Participation In Public Debate Research Articles

States' positive obligation to create a favourable environment for participation in public debate: a principle in search of a practical effect?

ABSTRACT In its seminal decision in Dink v Turkey, the European Court of Human Rights recognised that States have a positive obligation, under Article 10, to create a favourable environment for participation in public debate by all persons, enabling them to express their opinions without fear. In the more than decade since, the Court has yet to clarify what the obligation is, what it requires, and when and how it applies. This article traces the recognition and development of the Dink principle, critiques the Court's approach to date, and explores the real-world impacts of an unfavourable information environment. It concludes with a concrete recommendation which would ensure greater cohesion within the Council of Europe and give practical effect to the Dink principle, while addressing polarisation, disinformation and threats against journalists: media and information literacy initiatives.

Thinking about the ‘silent readers’: a regional digital ethnographic case study exploring motivations and barriers to participation in public debate on Facebook

There is increasing evidence fewer people are willing to discuss and debate issues of common concern on social media with their feeds becoming more conflict-laden and toxic. A more nuanced understanding is needed of the motivations and deterrents for individual participation, in different contexts. This article provides a unique perspective from regional Australia by considering the conditions under which a group of social media users in Launceston, Tasmania were more likely to participate in discussion on Facebook and the factors that encouraged participants to present a constructed version of themselves. In doing so, this digital ethnographic case study contributes to evidence about the limitations of Facebook as a place for democratic public debate and may have practical application by helping identify spaces on social media that are more likely to prompt open and honest discussion.

Can we do our scholarship with our backs to Auschwitz? Gregory Baum, evil and the public role of the religious studies scholar

In his 1987 book Compassion and Solidarity, Gregory Baum recounts a story told by the German Roman Catholic theologian and priest Johann Baptist Metz, who, in response to the Holocaust, developed a guiding principle: ‘You cannot do theology with your back turned to Auschwitz’. Baum challenges scholars to ask the same question. What is the cost of doing scholarship with one’s back turned to Auschwitz and other forms of radical evil? Does not business-as-usual scholarship risk conforming to the dominant culture and practices of our time, no matter what? Does it not risk pushing scholars to acquiesce to the neo-liberal model of the depoliticized, neutralized scholar? Baum’s refusal to ‘do scholarship’ with his back to evil highlights the necessity and urgency of using scholarly expertise to participate in public debates. First, society needs the unique expertise of scholars of religion to address its many interconnected crises. Second, participation in public debates affords scholars the opportunity to develop a self-critical spirit and to look for signs of ideological taint and distorting messages in their work. Participating in public debates results in better scholarship, Baum argues, but only if one adopts a critical-humanistic approach rooted in an emancipatory commitment, a hermeneutics of suspicion, and the perspective of the victims, the marginalized and the excluded. In other words, socially engaged scholarship is only valid when it is critical – as well as self-critical – scholarship. Baum’s approach promotes a scholarly humility about truth claims that avoids inauthentic universalisms. David Seljak explores the necessity and urgency of participation in public debates by the religious studies scholar by examining Baum’s biography, public role and its impact on his scholarship.

Past local industrial disasters and involvement of NGOs stimulate public participation in transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) emerged as a regulatory procedure and is now implemented worldwide. EIA aims to increase the sustainability of economic activities by decreasing the impact on environmental components. Transparency of the evaluation process is a key feature of the procedure, and this is achieved predominantly by encouraging participation in public debates. Public participation is essential for EIA's effectiveness, particularly in transboundary projects. This study evaluates whether media coverage of certain projects with transboundary environmental impacts increases public participation during EIA. We analyzed how online media covered the stories about four major projects subject to the EIA procedure in Romania (i.e., reactors 3 and 4 of Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant, Oltenita used oil recycling facility, Certej mining project, management of Moldova Noua tailing ponds). We focused on articles published between 2010 and 2020, covering stories about the four projects. We further extracted the stakeholders involved in the projects using social network analysis. We extracted the main topics of articles discussing the four projects using deep categorization tools. The polarities of titles and contents of the articles were assessed using sentiment analysis tools. Our findings indicate that EIA is a media subject only when NGOs become important actors in the process and the industry generated local industrial disasters in the past; otherwise, the media rarely debate the environmental impact of projects. Without NGO reactions, Romanian readers are fed with political and economic aspects driven by large projects rather than environmental issues. The outcome of the current study is significant for understanding what triggers NGOs and the media to take a stand against major projects. Projects involving activities that generated ecological disasters in Romania's recent history are strongly opposed by NGOs and the public. In such cases, environmental and EIA topics are more often included in media stories. However, projects with undeniable environmental impact but without a negative background in Romania do not reach the public agenda, and the media stories do not focus on environmental aspects either, leading to limited public participation within the EIA procedure.

