“Flipping the Scripts” of Poverty and Panhandling: Organizing Democracy by Creating Connections

This study relies on participant observation and in-depth interviews to explore how StreetWise, an organization with a newspaper by the same name, mobilizes symbolic and material support for people without homes or those at risk. Pragmatism is used to understand how StreetWise ameliorates the experience of homelessness by building community. In stark contrast to forces that erase “the homeless” from the public scene, StreetWise integrates people without homes, as vendors, into community life by providing employment and raising awareness about poverty-related issues. Through its structure, mission, and business plan StreetWise encourages an engaged citizenry and enhances civic discourses. StreetWise provides scholars with a context within which to understand the reflexive and interactive organization–society relationships that strive to support a democratic way of life.     

Purpose-driven consultancies’ negotiation of organizational tensions

This article examines the negotiation of organizational tensions by purpose-driven consultancies, for-profit firms also motivated by social change agendas in their implementation of organizational development for corporate clients. Using two case studies – APCom training ethical corporate leaders, and GreenD communicating environmental sustainability programs – we trace how such consultancies negotiate these tensions, and how their underlying purpose might accordingly transform. Our multi-case study suggests two broad tensions related to purpose and impact that are experienced in context-specific ways by the consultancies. Although members sought to frame these tensions in positive ways, as complementary dialectics or contradicting the dominant capitalist system, they were also at risk of devolving into more paradoxical contradictions and even debilitating double binds, without sustained discussion to ‘repurpose’ the firms. We close by discussing theoretical and practical implications for purpose-driven consultancies, given that their pursuit of social change is often at odds with the status quo.     

Public deliberation and social justice sensibilities in Greensboro Participatory Budgeting

ABSTRACT

Participatory budgeting (PB) has emerged as a tool for empowering marginalized communities and advancing social justice through public deliberation and advocacy. However, public deliberation scholars have contested the appropriate roles of social justice, activism, and equity. PB bridges deliberation, advocacy, and equity, as it strives to accomplish social change. We detail how the first cycle of Greensboro PB navigated tensions between residents who sought social change and government officials who wished to maintain the status quo. We argue PB is an example of public deliberation that fosters social justice sensibilities among participants and conclude with applied recommendations for design improvements.     

The effects of comprehension loss on persuasion

Traditional definitions of the glass ceiling perpetuate gender‐biased organizational practices and quick‐fix solutions. By creating an illusion of opportunity for women, they prevent critical assessment of contemporary organizational practices and of gendered communication. This article engages in feminist research as praxis first by discussing how current organizational practices fail to alter power imbalances. To create awareness of unjust organizing processes, these ways we ordinarily “do gender” are juxtaposed against contrastive contexts: alternative settings (organizational forms), processes (community‐as‐dialectic), and organization members (women). These alternatives enable us to visualize how language creates and sustains gender divisions that emerge in glass ceiling processes and effects. The second stage in research as praxis calls for action. I discuss implications for research and for change that challenge the gendered motif of organizational life.     

“You Have to be Positive.” Social Support Processes of an Online Support Group for Men Living with HIV

Over the past decade, improved treatments have helped people with AIDS enjoy a state of restored health and greater hope for long-term survival. Because of these changes, social support is an even more important resource for those battling HIV/AIDS. One source for social support is a support group, which offers social and emotional resources to meet the needs of its members. The online support group investigated in this study serves gay men with HIV/AIDS and requires that they talk only about positive aspects of life. To understand the implications this rule has for support processes, a thematic analysis was conducted to determine how this group constructs social support. Rules and resources aimed at the group goal of positivity help develop a unique speech community. Implications for social support, support groups, and the Internet are discussed.     

