Identity Politics Research Articles

Communication Strategies to Promote COVID-19 Vaccination Intention: How Effective are Source, Appeal, Framing, and Evidence Type Approaches?

ABSTRACT This systematic review analyzed the effectiveness of key persuasive strategies – source, appeal, framing, and evidence (SAFE) – on COVID-19 vaccination intention. Quantitative studies were searched in Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed following the PRISMA guidelines. From the 61 studies that met inclusion criteria, source and framing are the most commonly applied SAFE strategies. However, source characteristics are a more consistent influence on vaccine intentions than message framing strategies, with expert sources and general practitioners emerging as the key sources contributing to greater vaccine intentions. In addition, a range of mediators and moderators influence the process through which SAFE message strategies impact vaccine intentions. Framing effects, in particular, are moderated by political identity, source characteristics, and vaccine perceptions. Tests of mediating processes highlight how health behavior judgments (e.g. perceived vaccine benefits, risks, trust in vaccination, perceived severity) and message response/perceptions (e.g. counterarguing, perceived similarity/empathy) operate as key intervening factors between SAFE message strategies and vaccine intentions. Overall, when practitioners apply various structural approaches (narrative elements, fear appeals, framing cues) to vaccine promotion campaigns, they should be cognizant of who is providing that appeal. Targeted populations may benefit most from different structural elements if they are integrated with sources that resonate with the audience.

Mapping the stars: Celebrity, metonymy, and the networked politics of identity By Claire SiscoKing, Athens, OH: Ohio State University Press. 2023. pp. 264. $32.95 (paperback)

Mapping the stars: Celebrity, metonymy, and the networked politics of identity By Claire SiscoKing, Athens, OH: Ohio State University Press. 2023. pp. 264. $32.95 (paperback)

A reflection on Hong Kong’s yellow economic circle

ABSTRACT Emerged from the anti-extradition law amendment bill movement in 2019, the yellow economic circle (YEC) is the first ever widely adopted political consumerism in post-handover Hong Kong, where people buycott yellow (pro-movement) and boycott blue (anti-movement/ pro-Beijing/ pro-HKSAR-government) businesses. The reflection’s prominence lies in the popular engagement in YEC, and the political consumerism still lingers in the city even after the abrupt end of the 2019 movement. Existing research lacks the exploration of the meanings YEC entailed in relation to the context of Hong Kong and the lessons YEC can impart to the city’s civil society development. By classifying YEC into “sign” and “process,” the article first examines the particular juncture at which YEC emerged to show how Beijing has tried to govern Hong Kong through the market. It subsequently delves into a discourse analysis, scrutinizing how Beijing has constructed a civility for the market, which is later reshaped by YEC. Drawing on Chantal Mouffe’s theorization of “politics” as well as Hardt and Negri’s discussion of “identitarian love,” the article continues by shedding light on the identity politics and oxymoron of liberal democracy inherent in the political consumerism. It also addresses the narrow democratic imagination reflected in different incidents arising from YEC, which may be symptomatic of Hong Kong’s current political struggle. The exploration concludes with suggestions on how the YEC can strengthen Hong Kong’s civil society after Beijing’s crackdown.

Investigating the Relationships Among HMP, Credibility, and TPP of News Media and Their Links to News Media Policy Support

Abstract Prior research has suggested that perceptions of bias, credibility, and influence of news media may relate to one another but there have been relatively few efforts to integrate these concepts under a coherent theoretical framework. Based on social identity theory, we examined whether political identity relates to hostile media perception (HMP), credibility, and third-person perception (TPP) and if such perceptions in tandem predict attitudes toward news media policies—restriction of news media and media literacy education, which may neutralize the influences of seemingly hostile and untrustworthy news media. Findings from two national online surveys showed that strong partisans tend to perceive stronger HMP and less credibility in news media. Additionally, progressives had greater HMP. HMP and TPP were positively associated with media restriction policy support and media literacy education support. Credibility showed negative associations with restrictive media policy support, whereas the opposite pattern was found in the relationship with media education support. Furthermore, the positive associations between HMP and media policy support were mediated by TPP. The negative associations between credibility and restrictive media policy support were also mediated by TPP.

