Bridging corporate social responsibility and social impact assessment

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social impact assessment (SIA) share foundational values. Yet even where a single corporation espouses CSR and carries out SIA, the two often pass like ships in the night. Drawing upon recent literature and experiences from a decade of applied social research in CSR and SIA in the resources industry, this professional practice paper identifies three key bridging points through which CSR and SIA could be better linked and strengthened in future: policy–practice gaps, voluntary versus involuntary regulation and internal versus independent implementation.     

Technology and the social regulation of fertility

Fertility patterns are rooted in a society's culture and social structure, and in the economics of childbearing that is thereby set up. Technological change affects the demand for children, and hence for fertility regulation, both by directly altering the expected benefits and costs of children to parents and by influencing the cultural and social structural underpinnings of that economic calculus. Routes of that influence include the demand for education generated by competition for modern sector employment, the consumerist values and lifestyles conveyed by communications media, and the erosion of community and kin pressures on individual behavior in a more mobile and more commercialized society. Such forces for behavioral change, it is argued, are more powerful factors in fertility decline than either the “social technology” of contraceptive service delivery (family planning programs) or improvements in the technology of contraception itself.     

Profiling institutes: Identifying high research performance and social relevance in the social and behavioral sciences

This study focuses on the identification of high output research and high impact research in the social and behavioral sciences. A second objective is to monitor developments in research that is related to societal needs and problems. For each topic, we identify institutes and authors that have contributed a considerable number of SSCI articles and/or several (relatively) highly cited articles on a topic. To identify papers with a (relatively) high impact, the present study used two citation thresholds, each based upon a combination of a statistically determined minimum number of ‘external’ citations (by others than the authors of a paper), and a statistical comparison with world average citation levels. Topics were categorised according to social relevance. Detailed profiles of both large and small institutes are obtained, showing strengths and weaknesses in research performance that tend to be obscured by standard indicators focusing on ‘average’ research performance. Socially relevant topics tend to be concentrated in multidisciplinary clusters, whereas clusters dominated by one or two disciplines contain more basis research. The results provide a first insight in the extent to which institutes and authors address socially relevant topics. Use of the results by policy bodies seems dependent upon which organisational level of research they tend to address.     

Buy-in and social capital: by-products of social impact assessment

Participatory impact assessment is a term frequently used and often abused. It refers to an approach that includes interested and affected parties in deciding indicators and measures of environmental and social impacts, in evaluation of effects and monitoring. Involving communities in a participatory manner facilitates skill transfer, fosters buy-in and creates local social capital. This paper describes a participatory exercise initiated by a local authority (Council) in New Zealand. Based on the reported assessment and that of two others, five essential ingredients are identified for a genuine participatory exercise. Time and flexibility are key components.     

Rasch modeling and the measurement of social participation

Social participation is the main outcome of physical rehabilitation programs. The aim of this study is to improve the measurement of social participation, using an instrument called the Assessment of Life Habits Scale and the Rasch model. The interval level measurement, the dimensionality and the generalizability of the item hierarchy were verified. The data from a large sample of people with spinal cord injury was analyzed and specific results were compared with expert opinions. The main properties of the instrument were satisfactory and the agreement with expert opinion was high. Principal component analysis showed multidimensionality. The item difficulty hierarchy obtained with spinal cord injury experts was different from the one obtained with traumatic brain injury experts, indicating a different difficulty level of items in relation to each population characteristics. We conclude that the instrument is appropriate for the measurement of social participation and suggest ways to improve the instrument.     

The cognitive and the social structure of STS

Scientometrics - The differentiation of scientific fields into sub-fields can be studiedon the level of the 'scientific content' of the sub-field, thatis on the level of the products, as...     

Quorum sensing and social networking in the microbial world

For many years, bacterial cells were considered primarily as selfish individuals, but, in recent years, it has become evident that, far from operating in isolation, they coordinate collective behaviour in response to environmental challenges using sophisticated intercellular communication networks. Cell-to-cell communication between bacteria is mediated by small diffusible signal molecules that trigger changes in gene expression in response to fluctuations in population density. This process, generally referred to as quorum sensing (QS), controls diverse phenotypes in numerous Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Recent advances have revealed that bacteria are not limited to communication within their own species but are capable of ‘listening in’ and ‘broadcasting to’ unrelated species to intercept messages and coerce cohabitants into behavioural modifications, either for the good of the population or for the benefit of one species over another. It is also evident that QS is not limited to the bacterial kingdom. The study of two-way intercellular signalling networks between bacteria and both uni- and multicellular eukaryotes as well as between eukaryotes is just beginning to unveil a rich diversity of communication pathways.     