Coordination patterns reveal online political astroturfing across the world

Online political astroturfing—hidden information campaigns in which a political actor mimics genuine citizen behavior by incentivizing agents to spread information online—has become prevalent on social media. Such inauthentic information campaigns threaten to undermine the Internet’s promise to more equitable participation in public debates. We argue that the logic of social behavior within the campaign bureaucracy and principal–agent problems lead to detectable activity patterns among the campaign’s social media accounts. Our analysis uses a network-based methodology to identify such coordination patterns in all campaigns contained in the largest publicly available database on astroturfing published by Twitter. On average, 74% of the involved accounts in each campaign engaged in a simple form of coordination that we call co-tweeting and co-retweeting. Comparing the astroturfing accounts to various systematically constructed comparison samples, we show that the same behavior is negligible among the accounts of regular users that the campaigns try to mimic. As its main substantive contribution, the paper demonstrates that online political astroturfing consistently leaves similar traces of coordination, even across diverse political and country contexts and different time periods. The presented methodology is a reliable first step for detecting astroturfing campaigns.

Crossed Perspective about Citizenship Education in Brazil and Canada: Social Inequity and Participation in Public Debate

The article aims to identify principles that underlie democracy and citizenship in Quebec, English Canada and Brazil. For this, it uses a comparative perspective to present and analyses the origins, foundations and evolution of citizenship education in the school curriculum in these realities. By putting forward the similarities and differences between these three societies, it emerges that the more difficult experience of Brazil with regard to democracy and social equity, in part because of its colonialist history, induces concerns about citizenship education that are very different from those observed in Quebec and English Canada. While in Canada citizenship education is for the most part centred on active and informed participation in democratic conversation, in Brazil citizenship education is largely articulated around issues of social inequity and social justice.

INFLUENCE OF PARTICIPATION IN PUBLIC DEBATES ON RESPONSIVE GOVERNANCE IN NAIROBI CITY COUNTY GOVERNMENT, KENYA

Purpose- This study focused on establishing the influence of participation in public debates on responsive governance in Kenya. Its main objective was to establish the influence of participation in public debates on responsive governance in Kenya.
 Methodology- Descriptive research design and positivism research philosophy were adopted. The study focused on a target population of 680 respondents from Eighty-five wards within Nairobi County, and data was collected from the following groups of respondents; Civil society representative, religious representative, ward administration representative, youth representative, women representative, the special interest group representative, a representative of the citizens’ anticipating county services and a representative of the old aged residents were targeted. A sample size of 139 respondents was determined though purposive sampling technique. Primary data was collected through questionnaires and secondary data through published materials. Data was analysed through SPSS and presented in tables. Hypothesis testing was done through the use of t-test. F test (ANOVA) was also conducted to ascertain the difference between groups on study variable.
 Findings- The study found that participation in public debates had a positive and significant relationship with responsive governance. The study concluded that through participation in public debates citizens are able to support the incumbent leader to facilitate achievement of county goals. The results from participation in public debates indicated that an increased Participation in Public Debates resulted to responsive governance. Correlation results revealed that Participation in Public Debates and responsive governance were positively and significantly related. Regression further showed that participation in public debates have a positive and significant relationship with responsive governance in Nairobi city county government in Kenya.
 Unique contribution to theory, policy and practice - The study recommended that there is need to establish forums to in order to enable citizens to engage directly in planning, policy making and monitoring service delivery. Based on the study findings, the study recommends that there is need to establish, County, Sub-County and Ward Citizens Forums to enhance participation of residents in local governance. Originality/value – This paper fulfils an identified need understand how Participation in Public Debates can influence responsive governance.

