Exploring S-shape curves and heterogeneity effects of rumor spreading in online collective actions

<abstract> <p>Nowadays online collective actions are pervasive, such as the rumor spreading on the Internet. The observed curves take on the S-shape, and we focus on evolutionary dynamics for S- shape curves of online rumor spreading. For agents, key factors, such as internal aspects, external aspects, and hearing frequency jointly determine whether to spread it. Agent-based modeling is applied to capture micro-level mechanism of this S-shape curve. We have three findings: (a) Standard S-shape curves of spreading can be obtained if each agent has the zero threshold; (b) Under zero-mean thresholds, as heterogeneity (SD) grows from zero, S-shape curves with longer right tails can be obtained. Generally speaking, stronger heterogeneity comes up with a longer duration; and (c) Under positive mean thresholds, the spreading curve is two-staged, with a linear stage (first) and nonlinear stage (second), but not standard S-shape curves either. From homogeneity to heterogeneity, the spreading S-shaped curves have longer right tail as the heterogeneity grows. For the spreading duration, stronger heterogeneity usually brings a shorter duration. The effects of heterogeneity on spreading curves depend on different situations. Under both zero and positive-mean thresholds, heterogeneity leads to S-shape curves. Hence, heterogeneity enhances the spreading with thresholds, but it may postpone the spreading process with homogeneous thresholds.</p> </abstract>

Collective actions for reconfiguration of urban space Biały Bór, Poland

Biały Bór is located in the former German territories that came to Poland after the Second World War. The almost complete replacement of the indigenous German and Jewish populations, initially by Polish and soon Ukrainian communities, was the result of the displacement of state borders by the eviction and relocation of millions of people. To do this, the authorities used certain strategies, which brought different approaches and constraints to local communities and urban spaces. The article considers the differences between the declared principles and the actual actions of the authorities in the context of “small stories” of all actors (national communities), as well as the tactics of indirect resistance of the local community to government pressure. Due to the remoteness of the place from the state center and due to its unanimity, the local community becomes the driving force of the spatial development of the city. And since the city is multicultural, the development of public spaces is influenced by the competitiveness (not confrontation) of two local communities. Therefore, the creation of public spaces is considered in the context of the rights of different groups to the city. This paper argues the conditions under which it is the collective actions of local communities that determine the change in the configuration of urban space.

Failure and Improvement in Elementary Engineering

Recent science education reform documents in the United States have called for teachers to teach content related to engineering and science and to do so by engaging students in disciplinary practices. One important practice of engineering is improving from failure. Thus, students should experience productive failure as part of engineering design activities. However, engineering is a new subject for most elementary teachers. Historically failure has had negative connotations in elementary and precollege classrooms. To scaffold students through failure as they learn from and improve engineering designs, teachers will need to understand failure and pedagogical strategies for managing it. This study uses discourse analysis of video from eight elementary classes engaged in engineering to examine the nature of failure in engineering design projects. It also investigates how the collective actions of students and teachers support or constrain the process of improvement from engineering design failure. From these data, we propose a model of improvement through failure. This includes a classification of types and causes failure as well as facilitating conditions that must be present for improvement. We explore three features of engineering and three features of classroom cultures that contribute to learning to engage in productive failure.

PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT OF THE ENTERPRISE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE INFLUENCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

The article highlights the urgency of the problem. The essence of the personnel management system and its components are emphasized. The directions of influence of organizational culture on separate aspects of personnel management of the enterprise are described. Some examples of personnel management are given in the context of the importance of organizational culture. It is determined that the spiritual and ideological elements of organizational culture determine the content of employee culture and their interpersonal relationships, they directly determine the behavior of employees in the process of their individual and collective actions in the relevant stages of use and development of material elements. It is substantiated that this is an integrating factor that characterizes human relations in the process of formation, development and corresponding changes in the activities of the organization. It is proved that another element of organizational culture is the culture of labor and production, which is presented in the norms, standards and principles of internal regulations established by the owner (manager) and enshrined in regulations that ensure internal relations, stability and efficiency.

Networked Collective Actions

Massive and sustained candlelight vigils in 2016–2017, the most significant citizen-led protests in the history of democratic South Korea, led to the impeachment and removal of then President Park Geun-hye. These protests took place in a South Korean media environment characterized by polarization and low public trust, and where conspiracy theories and false claims by those opposing impeachment were frequently amplified by extreme right-wing media outlets. How then was it possible for pro-impeachment protests seeking major social change to succeed? And why did pro-Park protesters and government efforts to defend Park ultimately fail? An agent-affordance framework is introduced to explain how key participants (agents), including journalists, citizens, social media influencers, bots, and civic organizations, together produced a broad citizen consensus that Park should be removed from office. This was accomplished by creatively employing affordances made available by South Korea’s history, legal system, and technologies. New empirical evidence illustrates the ongoing significant roles of both traditional and nontraditional agents as they continue to co-adapt to affordances provided by changing information environments. Interviews with key players yield firsthand descriptions of events. The interviews, original content analyses of media reports, and examination of social media posts combine to provide strong empirical support for the agent-affordance framework. Lessons drawn from citizen-led protests surrounding Park Geun-hye’s removal from office in South Korea are used to offer suggestions for how technology-enabled affordances may support and constrain movements for social change elsewhere in the world.

