scholarly journals The Gap-Closing Estimand: A Causal Approach to Study Interventions That Close Disparities Across Social Categories

2022 ◽  
pp. 004912412110557
Author(s):  
Ian Lundberg
Keyword(s):  
Open Source Software ◽  
Research Question ◽  
R Package ◽  
Causal Effects ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Descriptive Research ◽  
Causal Approach ◽  
Causal Framework ◽  
Gap Closing

Disparities across race, gender, and class are important targets of descriptive research. But rather than only describe disparities, research would ideally inform interventions to close those gaps. The gap-closing estimand quantifies how much a gap (e.g., incomes by race) would close if we intervened to equalize a treatment (e.g., access to college). Drawing on causal decomposition analyses, this type of research question yields several benefits. First, gap-closing estimands place categories like race in a causal framework without making them play the role of the treatment (which is philosophically fraught for non-manipulable variables). Second, gap-closing estimands empower researchers to study disparities using new statistical and machine learning estimators designed for causal effects. Third, gap-closing estimands can directly inform policy: if we sampled from the population and actually changed treatment assignments, how much could we close gaps in outcomes? I provide open-source software (the R package gapclosing) to support these methods.

scholarly journals The gap-closing estimand: A causal approach to study interventions that close disparities across social categories

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Lundberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Stratification ◽  
Robust Estimator ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Treatment Variable ◽  
Pay Gap ◽  
Causal Approach ◽  
Rigorous Study ◽  
Causal Framework ◽  
Doubly Robust ◽  
Gap Closing

Disparities across social categories such as race, gender, and class are central in social stratification. Questions about the manipulability of these constructs, however, hinder their placement within a causal framework. This paper sidesteps the manipulability problem by advancing a different causal question: what gap across categories would persist under an intervention to equalize a treatment variable? The proposal makes three contributions. First, I distinguish between a local intervention to randomly sampled units (empirically tractable) and a global intervention to the population (the less tractable target of prior research). Second, I formalize stochastic treatment assignment rules that can improve credibility. Third, I provide a doubly-robust estimator. I illustrate by examining the pay gap by class origins under an intervention to equalize class destinations. The paper concludes with implications for practice: gap-closing estimands provide tools for the rigorous study of inequality across social categories that could inform policies to close gaps.

PERAN ORANGTUA DAN GURU PEMBIMBING KHUSUS KEPADA ANAK BERKUBUTAHAN KHUSU (SLOW LEARNER) DI SD NEGERI 5 ARCAWINANGUN

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Ujang Khiyarusoleh
Keyword(s):  
Special Needs ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Children With Special Needs ◽  
Special Needs Children ◽  
Slow Learner ◽  
Learning Achievement ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Role Of Parents ◽  
Guidance Teachers

