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"The book Global Nexus: Political Economies, Interconnectivity, and the Social Sciences brings out the contradictions and conflicts within the globalisation exercise; that while it provides opportunities for the poor and unemployed to improve their livelihoods, it encapsulates them in the phenomena of 'agencing', which become entrapments in long-term dependency and indebtedness. Global wealth-generating institutions and global poverty-generating institutions exist together in complex sets of relationships, strategies, and alliances. The Trump factor in globalisation is inherently contradictory since it assumes an isolationist role for the United States vis-?-vis deployment of industrial investments in the developing world or the Trans-Pacific Partnership while simultaneously reinforcing armament contracts, political alliances, and extra-territorial militarisms which reinforce conflicts in Asia and the Middle East. Global Nexus: Political Economies, Interconnectivity, and the Social Sciences suggests that inter-disciplinary social sciences in an age of globalisation are best understood through a nexus of transactional activities which generate their own political economies, thereby framing social realities in their own parameters of thought and action, providing a better understanding of the subject-matter, and its changing sphere of influence."

In the years since Peter Hall's seminal 1993 article "Policy Paradigms, Social Learning and the State" appeared, the ideational research agenda has expanded enormously, to the point where it now includes everyone from constructivists to rational choice theorists. This article assesses what we have learned about the role of ideas in political life since "Policy Paradigms" appeared, analyzes how well social scientists have taken up the challenges and questions "Policy Paradigms" put forward, and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of current ideational scholarship. Based on this, the article concludes that the way forward for ideational scholars must include coming up with clearer, more easily agreed upon definitions of ideational variables, more extensive study of the processes through which ideas become institutionalized and thus able to affect political outcomes over time, and more careful investigations of the ways in which ideas shape or form both actors' motivations and contexts. Adapted from the source document.

Background: We are witnessing increasing demand from governments and society for all sciences to have relevant social impact and to show the returns they provide to society. Aims and objectives: This paper reports strategies that promote social impact by Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) research projects. Methods: An in-depth analysis of six Social Sciences and Humanities research projects that achieved social impact was carried out to identify those strategies. For each case study, project documents were analysed and qualitative fieldwork was conducted with diverse agents, including researchers, stakeholders and end-users, with a communicative orientation. Findings: The strategies that were identified as contributing to achieving social impact include a clear focus of the project on social impact and the definition of an active strategy for achieving it; a meaningful involvement of stakeholders and end-users throughout the project lifespan, including local organisations, underprivileged end-users, and policy makers who not only are recipients of knowledge generated by the research projects but participate in the co-creation of knowledge; coordination between projects' and stakeholders' activities; and dissemination activities that show useful evidence and are oriented toward creating space for public deliberation with a diverse public. Discussion and conclusions: The strategies identified can enhance the social impact of Social Sciences and Humanities research. Furthermore, gathering related data, such as collaboration with stakeholders, use of projects' findings and the effects of their implementation, could allow researchers to track the social impact of the projects and enhance the evaluation of research impact.

So-called grand or paradigmatic theories—structural functionalism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, rational-choice theory—provide their proponents with a conceptual vocabulary and syntax that allows for the classification and configuring of wide ranges of phenomena. Advocates for any particular "analytical grammar" are accordingly prone to conflating the internal coherence of their paradigm—its integrated complex of definitions, axioms, and inferences—with a corresponding capacity for representational verisimilitude. The distinction between Theory-as-heuristic and Theory-as-imposition is of course difficult to negotiate in practice, given that empirical observation and measurement are not entirely "theory neutral" or independent of prior analytical conceptualization. Nonetheless, the scientific cogency of any theory is ultimately evaluated by the substantive realism of its foundational assumptions and categorical designations; that is, the accuracy with which it identifies and tracks the determinant properties and processes of the phenomena to be explicated. The paradigm of sociocultural evolutionism—despite extensive revamping by contemporary proponents—does not carry warrant in this regard, as its recourse to an analytical grammar fashioned and derived from another discipline raises doubts about its empirical veridicality. This article revisits the contentious issue of remodeling social phenomena in accordance with biological categories and offers both a theoretical and a substantive critique of the "selectionist" paradigm. The transdisciplinary program of historical social science is affirmed by way of counterpoint.

