of national interests. The principle of economic security is as follows: national interests are supported through an economic system that supports free exchange and ensures the upward mobility of the nation. The analysis of economic security is based on the concept of national interests. It is well known that the problem of national security and its components cannot be considered only from the standpoint of current interests; it is closely related to the possibilities of their implementation over a significant, long-term period. Each stage of realization of national interests of the country is characterized by its assessment of its geopolitical, geostrategic and geoeconomic conditions, security threats and the main carriers of these threats, the mechanism of realization of national interests (each of the stages has its own assessment of the main definitions and categories of security, the main vectors of geoeconomic policy). Economic security is the foundation and material basis of national security. A state is in a state of security if it protects its own national interests and is able to defend them through political, economic, socio-psychological, military and other actions. There is a close connection between economic security and the system of national and state interests, and it is through this category that the problems of economic potential and economic power of the state, geopolitical and geoeconomic positions of the country in the modern world are intertwined. At a time when regional forces are trying to expand markets, provide access to finance and the latest technology, economic security has become a necessary component of the ability of regional forces to expand their influence. The article is devoted to the study of economic security of Ukraine and its components using the model of quantitative assessment of economic security of Ukraine. Using the Fishburne method, a model is built that allows to obtain an integrated assessment of the level of economic security based on the synthesis of nine partial indicators.


Author(s):  
Mohd. Shuhaimi Ishak

 Abstract Generally speaking, media is extensively used as the means to disseminate news and information pertaining to business, social, political and religious concerns. A portion of the time and space of media has now become an important device to generate economic and social activities that include advertising, marketing, recreation and entertainment. The Government regards them as an essential form of relaying news and information to its citizens and at the same time utilizes them as a powerful public relations’ mechanism. The effects of media are many and diverse, which can either be short or long term depending on the news and information. The effects of media can be found on various fronts, ranging from the political, economic and social, to even religious spheres. Some of the negative effects arising from the media are cultural and social influences, crimes and violence, sexual obscenities and pornography as well as liberalistic and extreme ideologies. This paper sheds light on these issues and draws principles from Islam to overcome them. Islam as revealed to humanity contains the necessary guidelines to nurture and mould the personality of individuals and shape them into good servants. Key Words: Media, Negative Effects, Means, Islam and Principles. Abstrak Secara umum, media secara meluas digunakan sebagai sarana untuk menyebarkan berita dan maklumat yang berkaitan dengan perniagaan, kemasyarakatan, pertimbangan politik dan agama. Sebahagian dari ruang dan masa media kini telah menjadi peranti penting untuk menghasilkan kegiatan ekonomi dan sosial yang meliputi pengiklanan, pemasaran, rekreasi dan hiburan. Kerajaan menganggap sarana-sarana ini sebagai wadah penting untuk menyampaikan berita dan maklumat kepada warganya dan pada masa yang sama juga menggunakannya sebagai mekanisme perhubungan awam yang berpengaruh. Pengaruh media sangat banyak dan pelbagai, samada berbentuk jangka pendek atau panjang bergantung kepada berita dan maklumat yang brekenaan. Kesan dari media boleh didapati mempengaruhi pelbagai aspek, bermula dari bidang politik, ekonomi, sosial bahkan juga agama. Beberapa kesan negatif yang timbul dari media ialah pengaruhnya terhadap budaya dan sosial, jenayah dan keganasan, kelucahan seksual dan pornografi serta ideologi yang liberal dan ekstrim. Kertas ini menyoroti isu-isu ini dan cuba mengambil prinsip-prinsip dari ajaran Islam untuk mengatasinya. Tujuan Islam itu sendiri diturunkan kepada umat manusia ialah untuk menjadi pedoman yang diperlukan untuk membina dan membentuk keperibadian individu dan menjadikan manusia hamba yang taat kepada Tuhannya. Kata Kunci: Media, Kesan Negatif, Cara-cara, Islam dan Prinsip-prinsip.


