Search Results (62)

This paper critically examines the risks to democratic institutions and practices posed by disinformation, echo chambers, and filter bubbles within contemporary social media environments. Adopting a modern republican approach and its conception of liberty as nondomination, this paper analyzes the role of algorithms, which curate and shape user experiences, in facilitating these challenges. My argument is that the proliferation of disinformation, echo chambers, and filter bubbles constitutes forms of domination that manipulate vulnerable social media users and imperil democratic ideals and institutions. To counter these risks, I argue for a three-pronged response that cultivates robust institutional and individual forms of antipower by regulating platforms to help protect users from arbitrary interference and empower them to fight back against domination. Full article

Industrial production today increasingly prioritizes sustainability, emphasizing not only efficiency but also minimizing environmental and social impacts. Quality control is key in steel production. The continuous casting process is crucial, as early defect detection can lower costs and prevent unnecessary material use, thereby conserving energy and raw materials. Eliminating defects early reduces the need for costly reworking, saving resources and reducing equipment wear. Additionally, this defect prevention supports efficiency in later steps, like rolling, benefiting overall energy and material consumption. During this research, we identified several parameters whose influence we analyzed on the surface quality of deep-drawn steel. The research confirmed that, for example, the casting speed has a significant influence on the occurrence of surface defects, while, for example, the final bubbling had no statistically significant effect on the surface quality. From a sustainability perspective, monitoring and optimizing key production parameters, like the casting speed, is essential, as improper speeds can cause surface defects that risk the functionality of the final products. By optimizing these parameters, it is possible not only to reduce the risk of product failure but also to contribute to the long-term sustainability of the entire production process, reducing waste and fostering a more considerate approach to natural resources. Full article

Attention to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing has grown in recent years. Even after the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) global pandemic, there has been a rise in financial instruments that are structured according to certain prescribed “sustainable finance” objectives. From a risk management perspective, and as we continue to see a rise in inflows into such instruments, it is important to appreciate that ESG markets will have a growing influence on our financial system and its development. In light of this, and using a sample of some of the most common and popular US-based ESG index funds, this study explores the extent to which herding behaviors are present in such markets. From a regulatory point of view, such behaviors are important to identify, given that they can lead to excess price volatility, bubbles, and other such market-destabilizing phenomena. In addition, this study builds a framework for exploring whether Twitter-based economic uncertainty, which is arguably a forward-looking indicator of investors’ expectations, can exacerbate herding behaviors in ESG markets. Overall, this study shows the following: (i) herding behaviors are present in ESG markets; (ii) rises in Twitter economic uncertainty can potentially exacerbate such herding; (iii) although ESG funds, like traditional asset classes, generally show a negative risk–return tradeoff, this can be driven by changes in Twitter economic uncertainty. Full article

Greenflation or inflation for green energy transition in Europe becomes a structural problem of new scarcity and poverty, under Austrian Economics analysis. The current European public agenda on the Green Deal and its fiscal and monetary policies are closer to coercive central planning, against the markets, economic calculus, and Mises’ theorem. In this paper, attention is paid to the green financial bubble and the European greenflation paradox: in order to achieve greater future social welfare, due to a looming climate risk, present wellbeing and wealth is being reduced, causing a real and ongoing risk of social impoverishment (to promote the SGD 13 on climate action, it is violated by SGD 1–3 on poverty and hunger and 7–12 on affordable energy, economic growth, sustainable communities, and production). According to the European Union data, the relations are explained between green transition and public policies (emissions, tax, debt, credit boom, etc.), GDP variations (real–nominal), and the increase of inflation and poverty. As many emissions are reduced, there is a decrease of GDP (once deflated) and GDP per capita, evidencing social deflation, which in turn means more widespread poverty and a reduction of the middle-class. Also, there is a risk of a green-bubble, as in the Great Recession of 2008 (but this time supported by the European Union) and possible stagflation (close to the 1970s). To analyze this problem generated by mainstream economics (econometric and normative interventionism), this research offers theoretical and methodological frameworks of mainline economics (positive explanations based on principles and empirical illustrations for complex social phenomena), especially the Austrian Economics and the New-Institutional Schools (Law and Economics, Public Choice, and Comparative Constitutional Economics). Full article

Clusters of youth suicide and death are tragic for communities and present long-term consequences for the surviving youths. Despite an awareness of community-based patterns in youth suicide, our understanding of the social and community factors behind these events remains poor. While links between poverty and suicide have been well documented, wealthy communities are rarely targeted in suicide research. In response to this gap, we conducted ethnographic research in a wealthy U.S. town that, over a recent 10-year period, witnessed at least four youth suicides and seven more youth accidental deaths. Our interviews (n = 30) explored community values and stressors, interpersonal relationships, and high school experiences on participant perceptions of community deaths. Youth participants characterize their affluent community as having (1) perfectionist standards; (2) permissive and sometimes absent parents; (3) socially competitive and superficial relationships; and (4) a “bubble” that is protective but also exclusionary. Our qualitative findings reveal network influence in teen suicides and accidental deaths in a wealthy community. Greater attention paid to the negative effects of subcultural values and stressors in affluent communities is warranted. Further, our work promotes the value of ethnographic, community-based methodologies for suicidology and treatment. Full article

