The social construction of electronic space

Computer‐mediated communication is a phenomenon of post‐industrial society. As a consequence of the interactivity and persistent textual nature of this form of communication, new spaces of sociality are constructed which can be analysed and interpreted with the epistemologies and methodologies utilised in understanding more conventional places. This approach reveals that electronic spaces are constructions firmly tied to the cultural and social experiences of ‘real‐world’ existences. Electronic identities, then, are built from this wide base of experience and ‘real‐world’ identity rather than, as is sometimes claimed, begun afresh. These connections to understood material culture and the prevalence of the typed word in electronic spaces permits a digital archaeology, inspired by material culture studies, which is both revealing of the users of these spaces as well as the wider social constructions of post‐industrial society.     

The confection of a nation: the social invention and social construction of the Pavlova

Both Australians and New Zealanders claim the Pavlova (a large meringue cake, covered in cream and fruit) as their national dish. The historical record does not settle its birthplace. On the contrary, published recipes reveal the complex process of social invention through the swapping of practical experience across both countries. The illusion of a singular creation can be explained by distinguishing a second, associated level of social construction. This applies to the more ideal processes through which cooks and eaters attached a name, meanings and myths, producing a widely-held concept that was deceptively distinct. The Pavlova evolved along with other social constructs, notably femininity and nationalism, which became ironic in tone. Typically consisting of a set of instructions (“take 1/2 lb sugar”) and an often figurative title (“Pavlova”), recipes are valuable historical sources for mapping the social invention of material items and the social construction of ideas about them.     

中国政府在社区建设中的责任

在社会经济转型过程中,社区建设作为一项涉及方方面面的社会系统工程,日益引起社会各界的广泛关注,对此展开深入研究具有很强的现实意义.在社区建设中,政府应扮演极为重要的角色,应完成好规划、引导、协调的任务、同时建立健全社区建设的财力支撑体系从而推动社区建设健康有序的发展.     

The social construction of the participatory turn: The emergence of a norm in the European Union

At the beginning of the 1990s a new discourse emerged at the European Union level, insisting on the necessity of ‘civil society’ participation in decision‐making processes. Based on a ‘strategic‐constructivist’ research design, this article addresses the question of the emergence of this participatory turn in the official discourse and its transformation into a norm. It argues that the continued activism of an elite forum, consisting of political and administrative actors as well as academics, created the momentum that brought the concerned actors to accept the participatory norm and to play the roles required by it. However, due to internal competition amongst norm entrepreneurs, and a changed political situation, this norm is still contested, making it difficult to assess how its implementation will function.     

Exploring construction project design as multimodal social semiotic practice

ABSTRACT

The semiotic nature of design and engineering communications has often evaded direct interrogation; specifically the representation of requirements using multiple semiotic modes. This paper explores the semiotic character of requirement representation in the construction project design and engineering process by mobilising a social semiotic analytic framework to reveal how project artefacts (e.g. drawings; digital imagery; physical objects) are multimodal resources that critically affect stakeholder engagement and interpretation. The focused empirical study from a hospital construction project reveals the motivations and effects of multimodal and semiotic communicative choices of different parties (e.g. client; architect; engineer; design consultant) engaged on the same project; the representation (or not) of requirements via various semiotic modes being a social and political process. The contribution of the paper is in revealing the semiotic character of requirement representation and the relevance of semiotic-informed enquiry for an industry continuing to develop new technologies (e.g. virtual reality; BIM – building information modelling) for design and construction work.     

哲学社会科学创新体系建设对甘肃发展的作用

哲学社会科学是建设文化强省的重要组成部分,是推动历史发展、社会进步和人类文明的巨大精神力量,是国家和各地区文化软实力的核心内容。加快推进甘肃省哲学社会科学创新体系建设是实现甘肃经济社会可持续发展的必由之路,是助推甘肃文化强省建设的关键所在。     

试论社会资本在建设社会主义新农村中的作用

社会资本是促进社会良性发展的一种积极因素,它在构建社会主义新农村中起着不可或缺的作用。具体来说,网络社会资本可以促进农村良好治理和管理民主局面的实现,互惠规范这种社会资本可以促进农村的团结互助和乡风文明的水平,信任社会资本可以促进农民的良性互动和农村的社会和谐的水平。     

