Frontiers in Sociology最新文献

{"title":"The dialectic of human-object relations in Chinese urban television drama: a reification-theoretical reading.","authors":"Wen Liang","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2026.1784028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2026.1784028","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Lukács's theory of reification describes a social order in which relations among people appear as relations among things. It offers a productive way to read urban television narratives, where housing, consumption, professional performance, and intimate life regularly become measures of social worth.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>This article examines how Chinese television dramas make reification visible through objects, space, and the body. It also asks how people-centered narration is constructed as a textual possibility for questioning those relations.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The study uses qualitative close reading of three urban dramas - Fake It Till You Make It, Nothing But Thirty, and Women in Beijing - and Meet Yourself, a contrastive case that begins with urban workplace pressure before relocating its protagonist to a rural community. Plot events, dialogue, character action, settings, and recurring motifs are examined through object alienation, reified space, the reified body, and dereifying practice.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Across the urban cases, luxury goods, exclusive residences, professional schedules, and intimate calculations turn social value into visible and comparable signs. The contrastive case frames a partial interruption of that logic through care, shared activity, and a changed relation to work. These are narrative resolutions, not demonstrations of institutional transformation.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The article connects reification theory to the close analysis of Chinese television narrative. It argues that people-centered narration is most useful as an analytical term when it names concrete formal and relational practices rather than a general moral quality.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"11 ","pages":"1784028"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13678168/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149225097","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A theoretical interpretation of the interaction between formal and illegal institutions in migrant labour recruitment in Italian agriculture.","authors":"Gaetano Martino","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2026.1937799","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fsoc.2026.1937799","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Labour exploitation is widespread in Italian agriculture. Although a substantial body of research has sought to explain these trends, further scientific investigation is still needed to understand how formal and illegal institutions interact. Institutional analysis could provide an original contribution to the study of this issue. This study adopts this perspective and seeks to address the following research question: what kinds of interactions take place among these institutions that may be associated with the emergence of the observed working and exploitative conditions? The manuscript examines migrant labour in Italian agriculture and investigates how migration regulations, migrants' legal status, labour market dependency, and illegal recruitment practices interact in producing vulnerability and exploitation. In particular, this study contributes to the debate by shedding light on the interaction between formal and illegal institutions and by integrating them into a unified theoretical framework. Following Helmke and Levitsky (2004), this article classifies these illegal institutions and their interactions as competing in nature. The existing literature provides considerable evidence that supports this theoretical framework. However, the study has two main limitations. First, the analysis relies on a non-systematic narrative literature review. A more structured analysis could enrich the interpretation of the phenomenon. Second, the study lacks empirical research specifically designed to test the proposed theory. Future research should therefore focus on this task and further enrich the theoretical interpretation by examining, above all, the impact of institutional interactions on enterprises and agri-food value chains.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"11 ","pages":"1937799"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13671990/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149216979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Coping during wartime: a qualitative study on secular existential coping strategies of Ukrainians.","authors":"Nataliia Melnyk, Fereshteh Ahmadi, Olena Kovtun","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2026.1889407","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2026.1889407","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has generated profound psychological and existential challenges. Although religious coping has been widely studied, secular existential meaning-making during wartime remains underexplored.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A qualitative design was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 67 adults aged 20-72 years from diverse occupational, regional, and religious backgrounds. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Five interrelated themes were identified: nature and physical space as sources of existential grounding; cultural and creative practices; civic engagement and solidarity; routine, work, and practical activity; and physical activity, meditation, and non-religious contemplative practices. These strategies were embedded in cultural heritage, collective historical memory, personal agency, and social connection.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Secular existential meaning-making is a culturally grounded pathway of adaptation that can complement religious and clinical models of support. Psychosocial interventions in conflict settings should recognize psychological, existential, and cultural resources without treating religious identity as determinative of the coping strategies used.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"11 ","pages":"1889407"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13679703/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149228986","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Creative entrepreneurship as a socially embedded form of work: a sociological ecology for the platform society.","authors":"Linchu Rajan, Lekshmi Mohan, Joel George, Ajimon George, Anoop Tom Thomas, Maria Susan Mathew","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2026.1959266","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fsoc.2026.1959266","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Creative entrepreneurship increasingly combines creative production with entrepreneurial, communicative, and platform-mediated work. Existing scholarship has generated important insights into opportunity recognition, innovation, value creation, and creative labor, but these perspectives often examine entrepreneurial activity, social relations, cultural recognition, and platform governance as analytically separate processes. This Perspective develops the Sociological Ecology of Creative Entrepreneurship (SECE), a conceptual framework that positions creative entrepreneurship as socially embedded work within platform society. Drawing on economic sociology, sociology of work, labor process theory, digital sociology, and platform studies, SECE integrates five analytically distinct but relationally connected dimensions: identity construction, relational capital, platform governance, cultural legitimacy, and institutional embeddedness. The framework is presented as a relational and multilevel heuristic rather than a tested causal model. It proposes that creative entrepreneurial practice emerges through interactions among workers, audiences, collaborators, platforms, cultural fields, and institutions. The Perspective further considers how these relations are shaped by power, inequality, and human-AI interaction and identifies directions for empirical research into platform-mediated creative work, occupational sustainability, and changing forms of employment.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"11 ","pages":"1959266"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13672186/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149217020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Language attitudes and ethnic or cultural identity among ethnic minority university students in China: a systematic bilingual knowledge synthesis.","authors":"Wei Chen, Yok Fee Lee, Shikun Zheng, Ratna Roshida Binti Ab Razak, Arfah Binti Ab Majid","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2026.1952915","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fsoc.2026.1952915","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Research on ethnic minority university students in China frequently links language attitudes with ethnic or cultural identity, but its findings are difficult to accumulate because studies operationalize different constructs and answer different questions. This systematic bilingual knowledge synthesis examined what the evidence collectively establishes and which explanations remain provisional. Searches of Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) yielded 303 records; 25 reports (individual publications) representing 23 distinct studies (underlying empirical investigations or datasets) were included. Seven reports representing six studies supplied direct evidence, while 18 reports representing 17 studies supplied contextual evidence. Two reviewers independently screened records, extracted data, and appraised the included studies using the 2018 Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). Direct evidence showed a recurring association between language evaluation and ethnic or cultural identity, while direction, common magnitude, and causal ordering remain unresolved. Contextual evidence showed that heritage-language attachment can coexist with the instrumental value of Putonghua and English and identified opportunities for use and recognition as plausible explanations for variation in practice. The focal conclusion remained supported when it was based only on the six studies classified as direct evidence; contextual findings were not counted as confirmation. The review identifies a shortage of direct tests and limited comparability across constructs, designs, reports, and evidence roles as the main barriers to cumulative knowledge.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"11 ","pages":"1952915"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13671949/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149216840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Faculty curriculum development to open the gates to STEM: incorporating research experiences to the curriculum to increase student success in STEM.","authors":"Heather Haeger, Joseph Owusu Amoah, Enock Atta-Sah Nimfour","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2026.1904900","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fsoc.2026.1904900","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>As access to college has increased, the access point has shifted from getting into college to persisting in elite majors, such as STEM majors which provide access to greater economic mobility. Passing through introductory gatekeeping courses in STEM, courses with high rates of dropping, failing, withdrawing, or taking an incomplete (DFWI rates), is a crucial access point for undergraduate students. Being able to pass these courses is a high-stakes filter that has a significant influence on persistence, retention, and degree completion in college. This study examines an intervention designed to improve student success and retention in STEM by supporting curriculum re-design of gatekeeper courses through Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs). CUREs offer students opportunities to engage in authentic research, which provides students with practical experience to develop collaboration, communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and other competencies that help them succeed in gatekeeper courses in the early stages of the STEM pathways.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We employ a <i>post hoc</i>, quasi-experimental design to test the impact of this curriculum re-design on college persistence, persistence in STEM, and cumulative GPA. The study was conducted at a large public research university designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution. The treatment variable indicated participation in a CURE designed through the CURE Training Institute, a 1-week intensive training for STEM faculty teaching introductory STEM courses, followed by a year-long Community of Practice. Outcome variables included first- and second-year college retention, first- and second-year STEM retention, and cumulative GPA at the end of the second year. To address selection bias, Propensity Score Matching was used to create comparable groups of students who did and did not participate in CUREs. Regression analyses were then conducted on both full and matched samples to estimate the relationship between CURE participation and academic outcomes.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Using propensity score matching, the results show a consistent pattern in which participation in course-based undergraduate research experiences is associated with significantly higher retention in college and STEM retention.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Integrating faculty curriculum development through course-based undergraduate research experiences supports students in succeeding in gateway courses without lowering academic rigor and the knowledge and mastery students need to possess.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"11 ","pages":"1904900"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13668744/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149217011","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"\"The information exists, but it's your job to find it\": 1.5-generation immigrants' encounters with public institutions.","authors":"Pnina Dolberg, Karin Amit, Avital Kaye-Tzadok","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2026.1857620","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fsoc.2026.1857620","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Public institutions play a central role in immigrants' access to rights, resources, and opportunities, yet less is known about how immigrants experience encounters across multiple institutional settings during the early years following migration. Based on qualitative interviews with 21 immigrants from the former Soviet Union to Israel, this study examines how adults who immigrated during adolescence (referred to as the 1.5 generation) retrospectively describe and interpret their early interactions with public institutions. We identify four central themes: absence of institutional guidance, institutional misfit and misrecognition, active mediation by immigrant youth within their families, and localized experiences of support within specific institutional contexts. Participants' accounts point to a recurring gap between the formal availability of institutional resources and participants' ability to identify, access, and use those resources in practice. Information, guidance, mediation, recognition, and cultural sensitivity shaped how they experienced institutional encounters, while adolescents often became central intermediaries between their families and public systems. Positive experiences were commonly associated with particular institutional actors or structured programs that provided support and opportunities. The study highlights the value of examining early institutional encounters from a broader vantage point of adulthood.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"11 ","pages":"1857620"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13668496/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149216961","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Improving market infrastructure for small entrepreneurship in Uzbekistan: a sociological opinion on export potential, employment, and social inclusion.","authors":"Firuza Saidkulova, Dilafiruz Narzieva, Nigina Chorieva, Firuza Achilova, Jasurbek Jonibekov, Mokhichekhra Rajabova","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2026.1926726","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fsoc.2026.1926726","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"11 ","pages":"1926726"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13668556/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149216684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Women workers' labour market engagement and financial autonomy: the mediating role of government initiatives in Kerala, India.","authors":"Shahbaz Babar Khan, P Mubarak Rahman, Jasvinder Sidhu, Najul Laskar","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2026.1882363","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fsoc.2026.1882363","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This research examines the interrelationship between the labour market engagement and financial autonomy of employed women, with a focus on the mediating role of government initiatives in Kerala, India. Despite high literacy rates and progressive social indicators in Kerala, low female labour force participation points to deep-seated socio-cultural and institutional barriers. Drawing on Human Capital Theory, the Gender and Development Framework, and Empowerment Theory, the study constructs a comprehensive model incorporating cultural, economic, and policy determinants. Because the sample comprises women who are already employed, the study examines <i>labour market engagement</i>-employed women's active involvement in work, confidence in employability, access to job opportunities, and perceived professional growth-rather than labour force participation in its conventional sense. Using survey data collected from 1,357 women workers across five districts of Kerala and analyzed through Structural Equation Modelling in AMOS 28.0, the results indicate that cultural determinants are more strongly associated with women's labour market engagement than economic factors alone. Labour market engagement is positively and significantly associated with financial autonomy, suggesting that economic engagement is linked to greater financial decision-making power and financial control among women. Bootstrapped mediation analysis further indicates that government initiatives such as Kudumbashree and the Women Entrepreneurship Mission partially mediate the association between labour market engagement and financial autonomy. Given the cross-sectional design, these findings represent empirical associations rather than causal effects. The study contributes to gendered labour economics by suggesting that employment needs to be accompanied by enabling institutional mechanisms for sustainable empowerment and equitable growth.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"11 ","pages":"1882363"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13668573/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149216767","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Meritocracy in Brazil, China and USA: identifying inconsistencies in the Preference for the Merit Principle Scale through Exploratory Graph Analysis.","authors":"Luciano Rossoni, Pedro Henrique Ribeiro Santiago, Luíza Marques do Valle, Kauê Brandão Bezerra, Marcos Henrique Rodrigues Formiga","doi":"10.3389/fsoc.2026.1720286","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fsoc.2026.1720286","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The belief that individuals should be rewarded according to merit for their effort and talent has become increasingly widespread, yet efforts to measure it remain contested. Meritocracy has been conceptualized both as an ideology that justifies inequality and as an ideal of distributive justice, with some studies emphasizing its descriptive nature, whether it is perceived as existing in society. Others analyze it as prescriptive, framing it as a desirable social norm. This study focuses on the Preference for the Merit Principle (PMP), the most widely used prescriptive measure of meritocracy. It demonstrates that its assumed unidimensionality, encompassing the principles of equity, equality, and need, is untenable across sociocultural contexts. To that end, we compared the dimensionality and internal consistency of the PMP across three national samples using Exploratory Graph Analysis (EGA): a prototypically WEIRD country (United States), a non-WEIRD BRICS country (China), and our own sample of 136 Brazilian university students. Results consistently favored multifactorial over unidimensional structures across all three countries, with greater heterogeneity observed in the non-WEIRD samples. In the Brazilian sample, four unstable dimensions were identified: Need (reverse), Equity, Equality (reverse), and Competitive Equity. Criterion validity analyses revealed divergent and contradictory associations: equity was negatively associated with hierarchical beliefs, whereas denial of Need showed a marginal negative association with support for affirmative action policies. Given the low reliability of some PMP dimensions, these results should be interpreted with caution. These findings urge greater caution in applying the PMP across sociocultural contexts and call for treating prescriptive meritocracy as a multidimensional, contextually embedded belief system.</p>","PeriodicalId":36297,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Sociology","volume":"11 ","pages":"1720286"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2026-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13661348/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149184983","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}