Mindre rum, nya gränser och kollektivets underminering. Det nazistiska hotet mot HBTQ-rörelsen

Support for right-wing extremist organizations and ideologies has increased in Sweden and other European countries in recent years, expressed for instance in organized Nazi attacks against LGBTQ activists. Against this background, ten LGBTQ activists in Sweden have been interviewed about their experience of such attacks. By using feminist theories on violence and theories on social movements, our analysis shows that such actions are experienced and affect LGBTQ activists differently depending on context. Being part of a collective seems to provide a sense of safety and thus offers protection in instances of direct confrontation. On the other hand, threats against individuals, in particular online, are described as creating prolonged fear and stress. The presence and actions of Nazis affect both the organizations and individuals in the movement; it drains already limited resources, constrains the space for supporting the community and for pursuing policy issues. The threats also produce individual self-regulation, both in public debate participation and in adapting physical appearance to cis- and heteronormative expectations.

Façon d’être pamphlétaire à la fin du xixe siècle en France : le cas Édouard Drumont

The author of numerous, bestselling anti-Semitic writings in the late 19th century, Édouard Drumont (1844-1917) was not afraid to present himself as an historian, or as a sociologist, at a time where the borders of this emerging science were not well defined. In order to legitimize his participation in public debate, he relied on a semi-scientific vocabulary and claimed to be following in the footsteps of recognized academics. The relatively strong echo enjoyed by Drumont’s writings certainly had to do with the fact that his Judeophobic message was framed as a scientific rhetoric. Nonetheless, this scientific posture appeared to be ambiguous, since Drumont acknowledged that he was departing from “official science”, which he deemed falsified. Thus, despite his attempts to discard the label of pamphlet-writer that was assigned to him, he was still defined as such by a majority of his contemporaries.

Public social science in Norway: Migration research in the public debate.

How do Norwegian migration and diversity researchers experience and maneuver participation in public debate? And do their experiences and strategies fit with Michael Burawoy's image of Norwegian social science and with his model of public sociology? In this article, the concept of public sociology is expanded to public social science, encompassing communication of research not just from sociology but social science in general. Semi-structured interviews with 31 Norwegian migration and diversity scholars from 10 academic institutions about their experiences of, and views on, public research communication constitute the empirical material. The article concludes that Burawoy is right about the relatively high participation in public debate among social scientists in Norway. And his ideal-typical distinction between four types of sociology is helpful in analyzing how researchers relate differently to the science-public interface. Yet the results indicate that his perspective on public sociology is overly optimistic and not sufficiently attuned to the normativity already attached to highly politicized issues in public debate.

Anthropology’s relevance at a global right turn

A decrease in the importance of anthropologists’ participation in public debates can be traced to a number of factors, some inherent to the discipline, others not. Triviality, high specialization levels and neglecting issues of broad public interest are problems that must be debated. Additionally, the current resurgence of racist and intolerant discourses points to the possible opening of a “post-multicultural” era in which anthropological knowledge must be re-posited. The internet is another important variable for understanding contemporary anti-intellectualism in that it gives rise to a renewed illusion of transparency that seemingly renders social science useless. Ethnography—with its ability to bring us closer to cultural agents—is a base for anthropologists’ new engagement with their political and public roles.

‘Necessary Cessation from Toil and Work’: Young Christian Workers and the Question of Sport on Sundays in Post-War Melbourne

The Young Christian Workers (YCW) is an international movement for young Catholics, engaged through a method of education called ‘See, Judge, and Act’. From the 1950s to the 1980s, the Australian YCW became known for running campaigns on a range of social issues and the provision of services – including sporting events and competitions. In this paper, the development of the Australian YCW Football Association during the 1950s is explored, and the history of YCW members’ participation in public debates about the morality of Sunday sport, which culminated in a local referendum in the Melbourne suburb of Camberwell in 1959, is traced. Drawing on archival materials and interviews conducted with former young workers, the paper explores tensions within Christianity around the meaning of ‘leisure’, ‘idleness’, and Sunday as a day of observance and rest. This examination of the Melbourne debate of 1959 will show how religious tensions around Sunday sport were shaped by class, youth, and masculine identities.

