The Social Profitability Index in Communication (IRSCOM): Measuring for change

This article presents the construction of Social Profitability Index in Communication (IRSCOM), which aims to collect values linked to the operation of the media, rejecting the mercantilist vision and enhancing citizen participation and transparency in its management. This indicator is a proposal that seeks to correct deficiencies in the social profitability of the media to consolidate models that respond to logic focused on building democracy, the strength of plurality and diversity.

Almetrics: measuring the influence of the media on the social impact of research

Social media is changing the way we interact, present ideas and information and judge the quality of content and contributions. In recent years there have been hundreds of platforms to freely share all kinds of information and connect across networks. These new tools generate activity statistics and interactions among users such as mentions, retweets, conversations, comments on blogs or Facebook; managers references showing popularity ratings of more references shared by other researchers or repositories that generate statistics of visits or downloads of articles. This paper analyzes that have meaning and implications altmetrics, what are its advantages and critical platforms (Almetric.com, ImpactStory, Plos altmetrics, PlumX), reports progress and benefits for authors, publishers and librarians. It concluded that the value of alternative metrics as a complementary tool citation analysis is evident, although it is suggested that you should dig deeper into this issue to unravel the meaning and the potential value of these indicators to assess their potential.

Community social innovation: a view of experiences of housing occupation from the Social Work perspective

This work aims to reflect on the concept of social innovation, questioning its explanatory capacity for the discipline of social work. For this purpose, certain on-going debates with regard to this concept are examined and certain minimum dimensions are offered to enable an analysis of the social innovation strategies that certain affected groups implement to meet social needs. The approach is to construct «glasses» that permit an analytical engagement with new realities and with the strategies used by certain social groups to resolve situations of severe vulnerability. Finally, a case study is presented: a strategic group known as the Corrala Utopía that seeks to respond to severe housing problems and is developing in the city of Seville. The article highlights the elements of community social innovation emerging from the experience studied.

Mediation and the Social Work profession: particularly in the community context

In 2008, the European Union published its Directive on mediation in civil and commercial matters, offering general regulation of this conflict resolution system, its principles, and its objectives. Social workers have for some time defended their role as mediators, but this reality has changed and mediation appears to have taken shape as an independent profession due to existing regulation, its introduction to universities and the implementation of training courses. This article analyses the differences between the two professions: mediator and social worker. It also considers the mediation that is carried out in the community context. Community mediation is a perfect tool for achieving a changed understanding of public social services, seeking to encourage citizens to participate in and take responsibility for community life and thereby to become active citizens as envisaged by the 2012 Global Agenda for Social Work. However, mediation in this context has certain peculiarities, and at times confusion may arise between the figures of social worker and mediator.

Designing Massive Open Online Learning Processes: The importance of the social element

This is a pre-print for personal use only. Please refer to the Springer website for the official, published version http://www.springer.com/978-3-662-52923-2

WHAT DOES THE SOCIAL ACTION, RESPONSIBILITY & HEROISM ACT 2015 MEAN FOR SPORTS VOLUNTEERS AND NGBS?

By highlighting the context of sports coaching in the UK, this article reveals the considerable limitations of both section 1 of the Compensation Act 2006, and the Social Action, Responsibility and Heroism Act 2015, in safeguarding (volunteer) coaches from negligence liability.