Social media boundaries in sports journalism: individual and organisational gatekeeping in India and Australia

Journalists with social media accounts can face conflict between the personal nature of their posts while operating as representatives of their news organisations. The addition of another publishing platform has also continued to change the role of the journalist as gatekeeper, with more decisions to be made over dissemination choices in traditional, online and social media. This comparative study of sports journalists in India and Australia examines gatekeeping influences at individual and organisational levels. It combines in-depth interviews with 22 sports journalists with a content analysis of 2085 Twitter posts from sports journalists covering the Australia–India Test cricket series of 2014–2015. The results highlight how multi-media gatekeeping has become a factor for contemporary sports journalists in both nations.     

Using Buttons to Better Manage Online Presence: How One Academic Institution Harnessed the Power of Flair

This article provides a case study of how the University of Nebraska College of Law and Schmid Law Library use “buttons” to manage Law College faculty members’ and librarians’ online presence. Since Google is the primary search engine used to find information, it is important that librarians and libraries assist Web site visitors in finding relevant information about faculty members at an academic institution. Easily identifiable buttons allow visitors to navigate to faculty scholarship in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Digital Commons, SSRN Web site, or both, in an academic service such as lessons from the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction and in social software sites like Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. The case study includes (1) how the project was implemented, (2) the feedback and results of a survey, and (3) an analysis of Web site statistics, clicks, and links data gathered via Google Analytics. This project was a partnership between the Law College Communications Department, Law College Administration, and the Law Library, involving law faculty, staff, and librarians. The buttons project was considered a successful venture by participating faculty members; it also provided an opportunity for face-to-face conversation between faculty members and librarians about digital scholarship and social media in the academic environment.     

Capricious opinions: A study of polarization of social media groups

Experts claim that the world is increasingly polarized by emerging social media platforms. The political actors amplify the polarization through their agents' user-generated content. The extreme political ideologies sway the people sitting on the fence on these social media platforms. Using tweets on a recent policy change on identity in India, the present study seeks to perform a scientific analysis of the polarization of the debates within ordinary citizens' groups from a theoretical lens. We further highlight some of the crucial trends that triggered these polarized discussions in general. Through the lens of Echo chambers and Herd behavior, this study provides valuable insights surrounding the influencers and individuals involved in this discussion where the polarization of preferences is witnessed. Proposing a novel design of a root-level influencer, this study establishes them as polarization actors on a social media platform (Twitter). Through various engagement metrics, we also identify the role of targeted communication (hashtags) and similarity in the users' discussion across the political domain as potential behavioral explanations for opinion polarization on Twitter.     

Masculinity(s), the agrarian frontier myth, and cooperative ways of organizing: contradictions and tensions in the experience and enactment of democracy

This study explores how members of the Nebraska Cooperative Council and its constituent producer-owned cooperatives understand and enact democratic ideologies, drawing particular attention to how emergent contradictions and tensions are experienced and managed. The Council serves as a particularly rich context in which to explore traditionally feminine ways of organizing (i.e., cooperative enactment) in a historically male-dominated arena (i.e., agriculture). The dialectic of independence and solidarity became a revealing prism through which to make sense of how members enact cooperative life. This dialectic manifests itself in the discourse of cooperative life as members struggle to manage tensions between efficiency and participation, equality and equity, and the paradox of agency. Communication theorizing about gendered organizing and the history of American agrarianism is used to explore intersections between the social construction of masculinity(s), the agrarian frontier myth, and tensions embedded in the discourse of cooperative organizing.     

Striving to Be King of Mobile Mountains: Communication and Organizing Through Digital Fitness Technology

This study considers fitness-tracking applications as settings for communicative performances. Qualitative interviews and observations with 41 users of a cycling-focused fitness application revealed communicative themes of qualifying, social sharing, and withholding. Users also assessed other members through social-group comparing and upward comparing. This study develops theory by revealing how individuals use the technology to communicate about their physical acts, and how the context of use facilitates organizing processes. We argue that use of this fitness application extends our understanding of how communication can constitute a community of practice (CoP; Brown & Duguid, 1991; Lave & Wenger, 1991). Primarily, the hybrid online/offline nature of Strava complicates the traditional understanding of communication and CoPs.     

