Yongjun Shin

Happy to chat: leveraging phatic communication to address loneliness and foster social connection through a public bench intervention

Cities and Health, 2025

This field experiment and action research examines whether and how a public bench intervention st... more This field experiment and action research examines whether and how a public bench intervention strategy can promote social interaction and connection among community members by nudging phatic communication, such as small talk, in response to the growing issue of loneliness. To achieve this, the study implemented 'Happy to Chat Benches' at a midsized public university in southeastern Massachusetts and evaluated their impact on fostering in-person social interaction, social connections, and psychological well-being, including feelings of inclusion. Data were collected through online surveys, with descriptive statistics used for quantitative analysis and content analysis for qualitative insights. The findings indicate that the Happy to Chat Benches successfully created a welcoming space where participants felt comfortable engaging in both casual and meaningful conversations within the university setting. The study highlights potential societal benefits, including advancing community engagement strategies, influencing urban design practices, and addressing social isolation. Additionally, the project's interdisciplinary nature offers opportunities for collaboration among scholars in urban planning, communication, and community development, contributing to more inclusive and connected urban environments.

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$Research paper thumbnail of Between Objective and Subjective Architectural Experiences: Conceptualizing Refractive Neuroarchitecture Phenomenology$

Between Objective and Subjective Architectural Experiences: Conceptualizing Refractive Neuroarchitecture Phenomenology

ENQ (Enquiry) The ARCC Journal of Architectural Research, 2025

This analytical essay is aimed at developing a conceptual framework to assess how people experien... more This analytical essay is aimed at developing a conceptual framework to assess how people experience the built environment both objectively and subjectively through a critical literature review of neuroarchitecture, architectural phenomenology, and neurophenomenology. Whereas both modes of human experience with the built environment are inseparable in real life, they have often been evaluated as seemingly antithetical and distinct approaches. Our experiences with the environment are mediated by our brains, for instance, our brain’s neurophysiological responses to colors, shapes, or heights. Such experiences are universal. Also, our experiences are constantly refracted by our unconscious subjective and intersubjective sense-making filters in the brain. Based on the critical literature review and synthesis, this study conceptualizes a refractive neuroarchitecture phenomenology, which is defined as a study of humans’ subjective and intersubjective architectural experiences through an epistemological and methodological convergence of the first- and second-person phenomenological and third-person neuroscientific methods. This conceptualization would provide intellectual significance as it attempts to integrate both objective and subjective epistemology and methodology into architectural research. For a practical implication, it is expected to demonstrate the importance of the phenomenological aspect of architectural efficacy and ways of applying neuroscientific research for place-making, including urban renewal and historic preservation.

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An interdisciplinary inquiry in the communicator: implications of relational social paradigm, practice theory, and biological science

Review of Communication

Communication research is interdisciplinary in nature. Many communication scholars have addressed... more Communication research is interdisciplinary in nature. Many communication scholars have addressed the interdisciplinary nature of communication from diverse perspectives. While communication scholars have discussed the communicator, I propose introducing a sociological approach to the communication field, particularly drawing on relational sociology and practice/embodiment theory. And I discuss the link between the sociological theory and communication theories regarding identity and self. Finally, I suggest that communication research expand interdisciplinary collaboration with biological science, particularly neuroscience, for empirical research. Based on the discussion, I will conceptualize the communicator whose capacity and propensity for communicating (1) shift according to changing contexts and relationships, (2) are socially shaped and personally embodied throughout their life trajectory, and (3) can be empirically assessed through biological research. This theoretical modeling of the communicator also suggests pathways for interdisciplinary theoretical discussions and empirical inquiries about the ontology of the communicator in the field of communication.

