Political Interests Research Articles (Page 1)

Purpose This article critically examines how Liverpool's UNESCO World Heritage status was used to support urban regeneration agendas, highlighting the tensions between heritage conservation and neoliberal planning that ultimately led to the city's delisting. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a qualitative research approach combining document analysis, interview data and archival research. It examines planning documents, heritage reports and policy texts related to Liverpool's urban development and World Heritage Site status. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted with planners, heritage professionals, private developers and community members. The analysis is guided by discourse theory, political economy and heritage governance frameworks. The study investigates how institutional actors constructed competing visions of heritage and regeneration, identifying key discursive strategies and structural dynamics that contributed to policy conflict, governance fragmentation and the eventual removal of World Heritage Site status. Findings The study finds that heritage in Liverpool was reframed as a tool for economic regeneration rather than protected cultural value. Planning documents and decisions prioritised visual branding and investment attraction, sidelining conservation responsibilities. Conflicting interpretations of heritage value led to institutional misalignment, limited coordination and weak enforcement. Developers and city officials dominated decision-making, while heritage agencies and communities were marginalised. The result was a pattern of symbolic recognition without substantive protection. These tensions contributed directly to the eventual loss of World Heritage status, revealing deep structural contradictions within the city's governance of heritage and urban development. Research limitations/implications The study focuses on a single case, which limits its broader applicability but allows in-depth exploration of complex governance dynamics. It relies on retrospective interviews and existing planning documents, which may reflect institutional justifications following the delisting. However, the triangulation of multiple data sources strengthens its reliability. The findings suggest a need for future comparative studies to examine similar urban contexts where heritage and development collide. They also underline the importance of stronger alignment between international conservation guidelines and local planning frameworks to avoid symbolic compliance and ensure meaningful preservation of heritage in regeneration processes. Practical implications The findings highlight the need for clear legal mechanisms to embed heritage conservation within urban planning systems. Planning authorities should be required to integrate international conservation standards into statutory frameworks rather than treat them as optional. Heritage bodies must be engaged at the early stages of development proposals with meaningful decision-making power. Community participation should move beyond consultation towards shared authority. The Liverpool case demonstrates that without binding coordination and transparency, heritage frameworks may fail in the face of economic pressure, resulting in irreversible damage to cultural assets and reputational costs at both local and international levels. Social implications The research reveals how urban regeneration in Liverpool reinforced social exclusion by marginalising community voices in heritage planning. While public benefit was repeatedly claimed, local residents had little influence on decisions that reshaped their environment. Heritage narratives focused on visual appeal and investment value, erasing working-class and culturally embedded histories. The exclusion of communities weakened trust in planning processes and deepened perceptions of inequality. The study shows the need for participatory heritage governance that values diverse identities and local memory, ensuring that regeneration processes are socially inclusive and culturally responsive rather than driven solely by market logic. Originality/value This study offers an original contribution by linking critical discourse analysis with governance theory to examine heritage as a contested space shaped by economic and political interests. It reveals how symbolic heritage designations can be co-opted for development agendas and disconnected from conservation practice. The research moves beyond technical planning analysis by foregrounding power, inequality and institutional disjunction. It demonstrates that heritage governance must be understood not as neutral management but as a site of negotiation, conflict and meaning-making. The study provides valuable insights for cities facing similar tensions between international heritage frameworks and urban growth pressures.

This qualitative study examines how trust has changed during and after the pandemic among our study participants. It reveals how they made meaning of trust in federal and provincial governments, scientific research, and digital platforms, and how this meaning-making process changed and was challenged by a global public health crisis. We applied a descriptive phenomenological approach to semi-structured interviews that were conducted between July and November of 2024. In total, 41 interviews were conducted. Interview transcripts were analyzed using the descriptive phenomenological approach to understand participants' lived experiences of the pandemic, followed by how these lived experiences contributed to how they made meaning of public trust, both during and after the height of the pandemic. This analysis resulted in themes by giving attention to expressive language and past experiences, and ultimately revealingthe "essence" or distinct nature of these participants' experiences of the pandemic. Research participants expressed polarized views on government trust, with provincial administrations often perceived as prioritizing economic or political interests over public health, while federal government were associated more with incompetence than withself-serving motives. Our participants experienced relatively stable trust in scientists, though they were concerned about transparency and profit-driven motives - particularly concerning the short time it took for vaccines to be developed. Social media was largely perceived as an unreliable source of information, yet it remained influential in shaping participants' perceptions, especially regarding vaccine hesitancy. We found that participants' public trust during the pandemic in Canada was highly dynamic and subjective, and was greatly informed by histories, lived experiences, and preconceptions about various institutions, such as the government, public health officials, and scientists. Changes in trust experienced by participants were anchored in experts' ability to communicate reliable information. Participants further emphasized the need for transparent and consistent messaging, particularly from the Government of Canada, to rebuild lost trust and prepare for future public health crises.