The mediating role of problematic social media use in the relationship between social avoidance/distress and self-esteem

The number of social media users in Bangladesh is increasing in every year. Young people – mainly college and university students – are the heavy users of it. Problematic social media use (PSMU) has received increasing research attention over the past decade. However, there are very few studies concerning PSMU in Bangladesh. The present study examined the role of PSMU in the relationship between social avoidance/distress and self-esteem. The study comprised a sample of 370 university students from the University of Chittagong (Bangladesh). Participants were administered a survey including questions regarding socio-demographics, the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), and the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SADS). Results showed that PSMU partially mediated the relationship between social avoidance/distress and self-esteem, while social avoidance/distress predicted the level of self-esteem. However, PSMU had a non-significant influence on the relationship between these two variables while self-esteem predicted social avoidance/distress.     

The effect of social balance on social fragmentation

With the availability of internet, social media, etc., the interconnectedness of people within most societies has increased tremendously over the past decades. Across the same timespan, an increasing level of fragmentation of society into small isolated groups has been observed. With a simple model of a society, in which the dynamics of individual opinion formation is integrated with social balance, we show that these two phenomena might be tightly related. We identify a critical level of interconnectedness, above which society fragments into sub-communities that are internally cohesive and hostile towards other groups. This critical communication density necessarily exists in the presence of social balance, and arises from the underlying mathematical structure of a phase transition known from the theory of disordered magnets called spin glasses. We discuss the consequences of this phase transition for social fragmentation in society.     

Technological and social changes into the third millennium and the impact on refrigeration

A technological revolution based on information technologies is reshaping the nature of society while globalisation has impacted on the location and nature of economic production and ownership. The scope of these changes indicates a transformation that is equal to the extent of the changes associated with the Industrial Revolution. At the beginning of the third millennium, it is possible to anticipate how these transformative changes will impact upon the way societies and people produce, communicate, manage and live. This paper will outline some of the major changes that have occurred, or will be likely to, over the next two decades, with particular attention to the way in which social institutions and social interaction will evolve. It will also pose questions about the implications for facets of refrigeration given the fundamentally different ways in which societies and individuals will interact with, and expect to use, various technologies.     

Impact of sharing full versus averaged social information on social influence and estimation accuracy

The recent developments of social networks and recommender systems have dramatically increased the amount of social information shared in human communities, challenging the human ability to process it. As a result, sharing aggregated forms of social information is becoming increasingly popular. However, it is unknown whether sharing aggregated information improves people’s judgments more than sharing the full available information. Here, we compare the performance of groups in estimation tasks when social information is fully shared versus when it is first averaged and then shared. We find that improvements in estimation accuracy are comparable in both cases. However, our results reveal important differences in subjects’ behaviour: (i) subjects follow the social information more when receiving an average than when receiving all estimates, and this effect increases with the number of estimates underlying the average; (ii) subjects follow the social information more when it is higher than their personal estimate than when it is lower. This effect is stronger when receiving all estimates than when receiving an average. We introduce a model that sheds light on these effects, and confirms their importance for explaining improvements in estimation accuracy in all treatments.     

Biomedical and social contributions to sustainability

Over the past two or three centuries, biomedical advances have provided methods to prevent and treat infectious diseases. These changes have greatly reduced human suffering and enhanced sustainability by allowing people to live longer and healthier lives. The challenge for the coming centuries will be to ensure that these longer, healthier lives are also more productive lives. We must build on the gains of the past by translating new discoveries in regenerative medicine into therapies for degenerative and genetic diseases. Stem cells may be used to identify drugs that prevent the development of symptoms or to replace cells that have either died or lost their physiological function. In the case of genetic diseases, it may be possible to correct the genetic error. While most conditions that might be treated in these ways are common to all communities, some are more prevalent in specific races. Provision of these and other benefits depends not only on attainment of the research objectives, but also upon our ability to make treatment opportunities available throughout both developed and developing communities. The long history of researching and treating infectious diseases shows that it may take many decades to reap the full benefit of the new biological understanding.     

Penetrating the fog of technology's social dimensions

This study offers a straightforward message: To gain a meaningful understanding of technology's societal connection, one must first dismantle the intricate complexity that often envelops today's technological enterprises. Growth analysis represents a heuristic device, suitable for setting aside the peripheral and enabling the analyst to focus on key points. In effect, growth analysis sees beyond complexity to grasp the essential points and, in the process, makes the subject under investigation simpler and, therefore, more manageable.     

Coupling human mobility and social ties

Studies using massive, passively collected data from communication technologies have revealed many ubiquitous aspects of social networks, helping us understand and model social media, information diffusion and organizational dynamics. More recently, these data have come tagged with geographical information, enabling studies of human mobility patterns and the science of cities. We combine these two pursuits and uncover reproducible mobility patterns among social contacts. First, we introduce measures of mobility similarity and predictability and measure them for populations of users in three large urban areas. We find individuals'' visitations patterns are far more similar to and predictable by social contacts than strangers and that these measures are positively correlated with tie strength. Unsupervised clustering of hourly variations in mobility similarity identifies three categories of social ties and suggests geography is an important feature to contextualize social relationships. We find that the composition of a user''s ego network in terms of the type of contacts they keep is correlated with mobility behaviour. Finally, we extend a popular mobility model to include movement choices based on social contacts and compare its ability to reproduce empirical measurements with two additional models of mobility.     

