Search results

1. Research Ethics and Integrity in Social Sciences in Africa -- 2. A Critical Discussion on the Relevance of Biosocial Science Research Ethics Codes and Principles for Social Science Researchers in Africa -- 3. Research Ethics Governance – An African Perspective -- 4. African Social Science Research Ethics and Integrity -- 5. Ethics Review Framework and Guidelines for Social Science Research -- 6. A risk framework for research in social sciences -- 7. Human Dignity Protection in Social Science Research in Africa: The State and Role of National Research Guidelines -- 8. Vulnerability -- 9. Informed Consent In Africa – Integrating Individual And Collective Autonomy -- 10. Engaged Research: An African Macro-Ethics Perspective -- 11. Equity, Equality and Justice in Biosocial Science Research in Africa -- 12. Social Responsibility and Health Related Research -- 13. An African Perspective of Benefits in Social Science Research -- 14. Protecting Future Generations Through Social Responsible Research Ethics Practices -- 15. Data Sharing: Protecting Privacy and Confidentiality Amidst the Big Data Debate - Implications for Social Science Research -- 16. Promoting Research Integrity and Avoiding Misconduct - Perspectives On and From Africa -- 17. Unethical Authorship Deals: Concepts, Challenges and Guidelines -- 18. Building Research Ethics Capacity in Africa

Social contract theory imagines political societies as resting on a fundamental agreement, adopted at a discrete moment in hypothetical time, that binds individual persons together into a polity and sets fundamental rules regarding that polity's structure and powers. Written constitutions, adopted at real moments in historical time, dictating governmental structures, bounding governmental powers, and entrenching individual rights, look temptingly like social contracts reified. Yet something essential is lost in this slippage between social contract theory and the practice of constitutionalism. Contractarian blinders lead us to look for greater individualism, social unity, and coherence of principles than should be expected. Real constitutional orders appropriate, incorporate, and channel the histories and divisions of the societies they govern. Treating them as social contracts flattens and distorts them, making those engagements with the past or with social plurality appear anomalous and encouraging their minimization. Accordingly this article redirects attention to non-contractarian strands within constitutionalism's intellectual inheritance and lived practice. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright 2009.]

The purpose of the article is to define the human-dimensionality as the worldview basis of the cultural paradigm of metamodernism, which manifests itself in modern cultural practices and transformations. The research methodology is focused on a systematic approach and a dialectical method, which provides the opportunity to determine the features of the worldview paradigm in the context of sociocultural transformations and cultural practices. Scientific novelty. For the first time, a specific worldview feature of the culture non-classical paradigm is revealed, which brings to life existential phenomena in the «age of uncertainty» (according to Z. Bauman) and captures in the metaphors of «new sincerity» and «new humanism» the powerful potential of meaning creation and human-dimensionality. Conclusions. Post-classical practices have a vivid manifestation in metamodern culture. It is characterised by a special experience of the unity of the part and the whole. The interaction of subjects in the world of new perceptions is associated with the desire for harmony, openness, and integrity. Wholeness, which is suddenly revealed to a person in its fullness, is the most important state experienced by the mind, soul, and body. Metamodernists tend to emphasise both the inner development of the individual and the political and social aspects. Considering the prospects of political tools, they still focus on the intersection of the depth of the person's inner needs and the external complexity of real life. The worldview dominant of the «metamodern age» can be defined as «human-dimensionality» as a fundamental desire for integrity, free dialogue, a balance between the sublime and the pragmatic, between active love and care, and understanding of multiple realities. The human-dimensionality appears not only as a worldview reference point, but also as an effective method of «I»-«Other» interaction, which prompts various cultural practices and socio-cultural transformations of modern society.
Key words: worldview paradigm, metamodernism, human-dimensionality, sociocultural transformations, cultural practices.

Abstract
Emergency policing has played a significant role in controlling the spread of COVID-19 in various countries. China is one of the few countries that has successfully controlled the pandemic. What are the factors that determine the effectiveness of emergency policing in China? This study argues that the social capital played a supportive role in emergency policing during COVID-19. Based on the data analysis, we construct a theoretical framework to explain why pandemic control in China has been effective. The effectiveness of the police response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Zhejiang, China, displays the importance of all three types of social capital for emergency policing, including interaction-assisted social capital represented by 'grid-governance', technology-driven social capital represented by 'data sharing', and service-assisted social capital represented by 'safety construction'.

Data activism, promoting new forms of civic and political engagement, has emerged as a response to problematic aspects of datafication that include tensions between data openness and data ownership, and asymmetries in terms of data usage and distribution. In this article, we discuss MyData, a data activism initiative originating in Finland, which aims to shape a more sustainable citizen-centric data economy by means of increasing individuals' control of their personal data. Using data gathered during long-term participant-observation in collaborative projects with data activists, we explore the internal tensions of data activism by first outlining two different social imaginaries – technological and socio-critical – within MyData, and then merging them to open practical and analytical space for engaging with the socio-technical futures currently in the making. While the technological imaginary favours data infrastructures as corrective measures, the socio-critical imaginary questions the effectiveness of technological correction. Unpacking them clarifies the kinds of political and social alternatives that different social imaginaries ascribe to the notions underlying data activism, and highlights the need to consider the social structures in play. The more far-reaching goal of our exercise is to provide practical and analytical resources for critical engagement in the context of data activism. By merging technological and socio-critical imaginaries in the work of reimagining governing structures and knowledge practices alongside infrastructural arrangements, scholars can depart from the most obvious forms of critique, influence data activism practice, and formulate data ethics and data futures. ; Peer reviewed