Political Events Research Articles

COfEE: A comprehensive ontology for event extraction from text

Large volumes of data are constantly being published on the web; however, the majority of this data is often unstructured, making it difficult to comprehend and interpret. To extract meaningful and structured information from such data, researchers and practitioners have turned to Information Extraction (IE) methods. One of the most challenging IE tasks is Event Extraction (EE), which involves extracting information related to specific incidents and their associated actors from text. EE has broad applications, including building a knowledge base, information retrieval, summarization, and online monitoring systems. Over the past few decades, various event ontologies, such as ACE, CAMEO, and ICEWS, have been developed to define event forms, actors, and dimensions of events observed in text. However, these ontologies have some limitations, such as covering only a few topics like political events, having inflexible structures in defining argument roles, lacking analytical dimensions, and insufficient gold-standard data. To address these concerns, we propose a new event ontology, COfEE, which integrates expert domain knowledge, previous ontologies, and a data-driven approach for identifying events from text. COfEE comprises two hierarchy levels (event types and event sub-types) that include new categories related to environmental issues, cyberspace, criminal activity, and natural disasters that require real-time monitoring. In addition, dynamic roles are defined for each event sub-type to capture various dimensions of events. The proposed ontology is evaluated on Wikipedia events, and it is shown to be comprehensive and general. Furthermore, to facilitate the preparation of gold-standard data for event extraction, we present a language-independent online tool based on COfEE. A gold-standard dataset annotated by ten human experts consisting of 24,000 news articles in Persian according to the COfEE ontology is also prepared. To diversify the data, news articles from the Wikipedia event portal and the 100 most popular Persian news agencies between 2008 and 2021 were collected. Finally, we introduce a supervised method based on deep learning techniques to automatically extract relevant events and their corresponding actors.

Detecting information from Twitter on landslide hazards in Italy using deep learning models

BackgroundMass media are a new and important source of information for any natural disaster, mass emergency, pandemic, economic or political event, or extreme weather event affecting one or more communities in a country. Several techniques have been developed for data mining in social media for many natural events, but few of them have been applied to the automatic extraction of landslide events. In this study, Twitter has been investigated to detect data about landslide events in Italian-language. The main aim is to obtain an automatic text classification on the basis of information about natural hazards. The text classification for landslide events in Italian-language has still not been applied to detect this type of natural hazard.ResultsOver 13,000 data were extracted within Twitter considering five keywords referring to landslide events. The dataset was classified manually, providing a solid base for applying deep learning. The combination of BERT + CNN has been chosen for text classification and two different pre-processing approaches and bert-model have been applied. BERT-multicase + CNN without preprocessing archived the highest values of accuracy, equal to 96% and AUC of 0.96.ConclusionsTwo advantages resulted from this studio: the Italian-language classified dataset for landslide events fills that present gap of analysing natural events using Twitter. BERT + CNN was trained to detect this information and proved to be an excellent classifier for the Italian language for landslide events.

FEATURES OF ADAPTATION OF CITIZENS OF UKRAINE TO EU COUNTRIES: EMIGRATION CONTEXT

The article examines the essence of the ongoing integration process of Ukrainians into the society of European countries, the peculiarities of the social and personal adaptation of Ukrainian citizens to the EU against the background of forced emigration due to the military conflict in terms of the provisions of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of the social field. The main qualities of the social field are considered, such as the autonomy of the field, the mutual influence of agents on each other, the influence and types of capital, in particular economic, cultural, social and symbolic capital, as the basis of inequality and struggle within the field. An analysis of the development of relations between the integration of Ukrainians and European society is carried out, taking into account the main indicators of the capital possessed by both parties.The purpose of the article is to study the integration process of Ukraine in the EU in the context of the development of the leading provisions of P. Bourdieu’s theory of the social field.The relevance of the article is due to the fact that the integrative process of society is an extremely complex multi-level procedure, which affects both numerous social relations, separate relations between a person and the State, the relations of various social formations with each other, as well as internal aspects of the individual, forms a new worldview, initiates a different cultural and psychological composition. The integration of Ukrainians is taking place against the background of complex political, military and psychological events. In general, full-fledged integration requires time and constant efforts, changes in the socio-cultural way of life require new adaptation mechanisms and the necessary qualities for successful assimilation of a new way of life and awareness of oneself as a part of another cultural and social stratum. Absolutely all spheres of human life are subject to change, so it is possible to talk about the formation of a new personality, one that did not exist before.It is clear that all these points are gaining research relevance both at the theoretical level and at the level of socio-political practices and the development of an effective international social policy. The result of the article is a complete structural analysis of the social field, which is formed as a result of the integration process between the citizens of Ukraine and the citizens of the European Union states, the concept of signs of the autonomy of the field, mutual influence and mutual dependence of agents, characteristic of the social field according to the theory of Pierre Bourdieu, is developed, data are given to confirm of these features, as well as a study of the types of capital belonging to Ukrainians and citizens of European society, which determine the interaction of both communities, act as means of struggle for power and position in the society that is being formed. In the article, we come to the conclusion that the field that is created has the characteristics of a social field, since all the characteristics of a social field according to P. Bourdieu are present. It is proposed to conduct further research into the patterns of integration of Ukrainians into the EU taking into account this conceptual framework.