An interdisciplinary inquiry in the communicator: implications of relational social paradigm, practice theory, and biological science

Review of Communication, 2023

Communication research is interdisciplinary in nature. Many communication scholars have addressed... more Communication research is interdisciplinary in nature. Many communication scholars have addressed the interdisciplinary nature of communication from diverse perspectives. While communication scholars have discussed the communicator, I propose introducing a sociological approach to the communication field, particularly drawing on relational sociology and practice/embodiment theory. And I discuss the link between the sociological theory and communication theories regarding identity and self. Finally, I suggest that communication research expand interdisciplinary collaboration with biological science, particularly neuroscience, for empirical research. Based on the discussion, I will conceptualize the communicator whose capacity and propensity for communicating (1) shift according to changing contexts and relationships, (2) are socially shaped and personally embodied throughout their life trajectory, and (3) can be empirically assessed through biological research. This theoretical modeling of the communicator also suggests pathways for interdisciplinary theoretical discussions and empirical inquiries about the ontology of the communicator in the field of communication.

Assessing the factors influencing local governments' adoption of sustainability policies and programs: A case study of two southeastern Massachusetts towns, USA

International Journal of Development and Sustainability, 2022

This project identifies relevant factors that affect sustainability-related policy development an... more This project identifies relevant factors that affect sustainability-related policy development and implementation in two local towns in the US. Different local government structures, geo-ecological conditions, and local politics were studied in two towns, Bridgewater and Marshfield in southeastern Massachusetts, which have contrasting government structures and policy-making processes, though they are similar in terms of demography and town size. In addition, since the towns are geographically contrasting-inland vs. coastal-they are likely to face different ecological issues given the realities of climate change. This study identified the factors by analyzing the towns' annual reports and conducting interviews with key stakeholders. Certain factors that influence each local government's adoption of sustainability policies and programs were explained based on each town's particular circumstances. The results can be employed to develop further large-scale research and appropriate strategies to support policy and program development.

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The Local Public Sphere as a Networked Space

Media and Public Spheres, 2007

In the United States, the public sphere has traditionally been grounded in the local community, a... more In the United States, the public sphere has traditionally been grounded in the local community, and there has always been a close association between public space and community space. In both theory and practice, local communities and the public networks within them have served as ‘schools for democracy,’ however partially at times.

What can tripartite semantic network analysis do for media framing research?

Communication & Society

This study primarily aims to demonstrate how tripartite semantic network analysis can help us wit... more This study primarily aims to demonstrate how tripartite semantic network analysis can help us with media framing analysis. Predominant quantitative framing research has tended to focus on identifying salient frames and/or assessing their influences on public opinions. Also, semantic network analysis has been used to display relationships among frames, which complements conventional quantitative frame analysis for frequency and salience of frames. However, it needs to be advanced in the way that it can assess the dynamical relationships among actors, frames, and the actors' stances on an issue. In this vein, it is encouraging to find that Robert Entman has demonstrated the dynamics in framing and the complicated relationships between frames and actors in different social realms through his cascading activation model. Tripartite semantic network analysis is expected to contribute to systematically depicting the complicated framing relationships in the form of network. This research attempts to showcase how tripartite semantic analysis can complement framing analysis through a case study on a controversial local housing policy in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. While the descriptive statistical analyses show the overall differences in framing across the newspapers and the changes in framings over time, the tripartite semantic network analyses display delicate and significant differences and changes in framing, which is hard to be captured in quantitative framing analysis. It might also be valuable for not only research but also more effective engagement in public discourses.

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Plenary III: A Multidisciplinary Lens

Service-Learning at BSU: Examples of Success

Modeling a Community Resources Mapping Project for Strategic Community Development and Civic Engagement

Into the World of Privatized Publicity: Online Privacy on Social Network Sites

Social network sites enable and drive users to express themselves, attract attention, and gain re... more Social network sites enable and drive users to express themselves, attract attention, and gain recognition from other people by disclosing private and sensational information about themselves to their networks as well as to the public. As a result, social network sites have affected the perception and concept of privacy. In this vein, this paper aims to discuss how to address the social transformation regarding privacy on SNS space through a systematic literature study. To this end, it reviews the current research on online privacy, particularly focusing on the logic of the users’ disclosure of personal information and changing notion of privacy. Then, we provide a new concept of privatized publicity, which has simultaneously reinforced not only individual selfpromotion but also other-oriented symbolic interactions. The conceptualization is expected to provide social media ethnographers with theoretical and methodological guidance to more thoroughly investigate the behaviors of soci...

