Political Motivations Research Articles

Countries have more than 100 laws on the books to combat misinformation. How well do they work?

ABSTRACT Since 2015, there has been a huge increase in laws that ostensibly seek to counter misinformation. Since the pandemic began, this trend has only accelerated. Both authoritarian and democratic governments have introduced more new policies to fight misinformation in 2019 and in 2020. In authoritarian states pandemic-related misinformation provided a new justification for repressive policies. Questions of political motivations aside, as the continuing problem of pandemic misinformation illustrates, it’s unclear how effective these laws are.

Beyond Conspiracy and Coordinated Ascendancy: Revisiting Caste Question in West Bengal under the Left Front Rule (1977–2011)

This article has critically engaged with the speculative claim that the disappearance of caste question from public discourse during Left rule in West Bengal was a result of conscious upper-caste ploy to silence articulation of caste interests and tactfully eliminate the possibility of Dalit political assertion. To verify the veracity of this claim, this study has critically scrutinized Left Front’s political mobilization strategy of rural population and also its landmark land reform initiative. The investigation attempted by this article, in this regard, has revealed that there is little to suggest the existence of any organized upper-caste conspiracy. It is, however, true that the articulation and aggregation of political demands along the lines of caste was indeed averted in West Bengal through political tactics and developmental strategies devised by the upper castes. But, the marginalization of the caste question in mainstream politics was an unintended consequence of such political tactics and developmental strategies which were primarily designed with the objective to preserve and enlarge the political support base, rather than to contain the lower castes. Thus, political motives acted as far more important determinants of political and developmental activities rather than any inherent caste bias.

핀터의 The Dwarfs의 각색을 통한 다시-보기

This paper attempts an intertextual and intermedial reading of adaptation texts of Pinter’s The Dwarfs, as a series of re-visions in terms of adaptation studies. His first and semi-autobiographical novel has initiated his own adaptations for his radio (1960) and stage play (1963) before publishing its adaptive version (1990) and then Krabbe’s adaptations for his unfilmed film script (1996), his revised play and film versions (2002), and his another play version (2003). The reading of adaptation texts of The Dwarfs offers a re-vision of hegemonic criticisms on Pinter’s accomplishments as a political dramatist and a cryptic feminist, that is, an act of looking back on his writings based on the interrelationship between his politics and sexual politics, from a new critical direction.<BR> This paper demonstrates the adapters’s political and sexual political motivations in inscribing differences in the original and previous texts for their new versions. Pinter’s excluding Virginia, the major female character of the novel for an all-male play shows his intention to create a new genre of political play, comedy of menace, as a political metaphor to appropriate sexual politics. His retrieving Virginia out of the outer darkness in the published novel also proves that his political plays are structured in-between of politics and sexual politics. By presenting his male characters as gendered beings in terms of the hegemonic masculinity and his female character as a precursor of his strong women who can exercise subversive sexual politics in his political plays, he proves that he has been insistently concerned with gender issues as a cryptic feminist. This intertextual reading of various versions of The Dwarfs offers an approach toward Pinter’s new creative space expanded by persistent re-visions.

The belief that politics drive scientific research & its impact on COVID-19 risk assessment.

We use survey data collected from 12,037 US respondents to examine the extent to which the American public believes that political motives drive the manner in which scientific research is conducted and assess the impact that such beliefs have on COVID-19 risk assessments. We find that this is a commonly held belief and that it is negatively associated with risk assessments. Public distrust in scientists could complicate efforts to combat COVID-19, given that risk assessments are strongly associated with one’s propensity to adopt preventative health measures.

LGB´s Arts Affinity: An Empirical Study of Theater Audiences Based on Motivations

ABSTRACT The extended belief of gay people being more creative and showing higher interest toward arts lacks robust empirical support. The pioneer study on this issue highlighted that LGB´s arts participation was mostly explained by demographic factors such as level of studies, residence and family situation, which suggests that differences due to sexual orientation tend to fade. In this paper, we put forward the hypothesis that sexual orientation influences motivations to participate, which emphasizes their role and heterogeneity. To do so, we conducted a survey on participants at an alternative performing arts festival collecting information on socio-demographics, including sexual orientation, motivations and other variables. Results show that being LGB increases the likelihood of attendance for emotional, social or political motives, and emphasize the heterogeneity that sexual orientation plays on cultural audiences. Particularly, we find evidence of gender differences in attendance goals within LGB performing arts consumers, supporting gender nonconformity.