ARE GENDER PERSPECTIVES INCLUDED IN EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION AND WASTE EDUCATION PROGRAMS? A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

Education for sustainable consumption (ESC) has a role in the provision of knowledge, values, and skills to enable individuals and social groups to become actors of change towards more sustainable lifestyles. Also, it must consider the interests, needs, and perspective of critical stakeholders, empower them and enable their full participation in public debates about sustainability. Though unsustainable consumption is substantially shaped by gender-based inequalities, ESC itself tends to be gender-neutral. This study provides a systematic literature review of research on ESC, with a focus on waste education, and an assessment of the inclusion of gender perspectives in those publications. A structured tool Proknown-C was applied and 46 articles were retrieved and analyzed – 28 generally related to ESC and 18 to waste education in particular. The articles were published intermittently between 1990 and 2017, with case studies on 32 countries. From the aggregate number of articles, 22 addressed gender in some form, however, in its majority, it was limited to superficial mentions and to the presentation of the study subjects in a sex-disaggregated manner, with fewer exploring gender and its relationships with ESC and waste education. This study offers a contribution to the scholarly and practical debate on ESC and waste education programs, and the inclusion of gender perspectives, as well as, kindle in-depth research on the subjects. It also aims to provide points for better understanding the role of gender perspectives in promoting sustainable consumption practices and lifestyles.

Online political trolling in the context of post-Gezi social media in Turkey

Abstract Drawing on the approach suggesting that the analysis of social media in relation to democracy should be provided within its own social context, we outline the social media activities adopted by the ruling populist political party in Turkey, namely, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), aimed at reinforcing its political ideology. We also unpack the ‘political online trolling’ as a manifestation of online practices driving the post-truth politics in Turkey. Following the Gezi protests, when social media and, in particular, Twitter gained trust and popularity as a news source due to severe censorship and polarization in the traditional mass media, the AKP adopted an aggressive strategy to attack and destroy all opposition as well as to manipulate public opinion through their political trolling activities. Employing the approach of digital ethnography and drawing on the archive of mass media outputs about the trolling events, we discuss how the ruling party has adopted online political trolling as a strategy, one that is deeply embedded in the political system, politicians and mainstream media. We also explain how trolling practices are facilitated by the coordinated work of these institutions to silence all critical opposing voices, in particular journalists and how they stifle public debate that is grounded in truth and evidence. We have also concluded that the chilling effects of political trolling lead to quitting social media, self-censorship and less participation in public debate of unprotected citizens who are the most vulnerable targets for the trolls. The trolls have targeted the dissent voices not only for criticizing the government publicly, but also to brand them as terrorists and traitors through increasingly polarizing and discriminating language based on nationalist and religious perspectives, which peaked in the aftermath of the 15 July coup attempt and the debates on the presidential regime. Far from condemnation of the trolling activities along with their polarizing and hateful rhetoric, the mainstream culture and public discourse seem to have been taken over by an increasing trolling subculture, which inhibits public debate, discredits the sources of truth, fosters fanaticism and encourages a hate discourse and violence, all of which are undermining democracy.

Contested Content: A Catholic Organization’s Efforts for Textbook Reform in Pakistan

ABSTRACTThis paper attempts to demonstrate how the lobbying efforts to reform textbook content in Pakistan, employed by a Catholic organization called National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), are embedded in an existing discourse of textbook reform. Various actors involved in textbook reform shape this discourse. These actors interact and cooperate with each other and advance various interpretations of, and objections to, the textbook content. Through these social relations and discursive aspects NCJP’s interpretation of textbook reform is shaped as matter of national security, educational quality, and legality. On the one hand, NCJP’s interactions with different actors enable the organization to adopt and appropriate an established discourse in its own interpretations. On the other hand, NCJP’s perception of its own religious identity and of its relations to the other actors restricts its interpretive space and its participation in public debates about the textbooks.

