Fairness in Social Networks

In professional and other social settings, networks play an important role in people\u27s lives. The communication between individuals and their positions in the network, may have a large impact on many aspects of their lives.In this work, I evaluate fairness from different perspectives.First,tomeasurefairnessfromgroupperspective,Iproposethenovelinformation unfairness criterion, which measures whether information spreads fairly to different groups in a network. Using this criterion, I perform a case study and measure fairness in information flow in different computer science co-authorship networks with respect to gender. Then, I consider two applications and show how to increase fairness with respect to a fairness metric. The first application is increasing fairness in information flow by adding a set of edges. I propose two algorithms- MaxFair and MinIUF- which are based on detecting those pairs of nodes whose connection would increase flow to disadvantaged groups. The second application is increasing fairness in organizational networks through employee hiring and assignment. I propose FairEA, a novel algorithm that allows organizations to gauge their success in achieving a diverse network. Next,Iexaminefairnessfromanindividualperspective.Iproposestratification assortativity, a novel metric that evaluates the tendency of the network to be divided into ordered classes. Then, I perform a case study on several co-authorship networks and examine the evolution of these networks over time and show that networks evolve into a highly stratified state. Finally, I introduce an agent-based model for network evolution to explain why social stratification emerges in a network

Marginal Nodes Matter: Towards Structure Fairness in Graphs

In social network, a person located at the periphery region (marginal node) is likely to be treated unfairly when compared with the persons at the center. While existing fairness works on graphs mainly focus on protecting sensitive attributes (e.g., age and gender), the fairness incurred by the graph structure should also be given attention. On the other hand, the information aggregation mechanism of graph neural networks amplifies such structure unfairness, as marginal nodes are often far away from other nodes. In this paper, we focus on novel fairness incurred by the graph structure on graph neural networks, named \emph{structure fairness}. Specifically, we first analyzed multiple graphs and observed that marginal nodes in graphs have a worse performance of downstream tasks than others in graph neural networks. Motivated by the observation, we propose \textbf{S}tructural \textbf{Fair} \textbf{G}raph \textbf{N}eural \textbf{N}etwork (SFairGNN), which combines neighborhood expansion based structure debiasing with hop-aware attentive information aggregation to achieve structure fairness. Our experiments show \SFairGNN can significantly improve structure fairness while maintaining overall performance in the downstream tasks.Comment: SIGKDD Explorations (To Appear

Low-Income Consumers in Brazil: Nuances of a Market That Can No Longer Be Ignored

The main goal of this paper is to better understand the low income Brazilian market, supported by two basic concepts: price unfairness and perceived product value. In order to meet the research objective a qualitative approach, based on two methodological procedures – observation and in-depth interviews –, was used. The findings indicate that small neighborhood retailers, despite lacking adequate physical infrastructure and management skills, play an important role in meeting the needs of low-income consumers. They offer convenience, personalized services, easy and uncomplicated credit (on an informal basis), and a product mix that matches the needs and desires of their customers. It was also found that although these small retailers charge higher prices than large supermarket chains, their customers still see value in their offerings and do not consider the prices asked to be unfair: they recognize that the benefits they receive outweigh the higher prices they pay. It was also found that low-income consumers relate with neighborhood retail stores in a basis that goes beyond the mere business, but in a cultural basis too. These small stores function not only as points of sale, but also as places where people can meet and discuss issues related to the local community. The principal contribution of this paper is in providing substantive information about the nuances of a market that has hitherto not been adequately explored but that holds a potential that can no longer be ignored. In Brazil, this market contains nearly 90 million consumers, eager to be included in the world of consumption. The findings presented by this study are of relevance not only to academic organisations and businesses, but also to social organizations and public policymakers responsible for improving the quality of life of the poor

Culture, Wasta and perceptions of performance appraisal in Saudi Arabia

This article explores the relationship between Arabic culture and employees’ perceptions of performance appraisal in a Saudi Arabian company named SACO. Using an interpretive and qualitative methodological framework, the article suggests that Western models of performance appraisal rooted in rationality and objectivity conflict with aspects of Saudi Arabian culture. Specifically, the personal relations implicated in the social practice of Wasta. However, the article also shows how SACO employees are beginning to reject Saudi Arabian cultural norms and adopt alternative values which are linked to notions of organisational justice and individual egalitarianism. These values are compatible with Western models of performance appraisal

Unfair allocation of gains under the Equal Price allocation method in purchasing groups

Certain purchasing groups do not flourish. A supposed reason for this is a creeping dissatisfaction among various members of a group with the allocation of the cooperative gains. In this paper, we analyze unfairness resulting from using the commonly used Equal Price (EP) method for allocating gains under the assumption of continuous quantity discounts. We demonstrate that this unfairness is caused by neglecting a particular component of the added value of individual group members. Next, we develop two fairness ratios and tie these to fairness properties from cooperative game theory. The ratios show among other things that being too-big a player in a purchasing group can lead to decreasing gains. They can be used to assess if EP is an unfair method in specific situations. Finally, we discuss measures a purchasing group could consider in order to attenuate perceived unfairness. Thereby, the group may improve its stability and prosperity