Authenticity and Anthropophagy in Kayapó Film Production

Over the past three decades, films made by the Mebêngôkre-Kayapó people of Brazil have shown a distinctive and remarkably stable cinematic aesthetic, manifest in a set of filming, framing, and editing conventions first documented by Terence Turner. These films diverge significantly from Indigenous film productions documented elsewhere in Latin America, which tend to borrow more heavily from commercial cinematic codes and film genres. This contrast raises important issues about the personal, social, cultural, and political motivations behind such aesthetic and genre choices among different Indigenous peoples while posing the more fundamental question as to what exactly makes Indigenous media “Indigenous.” In this article, we describe what we identify as a Kayapó film aesthetic and discuss reasons for its continuity over time. We also consider the influence of hybridity, widely discussed by Indigenous media scholars elsewhere, but turn instead to the notion of anthropophagy as a more powerful root metaphor for understanding Kayapó film production. Although anthropophagy as an actual cultural practice and cosmological metaphor is generally associated with Tupi-speaking peoples of Brazil, culturally and linguistically distinctive from the Kayapó, the concept as applied by scholars of subaltern cultural productions helps us better understand the maintenance of Indigenous authenticity in Kayapó film production as the group navigates technological and sociocultural transformations.

Land use and land cover changes driven by expansion of eucalypt plantations in the Western Gurage Watersheds, Centeral-south Ethiopia

Land use and land cover (LULC) change is a common trend in all parts of the globe. The possible reasons might be economic, political, social or cultural motives. In Ethiopia, most of the rural and urban people are highly dependent on eucalypts for various purposes, particularly, for fuel wood and construction materials. In the study area, Western Gurage Watersheds of Omo-Gibe Basin, eucalypt plantations have become the emergent and dominant activity next to growing Enset. The specific objectives of this study were to assess the land use and land cover changes driven by eucalypt plantations over time and agro-ecological extent, and to identify socio-economic, demographic, and environmental factors that facilitated expansion of eucalypts plantation.Landsat images from 1987 (TM), 2001 (ETM) and 2017 (Landsat 8 OLI) were used for detecting LULC changes. Digital image processing operations, i.e. haze removal, geo-referencing, contrast enhancement and classification, were completed using ERDAS Imagine 2011 Software. During the period between 1987 and 2017, the area cover of LULC types, namely plantation forest, Enset-based agroforestry, cereal crop and built-up areas increased in the study watersheds at the expenses of natural forests and grassland. The total forest cover declined in the study period from 1987-2000 and, then, increased from 2001-2017 as a result of expansion of eucalypts in bare land, grazing land and cereal crop land use types. The drivers for the expansion of eucalypts in the watersheds are population growth, ‘Meskel’ and ‘Arafah’ celebrations, land degradation and conservation, road development, increased access to markets, and economic factors, such as the growing need for fuel wood, construction materials, and growing need for money. The divergent interest of stakeholders, skepticism and debate around eucalypts are presented; call for further scientific investigations and management options are recommended.

Gatunek na usługach doktryny. Ideologia w polsko-enerdowskiej koprodukcji Milcząca gwiazda

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; The East German-Polish co-production The Silent Star (1960, Kurt Maetzig) belongs to the group of early postwar Eastern European science fiction films which still remain barely examined by film and genre historians. The article summarizes the existing research on the film and investigates not only the specific formal character of Maetzig’s unprecedented project, but also the numerous ideological and political motivations which stood behind it.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

Transnational mobilities of the tallest building: origins, mobilization and urban effects of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa

ABSTRACT The media and scholarly descriptions and understandings of the tallest building in the world, namely the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, generally, have been simplified. Either celebrating or condemning it, these explanations typically stress the unique technological solutions, the symbolic and political motivations or the financial risk and economic gamble. This manuscript documents the origins – in terms of both its generation as centrepiece of the large-scale development project called Downtown Dubai and the mobilization of antecedents of Dubai’s icon (including the Kuala Lumpur City Centre, the Samsung Tower Palace Three, Seoul). Drawing on secondary data and prior research materials, the paper analyses the mobilities of architectural, engineering and real estate experts and solutions, arguing that this urban spectacle worked at multiple scales, that multiple actors embraced it for different purposes: the government celebrating the nation and the city, the developer gaining a distinct landmark in a massive development to market it internationally, enticing partners and regulators in subsequent transnational operations and the design experts testing unprecedented technological solutions. The conclusions concentrate on the diverse motivations behind this architectural piece and the importance of a place-based yet critical and multiscalar understanding of similar urban transformation processes and their uneven urban effects.

Countering Counterfeits: The Digital Challenge of Fake News

This article reviews the most recent academic scholarship and professional literature pertinent to fake news, in order to provide a better understanding of its challenge in the digital era. In so doing, the article outlines fake news phenomenon, its political and financial motives, its impacts on quality journalism, as well as the controversy surrounding its effects, particularly with regard to social media, drawing examples from Germany, the United States, and Egypt, and discussing possible practices to counter the digital challenge of fake news.

Nurturing Solidarity: Considering the Internationalization of Research Activities in Kinesiology as a Moral Practice

ABSTRACT There is a growing interest in the internationalization of research activities in higher education institutions. Economic and political motivations are increasingly the key drivers for internationalization which might be viewed as disruptive and insensitive to local contexts, fostering inequality and forms of cultural and socioeconomic imperialism. Unlike this reductionist view of internationalization, we argue that internationalization should be considered a moral practice grounded in solidarity as a key concept to transform the social and material conditions of inequality. It is a solidarity based on sharing the struggle with people, and the will to give, and rethink, ourselves. The aim of this study is to explore the challenges experienced by an academic as she attempts to increase the internationalization of research activities in kinesiology through related research, journals, and academic associations. A critical theoretical framework, based on Freire’s notion of solidarity, encourages the reader to interrogate the way in which they strive toward contributing to the internationalization of research activities in kinesiology. It is suggested that solidarity might direct readers to consider internationalization as the promotion of cooperation among nations and, in turn, improving the quality and relevance of research.

Political connection, political promotion and corporate environmental information disclosure in China

PurposeThis study aims to examine how the political career concerns of top executives affect corporate environmental practices.Design/methodology/approachBased on rent-seeking theory, this work uses empirical analysis to investigate the impact of top executives’ political connection and political promotion on corporate environmental information disclosure (EID). Data were collected from Chinese listed firms in heavily polluting industries in the Shanghai Stock Market in 2014–2016.FindingsThe results reveal that the highly politically connected top executives are more likely to be promoted in their political positions than their counterparts. However, the firms under the management of these highly politically connected executives show low level of EID. The results suggest that the political motivations of top executives with political connection hinders corporate EID.Originality/valueThis paper extends literature system about the impact of executives' rent-seeking on corporate EID by examining the informal mechanisms in terms of political connection and political promotion. It provides insights for studies of corporate environmental strategies and governmental environmental responsibility.

The Constitutional Court of Albania and the Challenge for Its Functioning after the Constitutional Reform of 2016

