bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
PISA: The International Ranking for National School Systems
Authors: Lewis Steven
Published: November 2019

Developed by the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD), the triennial Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has arguably become the world's most renowned international large‐scale assessment. Designed to measure and compare the performance of national (and some subnational) schooling systems, as well as the influence of contextual factors on student performance, PISA has helped position the OECD as the global expert for education.
Front Stage
Authors: Bowman Timothy D.
Published: November 2019

Erving Goffman utilized front stage to describe how roles are enacted by individuals during face‐to‐face interaction and to understand the social meanings recognized by participants in these contexts from a microsocial view. The front stage is a region perceptually delimited in some way in which performers (also referred to as actors) utilize props and sign equipment to convey clear impressions of a specific role to some audience. During a performance an actor must consistently express certain details, while at the same time prevent the occurrence of incidents that might lead the audience to reject the presentation. According to Goffman, when rejection of the presentation occurs, embarrassment and shame is felt by the actors. The avoidance of embarrassment and shame is an extremely important motivator for actors to manage their impressions and maintain their roles during any face‐to‐face interaction.
Megachurch
Authors: Sanders George
Published: November 2019

This entry operationalizes “megachurch” both as a very large church but also as one that shares commensurate traits with consumer capitalism – particularly with respect to models of for‐profit, corporate growth. It provides a brief history of the rise and popularity of the megachurch through a description of two prototypical, early megachurches. In doing so, megachurches can be seen to rely heavily on marketing instruments and entertaining presentations and styles of worship to attract and retain their sizable congregations.
Information Warfare
Authors: Munro Iain , Mackay Brad
Published: November 2019

Information warfare has become increasingly prominent over recent years across a range of social, political, and military domains. Mediated by rapidly evolving technology, communication networks have created new emancipatory opportunities for democratic protest, but have also revealed new vulnerabilities in these networks where we can become the targets of informational attacks. The idea of information warfare has developed both as a sociological concept for understanding these new forms of social interaction, as well as being advocated by military strategists as a doctrine for exploiting the power of communications networks for military purposes. In recent years information warfare may well have become a threat to democracy itself. This entry traces the development of the concept of information warfare from its intellectual origins in the 1970s, and provides a brief overview of its evolution and influence on a range of social phenomena from protest movements to military organizations.
Protectionism
Authors: Scott Alan
Published: November 2019

Protectionism is the attempt by national governments to shield domestic markets and industries by imposing restrictions on imported goods. It is commonly viewed as a reaction to – or against – economic globalization, and is associated with the doctrine of economic nationalism. Although international free trade has long been a basic principle of the international economic order, some protectionist measures remain in place. The 2008 global financial crisis (GFC) has put protectionism back on the agenda. The neoliberal policies dominant since the late 1970s have – particularly in the context of post‐GFC austerity – produced a backlash, particularly among those who have borne a disproportionate share of the adjustment costs of international free trade. Populists – particularly of the far right – have benefited from the political opportunities that have arisen, and there has been a renewed emphasis upon the protection of national borders and defence of national sovereignty.
Anonymous
Authors: Beraldo Davide , Milan Stefania
Published: November 2019

Anonymous identifies an amorphous entity that has been active on the Internet and beyond from 2003 onward. It is a collective label, and a related set of symbols, adopted by several groups and individuals for a variety of goals, ranging from pranking to political activism. Three phases in the evolution of Anonymous can be identified, from prank‐oriented activities to explicitly political ones. Its tactics embrace a combination of disruptive actions in the digital realm and beyond, and its nature reflects closely the properties of the digital environment where it operates.
Actor‐Network Theory, Actants
Authors: Blok Anders
Published: November 2019

Actor‐network theory (ANT) grew out of French‐British studies in the sociology of science and technology from the early 1980s onward. Known variably as a material semiotics, the approach claims that all entities in the world get constituted and reconstituted in shifting and hybrid webs of discursive, technical, and natural relations. From semiotics, ANT borrows the notion ofactantsto make sense of such relational processes and to challenge ingrained habits of sociological analysis.
Barthes, Roland (1915–1980)
Authors: Moriarty Michael
Published: November 2019

Roland Barthes's approach to sociology was initially inspired by existentialism, Marxism, and the linguistics of Saussure; at the same time it developed a very personal preoccupation with the power of language to both liberate and oppress. InWriting Degree Zerohe examines how literary forms assert or challenge social allegiances. InMythologieshe studies the way in which photographical or textual messages impart an air of naturalness to a view of the world that in fact supports French capitalism and imperialism. His later writings emphasize, by contrast, how the discourse of theory can oppress rather than liberating and he comes to view the sociological perspective as inimical to the personal and interpersonal values he seeks to affirm.
Blasé and Neurasthenic Attitudes
Authors: Rojek Chris
Published: November 2019