This paper argues that interreligious dialogue through study and friendships across the religious divide makes participants less susceptible to religious and cultural misinformation that is often used to maintain social bubbles, in which members draw clear boundaries between “us” and “them”. Differences between social groups can culminate in a struggle between “good” and “evil” that can escalate into tension and violence. Preventing tensions and conflicts requires respect for differences, willingness to engage in dialogue, and a sound understanding of what religion is and the historical processes that have determined its development, distinguishing between empirical facts and images to which believers adhere. Because the author is a Dutch sociologist turned journalist from a conservative Christian family involved in interreligious dialogue in the Netherlands, Israel, and Egypt, the literature review presents contemporary religious developments in all three countries. The literature review is flanked by the author’s personal narrative on the events that changed his views on truth and spirituality, making him more aware of the commonalities between peoples of different beliefs and leading him to a lifelong commitment to interreligious and intercultural dialogue. Full article

Born into a pieds-noir family in Algeria in the first part of the 20th century, Pierre Claverie (1938–1996) realizes that he lived in a colonial bubble, completely ignoring the Algerian and Muslim realities. This “prise de conscience” will constitute the beginning of a deep mystical experience, a true process of “spiritual enlightenment” through which Claverie will try to re-establish himself in the lost meeting of his youth when he used to live in his “Western and Catholic bubble”. His theological path will also be an institutional one: he will become a Dominican monk and Catholic bishop of Orano. Inevitably, his desire to spiritually encounter the Algerian reality in its Muslim identity will make Pierre Claverie reflect on the tension present in the paradox of the concept of religious truth (absolutely unique and/or multiple?). His reflection on the uniqueness/pluralism of religious truth represents a model of post-conciliar theological understanding that is worth examining and that supports a very current approach in today’s religious and social world: understanding/accepting the truth of the other without the impression of betraying one’s own truth. This study aims to deepen the mystical theological reflection of Bishop Pierre Claverie, considered a martyr in the Catholic Church, with regards to the concept of religious truth. It also to tries to understand how this reflection fits into the Catholic theological line inaugurated by the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). Full article

Background: New Zealand was one of the first countries to adopt an elimination strategy based on a four-tier Alert Level system that included strict lockdowns at levels three and four. The lockdowns meant shutting out external social networks and being confining to individual household ‘bubbles’ only. This presented challenges for minority Pasifika communities in New Zealand as their cultural values are based on social bonding, interconnectedness, community engagement and caring for each other. The aim of this research was to conduct a small-scale pilot study to test and refine the study design and identify the major challenges faced by Pasifika communities in relation to accessing health, social and mental services while in lockdown. Methods: This exploratory study was designed using an online anonymous questionnaire survey targeting people who identified as Pasifika. A total of eighty-seven respondents were included in our analyses following the questionnaire survey. Results: Five main barriers to accessing health, social and mental health services during lockdowns were identified; (1) unavailability of or limited services; (2) fear of contracting the virus; (3) perception of high costs associated with seeking medical assistance; (4) transportation difficulties; and (5) lack of time. Almost a quarter of the respondents reported losing their jobs, 80% indicated a decline in their household income and more than half experienced some form of psychosocial distress while in lockdown. Conclusions: The findings of this research highlight existing challenges faced by Pasifika communities in adequately accessing essential services. Future research can focus on the key barriers to access identified in this research to gain a deeper understanding of services and its interaction with Pasifika communities during lockdowns. Full article

Concerns about the dangers of social comparison emerge in multiples places in Kierkegaard’s authorship. I argue that these concerns—and his critique of the role of “the public”—take on a new relevance in the digital age. In this article, I focus on one area where concerns about the risks of social comparison are paramount: the contemporary debate about moral grandstanding or “virtue-signaling”. Neil Levy and Evan Westra have recently attempted to defend virtue-signaling against Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke’s critique. I argue that these defences fail and that a consideration of epistemic bubbles and echo chambers is critical to seeing why. The over-confidence to which they give rise exacerbates certain vices with the potential to do moral, social and epistemic harm: I focus in particular on self-righteousness (complementing Kierkegaard’s discussion of envy). I then argue that Kierkegaard’s contrast between the religious category of the “single individual”—the genuine person of “character”—and the person who effectively appeals to the authority of some version of “the public” deepens our understanding of why we should reject defences of virtue-signaling. It helps us to distinguish between two kinds of virtue-signaler (“superficial enthusiasts” and “clear-eyed cynics”), both of whom contribute, in different ways, to the negative impacts of the vice of self-righteousness. Contrary to Levy’s claim that virtue-signaling is virtuous, I conclude that typically it is closer to vice than to virtue. Full article

