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Category Archives: Arts and Health
Social media and social impact assessment: Evolving methods in a shifting context
Current Sociology, Ahead of Print.
Among many by-products of Web 2.0 come the wide range of potential image and text datasets within social media and content sharing platforms that speak of how people live, what they do, and what they care about. These datasets are imperfect and biased in many ways, but those flaws make them complementary to data derived from conventional social science methods and thus potentially useful for triangulation in complex decision-making contexts. Yet the online environment is highly mutable, and so the datasets are less reliable than censuses or other standard data types leveraged in social impact assessment. Over the past decade, we have innovated numerous methods for deploying Instagram datasets in investigating management or development alternatives. This article synthesizes work from three Canadian decision contexts – hydroelectric dam construction or removal; dyke realignment or wetland restoration; and integrating renewable energy into vineyard landscapes – to illustrate some of the methods we have applied to social impact assessment questions using Instagram that may be transferrable to other social media platforms and contexts: thematic (manual coding, machine vision, natural language processing/sentiment analysis, statistical analysis), spatial (hotspot mapping, cultural ecosystem modeling), and visual (word clouds, saliency mapping, collage). We conclude with a set of cautions and next steps for the domain.
Among many by-products of Web 2.0 come the wide range of potential image and text datasets within social media and content sharing platforms that speak of how people live, what they do, and what they care about. These datasets are imperfect and biased in many ways, but those flaws make them complementary to data derived from conventional social science methods and thus potentially useful for triangulation in complex decision-making contexts. Yet the online environment is highly mutable, and so the datasets are less reliable than censuses or other standard data types leveraged in social impact assessment. Over the past decade, we have innovated numerous methods for deploying Instagram datasets in investigating management or development alternatives. This article synthesizes work from three Canadian decision contexts – hydroelectric dam construction or removal; dyke realignment or wetland restoration; and integrating renewable energy into vineyard landscapes – to illustrate some of the methods we have applied to social impact assessment questions using Instagram that may be transferrable to other social media platforms and contexts: thematic (manual coding, machine vision, natural language processing/sentiment analysis, statistical analysis), spatial (hotspot mapping, cultural ecosystem modeling), and visual (word clouds, saliency mapping, collage). We conclude with a set of cautions and next steps for the domain.
Climate change versus winter sports; can athlete climate activism change the score?
International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
Outdoor winter sports sit on the frontlines of climate change, with athletes subject to increasingly unsafe, unfair and non-ideal competition and training conditions as a result. With athletes’ livelihoods and the future of winter sports on the line, this research investigates if and how winter athletes use their position as public figures, celebrities and role models to challenge the hegemonic structures in sports and society driving climate change. Framed through the broad athlete-activism literature, this study used a qualitative survey of 390 elite winter-sport athletes and coaches combined with eight key stakeholder interviews to understand athlete climate activism. Results demonstrate that winter athletes’ climate action is generally low risk constituting advocacy rather than activism. Athletes express fear of being called out as hypocritical for their high-carbon sport and lifestyle, insecurity over their level of climate education and frustration with the lack of climate action from international- and national-level winter-sport organizations. Scholarly, grassroots and sport-based activism may help athletes engage more effectively in climate activism within and beyond sport.
Outdoor winter sports sit on the frontlines of climate change, with athletes subject to increasingly unsafe, unfair and non-ideal competition and training conditions as a result. With athletes’ livelihoods and the future of winter sports on the line, this research investigates if and how winter athletes use their position as public figures, celebrities and role models to challenge the hegemonic structures in sports and society driving climate change. Framed through the broad athlete-activism literature, this study used a qualitative survey of 390 elite winter-sport athletes and coaches combined with eight key stakeholder interviews to understand athlete climate activism. Results demonstrate that winter athletes’ climate action is generally low risk constituting advocacy rather than activism. Athletes express fear of being called out as hypocritical for their high-carbon sport and lifestyle, insecurity over their level of climate education and frustration with the lack of climate action from international- and national-level winter-sport organizations. Scholarly, grassroots and sport-based activism may help athletes engage more effectively in climate activism within and beyond sport.
Economic and Political Strikes: A Social Movement Unionism Hypothesis
How has the media’s construction of a discourse of nationalism evolved? Critical discourse analysis of Korean sports nationalism through the FIFA World Cup
International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Ahead of Print.
Drawing on Fairclough's critical discourse analysis, this study sheds light on sports nationalism and traces changes in the media's discursive construction of the Korean national football team over time by analyzing news articles from three different World Cups. Korean sports nationalism has evolved in complex ways and has been influenced by a combination of factors, including the colonial experience, initiatives by the former military government, the hosting of mega-sporting events, local professional leagues, and the globalization of athletes on the world stage. Given the multifaceted nature of Korean sports nationalism, this study aims to examine how it has changed in response to social transformations, particularly the impact of neoliberal globalization. The findings reveal that sports nationalism is often manifested in the terms of “fighting spirit” or “sacrifice” as a core national trait. However, it increasingly incorporates and embraces a new neoliberal meritocratic culture and subjectivity that foregrounds individual success on the world stage as a new form of nationalism in an era of accelerating globalized and commodified sports elitism.