Disinformation and strategic frames: Introducing the concept of a strategic epistemology towards media

Efforts to raise awareness about foreign disinformation might accidentally increase distrust towards legitimate media. We argue that state discourse on disinformation is comparable to strategic framing in journalists’ coverage of political events, and that it might imbue audiences with cynicism. Furthermore, in contrast to an experimental paradigm that depicts disinformation audiences as passive, we suggest that news consumers actively appropriate and produce content themselves. Conceptualising media content as ‘strategic’ rather than sincere might influence audiences to share and produce media content strategically. This Machiavellian tendency leads to similar effects on bias as motivated reasoning. Most accounts of motivated reasoning assume that limits of psychological processing are the reasons for biased judgements of what is true and fake, however, we argue that biases can also be due to culturally acquired second-order beliefs about knowledge. To explain this, we build on ideas about ‘folk epistemology’ and propose the term ‘strategic epistemology towards media’. Resistance-building efforts against disinformation risk promoting such a strategic epistemology towards media and this can have harmful effects on democratic dialogue. To avoid this, educational interventions should be premised on social epistemology rather than experimental psychology.

“It Forces You to Publish Some Shit”: Toward a Taxonomy of De-Democratizing Journalistic Practices

Several studies argue that journalism can facilitate and shape democratic backsliding when news organizations are captured by business and political elites. Under these conditions, journalists will likely fail to hold political actors to account and provide information essential for public deliberation. Gradually, news outlets devolve to provide unfair representations based on private interests instead of news coverage guided by public interest. However, research still lacks a systematic and detailed analysis of practices in news production that could be capable of damaging democracy. Not only is evidence very scarce, but it is also limited to the content analysis of news outputs and editorials. Using forty semistructured interviews and three case studies, this research investigates how journalists from the most influential outlets in Brazil covered key political events within a period of constant decline in the quality of democracy (2016–2021). Then, I build on the results to propose a new typology of de-democratizing journalistic practices: soft steering (recommendations pretending concern with standards, including partisan interpretations of balance), hard steering (direct orders, including internal censorship or entirely pre-defined stories), and anticipatory steering (reporters and editors act on their own based on perceptions and previous instructions). Moreover, this research offers evidence that de-democratizing journalistic practices can be internalized by news practitioners and, over time, replace democratic norms. Finally, it suggests a dynamic relationship between censorship and self-censorship in which control not only inhibits actions but also compels journalists to perform in specific ways.

An agent-based model of cross-platform information diffusion and moderation

Social media platforms are highly interconnected because many users maintain a presence across multiple platforms. Consequently, efforts to limit the spread of misinformation taken by individual platforms can have complex consequences on misinformation diffusion across the social media ecosystem. This is further complicated by the diverse social structures, platform standards, and moderation mechanisms provided on each platform. We study this issue by extending our previous model of Reddit interactions and community-specific moderation measures. By adding a followership-based model of Twitter interactions and facilitating cross-platform user participation, we simulate information diffusion across heterogeneous social media platforms. While incorporating platform-specific moderation mechanisms, we simulate interactions at the user level and specify user-specific attributes. This allows practitioners to conduct experiments with various types of actors and different combinations of moderation. We show how the model can simulate the impacts of such features on discussions facilitated by Reddit and Twitter and the cross-platform spread of misinformation. To validate this model, we use a combination of empirical datasets from three U.S. political events and prior findings from user surveys and studies.

ECOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTES OF WEEDS AS INDICATORS OF SUSTAINABILITY IN AGROECOSYSTEMS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN REGION OF MEXICO CITY

<p><strong>Background:</strong> Pre-Hispanic agroecosystems in Mexico City have changed the kind of crops, management practices, tools, and inputs, seriously impacting their biocultural value and sustainability. Previous studies have demonstrated these changes' economic, cultural, and political consequences. However, their effects on biodiversity have not been considered. The present study characterized the management carried out in three agroecosystems in the southeastern area of Mexico City and its possible relationship with agrobiodiversity. <strong>Objective</strong>: To evaluate the contribution of diversity, abundance, and composition of weeds as components of the sustainability of agroecosystems in Milpa Alta, Tláhuac, and Xochimilco municipalities. <strong>Methodology: </strong>179 interviews were conducted with campesinos. Weeds sampling in 30 plots, recording the abundance and frequency of each species. These data were used to estimate different ecological parameters. Information on management practices was transformed to develop an “agroecosystem sustainability index.” A multivariate analysis was applied to compare weed attributes between agroecosystems and spaces and to detect possible relationships between the index and ecological parameters. <strong>Results:</strong> 156 species were recorded. The <em>slope</em> had the highest diversity, and <em>ciénega</em> had the lowest. More than half of the weeds were native, and the <em>slope</em> exhibited the highest number. The Importance Value indicated no dominant species on the <em>slope, </em>opposite to<em> chinampa and ciénega</em>. Species composition also differed between the three agroecosystems. <em>Chinampa</em> was impacted the most, whereas the <em>slope</em> was least affected. <strong>Implications:</strong> The displacement of traditional crops and agricultural practices and the incorporation of technological practices have modified the ecological attributes of weeds, like their abundance and composition. <strong>Conclusion:</strong> Starting from the argument that ecological attributes of weeds can be used as an indicator of sustainability, the <em>slope</em> resulted in the agroecosystem being most sustainable and should be used as a model to recover the agrobiodiversity of <em>ciénegas</em> and <em>chinampas</em>. </p>

Land Art Submerged: Betty Beaumont’s Ocean Landmark and Art History Beyond Proximity

Abstract Comprising 17,000 blocks of coal fly-ash, Betty Beaumont’s Ocean Landmark (1978–1980) is an artificial reef located off the coast of Fire Island, New York. This essay analyses the visual inaccessibility of the work and its reliance on an assemblage of media to highlight its significance for conceiving political, ecological and cultural meanings of the ocean. Land art’s fascination with the limits of visuality, the site/non-site dialectic and relationship with industry will provide a framework for this aim. Ocean Landmark’s situatedness and association with industrial ecology signals the wider juridical and political lack of transparency in industrial activity in the ocean spaces framed as sites of unseen environmental extraction. Demonstrating the political and epistemological consequences of a lack of visibility, it challenges the assumptions of total sensorial and epistemic access, highlighting the limitations of anthropocentric positions in and beyond the ocean.

Conceptualizing and Measuring Support for Democracy: A New Approach

Much of what we know about public support for democracy is based on survey questions about “democracy,” a term that varies in meaning across countries and likely prompts uncritically supportive responses. This paper proposes a new approach to measuring support for democracy. We develop a battery of 17 survey questions that cover all eight components of liberal democracy as defined by the V-Dem project. We then ask respondents from 19 national samples to evaluate these rights and institutions. We find considerable heterogeneity across countries in how our items cohere, especially in less developed contexts. Yet, those items that are more weakly connected with general support for liberal democracy tend to reveal the influence of political events and actors, arguably indicating weaknesses in political cultures. We further identify a concise subset of seven items that provide a reliable and valid measure of support for liberal democracy across our different samples.

