Clustering and synchrony in laying hens: The effect of environmental resources on social dynamics

Laying hens generally choose to aggregate, but the extent to which the environments in which we house them impact on social group dynamics is not known. In this paper the effect of pen environment on spatial clustering is considered. Twelve groups of four laying hens were studied under three environmental conditions: wire floor (W), shavings (Sh) and perches, peat, nestbox and shavings (PPN). Groups experienced each environment twice, for five weeks each time, in a systematic order that varied from group to group. Video recordings were made one day per week for 30 weeks. To determine level of clustering, we recorded positional data from a randomly selected 20-min excerpt per video (a total of 20 min x 360 videos analysed). On screen, pens were divided into six equal areas. In addition, PPN pens were divided into an additional four (sub) areas, to account for the use of perches (one area per half perch). Every 5 s, we recorded the location of each bird and calculated location use over time, feeding synchrony and cluster scores for each environment. Feeding synchrony and cluster scores were compared against unweighted and weighted (according to observed proportional location use) Poisson distributions to distinguish between resource and social attraction.

An exploration of integrated data on the social dynamics of suicide among women

The gender based nature of suicide related behaviour is largely accepted.However, studies which report exclusively on female fatal suicides are rare.Here we demonstrate how female fatal suicide has effectively been ‘othered’ and appears ‘incidental’ in studies which compare female behaviour with that of their male counterparts. We highlight how recent studies of suicide have tended to be dominated by male only approaches,which increasingly link issues of masculinity with male death by suicide.Drawing on data collected from the GP and Coroner’s office, we then apply the Sociological Autopsy approach to a cohort of 78 deaths recorded as suicides in the UK between 2007 and 2009. By focusing on females in isolation from males, we demonstrate that as in male suicide only studies,it is similarly possible to draw out issues associated with the feminine identity which can be linked to death by suicide. We identify that bereavement, sexual violence and motherhood could all be linked to the lives and help-seeking of the females who died. In closing, we suggest are orientation towards sociological analytic approaches of female suicide may help to produce further reductions in the rate of female death by suicide.

From Rights to Compassion: The D Case and Contemporary Abortion Politics

This chapter is concerned with exploring the dynamics of contemporary debate on women’s reproductive choices and rights in the somewhat transformed social, political and economic context of the Republic of Ireland. News coverage of the events of April and May 2007 provide the focus of attention, as the case of ‘D’, a 17 year old in the temporary care of the state, seeking to terminate her pregnancy after a diagnosis of severe foetal abnormality, became yet again a focus of public debate on abortion access within the state. The analysis explores how the issues this case raised were framed in the public domain, in order to consider the shifting moral grammar shaping the debate. The paper explores the ways in which this case illustrates the ongoing tensions between changing characterisations of Irishness, and the social dynamics of access to reproductive rights, particularly for national minors in the care of the state.

Responsive homes of old Cairo: Learning from the past, feeding in the future

By investigating the social dynamics of home in one of the enduring communities of Cairo, this paper reveals the way ordinary people construct and consume their private and public domains on a daily basis. It reveals what is central and what is marginal in the cognitive idea of home. This paper adopts an interdisciplinary strategy of investigation, utilizing sociological and anthropological data to read and visit spatial practices in the home. Building on historical as well as contemporary accounts of residents and families, the concept of home is envisioned as a spectrum of social spheres that is liberated from the physical determinants of space, hence revealing a new domain of part-time spaces and dynamic spatiality. The emergent idea of home intertwines work, domesticity, recreation and hospitality in interplay of space-activity-time relationships. Homes of old Cairo have proved to be responsive to continuous change, and have evolved dynamic forms of the temporal settings required for accommodation of emerging home-based professional activities such as hospitality, home-workers, and care-homes.

Racism and young girls' peer group relations: the experiences of South Asian girls

This article draws upon data from an indepth ethnographic study of five- and six-year-old children in an English multi-ethnic, inner city primary school. It focuses on the significance of ‘race’ within young girls’ peer group relations and the ways in which the social dynamics that underlie those relations provide the context for understanding the particular nature and form that racism takes among the girls. This is done through a focus on the experiences of South Asian girls within the group. Within this, the article has two main aims. First, it aims to contribute to the literature within the sociology of education by extending the existing research focus on racism within teacher/pupil interactions to include an understanding of racism as it manifests itself among the children’s peer-group relations. Second, in adapting and applying Pierre Boudieu’s concepts of capital and field, the article also offers a contribution to the literature within the sociology of ‘race’ and ethnicity by suggesting one potentially fruitful way in which racism can be understood within specific social contexts.

