Local Politics Research Articles

Local politics and land take: Using remote sensing data to analyse land-use changes in Sweden.

Local politics and land take: Using remote sensing data to analyse land-use changes in Sweden.

Can Topic Modeling of Local Newspaper Texts Enhance Understanding of Neighborhood Effects on Health?

ABSTRACTSocial attributes of neighborhoods, like heritage, and low‐level social disorder, are not reflected in official metrics such as deprivation indices. However, research suggests these attributes are important for understanding spatial variations in health and social outcomes. This exploratory study investigated whether recurring themes in local newspaper articles capture meaningful social characteristics that help explain neighborhood health resilience, defined as a dearth of illness after adjusting for deprivation. Topic modeling of geo‐referenced texts identified and quantified 55 themes of commonly occurring words in Edinburgh, which capture salient neighborhood attributes. Correlations between the themes and domains of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) were weak, suggesting that newspaper themes captured characteristics beyond those in the SIMD. Reassuringly, expected correlations were observed between crime metrics from newspapers and the SIMD domains. Stepwise regression modeling revealed theoretically plausible themes associated with neighborhood health resilience/vulnerability. Themes on heritage and community sports identity were positively associated with health resilience, whereas low‐level social disorder (e.g., littering, antisocial behavior) and “local politics” were negatively associated. This study underscores the potential of using area‐based topic modeling of newspaper texts to capture neighborhood aspects neglected in official statistics but could further explain spatial variations in neighborhood health outcomes.

Labor’s Capital: Public Pensions and Private Equity

Abstract This article describes the large and growing interdependence of public pensions and private equity – and the unusual politics that drives it. By any definition, public pension funds represent government money: they are funded through contributions of government employers and employees for the purpose of providing retirement benefits to public-sector workers. Public-sector unions play important roles at virtually every stage of public pension management, from representing the beneficiaries in state and local politics to serving in fiduciary roles on pension governing boards. In a descriptive analysis, we show that public pensions have allocated increasing amounts of capital to private equity in the last two decades, regardless of the party in control of the state legislature, and even in states with strong public-sector unions. To explain this departure from the conventional left-right structure of American politics, we offer an account of the economic incentives that underpin public pensions’ increasing reliance on private equity – and how these developments stand to have enormous consequences for the American political economy. Here, we find entities with acrimonious relationships in public, partnering on over a trillion dollars of private investments. We see signs that public employee unions attempt to influence the practices of private equity-owned companies that employ an increasing share of the American workforce. We also detail how the retirements of millions of state and local government employees and the fiscal health of thousands of American governments are increasingly commingled with the fates of the private equity industry.

When rivers move borders: territoriality, citizenship and the environment in South Asia

ABSTRACT Rivers, along with mountain ranges, watersheds and coastlines, have long been used to separate states and regions in South Asia. Following the Anglo-Gorkha War (1814–1816), the Narayani River in the Tarai became one such landscape feature demarcating the border between Nepal and India. But the river’s recent change of course has posed material and conceptual challenges to the legacy of colonial frontier-making projects. India asserts that the new river direction is the international boundary, while Nepal contends otherwise. Stranded in disputed territory, the residents of Susta identify as Nepali, although few possess legal citizenship and landownership documents. For many individuals, this situation raises a critical question: Should a change in the course of a river also change the national affiliation of a people? Focusing attention on everyday life in Susta, we argue that foregrounding the environment – and particularly water bodies – is essential for a critical understanding of contemporary borders. The seasonal rhythms of the monsoon that shape the fluvial landscapes of the Tarai allow us to analyse how, when and where borders materialise and with what effects on attempts to secure territorial control. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research, we show that water is deeply entangled in local and regional politics of place-making and belonging, which, in turn, leads us to recognise borders as complex, more-than-human assemblages.

Networks of Power in Local Politics: The Graeco-Roman Theatre Festival of Malaga (1959–1983)

Abstract The accidental discovery of the Roman theatre of Malaga and its artistic legacy in the second half of the twentieth century serve as a case study in local heritage management and cultural appropriation in Spain. The socio-political dynamics and artistic impact of this discovery gave rise to an alternative cultural discourse centred on classical heritage. It also fostered a new theatrical event, the Graeco-Roman Theatre Festival of Malaga, featuring original productions, reworkings of classical dramas, and modern plays, some of which introduced to Spanish audiences for the first time, under Ángeles Rubio-Argüelles’s direction. The theatre’s unique urban setting and the complex political power relations surrounding the monument—especially in the 1970s—sparked a distinct social debate in the local cultural landscape. The festival not only reflected the social and political realities of the time but also engaged with them through its theatrical productions and the discourse it inspired. I position the artistic tradition that developed around the festival within the broader network of social relations, institutions, individuals, and material culture that shaped the theatre’s social biography.