The city is one of the most significant motifs of modernity. Its precincts contain all of the constant restlessness, differentiation, and de‐differentiation that categorically define modernity. With his account of blasé and neurasthenic attitudes, classical sociologist Georg Simmel provided an indispensable contribution to examining and understanding modern experience. The two were conceived as generic to the city. They are traceable to the conduct and outlook of all urban‐industrial city dwellers. They are a condition of life in the modern metropolis. Of course, in their extreme form they result in disordered behavior and the deformation of the personality. But, in emphasizing the generic character of the two categories, Simmel was at pains to draw attention to the mundane nature of what he regarded to be a historically specific social psychology.
Boas, Franz (1858–1942)
Authors: Baker Lee D.
Published: November 2019

During the first half of the twentieth century, Franz Boas contributed to a profound paradigm shift in the social sciences: the understanding that cultures are distinctive, dynamic, and fluid and there is no biological basis to explain extant racial categories. Boas greatest contribution to both science and society was the way he used empirical evidence and the scientific method to challenge ideas of racial superiority and inferiority by designing research to demonstrate that racism, the environment, and the history of specific cultures explained difference and diversity. This challenged the prevailing view that certain cultural groups were organized in racial hierarchies determined by a state of savagery, barbarianism, or civilization. Boas showed how cultures were not bound by racial categories and argued that history and the environment, as well as the diffusion of customs, beliefs, and language influenced specific cultures in different ways.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1930–2002)
Authors: Vandenberghe Frédéric , Peters Gabriel
Published: November 2019

Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002) is one of the most influential social scientists in the world today. He developed his relational and praxeological approach to the social world through empirical investigations of an impressive variety of phenomena, whose structure and operation he captured by means of concepts such as habitus, practice, field, capital, and symbolic violence. At the metatheoretical level, Bourdieu's conception of sociological knowledge involves a relational epistemology that construes the scientific objects of sociology as structured spaces of positions. At the level of substantive theory, his “genetic structuralism” grasps the dialectical interplay between the objective and the subjective dimensions of the social world so as to apprehend both as socially generated and socially generative. The historical dialectic between objective positions and subjective dispositions also fosters a theory of how structures of domination and inequality come to be perceived as the natural order of things and are thus historically reproduced. Finally, when applied to culture in the broadest sense of the term, Bourdieu's agonistic sociology results in an impressive series of historical and empirical surveys of fields and subfields of competition for symbolic goods.
Charismatic Movement
Authors: Freston Paul , Mariz Cecilia , Carranza Brenda
Published: November 2019

Movements called “charismatic” within Protestant and Catholic Christianity include renewal movements within established denominations, and independent churches and networks; all stress the availability of “charismata” or “gifts of the Holy Spirit.” The number of charismatics is estimated at 15 percent of the world's Christian population. The movement is related phenomenologically to Pentecostalism, but with some differences in theology and especially in social class, tone, and concerns. In the developed west, it has been characterized as simultaneously antimodern, modern, and postmodern. But charismatic Christianity is a global culture, with parallel developments and complex flows. The Protestant charismatic movement is examined in its origins, development and impact in this entry. It has become one of the few sectors of church growth in the west, albeit often by recycling existing churchgoers. But it also flourishes in contexts of generalized church growth such as West Africa and Latin America. The Catholic Charismatic Renewal is then examined in origins and global expansion, achievement of official recognition, and adaptation to Catholic distinctives. The global hub, Latin America, is treated in detail, and its appropriateness for the region's new “denominational” context. Regarding the future, a global perspective questions the most pessimistic forecasts, but also some optimistic evaluations of its potential.
Consumption and the Internet
Authors: Cluley Robert
Published: November 2019

Consumption is the act of choosing, acquiring, using and disposing of a good. Traditionally, it has been viewed as a separate social activity that takes place in public retail spaces, communal settings, and private residences. The things people consume and the ways they consume them have long been thought to reflect their social status and social class. The arrival of the Internet has posed new questions as the Internet facilitates the shift from mass consumption to increasingly specialized, flexible, and geographically dispersed forms of consumption.
Controversy Studies
Authors: Jasanoff Sheila
Published: November 2019