Why Diverse Zines Matter: A Case Study of the People of Color Zines Project

Historically, zines have been an alternative outlet for niche topics, or writers and writing, that are ignored by mainstream media. Zines are significant because they offer the opportunity for connection, community, and networking between those interested in these diverse topics. The developments in digital technology have enabled zines to extend into the online sphere: this increased access has resulted in increased participation (by readers and writers). This paper will focus on (digital) zines that are created by people of colour (POC). In recent years, there has been much discussion and media coverage about the lack of diversity in cultural output, and various campaigns, to promote diverse writing have followed. Through a case study of the POC Zines Project—a community-building project that promotes zines by POC—this paper will look at how creators of zines are experimenting with digital formats and social platforms, and will consider what mainstream publishers can learn from this. As Radway (in: Anouk (ed) From codex to hypertext. University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 2012) outlines “zine-ing is a social phenomenon, a form of social action driven by desires for new forms of sociability and new ways of being in the world” (p. 140): this paper will highlight the important of social collaboration and production on opening up the creative process and offering a response to the under-represented in traditional publishing.     

Anonymity and Interaction in an Online Breast Cancer Social Support Group

Despite the benefits of using online social support groups, prior research does not provide a solid understanding of the online factors related to an individual’s supportive interaction. Accordingly, this study aims to explore how various aspects of anonymity predict different levels of social support engagement. The current study uncovers that visually identifiable group members are more likely to get supportive responses than are visually anonymous members. Also, when support group members are visually and discursively identifiable, they are more likely to get supportive messages than those who are visually and discursively anonymous. Additionally, the more identifiable support group members are, the more they receive positive messages. Practical implications for the role of social support group members’ anonymity/identifiability on the overall social support process are presented.     

Journal editorship index for assessing the scholarly impact of academic institutions: An empirical analysis in the field of economics

Assessing the scholarly impact of academic institutions has become increasingly important. The achievements of editorial board members can create benchmarks for research excellence and can be used to evaluate both individual and institutional performance. This paper proposes a new method based on journal editor data for assessing an institution’s scholarly impact. In this paper, a journal editorship index (JEI) that simultaneously accounts for the journal rating (JR), editor title (ET), and board size (BS) is constructed. We assess the scholarly impact of economics institutions based on the editorial boards of 211 economics journals (which include 8640 editorial board members) in the ABS Academic Journal Guide. Three indices (JEI/ET, JEI/JR, and JEI/BS) are also used to rank the institutions. It was found that there was only a slight change in the relative institutional rankings using the JEI/ET and JEI/BS compared to the JEI. The BS and ET weight factors did not have a substantial influence on the ranking of institutions. It was also found that the journal rating weight factor had a large effect on the ranking of institutions. This paper presents an alternative approach to using editorial board memberships as the basis for assessing the scholarly impact of economics institutions.     

Facilitated difficult dialogues on racism: a goal-based approach

Racist incidents are moments that highlight the systemic racism that still exists within higher education. In 2016, the College of Liberal Arts at a historically White, Southern institution in the U.S. responded to a racist incident on campus by setting up a series of ‘Difficult Dialogue on Campus Race Relations’ sessions that gave participants the opportunity to reflect and respond to the incident. Drawing on literature about racial dialogues and social identity theory, the sessions were designed to promote active listening, build empathy, and provide practical tools to combat everyday racial microaggressions. We describe how communication design elements (such as small group settings, localized case studies, role-play, and ground rules) were tailored to fit the needs of various group settings and analyze participants’ feedback about the perceived impact of these dialogues. We present a goal-based dialogue framework as a model to facilitate difficult dialogues in a variety of applied communication contexts.     

