bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Ethnography in the Digital Age
Authors: Howard Alan , Mawyer Alexander 
Published: May 2015

AbstractThis essay explores the ways in which ethnography, both as a methodology and a product of research, has adapted to the rapid growth of digital technology and the new venues for research that it has spawned. On the one hand, digital technology affords social scientists new means of recording, storing, and analyzing data. On the other hand, digital media have been responsible for the creation of new venues for research, mostly on the Internet in the form of websites, blogs, social networks, and multiplayer online games. As a methodology, ethnography, with its beginnings in the anthropological study of non‐Western societies, has proved to be highly adaptable to the task of making sense of, and giving meaning to, computer‐mediated communications in its various forms. This has led to its adoption in the study of online sites by researchers from a number of different disciplines attempting to come to grips with the cultural nuances of digitally formed communities. Ethical problems posed by more powerful forms of surveillance and access to personal information are discussed. The boundaries between public and private domains have become increasingly blurred, resulting in complex issues relating to informed consent. As a product, digital ethnographies allow for nonlineal, hyperlinked presentations that permit new forms of engagement between authors and readers not afforded by traditional published monographs.
Evaluating and Rewarding Teachers
Authors: Hart Cassandra 
Published: May 2015

AbstractPolicymakers and researchers alike debate the optimal structure of teacher evaluation and compensation systems. This article reviews research in both fields, with a concentration on one increasingly policy‐relevant topic in each domain. Within the evaluation domain, particular attention is given to value‐added measures, which are increasingly being used to incorporate information about student test performance into teacher evaluations. While these measures allow evaluators to make quantitative estimates of teachers' contributions to student learning, critics argue that the measures suffer from a number of problems, including lack of stability, bias, and misattribution of teacher contributions. Within the realm of compensation, I devote particular attention to recent efforts to implement merit pay schemes, which aim to reward teachers, or teams of teachers, that are especially successful at boosting student achievement. Given that states and districts are increasingly requiring the use of value‐added measures in evaluations and experimenting with merit pay plans, both areas are ripe for future research into the benefits and costs of these policies. Suggestions for future directions for research in both fields are offered.
Event Processing as an Executive Enterprise
Authors: Ross Robbie A. , Baldwin Dare A. 
Published: May 2015

AbstractActual experience as life unfolds tends to be an ebb and flow of dynamic, multimodal sensations, many of which are fleeting. Yet what is encoded, recalled, and talked about tends to be events—units of experience that are conceptualized as having both a beginning and an end. In this essay, we consider processing mechanisms that enable the extraction of event structure from the dynamically unfolding stream of experience. Two proposals emerge from our own and others' recent research on event processing: First, fluent detection of structure within activity streams appears to hinge on knowledge of the predictability relations within those streams. Second, skill at event processing seems to involve harnessing such knowledge of predictability relations to selectively direct attention to information‐rich portions of the activity stream. If this account is correct, individual differences in knowledge and executive skill should influence event‐processing fluency. As well, children's developmental progress in event processing should reveal the telltale impact of increasing knowledge and executive skill. Our hope is that research pursuing these ideas will ultimately make it possible to enhance event‐processing fluency for all, which in turn has the potential to facilitate memory, learning, and social interaction.
Evolutionary Approaches to Understanding Children's Academic Achievement
Authors: Geary David C. , Berch Daniel B. 
Published: May 2015

AbstractThere are evolved cognitive biases that influence what people pay attention to (e.g., faces, not rocks) and how they interpret this information (e.g., underlying intentions). These cognitive biases are organized to help us understand ourselves and other people (folk psychology), other species (folk biology), and the physical world (folk physics). Human cultural advances have resulted in the development of evolutionarily novel concepts (e.g., natural selection) and skills (e.g., reading) that are built from this evolved core. The basic architecture of folk cognitive biases is universal and adapted to nuances in local conditions as children play, interact with other people, and explore the environment. The learning of evolutionarily novel competencies is necessary for success in today's economy but children do not learn these as easily as they adapt folk knowledge nor are they as motivated to engage in the associated activities. This is because learning academic competencies requires adapting folk systems for tasks for which they did not evolve. The associated activities (e.g., direct instruction) are very different from the activities (e.g., play) that foster the adaptation of folk abilities to local conditions. Schooling thus involves the society‐wide organization of children's activities so they learn competencies that would not otherwise emerge. This perspective allows us to better understand the importance of working memory, a motivational focus on effort, and the need for explicit, organized instruction for children's learning in school.
Expertise
Authors: Eyal Gil 
Published: May 2015