Convention, Protest, or Violence? Estimating the Influence of Repertoires of Contention over Tactical Choice

Why do people opt for different forms of collective action, like lobbying, marching, or rioting, to voice contentious claims? The patterns of these collective action forms, or “tactics” exhibit variations among groups, regions, and nations, evolving over time. Current explanations for such tactical patterns are unsatisfactory due to limited theoretical and empirical exploration of the concept of repertoires of contention. This paper presents a comprehensive theoretical model drawing on social practice and learning theories, centered around the notion of tactical familiarity. The central idea posits that people in diverse societies have learned distinct ways of doing politics, gaining varying familiarity and proficiency with different tactics, developed through three mechanisms: feedback, diffusion, and memory. These mechanisms contribute to the formation of notably distinct repertoires of contention. Based on this theoretical model, this study develops an empirical measure of tactical familiarity. The novel measure allows comparing the impact of tactical familiarity with other factors, like political regime characteristics. Previous research has not conducted such comparisons, as it often focuses on particular tactics, like protests or violence, without delving into the full array of potential tactical choices, including conventional-institutional ones. Using quantitative event analysis and a dataset of 10 Million International Dyadic Events, the paper examines 17,575 global political events from 2000 to 2004. Multilevel multinomial logistic regression highlights repertoires of contention’s significant influence on tactical choices, potentially outweighing political regime characteristics.

Multivocal responses to conservation in Maluku province, Indonesia: Biocultural diversity, protest and management in a zone of ecological transition

The Moluccan islands of eastern Indonesia (Maluku) were amongst the last frontiers to be opened‐up for large‐scale resource extraction and economic development in modern times. The interventions of organized conservation science and local conservation activity are also recent. Yet the area has a complex economic history and historical ecology linked to the spice trade, which itself prompted early scholarly interest in its natural history. Conservation practice since 1980 is shown to be deeply embedded in local political events and cultural contexts, exhibiting a diversity of institutional forms and a 'cacophony' of community voices. We conclude that conservation research and interventions need to pay more attention to historical ecologies, biocultural linkages and distinctively local patterns of conservation activity.

The Meaning of Media Independence by Journalists in the 2024 Election

The 2024 Presidential Election is a political event that the public has been waiting for. At that time, the public can exercise their political rights to elect government leaders for the next five years. Seeing such great public attention, the mass media will place the 2024 General Election and Presidential Election as one of the main portions of the news. However, like the 2014 and 2019 Presidential Elections and Elections, it is suspected that it will be difficult for the mass media to stand in a neutral position. Mass media, especially television stations, are owned by entrepreneurs who are affiliated with political parties and support the 2024 presidential and vice presidential candidates.This research aims to explain the meaning of television journalists regarding media independence ahead of the 2024 general election and presidential election. This research uses a qualitative approach with phenomenological research method to understand the construction meaning of journalists. The object of this research is the meaning of television journalists regarding media independence ahead of the 2024 general election and presidential election. The research subjects were television journalists from two media groups, MNC Group and Media Group, who were selected purposively. The research data was analyzed using media political economy theory. Findings from the research show differences in the subjective meaning of media independence among television journalists. Although they agree on the urgency of media independence as a guardian of press freedom, differences of opinion arise especially regarding the role of media owners in editorial policy. Some journalists consider the intervention of media owners to be acceptable, while others consider it a violation of the journalistic code of ethics. Different views are also seen in terms of implementing media independence. Some see media independence as the freedom for the media to support political parties or presidential candidates that are in line with the editorial views. On the other hand, there are journalists who believe that media independence should be realized through a neutral and unbiased attitude

La Narrativa Española de Posguerra

With the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), a new era began in Spanish literature. New promotions undertook the hard and difficult task of rebuilding the cultural life of the country even if they had to face different kinds of obstacles. The new poetic or novel productions were, without a doubt, the work of another generation. However, the literature of the first post-war years cannot be reduced to the production of those who joined it after 1939, given the invaluable contribution of highly distinguished personalities belonging to previous generations. If during the first post-war years, poetry had reached a certain development, the novel, already little cultivated in the preceding stage, remained stagnant in Spain until approximately 1945, at which time, for a series of reasons, among which we could mention the establishment of several literary awards, it began to replace translations of foreign authors. The political, economic, social and ideological consequences, in addition to the difficulties imposed by censorship, will influence the literary work of the moment and will, undoubtedly, constrain the creation of the novel