Drawing on Fairclough's critical discourse analysis, this study sheds light on sports nationalism and traces changes in the media's discursive construction of the Korean national football team over time by analyzing news articles from three different World Cups. Korean sports nationalism has evolved in complex ways and has been influenced by a combination of factors, including the colonial experience, initiatives by the former military government, the hosting of mega-sporting events, local professional leagues, and the globalization of athletes on the world stage. Given the multifaceted nature of Korean sports nationalism, this study aims to examine how it has changed in response to social transformations, particularly the impact of neoliberal globalization. The findings reveal that sports nationalism is often manifested in the terms of “fighting spirit” or “sacrifice” as a core national trait. However, it increasingly incorporates and embraces a new neoliberal meritocratic culture and subjectivity that foregrounds individual success on the world stage as a new form of nationalism in an era of accelerating globalized and commodified sports elitism.
Discrimination and normalization as an effortful social practice: An analysis of LGBTQ+ families in Germany
Sexualities, Ahead of Print.
While legal recognition of same-sex relationships and families has increased in many democratic countries, discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, both open and subtle, still exists. Drawing on qualitative interviews from Germany, this study uses the grounded theory methodology to analyse LGBTQ+ families’ normalization practices in response to experienced and anticipated discrimination. We show that normalization practices are not merely an assimilation to a neoliberal heteronormative family ideal, as criticised in debates on homonormativity, but require arduous efforts within heteronormative societies. Furthermore, normalization practices simultaneously challenge (traditional) family norms, through both overt political struggles and sub-politically within everyday practices.
While legal recognition of same-sex relationships and families has increased in many democratic countries, discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, both open and subtle, still exists. Drawing on qualitative interviews from Germany, this study uses the grounded theory methodology to analyse LGBTQ+ families’ normalization practices in response to experienced and anticipated discrimination. We show that normalization practices are not merely an assimilation to a neoliberal heteronormative family ideal, as criticised in debates on homonormativity, but require arduous efforts within heteronormative societies. Furthermore, normalization practices simultaneously challenge (traditional) family norms, through both overt political struggles and sub-politically within everyday practices.
Beyond Trash and Garbage: Shifting Perspectives on Discard
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Urban vernacular landscapes: toward a visual pedagogy of the ordinary
Reconnecting to the social: Ontological foundations for a repurposed and rescaled SIA
Current Sociology, Ahead of Print.
Social Impact Assessment’s incorporation into neoliberal management systems did not enhance their capacity to actually respond to social impacts. Efforts to integrate ‘social’ and ‘environmental’ assessments largely assumed that Social Impact Assessment rightfully belonged to key practitioners (professionals, academics, and corporate and government decision-makers). This article advocates rethinking ontological foundations for a different sort of Social Impact Assessment. It starts from an understanding that the social domain is always and inescapably connected across scales from the microbial, through the global to the cosmological. Building from experience working with Indigenous peoples, it recognizes that although ontological separation of social, environmental and other categories of impact assessment may well facilitate project approval, it also renders industrial systems deaf and blind to many of the most pressing risks facing coupled human and natural systems at multiple scales.
Social Impact Assessment’s incorporation into neoliberal management systems did not enhance their capacity to actually respond to social impacts. Efforts to integrate ‘social’ and ‘environmental’ assessments largely assumed that Social Impact Assessment rightfully belonged to key practitioners (professionals, academics, and corporate and government decision-makers). This article advocates rethinking ontological foundations for a different sort of Social Impact Assessment. It starts from an understanding that the social domain is always and inescapably connected across scales from the microbial, through the global to the cosmological. Building from experience working with Indigenous peoples, it recognizes that although ontological separation of social, environmental and other categories of impact assessment may well facilitate project approval, it also renders industrial systems deaf and blind to many of the most pressing risks facing coupled human and natural systems at multiple scales.
Streamlining social impact assessment and disaster risk assessment for the 21st century – Perspectives from South Africa
Current Sociology, Ahead of Print.
Despite considerable improvements in social impact assessment practice, the shortfalls and neglected status of social impact assessment persist. Integrated impact assessments have been suggested to address some of these shortcomings. Due to its transdisciplinary nature, disaster risk assessment has been identified as an emerging area that could assist social impact assessment in managing social changes and risks and improving community resilience. Emerging research from South Africa and abroad have shown that social impact assessment–disaster risk assessment integration offers opportunities for streamlining and improved practice across four areas, that is, theoretical discourses, legislative and statutory provisions, practitioner perspectives and combined methodologies. The resulting streamlined social impact assessment and disaster risk assessment will be more suitable for 21st-century challenges, allowing for enriched social impact assessment practice, contributions to social sustainability and strengthening of the social resilience of at-risk communities. From observations of the South African context, we suggest that streamlined social impact assessment and disaster risk assessment will optimally address the challenges of developing sustainably and enhancing the resilience of at-risk societies in the 21st century in South Africa, the global south and also the rest of the world.
Despite considerable improvements in social impact assessment practice, the shortfalls and neglected status of social impact assessment persist. Integrated impact assessments have been suggested to address some of these shortcomings. Due to its transdisciplinary nature, disaster risk assessment has been identified as an emerging area that could assist social impact assessment in managing social changes and risks and improving community resilience. Emerging research from South Africa and abroad have shown that social impact assessment–disaster risk assessment integration offers opportunities for streamlining and improved practice across four areas, that is, theoretical discourses, legislative and statutory provisions, practitioner perspectives and combined methodologies. The resulting streamlined social impact assessment and disaster risk assessment will be more suitable for 21st-century challenges, allowing for enriched social impact assessment practice, contributions to social sustainability and strengthening of the social resilience of at-risk communities. From observations of the South African context, we suggest that streamlined social impact assessment and disaster risk assessment will optimally address the challenges of developing sustainably and enhancing the resilience of at-risk societies in the 21st century in South Africa, the global south and also the rest of the world.