AbstractThe main claim of the essay is that expertise is better understood neither as a set of skills that experts possess nor as a social attribution, but as a historically specific way in which we currently talk about the intersection, articulation, and friction between professions, science and technology on the one hand, and law and democratic politics on the other. It is shown that talk in terms of expertise is a fairly recent phenomenon, and it is claimed that it reflects not the rise of the “expert society,” but its crisis, namely, as long as it was fairly clear who the experts were, and how to recognize them there was little discussion of expertise, but once the number of contenders for expert status has increased and the bases for their claims have become more heterogeneous; once the struggles between these would‐be experts intensified; expertise became problematized because the question was how to determine whose claim is legitimate. After surveying some of the current debates about the nature and character of expertise, the essay concludes by suggesting that the more fruitful approach is to treat expertise in an open‐ended nominalist manner as everything that is necessary to take into account when one seeks to give a description of the capacity to accomplish a relevant task, that is, of everything that is necessary in order for a particular expert statement or performance to be produced, repeated, and disseminated.
Feminists in Power
Authors: Orloff Ann , Schiff Talia 
Published: May 2015

AbstractIn contrast to the scholarship allied with first and second waves of feminism, feminist analysts today survey a changed landscape of gender across the United States and much of the world: formal exclusions and discrimination are outlawed, gender hierarchies have been undermined, and women are appearing among economic, political, and other elites to an unprecedented degree even as gender inequalities stubbornly persist across multiple arenas. A focal point of debate among analysts of sexuality, political economy, and culture is the meaning and implications of pursuing gender equality in a world that no longer neatly divides into subordinated women and powerful men, and in which the increasing number of women among the socially advantaged problematizes traditional notions of female victimization and male domination. In this essay, we first offer an overview of earlier approaches to gender equality, then turn to critiques of these approaches which insist on the need for a new starting point for considering gender equality and women's emancipation.
Food Sharing
Authors: Gurven Michael , Jaeggi Adrian V. 
Published: May 2015

AbstractFood sharing is a human universal trait that forms the centerpiece of economic and social life in hunter‐gatherer societies. Human livelihoods require sharing at all life stages: to support infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and to help reduce risk of daily food shortfalls in adulthood. Attempts to understand the evolved human life history require an examination of the conditions that led to the evolution of food sharing. We summarize key findings and recent directions, and raise unexplored questions. Past emphases included testing predictions from several evolutionary models, and the role that sharing may have played in shaping human family formation. The functions of sharing fall into two categories: reducing food shortages that come with relying on a difficult foraging niche, and advertising attractive qualities of the donor. New directions include multivariate analyses of larger samples from a variety of diverse small‐scale subsistence populations, greater consideration of the interdependency between producing food and sharing it, incorporation of bargaining theory into exchange models, and greater attention to proximate psychological mechanisms. Future studies need to explain cross‐cultural variation in sharing norms and behavior and use a variety of methods to better bridge observed sharing patterns with the study of underlying social preferences and beliefs.
Gender and the Transition to Adulthood: A Diverse Pathways View
Authors: Schoon Ingrid 
Published: May 2015

AbstractThe transition to adulthood can be considered as a status passage in the institutionalized life course, involving the assumption of new social roles, such as the completion of education, entry into the labor market, and family formation (Shanahan, 2000). It is guided by age‐related legal norms as well as population‐based norms and informal expectations regarding appropriate ages for the completion of education, marriage, or becoming a parent, and the sequencing and combination of these roles (Buchmann & Kriesi, 2011). These norms and expectations, or “scripts of life” (Buchmann, 1989), can vary by gender, ethnicity, and social class—and are also highly responsive to social change. In this essay, I introduce a diverse pathways view examining variations and changes in transition experiences among men and women, as well as similarities in pathways to independent adulthood between the 1960s and today. The essay also addresses the intersection of multiple inequalities (focusing on class and gender) that shape individual transition experiences, and introduces the notion of “bounded diversity” taking into account the institutional framing of transitions. It is argued that existing templates for the transition to adulthood are dominated by the assumption of a linear career path moving from full‐time education to full‐time continuous employment, which is more typical for males than females, ignores the dynamics of human lives, and the need to combine work and family roles. To address the complexities and variations in transitions of men and women and in different subgroups of the population, it is necessary to revise existing templates and increase awareness of persisting inequalities. Moving toward more flexible and dynamic conceptions that represent the changing everyday arrangements between men and women, it can be possible to undercut traditional views of status differences and open up new potential for life projects. I first review key findings regarding gender differences in transition experiences, followed by a brief consideration of recent research, and a discussion of issues for future research.
Gender Inequality in Educational Attainment
Authors: McDaniel Anne , Buchmann Claudia 
Published: May 2015