2020 ◽  
Vol 103 (12) ◽  
pp. 1315-1324

Background: Factors related to long-term care needs have been studied widely, but there is limited research about the influence of health literacy on long-term care needs among the elderly in rural communities where the social context and care environment are uniquely different. Objective: To examine factors influencing long-term care needs among Thai elderly in rural communities. Materials and Methods: The present study used the cross-sectional design. The study sample included 477 elderly persons, who were members of the communities in Nakhon Ratchasima Province. Multi-stage random sampling was used to select participants. They were interviewed using the demographic and health information questionnaire, the Thai Geriatric Depression Scale (TGDS), the health literacy scale of Thai adults and long-term care needs questionnaire. The selected factors examined as independent variables included some demographic factors, depressive symptom, and health literacy. Results: The present study results revealed significant positive relationships existing between long-term care needs with age and depressive symptom, while negative relationships between income and health literacy were reported. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that four of nine determinants of long-term care needs: age, depressive symptom, health knowledge and understanding, and ability managing their health condition significantly predicted long-term care needs at a level of 18% (R² adjusted=0.18, p<0.001). Conclusion: The present study results showed associations between personal and health literacy factors with long-term care needs. These findings prove that it is vitally important for healthcare professionals to consider the rural elderly’s mental health status and health literacy when providing care and planning treatment. Keywords: Health literacy, Long-term care needs, Rural community


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6313
Author(s):  
Ramona Ciolac ◽  
Tiberiu Iancu ◽  
Ioan Brad ◽  
Tabita Adamov ◽  
Nicoleta Mateoc-Sîrb

The agritourism activity can be a characteristic reality of the present, considering rural area’s sustainability, being at the same time a business reality for rural entrepreneurs and a “must have” for rural communities that have tourism potential. It is a form of tourism, through which the tourist can receive a qualitative product at a reasonable price, but also a field that can ensure sustainable development over time, being at the same time environmentally friendly. The purpose of this scientific paper is to identify the aspects that make agritourism “a possible business reality of the moment”, for Romanian rural area’s sustainability. We take into account the following areas: Bran-Moieciu area—considered “the oldest” in terms of agritourism experience, and Apuseni Mountains area, with a great inclination and potential for this activity. The study conducted for these two areas is focused on several aspects: the degree of involvement in agritourism activities, considering the number of years and managerial experience, the analysis of the types of activities/experiences offered by agritourism structures, the identification of the main reasons/motivations for the orientation towards agritourism and the manner in which this field is perceived. Aspects related to the marketing-finance part of the agritourism business are also taken into account: customers, distribution channels, financial sources, shortcomings observed by agritourism business owners and possible action directions so as to improve the activity/agritourism product. Agritourism may be “a possible business reality of the moment” for the studied areas and not only, but in the future, the entrepreneur/farmer must be constantly updated because of the changing situations that appear on the market, be able to make sustainable decisions for his/her own business, which in the future will ensure its viability and obviously its long-term profitability and development, and in the same time rural area’s sustainability.


2011 ◽  
Vol 63 (8) ◽  
pp. 1629-1637 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Harouiya ◽  
S. Martin Rue ◽  
S. Prost-Boucle ◽  
A. Liénar ◽  
D. Esser ◽  
...  

Phosphorus (P) removals in constructed wetlands (CWs) have received particular attention in recent decades by using specific materials which promote adsorption/precipitation mechanisms. Recent studies have shown interest in using apatite materials to promote P precipitation onto the particle surface. As previous trials were mainly done by lab experiments, this present study aims to evaluate the real potential of apatites to remove P from wastewater in pilot units and a full-scale plant over a 2 year period. P retention kinetics of two qualities of apatites are presented and discussed. In this work apatite appears to have high retention capacity (&gt;80% of P removal) and is still an interesting way for P removal in CWs for limiting the risk of eutrophication downstream of small communities. Nevertheless, the apatite quality appears to be of great importance for a reliable and long term P removal. The use of materials with low content of apatite mineral (40–50%) seems to be not economically relevant.


2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
VICTORIA R. NAPIER ◽  
GEORGE M. BRANCH ◽  
JEAN M. HARRIS

Conditions important for the success of co-management have repeatedly been identified, but their relative influence has not been quantitatively evaluated. To investigate the implementation of co-management in 11 subsistence fisheries within seven rural communities in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, perceptions of the responsible authorities and the fishing communities were surveyed. Of 16 conditions often considered important for the success of co-management, only nine were correlated with perceived success, the most strongly correlated being (1) benefits of co-management must exceed costs of participation, (2) training and empowerment, and (3) existence of a long-term ‘champion’ to drive the process. The perceptions of the authorities concurred with those of the communities with regards to the attainment of conditions, but views on the success of co-management differed significantly owing to disagreements that were specific to three particular fisheries. Both groups agreed that co-management is a viable improvement on top-down authoritarian imposition of regulations. However, it takes time to become effective; perceived success was directly correlated with how long individual programmes had been operating. Failure to devolve power from national government to local institutions, and delays in awarding subsistence permits, remain the major stumbling blocks to full realization of co-management.