Young people as a political subject in the context of environmental governance

The discourse on environmental challenges has evolved significantly in recent years, with climate change emerging as a central global concern. This transformation has been heavily influenced by the last wave of youth-led social movements, notably the Fridays for Future movement, who have mobilized young people at a global scale contributing at a shift in public discourse on the topic of climate action. However, despite the impact of the newly emerged youth-led movements it is still rather unclear if and where has youth gained recognition as a group with special interests within environmental policy and governance. In this study we report on a research were we investigated the positioning of youth in contemporary environmental governance, and propose a theoretical perspective to understand how the subject category of “youth” is constructed in public discourse and its implications for political recognition. We study the progressive emergence of Greta Thunberg as a voice for a generation of youth climate activists and undertake a document analysis of selected material generated in relation to selected international political events. By addressing questions of recognition, discourse structure, and legitimacy, this research aims to shed light on the nuanced dynamics shaping the role of youth in environmental policy and governance.

Propiedad privada y gubernamentalidad en China, una aproximación

This paper offers an approach to the study of private property in contemporary China from the point of view of governmentality (Foucault). Based on a brief reconstruction of the main legal and political events that gave greater prominence to private property, the paper analyses some characteristics of this right within the framework of the Chinese Commu-nist Party’s (CCP) art of government. The analysis shows, taking up the contributions of governmentality, that the recognition of private property not only responds to measures of economic liberalisation, but also to a government practice that seeks, by indirect means, to strengthen the State and the Party. The paper is organised in three parts. The first part reconstructs the main legal and political measures that led the CCP to legally recognise private property in 2007. The second part provides a brief analysis of private prop-erty and Chinese socialism, introducing Michel Foucault’s genealogy of ne-oliberalism. The last part highlights the contributions of the notion of gov-ernmentality to the analysis of private property in contemporary China.

Ballots beyond borders: attitudes towards external voting in Colombia

ABSTRACT Should emigrants be allowed to participate in elections in their country of origin? In an era of increasing mobility and migration, the number of countries that allow their citizens abroad to vote has increased exponentially over the last half century. Relatively little is known, however, about how citizens living in countries with external voting perceive the extension of voting rights to emigrants. We theorize that when external voting might determine the results of an election, voters in the origin country will question the election’s legitimacy and take political stances in favor of limiting the enfranchisement of citizens living abroad. We test this theory within the context of Colombian politics through an original survey experiment that varies the perceived threat of external voters. Specifically, we manipulate both (1) information about the size of the electorate abroad, and (2) information about the differences in preferences between the electorates in the country of origin and abroad. We find that, in general, Colombians living in Colombia strongly support voting by citizens living abroad, even when primed about the possible political consequences. Our results suggest that normative approval of the electoral institution of external voting supersedes strategic incentives to support or oppose it.

Intertextuality in the Palestinian Theatre (1948-1975) Between Choice and Compulsion: Eight Witnesses of Theatrical Samples