Risk and the Politics of Public Health:A Critical Review

Twentieth century public health initiatives have been crucially informed by perceptions and constructions of risk. Notions of risk identification, assessment and mitigation have guided political and institutional actions even before these concepts became an explicit part of the language of public administration and policy making. Past analyses investigating the link between risk perceptions and public health are relatively rare, and where researchers have investigated this nexus, it has typically been assumed that the collective identification of health risks has led to progressive improvements in public health activities.
Risk and the Politics of Public Health addresses this gap by presenting a detailed critical historical analysis of the evolution of risk thinking within medical and health related discourses. Grouped around the four core themes of 'immigration', 'race', 'armed conflict' and 'detention and prevention' this book highlights the innovative capacity of risk related concepts as well as their vulnerability to the dysfunctional effects of dominant social ideologies. Risk and the Politics of Public Health is an essential reference for those who seek to understand the interplay of concepts of risk and public health throughout history as well as those who wish to gain a critical understanding of the social dynamics which have underpinned, and continue to underpin, this complex interaction.

Participatory Sonic Arts: towards a socially engaged art of sound in the everyday (The Som da Maré Project)

Participatory and socially engaged art practices have, for a couple of decades, emerged a myriad of aesthetic and methodological strategies across different media. These are artistic practices that have a primary interest in participation, affecting social dynamics, dialogue and at times political activism. Nato Thompson in “Living Form: Socially Engaged Art from 1991-2011” surveys these
practices, which range from theatre to urban planning, visual art to healthcare. Linked to notions such as relational aesthetics (Bourriaud, 1998), community art and public art, socially engaged art often focuses on the development of a sense of ownership by the part of participants. If an artist is working truly collaboratively with participants and addressing the reality of a particular community, the long-term effect of a project lies in the process of engagement as well as in the artwork itself. Projects by New York based artist Pablo Helguera, for example, use different media to engage with social inequalities through participative action while rejecting the notion of art for art sake.

“Socially engaged art functions by attaching itself to subjects and problems that normally belong to other disciplines, moving them temporarily into a space of ambiguity. It is this temporary snatching away of subjects into the realm of art-making that brings new insights to a particular problem or condition and in turn makes it visible to other disciplines.” (Helguera, 2011)

Socially engaged practices develop the notion of artwork about or by a community, to work of a community. In this chapter we address how socially engaged, participatory approaches can form a context for the sonic arts, arguably less explored than practices such as theatre and performance art. The use of sound is clearly present in a wide range of socially engaged work (e.g. Helguera’s “Aelia Media” enabling a nomadic radio station in Bologna or Maria Andueza “Immigrant Sounds – Res(on)Art (Stockholm)” exploring ways of sonically resonating a city, or Sue MacCauley’s “The Housing Project” addressing ways of representing the views of urban dwellers on public scape through sound art. It is nevertheless rare to encounter projects which take our experience of sound in the everyday as a trigger for community social engagement in a participatory context.
We address concepts and methodologies behind the project Som da Maré, a participatory sonic arts project in the favelas of Maré, Rio de Janeiro.

Social Class Variation in Risk: A Comparative Analysis of the Dynamics of Economic Vulnerability

A joint concern with multidimensionality and dynamics is a defining feature of the pervasive use of the terminology of social exclusion in the European Union. The notion of social exclusion focuses attention on economic vulnerability in the sense of exposure to risk and uncertainty. Sociological concern with these issues has been associated with the thesis that risk and uncertainty have become more pervasive and extend substantially beyond the working class. This paper combines features of recent approaches to statistical modelling of poverty dynamics and multidimensional deprivation in order to develop our understanding of the dynamics of economic vulnerability. An analysis involving nine countries and covering the first five waves of the European Community Household Panel shows that, across nations and time, it is possible to identify an economically vulnerable class. This class is characterized by heightened risk of falling below a critical resource level, exposure to material deprivation and experience of subjective economic stress. Cross-national differentials in persistence of vulnerability are wider than in the case of income poverty and less affected by measurement error. Economic vulnerability profiles vary across welfare regimes in a manner broadly consistent with our expectations. Variation in the impact of social class within and across countries provides no support for the argument that its role in structuring such risk has become much less important. Our findings suggest that it is possible to accept the importance of the emergence of new forms of social risk and acknowledge the significance of efforts to develop welfare states policies involving a shift of opportunities and decision making on to individuals without accepting the 'death of social class' thesis.