Forms Of Political Engagement Research Articles

Political Communication and Leisure

Leisure offers a dynamic contribution to the field of communication studies especially since it provides an ongoing contribution to the public domain (Goodale and Godbey, 1988). Leisure helps to cultivate communication competence for one's participation in any form of political engagement. Therefore, leisure philosophically enriches one's understanding and practice of political communication by transforming one's participation in the public domain. Many classical and contemporary texts from the Western tradition, including Aristotle's Politics, Cicero's Republic, and John of Salisbury's Policraticus suggest that leisure is fundamentally political and central to the public sphere. Both Western and Eastern political traditions also understand an interconnectedness between public political communicative engagement and philosophical leisure (Liu, 1955; Mills and Murphy, 1973; Lu, 1998; Dawson, 2002). This essay focuses on political communication and leisure specifically within a Western philosophical framework, asserting that political communication and leisure are inescapably linked.

“Carrying Online Participation Offline”-Mobilization by Radical Online Groups and Politically Dissimilar Offline Ties

This study analyzes survey data obtained from members in neo-Nazi and environmentalist discussion forums. It assesses the links between participation in radical and ideologically homogeneous online groups and two forms of political engagement (Movement Support and Movement Promotion). This study also tests whether perceived political dissimilarity of offline friends and family (core ties) and of more distant interpersonal associates (significant ties) encourages or thwarts political engagement and whether it moderates the influence exerted by online groups. As expected, political engagement among the analyzed respondents increases with online participation, also controlling for extremism, political discussion and news media use. Although dissimilar core ties neither encourage nor discourage political engagement, they moderate the mobilizing influence from neo-Nazi and radical environmentalist online groups. Dissimilar significant ties, in turn, do not directly affect political engagement and do not interact with online participation. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Weblogs, traditional sources online and political participation: an assessment of how the internet is changing the political environment

Research has shown consistently that news consumption both online and offline is related positively to interpersonal discussion, political involvement and political engagement. However, little consideration has been given to the role that new sources of information may exert on different forms of political engagement. Based on secondary analysis of data collected by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, this article contrasts the influence of traditional sources of information online with that of emergent sources (blogs) in predicting further political discussion, campaigning and participation in both the online and the offline domains. The results show that the use of traditional sources online is related positively to different types of political engagement, both online and offline. Most interestingly, the article finds that blog use emerges as an equally important predictor of political engagement in the online domain. Its analyses provide support for the contention that asserts the democratic potential of the internet.

The reinvention of political community in a transnational setting: framing the Kabyle citizens’ movement

Spontaneous demonstrations of solidarity in response to some significant event in migrants’ homes are a common feature of modern diasporas. Periodic mobilizations around natural disasters or political events activate latent feelings of belonging and challenge notions of deterritorialized identities. Analysis of transnational social movements highlights framing processes as a key tool of analysis, focusing attention on the agency of participants. The Kabyle citizens’ movement provides an important example of a transnational organization that was rapidly established in the absence of, and indeed as a rejection of, institutional forms of political engagement. Attention to framing processes highlights key differences in the ways in which this movement was presented to participants within Algeria and to those in the diaspora. The emphasis on the central importance of territorially based legitimacy gradually redefined the understanding of the Kabyle diaspora among those who identified with it. This ultimately resulted in a decline of agency in the diaspora which was unable to sustain mobilization once the cycle of protest within Algeria came to an end.

Boundary Situations: Translation and Agency in Wolpe's Modernism

Which musics do or do not express subjectivity is a topic sometimes linked with an historiographic desire to seal off one tendency as modern, another as postmodern. In this article, the author asks in what ways can musics be interpreted or intended to question the limits of self-hood all the while they are profoundly self-expressive. Can music enact subjectivities quite alternative to, for example, Cone's model or related narratives of development and resolution? Can music open a representational space where uncertainties of subjective autonomy and aspirations toward lyrical wholeness and efficacy meet? Wolpe's song ‘David's Lament over Jonathan’ and two movements from Enactments illustrate Wolpe's ethic of choice and connection as a form of political engagement.

Pensée 2: On the Virtues and Limits of Private Politics in the Middle East

The most glaring aspect of America's failure at democratizing Iraq has been policymakers' inability to take local political culture and values into consideration. Democracy was understood to consist of such trappings as a well-drafted constitution, regular elections, and a vociferous parliament; it seems no thought was given to the influence of tribal affinities and networks or the implications of sectarian identity on politics. Constitutions, elections, and parliaments are important elements in democratic systems, but they do not in and of themselves lessen autocratic rule, as can be witnessed in many Middle Eastern countries. Something else in terms of political practice must exist for autocracy and despotism to be blunted. I argue here that attention should be given to private forms of political engagement that are rooted in tribal and Islamic norms and practices.