The Wadden Sea stretches along the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark in Western Europe. As the world's largest coherent channel-shoal environment and as a UNESCO world heritage site, managing economic and political interests is complex. All stakeholders require a common understanding through shared, public databases and tools, e.g., to comply with the strict national park legislation. Although digital twins of the European oceans are emerging, current solutions still lack spatial resolution and neglect changes in coastal morphology. Here, we present a hydrographic dataset of the Wadden Sea covering the period of 2015 to 2022 with annually updated topography, and we outline a framework for the transition of digital twins toward the coastal oceans. A coupled numerical modeling approach was used to derive tides, currents, waves, salinity, temperature, and suspended sediments in 20-minute intervals. All data were published in an open-access governmental repository as files and web services with FAIR metadata documentation.

Abstract Parents serve as primary agents of political socialization for their children. The present study examined how parents in the United States engaged in conversations with their children (5–18 years) about the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Using a nationally diverse sample of 1001 parents (reporting on 1769 children), we investigated the occurrence, frequency, and approach taken toward these discussions, and the factors that predicted them. The majority of parents (84%, n = 843) reported speaking to at least one of their children, of whom 65% ( n = 543) spoke to all of their children. Whether and how often the conversations occurred varied by several demographic factors (e.g., child age and gender, parent gender and education, and family size), political interest, child anxiety about the election, and communication approach. Notably, with a more active and less avoidant communication approach, parents were significantly more likely to talk to their children about the presidential election, and with a more active approach the frequency of conversations increased. Given the importance of conversational approaches in the occurrence and frequency of such conversations, predictors of parents’ approach were explored. Together these findings contribute to a growing understanding of the mechanisms that drive parents’ political socialization of their children.

In the digital era, news serves as a critical medium for shaping public perception, promoting awareness, and guiding social behavior. It informs individuals about current events, political developments, and social issues both locally and globally. However, the rapid growth of online platforms and social media has led to widespread dissemination of misleading, biased, or fabricated news, often propagated to serve personal, political, or commercial interests. Such misinformation undermines public understanding and erodes trust in professional journalism. To address these challenges, this research proposes an intelligent social news platform that enables users to contribute news from their surroundings while ensuring ethical and factual accuracy. Each submitted post undergoes an automated evaluation using decision-making algorithms that verify credibility, assess ethical compliance, and filter out harmful or false content. Verified news is then published, providing users with a reliable and transparent information source. The platform organizes content into thematic categories, including political affairs, regional developments, breaking news, natural disasters, sports, and entertainment. It incorporates location-based filtering and recommendation mechanisms, allowing users to access regionally relevant news while remaining connected to global updates. Additionally, collaborative features such as commenting, reporting inaccuracies, and community verification enhance transparency and foster user engagement. The proposed system aims to reduce misinformation, promote ethical journalism, and empower users to act as both contributors and verifiers of credible news. By integrating algorithmic decision-making with community-driven reporting, the platform fosters a culture of responsibility, accountability, and informed public participation. Ultimately, this research contributes to the development of a trustworthy, user-centered news ecosystem that balances technological innovation with the ethical dissemination of information.

Civic participation is a cornerstone of democratic societies, yet the underlying psychological and political factors that promote or hinder it remain a subject of scholarly debate. This study explores the relationships among civic participation, political trust, and political self-efficacy in Latvia to understand how individuals engage in civic activities. Drawing on a representative sample of 1005 Latvian residents aged 18 to 75 (M = 46.34, SD = 14.9), this research investigates how different forms of political self-efficacy and trust predict various types of civic participation. The study was conducted as part of the national research program “Values in Action: promotion of responsible, secure and educated civil society in Latvia through research and model development” and data was collected via a survey in August and September 2020. Civic participation was operationalised through a comprehensive 30-item scale developed for this project, measuring behaviours ranging from electoral participation to political consumerism, NGO involvement, and social media activism. Factor analysis identified eight distinct types of civic participation.

