Genre, discipline and identity

In Genre Analysis Swales encouraged us to see genres in terms of the communities in which they are used and as a function of the choices and constraints acting on text producers. It is this sensitivity to community practices which make genre a rich source of insights into two key concepts of the social sciences – community and identity. In this paper I take up these themes to explore the relationships between community expectations and the individual writer. To do so I use a corpus approach to recover evidence for repeated patterns of language which encode disciplinary preferences for different points of view, argument styles, attitudes to knowledge, and relationships between individuals and between individuals and ideas. The paper attempts to show how genre can offer insights into the ways actors understand both the here-and now interaction (the context of situation) and the broader constraints of the wider community which influence that interaction (the context of culture), revealing something of actors' orientations to scholarly communities and the ways they stake out individual positions

Indigenous Knowledge in Disaster Risk Reduction

The importance of indigenous knowledge in reducing risk from disasters and natural calamities has been widely discussed in the social sciences by scholars arguing for integrative frameworks and participatory processes. This type of knowledge is vital for archipelagic developing countries, such as the Philippines, situated in a geographical area exposed to natural hazards. However, despite its potential contribution to disaster prevention, mitigation, response, rehabilitation and recovery, along with possible combination strategies with western scientific knowledge towards reducing vulnerability and disaster risk management, the literature on the integration of specific communities' indigenous knowledgebased disaster preparedness and adaptation is still limited. The novel contribution of this article is in the discussion of the unique indigenous knowledgeidentified in the cases of San Miguel Island, Camotes Island and Alabat Island, which is utilized even up to the present. Particularly, this study identifies substantial aspects of indigenous knowledge that contribute to disaster risk reduction in the three selected cases. Findings reveal myriad indigenous knowledge pertaining to intensity, height, direction and movement of ocean waves; intensity of winds; sudden surfacing of deep-sea creatures and unease of animals; different patterns of clouds, darkening of skies and foggy horizons, among others. In closely examining indigenous knowledge, this study sheds new light by providing meaningful insights for its contribution to disaster preparedness

Contextualizing Patterns in Short-term Disaster Recoveries from the 2015 Nepal earthquakes: household vulnerabilities, adaptive capacities, and change

Disaster recovery is multidimensional and requires theoretical and methodological approaches from the interdisciplinary social sciences to illustrate short- and long-term recovery dynamics that can guide more informed and equitable policy and interventions. The 2015 Nepal earthquakes have had catastrophic impacts on historically marginalized ethnic groups and Indigenous households in rural locations, arising in the immediate aftermath and unfolding for years afterward. Analyzing factors that shape household recovery patterns can help identify vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities in addition to signaling potential future changes. We pursue this goal using survey data from 400 randomly selected households in 4 communities over 2 10-week intervals at 9 months and 1.5 years after the earthquakes. Building on previous research that used non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination to identify patterns among multiple indicators of recovery (Spoon et al. 2020a), we investigate associations among these patterns of recovery, hazard exposure, and four domains of household adaptive capacity: institutional participation, livelihood diversity, connectivity, and social memory. Our results suggest: (1) social inequality, high hazard exposure, and disrupted place-based livelihoods (especially for herders, farmers, and forest harvesters on the geographic margins) had strong associations with negative recovery outcomes and displacement; (2) inaccessibility and marginality appeared to stimulate ingenuity despite challenging circumstances through mutual aid and local knowledge; (3) recoveries were non-linear, differing for households displaced from their primary home and agropastoral practice and those displaced to camps; and (4) some households experienced rapid changes while others stagnated. We contribute a temporal dataset with a random sample collected following a disaster that uses a theoretically informed quantitative methodology to explore linear and non-linear relationships among multidimensional recovery, adaptive capacity and change and provide an example of how vulnerabilities interact with adaptive capacity

The Community Structure of R&D Cooperation in Europe. Evidence from a social network perspective

The focus of this paper is on pre-competitive R&D cooperation across Europe, as captured by R&D joint ventures funded by the European Commission in the time period 1998-2002, within the 5th Framework Program. The cooperations in this Framework Program give rise to a bipartite network with 72,745 network edges between 25,839 actors (representing organizations that include firms, universities, research organizations and public agencies) and 9,490 R&D projects. With this construction, participating actors are linked only through joint projects. In this paper we describe the community identification problem based on the concept of modularity, and use the recently introduced label-propagation algorithm to identify communities in the network, and differentiate the identified communities by developing community-specific profiles using social network analysis and geographic visualization techniques. We expect the results to enrich our picture of the European Research Area by providing new insights into the global and local structures of R&D cooperation across Europe

Climate change adaptation strategies by small-scale farmers in Yatta District, Kenya

Climate change is a great environmental challenge facing humanity today. In Yatta District, residents report frequent crop failures, water shortages and relief food has become a frequent feature of their life. This study examines the adaptation strategies to climate change adopted by the dry-land farming communities in Yatta District. Study participants included 510 randomly sampled small-scale farmers. Key informants were district departmental heads from the Ministries of Water, Agriculture and Environment. Questionnaires, interviews, Focus Group Discussions and field observations were used to generate the data. Quantitative data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) whereas qualitative data was analysed through establishing the categories and themes, relationships/patterns and conclusions drawn in line with the study objectives. Findings indicate that most farmers adopted autonomous adaptation strategies that included planting drought tolerant crops (76.5%), charcoal burning (52.9%) and rainwater harvesting (20.2%) among others. Chi square results indicated that age, level of education and knowledge of climate change had significant influences on adaptation strategies. Some of these strategies had serious adverse environmental impacts on social, economic and biophysical domains of the environment like putting future agricultural production at risk since farms have been converted into sand mining fields. Major limitations to climate change adaptation were financial constraints (93.4%), lack of relevant skills (74.5%) and lack of scientific and technical knowledge (71.6%). The study concludes that farmers are engaging in adaptation strategies that are fundamentally changes in livelihoods and mainly unsustainable. Livelihood activities such as charcoal burning and sand harvesting in their fragile arid and semi-arid lands ecosystem are destructive and thus, not sustainable. These livelihood changes are significantly influenced by levels of education and climate change knowledge. The study recommends that agricultural extension services be enhanced to sensitize the farmers about climate change thus improving their perception and adaptation strategies. Keywords: Climate change, small-scale farmers, adaptation strategies