Controversy studies have been an important part of the sociology of science since the late 1970s when Merton's more institutional approach to the field began to be displaced by the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK). Inspired by Fleck, the new sociologists of science were determined to show empirically that knowledge‐making was a social process involving struggles between old and new ideas. Controversy studies focused on moments. Two broad streams of research emerged under this heading. The first investigated conflicts over the interpretation of particular observations of natural and social phenomena, giving rise to the methodological concept of symmetry in SSK: that sociologists should use the same explanatory tools to explain why some facts are accepted as true and others as false. The second focused more on wholesale shifts between what Kuhn termed scientific paradigms. Here research encompassed the makers and users of knowledge along with the interpretive flexibility of the observations themselves. This research looked at the formation of thought collectives and forms of expertise associated with the definition and control of new knowledge objects.
Crime, Hotspots
Authors: Plava Annalisa
Published: November 2019

Conventional wisdom considers a crime hotspot as a series of statistical possibilities which produce disorder. But a crime hotspot is also a social problem without a clear definition. In fact, crime theories underline a firm connection between people's habits and unsafe events data. Furthermore, the digital society produces data and information that could help both to predict crime and to increase the risk of victimization. For this reason, predictive crime mapping and IT software could support the future of crime hotspot analysis and related policies.
Committed Social Psychology
Authors: Billig Michael
Published: November 2019

Committed social psychology, often also known as critical social psychology, aims to expose the ways that existing power relations psychologically affect the lives of the powerless. This sort of research, which can be traced back to the classic prewar study of unemployment in the Austrian town of Marienthal, is politically committed to changing the world and to criticizing orthodox social psychology. Some of the similarities and differences between the Marienthal study and today's committed social psychology are outlined.
Cosmetic Surgery
Authors: Holliday Ruth
Published: November 2019

Cosmetic surgery is surgery designed to improve appearance and encompasses a broad range of procedures. Its history is generally rooted in reconstructive surgeries for injuries and disfigurements associated with war or disease. More recently cosmetic surgery has been linked to media images of perfect bodies. However, there is much disagreement – especially between feminists – on whether cosmetic surgery is an extreme, risky, and painful imposition of patriarchal culture on women's bodies or a means to empowerment for contemporary women. Different surgeries are common in different parts of the world.
Dependency from World‐Systems Approaches
Authors: Clark Rob
Published: November 2019

World‐system scholars analyze the global political economy to explain cross‐national inequality across a range of material conditions, including economic development, physical well‐being, environmental degradation, and regime type. Countries occupy one of three zones (core, semiperiphery, or periphery), and the exploitive relationships that connect countries across these zones are fundamental in maintaining a stable hierarchy comprised of wealthy and poor states. The concept of dependency enjoys great utility among world‐system scholars for understanding core/periphery relations, and the term is conceptualized in a variety of ways across different analysts. World‐system scholars also consider prospects for country‐level mobility, as well as the extent to which the core/periphery hierarchy is being challenged or reproduced over time.
Epidemiology
Authors: Sung Hung‐En
Published: November 2019

Epidemiology studies the distribution, determinants, and consequences of health and disease. It relies on empirical data to answer questions of how much disease there is, what factors put communities at risk, and how severe the outcomes are in patient populations, in order to inform public health policy‐making. The recent emergence of computational epidemiology makes use of the big data generated by the communication and information technologies to better explain, predict, and control disease outbreaks. Epidemiologists also examine disparities in health and healthcare across racial, socioeconomic, and gender groups and apply epidemiological methods and models to understand social problems. As an interdisciplinary field, epidemiology is closely intertwined with social sciences.
Ethnic Groups
Authors: Stone John
Published: November 2019

Ethnicity and ethnic groups are key aspects of almost all modern societies and play a critical role in understanding both intra and interstate conflicts. Unlike kinship groups that are based on biological ancestry, ethnicity is the result of a belief in common origins which may have little or no genetic reality. However, members of ethnic groups often share a sense of mutual historical origins, a common culture and, sometimes, but not always, a similar religion and language. When ethnic groups mobilize in order to establish independent political control over the regions in which they live, or even seek to create a unique political state, then they become nations and ethnicity is converted into nationalism.
Figurational Sociology
Authors: Gabriel Norman
Published: November 2019

“Figurational sociology” or “process sociology” are terms associated with a research tradition strongly influenced by the work of the German Jewish sociologist Norbert Elias (1897–1990). Human beings are social beings embedded in figurations which are always changing and developing, but continue to be mainly unplanned. Elias used concepts that can help to explain the development of sociopsychological processes in society, emphasizing the strong, affective ties that link people with one another across generations in different societies. According to Elias, the survival unit has a primacy compared to other figurations because it has the highest level of autonomy, providing protection and resources such as food and shelter for its members. Future directions for research in figurational sociology include comparative research that explores the similarities and differences in the civilizing processes of non‐European developed and developing countries.
Gender and Education
Authors: Kupfer Antonia
Published: November 2019