This study aims to address the functioning and cooperation of constitutional bodies in the Republic of Albania. It aims to highlight the often-rigid relationship between them for the establishment of constitutional bodies, especially when this process needs to pass through a spirit of cooperation. More specifically, the paper will refer to the lack of functioning of the Constitutional Court in the Republic of Albania. This lack, without question, has brought a problem in the functioning and consolidation of the rule of law in the Republic of Albania. Although the great constitutional reform of 2016, seemed to undertake through non-political constitutional bodies to solve the problems that are often created through bodies of a political nature, this so far has not yielded the expected results. The opposite has happened, the non-political constitutional body, which has a role in the appointment of judges of the Constitutional Court seems to have further fueled the conflict between the constitutional bodies in this process. The Judicial Appointments Council seemed like a finding in the 2016 constitutional reform, but from a body that would avoid disagreements dictated by the past of co-operation of constitutional institutions, it seems to have done the opposite. Sincere cooperation between constitutional bodies in fulfilling their obligations has been lacking in Albania since the advent of political pluralism in the early 1990s, and this has not been achieved even by bodies created specifically for this purpose. In this way, the conflict between the President of the Republic and the Parliament, although perhaps dictated by political motives, has left the Republic of Albania without a functioning Constitutional Court. This paper aims to analyze that the lack of trust between the constitutional bodies of the Republic of Albania remains an obstacle in consolidating the rule of law in this country. It is also intended to analyze that the non-functioning of the Constitutional Court has brought a number of problems for achieving this goal, even to resolve conflicts between constitutional bodies.&#x0D; &#x0D; Received: 16 December 2020 / Accepted: 18 February 2021 / Published: 5 March 2021

The Persistence of Historical Racial Violence and Political Suppression: Implications for Contemporary Regional Inequality

We provide evidence on the link between lynchings and a range of political and economic outcomes for Black Americans. We show that lynchings are related to racial and political motives among whites that keep Black Americans disconnected from the political process. This political and racial gradient to lynchings is related to public finance and redistribution within states and localities and has potentially long-lasting implications for investments in financial and human capital for Black Americans. We also document regional inequality in economic well-being and the social safety net, linking the legacy of racialized violence and diminished political capital to persistently higher poverty and lowered investments in social and labor market policies, showing that a key goal of Southern Redemption policies and violence continues to play a role in Black American life in the twenty-first century.

Reimagining Public Address

AbstractAs a subfield of rhetorical studies, public address has been conservative and defensive from the start in its method, theory, politics, and even subject. Even as there has been an expansion of the subject (i.e., the “text” to be studied), the field has, on the whole, remained skeptical of new methods, all critical theories, and alternative political motives. Because of this, the subfield of public address has remained incredibly white and largely male. If the subfield is to continue to exist and, perhaps, thrive, it is time for a clear change in tack. Public address must open its gates widely to the critical methods and theories that can allow for more diverse knowledge production and reorient the field’s political goals. And in a reversal, public address should define itself solely around the study of speeches directed at publics.

Tackling COVID-19 risk in Hong Kong: Examining distrust, compliance and risk management

Proximity to mainland China places Hong Kong at the forefront of the COVID-19 threat, and it has survived the test most of the time. It appears that public compliance with government advice on preventive measures and social distancing, plus the availability of tests and medical facilities, contributed to the successful handling of the crisis. While it is generally believed that trust is crucial for successful compliance and collaboration, a critical review of the case of Hong Kong shows that it was distrust, due to a lack of confidence and skepticism with regard to the government’s values, that caused the public to take early self-protective measures and initiated societal-wide self-help campaigns. Their compliance was actually with measures that the public themselves had demanded and agreed. The government was criticized for doing too little, too late; as well as for failing to put local people’s interests first, and acting for political motives. Despite the success in combating the virus, the government did not enjoy a proportionate gain in trust. This article argues that distrust in government was very much shaped by the perceived dissimilarity in salient values between the government and the public. A lack of transparency and participation in the decision-making process, as well as a lack of emotional connection with the public, also contributed to the distrust.