ABSTRAK Penelitian ini dilatarbelakangi oleh adanya pendidikan yang diperuntukkan bagi semua anak, termasuk anak berkebutuhan khusus. Anak berkebutuhan khusus memiliki karakter yang berbeda-beda, khususnya slow learner dalam pembelajaran mengalami keterlambatan dalam memahami materi. Oleh karena itulah diperlukan peran orangtua dan guru pembimbing khusus untuk membantu memberikan pendidikan yang lebih baik sesuai dengan karakternya. Rumusan masalah penelitian ini yaitu bagaimana peran orangtua dan guru pembimbing khusus kepada slow learner di SD Negeri 5 Arcawinangun. Tujuan penelitian ini yaitu untuk mengetahui peran orangtua dan guru pembimbing khusus kepada slow learner di SD Negeri 5 Arcawinangun. Jenis penelitian ini yaitu penelitian kualitatif dengan pendekatan studi kasus. Teknik pengumpulan data yang digunakan adalah observasi, wawancara, dokumentasi dan triangulasi sumber. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa terdapat beberapa peran orangtua yaitu meliputi: orangtua sebagai pendamping utama, orangtua sebagai advokat, orangtua sebagai guru, orangtua sebagai diagnostian. Serta peran guru pembimbing khusus yang meliputi: merancang dan melaksanakan program kekhususan, melakukan identifikasi, asesmen dan menyususn program pembelajaran individual, memodifikasi bahan ajar, melakukan evaluasi, dan membuat laporan program dan perkembangan anak berkebutuhan khusus. Dengan peran peran tersebut, maka sebagian besar anak berkebutuhan khusus di SD Negeri 5 Arcawinangun dapat memberikan layanan dengan baik. Saran untuk penelitian ini orangtua senantiasa mendorong anaknya untuk belajar bersungguh-sungguh di rumah dan di skolah, serta menyediakan fasilitas belajar yang mendukung perkembangan pendidikan bagi anaknya. Kata Kunci: peran guru pembimbing khusus, peran orangtua, slow learner   ABSTRACT Background of the study was the existence of education aimed at all children, including children with special needs. Children with special needs have different characters, thus affecting their learning achievement. Therefore, the role of parents and special tutors were needed to help them improve learning achievement. The research question of this research was how the role of parents and special guidance teachers towards learning achievement of children with special needs in SD Negeri 5 Arcawinangun. The focus of this research was the role of parents and special guidance teachers on learning achievement of children with special needs in grades 1, 2 and 3 of SD Negeri 5 Arcawinangun. The purpose of this study was to determine the role of parents and special guidance teachers on the learning achievement of children with special needs in Arcawinangun 5 Public Elementary School. This type of research was qualitative research with a case study approach. Technique of data collection was observation, interviews, documentation and source triangulation. The results of this research indicated that there were several roles of parents, namely: parents as the main companion, parents as advocates, parents as teachers, parents as diagnostics. As well as the role of a special mentor teacher which includes: designing and implementing specific programs, identifying, assessing and arranging individual learning programs, modifying teaching materials, evaluating, and making program reports and development of children with special needs.With this role, most of the children with special needs in SD Negeri 5 Arcawinangun can improve their learning achievement well.Suggestions of this research were parents always encourage their children to study seriously at home and at school, and provide learning facilities that support the development of education for their children. Keywords: role of parents, role of special guidance teachers, slow learner

The Role of Mobile Money in Moderating Financial Exclusion: A Tanzanian Experience

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deogratius Joseph Mhella
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Banking Sector ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Microfinance Institutions ◽  
Mobile Money ◽  
Access To Credit ◽  
Financial Exclusion

Prior to the advent of mobile money, the banking sector in most of the developing countries excluded certain segments of the population. The excluded populations were deemed as a risk to the banking sector. The banking sector did not work with cash stripped and the financially disenfranchised people. Financial exclusion persisted to incredibly higher levels. Those excluded did not have: bank accounts, savings in financial institutions, access to credit, loan and insurance services. The advent of mobile money moderated the very factors of financial exclusion that the banks failed to resolve. This paper explains how mobile money moderates the factors of financial exclusion that the banks and microfinance institutions have always failed to moderate. The paper seeks to answer the following research question: 'How has mobile money moderated the factors of financial exclusion that other financial institutions failed to resolve between 1960 and 2008? Tanzania has been chosen as a case study to show how mobile has succeeded in moderating financial exclusion in the period after 2008.

The Role of Ideal Theory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christie Hartley
Keyword(s):  
Ideal Theory ◽  
Racial Minorities ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Liberal Society ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Ideal Society ◽  
Gender And Race ◽  
Theories Of Justice ◽  
Comprehensive Doctrines

This chapter discusses whether political liberalism’s commitment to ideal theory makes it ill-suited for theorizing about justice for socially subordinated groups such as women and racial minorities. It is shown that political liberalism’s commitment to ideal theory does not entail assuming away race or gender as social categories that give rise to concerns about justice. Even within a politically liberal well-ordered (ideal) society racial or gender inequalities may arise due to the role that beliefs about race or gender play in some persons’ comprehensive doctrines. Furthermore, it is argued that theories of justice developed for a well-ordered politically liberal society provide important guidance for correcting injustices on the basis of gender and race in nonideal societies.