The National Response Framework (NRF) provides a guideline on how the USA responds to disasters and emergencies.1 The NRF is designed as a tiered response such that incidents are handled at the lowest level. It states that it is built on scalable, flexible and adaptable concepts identified in the National Incident Management System.2 Globalisation, whether by its inherent structure or the effect of the disaster itself, no longer geographically limits the extent of today's disasters. Climate change, international economic integration, supply chain infrastructure, cyberattacks, infectious diseases, ease of travel and various national political interests change the way the NRF needs to address disaster preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation strategies. While the NRF approach begins at the lowest level, there needs to be simultaneous preparation at the highest levels, recognising that the impacts of disasters, as in much of the rest of the world, are no longer limited by borders. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/ business/.

ABSTRACT The paper draws on the “politics of the belly” framework to locate procurement of government contracts within a kind of governing in which often conflicting dynamics are closely intertwined and shape accountability practices differently. By taking a historical view, we show how neoliberal reforms evolved new organizational forms, embedded in the traditional way of doing business in Africa, and “succeeded” in promoting political elite interests in Ghana. Contrary to the neoliberal reforms ideology of promoting accountability, the paper shows how the socialization of individuals through informal political networks and the “politics of the belly culture” incubates corrupt practices and inevitably constrains accountability in public procurement. The paper contributes to scholarship on public sector reform, corruption, and accountability by showing how neoliberal accountability regimes, when introduced into political systems structured by informal power, are reconstituted to serve rather than challenge elite interests. It also offers practical implications for reform agendas that seek to engage with African states on more contextually appropriate terms. The paper argues that accountability in public procurement in Africa reflects the complex interplay of local political practices and informal networks, consistent with the logic of the politics of the belly. The question for policy actors is no longer just “how do we strengthen procurement systems?”—but “whose accountability do these systems serve, and how might reforms be co‐designed to account for, and counteract, embedded political interests?”

Introduction. The article addresses the issues of international trade features in rare earth metals (REM) and the strategic positions of key players in the context of ongoing geopolitical tensions. Materials and methods. The methodological basis of the study was based on general scientific and special methods that make it possible to analyze the role of key players in the REM market, substantiate the geopolitical confrontation on it and assess the possibilities of forming a multipolar system in the international REM trade. The methods of economic analysis and synthesis, the formal logical method, synchronous and comparative methods are used. Results of the study. The systemic contradictions affecting the conjuncture of the REM market have been identified. It is shown that the REM trade has become not only an economic issue, but also a part of the national security strategy for many states. The ways of transition from a situation in which China, due to technological and market dominance, has monopoly levers, to the gradual formation of multipolarity in the international trade of the REM are outlined. The main result, which represents an element of scientific novelty, is the diagnosis of the consequences of the geopolitical confrontation in 2010-2025 on the global REM market. Discussion and conclusion. Economic and political interests, trade wars as a consequence, armed conflicts, and a high geographical and functional concentration of REM directly affect global supply chains, prompting countries to struggle for control over REM sources. The further increase in competition for REM resources leads to the creation of new production facilities for their extraction and processing in different regions of the world, which contributes to the emergence of a more balanced market in the future and the formation of a multipolar international trade system, reducing global dependence on China's influence as a leading supplier and coordinating center for global REM supplies.

Abstract How do U.S. security clients cope with the United States’ strategic demands to take actions that conflict with their political or economic interests? Much of the literature on intra-alliance politics explains clients’ decisions to accept or reject their patron’s demands. This article theorizes demand evasion as an option for a U.S. security client confronted with costly strategic requests from its patron. Demand evasion occurs when the client avoids answering the security patron’s repeated demand on a strategic issue without provoking the patron’s punishment. There are three methods of demand evasion: stalling, deferring, and slow-rolling. To decide how to respond to their patron’s strategic demand, U.S. security clients assess the patron’s internal coherence regarding the demand and the type of risks involved in the issue at stake. I illustrate the theory of demand evasion by examining how three U.S. treaty allies in the Indo-Pacific (Australia, Japan, and South Korea) responded to demands from different U.S. administrations. For U.S. leaders who seek immediate support from foreign allies, the theory is useful because it highlights the full range of options available to U.S. clients (i.e., acceptance, rejection, and evasion). Understanding why allies sometimes deliberately avoid making decisions on strategic issues is important for the United States as it seeks to confront its adversaries and protect its security interests.