Good Citizenship: What Students In Rural Schools Have To Say About It

Political events both in the United States and around the world have led to a resurgence of interest in citizenship education. With this in mind, we conducted a study in rural schools to determine the perceptions of eighth and eleventh grade students regarding citizenship. We wanted to find out what rural students believe are the attributes of a good citizen; what activities they are currently participating in that are related to good citizenship; and what citizenship activities they see themselves performing ten years later in life. The results of the study indicate that students' views of citizenship were grounded in community service or what we consider civic engagement, rather than in political engagement. For these students, voting and holding political office belonged in the future; their focus was on the present. Therefore, we suggest that the concept of citizenship may be age-appropriate – that is, students function as citizens within the limitations of their age and their environment. Consequently, while they do not have full rights and responsibilities under the law, students participate in activities that constitute being a good citizen, and these activities may lead to various forms of political engagement in the future.

Post-Fordist Labor, Feminine Precariousness, and Reinvention of Civic Engagement: Within the Circuits of New Social Movements in Spain

Monika Szumilak is an Assistant Professor of Spa nish in the Department of Languages and Literature at the University of Utah. She specializes in recent narrative, film, and Internet production. She is currently working on a book project that explores the conver gence of new forms of politi cal engagement, technology, and art in Spain of the new millennium. She takes inspiration from science studies and similar cross disciplinary theoretical approaches. The politics of difference that feminists need to articulate must be rooted in a politics of experience that searches for specificity, heterogeneity, and connection through struggle, not through psychologistic, liberal appeals to each her own endless difference. Feminism is collective and

Good Girls Go to the Polling Booth, Bad Boys Go Everywhere

Abstract Participation research routinely reveals a gender gap with regard to most forms of political engagement. In the recent literature, differences in the availability of resources and civic skills are usually invoked as an explanation for this pattern. This theory focuses primarily on adult behavior and has not as yet been investigated among young people, for whom we can assume that resources are distributed more equally. In this article, we examine gender differences in the anticipation of political participation among American fourteen-year-olds, building on the 1999 International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement study (n = 2,811). First, the results show that girls at this age mention even more actions they intend to engage in than do boys, so clearly the gender gap with regard to the level of participation has not yet emerged at that age. Second, we observe distinct patterns with regard to the kinds of actions favored, with girls being drawn more towards social movement-related forms of participation than boys, and with boys favoring radical and confrontational action repertoires as compared to girls. The results are important for the reconceptualization of the concept of political participation as well as for theories that explain the gender gap.

Scottish Civil Society and Devolution: The New Case for Ronald Preston's Defence of Middle Axioms

Ronald Preston defended the middle axiom approach to doing Christian social ethics developed by J. H. Oldham for the 1937 ‘Life and Work’ conference. Preston argued that middle axioms continue to offer the churches a relevant ecumenical method. Middle axions has since been subject to fundamental criticism by ethicists such as Duncan Forrester. It will be argued that a case study of the Church of Scotland's contribution to the devolution debate, as part of Scottish civil society, supports Preston's defence of the middle axiom approach as a relevant form of political engagement in the new context of local-global politics.

The Politics of Inclusive Agreements: Towards a Critical Discourse Theory of Democracy

This article offers a critical assessment of Jürgen Habermas's discourse theory of democracy. It suggests that the main thrust of a discursive account of legitimacy is the attempt to show how the demands of maximal democratic inclusion might be reconciled with a politics of reasoned agreements. While this aim is endorsed, the thrust of the argument is that a critical theory of democracy requires that normative frameworks that bring certain substantive features of democratic life into focus should supplement Habermas's procedural approach. First, the account of maximal inclusion has to be developed in a way that clarifies the egalitarian demands of distributive justice. Secondly, the account of a politics of reasoned agreements has to be connected to a theoretical analysis of the bonds of solidarity that could underpin such a form of political engagement. These developments contribute to a critical theory that gives a more adequate account of the motivational basis of discursive democracy.

The Everyday Maker: A New Challenge to Democratic Governance

A powerful feature of Putnam’s social capital framework is the attention it directs towards a critical question for democracies: How is democratic civic engagement created, sustained and expanded (cf Levi, 1996, p. 52) However, Putnam’s investigation into this problem neglects considerations concerning the consequences of the ongoing transition of democratic government into democratic governance. As a result, his evaluation of the state of affairs of Western democracy becomes more gloomy than need be. A study of democratic governance and civic engagement in Denmark draws the contours of a new political identity, the Everyday Maker. The Everyday Maker represents a new form of political engagement, which attempts to combine individuality and commonality in new relations of self-and co-governance. Seen from Putnam’s government perspective there is a serious risk that the researcher comes to ignore the political potential of the Everyday Makers and see them as nothing but individuals “bowling alone.”

Du clientélisme aux sections noires du Parti travailliste : la politique inter-raciale à Birmingham

From clientelism to Black sections of the labor party: interracial policy in birmingham This paper explores in detail recent changes in political participation by minority communities in British society, drawing on research in Birmingham. It explores the conditions which led to the emergence of new forms of political engagement and action from within minority communities, the circumstances under which black people entered the local political system in Birmingham and the reasons for the new role of black politicians as significant actors. It then looks at some key issues that have dominated the political agenda during much of the past decade and discusses the impact of the new patterns of political mobilisation on the policy agenda. It concludes by outlining some of the issues that are likely to influence the future of minority politics.