scholarly journals The role of habitat configuration in shaping animal population processes: a framework to generate quantitative predictions

Oecologia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng He ◽  
Pierre-Olivier Montiglio ◽  
Marius Somveille ◽  
Mauricio Cantor ◽  
Damien R. Farine
Keyword(s):  
Population Level ◽  
R Package ◽  
Habitat Configuration ◽  
Modelling Framework ◽  
Alternative Habitat ◽  
Animal Populations ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Habitat Networks ◽  
Animal Habitat

AbstractBy shaping where individuals move, habitat configuration can fundamentally structure animal populations. Yet, we currently lack a framework for generating quantitative predictions about the role of habitat configuration in modulating population outcomes. To address this gap, we propose a modelling framework inspired by studies using networks to characterize habitat connectivity. We first define animal habitat networks, explain how they can integrate information about the different configurational features of animal habitats, and highlight the need for a bottom–up generative model that can depict realistic variations in habitat potential connectivity. Second, we describe a model for simulating animal habitat networks (available in the R package AnimalHabitatNetwork), and demonstrate its ability to generate alternative habitat configurations based on empirical data, which forms the basis for exploring the consequences of alternative habitat structures. Finally, we lay out three key research questions and demonstrate how our framework can address them. By simulating the spread of a pathogen within a population, we show how transmission properties can be impacted by both local potential connectivity and landscape-level characteristics of habitats. Our study highlights the importance of considering the underlying habitat configuration in studies linking social structure with population-level outcomes.

scholarly journals Influence of Land Use on Avian Diversity in North African Urban Environments

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 434
Author(s):  
Hani Amir Aouissi ◽  
Alexandru-Ionuţ Petrişor ◽  
Mostefa Ababsa ◽  
Maria Boştenaru-Dan ◽  
Mahmoud Tourki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Diversity Index ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Ecological Group ◽  
Avian Diversity ◽  
North African ◽  
Index Method ◽  
Urban Green Spaces

Land cover and use changes are important to study for their impact on ecosystem services and ultimately on sustainability. In urban environments, a particularly important research question addresses the relationship between urbanization-related changes and biodiversity, subject to controversies in the literature. Birds are an important ecological group, and useful for answering this question. The present study builds upon the hypothesis according to which avian diversity decreases with urbanization. In order to answer it, a sample of 4245 observations from 650 sites in Annaba, Algeria, obtained through the point abundance index method, were investigated by computing Shannon-Wiener’s diversity index and the species richness, mapping them, and analyzing the results statistically. The findings confirm the study hypothesis and are relevant for planning, as they stress the role of urban green spaces as biodiversity hotspots, and plead for the need of connecting them. From a planning perspective, the results emphasize the need for interconnecting the green infrastructure through avian corridors. Moreover, the results fill in an important lack of data on the biodiversity of the region, and are relevant for other similar Mediterranean areas. Future studies could use the findings to compare with data from other countries and continents.

Relational Segregation: A Structural View of Categorical Relations

2021 ◽  
pp. 073527512110299
Author(s):  
Jeremy E. Fiel
Keyword(s):  
Structural Feature ◽  
Social Conflict ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Relational Approach ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Formal Rules

This article builds a framework for a relational approach to segregation that emphasizes structures of interactions, transactions, and ties between and within social categories. Rather than explaining segregation with dominants imposing formal rules or homophilic people sorting themselves, I highlight segregation’s emergence amid dueling control efforts among actors with malleable categorical identities. And rather than assuming segregation necessarily fuels cycles of inequality or persecution, I identify nuanced advantages and disadvantages for different actors in social conflict. I also explore an underappreciated role of institutions in segregation: They guide relations across different domains of activity that may have different degrees of segregation. An overarching theme is that segregation is not a specific thing with regular causes and effects but an inherently contradictory structural feature of relations that evolves as actors struggle for control.