Preparing for a Northwest Passage: A Workshop on the Role of New England in Navigating the New Arctic

Preparing for a Northwest Passage: A Workshop on the Role of New England in Navigating the New Arctic (March 25 - 27, 2018 -- The University of New Hampshire) paired two of NSF\u27s 10 Big Ideas: Navigating the New Arctic and Growing Convergence Research at NSF. During this event, participants assessed economic, environmental, and social impacts of Arctic change on New England and established convergence research initiatives to prepare for, adapt to, and respond to these effects. Shipping routes through an ice-free Northwest Passage in combination with modifications to ocean circulation and regional climate patterns linked to Arctic ice melt will affect trade, fisheries, tourism, coastal ecology, air and water quality, animal migration, and demographics not only in the Arctic but also in lower latitude coastal regions such as New England. With profound changes on the horizon, this is a critical opportunity for New England to prepare for uncertain yet inevitable economic and environmental impacts of Arctic change

The Extraction of Community Structures from Publication Networks to Support Ethnographic Observations of Field Differences in Scientific Communication

The scientific community of researchers in a research specialty is an important unit of analysis for understanding the field specific shaping of scientific communication practices. These scientific communities are, however, a challenging unit of analysis to capture and compare because they overlap, have fuzzy boundaries, and evolve over time. We describe a network analytic approach that reveals the complexities of these communities through examination of their publication networks in combination with insights from ethnographic field studies. We suggest that the structures revealed indicate overlapping sub- communities within a research specialty and we provide evidence that they differ in disciplinary orientation and research practices. By mapping the community structures of scientific fields we aim to increase confidence about the domain of validity of ethnographic observations as well as of collaborative patterns extracted from publication networks thereby enabling the systematic study of field differences. The network analytic methods presented include methods to optimize the delineation of a bibliographic data set in order to adequately represent a research specialty, and methods to extract community structures from this data. We demonstrate the application of these methods in a case study of two research specialties in the physical and chemical sciences.Comment: Accepted for publication in JASIS

Religion, Psychology and Globalisation Process: Attitudinal Appraisal

A key consequence of globalisation is the integrative approach to reality whereby emphasis is placed on interdependence. Religion being an expression of human culture is equally affected by this cultural revolution. The main objective of this paper is to examine how religious affiliation, among Christians, influences attitudes towards the application of psychological sciences to the assuagement of human suffering. The sociological theory of structural functionalism was deployed to explain attitudinal appraisal. Ethnographic methodology, through quantitative analysis of administered questionnaire, was also used. The study reveals that religious tenets largely shape attitudinal appraisal and redefine the borders of globalisation’s metanarratives

Beyond Co-Location: Clustering the Social Economy

There is an absence of a coherent body of knowledge that allows one to understand the strategies and motivations that have resulted in the clustering approach. This project has three objectives: 1. Provide a literature review on the application of cluster models both within traditional economic sectors as well as within the social economy. 2. Identify exemplary cases (within BC and Alberta, across North America as well as abroad) in the form of short, descriptive case profiles. 3. Develop a case study framework to use in subsequent phases to understand organizational best practices and outcomes. Based on an analysis of 14 exemplary cases four key patterns emerge: 1. Most centres are found in urban centres, located primarily in downtown cores or business districts. 2. There is a strong connection to heritage preservation and restoration. 3. There is a range of community animation and tenant engagement initiatives aimed at collaboration, innovation and learning. 4. Some of the newest models include for-profit companies, social enterprises and social entrepreneurs as well as non-profit organizations.This is the final report of BALTA research project D4 - Sustainable Infrastructure for the Social Economy: Cluster-Based Social Enterprise Models. Political and economic restructuring over the past 30 years has had a profound impact on the social economy, particularly for non-profit organizations. In the wake of state withdrawal of services and significant funding cutbacks, many non-profit organizations have taken on greater responsibility for addressing social needs and environmental concerns within communities with increasingly limited resources. Many non-profits are partnering with social enterprises in common spaces to share resources that is resulting in a reduction of overhead costs and creating greater efficiencies, often referred to as co-location. Social economy organizations are moving beyond co-location by adopting a clustering approach that has resulted in dynamic centres of social change and innovation. This research project examined the literature on clustering and a number of case studies.BC-Alberta Social Economy Research Alliance (BALTA) ; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC

Citing for High Impact

The question of citation behavior has always intrigued scientists from various disciplines. While general citation patterns have been widely studied in the literature we develop the notion of citation projection graphs by investigating the citations among the publications that a given paper cites. We investigate how patterns of citations vary between various scientific disciplines and how such patterns reflect the scientific impact of the paper. We find that idiosyncratic citation patterns are characteristic for low impact papers; while narrow, discipline-focused citation patterns are common for medium impact papers. Our results show that crossing-community, or bridging citation patters are high risk and high reward since such patterns are characteristic for both low and high impact papers. Last, we observe that recently citation networks are trending toward more bridging and interdisciplinary forms.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl