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Art as a social engagement in the West can be dated back to the history of avant-garde art starting from the end of nineteenth century. Rooted in his own cultural background, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's socially engaged art project "Fairytale is more complex than the avant-garde strategy. The work Fairytale established a structure - "1=1,001". That means on the one hand, the participants can be easily regarded everywhere in Kassel as 1,001 mobile works of art. All of them contribute to an entire work. In other words, the 1,001 people consist of one work. On the other hand, everyone is dealing with their personal issues independent of art. In this sense, the entire work can be divided into 1,001 personal experiences. This structure is based on three principles of Chinese philosophy Taoism - the duality between Yin and Yang, the dynamism between Yin and Yang, and the concept of uselessness. Positioning Fairytale within both Western theoretical as well as Chinese philosophical contexts, this essay is to analyze how Chinese philosophy shaped Ai's strategy of social engagement and his cultural identity - Chineseness.

The study presents the use of a humanoid robot to facilitate social engagement behaviors in four children with autism. These children were enrolled in a semester long treatment program based on components of the SCERTS model designed to facilitate social communication (Prizant, 2003). Following baseline, children received intervention sessions with and without the robot. During sessions involving the robot, each child would participate in a 10 minute interaction (as part of a 50 minute sessions) using a robot to facilitate interaction with a graduate clinician or parent. The interactions were recorded and analyzed for occurrences of social engagement behaviors. This study focused specifically on the triadic interaction that occurred in the pre-and post-intervention sessions. The triadic interaction was a structured play sequence involving three individuals (the child, the graduate clinician, and the assisting graduate clinician). The results suggest that the robot has potential to facilitate reciprocal action between children with autism and adults.

Social engagement has been clearly associated with socio-developmental outcomes in clinical and at-risk populations of infants, who show deficits in gaze following, face processing, and joint attention. Importantly, these are all skills related to language learning. This is most prominently illustrated by individuals with autism, for whom social engagement and language are markedly dysfunctional. In contrast, for typically developing infants the parameters of social engagement and language learning have only been generally defined. The present study was designed to relate infants' social attention to later language outcomes. In this longitudinal study, 11-month-old infants participated in social attention tasks (distracter, gaze following and face scanning tasks); at 14 months, infants returned to participate in language (word/object association) and joint attention (Early Social Communication Scales) tasks; at 18-20 months, caregivers reported on language (vocabulary size) and autistic symptomatology (developmental screening measures). Overall, the results indicated that measures of social attention predict later language outcomes. In particular, joint attention accounted for 13% of the variance in infants' word/object association performance at 14-months. More frequent response to the joint attention bids of an adult female tester (e.g., looking in the direction of her pointing) was associated with better word/object association learning. With regard to vocabulary size, two tasks emerged as significant predictors, the distracter and joint attention tasks, which together accounted for 38% of the variance in language at 18-months. Specifically, longer latencies (i.e., less distractibility) to look away from the face when an adult female was speaking (distracter task) and more frequently responding to the attention bids of the tester were associated with a larger productive vocabulary size. / Ph. D.

Thesis advisor: Paul Schervish / The rapid increase in the number of religious non-affiliates in the United States makes non-affiliation an important issue to study. Traditional secularization theories have explained the overall increase in the number of people who report not belonging to a specific religion, but have not explored the diversity among them. Studies attempting to explain the rise in non-affiliation have been basically descriptive, focusing on sociodemographic characteristics or social networks of religious non-affiliates, examining the effects of cohort, political orientation, parents' religions, and peer religions. There is no comprehensive social theory on the dynamics of religious non-affiliation. In sum, the previous literature requires us to reconsider the theoretical limits of modernity and the unilateral understanding of secularization and suggests a new framework for multiple secularities in accordance with high modernity. In this study, I conceptualize religious non-affiliation as "multiple secularities," creating a new framework that takes into account the existence of various forms of non-affiliation in the United States. Specifically, I identify three types of worldviews (theism, spiritualism, immanent frame) and two categories of institutional religious affiliation (affiliation and non-affiliation). Thus, six forms of belief are considered--affiliated theism, affiliated spiritualism, affiliated positivism, unaffiliated theism, unaffiliated spiritualism, and unaffiliated positivism. Utilizing the 2005 Baylor Religion Survey and the Religion Module of the 2008 International Social Science Survey, this dissertation explores differences among multiple secularities in the U.S. with respect to three dimensions of holistic implications: head, heart, and hand. Findings indicate that there are distinct differences among unaffiliated individuals based on belief types. Compared to unaffiliated spiritualists and unaffiliated positivists, unaffiliated theists place less importance on the role of human agency as compared to divine agency, have lower levels of moral liberalism, are more likely to favor religion when considering the tension between religion and science, more likely to report experiences of being filled with the Spirit, more likely to participate in political associations, but less likely to attend political rallies and demonstrations. Unaffiliated spiritualists have the highest rates of reporting experiences of oneness with the universe and interest in New Age (astrology and alternative medicine), and they are most likely to participate in political rallies or public protests among the unaffiliated individuals. Unaffiliated positivists are most likely to place importance on human agency, and they have the lowest rates of religious and spiritual experiences among the unaffiliated. These findings make several important contributions to the literature. First, they contribute to the recognition of the limits of the `secularization' thesis in a high (or late) modern society such as the United States and provide a new framework for understanding `multiple secularities' by examining interactions between the institutional level of secularity (non-affiliation) and the individual level of secularity (privatization of belief). Second, they confirm the Weberian insight that `elective affinities' exist between worldviews and ideological, experiential, and social aspects of life in a high modern society. Third, they demonstrate that social research should further explore the subdivisions among "unchurched believers" (unaffiliated theists and spiritualists). Fourth, they contribute to the debate on "spiritual individualism" versus "engaged spirituality" by demonstrating that spirituality promotes various forms of social engagement. Finally, this dissertation suggests that contemporary social scientists should recognize the limits of the traditional secularization thesis and face a new conundrum of post-secularity beyond belief types and affiliation types in order to promote social cohesion. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Thesis advisor: David L. Blustein / Globalization has had many implications on the world’s economy, culture, mobility, and experience of work. Of these, global human migration, or international mobility, is often used as the prime indicator of globalization (United Nations Population Fund [UNPFA]; 2013). Evidence suggests that multiple international relocations, with the accompanying loss of familiar spatial environments, social relationships, and social institutions, are deleterious to human well-being. However, literature has yet to elucidate the mechanisms that contribute to the difficulties associated with high rates of international mobility. Using a multinational dataset of responses gathered from 255 internationally mobile employees at 24 worksites in 11 different countries (i.e. Botswana, Japan, Brazil, Spain, China, United Kingdom, India, United States, Mexico, South Africa), this exploratory study tested a structural model delineating the relationships among the rate of international mobility, dispositional optimism, social engagement and well-being, as defined by life satisfaction, job satisfaction, and functional health. Structural equation modeling and follow-up multiple regression analyses found optimism to have the greatest in impact on predicting the levels of job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and functional health, above all other demographic and observed predictors in the study. The rate of international mobility had a significant negative impact on job satisfaction, but not on functional health or life satisfaction. In addition, the frequency of an individual’s in-person interactions with family, friends, and neighbors did not have a significant role in predicting the outcomes. Contrary to the study’s hypotheses, social engagement did not function as a mediator between optimism and well-being. These important findings highlight human resilience in international migration, and offer research, practice, and organizational policy implications for understanding and supporting internationally mobile individuals. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

This study examined the effect of low doses of interactive therapy with a robot on the basic social engagement skills of four children with autism in interaction with an unfamiliar adult. The current study was part of a larger work investigating the effects of treatment incorporating a robot on the social engagement behaviors of children with autism. A single-subject, multiple-baseline research design was implemented and included four types of sessions: baseline, traditional intervention, intervention including the robot, and follow-up. Each participant received a total of 20 intervention sessions in addition to baseline and follow-up sessions. Intervention with the robot was conducted during 10 minutes of 50-minute therapy sessions. The remaining 40 minutes were spent providing highly interactive, play-based therapy similar to that conducted in traditional treatment sessions. Pre- and post-intervention measures of social engagement behaviors were taken and compared. Results indicated that most social engagement behaviors measured remained relatively constant or decreased over the course of the study. Reciprocal and collaborative actions in the context of turn-taking and singing activities, however, increased in three of the four participants. Implications of these results are discussed and suggestions for further research are offered.

A number of studies have suggested that the right cerebral hemisphere declines, functionally, more rapidly, and to a greater degree, than does the left hemisphere, as the human adult ages. Furthermore, research has suggested a possible link between age by gender-related changes in cognitive function and changes in mood and levels of social engagement. Importantly, a literature search identified that no previous study has employed a divided visual field experimental technique, where emotionally valenced verbal stimuli have been presented, in order to test whether selective impairment of right cerebral hemisphere functioning is associated with normal adult ageing. Nor has any study investigated associations between age, gender, levels of social engagement, mood, and performances in the perception of both emotionally valenced verbal stimuli and facial affect. The present study investigated whether a selective impairment of right cerebral hemispheric cognitive functioning, in relation to emotion perception, is associated with normal adult ageing. In addition, the present study explored whether any relationships exist between an age-related and/or age by gender-related right cerebral hemispheric cognitive impairment, problems with mood, and deficits in social engagement. Two divided visual field experiments were conducted: one divided visual field experiment employed verbal stimuli, and the other, facial image stimuli. These two experiments attempted to assess changes, with adult ageing, in hemispheric specialisation for the perception of emotion by tachistoscopically presenting valenced (positive, neutral, or negative) verbal and facial image stimuli, within a divided visual field experimental paradigm. The studies were conducted across two groups (an old group and a young group of subjects), whilst controlling for gender, handedness and verbal ability of subjects. The dependent variables in these two experiments were the subjects' reaction times to the stimuli, accuracy of identification of the emotional valence of the stimuli, and response biases to these stimuli. The data derived from the verbal divided visual field and facial image divided visual field experiments did not indicate any changes in relation to the laterality of emotion perception as the adult human being ages. Importantly, though, the results from both of the aforementioned experiments revealed that the older group of subjects responded more slowly and less accurately to the emotionally valued stimuli than did the younger group of subjects, suggesting that deficits in emotion perception occur with adult ageing. In addition, the results suggested age by gender-specific relationships, whereby an overall lowering in cognitive ability for older men was associated with a lowering in ability to accurately perceive the emotional valence of the stimuli. For older women it was found that a lowering in cognitive ability largely mediated by the left cerebral hemisphere was associated with a lowering in ability to accurately perceive the emotional valence of the stimuli, whilst cognitive ability for young persons was not associated with this variable. The data also suggested that for the young women, a heightened level of cognitive ability largely mediated by the left cerebral hemisphere was associated with a lowering in satisfaction with their level of social interaction, whereas a heightened level of cognitive ability largely mediated by the right cerebral hemisphere was associated with a heightened level of mood disturbance. Gender-specific relationships were also found, whereby for both the older and younger women, a heightened level of mood disturbance was associated with a lowering in satisfaction with their level of social interaction, whilst for both the older and younger men these variables had no relationship. Furthermore, an age by gender-specific relationship was revealed, whereby for the older men, a heightened level of satisfaction with their level of social interaction was associated with a heightened level of social engagement, whilst for the young men, and both the young and older women, these variables had no relationship.

This research identifies the negotiation of inherited understandings of the term ‘community’ as an increasingly widespread concern within the field of contemporary art since 1989, particularly in the wake of art’s communitarian turn during the 1990s. The thesis examines these artistic investigations in connection with the work of philosophers such as Maurice Blanchot, Roberto Esposito and Jean-Luc Nancy during the 1980s and 1990s, where we find the most thorough interrogation of the term ‘community’ since the nineteenth century. Contending that art has significantly contributed to a discourse long established in philosophy, the thesis reflects on what precipitated the widespread shift from an artistic interest in ‘this or that community’ to ‘community as such’ during the 1990s, and on what art has offered to the negotiation of community that philosophy has not. These dual concerns have been developed in the two sections that comprise the thesis, entitled ‘Untying the “Unique Epochal Knot”’ and ‘Collaboration, Participation, Performance and the Negotiation of Community’. An important issue the thesis broaches is whether art can (despite concerns about its co-optation within neoliberal institutions) constitute a potent site for the negotiation of community. The affirmative, if critical, answer given considers the unorthodox forms, logics and strategies that art is permitted to employ, art’s ability to enact material interventions into social relations and, overall, art’s operation as an alternative/complementary mode of articulation to that offered by philosophy. Through the analysis of pertinent case studies, the thesis examines how collaborative, participatory and performance practices have been particularly employed by artists including Tania Bruguera, Kristina Norman and Artur Żmijewski, seeking to scrutinise factors crucial to the rethinking of community. These factors include singularity, commonality, temporality and ethics. Springing from interviews, research trips to key case studies, and a thorough literature review, as well as implicating a range of work from diverse geographies and spread over the past two decades, the thesis situates the move towards the negotiation of community in art both historically and theoretically. In doing so, the analysis develops an important reconsideration of contemporary art’s widely noted attendance to the social. In privileging a conceptual framework for the discussion of this tendency in art, as opposed to the more prevalent formalist model, greater critical purchase may be gained on this urgent development in contemporary art history.

This thesis researches the need for increased social engagement among isolated elderly population receiving home care service in Sweden. The notion of ‘social engagement’ and how to stimulate it is a central point throughout the work. The author finds that the isolation issue is related to political factors, sustainability and Swedish culture and how they interact with the individual. The theoretical framework is comprised of the field of care science and theories regarding isolation and sense of community. Using such empirical research and more in-depth own research such as interviews, the author concludes that social isolation is, in fact, a problem. The answer or suggested solution to this problem takes the shape of a design proposal: Play, Share, Connect, Repeat. Play, Share, Connect, Repeat is a game introduced by home care service that aims to create bonds and stimulate social engagement between care receivers.