Is political interest tracked in schools? Evidence from Germany

The factor that caused the Ager Gallicus and Picenum to undergo significant social, ethnic and cultural changes was the migrations that took place in the 3rd–1stBCE, when these areas became the domain of the Roman Republic. The settlers completely changed the ethnic landscape on the Adriatic Sea. In the 2nd and 1stBCE, we can see the active political involvement of the inhabitants of Picenum and Ager Gallicus on the side of the Populares and Optimates. The divisions in Roman society at this time caused perturbations resulting in the war with the allies and the civil wars. These resulted in severe destruction in cities, as well as a large loss of population that died in battles and purges carried out in the aftermath of the conflicts, and internal migrations related to fleeing the war and its aftermath and resulting from the policy of the great Roman chieftains to reward their soldiers for military service with land in Picenum and Ager Gallicus. Attention should also be drawn to the existence of very strong clientelist links with representatives of Roman families whose roots or connections originated in these areas. It was thanks to the clientele, not only from the Adriatic areas, that politicians could afford to realize their ambitions in Rome; in return for their support, their clients also had the chance to pursue their dreams and careers alongside their patrons.

The aim of this paper is to examine the role of great power leaders in managing regional conflicts, with a Comparative study of Asian ideological styles versus the Western approaches. It is disputable fact that the Great Leader’s ideologies can shape the policies of a county. This means that, national, regional and international policies can be influenced by the actions of the ruling leaders through their ideological beliefs, strategic dreams, diplomatic strategies, and their perceptions which considerably impact disputes dynamics and resolves. Asian leaders are primarily focus on non-interference, harmony, and long-term stability. They often use diplomatic means for conflict resolutions and employ the methods which rooted from their national and historical background, while Western leaders are habitually prioritize their ideologies through concentrating on implementation of international law, the issue of sovereignty, democratic diplomacy, and stressing institutions such as the United Nations (NATO) to address regional and international disputes. The analysis of this paper reveals that, presence of differences in their ideologies has an impacts on how conflict are started, increased, escalated and or resolved, in a particular region which result in security dilemma. The paper also reveals that, some conflicts and disputes are the results of aggressive leaders in a particular region that often driven by their own political interests, and political survival. Indeed, understanding these contrasting leadership methods among leaders is very important for building national, regional and global order, because it will provide the general framework in formulating effective strategies through rules and regulations within nations, which ultimately shape the elected leader to bind with those rules. The paper gives analysis on recent chaotic cases of Sudan, Russia vs Ukraine war and Israel-Gaza war, and provide empirical evidence that illustrate the implications of these leadership differences in contemporary geopolitical settings.

Language has a very effective role in the life of the politician as he or she uses it to achieve his or her aims and to convey his or her ideas. This study tries to show particular discursive strategies specially focusing on lexical selection strategies that are followed by Barak Obama in his speech on 16th January, 2013 that can help to draw out his ideology and power. The study follows a critical discourse analysis approach presented by van Dijk (1997) in a way of explicating its validity to explore Obama's ideology and power and trying to present a method for better understanding of political discourse. The study mainly hypothesizes that lexical richness and vocabulary diversity must illuminate hidden ideology and any lexical selection can not be random. The study concludes that Obama's language, particularly lexical selection, is in service of his political interest, social stance and power. It also concludes that Van Dijk's macrostructural analysis is very helpful in studying organized political ideology.

One of the functions of political parties is to carry out political recruitment in the process of filling political positions through the mechanism of the democratic party of general elections, one of which aims to aggregate political interests. The purpose of this study is discussing the implementation of the aggregation of political interests of the Gerindra Party towards the environment in the city of Semarang. The approach method used in this study is sociological juridical, with descriptive analysis specifications. The type of data used is primary data and supported by secondary data, which is then analyzed qualitatively. The results of the study indicate that the implementation of the aggregation of political interests of the Gerindra Party towards the environment in Semarang City is based on Article 11 of Law Number 2 of 2008 concerning political parties, by providing channels for community aspirations, and also various interest groups to convey their demands related to environmental problems in Semarang City. Aspirations can be conveyed directly at the Gerindra Party DPC Office in Semarang City, through recess activities or through linkshttps://gerindra.id/ruang-aspirasi/is done by checking the truth of the people’s aspirations before they are submitted to the executive. This aggregation is based on the 2020 Articles of Association and Bylaws of the Gerindra Party, that one of the party’s goals is to create a just and prosperous society, including through environmental concern.