Abstract
Just a few decades ago in most nations in the world, women completed far less schooling than men. Today, throughout much of the world, the reverse is true, and on average, women complete more years of schooling than men. This essay identifies important cross‐national trends in gender inequalities in educational attainment, outlines foundational and cutting‐edge research on the topic and suggests directions for future research. We examine US‐based explanations for the female‐favorable gender gap in educational attainment, and argue that the gender gap must be studied from a comparative and international perspective. While little is known about why women outpace men in education throughout the world, we recommend three potential avenues for future research: (i) the sources of girls' better average academic performance in school, (ii) boys' apparent greater vulnerability to resource deficits within families, and (iii) changing incentives for women and men to complete higher education. We conclude by discussing the potential consequences of the female advantage in educational attainment and the challenges of conducting cross‐national educational research.
Genetics and the Life Course
Authors: Charney Evan 
Published: May 2015

Abstract
A life‐course perspective is committed to the proposition that from conception to death, all human outcomes are the result of a continual interaction between the individual and all of the environments that he or she inhabits at any given point in time. Early development is a critical period, a window of time during the life course when a given exposure can have a critical or permanent influence on later outcomes. But the impact of exposures upon outcomes does not end at any specific point in time, inasmuch as life is a continuing interactive and adaptive process. We now know that what applies to human beings also applies to their genomes. The “outcome” of any gene at any given point in time (whether or not it is used to transcribe a particular protein, what form of that protein, and how much) is a product of the interaction between the gene and the multiple environments of which it is a part, which include the epigenome, the cell, the biological human, and the assorted environments he or she occupies (e.g., geographical, socioeconomic, ethnic, etc.). Early life experiences can permanently “reprogram” the epigenome and gene transcription with life‐long behavioral consequences. At the same time, the epigenome as well as the genome continue to be environmentally responsive throughout the life course.
Global Economic Networks
Authors: Bandelj Nina , Shorette Kristen , Sowers Elizabeth 
Published: May 2015

AbstractGlobalization can be most concretely captured in an investigation of global economic networks. In this essay, we review foundational and cutting‐edge research on global economic networks, including economic ties that result from trade, investment, finance, and remittance relations between corporations and/or citizens from different nations; through flows of people due to migration and global tourism; and via international institutions that govern global economic exchange. We focus on research that examines the determinants and consequences of global economic ties from different theoretical perspectives, such as neoclassical economics, the world‐systems research, global commodity chains, regionalization, and world society perspective. We also review research that maps the structure of the global economy. We end by identifying promising venues for future research.
Globalization: Consequences for Work and Employment in Advanced Capitalist Societies
Authors: Elger Tony 
Published: May 2015

AbstractThis essay considers the consequences of globalization for work and employment in advanced capitalist societies. It outlines the classic arguments of hyperglobalists, sceptics, and transformationalists. It first discusses the roles of multinational companies (MNCs) in both disseminating and differentiating distinctive models of work organization and employment relations across their international operations, emphasizing the micropolitical mediation of such processes and the interplay of “system,” “societal,” and “dominance” effects in the selection and hybridization of such models. It next considers the roles of corporate and state actors in recasting national institutional configurations, highlighting the contradictory and contested features of such configurations, and the scope for substantive remaking despite apparent institutional continuity. It then considers agendas for future research which build on these arguments but give fuller consideration to service MNCs and MNC operations beyond advanced capitalist societies. Finally, it notes the possible impact of other vectors of globalization on overall trends and variations in work and employment across societies.
Government Formation and Cabinets
Authors: Golder Sona N. 
Published: May 2015

