Political Demands Research Articles

Against All Odds? A Discourse Network Analysis of the Political Debate About the German Passenger Car Toll Act

ABSTRACT In this article, we analyse the policy process of the German passenger Car Toll Act in Germany by means of a discourse network analysis. The Car Toll Act is particularly interesting as a ‘least-likely case’ for analysing a successful policy adoption as it was highly unpopular and faced massive criticism not only among the opposition but also among the government itself. To contribute to the understanding of the policy process behind such an unlikely policy, we analyse the reporting of two German quality newspapers, the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, by means of qualitative content analysis. Based on a total number of 329 articles, we examine the discursive structures of political demands for and rejections of the passenger Car Toll Act in the media public sphere between July 2013 and October 2014. Our findings provide novel evidence on the importance of political discourse in the process leading to the adoption of unpopular policies, indicating that the combination of institutional leverage (coalition agreement and office) and discursive persistence can lead to policy change without clear majorities.

Moving statues: Monuments to empire from London's Waterloo Place to the Maidan in Calcutta

From the end of the Napoleonic wars through the First World War, London was made into a historic city that showcased it as the heart of a growing empire. Waves of urban reform produced public spaces, such as Waterloo Place, that were populated with statues of military and imperial heroes involved in Britain's territorial conquests. The result was that London came to be imagined as old, designed in a neoclassical style that could be seen across the empire in cities such as Calcutta, which had been the capital of British India through the nineteenth century. Some statues installed in Calcutta were made in London and displayed at the Royal Academy or elsewhere before they were sent abroad. In spite of the seeming permanence of statues, this essay shows that throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, statues were moved on multiple occasions to respond to changing political and aesthetic demands.

Must Dias fall? The politics and history of settler heritage in Southern Africa

ABSTRACT In the aftermath of the ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ Movement and the ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests, the politics of heritage has been at the centre of new intellectual debates and political demands, especially in relation to the status of problematic historical monuments. This article examines a form of colonial heritage that has remained politically uncontested as well as unexplored in the specialised literature, i.e. monuments memorialising early modern European sea voyages, in particular those pertaining to Bartolomeu Dias, credited as the first European navigator to successfully complete the maritime route to India, through the Western Cape. The article suggests that Dias can be productively seen not only as a symbol of pre-apartheid European colonisation, but more importantly as part of apartheid’s broader settler colonial narrative of Southern African history. Drawing on the example of monuments exchanged between Lisbon and Pretoria in the early 1960s, the article argues that settler heritage making played into white South African narratives of European settler ‘pioneerism’, but also served to cement politico-diplomatic solidarity and friendship between white-ruled states in Southern Africa. By unveiling the politics and history of settler heritage in South Africa, the article hopes to convince its readers that Dias, too, must fall.

The politics of glyphosate regulation: lessons from Sri Lanka’s short-lived ban

BackgroundGlyphosate is the world’s most used herbicide and a central component of modern industrial agriculture. It has also been linked to a variety of negative health and environmental effects. For instance, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans” in 2015. This has motivated widespread political demands for stricter glyphosate regulation but so far few governments have followed through.MethodsWe conduct a case study of Sri Lanka, which in 2015 became the first and so far only country in the world to adopt and implement a complete glyphosate ban. But this ban proved to be short-lived, as it was partially reversed in 2018 (and later fully revoked in 2022). To explain the political causes of Sri Lanka’s pioneering glyphosate ban and its subsequent reversal, we employ process tracing methods drawing on publicly available documents. Our analysis is theoretically guided by the multiple streams framework and the concept of self-undermining policy feedback.ResultsGlyphosate regulation rose to the top of the Sri Lankan political agenda in 2014 when a local scientist linked glyphosate exposure to an epidemic of Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Origin (CKDu). A glyphosate ban was eventually adopted in June 2015 by the newly elected government of Maithripala Sirisena. The ban was a political commitment made to the Buddhist monk Rathana Thero and his party, which had supported Sirisena during his presidential campaign. The ban’s partial reversal in 2018, implemented through sectoral exceptions, was the result of continued lobbying by export-oriented plantation industries and increased political concerns about potential negative effects on the large and structurally powerful tea sector. The reversal was further aided by the scientific community’s failure to corroborate the hypothesized link between glyphosate and CKDu.ConclusionsThe case of Sri Lanka suggests that strict glyphosate regulation becomes more likely when coupled with locally salient health risks and when decision-making authority is de-delegated from regulatory agencies back to the political executive. Meanwhile, the short-lived nature of the Sri Lankan ban suggests that strict glyphosate regulation faces political sustainability threats, as the apparent lack of cost-effective alternative herbicides motivates persistent business lobbying for regulatory reversal.

