Synchrony and Physiological Arousal Increase Cohesion and Cooperation in Large Naturalistic Groups

Separate research streams have identified synchrony and arousal as two factors that might contribute to the effects of human rituals on social cohesion and cooperation. But no research has manipulated these variables in the field to investigate their causal – and potentially interactive – effects on prosocial behaviour. Across four experimental sessions involving large samples of strangers, we manipulated the synchronous and physiologically arousing affordances of a group marching task within a sports stadium. We observed participants’ subsequent movement, grouping, and cooperation via a camera hidden in the stadium’s roof. Synchrony and arousal both showed main effects, predicting larger groups, tighter clustering, and more cooperative behaviour in a free-rider dilemma. However, synchrony and arousal interacted on measures of clustering and cooperation: such that synchrony only encouraged closer clustering — and encouraged greater cooperation—when paired with physiological arousal. The research has implications for understanding the nature and co-occurrence of synchrony and physiological arousal in rituals around the world. It also represents the first use of real-time spatial tracking as a precise and naturalistic method of simulating collective rituals

Expanding understanding of service exchange and value co-creation: A social construction approach

According to service-dominant logic (S-D logic), all providers are service providers, and service is the fundamental basis of exchange. Value is co-created with customers and assessed on the basis of value-in-context. However, the extensive literature on S-D logic could benefit from paying explicit attention to the fact that both service exchange and value co-creation are influenced by social forces. The aim of this study is to expand understanding of service exchange and value co-creation by complementing these central aspects of S-D logic with key concepts from social construction theories (social structures, social systems, roles, positions, interactions, and reproduction of social structures). The study develops and describes a new framework for understanding how the concepts of service exchange and value co-creation are affected by recognizing that they are embedded in social systems. The study contends that value should be understood as value-in-social-context and that value is a social construction. Value co-creation is shaped by social forces, is reproduced in social structures, and can be asymmetric for the actors involved. Service exchanges are dynamic, and actors learn and change their roles within dynamic service systems

Why so serious? Theorising playful model-driven group decision support with situated affectivity

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer via the DOI in this record.An integrative approach to theorising behavioural, affective and cognitive processes in modeldriven group decision support (GDS) interventions is needed to gain insight into the (micro-)processes by which outcomes are accomplished. This paper proposes that the theoretical lens of situated affectivity, grounded in recent extensions of scaffolded mind models, is suitable to understand the performativity of affective micro-processes in model-driven GDS interventions. An illustrative vignette of a humorous micro-moment in a group decision workshop is presented to reveal the performativity of extended affective scaffolding processes for group decision development. The lens of situated affectivity constitutes a novel approach for the study of interventionist practice in the context of group decision making (and negotiation). An outlook with opportunities for future research is offered to facilitate an integrated approach to the study of cognitive-affective and behavioural micro-processes in model-driven GDS interventions.This work was supported in part by the EU FP7-ENERGY- SMARTCITIES-2012 (314277) project STEEP (Systems Thinking for Comprehensive City Efficient Energy Planning

Before and After Science: Radcliffe-Brown, British Social Anthropology, and the Relationship Between Field Research, Ethnography, and Theory

In Radcliffe-Brown’s theoretical program of social anthropology as a “natural science of society” empirically grounded and making extensive use of the “comparative method” for aims of generalization about social phenomena, the ethnographical method according to Malinowski’s principles was seen as a fundamental research tool useful not only for guaranteeing scientific reliability to the work of collecting and recording ethnographic documentation but also for empirically testing theoretical hypotheses. It was thus often supposed that ideally the latter had to orientate the selection of particular research topics before starting fieldwork and while carrying out it. In the first part of the paper, I treat of Radcliffe-Brown fieldwork researches in the Andamans Islands and in Western Australia, underlining the evolution of this scholar’s thinking about how articulating ethnography and theoretical views from the completion of his fieldwork to the moment of the publication of ethnographic results. In the second part, I expose some points of debate inside British Social Anthropology before 1960 on how to organize fieldwork research and ethnographic monographs by trying to conciliate the stress put by Radcliffe-Brown on the search for the normative and structural aspects of social life with the Malinowskian imperative of presenting a thorough documentary evidence of every detail of ‘natives’ views, beliefs, discourses and behavior, taking in account also individual variation. In the final part, I propose a sketched overview on how these epistemological dilemmas about the aims of fieldwork research and ethnography have been faced inside British anthropology since the 1960’ till the present

The Rufiji River flood: plague or blessing?

The building of a large multipurpose dam is planned at Stiegler’s Gorge on the Rufiji River (Tanzania). Both national and local authorities have strongly emphasised the flood control aspect of the dam as they see the Rufiji floods as a major constraint to development. Though it is true that the Rufiji River has a high flow variability at various timescales, the flood perception in local communities differs from this view. The floods, essential for the sustenance of floodplain fertility, and therefore of the farming system, and vital to the productivity of most of the natural resources on which local communities depend, are perceived as a blessing, whilst droughts and the absence of regular flooding are perceived as the main threat. Historically, most of the food shortages in Rufiji District are associated with drought years and the myth of “the flood as a plague” emerged only in the late 1960s during the Ujamaa villagisation policy. The persistence of this myth is favoured by the inadequate assessment of the complexity of the local economies by the District technical staff. This difference in perception of the flood has major implications for development options. Under the current dam design, the alteration of the flooding pattern would have negative consequences for the downstream wetland and forest ecosystems and the flood-associated livelihoods of some 150,000 people. A cost-benefit analysis of flood control measures and a study of a dam design that would maintain the beneficial aspects of flooding should be accorded the highest priority