Gender and education incorporates the long history of suppression and exclusion of girls, ciswomen, and intersex and transgender people in schools and universities. Since the late 1990s, gender relations have changed within education. However, a closer look reveals that what is commonly referred to as a decrease in male dominance over girls and women in fact reflects a large increase in girls' and ciswomen's participation in education at degree as well as upper secondary and tertiary level, while gender hierarchies as manifested in forms of patriarchies remain in education as well as in society. This mistaken interpretation of a substantial change is nevertheless regarded as having a positive impact on the reduction of social inequality in gender relations outside of education, mainly in paid work. Still, women generally face longer working hours, less income, and worse working conditions compared to men, despite having had the same education.
Genetic Engineering as a Social Problem
Authors: Yamaguchi Tomiko
Published: November 2019

Scientific and technological progress in genetic engineering has been rapid and extensive, and thus engenders major social ramifications through its transformative effect on social and economic relations and the creation of winners and losers. Against this backdrop this article looks at how sociology approaches the use of genetic engineering in agriculture and food. This entry reviews literature in distinct fields of inquiry surrounding genetic engineering as a social problem, including utopian and dystopia visions, a political economic approach to the commercial use of genetic engineering, knowledge politics between experts and the lay public in science and technology studies, globalization and regional sovereignty issues, bio‐ and food safety governance, social movements, and science and democracy issues. The entry suggests that given the rapid development of genetic engineering techniques, seeing genetic engineering as a social problem through the lenses of social relationships, power, inequality, and production and exchange of knowledge becomes all the more important.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins (1860–1935)
Authors: Chang Li‐Wen
Published: November 2019

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a major intellectual in the formative era of American sociology and the first wave of the women's movement. She was a prolific writer and noted lecturer whose works encompass various genres, with topics related to women's issues, ethics, human rights, and social reform movements. With her intention to create an egalitarian democracy, Gilman pioneered the discussion about the economic parasitism enforced on women in the postindustrial period by incorporating reform Darwinism to decipher gender hierarchy in capitalistic patriarchy. Founded on her promotion of human progress, the kernel of Gilman's sexual‐economic analysis of women's subjugation is complemented by her ambition to demolish both the sexual division of labor and the romanticized image of the Victorian home. The answer to “Woman's Question,” in Gilman's opinion, lies in women's economic independence and full participation in the public realm as productive and co‐operative social agents. Calling herself a “humanist,” Gilman made great efforts to evolve women from “the sex” to “the human,” which in turn made her a significant foremother in socialist feminism.
Multilevel Modeling
Authors: Greenberg David F.
Published: November 2019

Multilevel modeling is a statistical method for taking contextual effects into account. In contrast to conventional regression‐type models, in which a single set of constant coefficients applies to all cases being studied, multilevel modeling allows the coefficients in the equation governing individual cases to depend deterministically or randomly on the context in which they appear. Though originally devised for linear models, multilevel modeling methods have recently been extended so that they can handle nonlinearity.
Kuhn, Manford (1911–1963)
Authors: Youngreen Reef
Published: November 2019

Manford H. Kuhn founded the branch of sociological social psychology referred to as the Iowa School. Kuhn's approach put an emphasis on empirical techniques that could be used to investigate and generalize about human interaction and cognition. While Kuhn conceptualized social structure as being created, maintained, and altered through social interaction, he also thought of social structure as providing constraints on social action. His most recognized empirical contribution, the Twenty Statements Test, equips social psychologists with a method for uncovering self‐identifications which exist because of the social roles people embody. Kuhn's work was not restricted to the realm of the self in social psychology. He published research on a variety of subjects in different publication outlets.
Lacan, Jacques (1901–1981)
Authors: Pavón‐Cuéllar David
Published: November 2019

Jacques Lacan was a French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst known for having proposed a return to the ideas of Freud, for having founded the Lacanian tradition in psychoanalysis, and for being one of the key figures of the French theory. His ideas, generally ascribed to structuralism and poststructuralism, have been highly influential to important thinkers such as Felix Guattari, Jacques Derrida, Ernesto Laclau, Jean‐Luc Nancy, Julia Kristeva, Juliet Mitchell, Jacques‐Alain Miller, Alain Badiou, and Slavoj Žižek.
Leisure Class
Authors: MacCannell Dean
Published: November 2019

“Leisure class” is a sociological construct invented by Thorstein Veblen at the end of the nineteenth century. As twentieth‐century sociology increasingly turned its attention toward leisure activities and recreation it made very little direct use of Veblen's ideas. Nevertheless, Veblen's book and concepts maintain a strong grip on the popular imagination. With the growth of tourism and the democratization of leisure that is accelerating into the twenty‐first century there are potential openings for new applications of Veblen's ideas.
Managed Care
Authors: McAlpine Donna D.
Published: November 2019