Diversifying Boundary Organizations: The Making of a Global Platform for Indigenous (and Local) Knowledge in the UNFCCC

Abstract The creation of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) set out to incorporate Indigenous and local knowledge into the science–policy landscape of the climate field. The Platform is a crucial case of institutional change, as it signals an incipient shift from a science-centric toward a pluralistic approach to knowledge in global climate governance. This article traces this process of change in the politics and practices underlying the establishment and design of the Platform as an interface for Indigenous and local knowledge holders. The analysis shows that the sui generis design of the Platform was the product of bricolage (recombination) and translation (recontextualization) of disparate elements with the purpose of accommodating various political demands in an altogether new kind of knowledge–policy interface: a diverse boundary organization. The article makes an empirical contribution to the historical development of knowledge politics in the UNFCCC and a theoretical contribution to the study of boundary organizations by advancing a broader conceptualization that transcends science-centric approaches.

Neuromyths about neurodevelopmental disorders in Chilean teachers

Misconceptions about how the brain works (neuromyths) are shown to be common among educators, but little is known about neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) neuromyths. Here, we explored the prevalence of both general and neurodevelopmental disorders neuromyths in Chilean teachers and other educational professionals. One hundred forty-four participants answered an online neuroscience knowledge, interest, and training questionnaire. Regression analysis showed that both teachers and non-teachers endorsed more neuromyths related to NDDs compared to general neuromyths and that familiarity with the NDDs but not necessarily neuroscience training or interest plays an important role in the endorsement of these neuromyths. The findings indicate that dyscalculia is the least known neurodevelopmental disorder. Although inclusion politics demand training for all educational actors, the current findings suggest effective translational efforts between neuroscience and education fields should continue.

Fighting Tomato Fungal Diseases with a Biocontrol Product Based on Amoeba Lysate.

New solutions to reduce the use of chemical pesticides to combat plant diseases and to meet societal and political demands are needed to achieve sustainable agriculture. Tomato production, both in greenhouses and in open fields, is affected by numerous pathogens. The aim of this study is to assess the possibility of controlling both late blight and powdery mildew in tomatoes with a single biocontrol product currently under registration. The biocontrol product AXP12, based on the lysate of Willaertia magna C2c Maky, has already proved its efficacy against downy mildew of grapevine and potato late blight. Its ability to elicit tomato defenses and its efficacy in the greenhouse and in the field were tested. This study establishes that AXP12 stimulates the tomato genes involved in plant defense pathways and has the capacity to combat in greenhouse and field both late blight (Phytophtora infestans) and powdery mildew (Oidium neolycopersici and Leveillula taurica) of tomato.

Thailand’s 2020–2021 Pro-Democracy Protests: Diversity, Conflict, and Solidarity

Beyond its popular characterisation as an “anti-monarchy youth movement,” Thailand’s 2020–2021 pro-democracy movement brought together a diverse range of agendas, including feminism, poverty, and education reform along with shared political demands. This article explores these different agendas, their relationship to the protests, and their implications for the collective identity of democracy protestors. Drawing from 17 in-depth interviews with protestors, it was found that the protests were not only a platform to express political positions but also for pedagogical socialisation, where protestors learned about different social issues and the struggles of other protestors. These processes led them to understand authoritarianism and democracy with a structural lens, where in addition to authoritarian government and the monarchy, the protestors aim to uproot various institutions exercising practices or cultures resembling that of the authoritarian regime. Their understanding of democracy was similarly expansive, going beyond parliamentary politics to accommodate issues within their daily lived experience. The protestors retained a sense of solidarity by conceiving of democracy as necessarily entailing a diversity of views and subsequently disagreements and conflicts. The protestors’ structural approach means the 2020–2021 protests were unique and a novel development from previous protests in Thailand.