Direito e argumento por um mundo culturalmente diversificado: como não comunicar

This paper reviews the role of discourse in law and public life and identifies threats to the polity from malicious forms of communication. In addition to its role in legal argument, communication is fundamental to public debate in the formation of laws and policies, and it constitutes the social and political fabric through the use of forms of address and recognition of others. This argument builds on aspects of discourse theory and feminist and other critiques of it that suggest that it applies to a narrow community of discourse, and so excludes other cultures. It takes a broad view of participants in public debate, which necessarily crosses national and cultural borders. Responsible communication demands that we argue in good faith, truthfully and coherently, and that we recognize our partners in discussion, both for who they are and for their place in a shared community. The paper argues that public discourse has sunk to dangerous levels in the present century, citing examples of bad faith, provocation and insult from Australian prime ministers (2002, 2015) and presidential candidates in France (2005) and the United States (2016). It concludes that lying, incoherence, self-contradiction, insult and injury fall outside the bounds of public discourse. Rapid communicative intervention is needed to identify each of these malicious forms of communication as a betrayal of the civic public, before it provokes the next vicious response.

Media practices and the challenge of political asymmetries

In contemporary democracies, the establishment of a public space which is more open and accessible to disadvantaged groups, popular movements and communities is a major challenge. The media are both part of the problem and the solution. On the one hand, they strengthen or even produce divisions and the fragmentation of the public space. On the other, their use by social movements and civil society can establish connections between different social groups, include marginalized populations and regain the public nature of certain issues. Similarly, even if the use of digital resources overcomes obstacles that complicate participation in public debate, all the asymmetries do not disappear with the use of Internet, for instance.

The (golden) dawn of audiences? Assessing the audience empowerment thesis through a framing analysis of immigration in the Greek media

Abstract The ‘participatory web’ creates opportunities for citizen participation in public debate with a potential to influence public opinion. This study examines the ‘empowerment thesis’ regarding audience participation in the media, exploring whether, and in what ways, audiences’ discourses in established media websites challenge or broaden mainstream discourses about immigration. The study employs systematic framing analysis of journalistic articles about immigration that appeared in the most popular Greek online media from October 2010 to February 2011. These journalistic frames are then compared to the frames produced by readers in their comments. The findings show that readers on several occasions challenge the journalistic framing of immigration. Yet, what we witness in this case is the dark side of audience participation, as readers contest journalistic authority not in the direction of a diversified and more open discussion of immigration but towards the ideological entrenchment in essentialist nationalistic and hate discourses. The article concludes by discussing how the ‘out-of-nowhere’ anti-immigrant political discourses in Greece were gradually built, and the role of the media therein.

Radio listening clubs in Malawi as alternative public spheres

Abstract Many people in rural areas in Malawi lack access to information due to illiteracy and the unavailability of reliable sources of information. There is also an absence of a proper forum where rural ordinary people can express their views and have their voices heard. However, in communities where there are community radio stations, the stations are helping create spaces for ordinary people to participate in public life by setting up radio listening clubs (RLCs). This article examines how RLCs offer ordinary people opportunities for mediated participation in public debate and for self-representation. Based on face-to-face interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation, the article argues that the organization of listeners into RLCs by community radio stations enables ordinary people to receive and discuss crucial information and hold debate on issues of interest. As such, the RLCs possess some characteristics of the public sphere; hence the reference to them as alternative public spheres.

The Paradox of Political Participation: Theorizing Uncivil Society

The paper addresses the phenomenon of civil societies turning into uncivil societies and the capacity of civil societies for self-repair. Confronted with the recent events of the rise and fall of civil society in the “Arab Spring” and in the Ukrainian Maidan movement a conceptual framework is offered for accounting for such rise and fall. It starts with the paradox that participation in public debate equally produces civil and uncivil outcomes, thus taking up the classic thesis of the “fall of reason” formulated in the tradition of “critical theory” on the “dialectics of enlightenment”. Such “dialectics” results from the interplay of three mechanisms that shape the making of a civil society: the rule of law, the market and the forum. These mechanisms have their specific historical legacy in political and social philosophy. Civil society praised by some as the outcome of the rule of law, by others as the outcome of free markets and by others as the outcome of free speech, empirically does not stand up to these normative expectations. These mechanisms produce “perverse effects”, grasped by the metaphor of monsters representing the rule of law and the market: Leviathan (the perverse effects of the rule of law) and Behemoth (the perverse of the market). These perverse effects cumulate in the emergence of uncivil society as the apotheosis of unreason. Fascism is a case for the perverse effects of public communication and political mobilization of people. After identifying the third monster, I will put forward the argument that the forum works not only as mechanism of repairing the rule of law and the market, but also as a “mechanism of self-repair” of civil so­ciety