The research aimed to understand the social conflict that exists in Colombia based on the content of 33 textbooks of social science from the primary education level, which were published between 2003-2013. The methodology of content analysis was used to give meaning to the messages of the conflict that were taught through the discursive content, activities and iconography of the books. As a result, the analysis revealed the violent situation of the country, which has evolved as a social conflict with political and armed influence by involving guerrillas against victims, society and state. ; La investigación tuvo como objetivo comprender el conflicto social en Colombia con base en la representación de 33 libros de texto escolar de ciencias sociales de básica primaria, publicados en el período 2003-2013. Se empleó la metodología de análisis de contenido para dar significado a los mensajes del conflicto enseñados por medio del contenido discursivo, actividades e iconografía de los libros. Como resultado, la representación reveló la violenta situación del país, que ha transitado entre un conflicto social con incidencia política y armada al involucrar guerrillas contra víctimas, sociedad y Estado. Esto sugirió soluciones nacionales y locales. ; La recherche a eu en tant qu'objectif la compréhension du conflit social en Colombie fondée sur la représentation de 33 livres de texte scolaire de sciences sociales d'école primaire, publiés dans la durée 2003-2013. On a employé la méthodologie d'analyse du contenu pour donner un sens aux messages du conflit appris au moyen du contenu discursif, les activités et l'iconographie des lires. En tant que résultat, la représentation a montré la violente situation du pays, qui s'écoulée entre un conflit social avec l'intervention politique et armée impliquant les guérillas contre les victimes, la société et l'Etat. Cela a indiqué des solutions nationales et locales. ; A pesquisa teve como objetivo compreender o conflito social na Colômbia a partir da representação de 33 livros de textos escolares, de ciências sociais, do ensino fundamental 1, publicados no período 2003-2013. Empregou-se a metodologia de análise de conteúdo para dar significado às mensagens do conflito ensinadas por meio do conteúdo discursivo, atividades e iconografia dos livros. Como resultado, a representação revelou a violenta situação do país, que tem transitado entre um conflito social com incidência política e armada ao envolver guerrilhas contra vítimas, sociedade e Estado. Isto sugeriu soluções nacionais e locais.

Contemporary literature on juvenile delinquency is reviewed & reinterpreted by classifying it according to two explanatory models: "consensual" & "conflictual." The consensual model considers the social system as a general framework of interactions structured in a homeostatic system, while the conflictual model sees it as a system of unresolvable conflicts between its component elements. Methodological & theoretical correlates of the two models are outlined, based on the general sociological literature; the relevant research on juvenile delinquency is summarized & analyzed according to its ties or affinities to one or the other model. Studies on ecology, social organizations, subcultures, social regulation, & control are included in the consensual model; research on hidden delinquency & dark numbers, deviance as opposed to delinquency, existential contexts & meaningful acts as opposed to legally defined conduct are included in the conflictual model. The impact on social policy & practice is discussed for both models. Modified HA.

La comparaison dans les sciences sociales : pratiques et
méthodes, Vigour, Cécile, Paris, La découverte,
2005, 335 pages.Cet ouvrage, rédigé par une sociologue française
rattachée à l'Institut des sciences sociales du
politique (une unité du CNRS), se présente comme un "
guide repère " sur la comparaison en sciences sociales.

Long description: The booming increase of the senior population has become a social phenomenon and a challenge to our societies, and technological advances have undoubtedly contributed to improve the lives of elderly citizens in numerous aspects. Technology, however, has largely ignored the »human factor« and has often viewed the ageing individual as a malfunctioning machine whose deficiencies must be diagnosed - or as a set of limitations to be overcome by means of technological devices.This volume aims at focusing on the subjective needs and fears of human beings deriving from the development and use of technology: this change of perspective - taking the human being and not technology first - may help us to become more sensitive to the ambivalences involved in the interaction between humans and technology, as well as to adapt technologies to the people that created the need for its existence, thus contributing to improve the quality of life of senior citizens

The proceedings publish selected papers from the 2nd International Conference on New Computational Social Science, focusing on the following five aspects: Big data acquisition and analysis, Integration of qualitative research and quantitative research, Sociological Internet experiment research, Application of ABM simulation method in Sociology Research, Research and development of new social computing tools. With the rapid development of information technology, especially sweeping progress in the Internet of things, cloud computing, social networks, social media and big data, social computing, as a data-intensive science, is an emerging field that leverages the capacity to collect and analyze data with an unprecedented breadth, depth and scale. It represents a new computing paradigm and an interdisciplinary field of research and application. A broad comprehension of major topics involved in social computing is important for both scholars and practitioners. This proceedings presents and discusses key concepts and analyzes the state-of-the-art of the field. The conference not only gave insights on social computing, but also affords conduit for future research in the field. Social computing has two distinct trends: One is on the social science issues, such as computational social science, computational sociology, social network analysis, etc; the other is on the use of computational techniques. Finally, some new challenges ahead are summarized, including interdisciplinary cooperation and training, big data sharing for scientific data mashups, and privacy protect.

According to Laub (2004), criminology has a developmental life course with specific turning points that allow for innovations in how we understand and respond to crime. I argue that criminology should take another turn in direction, focusing on microgeographic hot spots. By examining articles published in Criminology, I show that only marginal attention has been paid to this area of study to date—often termed the criminology of place. I illustrate the potential utility of a turning point by examining the law of crime concentration at place, which states that for a defined measure of crime at a specific microgeographic unit, the concentration of crime will fall within a narrow bandwidth of percentages for a defined cumulative proportion of crime. By providing the first cross‐city comparison of crime concentration using a common geographic unit, the same crime type, and examining a general crime measure, I find strong support for a law of crime concentration. I also show that crime concentration stays within a narrow bandwidth across time, despite strong volatility in crime incidents. By drawing from these findings, I identify several key research questions for future study. In conclusion, I argue that a focus on the criminology of place provides significant opportunity for young scholars and has great promise for advancing criminology as a science.