Changing ‘practical consciousness’ of Shanghai’s middle class under covid lockdowns: a residential community’s defiance and mobilization

ABSTRACT During the spring 2022 lockdowns in Shanghai, strict implementation of the Zero Covid policy compelled every person residing in Shanghai to confront the agents of the state and the authority behind them to develop a certain kind of practical consciousness and political sentiment – a political judgment of the dynamic reality in everyday life. During the 2-month lockdown, one witnessed both a surprising level of general compliance, as well as sporadic but widespread civil protests. Through an anthropological case study based on observations collected in the author’s own resident community, this article is an attempt to document the experiences of the residents in Shanghai under the lockdowns while examining their practice of self-governance and collective defiance. In addition, focusing on those who are considered to be ‘middle class’, it also examines how they relied on their professionalism to organize themselves in a state of high anxiety, and to make decisions and take action in a precarious and dynamic situation. It analyzes how they demonstrated a kind of ‘practical consciousness’ that initiated change and fragmentation in the collective will through the process of collective action such as negotiation, conflict, and resolution with those representing the power of the authorities. Ultimately, the political sentiments of the Chinese middle class are analyzed in terms of how they might organize their demands of everyday life into political demands and identify their own power through future collective action.

A novel indicator for sustainability in production planning using Center of Gravity-based assessment of Pareto fronts

In sustainable manufacturing, the comparison of different production processes has become increasingly important in recent years due to societal and political demands on companies to obtain a more sustainable business structure. At the shop floor level, production planning based on existing processes is usually approached through mathematical optimization, leading to a Pareto front under multiple conflicting criteria. The decision to exchange production processes then leads to the comparison and evaluation of different Pareto fronts. Here, analyzing the structure of Pareto fronts via performance indicators—such as hypervolume, Euclidean distances, etc.—are often the order of the day. However, respective indicators are often neither easy to communicate to decision-makers nor meaningful regarding economic and environmental impacts when processes are changed. Consequently, we propose a Center of Gravity-based indicator to handle these issues and analyze the efficacy of the proposed method through a bicriteria energy-efficient lot-sizing and scheduling numerical scenario analysis; the conflicting criteria under consideration are electricity costs and indirect emissions. Ultimately, we discuss the selected theoretical properties and approximation features of the proposed concept, and elaborate on the communicational benefits of the new tool.

1989 – Annus Mirabilis for The Moldavian SSR

The study synthesizes the most important events and transformations that marked Moldovan society in 1989 and its future developments. The study’s primary aim is to highlight the most important events from 1989 that led the Moldovan society towards obtaining the sovereignty and independence of the Republic of Moldova. At the same time, the study also shows the current knowledge of the 1989 developments to draw new research perspectives. Thus, in chronological order, the most critical social, cultural, and political events that have had long-term effects on Moldovan society are reviewed. The article analyzes the national emancipation movement’s emergence, activity, and counter-movements to maintain the Soviet regime. The 1989 events in the Moldavian SSR resulted from Gorbachev’s reforms (glasnost, perestroika) and the “revolutions” in the socialist states that succeeded in bringing down the communist regimes. Starting with cultural demands and rights (the language and alphabet), people had reached economic and political demands (economic autonomy, sovereignty, independence). The emergence of alternative political forces to the Communist Party, their official registration, the legalization of their meetings, and public manifestations led to the consolidation of the critical mass opposed to the Communist regime. Changing the language legislation, returning to the Latin alphabet, and condemning the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact are just some of the successes of 1989 that impacted the following years, resulting, eventually, in the Declaration of Sovereignty of 1990 and the Declaration of Independence of 1991.

Climate change information tailored to the agricultural sector in Central Europe, exemplified on the region of Lower Franconia

There is a growing societal, economic, and political demand to translate available data on regional climate change into sector-specific, practice-oriented, and user-friendly information. The study presents a demand-driven approach to specify the impacts of regional climate change on agriculture, viticulture, and fruit and vegetable growing in Lower Franconia, southern Germany, a region with heterogeneous topography, diversified land use patterns, and intense activities in the sectors specified above. The approach is based on an ensemble of high-resolution regional climate model projections, a bias correction tool, and a large spectrum of meteorological (extreme) indicators that are crucial to the agricultural sector in Central Europe, as inferred from a stakeholder survey.For several decades, Lower Franconia represents a hotspot region of climate change with enhanced heat waves, prolonged droughts, and intermittent local flooding by heavy rainfall events. Results of the high-resolution regional climate model projections indicate an increase of hot days and tropical nights by a factor of 5 and 12, respectively, if greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow until 2100 according to the RCP8.5 emission scenario. At the same time, droughts will occur more frequently and last longer while rainfall intensity enhances. A longer growing period starting more than 40 days earlier (compared to the reference period 1970 to 1999) implies a higher risk of late frost damage for crops, fruits, grapes, and even some tree species. In contrast, the thermal prerequisites for viticulture will be satisfied across the entire region, even at higher-elevation sites. These facets of regional climate change are made accessible to users and the public via an interactive field-resolving web portal. Altogether, they gravely challenge the historically developed land use systems in Lower Franconia and require timely adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Freedom and Equality for the Sake of National Independance?