Managed care refers to a variety of strategies and organizational arrangements used to reduce unnecessary use of health services, contain costs, and improve healthcare quality. Managed care is a countervailing power in competition with other institutions over the organization and financing of medicine. Sociologists have debated whether managed care contributed to the deprofessionalization, proletarianization, or corporatization of physicians. Public trust has historically supported the professional authority of physicians, but the rapid expansion of managed care challenged that trust. Insights gathered from the study of managed care should inform our understanding of current policy initiatives.
Methods, Case Study
Authors: Wolff Kristina B.
Published: November 2019

Case study methods encompass a range of research techniques that are used to examine social phenomena. Researchers primarily focus their study on the microlevel, to illustrate, understand, and explore individuals, groups, organizations, institutions, processes, or events. The analysis is aimed at investigating contemporary issues or situations within a real‐life setting. A case study is considered a specific approach or strategy that can be used as a unit of analysis or the means by which data is gathered, organized, and presented. Case studies are widely used in the natural, physical, and social sciences including medicine, public health, business, and public administration. These studies may serve as pilots for a larger study as a means of analysis of subunits or to examine new phenomena or the experience of groups or individuals.
Microblogging
Authors: Dayter Daria
Published: November 2019

Microblogging is a social networking service that offers the functionality of posting short textual and multimedia updates on a public profile, or “timeline,” in reverse chronological order. At the moment microblogging is synonymous with Twitter, the most popular microblogging service by far. Launched in 2006 as a minimalistic service closely related to text messaging, Twitter has grown to a popular social network that has become an extremely influential communication medium in culture and politics. Despite the relatively minimalistic communicative means available to the users, not all of them use the medium in the same way. There are at least three types of Twitter usage practices: (1) an interactional tool, (2) microcelebrity “megaphone” practice, and (3) mundane updates about life events that add up to provide the feeling of social proprioception.
Office Ladies
Authors: Clammer John
Published: November 2019

The term “office ladies” (usually abbreviated to “OLs”) is a common term in Japanese sociological and business discourse, and refers to female white collar workers employed in banks, large corporations, and in almost all small and medium‐sized enterprises. The majority of OLs have relatively short working lives of 2–6 years, usually prior to marriage and full‐time home‐making, although some middle‐aged women return to such positions later in life. Office ladies are an important part of the Japanese employment structure, and an examination of their position, activities, and attitudes throws considerable light on larger issues in Japanese society, including gender roles, feminism, organizational sociology, and trends toward or away from gender equality in the workplace.
Passing
Authors: Smith Gregory
Published: November 2019

The concept of passing originates in popular and legal discourses of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries about relations between black and white people in the United States. Passing as an analytic concept in sociology owes much to the work of Erving Goffman and Harold Garfinkel. Their approaches to passing are examined in this entry and the fertility of passing as a social constructionist concept is sketched.
Path Analysis
Authors: Beaujean A. Alexander
Published: November 2019

Path analysis combines qualitative cause–effect information with empirical data to provide a quantitative assessment of causal relations. It uses graphical representations, called path diagrams, to represent a causal theory. The predicted relations specified in the path diagram are then compared to experimentally derived empirical relations to test the model. Good model fit does not prove the model's causal postulates are correct but does make them more plausible if the model can be shown to represent reality better than alternative models.
Pogroms
Authors: Goldberg Chad Alan
Published: November 2019

Apogrom(literally meaning destruction in Russian) historically referred to popular violence against Jews in the Russian Empire. Pogroms involved destruction and looting of property, mutilation, rape, and murder, often with the neutrality or complicity of authorities. The term was first used in the English press in 1882 and has subsequently been extended to similar attacks upon Jews or other groups of people elsewhere in the world. Sociologists have analyzed pogroms in relation to antisemitism, prejudice, genocide, and collective behavior.
Polyamory
Authors: Schippers Mimi
Published: November 2019

This entry defines and contextualizes polyamory as a relationships structure. It reviews the relevant issues around gender and feminism, including effects on gendered self, gendered division of labor in the home, and the norms and meaning of particular and innovative social positions within polyamory subcultures.
Popular Culture Icons: Sinatra, Frank (1917–1998)
Authors: Salamone Frank A.
Published: November 2019

Frank Sinatra (Francis Albert Sinatra) rose to prominence in the late 1930s as a band singer with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. His solo career exploded in the war years and into the 1950s. After a slump in his career, Sinatra made a comeback in film, in person, and on recordings. His popularity continued through two retirements until his death.
Refugees
Authors: Silva Belén Rojas
Published: November 2019

Refugees are individuals under the protection of a state because they have been victims of persecution or have a well‐founded fear of suffering it, and are unable or unwilling to return to their former country.
Salaryman
Authors: Oguma Eiji
Published: November 2019