Simultaneous Politicization of Identities to Increase Candidates' Electability: A Case Study of the 2020 Regional Head Election of East Sumba Regency

Identity politicization became popular in areas of Indonesia after the 1998 reform. Political candidates use this practice to increase electability and acquire power in electoral political contestation. This condition also occurred at the 2020 Regional Head Election (Pilkada) in the East Sumba Regency. The study aims to investigate identity politicization in various forms and its impact on the 2020 Pilkada in the East Sumba Regency. This research used a qualitative method with a case study approach. The findings indicate politicized identities during the Pilkada, including candidates' religious and ethnic identities, areas of origin, social stratification, and government bureaucracy. An interesting finding in this study is the politicization of the various identities existing in society and was carried out simultaneously to gain voter support to increase the candidates' electability. The academic contribution of this research is to exploit the full potential of identity simultaneously, including kabihu identity, to respond to the candidates' practical political interests to gain power despite the impact on segregation and polarization in society and diluting Sumba cultural values. Furthermore, this study advises the government on how to improve the quality of future Pilkada.

The Utilisation of Identity and Heritage in Protests Against Police and Water Mergers in Orkney and Shetland, 1966–9

Between 1966 and 1969, Scotland’s police forces and water services were amalgamated into larger regional bodies. The mergers provoked significant protest in Orkney and Shetland, as the islands’ local authorities spearheaded unsuccessful campaigns to retain local control over police and water services. Largely neglected by historians, this article argues that the protests played a key role in mobilising the islands’ communities and local authorities against a perceived external threat to their social, economic, and political sustainability. Although the central arguments against amalgamations were based on geography and logistics, councillors and protesters utilised Orkney and Shetland’s distinct identity and heritage as rhetorical devices to oppose the proposals. Rather than literal displays of Norse nostalgia or Scandinavian affinity, this politicisation of identity offered strategic opportunities for maximising external attention towards the campaign. However, this element to the campaign also reflected sincere commitments to the principles of local control and self-sufficiency, fostering the development of distinct political identities in each archipelago. As a result, the anti-amalgamation protests can be considered an early manifestation of political regionalism in the Northern Isles and an important antecedent in understanding the emergence of autonomy movements in Orkney and Shetland in subsequent decades.

R/The_Donald Had a Forum: How Socialization in Far-Right Social Media Communities Shapes Identity and Spreads Extreme Rhetoric

Can engagement with far-right social media communities socialize users into a new political identity? This study addresses concerns about the spread of far-right groups on mainstream social media platforms by examining how newcomers are affected by their engagement with these groups. I theorize that changes in social identity expression indicative of socialization will be measurable in the language users use to express themselves on social media, and that the magnitude of this linguistic change will intensify with more frequent far-right engagement. I develop a custom dictionary of far-right-relevant terms sourced from communities like The Daily Stormer and Stormfront. Using an original dataset of Reddit user posting histories from 2015–2017, I test for increases in the frequency of this far-right vocabulary. I find that users who engage often with a far-right community like r/The_Donald begin to sound more like white nationalists within three months. Socialized users also use far-right vocabulary more frequently in other spaces on their platform, contributing to the spread and normalization of far-right rhetoric.

'Through the Flower': On Audre Lorde and Intersectionality

The article aims to explore the origins of intersectionality through thelegacy of Lorde's feminism and her radical thinking. The concept ofintersectionality has taken on a complex position in feminist scholarshipover the past decade. Many scholars have also considered thecontributions of Audre Lorde to the discussions around intersectionality.It draws parallels between her ideas and it shows how her ideas areinfluenced by both rebellious literary forms and political writing styles.Lorde's radical feminist works have often been regarded as both areflection of identity politics and a shift in situational perception.Intersectionality is in addition said to be a movement that is trying toreclaim the ideas of identity politics and develop new ways to understandthe decentred structures of power. The article uses historicocritical andanalytical approaches to argue that the oeuvre of Lorde's feminismprovides a new perspective on the subject. In her works, Lorde describesa world that is definable only in terms of its relational terms, a world thatis torn apart by the divisions between race, class, sexuality, and gender.She also describes a world that is capable of being understood onlythrough its destructive divisions. The world that she is talking about is aplace that needs to be changed through a process of transformation. Thisworld is also a place where history has been made through the multiplemovements and revolutions that have occurred in it. These are thecontours that define the complex ground that third world feminist politicsare based on.