The Intrinsic Relationship between Local Politics and Public Health

Our symposium brings to bear novel theory and rigorous empirics on a key topic: the local politics of public health. As a field, urban and local politics has made critical developments in our understanding of social inequality and its implications for democracy. Many social policy components and structures studied in local politics are known as the social or structural determinants of health—high level systems including the built environment and local policies, that have the greatest influence on individual and public health compared to any other factors ( Marmot et al. 2008 ). Yet, urban and local politics has not thought of its contribution to our knowledge of public health directly, despite studying these very systems that overwhelmingly contribute to the health and wellbeing of populations.

Draining the Swamp: The Local Governance of Mosquito Borne Diseases in Florida

Public health capacity can be placed in local public health departments or alternative bureaucracies. Provision of local services through special district (SD) governments has been widely studied in local politics. What have not been examined are the implications of SD governance for the provision of public health services. Public health services are often categorically different from other types of local government services because they address problems affecting the entire local population. Siloing public health governance may influence not only agency capacity to carry out tasks, but the effectiveness and equity of public health solutions. We examine SD governance of local mosquito control in Florida, to analyze differences in policy-design and implementation between SDs and non-SDs across counties. SDs are primarily located in wealthy districts, have substantially greater resources, and provided over limited, sub-county, service-areas. Jurisdictions outside of SD service-provision often have no local mosquito control governance, relying on intergovernmental services.

The Local News Crisis and Political Scandal

ABSTRACT The local news crisis in the United States has raised concerns about accountability in state and local government. But existing research has provided only indirect evidence that the decline of local news reporting has made it harder for voters to punish poor-performing elected officials. In this paper, I examine local newspaper coverage of state and congressional political scandals from 1990 through 2022. I first show that scandals now receive about 25% of the coverage they once did, a development that is directly related to the decline in newsroom reporting resources. I then show that the volume of scandal reporting is associated with whether officials face sanction for their behavior. When newspapers devote less coverage to a scandal, incumbents are less likely to leave office or receive a lower vote share when they run for reelection. Because scandals get significantly less coverage than they did even a decade ago, it may now be easier for politicians to ride them out and avoid punishment for bad behavior.

For an Urban Politics of Public Health

In this commentary I reflect on the important contributions each paper in this symposium makes to develop an urban politics of public health. My aim is to support these efforts and to encourage even more study of urban and local public health politics. After briefly chronicling my own recognition of the need to appreciate the urban politics of public health, I focus on the impressive range of empirical topics and theoretical perspectives brought together across the symposium's contributions. The breadth showcased here should entice even more work on the urban politics of public health.

Vaccine diplomacy: The politics of COVID-19 vaccines in Zimbabwe

COVID-19 vaccines were unevenly distributed across the world, with fewer supplies in the Global South. The geopolitical powers who developed the vaccines started engaging in vaccine diplomacy, competing to donate or export their vaccines to other countries. A perspective neglected in this landscape is of those living in countries targeted by vaccine diplomacy. This study conducted a survey experiment in Zimbabwe to examine the influence of vaccine origins on vaccination intention. The results suggest that vaccine country origins and country image interact to influence vaccination intention toward American and Chinese vaccines. We also found that there was an interaction effect between vaccine country origins and partisanship in relation to Chinese vaccines. The findings suggest that the utility of vaccine diplomacy as a soft power strategy is affected by the heterogeneity of a country’s image fostered through international and local politics.