This research aims to investigate the special methods relied upon by Palestinian writers - from 1948 until 1975 - to avoid censorship, prosecution and harassment, with a specific focus on the method of intertextuality, which has become a basic code through which Palestinian writers have created their bold and sharp ideas, which imitated their reality in all its details, by displaying witness models from eight theatrical works, namely: - Tariq al-Khalaṣ (1950), a prose-play by Jamil Mohammad Abu Maizer (1922-1993), and Jamal al-Din Ḥijazi ( (1991-1923 - al-Adl Asas al-Mulk (1952), a prose-play by Nasri al-Jozi (1908-1996) - Jalsa Kamilat al-Niṣab (1955), a prose-play by Hadiya ʿAbd al-Hadi (1919-1969) - Sirr Shahrazad (1958), a prose-play by Najwa Qaʿwar Farah (1923-2015) - Qadar al-Donia (1962), a prose-play, by Emile Ḥabibi (1921-1996) - Bayt al-Junūn (1965), a prose-play by Tawfiq Fayyad (1938- ) - Shamshon and Dalilah/ Samson and Delila (1971), a poetic-play by Muʿin Basiso (1927-1984) - al-Ibn (1974), a prose-play by Samih al-Qasim (1939-2014) The choice of the plays was not random, but rather came to cover the "period" of the total central-political events in Palestine, (Nakba 1948), the 1967 War (Setback/ Naksa) and the 1973 War (October War) – dealing with the issues addressed by these plays, and the techniques used by their writers, illustrating the differences and innovations between each stage. The order of the contents in the first and second stages (until the Setback in 1967), is based on the contents of the past, but in the third phase (in the 1970s) the theatrical works were centered around political issues, homeland, and social life.This study is also an attempt to demonstrate the impact of political events and social vagaries on Palestinian poets and writers, in terms of the use of intertextuality, which has become characteristic in the Palestinian theatre as a highly approved technique in most Palestinian plays, especially heritage intertextuality, and religious intertextuality. The nature of the Palestinian theatre, which is busy with various political events and social fluctuations, offers it a special characteristic. These elements have helped strengthen the dramatic aspect, the ease of the structure of the play, and increase of voices and their interconnection in the play, which enriched the theatrical text, propelled its aesthetic and artistic level, and multiplied its messages.The Palestinian theatre started from the center of its suffering, and its difficult conditions that it lived with at all levels, in addition to its being clearly influenced by the experience of Western theatre, and its keeping pace with the techniques used in it, which helped the development of the Palestinian theatre and observed a qualitative leap at the theatrical level. Here, it is necessary to point out something very exciting, which seemed clear in our current study of selected plays, which is the success of the writers in making the form and content work together to create a clear idea, indicates the importance of resistance to the occupation. Thus, the plays turned into brave cries and enduring attitudes that challenged their reality, with exciting techniques and innovations, in some of which the writers exceeded the stereotypes of the Palestinian play at home.

Firm-level political risk and the firm’s trade credit extension

This paper investigates the influence of firm-level political risk on the firm’s supply of trade credit. Using a novel measure of firm-level political risk developed by Hassan et al. (2019), we find that firm-level political risk has a positive impact on the firm’s trade credit extension. We also demonstrate that our results are not driven by macro financial and political events, firm-level political sentiment and non-political risks, and macro-level economic and political factors. Our result continues to hold after addressing the potential endogeneity concern. Additionally, we find that the positive impact of political risk on trade credit extension is more pronounced for firms selling differentiated goods and services. Furthermore, we demonstrate that extending trade credit enhances firm value when a firm faces higher political risk. This paper highlights the importance of considering firm-level heterogeneity in political risk. It also contributes to the literature on the determinants of trade credit extension and deepens our understanding of the relationship between political risk, trade credit, and corporate performance.

Open Legal Primaries in Chile: Reflections Ten (Turbulent and Convulsive) Years after Their Formal Enactment

Objective/context: This paper examines the open legal primary rule in Chile for the selection of the presidential candidate, established in 2012 through Law 20640. This rule contains elements shared with similar legislation in the region as well as specific characteristics. Methodology: Through a case study, we will investigate the results and consequences of the application of primaries on the three occasions they were implemented (2013, 2017, and 2021). We will review the formal changes adopted and the political events that occurred in the interim, considering the main variables that typically intervene in electoral events of this nature, drawn from the existing debate and literature. Conclusions: The case of Chile shows that the combination of an open legal primary system with voluntary internal voting, incomplete simultaneity, and the absence of stable political groupings produces effects that do not align with either the general aspirations for the implementation of primaries or the theoretical purposes outlined by the ideologists of Chilean legislation. Originality: This study contributes to the emerging literature addressing open legal primaries in their dual aspect, both as a nomination mechanism and as an electoral rule.

The effect of political factors on agricultural land ownership and grain crops in Erbil Governorate 1975-1991

This research is entitled the impact of political factors on the ownership of agricultural land and cereal crops in Erbil province in 1975-1991. During the research, the agricultural situation in Erbil province was of special importance for economic development. These include the industrial and commercial sectors, as agricultural products have become an important resource used as raw materials in the industrial sector, in addition to agricultural activities and products have affected the movement and trade processes and exchange. Whether in domestic or foreign trade. Ownership of agricultural land in Erbil province has been under the influence of the Agricultural Reform Law to regulate and improve agricultural land. Based on several official government data and statistics obtained, the impact of political events in Iraq and Kurdistan on the ownership of agricultural land and grain crops in Erbil province between 1975-1991 is presented.