Polish Ethnic Minority in Belarus and Lithuania: Politics, Institutions, and Identities

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Monika Frėjutė-Rakauskienė ◽  
Olga Sasunkevich ◽  
Kristina Šliavaitė
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Analysis Data ◽  
Minority Communities ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Cross Case Analysis ◽  
Two Sides ◽  
State Schools

Abstract This article analyzes how institutions influence the process of identity formation within the Polish minority communities in Belarus and Lithuania. We focus on ways that the identities of people who consider themselves Poles in Belarus and Lithuania are targeted by institutions like the state, schools, and nongovernmental organizations. We aim to shed light on how these processes are shaped by institutional settings and broader political contexts. The authors take a bottom-up approach to institutions and look at how members of the Polish communities in the two neighboring countries conceptualize the role of various institutions—NGOs, schools, Karta Polaka (the Polish Card)—to shape their sense of ethnic belonging. The article is built on a cross-case analysis. Data for the Lithuanian and Belarusian cases, consisting of interviews and secondary sources, were collected independently and then reread in light of a common research question. Through our analysis, we show differences and similarities in how analogous institutions function on the two sides of the border and elaborate on the reasons why these differences occur and what role state policy and supranational regulations play in the process.

scholarly journals GWENA: gene co-expression networks analysis and extended modules characterization in a single Bioconductor package

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwenaëlle G. Lemoine ◽  
Marie-Pier Scott-Boyer ◽  
Bathilde Ambroise ◽  
Olivier Périn ◽  
Arnaud Droit
Keyword(s):  
Muscle Development ◽  
R Package ◽  
Topological Information ◽  
Old Patients ◽  
Network Modules ◽  
Extended Analysis ◽  
Networks Analysis ◽  
Underlying Processes

Abstract Background Network-based analysis of gene expression through co-expression networks can be used to investigate modular relationships occurring between genes performing different biological functions. An extended description of each of the network modules is therefore a critical step to understand the underlying processes contributing to a disease or a phenotype. Biological integration, topology study and conditions comparison (e.g. wild vs mutant) are the main methods to do so, but to date no tool combines them all into a single pipeline. Results Here we present GWENA, a new R package that integrates gene co-expression network construction and whole characterization of the detected modules through gene set enrichment, phenotypic association, hub genes detection, topological metric computation, and differential co-expression. To demonstrate its performance, we applied GWENA on two skeletal muscle datasets from young and old patients of GTEx study. Remarkably, we prioritized a gene whose involvement was unknown in the muscle development and growth. Moreover, new insights on the variations in patterns of co-expression were identified. The known phenomena of connectivity loss associated with aging was found coupled to a global reorganization of the relationships leading to expression of known aging related functions. Conclusion GWENA is an R package available through Bioconductor (https://bioconductor.org/packages/release/bioc/html/GWENA.html) that has been developed to perform extended analysis of gene co-expression networks. Thanks to biological and topological information as well as differential co-expression, the package helps to dissect the role of genes relationships in diseases conditions or targeted phenotypes. GWENA goes beyond existing packages that perform co-expression analysis by including new tools to fully characterize modules, such as differential co-expression, additional enrichment databases, and network visualization.

scholarly journals Non-discursive Knowledge and the Construction of Identity Potters, Potting and Performance at the Bronze Age Tell of Százhalombatta, Hungary

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Budden ◽  
Joanna Sofaer
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
Construction Of Identity ◽  
Differential Acquisition ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Bronze Age

This article explores the relationship between the making of things and the making of people at the Bronze Age tell at Százhalombatta, Hungary. Focusing on potters and potting, we explore how the performance of non-discursive knowledge was critical to the construction of social categories. Potters literally came into being as potters through repeated bodily enactment of potting skills. Potters also gained their identity in the social sphere through the connection between their potting performance and their audience. We trace degrees of skill in the ceramic record to reveal the material articulation of non-discursive knowledge and consider the ramifications of the differential acquisition of non-discursive knowledge for the expression of different kinds of potter's identities. The creation of potters as a social category was essential to the ongoing creation of specific forms of material culture. We examine the implications of altered potters' performances and the role of non-discursive knowledge in the construction of social models of the Bronze Age.

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