Co-ownership of Private Information in the Miscarriage Context

Pregnancy loss due to miscarriage is a pervasive health issue. Although talking about the miscarriage experience with friends and family members has been linked to better adjustment, revealing this loss can be difficult because discussing a miscarriage often makes people uncomfortable. Moreover, couples often manage this information jointly as they decide whether to share the miscarriage with people outside the dyad. We conducted in-depth interviews with couples to explore the nature of co-ownership in the miscarriage context and to identify the privacy rules that couples develop to manage this information. We found that couples frame miscarriage as a shared but distinct experience and that both members exert rights of ownership over the information. Couples' privacy rules centered on issues of social support and others' need to know about the loss. Even though couples described their privacy rules as implicitly understood, they also recalled having explicit conversations to develop rules. We discuss how the management of co-owned information can improve communication and maintain relationships.     

Negotiating Dis/Ability in Families: Constructions and Contradictions

This project uses a narrative view of identity to interrogate how individuals construct notions of ability and disability within their families. Participants include children with disabilities from diverse ethnic backgrounds, their parents, siblings, and extended family members. Interactions within four families are explored as well as interactions family members have with people outside their families. Interview and observational data demonstrate ways that participants construct identities that highlight intersections of ability/disability and individuality/relationships. Results indicate that families primarily construct identities of “normal” through their interactions and routines as they negotiate contradictions inherent in their everyday lives. Theoretic implications of narrative dimensions of constructions and contradictions are offered. Finally, practical applications for professionals and families of children with disabilities are suggested with future directions for research and practice.     

Unpacking the dimensions of organizational tension: the case of sexual violence response and prevention among college students

How universities address sexual violence is increasingly scrutinized because of the devastating consequences to students who experience violence and mandates that tie federal funding to response and prevention efforts. However, university departments that have a vested interest in sexual violence response and prevention differ in how they frame the problem. This study employs a tension-centered approach to investigate how a multi-disciplinary team addresses the tensions of sexual violence response and prevention. Findings highlight two new dimensions of organizational dilemmas: (1) an occupational orientation dimension and (2) an action orientation dimension. These new dimensions articulate an explanatory framework that underscores how the tension is understood and then posits a repertoire of viable response strategies. These strategies drive particular logics that (re)frame future responses to dilemmas and constrain or transform how team members approach complex organizational dilemmas. This study offers practical guidance to assist universities in addressing sexual violence among college students.     

论图书馆在人格塑造中的特殊作用

文章全面论述了心理学视野中的人格内涵及特征、人格形成机理以及作为文化力核心的图书馆对社会成员的人格塑造起到的特殊作用。最后提出了图书馆应对全体社会成员进行文化熏陶和人格塑造，促进健康人格的形成和全体国民从传统人格向现代人格的转型。     

Expanding the conceptual and empirical boundaries of family communication patterns: The development and validation of an Expanded Conformity Orientation Scale

Family communication patterns theory (FCPT) explores how family members communicate to create a shared social reality via conversation and conformity orientations. Recently, scholars have noted that the current conceptualization and operationalization of conformity orientation is unnecessarily narrow in scope by representing conformity as controlling and repressive, rather than as cultivating homogenous attitudes, beliefs, and values among family members. To address these concerns, we tested the factor structure of the most common measure in FCPT research, the Revised Family Communication Patterns scale (Study One). Based on theoretical and methodological concerns that emerged from Study One, we then created and validated a new scale in Study Two – the Expanded Conformity Orientation Scale (ECOS). Findings from Study Two demonstrated concurrent and discriminant validity. Implications for the use of the ECOS in future studies are discussed.     

From Loving the Hero to Despising the Villain: Sports Fans,Facebook, and Social Identity Threats

This research explored how University of Cincinnati football fans used Facebook to manage a social identity threat arising from head football coach Brian Kelly leaving the school to become the head coach at the University of Notre Dame. A thematic analysis of 717 wall postings in the “Get Out of Our City Brian Kelly” Facebook group was conducted. Results revealed that fans responded to this social identity threat in the following ways: (a) rallying, (b) stigmatizing, (c) victimization, (d) intimidation, and (e) degradation. The results suggest that social media sites are prime vehicles for sports fans to collectively manage social identity crises. Social media enables fans to perpetuate messages that elevate group distinctiveness, minimize in-group issues, and derogate out-group members.