Trump Goes to Tulsa on Juneteenth: Placing the Study of Identity, Social Groups, and Power at the Center of Political Communication Research

ABSTRACT The increase in elites’ use of racial appeals has compelled some scholars of political communication to tell a more comprehensive story about political identity in the United States and elsewhere around the world . This occurred alongside the field of communication’s , and subfield of political communication’s , longstanding failures to develop a racial analytic – a clear reflection of the field’s overwhelming whiteness. In this forum essay, we contextualize and review some strains of new literature on identity in political communication, with a focus especially on the U.S. context and the intersection of race and political power. Our aim is to call attention to what we see as an emerging approach to centering power, identity, and social groups in the field. These works are diverse theoretically and methodologically, and their authors may or may not recognize themselves as doing work in political communication at all. But we see tremendous value in what they share analytically, substantively, and normatively, and aim to mark the emergence and – we hope – flourishing of this work.

Fiona Volpe: A New Perspective on James Bond's Iconic <em>Femme Fatale</em>

While narratives of gender politics and female identity in Western visual culture have become more dynamic with the passage of time, one of the most contentious spheres of discussion in mass media surrounds that of Ian Fleming’s ultimate fictional creation, James Bond. Female sexuality and gender politics in the Bond universe has been robustly, and rightfully, scrutinised by academic and casual spectators for at least 50 of the 70 years since his inception. Yet, one of the most enduring characters in the cinematic canon has not yet been given this discerning treatment, in earnest. Originally called "Fiona Kelly" by screenwriters Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins, Fiona Volpe was portrayed by Italian actress Luciana Paluzzi-Solomon in Terence Young’s 1965 film adaptation of Thunderball. In November 2017, I had the opportunity to interview Mrs. Paluzzi-Solomon for a now-abandoned book concept. As one of the few actresses from the Sean Connery-era who are still living, she was remarkably forthcoming regarding her professional and personal experiences on set. Without pride or prejudice, Mrs. Paluzzi-Solomon’s account proved to be not only to be illuminating in and of itself as an interview, but also served as a foundation to better understand the origins, development, and public reception of the gold standard femme fatale of the Bond films. This article will explore the character of Fiona Volpe, her origins, plot function, and legacy, from the unique perspective of the woman who brought her to life.

Perceived grievance and individualising moralities: exploring the psychological structure of left-wing authoritarianism

ABSTRACT Research shows a sharp increase in political polarization over the last two decades. While right-wing authoritarianism has received considerable academic attention, the psychological mechanisms of left-wing authoritarianism remain under-explored. This study used structural equation modeling to empirically test the factors that influence left-wing authoritarianism and its relationship with features of identity politics and psychological distress. Moral foundations theory was used to assess the moral concerns underlying left-wing authoritarianism. Participants from English-speaking countries (52.4% female, aged 18 to 85 years old) were recruited from various political groups on social media. The final sample (N = 299) voluntarily completed an online survey measuring left-wing authoritarianism, psychological distress, moral concerns, need for cognitive closure, and emotional reactivity. The final model explained 53% of the variance in left-wing authoritarianism and demonstrated that psychological distress indirectly affects left-wing authoritarianism through perceived grievance. However, perceived grievance had the strongest direct impact, providing support for the premise that perceived grievance, a feature of identity politics, constitutes a strong positive predictor of left-wing authoritarianism. Additionally, non-hypothesized mediating effects were observed from perceived grievance to the individualizing foundations and left-wing authoritarianism.

‘Botha Cake’ and ‘Belgian Onion Soup:’ Gendered Patriotism Through Three South African, First World War, Community Cookbooks

ABSTRACT This article considers three South African community cookbooks – including The Overseas Contingent Fund Recipe Book (Turffontein, 1915) and the Paarl Cookery Book in Aid of War Funds (Paarl, 1918) alongside Wartime Cookery (Cape Town, 1915) – as expressions of gendered patriotism. These community-created cookbooks enabled contributors to participate meaningfully in the First World War by drawing together two established gendered practices: philanthropic fundraising and food and household management. This ‘domesticity in action’ enabled participants to contribute to, and feel connected to, both local and trans-empire causes. These values of philanthropy, economy and patriotism are revealed in the constitutive components of the texts – the titles, aims, prefaces and even the recipes themselves. Apart from supporting specific funds, the call for economy in the cookbooks reflected both experiences and perceptions of wartime material hardship in South Africa. A further consideration of the contributors involved with the books’ compilations highlights the intersection of local and trans-empire networks, and wartime (white) identity politics within urban South Africa. The networks suggest locally-grounded loyalisms, many marked by personal connections to men serving, as well as friend and family networks with overseas reach. Lastly, the article is a reminder of the importance of cookbooks as neglected sources in the writing of history.