Salaryman (“salaryman” also in Japanese) is the informal word referring to business workers in Japan. The word “salaryman” appeared in the 1910s but it did not develop to the term of a social class unifying various vocational office workers like the cases of German “Angestellte” or French “cadre.” This reflected the social history of Japan, in which the office workers' movement has been weak and corporation unions including both office workers and laborers developed rapidly after the World War II. The term became the symbol of Japanese workers after the economic boom in the 1960s, although workers in big corporations with over 500 employees have never exceeded 30 percent of the Japanese workforce. However, due to the stagnation of the Japanese economy since the mid‐1990s and the increase in nonregular work (37.9 percent of employees in 2018), the term has been gradually losing the connotation of the typical Japanese worker.
Satanism
Authors: Stevens Phillips
Published: November 2019

“Satanism” denotes any or all parts of a standardized set of terrible deeds which constitute an imagined ritual of reverence for Satan. The visceral reactions any of the alleged practices generate, and their use as a terrible accusation by some groups against others throughout the modern era, indicate that it has important political, psychological, and sociological implications. The concept of Satan evolved over two millennia, from God's appointed tempter and “adversary” in the Hebrew scriptures, to lord of the terrible Christian underworld and recruiter of human agents, targets of the great witch hunts of late medieval Europe. “Satanism,” with the anti‐Christian element of the “black mass,” developed first in France in the late seventeenth century, incorporated elements of nineteenth and twentieth‐century occultism, and culminated in worldwide scares, with local panics, from 1980 into the 1990s. Elements of twentieth‐century satanic fears are described. The standard sociopsychological explanation is scapegoating, but the universality of themes such as fears of child abduction and molestation, illicit sexual behavior, bloody ritual murder, cannibalism. and vampirism, and the visceral reactions they generate, suggest the operation of fundamental human fears and fantasies.
Theories of Self‐Esteem
Authors: Owens Timothy J. , Gary Katharine M.
Published: November 2019

Self‐esteem refers to the overall positive or negative attitude an individual takes toward him or herself. Understanding self‐esteem also requires awareness of related terms, especially self and self‐concept, along with an appreciation of their similarities and differences. This entry discusses how self, self‐concept, and self‐esteem are causally related, and the outcomes typically the difference between global self‐esteem (e.g., the overall characterizations associated with self‐esteem. The self as a social product and a social force is emphasized, as is of one's self as good or bad, worthy or worthless, acceptable or unacceptable) and specific self‐esteem (e.g., self‐esteem linked to a person's roles, identities, activities, contexts, or attributes). Contemporary notions of self‐esteem theory and research are linked to the classic literature on the subject.
Sexual Harassment
Authors: McLaughlin Heather
Published: November 2019

Sexual harassment, defined as unwanted verbal or physical behavior that is sexual in nature, occurs in a wide range of contexts. Recognized as a form of gendered violence, women are disproportionately targeted and men are disproportionately perpetrators. Beyond gender, additional individual and organizational factors have also been shown to predict sexual harassment. Sexual harassment has consequences for targets' physical and mental health, and has also been linked to more tangible economic and career effects. Victims rarely file formal complaints, although responses to sexual harassment may change due to the #MeToo movement's efforts to raise public awareness and find effective solutions.
Speaking Truth to Power: Science and Policy
Authors: Sundqvist Göran
Published: November 2019

The notion “speaking truth to power” concerns how to mobilize the best available knowledge for political decision‐making. This implies a call to action with the help of knowledge, or, in the words of political scientist Charles Lindblom: how to make democracy intelligent. Today, in a time of globalization and climate change, and decreasing trust in both scientific and democratic institutions, the intelligence of democracy is not to be taken for granted. Sociology of science and technology scholars Harry Collins and Robert Evans argue that there is a choice to value science. In relation to issues such as climate change there are good reasons to listen more to those who know than to those who just have personal beliefs. Western liberal democracy – pluralist democracy – implies the use of science, or the best available knowledge, as a resource to improve decision‐making. The notion of speaking truth sets the protection of both science and democracy in focus.
Sport and Social Capital
Authors: Esposti Piergiorgio Degli , Antonellini Giulia
Published: November 2019

Social relations – as social capital – work by providing and facilitating information for the individuals involved. In the context of voluntary organizations, this could imply that members acquire more knowledge and develop stronger commitments to social and political issues. At a very general level, this simply means that those active in any voluntary organization are richer in social capital than those outside. Sports correspond with social capital not only as a form of self‐confidence but also as a form of respect for rules and for the other. Sport belongs to everyone and it becomes the mirror of social facts. It has a key role in the building of social capital because we live in an era absorbed by the image we have or see depicted of the world around us. It has been defined by Stuart Hall as the “culture circuit.” In this sense, social culture is understood more as a set of practices in which people are participants and which give a meaning to objects and events.
Stratification: Partner Effects
Authors: Visser Mark
Published: November 2019