Does Local Context Matter? - Content Analysis of COVID-19 Vaccine-Related Online Comments in Hungary

The COVID-19 situation brought novelties into discourses on anti-vaccination and vaccine hesitancy on social media—both in logic and concerning topics. The complexity of vaccine production and distribution parallel to constant political negotiations on a global level created an opaque and confusing system seedbed for misinformation, which decreased the trust in public management and authorities as the vaccination discussions became embedded in both local and global politics. In this study, we contrast the anti-vaxxers and the vaccine-hesitant people’s attitudes toward the local aspects of vaccination. We compare these groups’ main narratives in two key vaccine-related topics – locality and authority. Based on our analysis, anti-vaxxer comments are nonpolitical or differentiate national politics from global aspects of COVID-19 vaccination. On the contrary, vaccine-hesitant discourses are highly contextual and dependent on the continuous changing of the conditions. The east-west political narrative has severely impacted both non-anti-vaxxer and vaccine-hesitant groups and contributed to increased vaccination hesitancy in Hungary.

Not in My Backyard: How Citizen Activists Nationalized Local Politics in the Fight to Save Green Springs by Brian Balogh (review)

Not in My Backyard: How Citizen Activists Nationalized Local Politics in the Fight to Save Green Springs by Brian Balogh (review)

Why go local? Developing the research agenda for “local political theory”

This methodological article explores “the local” as a distinct context for political theorizing, and considers its role in normative labor. In doing so, we examine how political theorists can “go local”; arguing that engagement with the local dimension of politics can play at least three distinct roles in political theorizing. First, the local can represent a distinct object of analysis, where local politics are the starting point for the construction and revision of normative theories. Second, the local can represent a distinct object of normative concern, where political theorists consider whether local actors, institutions, experiences, relationships, and ways of life carry specific normative values or normative obligations. Finally, the local can represent a distinct object of application, where political theorists apply normative insights to help interpret, and inform, real-world local politics. By drawing upon normative literature interested in local questions we demonstrate how such interest in the local dimension supports a more nuanced and comprehensive theoretical understanding of our complex and multidimensional political world.

ARAH BARU POLITIK KEWARGAAN ETNIS TIONGHOA DI INDONESIA (STUDI KASUS JAKARTA & MANADO)

The new direction of ethnic Chinese citizenship politics in Indonesia is marked by a communal revival in non-governmental organizations, media and schools. The past of ethnic Chinese in Indonesia is indeed full of crises, but the future of Chinese citizens in Indonesia really depends on the policies of each ruling regime towards their group. The new direction of ethnic Chinese citizenship politics in Indonesia must be understood as a process of psychological rehabilitation for sentiment and antipathy towards China in the past. The interpretation of social reality and the social movements they carry out on a local scale should be appreciated and appreciated rationally and sympathetically. The government's efforts to create democratic change require much greater effort. Perhaps with the development of democratization in Indonesia, residents of Chinese descent, especially in Jakarta and Manado, will feel that there is security stability, economic growth and equal access to work so that social justice for all is truly achieved to the maximum. Thus, the central government needs to encourage the involvement of Chinese citizens in the world of local government politics at both the executive and legislative levels so that they can find the best way to deal with ethnic and religious tensions in our democratic political system.

Increasing voter participation and its obstacles: An analysis of youth organizations in political education in the Makassar mayoral election

The implementation of the 2020 Makassar Mayoral Election shows that the level of political participation is still low. This condition needs to be evaluated by reviewing the extent of the role of various parties in encouraging increased community political participation. Political education is the main key in building public political awareness. The Indonesian Youth National Committee (KNPI) of Makassar City has a role in increasing voter participation through political education. The purpose of this research is to find out the political education of the National Committee of Indonesian Youth (KNPI) Makassar City in increasing voter participation. This research method uses a descriptive qualitative approach, with data collection techniques through in-depth interviews, field observations, documentation, literature studies and online media. The results showed that the Makassar City KNPI has a role in increasing public political awareness, especially among young voters, through neutral and independent political education. This is realized through cooperation with the KPU and Bawaslu, board development, and physical and digital socialization efforts. However, effectiveness still faces various challenges, such as political apathy, distrust of the system, lack of method development, lack of youth representation in local politics, and the stigma of organizational independence. Therefore, there is a need for greater collaboration and innovative approaches to overcome barriers to youth political participation more effectively.