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Connecting Political Communication with Urban Politics: A Bourdieusian Framework

In this article, I connect political communication with urban politics by conceptualizing an inte... more In this article, I connect political communication with urban politics by conceptualizing an interdisciplinary urban politics research framework. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of practice and communication, I offer an urban politics research model that simultaneously addresses the dimensions of power struggle and symbolic struggle in urban politics. The theoretical modeling is discussed from an interdisciplinary approach to social studies and constructed with a methodological suggestion of tripartite social network analysis.

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Information-seeking tactics and sense of workplace community in Korea

Journal of Community Psychology

Modelling Community Resources and Communications Mapping for Strategic Inter-Organizational Problem Solving and Civic Engagement

Journal of Urban Technology

Community Informatics and the New Urbanism: Incorporating Information and Communication Technologies into Planning Integrated Urban Communities

Journal of Urban Technology, 2012

Community Informatics and the New Urbanism: Incorporating Information and Communication Technologies into Planning Integrated Urban Communities

Journal of Urban Technology, 2012

Information-seeking tactics and sense of workplace community in Korea

by Yongjun Shin and Hee Sun Park

Journal of Community Psychology, 2018

This research examined how information-seeking tactics and sense of workplace community are relat... more This research examined how information-seeking tactics and sense of workplace community are related to one another. Data from Korea showed that workers (n = 314) who preferred overt tactics of seeking information (i.e., direct questioning) also reported a stronger sense of workplace community. Information types and sources did not moderate the relationship between information-seeking tactics and sense of workplace community. Information types, however, moderated the relationship between importance of information and sense of workplace community and the relationship between coworker availability as an information source and sense of workplace community.

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What can tripartite semantic network analysis do for media framing research

Communication and Society, 2020

This study primarily aims to demonstrate how tripartite semantic network analysis can help us wit... more This study primarily aims to demonstrate how tripartite semantic network analysis can help us with media framing analysis. Predominant quantitative framing research has tended to focus on identifying salient frames and/or assessing their influences on public opinions. Also, semantic network analysis has been used to display relationships among frames, which complements conventional quantitative frame analysis for frequency and salience of frames. However, it needs to be advanced in the way that it can assess the dynamical relationships among actors, frames, and the actors' stances on an issue. In this vein, it is encouraging to find that Robert Entman has demonstrated the dynamics in framing and the complicated relationships between frames and actors in different social realms through his cascading activation model. Tripartite semantic network analysis is expected to contribute to systematically depicting the complicated framing relationships in the form of network. This research attempts to showcase how tripartite semantic analysis can complement framing analysis through a case study on a controversial local housing policy in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. While the descriptive statistical analyses show the overall differences in framing across the newspapers and the changes in framings over time, the tripartite semantic network analyses display delicate and significant differences and changes in framing, which is hard to be captured in quantitative framing analysis. It might also be valuable for not only research but also more effective engagement in public discourses.

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Local public sphere and informational politics

A closer look at political communication, 2019

This study investigates how the local network media help the key stakeholders to participate in t... more This study investigates how the local network media help the key stakeholders to participate in the policy debate regarding a local low-income housing policy in Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A., drawing mainly on Jürgen Habermas’s theory of public sphere. Particularly, it aims to localize Habermas’s framework of social structure for local community-level research. It attempts to demonstrate why and how the rational model of the public sphere, which relies on rational and consensus-oriented public discourses, needs to be modified by showing how a contentious public sphere has emerged in the local network media space. With this framework and the research findings, it also discusses the media influence on local community leaders from the perspective of communication ecology.

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The local public sphere as a networked space

by Yongjun Shin and Lewis A. Friedland

Media and public spheres, Jan 1, 2007

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