论中国城市社区建设中的居民参与

社区居民参与问题是社区建设中深为人们关注的问题 ,在城市社区建设中处于重要的地位。从我国的实际情况来看 ,社区居民参与的现状不容乐观 ,作者认为为了改善这种情况 ,要在培育居民社区意识的基础上 ,激发居民参与热情 ,进而建立完善的社区居民参与机制     

Contending discourses in the electric and magnetic fields controversy: The social construction of EMF risk as a public problem

The issue of adverse health effects from electric and magnetic fields (EMFs) has been brewing for the last decade or so. While the epidemiological evidence persists in linking proximity-to-powerlines to a few forms of cancer, exposure and dose remain undefined, and no clear mechanism of action has been identified. Despite this scientific ambiguity, there are frequent calls for governmental action; and yet, there is no unanimity on what action is appropriate, even among those asserting that something ought to be done. This article analyzes the various ways that the EMF problem has been socially constructed through distinctive forms of public discourse and the sources of contention among these different forms. It should appeal to interpretive policy analysts and to those interested in the valuative assumptions behind policy claims. Those oriented exclusively to the technical side of EMF may find the interpretation offered here somewhat unsettling, however, since it relativizes many of the factual claims surrounding the issue. Attention is also given to the ways that multiple EMF discourses are accommodated in the absence of scientifically conclusive evidence.     

The development of social indicators from content analysis of social documents

If we agree that social indicators indicate or measure only within the context of a theory of social change, and if we further assume that theories of social change which deal only with social conditions, behavioral interchanges or transactions, and the material environment, are likely to be unsuccessful because they ignore the mental side of life, it follows that we will want our theories of social change, and the social indicators associated with them, to incorporate the cultural and group psychological aspects of social behavior.When we look to possible data bases in search of raw material for social indicators of culture and group psychology there are, broadly speaking, two possibilities. Data may be gathered from interviews or from cultural artifacts.But interview response data, because of (a) their reactive character; (b) the difficulty of compiling time-series of responses; (c) the impossibility of making use of historical sources and (d) difficulties of validation against indicators external to the survey research context are, perhaps, less than ideal as a possible basis for social indicator systems. This leaves us with the possibility, and with the problem, of developing group psychological and cultural indicators from an analysis of cultural artifacts: literary documents, films, political speeches and other sources of this sort.     

The feasibility of social policies

The notion that, given sufficient ingenuity and resources, any social problem can be solved, in a manner consistent with the announced policy objectives and with the accepted institutional framework, has been a major source of failures and frustrations. This paper suggests that policy analysis should concentrate on the investigation of the conditions of feasibility of public programs. Feasibility is defined in terms of all the relevant constraints: social, political, administrative, and institutional, as well as technical and economic. The emphasis on the pure logic of choice and optimal decision rules, so characteristic of normative theorizing in decision theory, management science, and welfare economics, has tended to obscure the fact that in the field of social policies, the range of feasible choices is severely limited by a variety of constraints. Most bad decisions are not just suboptimal; on closer examination, it usually turns out that they were not even feasible at the time they were made. Only by understanding the reasons why, under certain circumstances, a given goal cannot be achieved, can we hope to gain better knowledge about the working of social institutions. Just as the essence of the scientific method is the critical analysis and refutation of proposed theories, rather than the accumulation of evidence in favor of pet solutions, so the most important task of policy analysis consists in submitting plans and objectives to the most stringent tests of feasibility. Also in analytic case studies, the search for constraints that were ignored by the decisionmakers has considerable heuristic value, as I try to demonstrate with a critical discussion of some aspects of the British National Health Service.Paper presented at the Workshop on Models and Cases in Administration Decision Making, Joint Sessions of Workshops of the European Consortium for Political Research, Strasbourg, France, March 28–April 2, 1974.     

The limits of social research

His research interests concern international housing and urban planning. His published work includes a number of edited books, most recently: Housing Markets and Policies under Fiscal Austerity; Women, Housing, and Community; The International Handbook of Housing Policies and Practices;and, forthcoming, The Deregulation of Housing.