El Nacionalismo en la Lucha por la Independencia de las Colonias en África (Angola)

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of Nationalism on the struggle for Independence in the colonies in Africa, with particular emphasis on the case of Angola. The objective of this work is to assess the changes that took place on the Continent from 1888 to 1910, marked by the conquest and occupation of almost the entire African Continent by Western imperialist powers; followed by the effective implementation and installation of the colonial system as an administrative system in the second half of the century. XIX, division and definition of geographic spaces. In fact, the year 1910 was essentially characterized by the consolidation and exploitation of that system, causing major distortions in the economic, social and cultural structures of the dominated territories. The appeal written at the Manchester Congress (1945) to the colonized peoples, expressly advised that all colonies should be freed from foreign imperialist control, both political and economic, and fight by all means to achieve these objectives. The use of qualitative research based on bibliography related to these themes, the inductive-deductive method allowed the (construction) of ideas of a passive Africa, embodied in the emergence of movements that aimed at the overthrow of the colonial system. In effect, with the end of World War II, the process of decolonization began, resulting in a more reinvigorated, radical and consequential African nationalism. This means a more conscious, enlightened and enlightening continental nationalism, better structured and politically framed and represented internationally and with qualitatively higher levels of political and cultural organization, with the year 1960 being marked as the year of Africa, with the outbreak of the various independence of respective African countries and consequent recovery and affirmation of socio-historical, political and cultural identity, hidden by colonization.

Youth political participation and digital movement in Indonesia: the case of #ReformasiDikorupsi and #TolakOmnibusLaw

The younger generations have always been at the forefront of and contributed significantly to social movements that are critical of state policies or respond to socio-political situations. This is also what happened in large movements involving young people in Indonesia, conventionally in the form of demonstrations and digital movements. This study seeks to explore the relationship between youth political participation, digital media, and the development of youth political identity by analyzing young people’s engagement in some of the most significant political protests in Indonesia during the mass protests of #ReformasiDikorupsi, a movement opposing the amendments of several important bills, and #TolakOmnibusLaw, a movement opposing the establishment of a new single bill related to labor and investment, between 2019 and 2020. By analyzing quantitative data through data mining from Twitter from October 2019 to November 2020 with the social network analysis method, this study discusses online youth participation in social movements and the way they shape their political identity. Our research found that young people play an active and central role in building online and offline movements. In particular, the online movement contributes to the growth of the offline protest movement, and vice versa, because of concerns about the practice of illiberal democracy.

Beyond Colonial Politics of Identity: Being and Becoming Female Youth in Colonial Kenya

This paper draws on biographical research among the Akamba and the Luo communities in Eastern and Western Kenya, respectively. Our research explored how practices of adolescence as a process, an institution, and a performance of identity interact with colonial modernities and imaginaries in complex ways. The biographical research was carried out predominantly with women born in the late colonial period in Kenya. We provide critical reflections on the process and affordances of our embodied storytelling approach, which we position as an Africanist methodology and a decolonial research practice. This research and approach provided women with a space to narrate and perform their lived experience, potentially disrupting epistemic inequities that are embedded in the way research on growing up in the past is carried out. The discussions show how colonialism interacted with other factors, including gender and generational power, tradition, girls’ agency, and other life characteristics like poverty and family situation, in order to influence the lived experiences of women. Going beyond the narratives of victimhood that characterise coming of age in similar spaces, we present women’s emergent, incomplete, and incongruent agency. We position this agency as the diverse ways in which people come to terms with their difficult contexts. The discussion also points to the need for unsettling the settled thinking about girlhood and coming of age in specific historical spaces in the global South.

Contrapuntal Citizenship: Solidarity Protests and Multi-layered Belonging in the Lebanese Diaspora in France

ABSTRACT Normative models of citizenship delimit rights and obligations within the territorial boundaries of the modern state. These models fail to capture how political belonging can be stretched and reconfigured across polities. The 2019 ‘17 October Revolution’ in Lebanon galvanised widespread solidarity protests and initiatives in the Lebanese diaspora in France. As sites of cultural encounter, solidarity protest movements in the diaspora created opportunities for different cultural and political identities to collide, producing ‘contrapuntal’ forms of citizenship. Drawing insights from Edward Said’s examination of the ‘contrapuntal,’ this paper argues that as sites of encounter, diasporic solidarity initiatives pluralised definitions of political belonging producing contrapuntal forms of citizenship. By thinking through music, this paper will examine the overlapping layers, or melodies, of political belonging that constitute diasporic citizens. It will contend that diaspora solidarity initiatives allowed activists to enact multiple, sometimes contradicting, claims to belonging. In doing so, it will shift from hybrid to contrapuntal models of diasporic citizenship.