Fukuzawa Yukichi is considered to be one of the most important Japanese philosophers during the Meiji period (1868-1912) who is known for his strong advocacy of liberal values such as freedom and equality. His plea contained the political demands of liberalising Japanese society and reforming its strict social hierarchy. However, within the logical structure of Fukuzawa’s argument, these principles only assume an instrumental value in which they are conceived as a means to secure Japan’s national independence, which ultimately weakens his endorsement of liberalism. The case of Fukuzawa Yukichi thereby constitutes a particularly important example of how the instrumental approach towards liberal rights by philosophers in Meiji Japan undermined the liberal movement itself and contributed to its own decline and the corresponding rise of nationalism. Keywords: Liberalism, Nationalism, Fukuzawa Yukichi, Meiji Japan, Japanese Philosophy

The place of the arts within integrated education

If we are to address the complex needs of contemporary education, then reflection on the arts when talking about integrated education is somewhat logical and should be considered as one principal objective of Arts Education. Current educational policies at the international level point toward a more integrated education, however, there is no consensus over a real arts integration, nor significant reflection within the classroom. This situation has worsened over recent years, even when the arts are being incorporated in some models of integrated education in full expansion. In this study, we present a state of the question of the place of the arts in integrated education. To do so, we place arts integration within its historical context, and define and explain four major problems (instrumentalization of the arts, undervaluation of the arts, poor teacher training, neglecting evaluation). We then go on to present the significance of the arts within integration as the basic axis of the existing theoretical discourse in the literature, defining five styles of integration according to their significance (subordinated or service-based, peripheral, collaborative, leading role, artistic). Finally, we compile and discuss the main approaches to have arisen in the context of arts integration. This study may be added to the contributions in defense of arts integration, rescuing and clarifying the currently submerged and confused debate, in order to restore its full potential in accordance with the new social and political demands.

An evaluation of the catalog of Ottoman newspapers prepared by an Ottoman Jew Abraham Galante

In the Ottoman Empire, opposition journalism outside the country presented its first examples during the reign of Abdülaziz. Publishing newspapers outside the country reached its peak during the reign of Abdülhamid II due to the repressive political conditions of the period. During these years, pro-Constitution Young Turk groups were organized in centers outside the country. The Young Turks, who turned to press activity to make their political demands known to Istanbul, created an oppositional press and literary movement. The aim of this study is to analyze Abraham Galante’s catalog, which is an important document about the newspapers published abroad during the reign of Abdülhamid II. It is very difficult to identify newspapers that opposed the Ottoman court and to have complete access to their collections. The data in Galante’s catalog, which he prepared during his years of involvement in the Young Turk movement and his work as a journalist abroad, pioneered studies on the Young Turk press and literature. In this context, Galante’s document, which is the first catalog of newspapers published outside the country during the reign of Abdülhamid II, is of great importance. As an Ottoman Jew, Galante’s catalog serves the disciplines of journalism, history, politics and literature as a source for research.

Entrepreneurs beyond neoliberalism: Municipally owned corporations and climate change mitigation in German cities

Urban studies have shown that the affordances, constraints and forms of urban climate change mitigation often emerge from ‘entrepreneurial’ modes of governance that have developed in post-Fordist cities. However, comparative research stresses that concepts focused on the growing power of private capital under neoliberalisation are inadequate to comprehend developments in German cities. In this article, we argue that municipally owned corporations occupy critical positions in climate change mitigation governance. While municipal ownership of utilities in principle increases local governance capacities, municipally owned corporations’ roles are shaped by fiscal relations and asymmetric organisational capacities between ‘agents’ and ‘principals’. In the case of Cologne, we show that the city has failed to leverage ownership over its public energy utility to decarbonise energy provision. Managers were able to assert corporate interests in the face of fragmented political actors and entrenched fiscal crisis. In this context of political incapacity and fragmentation, environmental social movements become important actors for translating widely shared decarbonisation objectives into concrete political demands towards municipally owned corporations.