Social stratification research on partner effects mainly directs its attention to the impact that partners (married or in a consensual relationship) have on each other's labor market career in terms of labor force activity, work hours, occupational status, and income. The division of paid and unpaid labor between partners is a major cause of economic inequality between couples and a more important one than educational homogamy. This entry discusses the most significant theoretical approaches to understanding couples' division of paid and unpaid work, along with their empirical evaluation. More specifically, this entry addresses the role of specialization, resource bargaining, values and norms about gender roles, and structural constraints related to cultural, economic, political, and social factors. It closes with some directions for future research.
Social Types (Simmel)
Authors: Shortell Timothy
Published: November 2019

Simmel used social types to explain characteristics of social interaction that could not be explained through examining the content of kinds of interaction, such as exchange, domination, or conflict. Social types capture the form, rather than the content, of patterns of social interaction. The types (the stranger, the poor, the miser and the spendthrift, the adventurer, the nobility) are abstracted from the variety of historical instances, much as Weber's ideal types. Simmel argued that the types themselves had the property of abstraction, that the roles they referred to were regarded by social actors as generic not as individuals. Analysis of their form is particularly appropriate in this case because it draws out their significance in patterns of interaction. Simmel's social types are an important contribution in the interactionist and phenomenological traditions in sociology.
Taxes: Progressive, Proportional, and Regressive
Authors: Wernet Christine A.
Published: November 2019

The generation of government revenue and the redistribution of income among the population are two central reasons for taxation. Governments have used taxation as a means to generate revenue for centuries, and some governments have been using taxation as a means of resource reallocation since at least the 1800s. The three main types of taxation, progressive, proportional, and regressive taxes, are outlined.
Theology
Authors: Flanagan Kieran
Published: November 2019

Theology represents as a peculiar omission in the exploration of multidisciplinary ventures in sociology. This neglect arises from the Christian basis of theology, but is also a hesitant sociological response to its complexity. The secularization of sociology sought to eradicate links with theology, yet dalliances exist in the writings of Comte, Simmel, and Weber and in recent spasmodic efforts to move beyond the inchoate to generate a dialogue. Postsecularism has changed this relationship to theology, forcing sociology to consider conflicting appeals to Revelation between Christianity and Islam. Future research requires sociological exploration of the theologies of non‐Christian religions. Set against quasi‐sociological theologies, sociology needs to find its own authentic mode of theological expression. The mutuality between sociology and theology in response to online life generates a common concern with the ecology of the social. The Italian priest Luigi Sturzo, much neglected, uniquely wrote from within both pure sociology and theology.
Etching of Semiconductor Devices
Authors: Lill Thorsten , Vahedi Vahid , Gottscho Richard A.
Published: November 2019

Plasma etching or reactive ion etching (RIE) has been the workhorse for patterning of semiconductor devices since the early 1980s when it replaced wet etching in manufacturing. Today, RIE is reaching levels of performance that were unimaginable back then. At the same time, etching technologies such as atomic layer etching (ALE), radical dry vapor etching, and ion beam etching are finding their way into manufacturing for certain applications.

Herein, we present an overview of dry etching technologies used in semiconductor manufacturing. The emphasis is on the elementary surface processes and how they impact the performance on the wafer. We will start from less complex etching technologies, which use just one kind of etching species, such as neutrals, radicals, or ions. Then we combine these techniques into cycling processes, which leads to the discussion of ALE. The highest level of complexity is reached in RIE with simultaneous species fluxes. Reactor designs for the various etching technologies and process control will be covered. Finally, the outlook into the future of semiconductor device etching will be given.
Biomaterials in Bone Tissue Engineering
Authors: Wang Yingying , Lee Bae Hoon , Zhao Allan Z. , Li Huaqiong
Published: November 2019

Biomaterials play an important role in the treatment of bone defects by targeting bone tissue regeneration. In this article, we review important biomaterials that serve as a functional engineered scaffold for bone tissue engineering, including ceramics, metals, polymers, and supramolecular materials. Particular focus is placed on composites and supramolecular biomaterials, as these may be the leading materials for the next‐generation bone tissue engineering. In addition, we address basic principles on the selection and design of biomaterials for bone tissue engineering applications and discuss also current challenges and prospects of using engineered biomaterials in bone tissue regeneration.
A survey of surface imaging use in radiation oncology in the United States
Authors: Padilla Laura , Havnen‐Smith Amanda , Cerviño Laura , Al‐Hallaq Hania A.
Published: November 2019