“Radicals” and “Racists”: Morality and Identity in U.S. Elite Political Communication

This study examines how elite political and media actors strategically leverage moral claims for partisan ends, transforming political identities, issues, and campaigns into zero-sum moral contests against their opposition. Here, I develop a framework for and approach to the study of morality as a strategic and identity-based tool in political communication, in the process developing a way of studying powerful and pervasive forms of political discourse often overlooked by scholarship. I show how partisan actors have identity-based motivations for employing particular forms of moral political communication, including religious, social, and civic morality. I then apply this framework to the case of the U.S. 2020 election, conducting context-sensitive computational and qualitative content analyses of elite political communication across political talk shows, op-eds, and campaign Twitter discourse. Results reveal the pervasive nature of moral political communication in these spaces. This work shows how, as U.S. political parties increasingly represent divergent and less cross-cutting groups of people, elite actors draw upon moral claims to attract and perform for particular ideological, religious, racial, and ethnic identity coalitions—often drawing from the same moral vocabulary to articulate opposing visions of democracy and civic life.

Impact of Identity Politics on Security and Stability in Medan

This research aims to investigate the influence of identity politics on political stability and security in Indonesia. This research uses a literature review method to collect and analyse various previous studies on identity politics, political stability and security in Indonesia. Data were analysed qualitatively to identify patterns, trends and relationships between identity politics variables and political stability and security. The results of the analysis show that identity politics has a significant influence on political stability and security in Indonesia. Religious, ethnic and regional-based political identification is an essential factor influencing political and security dynamics in this country. Political conflicts rooted in differences in identity often trigger political and security tensions that have a negative impact on state stability. Based on the analysis results, it can be concluded that identity politics significantly impacts political stability and security in Indonesia. A better understanding of the dynamics of identity politics can help formulate more effective policies to maintain political stability and security in the country.

The power of implicit political capital on companies’ entry barriers

The paper distinguishes the political capital of private enterprises into three types, in terms of the political identity of entrepreneurs, partial state ownership, and government background of entrepreneurship. The first two are classified as explicit political capital, while the third is called implicit political capital. We investigated how political capital, the institutional environment, and access to protected industries intersect within private sector enterprises (PSEs). The data sample from 2011 to 2018 of listed private companies in China is employed. Firstly, the findings indicate political capital significantly enhances access to protected industries for PSEs. Second, implicit political capital shows a strong impact, while the effects of partial state ownership and entrepreneurs’ political identity are weak. Third, explicit political capital weakens the effect on access to protected industries, while implicit political capital still holds significant influence under the improvement of institutional environments. It reveals the situation under the imperfect environment of the market economic system and legal system in China. To be explicit, the concept of ruling by man or power is deeply rooted in the traditional Chinese social governance and social structure model. Therefore, there is enormous room for implicit political capital to function.

Letters from Exile: Canadian Media, the Romanian Diaspora, and the Legionary Movement

This article traces the post-Second World War immigration of Romanians to Canada, and addresses themes of self-identification versus outside perception, national identity, and myth-making in the Romanian-Canadian community. It subsequently documents the scrutiny faced by the Romanian diaspora for supposed links to the interwar Romanian far-right Legionary Movement. Beginning in the 1950s, Romanian exiles in Canada forged their own community organizations, churches, and media, in which a unique synthesis of national identity and far-right politics was promoted, placing these new immigrants at the center of intracommunity and inter-ethnic conflict. Following the release of the Deschênes Report on war criminals living in Canada in 1986, as well as a series of unsolved terrorist attacks, Romanian-Canadians were subject to investigations by the mainstream Canadian media for potential involvement in far-right organizing. In the years since the collapse of state socialism in Eastern Europe, significant strands of the Romanian diaspora in Canada have continued to embrace historical figures of the Legionary Movement, synthesizing a diaspora identity flavored by anticommunism, radical right politics, and (ultra-) nationalism well into the post-communist period.