Veiling Between Denigration and Glorification in Algeria

Veiling is a cultural practice that has created controversial debates since colonial intervention in Algeria. Such debates either condemn veils as “oppressive” or deify them as markers of cultural authenticity, and women are often seen either as “victims” of an “oppressive” culture or as “dignified” guardians of a “glorious” culture. Informed by postcolonial feminist scholarship exposing the political motivations of the debates associating women with culture, this paper outlines the history of the controversies about veiling in Algeria, where women’s bodies still serve as a battlefield in power-motivated struggles. The ongoing interpretation of Algerian women’s experiences within dichotomized discourses has harmful consequences on both women and their cultural practice. While veiling is getting mystified due to denigration and glorification, women’s lives are affected in different ways by the polemical debates. The most tangible effect is the violence endured by women because of the growing tensions between the two sides of the debates, which have intangible effects that are also detrimental. These debates are shaping and distorting the attitudes of so many women about veiling. Examined sources show that women’s opinion is divided between advocates and detractors of veiling, and arguments are repetitive of the same inconsistencies created throughout the long history of the power-motivated debates. Interpreting women’s attitudes in the light of dissonance theory shows that both women who advocate veiling and those who condemn it repeat inconsistencies often motivated by defensive purposes, which obscure vision and undermine scrutiny and inquiry in what would help settle the conflictual issues.

An investigation of the health-promoting practices of Australian universities.

Workplace health promotion programmes (WHPPs) are more likely to succeed where design and implementation account for the influence of health's complex, systemic nature. Thus, a greater understanding of how frameworks developed to progress WHPPs are operationalized across different countries and industries is needed. This study investigates health concerns targeted in an underexplored setting-Australian universities, describing how diverse programmes are implemented to target different health issues and health risk factors. Content analysis is used to outline how Australian universities implement WHPPs to target diverse health concerns. Content from 497 website documents is collected and analysed using NVivo software. A framework for examining diverse WHPPs currently used in practice is developed. Based on this framework, it was evident that Australian universities emphasized initiatives targeting health issues focusing on 'mental health' and 'diabetes'. Regarding health risk factors, 'alcohol and other addictions', 'discrimination and harassment', and 'physical activity' were emphasized. Links between different health concerns targeted and corresponding WHPPs implemented, provide workplaces with a benchmark for designing and implementing programmes. University WHPPs targeted a diverse range of health concerns when enough legal and political motivations to do so existed. These findings about the motivations for improving employee health indicate a potential gap between health promotion benefits reported in literature and the appreciation for these benefits in practice.

QATAR’S FOREIGN AID POLICY: EVOLUTION, MOTIVES AND VALUES

This paper presents pertinent aspects of the foreign aid policy of the State of Qatar as a Muslim emerging donor with rising soft power. The study traces and explains the evolution of Qatar’s Foreign Aid Policy (QFAP) and identifies the various critical milestones of the policy that has been successfully transformed from a small Gulf Emirate into one of the leading players on both regional and global issues including aid giving. Although, Qatar’s motivation for aid giving is quite similar to the global setting, the country’s sociocultural background and values play a vital in shaping and inspiring its aid policy. As QFAP is closely tied to the country’s active foreign policy agenda, political and security motives are heavily reflected in the country’s aid practices. In collecting both primary and secondary data this study used various qualitative methods such as face-to-face interviews with key Qatari officials and scrutinized official state documents and quoted speeches, particularly of past and present Emirs as well as other archival sources.

Opiniones y actitudes de los estudiantes universitarios de Comunicación ante las fake news. Diagnóstico en un ecosistema docente

El objeto de este trabajo es conocer la percepción de los estudiantes de los grados universitarios en Ciencias de la Comunicación y Comunicación Digital sobre las noticias falsas publicadas en Internet. Nos interesa conocer su postura porque como futuros informadores profesionales deberán desenvolverse en un mercado laboral marcado por esta problemática social. Se ha trabajado con una muestra dirigida para entender las actitudes en un centro universitario de Sevilla. Por su parte, la investigación responde a un diseño mixto, donde se lleva a cabo un doble estudio cuantitativo y cualitativo, para los que se han empleado sendos instrumentos de medida: un cuestionario y una entrevista estructurada con preguntas abiertas. Los resultados muestran que, en general, estos estudiantes no consumen ni comparten noticias falsas de manera periódica y que gracias a la formación adquirida saben contrastar una información. Igualmente, perciben que estos contenidos persiguen intereses políticos o económicos; y defienden la implantación de programas escolares de alfabetización mediática y digital con objeto de formar a una ciudadanía crítica con los mensajes que se difunden en la Red.