The aim of the study is to present the online processes related to religious phenomena appearing on digital platforms, primarily the practice of content filtering (gatekeeping, echo chamber, filter bubble), and a critical review of the scientific literature on the field. At the same time, the goal is to create a theoretical introduction to the special issue and a comprehensive examination of the scientific context. For the first time, the study shows that, in terms of media content, filtering can appear from two directions. One is the selections from different events by professional journalists during content creation. The media theoretical literature refers to this aspect as the phenomenon of gatekeeping. Filtering in the other direction takes place on the part of the receivers, who choose from among the available media contents. This phenomenon has already been described by several media scholars, with the concept of selective exposure (Klapper), Daily Me (Negroponte), echo chamber (Sunstein) or filter bubble (Pariser). Focusing on the phenomenon of the filter bubble, the study presents this theory, its criticism and its relevance to religious content and religious communities. The second part of the study focuses on religious filter bubbles and presents the related investigations so far. It analyses in detail the document published by the Catholic Church on 28 May 2023, entitled Towards Full Presence, Pastoral Reflection on Engagement with Social Media. During the detailed analytical presentation of the text, the study covers how the opportunities and dangers of network communication and the use of social media appear (including the filter bubble) and what solutions the Catholic Church proposes in this regard. Full article

In this work, we propose a mathematical model to describe the price trends of unsustainable growth, abrupt collapse, and eventual stabilization characteristic of financial bubbles. The proposed model uses a set of ordinary differential equations to depict the role played by social contagion and herd behavior in the formation of financial bubbles from a behavioral standpoint, in which the market population is divided into neutral, bull (optimistic), bear (pessimistic), and quitter subgroups. The market demand is taken to be a function of both price and bull population, and the market supply is taken to be a function of both price and bear population. In such a manner, the spread of optimism and pessimism controls the supply and demand dynamics of the market and offers a dynamical characterization of the asset price behavior of a financial bubble. Full article

This study aimed to find out if there is a relationship between social media and political polarization in Türkiye from the perspective of Turkish students. To reach this aim, the needed data were collected through qualitative and quantitative approaches. A total of 303 valid questionnaires were analyzed. The sample consisted of university Turkish students across undergraduate, masters, and PhD levels in Türkiye aged between 18 and 50+. As well, an online focus group discussion with six Turkish students from different universities and education levels was conducted to gain a more in-depth understanding of the study’s problem. The results of the study showed that the perspectives of the Turkish students were that social media had a weak-to-moderate effect on political polarization in Türkiye. Furthermore, the results indicated that the studied sample of the Turkish students does not rely on social media platforms to obtain political news, and most of them do not follow political leaders on social media. Moreover, communication platforms did not encourage many Turkish students to express themselves, which is an indication that social media algorithms have contributed to a medium degree in creating filter bubbles through the content they suggest to users. Results have also shown that Turkish students are afraid that their posts and comments are being censored. Full article

This article presents the results of a bibliometric review of the study of real estate bubbles in the scientific literature indexed in Web of Science and Scopus, from 2007 to 2022. The analysis was developed using a sample of 2276 documents, which were reviewed in R software and analyzed with the assistance of the Bibliometrix package of the same software. The results indicate that there has been considerable productivity on the topic of real estate bubbles since 2007, with an emphasis on housing price formation processes and the social effects when bubbles burst. The authors found that there were not many case studies located in Latin America or Africa, nor were there approaches with advanced predictive modeling techniques using machine learning or artificial intelligence. The article provides an understanding of the state of the art in real estate bubble research and situates new research in front of the influential literature previously published. Full article

This paper focuses on the everyday religious practices of second-generation Muslims who have been born, raised, and socialized in the Alps-Adriatic region. These individuals are developing their own forms of religiousness and perspectives on religion. Religious practices are often regarded as a mere continuation of Islamic traditions in the countries from which their parent generation migrated. However, this generation practices religion in ways that are shaped by socialization in a largely secularized postmodern society and by inter-religiosity, i.e., interaction between people with different beliefs that provokes them to reflect on attitudes, altering their perspectives. Whereas their parents or grandparents more or less lived in their own bubble, mainly because they did not speak the language well enough, the new generation see inter-religious interaction and communication as a matter of course—part of the everyday practices that they take for granted. The empirical section of this paper looks at the experiences and everyday practices of the new Muslim generation. It draws on a participatory project focusing on the photovoice method, which involved Muslim youth not as the subjects of research but as co-researchers. In addition to this approach, the methodology incorporated phenomenological anecdotal research and reading. Adopting a participatory approach, the young people reported on their specific everyday experiences and everyday inter-religious practices. In the process, they described not only their experiences of foreignness and exclusion but also transcultural strategies and ways to address such experiences, such as adopting a self-confident position, taking action, and developing hybrid life plans. Full article

This paper is devoted to nonequilibrium systems in the physics approach to social systems. Equilibrium systems have been considered in the recenly published first part of the review. The style of the paper combines the features of a tutorial and a review, which, from one side, makes it simpler to read for nonspecialists aiming at grasping the basics of social physics, and from the other side, describes several rather recent original models containing new ideas that could be of interest to experienced researchers in the field. Full article