1989 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 6-11
Author(s):  
John M. Horne

This paper reviews the existing allocation of healthcare resources to and within rural Manitoba. The geographic distribution of hospital, medical and long-term care resources is described and discussed in relation to widely held perceptions of continuing problems in access to publicly insured care among residents of rural communities. Opportunities for more effective and efficient allocation of resources are identified, including various arrangements for sharing both facilities and personnel between communities.


2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 698 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer May ◽  
Judi Walker ◽  
Mathew McGrail ◽  
Fran Rolley

Objectives Regional centres and their rural hinterlands support significant populations of non-metropolitan Australians. Despite their importance in the settlement hierarchy and the key medical services provided from these centres, little research has focused on their issues of workforce supply and long-term service requirements. In addition, they are a critical component of the recent growth of ‘regional’ hub-and-spoke specialist models of service delivery. Methods The present study interviewed 62 resident specialists in four regional centres, seeking to explore recruitment and retention factors important to their location decision making. The findings were used to develop a framework of possible evidence-informed policies. Results This article identifies key professional, social and locational factors, several of which are modifiable and amenable to policy redesign, including work variety, workplace culture, sense of community and spousal employment; these factors that can be targeted through initiatives in selection, training and incentives. Conclusions Commonwealth, state and local governments in collaboration with communities and specialist colleges can work synergistically, with a multiplicity of interdigitating strategies, to ensure a positive approach to the maintenance of a critical mass of long-term rural specialists. What is known about the topic? Rural origin increases likelihood of long-term retention to rural locations, with rural clinical school training associated with increased rural intent. Recruitment and retention policy has been directed at general practitioners in rural communities, with little focus on regional centres or medical specialists. What does this study add? Rural origin is associated with regional centre recruitment. Professional, social and locational factors are all moderately important in both recruitment and retention. Specialist medical training for regional centres ideally requires both generalist and subspecialist skills sets. Workforce policy needs to address modifiable factors with four groups, namely commonwealth and state governments, specialist medical colleges and local communities, all needing to align their activities for achievement of long-term medical workforce outcomes. What are the implications for practitioners? Modifiable factors affecting recruitment and retention must be addressed to support specialist models of care in regional centres. Modifiable factors relate to maintenance of a critical mass of practitioners, training a fit-for-purpose workforce and coordinated effort between stakeholders. Although remuneration is important, the decision to stay relates primarily to non-financial factors.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgios Fragkoulidis ◽  
Volkmar Wirth

&lt;p&gt;The large-scale extratropical upper-tropospheric flow tends to organize itself into eastward-propagating Rossby wave packets (RWPs). Investigating the spatiotemporal evolution of RWPs and the underlying physical processes has been beneficial in showcasing the role of the upper-tropospheric flow in temperature and precipitation extremes. The use of recently developed diagnostics of local in space and time wave properties has provided further insight in this regard. Motivated by the above, these diagnostic methods are now being employed to investigate the intraseasonal to decadal variability of key RWP properties such as their amplitude, phase speed, and group velocity in reanalysis datasets. It is shown that these properties exhibit a distinct seasonal and interregional variability, while interesting patterns thereof emerge. Moreover, the interannual and long-term variability in these RWP properties is explored and significant decadal trends for specific regions and seasons are highlighted. Ongoing work aims at further utilizing the presented diagnostics and analyses toward an improved understanding of the extratropical large-scale flow variability from weather to climate time scales.&lt;/p&gt;


Author(s):  
Mihail Nazarov

  The results provide evidence that COVID-19 is a significant factor influenced the consumption of two leading media in Russia - television and the Internet. Since the pandemic is a global phenomenon, the study of the Russian media usage is conducted taking into account international media trends. The research indicates that the pandemic reinforced existing media consumption patterns or reversed them. Authors argued that technological communication innovations of the last decade have played an important role in this regard. It is shown that the trend of reducing the duration of audience viewership, which was previously inherent in television, was reversed during the 2020 pandemic. The results reported that the long term trend  of increasing the duration of Internet use continued. This is especially true for online video segment. The significant increase in media consumption was observed during the first wave of morbidity and the introduction of quarantine measures. The pandemic has changed the socio-psychological atmosphere in society, influenced people’s way of life, which has led to the intensification of information processes in society. Media convergence processes gained additional momentum in the year of the pandemic. Mentioned above leads to deepening of mediatization. User screens of TVs, smartphones and other devices now form a unified space of struggle for the attention of the audience. This increases competition between traditional TV companies and global technological platforms, and has significant political, economic, and socio-cultural consequences.  


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