Social networks have been resorted to as effective platforms for social mobility in many parts of the world. This mobility occurs when social media users exploit their interpersonal relationships, especially their ‘weak ties’ (Granovetter, 1973). Social networks enable their users to be producers of information, rather than mere consumers, and to be socially and politically well-informed. They ...

Research into adoption, acceptance and consumption of Information Technology (IT) within its diffusion cycle has been extensively studied in Information Systems (IS) and marketing. However, research often focused too narrowly on technology adoption rates and drivers leading to technology adoption and acceptance. This paper discusses how understanding the social structure of a consumer’s economy...

The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), a domain repository with a 50-year track record of archiving social and behavioural science data, applied for—and acquired—the Data Seal of Approval (DSA) in 2010. DSA is a non-intrusive, straightforward approach to assessing organizational, technical, and operational infrastructure, and signifies a basic level of accred...

Recent research has hypothesized that empowerment can arise from collective action through collective self-objectification (CSO), defined as action that actualizes participants' social identity against the power of dominant groups. Activists (N = 37) described several experiences that made them feel empowered (and disempowered). Among the various explanations they offered for these feelings, th...

In previous chapters, we discussed the contextual factors that affect the development of political systems. However, the evolution of political systems is not merely a function of the economic, social, cultural, and international environments. Political democracy is also as much a product of human choices as it is a product of context, particularly the choice of institutions that help shape the...

The Community Dentistry Department of the University of Michigan has coori. • : • "•": : dinated a community practice program since fall 1971, The program provides a broad range , .; :,;, , ' of experiences, including work with penal institutions, a major hospital, homes for the re. tarded, rural and urban clinics, an institution training dental assistants, and a summer mifj' 'grant program. Th...