Search results for "social group"
showing 10 items of 121 documents
Legally protected cultural goods and bankruptcy proceedings
2020
This paper deals with general problems of legal aims of bankruptcy proceedings in connection with the aims of heritage protection – issues built by completely different systems of values. Bankruptcy is designed for protecting pecuniary interest of a limited group of people, while cultural heritage is protected for present and future generations, despite its current commercial significance. In the global environment, bankruptcy of a cultural goods owner usually has a cross-border range but national bankruptcy legislations and laws devoted to heritage protection differ in very serious aspects. For this reason the paper is not limited to any concrete legal order. There are discussed some impor…
The Spiral of Silence a Theory of Public Opinion
1974
Returning to classical statements on the concept of public opinion, I have tried to substantiate empirically the process o f public opinion formation through the individual’s observation of his or her social environment. Of all the pertinent statements by Tocqueville (S), Tiinnies (9), Bryce (4), and Allport (l), I can mention here only Allport’s example of a process of public opinion: the pressure brought to bear on householders in a neighborhood to shovel the snow from their sidewalks. This example illustrates that social conventions, customs, and norms are included, along with political questions, among the “situations” and “proposals of significance” with which a large number of people …
Group interaction styles in a virtual context: The effects on group outcomes
2010
The influence of communication and information technologies (TICs) on group functioning and group outcomes is an important topic. Interdependent group work implies the need to communicate in order to share information and knowledge related to the task. The importance of this group interaction in the group functioning and outcomes stands out. In this sense, a line of investigation has arisen to study the role of interaction styles in the relationship between communication technology and group outcomes, as some functional or dysfunctional outputs depend on group interaction styles. From this perspective, the objective of this study is twofold: (1) to analyze the group interaction styles in vi…
Reproductive conflict delays the recovery of an endangered social species
2008
1. Evolutionary theory predicts that individuals, in order to increase their relative fitness, can evolve behaviours that are detrimental for the group or population. This mismatch is particularly visible in social organisms. Despite its potential to affect the population dynamics of social animals, this principle has not yet been applied to real-life conservation. 2. Social group structure has been argued to stabilize population dynamics due to the buffering effects of nonreproducing subordinates. However, competition for breeding positions in such species can also interfere with the reproduction of breeding pairs. 3. Seychelles magpie robins, Copsychus sechellarum, live in social groups w…
Measurements of projected areas of seated and standing people of southern Italy based on a statistical analysis
2006
One of the most important components affecting the human thermal balance is represented by its radiative exchange with the surrounding surfaces. The projected area of the human body is an important parameter of these thermal exchanges. Unfortunately, although the anthropometric measures of people are characterized by significant differences among various populations, the experimental data currently available in the literature refers to a small group of people. Moreover, measurements are generally performed regardless of the statistical significance of the involved subjects with respect to the population to which they belong. In this study, a statistical study is introduced that is based on …
Astronomical Activities with Disabled People
2010
With this contribution we would like to share our experiences in organizing astronomical activities addressed to people with disabilities. The goal is twofold: we would like to invite all those with similar experiences to contribute to the compilation of a document to guide other astronomers who might be interested in carrying out these kind of activities aimed at groups of people with special needs. We also want to persuade public outreach officers that working with disabled people is not as difficult as it may seem at first, as long as they are provided with adequate educational material and guidelines about how to do it. The final goal is to build a repository that can be used by educato…
Effects of a Travel Behaviour Change Program on Sustainable Travel
2018
The main objective of the present study is to analyse the effect of a Travel Behaviour Change Program (TBCP) based on health improvement actions, in relation to a potential for an increase in walking and cycling, with reference to particular groups of people defined according to sociodemographics. A TBCP consisting of three persuasion actions based on health improvements was planned and executed in Valencia (Spain). A two-wave panel survey was used to study the effects of taking part in the TBCP. The panel survey collected data related to activity-travel scheduling process before and after the execution of the TBCP. To study the influence of participating in the TBCP, respondents were separ…
The effects of populism as a social identity frame on persuasion and mobilization: evidence from a 15-country experiment
2020
This article investigates the impact of populist messages on issue agreement and readiness for action in 15 countries (N = 7,286). Specifically, populist communicators rely on persuasive strategies by which social group cues become more salient and affect people's judgment of and political engagement with political issues. This strategy is called ‘populist identity framing’ because the ordinary people as the in‐group is portrayed as being threatened by various out‐groups. By blaming political elites for societal or economic problems harming ordinary people, populist communicators engage in anti‐elitist identity framing. Another strategy is to blame immigrants for social problems – that is, …
The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic and Lockdown Measures on Quality of Life among Italian General Population
2021
The COVID-19 pandemic that has hit the world in the year 2020 has put a strain on our ability to cope with events and revolutionized our daily habits. On 9 March, Italy was forced to lockdown to prevent the spread of the infection, with measures including the mandatory closure of schools and nonessential activities, travel restrictions, and the obligation to spend entire weeks in the same physical space. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown measures on quality of life (QoL) in a large Italian sample, in order to investigate possible differences in QoL levels related to both demographic and pandemic-specific variables. A total of 2251 Italian a…
The Role of Human Resource Practices and Group Norms in the Retirement Process
2009
The present study analyzed retirement intentions and behavior as part of a work role withdrawal process. We examined the influences of the organizational and group contexts in the process of work role exit by means of two sources of work role expectations: human resource practices and group norms. Three different types of human resource practices were taken into consideration: performance enhancement practices, retirement enhancement practices, and organizational pressures toward retirement. Furthermore, three types of retirement indicators were analyzed: age considering retirement for the first time, early retirement intentions, and retirement age. Hierarchical regression analyses were ca…