Surface imaging (SI) has been rapidly integrated into radiotherapy clinics across the country without specific guidelines and recommendations on its commissioning and use aside from vendor‐provided information. A survey was created under the auspices of AAPM TG‐302 to assess the current status of SI to identify if there is need for formal guidance. The survey was designed to determine the institutional setting of responders, availability and length of its use, commissioning procedures, and clinical applications. This survey was created in REDCap, and approved as IRB exempt to collect anonymized data. Questions were reviewed by multiple physicists to ensure concept validity and piloted by a small group of independent physicists to ensure process validity. All full members of AAPM self‐identified as “therapy” or “other” were sent the survey link by email. The survey was active from February to March 2018. Of 3677 members successfully contacted, 439 completed responses; the summary of these responses provides insight on current surface imaging clinical practices, though they should not be assumed to be representative of radiation oncology as a whole. Results showed that 53.3% of respondents have SI in their clinics, mostly in treatment rooms, rarely in simulation rooms. Half of those without SI plan on purchasing it within 3 years. Over 10% have SI but do not use it clinically, 36.8% classify themselves as “expert” users, and 85.5% agreed/strongly agreed that SI guidelines are needed. Initial positioning with SI is most common for breast/chestwall and SRS/SBRT treatments, least common for pediatrics. Use of SI for intra‐fraction monitoring follows a similar distribution. Gating with SI is most prevalent for breast/chestwall (66.0%) but also used in SBRT (33.0%), and non‐SBRT lung/abdomen (<30%) treatments. SI is a rapidly growing technology in the field with widespread use for several anatomic sites. Guidelines and recommendations on commissioning and clinical use are warranted.
Finite Size Effects on Light Propagation throughout Random Media: Relation between Optical Properties and Scattering Event Statistics
Authors: Miranda‐Muñoz José M. , Esteso Victoria , Jiménez‐Solano Alberto , Lozano Gabriel , Míguez Hernán
Published: November 2019

This work introduces a thorough analysis of light transport in thin optically disordered media. The diffusive properties of a turbid material are generally dictated by the transport mean free path, lt. For depths larger than this characteristic length, light propagation can be considered fully randomized. There is however a range of thicknesses for which light becomes only partly randomized, as it only undergoes a single or very few scattering events. The effects of such finitude are experimentally and theoretically studied on the optical properties of the material, such as the angular distribution of scattered light. Simulations provide insight into the phenomena that occur within the optically disordered slab, like the number of scattering events that photons undergo during propagation throughout the material, as a function of the built‐in wavelength dependent scattering mean free path, lsc. This approach provides fundamental information about photon transport in finite optically random media, which can be put into practice to design diffusers with specific requirements in terms of the spectral and angular properties of the scattered light.
Polymetallic Complexes for Applications as Photosensitisers in Anticancer Photodynamic Therapy
Authors: Felder Patrick S. , Keller Sarah , Gasser Gilles
Published: November 2019

After the first successful clinical trials of monometallic photosensitizers (PSs) for photodynamic therapy (PDT), the use of polynuclear complexes is currently coming to the fore. These increasingly complex systems bear a high potential to overcome the drawbacks of their mononucleic peers by, for example, increasing the solubility of the PDT PSs and therefore their pharmacokinetic behavior, changing their internal quantum, and singlet oxygen efficiencies or adding supplementary imaging or therapeutical modalities, thus opening up the field for approaches in personalized medicine by combining therapy and diagnosis together in a single treatment. In this review, the most promising examples of polymetallic complexes used as PSs for anticancer PDT are presented.
Rapid Layer‐Specific Annealing Enabled by Ultraviolet LED with Estimation of Crystallization Energy for High‐Performance Perovskite Solar Cells
Authors: Ouyang Zhongliang , Abrams Henry , Bergstone Robert , Li Quantao , Zhu Feng , Li Dawen
Published: November 2019

A rapid layer‐specific annealing on perovskite active layer enabled by ultraviolet (UV) light‐emitting diode (LED) is demonstrated and efficiency close to 19% is achieved in a simple planar inverted structure ITO/PEDOT:PSS/MAPbI3/PC71BM/Al without any device engineering. These results demonstrate that if the UV dosage is well managed, UV light is capable of annealing perovskite into high‐quality film rather than simply damaging it. Different in principle from other photonic treatment techniques that can heat up and damage underlying films, the UV‐LED‐annealing method enables layer‐specific annealing because LED light source is able to provide a specific UV wavelength for maximum light absorption of target film. Moreover, the layer‐specific photonic treatment allows accurate estimation of the crystallization energy required to form perovskite film at device quality level.