Suchergebnisse

Modern social sciences have been committed to the improvement of public policy. However, doubts have arisen about the possibility and desirability of a policy-oriented social science. In this book, leading specialists in the field analyse both the development and failings of policy-oriented social science. In contrast to other writings on the subject, this volume presents a distinctively historical and comparative approach. By looking at earlier periods, the contributors demonstrate how policy orientation has been central to the emergence and evolution of the social sciences as a form of professional activity. Case studies of rarely examined societies such as Poland, Brazil and Japan further demonstrate the various ways in which intellectual developments have been shaped by the societal contexts in which they have emerged and how they have taken part in the shaping of these societies

This article is dedicated to issues of social solidarity actions and it`s features in modern Sociology theoretical framework. The literature review reviled that definition of social solidarity is a complex concept, which is not distinct from related definitions. Separation of Social solidarity characteristics form a significant contribution of this article. They exist in the group, where respect, mutual feelings, trust, unselfishness, pride and suffer from loss or betrayal occur. The forms of social solidarity existence have a substantial role and operate on different levels: around, for and according to something. Solidarity ties have a great importance, which quality depends on the level of covetousness. Such ties can also be motivating factors. Article describes the human behavior in the relations of social solidarity, which varies depending on level of organization, roles (major and secondary), scale. Time factor could be found in the center of the social solidarity concept. It can unite the group and have a simultaneous impact in past, present and future. This article shows the value of social solidarity brought by motives of the group members and moral rules, which might or might not be followed.

AbstractThis study examined the extent to which social standing based on reputation (i.e., popularity), affective regard (i.e., peer acceptance and peer rejection), and affiliation‐network centrality (i.e., degree, betweenness, and closeness centrality), in addition to gender and grade in school, predicted children's accuracy in detecting affiliation patterns within peer networks. Third through fifth‐grade students (n = 400) were from three semi‐rural elementary schools and clustered in eight grade‐level units. The relationship between a child's perception of the affiliation (i.e., "hanging‐out") network and the collective perception of the affiliation network served as the indicator of network perception accuracy. In general, girls, older children, and more popular and well‐connected children had more accurate perceptions of the social environment. In particular, girls, popular children, children with high degrees centrality, and fifth graders, were more likely to report ties that existed in the collectively perceived network (made fewer false‐negative reports). Fifth graders' specific patterns of accuracy/inaccuracy suggested a more developed cognitive model of social network structures. Children experiencing peer rejection made more false negative errors (failed to report existing ties). Interestingly, net of the other network variables in the model, closeness centrality was related to a decrease in falsely reporting ties (improving accuracy) but an increase in failing to report ties that existed (worsening accuracy). These relationships between children's social standing and grade level on their accuracy of network perception has conceptual and methodological implications for studies of children's social functioning within their school‐based peer networks.

This article focuses on two questions relating to social class inequalities in education: cross-national differences and the contribution of material, cultural and school factors in accounting for the relationship. These questions are addressed using the EGP measure of occupational class and student performance in reading literacy in 30 countries. The pattern of cross-national differences is more closely associated with indicators of modernization and the organization of the school system, rather than indicators of overall societal inequality and economic development. Both material and cultural factors contribute to the relationship between class background and student achievement with cultural factors marginally more important overall. In countries with highly tracked school systems, schools mediate the relationship in that children from lower class backgrounds are more likely to attend lower performing schools. However, the inverse is not true: school differences in student performance are only partially accounted for by class background and other socioeconomic factors.

There is a broad consensus that the study of social institutions is one of the fundamental concerns of the social sciences. The idea that phenomenology has ignored this topic is also widely accepted. As against this view, the present paper aims at demonstrating that especially Schutzian phenomenology—that is, the social-phenomenological tradition started by Alfred Schutz and continued by Thomas Luckmann and Peter Berger, among others—provides rich insights on the nature and workings of social institutions that could contribute to enriching the current social-scientific debate on the issue. In order to show this, the authors attempt to unearth and systematically reconstruct Schutz's and Berger and Luckmann's insights on social institutions and to confront them with current approaches.

Public debate heavily relies on social scientific expertise as demonstrated by recent global events like the coronavirus pandemic. Social scientific knowledge is disseminated and discussed in the mass media, the main arena for the public understanding of social science. However, science communication research overlooks the significance of disciplinary differences in social science reporting while focusing on comparison with the natural sciences. To investigate the reporting of social sciences in the German press as societal communication, anthropology, sociology, and economics are compared within a distant reading approach. In the systematic sample (8,660 articles) over the previous 20 years, the absolute numbers for all disciplines are stagnant, but the share of reporting increases. The section distributions of the three disciplines are quite different but stable over time. In contrast, the sampled periodicals show only subtle differences in reporting. Dramatic events lead to a short-term increase in economics reporting. The combination of the metadata with the semantic structures of the text shows three distinct profiles of social science reporting. These findings reveal the varieties of social science reporting as an important feature in the societal role of the social sciences.

AbstractConsistent with much of the research literature, social competence is defined as effectiveness in social interaction. Effectiveness is broadly considered, and includes both self and other perspectives. Social competence is viewed as an organizing construct, with transactional, context‐dependent, and goal‐specific characteristics. Four general approaches to the operational definition of social competence are identified: social skills, sociometric status, relationships, and functional outcomes. A Prism Model of social competence is presented, based on theoretical, index and skills levels of analyses. The implications of the Prism Model for developmental, gender, cultural, assessment and intervention issues are also discussed.