Political Ecology Perspective: Analysis of Deforestation

This paper aims to analyze deforestation in Banjar Regency, South of Kalimantan based on a Political Ecology Perspective. The background of the research is that environmental damage is an implication of the socio-political aspect, namely that environmental change is not neutral, but is a form of environment politicization that involves many actors at the local, regional, and global levels. Through this justification, changes in the forest environment in Banjar Regency are relevant for research. The research method used is descriptive qualitative. The research results show that deforestation in Banjar Regency is a condition that does not occur due to natural phenomena, but is caused by socio-political factors and involves various actors with various interests. These actors include community groups who are resistant to government policies, environmental groups that have political participation in environmental issues, oligarchic groups who are close to the authorities, and the government itself which has an economic interest orientation in managing the forest environment. Political system back and forth between input and output. Based on the results of existing research, the uniqueness that can be found is that the community is not only an actor affected by the environmental change but also an environmental change actor, besides that the environmental care groups in their political demands are the presence of a religiosity approach in forest management.

RESEARCH ON THE PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF SEWAGE TREATMENT SLUDGE BIOCHAR AND ITS PREPARATION FOR WASTEWATER

Treatment and recycling of sludge waste have developed into a research focus in recent years. Today, nutrient recovery from wastewater and sludge has received much attention from regulators, academia, industry, and the general public. Institutions and governments around the globe are now seeking innovation to implement a “circular economy” for sewage sludge usage. The development of cost-effective and environmentally friendly disposal processes is necessary to meet political demands. In developing countries, common approaches to the treatment such as incineration and landfilling, cause unwanted secondary pollution. The study aims to determine sewage sludge biochar’s physical and chemical properties and its preparation for wastewater treatment. The chosen chemical properties of sewage sludge biochar were electrical conductivity (EC), total organic carbon (%) content, physical properties were volatile solids, ash content, and also conducted phosphorus leaching experiment. It was determined that by increasing the pyrolysis temperature, the electrical conductivity (from 665 µS/cm to 277 µS/cm) and total organic carbon (from 29.03% to 17.25%) measurements decreased. By increasing the pyrolysis temperature, the ash content (from 50.07% to 69.45%), and volatile solids (from 53.61% to 74.55%) measurements increased.

Where are the Parents? The Drama of Youth Crime in the Media an Australian Focussed Discourse Analysis

The language in media stories surrounding the high drama of juvenile and youth crime is very alarmist and continues to fuel political debates and demands for tougher penalties rather than the proverbial slap on the wrist for young offenders. Further there are fear discourse elements that suggest that for some politicians cited in the daily news cycle as being “out of control”. In opposition to this fear and alarmist discourse in the notion that the media news cycle highlights youth crime for its sensationalist perspectives and poor reporting of youth courts and their judgments in such matters. A comprehensive discourse analysis of youth crime reporting may suggest that media must take the blame for some of the inappropriate focus on youth crime as being selective. This yearlong study suggests that the public need more information to see for themselves whether the current moves and political debates need to be reviewed and refreshed. In addition, family supports are a signal to consider as presented by expert authorities involved in decision making and reporting.

The Islamic State’s Visions of Political Community and Statehood and Their Articulation Vis-à-Vis Nationalism

This article explores the Islamic State (IS)’s discursive construction of ideal forms of political community and statehood, i.e. the umma and caliphate, and their articulation in relation to the dominant forms of political community and statehood in the modern world, i.e. the nation and nation-state. Studying a large corpus of data from IS primary sources in multiple languages and mediums, I propose that IS’s discourse espouses a vision of umma-caliphalism that entails a thorough process of, what I call, de-nationization. On the material level, de-nationization results in dismantling the nation-state and its apparatus of sovereignty. At the symbolic level, de-nationization mandates derecognizing the political community of the nation and treating it as no more than a form of ethnic cultural unit, or ethnie, whereby ethnic symbols are not allowed to become the basis of political mobilization and demands. This expansionist umma-caliphalist vision centered on highly exclusionary notions of communal membership and solidarity is important to making sense of IS’s violent tendencies.