BackgroundDespite increasing political and scientific interest in food insecurity (FI) among higher education students, data for Europe remain scant. We assessed the prevalence of FI at a French university located in a disadvantaged area in the outskirts of Paris, and its associations with perceived academic dropout and socioeconomic, demographic, and lifestyle factors.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional online survey among 5068 students (22% of overall population, 66% women). FI status was defined by a three-level class variable (quantitative FI: “not having access to enough food”, qualitative FI: “not having access to the desired food”, food security: “having access to enough desired food”). Multivariate multinomial logistic regression models found associations between (i) FI and academic dropout and (ii) socioeconomic, demographic, academic-related data, cooking and eating conditions, and FI.ResultsStudents reporting quantitative FI (11%) or qualitative FI (35%) more often experienced academic dropout (p < 0.0001). Men more often reported quantitative FI (p < 0.0001). Living in a collective residence, lacking sufficient household cooking facilities, experiencing financial difficulties, using food assistance, being an undergraduate, having obtained a high-school diploma abroad, not receiving food from family, regularly eating alone, and infrequent cooking were positively associated with both quantitative and qualitative FI (p < 0.0001).ConclusionWe found elevated rates of FI among university students and an association between FI and academic dropout. Structural and behavioural factors were found to be associated with FI. These findings provide insight into the characteristics of those students most likely to experience FI and suggest testable preventive actions.

Ocean sustainability matters to everyone because planetary health depends on the ocean and a healthy ocean requires a sustainability transformation across society, land and sea. The ocean is a critical arena for addressing the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Public engagement with ocean sustainability shows considerable potential to drive forward global sustainability action, as seen in contemporary concerns regarding marine plastic pollution rallying political leaders to develop a global plastics treaty. Despite this success, communities inland can still be much better connected to ocean sustainability and should be engaged to hold decision-makers to account for environmental and social progress alongside political interest in the growing ocean economy. Accessible and emotive messaging is required for public and political audiences, but delivery needs are complex, so we must ensure advances in public engagement are in tandem with translation into appropriate action. This Perspective recommends that we: (1) use a Rivers to Seas paradigm to better connect public support for ocean sustainability with land-based populations; (2) use accessible and emotive public messaging connected to detailed and complex delivery through principle-based approaches; and (3) create a UN Ocean Agency alongside the post-2030 sustainable development agenda to advance the changes needed.

Drawing on a survey of 1,386 South Korean young adults, this study finds that news curation mediates the association between social media news use and political efficacy and participation. Analysis also reveals that political interest moderates the relationship between news curation and political efficacy and participation, with politically less interested people being more influenced by news curation than politically more interested people. The finding has significant implications as to how to rekindle young adults’ political involvement. This study contributes to the existing literature about social media’s impact on news consumption, by conceptualizing “news curation” as a unique method of engaging with social media and by illuminating its effects on democratic engagement.

Public policies in education constitute the main instrument of action of a State to guide and direct the education of a country in accordance with its demands for social order and economic development. They are made up of a set of principles, objectives and procedures that aim to guarantee the right and access of all citizens to equitable, inclusive and quality education. This article presents the results of research that aimed to analyze the process implemented by the Higher Council of Education for the design of Public Policy in Education “The person: center of the educational process and transforming subject of society”. The research was developed under the principles of the documentary analysis and with the integration of the hermeneutic method. The theoretical review allowed us to develop a conceptual theoretical construct of the cycle of a public policy in education from which the documentary analysis is developed. The results determine that the design process of the Public Policy in Education was planned and oriented to adapt the Costa Rican educational system to contemporary demands and educate a new citizenry, prepared for the challenges of the 21st century. However, it should be of political interest to overcome the challenges they present in their implementation and the establishment of evaluation and monitoring mechanisms that allow their impact to be determined.

ABSTRACT This study explores the relationships between political orientation and news consumption, examining the mediating role of trust in media and the moderating role of interest in politics. Based on a survey of 9,558 audience members from Chile, our work reveals three key findings. First, political orientation is directly connected to individuals choosing to consume news from media outlets that align with their ideological beliefs, demonstrating a clear pattern of selective exposure. Second, trust in these media brands acts as a crucial mediator of this relationship, with individuals more likely to engage with news from sources they trust, often aligning with their political views. Third, political interest moderates all these links, with higher political interest intensifying selective exposure to like-minded media. These results enhance our understanding of confirmation bias in media consumption and underscore the intertwined roles of ideological preferences and perceived credibility. The findings have significant implications for media practices and policies to reduce political polarization and promote more diversified news consumption. Future research should consider experimental or longitudinal designs to further investigate these dynamics and explore interventions encouraging exposure to a broader range of viewpoints.