Citizenship behavior and social exchange.

This article develops and empirically examines a social exchange model of organizational citizenship behavior. An employee's trust in a supervisor is proposed to mediate the relationship between procedural fairness in the supervisor's decision making and employee citizenship. Data from 475 hospital employees and their supervisors were consistent with our model. We discuss future research directions.     

Disciplinary dimensions and social relevance in the scientific communications on biofuels

The disciplinary structure of research on complex problems related to human activities is supported by the fundaments of the social, life, and hard sciences. In this work, we looked at the development of scientific research in the field of biofuels, as a sustainable source of energy, searching for references regarding its scientific roots and social relevance. Scientific communications on biofuels published between 1998 and 2007 were analyzed using a combination of bibliometric methods and text mining techniques. This field of research was characterized as interdisciplinary, with marked social relevance. Our bibliometric analysis shows that, in this research subject, 132 different, interacting fields of knowledge overlap, with dominance of Chemistry, Engineering and Agricultural Sciences. Through the use of text mining techniques, this field was configured into three groups of Disciplinary Dimensions. The first and most influential group includes the Agricultural Sciences, Social Sciences, and Environmental Sciences. The second group, which gives the field its technological basis, includes Chemistry, Engineering, and Microbiology. The third group includes disciplines with emerging involvement in the field of biofuels: Biology and Biochemistry, Animal and Plant Sciences, Molecular Biology and Genetics, Economics, Material Sciences, Nanosciences and Nanotechnology, Geosciences, Physics, Humanities, Multidisciplinary Sciences, Mathematics, and Computer Sciences. This study suggests that the first group of Disciplinary Dimensions conforms to the elements that socially validate the progress of research in the field of biofuels. This study also proposes a metric that can be used to measure the interdisciplinarity and the social framing of any other research field.     

Identifying social mechanisms for the prevention of adolescent drinking and driving

This study identifies social mechanisms that might help prevent youth from being involved in driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) and riding with drinking drivers (RWDD). Data collected through telephone surveys with 1534 adolescents and young adults aged 15-20 years (mean=17.6, S.D.=1.6) in California, USA, were analyzed. Structural equation modeling analyses showed that DUI and RWDD were strongly related to drinking in unstructured situations, modeling of DUI by peers and parents, and perceived peer approval or disapproval of DUI. DUI outcome expectancies were indirectly related to DUI and RWDD through situational drinking. Parental monitoring and DUI law enforcement were also indirectly related to DUI and RWDD through DUI expectancies and other mechanisms. The findings, overall, suggest that parental influence remains important even through late adolescence. Parental monitoring, in particular, might help to reduce unstructured socializing with peers, drinking, and affiliation with peers who engage in DUI. Parental monitoring may also foster beliefs about the risks of DUI. Conversely, parents' own DUI behavior may normalize drinking and DUI behaviors, thus countering monitoring efforts.     

On the performance of social network and likelihood-based expert weighting schemes

Using expert judgment data from the TU Delft's expert judgment database, we compare the performance of different weighting schemes, namely equal weighting, performance-based weighting from the classical model [Cooke RM. Experts in uncertainty. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1991.], social network (SN) weighting and likelihood weighting. The picture that emerges with regard to SN weights is rather mixed. SN theory does not provide an alternative to performance-based combination of expert judgments, since the statistical accuracy of the SN decision maker is sometimes unacceptably low. On the other hand, it does outperform equal weighting in the majority of cases. The results here, though not overwhelmingly positive, do nonetheless motivate further research into social interaction methods for nominating and weighting experts. Indeed, a full expert judgment study with performance measurement requires an investment in time and effort, with a view to securing external validation. If high confidence in a comparable level of validation can be obtained by less intensive methods, this would be very welcome, and would facilitate the application of structured expert judgment in situations where the resources for a full study are not available. Likelihood weights are just as resource intensive as performance-based weights, and the evidence presented here suggests that they are inferior to performance-based weights with regard to those scoring variables which are optimized in performance weights (calibration and information). Perhaps surprisingly, they are also inferior with regard to likelihood. Their use is further discouraged by the fact that they constitute a strongly improper scoring rule.     

China社会福利制度的发展中国

先秦儒家提出了“使老有所终”、“矜寡孤独废疾者,皆有所养”（《礼记·礼运》）等思想和主张,对中国福利思想的产生有积极影响。
　　清朝末年发生的资产阶级改良主义的维新运动,宣扬西方资产阶级自由、平等、博爱、民权的进步思想,西方的福利思想和福利主张开始在中国传播。