AbstractThe government in aparliamentary(orsemi‐presidential)democracyrefers to the prime minister and the other cabinet ministers, whereas the government in apresidential democracyrefers to the president's cabinet. The members of the government cabinet determine national policy and arguably hold the most important political positions in their country. Most governments comprise two or more parties, which means that the government formation process requires coalition‐building. During this process, party elites bargain over who gets which ministerial position and over policy; they can reach an agreement quickly and take office, or the bargaining can break down and take months to resolve. This essay discusses the different types of governments that can form as well as how they form in parliamentary, semi‐presidential, and presidential regimes. Recent research on government formation and cabinets has introduced new theoretical arguments, and the implications of these arguments are being tested with new data and new statistical methods. For example, analyses of European democracies now include the post‐communist Eastern countries (not only the Western ones), and more scholars are studying coalition governments in Latin America. Future research might include more work on cabinets in developing democracies in regions such as Africa and Asia, as well as analyses of the political and economic consequences of bargaining delays and the partisan composition of the government.
Herd Behavior
Authors: Kameda Tatsuya , Hastie Reid 
Published: May 2015

Abstract

There are many manifestations of herding in the human species—one of the most socially interdependent species on the earth.
Herding
here refers to an alignment of thoughts or behaviors of individuals in a group through local interactions among individuals rather through than some purposeful coordination by a central authority in the group. Herding underlies many collective phenomena in the Internet era, ranging from everyday social behavior, consumer choices, economic bubbles, and political movements. Accumulating evidence in various behavioral science disciplines suggests that we humans are equipped with neural, psychological, and behavioral mechanisms that constitute our highly socially sensitive minds. These built‐in mechanisms are evolutionary products that have promoted our survival. Yet, these adaptive tools can cause serious errors in modern environments, in which interconnectivities of individuals are much denser and externalities accruing from individual behaviors are much greater and more far‐reaching, compared to primordial environments in which the human mind evolved. Growing evidence in the behavioral sciences also suggests that the two contrasting collective phenomena in humans, maladaptive herding and the wisdom of crowds, are based on similar underlying mechanisms. In this sense, the two apparently opposite macro phenomena may be seen as twins produced and governed by the social receptivity of our minds. Given this commonality, understanding the neural, psychological, and behavioral mechanisms that could distinguish these twins will be one of the most important challenges for behavioral sciences in the next decade.
History and Materiality
Authors: Joyce Rosemary A. 
Published: May 2015

AbstractStudies of the newly emerging field of materiality examine the various ways in which physical objects that populate the environments we inhabit affect us socially, psychologically, and culturally. Scholars across the humanities and social sciences are actively engaged in such studies of what they termthe new materialism. It examines how “things” shape tour worlds in decisive ways. This essay reviews the development of this exciting new area of investigation and outlines promising directions for study going forward.
Homuncular Flexibility: The Human Ability to Inhabit Nonhuman Avatars
Authors: Won Andrea Stevenson , Bailenson Jeremy N. , Lanier Jaron 
Published: May 2015

Abstract

This essay seeks to explicate an unorthodox idea that spans psychology, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and computer science called
homuncular flexibility
(
HF
). HF posits that the homunculus—the part of the cortex that maps movement and sensing of body parts—is capable of adapting to novel bodies, in particular bodies that have extra appendages or appendages capable of atypical movements. Evidence demonstrates neural plasticity in nature; for example, amputees experience cortical shifting such that their face receives extra attention in the brain after a limb is amputated. However, experiments such as the rubber hand illusion, in which people respond to rubber hands placed near their arms as if they were their actual hands, demonstrated that a person's sense of their body can be adjusted to include external objects. The recent advent of virtual reality technology, which can track physical human motions and display them on avatars, allows for the wholly new human experience of inhabiting distinctly nonhuman bodies. HF is a paradigm in which physical motions are transformed by remapping degrees of freedom from tracked movements onto an avatar. For example, if a human being were to inhabit an avatar of a lobster, controlling two of the eight lobster arms would be simply be a function of tracking the two physical arms and directly mapping those movements onto the avatar's first two arms. However, in order to control the remaining six arms, degrees of freedom that are orthogonal to the movements of the first two arms need to be measured and remapped. In this essay, we discuss advancements in neuroscience, psychology, and computer science that relate to HF. We review some preliminary studies that demonstrate how humans accommodate novel bodies. Finally, we discuss theoretical implications and practical applications relating to HF.