Youth organizations’ capacity building on youth media literacy

This study investigates the intersection of media literacy and civic engagement within the context of youth organizations across three countries: Finland, Norway and Romania. Employing a comparative cross-national research design, and drawing on interviews with youth organizations, we explore how NGOs understand and conceptualize media literacy and civic engagement. Subsequently, we identify national NGOs' capacity building strategies for working with media literacy in ways that encourage youth civic engagement. Our findings reveal nuanced differences in the operationalization of media literacy and civic engagement concepts across the three countries, shaped by local political, economic, and cultural contexts. We found that whereas the term “media literacy” is understood similarly in all three countries, the position and role of the youth organizations themselves seems to be quite different depending on country context. By highlighting the distinct strategies employed by NGOs in Finland, Norway, and Romania, this study underscores the critical role of tailored capacity-building initiatives in addressing national disparities. The findings offer actionable insights for policymakers, educators, and NGOs, emphasizing the need for cross-sectoral collaborations and international knowledge exchange to enhance youth empowerment. It also emphasizes the importance of understanding contextual factors in shaping organizational approaches to media literacy and civic engagement and contributes to the discourse on youth empowerment and civic participation in the digital age.

Olympic Games and Indigenous Peoples: Possible Change in Global Sport towards Indigenous Sovereignties?

Indigenous peoples have appeared at the Olympic Games since the beginning of the twentieth century not only as participants of contemporary “human zoo” performances, but as competitors in regular sport disciplines. Since then, their presence at these mega-events has varied, in relation to local and transnational politics. Although the idea of sport as a tool for development and change has been widely spread through global NGOs and global events, such as the Olympics, sovereignty issues of Indigenous peoples in general remain unsolved. For decades, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) insisted on Rule 50, which banned any sort of political protest during the Olympic Games. Recently, some global sport federations have begun to challenge this rule of the IOC in solidarity with the anti-racist Black Lives Matter movement. This paper seeks to address two main questions: How and if does the presence of the Indigenous peoples shape these largest global sport international events and their organizers? Does the presence of Indigenous peoples at the Olympics lead to potential changes of Olympic discourses related to Indigenous sovereignties? The paper argues that the IOC keeps shaping how Indigenous identities are portrayed, even though Indigenous participants work towards gaining the recognition of Indigenous sovereignties in relation to the Olympic structures.

Commoning by zoning? Social work’s involvement in urban spatial conflicts

ABSTRACT The article explores how social workers are engaged in the making of public space in local communities. Based on a case study which the authors conducted in a German municipality the analysis show that Social Work acts in different spheres in reaction to a certain ‘local’ problem: A conflict that arose between established user and new user groups at a skate park leads to interventions of social workers not just on the site of the park itself as well as local politics and community planning. Despite using different professional sets of action, the social workers involved all deploy a strategy which might be called ‘zoning’: By defining and reserving distinct segments of the public space for different user groups the children and young people in the community receive designated places for their leisure activities. But at the same time, they are exclusively allocated to these places and thus excluded from the wider public space with their sports activities and youth cultures. In reference to the more recent concept of the Commons as well as to earlier traditions of community work the article concludes by suggesting an alternative understanding of space for Social Work practice.

Transformative urban food governance: how municipal staff coordinating urban living labs navigate politics, administration and participation

ABSTRACT Cities are crucial settings for initiating efforts at instigating sustainable and just food system transformations. While municipalities worldwide are increasingly active in food policymaking for such change, the ability of municipal staff to carry out governance tasks is scarcely studied. This study examines the experiences of municipal staff mandated by an EU-funded project to coordinate urban living labs (ULLs) as sites of urban food governance in European cities. Drawing on action research with 18 staff members from 10 municipalities between 2021 and 2024, this article explores the challenges they face and their strategies for addressing these challenges. We observe that local politics and administrative dynamics significantly frustrate staff's ability to coordinate ULLs. In response, they regularly act politically simply to get their project tasks done, using soft skills and political savviness to align ULL goals with existing politics and policies, and to more explicitly advocate for sustainable food system change. Municipal staff seek to leverage public participation for advocacy goals. Because public participation is, as a result, viewed as an extension of political and administrative logics, its food justice potential can be limited. This paper underscores the political and powerful role of municipal staff in urban food governance and suggests that future action research should pragmatically support them while critically interrogating state led change in light of justice and sustainability ambitions.

Not in My Backyard: How Citizen Activists Nationalized Local Politics in the Fight to Save Green Springs

Not in My Backyard: How Citizen Activists Nationalized Local Politics in the Fight to Save Green Springs