Introduction

This chapter serves as an overview of the book and orients readers to subsequent chapters. It provides major contexts for networked collective actions and offers a quick look at the emergence of nontraditional intermediaries and their dynamic interactions with traditional intermediaries. Then the chapter introduces South Korean citizens’ candlelight vigils in 2016 and 2017 calling for the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye and discusses how the impeachment example is an instance of the complex changes being observed in collective actions facilitated by digital communication technologies. The chapter briefly explains theoretical and methodological approaches used in this book in analyzing the intricate relationships between various agents (e.g., individuals, institutions, bots/algorithms) and their interactions with relevant affordances during South Korean citizens’ candlelight vigils demanding Park’s impeachment. The chapter ends with a brief summary of the focus of subsequent chapters.

Agent-Affordance Framework of Networked Collective Actions

This chapter details an agent-affordance framework designed to offer an understanding of social change dynamics in rapidly changing information ecosystems. In doing so, it explicates a taxonomy of agents and affordances critical to the Park Geun-hye impeachment. This framework includes four types of agent and three categories of affordance to account for social change dynamics that have become both more decentralized and increasingly intertwined between human and nonhuman computational agents. As communication infrastructure and social and political processes co-adapt, it is imperative to consider how structural and behavioral affordances affect social change. The framework considers the complex web of motivations, processes, and outcomes that support networked collective actions and enable these actions to succeed or fail.

Conclusion

This chapter discusses lessons the candlelight vigils and other similar cases offer for our understanding of how collective actions co-adapt with information ecosystems. In particular, the author discusses how empirical data analysis informs the agent-affordance framework by illustrating ways in which information generation and distribution mechanisms involve diverse agents within the information ecosystem. This chapter also discusses how insights offered in this book might be applicable to citizens’ calls for major political changes in other democratic countries. The chapter concludes by summarizing the scholarly and policy contributions of the book and suggesting a need for specific research to examine challenges for democratic governance posed by the rapidly growing volume of information available in the public sphere.

Candlelight Vigils and Citizen Activism

This chapter focuses on modern political and social collective actions in South Korea to illustrate how changing information ecosystems have influenced the ways protests and candlelight vigils have been organized over the past several decades. In particular, the chapter explains how Internet and digital communication technologies began to be used to facilitate collective actions in South Korea in a series of candlelight vigils beginning in 2002, when two South Korean teenage girls were killed by a U.S. armored vehicle. It also covers other major candlelight vigils, including 2004 vigils against the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun and 2008 vigils against U.S. beef importation. In examining candlelight vigils at different time points and stages of technological development, it considers both what changed and what has remained largely the same, while highlighting key agents and affordances and their interactions at each time period analyzed.

CHEPECLETAS: UN COLECTIVO A FAVOR DE LA MOVILIDAD URBANA SOSTENIBLE

En Costa Rica se encuentra el colectivo ChepeCletas que ha encauzado sus esfuerzos en mejorar la calidad del ambiente, a través del uso de bicicletas y las caminatas, así como la recuperación de espacios para la intervención pública, con el fn de convertir a la capital en un espacio para todas las personas. Por tanto, este artículo realizó un análisis dentro del colectivo, basado en los marcos de referencia de diagnóstico, pronóstico y motivo, dando como resultado mayor conciencia del impacto ambiental que genera el uso excesivo de vehículos privados, la construcción de un grupo que se siente como familia, incrementando el empoderamiento ciudadano para el cambio social, así como el interés por la ciudad y la necesidad de retomar los espacios que siempre fueron públicos; pero habían sido olvidados. Utilizar los marcos de referencia permite comprender, desde la visión de los integrantes, qué es, qué permite y qué se hace en dicho colectivo. Sumado a esto, se debe recalcar que este artículo aporta nuevos conocimientos respecto del tema, visualiza otra forma de hacer política desde abajo y crea espacios que integran cada día a más personas. Palabras clave: Movilidad, acciones colectivas, ambiente, política. AbstractIn Costa Rica, where the ChepeCletas collective is to be found, eforts have been channeled to improve the quality of the environment by using bicycles and walking, as well as the recovery of spaces bound for public intervention to turn the capital into a space for all people. Therefore, this article conducts an analysis within the group based on the diagnostic, prognostic and motive reference frameworks which result in a greater awareness of the environmental impact than the excessive use of private vehicles generates. Additionally, the onstruction of a group that feels like family increasing citizen empowerment for social change, as well as interest in the city and the need to retake spaces that were always public but had been forgotten. The use of reference frames allows us to understand, from the point of view of the members, it’s nature, what allows it to be and what is done in said group. In addition to this, it should be emphasized that this article provides new knowledge on the subject, visualizes another way of doing politics from below and creates spaces that integrate more people every day. Keywords: Mobility, collective actions, environment, politics